"And because ye are sons, God hath sent forth the Spirit
of his Son into your hearts, crying, Abba, Father."—Galatians 4:6.
WE do not find the doctrine of the Trinity in Unity set forth in Scripture
in formal terms, such as those which are employed in the Athanasian creed;
but the truth is continually taken for granted, as if it were a fact well
known in the church of God. If not laid down very often, in so many words,
it is everywhere held in solution, and it is mentioned incidentally, in
connection with other truths in a way which renders it quite as distinct
as if it were expressed in a set formula. In many passages it is brought
before us so prominently that we must be wilfully blind if we do not note
it. In the present chapter, for instance, we have distinct mention of each
of the three divine Persons. "God," that is the Father, "sent forth the
Spirit," that is the Holy Spirit; and he is here called "the Spirit of
his Son." Nor have we the names alone, for each sacred person is mentioned
as acting in the work of our salvation: see the fourth verse, "God sent
forth his Son."; then note the fifth verse, which speaks of the Son as
redeeming them that were under the law; and then the text itself reveals
the Spirit as coming into the hearts of believers, and crying Abba, Father.
Now, inasmuch, as you have not only the mention of the separate names,
but also certain special operations ascribed to each, it is plain that
you have here the distinct personality of each. Neither the Father, the
Son, nor the Spirit can be an influence, or a mere form of existence, for
each one acts in a divine manner, but with a special sphere and a distinct
mode of operation. The error of regarding a certain divine person as a
mere influence, or emanation, mainly assails the Holy Ghost; but its falseness
is seen in the words—"crying, Abba, Father": an influence could not cry;
the act requires a person to perform it. Though we may not understand the
wonderful truth of the undivided Unity, and the distinct personality of
the Triune Godhead, yet, nevertheless, we see the truth revealed in the
Holy Scriptures: and, therefore, we accept it as a matter of faith.
The divinity of each of these sacred persons is also to be gathered
from the text and its connection. We do not doubt tee the loving union
of all in the work of deliverance. We reverence the Father, without whom
we had not been chosen or adopted: the Father who hath begotten us again
unto a lively hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. We
love and reverence the Son by whose most precious blood we have been redeemed,
and with whom we are one in a mystic and everlasting union: and we adore
and love the divine Spirit, for it is by him that we have been regenerated,
illuminated, quickened, preserved, and sanctified; and it is through him
that we receive the seal and witness within our hearts by which we are
assured that we are indeed the sons of God. As God said of old, "Let us
make man in our image, after our likeness, even so do the divine Persons
take counsel together, and all unite in the new creation of the believer.
We must not fail to bless, adore, and love each one of the exalted Persons,
but we must diligently bow in lowliest reverence before the one God—Father,
Son, and Holy Ghost. "Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the
Holy Ghost; as it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, world
without end. Amen."
Having noted this most important fact, let us come to the text itself,
hoping to enjoy the doctrine of the Trinity while we are discoursing upon
our adoption, in which wonder of grace they each have a share. Under the
teaching of the divine Spirit may we be drawn into sweet communion with
the Father through his Son Jesus Christ, to his glory and to our benefit.
Three things are very clearly set forth in my text: the first is the
dignity of believers—"ye are sons;" the second is the consequent indwelling
of the Holy Ghost—"because ye are sons, God hath sent forth the Spirit
of his Son into your hearts;" and the third is the filial cry—crying, "Abba,
Father."
I. First, then, THE DIGNITY OF BELIEVERS. Adoption gives us the rights
of children, regeneration gives us the nature of children: we are partakers
of both of these, for we are sons.
And let us here observe that this sonship is a gift of grace received
by faith. We are not the sons of God by nature in the sense here meant.
