by the late Rev. Malcolm MacSween, Oban
(Preached at Oban on Sabbath, 14th December 1975).
“So He bringeth them unto their desired haven.” (Psalm 107:30).
The word ‘haven’ in Hebrew means a place of collection, of gathering, where ships collect. Spiritually, it is heaven, the gathering place of the people of God. May we this day be exercised with respect to what the Saviour says in John, about heaven, that it is the place for which all the Lord’s people are being prepared, to be kept in their mind’s eye, as the place to which they are hastening. This place is for a certain people, the Lord’s people. If they are to be brought into the harbour, they must first come through the seas to reach it. And if their voyage is by sea, they must leave the land. And if they leave the land, it is because the Holy Ghost has awakened them to see their sin, their dire peril and their great need. Plainly, they could not stay where they were. They were shown by the Spirit of God that their native country is appointed to certain destruction. Like Christian in the “Pilgrim’s Progress,” they were told to flee out of the city of destruction. Hence, they ‘go down to the sea in ships,’ they ‘do business in great waters’ (v. 23). They are drawn, driven forth, their eyes being opened to see that all else will perish, that sinners are under God’s curse, and that that curse pertains to themselves. ‘Cursed is everyone that continueth not in all things written in the book of the law to do them’ (Gal. 3:10). Hence, they are brought to feel that they can never satisfy God’s holy law and its requirements. This is a mark upon them; let us try ourselves — this searching question fills their hearts: ‘How can a man be just before God’ (Job 9:2). But God by His grace in effectual calling separates them to seek Himself, to take a spiritual voyage, that they might come at last to the port of heaven.
There are four things to be considered in relation to the text and context:
- (1) They do business in great waters (v. 23);
- (2) The storms through which this tried people must go (v. 25-27);
- (3) They cry to the Lord in their trouble (v. 28);
- (4) ‘So He bringeth them unto their desired haven’ (v. 30).
(1) Some of you, my dear friends, can look back to those early days when you did business in great waters, searchings of heart, distress of soul, conviction of sin, fear of being lost forever. By divine grace, you were brought out of the world that you might cry to God in your great peril and need. You are a blessed people, and you will be occupied to all eternity in sitting around the Master’s feet and telling the wonders of His love. It is common amongst mariners to tell of their experiences on the sea, the storms they passed through, the wonders they have seen and experienced. Thus, when the Lord’s people get to heaven, they will be occupied in praising and blessing God and recounting His mercies to them by the way. They have seen His works, His great work in the plan of salvation. Did we ourselves? On your way to eternity this day, did you? How God eternally loved His people, sent His Son to die for them, to be the propitiation for their sins: how His spirit quickened the sinner and revealed to him his need and revealed Christ to his soul? These are the works of the Lord. O that a way was ever opened whereby a sinner can escape the wrath to come! Have you seen His wonders in the deep? Have you seen them in your own experience? For all the religion of some is in the head, with nothing at all in the heart. God knows all things. These people see much in the deep of electing love, rich grace, sovereign mercy — this is known and felt in their hearts. But it is a solemn thing to but seem to have. ‘Whosoever hath, to him shall be given, and he shall have more abundance; but whosoever hath not (though he seems to have), from him shall be taken away even that he hath’ (Matt. 13:12). All spiritually living characters, saved sinners, see God’s wonders in the deep — His works, the wonders of redeeming love. Those who are accepted in the Beloved, God gives them sooner or later, an earnest of heaven, the sealing of the Spirit. O how wonderful to them! ‘What! O Lord, canst Thou love a sinner like me? Hast Thou put all my sins away by the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ? Hast Thou promised to bring me through stormy waters and lead me safe into the haven of heaven?’ Who can speak of these things as they should be spoken of? These wonders of God’s grace and love to poor sinners!
