GOD’S MIND FOR MAN
I would like to tell you first of all what God has in mind, the kind of God he is and what He plans for mankind; that is for blessing: God has nothing else in mind for man but blessing, heavenly blessings. God made man, He created man, mankind is God’s design: God designed mankind in a special kind of way. And no one knows better than God what men need, what women need and what young people need; what mankind needs, no one knows better than God. The One who designed mankind, no one knows better than He how to make man happy, how to satisfy him, give him peace and joy; no one knows better than He. Now the enemy of our souls would tell us something different. God did not create man to be miserable, to be unhappy; God created man in view of making him happy, in view of making him a satisfied person. God made mankind with a certain capacity, with a mind that could think, able to reason, able to understand—and not only able to understand, but to communicate his mind with the power of speech. We need to understand that man is a special creation. Genesis 1 tells us that, that man was created and God “breathed into his nostrils the breath of life”, v 7. God has given us of His spirit. I suppose in some sense we receive our bodies from our parents, but we do not receive our spirits from our parents, we receive our spirits from God: the spirit returns unto God who gave it, Eccl 12: 7. That is the kind of being that man is: he consists of spirit, soul and body: the only creature that consists of spirit, soul and body is mankind. Do not listen to so-called scientists who speak about evolution; ridiculous theory that it was: man is a special creation of God, I say again, consisting of spirit, soul and body. And every one gets his or her spirit from God. Now, I say again that no one knows better than God how to satisfy that being, man, that He especially made: no one knows better than God how to fill his heart and give him joy and satisfaction.
In the Old Testament, there were various promises that God made to mankind, and some of these are fulfilled—the coming of the Lord Jesus, the Messiah, and the gift of the Holy Spirit: these were promises in the Old testament which are fulfilled. There are certain promises which are not fulfilled: the Lord is coming to settle His kingdom publicly; that is not yet fulfilled, but there are some promises which are fulfilled. There are God’s promises, but there is also God’s purpose: it was “hidden throughout the ages in God” (Eph 3: 9), long before Christianity, but is what God has in mind for mankind, what He purposed before the world’s foundation is now made known. It was “hidden throughout the ages in God”, but is now made known, made manifest. I just what to give you some idea of the kind of God with whom we have to do. He has a kingdom, for instance; not yet established publicly, but he has a kingdom here consisting of believers who have the Holy Spirit who know the potential of the kingdom, who know the blessing of being subject to the Lord Jesus Christ, being here for His will. That is a wonderful blessing that God offers in His kingdom, not yet established publicly, but it exists actually and some of us can be at peace about it, that the kingdom of God exists now in persons who are subject to our Lord Jesus Christ. God has in mind a family, that mankind should come into His family: these are all objectives that God has set in the glad tidings. He would give a place in the family. It is not an earthly family, He is not giving men earthly prospects, he has given what is far greater—heavenly prospects. He is forming a heavenly family which will be for His pleasure now and eternally. God has in mind a family, a family of sons. He is forming now a counterpart for the Lord Jesus Christ, the assembly. The assembly for the heart of Christ was a matter “hidden throughout the ages in God” but is now made known, made manifest. I am just trying to give you some impression of what God has in mind for men, women and young people.
Now there is one obstacle: why are all not enjoying what God has in mind? There is one obstacle, and that is sin, our sins. That is one obstacle that came in early in Genesis 3, the enemy of our souls operating and sowing doubt in Eve, and bringing in distance, lack of confidence, lack of trust in God. He has instilled this matter of sin and sins; it is the one obstacle that prevents all men entering into the blessing that God had in mind. God does not ask you, does not ask anyone, to solve that problem. He did it Himself: God has solve that great problem of sin; that one obstacle, God has removed it; and that brings me to the scriptures I have read.
It says in Matthew, “thou shalt call his name Jesus, for he shall save his people from their sins”. This Babe was God coming in Himself; God undertook to settle this great problem: to remove this great obstacle, God Himself undertook to do so in the Person of Jesus. Godhead glory is His, the majesty of Deity is His; but He came to this earth as a Babe—wonderful to contemplate the fact! We speak of feeding on Christ; in fact most of what is in the gospels is about three-and-a-half years of the service of the Lord Jesus. From the manger to the cross we can understand, but from the glory to the manger is beyond our understanding, beyond our fathoming; that God Himself should come so low, so near to men. Did you ever hear of anyone who was frightened of Jesus when he was here? That was God’s approach to man, as a Babe, and growing up in a household—perhaps he had four brothers and at least two sisters; He lived with them, I suppose. Thirty years of private life; how Jesus lived in the household I often wonder, but He was there in perfection, God was there. It says here, “thou shalt call his name Jesus, for he shall save his people from their sins”. That is why Jesus came here, to remove this great obstacle which prevented mankind from enjoying the blessing that God had in mind, God Himself undertook to remove that obstacle. And here He is presented, to “save his people from their sins”.
