[“The man was above forty years old on whom this miracle of healing was showed.”— Acts 4:22.]
THOSE who have preached the gospel and labored for the conversion of the souls of men and women have had to confront the appalling fact that few indeed are delivered from Satan’s power who have passed their fortieth year in the service of sin. What a sight it is for angels and for men to witness when a sinner “above forty years old” is seen upon his knees crying to God for mercy and salvation.
Forty in Scripture is the numeral which sets forth “perfected probation in responsibility to God.” Many proofs of this might be given, but it will suffice to recall the solemn fact that for forty years God proved Israel in the wilderness—showering His mercies upon them, feeding them with angels’ food, and meeting their every need. But the people hardened their hearts, so that, at the expiration of the forty years, God was grieved with that generation, and said, “They do alway err in their hearts, and they have not known my ways. So I aware in my wrath, They shall not enter into my rest” (Heb. 3:10, 11).
God’s governmental dealings are the same with “a man only” as with “a nation” (see Job 34:29).
But none need despair. If the forty-year-old sinner is only prepared to bow, God is prepared to bless. We have seen the wonderful grace of God among the aged lately in a most marked way; as though He were gathering up the fragments before the final closing of the “door of mercy.” So that if my reader has passed his or her probationary period, so to speak, and is not yet saved, I desire to record the following narrative for your encouragement and help, trusting it may lead you to cast yourself upon the mercy of God that He may yet pardon you.
It was during the Tent season just closed. We had pitched the Gospel Tent at P—, and found it a very hard place indeed. Spiritual darkness and deadness seemed to have settled upon the people generally, but soul-concern could be seen upon the faces of a few. One woman particularly struck my attention, and, as she left the tent, I asked her if she would like me to visit her. “I wish you would, sir,” she replied, her miserable face putting on a decidedly hopeful look.
Finding her cottage next day, I took my seat inside, to seek to help her in her soul trouble. “I hope you won’t mind, sir,” said she, “I have asked my father-in-law to come in and see you too—he is as troubled as I am. I have been telling him all you have told us at the Tent. See, here he comes.”
Looking through the window, my eyes alighted upon a poor old man on crutches, feeling his way along the garden rails toward the house. With great difficulty he entered and took his seat.
Poor old man totally blind! one leg off at the hip! the other leg straight, having no knee-cap! the left shoulder crippled and fixed! seventy-two years of age—what a wreck of humanity!! Who would have picked up one so useless (humanly speaking) but the God of all grace?
“Then you too are troubled about your sins, Mr. P—,” I inquired.
“I am indeed, sir, and have been for two years past, ever since the blindness came on,” he replied, turning his sightless eyes to me.
“Ah! then I see God has spoken to you loudly before by the accidents which have crippled your limbs. But it was not until He had closed your eyes to the things of earth that you began to think of the things of heaven, eh?”
“Yes, that is about it, sir. I know I have been a hard, hard sinner!” And here the tears gushed out of those sightless eyes. A more pitiable object I had never seen!
“Do you think He will forgive me, sir?”
“Of course He will,” I replied, turning to Acts 13:38, 39. “Hearken to what He says— ‘Be it known unto you therefore, men and brethren, that through this man (Christ Jesus) is preached unto you the forgiveness of sins: And all that believe are justified from all things, from which ye could not be justified by the law of Moses.’”
“A lady once told me that before, sir, and read it out of her Bible, but I can’t get hold of it, somehow, for myself, though I want to.”
“Well, now, let me try and help you. In the first place, have you repented?”
“I have told God what a sinner I am, sir, and asked Him to forgive me many a time. Is that repenting?”
“Yes, if you are downright sorry for your sins?”
“I am that, sir!”
“Well, then, repentance is the first thing and belief is the second, for the Lord Jesus Himself preached, ‘Repent ye and believe the gospel’ (Mark 1:15). And this verse I have read to you says— ‘All that believe are justified.’ Now if you have repented, the next question is—do you believe?”
“Yes, I do, sir!”
“What do you believe?”
“I believe that Jesus died for me, a poor old sinner!”
“Thank God for He says, ‘All that believe are justified’—do you know what that means?”
“Not exactly, sir.”
“The word justified means cleared. God would have you know that through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, you are as clear of your sins as Christ Himself is clear, for ‘He was delivered for our offenses and was raised again for our justification. Therefore, being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ’ (Rom. 4:25, vs. 1).
“But now I have another thing to show you which is necessary to salvation, that is confession. Turning to Romans 10:8-10, I read: ‘What saith it? The word is nigh thee, even in thy mouth and in thy heart: that is, the word of faith which we preach. That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth Jesus as Lord (R.V), and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.’ Is that clear to you? I asked.
“Yes, sir; but how must I do it?”
“I will show you how unbelieving Thomas did it, and that should help you (John 20:26-29). When Jesus rose from the dead, He showed Himself to His disciples, but Thomas Didymus was not present and would not believe that He was risen, so that the Lord Jesus, ever gracious, had to come again into their midst. ‘Then saith he to Thomas, Reach hither thy finger and behold my hands, and reach hither thy hand and thrust it into my side; and be not faithless but believing. And Thomas answered and said unto him, My Lord and my God! Jesus saith unto him, Thomas, because thou hast seen me, thou hast believed; blessed are they that have not seen, and yet have believed.’
“Now, Mr. P―, if Jesus stood before you in person you could not see Him, for you are blind; but now, having believed on Him, you are, according to His Word, one of the blessed, and He is only waiting for you to confess Him as Thomas did, and He will save you all along the journey home.”
The old man had sat with his cap on until this, but lifting up now the only sound limb he had, and removing his cap, the tears rolling down his cheeks and tears in his very words, turning his sightless eyes upward, as simple as a child, he cried— “‘My Lord and—’ what else did he say, sir?”
“‘My Lord and my God!’”
“ ‘My Lord and my God!’” repeated the old man, and we verily believe Mr. P—’s name was, at that moment, confessed by our Lord Jesus Christ in heaven. For did He not say, “Whosoever shall confess me before men, him will I confess also before my Father which is in heaven” (Matt. 10:32)?
Turning to the daughter-in-law, who had witnessed all this, and whose tears were flowing freely, I began to inquire about her difficulties. “They are all gone now, sir. I can see it all so plain now, and can now say He is ‘my Lord and my God,’ for I do believe that Jesus died for me.”
The poor old man hadn’t a knee that he could bend, but his head and, we believe, his heart too was bowed as we knelt down and thanked God for His mercy in saving them both in that cottage that day.
What a miracle of grace, “for the man, and the woman also, were above forty years old.” Praise God for all!
Now don’t delay longer, my reader. God in His mercy and grace is waiting to bless you if you only “repent.” Come to Him now, just as you are, whatever your age, or how many your sins. Don’t wait until He has to smash you to pieces, and close your eyes in blindness, so as to make you bow! Better, though, that He should do this than allow you to close your eyes in death—without His pardon—only to wake up in hell. “He doth not afflict willingly nor grieve the children of men.” “For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life” (John 3:16).
I beseech you, reader, CO press into that word “whosoever,” for it means you, young or old. Begin this New Year with God, and you will spend eternity with Him.
E. E. C.