We are in a sense "the offspring God" by nature, but this is very different
from the sonship here described, which is the peculiar privilege of those
who are born again. The Jews claimed to be of the family of God, but as
their privileges came to them by the way of their fleshly birth, they are
likened to Ishmael, who was born after the flesh, but who was cast out
as the son of the bondwoman, and compelled to give way to the son of the
promise. We have a sonship which does not come to us by nature, for we
are "born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will
of man, but of God." Our sonship comes by promise, by the operation of
God as a special gift to a peculiar seed, set apart unto the Lord by his
own sovereign grace, as Isaac was. This honour and privilege come to us,
according to the connection of our text, by faith. Note well the twenty-sixth
verse of the preceding chapter (Gal. 3:26): "For ye are all the children
of God by faith in Christ Jesus." As unbelievers we know nothing of adoption.
While we are under the law as self-righteous we know something of servitude,
but we know nothing of sonship. It is only after that faith has come that
we cease to be under the schoolmaster, and rise out of our minority to
take the privileges of the sons of God.
Faith worketh in us the spirit of adoption, and our consciousness of
sonship, in this wise: first, it brings us justification. Verse twenty-four
of the previous chapter says, "The law was our schoolmaster to bring us
unto Christ, that we might be justified by faith." An unjustified man stands
in the condition of a criminal, not of a child: his sin is laid to his
charge, he is reckoned as unjust and unrighteous, as indeed he really is,
and he is therefore a rebel against his king, and not a child enjoying
his father's love. But when faith realizes the cleansing power of the blood
of atonement, and lays hold upon the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus,
then the justified man becomes a son and a child. Justification and adoption
always go together. "Whom he called them he also justified," and the calling
is a call to the Father's house, and to a recognition of sonship. Believing
brings forgiveness and justification through our Lord Jesus; it also brings
adoption, for it is written, "But as many as received him, to them gave
he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name."
Faith brings us into the realization of our adoption in the next place
by setting us free from the bondage of the law. "After that faith is come,
we are no longer under a schoolmaster." When we groaned under a sense of
sin, and were shut up by it as in a prison, we feared that the law would
punish us for our iniquity, and our life was made bitter with fear. Moreover,
we strove in our own blind self-sufficient manner to keep that law, and
this brought us into yet another bondage, which became harder and harder
as failure succeeded to failure: we sinned and stumbled more and more to
our soul's confusion. But now that faith has come we see the law fulfilled
in Christ, and ourselves justified and accepted in him: this changes the
slave into a child, and duty into choice. Now we delight in the law, and
by the power of the Spirit we walk in holiness to the glory of God. Thus
it is that by believing in Christ Jesus we escape from Moses, the taskmaster,
and come to Jesus, the Saviour; we cease to regard God as an angry Judge
and view him as our loving Father. The system of merit and command, and
punishment and fear, has given way to the rule of grace, gratitude, and
love, and this new principle of government is one of the grand privileges
of the children of God.
Now, faith is the mark of sonship in all who have it, whoever they may
be, for "ye are all the children of God by faith in Christ Jesus Gal. 3:26).
If you are believing in Jesus, whether you are Jew or Gentile, bond or
free, you are a son of God. If you have only believed in Christ of late,
and have but for the past few weeks been able to rest in his great salvation,
yet, beloved, now are you a child of God. It is not an after privilege,
granted to assurance or growth in grace; it is an early blessing, and belongs
to him who has the smallest degree of faith, and is no more than a babe
in grace. If a man be a believer in Jesus Christ his name is in the register-book
of the great family above, "for ye are all the children of God by faith
in Christ Jesus." But if you have no faith, no matter what zeal, no matter
what works, no matter what knowledge, no matter what pretensions to holiness
you may possess, you are nothing, and your religion is vain. Without faith
in Christ you are as sounding brass and a tinkling cymbal, for without
faith it is impossible to please God. Faith then, wherever it is found,
is the infallible token of a child of God, and its absence is fatal to
the claim.
This according to the apostle is further illustrated by our baptism,
for in baptism, if there be faith in the soul, there is an open putting
on of the Lord Jesus Christ. Read the twenty-seventh verse: "For as many
of you as have been baptised into Christ have put on Christ." In baptism
you professed to be dead to the world and you were therefore buried into
the name of Jesus: and the meaning of that burial, if it had any right
meaning to you, was that you professed yourself henceforth to be dead to
everything but Christ, and henceforth your life was to be in him, and you
were to be as one raised from the dead to newness of life. Of course the
outward form avails nothing to the unbeliever, but to the man who is in
Christ it is a most instructive ordinance. The spirit and essence of the
ordinance lie in the soul's entering into the symbol, in the man's knowing
not alone the baptism into water, but the baptism into the Holy Ghost and
into fire: and as many of you as know that inward mystic baptism into Christ
know also that henceforth you have put on Christ and are covered by him
as a man is by his garment. Henceforth you are one in Christ, you wear
his name, you live in him, you are saved by him, you are altogether his.
