Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit · Sermon No. 1727
Delivered on Lord’s-Day Morning, June 24, 1883
“While He yet spoke, behold, a bright cloud overshadowed them: and behold a voice out of the cloud, which said, This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased; hear Him. And when the disciples heard it, they fell on their faces, and were afraid. And Jesus came and touched them, and said, Arise, and be not afraid.” Matthew 17:5, 6, 7.
IT is exceedingly important to have clear evidences of the truth of our holy religion. Sometimes, I dare say, you have wished that God would speak out of Heaven in your hearing, or that He would work some extraordinary marvel before your eyes, that you might know beyond all question the truth of the Gospel of Jesus. This desire for signs and wonders is no new thing. Ah, my dear Friends, we know not what we ask, nor what we desire, for if such a voice were to come to us out of a bright cloud—we are made of the same flesh and blood as Peter, James and John, and it would, therefore, produce the same effect upon us as upon them—we would fall on our faces and be sorely afraid.
Spirituals must grow out of spirituals—saving faith can never be produced by carnal sight and hearing. The Holy Spirit can work faith in us apart from any form of miracle and, miracle, alone, can never create a spiritual faith. Do we wish to receive a sign in order to confirm our belief in God? Suppose that we had it—we would soon need to have it repeated, for unbelief dies hard. I cannot tell how often we should need to hear the voice out of the cloud, but certainly life would soon become a misery to us, for we should be so frequently lying on our faces, so often cast into a swoon of fear, that we should be shattered, nervous and incapable of the ordinary duties of life! Like Israel at Sinai, we would begin to entreat that the Lord would not speak to us any more!
The fact is that the voice of God, as absolute God, is too awful, too majestic for mortal ears—and the sight of overwhelming miracles would put such a strain upon the human mind that it is better for us to be without them. It is plain from the example of Israel in the wilderness that even the lowest form of Grace does not grow out of frequent miracles, for the tribes fell into every form of evil, though they lived on miracles—and even ate and drank the result of them! Not signs and wonders on the outside, but a new heart within is the grand cure for unbelief! Christ in you is the hope of Glory and the death of doubt—anything else will fall short of your need.
According to our text, what is needed is not an audible voice of God to confirm the evidences of our religion, but the touch and the voice of Christ to make us conscious within ourselves of the power of Him to whom God bears witness. Not external, but internal evidences are what we need! The best evidences in the world are what we call experimental—such as grow out of actual experience. It is a better thing for a man to live near to Christ and to enjoy His Presence, than it would be for him to be overshadowed with a bright cloud and to hear the Divine Father, Himself, speaking out of it! The voice out of the cloud would but dismay and distract—the voice of Christ would cheer and comfort and, at the same time, would be an equally powerful assurance to us of the divinity of the whole matter. Assurance is the thing which we so much desire and we can better obtain it by personal test than by any external witness.
Brothers and Sisters, the most profitable thing for me, at any rate, is not so much to study evidences or to seek them, as to enjoy the Gospel, itself, by personal contact with the Christ of God. You may be told that this is the Bread of Heaven, but you will not know it, however heavenly the voice, one half so vividly as if you eat thereof and live! Then shall you know when Jesus touches you and bids you, “Be not afraid.” A miraculous interposition would crush as well as convince. A spiritual visitation and a consoling word will convince as certainly and it will comfort at the same time! The verses which I have selected seem to me to teach us just this—that even the voice of God, the Father, would need to be supplemented by the voice and by the touch of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Incarnate Son, or else we would not be so assured as to become active witnesses for Gospel truth.
To preach Christ we must hear Christ! No other voice will suffice unless He speak to us. This morning I propose to treat the subject thus—first, let us hear the voice out of the cloud. And then, secondly, let us hear the voice of Jesus. May the Holy Spirit sweetly enable us to listen diligently in each case.
I. First, LET US LISTEN TO THE VOICE THAT SPEAKS OUT OF THE CLOUD. Observe at the outset the words, “Behold, a bright cloud overshadowed them.” When God draws near to man, it is absolutely necessary that His Glory should be veiled. No man can see His face and live. Therefore the cloud, in this instance, and in other cases. Hence that thick veil which hung over the entrance to the Most Holy Place. Hence the need of the incense to fill that place with smoke when the High Priest once a year went within the veil. Hence above all, the need of the Body and the Manhood of Christ that the Godhead may be softened to our view.