by: REUBEN ARCHER TORREY—1856-1928
O man, who art thou
that repliest against God? — Romans 9:20.
HESE
WORDS ought to awaken anyone who is not utterly beyond hope. Notice the
first two words and the last word. "0 man" and "God." "0 man, who art
thou that repliest against God?" Here God and man are put in sharpest
contrast, God in His infinite greatness and wisdom and man in his
infinitesimal smallness and ignorance. And in the Greek there is also a
strong emphasis on the "thou." "0 MAN, who art thou that repliest
against GOD?" It will be a happy day for some of us if God will brand
that text upon our memories so that we shall never be able to forget it
nor get away from it. "0 man, who art thou that repliest against God?"
The most insanely
daring thing that any man can do, the most exceedingly foolish thing any
man can do, the most desperately wicked thing that any man can do, is to
reply against God, to enter into controversy with God, to criticize God,
to condemn God. Yet that is what many people are doing
When you hear a little
child replying against his father or mother, getting into controversy,
criticizing, condemning, you are filled with disgust and indignation. It
is something not to be tolerated for one moment. But what is it for any
mere human being, any mere creature of the dust such as all of us are,
to reply against, to criticize, to enter into controversy with, to try
to prove wrong the Infinite and Eternal God? It is the most exceedingly
foolish and desperately wicked thing a human being can do.
- The Folly and Wickedness of Entering into Controversy with
God
There are four facts which show the exceeding folly and desperate
wickedness of replying against God, of entering into controversy
with God, of criticizing or condemning God.
The first is the fact of the infinite majesty of God. Our text
itself contrasts the infinite majesty of God with the infinitesimal
smallness of man. It reads, "0 man, who art thou that repliest
against God?" Yes, who art thou, anyway? And who is God?
You are one out of 2,000,000,000 like yourself now inhabiting
this globe. And what is this globe on which you and I live? The
earth is so small a part of the already known universe that if the
sun were hollow, you could pour into it 1,200,000 earths like ours
and still there would be room enough left for them to rattle around
in it.Yes, the sun itself is very, very small in comparison with
Arcturus and some of the other stars whose diameters have been
recently measured, and there are now known to be more than
225,000,000 of these great worlds we call stars in this universe of
ours. God, with whom you are seeking to enter into controversy,
seeking to criticize and condemn, made them all. "He made the stars
also" (Gen. 1:16). "0 man, who art thou that repliest against God?"
We men in this day of increasingly successful investigation of
the incredible, and, as it seems to us, practically infinite,
magnitude of the stellar heavens are sometimes tempted to be puffed
up because a few great leaders and investigators among us are
beginning to know a little about these vast stellar worlds and
interstellar spaces. But what about the God who planned them all and
made them all? Our increasing discoveries of the vastness of the
physical universe ought to fill us with an increasing sense of our
own nothingness in comparison with the infinite greatness and
majesty of Him who planned and made them all. But, alas, oftentimes
it seems only to puff us up with pride that we are so wise as to
understand a small part of the ways and power of yon infinite God.
The second fact that shows us the exceeding folly and desperate
wickedness of replying against God, of entering into controversy
with God, of criticizing God, of condemning God, is the fact of the
infinite and absolute holiness of God. "God is light, and in him is
no darkness at all" (1 John 1:5). God is the One, as I read in the
Scripture lesson tonight, in whose presence the seraphim themselves,
the "burning ones" (for that is what the Hebrew word "seraphim"
means), burning in their own intense holiness, must veil their faces
and feet in that infinitely holy Presence and keep continually
crying, "Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord God Almighty" (Isaiah 6:3).
God is the One in whose presence Isaiah, that holy man of old,
covered his face and cried, 'Woe is me! for I am undone; for I am a
man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean
lips, . . . for mine eyes have seen the King, Jehovah of hosts." God
is the One in whose presence Job, the "perfect man," Job, who had
stoutly maintained his integrity before all the persistent and
united accusations of his friends, when he got one glimpse of God
face to face, overwhelmed with the sense of his own nothingness and
vileness in comparison with the infinitely holy One, cried, "I have
heard of thee with the hearing of the ear: but now mine eye seeth
thee. Wherefore I abhor myself, and repent in dust and ashes" (Job
42:5-6). Such is God. And "who art thou that repliest against God?"
