And here is the good Lord, like David of old, crying, "O Israel, My son, My son!" To let us see how He regards sin, He describes Himself as calling the universe to witness to the ingratitude which has assailed Him. You would long to shake it off as Paul shook the viper into the fire, and cry to God, "Deliver me from it, O Lord, by Your Son, Jesus Christ, for it is evil, only evil, and that continually, therefore cleanse me, O Lord!"
I want to draw your attention to the world's pretext for delay. I stand knocking at the world's door, and I say, "There is a young heart here I want for Christ." Let the damsel wait a little while, ten days at least. And oh, if he could come back again, he would say to his son, "My son, you have better begin business at the right end. Make the soul sure, first, and then look after the body." For your sakes we desire your immediate salvation! Do you want one other picture of the folly of delay? Now, once in the history of the world has the Son of God appeared to put away sin by the Sacrifice of Himself, poor guilty one, if you believe your guilt was put away by His atoning death!
He looks upon His Son, Jesus, bearing our sin. Did you ever think of what God the Father sees in Jesus on the Cross? It made such an infinite impression upon His great soul that He forgot the sins for which His Son gave His life! "I have loved you," says He, "with an everlasting love", and when that great love of His had led Him to give His Son Jesus for His people's ransom, it made Him also forget His people's sins. If you are among the God-fearing people of the present day, your speech will betray you. But if you have never believed, may the Lord grant you Grace to believe in Father, Son and Holy Spirit!
"O LORD, truly I am Your servant; I am Your servant and the son of Your handmaid." It is a great blessing if we are able to say, as David did, that we are born into God's house. Some of us had gracious mothers who brought us to the Lord in earnest prayer long before we knew anything. I have no greater wish than that all my descendants may be the Lord's. He is not pleased with your outward forms of speech and observance. Oh, yes, when we have actual fellowship with the Father and with His Son, Jesus Christ, our joy is Divinely crowned with a coronet of loving kindness! Reveal Your Son in me, and be Yourself my ever-present Friend.
"Can a woman forsake her sucking child, that she should not have compassion on the son of her womb? Yes, they may forget, yet will I never forget you." May you be ravished with the assurance that the ever-blessed Son of God has set His affection upon you, has loved you from before the foundation of the world, loves you now even as the Father loves Him, and will love you when heaven and earth shall, like a scroll, be rolled up.
Prejudice could not dispute the fact of Christ's wisdom and mighty works, so it sought to disparage Him by saying, "After all, He is only a carpenter's son." If it really is true that He is the Son of God, it is very shameful that He should not have a hearing because He stooped as low as to become "the carpenter's son." On the contrary, she is full of admiration for the Son of God who stooped so low. Yes, it is, but there is a Divine splendor concealed beneath that lowly form!
And yet God's Sovereign, electing Love was bestowed upon a child of this wicked and rebellious Jeroboam. God brings the heavenly lifeboat and takes the last living soul out, and then He lets the whole house come to ruin! God gave up His only Son for your sakes, He will understand your sorrow. Come to the Cross and look up and trust. Trust! Trust! Trust! That word, "trust," is the grandest word in the language of mankind! Trust Jesus! Trust only Him and you are saved!
He did not delay a moment, for though he was out of breath, he was not out of love. "He fell on his neck, and kissed him much." There stood his son ready to confess his sin, therefore did his father kiss him all the more. It was not with icy eyes that the father looked on his returning son. Love leaped into them and as he beheld him, he, "had compassion on him." There was no anger in his heart towards his son. He felt that his son had brought a blessing to him by coming back and he invoked fresh blessings upon his head. All the promises in this Book belong to every repentant sinner who returns to God believing in Jesus Christ, His Son!
So here you are, reconciled to God by the death of His Son, healed of the awful, soul-destroying plague of sin. See, too, how He laid upon His Son the work of healing this sin-smitten world. Study every detail that you can ascertain concerning the Father and the Son. And I am persuaded that as you increase in the knowledge of the Father and of His Son Jesus Christ, you will also increase your fellowship with the Father and with His Son! Agree to that in your heart of hearts and you will be having fellowship with the Father and with the Son while you are so agreeing!