03 - The Good Shepherd: 6-11
Conscience: Its Use and Abuse.
Assuredly, conscience is the mightiest weapon of the devil, as it is the most powerful instrument of the Spirit of Christ. Misled, defiled, hardened, it is Satan’s mightiest weapon of destruction; but cleansed, purged (according to Hebrews 9:14) by the blood of Christ, instructed by the Scriptures of truth, guarded, strengthened, and raised by the Spirit of Christ, it is all in all in regard to the believer’s walking with God, his running his race well to the end, ever growing up into Christ: such is the true business here on earth of every child of God. As we have been hearing, purely innocent beings (as were the first man and woman in paradise), could not possibly be aware of this faculty till it was called into exercise. They could not judge of what was good or evil; they naturally went right; they had an assured testimony, not by force of reason; but just as their bodily eye saw the light, so their understanding saw God their Creator (not as their Redeemer or Father), and His will touching them as creature most excellent; and they had perfect delight in doing His will. There was no struggle, no warfare, no conscience of evil-there was no possibility of their knowing what conscience of evil was, though they had the faculties which were afterwards unfolded; but conscience, as it signifies judgment of evil, they could not possibly have, till they chose for themselves, made choice against God’s will, and had a will of their own. Ever since that time, Satan has laid hold of man’s guilty conscience, and it has ever been his mighty weapon of destruction in the seed of Adam.
Let us first trace how Satan uses conscience to lead men while he hides his intent from them, and makes them his tools and dupes. Let us begin with Judges 17:1-5: "The man Micah had a house of gods." Mark, one token of conscience misled in this-it is always crying out, "What lack I yet?" Guided by the Spirit of God, it never asks that question, at least as touching sacrifice and the pardon of sin, because it rests on Christ, on God, and on His Word. A house of gods did not satisfy Micah (verses 7, 13). A Levite seeking a living, comes to his house and consents to be his priest; and Micah says, "Now know I that the Lord will do me good," &c. He had been uncertain before that Jehovah would do him good; but now he says he is sure of it, seeing he has a Levite for his priest. His restlessness of conscience is banished for a season; but mark, there is no turning to the law of God, the Scriptures of truth. If he had not substituted conscience for the guidance of the revelation of God-the five books of Moses-what would he have said to the house of gods, and a Levite ministering to idols? See the peril of a lack of proving and sifting one’s ways by the Word of the living God. In passing, let me say, God holds natural men responsible for following His revealed will. If He has given them the Scriptures, He holds them responsible for making a right use of them. Though He does not hold Ammonites, and Egyptians, and Edomites as He holds Israel, yet Israel, though they were a people, carnal, uncircumcised, in heart, had the marvelous light of the law-the books of Moses, and God held them accountable for them. He showed longsuffering indeed; but afterwards, the curses of Leviticus and Deuteronomy were poured out, and rest upon them to this day, and they are not yet expended; for Antichrist must come to fulfill what has begun. Natural men all around us are accountable to God for all the abominations under cover of which they shelter themselves, about which they so proudly talk-their "holy" this, and "holy" that. They do not suspect that by-and-by God will bring them to the plumb-line of His Word, and then what will become of all the priestly assumptions and national establishments under heaven? It is good for us who know something better to remember, when we see men going quietly to their cathedrals and synagogues, and practicing all kinds of the devil’s devices in the way of religion, speaking and acting proudly, that God and Christ will say to them at last, "You had my Word; you were bound to follow it."this is created by D. (0x
Another instance, perhaps still more terrible, of the power of Satan, through a misled, defiled, corrupted conscience, to keep his tools in his employ, is in I Samuel xiv. We have the record of Saul’s rash oath- "Cursed be the man that eateth any food this day." Jonathan, ignorant of the oath, put forth the end of his rod, and "dipped it in a honeycomb, and put his hand to his mouth." The next day Saul asked counsel of God, and God did not answer him. (Read verses 38-44,) Here was a man of faith. Jonathan, by faith raised above the law (faith always raises a man above law) ; yet his own father, through ignorance and a perverted conscience, would have this man, high in God’s favor, to be put to death! Yet Saul, we must remember, whatever he was at last, desired to be a religious king, as well as a valiant one, delivering Israel with sword and spear. Having respect at the beginning of his reign to the law of Moses, he said, "I will do God’s will;" and he put away wizards out of the land.this is created by D. (0x A yet more awful instance of Satan’s power to work by a perverted conscience: "What think ye? Ye have heard His blasphemy. He is guilty of death." They-priests, scribes, rulers-condemned Him, With the deep conviction on their consciences that they ought to do so. They condemned the Son of God to die (Mark 14:64); that is, they all pronounced their judgment, that according to the Scriptures He could not be spared-He must die. As they dealt with the man in Leviticus 24:10-16, who blasphemed, so they thought they ought to deal with the Son of the Blessed-the Lord Jesus Christ: conscience directed them to do so. Another instance we find in Acts 7:55-60, Acts 8:1, Acts 9:1-2. "As concerning zeal, persecuting the Church." Let us all, for not only young believers, but all of us need to consider afresh how, if we watch not, and have not a conscience void of offense, cleansed by the blood, guided by the Word, sanctified by the Spirit, Satan will take hold of it to draw us into evil. When once conscience comes to a wrong conclusion, pride comes in and drives us on; and nothing but the power that arrested persecuting Saul, can arrest the man with a mistaken conscience. He has a will of his own; his principles are not able to bear the test of the Word; and there is no knowing whither he will go: only the power of Him who said, "Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou Me?" can turn him from his dangerous course.mod made by Dav1d C0x
Then there is the blessedness of a "good conscience" in a spiritual sense. I doubt not Paul, in saying, "I have lived in all good conscience before God until this day," looked back through all his life when his conscience was good in his natural state, and also when he had the assurance that he had a good conscience, in a heavenly sense, when it was so in the eye of God Himself.
