BY THE LATE MR. DONALD MACKAY, STUDENT, STRATHY.
Preached in St. Jude’s Free Presbyterian Church, Glasgow, on Sabbath, 13th March, 1898.
(Taken verbatim by a Hearer.)
IN this portion of the word of God we have the Lord of glory blessing His own poor remnant in the world—His own disciples, who were at this time much cast down, and who might well say that they “downward in deep mire did sink.” Thus their Lord and Master, who had compassion upon them, was willing that they should be raised from the dust, and was fulfilling the promise of His word:—
“He from the dust doth raise the poor
That very low doth lie,
And from the dunghill lifts the man
Oppress’d with poverty.”
In this portion of God’s word we have:—
I.—The troubles that the disciples had, and the causes of their troubles.
II.—The reasons why they should not be troubled, and there were three special reasons why they should not be troubled, viz.:—
(1) what God had done for them; (2) what God was doing for them; and (3) what was in the heart of God to do yet for them.
I.—“Let not your heart be troubled.” It was not for anything in themselves; they had every reason to be troubled for what was in themselves. It is said of the troubles that afflict the just that they are many. The disciples were at this time much bowed down, and that because of the teaching of Christ, for He had said in the chapter which we have read that one of them should betray Him, and that another should deny Him; and they had so little confidence in their own hearts that each of them feared exceedingly lest it should be he. They had no trust in their own hearts. It is written, “He that trusteth in his own heart is a fool,” but these were wise men—men that were partakers of the wisdom which none of the princes of this world knew, for had they known it they would not have crucified the Lord of glory. So we see the cause of their trouble. Within were fears, and also without, and this was a blessing to comfort them. But it is not only true that they had fears as a company, but they had personal fears as well, and we might ask Peter, what were his fears and what was the cause of his trouble. What would he say to us? He would say that one cause of his trouble was manifold temptations. But what does his Lord say? “Be not troubled, Peter, because of this, for though you have manifold temptations they are only the trial of your faith, which is much more precious than that of gold that perisheth, and therefore you have not so much reason to be troubled.” The power of temptation was one great cause of Peter’s troubles—the power of an evil heart that was enmity against God, for, we hear him say, “Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord!” His own unholiness was a cause of his trouble, and it is a blessed trouble that arises from a sense of unholiness. David cried to Heaven, saying, “Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me,” so that unholiness of heart was David’s trouble also. And why should he not be troubled? Because of this, “I will give you a new heart.” It was the promise of God. Not only that, but at death his soul would be made holy as the ransomed of the Lord, and at the resurrection his body would be made like the glorious body of Christ. These are reasons why, notwithstanding what he was in himself, he should not be troubled.
They have not only troubles within, but they have also troubles without; but the troubles without are light compared to the troubles within. It seems that it is of the troubles without that Paul speaks when he says, “For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory. But of the troubles within, what does he say? “O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death?” So that the troubles within were greater by far and more difficult to bear than the troubles without. Their troubles were many, and we might ask David what was his trouble, for this portion of God’s word belonged not only to the disciples, but belongs to all the Church of God from the beginning to the end of time. “All things are yours.” Well, we were just singing of David’s troubles:—
“Of death the cords and sorrows did
About me compass round;
The pains of hell took hold on me,
I grief and trouble found.”
These are the causes of David’s trouble: the power of hell in his own soul, the cords of death, and the prison. But he has more troubles still, for he cries:—
“Save me, O God, because the floods
Do so environ me,
That ev’n unto my very soul
Come in the waters be.”
What are these waters, David? “Ah, these are rivers that were accustomed to run through my soul in the days of my ignorance, and they now seek a way back again through my soul, so that the waters are likely to drown me. Some of these waters are the love of the world, for where that is, the love of the Father is not. The love of Christ kept the waters back in the day of regeneration, when God revealed Himself to my soul; but now God has withdrawn from my soul, and these rivers of death have returned again. “And these,” says David, “are my troubles.” They are a blessed people who are afflicted with such troubles. If you have these troubles your fellowship is with the Church of the living God: your fellowship is with David, and you shall as surely inherit the kingdom as David inherited the kingdom. But David says, “My troubles do not end there, for I downward in deep mire do sink where standing there is none.” What is that mire, David? “Ah, the mire that I sink down into is the power and the love of sin.” But let not your heart be troubled, David, for “greater is he that is in you than he that is in the world, and though “Weeping may for a night endure, at morn doth joy arise.” Joy in the morning. What morning? Life is compared to a vapour or night, and joy comes in the morning when the soul enters into the fellowship of God—into the fellowship of the God who is love. The Apostle John says, “God is love,” and “He that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God.” But even the soul that has got the most of the love of God on earth has only got a taste of the inheritance that awaits him. This is what awaits you when you enter into the full fellowship of God—the God who is love, who is light, and in whom there is no darkness at all; you who have only tasted of this love on earth, you shall spend eternity bathing in it. It is as natural for the new-born soul to seek after the God who is love as it is for the fish to seek the water—the fish is never at home unless in the water—and so at death the soul of the believer enters into the ocean of the love of Christ. “There remaineth a rest to the people of God.” This was another cause of David’s trouble: His want of rest, for the powers of darkness would not give him rest day or night, for he cries:—
“Woe’s me that I in Meshach am
A sojourner so long;
That I in tabernacles dwell
To Kedar that belong.
