“Oh, that there were such a heart in them, that they would fear Me, and keep all My commandments always, that it might be well with them, and with their children forever” (Deut. 5:29)!
“Oh, that thou hadst hearkened to My commandments! then had thy grace been as a river, and thy righteousness as the waves of the sea” (Isaiah 48:18)!
“Oh that My people had hearkened unto Me, and Israel had walked in My ways” (Psalm 81:13)!
Here are three scriptures from the Old Testament from “the law of Moses, from the prophets, and from the psalms” (Luke 24:44). Turn with me now to the New Testament.
“O Jerusalem, Jerusalem... how often would I have gathered thy children together, even as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings, and ye would not” (Matt. 23:37)!
“He beheld the city and wept over it, saying, If thou hadst known, even thou, at least in this thy day, the things that belong unto thy peace! but now they are hid from thine eyes” (Luke 19:41, 42).
Now, my friends, may I ask you if you have ever read these words? If so, have you considered them? Have they never appealed to you? Are they not remarkable revelations of God’s yearning desire for your good. Are they not proofs of God’s solicitude for your blessing? God delights to bless according to His own heart, and He has not kept back from communicating His word, His thoughts, His desires.
Man has been tried, “without law” and the earth became “filled with violence through them” (Gen. 6:13). “The wickedness of man was great,” and God had to “destroy man from the face of the earth.”
Then a people favored of God to be His people were put under His law that they might fear Him and keep His commandments, but they rebelled against His word, and were cast out of the land of Canaan which God had given them wherein to be His witnesses against idolatry of every kind, but they lapsed into even worse than the heathen.
Thus for four thousand years was man tested. Over two thousand years “without law,” and thee for fifteen hundred years “under law.”
But God had mercy, and brought back into the land, not all the tribes that had been carried away amongst the nations, but a part, two tribes who should be there when prophecy had run its course and the Saviour was born in Bethlehem. To them was announced the good news: “This day is born to you in the city of David a Saviour which is Christ the Lord,” but alas! the Saviour found no welcome. The angels could rejoice, but men would not have Him. They might bear with Him for awhile, and could not but marvel at the gracious words that proceeded out of His mouth, but their marvel soon turned to hatred.
Oh, would you not think that man educated by God Himself through the law, the prophets, the psalms would have been prepared for the long.. promised Messiah? But no: He was “despised and rejected of men... He was despised, and we esteemed him not.” No wonder, that when they murdered Him, God “sent forth His armies and destroyed those murderers, and burnt up their city.” There is no blessing for them until they shall say “Blessed is He that cometh in the name of the Lord” nor for you, until you bow at the feet of Jesus, owning your sins.
God has sent His Son to bless you, “in turning away every one of you from his iniquities.” There is no blessing without that. There must be honesty before God. It is impossible to deceive Him. He knows our badness, and in face of. it has revealed His goodness.
Look at the thief on the cross. What benefit Could there be in telling him to do this or that? He could do nothing to save himself, but he turned to the Saviour. Would you have turned to Him thus, as he did? He said to his companion “The world is quite right in gibbeting us,” and then he turned to the One in the midst and said, “Lord, remember me.” Would you have asked to be remembered with all your iniquity? The Psalmist says, “Pardon my iniquity for it is great.” If you were in heaven with your sins upon you you would be more unhappy. That unsullied light makes everything manifest. Everyone there would know you as you really are, for all would be seen in its true colors.
But God has sent a Saviour! Think of Him weeping over Jerusalem! “Oh, that my people had hearkened unto me!” “If any man thirst, let him come unto me and drink!” Could you have a more gracious invitation? “Come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest!” Shall this invitation be in vain?
There is only one Saviour “God, and beside me there is no other.” And He it is who speaks. He would win your heart. He knows if sometimes the thought has crossed your mind, ‘I would like to have my sins forgiven.’ Is this forgiveness possible? It is. God justifies the ungodly (Rom. 4:3-7). He is “just and the Justifier of him that believeth in Jesus.”
God cannot forego His glory or His righteousness. Then what can meet the exigencies of God’s holy nature? “The Son of God has come.” God gave, Christ came; the giving of God and the coming of the Saviour are divinely in harmony. If God “spared not His own Son,” what did it cost Him thus to give His Son? But it was the only way, if God “be just and the Justifier,” and His heart is so great He must have companions for His Son in heavenly glory, the trophies of His grace.
Come to Him, just as you are, with all your guilt upon you. Take Him at His own word, “I came not to call the righteous, but sinners.” Can He justify a poor sinner such as I am? He can, but it must be by faith in Jesus Whom He has sent as the only way. Why then should you not come now? Why should you not know “peace with God”? The Saviour has come. The Saviour died, the Saviour is risen, a Saviour still. Will you make light of His mission and death for you? “God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth on Him should not perish but have everlasting life” (John 3:16).
“Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that heareth My word and believeth Him that sent Me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation, but is passed from death unto life” (John 5:21). The Father and the Son are at one in this, as in everything. The Saviour came, but He said, Believe on “Him that sent Me,” and “he that believeth hath everlasting life.” ‘But I don’t feel it!’ do I hear you say? Do you believe God? is the question. And this is what His word says: “We have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins” (Col. 1:14). He asks no terms except that you come just as you are, without reserve, bowing to His word.
“Just as I am without one plea,
But that Thy blood was shed for me,
And that Thou bidst me come to Thee,
O Lamb of God, I come!”