Nothing commends the gospel like the joy or the Holy Ghost: it speaks for itself. If I am happy in the love of God, the world will see it and talk about it. "See how happy so-and-so is." This ought to be the common mark of all the saints, as of old. "The disciples, walking in the fear of the Lord, and in the comfort of the Holy Ghost, were multiplied." It ought to be our proper natural state. If it is not so, we ought to inquire the reason; for happiness, through the joy of the Lord, is the chief thing that enables us to commend the gospel. It makes us wise as serpents, harmless as doves; it is the great secret of wise walking to be happy, to keep ourselves in the love of God, and by the very force of the happiness we possess, we are enabled to devise good for those around. If others are doing wrong, our souls will be able to rise above the wrong, and consider how he may overcome the evil with good. If I am very happy in the Lord, I cannot be overcome with evil; my joy in the Lord is more than my necessary food, my meat and drink, and I shall be certain to overcome with good, if I have joy in the Lord. Why is a good conscience to be sought? Because take it away, and you take away my joy in the Lord. I may have a scrupulous conscience, and yet not be happy; I may have an upright one, and not be happy in the love of God; I may have a determined purpose to do good, and yet not be happy. There must be something like that of which Hebrews 9:1-28, speaks: "How much more shall the blood of Christ. . . purge your conscience from dead works to serve the living God?" Remember, it is living service in living love to a living God, whose name is Love. You must begin with that secret. When the conscience of the first man and woman was defiled, we see the first scruple and first operation of law on the conscience. What is law? In 1 Corinthians 15:56 we have one of the most wonderful sentences in God’s most wonderful book: "The strength of sin is the law." What aggravated the sin of the man and woman was- "The woman whom Thou gavest to be with me," &c.-" The serpent beguiled me," &c. As much as to say, It was Thy fault. All this was the fruit of law working in the conscience. Though the law of Sinai was given long after, yet the law natural was there; and "the strength of sin is the law." Mark, how the apostle treats the matter in Romans vii. "Sin, taking occasion by the commandment, deceived me," &c. ; and, throughout the chapter, we see how the law in its own nature would work in the conscience. I will repeat what was said about the world. Before the shop of finery is before your eyes, and before thoughts of wasting money upon finery are in our minds, let our consciences be at the mercy-seat, listening above to the blood of sprinkling that speaketh better things than the blood of Abel; then our thoughts will be, Have I a sixpence---Lord, what shall I do with it? Tell me, Lord, of some poor and needy one who will find it useful. The conscience that listens to the blood of sprinkling is a good one, and will make an unworldly heart; and the state of the affections will be exactly according as the conscience is right or wrong, according as it is cleansed by the blood of Christ or not.
Again, I say, do not let us think that we do not need further light on our consciences through the Scriptures. It is a necessary mark of a truly good conscience, to be always inquiring of the Lord for further guidance, inquiring in the tenderness of love what my unwitting evil might be. The apostle Paul said (1 Corinthians 4:4), "I know nothing by"-i.e., against "myself, yet am I not hereby justified;" as much as to say, I am always presenting myself as the Lord’s servant before Him, asking Him to guide me; and if in anything I be otherwise minded from what I ought to be, I ask Him to reveal even this to me. One evil discovered leads to the discovery of many others. The greater part of the sins we are guilty of, are sins of ignorance. We have already mentioned one. "What think ye? He is guilty of death." The greater part of the sins of mankind at large, and of the children of God, by which they grieve the Spirit, are of this description; and the guilt lies often not so much in the thing itself, as in our ignorance of it. If the Israelites had not set up tradition in the days of the Judges, how could they have allowed idolatry? If they afterwards had not set aside the Scriptures, how could they have failed to see that Christ was the Christ of God? Their blindness was a judgment from God; their sins of ignorance were a judgment from God, because they were turning their backs upon the light. If we are walking in the light, dwelling within the veil, we should look around with astonishment, and marvel at the multitude of evils. Now we pass them by, or say, perhaps, What a pity! They do not shock us as they shocked Christ. Witness the one single evil, with its accompaniments, of God’s people not being one. Who are in the dust? Who put on sackcloth? Because the conscience is not exercised as it should be by the Scriptures. Let me call to mind the blessedness of a quick ear, which we get not in a day, to distinguish the voice of God. It was natural to Christ, but not to us. The Lord never needed the Spirit of God to speak any other than in a whisper; He never needed to be called as Samuel. Samuel was a blessed type of Christ, but he was not Christ. Christ never needed to be called; He was always nigh. When Elijah was out of the way, God spoke to Him in a whirlwind, by an earthquake, and by fire. He never spoke so to Christ; when the Lord was baptized, the Spirit, like a dove, rested upon Him; and this may indicate how the Lord never needed to be spoken to loudly by God. He was ever listening for the whispers of the Spirit. This is the kind of conscience we ought to seek. How much greater the gain than the loss! The things we lose are nothing but dung; the things we gain are treasures indeed--walking with God, the joy of His countenance, the approval of the Lord, the hope of meeting Him in glory, and being not ashamed before Him.
