Die Weg Na God - Charles Spurgeon

“Geen mens kom na die Vader nie, behalwe deur My.” – Johannes 14:6.

Daar is baie mense in hierdie wêreld wat nie net nie na God toe kom nie, maar wat so ver moontlik van Hom af beweeg. Niks sou hierdie mense meer verheug nie as om heeltemal van Sy teenwoordigheid ontslae te wees en om heeltemal ontsnap te wees uit die grense van Sy koninkryk nie. Hulle sal tevrede wees om hul bed in die hel te maak as dit hulle ‘n bevredigende antwoord op die vraag gee: “Waar kan ek na jou Gees gaan, of waar kan ek vlug vir jou teenwoordigheid?” Hul harte is vyandig teenoor God. Hulle haat Sy Woorde en Sy weë. Hulle weet dat God boos teenoor hulle is, en hulle is in ruil daarvoor boos teenoor God! Daar is ‘n ander groep mense wat maar min verder gevorder is as hierdie. Dit kan nie gesê word dat hulle werklik God haat nie, maar hulle vlug steeds van Hom af. Miskien sal hulle ontevrede wees om beskuldig te word van die haat van God, maar tog is dit waar van hulle dat hulle in totale minagting van Hom leef. Hulle sê in hulle harte: “Geen God.” God is nie in al hul gedagtes nie. Hulle mag dalk verhewe gedagtes van die natuur hê, maar min verlangens na Hom wat die natuur gemaak het. Hulle dink baie aan die tyd en die sin, aan die dinge wat onder is, maar wat betref die ewigheid en die werklike werklikhede—die dinge wat onsigbaar en ewig is—dit is iets wat hulle skaars kan oorweeg. “Wees versigtig, julle wat God vergeet,” want jou toestand is nie beter as die toestand van diegene wat ek aanvanklik beskryf het nie! “Die boosdoeners sal in die hel gewerp word.” Hulle wat God haat, sal Sy pyniging ervaar, maar so ook hulle metgeselle, want die teks sê: “Die boosdoeners sal in die hel gewerp word saam met al die nasies wat God vergeet.” Dit is nie nodig dat jy God moet haat nie—net dat jy oorlog teen Hom voer om jouself te vernietig! Die eenvoudige verwaarlosing van Hom is genoeg om jou te verwoes. So het die apostel dit gesê: “Hoe sal ons ontsnap as ons so ‘n groot saligheid verwaarloos?” Jy hoef nie teen die dik punte van Jehovah se skild te hardloop nie. Jy hoef nie teen die punt van Sy blink spies aan te hardloop nie. Staan net stil en doen niks nie! Beskou Hom nie—maak jou oë toe vir Sy bestaan en vul jouself met die afgodskuns van die aarde, en jy het jouself net so seker vernietig asof jy Hom in Sy gesig uitgedaag het! Verwaarlosing van God is die oop poort na die verdoemenis! God vergeet is om jou deel in die meer wat met vuur en swawel brand, te verseker!

Die Weg Wat Christus Vir Ons Maak

Daar is egter ‘n derde groep mense op aarde wat nie sou wil wees nie, maar wat regtig sê dat hulle nie heeltemal onverskillig is oor Sy guns nie. Hulle verkies om saam met diegene getel te word wat God soek. Hulle begeerte is om na hul Vader toe te gaan. Miskien is hulle nog nie ten volle na die enigste weg van kom wat Hy bepaal het, nie, maar steeds is hulle belydenis dat hulle God wil aanbid, en voor Hom wil kom met danksegging—en hulself bly in Hom wees. Dit is na hierdie karakter, wat soveel hoop het, dat ek veral vanoggend sal spreek. Maar inderdaad, ek sal graag die groot waarheid van die teks vir elkeen in hierdie vergadering wil preek. Geen mens—al verlang hy dit ook so opreg, werk hy dit ook so hard—kom na die Vader toe, behalwe deur Jesus Christus!

Die Verhouding Van God En Die Mens

Toe Adam in die tuin van Eden volmaak was, het God met hom in die koel van die dag gewandel. God en die mens het die mees intieme en liefdevolle gemeenskap gehad. Die mens was ‘n gelukkige wese; God was ‘n afgodskultus skeppende en die twee het mekaar ontmoet en soet gesprekke en gemeenskap gehou. Maar van die oomblik af toe Adam die verbode vrug aangeraak het, is die weg van God na die mens blokkeer—die brug was gebroke; ‘n groot kloof was tussen hulle gesit—so dat as dit nie vir die goddelike plan van genade was nie, kon ons nie na God opgestaan het nie, en kon God nie in geregtigheid na ons kom nie! Gelukkig, egter, het die ewige verbond, wat in alle dinge georden en seker is, voorsiening gemaak vir hierdie groot katastrofe. Christus Jesus die Middelaar het in die ewige tyd gelede bestem om die Middelman van toegang tussen die mens en God te wees.

