THE GREATNESS OF GOD'S JUDGMENT AND THE GREATNESS OF HIS SALVATION
THE GREATNESS OF GOD’S JUDGMENT AND THE GREATNESS OF HIS SALVATION
Genesis 8: 20 - 22; 9: 1 - 7; Romans 4: 24, 25: 5: 1 - 5
You cannot ponder on the history of the flood, as recorded in the above scriptures, without two things coming plainly before you: one, the terrible nature of the judgment on man; and the other, the greatness of God’s salvation; not merely safety, but His salvation, and the greatness of it. Noah and his house were saved, as we read: “And Noah went forth, and his sons, and his wife, and his sons’ wives with him ... went forth out of the ark” (verses 18, 19). All were safe. But was that all? No! Noah was not content that he and all his were safe, and that he might resume his ordinary avocations without fear; he wanted to know his present relation with God, so we read: “And Noah builded an altar unto the Lord; and took of every clean beast, and of every clean fowl, and offered burnt offerings on the altar. And the Lord smelled a sweet savour ... And God blessed Noah and his sons, and said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth. And the fear of you and the dread of you shall be upon every beast of the earth, and upon every fowl of the air, upon all that moveth upon the earth, and upon all the fishes of the sea; into your hand are they delivered”, Genesis 8: 20 - 9: 2.
Many are satisfied with being safe, who do not know the greatness of God’s salvation; they do not know how God feels about them. Now we get two marks of God’s salvation in type in the case of Noah. He was set up here in God’s favour, and in power; he was brought to the greatness of God’s salvation. If your heart is true you seek to know God’s thought of you, and for this you must know Christ, not only as having died for you, but as risen. This we get set [p. 158] forth in the burnt-offering, which figuratively is Christ glorified. The One who went down into death glorified God there, and was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father. In the sin-offering the carcase was burnt outside the camp, but in the burnt-offering all went up to God. God’s salvation is not only that Christ died, but that He was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father. “Now is the Son of man glorified, and God is glorified in him. If God be glorified in him, God shall also glorify him in himself, and shall straightway glorify him”, John 13: 31, 32. In the case of Noah we see on the one hand the inexorable nature of the judgment from which he and his house were saved, and on the other that Noah desires to know his present relation with God. It is most important for you to know, not merely that you are safe, but how the blessed God, whom you offended by your sin, feels towards you. In Noah’s burnt-offering God smells a sweet savour, and the result of it is that he is assured of God’s favour, and as we read in chapter 9 he is set up in divine favour, and power was to be in his hand. It is a figure, but it is typical of the wonderful grace of God to man.
Now in Romans 4 we get righteousness imputed, “If we believe on him that raised up Jesus our Lord from the dead; who was delivered for our offences, and was raised again for our justification”. If the Man who went into death is raised from the dead, it proves that death is overcome. We can have no justification, no sense of it, until we see that Man risen out of death. If you have not apprehended Christ as the sin-offering, you do not know shelter from judgment. You may say, I believe that Christ died. Well, that is right so far; but I ask you, Do you believe that He is risen? The Man who died is the One who has [p. 162] gone up to the right hand of God. God has now a Man to His pleasure, and it is on the ground of believing in Him that God can be “just, and the [p. 159] justifier of him which believeth in Jesus”. He was “delivered for our offences”, that is the sin-offering; but He was “raised again for our justification”, that is the burnt-offering. He went down to the death due to the sinner, and if you believe on Him thus, you are safe; but you are not justified until you believe in Him risen. When you are justified, then you are in favour and in power. Until then you do not know the terms on which you stand with God; you have to learn the terms on which God can be with you. You were a sinner under God’s inexorable judgment, but Jesus Christ His Son went down into death and bore the judgment, and cleared away all in the cross, and perfectly glorified God. He is the true burnt-offering; He is the Man to God’s pleasure; He is the One gone up to God. The first thing is to believe that Christ died, having borne the judgment; but you have also to believe in Him risen, for you cannot know the terms on which God can be with you until you see a Man raised from the dead, gone up to God. If you merely see Christ crucified, you do not know your acceptance with God, though you may have assurance that you are safe; but He accepts you in righteousness if you believe on Him who raised up Jesus our Lord from the dead. Now mark! Being justified you are in the favour of God and in power, for you have received the Spirit. You see the One who bore the judgment raised, gone up to God, “Declared to be the Son of God with power, according to the Spirit of holiness, by the resurrection from the dead”, Romans 1: 4. The more His death affects you, the more you desire to see Him alive from the dead. The more your heart rests on the One who died for you, the more you want to know Him raised from the dead. If you believe that He is raised from the dead you receive the Holy Spirit.
