God -- Sermons; Jesus Christ -- Sermons; Sermons, English -- 20th century
It is at this moment that we realise for the first time our need of a
substitute, just as Job did, for he said, "He is not a man as I am that I
should answer Him, neither is there any daysman betwixt us that can lay
His hand upon us both." [Footnote: Job ix. 33.] How Job would have
rejoiced in the glorious revelation which Christ has brought to us. "There
is one God, and one Mediator between God and men, the Man Christ Jesus,
Who gave Himself a ransom for all." [Footnote: 1 Tim. ii. 5, 6.] He is not
only the Mediator laying His hand upon us both, but He _gave Himself_,
that is, He gave His life as a _ransom_. The ransom price was His own
precious blood, for the life is in the blood. It is the Blood of God's own
dear Son which makes an atonement for the soul.
The sentence passed on you and me and on every sinner is the sentence of
death, for death is the penalty for sin. We are all under the sentence of
death, but the glorious message is sent God has found a Substitute.
"He bore on the tree the sentence for me,
And now both the Surety and sinner are free."
You and I now have what Job longed for so earnestly. The Daysman is the
Son of God Himself, "Whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation," that
is an atoning sacrifice, "through faith in His Blood." [Footnote: Rom.
iii. 25.]
At first Jacob trembled with fear, but after he had heard the loving words
which God spoke to him from the top of that wonderful ladder, then he
began to realise that he was no longer alone in that lonely place. He
said, "This is the house of God, this is the gate of heaven." Earth had
faded from his sight and he was surrounded by heavenly realities. And so
it is now, the veil is very thin which separates earth from heaven, the
temporal from the Eternal.
It was _God's Voice_ which woke him up spiritually. God revealed Himself
as the personal God to Jacob. We can recognise a friend by his voice even
if we do not see him. So it is the Voice more than anything else which
makes the presence of any one real to us. We have an illustration of this
in the pictures of the gramophone in which we see a dog listening for the
master's voice. The sheep knows the shepherd's voice; the child is quick
in recognizing its mother's voice; why do we turn a deaf ear to God's
Voice? How tenderly He pleads with us, saying, "But My people would not
hearken to My Voice." [Footnote: Ps. lxxxxi. 11.]
God wants to be very real and very personal to each one of us, so He says,
"Unto you, O men, I call, and My Voice is to the sons of man." [Footnote:
Prov. viii. 4.]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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