Blessings proceeding from the humanity of Christ (Quality: Good)

[0:00] If the Lord will enable me, I would draw your attention to the chapter that we read, the 32nd chapter in the prophet Isaiah, the second verse.

[0:15] And a man shall be as an hiding place from the wind, and a covert from the tempest, as rivers of water in a dry place, as the shadow of a great rock in a weary land.

[0:33] The second verse in the 32nd of Isaiah, and a man shall be as an hiding place from the wind, and a covert from the tempest, rivers of water in a dry place, and the shadow of a great rock in a weary land.

[0:52] You know, the Bible is an Eastern book, and the Easterners, it has ever been their custom, I suppose it is yet, to use figurative, beautiful language.

[1:11] They used literal things mostly, beautiful, literal things, setting forth spiritual things, Christ himself used the same things in his parables.

[1:28] They're using the things they were everyday acquainted with, and beautiful figurative language, but underneath there was a deep that couched beneath.

[1:41] And a man shall be as an hiding place, a depth of spiritual meaning. And oh, what a mercy it is if the Holy Ghost will open up to us the depths that couches beneath these words in the text, and give us to see the experimental meaning of them.

[2:03] Well, we read in the first place, and a man shall be as an hiding place from the wind.

[2:15] This man, of course, is no less person than the eternal Son of God, the second person in the ever-glorious Trinity, who came into this world and united to his divine person.

[2:36] He who was equal in all the glory of the Trinity, all the power, all the majesty of the Father and the Holy Ghost, equal with each person in the Trinity, almighty, omniscient, eternal.

[3:02] Yet, he came into this world, took into everlasting union, he will never relinquish it, humanity.

[3:13] He joined that humanity to his divine person forever for the purpose of redeeming from their sins that number that ultimately, when they're all gathered together at last, no man will be able to number.

[3:37] gathered out of each generation since the beginning of the world. Ah, this number was by God the Father chosen for the Trinity well knew in their foreknowledge that Adam and Eve, our first parents, though they had created them upright in a natural perfection.

[4:11] Somehow or other, I never liked to speak of them as holy. No, but they were pure in a natural perfection and good.

[4:24] God pronounced them good. And he created Adam after his own image. And we find the voice of the Trinity was there when Adam was created.

[4:41] We find these words in the scripture, Let us make man in our image and after our likeness.

[4:54] There we have a plurality of persons. There we have a plurality of persons. In the eternal Godhead. The Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost.

[5:08] They were there and they created Adam after their likeness. In uprightness and purity in that natural perfection.

[5:19] But in their foreknowledge, they knew full well that our first parents would fall from that perfection.

[5:32] God placed them under a law. Every tree in the garden that he placed them in, he gave them permission to eat except one tree.

[5:46] Oh, I know this is thought nothing of today. But I tell you this, my friends, if the Holy Ghost begins with you, you will believe all that this blessed book says.

[6:01] I know what I speak because years ago I threw it away. Never read it for years. Tried my utmost to be an atheist.

[6:12] I can bear witness to the power of God, the Holy Ghost. He convinces. And if he begins in your heart, all the rubbish that is spoken today, you will not believe it.

[6:30] He will convince you of the truth of his blessed word. Well now, in their foreknowledge, they knew full well that sooner or later Adam would fall.

[6:44] He was made a fallible creature. Why shouldn't he be? Oh, I've known the time in my own regeneracy when I hated this God for ever putting us under a law.

[7:03] Oh, the wretched, the dreadful enmity of the human heart. And these things are still in the human heart.

[7:14] The enmity against the sovereignty of God. Why shouldn't he place us under a law? And that law we broke.

[7:26] Our first parents transgressed that law. And the result was sin, sin entered into the world.

[7:37] And death passed upon all men. For that all, no exception, all have sinned. And all the progeny of our first parents come into this world sinners, sinners, with a nature that has no capacity in it to fulfill one precept of God's holy law to the satisfaction of that holy God.

