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WRITINGS OF HARRY A IRONSIDE - VOLUME 1
by Harry A. Ironside
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A collection of theological writings, sermons, and essays by Harry A. Ironside
(Volume 1), compiled for study and devotional reading.
Chapters: 100
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
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1. 01.00. Dr. Ironside's Bible
2. 01.01. Introduction: A Coveted Treasure
3. 01.02. Poems From The Flyleaves
4. 01.03. A Few Suggestive Themes From H.A.I's Bible
5. 01.04. Group Bible Study
6. 01.05. Principles Of Prophetic Interpretation
7. 01.06. Old Testament -- Genesis - Deuteronomy
8. 01.07. Old Testament -- Joshua - 2 Chronicles
9. 01.08. Old Testament -- Ezra - Proverbs
10. 01.09. Old Testament -- Ecclesiastes - Daniel
11. 01.10. Old Testament -- Hosea - Malachi
12. 01.11. New Testament -- Matthew - John
13. 01.12. New Testament -- Acts - Colossians
14. 01.13. New Testament -- 1 Thessalonians - James
15. 01.14. New Testament -- 1 Peter - Revelation
16. 02.00.1. A Historical Sketch Of The Brethren Movement
17. 02.00.2. e-Sword Preface
18. 02.00.3. Table Of Contents
19. 02.00.4. Preface
20. 02.01. The Beginning Of The Movement
21. 02.02. Widening Borders
22. 02.03. Gathering Clouds
23. 02.04. Increasing Dissension
24. 02.05. The Bethesda Question And The First...
25. 02.06. Further Developements
26. 02.07. "Playing Church"
27. 02.08. The Montreal Division
28. 02.09. Increasing Dissension
29. 02.10. "Ravenism" And Lesser Divisions
30. 02.11. An Abortive Attempt At Reconciliation
31. 02.12. The Attempt At Union Thwarted
32. 02.13. Later Developements And Critical Comments
33. 03.00.1. ADDRESSES ON THE SONG OF SOLOMON
34. 03.00.2. BAPTIST BIBLE BELIEVER'S TITLE PAGE
35. 03.00.3. CURRENT COPYRIGHT STATUS
36. 03.00.4. PREFACE TO THE E-SWORD EDITION
37. 03.00.5. TABLE OF CONTENTS
38. 03.00.6. PREFATORY NOTE
39. 03.01. CHAPTER ONE SONG OF SOLOMON 1:4
40. 03.02. CHAPTER TWO SONG OF SOLOMON 2:4
41. 03.03. CHAPTER THREE SONG OF SOLOMON 3:1
42. 03.04. CHAPTER FOUR SONG OF SOLOMON 4:1-11
43. 03.05. CHAPTER FIVE SONG OF SOLOMON 4:12-5:1
44. 03.06. CHAPTER SIX SONG OF SOLOMON 5:2-8:5
45. 03.07. CHAPTER SEVEN SONG OF SOLOMON 8:6-7
46. 03.08. CHAPTER EIGHT SONG OF SOLOMON 8:8-14
47. 04.00.1. Addresses On The Epistles Of John And Jude
48. 04.00.2. e-Sword Preface
49. 04.00.3. Table Of Contents
50. 04.01.0. Author's Introduction
51. 04.01.1. God Is Light
52. 04.01.2. Living In God's Light
53. 04.01.3. God Is Love
54. 04.01.4. Living In God's Love
55. 04.01.5. God Is Life
56. 04.02. Letter To A Lady
57. 04.03. Letter To A Friend
58. 04.04.1. Introduction
59. 04.04.2. Confronting Apostasy
60. 04.04.3. Defining Apostasy
61. 04.04.4. Call To Persevere
62. 04.04.5. Doxology
63. 05.00.1. Addresses on the First Epistle to the Corinthians
64. 05.00.2. Preface to the e-Sword Edition
65. 05.00.3. Copyright Information
66. 05.00.4. Prefatory Note to the First Edition
67. 05.01. We Preach Christ Crucified
68. 05.02. The Deep Things Of God
69. 05.03. The Temple Of God
70. 05.04. The Ministers Of Christ
71. 05.05. Maintaining Holiness
72. 05.06. You Are Not Your Own
73. 05.07. Celibacy, Marriage, And Divorce
74. 05.08. Christian Liberty
75. 05.09. Rewards For Service
76. 05.10. The Cup Of Blessing
77. 05.11. Coming Together For The Better
78. 05.12. Christ's Gracious Provision
79. 05.13. The Love Chapter
80. 05.14. The Exercise Of Gifts
81. 05.15. Victory Over Death
82. 05.16. Maranatha
83. 06.00.1. Addresses on the Gospel of Luke
84. 06.00.2. Preface to the e-Sword Edition
85. 06.00.3. Copyright Information
86. 06.00.4. Author's Preface
87. 06.01. Its Theme And Author -- Luk_1:1-4
88. 06.02. The Coming Forerunner -- Luk_1:5-25
89. 06.03. The Annunciation -- Luk_1:26-38
90. 06.04. The Magnificat -- Luk_1:39-56
91. 06.05. The Promise Fulfilled -- Luk_1:57-80
92. 06.06. The Birth Of The Saviour -- Luk_2:1-20
93. 06.07. The Presentation In The Temple -- Luk_2:21-38
94. 06.08. The Boy Christ Among The ... -- Luk_2:41-52
95. 06.09. The Baptism Of Jesus -- Luk_3:1-22
96. 06.10. The Genealogy Of Jesus -- Luk_3:23-38
97. 06.11. The Temptation Of Jesus -- Luk_4:1-13
98. 06.12. "The Acceptable Year Of ..." -- Luk_4:14-30
99. 06.13. Jesus At Capernaum -- Luk_4:30-44
100. 06.14. Fishers Of Men -- Luk_5:1-11
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CHAPTER 1: 01.00. DR. IRONSIDE'S BIBLE
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Dr. Ironside’s Bible by H.A. Ironside Table of Contants Introduction: A Coveted
Treasure Poems From The Flyleaves A Few Suggestive Themes From H.A.I’s Bible
Group Bible Study Principles Of Prophetic Interpretation Old Testament --
Genesis - Deuteronomy Old Testament -- Joshua - 2 Chronicles Old Testament --
Ezra - Proverbs Old Testament -- Ecclesiastes - Daniel Old Testament -- Hosea -
Malachi New Testament -- Matthew - John New Testament -- Acts - Colossians New
Testament -- 1 Thessalonians - James New Testament -- 1 Peter - Revelation
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CHAPTER 2: 01.01. INTRODUCTION: A COVETED TREASURE
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Introduction: A Coveted Treasure by H A Ironside Notes and Quotes from the
Margins Copyright 1955 Loizeaux Brothers Neptune, New Jersey A Coveted Treasure
In his biography of the late Dr. H. A. Ironside, Dr. E. Schuyler English
mentions that Richard Bentley’s description of Bishop Pearson can well be
applied to Dr. Ironside: “The very dust of whose writings is gold.”
It was my good fortune to come into possession of the Bible Dr. Ironside used
for many years. Going over the voluminous notes it contains, one realizes that
these comments and themes are indeed the very “dust of gold.”
Without doubt the personal Bible of Dr. H. A. Ironside is a treasure. The
flyleaf of the good-sized copy of the Authorized Version bears the record
“Presented by Saints at Boston (Arlington Heights) Mass., Oct. 14, 1925.” (This
was Dr. Ironside’s forty-ninth birthday.)
It is a day well remembered when this Bible, the most cherished possession of my
library, became mine. The famous expositor was coming to the close of an
eighteen-and-one-half-year ministry as Pastor of the Moody Memorial Church
(which, by the way, is the record for a pastoral stay at this renowned church).
Dr. Ironside had read thousands of books in his lifetime, and even though he had
supplied schools and struggling preachers with hundreds of books, there were
still some four thousand volumes to be taken from the shelves of his study and
packed for shipment to Winona Lake, etc. It was my personal delight, as his
assistant pastor, to spend several days helping him in this task.
One day, upon removing books from one of the lesser used compartments, my hands
produced a fine old dust-covered Bible which was literally in pieces from
extensive use. The cover bore the gold imprint “H. A. Ironside, Oakland, Calif.”
Immediately I asked the Pastor about the inscription.
“Yes,” he replied, “that is the Bible I was preaching from when I received the
call to be Pastor of the Moody Church. And I have used it for a good part of
that ministry too.”
Considering the fact that Dr. Ironside had been like a father to me, and was my
hero as an expositor, I dared to mention that I should treasure such a
possession for my very own.
“What would you do with it?” he asked. My answer was that I would treasure it as
a memento of our association in the Word as father and son. Thus he gave it to
me. Needless to say, I have cherished this keepsake, and have had the
bookbinders restore the binding. It is now in safe condition to handle for
study. My desire concerning this book is that I might share with others some of
the treasure found therein. The famous English poet, Matthew Arnold, declared,
“Poetry is simply the most beautiful, impressive and widely effective mode of
saying things, and hence its importance.”
Many of us have experienced near nervous exhaustion, as some dear brother
attempted the use of poetry from the pulpit. But ah, when H.A.I. would pause
during a Bible exposition and quote a few lines which sweetly but surely cut to
the heart, it was almost as if the Master Himself were speaking.
H.A.I, had such a love for message in meter that he wrote many hymns of praise
himself. Who, in evangelical circles, has not heard the song “Overshadowed”? Let
us look at one stanza and the chorus:
How desolate my life would be, How dark and drear my nights and days, If Jesus’
face I did not see To brighten all earth’s weary ways.
Chorus: I’m overshadowed by His mighty love, Love eternal, changeless pure,
Overshadowed by His mighty love, Rest is mine, serene, secure; He died to ransom
me from sin, He lives to keep me day by day, I’m overshadowed by His mighty
love, Love that brightens all my way.
H.A.I.’s Bible contains many poems, both penned and pasted in the flyleaves and
margins. Reading a few of them will not begin to compare with hearing them
quoted from his own lips, which are now silent awaiting “the blessed hope”—yet
even in printed form his choice speaks the measure of the man himself! My former
association with Dr. Ironside was a most blessed experience. The call to be
assistant pastor of the Moody Memorial Church was accepted in June 1947, which
began for me a “Timothy” experience, the marks of which can never be erased from
my life. For instance, sitting behind him as he preached verse by verse was like
a seminary training in itself. Traveling with him to speaking engagements was
always refreshing. My mind was alert trying to think up some theological
question that might stump the “Old Apostle”; but his quick reply in Scripture
quoting would leave me breathless. What a privilege to sit at the feet of such a
Gamaliel! Many were the meals we ate together—that is, we started together but
never finished together. He would be through a complete meal before I had
started the second course, and would tell me at least three good stories before
my dessert was finished.
What a giant of intellect and spirituality Dr. Ironside was! He would be found
in his study most any morning at seven-thirty. His day included study of the
Word; writing letters (in long hand) to missionaries, penning articles for
publication, manuscripts for books, radio engagements, preaching and teaching
engagements, personal interviews, and a short nap after the noon meal. The more
I think about his capacity the more impossible his tasks seem to me. Yet I
witnessed these things with my own eyes.
Many a professor of homiletics has been plagued with the perennial question that
comes from new aspiring preachers, “What about H. A. Ironside, he doesn’t use
this system?” It is quite true that H.A.I, seemed to have homiletical rules that
differed from those of Spurgeon and Talmadge; but did he or did he not get
results? One day while driving my beloved Pastor to a preaching engagement, I
broached the subject of homiletics. In our conversation I mentioned the names of
professors who were looked upon as top bracket teachers in the field of
homiletics, and waited for comment if forthcoming. It came. With a twinkle in
his eye he said, “You know, it’s a strange thing, but many of these men who can
tell you how, were never able to do the job themselves.”
Upon studying H.A.I.’s Bible one is brought face to face with the fact that he
had a very concise way of explaining truth, as for example the few samples of
his outlines and themes included in “Suggestive Themes from H.A.I.’s Bible.” A
few moments of browsing through his Bible will quickly reveal H.A.I.’s
devotional love for the Book, also his method of expounding it. He was probably
the most famous exponent of verse-by-verse exposition of our generation. And
literally thousands of sheep crowded the great Moody Church week after week for
over eighteen years, because better pasture could not be found anywhere else.
H.A.I.’s manner of marking the Bible is a fascinating study in itself. In fact,
all flyleaves are actually covered with sayings, poems, diagrams, illustrations,
epitaphs, and even Chinese characters, which he studied for recreation. Here and
there, he has noted some of the great themes of the Bible, which signified the
power and effectiveness of his preaching. But perhaps the richest of the
treasure is the reading of his choice comments scattered over some fifteen
hundred pages of Scripture, as written by him in the margins. This volume
contains selections from the many marginal notes found in each of the Books of
the great expositor’s old Bible. If the reader will fit these notes with chapter
and verse, he will find the map leading to buried treasure.
Herbert J. Pugmire, D.D., F.R.G.S. Galilean Baptist Church Dallas, Texas
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CHAPTER 3: 01.02. POEMS FROM THE FLYLEAVES
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Poems From The Flyleaves by H A Ironside At What a Cost
Chosen, redeemed, in the children’s place, Holy and blameless before His face,
Once guilty, ruined, and lost; Not e’en doth the light of His presence show A
single stain—washed whiter than snow; But, ah! at what a cost! Not glittering
gems, nor silver and gold, Not worlds though teeming with wealth untold, Could
for our ransom suffice. No, the Church of God was bought with the blood Of the
holy, spotless Lamb of God; This, this was the costly price.
Oh wondrous truth! Deep in each breast By the Spirit of God be it impressed, And
there by His power abide, Grant, oh our God, that our life below May brightly
reflect the truths we know, That Thou mayest be glorified.
M.A.S.
“Often I am tempted to flee my task But that Strange Man upon the Cross Bars my
way and holds me back.”
Terrell
“Bold infidelity; turn pale and die. Beneath this stone four sleeping infants
lie; Say, are they lost or saved? If death’s by sin they sinned for they are
here, If Heaven’s by works in Heaven they can’t appear, Reason, ah, how
depraved! Turn to the Bible’s sacred page, the knot’s untied. They died, for
Adam sinned; They live, for Jesus died.”
Epitaph on a tombstone over four children, in St. Andrews Church Yard, Scotland
I hear a Voice you cannot hear, Which says I must not stay. I see a Hand you
cannot see, Which beckons me away.
I sometimes feel the thread of life is slender And soon with me the labor will
be wrought, Then grows my heart to other hearts more tender, The time is short.
D. M. Clark The Hands of Christ
“The hands of Christ seem very frail For they were broken by a nail; But only
they reach heaven at last Whom those frail broken Hands hold fast.”
