The One Great Reality Part 6

It is the same as the link which Jacob felt when he heard G.o.d's voice speaking; it seemed to bring G.o.d quite close to him and to make G.o.d so real, that he started again on his journey cheered and encouraged; for we read in the first verse of the next chapter, "Then Jacob went on his journey," and in the margin it says he lifted up his feet, showing his heart was lightened of its burden: when the heart is heavy, our feet drag.

But he made a fresh start: and if only G.o.d's Voice reaches your heart now, you will go on your way rejoicing; it will be like making a fresh start.

Again and again we read of G.o.d talking to those who were willing to hear His Voice. For example, "The LORD talked with Moses face to face as a man speaketh unto his friend," [Footnote: Exod. x.x.xiii. 9, 11.] and at Mount Sinai "Moses spake and G.o.d answered him by a Voice."

Not only is the link of communication perfect between G.o.d and man, but the way in which we can use it and be put in touch with G.o.d is so simple: it is by faith--that is all.

We have another ill.u.s.tration of this when we think of the wireless messages. The world's greatest wireless station is in a little village called Na.s.sau, in Germany. A short time ago a message was sent to a place far, far away over the ocean, 6,500 miles away. How was it started? Only by touching a key in the machine. That touch releases the lightning which carries a message for thousands of miles over vast continents and across the boundless sea.

Only a touch--is it not like the touch of faith? But we must not forget that when the message has reached its destination, when these waves of sound talk across the world, the ear at the other end must be prepared to hear the call.

There is the hearing of faith, as well as the touch of faith. The hearing means not only listening, but being willing to obey the voice. I have been told that when a message is to be sent by wireless telephone, the other waves of sound must be quite still before the person receiving the message can hear it. The speaker has to wait till the vibrations settle down, there must be perfect stillness, and then the voice is heard. How important it is to shut out all other sounds so that our hearts may be still enough to hear G.o.d speak. We must listen with an obedient heart. Do you remember how one Sunday was set apart not long ago to make collections for the blind. At midnight on Sat.u.r.day, a royal message was sent forth which encircled the whole world. It was King George's "G.o.d speed" to the appeal for the blind. It was flashed from the wireless station on a lonely cliff in Cornwall to another station in America, and it went over the seven oceans of the world. It was received by forty-five ships in the Atlantic. They were all warned it was coming and they were expecting it.

The White Star liner _Baltic_, 810 miles away, heard it, and it travelled on to India, and it was caught up there 1,500 miles away.

This reminds me of another royal message from the King of kings which is also encircling the world and telling the good news wherever man is willing to hear it. "He that hath an ear let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the Churches." [Footnote: Rev. ii. 7.] How the solemn call rings out, and rings on: To-day, To-day! How it sounds in our ears with startling urgency, and it is the Holy Ghost who says it, "To-day, if you will hear His Voice, harden not your heart." [Footnote: Heb. iii. 7.]

When we are careless and indifferent to what G.o.d's Voice is saying to us then we are hardening our hearts.

Perhaps in days gone by you once listened to G.o.d's Voice. Why did you give up listening? "Ah!" you reply, "other voices came and drowned that still small Voice, and the voice of the Evil One poisoned my mind."

Let me ask you one more question, Has G.o.d's Voice ever stopped calling?

No, G.o.d is still calling. Oh, that now at this very moment you may be able to say, "The Voice of G.o.d has reached my heart." If any of you turn a deaf ear to G.o.d's Voice, remember the time is coming when "all who are in the graves shall hear His Voice and shall come forth"; [Footnote: St. John. v.

25.] and to you it will be a coming forth to judgment and condemnation.

How does G.o.d speak to us now? We can hear the Voice of G.o.d speaking in His Word. When any portion of Scripture is specially impressed on our minds it shows that G.o.d is speaking to us. A young man who had been seeking G.o.d very earnestly said one day, "While reading the Word, I felt certain that G.o.d had really spoken to my soul, that He had actually said to me, Live!"

Yes, that young man was right, for that is just what G.o.d has said to us, but it makes all the difference whether we each one receive it as if G.o.d is really saying it to us personally. Luther felt this, for he used to say, "When I open the Bible it talks to me."

Why is the Bible like no other book? Because it is the revelation of G.o.d Himself. The glory of G.o.d shines in its pages. In life and in death the only source of comfort is a Personal G.o.d. Our great need is to have G.o.d personally near, _near and dear_. Never rest till you can look up into His Face with confidence and say, "Thou art near, O Lord." [Footnote: Ps.

cxix. 151.]

He is saying to you now, "Seek ye my Face." [Footnote: Ps. xxvii. 8.]