Now, if you are one with Christ, since he is a son, you are sons also.
If you have put on Christ God seeth you not in yourself but in Christ,
and that which belongeth unto Christ belongeth also unto you, for if you
be Christ's then are you Abraham's seed and heirs according to the promise.
As the Roman youth when he came of age put on the toga, and was admitted
to the rights of citizenship, so the putting on of Christ is the token
of our admission into the position of sons of God. Thus are we actually
admitted to the enjoyment of our glorious heritage. Every blessing of the
covenant of grace belongs to those who are Christ's, and every believer
is in that list. Thus, then, according to the teaching of the passage,
we receive adoption by faith as the gift of grace.
Again, adoption comes to us by redemption. Read the passage which precedes
the text: "But when the fullness of the time was come, God sent forth his
Son, made of a woman, made under the law, to redeem them that were under
the law, that we might receive the adoption of sons." Beloved, prize redemption,
and never listen to teaching which would destroy its meaning or lower its
importance. Remember that ye were not redeemed with silver and gold, but
with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish. You were
under the law, and subject to its curse, for you had broken it most grievously,
and you were subject to its penalty, for it is written, "the soul that
sinneth, it shall die"; and yet again, "cursed is everyone that continueth
not in all things that are written in the book of the law to do them."
You were also under the terror of the law, for you feared its wrath; and
you were under its irritating power, for often when the commandment came,
sin within you revived and you died. But now you are redeemed from all;
as the Holy Ghost saith, "Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the
law, being made a curse for us: for it is written, Cursed is every one
that hangeth on a tree." Now ye are not under the law, but under grace,
and this because Christ came under the law and kept it both by his active
and his passive obedience, fulfilling all its commands and bearing all
its penalty on your behalf and in your room and stead. Henceforth you are
the redeemed of the Lord, and enjoy a liberty which comes by no other way
but that of the eternal ransom. Remember this; and whenever you feel most
assured that you are a child of God, praise the redeeming blood; whenever
your heart beats highest with love to your great Father, bless the "firstborn
among many brethren," who for your sakes came under the law, was circumcised,
kept the law in his life, and bowed his head to it in his death, honouring,
and magnifying the law, and making the justice and righteousness of God
to be more conspicuous by his life than it would have been by the holiness
of all mankind, and his justice to be more fully vindicated by his death
that it would have been if all the world of sinners had been cast into
hell. Glory be to our redeeming Lord, by whom we have received the adoption!
Again, we further learn from the passage that we now enjoy the privilege
of sonship. According to the run of the passage the apostle means not only
that we are children, but that we are full-grown sons. "Because ye are
sons," means,—because the time appointed of the Father is come, and you
are of age, and no longer under tutors and governors. In our minority we
are under the schoolmaster, under the regimen of ceremonies, under types,
figures, shadows, learning our A B C by being convinced of sin; but when
faith is come we are no longer under the schoolmaster, but come to a more
free condition. Till faith comes we are under tutors and governors, like
mere boys, but after faith we take our rights as sons of God. The Jewish
church of old was under the yoke of the law; its sacrifices were continual
and its ceremonies endless; new moons and feasts must be kept; jubilees
must be observed and pilgrimages made: in fact, the yoke was too heavy
for feeble flesh to bear. The law followed the Israelite into every corner,
and dealt with him upon every point: it had to do with his garments, his
meat, his drink, his bed, his board, and everything about him: it treated
him like a boy at school who has a rule for everything. Now that faith
has come we are full grown sons, and therefore we are free from the rules
which govern the school of the child. We are under law to Christ, even
as the full-grown son is still under the discipline of his father's house;
but this is a law of love and not of fear, of grace and not of bondage.
