Hamilton Smith
"We must needs die, and are as water spilt on the ground, which cannot be gathered up again; neither does God respect any person: yet does He devise means, that His banished be not expelled from Him" (2 Samuel 14:14).
The above words were uttered by the wise woman of Tekoah, in connection with a family feud
that occurred in the house of King David. The actors in this sad story have long since passed away, but the words of the wise woman remain as true to-day as when first uttered three thousand years ago.
It will be noticed that all her statements are statements of fact. Being a wise woman she avoided speculations, and theories, and kept to facts.
First, she says, "We must needs die." A fact that none but a fool would gainsay.
Second, she states, "We are as water spilt on the ground which cannot be gathered up again." A fact that men are very loathe to admit.
Third, she asserts, "Neither does God respect any person." A very unpalatable fact to many, but none the less a fact.
Fourth, she says, we are "banished"; another fact very humiliating to the pride of man.
Fifth, and lastly, she announces the great truth, "Yet does He [God] devise means, that His banished be not expelled from Him." A very blessed fact, brought out in all its fulness in this day of glad tidings; and yet strange to say, a fact which the mass of men reject or neglect. Men prefer to waste precious time in attempting to devise means of their own, rather than submit to the means God has devised for their blessing.
The natural man objects to every one of these facts. In other words, naturally we do not like to face the truth about ourselves. Nevertheless, to face the truth, however humbling, is the way that leads to salvation and blessing.
Would you like to be saved and eternally blessed? If so may I ask you to face these five facts. The first four are absolutely true of us all as sinners. The last fact is true for us all as sinners.
Fact No. 1.
"We must needs die."
The wise woman does not say any particular class must die. She does not say the old must die, or the sick must die, or the wicked must die. Her statement admits of no exception. She simply states the fact, the solemn fact, "We must needs die." She looks out on the vast procession of earth's millions, as they pass across the changing scenes of time, and she sees that one event happens to them all; at last, death lays his icy hand upon each one. So she rightly concludes, "We must needs die." Some are cut off at the threshold of life, still more in middle life, and yet a few linger on to extreme old age; but, sooner or later, "We must needs die."
In regard to this solemn fact, there are two mistakes that we are prone to make.
First, we have a strange way of applying this unpleasant fact to our neighbours, and not taking it home to ourselves. But may I ask you for the sake of your never-dying soul to face the truth in regard to your dying body. Instead of saying in a general way, "We must needs die," make it a personal matter, and say, "I must needs die."
Then there is a second folly we commit. We may own that it is true, "We must needs die," but we have a way of putting off in our thoughts the dread moment to some remote date. Others around us may be smitten down, but it does not occur to us that we may be taken. It was in this foolish way the rich young farmer argued, of whom we read in the gospel story. He said to himself, "Soul, thou hast much goods laid up for many years." He did not imagine that he was going to live for ever; he was not so stupid as to say he would never die; but he gave himself "many years" before he would have to die; and God called him a fool for so doing. God said, "Thou fool, this night thy soul shall be required of thee." It would be wise then, not only to admit that "I must die," but also that, "I may die to-night." Thus make it a personal matter, and an urgent matter.
But why must we needs die? Some might reply, We must die because we are stricken with some fell disease, or meet with some fatal accident, or because our bodies wear out by reason of age and thus, as men say, we have to pay the debt of nature.
But what does God say? God never says that death is the debt of nature; but He does say that death is "the wages of sin" (Rom. 6:23). Again, God says "by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and thus death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned" (Rom. 5:12). Here then is the secret of death. There was no death for man until Adam had sinned. At the same time none of us can say we have to die merely because Adam sinned. It is true that sin came into the world by one man, and death by sin, but the Word goes on to say, "Death came upon all men for that all have sinned." The sentence of death is before you, because of the sins of your life that are behind you. You may plunge into every kind of pleasure in order, if possible, to forget the sins, and for a time you may succeed. But the sins are there, some forgotten, some well remembered as great blots in your life that you cannot efface from your memory. But whether secret or public, remembered or forgotten, great or small, they are there in the past, and God says He "requires that which is past" (Ecc. 3:15). Thus your own experience will tell you that what God says is true. "All have sinned," and again, the Word of God says, it is "appointed unto men once to die and after this the judgment."
Put then these solemn facts together and say to yourself.
1. I must needs die.
2. I may die to-night.
3. Death is over me because of my sins.
4. After death the judgment.
Fact No. 2.
"We . . . are as water spilt on the ground which cannot be gathered up again."
If we upset a glass filled, shall we say, with marbles, we might very easily gather them up again. But, obviously, if we spilt a glass of water, it would be beyond the power of the wisest and most skilful man to gather up every drop of water again. In a case of this kind we should be helpless. This surely is the lesson of the water spilt on the ground. We are helpless to wipe out a single sin from before God, to remove the sentence of death, or avert the judgment.
Our religious efforts, our good resolutions, our good works, are of no avail to meet the case. Nothing that we can do will remove a single sin. Left to ourselves, we are hopeless, and it must be so, for God says we are "without strength." Humiliating to our pride, but good for us to bow to the fact and say, "I am without strength," for, then indeed we can take to ourselves that word which says, "When we were yet without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly" (Rom. 5:6).