J. R. Moreland The following is pasted in the margin of H.A.I.’s Bible beside
Romans 6:16—“Obedience”
Make me a captive, Lord, And then I shall be free; Force me to render up my
sword, And I shall conqueror be. I sink in life’s alarms When by myself I stand;
Imprison me within thine arms, And strong shall be my hand. My will is not my
own Till thou hast made it thine; If it would reach the monarch’s throne It must
its crown resign: It only stands unbent Amid the clashing strife When on Thy
bosom it has leant, And found in Thee its life.
George Matheson
“Whoso hath felt the Spirit of the Highest Cannot confound, nor doubt Him nor
deny. Yea, with one voice, oh world thou thou deniest Stand thou on that side,
for on THIS am I.”
Workmen of God! oh, lose not heart, But learn what God is like; And in the
darkest battlefield Thou shalt know where to strike.
Thrice blest is he to whom is given The instinct that can tell That God is in
the field when He Is most invisible.
Blest too is he who can divine Where real right doth lie, And dares to take the
side that seems Wrong to man’s blindfold eye.
Then learn to scorn the praise of men, And learn to lose with God; For Jesus won
the world through shame, And beckons thee His road. As He can endless glory
weave, From what men reckon shame, In His own world He is content To play a
losing game.
Faber
“Marvel not that Christ in glory All my inmost heart hath won, Not a Star to
cheer my darkness But a light beyond the sun. I have seen the face of Jesus Tell
me not of ought beside, I have heard the voice of Jesus All my soul is
satisfied. In the radiance of the glory, First I saw His blessed face, And
forever shall that glory Be my home, my dwelling place.”
“Ah! little I’ll reck, when the journey is o’er, Of the burdens and griefs I so
dreaded, and bore— They’ll all be forgot as I enter the door. With that light on
my face, and that song in my ears How small my regard for past troubles and
fears, While my harp makes the music I’ve longed for for years.”
“When I am dying how glad I shall be That the lamp of my life has been blazed
out for Thee I shall not regret one thing that I gave, Money or time one sinner
to save. I shall not mind that the way has been rough; That Thy blest feet led
the way for me is enough; When I am dying how glad I shall be That the lamp of
my life has been blazed out for Thee.”
They’re Dear to God
Oh that, when Christians meet and part, These words were graved on ev’ry heart—
“They’re dear to God!” However wilful and unwise, We’ll look on them with loving
eyes— “They’re dear to God!” Oh, wonder!—to the Eternal One Dear as His own
beloved Son; Dearer to Jesus than His blood, Dear as the Spirit’s fixed abode—
“They’re dear to God!” When tempted to give pain for pain, How would this
thought our words restrain, “They’re dear to God!” When truth compels us to
contend, What love with all our strife should blend! “They’re dear to God.” When
they would shun the pilgrim’s lot For this vain world, forget them not, But win
them back with love and prayer; They never can be happy there, If dear to God.
Shall we be there so near, so dear, And be estranged and cold whilst here— All
dear to God? By the same cares and toils opprest, We lean upon one faithful
Breast, We hasten to the same repose; How bear or do enough for those So dear to
God!
“I pass within the glory even now Where shapes and words are not For joy that
passeth words, O Lord art Thou, And bliss that passeth thought.”
Quotations From The Flyleaves “Remember the devil can wall you round, but he
cannot roof you in.”
—Hudson Taylor to Dan Crawford.
“If you must speak your mind, then mind how you speak.”
“God is a substitute for everything, but nothing is a substitute for God.”
“The gospel of Christ once heard is always the gospel which has been heard.
Nothing can ever alter that.”
—Alexander MacLaren.
“Deus Meus mea omnia.” Motto of Francis d’Assisi “When I was rich, I had God in
everything; now I am poor and I have everything in God.”
—Testimony of a ruined business man.
“I will place no value on anything I have or may possess except in relation to
the kingdom of Christ.”
—David Livingstone.
God has wonderful things to display if He could only get the show cases.
“Young man, attend to the voice of one who has possessed a certain degree of
fame in the world, and who will shortly appear before his Maker: Read the Bible
every day of your life.”
—Samuel Johnson, when dying, to a young gentleman who visited him.
“I am in the place where it is demanded of conscience and of God that I shall
speak the truth; and speak it I will: impugn it whoso lists.”
—John Knox in the pulpit of St. Giles.
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CHAPTER 4: 01.03. A FEW SUGGESTIVE THEMES FROM H.A.I'S BIBLE
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A Few Suggestive Themes From H.A.I’s Bible by H A Ironside Paul’s Prayers 1.
Prayer for knowledge. Ephesians 1:17.
2. Prayer for power. Ephesians 3:14.
3. Prayer of seven petitions. Colossians 1:9-11.
4. Prayer for keen perception and fruits of righteousness in the believer. Php
1:9-11. That Blessed Hope—Titus 2:13. A happy hope because—
· Christ Himself is to return.
· The first Resurrection and the living changed.
· The redemption of the body.
· The believer to be rewarded.
· The earth to be blessed. The Women of the Apocalypse · Four of
them—representing corporate bodies of people. Jezebel—The papal system.
· Woman clothed with the sun—Israel invested with fullness of governmental
authority.
· Babylon—the great harlot—The future corrupt church after the Lord’s return for
His own.
· Bride of the Lamb—The Church glorified in heaven. Salvation from first to
last. Titus 3:7 Reformation not salvation. Judges 17:1-13, Judges 18:1-31 The
revelation of the rapture. 1 Thessalonians 4:1-18.
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CHAPTER 5: 01.04. GROUP BIBLE STUDY
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Group Bible Study by H A Ironside 10 questions on a chapter.
Information 1. Principle subject?
2. Leading lessons?
3. Best verse?
4. Principle persons?
5. Teaching about Christ?
Application 1. Example to follow?
2. Error to avoid?
3. Command to obey?
4. Promise to claim?
5. Prayer to be echoed?
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CHAPTER 6: 01.05. PRINCIPLES OF PROPHETIC INTERPRETATION
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Principles Of Prophetic Interpretation by H A Ironside
1. 1. Recognition of the Prophetic Character of the Bible. Jehovah’s
challenge—things to come—Isaiah 41:21-23. Israel, Jehovah’s witness—Isaiah
43:8-12.
2. Recognition of the unity of the prophetic Word— 2 Peter 2:16-20; Isaiah
34:16.
3. The literal character and the symbolic distinguished. Past prophecy literally
fulfilled—so with future. If symbolic, plainly indicated.
4. Threefold division of mankind. Jews, Gentiles, Church, 1 Corinthians 10:32.
Notes from the Margins of H.A.I.’s Bible
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CHAPTER 7: 01.06. OLD TESTAMENT -- GENESIS - DEUTERONOMY
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Old Testament -- Genesis - Deuteronomy by H A Ironside
Old Testament
Genesis
25
Ecclesiastes
80
Exodus
30
Song of Solomon
83
Leviticus
35
Isaiah
85
Numbers
37
Jeremiah
91
Deuteronomy
40
Lamentations
102
Joshua
42
Ezekiel
103
Judges
43
Daniel
113
Ruth
46
Hosea
118
I Samuel
47
Joel
119
II Samuel
49
Amos
121
I Kings
51
Obadiah
122
II Kings
54
Jonah
122
I Chronicles
57
Micah
122
II Chronicles
58
Nahum
124
Ezra
61
Habakkuk
125
Nehemiah
62
Zephaniah
126
Esther
64
Haggai
126
Job
65
Zechariah
127
Psalms
69
Malachi
128
Proverbs
75
Genesis The Book of Beginnings. The seed plot of the Bible. Every doctrine
afterward unfolded found in germ in this Book. Tells of Generation,
Degeneration, and Regeneration. Note: Creation is distinguished from making.
Creation is threefold. God created—matter Genesis 1:1, life (soul) Genesis
1:20-21, man (spirit) Genesis 1:27. No way to pass from one to the other.
Genesis 1:1 The original creation—which was perfect but fell into chaos.
Genesis 1:11 After his kind—in both vegetable and animal worlds. No room for
so-called evolution.
Genesis 1:26 Image is representation. Likeness is character.
Genesis 1:27 Man not evolved from lower forms, but a special creation.
Genesis 2:10 The river of Eden. Compare with the river of Rev.
Genesis 2:2. When God rests a river flows!
Genesis 3:1 Questioning the Word of God.
Genesis 3:3 Adding to the Word of God.
Genesis 3:4 Denying the Word of God.
Genesis 3:6 Disobeying the Word of God. Lust of the flesh, lust of the eyes,
pride of life.
Genesis 3:9 The first question of the Old Testament. See Matthew 2:2.
Genesis 4:3-4 The only two religions.
Genesis 4:20-22 Note how the arts and sciences and commercial life all began in
Cain’s family.
Genesis 5:2 Note—The mother of the race is given three names: Adam—Headship of
the man recognized. She is seen in him. Isha—Woman. Her place in nature. Eve—
Living. The name given her by faith after the fall, and the promise of life.
Genesis 5:21 (Methuselah) When he dies it shall be sent, i.e., the flood. Note
that he lived up to the date of the flood.
Genesis 6:11 As it was in the days of Noah—Corruption and violence are again to
fill the earth in the time of the end, immediately before the manifestation of
the Son of Man.
Genesis 8:20 Dispensation of Government begins.
Genesis 9:6 Capital punishment divinely instituted.
Genesis 9:21-22 He was set in authority as the first ruler in the earth: failed
to rule himself.
Genesis 10:8-10 The Great Apostate. A hunter of the souls of men—Founder of
idolatry at Babylon.
Genesis 10:22 Job was of this tribe (Uz).
Genesis 11:4 Beginning of Babylon. The first “skyscraper.”
Genesis 11:31—Genesis 12:1 Note from Stephen’s speech in Acts 7:1-60, that the
call to Abram to go out had preceded this family emigration.
Genesis 12:7 The covenant of the land has never been rescinded.
See Genesis 13:14. Genesis 12:10 The testing of faith: Abraham’s failure.
Genesis 12:11 A sinful compact—A wrong start. See Genesis 20:13.
Genesis 14:4 Thirteen—the number of rebellion or disorder.
Genesis 14:13-16 The separated man is the one to aid his entangled brother.
First time the term Hebrew is used in Scripture.
Genesis 15:6 Believed (Amen-ed) this is the first use of Amen in the Bible.
Justification by faith—Romans 4:1-25.
Genesis 16:1 The expedient of the flesh.
Genesis 17:4 The Covenant fully stated.
Genesis 17:8 Possession of the land included in the Covenant. Genesis 24:7.
Genesis 20:2 The unjudged sin of earlier days, repeated.
Genesis 20:6 What mercy!
Genesis 20:9 What a rebuke to a man of faith from a Philistine!
Genesis 20:12 A half truth is a whole lie.
Genesis 21:1 The promise fulfilled as He had said.
Genesis 21:21 The flesh united to the world.
Genesis 22:1 Tempt and test—or try, are all the same word.
Genesis 22:6-8 The Father and the Son went both of them together to the place
where Christ offered up Himself!
Genesis 22:12 God spared that father’s heart the pang He would not spare His
own.
Genesis 23:2 The death of the Mother—dispensationally the setting aside of
Israel after the Cross.
Genesis 24:1-67 The call of the Bride—dispensationally the Church called out.
The unnamed servant typical of the Holy Spirit who speaks not from or of
himself, seeking a bride in a far country for the son.
Genesis 24:11-15 The bride found at the well—the water of the Word.
Genesis 24:15 While they are yet speaking, I will hear.
Genesis 24:22 The earnest of what should be hers later as the bride of the son.
Genesis 24:58 The bride’s decision—“purpose of heart.”
Genesis 25:1 Dispensationally the restoration of the earthly people—A nation
born in a day.
Genesis 25:5 The exalted son.
Genesis 26:7 The father’s failure reproduced in the son.
Genesis 26:18 Going back to first principles.
Genesis 27:1 His spiritual condition reflected in the physical!
Genesis 27:12 More concerned about what he would seem to be than what he
actually was!
Genesis 27:20 What hypocrisy!
Genesis 27:27-29 This is not the blessing of Abraham. See Genesis 28:3-4.
Genesis 28:3-4 The blessing of Abraham confirmed to Jacob apart from deceit or
human scheming.
Genesis 28:13-14 The covenant of the land confirmed to Jacob.
Genesis 28:20 Bargaining with God. No apprehension of the grace of the Lord.
Genesis 30:37-43 Fleshly scheming. Needless scheming. God’s plans working out
just the same.
Genesis 31:29 Thou could’st have no power at all against me, except it were
given thee from heaven.
Genesis 31:40 True shepherd service.
Genesis 32:20 Appease him—literally, “Cover his face.” In such manner do sinful
men—conscious of their guilt—seek to cover the face of God—so He will not see
their sins.
Genesis 32:24-26 The unseen wrestler—breaking down the strength of nature. When
Jacob can no longer struggle, he clings to the One who has brought his strength
to naught.
Genesis 33:13-14 The true shepherd heart. See Genesis 31:40.
Genesis 35:2-3 A new beginning.
Genesis 35:11 The Abrahamic covenant renewed to Jacob.
Genesis 37:3 The father’s beloved.
Genesis 37:5-10 Hated for his witness to the evil deeds of his brethren after
the flesh—to be exalted as head and lord in due time.
Genesis 37:14 From Hebron (“Communion”) to seek his wayward brethren.
Genesis 37:20-28 Rejected and sold. Delivered up to death in figure.
Genesis 39:7 The temptation of Joseph.
Genesis 39:13-15 Joseph falsely accused.
Genesis 40:1-23 The only two religions. The dream of salvation. The dream of
judgment.
Genesis 41:45 Zaphnath-paaneah—in Heb. “Saviour of the world.”
Genesis 41:55 Go unto Joseph. None other name.
Genesis 42:11 They were not spies, but neither were they “true” men. See Genesis
44:16.
Genesis 42:21 Exercise of conscience at last.
Genesis 42:28 “Conscience doth make cowards of us all.”
Genesis 42:36 [last clause] Jacob’s fortunes were never brighter than at this
very time!
Genesis 43:9 Note the change that has been wrought in Judah—the very one who
once sold Joseph.
Genesis 43:18 Afraid, when grace was about to be shown them.
Genesis 44:12 The cup in Benjamin’s sack! The best of them under condemnation.
Genesis 44:16 No longer do they say “We are true men.”
Genesis 45:3-4 The revelation of the rejected one as the deliverer.
Genesis 47:9 A long life for self; a short life for God.
Genesis 48:1 The first mention of sickness in the Bible.
Genesis 48:14 The second man put first by a cross.
Genesis 49:3 The firstborn after the flesh set to one side. Joseph given his
place.
Genesis 50:15-18 How little they trusted him—because they did not know the love
of his heart!
Genesis 5:25 The bones of Joseph. Exodus 13:19.