First of all, he is able to save us from the consequences of our sins: the consequences of our sins mean judgment, if our sins are unsettled. It is a very solemn thing if the matter of our sins is not a settled matter. It will mean judgment, it will mean eternal loss, eternal damnation—a fearful fact. He has come to save us from the consequences of our sins. That is a very great matter to understand. But it is not only to save us from the consequences of our sins, but to save us from our sins; to save us from going on a self-willed way, from a course of sin, into submission to the Lord Jesus, into committal to the will of God. It is to save us from a sinful course, to save us in view of the pleasure of God, and our own joy and satisfaction—to “save his people from their sins”. That is why Jesus came: “Christ Jesus came into the world” – why? - “to save sinners”, 1 Tim 1: 15. Think of this obstacle of sins that God Himself has removed by coming in the Person of the Lord Jesus, to save His people from the consequences of their sins and to save them from a sinful course.
Now Mark tells us how that comes about, that is God’s attitude, what is available. God has come and undertaken the work necessary to save us from our sins. It meant of course the Lord Jesus taking the sinner’s place; you think of His stoop into Manhood, and think of His stoop not death. Think of that stoop, in taking the sinner’s place; as we sang—
Dying in the sinner’s stead
(Hymn 414).
That is what the end of Matthew’s gospel tells us about: the Lord cried: “My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?” Matt 27: 46. We can never fathom what that means. There are some things we can feed upon and contemplate, but there are some things we can never fathom. I say, the glory from the glory to the manger we can never fathom; what it meant for Jesus to be the sin-bearer we can never fathom. I suppose we never will fathom what it was for Him to be made sin, all that was necessary that He was to save His people from their sins. That work has been accomplished: God does not ask us to do anything of that work. It is finished. The obstacle, as far as God is concerned, has been removed.
It needs to be removed from our side, and this scripture in Mark tells us how. It says, “There came John baptising in the wilderness, and preaching the baptism of repentance”. How do we come into it? By means of repentance. It goes on, “for remission of sins”, the sin question, the great obstacle settled, sins remitted now and eternally; never to rise again here, never to rise in the hereafter. Remission of sins comes by way of repentance. Now repentance is a deep work, it is not just a light thing. It is not just a mental exercise, repentance is a heart matter, involving the whole being indeed. It means that we come to the same judgment about our sins that God has, and that gives us an appreciation of the work of our Lord Jesus Christ, an appreciation of the one who did the work. So we come into it by means of “repentance for remission of sins”. We know that this is a settled matter: it is “repentance towards God”—He is the One we repent to, He is the One who has been offended - and then, “faith towards our Lord Jesus Christ”, Acts 20: 21. It is simple to present and most important, but I just point the need for repentance and depth of repentance, to have the same judgment of our sins as God has, which cost the Lord Jesus such infinite, untold suffering. It gives us a fresh appreciation of our Lord Jesus Christ—“repentance for remission of sins”. It says, “And there went out to him all the district of Judæa, and all they of Jerusalem, and were baptised by him in the river Jordan, confessing their sins”—confessing their sins. That is, they owned that they were sinners and that they needed forgiveness. They confessed their sins. I suppose that was only a beginning in a sense, they confessed their sins. We need to live that way, confessing our sins, confessing to God. We might begin that way, repenting towards God, but then we are to be repenting persons, confessing our sins, and that gives us a clear conscience before God. All our sins are out before God, confessing our sins. That is what happened here, and it goes on to speak about the gift of the Holy Spirit. It says, “he shall baptise you with the Holy Spirit”. Now this is how we come into it. Matthew presents One who will save His people from their sins, and Mark shows us how it comes about, by means of “repentance towards God, and faith towards our Lord Jesus Christ”; and then confessing our sins, having everything out before God. We were speaking this afternoon about that woman in John 4 who said, “Come, see a man who told me all things I had ever done”, John 4: 29. Everything was out, everything was out before the Lord Jesus, before God; she had nothing on her conscience. What a happy position to be in, dear friend, to have nothing on your conscience. Have you anything on your conscience? If you have, confess. There is no other way: the lord Jesus is available, He came to save His people from their sins, and He is the way into it. The result is: “I indeed have baptised you with water, but he shall baptise you with the Holy Spirit”, the gift of the Holy Spirit. Two things are presented in the gospel especially, that is remission of sins and the gift of the Holy Spirit. We have everything in these two wonderful blessings that God had in mind for us.
