Notes of an Address by J. A. T.
WE have read God’s word in these verses, dear friends, and indeed they are precious cords for us. Remarkable are the circumstances under which they were uttered; singling them out as it seems to me from all the other words of this blessed book, and making them stand alone in their surpassing interest for us. You see it is not God that in this place addresses us, neither is it Jesus speaking to His loved disciples. His words to them have closed with the last chapter. It is the Lord Jesus who speaks to His Father; His eyes, which had been upon His people around Him, are at this moment lifted up from them, and fixed upon heaven, as though He would withdraw himself from all that was going on around Him, and for a little shut himself in with the Father. He speaks to the Father as if none else were by, and you and I are admitted in wondrous privilege to hear His words.
Who amongst us has not his friends? The man after my own heart, to whom I can go, and in the perfect freedom and confidence of our friendship, open my heart, tell him all that touches me, assured of his interest and sympathy. There is no reserve or restraint in such moments as these, but our words are just the expression of whatever is uppermost in our thoughts, and then when Jesus holds converse with His Father, we expect to find Him speaking of that which was next His heart. But oh, what is the subject worthy of such a place as this! Listen! “Those whom thou hast given me,” are His often-repeated words. “The men whom thou gavest me out of the world.” Can you believe it? Yes, poor fellow-sinner of mine, we may believe it. We have received Jesus―we have believed on His name, we are numbered among those whom God has given Him, and this is how He loves us. Oh, read the glorious chapter again, and let your heart beat with joy to know that thus are you remembered before God by Jesus. It is not of Himself He is thinking now, though knowing full well the hours of suffering that were before Him, but of us, for whom He suffered all. Oh, blessed wards! have we not truly said that there is nothing like this in all God’s blessed book.
But listen, “Father, the hour is come;” what hour was that? it was that hour that had been in His thoughts all through eternity; it was the hour for which He was born in Bethlehem; that hour of which He spoke in John 12:2727Now is my soul troubled; and what shall I say? Father, save me from this hour: but for this cause came I unto this hour. (John 12:27), in that half-suppressed cry. “What shall I say? Father, save me from this hour; but for this cause came I unto this hour.”
Upon the thought, “For this cause came I unto this hour.” That hour for which He had, steadfastly set His face towards Jerusalem. “He who knew no sin was made sin for us.” What a wonderful thought comes to us here! His mind was fixed upon that hour, that was forever to unite the sinner, upon whom He had set His heart, to himself― “Father, the hour is come: glorify thy Son, that thy Son also may glorify thee.” Jesus takes the place of having finished all for which He had come: “I have finished the work which thou gavest me to do.” Having carried out the Father’s will, it only remained now for God to put His seal upon that work, and to raise Him from the dead and give Him glory. The thought next His heart when on earth was, the glory of the Father; and His brightest joy still is, that He will be the glory of the Father all through eternity. In His pierced hands and riven side God finds His greatest glory; God was offended because of sin upon earth. His love had for its object the redemption of the sinner, and the wounded hands and side of Jesus not only tell the love, but also the righteousness of God, who, while He would save the sinner, would not, COULD not overlook his sin, but demanded from His Son, when He took the sinner’s place, that death which was inseparably connected with sin as the judgment due to it; thus Jesus was and is to all eternity the manifestation of God’s glory. And God has “given Him power over all flesh.” He has power over every man, woman, and child here today. He has power in two ways, though it speaks here but of one. You will find both in John 5:21, 2221For as the Father raiseth up the dead, and quickeneth them; even so the Son quickeneth whom he will. 22For the Father judgeth no man, but hath committed all judgment unto the Son: (John 5:21‑22), “The Son quickeneth whom He will, and the Father judges no man, but has committed all judgment unto the Son.” These are the two powers God has committed into the hands of Jesus, the power to give life, and also the power of judgment. He came in humiliation to give life to sinners―generally, they have despised and rejected Him. God has indeed melted some of our hard hearts, and at last we have received Him as our Saviour, and in Him we have received life eternal. But, alas, there may be some here who reject Him still, and have never taken their place as poor perishing sinners at the foot of the Cross. Ah! the hour is coming when God will have Jesus honored; you have kept Him out of your whole lives, out of your pleasures, out of your society, out of your religion; but, the hour is coming when God will have Him honored, and if you will still reject the Saviour, you must be summoned before Him at judge, and receive your just sentence of eternal separation from God. Oh, that you would accept His salvation, and so never come into that fearful judgment. Jesus gives eternal life to His people. Mark the name ascribed to then here. “Those whom thou hast given me.” We can all understand a gift, it is that by which we oftentimes express affection for a friend; and the more costly we can make it, the more we think it expresses our love.