Genesis 50:26 [last clause] All that this world can give at the last—and a
fitting introduction to the Book of Exodus which begins with Egypt as the land
of bondage and of death with judgment hanging over all. Note that Israel carried
up the bones of Joseph with them when they went out to go to Canaan.
Exodus The book of Redemption—Typically sets forth God’s way of delivering His
people from judgment, from the power of sin and from this present evil world—See
1 Corinthians 5:7-8; Romans 6:1-23, et al; Galatians 1:4.
Bondage and wretchedness preceding redemption. Divisions: History, Exodus
1:1-22, Exodus 2:1-25, Exodus 3:1-22, Exodus 4:1-31, Exodus 5:1-23, Exodus
6:1-36, Exodus 7:1-25, Exodus 8:1-32, Exodus 9:1-35, Exodus 10:1-29, Exodus
11:1-10, Exodus 12:1-51, Exodus 13:1-22, Exodus 14:1-31, Exodus 15:1-27, Exodus
16:1-36, Exodus 17:1-16, Exodus 18:1-27, Exodus 19:1-25, Exodus 20:1-26, Exodus
21:1-36, Exodus 22:1-31, Exodus 23:1-33, Exodus 24:1-18; Tabernacle, Exodus
25:1-40, Exodus 26:1-37, Exodus 27:1-21, Exodus 28:1-43, Exodus 29:1-46, Exodus
30:1-38, Exodus 31:1-18, Exodus 32:1-35, Exodus 33:1-23, Exodus 34:1-35, Exodus
35:1-35, Exodus 36:1-38, Exodus 37:1-29, Exodus 38:1-31, Exodus 39:1-43, Exodus
40:1-38; with parenthesis, Exodus 32:1-35, Exodus 33:1-23, Exodus 34:1-35,
Exodus 35:1-35, Exodus 36:1-38, Exodus 37:1-29, Exodus 38:1-31, Exodus 39:1-43,
Exodus 40:1-38.
Redemption by blood, Exodus 1:1-22, Exodus 2:1-25, Exodus 3:1-22, Exodus 4:1-31,
Exodus 5:1-23, Exodus 6:1-36, Exodus 7:1-25, Exodus 8:1-32, Exodus 9:1-35,
Exodus 10:1-29, Exodus 11:1-10, Exodus 12:1-51
Redemption by power, Exodus 13:1-22, Exodus 14:1-31, Exodus 15:1-27, Exodus
16:1-36, Exodus 17:1-16, Exodus 18:1-27. Ruin—Exodus 1:1-22, Exodus 2:1-25,
Exodus 3:1-22, Exodus 4:1-31, Exodus 5:1-23, Exodus 6:1-36, Exodus 7:1-25,
Exodus 8:1-32, Exodus 9:1-35, Exodus 10:1-29, Exodus 11:1-10. Redemption—Exodus
12:1-51, Exodus 13:1-22, Exodus 14:1-31, Exodus 15:1-27, Exodus 16:1-36, Exodus
17:1-16, Exodus 18:1-27, Exodus 19:1-25. Responsibility—Exodus 20:1-26, Exodus
21:1-36, Exodus 22:1-31, Exodus 23:1-33, Exodus 24:1-18. Relationship—Exodus
25:1-40, Exodus 26:1-37, Exodus 27:1-21, Exodus 28:1-43, Exodus 29:1-46, Exodus
30:1-38, Exodus 31:1-18, Exodus 32:1-35, Exodus 33:1-23, Exodus 34:1-35, Exodus
35:1-35, Exodus 36:1-38, Exodus 37:1-29, Exodus 38:1-31, Exodus 39:1-43, Exodus
40:1-38; with parenthesis, Exodus 32:1-35, Exodus 33:1-23, Exodus 34:1-35,
Exodus 35:1-35, Exodus 36:1-38, Exodus 37:1-29, Exodus 38:1-31, Exodus 39:1-43,
Exodus 40:1-38.
Pharaoh both God and King: typical of Satan: the renegade king that knows not
Jesus as Pharaoh knew not Joseph.—2 Corinthians 11:14. Pharaoh, the Sun—but
unable to dispel the darkness. Called in Ezekiel 29:3 the great dragon.
Exodus 1:1-22 Egypt: typical of this present evil world—a land of death,
bondage, affliction, darkness, and judgment. The land of Ham—swarthy, sunburnt,
darkened by the light.
Exodus 2:1-25 Moses: the deliverer. Type of the Coming One: Deuteronomy 18:18,
prophet, deliverer, shepherd, mediator, lawgiver, king, meekest of men—”I am
meek.”
Exodus 2:5 It was Providence that put Moses into the court of Pharaoh. It was
faith that, later, took him out of it.
Exodus 2:9 The Lord’s word to each Christian parent. 1 Thessalonians 2:7.
Exodus 2:11 Moses first attempts to deliver his people in a fleshly way.
Exodus 2:12 God’s way of delivering Israel was not by killing Egyptians one by
one. He would make a clean break in His own way. So now He does not save by
delivering from one sin after another, but by a complete settlement at once.
Exodus 2:15 God allowed Moses to have all the world could give, but it was in
order that he might give it up for His sake. Hebrews 11:24-28.
Exodus 2:19 He looked like an Egyptian—reminding us of Him who came in the
likeness of sinful flesh.
Exodus 3:7 Sorrows seen, heard, known.
Exodus 3:14
I AM
By Myself
In Myself
Through Myself
For Myself
Only God could so speak. 20 times in John’s Gospel, Jesus says I AM.
Exodus 4:2 The rod never used for personal reasons. Christ would not use His
authority merely for Himself.
Exodus 4:4 The Lord in rising from the dead took back the rod: He annulled
Satan’s power.
Exodus 4:7 The leprous hand—the clean one pledged Himself to do what was in His
heart—to be made sin. The hand cleansed speaks of resurrection. See Psalms
74:11; John 17:4.
Exodus 4:9 The third sign—water made blood—a sign specially for unbelievers—all
judgment—no grace here. It is not now that they may believe but if they will not
believe. Compare with Hebrews 6:7-8.
Exodus 4:10-14 The backwardness of the flesh may be as great an hindrance as the
forwardness of the flesh. Compare the call of Moses with the call of Jeremiah.
Both were lowly men—both distrusted themselves— both made excuses—both had to
learn that power belongeth unto God.
Exodus 6:6-8 God’s seven / will’s Exodus 12:1-51 Redemption by blood, typical of
salvation from the guilt and judgment of sin.
Exodus 12:2 A new beginning. All the past blotted out.
Exodus 12:3 A lamb.
Exodus 12:4 The lamb. (Have you asked your neighbor?) Exodus 12:5 Your lamb.
Note that the characteristic word here is take.
Exodus 12:15 Leaven always typical of evil.
Exodus 13:21 The pillar of fire and cloud typical of the Holy Spirit—Exodus
14:19. The fiery pillar leads ordinarily— but here follows for protection.
Exodus 14:26-28 “Sin shall not have dominion over you—not under law, but grace.”
Redemption by power. Romans 6:1-23; Romans 7:1-25; Romans 8:1-39.
Exodus 16:15 The manna—typical of Christ in His humiliation. Came from heaven.
White: pure. Sweet: precious. On the dew: In the Spirit’s power. Lowly—on the
ground. It must be gathered, or trampled on. See John 6:1-71.
Exodus 17:8 Amalek: type of the lusts of the flesh.
Exodus 17:11-12 Prevailing intercession on high—type of our great Intercessor in
Heaven whose hands are never heavy!
Exodus 19:4 Two wings of the great eagle. Revelation 12:14.
Exodus 20:1-26 “Some things are commanded because they are right, and other
things are right because they are commanded.”
Exodus 20:22 The priestly privilege to draw near. See Hebrews 10:1-39. Priests
before the Levitical priesthood was established. See Exodus 24:5.
Exodus 23:10-11 The sabbatic year. It was the neglect of this that was one of
the reasons for the Babylonian Captivity.
Exodus 24:3 [last clause] The confidence of the flesh.
Exodus 25:1-40 The materials for the tabernacle. Gold—divine righteousness to
glory. Silver—redemption. Brass—judgment: endurance. Blue—heavenly.
Purple—royalty. Scarlet—suffering—earthly splendor. Fine linen—righteousness.
Goats’ hair—sinbearing—prophetic office. Rams’ skins—consecration. Badger
skins—separation. Shittim wood—humanity. Oil for the light—the Holy Spirit.
Spices—fragrance of Christ. Sweet incense—intercession. Precious stones—divine
excellences as seen in the people of God.
Exodus 25:10 The Ark—Christ the meeting place between God and man—the throne of
God.
Exodus 26:3 Two fives—the measure of responsibility to God and man.
Exodus 26:7 The tent of goats’ hair. “Made in the likeness of sinful flesh.”
Exodus 28:12 All the people of God upon His shoulders shall bear memorial. See
Exodus 28:21, Exodus 28:38 also.
Exodus 28:34 Testimony and fruit.
Exodus 29:20-21 The whole man redeemed and consecrated by blood—then anointed
with oil: the Holy Spirit.
Exodus 30:12-13 Redeemed by silver—Contrast 1 Peter 1:18.
Note that when David numbered the people he omitted this—and plague followed.
Exodus 32:2-4 They readily gave to the service of their false gods what they
never thought of giving to Jehovah!
Exodus 32:26-28 Three thousand slain: God’s first dealing under law. Contrast
with Pentecost!
Exodus 33:15 He would far rather have God without Canaan than Canaan without
God.
Exodus 35:30 Bezaleel—A great-grandson of Caleb, son of Hez-ron. See 1
Chronicles 2:19-20.
Exodus 37:6 What a glorious and righteous propitiatory!
Exodus 38:31 The pins were not prominent but were most essential—so every member
is necessary.
Exodus 40:12 The washing of regeneration.
Leviticus The Priest’s Guide Book. The Book of the sanctuary—”access to God.” In
the New Testament there are some forty distinct references to the ordinances of
Leviticus as typical.
Leviticus 1:1-17 The burnt offering. Christ offering Himself without spot unto
God to glorify Him and on our behalf. See Psalms 40:7-8; Ephesians 5:1-2.
Leviticus 2:1-16 The food offering—The perfection of Christ as Man. Christ moves
through all the Gospels as the perfect meal offering.
Leviticus 2:4-13 Christ’s introduction into this world as the place of trial and
testing.
Leviticus 2:13 Salt: the preservative power of righteousness.
Leviticus 3:1 In Luke’s Gospel Christ is seen as the Peace Offering.
Leviticus 3:16 [last clause] Superabundant energy all for God.
Leviticus 4:1-35 The different grades of the sin offering would seem to indicate
various degrees of apprehension of the person and work of Christ according to
the intelligence, responsibility, and privilege of the worshiper. In Mark’s
Gospel Christ is the great Sin Offering.
Leviticus 5:5 Definiteness in confession.
Leviticus 5:11-13 Differences between the sin and trespass offerings : In the
sin offering a person appears who deserves judgment. In the trespass offering
sins are enumerated —but the person committing them is not particularly in view.
(In Matthew’s Gospel Christ is the Trespass Offering.) Leviticus 7:31 The
breast—the love of Christ.
Leviticus 7:32 The shoulder—the strength of Christ.
Leviticus 10:14 The enjoyment of the love and strength of Christ can only be in
a clean place.
Leviticus 11:3 Walk and word must be in agreement.
Leviticus 11:13-20 All carrion-feeders were unclean, and all birds or other
creatures of the night. “Ye are children of the light.”
Leviticus 11:30 What a lot of ferrets there are! And they generally think
everyone unclean but themselves.
Leviticus 12:8 The offering of the mother of Jesus.
Leviticus 13:2 Skin of his flesh. Leprosy in the body—the lusts of the flesh are
their fearful result.
Leviticus 13:13 [last phrase] Leprosy of the head—See Leviticus 13:43-44. The
lusts of the mind just as evil in the sight of God as the lusts of the flesh.
Leviticus 13:47-48 Leprosy in the garments: that is evil in the ways or
behavior. Garments speak of habits.
Leviticus 13:52 Destroy—or judge the evil habit.
Leviticus 14:1-7 Not until Christ came do we read of this law being carried out
for a testimony unto them.
Leviticus 14:9 Hair, the strength of nature—all to be done away by the sharp
razor of the Word of God.
Leviticus 14:25-28 It is Christ’s work that saves—not my understanding of it.
The weakest believer is as truly redeemed by His blood and anointed by His
Spirit as is the strongest saint.
Leviticus 16:14 Once is enough for God. Seven times to give man a perfect
standing before the throne.
Leviticus 21:18 He that hath a flat nose—lacking discernment.
Leviticus 22:3 Holiness required in worshipers.
Leviticus 23:17 Firstfruits. James 1:18.
Leviticus 24:1-23; Leviticus 25:1-55; Leviticus 26:1-46; Leviticus 27:1-34 The
claims of God—practical holiness.
Leviticus 25:9-10 The jubilee to sound on the day of atonement. Liberty based on
sacrifice.
Leviticus 25:23 The land of Palestine belongs to God.
Leviticus 27:16 According to the seed—i.e., the amount of land that could be
seeded with an homer of grain.
Numbers The Levites’ Guide Book. The Book of experience—of testing—and therefore
of failure on man’s part. The Wilderness Book.
Numbers 2:2-3 God’s well-ordered camp. The Tabernacle “in the midst.”—Type of
Christ: “The Word became flesh and tabernacled among us.”—Jesus in the midst.
Numbers 3:9 Ministry waiting on priesthood. Service waiting on worship.
Numbers 3:48-51 Redeemed with silver—Contrast 1 Peter 1:18.
Numbers 7:1-89 Each aspect of the work of the Cross represented in the offering
of each prince.
Numbers 8:11-12 The Levites “a living sacrifice”—Romans 12:1.
Wholly devoted to the service of God and to the house of the Lord.
Numbers 8:19 Ministry to wait upon worship.
Numbers 8:21 See Romans 12:2.
Numbers 9:18 Guidance—Psalms 25:15; Isaiah 11:3.
Numbers 10:2 Two trumpets—the two Testaments.
Numbers 10:31 With the cloud to lead!
Numbers 10:33 No need of Hobab’s keenness and knowledge of the wilderness.
Numbers 11:7 Manna: typical of Christ in humiliation.
Numbers 13:26 The firstfruits of the Spirit—Romans 8:1-39.
Numbers 14:22 Ten temptations:
1. Exodus 5:20-23 2. Exodus 14:11-12 3. Exodus 15:23-25 4. Exodus 16:1-3 5.
Exodus 17:1-5 6. Exodus 32:1-8 7. Numbers 11:1-3 8. Numbers 11:4-10 9. Numbers
12:1-8; Deuteronomy 1:22 10. Numbers 13:1-33; Numbers 14:1-45 Numbers 14:40 The
energy of the flesh.