[8:09] No, no. It is a mercy to know it, to be convinced of it. that, oh, it was the will, the will of the Trinity that not all Adam's seed should come under judgment and be damned forever for their sin.

[8:28] No. No. A covenant was entered into between these three glorious persons. Oh, what a mercy.

[8:39] A covenant, we call it a covenant of grace, grace, and so it is. For it was nothing but free and sovereign grace, free favor, and eternal love moved the Father to choose out of the future progeny of Adam and Eve a number that they would eternally save from the ruin that sin had brought them into.

[9:09] in that covenant of grace, the Father gave them to his eternal Son to be his spouse in this life, in this world, in which he would commune with them, make himself known to them by the Holy Ghost.

[9:29] Christ, and in eternity, there will be his bride, clothed in his glorious righteousness, washed from all their sin and iniquity in his atoning blood.

[9:47] And hence, the coming into this world of this glorious man, the second person in the Trinity, to bring about that redemption, came into this world.

[10:03] The Father, out of love to that number that were chosen, gave, sent, his only begotten Son, the Son of his love, into this sinful world.

[10:19] You know, there's something in those words. They're not just mere words. Oh, it shows to us what a wonderful love was in this, even in the Father, that he gave his only begotten Son, and in this, sent him into this world, to redeem his people.

[10:45] He well knew at what a cost. He well knew the punishment that he would bring upon his Son as he stood the surety for his people.

[10:59] Oh, the Father well knew that the day would come when it would please him out of love to this people to bruise his only begotten Son, to put him to grief in their own place instead, so that they shall go free, free to all eternity.

[11:22] And well now, this is the man that is in the text. A man, and a man shall be as an hiding place from the wind.

[11:34] Let us look at these things, for here we have the experience of these people, more or less, as God, the Holy Ghost, begins to work in them.

[11:47] It is his office in this covenant of grace. The Father loved and chose. The Son came into the world to redeem. And we could never know anything of these things but by the third person in the glorious Trinity, God, the Holy Ghost.

[12:09] You know, sometimes I wonder if part of our declension, if the withholding of the Holy Ghost in these days is because he has been so much slighted.

[12:26] He is slighted. Oh, he is God equal with the Father and the Eternal Son in the Trinity. to be worshipped, to be loved.

[12:40] He is all-powerful. He is a glorious person with the Father and the Son in the Trinity. And without him bringing about within us a new birth, adding to us something we didn't bring into the world with us, a new creation, we could never, never know anything savingly.

[13:08] No. Oh, no, we might know a lot in our head. We might know this book from end to end in your brain, but when you died, your brain would die and that would die with you.

[13:23] But, oh, it is only the Holy Ghost, God, the Holy Ghost, who loves this people with the same love as the Son and the Father, who entered into that glorious covenant of grace on their behalf.

[13:40] He it is who makes this man to be as an hiding place from the wind. This is an experimental word.

[13:56] It's a wonderful mercy if we know anything of it. Have you ever known, have you ever felt anything of what this wind, this word sets forth?

[14:09] This word sets forth the terrible wrath of a holy, holy God against all sin. He cannot look upon sin with the least degree of allowance.

[14:25] No, no, intrinsically holy. It is a mercy, you know, to be brought to know this in your soul by divine teaching.

[14:37] Only the Holy Ghost can do it, but he does it in the hearts of God's people, and he makes them know that there is such a thing as the wind of the wrath of God.

[14:55] Aye, and that wrath is against all sin, all sin. I often say it, and I say it again, there is not a sin that has ever been committed in thought, word, or deed from Adam's day, and down to the last day that will not come under the wrath of a holy God.

[15:23] For all the blessedness of the gospel is this, that number that God loved, and Christ bore that wrath in their own place and stead.

[15:39] And it is in this way that he becomes a hiding place to them. When the Holy Ghost begins with these people, and he will begin with every one of them in this time state, for he knows them, he loves them, and it is his blessed work to convince them as Christ said, when he, the spirit of truth, is come, he shall convince of sin, of righteousness, of judgment to come.