(2) The Storms: It is a trying experience when at times the soul mounts up to heaven, then down again to the deep, and the soul is melted. There is a touch of this literally, on board ship. When a sailor emerges from the hatchway, and is thrown on the deck, he is fearful of being washed overboard, and is glad to grasp whatever is within reach. But all this is nothing compared with what the Lord leads His people through in their spiritual experience. They reel and stagger like a drunken man. O the bitterness of it, the pain and sorrow. The Lord only knows what they feel, yet they are not without hope that through God’s infinite mercy, they are bound for the desired haven. God here gives them the earnest of the Spirit, and they shall have possession by and by. But O the storms and tempests through which the Lord’s people pass — troubles, temptations, afflictions. Sometimes their hopes rise heavenwards, sometimes their fears bring them down to the depths. They are utterly helpless in their soul trouble. There may be some poor soul here today who is melted because of trouble: all your strength is gone, you are unable to stand against these things: you are at your wits end, reeling to and fro in secret before the Lord, staggering like a drunken man. The world thinks these people strange characters, yet they are all destined to come to heaven, to be forever with the Lord. But O the bitterness of their troubles! Their soul will ask ‘Lord, shall I ever come through this trouble? Shall I ever survive these things?’ The heart is so guilty and ashamed. They say ‘Lord, have pity on a poor worthless worm. O, Lord, help me in my trouble. Thou who crossed the stormy waters of the sea of Galilee and spoke peace and calm to them, enable me to feel that Thou art with me, and that I shall never make shipwreck of my faith in spite of all I am and all that threatens me.’
Now observe carefully ‘He commandeth.’ We may say ‘I have not been looking there. I looked at this cause and that cause. I was forgetful that it is God who commands and raises the stormy wind.’ All comes from the Lord. God has control of all the troubles and distresses of spiritual mariners. The proud, self righteous, conceited Pharisee may go on in his quiet way, while the child of God encounters grievous temptations, losses, trials, disappointments, and Satan thrusting at him and saying ‘God hath forsaken him.’ Surely that is a dreadful work to get in the midst of a storm. The great adversary Satan takes advantage of the deep trials of the children of God and says ‘There is no help for you in God’ (Ps. 3:2). Like David in Psalm 3 when he was fleeing from Absalom, they must say ‘Many say of my soul, For him in God no succour lies’ (v. 2).
(3) They cry to the Lord in their trouble (v. 28); This is also true of these spiritual mariners. Blessed be the Lord that they are ever brought to call upon His name! In their first distress, they cried ‘Lord save me, or I perish,’ so now, in their trouble, they seek God for help. Do we do that? Do you today on the way to eternity? Do not put it off until tomorrow or next year. Do it now. Cry ‘Lord, save me, or I perish.’ Now, in their trouble, the Lord’s people seek His help. You say: ‘Do you yourself?’ Not as I would, and not as I ought. How backward the Lord’s people find themselves to pray. How slow to call upon the name of the Lord. How slow. How weak they think their prayers. Nevertheless they cry to God in their troubles, many times. Sometimes matters seem impossible. Some of your own matters may seem impossible today. Certainly you cannot put them right. Also, others cannot put them right. But all power in heaven and earth lies with Christ. ‘They cry.’ In our folly, we may speak unkindly sometimes of the people of God; but could we see them before God in secret, groaning to Him in their trouble, our hearts would be moved for them. We would weep with them, and help with their burdens, and pray for them. ‘Then they cry.’ Some of you may be ready to do that now, as we are endeavouring to speak to you in our poor faltering way. ‘We are laying our case before the Lord,’ you may say, ‘but I am so tried about my prayers, because I seem to be asking for the same thing, time and time and time again, and often in the same words.’ You are concerned about that and cast down about that. Well, why may you not do so? If what you have need of before God is still with you, you will ask in the same or similar words. Remember the Garden of Gethsemane where the Son of God prayed to His Father — we are told ‘And He prayed the third time, saying the same words’ (Matt. 26:44). Now the Lord in answer to this cry sent these spiritual mariners calm. ‘Then are they glad because they be quiet.’ He takes their mind back to this place and that place in the spiritual ocean where the Lord in answer to their spiritual cries sent a wonderful calm and quietness. Sometimes, it is found in the house of God; sometimes in their own home; sometimes outside; sometimes inside. The storm is hushed and the tempest for a while ceases. The winds no longer blow, and the Lord whispers peace to the broken heart. And the soul says: ‘I shall get through, for the Lord is with me. He graciously hears my prayer. O that the Lord Jesus Christ would steer me over my grief and be my pilot in every storm.’
(4) ‘So He bringeth them unto their desired haven’ (v. 30). There are at least three things wrapped up in this little word “so”:
– (i) It declares to us the faithfulness of God. ‘So He bringeth them.’ No storms and tempests could ever thwart the purposes of a faithful God. His people are not lost by the way. God’s eternal purpose of love is not, nor ever could be, thwarted. No matter what His people are called on to pass through, nothing can frustrate their coming to the desired haven.
