“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.” ―3:16.
“YET forty days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown.” Such was the startling announcement from God which Jonah delivered to this proud, prosperous, and magnificent city. It comes floating down the stream of time, and falls upon our ears with solemn emphasis in these last closing days.
This world is ripening for judgment as swiftly and surely as that city of old was. God’s sentence, too, has been passed upon it, and, sooner or later, it will be executed. Meanwhile He “now commandeth (not merely one city) but ALL men EVERYWHERE to repent, because he hath APPOINTED A DAY in the which he will judge the world in righteousness by that Man whom he hath ordained” (Acts 17:3131Because he hath appointed a day, in the which he will judge the world in righteousness by that man whom he hath ordained; whereof he hath given assurance unto all men, in that he hath raised him from the dead. (Acts 17:31)). Well might the prophets of old cry as they looked forward to that day, “Let all the inhabitants of the earth tremble: for the day of the Lord cometh, for it is nigh at hand” (Joel. 2:2). “The great day of the Lord is near, it is near and hasteth greatly.... the mighty man shall cry there bitterly. That day is a day of wrath, a day of trouble and distress, a day of darkness and gloominess, a day of clouds and thick darkness, a day of the trumpet and alarm against the fenced cities, and against the high towers.... Neither their silver nor their gold shall be able to deliver them in the day of the Lord’s wrath” (Zeph. 1:1414The great day of the Lord is near, it is near, and hasteth greatly, even the voice of the day of the Lord: the mighty man shall cry there bitterly. (Zephaniah 1:14)).
Dear unsaved reader, have these solemn prophecies no word of warning for you? You are in and of this world over which these terrible judgments are hanging. Long ago its sentence was pronounced by Him whose lips were “full of grace and truth,” and all that delays its execution is the grace and long-suffering of God, who is “not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.” But some day this long-suffering will come to an end; someday the sweet invitations of His love will tease. And we cannot tell how soon. There is no limit of time given which would ensure your safety for a certain period—no “forty days” promised, as of old to the Ninevites, enabling you to calculate with certainty when judgment will fall. No; all is vague, all is indefinite as to time: “That day and that hour knoweth no man.” There is a fearful uncertainty about it. We are told that it is coming, but we are not told when. Not the less surely it will come, and that, too, when least looked for and expected: “When they shall say peace and safety, then sudden destruction cometh and they shall not escape” (1 Thess. 5:33For when they shall say, Peace and safety; then sudden destruction cometh upon them, as travail upon a woman with child; and they shall not escape. (1 Thessalonians 5:3)).
The prophets of old could say it was “near.”
Later on the apostles could speak of it as being “at hand;” of their days being “last days;” and of the Judge standing before the door. If so, truly we may speak of being upon, its very verge. Yet a moment and, the Church being caught up out of this scene, God’s unrestrained wrath will burst with startling suddenness upon this careless, scoffing world! Yet a moment, and its merry scenes of revelry shall be broken in upon by the flashing blaze of the glory of God! Someday, when people are going about their ordinary affairs; when you, it may be, are enjoying the excitement of the race-course or hunting-field, or idling away your time upon some fashionable promenade, your stops will be arrested, your heart will grow chill, the foolish jest upon your lips will die away, the laugh will be silenced―for, “as the lightning cometh out of the east and shineth even unto the west, so shall the coming of the Son of man be;” for “the Lord Jesus shall be revealed from heaven with his mighty angels in flaming fire, taking vengeance on them that know not God, and obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ, who shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of his power” (2 Thess. 1) Oh, think of the terror of that day! Your riches will avail you nothing then; your rank, your fame, your philosophy, will be powerless to shield you from the descending storm. “And the kings of the earth, and the great men, and the rich men, and the chief captains, and the mighty men, and every bond man, and every free man” will “hide themselves in the dens and in the rocks of the mountains, and say to the rocks and mountains, Fall on us and hide us from the face of him that sitteth on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb. For the great day of his wrath is come and who shall be able to stand?” (Rev. 6:15-1715And the kings of the earth, and the great men, and the rich men, and the chief captains, and the mighty men, and every bondman, and every free man, hid themselves in the dens and in the rocks of the mountains; 16And said to the mountains and rocks, Fall on us, and hide us from the face of him that sitteth on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb: 17For the great day of his wrath is come; and who shall be able to stand? (Revelation 6:15‑17).)
Oh! perhaps you say, I shall not be alive then. Ah, but you cannot tell. The end is at hand, and if the Lord came tonight for His people (and He may), you who know Him not will surely see all these things, and feel them, too, in your terrified souls, if death meanwhile has not launched them into eternity. Oh, can you bear to face such a future? Will you risk such a fate? And all for a few more days―or years at furthest―of fancied pleasure in this world.
“Dreamer? who slumberest on a mast that rocks above the deep,
Will nothing but the judgment blast awake thee from thy sleep?
Wake, sleeper, wake! arise and pray, and make salvation sure.
How long shall slighted mercy stay, or patient love endure?
Far out along the gloomy waste a storm is gathering high,
The Lord of harvest reaps in haste; wilt thou stand heedless by?
The trembling heavens begin to bow; poor dreaming world and blind
Sinner, arise! and hide thee now, for judgment is behind.”
“Yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown!” This one brief message, delivered by a solitary man, was ah the warning the Ninevites received; while time after time, from platform and pulpit, from Bible and book, you have been warned, entreated, and urged to “flee from, the wrath to come.” Look at the conduct of these Ninevites when these tidings reached them, and contrast your own with it. Did they treat it with the indifference and scorn you are treating God’s message today? Did they say, Oh, there are forty days to run yet, we need not repent so soon, tomorrow shall be as this day, and much more abundant.