And what art thou?
What are we all, the very best of us? Vile-the best of us is but
a loathsome sinner. We may not yet realize the fact, but it is true.
Our lives have been shot through and through by sin. Yet you
undertake to stand in the presence of this Holy God, in whose
presence the seraphim veil their faces and their feet, and reply
against Him, to suggest what God ought to do, to enter into
controversy with God, to criticize God for things which He has seen
fit to do, to murmur against God.
There is a third fact that shows us the exceeding folly and
desperate wickedness of replying against God, of entering into
controversy with God, of criticizing God, of condemning God, and
that is the fact of God's infinite wisdom. God is not only a Being
of infinite majesty and holiness. He is also a Being of infinite
wisdom. We look up at the starry heavens above our heads, we look at
these wonderful worlds of light that stud the heavens by night. We
think of the overwhelming things about their immensity and the
incredible speed and momentum of their movements as they rush
through space, and as we look up at them, if we are wise, we say,
"Oh, God, what a Being of infinite wisdom as well as majesty Thou
art that Thou canst guide these inconceivably enormous worlds as
they go whirling through space with such incredible velocity and
momentum."
And yet many of you here tonight do not hesitate to look up at
that Infinitely wise God who made these wonderful spheres of light,
who guides the whole universe in its wonderful, stupendous and
bewildering course, and attempt to tell Him what you think He ought
to do! Thou fool, art thou mad? No inmate of Patten ever did an
insaner thing. "Who art thou?" The wisest man on earth is but a
child; the wisest philosopher does not know much; the greatest man
of science knows but very little. What he knows is almost nothing in
comparison with what he does not know. What he does know, even about
the material universe, is as nothing compared with what he does not
know.
How much does the wisest scientist know even about this small
planet? What does he really know, for example, about earthquakes?
Have you ever stopped to think of the fact that the most confidently
believed science of one hundred years ago is regarded by all modern
scientists as foolishness? If we are to judge the future by the
past, the most confidently believed science of today will be
regarded as foolishness by the scientists of one hundred years
hence.
When I was giving special attention to scientific study not so
very many years ago, the nebular hypothesis was almost universally
accepted. But some of the most advanced and reliable scientists of
today are not only questioning it, but declare, at least in private,
that it is exploded. What the scientists of a hundred years ago
taught as being settled forever is known by our little children in
the primary schools today as completely disproven. What the best
scientist of today thinks he knows to be true a little child in
primary school one hundred years hence will know to be false. The
best scientific knowledge of today will be regarded as foolishness a
hundred years from now, and the best scientific knowledge of one
hundred years from now will be foolishness to the Infinitely wise
God.
Suppose some child of thirteen or fourteen should take a book on
philosophy setting forth the ripest product of the best philosophic
thought of today and begin to criticize it, page by page. What would
you think? Would you stand and look at the boy and say with
unbounded admiration, "What a bright lad he is?" No, you would say,
"What a conceited idiot he is to undertake, at his age and with his
limited knowledge, to criticize the best philosophic thought of the
day!" But he would not be so conceited an idiot as you or I would be
were we to attempt to criticize an infinitely wise God for we are
far less than children compared with the infinite God.
The most profound philosopher of today is but a little child
compared with the Infinite God. And yet you, who do not make any
pretensions of being a philosopher at all, take God's Book, you a
little child, an infant, take this Book which represents the best
wisdom of God, and you sit down and turn it, page by page, and try
to criticize it, and people stand and look at you and admire and
say, "What a scholar!" But the angels look down and say, "What a
fool!" And what does God say? "0 man, who art thou that repliest
against God?" "He that sitteth in the heavens shall laugh; the Lord
[the Almighty and the Eternal] shall have [you] in derision" (Ps.
2:4).