[16:15] Ah, and when he begins this work in the heart, they begin to feel the wind is against them, the chilling, terrible wind of the wrath of God.

[16:30] They begin to see and realize, as they never did before, the holiness of God. And the more they, the deeper they see the holiness of God, the deeper they see their sinfulness, their utter, absolute ruin.

[16:48] And they may be left as I was to try and patch up some kind of a righteousness under this condemnation, but sooner or later it will fail, fail absolutely.

[17:03] And it is the work of the Holy Ghost to show this blessed man to this people as an hiding place from that wind.

[17:17] God's sin. And he does this effectually. Oh, yes, there is no shelter, no hiding place from that wrath of God except in this glorious man, Christ Jesus.

[17:36] Oh, it is a wonderful mercy. when the Holy Ghost is convinced of sin, he may go on with that work very deeply.

[17:48] He's a sovereign, and in some cases he does this work very powerfully and deeply. In other cases, he does it not so deep.

[18:02] You know, wind is not always at high velocity. sometimes it is but as a gentle breeze, but it's wind, a movement of air, and he will make all these people sooner or later in their measure according to his sovereignty feel something of this wind.

[18:27] Some he will bring them off their feet in a moment, like he did Saul of Tarsus. Some he deals more gently with.

[18:38] We have instances, haven't we, in the word of God, of the difference of the work of the Holy Ghost in convictions of sin.

[18:50] It comes to my mind, if you look at the case of Jacob, Jacob had to flee from the parental roof because of his sin, his deception protection of his poor old father to get the blessing.

[19:08] Well, it meant he saw his brother vowed his death and he had to leave the parental roof.

[19:19] But on his first night in his voyage to his uncle Laban's, as he lay down with the stones for his pillow, the Lord appeared to him.

[19:32] You don't read in his history that the Lord appeared for him in any way before that. But he did there. But he didn't begin convincing him of his sin.

[19:45] He didn't begin applying the law to his conscience. No, he dealt very gently with him. He showed him a ladder.

[19:57] He showed him the way from earth to heaven. For I believe he saw in that ladder the coming of Messiah one day. And he said after, didn't he, this is the very gate of heaven.

[20:16] But, oh, in later years as he passed through a wilderness journey, the Lord taught him what a sinner he was. We read of him saying to Joseph's lads as he blessed them.

[20:31] The angel that redeemed me from all sin, he knew what redemption was. He knew his need of it. But I don't believe that in his beginning the Lord dealt very gently with him.

[20:47] And he does with some of his people. But, nevertheless, the end of that teaching and dealing with them is this. They're convinced that they're sinners, sinners, lost, ruined, in the fall.

[21:05] And they're brought to need mercy, mercy. They're brought to know something of that first verse you just sang. Oh, how needful is Christ.

[21:18] Christ. And it is the Holy Ghost's blessed work to begin to reveal to them Christ. Ah, the whole Trinity begin to draw them to Christ, this blessed man.

[21:36] The Holy Ghost reveals to them that there is no hiding place except in this blessed man. That he he alone is the hiding place of his people from the wind and the storm of the wrath of an offended holy God.

[22:01] And he begins to give them glimpses. He gives them, as it were, just touches, showing them something of the beauty and loveliness of this precious person, sooner or later in their experience, just as he will.

[22:22] Oh, what a mercy it is if he has made you to see and know your sin, and if he has made you see this blessed hiding place from the wind, if he has given you to see the beauty, the loveliness of the person of Christ.

[22:41] You can't describe it. It is beyond description. Oh, I remember even before I had any full assurance of an interest in this salvation, there were times under the preaching of the gospel, in private reading or in prayer, when Christ was, oh, exceedingly precious to me, so that my soul went out after him.

[23:11] Oh, I knew what David meant when he said his whole being, as it were, went out in thirst after God.

[23:23] He will make Christ so precious to the soul, that your whole being, as it were, will go out after him for your salvation.