Jesus As Die Trappe Na God

As jy ‘n beeld van Hom nodig het, onthou die gedenkwaardige droom van Jakob. Hy het hom in ‘n eensame plek neergelê en gedroom ‘n droom wat iets meer substansieel in dit gehad het as enigiets wat hy met sy oë oop gesien het. Hy het ‘n trappe gesien, waarvan die voet op aarde rus, en die bokant daarvan die hemel self bereik het. Op hierdie trappe het hy engele gesien wat op- en afklim. Nou, hierdie trappe was Christus. Christus in Sy mensheid rus op die aarde; Hy is been van ons been en vlees van ons vlees. In Sy goddelikheid bereik Hy die hoogste hemel, want Hy is die ware God van die ware God. Wanneer ons gebede na bo opklim, moet hulle die trappe van hierdie trappe trap—en wanneer God se seëninge na ons afkom, moet die trappe van hierdie wonderlike trappe die middele van hul afkoms wees! Nooit het ‘n gebed na God opgestyg behalwe deur Jesus Christus nie! Nooit het ‘n seëning af na die mens gekom behalwe deur dieselfde goddelike Middelaar!

Ah, my dear brothers and sisters, I know your fear, and I can pity you. But I know your fear and I can blame you, too! What? Are you afraid to come to God through Christ and do you need someone to speak to Christ for you? Oh, foolish heart! You do need a Mediator in coming to God, but you do not need any in coming to Christ! Go to Him just as you are, without making yourself any better. Go straight away, rags and sin and leprosy and blotches and sores and all, straight away to Him! Do not be afraid that the Father will reject you if you come alone through Him. Let me lead you, my poor, timid brothers and sisters, to this way. Come with me. Do you see yon cross? Do you mark that glorious man dying on it in agonies that cannot be described? Do you not think that those sufferings are enough to expiate the wrath of God? Why, listen to Him! Will you not believe what He says?—“IT IS FINISHED!” He cries before He gives up the ghost. Now, if Jesus thought it finished, do you not think it so? If He Himself thought that He had done enough, is not that enough for you that is enough for Him? Come boldly, for Jesus smiles upon you! His blood is dropping—His heart is still flowing with the blood and water. Come! None ever were cast out—shall you be the first? Those arms that are nailed to the cross are wide open, as if they would show you that they can receive the biggest of sinners. Those feet that are nailed to the cross are fastened there as if they meant to stay there and wait to be gracious to you! O do you see His pierced side? It seems as if it said to you, “My heart is not hard to reach. See, here is a straight road to it opened by the Roman spear. Come, breathe your sighs into My heart, and I will hear and answer.” Come, Soul! Come this way! How safe it is, for over it hangs the banner of Jehovah’s love. And on the ground is the mark of blood of the Savior’s footsteps. This gory pathway to the throne of God, I now entreat you to enter. Jesus made it. Jesus smoothed it. Jesus dyed it with His blood! Come, come away poor soul! Come, put your trust alone in Jesus and then you need not come to God the Father with trembling and with dismay! God help you, timid one. God help you. You have no need to despair—Jesus said He will cast out none that come to Him by faith. IV. I shall not keep you much longer, but I must now observe that there are others who desire to come to God in communion. You will meet, every now and then, with a devout man who has but very imperfect notions of the gospel and who, nevertheless, has a kind of reverence for the living God. He is an astronomer and he will tell you that an undevout astronomer is mad. He says that while his eyes look through the telescope upon the wondrous worlds that float in ether, he communes with God; marvels at His power and admires His matchless benevolence and skill. The geologist, too, will tell you that when digging into the deep foundations of the world and bringing out those old inhabitants who in days of yore stalked through gigantic forests, he feels he can talk with God the Eternal One—that those gray hairs of an ancient world remind him of the Ancient of Days—and the bones of a buried generation all remind him of the Eternal One, who was before all things and by whom all things consist. Now, these men are sincere. But do not imagine for an instant that their devotion is acceptable, or that their communion is true and real unless in this they tincture and savor their communion with the knowledge that Jesus Christ is the only way of access to God! Oh, Soul, if you would walk with God, as Adam did in Eden, (and it is quite possible)—if you would walk with Him as Enoch did, and that is quite possible, too—if you would see Him face to face and talk to Him as a man would talk with his friend, remember 7 7 you must be set in the cleft of the rock Christ Jesus, or else you cannot do it! Once let a man stand in that cleft, and see Jesus’ blood, then he can commune with God in nature readily enough. Standing at the foot of the mountain he may see that hill like a wedge piercing the ebon darkness and his soul may climb the summit and enter into the invisible! He may look upon that awful summit as upon an ambassador sent from earth to heaven—and his spirit may seem to rise on the mountaintop until it appears to grasp the hand of the Almighty One! But mark, the steep summit of fellowship cannot be climbed, except Jesus Christ lends Himself to be the sacred ladder and gives strength to the weary footsteps of our