THE SABBATH HOUR

Northern Advocate, 13 June 1931, Page 14

THE SABBATH HOUR

Semi on preached at Waipu on Sunday, 7th June, by Mr M. J. Byrt. S “They limited the Holy One of Israel.” —Psalm 78-41. The Psalmist tells us here the story of God’s dealings with His people, and of the unworthy treatment of God by His people,' notwithstanding all that had been done on their behalf. In. some respects it is a sad one, inasmuch as the weakness and instability of human nature are so conspicuous in it, but it is also instructive and valuable. One feels in reading the history of God’s ancient people that here is a document which has a. voice and a message that, cannot be ignored. It was a habit of the psalmists and prophets to recall the past in order to put a cheek on error, to lay a steadying hand on faith, and to inspire the people with an ideal in which were the elements of purity and courage.

There is one lesson which I desire to emphasise: The unworthy conduct of Israel towards God limited God, “Yea, they turned back, and tempted God, and limited the Holy One of Israel.” In what sense was this possible 1 The expression is a very striking one. It seems first to suggest to our minds something impossible. Limiting God! Is not God infinite in power, as He is in all that is good? And yet, according to the text, there must be some sense in which He can be limited. Lot me take as an illustration thefather of the prodigal. He loved his sons, both of them. And when the younger of them, wilful and wayward, left the home and went into the far country, the father did not love him any the less. He stands gazing into the distance, hoping that some day he may discern the figure of his absent, erring boy. Little did the prodigal understand his father’s heart or realise how much. jus. father would have done for him had he remained at home. His own misconduct, however,, led him into a worse confusion than he was in before'he went away. Yet ! his father yearned over him. The father loved him, but the son limited his father. There was no’ lack' of resources in the home, but the prodigal put; himself beyond the reach of sharing the provision which Ms father was able to make for those dependent upon him. The fault was his, and not his father’s. So long as he remained in the. far country,; his father was limiti ed and unable to do for his son ho, but for that, would willingly have done, • ■ How God Is Limited. There are three. things which occur to mo as having characterised the unfaithfulness of God’s ancient people, and I think that unfaithfulness in our* selves or -in our day will bo found in one or other of those three things, whatever else may too said of a like nature.

. Unbelief.—The form of unbelief in my mind is unbelief In the declared will of God. God had spoken to His people, yet they sometimes acted as if He had not. They did not put the value they might have done on what He said. Take, for instance, the promises He had made concerning them. His messengers 1 were continually reminding them of what He had done for them in the past. . If there had been nothing else, they were rich in experiences and records of God goodness, which were promises in a certain form of future; blessing. But, besides these experiences, there were also many rich and precious promises, which God had spoken concerning them, and they ought ■ to have put a worthy value on them. So much otherwise was it at times that they were as if God had not spoken at all, so wayward were they in thought and life. How could it be otherwise', then, than that it should amount to a limiting of God? God was willing to bless them. ' The promises showed that. But they did not deal worthily by them, and therefore they limited God. Neglect.—They not only underesti-; mated the value of the Divine word, but ignored what the experiences through which they passed were calculated to teach them. And as they presumed upon the mercy of God so also did they ignore, as much as ‘they might, His wrath, “For all this they sinned still, and believed not for His wondrous works. “Wo may believe that fhero were always some who were found faithful, but. their neglect of

the lessons that God’s dealings were designed to teach them is all too evident. And their error has been recorded for our warning.

Rebellion.—There was more than neglect on their part. There was rebellion. It could not always bo said that they simply ignored what had been'taught them; their words and actions sometimes seem to suggest active hostility, and seemed to set themselves with determination to do evil. Could it be expected by them that while they continued in a course of Wrong-doing - His blessing would be upon them as at other times? As Isaiah put it, “Behold, the Lord’s hand is not shortened, that it cannot save, neither His ear heavy, that it cannot hear; but your' iniquities have separated between you and your God, and your sins have hid His face from you, that He will not hear. “If there was separation at all, 1 and consequently lack of blessing, the blame was on their own side, and not on God’s-—t they limited the Holy One of Israel. Now the practical application of what I have said may toe made toy asking ourselves such questions as these: Do we give God’s word its full value, or do we not? Are we ready to learn from history and experience, or do we set our wills against His, acting as rebels against Him? Do we in any way limit God?

Consequences of Limiting God. —(1) Impoverishment of life. The worldly man in seeking his own way is altogether wrong; he does not wish to be thought religious, and has not the mind of the Spirit of God, and so- Ms life is poor, “What is a man profited, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul?” The soul needs God; cannot toe truly satisfied without Him, cannot toe at rest till it finds Him. (2) Destruction of usefulness. The Jewish people did not Iknow the day of their visitation. When Jesus eame they did not give Him welcome, and His appeal was carried on to others. How much they missed. “He came unto His own, and His own received Him not.” If they had not been enslaved by their narrow conceptions of God and His purpose, they would have been differently regarded today. They destroyed their own possibility of usefulness. (3) Keeping back blessing., Here is a word mainly for Christian believers. We may take it that .God it ftbW £jg send blessing upon the world when, and, how he chooses. But He uses instrumentalities. And the Church' is such, It is necessary for those who are His professed people that we toe helpers, not Mnderers of His work in the. world. Is there not a sense in which wo can keep back the blessing of God from coming upon needy world? May we not somehow; limjt God? We can never remind ourselves too o|teu of the relationship in which we stand to God through faith in Jesus Christ, iior forget the obligations which are ours. The Church exists to keep before us those great truths which mean so much to the life of the soul, to the development of pur character, and to the furthering of those great ends for which we have been redeemed and sent into the world as the- servants of God. The blessing of God should not stop at us, but pass through iis to those about us* [We* limit God if we have no thought for the "world lying in unbelief, if we disregard the lessons that have come to us out of the past; and so make life poor, usefulness impaired, and hinder God’s blessings reaching others. Israel turned back, and tempted God, and limited the Holy One of Israel.”