1. HIS VOICE FOR EVERY MAN
1. HIS VOICE FOR EVERY MAN
Luke 24: 44-53; 1 Corinthians 8: 5, 6; Philippians 3: 20, 21
All real Christianity is covered by one single word, and that is — CHRIST.
There is no real Christianity outside of Christ. Christ is a very inclusive term; it covers all that is for God on earth. He has ascended far above all heavens, that He may fill all things; and if He fills all things, all else must be displaced. He will fill all things morally; then all that is not of Christ must be displaced, and that is what will come to pass. There is a mass of profession built up, in which confusion reigns, and it will come under judgment; it is morally not for God; there is nothing for God on earth save Christ. The great object for which people are converted is that Christ may be formed in them. When they believe in Christ, they receive the Spirit of Christ, and then they get the renewing of the Holy Spirit, and the result is that there is brought about in us that which is for God. Hence, as I have said, all in Christianity is covered by the one word, CHRIST. When this is apprehended Christianity becomes simple. God cares nothing for the great things of this world, nor yet for the great religious systems in this world. He takes no account of them. The fact is God takes account of small things. Christianity began with a Babe born in a manger, because there was no room for Him in the inn; no man cared at all about it; and yet all heaven was astir; for it was the birth of Christ!
I want to speak about Christ tonight in three lights, all of which refer to us individually — lights which do [p. 372] not involve what is corporate. I may take the latter up another time; but in the first instance I wish to speak of Christ as He applies to us individually.
The passages I have read speak of Christ; (1) As the Man; (2) As the Lord; (3) As the Saviour. To us he is our Lord Jesus Christ. He is Lord. The passage which I read in Philippians brings out that we look for the Lord Jesus Christ as Saviour. But the first great point is the Man. I refer to 1 Timothy 2: 5, to draw your attention to what Scripture speaks of “the man Christ Jesus”. “One mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus”. Men are spoken of three times in the passage, and in contrast to men you get the Man. All men need to be saved, and the Mediator must be a Man different from every other man; and yet standing in relation to all men. I want to make plain to you what is the thought here as to the Man Christ Jesus. The man means the Man in contrast to all other men. I want to bring before you that the Man is the Head. I call your attention to a passage in Romans 5: 12: “By one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned”. Adam was the “figure of him to come” (verse 14) ... “much rather has the grace of God, and the free gift in grace, which is by one man Jesus Christ, abounded unto the many”. You get two men spoken of; as “by one man” sin entered. Then you get grace, and the free gift in grace by one Man Jesus Christ. Adam was the first man, and he was a head, and in that way he had a voice to all his posterity, and that voice was death. Abel heard it, and came to God by death; he had apprehended the voice of Adam, which was DEATH; he accepted the truth that death was upon man by the sin of Adam, and he approached God by the death of a victim. That is the idea of a head; and in the same sense Christ is a Head. No one answers to Adam as Head save Christ.
“The one man Jesus Christ”. The grace of God and the free gift in grace are by the one Man Jesus Christ. He is the Mediator. Both men stand in the same position in regard to men — to all men. The grace and the gift in grace have their application to ALL men. “Remission of sins should be preached in his name, among all nations”, Luke 24: 47. Not to some particular men, but to all men. I say this much to show you that the position of Adam and of Christ are analogous, and that by the appointment of God. A Head must be unique. Apart from Christ there would be no head for man at all. There may be artificial distinctions among men, but all men are alike; they are brothers — one may be white, the other black, but every man is the brother of another, and no man is unique. When Adam was created, he was in fact and position unique. There was not another like him. When Christ came into the world, He was unique. There was not another like Him; He received the gift of the Holy Spirit: “Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world”, John 1: 29. The Spirit descended and abode upon Him (verse 32): “I saw, and bare record that this is the Son of God” (verse 34). These passages mark out Christ from every other man. He was entirely unique, and the proof of this is that the Spirit descended and ABODE upon Him. The Spirit had come upon the prophets, but in the case of Christ the Spirit abode upon Him, and that was the proof and evidence to John of who He was. He was the corn of wheat — the Living Bread come down from heaven. He was the One who would baptise with the Holy Spirit. It was proved who He was by the fact of the Spirit coming down and remaining on Him. He was marked out in that way as the One who baptiseth with the Holy Spirit; He was the Son of God. In the Old Testament, what you get brought before saints is the Son of Man. Eve said when Cain was born, that he was the “Man from the Lord” — [p. 374] Cain was not. The appointed seed was Seth. Noah had three sons, but the promised line was not in Japheth, the eldest, but in Shem. Again, promises were made to Abraham, but they were confirmed in Isaac the seed. So promises were made to David in regard of the throne, but they were all to be brought to pass in connection with David’s seed; the son of David was to build a house for Jehovah. These all pointed to the coming in of a Head, and that Head was not to be man, but the Son of Man. Now Christ is the Son of Man; the importance of that is that while He is unique, yet He must become the Son of Man, that He might overcome everything that had been brought in by man. He was made sin. What for? That He might establish righteousness. He entered into death that He might be a life-giving Head to man in resurrection. He was made a curse, and went under wrath; He entered into all, that He might overcome all. Death has been overcome; sin has been overcome; curse, all has been overcome by Him; and blessing is now established for man in Him — the Head. He is entitled to speak to every man. There is none like Him. We may be morally conformed to Him now, and we shall be perfectly conformed to Him; but there is none like Him.