Now in Romans 5 we get, “Being justified by faith, we have peace with God”. The gospel is God’s work; “Himself hath done it”. Take the prodigal as an [p. 160] example; when he was covered with kisses by his father he knew the gospel, he knew the terms on which his father received him. Like many, he did not enjoy acceptance fully, but he knew how his father felt towards him; he could not deny that he was in the favour of his father. The great lack in souls with regard to the gospel is that they do not know how they stand with God, and yet this is of chief importance. CHRIST IS RISEN! When I know that, I know that I am in favour with God, for I am accepted in the Beloved. What did Noah gain when he offered the burnt-offering? He was set up in favour and in power. “Being justified by faith”, having believed in Christ risen, “we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ”; there is no disturbing element. “By whom also we have access by faith into this grace wherein we stand”. Mark! it is, “By whom”.
The desolating flood covered the whole earth. Noah and all in the ark were saved, and then they were set on new ground in the favour of God and in power. This prefigures what the gospel confers on you. You are saved from the judgment, and you are set up here in God’s favour and in the power of the Holy Spirit, and He sheds abroad the love of God in your heart. It is important to connect the Holy Spirit with the gospel, because He is the witness or proof to us that we have believed in Christ. “In whom also after that ye believed, ye were sealed with that holy Spirit of promise”, Ephesians 1: 13. In Romans 5 we get the Holy Spirit not so much in relation to us as on God’s part - to shed abroad His love in our hearts. This is His first action when He comes to dwell in us. You will see first, that His own Son has borne the inexorable judgment of God on the cross, and next, that not only is all cleared away, but by the Holy Spirit God makes known to you His heart about you; the one great impression made on you is that God loves you! How is it made known to you? Is it by reading, by studying,
by listening to discourses? No “The love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Spirit which has been given to us”. The greatest power tells of the greatest grace. I cannot convey to you the greatness of it, but God conveys to your heart by the Holy Spirit how He feels about you. In the gospel you learn that not only has the judgment been removed for you, but that the One who removed it so glorified God in removing it that He has risen out of death, and on this Man your eye rests. “If thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved”, Romans 10: 9. Many believe that Christ died, but do you rest on Him by faith as gone up to God? “This man God raised up ... that every one that believes on him will receive through his name remission of sins. While Peter was yet speaking these words the Holy Spirit fell upon all those who were hearing the word”, Acts 10: 40 - 44. They received the Holy Spirit; therefore the Holy Spirit is called the seal.
I want you to apprehend the mind of God in the type that we have read. That Noah should be saved from the terrible deluge was not all the mind of God about him, but also that, on the ground of the burnt-offering, he might begin a new history, set up here in favour and in power. Now the antitype is that God’s Son bore the judgment and has been raised from the dead. He is glorified, and when you believe in Him risen, you receive the Spirit. “This spake he of the Spirit, which they that believe on him should receive”, John 7: 39. And again, “Whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst; but the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life”, John 4: 14. The Lord said that to the woman of Samaria. Many do not see - and much is lost by not seeing - that when you believe that the One who bore the judgment has gone up to the right hand of God, you receive the Spirit. Many earnest souls are occupied with their own feelings about their safety. Well, it is right to feel the weight of God’s judgment, and the state you naturally are in; but when you are sure that the blood shelters you from judgment, I ask you, Now how do you stand with God? The One who bore the judgment, the Man who went down under it, He has been raised, and as you see Him risen, you get the Spirit of God; and now you enter on a new history here in the favour and power of God, the Spirit dwelling in you. It is perfectly marvellous the blessing in which a believer is placed. The more I look at grace, the more wondrous it is to me; on the one hand, the sweeping judgment prefigured by the deluge, on the other, the magnificence of the grace. The man in the flesh is gone in the cross. Do you believe this? Yes. Then you are safe. But this is not the measure of God’s grace. The measure of His grace is His love. He has not only displayed His love in giving His Son, but He is always considering for your benefit, even to the very hairs of your head. How differently you would walk about the world if you were in the sense of this! You would not seek for the favour of man, you would be restful in the favour of God, and you would walk here in new power - the love of God shed abroad in your heart by the Holy Spirit. I cannot convey to you the blessedness of the love of God being made known to you.
My intention is, if the Lord will, to bring out in detail the scope of the gospel in the effects of grace. It is the same Holy Spirit who tells me of the love of God who is the power to enable me to enjoy His grace. I ask each of you, How do you stand with God? Can you say, I can see by faith the Man who died now risen at the right hand of God, and now I know that I am in the favour of God, and I have received the Spirit of God - I am in favour and in power? Once [p. 163] you get a glimmer as to God’s feeling about you-that He has unbounded love towards you, love which is always active for your benefit - you are lost in wonder, love, and praise.