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574
December 1929
T h e K i n g ’ s
B u s i n e s s
lying in the manger is Immanuel, which, being interpreted, is “ God with us”? That is the only way we can explain His matchless ministry, His wonderful teaching, His holy life, His marvelous miracles. “ Without controversy, great is the mystery o f godliness,” says the apostle.. God was manifest in the flesh. W e 'A re M ade O ne W ith H im in D eity But not only is He one with us in our humanity. The purpose of it is that we might be one with Him in deity. “He is not ashamed to call us brethren.” It is a wonderful thing to be born of God. The new birth is real and vital. When we believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and take Him as our Saviour we “pass out o f death into life” and “are made partakers o f the divine nature.” “He hath redeemed us,” Paul tells us, “from the curse o f the law?’ that we might receive the adoption of sonship. By His death on the cross He closed forever the door, of hell for all who receive Him as Saviour. But that is not all. “He died the fust for the unjust that he might bring us to God.” We receive the spirit of adoption and “because we are sons,” says Paul, “God hath sent forth the spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, Abba, Father.” I shall never forget that night, forty-five years ago, when I accepted Jesus Christ as my Saviour. I went home from a public meeting where nearly as many people had attended as there are here tonight. When I knelt down to pray that night I found myself intuitively call ing God “My Father.” I wonder who taught me to do that ? I had thought of God as the Almighty. I was afraid of God. The very name terrified me. But lo, when I received His Son, I received the spirit of sonship too, and that spirit cried, “Abba, Father.” I t is a great thing to be born of Him “who saves and they who are saved are all of one [may I add the word “spirit” ?], for which cause he is not ashamed to call them brethren.” It was a marvelous thing when I called Him my Saviour. But it was a bigger and greater thing when it dawned upon me that He would call me “brother.” Oh what an honor to call Him Saviour! What an honor to trust Him, to follow Him, and believe I am going to be with Him in eternity! But to think that He owns me, with all my weakness and all my faults and failures, and is not ashamed to call me His brother! It seems “too good to be true.” But— “It is written in God’s Word, And I believe it.” H e I s O ne W ith U s in E veryday E xperience He is one with us in the common experiences o f our everyday life. Oh, that helps one so! “He was made per fect through suffering.” Because He suffered, being tempted, “He is able also to succour them which are tempted.” He knew what it was to be hungry. He knew what it was to be slandered. He knew how it felt to be blasphemed. He knew poverty. “He was rich, but for our sakes he became poor.” The foxes had holes and the birds of the air had nests, but “the Son of man had not where to lay his head.” He knew what it was to be weary. He knew what it meant to have the people call Him a devil. He was “despised and rejected o f men, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief ” Oh, my sister, my brother, if you are passing through trouble of any kind, remember that "you have tonight standing in the presence of God a great High Priest making intercession for you, “who can be touched with all the feeling o f our infirmi
ties.” “He was tempted in all points like as we are, sin apart.” “There is never a trial that He is not there, There is never a burden that He doth not bear,
Never a sorrow that He doth not share, Moment by moment we’re under His care. “There is never a heartache and never a groan, Never a teardrop and never a moan, Never a danger, but there on His throne, Moment by moment He thinks of His own. “There is never a weakness that He doth not feel, Never a sickness that He cannot heal, Moment by moment, in woe or in weal, Jesus, my Saviour, abides with me still.”
Isn’t that sweet and lovely? I ’m glad He was a Man. He went down the road over which I am walking. He stepped on the thorns that pierce my feet. He met all life’s trials, and it helps me so to know that He knows and He cares. H e I s O ne W ith U s I n D eath He is one with us in death. It is a very solemn fact that every one of us in this house tonight in just a little while, some of us in a very little while, will come to a grave (unless the Lord appears in glory and takes us home by way of translation). Like those who have gone before us, we will stop at that grave. I believe it was Mr. Moody who once said, “Looking backward over my life as far as my recollection carries me I can see graves, graves, graves,—children’s graves, parents’ graves, graves of companions and friends. They are all filled up, cov ered over. Then I look in the other direction, the way which I am going, and all I can see far, far in the dis tance, are graves, graves, graves. They are open and waiting. Mine is down there and yours is down there and when we come to them we will stop.” It is a solemn thought. But listen. He took part of our flesh “that through death he might destroy him who had the power o f death, that is the devil.” Blessed be God! “And deliver them who through the fear o f death were all their lifetime subject to bondage.” In the hour of bereavement Jesus is one with us. He spake of Lazarus, “his friend.” I sometimes think the world came nearer to understanding Him at that point than at any other. When He healed the leper he said, “This is the power o f the most high God.” When He calmed the sea the people asked, “What manner o f man is this that even the winds and the waves obey him?” But when He stood beside the grave and let His tears fall they said, “Behold, how he loved him.” Oh, yes, He knows all about it. He knows the anguish of heart that comes when we stand and look for the last time on the face of our beloved dead. During the war I had to go from time to time to the homes of a number of my parishioners and tell them that a son had been slain, or a father or a husband had died in battle. In the city where I served God, there were over 12,000 men who went to the war, and from my own con gregation there were 80 men at the front. During those first years, nearly every week we got messages telling us that some one in our congregation had been taken in this cruel way. At first they sent messenger boys with the telegrams arjd in delivering them they would just open the doors and shove them in. But women fainted and fell, nearly dying, in their doorways; and finally the authorities said, “We will have the preachers do it.” One morning early I had a phone call. A husband arid father had been slain in battle; I knew that home.
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