PREACHING OF THE WORD OF GOD

Tom Munro

Romans 11: 21,22,32-36; Titus 2: 11-15; Jude 17-21

In the scriptures read there are, among other things, references to the goodness of God, the grace of God and the love of God. It is wonderful that these three great features which mark the blessed God are available to man in all his need. It is also important to consider that there has been a full display of these features in the Lord Jesus Himself when here on this earth. It is God's intention that you should be drawn to this Man tonight, drawn to Christ, not in your way but in God's way. Where do you stand in relation to Christ, friend? Are you a believer in Him or are you an unbeliever? It is an awful matter not to be a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ and, if that is your situation, let me warn you, dear friend, that you are in a very perilous position. You could not be in more danger than sitting in your seat but not having put your trust and confidence in the finished work of Christ. We cannot assume anything in these preachings. What I did notice in reading two of these scriptures was that they spoke of awaiting something. We move through this world and do our jobs as salesmen or painters or fitters but it is all going to end. It is going to come to an abrupt stop for every one who is in the position of not trusting and believing in the Lord Jesus and in what He has done. Friend, the prospect is awful to contemplate. So I desire that the word of God might come to us tonight because, if anyone is in that position you need to come to God, come to the Lord Jesus through repentance.

I refer to this first scripture as to the goodness of God. Hear in this epistle it tells us one thing about the goodness of God, that it leads men to repentance (see chap 2: 4). Now that is an amazing thing, that the goodness of God leads people to repentance. I would like to impress you, dear friend, about the goodness of God and how it is towards you, towards all men of course. That is the glory of the present time, that the gospel is not just for the forty-odd people in this room; it is for all. It is for the whole creation. The Lord said that to His disciples: "Go into all the world and preach the glad tidings to all the creation", Mark 16: 15. He did not even say to men and women; He said "to all the creation", as if God's love and His attitude towards the whole creation is one of blessing, an administration of blessing. It is important to see the point of this, that it is towards all, because in the scripture I have read, Paul, the apostle, is writing to these people in Rome and telling them about the unique position that the Jew had. You know who the Jews are; you hear of the nation of Israel. They are Jews who have rejected the Saviour, they crucified the Lord of glory, but the Jews are a special nation who were set up before the Lord Jesus came in. Going right back before the Lord Jesus came into this world there was the Jewish nation and what a nation it was, and they were Gods people. All the other nations were not God's people, and God marked these people out for blessing. He took them through the Red Sea, He opened up the Jordan and they went through. What a favoured people they were! It is magnificent to consider the Jews! But after all that goodness that God showered upon them they finally crucified the Lord Jesus. Of course we are all responsible for that, but they particularly so because He was the King of the Jews. He was the greatest Jew who ever lived. But He was the Son of God. He was beyond boundaries and nationalities. But they refused and rejected the Lord Jesus. They did not all reject Him. Thank God for that! But John had to write, "He came to His own and his own received him not", John 1: 11. Paul writing about the fact that God had rejected them because of their refusal of Christ, because they set aside Hrs beloved Son who was the Heir. Because they set Him aside God has temporarily blinded them. It speaks of that in this epistle, that they are under divine judgment. They are blinded through unbelief. Paul is speaking about the fact that, although the gospel is still for the Jew today, God through the incoming of the Lord Jesus has opened the door so that the gospel should be made available for the most vile sinner. Things are happening in the world which are very disturbing, frightening to think about. You wonder at persons acting in such a way towards their fellow creatures, but it just shows, dear friend, what is in the heart of man. Such is the heart of man as away from God. But God in His goodness has come in to retrieve the situation, to recover man, and that is how His goodness has been towards man.