[23:36] And you know this is not all together to escape a well-deserved hell, that is included in it, I know, but Jesus draws the chosen race by his sweet, resistless grace.

[23:56] Ah, he makes himself precious to them. He gives them to love him. For there is such a preciousness in the very name of Jesus that it becomes to them like ointment poured forth.

[24:13] You know what the figure means. They used to make precious ointments from their herbs they grew in the east, and seal them up in alabaster boxes.

[24:26] and on a certain occasion, a great occasion, they would burst the box, and the room would be filled with a glorious perfume, a sweet odour.

[24:42] Oh, have you ever felt any fragrance, any sweet, blessed odour in the name of Christ? Has this man, this glorious man, has he ever been attractive to your soul?

[25:00] Have you ever seen in him the only hiding place from your sins? You may not have known very much about his person, I didn't, but, oh, I know this, that he was made, oh, so precious, exceedingly precious to my poor soul, that I longed after him, but, oh, a man shall be as an hiding place from the wind, the only hiding place.

[25:37] And what a blessed hiding place this is. Oh, a rock, a firm hiding place, and as the Holy Ghost goes on with his teaching, for it is here, a little there, a little line upon line, precept upon precept, he teaches his people using means, he uses the preaching of the gospel, he uses his own word, he uses sometimes a line or two of a hymn, or he may use no means, but he teaches, enlightens the soul, the Holy Ghost loves to do it, it is his delight to exalt Christ, he shows his people this glorious person, and he makes him to them a hiding place, oh, if ever he reveals anything of his beauty and glory to your soul, you can't help but seek after him, love him, want him, with all the desire of your soul sometimes, he is made so precious, all the language in the Song of Solomon, where the spouse speaks in blessed figurative language of her bridegroom, oh, you find they're not exaggerated, no, not a bit, you enter into the same language in your soul, he becomes the cheapest among ten thousand, the altogether lovely one, and your soul goes after him, you want him to speak to you, you say, oh,

[27:30] Lord, if thou wouldst only say to my soul, I am thy salvation, if thou wouldst only give me to taste of that feast that passes all understanding, if thou wouldst only bless me with thy salvation, oh, how good it would be, these are the breathings of the soul under the work and teaching of the Holy Ghost, in, as he convinces us of sin, and as he makes this blessed person, Christ, this glorious man, a hiding place, but how is he a hiding place?

[28:15] Ah, he is a hiding, he is there hiding place, because he came into this world in that sacred, holy humanity, and in that holy humanity, in spite of all the hatred and malice, of Satan and men, he was all the time fulfilling, every precept, in the law of God, loving his father, and loving his people, and he was fulfilling every jot and tittle of his holy law, he could, he said in the temple to the Jews, I do always those things that please him, meaning his father, father, he also said, not one jot or one tittle of the law shall pass till all be fulfilled, but oh, only he could fulfill it, in that holy humanity, you and I have no capacity whatever, in our fallen nature, of getting any hope out of the law, the law, the law, killeth, but oh, this blessed

[29:39] Christ, he wove out daily, hourly, stitch by stitch, as it were, a glorious, blessed righteousness, but it was not for himself, he had no need of it, holy in his eternal Godhead, holy in that humanity, he had, how all his work was vicarious, it was out of love to his poor, sinful people, how he would bring in for them, and he did, an everlasting righteousness, which is unto and upon all them that believe, oh, what a favor, and in this way, for righteousness, he becomes the hiding place for them, from the wind of the wrath of God against the sinner, the person that violates that law, but oh, to see by faith, that he fulfilled that law, oh, sometimes it is so sweet to me, when I look back over my life, oh, how black it is, how vile, vile in my own eyes, what must it be in the eyes of a holy