Numbers 14:44 Presumption is not faith.
Numbers 15:2 God’s promise fulfilled despite all the faithlessness on their
part.
Numbers 15:5-7 The drink offering—“He poured out His soul unto death.”
Numbers 15:38 The ribbon of blue. See Deuteronomy 22:12. The heavenly color. A
people linked with the God of Heaven. In type: the heavenly calling.
Numbers 16:1 Note the psalms “for the sons of Korah.” This man’s descendants
were part of the choir of the sanctuary in after days.
Numbers 16:13 Rejection of the divinely appointed prince.
Numbers 17:5-7 Dry rods in which was no life—typical of men in their natural
estate.
Numbers 17:8 The Dead One that came to life—the resurrection priesthood.
Numbers 19:6 Cedar—man at his best. Hyssop—man at his worst. Scarlet—the glory
of the world. All gone for faith in the death of Christ. Galatians 6:14.
Numbers 19:9 Ashes—It is finished.
Numbers 19:21 It is defiling to have to do with evil—even in seeking to deliver
another. See Jude 1:23.
Numbers 20:14 Edom—typical of the flesh. No short cut through Edom to the land
of rest.
Numbers 21:8-9 The brazen serpent and the springing Well. Connect with John
3:1-36; John 4:1-54. A serpent—Christ made sin. But no poison in it—harmless—yet
“like” the serpents that bit the people.
Numbers 24:24 A prophecy that links with Daniel’s great prophecies of the Times
of the Gentiles.
Numbers 29:1-40 Does the descending scale of offerings imply that piety will
decline in the millennium?
Numbers 31:49-50 A voluntary offering as an expression of the gratitude of their
hearts.
Deuteronomy The Book of Review.—The Second Law.
Deuteronomy 1:10 Kadesh-barnea—the place of opportunity.
Deuteronomy 1:22 The sending of the spies originated in the will and unbelief of
the people.
Deuteronomy 2:14 Thirty-eight years of wandering in the wilderness because of
unbelief.
Deuteronomy 4:9 “Forgetful Green” in Pilgrim’s Progress—See Deuteronomy 4:23.
Deuteronomy 6:23 Brought out to be brought in.
Deuteronomy 10:3-4 The handwriting of ordinances—Colossians 2:14.
Deuteronomy 14:12-19 All birds of the night were unclean—”Ye are not of the
night nor of the darkness.” All birds of prey unclean.
Deuteronomy 17:15-17 Note that Solomon gave no heed to these commands, but did
all that is here forbidden.
Deuteronomy 18:10 Spiritism forbidden.
Deuteronomy 18:15 Fulfilled in Christ the True Prophet.
Deuteronomy 20:8 Note how this was carried out in the case of Gideon’s
army—Judges 7:3.
Deuteronomy 20:12 Preaching peace by Jesus Christ. If peace is refused—then
judgment.
Deuteronomy 21:3 Jerusalem, the guilty city, where “also our Lord was
crucified.”
Deuteronomy 21:16 Firstborn not necessarily the one born first. See Psalms
89:27. A title of dignity.
Deuteronomy 21:18 The Old Testament prodigal—Contrast with Luke 15:1-32.
Deuteronomy 23:9 Holiness essential to victory.
Deuteronomy 24:1-2 Contrast the command of the Lord in Matthew 19:1-30— See also
1 Corinthians 7:1-40, et al.
Deuteronomy 24:4 Yet such is the grace of God toward Israel, His divorced wife,
that He will take her again when she repents of her sin. See the Book of Hosea,
and Jer.
Deuteronomy 27:5 See Elijah at Carmel.
Deuteronomy 28:23-24 Brass and iron both typical of judgment and endurance. See
Deuteronomy 28:48.
Deuteronomy 28:49 [last clause], 50 Prophetic description of the Romans and the
destruction of Jerusalem and its results.
Deuteronomy 28:51-56 See all this confirmed in the desolation of Palestine
following the siege under Titus, etc.
Deuteronomy 28:68 [last clause] The slave markets of the world glutted with
Jewish slaves.
Deuteronomy 31:3 [last clause] Joshua—type of Christ Risen who leads the people
into their inheritance.
Deuteronomy 31:29 Compare Paul’s last address to the elders of Ephesus.
Deuteronomy 32:8 Israel—the center of all God’s thoughts for the earth.
Deuteronomy 33:2-3 The Appearing of Jehovah on Sinai—similar to the Appearing of
Christ with all His saints. God’s people in His heart, in His hand, at His feet.
See Deuteronomy 33:12.
Deuteronomy 33:24 “He who dips his foot in oil leaves a mark behind” —the walk
in the Spirit.
[Throughout Deuteronomy Dr. Ironside has underscored the word remember, and
written it again and again in the margin. It is striking how often this word
occurs.]
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CHAPTER 8: 01.07. OLD TESTAMENT -- JOSHUA - 2 CHRONICLES
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Old Testament -- Joshua - 2 Chronicles by H A Ironside
Joshua Entering into the inheritance.
Connect with the Epistle to the Ephesians.
Joshua 3:1-17 The Ark, typical of Christ, must go down into the river of
judgment to turn back the waters from the people.
Joshua 3:16-17 Clear back to the first man Adam. The backward and forward
aspects of the work of the Cross.
Joshua 4:8 Risen with Christ, in figure.
Joshua 4:9 Death with Christ, in figure.
Joshua 4:20 Gilgal, the place of self-judgment—See Joshua 5:2.
Joshua 5:2 Sharp knives to be used on the flesh before beginning the conquest of
the land.
Joshua 5:11-12 Old Corn—Christ in Resurrection. Manna—Christ in humiliation—food
for the wilderness.
Joshua 6:18 Jericho: the city of the curse.
Joshua 6:25 Rahab became an ancestress of the Messiah. See Matthew 1:5.
Joshua 7:3-4 The confidence of the flesh leading to defeat.
Joshua 9:4 “The wiles of the devil.”
Joshua 10:1 Adoni-zedec—Lord of Righteousness. In type, the Satanic kingdom
arrayed against the people of God— as in Ephesians 6:1-24.
Joshua 10:24-25 “The God of peace shall bruise Satan under your feet shortly.”
Joshua 10:43 Back to Gilgal—The place of circumcision—i.e., of self-judgment.
Joshua 13:1-33 The Philistines of Egyptian origin—yet giving their name to all
the land “Palestine” or Philistia. “Natural man intruding into and dominating
spiritual things.”
Joshua 15:8 The border of “praise” so close to “Gehenna”!
Joshua 17:3-4 The energy of faith in these women gave them an inheritance among
their brethren.
Joshua 20:1-9 Christ is the true city of refuge.
Joshua 20:3 “Through ignorance ye did it.” “Ye who have fled for refuge.”
Joshua 20:7 First mention of Galilee—See Joshua 21:32.
“The name of the Lord is a strong tower. The righteous runneth into it and is
safe.”
Joshua 21:18 Anathoth—the city of Jeremiah. Jeremiah 1:1.
Joshua 22:4 If Joshua had given them rest! See Hebrews 3:1-19—Hebrews 4:1-16.
Joshua 22:12 Needless alarm—hasty judgment.
Joshua 22:16 Unjust accusation.
Joshua 22:22 The soft answer that turned away wrath.
Joshua 22:30 The people pacified.
Joshua 24:15 The Great Divide. Choose ye! Today it is a choice between:
1—A Saviour and a destroyer.
2—Two Masters.
3—Two lives.
4—Two deaths—“In the Lord” or “In your sins.”
5—Two resurrections.
6—Two judgments.
7—Two destinies.
Joshua 24:32 The bones of Joseph—See Hebrews 11:1-40.
Judges Judges 1:26 One Canaanite spared builds another Luz.
Judges 1:29 [last clause] An element of weakness left.
Judges 2:10 It is thus that every divine movement has failed eventually.
Judges 3:8 First servitude. Chushan-rishathaim—blackness of double wickedness.
Judges 3:9 Othniel—first judge.
Judges 3:12 Second servitude.
Judges 3:15-16 Ehud—the second judge. The left hand is the hand of weakness—
“when I am weak then am I strong.”
Judges 3:31 Shamgar—the third judge.
Judges 4:1 Third servitude.
Judges 4:4 Deborah—fourth judge.
Judges 4:21 Slain with the nail of the pilgrim’s tent!
Judges 5:11 rehearse—Same word as “lament” in ch. 11:40. See margin of that
text.
Judges 5:12 Captivity captive, i.e., lead captive your captors. See Isaiah 14:2.
Judges 6:1 Fourth servitude.
Judges 6:11 Gideon, the fifth judge. Threshing out the wheat in secret—picture
of a man who values the food God has provided and searches out the truth when
alone with God.
Judges 6:13 Why?
Judges 6:14 The irresistible might of weakness.
Judges 6:36-40 A dispensational picture. The dew of the Spirit on Israel. Israel
forsaken—the Spirit sanctifies the nations.
Judges 7:5-7 Only those who did not stop to satisfy natural craving were fit for
God’s work.
Judges 7:20 Broken vessels that the light may shine out. 2 Corinthians 4:1-18.
Judges 8:18 [last part] Romans 8:29.
Judges 8:23 Gideon free from one ambition is snared by another!
Judges 9:9 The olive—Israel in covenant relationship.
Judges 9:11 The fig tree—Israel nationally.
Judges 9:13 The vine—Israel spiritually.
Judges 9:15 The bramble—Reigning—typical of antichrist Israel in apostasy.
Judges 10:1 Tola, the sixth judge.
Judges 10:3 Jair, the seventh judge.
Judges 10:6 Fifth servitude.
Judges 11:1 Jephthah, the eighth judge.
Judges 11:40 Lament—to talk with.
Judges 12:6 And this between brethren!
Judges 12:8 Ibzan, the ninth judge.
Judges 12:11 Elon, the tenth judge.
Judges 12:13 Abdon, the eleventh judge.
Judges 13:1 Sixth servitude. The Philistines of Egyptian origin “natural men
intruding into spiritual things and bringing the people of God into bondage.”
Judges 13:18 His Name shall be called “Wonderful.” Isaiah 9:6.
Judges 13:24 Samson the twelfth judge.
Judges 14:1-20 God using a man to fulfill His own purposes, in spite of himself.
Samson was continually getting in God’s way yet He wrought through him in power.
Judges 15:16 Literally: “With the jaw bone of an ass I made asses of them.”
Judges 16:1-31 The defiled Nazarite rendered powerless and made captive by the
world.
Judges 16:19 Sleeping in the lap of the world.
Judges 17:9 The hireling in search of a paying position.
Judges 18:19-20 A call to a larger sphere of usefulness.
Judges 18:30 Manasseh—Moses. The N inserted—a forgery.
Judges 19:22 The sin of Sodom found among the people of the covenant.
Judges 20:16 lefthanded—“When I am weak, then am I strong.”
Judges 21:1-25 A carnal expedient to overcome the effects of an ill-considered
vow. Cruelty follows rashness.
Ruth The Kinsman-Redeemer Ruth 1:1-22 Decision for Christ.
Ruth 1:2 Moab—the land of easy-going profession. Moab related to Israel through
Lot.
Ruth 1:5 Moab proves to be just a graveyard.
Ruth 1:9 No rest in Moab.
Ruth 2:1-23 Meeting with Christ.
Ruth 2:7-10 The gleanings were for the poor and the stranger. Note how Ruth
takes the place where grace can meet her.
Ruth 3:1-18 Rest in Christ.
Ruth 3:4 Trust in the integrity of Boaz.
Ruth 3:7 Seeking rest at the feet of Boaz.
Ruth 3:12-13 The nearer kinsman: the first covenant to whom was given the first
opportunity to redeem.
Ruth 4:1-22 Union with Christ.
Ruth 4:1 The claims of the nearer kinsman. The law must be met first!
Ruth 4:2 The ten elders like the ten commandments were but witness of the
inability of the law to redeem a stranger and an outcast Ruth 4:8 [last clause]
“It is finished.”
Ruth 4:9 The claims of law fully met.
1 Samuel 1 Samuel 4:5-6 An empty sound! A false confidence.
1 Samuel 4:7 A needless fear.
1 Samuel 5:3 The false confronted with the true.
1 Samuel 5:9 Apparently the Bubonic plague.
1 Samuel 6:12 God meeting ignorant but honest people on their own ground.
1 Samuel 7:9 sucking lamb—The expression of utmost feebleness.
1 Samuel 8:1-22 Neither grace nor gift are inherited.
1 Samuel 9:1-3 “Saul went out to seek his father’s asses, and he found a nation
of them ready to make him king”— D. L. Moody.
1 Samuel 9:9 Evidently inserted by the Holy Spirit’s direction in later times.
1 Samuel 9:17 Behold the man—Ecco Homo!
1 Samuel 10:1 [at end of verse] There is an omission here in the Hebrew text
supplied in the Vulgate: “And thou shalt deliver His people out of the hands of
their enemies, which are round about them. And this token shalt thou have that
the Lord hath anointed thee to be prince.”
1 Samuel 12:11 Bedan—supposed to be Samson.
1 Samuel 13:12-13 The activity of the flesh that could not wait God’s time.
1 Samuel 14:1 The energy of faith that confers not with flesh and blood.
1 Samuel 14:2 The slothfulness of the flesh.
1 Samuel 14:3 Ichabod’s brother!—i.e., one like unto him who mourns departed
glory but does nothing to retrieve the circumstances.
1 Samuel 14:6 Counting on God.
1 Samuel 14:7 Fellowship in service.
1 Samuel 14:13 Faith that will not be balked by difficulties.
1 Samuel 14:24 Legal restrictions that were quite unnecessary.
1 Samuel 14:25-29 Honey: the sweetness of natural things—to be used in
moderation but forbidden by the legalist. Jonathan takes the honey on the end of
the pilgrim’s rod and is strengthened thereby.
1 Samuel 14:32 Self-indulgence the result of legal asceticism—See Colossians
3:1-25. License the fruit of legality.
1 Samuel 14:41 [after Israel] There is an omission here in the Hebrew text,
owing to a scribe’s blunder: “Lord God, give Thou judgment why it is that Thou
answerest me not today. If this iniquity be in me, or in Jonathan my son, give
Urim; or if this iniquity be in Thy people Israel, give Thummim.”
1 Samuel 17:51 Destroyed him that had the power of death.
1 Samuel 18:1 Jonathan’s heart won for David who had taken his place and slain
him that had the power of death.
1 Samuel 18:4 Jonathan strips himself for David. Compare with Paul in Php
3:1-21, “What things were gain to me, those I counted loss for Christ.” See 1
Samuel 19:2.
1 Samuel 19:2-7 Jonathan loyal to David. He “speaks well of David”—confession
and defense. See 1 Samuel 20:1.
