God's Method of Grace
INTRODUCTORY WORDS
In our Scripture today Elihu is addressing Job, and his three supposed friends. Elihu had listened to the speeches of Bildad, Zophar, and Eliphaz. He had also heard Job's speeches, or responses, to these men.
As Elihu listened his spirit was deeply moved because he saw that Job's friends had utterly missed the mark of the Divine purpose and plan, and that Job, also, had sought, in the face of their onslaught, to justify himself. Elihu is now speaking, and setting forth God's purpose of grace toward those who sin, and God's effort in their behalf.
1. How God seeks to withdraw man from his sins. Job 33:18 says, "He keepeth back his soul from the pit, and his life from perishing by the sword." In order to do this Elihu says that God speaks unto a man in a dream, in a vision of the night, when deep sleep falls upon men. It is then Elihu contends that God openeth the ears of men, and sealeth their instruction.
Another method, according to Elihu, is God's chastening hand. Elihu said that the sinner "is chastened also with pain upon his bed." It is then "that his life abhorreth bread," and "his flesh is consumed away," and his bones stick out, while "his soul draweth near unto the grave."
2. God's graciousness described. Elihu said, "He is gracious unto him, and saith, Deliver him from going down to the pit: I have found a Ransom." In these words Elihu is magnifying grace upon the basis of a Ransom. Of course, Jesus Christ is the Ransom. It is upon this basis, according to Elihu, that men who confess their sins are delivered from the pit, and they see the light.
"All these things," said Elihu, "worketh God oftentimes with man, to bring back his soul from the pit, to be enlightened with the light of the living." From this speech of Elihu we wish to draw many lessons today endeavoring in all to magnify the grace of God. We desire to establish the fact that God has no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but that He would that every one might repent and believe, and be saved.
There must, however, be a basis upon which the grace of God can act. God may give unto man abundant warnings and tremendous calls: God may, also, prepare the ransom, and make possible a full salvation, and yet a man must say, " I have sinned, and perverted that which was right."
It is not our purpose to discuss today the human side of redemption which is summed up in one word, "Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved." We are looking at the question of redemption altogether from the viewpoint of grace. Grace was manifested through Jesus, God's Son, whom He sent into the world to be our Redeemer. God thus passed our way and spoke deliverance.
I. THE DESCRIPTION OF THE BEST THERE IS IN MAN (John 3:7)
1. Job, a model among men. When the Lord spoke to Satan about Job He said, "Hast thou considered My servant Job, that there is none like him in the earth, a perfect and an upright man, one that feareth God, and escheweth evil?" God, who is the judge of hearts, and who reads man's innermost being, pronounced Job as superior to all other men upon the earth. He said there was none like him. This, all being true, did not make Job worthy in himself, or acceptable unto the Lord.
Before God was through dealing with Job, Job in shame confessed his sins, saying, "Behold, I am vile; what shall I answer Thee? I will lay my hand upon my mouth." When God spoke of Job's righteousness, He was speaking of him by way of comparison with other men. It was in measuring himself by others, Job stood perfect and upright both in his attitude toward God, and toward men.
2. Nicodemus a model among the Jews. We read of Nicodemus that he was a ruler of the Jews. That he was a model, we have no doubt. The Bible history of Nicodemus proves that. He was a teacher of the Law, and he believed in the Prophets. He had an open mind, and sought after truth. So far as the Law of Moses was concerned, he stood unimpeached. Yet to this good and great man the Lord Jesus said, "Marvel not that I said unto thee, Ye must be born again."
3. Saul of Tarsus. He was a young man who was a model among other young men. The fact is that above many of his own equals he stood out both religiously and morally as a leader. He, himself, acknowledged that if anyone had confidence in the flesh, he might the more have confidence.
He had been circumcised the eighth day. He was of the stock of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, an Hebrew of the Hebrews. As touching the Law he was a Pharisee. He was very zealous for the faith, persecuting the Church. As regarding the righteousness which is in the Law he said he was blameless.
This same young man, however, after Grace had found him, and he had seen the Lord, found out that he was chief of sinners, and admitted his need of salvation.
II. MAN'S BEST IS SHORT OF GOD'S RIGHTEOUSNESS (Romans 3:23)
We have pictured before us one Old Testament and two New Testament characters. All three were in need of redemption. Why is this? It is simply because, according to our key-text, "All have sinned, and come short of the glory of God." We are willing to admit that all have not sinned equally. Some are greater sinners than others, but all are sinners.
