BY the time this issue of the Magazine is in the hands of most of our readers the year 1930 will almost have passed away and another stage on life’s journey will have been passed never to be traversed again. To all right thinking persons such occasions ought to awaken thoughts weighted with seriousness. Satan knowing full well the disadvantage accruing to his kingdom of such seriousness invented many devices to make people forget what the flight of time meant for them. Hence the New Year drinking customs which at one time disgraced our native land and though things aren’t so bad in that direction as they used to be yet there is too much of unseemly revelry as the old year dies and the new is ushered in. We are no enemies to innocent joys and becoming social customs expressive of friendship and kindly neighbourliness but even in the midst of all that is becoming and allowable we should never forget that in the midst of all our joys there is a voice solemnly speaking to us and saying in words that cannot be mistaken: The years are passing swiftly away and with them the golden opportunities so often misimproved and precious privileges so often neglected. The passing of the years is a theme fitted to sober one and awaken in the mind many thoughts. The young as yet untouched by life’s sorrows and trials have an outlook that is full of ardent hope; for them the days of the more sombre outlook on life have not dawned. Filled with hope and spurred on by the energy of youth they are never thinking of the evil days in which they shall say they
have no pleasure in them. To them the Word of God has a message: “Remember now thy Creator in the days of thy youth.” If God has no place in our outlook for the future, whatever carnal or worldly hope we may have it is not a hope that brightens all the future for us for it is lacking in the one thing that will give that future a fulness of meaning. Happy indeed would the passing of the years be if on entering on another it was the beginning of months or years to any of our young readers. The young, strong though they may be, may die and they cannot be in heaven without a knowledge of the Lord Jesus. The Spirit of the Holy One can instruct them in the things that belong to God’s glory and their own everlasting good. Many of them are far away from the places where they were brought up and from those holy influences in God-fearing homes that sanctified their daily life. In the midst of many temptations their thoughts may wander often to the places where they met at the family altar and heard the Word of God read morning and evening and His praises sung and at such a season as this, no doubt, the absent ones will have their minds wandering back to the homes of their youth. We wish our young people well both at home and abroad and pray that God would enrich them with His heavenly grace and we would kindly exhort them never to be ashamed of God, of Jesus Christ, of His Holy Spirit, of His Law, of His Day or of His people.
To those who have had a longer and deeper experience of life, who have tasted of its joys and sorrows, such a time as the passing of one year and the dawning of another often begets in them a reminiscent mood. The breaches made in the family circle or in the circle of friendship come home to one as the vacant places are recalled and the world to many is getting lonelier but it ill becomes any of us to feed on the bread of sorrow when we should be remembering the Lord’s goodness. There is not one of us but has abundant reason to praise Him for His goodness in His providence. Some, during the year that is past, may have been bowed down by bodily infirmities, experiencing pain, and well nigh broken hearted by sorrow through the removal of those who were near and dear to them. Still, trying though the circumstances may be, they have good cause to see the goodness of God in many ways. Others,
again, may have been at the gates of death, expecting to see these gates opening at any moment, and were brought back again. Have they no reason to remember His goodness and give praise to His name? Let us meditate on the Lord’s kindness in His providence. How manifold have His goodnesses been. In the strain and stress felt in many a home through unemployment the necessaries of life must be stinted indeed and anxiety may have dogged the footsteps of those honestly seeking work in vain but still, in the worst cases, surely there is sufficient reason why God’s name should be praised for His goodness. And let us never forget that to render true praise we must be instructed by His Holy Spirit.
Of all people in the world there is none who should have a more thankful song than the Lord’s redeemed. Like others they are called upon to share the common lot of their fellows and in addition trials and difficulties peculiar to themselves yet they have the assurance of God’s Word that all things work together for good to them that love God who are the called according to His purpose. The Scripture is full of exceeding great and precious promises for them and though they cannot always appropriate them yet their gracious God has given these promises in such rich abundance to meet a variety of cases that when the need and the promise meet they are filled with wonder that they had never noticed the precious words before—at least as they now see them. Satan may suggest that though they have not yet turned aside to him since they first made their public profession that he will be successful with them in the future. The thought of this suggestion troubles them for as the years pass by and they see a shipwreck here and back-sliding there of men and women who were carried away with hot zeal and loud profession of godliness and knowing what Satan has to work on within they pass the time of their sojourning here in fear. But they may well say with the Psalmist that this is their infirmity and that they will remember the years of the Most High. Are there no signal deliverances, no victories gained, no loosing of sackcloth and girding with gladness, no wonderful providences, no songs of joy after a night of weeping to be remembered? Surely many of the Lord’s people will have to say as they think of all His goodness to them in the years that are past and during the year that is
ending—Hitherto the Lord hath helped us. And if, at the beginning of a New Year, we can erect our Ebenezer our meditation on His goodness will have borne fruit. God’s kindness to His redeemed cannot be reckoned. His thoughts of mercy, as set forth in the everlasting covenant, are past finding out and whatever His people may have seen of it here yet the half of it has never been told. One day, no longer looking through a glass darkly, they shall see Him as He is and their hearts will be filled with a joy that will never cease. In that day there will be a fulness of meaning in the words as yet unrealised :—
Oh that men to the Lord would give
Praise for His goodness then,
And for His works of wonder done
Unto the sons of men!
