Part 2 THIS GOD IS OUR GOD
Back to OUR GOD
"Come, all you that fear the Lord, and I will tell you what He has done for my soul." "And what He has done for my soul," every believer might have added, "He will also do for yours. I came to Jesus as a sinner, and He saved me. I called upon God in trouble, and He heard me. I said unto Him, You are my God; and He said, you my people." Oh, repair, then, to the Lord as to one whom others have found to be all you want in your present circumstances, and have found faithful to His promises, all-sufficient in His aid, unchangeable in His love, a very present help in time of trouble.
And if you feel that you dare not venture with your sin and need and burden; upon a faith so feeble and slender as your own, go on the faith and testimony of others, believing that God is what He says He is, because they have found Him so; and He who has proved a Father and Friend and Helper to them will not turn away His mercy from you, nor your prayer from Himself, and send you away unblessed. It is an instructive incident in the life of Jesus, that when the friends of the palsied cripple unroofed the house and let him down in the midst where Jesus was, it is recorded, "And when Jesus saw their faith (not the faith of the palsied man), He said unto the sick man with the palsy, Son, your sins be forgiven you."
Thus are we instructed by this remarkable incident, that a poor, miserable sinner may venture to come to Christ on the believing assurance of another- as many of the Samaritans went to see the Savior on the testimony of the woman who said, "Come, see a man that told me all that I ever did; is not this the Christ?" And when the believing soul has taken hold of Christ, it is henceforth then both its duty and privilege to become a true witness for Christ, exclaiming, "Now we believe, not because of your saying; for we have heard Him ourselves, and know this is indeed the Christ, the Savior of the world."
"Now will I tell to sinners round
What a dear Savior I have found;
I'll point to Your redeeming blood,
And say, Behold the way to God."
The suggestive incident to which we have just referred, is equally encouraging to those who are anxious for the salvation of their unconverted relations and friends. The poor paralyzed man had no power to come to Christ himself; but his believing friends brought him to Jesus. Precious sympathy! Wondrous faith! No marvel that He in whose eye faith is so precious a thing, now crowned their faith by an immediate response, granting even more than was asked.
Our unconverted loved ones are spiritually impotent! The malady of sin has paralyzed and deadened their whole being, and they "will not come to Christ that they might have life." Let us, in default of all spiritual power on their part, bring them in the arms of believing and importunate prayer to Him, and, despite every obstacle and discouragement, uncover the roof, if need be, and lay them down at Jesus' feet, whose Spirit alone can quicken, and whose touch alone can heal. Who can tell?
We only venture further to remark that, this PARENTAL, RECONCILED GOD is our God. This God, who has so clearly and so often revealed Himself in His Word as a reconciled Father to His people, and whom Christ has taught us so to approach Him, stands to us in the close and endearing relation of, "Our Father." Oh, costly and precious privilege of looking up to this great, this holy Lord God, and exclaiming, "My Father, God!" It is in this character He would have you recognize Him, in this relation He would have you come to Him, in this light He would have you view and interpret all His dealings both of mercy and of judgment. "And because you have become his children, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into your hearts, and now you can call God your dear Father. Now you are no longer a slave but God's own child. And since you are his child, everything he has belongs to you."
Hesitate not, then, beloved, in all your needs and trials, in all your mental and spiritual depressions, in all your conscious waywardness and disobedience, and in all the corrections and rebukes of His discipline- hesitate not still to love Him, to trust in Him, to submit to Him as your Father. Are you in need? He is pledged to supply it. Are you bereaved? His hand has done it. Are you sick? His providence has sent it. Are you in the garden of sorrow, with the cup of adversity trembling in your hand? Take it, drink it, looking up to Him with a filial, loving, submissive spirit, and exclaiming, "The cup which MY FATHER has given me, shall I not drink it?"