1 Samuel 20:33 Sharing David’s shame.
1 Samuel 21:13 What a condition and position for a man of faith!
1 Samuel 22:1 The rejected one as the center of gathering. Jonathan not seen in
this company, but see 1 Samuel 23:16.
1 Samuel 23:16 Jonathan’s last visit with David. He returns to his “high places”
while David is in rejection.
1 Samuel 24:6 Saul is recognized by David as Messiah of Jehovah! He was still
the Lord’s Anointed.
1 Samuel 25:9 Compare “in My Name” in John 14:1-31; John 15:1-27; John 16:1-33.
1 Samuel 17:1 Yet God was caring for David in a marvelous way at this very time.
1 Samuel 27:10 What a position for the man after God’s own heart to occupy!
1 Samuel 29:1-11 What a position for the anointed king of Israel! The result of
unbelief.
1 Samuel 30:13 Egypt: the world. Amalek: the lusts of the flesh.
1 Samuel 30:21 “Good news” or “cold water.” “As good news from a far country.”
2 Samuel 2 Samuel 1:8 Saul spared some of Amalek and suffered indignity at the
hands of an Amalekite at the end.
2 Samuel 1:25-26 Jonathan lacked “one thing.” He loved David but he did not
fully share his rejection.
2 Samuel 2:10 Already a breach between Israel and David.
2 Samuel 4:4 Mephibosheth—lame by a fall!
2 Samuel 5:8 soul—seat of the emotions.
2 Samuel 7:4-5 The thoughts of God are often different to those of the best of
His servants.
2 Samuel 7:19 “The sure mercies of David.”
2 Samuel 7:25 Faith says “Amen” to God’s promise.
2 Samuel 8:11 David does not take the glory to himself, but dedicates the gifts
to God.
2 Samuel 9:1-13 A gospel picture. The kindness of God shown to the fallen sons
of Adam.
2 Samuel 10:3-4 David’s kindness spurned, his ambassadors put to shame.
2 Samuel 11:1-2 Slothfulness preceded David’s fearful fall.
2 Samuel 11:8 Attempting to cover up his sin.
2 Samuel 11:9 Uriah’s devotedness.
2 Samuel 12:5 Easy to become indignant over the supposed wrongdoing of another
while covering one’s own sin!
2 Samuel 12:11 Governmental consequences that confession could not turn aside.
2 Samuel 13:1-39 The awful effects of David’s sin manifested in his own
household.
2 Samuel 13:31 Bitter reaping.
2 Samuel 15:7 After forty years—i.e., after he was forty years old.
Rank hypocrisy!
2 Samuel 16:3 Misrepresentation of Mephibosheth’s motives.
2 Samuel 16:6-8 God himself said that David was a man of blood—but it was in
righteousness. See 1 Chronicles 22:8.
2 Samuel 17:1-29 Ahithophel’s opportunity for revenge. He was the grandfather of
Bath-sheba. See 1 Chronicles 3:5—and connect with 2 Samuel 15:12.
2 Samuel 17:23 Prototype of Judas, the son of perdition.
2 Samuel 17:27 Machir. He who had protected Mephibosheth is now loyal to David.
2 Samuel 18:22 Running unsent.
2 Samuel 19:9-15 BRINGING BACK THE KING! In the king’s absence confusion reigns.
While God’s Anointed is rejected man’s efforts to put things to rights are
doomed to failure. We see this today in the world which needs a competent ruler.
Connect with the parable of the rejected kingdom in Luke 19:12.
2 Samuel 19:14 The king awaits the invitation of all his own to return.
2 Samuel 19:37 Tradition says that Chimham was the owner of the inn at
Bethlehem, where hundreds of years later the Lord was born. See 1 Kings 2:7;
Jeremiah 41:17.
2 Samuel 20:9 A Judas kiss. Amasa was Joab’s cousin (2 Samuel 17:25), probably
illegitimate. 1 Chronicles 2:16.
2 Samuel 23:8-39 The honor roll. Joab not in the list.
2 Samuel 23:39 Uriah honored by God though cruelly wronged by David.
2 Samuel 24:3 A carnal man shows more good sense than the man after God’s own
heart.
1 Kings A period of 108 years (Usher) B.C. 1015-897. In Kings man attempts to
rule and is ever a failure. In Chronicles God overrules all in view of Messiah’s
Kingdom.
1 Kings 1:6 [first part] No wonder he became a rebel!
1 Kings 2:12—1 Kings 11:43 Reign of Solomon.
1 Kings 2:34 Joab’s inglorious end.
1 Kings 3:1 Typical of the Gentiles being blessed in the latter day. Isaiah
19:21-25.
1 Kings 3:6-9 Solomon’s prayer.
1 Kings 3:11-14 God’s answer.
1 Kings 3:16-28 Solomon’s discernment.
1 Kings 4:31 Solomon’s wisdom. He knew more than all men of the orbits of the
planets, of the origination of light and fixed sustaining systems and the
results of the revolving spheres.
1 Kings 4:33 The cedar symbolic of man at his best; the hyssop, man in his
lowest estate. See Exodus 12:22.
1 Kings 5:1-5 Kings opens with the Temple built and closes with the Temple
burnt.
1 Kings 6:1 i.e., after deducting the years of servitude to their enemies.
1 Kings 6:7 The building rising in silence.
1 Kings 7:10 “Built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets.”
1 Kings 7:25 The universality of the Word of the truth of the gospel. “Into all
the world.”
1 Kings 8:3-8 That which was but temporary and for the wilderness merged into
what was settled and in the land. The only piece of furniture that belonged to
the Tabernacle which was not replaced in the Temple by a new piece. No need for
staves now: the Ark at rest at last.
1 Kings 8:10-11 The cloud of glory—typical of the Holy Spirit— taking possession
of the material Temple—as the Spirit took possession of the spiritual temple in
Acts 2:1-47.
1 Kings 8:18 Comforting assurance.
1 Kings 10:13 Exceeding abundantly above all we ask or think.
1 Kings 10:14 666 the number of a man—Revelation 13:1-18.
1 Kings 11:1-43 Solomon’s failure.
1 Kings 11:1-2 What a lamentable break!
1 Kings 11:14 Edom—type of the flesh.
1 Kings 11:17 The flesh is at home in the world of which Egypt is the type.
1 Kings 11:19 The flesh in high favor with the God of this world.
1 Kings 12:1-33 The kingdom divided. From chapter 12 on: The divided
kingdom—never to be one again till Jesus reigns.
1 Kings 12:6 Rehoboam—a weak man who pretends to strength he does not possess.
1 Kings 12:20 Jeroboam—first king of Israel. 19 kings of Israel.
1 Kings 13:1-34 The disobedient prophet.
1 Kings 13:11 Satan’s wiles. Another prophet succeeds where a king failed.
1 Kings 13:18 The word of an angel against the Word of God.
1 Kings 14:21 Rehoboam—king of Judah (1) 1 Kings 14:24 Nothing too low for
people away from God.
1 Kings 14:27 Imitation to keep up appearances.
1 Kings 15:1 Abijah or Abijam—king of Judah (2).
1 Kings 15:8 Asa—king of Judah (3).
1 Kings 15:25 Nadab—king of Israel (2).
1 Kings 15:27 Baasha—a second dynasty. King of Israel (3).
1 Kings 16:6 Elah—king of Israel (4).
1 Kings 16:10 Zimri—a third dynasty. King of Israel (5).
1 Kings 16:15 The shortest reigns of any of the kings.
1 Kings 16:23 Omri—king of Israel (6). Fourth dynasty.
1 Kings 16:24 Samaria—Omri’s capital is called, on the Assyrian monuments, Beth
Omri.
Omri introduced Baal worship into Israel in a legal way —and Ahab “carried on.”
See Micah 6:16.
1 Kings 16:29 Ahab—king of Israel (7).
1 Kings 16:31 “That woman Jezebel.” Connect with Revelation 2:1-29— Thyatira.
1 Kings 18:24 Baal was the sun god—the god of fire.
1 Kings 18:31 twelve stones—unity still recognized.
1 Kings 20:22 Preparedness. “In time of peace, prepare for war.”
1 Kings 20:32 What a blunder!
1 Kings 20:39-40 A lesson in personal work and responsibility—busy here and
there!
1 Kings 22:4 Jehoshaphat the man who could not say “no”! The unequal yoke.
1 Kings 22:7 An uneasy conscience.
1 Kings 22:15 Ironical speech.
1 Kings 22:41 Jehoshaphat—king of Judah (4).
1 Kings 22:51 Ahaziah—king of Israel (8).
2 Kings Covers a period of 308 years B.C. 896-588 (Usher) Continues the history
of the divided kingdom.
2 Kings 2:1-25 Rapture of Elijah. Elisha’s ministry covers 2 Kings 2:1-25, 2
Kings 3:1-27, 2 Kings 4:1-44, 2 Kings 5:1-27, 2 Kings 6:1-33, 2 Kings 7:20, 2
Kings 8:1-29, 1 Kings 9:1-37, 2 Kings 10:1-36, 2 Kings 11:1-21, 2 Kings 12:1-21,
2 Kings 13:1-25.
2 Kings 2:1-2 Gilgal—rolling. Where the reproach of Egypt was rolled away: the
place of self-judgment. Beth-el: the house of God.
2 Kings 2:4 Jericho: the city of palm trees—but under the curse. This present
evil world.
2 Kings 2:6 Jordan: the river of judgment.
2 Kings 2:9 [last clause] A double portion. Note: Elisha wrought twice as many
miracles as Elijah.
2 Kings 3:1 Jehoram—king of Israel (9).
2 Kings 3:7 Jehoshaphat enters again into an unequal yoke.
2 Kings 3:16 Lower down.
2 Kings 4:2-3 The oil of grace must be appropriated to be multiplied.
2 Kings 4:6 As long as there is one vessel to receive it, the supply of the
Spirit will not be exhausted.
2 Kings 4:10 Rest, communion, discipleship, instruction.
2 Kings 4:31 The prophet’s staff worthless in the hands of a carnal man.
2 Kings 5:2 A little missionary.
2 Kings 5:22 The lying plea of a covetous man.
2 Kings 5:23 The glad gift of a grateful heart.
2 Kings 5:27 Divine retribution. See 2 Kings 8:4.
2 Kings 7:1 God’s salvation and the scorner’s doom.
2 Kings 7:3 Salvation for the worst—not only starving but unclean.
2 Kings 7:12 Unbelief.
2 Kings 8:4-5 Gehazi telling of Elisha’s deeds while suffering himself because
of his own failure and sin.
2 Kings 8:16 Jehoram—king of Judah (5).
2 Kings 8:26 Ahaziah—king of Judah (6).
2 Kings 9:1-37 Jehu—king of Israel (10).
2 Kings 9:28 Ahaziah’s bad end because of the company he kept.
2 Kings 10:22 Only place where we read of a “vestry” in the Bible.
2 Kings 10:35 Jehoahaz—king of Israel (10).
2 Kings 11:2 Joash “the hidden king.”
2 Kings 11:3 Athaliah—ruler of Judah (7).
2 Kings 12:1 Jehoash—king of Judah (8).
2 Kings 12:9 The chest beside the altar.
2 Kings 13:4 Jehoahaz—the only king of Israel who is ever said to have sought
the Lord.
2 Kings 13:10 Jehoash—king of Israel (12).
2 Kings 13:14-20 Last scenes in the life of Elisha.
2 Kings 14:1 Amaziah—king of Judah (9).
2 Kings 14:6 The Pentateuch cited in the days of Amaziah.
2 Kings 14:21 Azariah or Uzziah—king of Judah (10).
2 Kings 14:23 Jeroboam II—king of Israel (13).
2 Kings 15:8 Zachariah—king of Israel (14).
2 Kings 15:13 Shallum—king of Israel (15).
2 Kings 15:17 Menahem—king of Israel (16).
2 Kings 15:23 Pekahiah—king of Israel (17).
2 Kings 15:27 Pekah—king of Israel (18).
2 Kings 15:29 Hoshea—king of Israel (19).
2 Kings 15:32 Jotham—king of Judah (11).
2 Kings 16:1 Ahaz—king of Judah (12).
2 Kings 16:6 First use of the term, “the Jews.”
2 Kings 16:14 God’s altar set to one side for that of man’s designing.
2 Kings 17:24 Origin of the Samaritans.
2 Kings 18:1 Hezekiah—the godly king of Judah (13). Hezekiah the Reformer, 2
Kings 18:1-37; 2 Kings 19:1-37; 2 Kings 20:1-21.
2 Kings 18:3 A complete reformation. 18:4 Nehushtan!
2 Kings 18:13 The Assyrians attempt to do with Judah as with Israel. But God
protects Judah because of Hezekiah’s piety, even though weakness led him to pay
tribute for a time.
2 Kings 21:1 Manasseh—king of Judah (14).
2 Kings 21:18 Amon—king of Judah (15).
2 Kings 22:1 Josiah—king of Judah (16).
2 Kings 22:1-20—2 Kings 23:1-30 Josiah the king who honored God’s Word.
2 Kings 23:24 Spiritism, an abomination to the Lord.
2 Kings 23:31 Jehoahaz—king of Judah (17).
2 Kings 23:34 Jehoiakim—king of Judah (18).
2 Kings 24:8 Jehoiachin—king of Judah (19).
2 Kings 24:17 Zedekiah—king of Judah (20). Zedekiah not in the direct line. The
throne rights were not his. Younger brother of Jehoahaz.
2 Kings 25:26 Back to the lands from which they came out, Chaldea and Egypt.
2 Kings 25:28 The pledge and earnest of future deliverance and restoration,
according to the Word of the Lord.
1 Chronicles Preparation for the coming King 1 Chronicles 1:10 Nimrod—the great
apostate.
1 Chronicles 1:12 The Philistines of Egyptian origin—yet “in the land” “natural
men intruding into spiritual things.”
1 Chronicles 2:7 What a title to bear forever!
1 Chronicles 2:16 David, uncle to Joab and his brothers.
1 Chronicles 2:19 Caleb—son of Hezron, ancestor of Bethlehem. See Exodus 35:30.
1 Corinthians 3:5 Bath-sheba, mother both of Solomon and Nathan— the two lines
of descent in Matthew 1:1-25 and Luke 3:1-38.
1 Chronicles 4:4 Bethlehem named for the grandson of Caleb. See 1 Chronicles
2:19-20.
1 Chronicles 5:1 The one born first set aside. Joseph becomes the firstborn.
1 Chronicles 6:22 Sons of Korah.
1 Chronicles 6:31-32 Note: the sons of Korah led the choir of the sanctuary
after David brought the Ark to Jerusalem. See Psalms 84:1-12.
1 Chronicles 11:13-14 Not the same incident as recorded in 2 Samuel 23:1-39.
1 Chronicles 12:15 Men of energy—not men who followed the line of least
resistance.