When God wanted to convey His love to a perishing world, it was as if He sought throughout heaven to find one gem more beautiful than another, the most costly to express His grew love with which He loved the sinner; but suet was the height and depth and length and breadth of that love which passeth knowledge, that no suitable gift was found till His eye rested upon the Sun of His love. His Jesus―His only begotten Son, all His love was centered upon Him, His joy was in Him throughout eternal ages; and yet He so loved the sinner, that He almost forgot the love wherewith He loved the Son, for we read, He spared not His own Son but gave Him up for us all. And some of tit have received that gift, the gift of God to the sinner―Jesus―the expression of God’s love to us.
But, secondly, God wanted to give something to Jesus. If you wanted a gift for a friend you would try and think of what he won’t value most; and when God sought a gift for His Son, He looked for something that He won’t like to have. He knew His mind, for He is one with Himself, and the gift that He chose for Him was one which He knew that He would like above all others.
Oh, my brother and sister in the Lord Jesus you and I are the gift which God has given Jesus. We are now His portion, His inheritance. And now, what God has given Jesus cannot perish. It would be a poor gift for Him should I perish. No. The gift which God gives to His Son must surely be incorruptible, it must he eternal, it can never be lost. We live by and in Christ Jesus, by the same life which God gave to His Son; He gave it to Him that He might communicate it to us, and we are to all eternity he imperishable gift of God to Jesus. And his is the gift of Jesus to those whom God has given Him―eternal life. (verse 2.) But some may say, you are speaking of a privileged class; I know not how I may ascertain if I am one whom the Father has given Jesus; I fear to die, I fear to meet God. Is there no word of comfort for me? Oh, yes there is! Jesus was not thinking only of those before Him; His thoughts went out to the perishing sinner, and He pauses a moment to tell how you may be saved. This is life eternal. He says, that they might know Thee. Is there one here who has felt the burden of his sins? Have you ever felt sin a burden, my fellow-sinner. “No,” you say, “my heart is so dead, it does not feel sin a burden.” But just now you said, as you repeated that opening prayer, that you did, and that you were heartily sorry for them; it was not true then, dear friends. Oh, often do we tell lies to God that we would shrink from saying to a fellow man; it is part of this practical unbelief in God, now so common to be met with. Oh, I beseech you to be honest and true to God; He is not to be trifled with. You say you know you have sinned, but that you are hard-hearted, and cannot feel sin to be a weary load. Well, that’s all you can truly say, and now there is a message for you from God, hard-hearted sinner who cannot feel your sins, a message to you just as you are. Well do I remember the day when I first heard this glorious gospel; for years I tried to render myself acceptable to God, I put away outward sins, I turned good as people say, but I found my heart the same old haunt of every evil thing, and knew I had succeeded nothing in my attempt, for I knew well that God tried the heart; failing in this, then I thought if at least I could feel my sins, I might then be a fit subject for the salvation of God, and so every night I used to write out a list of my sins, and make the catalog as black as ever I could, for I thought that if I could shed even one tear for my sins, it would be a sign of good things to come; but my heart grew harder and harder and so this failed. I began to give up hope but God did not forsake me; I held in my hand, and often spoke to others of the testimony of God as to the exact condition of my heart, and His remedy, but I would not believe it; and still He sent me solemn warnings, but I only turned on the screw of my stern, slavish, miserable, Christless religion still tighter, and went the way of the self-righteous to hell! How I read and taught the Bible, God’s witness against my false religion. How I visited the poor, and thought I worshipped God as I went with His children to the place they were wont to meet, and even took my place with them at the Lord’s table. Oh, false, damnable religion, without Christ. But at last the blind eyes were to be opened. I became ill, and suddenly heard that my illness would probably