by Rev. John Colquhoun, Glendale, Skye
(Continued from Page 280)
The third thing that falls to be considered is the invitation, “Come thou with us.” When the Lord’s people get anything for their souls they would desire others to get the same, and that desire is expressed in the words, “Come thou with us”. It is a desire that has the approval of the Holy Spirit in the Scriptures, yea, they are exhorted to invite others to come in order to partake. “And the Spirit and the bride say, Come. And let him that heareth say, Come. And let him that is athirst come. And whosoever will, let him take of the water of life freely.” Rev. 22: 17.
(1) This invitation may be said to be a direct fruit of faith. Moses at the time he extended this invitation to Hobab, did not see the land of Canaan of which the Lord said, “I will give it you,” but he believed what the Lord said of it. The Lord’s people who were here sitting at His Table today are not yet in Heaven, but the very fact that they were witnessing on His side, testified that they believed His Word, and what He has revealed concerning the pleasant land to which He is to bring them. A pleasant land it is indeed, for “the street of the city was pure gold, as it were transparent glass. And I saw no temple therein: for the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are the temple of it. And the city had no need of the sun, neither of the moon, to shine in it: for the glory of God did lighten it, and the Lamb is the light thereof.” Rev. 21: 21-23. All the inhabitants of it shall be delivered from troubles, sickness and death itself, and they shall eternally rejoice in Christ as their all-sufficient Portion.
It is also the outcome of faith, from the point of view, that they believe there is enough in this pleasant land for all who will come. There is no danger of the Lord’s people making their invitations wider than Christ Himself makes them, for He says, “Look unto me, and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth: for I am God, and there is none else.” Isaiah 45: 22. They, therefore, are entitled to invite all with whom they come in contact, and, that, because they have an assurance from God’s Word that there is plenty for all who will come. There is room for all who will come. As we have it in the parable of the wedding feast, which typifies the gospel, after many came, it was said, “And yet there is room.” Christ tells us there is room in Heaven, for He says, “In my Father’s house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you.” John 14: 2. There is provision for them in the gospel, for it is a “feast of fat things full of marrow,” and in Heaven there are pleasures for ever more. There is raiment for them, for He has provided a robe of righteousness which will be made over to such as come, and which will cover them throughout eternity.
Not only so, but those who give this invitation testify their faith in Christ by saying, “Come thou with us,” for they reveal their knowledge that Christ will make such as come welcome. By His ambassadors He says, “Be ye reconciled to God.” 2 Cor. 5: 20. In His Word he invites the weary and heavy laden, the thirsty, those whose sins are dyed crimson and scarlet, and without going further into particulars, He says, “All that the Father giveth me shall come to me; and him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out.” John 6: 37. This shows that sinners of every kind are welcome to come to Christ, and there is no one who can say at last that he came and was not received. Those who have come have testified that they were made welcome, for Christ has spread a sumptuous table for them, even in this world, so that they could say, “Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of my enemies: thou anointest my head with oil; my cup runneth over.” Psalm 23: 5. All who have gone home to eternal glory know, as it can never be known in this world, how welcome a poor sinner is to come to Christ, for they shall walk with Him in white and their names shall never be blotted out of the book of life.
(2) When the invitation is extended by the Lord’s people, “Come thou with us,” those invited are asked to become partakers of the lot of the godly. “And it shall be, if thou go with us, yea, it shall be, that what goodness the Lord shall do unto us, the same will we do unto thee.” Numbers 10: 32. In thus becoming partakers of the lot of believers in this world, they need not expect to escape the dangers to which believers are open. Their journey is through a great and howling wilderness where they are open to many dangers. The Israelites had to contend with many enemies but the worst enemies were those who were in their own camp, and so it is with the Lord’s people. Satan will tempt them, the world will allure or persecute them, and the flesh in themselves will harass them, and endeavour to join hands with Satan in order to overthrow the work of grace which has begun in their souls. One may be ready to say that this is not holding a bright prospect before those who are invited, but we must remember that God gives them to encounter these dangers for a certain purpose, and part of that purpose is to exercise their faith, in order that they might derive good from their trying positions.