Fact No. 3.
"Neither does God respect any person."
Not only are we "without strength," and thus, by our own efforts, unable to secure our salvation from sins, death, and judgment, but, this fresh fact tells us that whether in the matter of our guilt, or of His grace, God is no respecter of persons.
The wise woman is stating the great "no difference" doctrine of the New Testament. Amongst men, and before one another Scripture recognises a great many differences, such as kings and subjects, masters and men, parents and children; and woe betide the country that sets aside these differences. When, however, it is a question of how we stand before God, we are plainly, told in Romans 3:22-23, that "There is no difference: for all have sinned and come short of the glory of God." The king on his throne, and the criminal in the condemned cell, are alike in this respect that both are sinners needing a Saviour. But this great "no difference" truth, does not stop with man's sin; blessed be God, it still holds good in regard to God's grace. In Romans 10:12-13, we find the same words, "There is no difference." But now it is in respect of the grace of God, for we read, "There is no difference between; the Jew and the Greek: for the same Lord over all is rich to all that call upon Him. For whosoever shall call upon the Name of the Lord shall be saved."
It is evident that you cannot claim any preferential treatment from God if you happen to be a Jew, or because you may have been born in Christendom, or because you are rich or poor, or because you are learned or illiterate.
Without respect of persons, God tells you that you are a sinner, and without respect of persons that His grace is toward you.
Fact No. 4.The wise woman presses home another great fact that is extremely obnoxious to the pride of man. As fallen creatures we are "banished." To-day it is fashionable to pooh-pooh the fall of man. The infidel critics of God's Word tell us that the fall is merely an ancient myth. Men may break treaties, butcher one another by millions, abandon themselves to every fiendish cruelty, and riot in filth and immorality, but they say man is not fallen; on the contrary we are told that man is rising to a higher level, that he is being purified through the fires, and ennobled by war and bloodshed; and thus men talk in their folly, while the demons laugh and the angels weep.
But in spite of all man's fine talk, the fact remains that God says man fell, that sin came into that fair garden of delights, and man was driven out under sentence of death. "So He drove out the man" is still written against Adam's race. And experience tells us that this world we find ourselves in is no garden of innocent delights, but a world of sorrow and toil, a world of thorns and thistles, a world of pain and death.
Fact No. 5.
"Yet does He [God] devise means, that His banished be not expelled from Him."
If we honestly face the first four facts, accepting them as the solemn truth of God's Word about ourselves, we shall be prepared to listen to this last great fact, that God has devised means for the blessing of those who have ruined themselves and who are banished under the sentence of death, without strength to save themselves.
Mark the two words "from Him," in this last great fact. Banished from the garden of Eden we most certainly are, and God does not propose to put us back into the Garden. There can be no return to a state of innocence. But God says, as it were, "If by your sin you have been banished from the Garden, by My grace I have devised means so that you need not be expelled from Me."
What then are the means that God has devised to accomplish this wonderful end? He has laid help on One that is mighty. In order that we might be blessed God "spared not His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all" (Rom. 8:32).
And who is the Son? One who is a Divine Person, but "became flesh and dwelt among us full of grace and truth" (John 1:14). He is One of whom Pilate had to say, "I have found no cause of death in Him" (Luke 23:22). Pilate, truly, was using these words as a judge, yet were they true in the most absolute sense. We must needs die; but, here at last, is found upon earth a blessed perfect Man over whom death has no claim. Plenty of cause of death in us, but no cause of death in Him.
But listen to these wonderful words, "As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up" (John 3:14).
We must needs die because we have sinned; but why must Jesus die, who had never sinned, and in whom there is no cause of death?
The answer is plain. We must needs die because we have sinned; He must needs die if we are to be saved and blessed. So the Word of God goes on to say the reason of His being lifted up on the Cross is "That whosoever believes in Him should not perish, but have eternal life" (John 3:15).
Then we are told why God devised this wonderful means whereby we might be saved, "For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believes in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life."
Here then is the means that God in His love has devised "that His banished be not expelled from Him." The Son of Man, in whom is no cause of death, dies in the place of the man that must needs die. The Saviour dies for the sinner. The Just for the unjust.
Do you accept the first four facts as true of yourself, on the authority of God's Word? If so do not hesitate to accept on the same authority, the great fact that Christ has died for you, in order that you might be forgiven and saved, and have eternal life. And not only that Christ has died, but that He is risen, ascended, and at the right hand of God (Acts 7:56). That place of glory where for ever He has sat down, tells us that God is satisfied with the work that He has done - with the precious blood that He has shed.
Do you hesitate and say, How can I know that He died for me? Then listen to Scripture which says that by the grace of God He tasted death "for every man" (Heb. 2:9). Taking your stand upon the Word of God, faith will enable you to say, "He died for me and God is satisfied with the precious blood." To the one that thus believes in Jesus, God says his sins are forgiven and his soul is saved.
"Through His name, whosoever believes in Him shall receive the remission of sins" (Acts 10:43).
"Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved" (Acts 16:30).
The sinner who believes is free,
Can say "The Saviour died for me":
Can point to the atoning blood,
And say, "This made my peace with God."