be fatal; and now, as I looked into the dark future, I found myself without God in the world, without hope beyond it. Hard, horrible thoughts of God crossed my mind, and I said in that awful moment, I have served God, and got nothing; I might as well have gone to the devil openly with these around me. I have studied His word, but I have now nothing but hell before me. I will pitch it from me; but once again I turned over its well-marked pages, for I had been no careless reader of it, and now my eye rested upon the 1St verse of the 2nd chapter of the epistle to the Ephesians, “And you hath He quickened, who were dead in trespasses and sins.” I had read it a thousand times, I had taught it to others, but I had never believed it for myself. I had never before seen my condition thus; in truth all my efforts with life or heart were alike vain, for I was DEAD in sin. My hand put to its seal that God’s word was true. Do you believe that this is your state before God, as a corpse powerless to move towards God, or even feel your lost condition? Then, poor sinner, read on in that 2nd of Ephesians, and see how you are the object of God’s wondrous love. I read, believed and was saved. No one from this earth will ever tread the courts above, but sinners who were dead in sins, and who have been brought to life by Jesus; and the message I have for you this day is a gift of LIFE, that becomes mine on the simplest knowledge of God, for it is eternal life to know Thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent.
Weigh well these words. What do they say to us? They tell us that as many as know God have life eternal, but they include also this most solemn truth, that as many as have not life eternal do not know the true God. How solemn for you in this hour, my unconverted hearer! You knelt with us, you sang with us just now. To whom have your prayers and your praises been? If you do not know the true God, then hereby have you been to some false God. You thank God that you were not born in a heathen land and that you never bowed your knee to stock or atone. You thank God that you are not like the poor Roman Catholics who live around you, and whose religion you say is false. They do not know the true God, but neither do you! The God you have been worshipping is not the true God; for you know in your heart you have never received eternal life. But you say, How then am I to know God? Only even as He has revealed Himself. He has done so at different times by different names. If you look at Ex. 6:33And I appeared unto Abraham, unto Isaac, and unto Jacob, by the name of God Almighty, but by my name JEHOVAH was I not known to them. (Exodus 6:3), yet will see that “He appeared by the name of God Almighty to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob; but by my name Jehovah was I not known to them.’ By the name Jehovah thus did He reveal Himself to Israel. But these names, so blessed as they are, do not speak as the name by which Jesus makes Him known to us: it is “Father;” read 1 Corinthians 8:44As concerning therefore the eating of those things that are offered in sacrifice unto idols, we know that an idol is nothing in the world, and that there is none other God but one. (1 Corinthians 8:4). We know that an idol is nothing in the world. To us there is but one God the Father, therefore if you have knowledge of the true God, it is of one who bits brought you into the relationship of a child to Himself. Thus our Father is the Almighty God and Jehovah too; for in all the blessings of a power which sustains, and a faithfulness that knows no shadow of turning. But it is little use talking in distant terms of the Almighty God: till you know Him as Father there is nothing but terror in such a name. But you say, how can God bring me into such near and blessed relationship to Himself? Ah! there is the story of the Cross! God makes peace between the sinner and Himself through the blood of the Cross. God is only to be known as in Christ reconciling the world to Himself: and to as many as received Jesus, to them gave God the right to become the sons of God. (John 1:1212But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name: (John 1:12).) Jesus is the revealer of the Father. His looks, and words, and works of love alike make known to us God. Look at Luke 15. How wondrously does our God reveal Himself there! as a God who loves the sinner, and whose highest joy is in the salvation of the sinner: in contrast with the Pharisees who murmured that this man receiveth sinners.
