God Hath Spoken
Clifford Henry Brown
Table of Contents
God Hath Spoken: Part 1
Before opening my subject, I would like to mention two instances that we get in The Acts of the Apostles. In chapter 16, when the Apostle Paul was speaking at Philippi, you find a woman there whose heart the Lord opened to hear the things that were spoken by Paul, and she got a blessing that day that she is enjoying still. In the next chapter we find that same servant of the Lord, Paul, under different circumstances. He is speaking in another city, and the people say, Let us go and hear what this babbler has to say. It is the same servant, preaching the same gospel, but think of the difference in the attitude of his hearers!
Any blessing that you or I can get depends upon our attitude of soul. Are you here thinking, What will this babbler have to say? or are you here to attend to what the Lord has to say? If that is our attitude of soul, we cannot help but get blessing.
I want to speak in a very simple way of some of the blessings that are ours because we have been called to heaven, and of the glories of that blessed Person who is there waiting for us. We have it brought out wonderfully in the Book of Hebrews.
We suppose that the Book of Hebrews was written to the church at Jerusalem. It is unlike the other epistles, because it has no salutation and no signature. Perhaps the reason why Paul hid himself (for no doubt he wrote it), was because he was conscious of the intense prejudice that existed at Jerusalem against him because he had turned aside from his pharisaical Judaism, and had cast it aside, and had accepted unreservedly the Messiah-ship of Christ. So, in order not to provoke antagonism against his message, he hides himself. Also, he does not care to direct their thoughts to any other apostle, because he is going to tell them about the Great Apostle and High Priest of their profession, Christ Jesus.
Think of the religious background of those to whom the Apostle brings out the truths he states in Hebrews. There in Jerusalem was firmly entrenched for ages that religious system of things which at the start was given by God, but like everything else committed to man, had become corrupt. Yet the more corrupt it became, the more boastful it became. When Paul was writing this epistle, no doubt the most outstanding thing in that great metropolis was the religion of the Hebrews. No doubt the grandest building there was the temple, with its gold and silver and magnificent stones, and all the grandeur that was attendant upon its ritual. And the people were proud of their ancestry, proud of their religion, and very much inclined to look with contempt upon anything outside their own circle.
In that great city were some believers. They were in the minority, and they were keenly conscious that they were surrounded by this great system of things that denied everything they held dear. That system of things laid claim to the earth, and if those in it were asked to demonstrate what they had religiously in this world, they could point with pride to many evidences of it. They could point to that temple, to the dignity of the priesthood, and to that magnificent and elaborate worship, and they could cite the generations that lay back of that system. But here in that same city were little groups of simple believers in the Lord Jesus Christ; and if they were challenged to produce some credentials for what they held, there was nothing tangible to which they could point. They had no building, no temple, no ordained priesthood, no enlarged borders to their garments. All they had was the Word of God, and there were no promises connected with their system that gave them title to this earth. All their promises as Christians connected them with heaven. No wonder there was a temptation to give up attachment to the unseen and turn back to something which the senses could appreciate.
That is the situation in which these Hebrew Christians found themselves. Paul is writing this epistle, led by the Spirit of God, to encourage them in their heavenly hopes and to keep their eyes fixed above, where He is. He is saying in effect, Do not turn back to earth; hold on a little longer—just a little longer.
He starts out by opening up to them the glories and the dignity of that blessed One to whom they were attached by faith. Heb. 1:1-3—"God, who at sundry times and in divers manners spake in time past unto the fathers by the prophets, hath in these last days spoken unto us by His Son, whom He hath appointed heir of all things, by whom also He made the worlds; who being the brightness of His glory, and the express image of His person, and upholding all things by the word of His power, when He had by Himself purged our sins, sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on high." When one reads that opening of the epistle to Hebrews, he just feels how impossible it is to do justice in speaking of such a revelation. Our brother in preaching the gospel last night referred repeatedly to what we have here-"God hath spoken." Oh! what a thing that is! Have you heard Him? I wonder if everybody here is a child of God. Remember, "God hath spoken," and, friend, He has spoken to you! If it is God who has spoken, would you not do well to take heed?