They will have a large share of afflictions in this world, for we read that “Many are the afflictions of the righteous: but the Lord delivereth him out of them all.” Ps. 34: 19. They have afflictions in their bodies, for many a redeemed soul tabernacles for years in a diseased and foul body, tottering continually on the brink of the grave, and often these diseases and frailties are the results of the sins of other days, so that, like the wicked, “His bones are full of the sin of his youth.” Job 20: 11. This makes the affliction much harder to bear. Then there are afflictions in the lot. Many a true believer has a crook in the lot; perhaps in his domestic affairs, or in the way he is situated in the world, or in various other ways. Again they have afflictions in connection with the Cause of Christ in the world. When the Holy Spirit speaks about the things which were true of those upon whom God’s woe is, He reaches the climax by saying, “But they are not grieved for the affliction of Joseph.” Amos 6: 6. These afflictions, however, to which the Lord’s people are inviting you, poor careless sinner, are afflictions which have an end, for “the Lord delivereth him out of them all”.
(3) The invitation to come and be partakers of the lot of God’s people in the world has this to be said concerning it, that it is the way God prepares His people for glory. Though they are, in the day of justification, delivered from the power and dominion of sin, they are not delivered from the corruption of sin. Though God can do this in a very short time, as He did with the thief on the cross, yet it is a work that sometimes takes years. Someone aptly said that though God took the children of Israel out of Egypt in one night, yet it took forty years to take Egypt out of them. It is so with the Lord’s people. They have to be washed in many a strange laver in order to make them know what is in their hearts, to humble them, to purify them and to present them before the Majesty on high without spot or wrinkle or any such thing. As God delivered them from the power of sin, so sure as that, He will take the corruption of sin out of them completely, and although the process by which this is done is often very painful, and disagreeable to flesh and blood, yet God will bring them through it all and they will have to say at last, “Thou hast caused men to ride over our heads; we went through fire and through water: but thou broughtest us out into a wealthy place.” Ps. 66: 12.
(4) This invitation is extended by the Lord’s people to sinners, no matter what they are. I, as one who was witnessing at His Table here today, and as a professed ambassador of Christ, extend to you the invitation, “Come thou with us;” and that invitation is extended to every one in this church this evening. Surely, one will say, that is preaching free will. Only the elect shall be saved. I claim to be second to none in my firm conviction as to the truth of what is revealed in Scripture, that God elected in Christ from all eternity a definite number of the race to which we belong to be a peculiar people unto Himself, that that number cannot be added to nor taken from, and that they alone shall be saved and none other, but is there any here who can tell one who are elected and who are not among this congregation. Again, my commission, as a professed ambassador of Christ is not, “Go and preach the gospel to the elect and to none other.” My commission is, “Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature.” Mark 16: 15. Therefore, I have Christ’s warrant to invite you, whatever you may be, to come. I may know some of the outward sins of which some of you are guilty, but no creature can possibly know all the sins, public and secret, of which all of you are guilty, yet God knows them all. You may be here and if some of your secret sins were known to any of your fellow creatures it would be enough to cause you to leave the district and never show face here again, yet God knows them all, and still, through His people and His ambassadors, He is saying to you, “Come thou with us.” We have God’s warrant for inviting you, for He leaves it written in His Word, “Come now, and let us reason together, saith the Lord: though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool.” Isaiah 1: 18.
IV The Encouragement
I come to notice the encouragement held out, for it is said, “We will do thee good: for the Lord hath spoken good concerning Israel.”
(1) It is well to be in the company of the Lord’s people in this world, for there are great blessings in connection with it. Much can be said concerning the good which the Lord’s people can impart by their instruction and example, and it is very often to be seen that a natural person who may, through various circumstances, be much in the company of a gracious person, though otherwise careless, has a well-informed mind as regards Scripture knowledge. This has, in many cases, been used by the Holy Spirit as means for effecting a saving change. When this change would take place the subject of it would have reason to say that he found it good to be in the company of the Lord’s people. This should move the Lord’s people to be like the virtuous woman in the Book of Proverbs, “She openeth her mouth with wisdom; and in her tongue is the law of kindness.” Prov. 31: 26. Again, they do good to those who hearken to their invitation, for these have the benefit of their example, and when that example is carefully followed it keeps natural people from committing many sins which otherwise they would have committed. Though Joash, King of Judah went after idolatry during the latter part of his reign yet we read that he “did that which was right in the sight of the Lord all the days of Jehoiada the priest.” II Chron. 24: 2.