Man, comparing himself among men, may find himself above his fellows, but all men are short of the demands of a righteous God. Let us stop just for a moment, and look at God.
The Bible tells us that the cherubim rest not day and night saying, "Holy, holy, holy, Lord God Almighty." Think you that any man can come into that Shekinah, glory, and into that holiness of God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Ghost, without fear?
Men may lift up their heads in the faces of other men, as Job lifted up his head, as Saul of Tarsus, or as Nicodemus lifted up their heads. Yet, all men must bend the knee and droop the head when they come into the presence of Jesus Christ.
When Isaiah saw the Lord high and lifted up, and heard the seraphim saying, "Holy, Holy, Holy," he cried out, "Woe is me! for I am undone; because I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips: for mine eyes have seen the King, the Lord of Hosts."
"There is not a just man upon earth, that doeth good, and sinneth not."
III. GOD'S STANDARD OF FELLOWSHIP (1 Timothy 6:16)
Do you think for one moment that God could admit into His presence the unclean? There was a Pharisee who stood praying to himself. Near the Pharisee stood a publican who would not so much as lift up his face unto Heaven, but beating his breast, he cried, "God be merciful to me a sinner."
The Pharisee, to the contrary, said, "God, I thank Thee, that I am not as other men are." And then, with, perhaps, a wave of his hand toward the publican, he concluded, "or even as this publican."
Which of these two, think you, had access to God? Certainly not the Pharisee who was righteous in his own estimation. Neither the one nor the other could have come into the presence of the Almighty upon his own merits. The publican had entrance because he approached on the basis of mercy. The Pharisee was refused entrance because he approached on the basis of his own righteousness.
Think you, then, that anyone can ruthlessly rush into the presence of God? Not so. The Bible says that the unclean shall in no way enter into His city, neither anything that maketh an abomination, or a lie.
God is holy, and He cannot welcome into His presence the unholy. God is pure, and He cannot receive the impure. Our text says that He dwells in light unapproachable, "which no man can approach unto; whom no man hath seen, nor can see." A sinner is forever shut out of the presence of God.
IV. GOD'S ATTITUDE TO A FAILURE (Revelation 21:8)
The people of the earth set up standards, and exclude anyone who falls beneath their regulations. The State itself has jails and penitentiaries where it places those who fall beneath the standards of accepted national integrity.
What does an artist do with a picture that is a failure? He casts it aside. He cannot hang in the gallery, with his choice achievements, a painting which falls beneath the best quality of his workmanship.
What does the mechanic do with any device which he may make which proves to be a failure when it is tested and applied? He throws it aside.
What does the poet do if he has written a sonnet whose meter is broken; a sonnet which fails in every law which covers the sonnet? Will he for one moment consider sending it out as a work of his brain? Not if he is a real poet.
As you travel along the road, how many old automobiles may be seen in junk piles!
What did God do when man proved a failure? God entered the Garden of Eden and drove man out of the Garden, and out of His presence. What is the message of the flood? It is a message of God's attitude toward a world that had fallen into sin and shame.
Why is Israel today scattered among every nation of the earth? It is because Israel failed God, and blasphemed His holy and righteous Name.
This is God's attitude toward a failure.
V. GOD'S CREATION NOT A MACHINE (Genesis 1:26)
The artist works with his fingers. The poet works with his brain. When God created man, He created him in His own image. This is the expression of our key-text: "Let us make man in Our image, after Our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea," etc. Then we read, "So God created man in His own image, in the image of God created He him; male and female created He them."
We are mentioning this for one particular reason. Some of the young people will naturally say, "Are you teaching that God created something that was imperfect, the same as an artist, a mechanic, or a poet may work something beneath the standard of his own genius?" No, we are not teaching this.
God's creation of man was not a mere machine, nor anything mechanical. God created man in His own image. He gave him a will, power to choose, intelligence of the keenest kind. His work was perfect. God, Himself, had no part in the fall of man. Man cast out of the Garden showed man's power to mar himself. He was not created in sin.
The picture the artist threw away was one in which man had blundered. The man which God cast aside, was a man who had power invested in himself to spoil himself. Some one immediately asks, "Why did God create a man who could sin?" "Did God know he would sin, before He created him? Did He know of all the tears that would be shed, before they were shed? Did He not hear all the groans and the sighs of the earth before their plaintive wail sounded forth?" Yes, God knew it all, yet God created man.