We will turn to 2 Samuel 23:15, an action of three mighty men twice recorded. "David longed, and said," &c. He did not command the three mighty men; he did not say, Who will go? He did not even look around and cast a glance at anyone; he merely said, "Oh that one would give me!" The wish of David was law to those men; they counted not their lives only dear for David’s sake. We should thus listen to the Word of God. We must read it as a whole, in the order in which it is written. I will give you one great reason for this. If I read the Scriptures, dipping in here and there, not taking them as a whole in order, be sure that Satan will take advantage of my neglect of honoring the wisdom of God respecting this order, and he will find my mind and conscience with imaginations of my own. If I read the Word patiently, esteeming it as I ought to do, reading it as regularly as I feed or cleanse my body, and make it my meat, wine, and water, then by little and by little, if to-day I have a wrong judgment, tomorrow, or the day after, God will deliver me from it, meeting me in reading the Scriptures with the truth in opposition to my mistake. If we were all Bible readers and lovers, instead of having contrary judgments, it would be natural to us to speak the same thing; we should be perfectly knit together in one mind and judgment.mod made by Dav1d C0x This more would I say as to the path of the believer, who is more like Lot than Abraham. It is smooth at first, but not always so; the path of selfishness is always rough at the end; the path of cross-bearing, self-denying, following Jesus is rough at first, but what by-and-by? "Them that honor me I will honor, and those that despise me shall be lightly esteemed." This passage is the more instructive, because it is not spoken as the contrast between the world and the people of God, but between the believer wholly following the Lord, and those more like Eli, than Christ or Samuel (1 Samuel 2:30). Eli was unquestionably a child of God, but an unstable one in his ways. God said He would raise up a faithful priest; this was fulfilled in Zadok, in the days of Solomon; and the faithfulness of Zadok, and the unfaithfulness of Eli, will be brought to mind when Israel is set again in the land (Ezekiel 43:1-9). The contrast, then, lies not between a world that despises God, and the people of God; but between believers that are not faithful, and those that are. The notion of all young people, and which can scarcely be got rid of except by grace is, that happiness depends on circumstances, on what they are, on what they possess, and what relationships they have. But truly, happiness depends on no circumstances whatever, but purely and solely does it depend on honoring God, on walking with God, on knowing and doing His will from the heart. The moment this truth is settled in the mind, that your happiness does not in the least depend on your station, your circumstances, your relationships, but purely on the state of your soul Godward, you possess a secret of wisdom in going through this evil world which once had a paradise, but can never have another, except we bring down into our hearts the paradise of God.
Tried in the Fire.
THOU art the only wise;
How good Thy discipline!
Thy saints, so precious in Thine eyes, As gold thou dost refine.
My heart-Thy dwelling-keep
Pure and all undefiled;
Ever with Thee in fellowship, With all Thy fullness filled.
Thy Spirit gives me might;
The Bridegroom with me dwells,mod made by Dav1d C0x
My strength, my glory, my delight;
Thy mysteries He reveals.
My faith which, through the gloom
Of trial, keeps Thy word,
Shall be my praise when He shall come, The Lamb, the glorious Lord!
Triumphant, I my crown
Shall cast at Jesus’ feet,
When we shall know as we are known, And all in glory meet.
Christ in the Psalms.
I WOULD ask you, beloved, to consider Christ as I presented to us in the first Psalm-Christ the learner, Christ the lover of the Scriptures, and Christ always prospering. In the first verse of the Psalm we have the past, the present, and the future of the world, that is of all who are not born of the Spirit. The world is going on to its destruction, as the swine, into which the demons expelled by the Lord from the poor sufferer were permitted to enter, ran violently down a steep place and were choked in the sea The last stage of the world’s course is sitting in "the seat of the scornful." God never executes judgment upon the children of Adam without patience to the uttermost, but that patience is always abused by man. In verse 4, we have both the judgment set forth and the character of those upon whom it is executed. The one word "chaff" includes those of all nations and all ranks who are not reckoned amongst the people of God. The wind drives it away, clearing it as it were out of the floor. That is its doom, and its sentence is passed already. When the world least thinks of the execution of that sentence, when they say "Peace and safety," then will sudden destruction come upon them, and they will not escape. In consideration of this, how it becomes us to be so living, so as to have Christ in us, as to rebuke the world’s sleep of death. This we cannot do, save as the commandment in Colossians is obeyed, "Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly." It is a marvelous thing when the sinner discovers that he is lost, and a still more marvelous revelation when the lost sinner meets the Saviour of the lost. That is the first step in the ladder, and you all know it; but we all need reminding of it. The next step is to know by the witness of the Spirit that I am God’s child.
