Notes of Sermon: “Your father Abraham rejoiced to see my day; and he saw it, and was glad” (John viii. 56)

Preached by the Rev. Neil Macintyre, in St. Jude’s, Glasgow, on Thursday, 5th November 1925.

YOU see in the preceding verses that the Jews became very angry at Christ for doubting that they were the true seed of Abraham. He did not deny but that they were the children of Abraham according to the flesh, but He goes on to tell them that if they were the children of Abraham, they would do the works of Abraham, and He points out that instead of Abraham being their father that the Devil was their father—”Ye are of your father the Devil.” Men are to be judged not according to what they profess or say. Man may say plenty and may profess more, but he is to be judged in this world by his works—”By their fruits ye shall know them.” Now they were enraged at Him because He made Himself a greater person than Abraham and they go on to prove that Abraham was dead and the prophets, and He said that whosoever would believe in Him should never die.

Who was He? Was He greater than Abraham?

He says that Abraham rejoiced to see His day and saw it and was glad. This was Abraham’s desire and may it be the desire of each and all of us—to see the day of Christ. This is not the desire of the world, but it is the desire of every true child of Abraham and they shall see it, for I do not believe that this desire was in the heart or mind of any creature but had it satisfied, and when that desire is satisfied there will be gladness or rejoicing. He says:—”Your father Abraham rejoiced to see my day and he saw it and was glad.” The passage divides itself into three particular parts and we shall take:—

1. The desire of Abraham here spoken of; that was, to see Christ’s day.
2. We have the satisfaction of that desire—he was fully satisfied; we have it here—he saw it and that clearly giving perfect satisfaction—the desire was satisfied.
3. The effect that this sight had on Abraham and on every child of God—it will make them glad.

I. The desire of Abraham.

The desire was to see Christ’s day. Now, perhaps, it may not be necessary to point out that it does not mean a period of twenty-four hours, that is meant, and if not, what then does it mean? What are we to understand by “Abraham desired to see His day”? Well, there are many passages in God’s Word that show us this, and if we go to the prophecy of Zechariah when the Prophet says—”and in that day a fountain shall be opened.” If we come to the Epistle to the Hebrews, we find the Apostle saying that “God who at sundry times and in divers manners spake in time past unto the fathers by the prophets, hath in these last days spoken unto us by His Son.” Well, the day of Zechariah and the day mentioned in the Epistle to the Hebrews are nothing else but the dispensation of the Gospel—the day of Christ’s incarnation. We find Him saying that there were many kings and prophets in Israel who desired to hear the things that they heard and to see the things that they were seeing—the desire was there. This is to be noticed also that this was the desire of the Church for we have it in the Song of Solomon—“O, that thou wert as my brother,” that was the desire of the Church to see Christ’s day in the flesh. See the joy it gave to aged Simeon who was patiently waiting for the day of the Lord; when he got the child in his arms he said:—“Now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace, for mine eyes have seen Thy salvation.” The day here means the day of Christ in the flesh, which the prophets searched diligently into when they testified beforehand the sufferings of Christ and the glory that was to follow. Abraham desired to see this day. That is certainly a day but I think we may put it in this way that when Abraham looked and saw this day that a whole crowd of days came before Abraham for he not only saw the day that Christ was to come in the flesh, but the days that followed. If you came to a stream and you wanted to know where that stream was coming from you might find that it came out of some fountain or spring and we think that Abraham in desiring to see this day—the day in which the Son of God took our nature and stood in the room and place of sinners that he went to look for the fountain; as the Scriptures say:—“God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.” When Abraham saw this day was it not natural for him to go back to the spring or fountain from which this day came? What I wish to bring before you is this, but I do not say that this will be the order in which the sinner will see it, but the believer went back to the fountain. Did he go to the beginning of time? Yes, further. Faith was the eye by which Abraham saw this day. Where did faith go to? To the past Eternity. Take David, where did he go? Well, in the last words of the sweet Psalmist of Israel, he said:—“Though my house be not so with God, yet He hath made with me an everlasting covenant ordered in all things and sure, for this is all my salvation and all my desire.” This was back in eternity and faith still sees it—it was a covenant with the eternal Father.