Now just turn to the passage in Luke for a moment (verse 47), “in his name”. The force is apparent — in the name of the Christ (see verse 46): “It behoved the Christ to suffer, and to rise from the dead”. The Christ is the Anointed of God — the Anointed Man — the One on whom the Spirit descended. He rose from the dead the third day, and repentance and remission of sins are preached in His name among all nations; not to the Jew only, but to the world. He is unique and distinct from every other man; but at the same time He has a voice to every man, and that voice is proclaiming repentance and remission of sins; and the Name is that in which it is proclaimed: the [p. 375] Christ who suffered, and rose again from the dead (verses 46, 47). THE Christ was the anointed Man — the Man upon whom the Spirit descended and abode.
The great point of all that, is THE MAN, not the Lord. It is the anointed Man, THE CHRIST, who is to be preached. What proved Him to be Head of every man was that the Holy Spirit abode upon Him. Every man is tested by the voice of Christ. The question is, “What think ye of Christ?” That is the real point for men, and that which involves responsibility in every man. All has been overcome by Christ, hence He is entitled to have a voice for every man.
Now the great object of receiving remission of sins is that you may receive from Him the gift of living water. He baptises with the Holy Spirit. The Lord says, “The dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God: and they that hear shall live” (John 5); and how? Because He confers the gift of living water. You get it in John 4. The One who spoke to the woman was the Son of God, and He speaks to her about living water, which He would give. Christ says, “Whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely”, Revelation 22: 17. God’s thought for us is that we might receive living water.
The next point is, that when you receive the Spirit, you begin to get a sense that Jesus is Lord. I could not preach the universality of the lordship of Christ. He is Lord of all, I admit; but people can know nothing about it unless they have first received the gift of the Holy Spirit. The beginning of our having to do with Him as Lord, is when the Holy Spirit is received. The first effect of receiving the Holy Spirit is that we confess Jesus as Lord, and then it becomes true to us that “To us there is ... one Lord Jesus Christ”, 1 Corinthians 8: 6. It is not true in the world; it is “To us”. It is a great point to come to Christ as Lord, then it is that we come to salvation. See 1 Peter 2: 2, 3. “As newborn babes desire earnestly the pure mental milk of the word, that by it [p. 376] ye may grow up to salvation, if indeed ye have tasted that the Lord is good”. It is a great point. We have tasted that the Lord is good. The Lord is the One who can hold in abeyance for us all the powers of evil, whatever they may be. When Christ comes again, Satan will be cast into the abyss, and all the powers of evil will be held in check. Death will be swallowed up in victory; the world will be turned upside down, and “the kingdoms of this world are become the kingdoms of our Lord, and of his Christ”. As Lord He has power and authority against all the powers of evil. It was said of Him when on earth: “With authority commandeth he even the unclean spirits, and they do obey him”, Mark 1: 27. If He sees fit, He can set aside all the power of evil.
Now the victory has not yet come to pass, but “thanks be to God, which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ”. He serves us now as Lord. He fortifies us against all the powers of evil. We have tasted that the Lord is gracious, and in every emergency what you can count upon is not the checking of the powers of evil, but that He fortifies you against them, so that you are enabled to stand. We get the sense of how He can strengthen us. We can be strong in the Lord, and in the power of His might. The Lord exercises power and authority against the forces of evil, but to us He is a gracious Lord. Grace reigns “through righteousness ... through Jesus Christ our Lord”. The Lord will strengthen and stand by you. If you confess the Lord, He will strengthen and stand by you in any emergency. He does not fail us, but when He comes out as Lord, every power of evil will be held in abeyance.
Then there is another point. We expect Him as Saviour; Philippians 3: 21. And how? Wrath is coming on the world, and it might overtake us; and how are you going to get out of it? When God fights against His enemies, He can bring in forces that man can in [p. 377] no wise withstand. Great hailstones fell in Old Testament times. Well, the Lord will come as Saviour to us — to take us out of the scene upon which the wrath is coming; He will transform us to Himself. We shall be conformed to the Son of God, and as sure as we are here, we shall go off to heaven; and if you go off to heaven, you will be out of the scene of wrath. “Jesus, our deliverer from the coming wrath”; that is what the Saviour means to us. “The name of the Lord is a strong tower: the righteous runneth into it, and is safe” (Proverbs 18: 10); and that means salvation to us. It is no vain thing to confess Christ as Lord. If a man is sceptical of the force of evil, it is because he has no sense of the power of the Lord. To us the Lord is gracious. People too often pick up divine things in a rambling fashion; but in our real apprehension of them, our first acquaintance with Christ is as the MAN; secondly, we know Him as Lord; and thirdly, as Saviour; and thus we are qualified to be taken to Him where He is.