I wondered if we might see it in the Lord Jesus Himself when He was here. Peter, who was a Jew and chosen by the Lord, let the Lord down. He denied Him. Maybe, you might say, that was not a very grave sin. Peter had said he was prepared to die for the Lord, but the Lord says, "The cock shall not crow today before that thou shalt thrice deny that thou knowest me", Luke 22: 34. Peter went away and forgot all about what the Lord said and he sat down while the Lord Jesus was going on to the cross. When the Lord Jesus was before Pilate, Peter was in the background mixing with people who were Christ rejectors. Somebody started saying, What are you doing here? You are one of these persons, No, I am not. Then a lady said, I know that he is one of these. No, I am not. Three times he denied the Lord. And the cock crew. But the Lord did not turn away from Peter. It says, "And the Lord, turning round, looked at Peter", Luke 22: 61. Now if that had been you or me, we would have said, He has let me down again, I am finished with him this time. But, no, the goodness of God is expressed in the Lord Jesus. That is just an example, I know, but it shows that the Lord did not turn away from Peter at that point. Peter had let the Lord down terribly and the Lord looked at him. What kind of look was it, I ask you? Was it a look of scorn or of pity or of hatred? No, dear friend, it was a look of love, the goodness of God expressed in the person of the Lord Jesus. Peter went out and it says he ''wept bitterly". That is repentance. We might think that repentance is that I feel quite bad about my sins, but I think it is when we begin to realise that God's goodness is towards us, no matter what our condition or state is, or what we are as natural persons away from God. I think it is the realisation coming home to you, coming home to the conscience and penetrating the heart that, despite what I have been, God has acted for me. I think that that is the goodness of God, one of the things that lead to repentance - wonderful matter!

It says here, "Behold then the goodness and severity of God". As I have said already, it says "upon those who have fallen severity" - that is the Jews. These persons have fallen away through unbelief; that is, the severity of God has been towards them. But it says, "upon thee goodness if thou shalt abide in goodness". I believe that is a very important thing, dear friends, to abide in goodness, to live in this area where we are in the enjoyment and the favour of God, that He has not only acted for us initially but He is for us now. God is for you. Paul says that again in this epistle: "If God be for us, who against us?" chap 8: 31. Wonderful matter that the eternal God has acted from His own side! Scripture says, ''we being still sinners, Christ has died for us", Rom 5: 8. Does that not move the heart, dear friend, in repentance? That is what needs to be done by the sinner - to move towards God in repentance. What will you find? Will you find a God who is against you? No, you will find a God who is for you. I just want to touch on this scripture in Titus which speaks about the grace of God - a wonderful matter to consider. It is expressed fully in our Lord Jesus Christ. I was thinking of the scripture in Corinthians where it says, Ye know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ. Ye know it. We know these things in our experience. "For ye know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that for your sakes he, being rich, became poor", 2 Cor 8: 9. Is that not a wonderful movement of divine love in a Person who was rich in every way? Think of the Godhead glory that belonged to Him! Think of the power that He had but He came into manhood and took up a position of poverty. He went the opposite way of every other man in this. Other men in this world are set for the exaltation of themselves and the building up of this world and all that that entails, but the Lord Jesus was marked by downward movements. It was a mark of Him that He was going down. That man on the road going down from Jerusalem to Jericho who fell among robbers, the Lord Jesus went down that way to secure him. "He, being rich, became poor, in order that ye by his poverty might be enriched". That is the grace of God operating in the Lord Jesus Christ. Everything is in Him. Our salvation and all our blessings are bound up with that blessed Man, believing and putting our firm belief and trust in Him. So it touches on that here: “the grace of God which carries with it salvation for all men". Wonderful matter, grace! It has been likened to the waves of the sea and it is a good illustration. When the tide comes in there are waves, but when the tide is going out there are waves too. Sometimes you may feel things are against you, support seems to be going away from you and you feel alone and helpless. Dear friend, the grace of God is towards you; you can count on that. These waves are constantly towards you.