"Stand fast therefore in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free,
and be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage." Return not to the
beggarly elements of a merely outward religion, but keep close to the worship
of God in spirit and in truth, for this is the liberty of the children
of God.
Now, by faith we are no more like to bond-servants. The apostle says
that "the heir, as long as he is a child, differeth nothing from a servant,
though he be lord of all; but is under tutor and governors till the time
appointed of the father." But beloved, now are ye the sons of God, and
ye have come to your majority: now are ye free to enjoy the honours and
blessings of the Father's house. Rejoice that the free spirit dwells within
you, and prompts you to holiness; this is a far superior power to the merely
external command and the whip of threatening. Now no more are you in bondage
to outward forms, and rites, and ceremonies; but the Spirit of God teacheth
you all things, and leads you into the inner meaning and substance of the
truth.
Now, also, saith the apostle, we are heirs—"Wherefore thou art no more
a servant, but a son; and if a son, then an heir of God through Christ."
No man living has ever realised to the full what this means. Believers
are at this moment heirs, but what is the estate? It is God himself! We
are heirs of God! Not only of the promises, of the covenant engagements,
and of all the blessings which belong to the chosen seed, but heirs of
God himself. "The Lord is my portion, saith my soul." "This God is our
God for ever and ever." We are not only, heirs to God, to all that he gives
to his firstborn, but heirs of God himself. David said, "The Lord is the
portion of mine inheritance and of my cup." As he said to Abraham, "Fear
not Abraham, I am thy shield and thine exceeding great reward," so saith
he to every man that is born of the Spirit. These are his own words—"I
will be to them a God, and they shall be to me a people." Why, then, 0
believer, are you poor? All riches are yours. Why then are you sorrowful?
The ever-blessed God is yours. Why do you tremble? Omnipotence waits to
help you. Why do you distrust? His immutability will abide with you even
to the end, and make his promise steadfast. All things are yours, for Christ
is yours, and Christ is God's; and though there be some things which at
present you cannot actually grasp in your hand, nor even see with your
eye, to wit, the things which are laid up for you in heaven, yet still
by faith you can enjoy even these, for "he hath raised us up together,
and made us sit together in the heavenlies in Christ," "in whom also we
have obtained an inheritance," so that "our citizenship is in heaven."
We enjoy even now the pledge and earnest of heaven in the indwelling of
the Holy Ghost. Oh what privileges belong to those who are the sons of
God!
Once more upon this point of the believer's dignity, we are already
tasting one of the inevitable consequences of being the sons of God. What
are they? One of them is the opposition of the children of the bondwoman.
No sooner had the apostle Paul preached the liberty of the saints, than
straightway there arose certain teachers who said, "This will never do;
you must be circumcised, you must come under the law." Their opposition
was to Paul a token that he was of the free woman, for behold the children
of the bondwoman singled him out for their virulent opposition. You shall
find, dear brother, that if you enjoy fellowship with God, if you live
in the spirit of adoption, if you are brought near to the Most High, so
as to be a member of the divine family, straightway all those who are under
bondage to the law will quarrel with you. Thus saith the apostle, "As then
he that was born after the flesh persecuted him that was born after the
Spirit, even so it is now." The child of Hagar was found by Sarah mocking
Isaac, the child of promise. Ishmael would have been glad to have shown
his enmity to the hated heir by blows and personal assault, but there was
a superior power to check him, so that he could get no further than "mocking."
So it is just now. There have been periods in which the enemies of the
gospel have gone a great deal further than mocking, for they have been
able to imprison and burn alive the lovers of the gospel; but now, thank
God, we are under his special protection as to life and limb and liberty,
and are as safe as Isaac was in Abraham's house. They can mock us, but
they cannot go any further, or else some of us would be publicly gibbeted.
But trials of cruel mockings are still to be endured, our words are twisted,
our sentiments are misrepresented, and all sorts of horrible things are
imputed to us, things which we know not, to all which we would reply with
Paul, "Am I therefore become your enemy because I tell you the truth?"
