“ALL THINGS ARE READY”

W. Dickson

Luke 14: 16–24; Acts 10: 44–48; Hebrews 11: 23–26

Could I commence the meeting by asking you if you have ever pondered why God formed man and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life? Because to understand why God created man is to understand the necessity for the gospel. It would appear from the Scriptures that the reason why God formed man, a being so different from the lower creation, was that He wanted those with whom He could share His choicest thoughts; that was why He created man. It is possible for everyone to have a link with God and to enjoy, as believing in the Lord Jesus, the blessed relationship of having Him as a Father and having His Spirit in their hearts as living water springing up into eternal life.

How was that desire of God to share things with His creature interrupted? It was interrupted by sin. It was interrupted because Satan sowed a seed of unbelief and distrust in the heart of man. Jealous of the place that God was going to have in the affections of that creature, he usurped God’s place in the heart of man. To man’s loss God had to expel His creature from the garden of delights. But the heart of God still longed for the

companionship of His creature. In His sovereignty and in His wisdom He took up many men, men who walked with Him like Enoch, like Abraham, like Moses, like David, but still His heart was not free to flow in all its unrestricted wealth and depth towards the creature He had formed.

But He had a plan, a wondrous plan. We spoke of that plan this afternoon and it thrilled our hearts to think that God was not defeated by the intrusion. He was not defeated by the effort of Satan to deprive Him of the creature with whom He wanted to share His richest and choicest thoughts. And what was that plan? Have you ever heard of that plan? Have you ever heard of the Saviour? Have you heard of that blessed Saviour who came here into manhood and displayed in His pathway the God whom we proclaim to you in the gospel?—in touching needy sinners, in blessing weary hearts, in coming in in healing and blessing, raising the dead. Oh, what a Saviour! What it must have been in Galilee! What it must have been in Nazareth, what it must have been in Jerusalem, to see a Man, a lowly Man without pride, without any feature that marked men of this world. His whole life here was devoted to doing good. But still that did not remove the barrier to that free intercourse between God and the creature that He had formed for His praise.

Who could remove the barrier? Oh, that glorious Man, our Saviour Jesus. He had to go down into death and in death He dealt with the enemy of our souls and broke his power for ever.

Think of the wondrous fact of the blood-shedding of Jesus, that great work of redemption that met the claims of the throne of God, the claims of that majestic throne which had been sinned against so that, on account of righteousness, it was impossible for God to renew the relationship which had been

broken by sin. A righteous, holy God had to have His claims met, and met righteously; and there was only one way in which they could be met and that was by the shedding of the blood of His beloved Son, Jesus. On the mercy seat now there is that blood, the perfect witness that God’s righteousness has been fully met, and the gospel goes forth tonight.

What is the gospel? God is calling you to come and share the great supper with Him. Have you ever been at the great supper? It is a great matter in the world these days when men get invitations to high occasions. O, beloved hearers, God would give you an invitation tonight to the greatest, the most wonderful celebration that could ever be prepared, the celebration of the victory of Christ consequent upon His death and resurrection and the restoration on the basis of redemption of every thought of God for His creature. Will you come? God wants to share it with you tonight; His heart is longing. His heart is towards you in all its fulness, sending out the message, “Come … all things are ready”. You can have your sins forgiven, and not only your sins forgiven, but the man who committed the sins is forever banished from the sight of God in the death of Christ. I will just dwell for a few moments on one thing that is on the table at the great supper, and that is justification. God, consequent on the work of Christ, can set you in His presence clothed in the perfection of that Man as if you had never sinned at all. Is that not wonderful? It is on the principle of faith and not on the principle of works.

But that message to the supper was refused and without exception they began to excuse themselves. Have you ever refused the invitation? Oh, you say, I am young and I want to have my fling; I want to enjoy myself; I will think about it in due course. You are just refusing the invitation for the moment.

You might say, Well, business takes so much of my time that I have not had occasion to ponder these things sufficiently—perhaps you are refusing the invitation. But God is in no way hindered; He will have His house filled.

