Preached at Zenka, Africa, on Sabbath, 18th December, 1949,
by JOHN MPOFU; and translated from Sindibebe.
Ephesians ii, 11-13—‘. . . That at that time ye were without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope, and without God in the World . . .’
At the first service to-day the missionary reminded us that all flesh is grass. This is a truth which we do not like, but it is the Truth of God and we cannot get away from it. When we wash our bodies and comb our hair nicely and put on fine clothes, we think we are very handsome and we find it hard to believe that we are only grass. But that is all we are—just grass! A few strokes of the sickle lay low the finest grass in our valleys, and in a short time all its beauty is gone and it becomes just a withered heap. One stroke of God’s sickle lays low the strongest and most beautiful man or woman and in a short time the person whom we admired is just a mass of corrupting flesh. We should remember this. It is good for us to do so although we don’t like it.
At this service I want to remind God’s people of another unpleasant truth: what you were before God called you to be His. You were without Christ; strangers, having no interest in the Bible or its promises; having no hope and without God in the world. The old nature in God’s people doesn’t like this truth and tries hard to forget it, but if we are to stand firm on Christ’s foundation we must never forget the pit from which He rescued us. We must fight with all our might against this tendency to forget what we were and to give ourselves the credit for what we are. If we are Christ’s people to-day, we are His people only by the power and the grace of God. All we could do was to sink deeper and deeper into the fearful pit; it was Christ and Christ alone who stretched forth His mighty arm and lifted us up and set our feet on the rock. There is no room for boasting in this, and if any believer among us forgets what he was and begins to congratulate himself on his own strength and wisdom and how well he is managing his life, God will come and sweep all that rubbish out of his heart and show him his emptiness and his weakness.
To forget what we were means to forget what Christ did for us, and if we forget that, we have nothing left but an empty shell of religion, which we would be better without. Everything we have, God gave us; everything we are, God made us. We were uncircumcised, but the Holy Spirit circumcised our hearts. We knew nothing of Christ, but the Holy Spirit made Christ more precious to us than all the world. We had no hope, as none of our forefathers had, but God gave us a strong, sure hope. We had no God; now we have a God. There was a wall, a thick, high wall between us and God. No man could break it down or find a gap in it, but Christ by His precious blood destroyed it altogether and brought us into the presence of God in peace. Can we forget that? If we can, the wall is still there, and we must then remember, not what we were, for that would be useless, but we must remember the fate of those who are strangers to God, having no hope and without God in the world. Oh! ye Matabele, ye children of Mzilikazi and Lobengula, beware! beware! Remember how our forefathers treated the Word of God and His messengers when these first came to our country. They would not have God’s Word; they would not listen to His messengers; and where are they to-day? Where are they? My friends, God will be defeated by no man. His plans will be fulfilled whoever opposes them. It was God’s purpose to bring the Gospel to us, and when our forefathers opposed Him they were swept out of His way, and God has raised up witnesses to Himself from among the children of our stubborn fathers. Be careful, then, you who see no value in what Christ has done, lest God sweep you out of the way in order to bring His salvation to others.
And you, people of God, remember what you were so that Christ may ever be precious to you. To-day I stand before you decently clothed and you may not know what I was; but I cannot forget that I was a naked heathen, never having any better clothing than bits of animals’ skins. Who has made the difference? Christ, and Christ only!
God’s people are no longer without hope. They have a sure hope which even death cannot take away. Why are some of God’s people so little afraid of death? Is it because they do not realise its terrors? No, they know something of death’s sting, but they know also that their Saviour has conquered death and the grave, and that death is now His servant, His messenger, to call His people into the presence of God. Christ Himself broke down the dividing wall and brought His redeemed ones into the presence of God, and when His time comes to call them into the fulness of that presence, He sends His messenger, death, to do that work. So death is a messenger of grace to God’s people.
Yes, we have a hope, a sure hope, and if I did not have that hope, my mouth would be closed before you to-day.
An Eye for an Eye.
By the late REV. JOHN MACDONALD, Helmsdale.
Notes from a sermon preached at Rogart on 22nd January, 1843, on Matthew v, 38, “Ye have heard that it hath been said, an eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth.”
Introductory observations on the giving of this precept by the Lord. The way in which these minor laws regarding personal injury and property seem to have been abused by the Jews at the time of Christ’s coming to the flesh, as well as the moral law. Our Lord rectifies these abuses which crept in among the Jews in reference to the moral law and to their judicial laws in this sermon on the mount. Evangelical meaning of the subject. When injury was sustained by one person at the hands of another, this law, eye for eye, and tooth for tooth, was to have been executed by the judges, (Exod. xxi), and not by the injured party. He was not to retaliate for himself. He was judged for by the judge. When the Christian is traduced, ill-used, his good name assailed, his character attempted to be hurt, he is to leave the vindication of his good name in the hands of God as judge. He is not to render evil for evil to any man, but contrariwise to do good against evil. Reference made to the power which the Lord has given to man to avail himself of the production of the civil judge when his life is in danger. Paul appealed to Caesar when his life was in danger. But he is not to have recourse to the civil judge except in cases when his usefulness in life may be in danger from silence, and his privileges as a citizen invaded. Thus, the apostle, in a certain case, told those who bound him that he was a Roman, and being so, asked was it right to use him as they did. But when these things are not involved, the believer is not to retaliate from mere personal grudge. He is to leave the case in the hands of God; and while engaged in a good cause—the cause of Christ—he is not to be led aside from the path of duty for giving vent to personal retaliation. He is to imitate Christ’s example, “Who, when He was reviled, reviled not again; when He suffered, He threatened not; but committed Himself to Him that judgeth righteously.”