This is the old way of the Hagarenes, the child after the flesh is still
doing his best to mock him that is born after the Spirit. Do not be astonished,
neither be grieved in the least degree when this happens to any of you,
but let this also turn to the establishment of your confidence and to the
confirmation of your faith in Christ Jesus, for he told you of old, "If
ye were of the world, the world would love his own: but because ye are
not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the
world hateth you."
II. Our second head is THE CONSEQUENT INDWELLING OF THE HOLY GHOST IN
BELIEVERS;—"God hath sent forth the Spirit of his Son into your hearts."
Here is a divine act of the Father. The Holy Ghost proceedeth from the
Father and the Son: and God hath sent him forth into your hearts. If he
had only come knocking at your hearts and asked your leave to enter, he
had never entered, but when Jehovah sent him he made his way, without violating
your will, but yet with irresistible power. Where Jehovah sent him there
he will abide, and go no more out for ever. Beloved, I have no time to
dwell upon the words, but I want you to turn them over in your thoughts,
for they contain a great depth. As surely as God sent his Son into the
world to dwell among men, so that his saints beheld his glory, the "glory
as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth," so surely
hath God sent forth the Spirit to enter into men's hearts, there to take
up his residence that in him also the glory of God may be revealed. Bless
and adore the Lord who hath sent you such a visitor as this.
Now, note the style and title under which the Holy Spirit comes to us:
he comes as the Spirit of Jesus. The words are "the Spirit of his Son,"
by which is not meant the character and disposition of Christ, though that
were quite true, for God sends this unto his people, but it means the Holy
Ghost. Why, then, is he called the Spirit of his Son, or the Spirit of
Jesus? May we not give these reasons? It was by the Holy Ghost that the
human nature of Christ was born of the Virgin. By the Spirit our Lord was
attested at his baptism, when the Holy Spirit descended upon him like a
dove, and abode upon him. In him the Holy Spirit dwelt without measure,
anointing him for his great work, and by the Spirit he was anointed with
the oil of gladness above his fellows. The Spirit was also with him, attesting
his ministry by signs and wonders. The Holy Ghost is our Lord's great gift
to the church; it was after his ascension that he bestowed the gifts of
Pentecost, and the Holy Spirit descended upon the church to abide with
the people of God for ever. The Holy Ghost is the Spirit of Christ, because,
also, he is Christ's witness here below; for "there are three that bear
witness on earth, the Spirit, and the water, and the blood." For these
and many other reasons he is called "the Spirit of his Son," and it is
he who comes to dwell in believers. I would urge you very solemnly and
gratefully to consider the wondrous condescension which is here displayed.
God himself the Holy Ghost, takes up his residence in believers. I never
know which is the more wonderful, the incarnation of Christ or the indwelling
of the Holy Ghost. Jesus dwelt here for awhile in human flesh untainted
by sin, holy, harmless, undefiled, and separate from sinners; but the Holy
Ghost dwells continually in the hearts of all believers, though as yet
they are imperfect and prone to evil. Year after year, century after century,
he still abideth in the saints, and will do so till the elect are all in
glory. While we adore the incarnate Son, let us adore also the indwelling
Spirit whom the Father hath sent.
Now notice the place wherein he takes up his residence.—"God hath sent
forth the Spirit of his Son into your hearts." Note, that it does not say
into your heads or your brains. The Spirit of God doubtless illuminates
the intellect and guides the judgement, but this is not the commencement
nor the main part of his work. He comes chiefly to the affections, he dwells
with the heart, for with the heart man believeth unto righteousness, and
"God hath sent forth the Spirit of his Son into your hearts." Now, the
heart is the centre of our being, and therefore doth the Holy Ghost occupy
this place of vantage. He comes into the central fortress and universal
citadel of our nature, and thus takes possession of the whole. The heart
is the vital part; we speak of it as the chief residence of life, and therefore
the Holy Ghost enters it, and as the living God dwells in the living heart,
taking possession of the very core and marrow of our being. It is from
the heart and through the heart that life is diffused. The blood is sent
even to the extremities of the body by the pulsings of the heart, and when
the Spirit of God takes possession of the affections, he operates upon
every power, and faculty, and member of our entire manhood. Out of the
heart are the issues of life, and from the affections sanctified by the
Holy Ghost all other faculties and powers receive renewal, illumination,
sanctification, strengthening, and ultimate perfection.