Of course, we understand that the teaching here primarily refers to the Jews, how God at the beginning of the Acts, through Peter and the testimony of Stephen, expressed all the grace of the dispensation to the nation that had crucified Christ. That was God saying, Come. But they refused it. “Then the master of the house, in anger, said to his bondman, Go out quickly into the streets and lanes of the city, and bring here the poor and crippled and lame and blind. And the bondman said, Sir, it is done as thou hast commanded, and there is still room”. Now who was that bondman? That was Paul, Paul entrusted with the gospel to the Gentiles after the Jews had rejected it. Where did God find you, dear brother, and you, dear sister? Oh the sovereignty of divine mercy that some of us have been found! Beloved, nothing can exceed the glory of the Christian dispensation, the magnificence of the mercy that God has shown in the giving of His beloved Son. In constant, patient grace He sends forth the gospel, and we are here tonight as persons who have experienced something of that grace in our own hearts and have come into the enjoyment of the rich feast that God has provided.

In Acts 10 we come to the fulfilment of Luke 15. I have read Luke 14, but this passage we have read in Acts 10 is the fulfilment of Luke 15, the Gentiles coming in, the prodigal son, as we call him. After the overtures of God toward the Jews had been spurned, Peter was entrusted as a bondman with the bringing in of the Gentiles. We get in this passage an impression of how the heart of God,

so to speak, welled over in joy as He saw the prodigal son coming back. He said, as it were, Let us kill the fatted calf. Now the fatted calf was something in reserve and would involve many choice thoughts as linked with Christ the glorified Man. God is calling us in the gospel to know not only the great work of redemption and what He has found in the Man who accomplished that work, but He is calling us to feed on the fatted calf, these choice thoughts of purpose and blessing connected with a glorified Christ. No repast in this world can offer you anything like this. Young people, no so-called religion in this world can offer you anything like this. A man can start a new religion in a day; within a year he can have ten thousand followers; religions are springing up like weeds in a garden, religions everywhere, but not one of them has as its object and centre a glorious Man who went into death and accomplished the work of redemption and is now alive in the glory as the perfect expression of God’s thoughts in blessing for His creature.

Was God’s heart for ever closed against His earthly people? No! In the case of the elder brother you see in figure the heart of God still going out to the Jews. While He waits for them He is embracing the Gentiles, imparting the gift of the Holy Spirit. You can have the gift of the Holy Spirit. You can have the greatest Friend it is possible for a person to have indwelling him, in the Person of the Holy Spirit, a Friend who is constantly available to you, to help you in every circumstance. When sin besets you, when the struggle is going on in your heart, when the devil is trying to get the mastery over you, trying to lead you into a path that you know is dishonouring to Christ, turn to the Spirit; seek His help and the enemy will flee from you.

Peter baptised Cornelius and his household. What did he baptise them to? He would baptise them to the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, in the name of the Lord. He baptised them to an order of things that is not marked by death. It is through death, but it is marked by life in the Christian circle in an order of things peaceful and free from sin.

In Hebrews 11 I wanted to speak of another kind of sharing, that is to share the reproach of Christ. Moses was a great man in the palace of Pharaoh, he had a great place there, but God’s beloved people were despised, hated and under constant persecution in Egypt. Moses said, I will share the sufferings. What a privilege for any of us in these days in which we are to take our share. That is what the apostle Paul says to Timothy, “Take thy share in suffering”, 2

Timothy 2: 3. Are we all taking our share? Are we like Moses choosing “to suffer”? God commands men everywhere to repent (Acts 17: 30). But after you are a believer the Spirit helps you to make the right choice. The acceptance of the gospel is obligatory on men on the principle of repentance, but after you have accepted the gospel you must make your choice.

The choice is—Christ or the world; a place here, or a place in glory? What path are you going to choose? Are you going to share with Christ, and with the people of God, the path of His rejection? Think of the recompense. A present recompense? Yes. A future recompense? Yes; but assuredly a rich recompense. Let us not only enjoy the blessed privilege of sharing God’s choicest thoughts with Him, but let us lay hold of the opportunity of sharing the suffering with the people of God in the time of Christ’s rejection, for His name’s sake.

Preaching in Brooklyn, N.Y.
10 May 1981