In the room where we have been holding the three days' meetings, my glance wandered several times to that large picture of the King and Queen hanging on the wall, and 'I thought, "What a hush would come over this audience if they should come walking out on that platform." Then I thought, "Suppose they should start to speak from that platform. What a tremendous hush would fall over the audience, and what attention would be given to what they said!" And yet, in our midst is a greater than Solomon, a greater than King George, a greater than the Queen. Here we read that God hath spoken. Friend, it is worth listening to what He has said.
How has God spoken? In times past He spoke to the fathers by the prophets. It was God that spoke. But the marvel of marvels is that in these last days He has chosen to speak to us in the Person of the Son. We will never be able to fathom the wonder of that, but we will marvel at it through all eternity. God came down in the Person of the Son, and God has spoken to us. Isn't that wonderful! How much do we appreciate it?
If God had chosen to remain hidden in thick darkness, all the science in the world could never have penetrated one inch through that thick curtain of darkness. The battle-fleets nowadays have those mighty, million candle power searchlights that make the ocean as light as day; but they could never have pierced the thick darkness in which God dwelt until He was pleased to reveal Himself. He has done it, and done it in the fullest possible way. He has come forth in the Person of the Son of God. God has manifested Himself in the Son. What a privilege we have, who were born in this age. I have read history somewhat, and I read about men like Julius Caesar. He was born before the Lord Jesus ever came into this world, and he never heard of Christ. Why was I not born then? Oh, I was born in what we call A.D.—the year of our Lord. You and I were born since that blessed One came into this world, and what a privilege we have! It was not our choice, but God chose to place you and me in this favored position. How our hearts ought to well up in thanksgiving to Him that ours is such a favored place!
God has spoken in the Person of the Son, whom He hath appointed heir of all things. Everyone else is a usurper. The world is divided up into kingdoms and countries, and you can get books that will give you the list of all the countries and the size of their territories; but in one sense they are all usurpers, for it all belongs to Him, and He is heir to all things.
"Whom He hath appointed heir of all things"—not this poor little puny world only. He is heir of all things—and that is the One we read about in this same verse, who has made purgation for sins. When one stops to contemplate the plan of salvation, he is simply overwhelmed. The grandeur of the plan by which God has been pleased to deal with the question of your sins and mine is beyond all human comprehension. And it would have taken this same plan with all its marvelous sacrifice and its infinite wisdom, if you were the only sinner that ever lived. It would all have been necessary to take care of Adam's sin, if no other man had ever been born. Yes, by one man sin entered into the world, and so death passed upon all men. Yet, the One that put away that sin is the One who is heir of all things, by whom also He made the worlds.
Not so long ago, Brother M. and I were having meetings down in Iowa. It was a cold winter night, and when we got out of the car and turned off the lights, we were irresistibly led to gaze up into the canopy of heaven; and we simply stood aghast as we saw the expanse of the heavens. It was unusually clear that night. The milky way was just white with stars, and the glory of the heavens was an unforgettable sight. Of whom do you suppose we were thinking? We were thinking of the One who spread the canopy above our heads. Oh, the glory of that Person!—and He is the One who died for us! Can we put those two things together? Our poor little minds simply cannot take it in. You know, I think it is a good thing for all of us once in a while to take time to gaze into the heavens at night and think how great they are, and how small we are—and then to think the One who put them there made purgation for our sins! Our heads fairly reel as we gaze into that expanse, and I wonder if the human mind could stand it just to gaze and gaze, and let the vastness of it grow upon one. It seems to me that human reason would crack under the strain.
The One who hung on the middle cross made that expanse. How great is it? The most powerful telescope man has ever invented only sees more of what they have already seen. Out in California one of these days, if God permits, astronomers are going to gaze through a 200-inch reflector telescope, and they will be able to see four times as far as they have ever seen before. Christian, what will they see? Will they see an end to that expanse of starry heavens? You know they will not. They are just going to see more of what they have already seen—and yet some of those stars are so far away that if they had been blotted out of the heavens 2,000 years ago we would not know anything about it, because the light would still be coming from them. It takes only eight minutes for the light to get from the sun to the earth—but there are stars so far away that they might have been blotted out two millenniums ago, and we would not know the difference. Who made all that? We know it was the blessed Son of God.