This wonderful blessing is ours "because we are sons;" and it is fraught
with marvellous results. Sonship sealed by the indwelling Spirit brings
us peace and joy; it leads to nearness to God and fellowship with him;
it excites trust, love, and vehement desire, and creates in us reverence,
obedience, and actual likeness to God. All this, and much more, because
the Holy Ghost has come to dwell in us. Oh, matchless mystery! Had it not
been revealed it had never been imagined, and now that it is revealed it
would never have been believed if it had not become matter of actual experience
to those who are in Christ Jesus. There are many professors who know nothing
of this; they listen to us with bewilderment as if we told them an idle
tale, for the carnal mind knoweth not the things that be of God; they are
spiritual, and can only be spiritually discerned. Those who are not sons,
or who only come in as sons under the law of nature, like Ishmael, know
nothing of this indwelling Spirit, and are up in arms at us for daring
to claim so great a blessing: yet it is ours, and none can deprive us of
it.
III. Now I come to the third portion of our text—THE FILIAL CRY. This
is deeply interesting. I think it will be profitable if your minds enter
into it. Where the Holy Ghost enters there is a cry. "God hath sent forth
the Spirit of his Son, crying, 'Abba, Father.'" Now, notice, it is the
Spirit of God that cries—a most remarkable fact. Some are inclined to view
the expression as a Hebraism, and read it, he "makes us to cry;" but, beloved,
the text saith not so, and we are not at liberty to alter it upon such
a pretence. We are always right in keeping to what God says, and here we
plainly read of the Spirit in our hearts that he is crying "Abba, Father."
The apostle in Romans 8:15 says, "Ye have received the Spirit of adoption,
whereby we cry, Abba, Father," but here he describes the Spirit himself
as crying "Abba, Father." We are certain that when he ascribed the cry
of "Abba, Father" to us, he did not wish to exclude the Spirit's cry, because
in the twenty-sixth verse of the famous eighth of Romans he says, "Likewise
the Spirit also helpeth our infirmities: for we know not what we should
pray for as we ought: but the Spirit itself maketh intercession for us
with groanings which cannot be uttered." Thus he represents the Spirit
himself as groaning with unutterable groanings within the child of God,
so that when he wrote to the Romans he had on his mind the same thought
which he here expressed to the Galatians,—that it is the Spirit itself
which cries and groans in us "Abba, Father." How is this? Is it not ourselves
that cry? Yes, assuredly; and yet the Spirit cries also. The expressions
are both correct. The Holy Spirit prompts and inspires the cry. He puts
the cry into the heart and mouth of the believer. It is his cry because
he suggests it, approves of it, and educates us to it. We should never
have cried thus if he had not first taught us the way. As a mother teaches
her child to speak, so he puts this cry of "Abba, Father" into our mouths;
yea, it is he who forms in our hearts the desire after our Father, God,
and keeps it there. He is the Spirit of adoption, and the author of adoption's
special and significant cry.
Not only does he prompt us to cry but he works in us a sense of need
which compels us to cry, and also that spirit of confidence which emboldens
us to claim such relationship to the great God. Nor is this all, for he
assists us in some mysterious manner so that we are able to pray aright;
he puts his divine energy into us so that we cry "Abba, Father" in an acceptable
manner. There are times when we cannot cry at all, and then he cries in
us. There are seasons when doubts and fears abound, and so suffocate us
with their fumes that we cannot even raise a cry, and then the indwelling
Spirit represents us, and speaks for us, and makes intercession for us,
crying in our name, and making intercession for us according to the will
of God. Thus does the cry "Abba, Father" rise up in our hearts even when
we feel as if we could not pray and dare not think ourselves children.