While the world is as chaff, we have to do with certainties-- the certainties of God’s Word, His truth, His commandments, and His promises. We have not to do with uncertainties save as to committing them to Him with whom nothing is uncertain, and who will show how pleased He is when we trust Him for the morrow. And how shall we have the heart of faith worthy of God? Not by neglecting His Word, or dealing lightly with the conscience; but by copying the Lord Jesus as the Learner, according to the Word, "His delight is in the law of the Lord, and in His law doth He meditate day and night." This is the secret of growth. "He shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water." The tree thus planted grows, and its growth is very sure. In Luke ii. we see the Lord as the Learner, "Sitting in the midst of the doctors, both hearing them and asking them questions." The same passage gives evidence of His growth, for "all that heard Him were astonished at His understanding and answers. . . . And Jesus increased in wisdom and stature, and in favor with God and man."
These words remind us of Isaiah 1:1-31. "The Lord God hath given Me the tongue of the learned, that I should know how to speak a word in season to him that is weary. He wakeneth morning by morning, He wakeneth Mine ear to hear as the learned. The Lord God hath opened Mine ear, and I was not rebellious, neither turned away back. I gave My back to the smiters, and My cheeks to them that plucked off the hair. I hid not My face from shame and spitting." Concerning the words that follow these, let us observe that in Romans 8:1-39. Paul takes them out of the mouth of Christ, and puts them into the mouth of every believer. The reason of this is, that the justification of the Head on the ground of atonement, declared by resurrection, is our justification. Does not the statement, "Whatsoever He doeth shall prosper" answer to Psalms 91:1-16? There we read, "There shall no evil befall Thee, neither shall any plague come nigh Thy dwelling .... Because He hath set His love upon Me, therefore will I deliver Him. I will set Him on High, because He hath known My name. He shall call upon Me and I will answer Him. I will be with Him in trouble; I will deliver Him and honor Him." Does not this express the mind of God towards Christ the Learner of Psalms 1:1-6?
There was never a moment, but the blessed Lord, even upon His mother’s breast, was looking onward to the glory, and to the pathway to the glory, even the death of the cross. Very plain is this from Psalms 22:1-31. "He trusted on the Lord that He would deliver him: let Him deliver Him, seeing he delighted in Him. But Thou art He that took me out of the womb. Thou didst make me hope when I was upon my mother’s breast. I was cast upon Thee from the womb; Thou art my God from my mother’s belly." There was no way in the eye of God, no way in the thought and mind of Christ, for prosperity, but by the death of the cross. It was not merely God’s choice that by the gate of death heaven should be opened to Christ our Priest and Head, and so to us; but I humbly affirm, according to Romans iii. that God only had choice between this, and leaving us as He left the angels that sinned. If He would have us as sons and daughters, there was no other way to bring it about. Only thus, could He "be just, and the justifier of him which believeth in Jesus." Christ prospered by death and resurrection, and as He trod the path toward the cross, He never thought of the one without the other. He never looked at the glory apart from the way in which He would earn it, and never looked at the cross without its fruit.
We are to follow according to this pattern. Our chief cause of stumbling in the path of faith is, not beginning with its glorious end. At the judgment seat of Christ, there will be no labor unrequited, no work without its wages; but the wages will be a marvel, and we shall only see the riches of our Lord and Master’s love and grace in giving such recompense for such work. Whatever service we render, small or great as it may be in the account of men, it must have its prosperous issue in the day of the Lord. We shall never faint when we are serving, if only we aim high enough, as did Christ. He always found His recompense in God. His constant testimony, according to John 8:1-59. was, "I do always those things that please Him." I always accomplish my own intent. Let it be our aim to have the same testimony.
Then we shall form a true estimate of our many imperfections, if we consider ourselves as justified persons sent down into this world to be witnesses of Christ. We sprang out of the earth in our first head; but now we are sent down into the world, as God the Father sent Christ, missionaries everyone in the highest sense, and if we aim at the great success of pleasing God, we shall always succeed and never fail. Let us not be disturbed by uncertainties; but leaving the events of tomorrow with God, let us pursue the pathway of service for God, by taking heed unto His Word. The Lord dealt with the whole Word of God in complete obedience; let me aim at unswerving obedience, in all that He gives me to know of it, and while I find out the faults of my own work, He hides them from His eyes by His own blood, while He gives me the testimony that I walk holily and blamelessly before men.
Confession of Sin.
Read Daniel 9:1-27.