God has spoken in the Person of the Son, by whom also He made the worlds. "Who being the brightness of His glory [or, the outshining of His glory], and the express image of His person [the expression of His Person (or substance) ], and upholding all things by the word of His power." I think creation is marvelous—but to me there is something more wonderful still, and that is the fact that not only did He create them, but all down through the untold millions of years that those orbs have been shining there, He has been upholding them. He upholds all things; and that is the One who died for us, and the One who is going to have us with Himself in heaven forever and ever.
"Upholding all things by the word of His power"—Oh, the marvelous dignity of that One! He upholds not just this world, but all the universe of God. I can take a baseball and toss it down this aisle, but the moment it leaves my hand my control over it ends; but that is not the way God by the Son made the universe. He started it on its way, but He did not let loose. Every planet and every universe, as it reels through endless space, is held and sustained and kept in its course by that blessed One.
You and I take to the road in our automobiles, and there is a fear attendant upon that kind of travel. Perhaps we do not go very far until we hear a crash, and there is a lot of excitement, and something has happened. It is such a common occurrence that everybody here has seen something like that. Things have gone crisscross. There has been a collision, and there is a racket and a noise—and perhaps there is suffering and possibly death. There is the same danger whether you travel by car or by train. Dear old Brother Close spoke along this line one time, and he said, "Whenever man makes anything, he always puts a repair shop right alongside of it." The moment you hear of an automobile, you hear of a garage where you can get it fixed; the moment you get a lovely watch, you immediately think of a shop that will fix it when it goes wrong.
Well, beloved, He upholds all things. How many of those planets and stars have had to be laid up for repairs? He upholds all things by the word of His power. That is the blessed Lord Jesus, the One who made purgation for sins, and in whose presence we are going to be forever and ever. We are going to enjoy what He enjoys, and be heirs and coheirs with Him. What a future! Would you not like to be a child of God? Would you not like to know that when you get through down here you are going to be with the Man who built the sky forever and ever? And you know, all the saints of God down through the ages, who have lived and gone on, have been made heirs of that same glory. They are going to be with Him, and in a certain measure they are enjoying the blessedness of His presence now. They will enjoy it in fuller measure a little later on. That is the portion of every one for whom He made purgation of sins.
God Hath Spoken: Part 2
"By the word of His power." What does that mean? I take it to mean this: All power in heaven and in earth is His, but the way He manifests that power is by His word. For instance, as He came up to the tomb of Lazarus, Lazarus had been lying there corrupting for four days. As the Son of God approaches that tomb, the power is all there, but it is the word that makes it effective. The word that said, "Lazarus, come forth," was in itself that which gave that carcass to be suddenly transformed into life-real, pulsating, human life-and come forth into light and life and joy, and association with the best that this world had-back to his loved ones, back to his home, and back to the side of the Son of God. It was the power manifested by the word. Is that not wonderful? Some day that same power is going to be manifested on behalf of every one of us in this room who knows the Savior. Oh, yes, it is going to work in you mightily, and when it works in you it is going to take you right up into the glory of God; and you will inhabit that place forever and ever with Him.
He upholds all things by the word of His power. O what a word that is! Dear soul, there is not the least thing in your life or mine that is not dependent upon the upholding power that dwells in Him. How dependent we are, even as creatures, apart from the fact that we are God's children. Did you ever think of how graciously God has placed things around you in order that you may enjoy the good things of life? We take these things for granted, and forget that there is an Intelligence that is controlling it all. The Christian owns that Intelligence, and he owns Him as the One who made purgation for sins.
A while back we were reading in Exodus about the plagues God visited upon the Egyptians through Moses. There were the lice and the locusts and the frogs-different forms of life -and when they came swarming over the land, man was utterly helpless. All he could do was cry out for mercy. Why do not those things happen today? Men go on their way-they make great powerful cranes and huge bulldozers that can turn over the face of the ground and make the landscape over, and they get boastful. But, you know, enough frogs or enough lice, or enough locusts, or enough flies, would spoil the whole thing. When the River Nile turned the frogs loose, they came up over the land, and it was impossible to get away from them. They were in the kneading troughs, and they were in the ovens when the women baked the bread. When they went to bed, there were the frogs-slimy, cold-blooded frogs everywhere. Horrible! Man thinks it cannot happen, but, friends, it did happen. And why?-because the One who upholds all things by the word of His power permitted things to slip a little out of balance, and the frogs came. Some of you have been farmers, and you know what a pest the flies are, and how they torment the stock. Did you ever stop to think why it is that all the flies within a 5-mile radius did not come to your farm? If they did, you would have to go out of business -you would have to quit right there.