faith! He is the way to God. He is the truth to guide us. He is the life to enable us to run in the road. Without Christ, there is no way to communion, no truth in communion and no life in our pretended fellowship! Christian, take heed that you never try to commune with God except through Jesus Christ! Never try to commune with Him even through the Holy Spirit, if you forget Christ! The Holy Spirit runs through Christ as through a channel; as water from the conduit runs through the pipe, so fellowship must run through Jesus Christ. There can be no coming of God to us, and no going of our soul to God except through the highway of communion, Jesus Christ, the man and yet the God! V. And lastly, to conclude—who is there among us who does not desire to come to God in heaven? Lives there a man with soul so dead that he has no desire for another and a better world? Is there a heart so seared that it never longs to be at rest—an eye so blind that it never looks into the hereafter and a soul so stolid that it never leaps with exulting spirit in the prospect of a world of joy and happiness? The wild untutored savage of the woods looks to another world and when some beloved one is buried, he lights a fire upon the grave to light the spirit through the dreary shades of death, that it may find its way to paradise. And then he sits upon the grave, when the fire is quenched and thinks of the spirit that is gone and hopes for it that it has gone to the kingdom of the blessed, to the land of the hereafter. Never is he content unless he hopes that the spirit of his beloved one is gone to a better land! And shall it be imagined that any of us who are living in a Christian country are shutting our eyes to the future and never think of looking beyond the grave? There are many here—no, all of us are longing for another and a better world! O world of woe, what were you if you were not a steppingstone to a world of bliss? O land of graves and shrouds, of pick-axe and of spade, what were you if we did not dive through you into the land of light? O vale of tears, what were you if it were not that you are the pathway to the mountain of transfiguration? O valley of Baca filled with tears of sorrow till the pools thereof are overflowing—what were you if you did not lead to the tabernacles of our God—the peaceful sanctuary in which we hope to dwell? But there is no way to heaven, whatever our hopes may be, but through Christ! O spirit of man, there is no way to the gates of pearl but through the bleeding side of Jesus! These are the gates of paradise— these bleeding wounds. If you would find your way to God’s bright throne, find first your way to Jesus’ shameful cross! If you would know the way to happiness, tread in that path of misery which Jesus trod. What? Attempt another way? Man, are you mad enough to think that you can rend the posts and bars and gates of heaven from their perpetual places and force your way by your created strength? The arm of God shall dash you down to the nethermost pit of hell! Or do you think to purchase with your riches and your gold a foothold in paradise? Fool! What is your gold where streets are made of it and where the gates are solid pearl—where the foundations are of jasper and the walls are precious gems? And do you think to get there by your merits? Ah, fool that you are, by pride fell the angels and by your pride you fall! In your talking of merit, you confess that you are Lucifer, himself, incarnate! Away with you! Heaven is not for such as you are! But do you say, “I will leave my wealth after I have gone. I will build a hospital, or feed the poor.” Then let men pay you! You have worked for your nation, let them pay the debt! Let them rear the stony pillar and set your effigy upon the top. If you have worked for your country, let your country pay you what they owe you. But God, what does He owe to you? You have forgotten Him; you have despised His Son; you have rejected His gospel! Be you warrior, statesman, patriot— let men pay you. God owes you nothing and all you can do will not bribe Him to admit you to His palace 8 8 if you come not in the right way through Jesus Christ, who lived and died and is alive forever more and has the keys of heaven at His side! Come, now, you who have nothing to bring! Come to Christ this morning, you perishing, you guilty and you lost! God’s ambassador stands before you and as though Christ did woo you, he pleads with you to come to Jesus NOW. You, who are under conviction of sin and need salvation, believe on Him now! In your heart, poor sinner, say— “Just as I am, without one plea, But that Your blood was shed for me, And that you bid me come to Thee, O Lamb of God, I come.” The invitation is freely given; the proclamation is openly made. My God is not a God of hatred and of anger—He is a God of love. He bids you who are thirsty; who are longing to see His face—He bids you come now. And He tells you and He confirms the same with an oath—“As I live, says the Lord God, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but that the wicked turn from his way and live—turn you, turn you from your evil ways; for why will you die O house of Israel?” Come now! “The Spirit and the bride say, Come. And let him who hears say, Come. And let him who is thirsty, come. And whoever will, let him take the water of life freely.” O Spirit of God, draw sinners to Christ! O glorious One, be pleased now to draw them to the Father, through Jesus Christ, the Son of God!

Charles Spurgeon