Two Books of God

ONE of the most solemn and arresting passages of the Word of God is that where the awesome vision of the “great white throne” seen by John, is recorded in the Book of Revelation. “I saw the dead,” he says, “small and great, stand before God; and the books were opened; and another book was opened, which is the book of life; and the dead were judged out of those things which were written in the books according to their works.” God has His books, in which He has kept a record of the works of men, and He has books, also, in which He has made known His mind and purposes, and which He intended should be read by those to whom they were sent. These books will one day be witnesses against all those who failed to read them. God has spoken to us in the works of creation, and this book will one day leave millions without excuse. But He has in a more particular way spoken to us in His written Word, and it, too, will be a swift witness against millions who light-heartedly treated its message. These are the two books indicated by the title of this article, and a brief consideration of each of them will now be given.

1. The Book of Creation is a book full of the wonders of God as Creator. It tells us nothing of His mighty works of salvation, but to all who have eyes to see and a heart to understand it speaks of the wonders of creation—”Because that which may be known of God is manifest in them; for God hath showed it unto them. For the invisible things of Him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even His eternal power and Godhead; so that they are without excuse” (Roms. i. 19, 20). While the revelation of God is not so full in Creation as in His written Word, still it is sufficiently clear to leave men without excuse. This is a book that is seldom read even by the Lord’s people. Possibly the high claims of science—often falsely so called—to explore and investigate this fascinating realm have turned serious-minded people away from the study of God’s great works in creation. But when we turn to His Word we find that some of His greatest messengers read this book with an intelligence keen and penetrating. What a sublime description is given of a lesson read in this book by the Psalmist in the 19th Psalm—”The heavens declare the glory of God; and the firmament showeth His handy-work. Day unto day uttereth speech and night unto night sheweth knowledge. There is no speech nor language where their voice is not heard. Their line is gone out through all the earth, and their words to the end of the world.” And again we find the Psalmist telling us the lesson he had learned in reading this book:—”When I consider thy heavens, the work of thy fingers, the moon and the stars, which thou hast ordained; what is man, that thou art mindful of him? and the son of man that thou visitest him?” The prophets, too, read this book, and as the spokesman of the Lord, we find one of them giving expression to these commanding words:—”Lift up your eyes to the heavens, and look upon the earth beneath: for the heavens shall vanish away like smoke, and the earth shall wax old like a garment, and they that dwell therein shall die in like manner: but my salvation shall be for ever, and my righteousness shall never be abolished” (Isai. li. 6). Thousands are studying this book, but how few read it with the clearness of vision of Prophet and Psalmist? There is a veil on their eyes that interferes with their vision, and at best most have only the cold, dim light of Science in their hands. God’s works in creation are worth our attention, for though they tell us nothing of Him as the God of salvation, they show forth the glory of His wisdom, power, and goodness. This is a book that is seldom read aright, and it is as a sealed book to millions.

2. The Book of God, which is His written Word, is like the other, seldom read aright. In this Book God has been pleased through the inspiration of His Spirit to make known to men His mind. He has told them what they are to believe concerning Himself, and what they are to believe concerning themselves. But thousands that have read this book with the light of the natural eye have never read its message. It is a book that is sealed until the Spirit of God will open the eyes of the understanding. No amount of specialised study either in the original languages in which this book is written, however useful in itself, nor in the customs of the people whose marvellous history it narrates, will ever make up for the spiritual enlightenment of the Holy Spirit. There were no more thorough students of the Old Testament Scriptures than the Pharisees in the time of the Redeemer, but they rejected Him of whom this Book spoke so plainly and clearly, and the explanation of their conduct, given by an inspired Apostle, is that a veil was on their hearts. The need of light from heaven for the right understanding of God’s Word finds expression in the Psalmist’s prayer:—”Open thou mine eyes, that I may behold wondrous things out of thy law” (Ps. cxix. 18). God has answered that prayer and the countless number of the saints already at rest, and the countless number yet to be gathered home, will bear testimony one day that God’s Word met them and condemned them to their face. It was a sure witness against them, and they found to their dismay that the Book that had lain so long silent on the shelf was “quick (living) and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart” (Hebs. iv. 12). And, as surely, as it witnessed in mercy to those to whom He was to show mercy, so surely will it witness one day against those who paid no heed to its warnings and scorned its gracious invitations. This Book has, while being read under the enlightenment of the Holy Spirit, read the hearts of many. It spoke to them as the Word of God, as it indeed is and not the word of men. Satan has thrown the light of human knowledge across the path of multitudes who are studying this Word, and in its glare their eyes have become so dazzled that they cannot read its divine message. But in that purest light of God His people shall see light, and they will join with the Psalmist:—”Thy Word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path” (Ps. cxix. 105). It is a solemn thought that the heavens above us and the earth on which we stand and the written Word of God upon which our eyes have so often, and with shame we have to say so thoughtlessly, looked, will all one day bear testimony against the final rejectors of the Son of God.