So it is with everything else in the perfect plans of nature. There is a species of eel that inhabits the ocean. If it were not for the natural enemies that God has seen fit to put in that great sea, within six years the whole ocean would be solid eel. Yet, we move on day by day taking things for granted, and forgetting that He upholds all things by the word of His power.
Womenfolk complain a lot about the dust in their homes. They are always dusting, and they say, "This is the dirtiest town-there is dust everywhere." And yet, if it were not for the dust that God has seen fit to distribute through the atmosphere, none of us could live on the earth. We could not exist except for the dust that dissipates the harmful rays of the sun.
Astrologers turn heavenward their great telescopes, and they search the skies and examine this planet and that planet, and this universe and that universe. Why is it that with all their searching, they have never yet found another planet, another universe, another star, with an atmosphere in which human beings like you and me could live? Ah-"God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life." God loved the world, and that is the only place in all that vast expanse where human beings could exist. He upholds all things by the word of His power, and everything here is for our good and blessing. The One who planned it all is the One who made purgation for our sins. What a wonderful Savior we have!
"When He had by Himself purged our sins, sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on high." That is where He is now, beloved. He is not in Galilee now. People make pilgrimages there, and I suppose that if I had an opportunity, I would enjoy going there myself; but, after all, the Spirit of God is not directing our hearts tonight toward Galilee. He is directing us to the right hand of God, where this blessed One has set Himself down. He went up there in the dignity of His own Person, and there He sat down. He has the best right possible to be there.
What is He there for?-the rest of the Book of Hebrews tells us the purpose of His being there, and that is what we want to get before our souls. Why is He there? Where is He? -He is at the right hand of the Majesty on high, and that is the reason the Apostle gives that magnificent introduction to the Epistle to the Hebrews. He wants them to get a glimpse of the glory of the Person that God has sent into this world. He wants them to look up there where He is, and then He is going to tell them all about Him there. It is the glory of the Person of the Son of God-the One who manifested the effulgence of His glory-the One who is the expression of the substance of God. He says, This is the One about whom I am going to talk to you. I want you to appreciate who He is, and where He is.
Chapter 2:7, 8-"Thou madest Him a little lower than the angels; Thou crownedst Him with glory and honor, and didst set Him over the works of Thy hands: Thou hast put all things in subjection under His feet. For in that He put all in subjection under Him, He left nothing that is not put under Him. But now we see not yet all things put under Him." We do not see all things under Him. Those nations in Europe that blaspheme the Scriptures and have persecuted the saints of God, and have even been allowed to shed the blood of 2,000,000 of God's earthly people-they are not put under Him yet. As we look around us wherever we may go, whether it is in Canada or the United States or wherever it may be, we are reminded constantly that there is much that is not yet put under Him.
But here we are told that all things are going to be put under Him, and that is what faith is waiting for. In the meantime, what does faith see? "We see Jesus." Oh, that personal name! It does not say, "We see the Son of God"; it does not even say that we see Christ. But, "We see Jesus." Where do we see Him? Verse 9-"But we see Jesus, who was made a little lower than the angels for the suffering of death, crowned with glory and honor." That is where Stephen saw Him. As the life was ebbing from Stephen's body, he saw the heavens opened, and he says, "Behold, I see the heavens opened, and the Son of man standing on the right hand of God." And then he says, "Lord Jesus, receive my spirit." If you are going to see Jesus, that is where you will have to look. When we start looking around at this poor scene of chaos and confusion, we get confused in our thinking; and if we keep looking in the wrong direction, it will have an unhappy effect on us. We will begin to think we belong down here. We will begin to think that Christianity belongs to the world, like the temple there in Jerusalem; and we will begin to think we are part of it. If we do not continue looking off to Jesus, that will be the result.
We see Jesus, but we see Him in the glory. We do not yet see all things put under Him, but we know they are going to be. That faith held in the soul is going to deliver us from all this modern effort to bring in by the clever intelligence of man what God has said can never be. How far, beloved Christian friends, have you allowed yourself to be swung into the spirit of what is around? If you think men are going to work out something satisfactory and more or less permanent for this world, you are thinking contrary to the Word of God, and you are denying the very thing with which we started our message-"God hath spoken." In Eze. 21:27 God speaks, and He says, "I will overturn, overturn, overturn it: and it shall be no more, until He come whose right it is; and I will give it Him."