There is a fourth fact that emphasizes the extreme folly and
desperate wickedness of replying against God, of entering into
controversy with God, of criticizing God, or condemning God, and
that fact is that He is not only a Being of Infinite majesty,
holiness, and wisdom, but also a Being of infinite goodness and
love. Why, man, you owe everything you have in the world to God. You
owe your very existence to Him. You owe to Him your power to see,
your power to hear, your power to taste. You owe to Him your power
to breathe, to live, to walk, to work, your power to enjoy this
wonderful world which He has made, in which He permits and enables
us to live. 'Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above,
and cometh down from the Father of lights, with whom is no
variableness, neither shadow of turning" (James 1:17). The poorest
of us, the most unfortunate of us, has an immense deal for which to
be thankful. You who seem to have very little have exceedingly much
in comparison with nothing. Are you blind? Well, you can hear and
taste, can you not? Are you deaf, dumb, and blind? Well, you can eat
and enjoy your food, can you not? The man who has all five senses
would be just as reasonable if he were to complain because he has
not six as the man who has four senses would be to complain because
he has not five. Thank God for what you have, rather than complain
against God for what you have not.
Suppose I should have found on Thanksgiving Day a poor,
half-starved tramp and had taken him to my home, given him a good,
well-cooked dinner of roast lamb, white potatoes, other vegetables,
and pumpkin pie, and then he had gone and complained against me to
some other tramp because I did not give him turkey and sweet
potatoes, cranberry sauce, mince pie, and plum pudding. Would he not
have been an ungrateful cur? Yet not so, ungrateful as you are when
you complain at the God who has given you taste, hearing, touch,
feeling, and many other blessings, because He has not given you
sight also. The poorest of us, the most suffering of us, have an
enormous deal for which to be thankful and all of it came from God.
Not only that, but you and I not only have these things that we
possess to be thankful for but, furthermore, every man of us has
trampled God's law under foot; every one of us has been a sinner
justly condemned before God. But God, instead of dealing with us in
stem wrath and judgment, as we all deserve, has not only given us
all these blessings, but, in addition, has given His own Son to die
on the Cross of Calvary in our place. He has given His best beloved,
His dearest, His only begotten Son. But in spite of all that
wondrous love that did not stop even at the sacrifice of His own
Son, some of you presume to criticize God, who gave His Son to die
for you. "0 man, who art thou that repliest against God?"
One of the greatest Italian statesmen of the last century, the
greatest of his day but one, was devoutly loved in his youth by a
young woman. When he entered the army of Garibaldi, this woman who
loved him enlisted too, and fought in the war by the side of her
lover, just to be near him. And one day he was shot and fell on the
field of battle, and that woman who loved him rushed out beneath a
rain of bullets, lifted her fallen lover from the ground; and,
amidst a terrific storm of bullets, carried her lover to safety.
Then she watched over him for days and weeks until she had nursed
him back to health. Suppose he had deserted her then, what would the
whole world have called him? In point of fact he married her, but
afterward he divorced her; though he was one of the ablest statesmen
of the century, Italy and all Europe, for all his brilliant gifts,
never forgave him his treatment of the devoted woman who had risked
her life to save his.
But what has God done for you? The eternal God has consented that
His heart should be torn and crushed to save you and me. Yet some of
us dare to enter into controversy with this God of infinite love, to
criticize that eternal God who consented that His heart be torn and
bruised and crushed to save us. Oh, the desperate wickedness, the
amazing folly of replying against a God of infinite majesty,
infinite holiness, infinite wisdom, and, above all, of infinite
love. "0 man, who art thou that repliest against God?"
- Who Repliest Against God?
But who is replying against God? Who is entering into controversy
with God? Who is criticizing or condemning God? Five classes are
replying against God.
First of all, the men and women who complain of God's
providential dealings with them are replying against God, are
entering into controversy with God, are criticizing God and
condemning God. Many a man or woman has said to me, "I think God is
cruel." "Why do you think He is cruel?" One replies, "He has taken
away my husband." Another, "He has taken away my wife." Another, "He
has taken away my child. He has taken away the light of our home."
Another, "He has brought me down from financial prosperity to
financial failure. I once stood high in the business world. I now
have to almost beg my bread, and I say God is cruel." Another says,
"If God is good, why did He permit this awful disaster or that which
laid waste a beautiful city or nation? I think God is cruel."
You do? You do? You think God is cruel! Who is God? A Being of
infinite majesty, a Being of infinite holiness, a Being of infinite
wisdom, a Being of infinite love, a Being who gave His own Son to
die that you might be saved! "0 man, who art thou that repliest
against God?"