Let us consider the chapter we have been reading. First, we will observe that one of the chief demands God makes, and a demand He never forgoes is, the confession, full and complete, of the sin whereof forgiveness is sought. We remember the great law of His grace, given us by the Apostle John, "If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness." Now, on the one hand, it is not possible for God to seal forgiveness of sins upon the heart and conscience unless there be a confession; and on the other hand, it is not possible for Him to withhold the pardon, and all that follows, viz., life eternal, sonship, if there be that confession. I say this, because in this company there may be some who have never considered this at all; there may be others that have consciences troubling, accusing, and shutting out the Gospel from the soul. To such I would say, that we have been reading one amongst the many patterns in Scripture of the confession of sin. You will observe there are two great marks of right and acceptable confession, acceptable to God. One is that the sin is always regarded as against Him committed. Now, the natural conscience never has this rule, and measure, and scales, and weights. The natural conscience is like that man in Luke, "I thank Thee I am not as other men." It is damage done to the creature, and the judgment of the creature and neighbor, that rules the conscience of the mere natural man. When the Spirit of God instructs the conscience, damage done to the man or a neighbor is out of sight; the majesty of God, and His excellency, alone is the rule of judgment, and as the act is against Him so is the guilt of the sin.
Now, whenever a sinner comes to this conclusion, "Against Thee only have I sinned;" when God’s holiness is the measure of the guilt, thank God, he is in the path of life. A step further-he will make no excuses. Instead of making excuses and finding fault with God, which is the course that the mere natural conscience takes, it will be the opposite of this; he will be without excuse before God; he will entirely justify God, and loathe and condemn himself. Why so? Because, "blessed is the poor in spirit." It is God’s delight as well as glory to forgive.
Man thinks it is left to himself, and that forgiveness must be extorted from God. Ah! it is God’s delight to forgive. Forgiveness must not be extorted from God; but confession must be wrung out from the obstinate heart of the sinner. It is hard for the sinner to confess, but easy for God to forgive. I would remind you how the confessions which you find in Daniel, in Nehemiah, in Ezra, and the Book of the Lamentations of Jeremiah bear marks of confession acceptable to God, if you will observe them and compare them together. The times that have passed in the wisdom of God over this world, are all favorable to faith in God; each period, each age, each country will supply to faith peculiar occasions of glorifying God. Now, in this present time, there are beyond question growing difficulties in the pathway of the people of God; their hearts feel it; but this would I say, that commonly the thoughts and feelings of God’s people about the matter, rather bespeak looking to the difficulty than to the occasion furnished by the difficulty for pleasing the Living God.
Now, for a moment, compare this servant of God, Daniel, with some others that have gone before. Take Moses, who brought Israel, the one people of Jehovah, out of Egypt. He had occasions that Abraham had not for trusting God, which is the great secret of pleasing Him, and we know how that great servant of God did profit by those occasions, and how God’s character, and Moses’ acquaintance with God are brought out, for we see him to be a man of like passions with ourselves; here and there the flesh appears; but we find how that in his course he fully glorified God.
If we take up Joshua in like manner, when all Israel was one; if we go to David (passing others by) we see one peculiarly glorifying God (in times in a great measure differing from those of Moses), when he was persecuted by the king, King Saul. He profited by his occasions. But we see Daniel in captivity giving honor to God, as having an occasion that none had before him. The captivity to the end seemed hopeless; but we observe that Daniel is so acquainted with God, that while he says (4th verse)-"The curse of the Lord is upon Israel," he rises, and herein is the great secret of faith-he rises above all the law of Moses to the God of all grace, that made promises to Abraham, Isaac, and Israel. It is the rather to be observed, beloved, because, whereas Daniel did this, so did Moses before him at the foot of Mount Sinai; and we see how far Moses excels his forefather, Abraham, as an intercessor. You will remember that Abraham says (making a kind of bargain with the Lord)- "I will speak only this once. Let not the Lord be angry, if there be but ten righteous." He has the promise, and, we observe, Abraham left off asking before the Lord left off granting. But worse than Sodom by far, was the guilt of Israel in making a golden calf at the foot of Mount Sinai. After the redemption out of Egypt by the passage of the Red Sea, after they had made their vow to keep God’s law, how far greater their provocation of God than all the sins of Sodom! Yet Moses betakes himself to God’s care as the God of all grace. Let us refer to it in Exodus 32:13. You will observe at the foot of Mount Sinai he rises upon eagle’s wings above all its thunders, and he deals with the character of God as the God of all grace that made such promises to Abraham. Now, precisely so with Daniel. He knows the righteousness of the judgment; he perfectly justifies God in that judgment; and then he rises far above the law of Moses.
Now we should not go wrong in our affections, in our consciences, in our judgments, in our faith, in earthly things amidst the world, if we always kept before us the name, mind, and character of God as revealed to us in Christ Jesus. The great success that Satan obtains over the natural man is-he slanders the character of God (the word "devil" means slanderer), and the poor fool believes the lie, and deals with God as a hard person; he wishes to be out of God’s presence-to be without Him. And in like manner does Satan seek to hinder the ways and darken the mind of the child of God; but he cannot root out the root of living faith. Do not let us think that when Daniel says "by books" it means books of human wisdom; it is the height of folly to think that; it is the books of Scripture he refers to, but especially the particular revelation of the "seventy years" of Jeremiah in his prophecy.
