The mighty Redeemer
I. THE HELPLESS NEED A MIGHTY REDEEMER. In simple, rough times some provision had to be made to protect the weak from the overbearing insolence and tyranny of the strong. When the arm of the law was not capable of maintaining justice, private friends were required and authorized to take up the cause of the wronged. The goel, or avenger, was then needed to stand up for his helpless kinsfolk. But there were extreme cases in which no such assistance could bring deliverance, either because no relative was living who could undertake the task, or because the distress was so desperate that no human hand could relieve it. This might happen with heartbroken widows robbed of husband, children, and land, and left penniless and friendless. But even such cases of the utmost distress are not so desperate as that of the soul in its sin and wretchedness, utterly and hopelessly undone unless some mighty hand of redemption is stretched out to save it.
II. GOD IS A MIGHTY REDEEMER. Two essential conditions were required in the redeemer. He must have a right to interfere, and he must have power to succeed. God has both.
1. The right. The right of the old Hebrew redeemer was blood relationship. The nearest kinsman was called to act as goel. God is nearly related to man. He is the Father of all. The friendless poor have One left who regards them as of his family. Christ came as a brother man to be the Redeemer of the human race.
2. The power.
III. GOD'S MIGHTY REDEMPTION IS AVAILABLE. He is not only a mighty Redeemer; he is willing to help, and he does afford succour.
1. He acts in justice. "Shall not the Judge of all the earth do right?" (Genesis 18:25). At present we witness cruel injustice. The poor are oppressed by the strong. Hard toiling men, women, and children in manufacturing centres are ground into penury by the fierce mill of competition, while ruthless "middle men" fatten on their ill-paid labour. The few in prosperity revel in luxury that they wring out of the many in penury. God will not permit such cruel wrongs to last forever. The Redeemer is an Avenger. The blood of the victims of those who make haste to be rich at the expense of their starving brethren cries out to heaven for vengeance. It will not always cry in vain.
2. He acts in mercy. He pities the suffering poor. They are his children, and he will not forget their needs. Love is the inspiration of Divine redemption. This is the secret of Christ's great redemption of sinners. Justice is ultimately satisfied here; but the first motive is mercy, for the helpless are also the ill-deserving. Yet even their Redeemer is mighty.
Envying sinners
I. THERE IS A GREAT TEMPTATION TO ENVY SINNERS. The wise man would wastewords in giving a warning if he saw no danger. This temptation is fascinating on various accounts.
1. Sinners prosper. This was the old ground of the psalmist's perplexity. The righteous were suffering while the wicked were fattening in ill-earned luxury (Psalms 73:3-9).
2. Sinners take forbidden paths with impunity. They trespass and are not arrested. Thus they attain their ends by easy ways from which conscientious people are restrained. They are not troubled with scruples.
3. Sinners escape onerous duties. There are great and weighty obligations that rest like a heavy yoke on the shoulders of an earnest man who tries to do his duty to God and his fellows, all of which are simply ignored by the man of lower morals. Hence the apparently easier course of the latter. He can refuse the subscription list, decline to work in the benevolent society, and shirk all the burdens that come from sympathy with the suffering.
4. Sinners enjoy wicked pleasures. They are pleasure seekers, and they seem to obtain pleasure. Thus at a superficial glance they appear to have sources of happiness from which those who are more rigorous in regarding the law of righteousness are excluded. The child of the Puritan home envies the gay cavalier his merry revelry.
II. IT IS WRONG TO ENVY SINNERS.
1. This is to doubt God's justice. Though we cannot yet see the issue of events, we must believe that God will not allow injustice to flourish forever, unless he cares not for the course of the world or is unable to set it right. To suppose any such condition is to distrust God.
2. This is to form a low estimate of the purpose of life. We are not sent into the world simply to enjoy ourselves, but primarily to do our duty. If we are fulfilling that great purpose, it is a degradation to envy those who seem to be more fortunate than ourselves in the mere enjoyment of worldly pleasures.
3. This is to yield to the attraction of unworthy delights. The pleasures of sinners are sinful. To lust after such forbidden fruit is to have a depraved appetite. The soul that is truly pure will loathe the delights of sin. It will not be hard on a good man that his conscience forbids him to frequent the haunts of vicious revelry. He could find no true pleasure for himself amid such scenes.
III. IN THE END THE MISTAKE OF ENVYING SINNERS WILL BE DEMONSTRATED. "For surely there is an end" The pleasure seeker is short-sighted. To judge of the wisdom of following his course, we must see what it leads to.
1. The pleasure must end. The delights of evil are brief, and they are followed by wretchedness. The wild devotee of pleasure soon becomes a debauched and blase wreck of humanity. If one is prudent enough to avoid extreme folly, still death will soon come and put an end to all worldly pleasure.
2. Sinful pleasure produces suffering. It corrupts body and soul; it sows seeds of disease and misery. They who sow to the flesh will reap corruption.
3. There will be retribution in the next world. There is a future. Does the sinner consider this? Does the foolish man who envies him remember it?