April - the Free Presbyterian church of Scotland

104The Free Presbyterian Magazinetaught in Scripture. The fear of apostasy set before believers, is one of themeans by which God creates and maintains that holy caution, self-distrustand confiding trust in Him by which His people are kept from apostasy and,short of apostasy, from return to folly. Alas, many of God’s people have toconfess that many times He has delivered them, and yet by their folly theyhave so provoked Him that they have been brought very low.There is forgiveness with Him, but it is that He may be feared. And while,throughout the Old Testament, the fear of God is used as a general term comprehendingthe whole of true religion, yet fear is still fear. The expulsion fromEden was an awful thing; the deluge was an awful thing; the destruction ofSodom and Gomorrah was an awful thing; what befell the ancient people ofGod in the destruction of Jerusalem was awful; the events of the last day willbe awful; hell is very awful. Yet there is something more awful still: it is thecross of the Lord Jesus. All the others are effects on finite creatures, but hereis the full manifestation of God’s holy, just indignation against sin. Soforgiveness through the blood of Christ, what is indeed the most joyful, is atthe same time the most awful. It shows forth the riches of forgiving grace,leading to self-loathing and Christ-magnifying, and shows forth sin-avengingjustice. There is forgiveness that He may be feared. So peace is spoken, witha warning not to turn again to folly.Was it a solemn thing God did to you when He brought you to know yourterrible guilt, when He brought you to the bar of His justice, and made youstand guilty – and it was not made less, but all the more, awful by theconsideration that you were one of a rebellious race? Your guilt was not lessawful because all the world was guilty before God, when He brought you tosay, “If Thou, Lord, shouldest mark iniquities, O Lord, who shall stand?”And when He brought you to the cross, opening your eyes to behold andyour ears to hear, He made you hear with more or less distinctness: There isforgiveness, mercy, acceptance, salvation. Was that not a solemn thing? WhenHe reckoned with you, was that not a solemn thing?When He reckoned with you for being a transgressor, and though He hadfreely, fully forgiven all, yet He put a bill into your hand and said, “Behold,your debt,” and you had to say, “Lord, that is my debt,” and when He said,having freely forgiven you, “Look at your pardon, look at each obliteration;it is made with blood – not the blood of bulls and goats, but of My Son” –did God suffer any trifling then? Is there any encouragement there to returnto folly? There is reason to be glad and rejoice, yea, to rejoice with joy unspeakableand full of glory; but there is no room for levity, for mirth. It is toogreat and good for foolish mirth and levity; it is pardon at too costly anexpense; it contains in itself the warning not to return to folly.