Oh! my dear friends, there is every day a need that we renew, through the Word of God, our apprehensions of our God and Father in Christ Jesus; and those who neglect the Scriptures, and do not thus renew their right apprehensions of God, think God wrong, and do not perceive, do not feel it, do not consider it. Now, you will observe also, that as this servant of God (very lovely to see it), grows more importunate and fervid; not a whit less is his reverence in spirit and speech. I say, not less reverent, because in the 19th verse, again and again he uses the word "Lord;" Sovereign Lord, which means that God has a right to do what He will. It is very good, indeed, to bear in mind the peculiar significance of the threefold meaning of the words Sovereign Lord. One is-He has a right to do what He will ; He is the potter and has a right to fashion the clay as He pleases; He cannot do wrong, because He wills His deeds; secondly, Jehovah, the same yesterday, to day, and for ever; and thirdly, God the Almighty One, able to do all that He has said. Now, then, Daniel having these three titles in his heart and upon His lips, says-" 0 Lord, hear; 0 Lord, forgive; 0 Lord, hearken and do; defer not; for Thine own sake, 0 my God; for Thy city and Thy people are called by Thy name." Oh! my dear friends, as faith grows, it becomes one with God in His purpose to please Him. Strictly speaking, God has but one business to do, and that is to do His own will. But what a will is that! A will of infinite wisdom, of infinite love. Oh beloved, let us fall in with that purpose; let there be no will of ours, no will but His, then we shall, as it were, nestle nearer the bosom of God in Christ, and we then shall be more and more trusting, more and more fervid in intercessions and prayers, and yet our reverence will grow for the God with whom we are so familiar. In these days, you often find such words as these from the lips of Christians-"0 Lord, we are unworthy dust." Now, that does not come from humility, but from ignorance of God. Daniel was worthy to be heard, and he knew it. But how came he by that worthiness? Acquaintance with God. Every man that does justice to God is worthy to be heard. God accounts him worthy; and He tells Daniel so in sending Gabriel, the mighty one of God, and causing him to fly swiftly. And you will observe that before the revelation of the seventy weeks is made, what is said to Daniel-" 0 man, greatly beloved." There are two modes (if I may so speak) which God takes of answering prayer. The first is the answer within us; the other is the answer without us. Now, the first answer was given to Daniel by the messenger Gabriel. What a stir was made in the heavens by the prayer of this captive! If the praises of Job were sounded in heaven in the presence of the host of the angels of Satan (a marvelous chaos in that place of glory), well, so Gabriel had his message; he heard it in the heaven of heavens, he delivered it on earth. Here was a man by nature just like the rest of mankind, and, worse than that, just like the rest of wretched Israel who had corrupted themselves more than Gentiles by nature, and yet by grace wrapping and laying up God’s Word in his heart, cleansing himself by the Spirit and by the Word, he knew how to take advantage of all the terrible judgments of God upon Israel, and by their sins to speak to the heart of God, pledging God’s name and character as the great reason why He should have mercy upon Israel.
Let us, beloved, consider what this has to do with the present times. We remember the commandment, "Pray for kings and for governors, and for all that be in authority." My dear brethren and sisters in Christ, God looks to us who love His name, (us means the whole family of God) to be intercessors in prayer with Him for the world. The world continues for the sake of the Church of God; heaven and earth are kept in their course for the sake of the family of God; but the world does not know it. Our prayers are very much shut up to this-The salvation of son and daughter, father and mother, husband and wife, and the salvation, perhaps, of our neighbors; but it is rather the advantage to the creature that occupies us than the honor and joy brought to God by the petition of His Church, and by the salvation of sinners. "Thy Name," says Daniel. Oh, we should never flag in faith, never flag in prayer, if we considered that the great intent of the Gospel is to be pleasing God rather than the creature; and we should never faint in our service if we began and ended where God begins and ends. But if we are swallowed up in the creature’s advantage, and the pleasing of God last, we shall not be like Moses interceding at Sinai, nor like Daniel interceding for the captives in Babylon, but we shall be like that man who fled from Jezebel and laid himself down under a juniper-tree, and requested that he might die, because he was no better than his fathers. What made that great man so small? He rose, no doubt, far above it before he was taken up into heaven without seeing death, and God rebuked him by not answering his unbelieving, fretful prayer. But what was the cause of his fainting? He made the advantage to Israel his first care and God’s glory his last, and when he found he could not obtain what was dearest to his heart-the restitution of Israel to God-well, then, his all was gone, and he fretted against God. We shall never be weary ill well-doing, if we begin and end with pleasing the living God.