– (ii) It also expresses the manner of their voyage and entering into the haven. ‘So’, it is so, in this way, in this manner, that their voyage is to be. Not on smooth seas, but in stormy waters. ‘They mount up to the heaven; they go down again to the depths. Their soul is melted because of trouble. They reel to and fro and stagger like a drunken man, and are at their wits end.’ ‘So,’ in that manner, it is through much tribulation that the Lord’s people must enter the kingdom. If our voyage is smooth and easy and calm, let us look well to it; this is not the way. Let us bless God indeed for temporal mercies, but let us see that they do not become a snare to us, to take us off from being diligent to make our calling and election sure. Let this be the thought of our heart if our passage seems smooth and is apparently unruffled, if we are not exercised before God. Let us fear the treacherous calm more than the tempest over our head.
– (iii) It is an expression of God’s power. God’s almighty power is put forth for the salvation of weak and helpless men. ‘So’ . . . The haven is ever before the people of God. These precious things of the Gospel shall be spoken of forever and ever in heaven. Their desire goes out towards that heavenly country. O to see it afar off, and be given a sure persuasion that we shall reach it. ‘So He bringeth them into their desired haven.’ All the Lord’s people will soon be landed on the shore of eternal happiness. There, their powers will be expanded, and they shall dwell forever where Jesus is. ‘In My Father’s house are many mansions. If it were not so, I should have told you. I go to prepare a place for you.’ (John 14:2).
‘So.’ Heaven is often said to be the home of the Lord’s people. Heaven is their haven. There is no better description of the Church of God than that of a ship. The ship is out at sea, the Lord’s people are on their way home. The bow is towards the good haven, the land of the blessed. In this fair haven, the land of promise, there are no storms, none within and none without. There is no sin there forevermore, no panics, no losses, no worries, but there the Lord’s people are free from all the storms that ever tossed them on the sea of time. O friend, heaven is that haven from which the ship shall never make another voyage. She shall be home for good, no longer mortal, for this mortal shall put on immortality, and this corruption shall put on incorruption. Whatever voyages she may make on the sea of time, all will be well in the haven forever and ever. Throughout eternity the people of God shall sail on a sea of glass. They will never say ‘I am sick.’ No, that is for the sea of time. That is where sin is, and trouble is. Heaven is the desired haven to all who have run to the haven Christ, with their sins in time. They may well long to be there where there is no sin, no trials, no troubles, no temptations, no sorrow, but only perfect happiness. Then they shall be with Jesus: where He is, there with their friends and brethren in Christ who have gone before. Friend, are you homeward bound, in the sense that you have come into the haven Christ as a lost sinner and are now looking to be in heaven for evermore? Most of all, heaven is their desired haven because Christ is there. O, will I ever get into Christ the haven? Will I ever get into heaven? Never, except the Holy Spirit bring me there. The Lord’s people need not be astonished at the storms and tempests. Let the believer who is getting grey turn up his log book (of the memory) and see how many days generally he has been in smooth waters. How many? Not many. For all the experiences and storms he has come through, he may expect more than one storm yet before he reaches the celestial shore. But for all that: ‘So he bringeth them to their desired haven.’ Ah, He says ‘Tribulation’; we say ‘Surely not,’ but He says ‘Yes, you will have tribulation.’ So the Lord’s people are to endeavour to be of good cheer. The Saviour also says: ‘Be of good cheer, I have overcome the world’ (John 16:33). ‘So He bringeth them to their desired haven.’ Not every sinner is brought to Christ and heaven. Ah, the natural man does not desire to be brought to Christ. ‘The natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God, for they are spiritually discerned’ (1 Cor. 2:14). The natural man, destitute of the Spirit of God, cannot know them, because they are spiritually discerned. The natural man and the worldly wiseman receive nothing by faith. He will not acknowledge his need of the work of the Holy Spirit of God. He is a Pelagian at heart. The things of the Spirit are foolishness in the eyes of the natural man. They are spiritually discerned, because they are made known only by the revelation of the Spirit. Who are they who are brought to the desired haven? According to the text and context, such as cry unto the Lord in their trouble. Now, the question we must ask is: Are you yourself a crying soul, in a spiritual Gospel sense? Are you pleading and entreating God’s mercy and deliverance? You say ‘I would pray with my whole heart, but I cannot get it out.’ Well feel it within your soul, for God can see your heart, and hear your cry and your desire. He heareth the desire of the humble (Ps. 10:17). Oh see that you pray the prayer of the publican — ‘God be merciful to me, a sinner’ (Luke 18:13). See that you come to Christ the haven in time, and find rest for your soul that you can never find in any other way. ‘All that the Father giveth Me shall come to Me’ (John 6:37). They shall come, not against their will, though they were unwilling. He has a way of making them willing, in the day of His power, by the power of the Spirit. Everyone who is given to Christ will come to Him, yes, even blind sinners, for He will lead the blind by a way that they knew not; even the dead spiritually: dead in trespasses and sins, for Christ quickens the soul. Oh, He makes a willing people in the day of His power to come to Him and be His forever. Why does Christ tell us that all who are given Him shall come to Him? To comfort ministers and preachers who preach sin and salvation in season and out of season. Though it is heartbreaking and preaching Christ to sinners who will not have Him, yet Christ says: ‘Your labour is not in vain in the Lord, for all that the Father giveth Me shall come to Me.’ If those who are first invited make excuses, others will accept the Gospel invitation. If the scribes and Pharisees stand away from the haven, publicans and harlots will make for it. None are cast out who come. ‘Behold, I make all things new’ (Rev. 21:5). ‘If any man is in Christ, he is a new creature’ (2 Cor. 5:17). If that is so when a poor sinner flies to Christ here, how much is it more so when a poor sinner arrives in the haven of glory.