I did not read about it but it speaks about the mercy of God. He has shut up all in unbelief - that is the position of man. There is nothing in your heart, nothing in my heart, that would naturally gravitate Godward because God has shut up all in unbelief. That is the situation of the human heart, that naturally unbelief is inbuilt into it; but God has shut them all up that He might show mercy to all. The mercy of God is towards every one of us - wonderful matter! But grace is something else. I would like to borrow another phrase - we borrow some of these phrases - somebody has said, grace undertakes to do what mercy proposes. Mercy says, This man is going to be freed from death, he is going to be set free. But grace brings him into an area of blessing. Mercy can only take you so far, but the grace of God carries you into fullest blessing. Have you proved this, dear young friend? Do you know what it is to be saved, saved for time and saved for eternity? Or are you unsure about your present position before God? I would like to ask you, Are you perfectly sure? Salvation is what is presented in the gospel. How is it arrived at? By going to university and getting a degree in religious instruction? No, dear friend, salvation is only by placing your trust in the Lord Jesus Christ. It is the test for every man. I tell you again, there are many religions which speak quite freely about God, but you mention the name of Christ, that is the crux of the matter, who that Person is - Jesus! Who is it who came in? It was God. As was said by the angel: “the holy thing also which shall be born shall be called Son of God", Luke 1: 35. O, dear friend, the truth of the gospel is magnificent. It is far in advance of the ideals of men in this world, politicians and all the rest, and all the social ideals of the day. The gospel of God, the testimony of God, is wonderful, that God Himself has come in in the Person of Jesus, carrying with it salvation for all men. Who are the people that know they are saved? Persons who realise that that One came in in all lowliness, taking a bondman's form, moving about in this world of sin and sorrow and confusion, available to the vilest sinner. There was no-one more approachable than the Lord Jesus Christ. Persons in all their sin, people that we would not look twice at in the street, the Lord Jesus could work with them, speak with them for an hour, and lead them in from being a sinner to a Person who could speak about praising God, worshipping God. That is what the Lord did. Such was the power and influence of this Person! O, dear friends, the Lord Jesus! Do you know Him? One could say,

"I know whom I have believed", 2 Tim 1: 12. It is important, dear friend, that you come and trust in Jesus, the One who died on the cross and shed His precious blood. It was not His life and the miracles that He did that will bring salvation to you. No, dear friend, as it says here, He gave Himself for us. What was that? It was the cross, “that he might redeem us from all lawlessness". Where was that done? At the cross, not in His life, great and wonderful as that was and an example and an inspiration to millions of people. What a life it was! Sent here. Men in this world, what do you see? What is marked by our own hearts sometimes? - self-centredness. That is what we are after the flesh and after nature, trying to get out as much as we can. We see that around us in the world today, men and women striving to get the best out of this and the best out of that. But the Lord Jesus was moving to the cross. There all my liabilities were met, my sinful condition and your sinful condition, dear friend. Do you realise that? Do you know why the Lord Jesus had to go that way, had to be put up between heaven and earth? Because of your sins, because of your lawlessness which is inbuilt into you - born in sin and shapen in iniquity. There may be a measure of goodness, but the basic truth is that man is a fallen creature, needing redemption. He can go to all the colleges, he can sit under as much instruction as he likes but he is as bad as ever he was. improve his lot, take man and put him in any situation and what you will find is that the basic human weakness that he is a fallen, guilty sinner will break out every time. The only remedy is to put your trust in the Lord Jesus, be converted, change your man, and realise that the Lord Jesus had to go by the way of death. If that had not been done, there could be no new way for you or me. That is the sad fact of the matter and how essential it is to put your belief in the Lord Jesus Christ.

It says here, "For the grace of God which carries with it salvation for all men has appeared, teaching us that, having denied impiety and worldly lusts". Notice these little inserts which bring up that there has to be a moral answer. It could have said, 'For the grace of God which carries with it salvation for all men has appeared, teaching us that we should live soberly and justly, and piously in the present course of things'. It does not say that. It says “teaching us that, having denied impiety and worldly lusts"; that is, there has to be some exercise that you and I have to go through to be maintained in the gain of these things because God is a moral Being. Things have to be right. The Lord Jesus in His Person is the Holy and the True; that is, that everything He said was upright and all the things that He did were perfect. God is a moral Being. I speak carefully in saying that because God is a Spirit and His nature is love, but He is intent that things should be right with you morally, and that means that we should know the practical gain of the denial of things which may hinder us as believers - impiety and worldly lusts. These are exercises which relate to discipleship and are very practical and necessary and need dealing with by ourselves through the power and help of the Holy Spirit.