My soul with him that hateth peace
Hath long a dweller been,
I am for peace, but when I speak,
For battle they are keen.”
But be not troubled, David; for a rest remaineth to those who sojourn in Meshach, not for one or a few of them, but for all of them who must pass through great tribulations before they inherit the kingdom. Oh, then, “Bless’d are they in thy house that dwell; they ever give thee praise” to endless ages of eternity.
But David says, “Not only do the waters come into my soul, and I sink into the mire, but worse than that, the waters go over my head.” What does he mean by that? The power of the spirit of the world is the water that comes into his soul, and when it does not return again it goes over his head, so that he is in his own experience drowning, and therefore he cries:—
“For ever will the Lord cast off,
And gracious be no more!
For ever is his mercy gone!
Fails his word evermore!
What does the Holy Spirit say to those who have fellowship with David? This is the voice of God: “Fear not, little flock, for it is the Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom.”
“For sure the Lord will not cast off
Those that his people be,
Neither his own inheritance
Quit and forsake will he.”
“For the mountains shall depart, and the hills be removed; but my kindness shall not depart from thee: neither shall the covenant of my peace be removed, saith the Lord that hath mercy on thee.” “Yea, I have loved thee with an everlasting love; therefore with loving kindness have I drawn thee.”
II. The second thing which we desired to speak upon was the reasons why they should not be troubled. The first reason was what God had done for them; the second, what God was doing for them, and the third was what God purposed to do yet for them.
It is written, “Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him;” or, it might be said, “for them that truly desire to love him.” Paul says, “This crown is not reserved for me only, but for all them also that love his appearing.” They are a people that are troubled on every side, but they are a people that wait upon Him more than they that wait the morning light to see. They are a people that thirst after Him; they are a people that are tried and worried in their own experience. But what does the Holy Spirit say to those tired and worried ones? “Be not troubled.” “For I will pour water upon him that is thirsty, and floods upon the dry ground.” “Let him that is athirst come; and whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely”; that is, from the “pure river of water of life, clear as crystal, proceeding out of the throne of God and of the Lamb.” He will give them of His own love, and to the soul that has once tasted of it, one drop of the love of Christ is more valuable than the whole created world, for it is only by the love of Christ shed abroad that the soul is enabled to die unto sin and to live unto righteousness.
Now, their troubles were very many. We were endeavouring to speak to you this morning concerning the death and resurrection of Lazarus. Now, Lazarus had a two-fold resurrection, and he had experience of being clothed with the clothes of death in a two-fold sense, that is, in soul and in body. All those who have got the “white stone, and in the stone a new name written, which no man knoweth saving he that receiveth it.” They all have fellowship with Lazarus in this, that it was through the voice of the Son of God that they were raised again from the dead; and those who have been once raised by the power of the voice of the Son of God putting life into their souls, often in their experience go back again to their graves. This is their trouble, that they dwell so often in the grave in their own experience, that is, “among the dead.” But what does the promise say to them? “Be not troubled.” “I am the resurrection, and the life: he that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live.” These are a people who were in the midst of trouble, and yet they say, “Though I in the midst of trouble walk, I life from Thee shall have.” The apostle says, “Ye have an unction from the Holy One.” Now, no teaching has any effect but the teaching of the unction. It is the unction that cometh from the Holy One that makes the soul realise the shortness of time. However much the creature may be taught by men, he never realises the preciousness of Christ, he never realises his own state, he never realises the shortness of time nor the length of eternity, until the Spirit of God teaches him. “They are all taught of God.”
But Lazarus was a man who had troubles not only in his death, but he had troubles also after he knew that there was a resurrection. And what were these troubles? The death clothes being about his hands and his feet, and his whole body bound with death-clothes. And what are the death-clothes that bind the soul? The old man. Oh! the old man may be called the death-clothes. It is the power of the old man that keeps the soul from walking in the ways of God, and there is a strange thing in connection with this, in that when Jesus desires Lazarus to be free, He does not do it Himself. He commands His people to “loose him and let him go.” He may often use His people to loose your bonds. For instance, supposing that there was another soul twenty miles, or it might be a hundred miles, from you, if it were given him of God to come near your soul in prayer, it might be the means in the hands of God to loose the cords of death, so that you would get a measure of God’s presence in the light of those that living be. Blessed are they who have got the resurrection with Lazarus!