1 Chronicles 15:21 harps on the Sheminith—i.e., “on the octave.”
1 Chronicles 16:8-22 Psalms 105:1-45.
1 Chronicles 16:23-33 Psalms 96:1-13.
1 Chronicles 16:34-36 Psalms 106:1-48.
1 Chronicles 17:4 The thoughts of God are above the thoughts of His best
servants.
1 Chronicles 17:23-24 Faith’s Amen to God’s Word. Asking according to the will
of God.
1 Chronicles 18:13 Edom—typical of the flesh: held in subjection during these
years of blessing.
1 Chronicles 20:1 David’s sin with Bath-sheba is here passed over. His
repentance accepted, it is omitted from the review.
1 Chronicles 22:2 The stones “prepared afore” for their place in the Temple.
1 Chronicles 22:6-19 David’s revelation to Solomon of the coming glory. See
Revelation 1:1-3.
1 Chronicles 24:7-18 Twenty-four elders or chief priests—key to Revelation
4:1-11, Revelation 5:1-14. All the priesthood represented in the 24.
1 Chronicles 25:7 Twenty-four harpers. In Rev. the priests and harpers are one.
Worship and praise go together.
1 Chronicles 26:10 The one born first set aside and Simri becomes the firstborn
in title. See Christ in Colossians 1:1-29.
1 Chronicles 28:18 See Ezekiel 1:1-28, “The chariot of the cherubims.”
2 Chronicles The Preparation For The Coming King. The need of a competent ruler
demonstrated. The preservation of the Davidic line.
2 Chronicles 3:5 No wood seen. Covered with gold.
2 Chronicles 4:1-22 All in tens. Responsibility fully met in the Cross.
2 Chronicles 4:2 Atonement. The Word of God for practical cleansing.
2 Chronicles 4:3 The Word of truth of the gospel.
2 Chronicles 4:4 The universality of the gospel message.
2 Chronicles 4:6 Cleansing.
2 Chronicles 4:7 Light.
2 Chronicles 4:8 Sustenance.
2 Chronicles 4:17 In the place of death.
2 Chronicles 5:9 The Ark at rest.
2 Chronicles 6:4 God’s hand and mouth ever in holy agreement.
2 Chronicles 6:8 God takes note of the purpose of the heart.
2 Chronicles 10:7-11 Rehoboam’s greatest blunder was in not asking counsel of
the Lord before consulting with men at all.
He did not know God for himself.
2 Chronicles 10:16 Rebellion of the ten tribes.
2 Chronicles 12:10 Trying to keep up appearances.
2 Chronicles 12:14 Contrast with Ezra 7:10: “The preparation of the heart is of
the Lord.”
2 Chronicles 14:6 Years of obedience to, and dependence upon God.
2 Chronicles 16:9 [last clause] Wars because of failure to heed the Word of God.
See 2 Chronicles 15:19.
2 Chronicles 17:1-19; 2 Chronicles 18:1-34; 2 Chronicles 19:1-11; 2 Chronicles
20:1-37 Reign of Jehoshaphat. A godly man who became entangled in unequal yoke
through excessive amiability.
2 Chronicles 18:1 Increased wealth leads to an unequal yoke.
2 Chronicles 20:7-9 Reminding God of that which He would never forget. Faith
taking hold of the Word.
2 Chronicles 20:19 The sons of Korah.
2 Chronicles 20:21 The singers in the van! “The joy of the Lord is your
strength.”
2 Chronicles 20:3-5 Jehoshaphat’s one weak point. A man who could not say “No.”
2 Chronicles 21:6 Fruit of the unequal yoke.
2 Chronicles 21:17 Divine retribution.
2 Chronicles 21:20 departed without being desired—What an epitaph!
2 Chronicles 22:11 The hidden king. All the messianic promises hung on that baby
boy who was hid in the Temple.
2 Chronicles 24:8 The chest of Joash.
2 Chronicles 24:10 Hilarious, or cheerful giving. 2 Corinthians 9:7.
2 Chronicles 24:20-21 Zechariah, the priest, slain “between the porch and the
altar.”
2 Chronicles 25:13 Suffering as a result of an unequal yoke—even though repented
of.
2 Chronicles 26:5 Another Zechariah who was a prophet. See 2 Chronicles 24:20;
Zechariah 1:1; Matthew 23:35.
2 Chronicles 26:15 [last clause] His strength became the occasion of his
weakness.
2 Chronicles 26:19 Leprosy of the head. See Leviticus 13:1-59.
2 Chronicles 26:20-21 The lusts of the mind. The hatefulness and uncleanness of
pride manifested.
2 Chronicles 29:1-2 What a mother she must have been to rear so godly a son of
so ungodly a father!
2 Chronicles 29:3 Beginning at the house of God.
2 Chronicles 29:16-17 Cleansing from within outward. Not the porch first!
2 Chronicles 29:24 [last part] The division of the kingdom not recognized. All
Israel one people in God’s eyes.
2 Chronicles 33:1-2 The ungodly son of a godly father born in the fifteen added
years of his father’s life.
2 Chronicles 33:12-13 Manasseh’s repentance and conversion.
2 Chronicles 34:9 Many from the ten tribes linked with the tribes of Judah and
Benjamin.
2 Chronicles 35:22 Megiddo—Armageddon.
2 Chronicles 36:21 70 sabbatic years—a cycle of 490 years in which the Word of
God had been neglected as to this.
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CHAPTER 9: 01.08. OLD TESTAMENT -- EZRA - PROVERBS
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Old Testament -- Ezra - Proverbs by H A Ironside
Ezra Ezra 1:1-11; Ezra 2:1-70 The return of the remnant.
Ezra 1:7-11 Separating the vessels to honor from the vessels to dishonor. 2
Timothy 2:1-26.
Ezra 2:28 Where Abraham built his altar and pitched his tent so long before.
Ezra 2:59 Uncertain as to their pedigree.
Ezra 2:62 Certainty required.
Ezra 3:1-13 The work of rebuilding begun.
Ezra 3:3 The altar first!
Ezra 3:6 The house of God next.
Ezra 3:11-12 Young men are enthusiastic for the present and future. Aged men are
apt to be retrospective.
Ezra 4:1-24 Opposition from the enemy.
Ezra 4:2 The enemy attempts to hinder—offer of amalgamation.
Ezra 4:4 Weakening the hands.
Ezra 4:5 Hiring counsellors against them.
Ezra 4:8-10 Opposition of the heterodox “societies” to the building of the
Temple to the Lord alone.
Ezra 4:12 Misrepresentation. They were building the Temple.
Ezra 4:23 Stopping the work by force.
Ezra 5:1-17; Ezra 6:1-22 The work resumed.
Ezra 5:1 The Books of Haggai and Zechariah come in here.
Ezra 5:5 A second letter that proved a boomerang.
Ezra 5:17 All Israel—even though so many scattered.
Ezra 7:1-28; Ezra 8:1-36 Ezra’s return.
Ezra 7:10 Note the character of Ezra’s preparation. Contrast with King Rehoboam.
2 Chronicles 12:14.
Ezra 8:21-22 Contrast Nehemiah 2:9.
Ezra 8:29 “That good deposit keep.”
Ezra 8:33 The treasure weighed at the end of the journey, nothing lost on the
way.
Ezra 9:1-15; Ezra 10:1-44 Ezra’s ministry.
Ezra 9:1 In the right position but a wrong condition.
Ezra 9:5 Ezra’s prayer. Compare with Nehemiah 9:1-38 and Daniel 9:1-27.
Ezra 10:2 Shechaniah—this man had to join in putting away his own mother or
stepmother—see Ezra 10:26.
Ezra 10:26 Jehiel—father of Shechaniah of Ezra 10:2.
Nehemiah An Exercised Man—Building the wall-Separation maintained.
Nehemiah 1:1-11 Jerusalem’s needy condition. Nehemiah’s call.
Nehemiah 1:11 The great king is but “this man” before God.
Nehemiah 2:1-20 Nehemiah’s commission to restore and build the city. “The failed
testimony.”
Nehemiah 2:1 in the month Nisan—generally reckoned as Passover season B.C. 446,
when the “command went forth to restore and build Jerusalem.”
Nehemiah 2:12 Conferring not with flesh and blood.
Nehemiah 2:19 Opposition on the part of the enemy. (1) Ridicule.
Nehemiah 3:1-32 Building of the wall. The gates of Jerusalem—note that both the
gate of Ephraim and prison gate are not mentioned here. Nehemiah 12:39.
Nehemiah 3:1 The sheep gate. tower of Hananeel—a marked spot to be rediscovered
in the last days. See Jeremiah 31:38; Zechariah 14:10.
Nehemiah 3:3 The fish gate.
Nehemiah 3:6 The old gate. Through this the old way entered. See Jeremiah 6:16.
Nehemiah 3:13 The valley gate.
Nehemiah 3:14 The dung gate.
Nehemiah 3:15 Gate of the fountain.
Nehemiah 3:25 The court of the prison—discipline must be maintained.
Nehemiah 3:26 The water gate.
Nehemiah 3:28 The horse gate.
Nehemiah 3:29 The east gate.
Nehemiah 3:30 over against his chamber—evidently a lonely man in a room.
Nehemiah 3:31 The gate Miphkad—decisions.
Nehemiah 4:1-2 Opposition. (2) Mockery, intimidation.
Nehemiah 4:7-8 Opposition. (3) Open warfare.
Nehemiah 5:1 Opposition. (4) Internal dissension.
Nehemiah 5:14 Compare with Paul who labored for his support rather than use his
right as an apostle.
Nehemiah 5:16 No real estate deals.
Nehemiah 6:1-19 Plots and snares.
Nehemiah 6:2 Opposition. (5) Plotting and slander.
Nehemiah 6:10 Opposition. (6) Attempts at intimidation.
Nehemiah 7:1-73 Restoring order.
Nehemiah 7:64-65 “The Lord knoweth them that are His.”
Nehemiah 8:1-18 The great Bible reading.
Nehemiah 8:4 Only place the word “pulpit” is found in the English Bible.
Nehemiah 8:17-18 Unobserved for 1,000 years, still it was in the Book.
Nehemiah 9:1-38 The Word and prayer. Note—Three ninth chapters are devoted to
confession: Ezra 9:1-15—Daniel 9:1-27—Nehemiah 9:1-38.
Nehemiah 9:3 The Word to judge their ways. Result—confession.
Nehemiah 9:20 The Holy Spirit in the wilderness.
Nehemiah 9:30 The Holy Spirit speaking through the prophets—2 Peter 1:21.
Nehemiah 10:1-39 A new start.
Nehemiah 11:1-36 A willing people.
Nehemiah 12:1-47 Dedication of the wall.
Nehemiah 12:11 Jaddua—the high priest in the days of Alexander the Great.
Nehemiah 12:39 Gate of Ephraim and the prison gate.
Nehemiah 13:1-31 Vigilance vs. declension.
Nehemiah 13:4 An unequal yoke— “what agreement hath the temple of God with
idols?”
Esther The Book of Providence—God’s secret care over Israel. See Isaiah 45:15.
Where do we find Esther in the law? “I will hide myself.” The name of God not
found in this Book.
Esther 1:1-22 The royal feast and the divorce of Vashti.
Esther 2:1-23 The choice of Esther.
Esther 2:18 See the “according to’s” of Ephesians.
Esther 3:1-15 The wrath of the Amalekite and the letter of doom.
Esther 4:1-17 In sackcloth and ashes.
Esther 4:3 [last part] Symbols of repentance.
Esther 4:4 A change of habits will not deliver from the sentence of
condemnation.
Esther 4:16 No mention of prayer as the name of God is omitted.
Esther 5:1-14 The scepter of grace—The banquet and the gallows.
Esther 6:1-14 A sleepless night and its results.
Esther 6:6 Pride goeth before destruction.
Esther 7:1-10 The second banquet and the Amalekite’s end.
Esther 8:1-17 The despised man exalted and the decree of grace.
Esther 8:9 The post of mercy.
Esther 8:14 Hastened on their way with the good news!
Esther 9:1-19 The deliverance.
Esther 9:20-32 The institution of Purim.
Esther 10:1-3 Speaking peace.
Job “A righteous man learning his own nothingness” S.R. The Book of Repentance.
Also the mystery of suffering.
Job 1:1-22; Job 2:1-13 Historical prologue. The testing of Job by Satan. Job, an
historical character. See Ezekiel 14:14, Ezekiel 14:20; Jas.
Job 3:1-26; Job 4:1-21; Job 5:1-27; Job 6:1-30; Job 7:1-21; Job 8:1-22; Job
9:1-35; Job 10:1-22; Job 11:1-20; Job 12:1-25; Job 13:1-28; Job 14:1-22; Job
15:1-35; Job 16:1-22; Job 17:1-16; Job 18:1-21; Job 19:1-29; Job 20:1-29; Job
21:1-34; Job 22:1-30; Job 23:1-17; Job 24:1-25; Job 25:1-6; Job 26:1-14; Job
27:1-23; Job 28:1-28; Job 29:1-25; Job 30:1-31; Job 31:1-40; Job 32:1-22; Job
33:1-33; Job 34:1-37; Job 35:1-16; Job 36:1-33; Job 37:1-24; Job 38:1-41; Job
39:1-30; Job 40:1-24; Job 41:1-34 The drama. Job’s contention with his friends
and the Lord’s answer.
Job 4:7 Note the philosophy of Eliphaz: the righteous are preserved from
disaster. Such only comes upon the wicked!
Job 4:17 i.e., Men punish evildoers—so with God.
Job 5:17-18 All very true but not applicable to Job in these circumstances.
Job 6:22-23 Job asked no favor of them.
Job 9:2 Answered in the Epistle to the Romans.
Job 9:9 Astronomy known to Job. Job 26:13; Job 38:31-32.
Job 9:13-15 Job would not have the presumption to plead his righteousness, as
merit—but he feels God should shew mercy when he is not consciously guilty of
any wilful sin.
Job 9:22 For a moment Job falls back on a hard fatalistic philosophy, but he
cannot rest in this.
Job 9:29 i.e., Why should I care to justify myself, if I am a wicked, godless
man?
Job 10:22 Description of Sheol as Job understood it.
Job 11:1-20 Zophar, the stern legalist. “So much sin, so much suffering.”
Job 11:3 lies—“sophistries.”
Job 11:3-4 “If God be for us, who can be against us?”
Job 11:14-17 Zophar’s philosophy is very simple: be good and God will bless with
all temporal mercies.
Job 12:6 It is not always the good who have temporal prosperity.
Job 12:14 Revelation 3:7.
Job 13:7 A Welsh collier was wont to say to his Bible class as they reasoned
about the Scriptures: “Be careful, lads, that you keep the character of God
clear.”