It is quite remarkable how in the introduction to each of the gospels, we have this matter of sins coming up; and you can proceed to enjoy the rest of these chapters in the gospels by knowing that the sin matter is settled. And so we have here this touch in Luke’s gospel: “to make ready his ways; to give knowledge of deliverance to his people by the remission of their sins”. We have that knowledge, we have that consciousness by the gift of the Holy Spirit, the knowledge of our sins forgiven. It comes by faith, but the enjoyment of it, the consciousness of it, comes by the gift of the Holy Spirit. It says, “on account of the bowels of mercy of our God”; that is a wonderful expression. I would not have written this, I would not speak about the bowels of God, but Luke does, “the bowels of mercy of our God”. It is the inwards of God going out to the sinner, providing for the sinner, removing the obstacle that what God has in mind might be available to all, ““on account of the bowels of mercy of our God”—wonderful expression, wonderful depths of the love and the feelings of God. It says, “to shine upon them who were sitting in darkness and in the shadow of death, to guide our feet into the way of peace”. How fine to have our feet guided into the way of peace! It is part of God’s thought for us—“in the way of peace”. It is not the way of disturbance, not the way of anxiety, but the way of peace: “peace towards God through our Lord Jesus Christ” (Rom 5: 1); peace of the conscience, peace of the heart, having an object for our affections in the Lord Jesus personally. It is a fine expression: “to guide our feet into the way of peace”. There is not much peace in this world, not much restfulness, but God’s thought is that we should come into this way of peace. May it be so for every one us: our feet guided into the way of peace. It is the way of the knowledge of God, understanding the feelings of God, “the bowels of mercy of our God”. The Spirit would guide our feet in the way of peace.
And so in John, we have a reference to the sin of the world; that is, John the baptist says “Behold the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world”. What an undertaking! The Lord Jesus suffered, not only that your sin might be dealt with, but that sin might be removed entirely from the universe. What an undertaking: “the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world”. It is not only the work, it is the One who does it – the taker away of the sin of the world. That is going to come to pass: He has laid the foundation in righteousness in His sufferings on the cross, and our sins can be remitted—every one here, our sins can be remitted by repentance and faith in our Lord Jesus Christ, and we can receive the gift of the Holy Spirit; but this is a mighty undertaking: “takes away the sin of the world”. There is going to be a world that God has in mind where there will not be a vestige of sin. Sin will be confined to its own place. It is called a lake, it has confines. It is an awful thing to be there of course, an awful thing to be in these confines; but the Lord Jesus, the One who suffered on the cross, the Lamb of God, the One who was God’s sacrifice when a foundation was laid in righteousness, He is going to undertake to take away the sin of the world. That will be by judgment of course the book of Revelation tells us that. There is world to come in which He will be pre-eminent, have the first place in all things publicly; and beside that there will be an eternal order of things without sin.
Well, now, will you fit in there, dear friend? How can you fit into an eternal scene of things where there is no sin, no self-pleasing, all for the pleasure of God, all for the satisfaction of God? Will we be satisfied? Of course, we will be satisfied, but all will be for the pleasure and satisfaction of God Himself. All sin removed; again I say, no self-will, no self-pleasing, all done away—will you fit in? You do you still like to please yourself, do you still like your own will? You cannot fit here if that is so. We need to commit ourselves to the will of God and come into His kingdom, belong to His family, come into these great thoughts of God, heavenly thoughts. But I just impress you with this great undertaking: “who takes away the sin of the world”. There has got to be a universe of bliss in which there will not be a vestige of sin, or self-will, or self-pleasing. I say again, would you like to be there? You will not have your own will. I suppose some of have come to it that we would fit there; I trust that we would all fit there. The preparation takes place now, for this universe of bliss. It is much more than the world to come; the Lord Jesus will be prominent, He will be in the first place, He will be pre-eminent in the world to come; but after that there is a point where God is “all in all” (1 Cor 15: 28); God pervades. Everything is pleasing to Him, everything is after His own mind. It is a wonderful order of things; I would like you to think about that and be ready for that, and judge self-will and self-pleasing—it comes so natural to us, we have all been infected with the poison of the enemy and it belongs to our very nature according to the flesh; but you think of an order of things where there is no evidence of any self-pleasing but all is for the pleasure and the glory of God.
May we all be ready for it, for the Lord’s own sake.
EDINBURGH
This piece and the next three were taken from recordings that carry no indication of the date of the meeting.
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