Preached by the Rev. E. MACQUEEN, in St. Jude’s Glasgow,
24th April, 1933.
“For He established a testimony in Jacob, and appointed a law in Israel, which He commanded our fathers that they should make them known to their children. That the generation to come might know them, even the children which should be born, who should arise and declare them to their children. That they might set their hope in God, and not forget the works of God, but keep His commandments. And might not be as their fathers, a stubborn and rebellious generation: a generation that set not their heart aright, and whose spirit was not steadfast with God” (Psalm lxxviii. 5-8).
WE are told at the beginning of this Psalm that it is a psalm of Asaph. Asaph was one of the singers which David had. Not only was he a singer, but he was also a man of God, and a true prophet. This psalm appears to have been composed by David himself and given to Asaph to put before the people. We are also told that it is a psalm for instruction. You will see, my friends, how clearly it bears the stamp of divinity.
When we come to write the biography of a fellow-creature we hide what is bad in his character and anything which we do not like. I am sorry to find that some folk get quite angry if even the truth is declared regarding one’s fellow. That kind of behaviour does not come from the Spirit of Wisdom, or from the Spirit of Grace, or from the Spirit of God. No, not at all. You see clearly that when God comes to write of individuals or people (and this ought to make us value the Word of God) that instead of hiding their faults, He makes them very prominent. Is it to expose them? Not at all; it is in order that they themselves may repent and turn from evil. In order in the second place that their children may shun, and escape the rocks on which their parents made shipwreck. These are the things which God had in view in writing the history of a people who have gone before us. We are like them. The things which were true about them are true about every one of us. He points out how stubborn they were. He points out very clearly not only how stubborn they were even as far as the laws of the Most High were concerned, but how vicious they were against God Himself. My friend, if you are a man taught of God, you will put your hand on your breast, and say: “That is the heart that is in me—angry and vicious against God Himself.”
After bringing these things before them He accuses them of other things, and worst of all, of how they forgot God. Not only forgetting Him as the Mighty Power, but forgetting Him in His goodness in ministering to their wants. I may say that the Devil has not a more subtle dodge whereby to mesmerise, and hypnotise the children of men than to make them forget the goodness of God to them in the past. If the Devil can, he will make men and women forget the goodness of God, even those with whom the Spirit of God is striving. Yes! even those whom the Spirit of God has changed. Some of you were at the Lord’s Table yesterday and is this not the thing which is troubling you? How you forget past experiences of God’s goodness to you. When the Devil succeeds in making the creature forget the goodness of God, he so works on the feelings of the creature as to bring him to a state of despair, and to fear that God will never return to him any more. Now, without taking up any more time by way of introduction, let us:—
I. First of all, consider a few things about the people who were here addressed by the Most High, and of whom the Spirit of God here speaks to us.
II. In the second place, we shall notice, what it was that God sets before them here.
He sets before them here two things especially. It can be said that if they had spiritual understanding they would have considered these two things, next to the gift of His Son, the greatest things that the God of Heaven could have given them. You will see that He brings before them the fact that He established a testimony in Jacob, and appointed a law in Israel. If God has established a testimony in Jacob, and appointed a law in Israel, has He not done it in Glasgow? Yes, He has done it in St. Jude’s, and you cannot deny it. Now friends, the testimony and law were the two greatest things which God could have given next to the gift of His own Son. Indeed, I may say had we not the testimony, and had we not the law, we would not have known that He gave His Son at all.
III. Now in the third place, the command or charge which He gave in connection with that testimony, and that law.
You would think by the doings of some people that they can deal with God’s Word as they like. It is evident, my friends, that a large number of men have thrown off the idea that God has anything to do with them at all, or that they have anything to do with Him. They do not want the knowledge of His ways. Yet, the Most High has established a testimony and appointed a law. That testimony and that law took to do with the Children of Israel, and will take to do with us, let us think about them what we like. Let us treat them as we like, they will not leave us alone. No.
IV. We find in the last place, the reasons why He gave His testimony and His law.
(1). We are told that the fathers were charged to make it known to their children.
The children born of those parents were to make it known to their children, and so on. You will see that He comes down to five generations. Count for yourselves.