But you say, "I do not understand it." Why should you understand
it? Who are you? If you were really wise, you would not ask to
understand it. If you had really good sense, you would not feel any
need of having it explained. You would say, "I know God is
infinitely good and infinitely wise. I know He is infinitely loving,
too. I know He gave His Son to die for me, and though I cannot
understand it, nevertheless it comes from God's hand and I know it
is all right. "Naked came I [into this world]: ... the Lord gave,
and the Lord hath taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord" (Job
1:21). 1 do not ask to understand; I am perfbctly content to trust
in the dark that God who is so infinitely worthy of my trust.
I had two friends in England, very dear friends, who were
beautiful Christians. They had a lovely daughter. She grew to
maidenhood and was said to have been an unusually beautiful girl in
both face and character. Some said she was the most beautiful
character they had ever met. When this lovely daughter was seventeen
or eighteen, she was taken with rheumatic fever, and, after awful
suffering, died. The father and mother never complained. They kissed
the hand that smote.
Some time after this sorrow had befallen them, I was talking with
them about it. They told me how God had sustained them in that
trying hour. Only a little while after this conversation, their
second daughter, now grown to womanhood, was also taken down with
precisely the same malady, rheumatic fever. Her fever ran up to 107
and stayed there day after day, and she seemed beyond all hope. Then
the mother's faith gave way, and she said, "God is cruel to take my
second daughter when I never complained about the first, and not
only to take my second daughter, but to take her in just the same
way He took the first." But God spared the child. She is well now, a
devoted Christian woman in very active Christian work. And that
mother has repented of her wickedness.
Oh, friends, it was wicked, very wicked. Our hearts were almost
broken in sympathy during the days that child hung between life and
death. Telegrams kept coming to me telling of her condition, and my
heart bled for my friends. But, nonetheless, I say that was wicked
on the mother's part to say "God is cruel." That was exceedingly
wicked, that was desperately wicked, to call God cruel. That same
mother lost all three of her sons and her husband in the late war,
but she has never again whispered that God is cruel. I had a letter
from her only the other day that was full of trust and hope.
Some of you are passing through trials which, if the rest of us
knew, would fill our hearts with sympathy and pain. But you are
murmuring against God, and that is wicked, that is exceedingly
foolish, that is desperately wicked; for "0 man, who art thou that
repliest against God," against a God of infinite majesty, against a
God of infinite wisdom, against a God of infinite holiness, against
a God of infinite love, against a God who gave His only begotten Son
to die for you? But you say, "I do not understand it." Why should
you understand it? Why should you ask to understand it? Who are you
that God should explain it to you? Oh, that we might always bear in
mind who God is, and who we are; what God is, and what we are.
Then there is a second class who are replying against God, who
are entering into controversy with God, who are criticizing and
condemning God, namely, those who are criticizing this Book and
trying to pull this Book to pieces. This Book is God's Word. That is
thoroughly established. When you criticize this Book, you criticize
its Author, who is God. When you criticize this Book, you criticize
God. But you say, "I do not believe it is God's Word." That does not
alter the fact, not in the least. It is His Word-there is abundant
proof that it is His Word. I have proved over and over again in this
place that this Book is the Word of God. This Book is God's Word,
and whoever ventures to criticize it ventures to criticize God.
Never forget that. I repeat it, whoever ventures to criticize this
Book ventures to criticize God, and the one who criticizes God is
guilty of exceeding folly and desperate wickedness. You say, "I do
not like that." I am sorry that you do not, for it is true, and I
always feel profoundly sorry for the man or woman who does not like
the truth. They are in a bad way.
One night one of my workers in Minneapolis called me down to
speak to a man who said that he was an infidel. "Why are you an
infidel?" I asked. 'Because I do not believe the Bible," he replied.
'Yes, but why do you not believe the Bible?" "It is full of
contradictions," he answered. "Show me one," I quietly said, and
handed him my Bible to find it. He said, "It is full of them."