Ah, no; mark their reality and earnestness as “they proclaimed a fast and put on sackcloth from the greatest of them even unto the least.” Listen to the mournful lowing of the cattle denied their daily pasture. Harken to the wondering cry of the little children, unable to comprehend why their merry laugh should be silenced, their voices hushed, and such deep gloom spread around. And see how it all shows us their immediate and thorough repentance and humiliation. “They believed God;” they accepted His verdict of their condition; they humbled themselves to the dust before Him; and so we read, “God saw their works that they turned from their evil way, and God repented of the evil that he had said he would do unto them, and he did it not.” That is to say, the effect which He desired to produce through the announcement of judgment was accomplished by their turning from evil, and humbling themselves before Him. And this is ever God’s purpose in warning sinners. The announcements of His judgments are ever the preludes to the sweet invitations of His grace. Oh, reader, will you not “believe God” now? Will you not believe His Word, which so plainly tells of a day of wrath which is rapidly approaching? and, while yet there is time, flee for safety and shelter to the open arms of a waiting Saviour?
But there are three little words in this instructive Scripture, which, we would do well to see, affording us a wonderful insight into the natural heart, which in all ages and all circumstances distrusts and misunderstands the heart of God. “Who can tell?” is the anxious inquiry which burst from the lips of these affrighted Ninevites, “if God will turn.” They “believed” His power and bowed under His mighty hand, but they knew nothing at all about His heart—that heart which in deepest tenderness and love at that very moment was yearning over the unconscious children who could not “discern between their right hand and their left,” and also the suffering animals.
“Who can tell?” was their anxious cry. There was doubt, fear, and uncertainty in it. It was in their hearts to say, as one of a later day did, “If thou wilt thou canst.” They knew His power to spare, but they doubted His will to do so. But then, as now, His grace rose above their distrust of His love, and His actions, if not His words, breathed out that doubt-rebuking answer, “I WILL.”
Beloved reader, is it so with you? Do you doubt―not His ability, but His will to save?
Is the inmost question of your troubled heart at times, just this, “Who can tell if God will save?” Well, on the authority of God’s Word, it is the glory of our hearts to be able to say with holy confidence, We can tell. Standing as we do, in the full blaze of God’s love, as manifested at Calvary, it is the joy of our hearts, who have in some measure tasted it, to be able to say, we can tell that “He desireth not the death of a sinner.” We can tell that “He is not willing that any should perish.” We can tell that He “so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth on him should not perish but have everlasting life!”
This is the undeniable proof of God’s love to the world. It cannot be gainsaid. It stands as an historical fact in the annals of time.
“God so loved the world that he gave his Son” Oh, will you not believe this “great love wherewith he loved us”? Will you not accept it, and let your world wearied heart at last find rest in the enjoyment of it? It is no empty assertion He makes. He has given the greatest proof that He could in that “He spared not his only begotten Son, but delivered him up for us all.” He has done all that love could do; He has given all that love could give, and now He rounds forth this grand declaration to refute man’s doubt: “God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son.” “Having yet, therefore, ONE SON, his well-beloved, he sent Him, also, last unto them” (Mark 12:66Having yet therefore one son, his wellbeloved, he sent him also last unto them, saying, They will reverence my son. (Mark 12:6)).
One has well said, speaking of the freeness of salvation, “It costs us nothing, but it cost God His Son!” Oh, think of this! Think of God giving His Son to come down to this ruined, sin-stained earth, to manifest the love and tenderness which was in His heart towards its inhabitants! But more, think of His giving Him to close His earthly path of sorrow on the cross of shame, and to bear “in his own body,” on that cross, the judgment of sin! the judgment due to you, my reader, and to me.
Those who have known the soul agony of anticipated separation from one dearer than life, can enter somewhat into the feelings of Abraham’s heart that long three days’ journey, as step by step, he walked with Isaac to the mount of sacrifice. But no human heart can ever fathom what it must have cost God to give His Son―His “well-beloved” ―a sacrifice for sin! To see Him who in the by-past eternity was “daily his delight rejoicing always before him” taken and “by wicked hands crucified and slain.” To see Him mocked and scourged and spit upon. To hear the mad, wild cry of hatred which rang out upon the silent air, “Away with him! crucify him! crucify him!” And to hear that Son, in the sore trouble of His soul, fray, “Father save me from this hour!” though at once the subject spirit responded, “Yet for this cause came I unto this hour.” Or, again, from the deep gloom of Gethsemane His voice going up, “Oh, my Father, if it be possible let this cup pass from me,” or later on, amid the dark horrors of Calvary, that cry of unparalleled anguish, “My God! my God! why hast thou forsaken me?”
“Earth shuddered as He died―
God’s well-beloved Son;
The darkness sought His woes to
His work is done.”
But have you ever thought what it must have cost God to hear and see ah this; and yet to know, if He would save the world, if He would save sinners, He could not save His Son? While as yet He had not suffered, all our Lord could say was, “Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends” (John 15:1313Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends. (John 15:13)). But that wondrous work accomplished, the Spirit of God can now tell us a more marvelous thing, for “God commendeth his love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners [rebels, enemies] Christ died for us” (Rom. 5:88But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. (Romans 5:8)), and now—
“The river of His grace,
Through righteousness supplied,
Is flowing o'er the barren place
Where Jesus died!”
Tell me can you doubt this love in the face or such a manifestation of it? Can you still reject it; still refuse it? Or will you not rather yield to it now, believe it now, and ere you lay aside this paper know the joy which the prodigal of old did, in feeling the warmth of the Father's kiss upon your cheek, and the weight of His love upon your neck?
Then, should the Lord come tonight for His people, you, instead of being left behind for judgment, will be caught up with them, to share the brightness of His home, as well as for ever to enjoy the love of that heart which has given costly a proof of its affections.
A. S. O.