Then we may each say, "I live, yet not I, but the Spirit that dwelleth
in me." On the other hand, at times our soul gives such a sweet assent
to the Spirit's cry that it becometh ours also, but then we more than ever
own the work of the Spirit, and still ascribe to him the blessed cry, "Abba,
Father."
I want you now to notice a very sweet fact about this cry; namely, that
it is literally the cry of the Son. God hath sent the Spirit of his Son
into our hearts, and that Spirit cries in us exactly according to the cry
of the Son. If you turn to the gospel of Mark, at the fourteenth chapter,
thirty-sixth verse, you will find there what you will not discover in any
other evangelist (for Mark is always the man for the striking points, and
the memorable words), he records that our Lord prayed in the garden, "Abba,
Father, all things are possible unto thee; take away this cup from me:
nevertheless not what I will, but what thou wilt." So that this cry in
us copies the cry of our Lord to the letter—"Abba, Father." Now, I dare
say you have heard these words "Abba, Father" explained at considerable
lengths at other times, and if so, you know that the first word is Syrian
or Aramaic; or, roughly speaking, Abba is the Hebrew word for "father."
The second word is in Greek, and is the Gentile word, "pates," or pater,
which also signifies father. It is said that these two words are used to
remind us that Jews and Gentiles are one before God. They do remind us
of this, but this cannot have been the principal reason for their use.
Do you think that when our Lord was in his agony in the garden that he
said, "Abba, Father" because Jews and Gentiles are one? Why should he have
thought of that doctrine, and why need he mention it in prayer to his Father?
Some other reason must have suggested it to him. It seems to me that our
Lord said "Abba" because it was his native tongue. When a Frenchman prays,
if he has learned English he may ordinarily pray in English, but if ever
he falls into an agony he will pray in French, as surely as he prays at
all. Our Welsh brethren tell us that there is no language like Welsh—I
suppose it is so to them: now they will talk English when about their ordinary
business, and they can pray in English when everything goes comfortably
with them, but I am sure that if a Welshman is in a great fervency of prayer,
he flies to his Welsh tongue to find full expression. Our Lord in his agony
used his native language, and as born of the seed of Abraham he cries in
his own tongue, Abba. Even thus, my brethren, we are prompted by the spirit
of adoption to use our own language, the language of the heart, and to
speak to the Lord freely in our own tongue. Besides, to my mind, the word
"Abba" is of all words in all languages the most natural word for father.
I must try and pronounce it so that you see the natural childishness of
it, "Ab—ba," "Ab—ba." Is it not just what your children say, ab, ab, ba,
ba, as soon as they try to talk? It is the sort of word which any child
would say, whether Hebrew, or Greek, or French, or English. Therefore,
Abba is a word worthy of introduction into all languages. It is truly a
child's word, and our Master felt, I have no doubt, in his agony, a love
for child's words. Dr. Guthrie, when he was dying, said, "Sing a hymn,"
but he added, "Sing me one of the bairns' hymns." When a man comes to die
he wants to be a child again, and longs for bairns' hymns and bairns' words.
Our blessed Master in his agony used the bairns' word, "Abba," and it is
equally becoming in the mouth of each one of us. I think this sweet word
"Abba" was chosen to show us that we are to be very natural with God, and
not stilted and formal. We are to be very affectionate, and come close
to him, and not merely say "Pater," which is a cold Greek word, but say
"Abba," which is a warm, natural, loving word, fit for one who is a little
child with God, and makes bold to lie in his bosom, and look up into his
face and talk with holy boldness. "Abba" is not a word, somehow, but a
babe's lisping. Oh, how near we are to God when we can use such a speech!
How dear he is to us and dear we are to him when we may thus address him,
saying, like the great Son himself, "Abba, Father."
This leads me to observe that this cry in our hearts is exceedingly
near and familiar. In the sound of it I have shown you that it is childlike,
but the tone and manner of the utterance are equally so. Note that it is
a cry. If we obtain audience with a king we do not cry, we speak then in
measured tones and set phrases; but the Spirit of God breaks down our measured
tones, and takes away the formality which some hold in great admiration,
and he leads us to cry, which is the very reverse of formality and stiffness.