The salvation of the soul is not a general, but a personal thing, an individual thing. What does faith see when it is in exercise? and this is a great support that the child of God has that he sees his name in the Book of Life—that he was given to Christ in the everlasting covenant, and I can assure you, that this doctrine of election has many enemies and you dare not preach this doctrine in many pulpits to-day, and yet it is the strongest support that the child of God has in his career in the world; and they say that if you preach that God elected some, then you will empty the church; but though no sinner in the world would listen to it and although the whole congregation of St Jude’s would walk out of the door, this is no reason why we should stop, for we are commanded to preach the whole counsel of God. Well, that is one day that Abraham saw. As I can only touch upon some days that are pillars among the others; the next day that Abraham saw, and we believe that this was what Abraham particularly desired to see, and that is the day of Christ’s coming in the flesh. Now, we see that this day was a day of rejoicing. The very angels, when they came to announce His coming, sang “Glory to God in the Highest, on earth peace, and goodwill towards men”; that was a great day—the greatest day that was in this world—the day of the coming of the Messiah, who was promised in the Garden of Eden, and 4000 years had passed and here was now the fulfilment of that transaction of Eternity, now He has come and is born in Bethlehem. What did Abraham see? He saw here that day the promised Messiah taking our nature, taking the place of His people, and if you ever get a faith’s view of that day it will gladden your heart.

Now, there is another day, for a Saviour born, without a Saviour dying, would not help us! There is a great deal made of this in our day, and it is a common Gospel although it is no Gospel at all, and the Apostle says in the Epistle to the Galatians that although an angel from heaven preach any other Gospel, let him be accursed. The gospel which is general and very, very common in most pulpits in Scotland to-day is that Christ is an example; that He was only a mere man, and that if you follow His example you will get to heaven; there is no word spoken of His sufferings at all, but if you follow His example; and that is more than you can do. What I say is this that Christ left us an example that we should follow His steps, but I say that if that were the only Gospel we had to preach, we could shut our mouths and close our doors and go home in despair. Christ as an example would never save a sinner. We are not losing sight of the fact that He left an example we are to follow, but that will never save a sinner. He must die—the just in room of the unjust to bring His people to glory. Why? Because all have sinned and come short of the glory of God and the law of God being infinitely holy, therefore every transgression of that law must be infinitely evil, and the law of God will put His demands into execution.

Those who were given to Him in the everlasting covenant, were they better than others? No, they were as others—they were condemned as others, heirs of Hell, and would be eternally lost had He not come as their substitute. Sin was imputed to Him who knew no sin, He was the surety and justice spared Him not, and now we have it stated in Scripture, He made an end of sin and made reconciliation for iniquity, and that day gladdened the heart of Abraham, and will gladden the heart of every sinner who comes to value this. If you saw now through faith, and that is the only way you can do it, Christ dying, not as set forth in a universal atonement, your sins laid upon the surety and satisfaction there given to justice, for you cannot accept salvation in any other way but in the way in which God was honoured, and when you get a faith’s view of Christ you see your sins made an end of, and you see the law exalted and made honourable, and you see there is not a spot put on the justice of God or on His law. Surely this would gladden the heart of a poor sinner! The salvation of a sinner is a personal thing, an individual thing.

Now there is another day, for all the days that I have mentioned without this day would not gladden the heart of Abraham (for a dead Saviour is no Saviour at all), that is the day of Christ’s resurrection. You find Paul writing to the Corinthians about the resurrection day that if the dead rise not, then Christ has not risen, and they were found liars who denied it, for they declared that Christ rose from the dead, and this would not be true if the dead rise not, and Paul goes on to show with a shout of joy and triumph that Christ has risen and that the dead will rise also. This is true also in the case of the disciples, they were without hope during the three days that Christ lay in the grave, for they understood not the Scriptures, their hope was gone and yet there was a clinging to the person who died on Calvary, a dark cloud was over them, He lay in the grave, and this is clearly seen in the case of the two disciples who were on the way to Emmaus. If Christ had not risen from the grave, He could not have gladdened the heart of Abraham. The resurrection of Christ is the receipt that God has given to His Church. How was it a receipt? Well, when you pay your debt you are bound to get a stamped receipt, if not your creditor is breaking the law of the land who does not give it, and God as it were gives a stamped receipt that their debt is paid, for if it were not paid, Christ was apprehended for their sins, and justice would keep Him in the grave; but the Lord raised Him from the dead, and that shows that the debt was paid; and the question arises:—Who was first at the grave? It was justice. Why? Because the debt was paid. He made an end of sin and satisfied justice.

Now, this often occurred to us that John more than the other Evangelists speaks more of the resurrection and goes minutely into all the details, he tells us that the grave clothes were lying by themselves, and the napkin was lying by itself. Now we used to think what use could the Church of God get from these facts? Well, if we have the meaning of it, and there is nothing in the Word of God but is for use to the comfort of His people, we were thinking this; take, for instance, a battle, and there are many here that were in the War, it is true that if you saw the field after a battle that you would know which side had been the victors, for the side which were fleeing who had lost the day, had no time to put anything right, they left everything in confusion, but on the other hand the victors can take their time and put things in order, and I think that this is to be seen in the resurrection of Christ that He had overcome His enemies and spoiled principalities and powers, and He was in no fear or danger, and so He takes time and folds the grave clothes. I do not say that this is the meaning of it, but that thought passed through our mind. Well, the resurrection of Christ or the day in which He rose from the dead, surely that was a day that gladdened the heart of Abraham. You heard what John Macdonald, Fort-William, said to Mr McColl, who was in the habit of teasing John, when he asked him if he had any news to-day, and on John saying he had none, Mr McColl said:—”I have good news, I have to tell you that Christ died.” John answered:—”If that is all that you have to tell, I have better than that, I tell you that Christ rose from the dead.”