Sermon.
Preached at Dingwall (31st March, 1918), by the late
Rev. D. MACFARLANE, Dingwall.
“The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me; because the Lord hath anointed me to preach good tidings unto the meek; He hath sent me to bind up the broken hearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to them that are bound. To proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord, and the day of vengeance of our God; to comfort all that mourn. To appoint unto them that mourn in Zion, to give unto them beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness; that they might be called trees of righteousness, the planting of the Lord that He might be glorified” (Is. lxi. 1-3).
THAT it is the Lord, Jesus Christ, that speaks here is evident as may be seen in the Gospel according to Luke—“And He came to Nazareth where He had been brought up, and as His custom was, He went into the Synagogue on the Sabbath day, and stood up for to read. And there was delivered unto Him the book of the prophet Esaias. And when He had opened the book, He found the place where it was written. The Spirit of the Lord is upon me because He hath anointed me to preach the Gospel to the poor; He hath sent me to heal the broken-hearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and
recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised. To preach the acceptable year of the Lord. And He closed the book and He gave it again to the minister and sat down . . . And began to say unto them: This day is this Scripture fulfilled in your ears (Luke iv. 16-21). This leaves it without any doubt that it is the Lord Jesus Christ that speaks. The fulfilment of Scripture is a proof that the Bible is the Word of God. There was a long interval between the time of the prophet Isaiah and the coming of Christ to the world, but what was written by the prophet was fulfilled when Christ came and preached in the Synagogue from the words of our text, and as this was fulfilled all that is predicted in Scripture shall be fulfilled without fail. “Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my words shall not pass away till all be fulfilled” (Matt. xxiv. 34, 35).
In addressing you from our text we shall notice—
I. The Preacher, and
II. His work as a Preacher.
I. The Preacher. The Lord Jesus Christ is the greatest preacher that ever spoke to men in the world. While He was in the world He was not only working out everlasting redemption for sinners but He was also preaching. He began to preach when He was about thirty years of age and He continued to preach for the space of about three years. At the end of which He was crucified. As a priest He made atonement for the sins of His people; as a prophet He preached the Gospel. Under the Old Testament dispensation there were many prophets but under the New, Christ is the only prophet in the Church. “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” (Heb. I. 1, 2). The prophets of old were called “Seers.” God revealed to them His mind by visions or plain words and they declared to the people what they saw and what they heard. Christ as a prophet reveals to us God and His purpose of salvation. “No man hath seen God at any time, the only begotten Son who is in the bosom of the Father, He hath declared Him” (John 1, 18). “No man knoweth the Son but the Father, neither
knoweth any man the Father save the Son, and He to whomsoever the Son will reveal Him” (Matt. xi. 27).
Christ was qualified or prepared for His work of preaching by the Holy Spirit. “The spirit of the Lord God is upon me because the Lord hath anointed me to preach” (v. 1). The prophets were appointed to their office by anointing them. Although they received the Holy Spirit they were anointed by literal oil, but Christ was not anointed by literal oil, but by the Holy Spirit. The Spirit was not given to Him by measure but above measure. “Thy God hath anointed thee with the oil of gladness above thy fellows” (Ps. xlv. 7). “For God giveth not the Spirit by measure unto Him” (John iii. 34). The Spirit was given to Christ above measure not only to qualify Him for His work but also that His people might receive the Spirit out of His fulness (John i. 16). If you have received the Holy Spirit it is out of Christ’s fulness you received it. Not only that the Spirit of the Lord God was upon Christ to qualify Him for His work but all true ministers of the Gospel are anointed by the Holy Spirit to qualify them for their work. When a minister is ordained to his office and when the presbytery lays their hands upon his head the presiding minister in his prayer, prays that God would anoint him by the Holy Spirit, and as the anointing by which Aaron was anointed ran down to the skirts of his garment (Ps. cxxxiii.) it is through Christ’s garment or righteousness the anointing of His Spirit flows to His servants. The Spirit is called the Spirit of the Lord God, as He proceeded from the Father and the Son He comes to us by Him who is the only mediator between God and men, as all other blessings come. He was thus prepared for His work. He was also prepared for His work by the temptations of the devil. Before He began His work of preaching publicly He was tempted by the devil in the wilderness an account of which we have in Luke iv. 1-13. He was tempted of the Evil One that He might sympathise with His people in their temptations. “For we have not an high priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities; but was in all points tempted as we are, yet without sin.” (Heb. iv. 15). There is this difference between Christ’s temptations and ours. The Evil One could not make Him to sin but he can make us sin. As Christ before He began to
preach went through a course of temptations so His ministering servants have in their own measure to go through a course of temptations before they are qualified to preach so that they may be able to sympathise with the Lord’s people in their temptations. Christ not only sympathises with His people in their temptations but He is able to succour them; and His ministering servants are made instruments of succouring them also.