In Revelation, Christ gives His names of honour as a pledge for the full performance of all He has promised to His people. ‘I am Alpha and Omega.’ Christ begins in time with His people savingly with His Word and Spirit, so He brings them to Himself in time, then in eternity. ‘So He bringeth them unto their desired haven.’
Let thy hope of heaven master thy fear of death. Why shouldst thou be afraid to die, who hopest to live by dying.
William Turnall.
Nothing to Pay
(Continued from page 102)
After a few days I called again. “Well, Reid,” said I, “how have you been since I saw you last?” “Bad,” was his only reply. “How have you felt in your mind?” “I have my own thoughts,” he answered gruffly; “but I don’t choose to be questioned.” “To your own Master you stand or fall,” I said; “but you seem very ill — time flies — eternity is at hand — you must soon appear before God; and what is to become of your never-dying soul?” “Damned,” he answered sternly. “May God fasten that upon your heart as a nail in a sure place,” I said; “for so sure as He does, He will draw out the nail, and drop in its stead the blood of the Lamb.” The man looked gloomy. “Well,” said he, “I have thought of all you said to me, and it seems to me to mean this:—One man may try all he can, and if he is not chosen he cannot be saved; and another man may not try at all, and yet if he is chosen he shall be saved.” “Just so,” said I; “you are quite right. I would only add this to what you have said, all the trying that comes from sinful man will go for nothing, certainly; but those who are chosen of God will be taught by God to try rightly, for Jesus says, ‘All that the Father hath given me shall come to me, and him that cometh unto me, I will in no wise cast out.’ When God begins with a sinner, a sinner will begin with God, and never before.” I saw Reid was greatly vexed I did not disapprove of his statement. “Well,” he replied angrily, “I call that cruel. A man to do all he can, and get nothing — another never move a peg, and get everything; as if I’d believe that.” “It is quite impossible to believe it savagely,” I replied, “unless God reveal it to you.” Reid looked as if he did not hear me, but was pursuing his own train of thought. “And now,” said he, “how can God be just in punishing sinners that can’t help it?” “Let God answer that,” I replied; and taking up a Testament that lay on the table, I opened at the ninth of Romans, and began from verse 13 to 20 — the very words he almost literally uttered. “Thou wilt say then with me, Why doth He yet find fault? For who hath resisted His will? Nay but, O man, who art thou that repliest against God? Shall the thing formed say to him that formed it, Why hast thou made me thus?” The piercing eyes of Reid peered into the page, as if questioning whether I had read aright, or supplied the text for my own turn. “Now,” said I, handing him the open book, “the Holy Ghost leaves it where you and I must, whether we like it or not.” “And yet,” said he, glancing at the text as he laid the book on the table, “it’s unreasonable. Make all of the same lump — choose some, and damn the rest.” “Yes,” replied I; “most unreasonable; for the Bible says, ‘The natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness unto him; neither can he know them, for they are spiritually discerned.’ Man’s reason, like all his other powers, is fallen and corrupt, and so he is incapable of judging the things of God — he puts bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter — darkness for light, and light for darkness. Nor is this the only truth beyond and contrary to man’s reason; there are many more quite as unreasonable, but none hits so hard or comes so home as this. It pushes proud man into a corner he cannot get out of — it stops all boasting — it cuts down all human efforts — it says you are in or out — and it puts all the power in God alone. Hence fallen man hates this doctrine, and the devil, who lost heaven because he had no interest in it, hates it with a deadly hate, and stirs up the wrath of sinners against it.” “Did you ever hate it then?” asked Reid with somewhat of softened inquisitiveness. “When dead in sin, I never troubled about it,” I answered. “When living in a formal state of profession, I believed it to mean the Jews, chosen by God as a nation. When a little serious about my soul, I supposed people where chosen for good works God foresaw they would do; but — when brought to this point, nothing to pay, began to see salvation must be all of grace, and that my polluted hand could take no part in the work. At length, by the application of this scripture, ‘Jacob have I loved, and Esau have