We reach an impressive and precious part of our subject- the ETERNITY OF OUR DIVINE PORTION. "This God is our God forever and ever." Everything here in this present world is changing. "The world passes away." A rope of sand, a spider's web, a silken thread, a passing shadow, an ebbing wave, are the most fitting and expressive emblems of all things belonging to this present time's state. The homes that sheltered us in childhood we leave; the land which gave us birth we leave; the loved ones who encircled our hearths pass away; the friends of early years depart; and the world that was so sunny, and life that was so sweet, is all beclouded and embittered; the whole scenery of existence changed into wintry gloom.
Still more sad and depressing are the spiritual vicissitudes to which our soul is constantly exposed. The waning of love, the decays of grace, the fluctuations of faith, the languor of life; true symptoms of spiritual declension of soul; are among the most startling and affecting illustrations of the mutability of all temporal and spiritual things.
But in the midst of all, "This God is our God FOREVER AND EVER!" All beings change but God. All things change but heaven. The evolutions of time revolve, the events of earth go onward, but He upon whom all things hang, and by whom all events are shaped and controlled, moves not. "I, the Lord, do not change." "Jesus Christ, the same yesterday, today, and forever."
Is this God our God? Then He is ours forever! Our affairs may alter, our circumstances may change, our relations and friends may depart one by one, and our souls in a single day pass through many fluctuations of spiritual feeling; but He who chose us to be His own, and who has kept us to the present moment, is our covenant God and Father forever and ever, and will never throw us off and cast us away.
Such, too, is the immutability of Jesus. "Jesus Christ, the same yesterday, today, and forever." "Having loved His own who were in the world, He loved them unto the end." We need the influence of this truth! Christ unchangeable– to soothe and solace us under the saddening, depressing effects of life's vicissitudes. We need it, too, and yet more deeply, amid the incessant fluctuations of our Christian experience through which we pass- the ebb and flow of the life of God in our soul. To know that no congealing of our love to Him can chill His love to us; to remember that, though we believe not, yet He is faithful, and cannot deny Himself- that our unbelief cannot make void His promises, nor our mutations affect the stability of His covenant- oh, this is strong consolation indeed, for which let our heartfelt praises ascend!
"Forever and ever!" Solemn words! Reader, what will YOUR forever and ever be? You die once, but to live and die no more! Your soul is immortal. Your being ceases not. Death, so far from being an annihilation, is not even a momentary suspension of your existence. Your present life, if life it may be called, for which you toil so incessantly, guard so assiduously, and love so intensely, is a transient, troubled dream; yet more, it is the tide that floats you rapidly upon its eddies onward to the solemn, endless future.
"Life is like a painted dream,
Like the rapid summer stream,
Like the fleeting meteor's ray,
Like the shortest winter's day,
"Like the fitful breeze that sighs,
Like the waning flame that dies,
Darting, dazzling on the eye,
Fading in eternity."
What will your eternity be? Where, how, and with whom will you spend it? Will it be forever and ever in heaven, or, forever and ever in hell? There is no middle state, no dream-land island between those two vast Continents. A deep and wide gulf divides them, and there is no passing from the one to the other. "These shall go away into everlasting punishment; but the righteous into life eternal." Of the first it is said, "And the smoke of their torment ascends up forever and ever!" and of the second, "Those who are wise shall shine as the brightness of the firmament, and those who turn many to righteousness as the stars, forever and ever." Decide this momentous question now; antedate your future condition by seeking an interest in a present salvation, by accepting at this moment a divine and personal Savior; in a word, by repentance toward God, and faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. "Behold, NOW is the accepted time, NOW is the day of salvation."
"He will be our guide, even unto death." The path to a future world is, in truth, difficult and perilous. Thousands of deathless souls undertake to travel it in the light of their own fire, in the sparks that they have kindled. Some, by the dim ray of reason; others, by the glowworm light of nature; yet others, by the treacherous light of their own righteousness. All these are false beacons; beacons which shine but to bewilder, and lead but to ensnare all those who trust to them.
"But watch out, you who live in your own light and warm yourselves by your own fires. This is the reward you will receive from me: You will soon lie down in great torment."