'Well," I said, 'if it is full of them, you ought to be able to show
me at least one." "I don't pretend to know as much about the Bible
as you do," he blurted out. I said, "Then what are you talking about
it for?" I turned him to our Bible text of tonight, "0 man, who art
thou that repliest against God" Then I turned him to Matthew 12:36,
'Every idle word that men shall speak, they shall give account
thereof in the day of judgment." Then I said, 'The Bible is Gods
Word, and you have said it is full of contradictions, and in saying
that you have condemned the Author, you have condemned God, and
Jesus said, Every idle word that men shall speak, they shall give
account thereof in the day ofjudgment." You have criticized God, and
you will have to give account of it in the day of judgment, of all
these words, these idle words that you have just used." He turned
pale, and said, "I did not mean to do that." "But that is what you
have done." And it is what some of you have done in the last
twenty-four hours. You have ventured to laugh at something in the
Bible. When you did that, you laughed at God. You ventured to set up
some opinion of yours against what God says in His Book. You
ventured to enter into controversy with God, you ventured to
criticize something in the Bible, and when you did that, you
criticized the Author of the Bible, you criticized God. "0 man, who
art thou that repliest against God?"
There is a third class who are replying against God, who are
entering into controversy with God, who are criticizing God, who are
condemning God, and that is those who make light of the Bible
doctrine of salvation by atoning blood, the Bible doctrine that we
are saved through the shedding of the blood of Jesus on the Cross of
Calvary. That doctrine so frequently and so unmistakably taught in
God's Word is ridiculed today in many a so-called Christian pulpit.
Any pulpit that ridicules the doctrine of salvation by atoning blood
is not a Christian pulpit. A very noted preacher in New York City,
whose books have a wide sale, was reported to me by one who took
down his words in his classroom to have said, "The doctrine of blood
atonement is nauseating to me." Any preacher who ridicules the
doctrine of salvation by atoning blood is not a minister of Jesus
Christ, he is a minister of Satan, no matter how genial and amiable
a man he may be.
The Bible doctrine of salvation by atoning blood is ridiculed in
this day on every hand. Some preachers have said it is foolish for
me to preach this "old doctrine." Well, it is an old doctrine, but
it is a true doctrine. And I would rather believe and teach the old
that is true than the new that is false. I did not invent this
doctrine. I do not know enough to invent it. I found it in that
Book, and, thank God, I found it to be true in my own life; it saved
me and I preach it, and it has saved thousands through my preaching
of it. I preach it, but I did not invent it. God is the Author of
this doctrine, and when you criticize the preaching of it, you do
not criticize me, you criticize God. It would be a matter of no
great consequence for you to criticize me or my preaching. Why
should you not criticize me? I am not infallible. I cannot see why I
am not just as properly an object of criticism as anybody else. It
does not harm me, and it gives some people lots of fun. Sometimes it
greatly helps me. But, ah, when you criticize this doctrine you are
not criticizing me, you are criticizing God, and that is serious,
tremendously serious. "0 man, who art thou that repliest against
God?"
Then there is a fourth class who are replying against God,
namely, those who complain of the Bible doctrine of retribution for
sin, the Bible doctrine of endless punishment. This is not my
doctrine. I did not get it up. Some say that it is a medieval
doctrine. No, it is not a medieval doctrine. They did not originate
it in the Middle Ages. It is the doctrine of Jesus Christ, taught by
Him, not in the Middle Ages but in the first century. Why will
people who try to pose as scholars display such ignorance of the
meaning of commonly used words?
Jesus Christ says distinctly in Matthew 25:41 that at the
judgment of the nations living on the earth when He comes again He
will say to those on His left hand, 'Depart from me, ye cursed, into
the everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels." And,
five verses farther down, He says, "And these shall go away into
eternal punishment: but the righteous into life eternal." Now, I did
not invent that. That was in the Bible before I was born. Jesus said
it eighteen centuries before I was born. I simply found it in the
Bible and preach it because it is there. I received a letter once
from a Universalist preacher in New Hampshire, saying, "The doctrine
you preach makes God a monster." Whoever says that this doctrine
makes God a monster is himself a blasphemer, for it is God's
doctrine. When you say that "Whosoever preaches this doctrine makes
God a monster," you say that God is a monster. A lady in Liverpool
wrote me, "I cannot conceive how a God of love should leave anybody
to everlasting punishment." Why should she conceive how a God of
love should leave anybody to everlasting punishment? It seemed to
have never entered her head that anything she could not conceive
could be easily conceivable by someone who knew more than she did.