I hated,’ the Lord slew my enmity — brought me a willing captive to bow to His truth, and some time after gave me a precious experience that I had an interest in His electing love.” “Well now,” said Reid, as if gathering strength by silence. “is there not a great deal in the Bible that looks as if we could do something?” “No,” I replied; “God is of one mind, and who can turn Him?” There is much in the Scriptures that even God’s people can neither explain nor understand, but there is nothing that, rightly understood, contradicts this truth — God first in everything. Much that in the Old Testament seems to favour your thought was addressed to the Jews as a nation, whom God placed in the midst of an idolatrous world, to keep up the knowledge and worship of the one true God; and He promised if they would outwardly honour Him, He would honour them; but God’s chosen people among the Jews were saved by grace — free favour alone;” and, as I spoke, I marked in his Bible the 17th of the 2nd Book of Kings, and the 54th of Isaiah. “Well now,” said Reid, “if all the trying in the Old Testament belongs to the Jews, what do you make of the trying in the New?” “Why,” I replied, “the trying in the New Testament is the proof and evidence that God has been first. Just as the tender blade out of the ground tells you the sower has gone before.” “Well,” said Reid thoughtfully, “trying can’t hurt anybody.” “What good will it do you,” I asked; “since the Bible tells us our righteousnesses are only filthy rags?” He made no answer. “Reid,” I said, “that viper will be crushed if ever Jesus is revealed to your soul; and instead of any hope that your trying will help your salvation, you will cry out, I am vile, and feel your best deeds would damn you, leave alone your worst.” “Well,” said Reid, “I have been a sinner — God knows I have,” and he threw his head against the high back of his chair, and rolled it slowly from side to side; “but you say that goes for nothing too, unless I am chosen.” “Quite true,” I replied; “I am not afraid of God’s truth, but if ever you are made to feel your sins, and love Jesus, these will be sweet signs that you are chosen. ‘No man can come to me (said Jesus) except the Father draw him;’ so if you are drawn, it is because God has been beforehand with you.”
About ten days from this visit I saw Reid again. He received me gloomily. “Are you any better?” I asked. “No,” he replied; “worse — every way worse — body and soul.” “And what do you think about your soul?” “Think?” said he, with a look of rugged anguish, “why there is a load here that is crushing me — killing me;” and he struck his breast vehemently as he spoke. “Well,” said I, “there is hope of a tree if it be cut down.” “No,” answered he, “there is no hope for me: I am dead — quite dead.” “Dead people don’t feel,” I rejoined. “No, nor I don’t feel,” said he quickly. “When a man has death and hell staring him in the face, and nothing but sin to look at, ’tis no wonder he should feel; but I am hardened.” “Do you pray?” I asked. “No,” he replied; “I can’t. I groan sometimes; but it isn’t prayer.” Now the very day before I had seen him these words were confirmed by his next-door neighbour, who told me for more than a week she and her husband could get no sleep, because Reid would sit up all night praying and groaning. Reid’s wife also subsequently testified to the same; as often he would arouse her and his children in the middle of the night, and say, “I see the flames of hell — I smell the fire from the pit. Oh, my burden, my burden! where shall I lay it? I am lost — I am damned! Let us all get up and pray.” And his timid wife and terrified children, amidst darkness and cold, would have to fall on their knees at his command, while, hour after hour, he groaned out bitter cries to God for mercy. “Well now, Reid,” said I, “what if God should be teaching you this first solemn lesson — nothing to pay?” “Oh,” he replied hastily, “I am not going to deceive myself with that — good as it is.” “I neither mean to deceive you nor persuade you,” I answered; “for if lifting up my finger would show you your interest in Christ, and give you peace, I would not do it. That is the Holy Ghost’s work, and all human persuasion is like water spilt upon the ground. I can only say, if those feelings you describe are from God, they will end to your unspeakable joy — if not, they will expire in darkness.” I added a few words upon the fulness and freeness of God’s great salvation — the completeness of Christ’s finished work — and the blessedness that all the blood-bought family should come assuredly to taste the sweets of it here in grace, and hereafter in glory.