What answer will you give? Will you say to G.o.d now, "Thy Face, Lord, will I seek." When we seek His Face, then we see "the glory of G.o.d in the face of Jesus Christ." [Footnote: 2 Cor. iv. 6.] How grand it all is, and yet how simple!

Let me say one word of loving appeal to any who have never really sought the Lord. How is it that you say your prayers and yet you do not expect to get an answer direct from G.o.d? Because, like Jacob, you have never believed there is a G.o.d. You have not got hold of the first truth which the Bible teaches us, _G.o.d is_; "He that cometh to G.o.d must believe that HE IS." [Footnote: Heb. xi. 6.] When you pray, He must be as real to you as if you saw Him standing by hearing and answering you. Until our eyes are opened to see that death and judgment, heaven and h.e.l.l, are great realities we do not really cry to G.o.d, and when we do we find out that we have never realised there is a G.o.d. Think of what G.o.d offers to you.

Forgiveness, life and glory. Would you neglect getting these priceless gifts if you believed they were the real offers of a real Person? "What meanest thou, O sleeper? Arise, call upon thy G.o.d." [Footnote: Jonah i.

6.]

ADDRESS VI

THE HANDS OF G.o.d

PORTION OF SCRIPTURE--St. John xx. 19-31.

Why has this Gospel been written? The last verse of this chapter tells us.

"It has been written that we may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of G.o.d, and that believing we may have life through His Name."

In the Old Testament when "The Name" is mentioned it meant the unveiling of the grace and glory and power of G.o.d. So we read men called upon "The Name"--and in the New Testament when the Divine glory of Christ is described we find the same expression, "His Name." It means His nature and His character.

In the verse which we have just read, the wonderful truth shines out that it is through His Name, through all that He is, and all He has done, that we have _life_. So Christ Himself declares, "My sheep hear My Voice and I know them and they follow Me, and I give unto them Eternal life, and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of My Hand. My Father, which gave them Me, is greater than all, and no man is able to pluck them out of My Father's hand. I and My Father are one."

[Footnote: St. John x. 27-30.]

Christ first speaks of His own hand and then of His Father's hand, so there are two hands which hold us fast and keep us safe, now and for ever.

Let us look at what is said about the Hands of G.o.d in the Bible.

Think of G.o.d's Hands in creation. The Psalmist says, "Of old hast Thou laid the foundation of the earth: and the heavens are the work of Thy hands." [Footnote: Psa. cii. 25.] "The sea is His and He made it: and His hands formed the dry land." [Footnote: Ps. xcv. 5.]

Think of His strong Hands in Providence, as Moses said, "Thy right hand, O LORD, is become glorious in power." [Footnote: Exod. xv. 6.]

Nehemiah speaks again and again of "the good hand of my G.o.d upon me,"

[Footnote: Neh. ii. 8.] when he tells us of all G.o.d's loving help and guidance in the difficult work he had undertaken.

Think again of G.o.d's loving Hands in grace, healing the broken in heart and binding up their wounds. How safe David felt when he said, "Thy right hand upholdeth me." [Footnote: Ps. lxiii. 8.] He shows his confidence in G.o.d when he prays, "Hold Thou me up and I shall be safe." [Footnote: Ps.

cxix. 117.] When your child wants you to hold him up he slips his little hand in yours, doesn't he? Have you ever put your weak hand into G.o.d's strong loving Hand so as to let Him do the holding up?

The saints in olden times felt G.o.d's Hand in everything, over-ruling, planning, guiding, and Jesus a.s.sures us of the perfect safety and everlasting security of the believer, for He says, "No one, either man or devil, can pluck them out of My hand, nor shall any man be able to pluck them out of My Father's hand;" [Footnote: St. John x. 28, 29.] so there are two Divine Hands holding us fast.

Think once more of the hands of G.o.d: not only strong hands to help and to heal, but _redeeming_ hands, mighty to save; hands that have been in the fire to pluck us out of the burning; hands that have laid hold of the enemy and have overcome him; hands that have unlocked the gates of a new life that we may enter in.

Not long ago a little girl was caressing her dear old nurse, and when she caught sight of the deep scars in her hands she asked, "How did you get these scars?" The nurse looked at her very tenderly and then she said, "When you were a baby, a fire broke out one night when you were asleep in your cot. I plunged my hands into the flames and lifted you out." The child's eyes were full of tears as she looked at the dear scarred hands, the hands that had been wounded to save her.

