I desire to press the fact that we all have to do with God. It is a thing we cannot escape. Naturally we would escape it if we could, and how deeply-seated is the shrinking from facing the truth of it in every one of us.
There is not one of us but would naturally put off the meeting God to as distant a date as possible. So long as we know Him not we keep away from Hip, and forget that there is a moment coming when we shall give account to Him.
And how everything around us helps to strengthen this forgetfulness in us! Even the necessary cares of this life crowding in upon the mind, and demanding immediate and daily attention, leave but little time for reflection, even if desired; our fellowmen equally careless, help us further away from God, and Satan is busy to blind us to all that is of real importance to us, and a bad conscience, along with complete distrust of God, all tend to keep us away from Him and lead us to seek our enjoyment here. I speak of what is natural to us all.
But still, there stands the fact regarding all men without exception, “As I live, saith the Lord, every knee shall bow to me, and every tongue shall confess to God. So, then every one of us shall give account of himself to God.” (Rom. 14:11,1211For it is written, As I live, saith the Lord, every knee shall bow to me, and every tongue shall confess to God. 12So then every one of us shall give account of himself to God. (Romans 14:11‑12)). Sooner or later God must be met, and all be perfectly manifested before Him.
What a solemn time will that be for those who have refused to bow to God now, but who have to appear before Him in the day of judgment! Carelessness will have no place then! Excuses will not be thought of! All the fine distinctions which man has made between sin and sinners will be fled, and man will have to answer to Him whose holiness he cannot fathom. How solemn!
This being God’s declared truth that everyone shall give account to Him, how sadly solemn would it have been for all of us had not God Himself anticipated that day of judgment, and considered man’s unfitness to stand before the throne! David, in Psalms 130;3, seemed to feel this when he said, “If thou, Lord, shouldst mark iniquities, O Lord, who shall stand?” And I desire to press this, that it is impossible for man to stand when God judges. Again, David felt this when in Psalms 143:2,2And enter not into judgment with thy servant: for in thy sight shall no man living be justified. (Psalm 143:2) he says, “Enter not into judgment with thy sere ant, for in thy sight shall no man living be justified,” i.e., if God judges man there is but one result, viz., condemnation; who and what is man to answer to God? Supposing that God took you to task about one single sin, could you answer to Him? And what are God’s thoughts of sin? Many a thing seems small to us, but what is it with God? e.g., “the thought of foolishness” may be unheeded by us, but with God it “is sin,” Proverbs 24:99The thought of foolishness is sin: and the scorner is an abomination to men. (Proverbs 24:9). How important I feel it to be that we should get the sense of its being impossible for us to stand in judgment with God, for if a person gets the sense of this it makes him turn from self to be wholly dependent on Christ, who alone could bear the judgment.
I have said our hearts naturally shrink from facing the fact of our “having to do with God,” but I also feel how this clings to many a soul who has been really converted. I am convinced it is no uncommon state of soul to find those in who have been really born again and believed in Christ, viz., they have not consciously met God. I do not say that the person has not met Christ and believed in Him as the Saviour, nor do I say that the work of Christ has not been relied on as the only ground of salvation, but there is a failing to see that that same Saviour is the Son of God. There is a fleeing to Christ for refuge, but a failing to realize that it is God’s refuge provided by Him in the goodness of His heart. Hence, weakness—want of progress in souls—the question of salvation never finally settled in the mind, and how can it be settled if the person has not consciously met Him, whom he has sinned against? Did God send His Son that we might escape meeting Him? or did Christ “suffer for sins, the just for the unjust, that He might bring us to God?”
I do not say that such a person doubts his going to heaven; no, he has believed that Christ died to take him there, but he does not enjoy this truth as realizing that it was God’s wish to bring him there, and in order to accomplish His purpose He gave His Son to suffer for sins.
I do not say that he is afraid of perishing in the day of judgment, for he has believed that Christ died to deliver him from the wrath to come, and that the Son of Man was lifted up that whosoever believes in Him might not perish, but have eternal life; but he fails to realize that it was God who gave His Son to be “lifted up,” for the Scripture does not merely say, “The Son of Man must be lifted up,” but also adds, “for God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son” (John 3:11-1711Verily, verily, I say unto thee, We speak that we do know, and testify that we have seen; and ye receive not our witness. 12If I have told you earthly things, and ye believe not, how shall ye believe, if I tell you of heavenly things? 13And no man hath ascended up to heaven, but he that came down from heaven, even the Son of man which is in heaven. 14And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of man be lifted up: 15That whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have eternal life. 16For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. 17For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved. (John 3:11‑17)).