I just want to finish on the last scripture. This is very interesting because it speaks about the love of God. There are many scriptures, of course, that speak about the love of God, but this scripture brings out the very important matter of being maintained, that we keep ourselves. The apostle Jude is writing here and is saying, "keep yourselves in the love of God". How important it is that you and I, young people, keep ourselves in the love of God because, as you know, we can get away from it, we can get away from communion with divine Persons. It is quite easy to go on in an outward line of things and really be at a distance from the Lord and not give place to the Holy Spirit. That is the character of things in this world: man wants to be independent of God. He does not want anything to do with Him. That can come closer home to me. If we have a void in our lives, in our hearts, it will be filled by something, but the divine intention is that it should be filled by the Lord. There is something in you that needs to be filled and only Christ can fill it.

But these words are the words of the apostle. We know the words of the Lord but this is "remember the words spoken before by the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ that they said to you, that at the end of the time there should be mockers, walking after their own lusts of ungodliness". O that is the world we live in today. There has never been a time when Christianity - I am talking about the truths of Christianity - has been mocked and scorned as today. But you and I, dear friend, need to be preserved from that. We can be affected by that maybe more than we realise, and it is imperative that we all disown that kind of thing. The only way we can do it - we will never do it in our own strength - is in divine strength. So he brings in the importance of "building yourselves up on your most holy faith". What is that? It is what has come down through these apostles who were set up at the beginning and promoted this great truth of a risen Christ. It was not angels but men who were witnesses to these great things. It is a wonderful matter to consider the doctrine and fellowship of the apostles. They were the men who witnessed the crucifixion, who witnessed to the fact that the Lord had lain in death and that He was raised again. The way that they speak about things is remarkable. They do not exaggerate or anything like that. They speak about being with the Lord forty days after He was raised. These were remarkable matters and that was what was set forth in power at Pentecost. Peter standing up with the eleven preaching to the very city that had crucified the Lord of glory. The gospel went out there. That was what issued forth from the apostles. But then Jude goes on to speak about "your most holy faith, praying in the Holy Spirit, keep yourselves in the love of God, awaiting the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life".

I believe there is need for this myself, dear friends, to keep ourselves in the love of God. Love is His nature, I think keeping ourselves in it is the maintenance of things in a time of apostasy because that is what Jude envisages. That is the day that we are in. Supposedly Christian Britain is engulfed in darkness. This country has known the blessings of Christianity. There was never a country that has known such positive blessings; because it has allowed the liberties of Christianity, allowed the preaching of the gospel, and it is turning away from that. It is heading into darkness. As the Lord Jesus said, "If therefore the light that is in thee be darkness, how great the darkness!" Matt. 62 23. We need to be preserved from it. Young people - I am sorry for you - do not rely on some of the things you hear at school. Be glad of these meetings where the truth can be spoken over, maybe in feebleness, but where the things precious to the Lord Jesus can be spoken over. That is how we can keep ourselves in the area of divine safety, keeping ourselves in this wonderful, preservative area. May we all be helped to do that so that we might be maintained. It is one thing to believe on the Lord Jesus initially. How important that is! I trust everyone has proved that experience for themselves. But then you discover after a little while that sin is still here. Sin can still operate if you let it. But we have to be here walking through the present course of things with all these temptations, all the attractions, all the things that men go after, and we have to say, Is that for me as a Christian? No, you have to decide for the Lord Jesus and be maintained in power and in life for His testimony. May we all be in the good of these things for His Name's sake.

1 May 1994