THE King of Syria said unto his servants, “Will ye not show me which of us is for the King of Israel? And one of his servants said, None, my lord, O king: but Elisha, the prophet that is in Israel, telleth the King of Israel the words that thou speakest in thy bedchamber” (2 Kings 6:8-128Then the king of Syria warred against Israel, and took counsel with his servants, saying, In such and such a place shall be my camp. 9And the man of God sent unto the king of Israel, saying, Beware that thou pass not such a place; for thither the Syrians are come down. 10And the king of Israel sent to the place which the man of God told him and warned him of, and saved himself there, not once nor twice. 11Therefore the heart of the king of Syria was sore troubled for this thing; and he called his servants, and said unto them, Will ye not show me which of us is for the king of Israel? 12And one of his servants said, None, my lord, O king: but Elisha, the prophet that is in Israel, telleth the king of Israel the words that thou speakest in thy bedchamber. (2 Kings 6:8‑12)).
Nothing could be more solemn than this for you, my reader, if you are unsaved. You have gone on all the days of your life as if God did not see you, but He sees into the hidden recesses of your heart; there is not a word in your tongue but He knows altogether; He knows the words you speak in your bedchamber; He knows the secret counsels of your heart; He knows the motives that govern your life; He knows your down sitting and your uprising; He understands your thought afar off; He knows you altogether. You are ever under His all-searching eye; you cannot go from His. Spirit, nor flee from His presence.
You have never believed this yet, for if you had, trouble would have filled your soul about your sins. You would have said, long ere this, “Oh, those dreadful sins of mine.” And in the language of the Psalmist, you would have exclaimed, “I remembered God, and was troubled” (Psa. 77:33I remembered God, and was troubled: I complained, and my spirit was overwhelmed. Selah. (Psalm 77:3)).
When light from God enters the soul (and the entrance of His Word gives light), the soul’s condition is at once revealed: its sinful, defiled, and lost condition. It may be an unpleasant and an unwelcome discovery to make, but light from God could not do otherwise.
But if the light searches us through and through, and reveals to us our guilt against God, and our utterly lost condition, it reveals to us also the provision that divine love has provided for such as we. God knowing all has thought of us, and loved us, and given His only begotten Son to die for us, that we might live, and be cleansed from our sins, and saved by His grace, and go to glory, for “God is love” as well as “light.”
Dwell upon that, beloved reader, that “God is light” as well as “love.” If He were only “love,” He would make nothing of sin, which would fill His universe with utter confusion; if He were only “light,” He would have to send the sinner to hell without a remedy. Thank God, He is “light” as well as “love,” and “love” as well as “light.” Light reveals to us our sinful condition; love reveals to us a dying Saviour on Calvary, bearing our sins, suffering the judgment of God, shedding His precious blood to cleanse and redeem us, “made sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in him” (2. Cor. 6:21).
Eternal is the gain of our being discovered to ourselves by the light, for we then feel our need of the Saviour to save us, of His blood to cleanse us, and of God’s righteousness in which to stand before Him.
At the great white throne, before which the wicked will appear, the light will do solemn work. It will reveal the sinner in all the blackness of his sins, and the righteous Judge upon the throne. No loving voice pleading with the sinner as now; no Calvary to look to; no Saviour to trust in; no Holy Spirit to warn and urge; no preacher to instruct; but a Saviour rejected, insulted, despised, will be upon the throne of judgment, and divine righteousness will take its course, which will and must end in the eternal judgment of those who stand there.
Oh, my reader, will you be there? Are you amongst those who neglect, reject, insult, and despise the Saviour? If so, see your doom. When your short life here, with all its sins and follies, is over, you will, with millions more, stand before the throne of God to be judged according to your works.
It will be both compulsory and inevitable. Oh, turn in repentance to God now, trust in the Saviour so freely offered, and be saved from a judgment that is both just and eternal. God’s word is “Now is the day of salvation.” Oh, be saved today!
E. A.