When God's Silence is Broken

Read Psalm 50 and II Thessalonians 2.

The sun will rise, and all nature will be awake. There will be an orchestra of subtle sounds, but there will be no field or forest to reveal the voice of Deity. This reminds me of another passage of Scripture, when King Belshazzar held a great feast for a thousand of his nobles (Dan. 5:1-12).

A silent heaven is the greatest mystery of our existence, but when we add “the fingers of a man’s hand emerged and began writing opposite the lampstand on the plaster of the wall of the king’s palace, and the king saw the back of the hand that did the writing. Then the king’s face grew pale and his thoughts alarmed him, and his hip joints went slack and his knees began knocking together” (Dan. 5:5, 6)—that is descriptive of fear.

A silent heaven is the greatest mystery of our existence—not when God sends storms, earthquakes, etc., but silence. We want to raise a question—Does God know? The sovereign God knows everything. Solomon said, “Because the sentence against an evil deed is not executed quickly, therefore the hearts of the sons of men among them are given fully to do evil. Although a sinner does evil a hundred times and may lengthen his life, still I know that it will be well for those who fear God, who fear Him openly. But it will not be well for the evil man and he will not lengthen his days like a shadow, because he does not fear God” (Eccl. 8:11-13).

Think about the physical sufferings of some of God’s choicest servants. Is God incompetent or heartless? Why is heaven so terribly silent? When we turn to Scripture, we find these sublime and pregnant words: “All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth” (Matt. 28:18).

Christianity was not received into the world on the authority of miracles. Is it not a fact that those in whose midst the miracles of Christ were wrought were the people who crucified Him as a profane imposter? John said, “But Jesus, on His part, was not entrusting Himself to them, for He knew all men, and because He did not need anyone to testify concerning man, for He himself knew what was in man” (John 2:24, 25). Is it not a fact that when challenged to work miracles in support of His claims He refused? (See Matthew 12:38, 39; 16:1-4.) Not one of the disciples is reported to have attributed his faith to the foundation of miracles. Christ said, “You search the Scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life; it is those that testify about Me; and you are unwilling to come to Me so that you may have life” (John 5:39, 40).

One great purpose of Christ’s advent was to put an end to the reign of religion—human religion altogether. He is (1) the reality of every type, (2) the substance of every shadow, and (3) the fulfillment of every promise. To set up a religion now is to deny Christianity and to apostatize from Christ’s finished work. Therefore, there is a difference between Christianity and the religion of Christendom. May we not assert with confidence that one is not a Christian who is one only outwardly, but only he is a Christian who is one inwardly. This is what Paul was talking about in Romans 2:28 and 29—“For he is not a Jew who is one outwardly, nor is circumcision that which is outward in the flesh. But he is a Jew who is one inwardly; and circumcision is that which is of the heart, by the Spirit, not by the letter; and his praise is not from men, but from God.” The Jews were so blinded by religious ceremonies that no voice restrained them from persecuting God’s people. They could not see anything but human merit. All who reject the truth of God become persecutors—I learned this lesson early in my ministry. Think of the terrible things done in the name of religion. Witness the blood-stained pages of the church’s history.

After the death of Stephen, we find no record of another miracle witnessed in Jerusalem. The apostle of the Gentiles received his commission and went forth with the public proclamation of the great characteristic truth of Christianity. Our God is the God of the “second half.” The annals of “faith healing,” as it is called, are rich in cases of hysterical disease; but about the spiritual wreckage due to failures innumerable, they are silent.

It seems that the Acts of the Apostles, as a whole, is the record of a temporary and transitional dispensation in which blessing was again revealed to the Jew and again rejected. This book is not the record, as is commonly supposed, of the founding of the growth of the New Testament assembly.

As we began with this morning, a silent heaven is the greatest mystery of our existence. It is not the silence of callous indifference or helpless weakness. Miracles were given to accredit the teacher—not the teaching only. May we not re-assert with confidence that one is not a Christian who is only one outwardly, but he is a Christian who is one inwardly.

Religion has been the most implacable enemy of God. Think of the terrible things done in the name of religion. What is worse than religion going awry? No disciple ever attributed “his faith” to the foundation of faith in Christ. It is the system of antichrist that is taking over (II Thess. 2:1-15).

The Spirit in regeneration is a once-for-all process; filling is a continuous process: “The wind blows where it wishes and you hear the sound of it, but do not know where it comes from and where it is going; so is everyone who is born of the Spirit” (John 3:8). “And do not get drunk with wine, for that is dissipation, but be filled with the Spirit” (Eph. 5:18).

The Spirit in regeneration is non-experiential; filling of the Spirit is experiential. John 1:12 speaks of conversion; John 1:13 refers to regeneration, the cause of conversion. In John 1:13, the subject is passive; but in believing, the subject is active. It is absurd to put effect in the place of cause or cause in the place of effect. Most professing believers make a present result of undecided capability in all men. What about those who say, “One does not become something that he is already.”

The order of John 1:12 and 13 is normal according to John 1:1-29. Both “received” and “believing” are from God. Everything “received” from God has been given. Life precedes faith, because it alone produces faith.

He that existed before creation took on a new mode of existence in the incarnation. “And the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us, and we saw His glory, glory as of the only begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth. John testified about Him and cried out, saying, This was He of whom I said, He who comes after me has a higher rank than I, for He existed before me” (John 1:14, 15).

The four great subjects of Romans are condemnation, justification, sanctification, and glorification. Condemnation reveals the need of salvation; justification declares the remedy for salvation; sanctification manifests the actuality of salvation; glorification unveils the perfection of salvation. The first two—condemnation and justification—constitute the foundation of the Christian message; the second two reveal the present results and future consummation of the Christian message. The answer to the first two is the crucified Savior on behalf of the elect; the power for the second two is the risen Lord who sent the abiding Spirit.

Justification declares the elect righteous on the basis of Christ’s sacrificial death; sanctification progressively develops the elect by means of the Word of God. Distinction must be made between imputed and imparted righteousness and between positional and progressive sanctification. There is also a difference between the penalty of sin and the power of sin.

Imparted righteousness is instantaneous and final; progressive sanctification is gradual and sure. Sanctification is not the ground of relationship to God, but it is the manifestation of justification before God by the death of Jesus Christ (imputed righteousness) and in regeneration (imparted righteousness).

Justification is a legal change of the elect before God. Sanctification is a real change in the elect. Glorification is a perfect change in the elect for eternity.

Sin is first spiritual, then mental, and finally physical. The unregenerate person is dead “in” sin. Christ died “for” the sin of the elect. The unregenerate person is dead “to” sin. Separation is a word common to spiritual, physical, and eternal life: (1) Union with God denotes regeneration; (2) physical life indicates being born of God; and (3) eternal life stands for relationship.

We must remember that it is the whole man that is referred to in the Genesis account of creation. It is the whole man that is affected by the fall (Rom. 1:19-28). It is the whole man that is redeemed (Rom. 8). The Christian will always be suspicious of any view that devaluates the body of man. It is God’s purchased possession and shall be redeemed (Rom. 8; II Cor. 5; Eph. 1:13, 14). Any devaluation is a distraction from the genuineness of Divinely created human nature. In Adam’s fall, he retained the image, but his “pomp will not endure” (Ps. 49:12). If Adam did not stand when he was in a state of uprightness (Eccl. 7:29), how could we expect him to survive a fall?

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The NEW AMERICAN STANDARD BIBLE—UPDATED EDITION is the source of all Scripture quotations in this message, unless otherwise noted.