[31:05] God, but yet sometimes, you know, the scene is changed altogether, sometimes a little faith comes into exercise, the gift of the holy ghost, and I look at that righteousness, and I say, oh, what a mercy to be covered in that glorious righteousness of Jesus, this man of sorrows acquainted with grief, that came into this world, worked out that righteousness, and magnified the law, made it honorable, oh, what a mercy it is to have a hope in this righteousness, no the righteousness will avail at the end, no the righteousness will justify the sinner, only this righteousness, which is by faith in the

[32:07] Son of God, in this way he becomes a hiding place for them against the wind of the law, as lawbreakers, but what a mercy it is to feel it, I will bring a peace into your heart that passes all understanding, and then to see that he suffered, bled, and died, in the room, place, instead of his people, that although he had worked out that righteousness, and it is imputed to all his people as theirs, as only God can impute, yet their sins were imputed to him, and that holy attribute of divine justice must be satisfied.

[33:04] Do you know anything of that awful attribute of divine justice? That justice is not like human justice, you know, that can be corrupted?

[33:17] No. all this solemn justice of the holy God must be satisfied, and he alone could satisfy it, as he bore all the wrath in that justice that was against his people in his holy humanity, in that holy soul, and that holy heart, that he had in this humanity, he bore all the wrath of an offended God, all that was against his people, out of love to them.

[34:02] Oh, what a love moved him into Gethsemane. Did he not say, I have a baptism to be baptized with, and how am I straightened until it be accomplished, a baptism, an immersion, not a sprinkling, no, no, no.

[34:26] and as he came to Gethsemane, and there we read of him, and it is a mercy if the Holy Ghost ever gives you by faith to see him there, as he reeled upon the ground, as he uttered that prayer three times, Father, if it be possible, let this cock pass from me, nevertheless, not my will but thine be done, and thus, in that agony, his sweat was as it were great drops of blood falling to the ground, but every, every drop of that blood was precious, it was atoning for the sins of his people, but oh, if you ever get a sight of him there, it will break your heart, it will soften your heart, it will cause you to love this glorious man,

[35:29] I will, he will become precious to your soul, well, he went from there to the judgment hall, with the mob, there they crowned him with horrible oriental thorns, they beat him into his brow with a reed, which is a rod, they scourged his back, every, every stroke of that scourge would bring blood, they, they ploughed his back with the scourge, they mocked him, they spit upon him, but oh, oh, every drop of that blood that he stained all his raiment with, was to redeem his people from their sins, it was precious blood, they led him away to Calvary, there they nailed him to the accursed tree, he was made a curse for his people, people, ah, there, have you ever heard that cry, my God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me,

[36:51] I heard it once, and I shall never forget it, no, oh, to think that the father should forsake him, should visit him, should, as it were, make him feel all the hell that was due to his people's sins, in that sacred, holy body and soul, that he took forever to redeem them, all the love that moved him, but, oh, it was the only way that sin could be expiated, and his love moved him to suffer, bleed, and die, in the wrong place instead of his people, he had engaged in covenant before time began to be their surety, and he would go to the end of what it meant, and he even pleased the father to bruise him, to put him to grief, he laid upon him the iniquity of his people, not only their outward transgressions, but the iniquity that is in their hearts, what a meaning this has, all meaning we shall never fully understand the mystery of iniquity, but it was laid to his charge, and he bore all the punishment due to it, so that his people should go free, free, free, this is this man, this is this man of whom we speak, this glorious man, as the

[38:36] Holy Ghost reveals him to the poor soul whom he has given to feel their need of him, he becomes to them a glorious hiding place, oh, what a hiding place is this Christ, oh, how precious, and oh, what a rest he becomes to God's people, a rest from their bondage, a rest from all their toils, do you know it, do you know it, have you ever felt it, ah, the hymn writer says, oh, to rest is Christ to me, ever felt the preciousness, the beauty, the loveliness of this glorious man, ah, if you do, you will worship him, you will see the truth of these words, and a man shall be as a hiding place from the wind, here I'm afraid I must leave it, the time is gone, if the

[39:39] Lord will enable me, I'll continue with it this evening, may the Lord bless his word to us, Amen.