Now we cannot speak much of the day of His ascension, but He ascended up on high. He said—”I go to prepare a place for you,” and as far as we see, we think the day that He ascended that it was the greatest day in Heaven, for that was the first time He entered into Heaven with His humanity.

Well, there is another day among the glorious days that I have mentioned, that is the day in which the Spirit will reveal to the sinner the day that Christ died, and enable him by faith to rest upon Him for salvation, and to see that through this Person that came to seek and save the lost that his sins are forgiven, and that his sins are cast into the ocean of His merits. Let us remember this however, that all these glorious days that I have mentioned will be of no avail to us, but will only be to our condemnation unless this last day is in our history. Is there a day apart from every other day in your history in which you can say:—”If I am not terribly deceived, I thought I had a day when I saw I was translated from the kingdom of darkness to the kingdom of light? Or is your conscience testifying clearly that no such day ever came? Oh! what an awful eternity is before you if this is the case!

II. The satisfaction of Abraham’s desire; he saw it and was glad.

Now, was it by his bodily eyes? Well, I do not think that any person would take it in that sense, for the day he looked for was 2000 years after, and although Abraham would have an eagle’s eye, he could not see over these 2000 years. It was not sensible sight, not with the eye of his body, it was with the eye of faith. Faith may be compared to a telescope, for if the stars are visible just now, you will only see with your physical eye small specks in the sky, but if you take a telescope you will see a different sight altogether, it will enlarge the stars and bring them so near, and you will see wonderful sights; but if you put the wrong end to your eye, it will put them further away. This is the nature of faith, it brings things near and as the Apostle says in the eleventh chapter of Hebrews:—”Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.” Faith is the eye here; it is like a telescope, it looks back into eternity to those days that are mentioned and many more; Abraham had the eye of faith. Now, there are two or three things that I intend to mention about this, and that is that the eye of the body is the most curious organ and the most tender of the body altogether, and we believe that physicians find no organ of the body which is more difficult to explain than the eye. When a man loses his sight, there is no skill in the world that can restore sight, and it is the same thing with the eye of faith, it is a wonderful grace. Read the eleventh chapter of Hebrews and you will see what a wonderful grace faith is, and there is nothing that it cannot do; it is a wonderful thing, no creature can give you faith, it is the grace of the Spirit. No man can give another his sight, for we are born blind spiritually, and there is no creature can restore our sight, for it is God who gives the blind their sight. There is no organ of the body we may say, that will convince or rather assure a creature more than the eye. If you went out and met a man out on the street there and he said to you that Macintyre was not preaching from the platform in the hall of St Jude’s to-night, you would say:—”He was, I saw him with my own two eyes,” and no one could convince you otherwise; so that the eye is more assuring than any other organ, the eye and the ear.

This sight Abraham saw by the eye of faith, he was sure of it, and Higher Critics need not come to Abraham in that day, and the person that has this eye will tell the Higher Critics that they can go away, for he is convinced of the Word of God, he is sure of it. The eye is also the most tender part of the body; when I was a young lad I was often (and I am sure many of you here had the same experience) threshing in the barn, and if the chaff happened to go into the eye, it would pain a great deal; the eye would water until what is causing irritation is taken out, and such is the case with the eye of faith, and I am sure that the Lord’s people found this out. If one thought will go into the eye of faith and will blind it for a while, yea, a vain thought; and if you allow the sand of the world or the flesh into your eye it will cause it to water much. See what a sore speck Peter had in his eye, he denied His Lord, and what did this cause? He went out and wept bitterly.

Now, this sight made the heart of Abraham glad, and this is a joy which the world cannot take away. Remember this, and especially you young people, that whatever pleasures the devil may promise you, they are only bubbles—there is a sting in them, and they will bring eternal death in the end; you may love and seek pleasure in the world, but the end of these things is death. Well, seek this, my friends, to see the day of Christ. Abraham saw it and it made him glad, and he is glad to this day, for he is with Christ in glory. Let us copy his faith, for if you have only broken cisterns, they will hold no water, and they will leave you empty in the end, and you will find yourself like the rich man, who woke up to find himself in everlasting torment. As I have gone beyond my time, I cannot deal with the last head I intended to speak on.