Those scarred hands remind me of another story. One day, about thirty years ago, some children were playing on a mountain in France, and their merry peals of laughter attracted the notice of a shepherd lad who was taking care of the sheep a little way off. Suddenly a wolf foaming at the mouth came in sight. He saw it run madly down the mountain towards the children. Without a moment's hesitation he rushed forward, seized the wolf, and grappled with it. After a fierce struggle he managed to bind a leather strap around its mouth, and then he killed it, but not before the wolf, which was raving mad, had bitten him severely in the hand. This occurred just at the time when Pasteur, the famous Paris doctor, had discovered a remedy for hydrophobia. Without delay the shepherd lad who had saved the lives of the children at such a cost was taken to Paris and was cured. Hundreds of patients are sent to the Pasteur Inst.i.tute at Paris and when they ring the bell, the door is opened by an elderly man with a scar on his hand. He was once the shepherd lad who rescued the children from the raving wolf, and the deep scars are from its bite. Inside the hall there is a statue representing him in the terrible struggle with the wolf.

Think of the wounded hands of the Son of G.o.d. Do you ask Where? How? Why?

Where were they wounded? On Calvary's Cross. How? "They pierced My hands and My feet." [Footnote: Ps. xxii. 16.] This is the wonder of it, "He was wounded for our transgressions." Look at the 53rd chapter of Isaiah, and there you will see Jesus as the Suffering Subst.i.tute. Seven times in that chapter it is distinctly mentioned that all His suffering was because He was bearing our sins. Notice in verse 5 it says, "He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities." Then in verse 6, "The Lord hath laid on Him the iniquity of us all." In verse 8, "For the transgression of My people was He stricken," or the stroke was upon Him.

He stood between the stroke of Divine Justice and the sinner and received the blow Himself. In verse 10, "Thou shalt make His soul an offering for sin;" verse 11, "He shall bear their iniquities;" verse 12, "He bare the sin of many." Jesus was the Suffering Subst.i.tute because He was the Sin-bearer. See how in His death He was identified with the sinner. For in verse 12 we read, "He was numbered with the transgressors."

In the Gospels we are told that there were two thieves crucified with Him, on either side one and Jesus in the midst. I once saw a coloured ill.u.s.tration of the three crosses on Calvary. One cross was painted black, the other was white, and the middle one was red. Now if we look at those three crosses on Calvary from the Divine standpoint, it seems as if one cross which was black at first is now white. It is the cross of the penitent thief; all his sins have been transferred to the Sin-bearer, so now there is not one sin on him; he has been washed "whiter than snow."

The cross of the impenitent thief is black, and remains black, for he dies with all his sins on him and goes into the blackness of darkness for ever.

The middle cross is red: Jesus the Holy One has no sin in Him, but the sin of the whole world is _on_ Him, because He is the atoning sacrifice for sin.

"O Christ, what burdens bowed Thy head, Our load was laid on Thee.

Thou stoodest in the sinner's stead, Didst bear all ill for me.

A victim led, Thy blood was shed, Now there's no load for me."

In the writings of an American Evangelist we meet with this quaint ill.u.s.tration, "G.o.d uses bright red to get pure white out of dead black."

It is just the same truth as we have seen shining out from the three crosses. There we see Jesus "in the midst," the G.o.d-appointed Sacrifice for sin, and we see the penitent thief washed whiter than snow in the precious Blood. We see Jesus again "in the midst," three days after. It is in the Upper Room at Jerusalem, on Easter Sunday. The disciples who were like scattered sheep have gathered together there once more, though still trembling with fear. "Then came Jesus and stood in the midst and said unto them, Peace be unto you." [Footnote: St. John xx. 19.]

It was the first time He had spoken to them since the night when He was betrayed when they had forsaken Him and had run away. He might have met them with a reproof, but He knows all about our poor hearts, so He meets them with a smile and the sweet greeting, "Peace be unto you." And He says it to them _all_, even to Peter who had denied his Lord, and to the others who had forsaken Him. Yes, He has only one greeting for them one and all, and that is "Peace."

Then a pause, and after the pause there came a revelation--"He showed them His hands and His side." Why did He show them the nail prints in His hands and the deep wound in His side? It was to reveal to them the wondrous truth that He Himself is our Peace, and that the Peace which He gives is the Peace which He has Himself made through the Blood of His Cross. [Footnote: Col. i. 20.]

"Through Christ on the Cross peace was made, My debt by His death was all paid; No otter foundation is laid, For peace the gift of G.o.d's love."

He showed them His hands and His side, because He wants them to understand that these sacred scars tell us of His wondrous love and of the infinite cost of Redemption. Let us lift up our hearts and say--

"Oh, make me understand it, Help me to take it in,