If she had had even a modicum of commonsense, she would have seen at
once that although she, with her very limited intelligence, could
not conceive it, an infinitely wise God might have a thousand
reasons for doing it, even though she could not see one.
It has never dawned on some people that even God could by any
possibility know more than they know. It never dawned on me for
years, and in those days I was a Universalist. I thought that all
men would ultimately be saved. I was a Universalist because I had an
argument for the ultimate salvation of everybody for which I could
see no possible answer. I thought if I could not see an answer, why,
no one could. So I challenged anybody to meet me on that argument
and answer it. I went around with my head pretty high and said, "I
have found an unanswerable reason for Universalism." I thought that
I was a Universalist for all time and that anyone who was not a
Universalist was not well posted.
One day it occurred to me that an infinitely wise God might
possibly know more than I did. That had never dawned on me before.
It dawned upon me also that it was quite possible that a God of
infinite wisdom might have a thousand good reasons for doing a
thing, when I, in my finite foolishness, could not see even one. So
my fondly cherished Universalism went up in smoke.
If you get that thought, that an Infinitely wise God may possibly
know more than even you do, and that God in His infinite wisdom
might have a thousand good reasons for doing a thing when you cannot
see even one, you will have learned one of the greatest theological
truths of the day-one that will solve many of your perplexing
problems in the Bible.
Men try to lay hold of infinite wisdom and fancy that they can
squeeze it down into the capacity of their pint-cup minds. But
because they cannot squeeze infinite wisdom into their pint-cup
minds, they say, "I don't believe that Book is the Word of God,
because it has something in it that I cannot understand the
philosophy of." Why should you understand the philosophy of it? Who
are you, anyhow? How much of a mind have you, anyhow? How long have
you had it? How long are you going to keep it? Who gave it to you?
It is not our business to find out the philosophy of things; it
is not our business to see the reason of things. It is our business
to hear what God has to say, and when He says it, believe it,
whether you can understand the philosophy of it or not.
When my children were small and ignorant, I told them a lot of
things that I could not explain to them because of the limitations
of their minds. There are a great many things that even God cannot
explain to you or to me because we do not know enough yet to have it
explained to us. God is too wise, I say it reverently, to try to
explain some things to a person who does not know more than you do.
There is one more class that is replying against God, that is the
men who instead of accepting Jesus Christ as their Savior and
surrendering to Him as their Lord and Master and openly confessing
Him as such before the world, are making excuses for not doing it.
Jesus says in John 6:37, "Him that cometh to me I will in no wise
cast out." God says in Revelation 22:17, "Whosoever will, let him
take the water of life freely." Anybody can come to Christ, and
anybody who does come will be received and saved. Yet many of you,
instead of coming, are making excuses for not coming. By every
excuse you make you are replying against God, you are entering into
controversy with God, you are condemning God, who invites you to
come. You cannot frame an excuse for not coming and accepting Christ
that does not condemn God. Every excuse that any mortal makes for
not accepting Christ, in its ultimate analysis, condemns God.
For example, some of you say, "I am too great a sinner to come."
But God says in 1 Timothy 1:15, "This is a faithful saying, and
worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to
save sinners." And when you say, "I cannot come because I am too
great a sinner," you give the lie to God. He says you can. Another
says, "I cannot come because I am too weak to hold out in the
Christian life." But God says in Jude 24, "He is able to keep you
from falling and to present you faultless before the presence of his
glory with exceeding joy." You say, "God cannot keep me." God says
He can. And when you say He cannot, you make God a liar and condemn
God. Another says, "I cannot come because I have not the right kind
of feeling." But God says, "Whosoever will, let him come and take
the water of life freely." God says, 'You can come," and you say, "I
cannot," and that excuse condemns God. Every conceivable excuse the
sinner makes for not coming to Christ at once, in its ultimate
analysis, condemns God, and every man and woman who, instead of
coming right to the Lord Jesus and accepting Him, surrendering to
Him, confessing Him as Master and going forth to serve Him—everyone
who is making an excuse of any kind instead of accepting Christ is
replying against God. "O man, who art thou that repliest
against God? Return to:
Are You Criticizing God?
|