II. His work as a Preacher.
(1). The Spirit of the Lord God was upon Him “to preach good tidings to the meek” or to the poor as we have it in the Gospel according to Luke. In the Sermon on the Mount Christ describes His people as meek and poor. They are meek because they learned of Him “who was meek and lowly in heart.” They are also poor in spirit but rich inasmuch as that the Kingdom is theirs. It is the poor in spirit that feel their need of the good tidings of the Gospel the best news ever heard in this world. It is of such a nature and efficacy as to meet all our spiritual needs however numerous and depressing these may be. The Gospel is the best news. When your neighbours meet you they ask: What is your news? We ministers are able to say that we have the best news contained in the word of the Gospel—news that is much despised in our day. The best news that worldly farmers would like to hear is high prices for cattle, corn and other things they have to dispose of. Some would like that this awful War would continue so that high prices for these things might be prolonged. The Gospel is not the best news for such.
(2). The Spirit of the Lord God was upon Him “to bind up the broken-hearted.” The Lord’s people are broken-hearted. “They are broken in heart and contrite in spirit.” The new heart is a broken heart. It is broken by a deep sense of sin within ourselves, and by the sins of others around us in the world, but Christ binds up the broken heart, as a prophet, by preaching the Gospel. By His Word He binds up or heals the broken heart. “He sent His Word and healed them, and delivered them from their destruction” (Ps. cvii. 20). When He was in the state of humiliation the sick, were brought to Him and He healed them by His Word: Are you broken
hearted and are you shy of coming to Christ for healing because of your sinfulness? You are to remember that He was sent by the Father to bind up the broken heart. Come forward to Him for this is part of the work for which the Father sent Him: Sick people should not be shy to come to a physician to cure their malady for this is the very purpose for which He is a physician.
(3) The Spirit of the Lord God was upon Him “to proclaim liberty to the captives.” Cyrus’s proclamation of liberty was confined to one nation, the Jews, who were captive in Babylon, but Christ’s proclamation of liberty extends to all nations throughout the world. All the human race are by nature captives or prisoners. Shut up in prison by God’s law, but Christ proclaims liberty by the Gospel to all to whom the word of the Gospel comes, but before they could be delivered and set at liberty from prison He would require to pay the price on the ground on which they should be set free and having done so either in type or in reality He opened the prison door and proclaimed liberty to all to walk out of their prison as free men. The Rev. John MacRae, or “Big MacRae” as he was commonly called, made a striking supposition. He supposed that Christ pitied those in prison and came to the door of the prison and asked the key from Justice that stood at the door that He might open the door to let the prisoners out. Justice shook its head and said: “I must receive satisfaction for the wrong done to me by the prisoners before I can give the key, and when Christ satisfied Justice and came to the door again the key was willingly given to Him, and He opened the door and proclaimed liberty to all who wished to be set free. The door of the prison in which all the human race are is opened by Christ and it shall remain open till the end of time, but none of the prisoners will come out of their prison house because they are bound in prison till Christ’s power is exerted towards them in loosing their bonds. They are bound by the power of spiritual death so that they cannot move. In order therefore that they should be free there is more than a price required. So that Christ delivers His people from prison by power as well as by price He makes His people willing in the day of His power. He exerts this power by the effectual work of His Spirit in quickening the dead and
working faith in them by which they accept of the proclamation made to them in the Gospel. Sinners by nature are not willing to leave their prison and to accept of the liberty which is offered them in the Gospel, hence the need of the work of the Holy Spirit, within us as well as the work of Christ in making atonement for us, a work which is much ignored by many preachers in our day. Christ as a preacher preached the Word of God as all His ministering servants do. But those ministers who are not sent of God don’t preach the Word of God but the fictions of their own heart. They make a Bible of their own heart which is full of error and they go through the country and to other countries preaching it. Some go to America to deceive immortal souls though we do not think that they intend so. They are deceived themselves and they deceive others. Satan has many preachers of this stamp at the present time and as he is afraid that sinners will leave his camp he hurries on his servants to preach error in all parts of the world to which he sends them. As Christ in the Sermon on the Mount addressed His own disciples and afterwards addressed those outside and said: Strive to enter in at the strait gate. So He did in the synagogue at Nazareth. He addressed the captives or prisoners as well as those made free by Himself.