Those who hearken to the invitation become partakers of the privileges of the Lord’s people. These privileges are great and many, and when accompanied by the blessing of the Holy Spirit, are made the means of bringing sinners out of darkness into God’s marvellous light. Where the Lord’s people are the means of grace are to be found, and where the means of grace are, God dwells there, and it is a great privilege for a poor sinner to be where God has promised to give His presence, “For where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them.” Matth. 18: 20. Many a poor sinner who came to the means, careless and indifferent about the preciousness of the privileges which he enjoyed, or perhaps came there to mock or disturb the service, was arrested and held to the Saviour. Truly, for such it was good that they came in among the Lord’s people.
There is encouragement held out in the invitation of God’s people, for all who come in the right way shall share in the prospects of those who issue the invitation. These prospects are neither trivial nor to be lightly esteemed. Those who have obeyed Christ’s voice are often, in this world, in a very low condition; poor and needy, treated as the off-scouring of all things, accounted unworthy to live, persecuted and spoiled, and some of them come to a martyr’s death, but, nevertheless, their prospects are bright indeed. Their Lord is the One who “raiseth up the poor out of the dust, and lifteth the needy out of the dunghill; that he may set him with princes, even with the princes of his people.” Psalm 113: 7,8. They shall be made to reign with Christ in glory, and they shall live with Him for ever and ever. All the afflictions which they endured by persecutions and spoilings, or in whatever other way they endured them, shall come to an end at death, and when they take a view of their prospects beyond time they can say with the Apostle, “For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory.” II Cor. 4: 17.
(2) The second part of the encouragement is that “the Lord hath spoken good concerning Israel”. This, in itself, is a great comfort, for the One who “hath spoken good” is the Lord of whom it is true that He “is not a man, that he should lie; neither the son of man that he should repent.” Numbers 23: 19. With Him there is “no variableness, neither shadow of turning.” James 1: 17. He has spoken good in that He has promised forgiveness of sins to all who shall come. He has made a provision by which it is possible for Him as a holy, just and good God, to forgive sin, and in forgiving sin He turns away the fierce fire of His wrath, and imputes the righteousness of Christ to the penitent sinner, thus looking upon him as if he had never sinned. All his sins are forgotten, for He says, “I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more.” Jer. 31: 34. “As far as the east is from the west, so far hath he removed our transgressions from us.” Psalm 103: 12.
He makes them happy. Man is a creature who is capable of enjoying happiness, but since the Fall he is seeking happiness where it can never be found. Satan deceives him by telling him that there is happiness in the vanities of the world, and alas! there are many before me here, who, in obedience to Satan’s wiles are seeking happiness in the dance, the concert, and the vain song and other forms of vanity. No real happiness is to be found in these things, but all who come to Christ are made happy, and that for an endless eternity. They shall never lose their happiness for once in Christ, always in Christ, and therefore, there shall be no end of their joy. His promise to them is that He shall never leave them nor forsake them, and He has asserted that “no man is able to pluck them out of my Father’s hand.” John 10: 29. My dear fellow-sinners, think what this really means. Are you a stranger to Christ? Then you cannot possibly have the faintest conception of the joy of the Lord’s people. Those who have obeyed the invitation had foretastes of that joy in this world, and if the streams were sweet what must the fountain be? Sinner, take with you the words of our text — “We are journeying unto the place of which the Lord said, I will give it you: come thou with us, and we will do thee good: for the Lord hath spoken good concerning Israel.” Think over these words seriously and prayerfully, and give yourself no rest until you have an assurance that your destination is Heaven, and that you know in your own experience that “the Lord hath spoken good concerning Israel”.
May He bless anything said consistent with His Word.