Nor do I say that the person has not times of happiness, but it is not “joying in God,” it is rather the delight of being safe from wrath to come and of being happy hereafter, but present peace with God as having had to do with Him is not realized, and that all that once troubled the conscience has been settled forever. The person has not the enjoyment of the truth that he is set in blessing because God wanted him there, the very God he had sinned against, and about whom he has had the hardest thoughts. He has not the joy of knowing that his blessing was a purpose with God, and had cost the giving up of Christ to suffer for sins, to bring him to Himself.
A great deal of the preaching of the present day fails to put the soul face to face with God. No doubt a Saviour is preached, and the truth that He was lifted up, but it is not of that kind which first of all makes a man feel that he has to do with God, and also brings him consciously to God to find in Him all that his awakened soul has sought after.
How is it with you? I ask the question because I know the cases are so common in which those who are really born again and have fled to Christ for refuge, if they think of God there is still a lurking fear. How many a one can say “Father,” but cannot with equal ease be in the presence of God as God. The conscience is not perfect. There is still something to be settled between the soul and God. Yet it must come. “Day and night thy hand was heavy upon me, my moisture is turned into the drought of summer,” “when I kept silence my bones waxed old,” said David (Psa. 32:3,43When I kept silence, my bones waxed old through my roaring all the day long. 4For day and night thy hand was heavy upon me: my moisture is turned into the drought of summer. Selah. (Psalm 32:3‑4)). And God kept His hand on David until he confessed his transgressions, and the result was he realizes forgiveness from God Himself, and can speak of Him as his “hiding place.” Not dike Adam, who hid himself from God, nor like Moses who “hid his face for he was afraid to look upon God,” nor like Peter who cried out, “Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord!” But finding his “hiding place” in the very God he had sinned against. How many a one “keeps silence” before God! Yet God will bring a man sooner or later to own all before Him. The prodigal said, “I will arise and go to my Father, I will say to Him, I have sinned.” (Luke 15:1818I will arise and go to my father, and will say unto him, Father, I have sinned against heaven, and before thee, (Luke 15:18)). Have you been to God about all that you have been as a sinner?
Now I shall say a little upon what gives us confidence to come to Him. If we thought that God was going to condemn us and raise the whole question of sin with us we would stay away: but the cross of His Son shows a different thing from God condemning us. He gave His Son to save. Have you believed and seen “that Jesus is the Son of God?” For if that One who was suffering there was the Son of God, how it tells us what God could be for us when we were only sinners. Let us look at that cross. What a scene! Is man the only witness of the sufferings of the blessed Jesus? Was not God looking down? Was He not witnessing the hatred that displayed itself there? Was it nothing for God to see His beloved Son hanging between two thieves crucified and slain? Was it nothing for God to hear His Son crying to Him from that tree? Could His heart be unaffected? Was not all His love put to the test by our sins? And could all our sins freeze up His heart against us? What happened? God at that very moment showed that His goodness was above all our evil, for He gave Jesus to “suffer for sins, the just for the unjust,” that He might bring us happily and righteously to Himself. Has that been consciously accomplished in your case? Has the Cross brought you to God? Do you say, “I have found a hiding place” in the very God I hated and sinned against; yea, more, I “joy in God through the Lord Jesus Christ” (Rom. 5:1111And not only so, but we also joy in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom we have now received the atonement. (Romans 5:11)).
And now, if we believe that God did all this for us and laid our sin on Christ, making Him to answer for it, we are free to go to Him and confess all, and thoroughly expose our hearts before Him, guile is taken out of our hearts. There is no need to cover up things from God now, for all that we were has been brought out into the light of His presence, it has been a manifested thing before Him at the Cross, and has been judged there. Now, God does not condemn. When we come to Him we find He never mentions our sins to us, “Your sins and your iniquities I will remember no more” (Heb. 10:1717And their sins and iniquities will I remember no more. (Hebrews 10:17)).
The father never said a word to the prodigal about his sin, but he allowed and made that prodigal free to tell all to his father. And so with us, we do not meet a condemning God, but one who has met us in this world where all our sin has been committed, with His Son suffering for our sins to bring us to Himself, and that gives us confidence to come to Him and own all our state to Him, knowing that not one question shall be raised by Him.
How our hearts are made to bow in worship before His goodness. He that might justly have dealt with us about our sins mentions them not to us, but has dealt with His own Son about them to bring us happily to Himself. Again I ask, has this been accomplished in your case? Are you brought to God? “Having therefore, brethren, boldness to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way, which he hath consecrated for us, through the veil, that is to say, his flesh; and having an high priest over the house of God; let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience, and our bodies washed with pure water” (Heb. 10:19-2219Having therefore, brethren, boldness to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus, 20By a new and living way, which he hath consecrated for us, through the veil, that is to say, his flesh; 21And having an high priest over the house of God; 22Let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience, and our bodies washed with pure water. (Hebrews 10:19‑22)).