Let me just observe, there is a remarkable difference between the revelation of the time of Christ’s first coming and the Scripture speaking of His second coming. You will observe, to Daniel was revealed the precise time of the cutting off of the Messiah. No one in that day could possibly doubt about the period, and hence even the enemies of the Lord were expecting Christ to come. They did not know the Christ of God; they had turned the Christ of God into a Christ of their own imaginations and hearts; but still, even as to the time, the ungodly Jew knew when He would come. Now, beloved, the word is remarkably used by Paul and Peter, touching the second coming, "due time." Paul says-If you remember "due time?" That God had made it manifest that what Christ did, none but Christ could do-make atonement for sin. Let us turn to the last chapter of Colossians, 7th verse--" Due season;" surely carrying us on to the final harvest, where "in due season" we shall reap if we faint not. Peter says- "Humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God, and He shall exalt you in due season." Now, beloved, why should not the time in the latter case (that of the second coming) be revealed, as in the case of the coming to do the work of redemption? Beloved, God’s rule is this-wherever he gives a revelation of Himself, and makes known His character more and more, He makes a demand upon us for faith. Now, here He has so revealed Himself in Christ, "in whom dwelleth all the fullness of the Godhead bodily;" that, to speak with reverence, all that God can do is to reveal what He has already done. Having made this perfect revelation He makes this demand upon us, and we should trust Him for the time. But this I would also say-He expects us to reckon time as He does, and as Christ does Himself. Just turn to Hebrews 10:37. You remember a verse in Habakkuk, "Though it tarry wait for it." It is very significant to see the Spirit by Paul dropping the words that before Christ did come are put into the mouth of the prophet Habakkuk- "though the vision tarry," and saying, "Yet a little while, and He that shall come will come, and will not tarry." "A little while" not worth counting! Oh, my dear friends, methinks that while it becomes us with longing hearts to pray for the coming of the Lord Jesus, it becomes us equally to be thankful for the occasions we have of magnifying His Name; but it will come to an end with Him. Daniel profited by his occasions in captivity; let us profit by our occasions, furnished to faith in the midst of the Church of God, grievously carnal and shamefully divided. Let us take occasion, beloved, to please God according to that which His own Word and character demands, and to please God also in respect of the world, which is pictured by the herd of swine running violently down the steep place into destruction. There are dreams in the people’s minds of the world becoming better and better. Oh! my dear friends, how terrible the delusion, and how hurtful, too! a setting aside of the Scriptures of truth; the world is going on to judgment, and the proudest nations must have the heaviest strokes. Why? Because they are setting up the wisdom of man, and have crucified the Son of God, who is the Wisdom of God, and whose weakness is the power of God. In 2nd Corinthians chap. v. we have these words-" God hath made Him to be sin for us who knew no sin, that we might be made "-what? "the righteousness of God." What is the righteousness of God? Surely the meaning is something more than a righteousness by the hand of God, wrought when the first man was created in uprightness. His righteousness was the creation of God in one sense, i.e., a righteousness worked out by God, but it was not as given in the deep sense of this passage before us. The righteousness of God is that wherein all the glory of the Godhead has set forth its perfections-wherein all its glories at once and together shine out; everlasting righteousness-one that never can contract spot or stain. What follows? That a poor sinner may make a confession of his sin to God, and have nothing but Christ to plead-nothing but Christ to trust in; and if seeing himself to be such, what does he become? A child of the living God-a co-heir with Christ, and that Scripture must be fulfilled in him, "Whom He justified, them He also glorified." And what shall keep God’s people when they are in glory? Shall it be because there is no temptation; or, because into that City of God shall enter nothing that defileth? No! Shall it be because they have perfectly the likeness of Christ? No! All necessary to their perfect happiness; but their preservation will lie in this-they are seen in Christ so bound up in the bundle of life-made to be the righteousness of God in Christ, that God’s own immutability will secure them from falling from that better paradise. The poor sinner becomes a child of God, and so nigh to God, so one with Christ, so loved of God in Christ, that holy angels are his ministers, and he is raised far above them. Christ is not found to call one of these angels "brethren;" but He does so to every poor sinner that trusts in His blood. Oh! my dear friends, it is not barely promises we have to plead with God; promises are very good, but, as a child of God, I have the heart of God to encourage me; I have His heart; let Him have mine, and I shall not distrust His love or His wisdom about anything. He can never fail to be a just God; He will never fail to execute all His purposes-and one is to show in unrepenting sinners that He never can lie; that they are the authors of their own destruction, while we are not the authors of our salvation. He will have a justification from their own mouth amidst the weeping and torment of hell; they will have two hells (and the worst within them), the fire without and the fire within. Oh! my dear friends, it will be seen then that God is all in all. Oh, happy those that fall in with the great purpose of God to glorify Himself and take advantage of present times, present occasions to glorify Him, so that they may have the inner testimony that Daniel had- that they are pleasing God. Then they may safely leave the outer testimony to the guidance of His wisdom. The Friendship of Christ.