Job 13:15 Trust in God coupled with self-righteousness.
Job 15:20 This is often true of the godly also.
Job 21:7 The wicked not invariably recompensed in this life.
Job 21:13 “In a moment.” See 1 Corinthians 15:52.
Job 22:15-16 The Antediluvians.
Job 23:10 Confidence where he cannot understand. A sense of moral integrity.
Job 24:12 Many who are guilty of the very offences charged against Job yet seem
to be prospered by God.
Job 27:13-23 Job sums up all that they have declared to be the portion ana1hema
of the wicked—then proceeds to show that this cannot be applied to him.
Job 28:22 The wisdom of God displayed in the Cross.
Job 29:1-25; Job 30:1-31; Job 31:1-40 I, me, my, mine over 195 times. Job’s
confidence before he saw the Lord.
Job 29:1-6 Job’s former estate in the home.
Job 29:7-10 Abroad.
Job 29:11-17 His benevolence extolled.
Job 29:18-20 His confidence.
Job 29:21-25 His philanthropy.
Job 30:1-31 Job’s wretched condition at the time his friends called upon him.
Job 30:1-8 Mocked.
Job 30:9-12 Scorned.
Job 30:13-15 Persecuted.
Job 30:16-19 Suffering.
Job 30:20-23 No answer from God.
Job 30:24-27 Absolute misery.
Job 30:28-31 Utter desolation.
Job 31:1-40 Job’s insistence on his own righteousness.
Job 31:1-12 Chaste and upright.
Job 31:13-23 Kind to all.
Job 31:24-28 Sound in faith.
Job 31:29-32 Friendly and hospitable.
Job 31:33-34 Straightforward and fearless.
Job 31:35-40 His challenge to God and man.
Job 32:1-22 God is holy and merciful—whatever our experiences may seem to prove.
Job 33:7-9 God’s purpose in chastening vindicated.
Job 33:13 God’s ways are inscrutable.
Job 34:12, Job 34:23 God’s dealings ethically right.
Job 34:31-32 Exercise under discipline. See Amos 7:9; Hebrews 12:5.
Job 35:7 Man makes a great mistake when he makes himself the center of
things—instead of God.
Job 35:14 Trust where you cannot trace!
Job 36:5-12 Elihu epitomises the teaching of Job’s three friends—and shows that
Job himself has held the same philosophy and has actually justified himself
rather than God.
Job 36:24 “Whatever else you do keep the character of God clear!”
Job 37:1 Thunderstorm is approaching!
Job 37:5 This should teach us humility!
Job 37:12 All nature under God’s control—yet all inexplicable.
Job 37:13 So with all His dealings with men.
Job 38:1-41; Job 39:1-30; Job 40:1-24; Job 41:1-34 Jehovah speaks. A whirlwind
comes across the desert and the voice of God speaks out of it. God asks Job 79
or 80 questions he cannot answer.
Job 38:22-23 i.e., The wars of the elements—and God has at times used these very
things for the defeat or victory of armies.
Job 38:31 Astronomy testifies to the power and wisdom of God. Job 9:9.
Job 40:4-5 Job’s first answer to Jehovah’s challenge.
Job 40:8 Shall man question God’s righteousness if affliction comes upon him?
Job 42:1-6 Job’s second and last answer—”The end of the Lord.”
Job 42:16 Job lived in the patriarchal age before life was shortened as now.
Psalms
Book 1 Psalms 1:1-6, Psalms 2:1-12, Psalms 3:1-8; Psalms 4:1-8; Psalms 5:1-12;
Psalms 6:1-10; Psalms 7:1-17; Psalms 8:1-9, Psalms 9:1-20; Psalms 10:1-18;
Psalms 11:1-7; Psalms 12:1-8; Psalms 13:1-6; Psalms 14:1-7; Psalms 15:1-5,
Psalms 16:1-11; Psalms 17:1-15; Psalms 18:1-50; Psalms 19:1-14; Psalms 20:1-9;
Psalms 21:1-13; Psalms 22:1-31; Psalms 23:1-6; Psalms 24:1-10; Psalms 25:1-22;
Psalms 26:1-12; Psalms 27:1-14; Psalms 28:1-9; Psalms 29:1-11; Psalms 30:1-12;
Psalms 31:1-24; Psalms 32:1-11; Psalms 33:1-22; Psalms 34:1-22; Psalms 35:1-28;
Psalms 36:1-12; Psalms 37:1-40; Psalms 38:1-22; Psalms 39:1-13; Psalms 40:1-17;
Psalms 41:1-13 Divine Principles—The Genesis Book—The Counsels of God as to
Christ.
Psalms 1:1-6; Psalms 2:1-12; Psalms 3:1-8; Psalms 4:1-8; Psalms 5:1-12; Psalms
6:1-10; Psalms 7:1-17; Psalms 8:1-9 The anointed King—rejected by Israel—owned
as Son of Man.
Psalms 1:1-6; Psalms 2:1-12, Psalms 8:1-9 messianic.
Psalms 1:5 stand—Standing—ability to abide divine scrutiny. See Psalms 5:5.
Psalms 2:1-3 The voice of the world.
Psalms 2:4-6 The voice of the Father.
Psalms 2:7-9 The voice of the Son.
Psalms 2:10-12 The voice of the Spirit.
Psalms 9:1-20; Psalms 10:1-18; Psalms 11:1-7; Psalms 12:1-8; Psalms 13:1-6;
Psalms 14:1-7; Psalms 15:1-5 Antichrist and the enemy of God—the eventual
victory over the powers of evil.
Psalms 16:1-11; Psalms 17:1-15; Psalms 18:1-50; Psalms 19:1-14; Psalms 20:1-9;
Psalms 21:1-13; Psalms 22:1-31; Psalms 23:1-6; Psalms 24:1-10; Psalms 25:1-22;
Psalms 26:1-12; Psalms 27:1-14; Psalms 28:1-9; Psalms 29:1-11; Psalms 30:1-12;
Psalms 31:1-24; Psalms 32:1-11; Psalms 33:1-22; Psalms 34:1-22; Psalms 35:1-28;
Psalms 36:1-12; Psalms 37:1-40; Psalms 38:1-22; Psalms 39:1-13; Psalms 40:1-17;
Psalms 41:1-13 Christ in the midst of Israel—God manifested.
Psalms 16:1-11, Psalms 17:1-15, Psalms 18:1-50, Psalms 21:1-13, Psalms 22:1-31,
Psalms 23:1-6, Psalms 24:1-10, Psalms 40:1-17, Psalms 41:1-13 messianic. The
perfect meal offering. Christ as the Dependent Man here on the earth.
Psalms 16:5 my cup—See Psalms 23:5.
Psalms 18:14 Dwellers on the earth. See Php 3:1-21.
Psalms 18:17 His mighty power which He wrought in Christ when He raised Him from
the dead.
Psalms 19:1-6 The testimony of God’s works in creation.
Psalms 19:7-14 The testimony of God’s Word.
Psalms 22:1-31 Psalm of the Cross—the sin offering—the Good Shepherd. Christ
suffering at the hands of God.
Psalms 22:3 Who was praising but He, at this time of His soul’s sorrow?
Psalms 22:6 Tolaath—the scarlet worm.
Psalms 23:1-6 Psalm of the crook—the Great Shepherd.
Psalms 24:1-10 Psalm of the crown—the Chief Shepherd.
Psalms 25:1-22; Psalms 26:1-12; Psalms 27:1-14; Psalms 28:1-9; Psalms 29:1-11;
Psalms 30:1-12; Psalms 31:1-24; Psalms 32:1-11; Psalms 33:1-22; Psalms 34:1-22;
Psalms 35:1-28; Psalms 36:1-12; Psalms 37:1-40; Psalms 38:1-22; Psalms 39:11-13
Experiences of the godly remnant.
Psalms 26:5 A great salvation for men whose iniquity is great, See Psalms 26:11.
Psalms 25:9 Guidance—Matthew 11:29-30. See Hosea 11:3.
Psalms 25:11 We might have said, “It is not very great!”
Psalms 25:15 Guidance—Psalms 32:8; Numbers 9:18-22.
Psalms 27:4 One thing—See Php 3:13. The beauty of the Lord. See Isaiah 53:2. See
Psalms 29:2.
Isaiah 29:3-5 A storm in the mountains moving on into the wilderness.
Psalms 31:1 See 1 John 1:9.
Psalms 32:7 Hiding in God instead of hiding from Him.
Psalms 33:7 as an heap—“in a bottle” correct text.
Psalms 34:16 Note that Peter omits the last half of this verse. 1 Peter 3:12.
Psalms 36:8 The river of God. Ezekiel 47:1-12.
Psalms 40:1-17 Psalm of the burnt offering.
Psalms 31:9 Judas—antichrist.
Book 2 Psalms 42:1-11; Psalms 43:1-5; Psalms 44:1-26; Psalms 45:1-17; Psalms
46:1-11; Psalms 47:1-9; Psalms 48:1-14; Psalms 49:1-20; Psalms 50:1-23; Psalms
51:1-19, Psalms 52:1-9; Psalms 53:1-6; Psalms 54:1-7; Psalms 55:1-23; Psalms
56:1-13; Psalms 57:1-11; Psalms 58:1-11; Psalms 59:1-17; Psalms 60:1-12, Psalms
61:1-8; Psalms 62:1-12; Psalms 63:1-11; Psalms 64:1-10; Psalms 65:1-13; Psalms
66:1-20; Psalms 67:1-7; Psalms 68:1-35; Psalms 69:1-14; Psalms 70:1-5; Psalms
71:1-24; Psalms 72:1-15 The Fallen State of Israel—Their ruin and redemption.
Psalms 45:1-17, Psalms 55:1-23, Psalms 68:1-35, Psalms 69:1-36, Psalms 72:1-20
messianic.
Psalms 42:1-11; Psalms 43:1-5; Psalms 44:1-26; Psalms 45:1-17; Psalms 46:1-11;
Psalms 47:1-9; Psalms 48:1-14; Psalms 49:1-20; Psalms 50:1-23; Psalms 51:1-19
The King coming to reign. The hope of the needy.
Psalms 44:12 “Ye have sold yourselves for nought and shall be redeemed without
money.” Isaiah 52:3.
Psalms 45:11 Beauty. Psalms 29:2.
Psalms 45:13-14 See the bride in Revelation 19:1-21.
Psalms 45:17 See Luke 22:19; Jeremiah 16:7.
Psalms 48:14 unto—“over.”
Psalms 49:7-9 Redemption. See Leviticus 25:48. Costly—so let it alone forever.
Psalms 50:3; Isaiah 65:6.
Psalms 50:14 A promise for him who observes Psalms 50:14.
Psalms 52:1-9; Psalms 53:1-6; Psalms 54:1-7; Psalms 55:1-23; Psalms 56:1-13;
Psalms 57:1-11; Psalms 58:1-11; Psalms 59:1-17; Psalms 60:1-12 Soul exercises
leading to deliverance.
Psalms 55:19 have no changes—“settled on the lees.”
Psalms 61:1-8; Psalms 62:1-12; Psalms 63:1-11; Psalms 64:1-10; Psalms 65:1-13;
Psalms 66:1-20; Psalms 67:1-7; Psalms 68:1-35; Psalms 69:1-14; Psalms 70:1-5;
Psalms 71:1-24; Psalms 72:1-15 Deliverance through the Redeemer-King.
Psalms 62:1-12 Note the use of the word “only.”
Psalms 64:6 [first clause] “Love covereth a multitude of sins.”
Psalms 66:18 The one great hindrance to prayer.
Psalms 68:11 Feminine—a company of women.
Psalms 68:30 pieces of silver—redemption money. See Exodus 30:1-38.
Psalms 69:1-14 Psalm of the trespass offering. Christ suffering from the hands
of men—result, judgment. Contrast with Psalms 22:1-31.
Psalms 69:4 [last clause] Christ Himself, making up for man’s wrongdoing.
Psalms 71:1-2 Save in righteousness. Romans 1:17.
Psalms 72:1-15 A millennial psalm.
Psalms 72:16 The remnant of Israel.
Psalms 73:1-28; Psalms 74:1-23; Psalms 75:1-10; Psalms 76:1-12; Psalms 77:1-20;
Psalms 78:1-72; Psalms 79:1-13; Psalms 80:1-19; Psalms 81:1-16; Psalms 82:1-8;
Psalms 83:1-18, Psalms 84:1-12; Psalms 85:1-13; Psalms 86:1-17; Psalms 87:1-7;
Psalms 88:1-18; Psalms 89:1-52—The Leviticus series. The sanctuary. God’s
holiness maintained in His ways with Israel.—Psalms 89:1-52 is messianic.
Psalms 73:1-28; Psalms 74:1-23; Psalms 75:1-10; Psalms 76:1-12; Psalms 77:1-20;
Psalms 78:1-72; Psalms 79:1-13; Psalms 80:1-19; Psalms 81:1-16; Psalms 82:1-8;
Psalms 83:1-18 Holiness manifested in grace.
Psalms 73:17 their end. See 1 Peter 4:17.
Psalms 73:24 Or, “after the glory, receive me.”
Psalms 74:5-7 Builders, or destroyers?
Psalms 74:8 Synagogues in the O.T.!
Psalms 75:2-3 Messiah tells how He will judge in righteousness.
Psalms 75:8 “Let this cup pass!”
Psalms 76:10 “Ye know what restraineth.”
Psalms 77:2 Hand was stretched out.
Psalms 77:3 was troubled—“I moaned.”
Psalms 77:7-9 Six questions of the troubled soul.
Psalms 77:10-15 Faith’s answer.
Psalms 78:29 Prayer answered in judgment.
Psalms 78:36 Flattering God!
Psalms 78:68 Zion—chosen in electing grace.
Psalms 79:9 Hebrews 9:1-28—Hebrews 10:1-39.
Psalms 80:15 Christ: the Branch of the Lord—to take the place of the failed
people. Isaiah 11:1-2.
Psalms 83:1-18 Victory over the last assault of the enemy.
Psalms 84:1-12; Psalms 85:1-13; Psalms 86:1-17; Psalms 87:1-7; Psalms 88:1-18;
Psalms 89:1-52 Christ the Mediator maintaining the holiness of God.
Psalms 84:1-12 The sons of Korah—direct descendants of Korah the apostate.
Numbers 16:1-50 and Numbers 26:1-65. See 1 Chronicles 6:31. Saved from going
down to the pit.
Psalms 84:3 “God’s pensioners.”
Psalms 85:1-13 Psalm of the peace offering.
Psalms 85:6 Conditions of Revival: facing facts, confession, restitution,
prayer, work, obedience.
Psalms 88:1-18 Under the curse of a broken law.
Psalms 89:14 The cherubim. Psalms 97:2.