VI. GOD TO THE RESCUE (Jeremiah 18:4)
The artist with the spoiled picture would reclaim the picture if possible. The mechanic and the poet would reclaim their work if they could. Think you that when God created man, and created him knowing that he would sin, that He did not also create him knowing that He could rescue him from his sin?
Our key-text tells us the story of the potter who made a vessel on the wheel, and it was marred, so he made it again; made it a vessel unto honor; made it as it seemed good in his sight. Thus, when God created Adam and Eve, He knew that His creative work would corrupt itself. He knew, also, that He would immediately announce the way of redemption.
This is exactly what God did in the Garden of Eden. He announced that the Seed of the woman would bruise the serpent's head. God's plan of redemption has been proclaimed to men from the Garden experience until this hour. The last thing Christ did before He went into Heaven was to tell the disciples that they should receive power, and that they should be witnesses unto Him until the end of the earth. His command was that the Gospel should be preached to every creature.
We wish to tarry just long enough to tell the young people that God made man with the possibility of sinning, and knowing that he would sin. Through man's sinning, God would not only achieve honor, glory, and lasting praise in Jesus Christ, but man, himself, through his second birth would be lifted up far beyond anything that man was in his sins.
VII. GOD'S REDEMPTIVE PLAN (Galatians 4:4)
As we think of man's sin, and of his expulsion from the Garden, and as we consider God's desire to go to the rescue and make man over again, we become immediately interested in God's method of redemption. The whole plan comes under three outstanding words: love, mercy, and grace. We put grace last, because grace is the capstone of it all. Just now we cannot discuss the meaning of grace. Our study head carries the word grace in it. The whole discussion of today has been of grace, and now we have come to the climax of it all.
We ask you to go with us to Bethlehem. Let us stand together by the manger in which the Infant Jesus lay. As we stand there, we can almost hear the angel's words to Mary when he announced that Christ should be born. The angel said, "Thou shalt call His Name Jesus": for "He shall save His people from their sins."
Thus, as we stand together at the manger, we bow the knee to worship, for lying there on the hay is God incarnate; God incarnate for a purpose. He had taken upon Himself flesh, bones, and blood, that He might have blood to shed. He came, announced as a Saviour. Was ever a redemptive plan purposed by an artist, a mechanic, or a poet, that could compare with God's redemptive plan? There was no other way by which God could go to the rescue than through the Bable of Bethlehem.
We pass from the cradle to the city of Nazareth, and from Nazareth to the earth ministry of Christ. We see the Son of God as One who knew no sin, who did no sin, and in whom there was no sin.
Jesus Christ, as the Teacher, stands before us speaking the words of the Father.
Jesus Christ, as the Workman, is revealed to us as the One who did the work of the Father.
Jesus Christ in His Deity stands before us doing the will of the Father.
It was such an One who was a possible Saviour.
We ask you now to go with us to the Cross of Calvary. Here you see the same Jesus who lay in the manger, the same Christ who wrought miracles, and spoke forth the Words of God. You see Him hanging upon the Cross, and dying, the Just for the unjust. We see Him as He cries from the Cross, "It is finished," and as He commends His spirit to God. He is about to descend into hell, and from thence to return to the Father.
Mark you, man's redemption, so far as the Divine side is concerned, and so far as the grace of God is concerned, is a completed task.
AN ILLUSTRATION
GRACE, FREE
When Clara Barton was engaged in the Red Cross work in Cuba, during the Spanish-American War, ex-President Roosevelt (then Colonel Roosevelt) came to her desiring to buy some delicacies for the sick and wounded men under his command. His request was refused. Roosevelt was troubled; he loved his men, and was ready to pay for the supplies out of his own pocket. "How can I get these things?" he said: "I must have proper food for my sick men." "Just ask for them, Colonel," said the surgeon in charge of the Red Cross headquarters. "Oh," said Roosevelt, his face breaking into a smile, "then I do ask for them." And he got them at once; but you notice that he got them through grace, and not through purchase. If men could buy the grace of a quiet conscience and a restful heart, how the millionaires would vie with each other at such an auction; but no one can have this chain of Heaven's gold except by the free grace of God, which is offered to us every one. Onward.