“THE LIVING”
L. McFarlane
Lamentations 3: 27; Isaiah 38: 1–5, 18, 19
I desire to speak of the living, dear brethren and friends. Some of us are glad to be here this morning, although we are in the presence of death. The work of God has been completed in our dear brother, he has finished the race. Therefore my word would bear on those of us who remain. While we await the coming of the Lord Jesus we desire to be here among the living.
We enjoyed the place our beloved brother took in the service of God; he knew what it was to be among the living.
I am thinking of our dear younger brethren. Our brother began in his youth, he began as a youth to serve the Lord and was, through grace, maintained in consistency throughout his life, consistently following Jesus. He was also marked by a beautiful spirit, and his chief interest was the things of the Lord. I would emphasize that he began as a youth. The word of Jeremiah, a beloved prophet, commends this matter, “It is good for a man that he bear the yoke in his youth”. The Lord says, “Take my yoke upon you”, Matthew 11: 29. That is the only yoke we need, dear brethren and friends, the yoke of Jesus—“Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me”. I trust every person in this hall has a direct link with Jesus; I trust so. Take on His yoke, confess His name, follow Him in this the day of His rejection.
There are others here to speak and so I will pass on to king Hezekiah. I think he bears out what I have already said. He was only about thirty-nine years of age when this message came to him. I would like to stress that, dear friends; he was a comparatively young man but he began in his youth. He had remarkable influence on the people of God in his day as a young man. We want to stir up our youth. The word came to him that he should die and not live. I trust our houses are in order. The word here was, “Set thy house in order”. I am not referring to the material buildings we live in, I am referring to these bodies in which we are; that is the present application, to the bodies in which we are. God has assembled us, so many are here this morning with a view that we should hear His word and be affected. Our dear brother, as I remarked earlier, was an example to so many and now he has gone we are to imitate his faith.
He continued quietly day after day in faith, and we are to imitate that.
Hezekiah, having heard the word, turned his face to the wall and prayed. That is the way; God would speak to our hearts with a view that we turn to Him. Hezekiah turned his face to the wall and he prayed, and later it says he wept much. He felt this matter of death, as we do here this morning, the hand of death and the power of death coming in among the family of God. It is intended that we should feel it. As Hezekiah wept he turned to God. God takes account of our feelings. It is a remarkable thing that before the prophet left the city the word of God came to him. He was to return
to Hezekiah and tell him that God had added fifteen years to his life. Our brother in his prayer at the outset of this meeting referred to the fact that none of us in this room has any idea when we will have to follow this road, the way of all the earth. Hezekiah used the time allotted to him in the service of God; he says, “The living, the living, he shall praise thee, as I this day”.
May this word, dear friends, exercise our hearts that we might be found among the living.
Our brother is no longer with us in this scene; he lives to God, the God of the living, at the present time. This body of humiliation which we put into the grave shall be glorified, we shall have glorified bodies. And we shall see Jesus by-and-by in His body of glory. Well, we await this, dear friends, and while we await that blessed day let us be found among the living. May the Lord bless His word.