(4) He proclaimed the acceptable year of the Lord. The acceptable year of the Lord was typified by the year of Jubilee which was in every fiftieth year. In the year of Jubilee a trumpet was sounded proclaiming liberty to all in Israel who were in prison for debt or any crime they may have done. It was a happy year to which those in prison looked forward with a longing desire to be set free. The acceptable year of the Lord means also the time of opportunity, the time in which Christ is willing to receive sinners that come to Him. That time may come to an end before death and while men live in the world for some years afterwards. God swore in His wrath that many in the wilderness should not enter into His rest and He did this some years before they died. He was striving with them for forty years but because they would not submit to Him He shut the door of mercy so that they could not expect anything but everlasting perdition. Have you been forty years hearing the Gospel and are you still disobedient to it? Take heed lest the acceptable year come to an end in
your case. “My Spirit will not always strive with man” (Gen. vi. 3). Although we do not limit God’s mercy towards sinners who are for scores of years under the Gospel yet we take it as a bad sign that old people should continue in a state of nature under the Gospel without concern about the salvation of their souls. The heart of the young is more tender than the heart of the old and the most that are saved are saved between the ages of twenty and thirty years. Comparatively few are saved after they pass that period of their life. This ought to appeal to the young of our congregations. “Remember thy Creator in the days of thy youth while the evil days come not, nor the years draw nigh, when thou shalt say I have no pleasure in them” (Eccles. xii. 1).
(5) He proclaimed the day of vengeance of our God. He preached law as well as Gospel. He proclaimed vengeance to all who continued to be in enmity against Him that He would take vengeance on them. We have an example of this in the case of the Jews who are now for nearly two thousand years disobedient to the Gospel and under the power of unbelief. Oh! how many of them died in their sins during that long period, and are now suffering the vengeance of God in eternity. And when Christ shall be revealed from heaven in a flame of fire He will take vengeance not only on the heathen who know not God but also on those who obeyed not the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ and who shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord, and from the glory of His power (II. Thess. i. 8, 9).
(6) He preached comfort to all that mourn. “To appoint unto them that mourn in Zion; to give unto them beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness; that they might be called trees of righteousness, the planting of the Lord that He might be glorified.” The Lord’s people are a mourning people. They mourn for many reasons. They mourn for sin in themselves and sin around them in the world. They mourn when the cause of God is low and when enemies try to crush it out of existence; but their comfort is that the gates of hell shall not prevail against the Church.
(7) To give them beauty for ashes and the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness. They repent of their own sins
covered with sackcloth and ashes, but Christ gives them beauty for ashes and the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness, and their garment is changed. He puts upon them the garment of praise and then instead of mourning they begin to praise the Lord for His goodness to them. They are a joyful people as well as a mourning people. They are called trees of righteousness inasmuch as they do works of righteousness as the fruit of grace in them. They are planted in the Church for this end. Many mourn in these evil times for sons and other relatives lost in the present War but few mourn for sin; but the Lord’s people mourn for sin. When Christ comes to comfort them they rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory. The nature of heaven is in this joy. It is a foretaste of the joy they shall have in heaven when they leave this world of sin and misery. They had been planted in the Church that God might be glorified. To glorify God was the chief end for which God created men and when He creates men anew in Christ they begin to glorify Him, during their time in the world and they shall glorify Him for ever in eternity. If you are saved God is glorified in your salvation, and if you perish His justice shall be glorified in punishing you forever. You may lose your soul but God shall not lose His glory.
The Spirit of the Lord God was upon Christ to preach good tidings, to preach the Gospel. The Gospel is the only cure for all the evils that exist in the world. Some propose other remedies to restore peace to the nations that are engaged in the present awful conflict but the Gospel is the only remedy, so that when nations come under its benign influence they shall learn war no more. Calvin said, you may drive me away from Geneva for preaching the Gospel but if you think that you can govern Geneva without the Gospel you will find that you shall be disappointed. It is the Gospel of peace and the means of making peace between God and man, between man and his neighbour, and between nations who are at variance with each other. Let us be thankful that in the midst of all the miseries that sin brought into the world the Gospel is still left to us to comfort those that mourn in Zion and to convert sinners who are still in a state of nature so that although we have many reasons for mourning we have reason also to rejoice.