When we cry, we cry, "Abba": even our very cries are full of the spirit
of adoption. A cry is a sound which we are not anxious that every passer-by
should hear; yet what child minds his father hearing him cry? So when our
heart is broken and subdued we do not feel as if we could talk fine language
at all, but the Spirit in us sends forth cries and groans, and of these
we are not ashamed, nor are we afraid to cry before God. I know some of
you think that God will not hear your prayers, because you cannot pray
grandly like such-and-such a minister. Oh, but the Spirit of his Son cries,
and you cannot do better than cry too. Be satisfied to offer to God broken
language, words salted with your griefs, wetted with your tears. Go to
him with holy familiarity, and be not afraid to cry in his presence, "Abba,
Father."
But then how earnest it is: for a cry is an intense thing. The word
implies fervency. A cry is not a flippant utterance, nor a mere thing of
the lips, it comes up from the soul. Hath not the Lord taught us to cry
to him in prayer with fervent importunity that will not take a denial?
Hath he not brought us so near to him that sometimes we say, "I will not
let thee go except thou bless me"? Hath he not taught us so to pray that
his disciples might almost say of us as they did of one of old, "Send her
away, for she crieth after us." We do cry after him, our heart and our
flesh crieth out for God, for the living God, and this is the cry, "Abba,
Father, I must know thee, I must taste thy love, I must dwell under thy
wing, I must behold thy face, I must feel thy great fatherly heart overflowing
and filling my heart with peace." We cry, "Abba, Father."
I shall close when I notice this, that the most of this crying is kept
within the heart, and does not come out at the lips. Like Moses, we cry
when we say not a word. God hath sent forth the Spirit of his Son into
our hearts, whereby we cry, "Abba, Father." You know what I mean: it is
not alone in your little room, by the old arm-chair, that you cry to God,
but you call him "Abba, Father," as you go about the streets or work in
the shop. The Spirit of his Son is crying "Abba, Father," when you are
in the crowd or at your table among the family. I see it is alleged as
a very grave charge against me that I speak as if I were familiar with
God. If it be so, I make bold to say that I speak only as I feel. Blessed
be my heavenly Father's name, I know I am his child, and with whom should
a child be familiar but with his father? 0 ye strangers to the living God,
be it known unto you that if this be vile, I purpose to be viler still,
as he shall help me to walk more closely with him. We feel a deep reverence
for our Father in heaven, which bows us to the very dust, but for all that
we can say, "truly our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son,
Jesus Christ." No stranger can understand the nearness of the believer's
soul to God in Christ Jesus, and because the world cannot understand it,
it finds it convenient to sneer, but what of that? Abraham's tenderness
to Isaac made Ishmael jealous, and caused him to laugh, but Isaac had no
cause to be ashamed of being ridiculed, since the mocker could not rob
him of the covenant blessing. Yes, beloved, the Spirit of God makes you
cry "Abba, Father," but the cry is mainly within your heart, and there
it is so commonly uttered that it becomes the habit of your soul to be
crying to your Heavenly Father. The text does not say that he had cried,
but the expression is "crying"—it is a present participle, indicating that
he cries every day "Abba, Father." Go home, my brethren, and live in the
spirit of sonship. Wake up in the morning, and let your first thought be
"My Father, my Father, be with me this day. Go out into business, and when
things perplex you let that be your resort—"My Father, help me in this
hour of need." When you go to your home, and there meet with domestic anxieties,
let your cry sill be, "Help me, my Father." When alone you are not alone,
because the Father is with you: and in the midst of the crowd you are not
in danger, because the Father himself loveth you. What a blessed word is
that,—"The Father himself loveth you"! Go, and live as his children. Take
heed that ye reverence him, for if he be a father where is his fear? Go
and obey him, for this is right. Be ye imitators of God as dear children.
Honour him wherever you are, by adorning his doctrine in all things. Go
and live upon him, for you shall soon live with him. Go and rejoice in
him. Go and cast all your cares upon him. Go henceforth, and whatever men
may see in you may they be compelled to own that you are the children of
the Highest. "Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called the
children of God." May you be such henceforth and evermore. Amen and amen.
