106
March 1932
T h e
K i n g ’ s
B u s i n e s s
u And when Abram was ninety years old and nine, the Lord appeared to Abram, and said unto him, I am the E l S haddai ; walk before me, and be thou perfect (G en . 17:1). u
By LOUIS T TALBOT* Los Angeles, California
Louis T. T albot vation. God’s grace was exemplified at Calvary, where Jesus Christ shed His blood that all who believe in Him might live. If you are a trembling soul, wondering whether the work of Calvary is really adequate, you may rest as sured that “the God who is enough” did not send His Son to suffer and to die in vain. No, the atonement that was made is sufficient to meet the need of the vilest of sinners. ome years ago , I was preaching on a street corner in a certain city. At the close of the meeting,' a man asked me if I would be willing to visit the worst man in town. I voiced my willingness, the name and address were given me, and on Monday morning I called to see the “worst” man. I was •warned, before I went, that he had no confidence in preachers, no sympathy with the church, no belief in God. He was an infidel. When I arrived at his home, I found he was just recovering from double pneu monia. When I told him who I was, he became very angry and informed me that there was nothing I could say that would interest him one bit. In spite of his protests, I told him about the grace of God, and what that grace had done for me. Then he began to unfold to me the story of his life. As he did so, turning over page after page in his autobiography—pages blackened and marred by sin—I pointed to verse after verse in the Scriptures to show that even his need might be met. Suddenly, with a despairing gesture, he spread his hands before me, exclaiming: “Do you know that these hands are red with the blood of my fellow man ? Years ago, I participated in a lynching. I was the man who did the hanging; and if there is a God, I stand before Him condemned as a murderer!” It was a wonderful thing, my friends, to be able to tell this man of the El Shaddai, “the God 'who is enough,” whose grace covers even such a sin as he had described. It was my privilege to lead him to Jesus Christ and to show him that “where sin abounded, grace doth much more abound!” There was a time when I, too, questioned the sufficiency of the atonement of the El Shaddai, but that day is past. My sins have been many, but I can sing-4|^j
E ach name that is given to God in the Scriptures has a different shade of meaning, but I question whether any of them is freighted with quite so much meaning, or has such depth to it as this Hebrew word, El Shaddai, which is translated “the God who is enough.” hirteen years before the Lord came to Abram with ^ this revelation of Himself, Abram had received a mar velous promise from God. Up to that time, no seed had been born to Abram, and he was mourning because his heir would be not his son,-but one born in his house. God promised him an heir. The days, the weeks, the months, and the years went by. Because of hope deferred, Abram lost touch with God. He got out of fellowship when he fell from the platform of simple faith concerning the birth of the promised son to the lower level o f human expediency. He and his wife turned from faith in God, and Sarai sug gested that Hagar, her handmaid, be taken to wife by Abram, that seed might be born of her. From that time on, trouble and despair entered into their experience; fellow ship with God was broken, and for thirteen long years, Ab ram wandered about from place to place,, a disappointed, dissatisfied man. But God had not forgotten His promise, and He appeared unto Abram once again, when he was ninety-nine years old, with this wonderful revelation of Himself: “Abram, you have been influenced by unbelief, but I am the El Shaddai, the God who is enough; and once you get that into your heart, you will get your eyes off cir cumstances, and you will have faith to believe the promise that I now renew to you, that Isaac, the child of promise, shall be born to you in your old age.” God was desirous that Abram should know Him as “the God who is enough.” The day the words were uttered, Abram- looked into the face of the great God. He believed His word. His fellowship with God was restored, and soon afterward, he came to know that God was able to fulfill His promises in spite of human conditions. God wanted Abram to know Him as “the God who is enough”; and He has the same concern for every doubting, discontented, dis satisfied soul in the church of Jesus Christ. There are three ways in which we may know God as “the God who is enough.” “E nough ” for S alvation First of all, He is “the God who is enough” for our sal- *Pastor, Church of the Open Door.
Upon a life I did not live, Upon a death I did not die, Another’s life, Another’s death, I base my whole eternity!
Made with FlippingBook - Online magazine maker