Archibald G. Brown, August 17, 1873, East London Tabernacle
"The Lord is known by the judgment which he executes; the wicked is snared in the work of his own hands. Higgaion. Selah." [Margin, 'Meditation'.] Psalm 9:16
You who worship here regularly will, I know, bear me witness that my general theme is the love of God — his compassion towards the fallen, and his willingness to save the vilest. The themes we love to dwell on are the all-glorious sufficiency of the atonement, and the unutterable love of that heart that broke with anguish on Calvary's cross. We most frequently have the flute of mercy's invitation to our lips, and most love to make our harp strings vibrate, as we sweep our hands across them — with the melody of redeeming love. But there are seasons for all things, and there are times for everything; and sometimes the day dawns when the preacher would be false to himself and false to his people, if he did not declare to them the other side of the subject. Yes, I know not how he could answer for it at the last day, or how his garments could be clear of the blood of souls — if he never put down mercy's invitation, and lifted up the war trumpet to his lips, trusting to God to awaken a thousand echoes of alarm in as many hearts. If he would be true to himself, to his people, and to his God — he must sometimes make the strings of his harp tremulously vibrate to the mournful notes of a judgment to come.
It behooves him sometimes to declare that the Lord is known not only by his matchless mercy — but by the holy judgment which he executes; and if it is right for him to say 'Come' it is as right for him to thunder 'Higgaion' — 'Meditate on the threatened judgments of an offended Jehovah.'
In our experience we have found that God uses all kinds of instrumentality for the ingathering of souls. While there are numbers allured by mercy's music — there are almost as many driven into the arms of Heaven by the alarm bells of wrath to come. As there is a diversity in the operations of the Spirit, so is there a diversity of instrumentality, and we are bound to employ all means, yes, to 'become all things to all men, if by any means we may save some'.
The burden of our heart is the unsaved portion of this night's congregation, and that which makes the burden the heavier is the remembrance that 'The Lord is known by the judgment which he executes' — that 'the wicked is snared in the work of his own hands.' O sinner, I pray you have a 'Higgaion' this evening. If you have never been serious before, be serious now, if but for forty minutes. If you never think of Heaven or Hell again, give me for a short time not only your ears, but your attention as I say to you 'Higgaion'; meditate — dare to look the fact in the face that Jehovah has said he is known by the judgment which he executes.
I shall want then, first of all, to speak to you about the truth that is here stated, and then, secondly to cry 'Higgaion' concerning it.
First of all then, let me try and state THE TRUTH OF THE TEXT. The truth is, that the Lord makes himself known by his judgments; that is, that not only is the character of God discernible in the gentle mercy that he showers down on every hand — but that the same character is as distinctly set forth in his sterner actions.
There is a fashion in theology as well as in everything else, and the fashionable thing at the present day seems to be to depreciate entirely divine justice and pooh pooh the idea of God possessing such a prerogative as vengeance. The fashionable thing now is to let all the sterner lines of Jehovah's character evaporate, until nothing is left but a dreamy misty thing called 'the universal fatherhood of God'; and I suppose a more treacherous dangerous falsehood than this has never been launched by the father of all lies. It is just because this thing is so abroad and finding its way everywhere, that we want to clear our souls in your case and to say 'the Lord is known by the judgments which he executes'.
Let us then look at what God's thoughts in relation to sin are as demonstrated in his judgments, and I am inclined to think that we shall find there are far sterner traits in Jehovah's character, than these prophets of sentimental theology imagine — we shall see that although his love to the sinner is wonderful indeed, there is dire wrath for him that refuses to accept the mercy offered through the atoning sacrifice of Christ.
Let us then have a look at God as he has made himself known by his judgments.
What ages have passed since first man fell. What centuries have rolled by since God first pronounced the threatened judgment on sin. Now, if God's hatred to sin were anything less then intense, there would surely have been a mitigation of the sentence before this. If I can show you that although ages have rolled by since man fell, yet God's threatened punishments are as real and tremendous now as ever — I think I shall have shown you that God's hatred to sin is something terrible beyond all description.
One judgment was that the earth should bring forth briars and thorns to scourge the laborer after food. Now surely if there were unmixed mercy on the part of God — if there were this universal commiseration at the expense of his own justice and truthfulness — such a light and additional part of the curse must have been altered before this. But what is the state of the case? The earth tonight brings forth her briars and her tangled thickets. To this day the earth suffers for sin's sake, and 'the whole creation groans and travails in pain together until now'.
There was also a solemn judgment pronounced in the ears of Eve, the first mother. Has that become obsolete? 'In sorrow shall you bring forth children.' You may say that had we refined taste, we should not even refer to so delicate a subject. But we answer that we have to prove our point — not conciliate hyper-critical hearers. Has there been any mitigation of this? Are mothers' sorrows less than they were? Even in the common sorrow of motherhood, I see a tremendous proof that God will not lessen one atom of the threat he pronounced.
'In the day that you eat thereof you shall surely die.' Has death become a thing of the past? Is not this world fast becoming a huge cemetery? Has the scythe of the mower become less sharp? Has he put his sickle away? Are not men dying now as regularly as when Cain and his children died? They are; and the cemeteries on every hand, and the funeral bells that toll, tell me that God is known by the judgment which he executes.