These are the thoughts of God about us. He has laid our sins upon His own Son: and He has raised Him from the dead to show that His work has been finished.
Do you believe this? Have you sought to know God by receiving Jesus? If you do not know Him in Jesus, you do not know Him at all. If there is one here bound captive by the devil, “dead in trespasses and sins,” God, who is rich in mercy, now offers you eternal life in Jesus. How may you know it is for you? Is it not for sinners? Then take your place as a sinner, dream not of working yourself into heaven; give up all hope of saving yourself; a broken law is following upon your heels and demands death: England’s law demands the murderer’s death: there can be no peace between the Queen and the murderer. Transgressions and law cannot be found together in peace.
Then you say, how can the sentence of death pass, and I be saved? Jesus has come, and has planted Himself between the broken law and you. You have sinned, and God has said, “The soul that sinneth it must die.” Behold the sword of justice ready to strike, but see, there is Jesus; He has come in love to the sinner, and God has sent Him, and He stands beside you, and He is willing to take your place. Will you not turn your eye from that dreadful law and rest it in fixed gaze upon Jesus? The sword that ought to be plunged into you is plunged into Him instead; the storm has burst upon His head, and you can hear Him say, “My God! my God! why host thou forsaken me?” Oh! sinner, stand beneath the Cross. There is no room for any righteous person there. He came to save the lost. If you be such a sinner as that describes, powerless to do one single thing for yourself, having sinned, and therefore under sentence of death, delay not one single moment, come forward, and on these grounds alone the cup of wrath in the hand of God’s own Son hear Him say, “If it be possible, let this cup pass from me.” But follow Him to the cross, and see Him drain that cup to its deepest dregs of woe. It has been drunk dry by Jesus. He has drained the cup of damnation for you. It is a cup of salvation now. What is there for you to do? Oh! take it as a free gift to you this day. If you be but a poor, lost sinner. “it is life eternal to know the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom He hath sent.” God reveals Himself in righteousness and love in the Cross of Jesus; to know Jesus is to know God, and knowing Him you have life eternal.
But you say, Jesus has gone to the tomb, and they have rolled the stone to the door of it, and I can see Him no longer. Jesus has failed to satisfy God on account of my sins. Oh! no; it only seems for a moment so. He lives in the power of an endless life. “If Christ be not raised, your faith is vain, ye are yet in your sins.” But He is raised; your faith is not vain, ye are no longer in your sins. See Him stand in glory; your Jesus is there; was He not yours when He died the death that you deserved to die? You have been made one with Him. He is soon to be manifested; then shall every poor sinner who ever looked to Him in faith be found with Him.
Take your place as a sinner. He cannot love the self-righteous. There was no word of love for the Pharisee who came trusting in his own righteousness, but oh! for the poor publicans and signers and for the Pharisee too, if he came down from his proud, self-righteous place; there was love and salvation for them all; and it is for you too, this day.
Do you not see your position? You have sinned; what does God demand? Your death. How, then, can you be saved? Only by Jesus’ death. If you die it is forever and forever; but let Jesus’ death be instead of you. Every claim will then be satisfied, and by Him you can have life and righteousness. To know this is life eternal; it is “to know the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom He hath sent.”
Then you, perhaps, say, I may go and live as I like; but Jesus does not say that, and neither do I. I am not now going to speak of the works that will follow when you believe, but I know the change there will be, and the love there will be, when you do believe. Satan often tries to get us to speak of the consequences that follow on believing, and sends away some poor sinner trying to live before he has got life. I leave it here as it is in this blessed prayer of Jesus, “This is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent.”
Oh! my friends, salvation is a present thing―it is a real thing. Are you perishing without a care for your souls? May God awaken you to take your place this hour as a sinner! to take one look at Jesus. Jesus said, He that heareth my words, and believeth them, hath eternal life, and is passed from death unto life; and so surely as you have passed from death unto life, the change will manifest itself in you. Come, then, as you are to Jesus, that you may have eternal life.