Isaiah 50:11. But God in Christ is the guide of the just. By His light they see light along all the dangerous way. Guided by that light, they walk through darkness, as at noon; their path to heaven, as the shining light which shines more and more unto the perfect day. Beloved, an unknown future is before you– a future of the present life; and a yet more real and solemn future of the life that is to come. But, tremble not, nor be dismayed. God, even your own God Father, is Your Guide and Christ, Your Shepherd, goes before you, and with a skillful, faithful, and gentle hand, will guide you safely to the end– yes, even unto death.
"Unto death"– what a precious and solemn assurance is this! Death is that crisis of our being we all must meet, yet all so dread. Its sting, its terror, its wrench, its obscured and changeless consequences all enshrouded in a mystery so awful and profound; is just that one event of life, the anticipation of which throws a shadow so dark over all brightness of existence. But faith in the Divine assurance that, this great and glorious, this incarnate and redeeming, this covenant and faithful God is 'our God, even unto death,' dissolves our fetters, dispels our fears, and we can anticipate, and even at times long for, the blissful moment that confronts us with the foe, unclothes us of mortality, and invests us with the robes of immortality and eternal life, and we are "clothed with our heavenly dwelling."
Cast from you, then, all your bondage through the fear of death, seeing that, down to the last moment, your God in Christ will be with you, at the presence and sight of whom, Death itself will turn pale and die. Oh, if this God is your God in life, do you think that, having guided and guarded you so long and so far on your journey, He will, at that solemn moment, when heart and flesh are failing, leave your side, and abandon you to go down 'the valley' all solitary and alone? Never! "This God is Our God Forever and Ever; He will be our guide even unto death"- in death- through death- and beyond death- Forever and Ever!
Oh, that blissful word 'forever!' Forever in heaven- forever and ever associated with saints and angels- forever and ever gazing on the beauty of Jesus- forever and ever basking in the sunshine of His glory- forever and ever chanting the song of the Lamb- forever and ever swimming in the ocean of God's love- forever and ever growing in knowledge and holiness and glory- forever and ever with the Lord! Oh, who would not forsake the world, and crucify the flesh, and bear the cross, confess and serve the Savior, live for Him, and die for Him who has by His death, resurrection, and ascension, so blessedly opened the kingdom of heaven to all believers!
"Forever with the Lord!
Amen, so let it be!
Life from the dead is in that word
'Tis immortality.
"Forever with the Lord!
Father, if 'Tis Your will,
The promise of that faithful word
Even here to me fulfill.
"So when my latest breath
Shall rend the veil in twain,
By death I shall escape from death,
And life eternal gain.
"Knowing as I am known,
How shall I love that word!
And often repeat before the throne,
Forever with the Lord!"
Confide in Him for the new year upon which you have embarked. Commit your every way unto Him, trust also in Him, and He shall bring to pass all that He has ordained and appointed for you in the everlasting covenant. Cast not about to know how this need shall be supplied, this difficulty met, and this affliction sustained; but, trust to the wisdom, and skill, to the faithfulness and love of your divine and heavenly Guide, until He brings you to glory. Let your one and only aim be to obey, please, and honor Him. Taking care of His glory, He will watch over your interests for time and for eternity. Take heed how you walk, and seek that a new epoch of time, a yet untried stage and untrodden path of your pilgrimage, shall be more holy, more Christ-exalting, more God-glorifying, and more heavenly than any you yet have passed.
The Divine command is, "Speak unto the children, that they go forward." Forward in obedience and duty- forward in service and suffering- forward in conflict and toil- forward, Christian, forward, even though the foe pursues, and the pathless water roll at your feet. Onward, Onward, "For the Lord your God knows your walking through this great wilderness." Blessed Lord! "You shall guide me with Your counsel, and afterwards receive me to glory. Whom have I in heaven but You? and there is none upon earth that I desire beside You."
'Tis Jesus, the First and the Last,
Whose Spirit will guide us safely home;
We'll praise Him for all that is past,
And trust Him for all that is to come.
"For this God is OUR GOD for ever and ever; he will be our guide even to the end." Psalm 48:14
Back to OUR GOD