He must be besotted, indeed, who, having eyes and using them, can see anything else than fearful proofs on every hand that while God is love he is also inflexible in his justice.
But let us take up this book, and see what God's character is, as revealed by his judgments here in this world — and I think I shall be able to show that there is something in the character of God very different to that which is so universally represented now.
Let us proceed to review the days of Noah. The world had become exceedingly sinful, its crimes cried to Heaven — then did the great fountains of the deep break up. Do you see how the black clouds gather? Do you hear the piteous pelting of the storm as it comes down? Do you mark the waters, how they rise? The hills are covered. Do you see the mad fight, the desperate struggle for the highest part of the mountain-peak? Can your eye see those corpses floating far and wide on every hand? Think of the time when a billow swept round and round the world without a mountain crag to break on. From the awful silence of a drowning world, there breaks upon mine ear, 'The Lord is known by the judgment which he executes!' And in that judgment I see something far sterner and more dreadful and terrible than universal fatherhood. Those cold billows say to me that it is a dreadful thing to fall into the hands of an angry God; and a drowned world tells me that he who dares to war against God, wars against one who has a thousand weapons in his hand, and says 'Vengeance is mine, I will repay!'Come later on. There are cities full of iniquity. They burn with unnatural lust — so God decrees that they shall burn with unnatural fire. Do you see the sulphurous torrent as it pours down on those cities of the plain? Do you hear the crackling of the timbers, and the shrieks of the men, and the women and the children? Do you remember that woeful sentence, 'He looked down toward Sodom and Gomorrah, toward all the land of the plain, and he saw dense smoke rising from the land, like smoke from a furnace'? I see no universal fatherhood of God there. 'The Lord is known by the judgment which he executes', and the sea of death (Dead Sea) in the Holy Land still bears its testimony to the fact that God abhors the sin, and has judgments for sinners.
'The Lord is known by the judgment which he executes.' Israel, not satisfied with the bread that comes from Heaven, lust after the food of Egypt, and, forgetting all previous mercies, insult their God by murmuring and longing after Egypt; they cry for meat and they have it — but while it is still between their teeth, the wrath comes down upon them, and a great plague sweeps through the camp; graves are dug by hundreds and the rebels flung into them, and the place is called Kibroth-hattaavah, that is, the graves of lust. Go walk among those numerous graves, and remember that in every one there lies a sinner smitten down by the hand of God in the very midst of his iniquity, and then talk to me, if you can, about a God that is weakly merciful and will in no wise punish any.
'The Lord is known by the judgments which he executes', and let every man woman and child in this Tabernacle tonight say 'Higgaion', and meditate on the tremendous truth.
Korah, Dathan and Abiram insult God through his servant Moses. 'Stand back, stand back', cries a warning voice, 'back every one of you', and all Israel stands grouped at a distance around those tents. Mark the wives and the children of Korah, Dathan and Abiram are there and their household goods and their cattle, besides. Do you see the earth yawn as down its horrid throat households, wives, children, tents, cattle, furniture, all are swallowed as in a living grave — while Israel terrified flees at their cry? The Lord is known by the judgments which he executes. Therefore let all the world give ear, and take to heart.
But after all, these instances are only in the retail; there is a wholesale judgment I must call to mind. Do you remember how it is said concerning the people of Israel that out of the entire multitude that went out of Egypt only two entered the Holy Land — Caleb the son of Jephunneh, and Joshua the son of Nun? Where are the hosts of people that came out of Egypt? Where are the people that Moses and Aaron numbered in the wilderness of Sinai? Their carcasses are lying in the wilderness as the Lord threatened, and I stand aghast at this stupendous judgment. Here is a people brought out of Egypt with a mighty hand, and God smites all the chivalry of Egypt for their sakes — and yet as the fruits of rebellion only two out of the hundreds of thousands enter the Holy Land. Let the carcasses in the wilderness declare, 'The Lord is known by the judgment which he executes', and let every heart here give the echo — 'Higgaion', pause, meditate.
And yet I feel that up to the present I have only been showing you God's hatred of sin as it gleams. I have yet to show you the lurid light of its glare.I have only given you the milder specimens of God's wrath — not the most terrible. Oh, would that the Holy Spirit might give power to our lips for a few moments to tell you how God has once in boundless degree shown his abhorrence of sin!!If you desire to see the most dreadful specimen of God's wrath, I ask you to come with me now, to a place called Calvary. I want you to gather together on that little spot just outside the city, and see such a sight as Moses never saw when he beheld the bush burning. I want you to see on Calvary, the Lord making Himself known by the judgment which He executes.
Who is that upon the tree in agonies and blood? The answer is, Jehovah's Son! What, His one beloved Son? Yes, His beloved and only Son. But mark His agony. Do you see that ashen face, furrowed deep, turned up to Heaven? Do you hear that anguished cry that seems to pierce the clouds, 'My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?' When the Lord looked at the adorable Jesus, He saw in Him not only His own Son — but the sinner's substitute. He saw on Him my accursed sins — He saw yours also! And oh, awful truth, although the Substitute was His own Son, He would not, He could not spare the blow! That heaving breast of His beloved Son, was made the sheath of the sword of His inflexible justice!