"Henceforth I call you not servants" (John 15:7-15)· Is not this word "henceforth" a marvelously significant word? Abraham "was called the friend of God," and God treated him as such when He said, "Shall I hide from Abraham that thing which I do?" The Lord did not make light of the friendship of His friend Abraham; it was indeed a marvelous friendship. The way of obedience was then the way of friendship, and so it is now. But then the Son of God had not borne the curse upon the tree; He had not then ascended up on high to procure the Spirit-the Comforter-through His one perfect offering. Therefore the word "henceforth" shows us that by comparison with the amazing advantages of this intimacy, which is the fruit of the indwelling Spirit, former friendships are passed away, though not made nothing of.
Now we see the Son of God made perfect through sufferings, having sunk into unsearchable depths of woe; and according to His past sorrows are His present joys with God the Father, as set forth in Psalms 21:1-13 : "Thou preventest Him with the blessings of goodness: Thou settest a crown of pure gold on His head. . . . Thou hast made Him most blessed for ever: Thou hast made Him exceeding glad with Thy countenance" (v. 3, 6). We think of God as the God of sin-avenging justice, commanding the sin-avenging sword to awake and smite our Surety; but now that word is fulfilled, "Therefore doth My Father love Me, because I lay down My life." Then next to this joy in the Father, comes--not the ceaseless ministry of holy angels, nor the subjection of all creation to Him, but-His friendship with us. It is joy to Him to give life, to bring the child of Adam out of death into life; but that is only the stepping stone to the higher joy of friendship.
Now, beloved, we know that the Father seeketh worshipers; that we are only seekers and worshipers because God the Father has sought the worship of our hearts; and that He delights more in our worship of holy fear and love, than we can delight in His answers to our prayers. So the blessed Son of God craves our friendship more than we can desire His; He has all the heart to crave it that He had when He redeemed us by the death of the cross. But then there is a "whatsoever" in the condition on which this fellowship can be known. The blessed Lord proved in the garden-in answer to His prayer, "If it be possible, let this cup pass from Me "-that it was not possible for Him to pass into a state of glory and of joy without the cross, and He added, "Not My will, but thine be done;" and then was fulfilled Psalms 22:1. If God’s will could not bend to Him, not a whit less can the will of our Lord bend to us in respect of the path of friendship: "Ye are my friends, if ye do whatsoever I command you" (v. 14). This is the condition of friendship; verse 10 gives the pattern: "If ye keep My commandments, ye shall abide in My love; even as I have kept My Father’s commandments, and abide in His love." And then, beloved, observe these other words in verse 7, "If ye abide in Me, and My words abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto you." In chap. xvii., the Lord says, "I have given them Thy Word;" but He also speaks of His words. You will remember also the sweet words of Psalms 119:1-176, "Thou art My portion, 0 Lord: I have said that I would keep Thy words;" that is, I will have respect to every jot and tittle of Thy will as in Scripture revealed.
There is no other "if" added as a condition of friendship; but this" if" stands as a rock that cannot be shaken. So my great business, in order to become the friend of Christ is, first to know the will of the Lord as set forth in the Scriptures, and then never to make a league with the Canaanites, that is never to yield to any temptation to come short of that will in my obedience.
Now the blessed Lord had nothing to unlearn. He could not say, "In Me, that is, in my flesh, dwelleth no good thing." He was under the law, and the law of God was in His heart, and the holy eye of God could have made no allowance for imperfection in Him. But no allowance was needed, for He could always say, "I delight to do Thy will, 0 My God." The law, broken by man, He had come to magnify, and as our Surety He spake the word, "Mine iniquities have taken hold upon Me." As the result of this, we do not stand before a sin-avenging God as criminals before a judge; nor do we stand in the simple relation of the creature to the Creator; but we stand in such a relation to God that His love must be to us what it is to the Son, and Christ’s love to us is what God’s love is to Him. It cannot be less. But the law of communion is unalterable, and my desire for it must be according to that law, with the entreaty for the Lord so to search me, that there may be nothing in me to hinder the communion which He craves. With regard to the imperfections of obedience which accompany every deed and wish and thought, however holy, let us never think of them as less than sins which could only be blotted out by the blood of Christ. It is very easy to consider myself delivered from sin, root and branch, if I have a shallow conviction of what sin is. In Romans 7:1-25, Paul said. "The good that I would, I do not; but the evil that I would not that I do." Oh, that we may be delivered from scanty thoughts of sin! If I do not stand before God as the criminal before the sin-avenging Judge, it is because Christ stood for me as my Surety. Oh! beloved, let us learn this, that on the one hand God could not possibly bear with us if we did not stand in Christ; and that on the other hand while we see our sins and are humbled, He says of us, "How holily, justly and unblameably!" Here is our perfectly pleasing God, as again we have it, "We give thanks to God always for you all, making mention of you in our prayers; remembering without ceasing your work of faith, and labour of love, and patience of hope in our Lord Jesus Christ, in the sight of God and our Father" (1 Thessalonians 1:3; 1 Thessalonians 2:10). And, beloved, we ought to have the testimony that we please God. This testimony every child of God is responsible to have. But it is much easier for Him to be pleased with our endeavors to please Him, than for us to be content and satisfied with our attainments.