Searmon.
Leis an Urr. TOMAS HALIBURTON
(Air a leantainn bho t.d. 179.)
A dh’ao’n fhoical, Feuch tha e tighinn gu buadhach thairis air beanntaibh an eas-creidimh. Am bheil do phacaoidhean cho làidir, cho mòr, agus gu bheil thu faotainn cruaidh a chreidsinn, focal lom, gealladh lom, ged is ann eadhon bho Dhia do nach urrainn breug a dheanamh a tha e? Feuch an so tha iongantas de mhaitheas. Cha toir e mì-mhisneachd dhuit air son so uile. An so tha e glaothaich riut, Thig agus faic; seadh, blais, agus faic gu bheil Criosd maith. An so faodaidh tì a chluinntinn a labhairt; an so faodaidh tì fhaicinn a dòrtadh fhola, a bàsachadh, agus biste; leigidh an lot farsuinn sin, a rinn claidheamh ceartais, thù dh’ionnsuidh a chridhe, agus an sin faodaidh tu an dara taobh dheth fhaicinn làn bròn agus trioblaid throm, foth bhruthadh làmh ceartais, agus an taobh eil dheth làn gràidh agus coibhneas dhuit-sa. O na bi mi-chreidmheach ach creidmheach. Innis dhomh, anam bhochd a tha fannachadh, ciod a chunnaic thù ann an Criosd, ‘n uair a chunnaic thù roimh e? Na h-uile a tha ri fhaicinn fhatasadh ann; faodaidh tì fhaicinn a dòrtadh a mach abhainn de fhuil, gu bhi glanadh truaghain shalach mar a tha thù ann; faodaidh tì fhaicinn a deanamh cuirm gu bhi neartachadh, gu bhi comhfurtachadh anamaibh bochd, lag, fann, agus a taigse na h-uile ni gu saor. Cha’n eil e’g ràdh, Gabh mo chorp agus m’fhuil, ma’s aon thù a ràinig air a leithid sid, ‘s a leithid so de thomhas gràidh, na miann; ma’s aon thu a tha saor de leithid sid, ‘s a leithid so de pheacaidhean; ach, gabh mi, gabh na h-uile, ciod air bith do pheacaidhean, ma’s e’s gu bheil thu toileach.
Cha’n urrainn dhomh stad gu bhi’n tràth so a freagradh chunnuilbh; a mhàin tha mi’g ràdh, air falbh le mì-mhisneachdan neo-thorach agus gun bhunait. Cha’n urrainn mi innse ciod a their mi thaobh na smuaintean grànda, iosal, cumhann, agus ainneamh a tha aig cuid agaibh mu ghràs Chriosd. O, tha neach air choir-eigin ag ràdh, ‘s mise an neach ud a tha cho salach, cho grànda, agus mo cho-luchd comanaichaidh, tha iad cho salach, agus cho grànda, agus faodaidh e bhi, na ministeirean, tha iad na’n leithidean so de dhaoine, agus a leithidean so de chroin annta; agus uime sin cha tig Criosd; Cha’n fhaigh e thairis air na beanntaibh sin. Tha mi’g ràdh, faodaidh sin uile bhi fior; faodaidh ministeirean a bhi làn chroin, agus an sluagh mar an ceudna; ach tha mi’g ràdh, tha ‘ur n’cas-creidimh ni’s coltaich Criosd a chumail air falbh, na nì air bith dhiubh sin. Air falbh leis na smuaintean cumhann so, a tha lagachadh gràis agus a dimolaich Chriosd. Beannaicht’, gu siorruidh beannaicht’, gu robh Dia, nach eil Iosa Criosd cho àrdanach ‘s a tha cuid againn, air chor ‘s gu’n ruitheadh e air falbh air son cron ministeir, na fear-comanaichidh. Cha chùm iomadh cron, iomadh beinn de chroin mhisteirean agus shluaigh, air falbh e bho anam bochd air bith a tha ga iarruidh; agus beannaicht’ gu’n robh Dia gu bheil a chùis mar sin. Air falbh leis na smuaintean neo-bhunaiteach, aineolach agus chumhann so. An d’thainig Criosd thairis air na h-uile bheinn a tha da-rireadh ann am bith, agus an tog sibh suas beanntaibh ann ‘ur mac-meannpa? Tha mi toirt fianuis dhuibh nach eil sibh air ‘ur cumhannachadh ann an Criosd, ach na’r n’innibh fein. “Feuch the e teachd, a leumnaich air na beanntaibh, a toirt sithidh air na tulaichibh.” “Agus tha an Spiorad agus a’ bhean nuadh-phòsda ag ràdh, Thig, Agus abradh an ti a chluinneas, Thig. Agus an neach air am bheil tart, thigeadh e. Agus ge b’e neach leis an àill, gabhadh e uisg na beatha gu saor.” Tais. xxii, 17. “Tha an ti a tha toirt fianuis air na nithibh so ag ràdh, Gu deimhin tha mi a teachd ‘an aithgearr, Amen. Seadh, thig, a Thighearn Iosa.” Tais. xxii, 22.—Eadar-theangaichte le Iain Mac a Chòmhaich, Gleann-dail.