The next thing we had to speak of was what God had done for them. What was that? Well, He elected them in Christ from all eternity. “Ye have not chosen me” (you would never have made choice of Me: that was not your nature, for you were enemies), “but I have chosen you.” This was a reason why they should not be troubled, because God made choice of them from all eternity to become members of the glorious body of Christ. And think you how that soul is exalted and will be exalted throughout the endless ages of eternity, that becomes a member of Christ’s glorious body, or a stone in the temple of the living God. They are not to be troubled, because God made choice of them in Christ Jesus before the world was. The love of God to them was as a flame that could not be quenched. It is true of a single drop of this love that falls into the souls of His people that all the powers of darkness cannot destroy it, and if that be true of one drop, how much more is it true of the ocean itself, that is, the love in the heart of God to them. The Apostle says, “Herein is love, not that we loved him, but that He first loved us.” “To him that loved us and washed us in his own blood.” Was not that a sweet feast to John? The Apostle Paul also was taught of God that Christ died for him: not only that He suffered the cursed death of the tree for His elect, but that he himself was of the number. Oh, are they not then a blessed people, a people to be envied above all people on the face of the earth, those of whom it is true that they are crucified with Christ? The Apostle Paul says, “I am crucified with Christ, nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ that liveth in me.” It was a sweet feast to the soul of the Apostle when the Holy Spirit took him into the depths of the wisdom of God in such a way. The love of God, then, was as a flame that could not be quenched. All His sufferings in this world could not quench it, and not only did He love them, but He also took their curse upon Himself. Can you realise such a thing as this? He was made a curse for them. The curse of the law due to them was laid upon Him, and because of the love He had in his heart for them, He took their curse upon Himself—the Just for the unjust. The curse due to them was poured out in His cup.
It is not only true that He did these things for them, but He also worked a work in them. They are said to be the workmanship of God. The apostle says, “We are His workmanship, created anew in Christ Jesus unto good works,” and at the same time it is true that they are to work out their own salvation with fear and trembling. God does not deal with them as a man works with a stone, but He deals with them as with reasonable creatures.
“God doth build up Jerusalem,
And He it is alone
That the dispersed of Israel—
Doth gather into one.”
He shall gather them at last to be an holy temple to the Lord. They shall come from the north, south, east, and west, a multitude that no man can number, and oh! how fearful for your soul and my soul, if in that day we shall be separated from Christ and from His chosen people! For, as it is true that no man can understand what happiness and what peace awaits those that are brought nigh to God in a day of mercy, so it is also true that no man can understand the troubles and the miseries which await those whom death and the judgment will find separate from Christ.
But these people are said to be the workmanship of God. They are said to be built upon the Rock Christ. This is the Rock against which the gates of hell cannot prevail. The question might be asked, “What is the first stone that is laid in this building?” Well, the first stone laid is faith. “Without faith we cannot please God.” Now, if a stone be laid on a rock without being fixed to its foundation, there is a danger that when the floods come it will be carried away. How, then, is this stone, which is faith, united to the rock? Well, it is by the love of Christ, for it is written, “Faith worketh by love.” Now, this is only one stone in the building, but there are many stones, for he says, “Add to your faith virtue.” Now, the nature of this virtue of which the apostle speaks seems to be manliness in the cause of God; power given to the heart by the Spirit of God to become a follower of God. It is not an earthly virtue, but a heavenly virtue. “Add to your faith virtue, and to virtue knowledge.” Now this is a stone which all the houses that God builds have. What is the nature of this knowledge of which the apostle speaks? It is a knowledge of the person of the Son of God. Whatever other knowledge the soul may have, unless he has the knowledge of Christ Jesus, it will avail him nothing at death. “This is life eternal, to know Thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ Whom Thou hast sent.” The nature of this knowledge is that it enlightens the mind. The soul never saw anything of the preciousness of the members of the body of Christ, except in the light of this knowledge. It was in this knowledge they were taught the vanity of all things, and in this knowledge they were taught the shortness of time and the length of eternity. It was in a measure under the power of this spirit that they realised their life was but a vapour, enduring a little while, and it was in this knowledge they saw the glory of God in the works of creation; it was by faith they understood the worlds were created and kept up by the word of God. It was in this knowledge, also, that they realised all flesh was as grass and all the glory of man as the flower of grass.
But they had reason also to rejoice because of what was in His heart to do yet for them, for He says, “In my Father’s house are many mansions: if it were not so I would have told you.” It may be said, though it is a solemn thing to say, that He could not be at rest until the time comes when they shall enter into the glorious rest and the glorious peace that remains for the people of God, for He says, “Father, I will that those whom thou hast given me may be with me, that they may behold my glory.”
It is true of every soul that waits upon Him or that seeks His presence, that he is continually around them as the mountains are around Jerusalem. They are more precious in His sight than the whole creation. They are precious as the apple of His eye, because they are the fruit of His own death.
MANY have puzzled themselves about the origin of evil. I observe that there is evil, and that there is a way to escape it, and with this I begin and end.—John Newton.