One heaven cannot bear two suns, nor one soul two kings; when Christ takes the throne, sin quits it.—
Flavel.

Moses’ Choice.

A SERMON.

BY THE REV. R. MACKENZIE, M.A., GAIRLOCH.

“By faith Moses, when he had come to years, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh’s daughter, choosing rather to suffer affliction with the people of God, than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season; esteeming the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures of Egypt; for he had respect unto the recompense of the reward.” (Heb. xi. 24-26).

THE Apostle Paul has devoted this remarkable chapter to a consideration of the general subject of faith. He starts off with a kind of formal definition, which you will find in verse 1. I shall not take up time by way of examining this definition in detail. Merely let me remark, in the first place, that, according to it, the subject-matter of faith is something lying beyond the reach of the senses, “things hoped for” and “things not seen.” Faith penetrates beyond the sphere of physical experience; leads where reason fails; and ushers us into the presence of great spiritual realities to which the senses can never attain. It opens up to the mind’s eye a glorious vista which hitherto remained unexplored and unknown, and extends the interests to a new world whose boundaries coincide with those of eternity. And notice, in the second place, how faith acts. It is “the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.” In other words, it gives to that which otherwise cannot be experienced here on earth a substantial objective reality which enables the mind to apprehend it, and so illumines its existence that the evidence of it becomes assured. To the true believer, in the lively exercise of faith, nothing is more real and nothing more confirmed than that which he knows only by faith. Indeed, the unseen, the spiritual, the eternal is more truly the world he moves in and communes with than that upon which his bodily eyes open, and to which his physical experience extends. And again, “We look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen; for the things which are seen are temporal; but the things which are not seen are eternal.” Alas, that all have not this gift of faith, for gift it is! Oh, what glorious and soul-absorbing discoveries it would bring us! You can scarcely imagine with what feelings of delightful bewilderment the good man of old, who had been born blind and whose eyes had been opened, looked for the first time upon the glories of the physical universe, of the ornate, beauty-clad earth, and of the sun-lit and star-spangled heavens. Yet such a discovery, the thought of which so out-reaches conceptual resource, cannot for a moment compare with a faith’s experience of the spiritual world, of the new heavens and the new earth in which dwells righteousness, and where glory shines for evermore.

Having thus indicated the scope of his thesis, the Apostle occupies the remaining part of the chapter with a number of concrete instances derived from Old Testament history, in which faith appears to outstanding advantage as tried and triumphant. One of these instances comes under our notice in the words of our text, namely, the case of Moses, for “by faith Moses, when he had come to years, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh’s daughter, etc. . . . for he had respect unto the recompense of the reward.” You have here indicated, first of all, the appeal that had been made to the natural and carnal element in Moses. There had been presented to him a princedom with all its attendant honours, riches inestimable, opportunity to indulge in almost any kind of sin that he fancied, and the enjoyment of the particular kind of pleasure in connection therewith that would prove most congenial to, and that would the more thoroughly gratify, his sensuous nature. One would think, on the face of it, that such an appeal was overwhelming, particularly when one remembers that the “old man” in Moses was simply hungering and thirsting for just such fare as had been offered, and that the devil was doubtlessly using every ounce of energy and every method of hellish craft to influence him in the direction of accepting it, promising him every happiness he could desire if he would but give way to present-world and sinful tendencies, and yield himself to the allurements of sense gratification. Yet Moses, we gather, chose it not. As against all that the world could offer, and all that perverted nature desired, and as against every subtle argument that the devil could advance, faith in Moses placed “the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen,” and the odds herein presented decided Moses. Having his eyes opened upon the facts of the eternal world, the deception underlying the fascinations of this became apparent, so that the most tempting bait could no longer seduce him. Sense was thwarted, and faith triumphed. And the triumph of faith blessed Moses. This becomes abundantly evident when we read the account of his subsequent life, of the vicissitudes and responsibilities of it, and on the other hand of the success which attended it and the glory in which it issued. Who, reading the biography, can but admire the personality and applaud the achievements of Moses, the man of God? And we recognise that, in all their greatness and fulness and worth, they have their inception at the very point under observation where Moses chose to renounce the world, to forfeit the best it could offer him, and to cast in his lot with the despised and persecuted people of God, “for he had respect unto the recompense of the reward.”