You young folks have studied history, and I think it is a good thing to study history, within proper limits. You have found in history the life story, the panorama, of the rise and fall of nations. That is history, and if you take the rise and fall of nations out of history, what have you left? And yet, I suppose that each nation as it rose in its turn to the height of its prosperity, was just as sanguine, just as hopeful, just as conceited about what it could do, as men are in the present day. Man has always been like that. Nebuchadnezzar lived a long time ago, and as he looked out over the grandest metropolis in the world, he could strut back and forth, and could spread himself and say, "Is not this great Babylon, that I have built?" If you had looked upon that city, you would have said, "Surely it will endure for millenniums to come." What is it today?-just a few old mounds. Nobody lives there. It is just a few mounds of earth, scattered out over the plain of Shinar. Why?-God said by His prophet that that city was going to be destroyed, and that it would never be inhabited. There it lies today, a silent witness to the truth of the Word of God.
Dear saints of God, do not be deceived. One feels a constant battle in his own heart not to be taken away by all the schemes and plans of man that are so freely talked about today. Man has always been like that. He has never learned his lesson, and the only safe thing for you and me is to just say, "We see Jesus."
I do not want to close without reading the first verse of chapter 3-"Wherefore, holy brethren, partakers of the heavenly calling, consider the Apostle and High Priest of our profession [confession], Christ Jesus." We are holy brethren. I might ask you, "Are you one of the brethren?" Yes, by the grace of God, you are if you know the Lord Jesus. If He is your Savior and you have put your trust in Him, you are one of the brethren. But are you one of the holy brethren? Do you shrink from that? Suppose I come to you at the close of this meeting and say, "Brother, are you one of the holy brethren?" If you know the truth, you will have to say, "Yes." Who are the holy brethren? Why, they are the ones who are attached to the Apostle and High Priest of our confession, Christ Jesus. He is up there in the glory, and He has been trying for over forty years to get my heart out of this world. Oh, how poorly I have responded to His love! He has been trying to wean me from this poor scene and get my eye centered in heaven, and He is trying to do the same thing with you, because He wants us to be practically what He has made us positionally.
Now, holy brethren are separate brethren, are they not? They walk a separate life-and what makes them like that? Why, they are strangers and they are pilgrims. They are seeking a heavenly home, and that makes them misfits in the world down here-and the more they become conformed to that blessed One up there, the stranger they seem down here. When they speak of the things of the world, the people of the world understand each other. But when we speak the language of our heavenly calling, our heavenly hopes and aspirations, and the heavenly promises, the world does not understand what we are talking about. But you and I should be able to understand that language. Which do you understand better-the language that you hear at the meetings, or the language you hear at the barber shop? Where are you more at home if you join the conversation? That is searching, is it not?
"Partakers of the heavenly calling." What is the heavenly calling? It is the calling to heaven. What could be more simple? When God called the Jew, He called him to the earth-right to a spot of ground down here in this world. But, Christian, when He found you and drew you to Himself, He started you on the way to heaven; and the only reason you have not landed there long ago is the long-suffering patience of God that is waiting for somebody else.
"Consider the Apostle and High Priest of our profession [confession], Christ Jesus." Why Christ Jesus? Christ is the glorified One, and so it is the glorified Jesus. He is the Apostle and High Priest. Now, consider Him! Oh, think of Him. Think who He is, and think where He is-and the two things go together. You will find those two themes running all through Hebrews. If you and I consider Him-if that forms our thinking-we are going to be more like Christians. We are going to be more like heavenly citizens. We sometimes sing a hymn about being more like the saints that used to be. What is going to make us more like the saints of old who had heaven before them? We have it right here-"Consider the Apostle and High Priest of our profession [confession], Christ Jesus."
"The night is far spent, and the day is at hand;
No sign to be looked for, the Star's in the sky;
Rejoice, then, ye saints, 'tis your Lord's own command;
Rejoice, for the coming of Jesus draws nigh.
"Oh kindle within us a holy desire,
Like that which was found in Thy people of old,
Who tasted Thy love, and whose hearts were on fire,
While they waited, in patience, Thy face to behold."
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