“And charged our fathers it to show
to their succeeding race:
That so the race which was to come
might well them learn and know:
And sons unborn, who should arise
might to their sons them show.”
You will find if you follow it up that God did the same to the fathers in the city of Glasgow. They were charged to show God’s Law to their children, and the children to their children, and children’s children.
(2). He brings forward another reason.
If we will not make known the testimony and laws of God to our children, how are the children to know them? How are the children to have hope in God? Truly, I am not at all a pessimist, although I feel sad at heart as I think of the thousands of children in the city of Glasgow who have never heard from their parents about God; not only in Glasgow, but in every town, and every city throughout the whole of at one time Bible-loving Scotland. They were to tell their children in order that the children might set their hope in God; set their hope in God, not in an arm of flesh, not in a priest, not in a minister, not in anything under Heaven. They were to lift up their hearts to the Lord of Heaven and earth, and set their hope in Him.
(3). He brings forward another reason; this is a most important reason:—
“And suffer not to fall
His mighty works out of their mind,
But keep His precepts all.”
As has been pointed out already, this is what the most of the ministers, and the most of parents are incited of the Devil to do: to banish out of their minds the old idea which the fathers had about the God of Heaven, and about the gospel, and the doctrines of the Word of God. “Do not speak,” they say, “about the doctrines of regeneration, or of the necessity of the New Birth.” I may say that to the mass of the people in our day, doctrines such as these are like a red rag to an Italian bull. It enrages them to hear the preacher speak of regeneration, he has no right to be living at all. In these modern days they have got beyond regeneration, at least, in their own estimation. This is one of the reasons given, “Suffer not to fall, His mighty works out of their mind.” If you suffer to fall out of your mind the work of God in regeneration, the Devil has you in his hellish grasp, and will bring you down to everlasting destruction. Friends, keep you the truth of God out of your minds; banish out of your mind the fact that you need a change of state and nature, and you become an easy prey of the Devil.
What then? “Keep His precepts all.” Keep them, and be not at all like their fathers:—
“A stiff rebellious race,
A race not right in heart.”
The old idea of the Highlanders was shoulder to shoulder, but with the wicked it is shoulder to shoulder in evil, and in going astray from God. Has God commanded you to be like those fathers? Has He? If your father has been a prayerless man, are you commanded to be like him? No! but you are commanded by God not to be like him. If your father has been a Sabbath-breaker, are you to follow in the footsteps of that ungodly wretch, are you going to a lost eternity with that Sabbath-breaker? No! the Word of God is:—
“And might not like their fathers
be a stiff rebellious race;
A race not right in heart.”
Ah! friends, this is where you may see the deadly evil of “Not being right in heart.” I may say that to some of us this gives more trouble than even the hell of eternity, the hell of our own hearts. With the late Mr. Macfarlane, of Dingwall, some of us can say, “I am not afraid of the hell of eternity, it is not the fear of the hell of eternity, but this that makes us so miserable, the hell of our own hearts.”
Now, without continuing longer by way of explanation, let us first of all consider:
I. The people to whom and of whom God speaks here.
It may be said that He had a special propriety in them. A special interest in them which He had in no other people on the face of the earth. He says to them: “Ye are my people.” It may be said that all people are the people of God by creation. “He has made us, and not we ourselves.” Yet, at the same time, although it is true that He made all, that is not what He means when He speaks of them as being His people. They were His because He had made choice of them. Not only were they the people of His choice, they were the people of His love. He points it out Himself: “I have loved thee with an everlasting love; therefore with loving kindness have I drawn thee.” He revealed Himself to them as He did not to any other people. As the people of His choice and the people of His love He gave them many indications of His having made choice of them, and many indications of His having loved them. Can we get away from this? I believe there are some here this Communion Monday who may be harassed in mind, but can you get away from this!—how God made choice of you. You know that it was not because of any good in you. The Most High set His heart on Israel, not because they were a greater people, or because they were better than others. As a matter of fact they were the poorest, the meanest, and least people on the face of the earth. He chose them of His own choice. The great thing, friends, is, have you a right to think that He has made choice of you? Has He revealed His choice of you in the New Birth? If He has, you are a highly favoured individual.
(To be continued.)