With these few prefatory remarks we proceed to a fuller consideration of what the choice of Moses involved, and of how it lives for ever as an example which those who would do well should follow. In dependence upon the guidance, and with a view to the blessing of the Holy Spirit, therefore, I shall call attention to these four things in particular:—I., Moses’ faith; II., Moses’ self-denial; III., Moses’ choice; IV., The recompense of the reward.

I. Moses’ faith.
I have already, in introducing the subject, dwelt upon the general aspect of faith as it is presented in the definition of verse 1, and as it concerns things, unseen to the natural eye, but which the true believer perceives and to which his hope extends. It remains for me now to direct your minds to a particular aspect which represents faith as related to a Person unseen, whose existence and some, at least, of whose attributes the believer apprehends and upon whom his hope is fixed. In the case of Moses, this particular aspect of his faith seems to be clearly enough indicated in the words of verse 27—”For he endured, as seeing Him who is invisible.”

Before proceeding, however, let me address a word of warning. We are here dealing with faith in the Scriptural sense, namely, as the gift of God, and of the operation of the Holy Spirit. Unfortunately, many have “erred, not knowing the Scriptures,” and have debased the idea of saving faith to that of a mere natural instinct or of a mere act of human intelligence. Than this view of faith, none could be more dishonouring to God, none more subversive of the principles of vital religion, and none better calculated to put sinners astray for eternity. Let us, then, immediately dispossess our minds of such a notion, and let us wait upon God to initiate us into the mystery of saving faith by the effectual working in us of the Holy Spirit. That which God wrought in Moses, He can accomplish in us: also, nay, He will accomplish, if we prayerfully apply to Him and diligently employ the means He appointed to this end, as it is written, “Faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God.”

Now, to return to our subject, it is evident from the whole context that the faith of Moses was of a kind with that which the Apostle inculcates in all his writings. In a word, it was faith in God, the Lord Jesus Christ, the Saviour of the world, “whom,” says the Apostle Peter, “having not seen, ye love; in whom, though now ye see Him not, yet believing, ye rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory.” I do not deem it necessary to take up time by way of showing that the Lord Jesus Christ was the Saviour of the saints of the Old Testament as of the New. Merely let me state the fact in evidence of the wonderful efficacy of the Atonement. The cross of Christ is the centre upon which the destinies of His world-church turns. So is it the point upon which the faith of all believers converges, that of the former ages from one direction in prospect, and that of latter times from another direction in retrospect. Here all the lines of spiritual vision, separated at their outset by the breadth of continents and by the interval of ages, meet in focus; here, in spirit, as in person upon the Mount of Transfiguration, Moses and Elias, Peter, James, and John, come together to view the person, to contemplate the work, and to adore the glory of the Saviour. The redeeming and saving efficacy of Christ’s atonement transcends time, as does the person and activities of the Holy Spirit who applies it. And, therefore, as Abraham desired to see Christ’s day, he saw it and rejoiced; and, therefore, also, did Moses see “Him who is invisible,” and seeing, believed in Him to the saving of his soul.

We sometimes distinguish between the initial act of faith and its subsequent progressive exercise in the soul. There must have been a time in Moses’ life, as, generally speaking, there is in the life of every believer, when, sensibly, he first appreciated and first appropriated the salvation of God as wrought out by Christ, and as revealed by the Holy Spirit in the promise—a time when, as a lost sinner, and, as the ninetieth Psalm suggests, terrified by the wrath of God on account of his “iniquities” and “secret sins,” he appealed to God’s mercy and fled to the institution of it in the Gospel. This faith in act was but the manifestation of spiritual life. And the spiritual life which thus directed him to Christ to be reconciled to God through Him, and to breathe in the free atmosphere of His atonement, that same spiritual life was responsible for the habit of faith to which thenceforward he was given over, and which is indicated in the words, “He endured, as seeing Him who is invisible.” Moses’ after-life was one of great stress, of manifold temptations, of hardships and responsibilities and trials such as have seldom fallen to the lot of one man. Yet he endured, he persevered, not perfectly, perhaps, but in a manner never the less creditable to the work of grace wrought in him in conflict with the powers of a corrupt nature and of a tempting devil. Being once and for all vitally united by faith to the Lord Jesus Christ in all the consummate fulness of His saving resources, he was accustomed ever afterwards to draw by faith out of His fulness grace for grace. Here is the secret of his success, the spring of his power, and the glory of his example. After all, Moses was nothing and had nothing beyond his fellows but by the grace of God, and He who made him what he was and gave him what he had says to us, “Ask, and it shall be given you.”

(To be Continued)