Psalms 89:30-32 Divine discipline following disobedience.
Psalms 89:37-38 The covenant not abrogated though the house of David no longer
is in evidence. See Acts 15:16.
Psalms 90:1-17; Psalms 91:1-16; Psalms 92:1-15; Psalms 93:1-5, Psalms 90:1-17;
Psalms 91:1-16; Psalms 92:1-15; Psalms 93:1-5, Psalms 94:1-23, Psalms 95:1-11,
Psalms 96:1-13, Psalms 97:1-12, Psalms 98:1-9, Psalms 99:1-9, Psalms 100:1-5;
Psalms 101:1-8; Psalms 102:1-28; Psalms 103:1-22; Psalms 104:1-35; Psalms
105:1-45; Psalms 106:1-48—The first man replaced by the Second Man. The numbers
Book. Experiences of the remnant as scattered among the nations. Psalms 91:1-16,
Psalms 102:1-28 messianic.
Psalms 90:1-17; Psalms 91:1-16; Psalms 92:1-15; Psalms 93:1-5 Christ linking the
Creator and His creation after sin had come in.
Psalms 90:17 Psalms 27:4. The beauty of the Lord. See Psalms 96:6-9.
Psalms 90:1-17; Psalms 91:1-16; Psalms 92:1-15; Psalms 93:1-5 Salvation by
Judgment.
Psalms 94:9 “Mine ear hast Thou digged.”
Psalms 95:5 The sea—Revelation 21:1-3; Psalms 104:25.
Psalms 97:11 gladness—”a festival of joy.”
Psalms 99:8 Grace and government.
Psalms 100:1-5; Psalms 101:1-8; Psalms 102:1-28; Psalms 103:1-22; Psalms
104:1-35; Psalms 105:1-45; Psalms 106:1-48 Salvation realized.
Psalms 102:1-28 A Gethsemane psalm.
Psalms 102:25 The Father’s answer to the prayer of the Son. See Hebrews 1:1-14.
Psalms 103:7 Note the difference between His ways (counsels) and His acts.
Psalms 104:2 The Invisible God. “The radiant light is the shadow of God.”—Plato
Psalms 104:15 Wine to cheer, bread to strengthen.
Psalms 105:25 We might have thought the devil did it!
Psalms 106:15 Prayer answered in judgment.
Psalms 106:33 A provoked spirit: a wrong state because of occupation with evil.
Psalms 107:1-43; Psalms 108:1-13; Psalms 109:1-31; Psalms 110:1-7; Psalms
111:1-10; Psalms 112:1-10; Psalms 113:1-9, Psalms 114:1-8; Psalms 115:1-18;
Psalms 116:1-19; Psalms 117:1-2; Psalms 118:1-29, Psalms 119:1-176, Psalms
120:1-7; Psalms 121:1-8; Psalms 122:1-9; Psalms 123:1-4; Psalms 124:1-8; Psalms
125:1-5; Psalms 126:1-6; Psalms 127:1-5; Psalms 128:1-6; Psalms 129:1-8; Psalms
130:1-8; Psalms 131:1-3; Psalms 132:1-18; Psalms 133:1-3; Psalms 134:1-3, Psalms
135:1-21; Psalms 136:1-26; Psalms 137:1-9; Psalms 138:1-8; Psalms 139:1-24;
Psalms 140:1-13; Psalms 141:1-10; Psalms 142:1-7; Psalms 143:1-12; Psalms
144:1-15; Psalms 145:1-21; Psalms 146:1-10; Psalms 147:1-20; Psalms 148:1-14;
Psalms 149:1-9; Psalms 150:1-6 Book 5.—The Deuteronomy section. Israel restored
to God. The conclusion of His ways with men. Psalms no, Psalms 118:1-29
messianic.
Psalms 107:1-43; Psalms 108:1-13; Psalms 109:1-31; Psalms 110:1-7; Psalms
111:1-10; Psalms 112:1-10; Psalms 113:1-9 Divine principles.
Psalms 107:20 Healing in the Word.
Psalms 109:4 “I am prayer.” It is He who is the Great Intercessor.
Psalms 109:8 Spoken prophetically of Judas the traitor.
Psalms 111:1-10; Psalms 111:1-10; Psalms 112:1-10; Psalms 113:1-9; Psalms
114:1-8; Psalms 115:1-18; Psalms 116:1-19; Psalms 117:1-2; Psalms 118:1-29
Called “the Egyptian Hall-El” or “Little Hall-El.”
Psalms 111:9 Only place reverend is found in the English Bible.
Psalms 114:1-8; Psalms 115:1-18; Psalms 116:1-19; Psalms 117:1-2; Psalms
118:1-29; Psalms 119:1-176 God known as the Saviour.
Psalms 116:8 Threefold deliverance. 2 Corinthians 1:10.
Psalms 116:16 Service that springs from deliverance through redemption.
Psalms 118:22 The rejected stone.
Psalms 118:24 The Lord’s Day.
Psalms 118:26 The entry into Jerusalem.
Psalms 118:27 The Cross.
Psalms 119:1-176 The golden alphabet—The law written upon the heart.
Psalms 119:5 directed to—made so direct that I might.
Psalms 119:9 “The washing of water by the Word.”
Psalms 119:30 Blessed choice!
Psalms 119:44-45 The perfect law of liberty. See James 2:12.
Psalms 119:63 David’s denomination, Psalms 119:64.
Psalms 119:67 Blessed use of affliction.
Psalms 119:100 Understanding the mind of God and obedience to His Word go
together.
Psalms 119:108 Fruit of the lips—See Isaiah 57:19; Hebrews 13:15.
Psalms 119:160 True from Genesis. See Isaiah 46:9-10; Isaiah 34:16.
Psalms 120:1-7; Psalms 121:1-8; Psalms 122:1-9; Psalms 123:1-4; Psalms 124:1-8;
Psalms 125:1-5; Psalms 126:1-6; Psalms 127:1-5; Psalms 128:1-6; Psalms 129:1-8;
Psalms 130:1-8; Psalms 131:1-3; Psalms 132:1-18; Psalms 133:1-3; Psalms 134:1-3
The psalms or songs of degrees.
Psalms 135:1-21; Psalms 136:1-26; Psalms 137:1-9; Psalms 138:1-8; Psalms
139:1-24; Psalms 140:1-13; Psalms 141:1-10; Psalms 142:1-7; Psalms 143:1-12;
Psalms 144:1-15; Psalms 145:1-21; Psalms 146:1-10; Psalms 147:1-20; Psalms
148:1-14; Psalms 149:1-9; Psalms 150:1-6 Salvation celebrated. Review of God’s
ways.
Psalms 136:26 God of heaven—the name used in the postcaptivity Books, Ezekiel,
Nehemiah, and in Daniel.
Psalms 137:7-9 Divine judgment to fall on Edom: type of the flesh—See prophecy
of Obadiah. Also on Babylon. See Jeremiah 50:1-46, Jeremiah 51:1-64.
Psalms 139:1-6 The divine omniscience.
Psalms 139:5 “Thou art around me on all sides and Thou art holding Thy hand over
me.” Lit. trans.
Psalms 139:7-12 The divine omnipresence.
Psalms 139:13-18 The divine omnipotence active on man’s behalf.
Psalms 139:16 [last part] True of the mystical Body of Christ, as of the human
body.
Psalms 139:19-24 The Divine Judgment.
Psalms 141:2 Incense—typical of prayer. See Exodus 30:34.
Psalms 146:1-10; Psalms 147:1-20; Psalms 148:1-14; Psalms 149:1-9; Psalms
150:1-6 “The Great Hall-El.”
Psalms 147:4-5 He numbers the stars but His understanding cannot be numbered.
Psalms 149:6 a two-edged sword—the Word—see Ephesians 6:17 and Hebrews 4:12.
Proverbs The wisdom that created the heavens now deigns to show a safe path
through the world. Note:
Throughout it is family instruction; the teaching of the father, the law of the
mother. Each proverb illustrated in the Bible or corroborated by direct teaching
elsewhere,.
Proverbs 1:1-33; Proverbs 2:1-22; Proverbs 3:1-35; Proverbs 4:1-27; Proverbs
5:1-23; Proverbs 6:1-35; Proverbs 7:1-27; Proverbs 8:1-36; Proverbs 9:1-18
Wisdom and folly contrasted.
Proverbs 1:7 “Knowledge and wisdom far from being one Have oft-times no
connection. Knowledge dwells In heads replete with thoughts of other men, Wisdom
in minds attentive to their own. Knowledge is proud that he has learned so much.
Wisdom is humble that he knows no more.”—Cowper
Proverbs 1:23-31 “These are the verses used by the Spirit of God to awaken me as
a lad of 14, and I found peace in John 3:18.”—H. A. Ironside
Proverbs 2:1-5 receive, hide, incline, apply, criest, lift est up, seekest,
searchest—the only way to get the mind of God. See Ezra 7:10.
Proverbs 3:1-35 Personal piety and consistent living. Mercy and truth:
consideration for others and integrity of heart before God and man.
Proverbs 4:1-27 Wisdom as a guide for human life.
Proverbs 4:12 “As thou goest step by step, I will open up the way before thee.”
Heb. trans.
Proverbs 4:23 Circulation of the blood implied.
Proverbs 5:1-23 Wisdom preserving from uncleanness.
Proverbs 8:12 Wisdom personified. “Christ the Wisdom of God.” “God hath made Him
to be unto us—Wisdom.”
Proverbs 8:23 set up—anointed.
(1) Christ, the Anointed from eternity. (2) When born into the world. (3) At His
baptism. (4) In His Resurrection.
Proverbs 9:1-12 Wisdom’s invitation.
Proverbs 9:13-18 Folly’s invitation.
Proverbs 10:1-32; Proverbs 11:1-31; Proverbs 12:1-28; Proverbs 13:1-25; Proverbs
14:1-35; Proverbs 15:1-33; Proverbs 16:1-33; Proverbs 17:1-28; Proverbs 18:1-24;
Proverbs 19:1-29; Proverbs 20:1-30; Proverbs 21:1-31; Proverbs 22:1-29; Proverbs
23:1-35; Proverbs 24:1-34 Proverbs set in order by Solomon. The walk through
this world of the one who is a disciple of Wisdom.
Proverbs 10:27-32 Righteousness and lawlessness contrasted.
Proverbs 11:1-31 Righteousness and lawlessness contrasted.
Proverbs 11:4 See the rich fool.
Proverbs 11:6 righteousness—hypocrite. See Job 8:13.
Proverbs 11:8 See Haman and Mordecai, Daniel and his accusers.
Proverbs 11:24 “A man there was, though some did count him mad; The more he cast
away the more he had. It never was loving that emptied a heart Nor giving that
emptied a purse.” See Proverbs 13:7.
Proverbs 12:1-28; Proverbs 13:1-25 The love of knowledge in contrast to hatred
of reproof.
Proverbs 12:9 he that honoureth himself—How many are of this type!
Proverbs 12:20 Note why people imagine evil concerning others.
Proverbs 14:1-35 The wise and the simple contrasted.
Proverbs 14:1 See the prudent woman of Proverbs 31:1-31.
Proverbs 14:14 Only place “backslider” is found in Bible.
Proverbs 14:32 The hope of immortality.
Proverbs 15:1-33 The tongue.
Proverbs 15:2 Wisdom, the ability to use knowledge aright.
Proverbs 16:1-33 The divine sovereignty—“Man proposes, God disposes.”
Proverbs 16:15 The latter rain, a special blessing. See Jeremiah 3:3.
Proverbs 17:1-28 Divine principles.
Proverbs 17:1 Amen! sacrifices—i.e., peace offerings.
Proverbs 17:17 A friend—Proverbs 18:24; Proverbs 27:10.
Proverbs 18:1-24 Warnings against folly in speech.
Proverbs 18:1 The self-seeking schismatic. Separation after a carnal order. Jude
1:16-17. intermeddleth with all wisdom— or, rageth against all sound wisdom.
Proverbs 18:10-11 Contrast these two verses.
Proverbs 18:22 A wife, not merely a woman.
Proverbs 19:1-29 The path of truth and the way of self-will.
Proverbs 19:7 Job and his friends.
Proverbs 19:17 Loans that pay big interest!
Proverbs 20:1-30 Warnings against evil habits, vice, etc.
Proverbs 20:6-12 The test of purity.
Proverbs 20:17 There is nothing covered that shall not be manifested—then the
bitterness!
Proverbs 20:24 See Jeremiah 10:23-24.
Proverbs 20:25 and after vows to make enquiry—i.e., he does as his appetite
dictates—then inquires of God afterwards.
Proverbs 20:27 Personality of the spirit in man. Psalms 78:8; Romans 1:9.
Proverbs 21:1-31 The moral government of God.
Proverbs 21:13 1 John 3:17. Active benevolence a condition of answered prayer.
Proverbs 21:18 On the Cross it was just the opposite.
Proverbs 21:31 The horse as a type. See Job 39:19; Revelation 6:1-17.
Proverbs 22:1-29; Proverbs 23:1-35; Proverbs 24:1-22 Exhortations to integrity
and subjection to God.
Proverbs 22:6 Train up—dedicate, or initiate—Same word as in Deuteronomy 20:5
(twice); 1 Kings 8:63; 2 Chronicles 7:5.
Proverbs 22:17-18 Importance of studying the Word of God—2 Timothy 2:15; 2
Timothy 3:16; Luke 1:1-4.
Proverbs 24:11-12 Responsibility for men who know not God. Contrast Isaiah
58:10.
Proverbs 24:23-34 An appendix to the division.
Proverbs 24:30-34 The field of the slothful. A fitting epilogue to this
division.
Proverbs 25:1-28; Proverbs 26:1-28; Proverbs 27:1-27; Proverbs 28:1-28; Proverbs
29:1-27 Division 3—Later proverbs arranged by the men of Hezekiah. See 1 Kings
4:32.
Proverbs 25:7 Used by our Lord in Luke 14:8, Luke 14:10.
Proverbs 25:21-22 Quoted in Romans 12:20.
Proverbs 25:25 The gospel likened to water. Revelation 22:17.
Proverbs 26:1-28 Fools and sluggards.
Proverbs 27:1 See Pharaoh in Exodus 8:10. Tomorrow—reasons for not delaying: (1)
Death may ensue. (2) The Spirit may cease to strive. (3) The Lord may return.
(4) We add to what we can never undo. (5) We lose time we can never make up.
Proverbs 27:16 Impossible to shield her for she invariably betrays herself.
Proverbs 27:23 A word to pastors.
Proverbs 28:9 When it is no use to pray. See Isaiah 1:15.
Proverbs 30:1-33 Division 4—The words of Agur.
Proverbs 30:24-28 Four Wise Things.
Proverbs 31:1-31 Division 5—The words of Lemuel.
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CHAPTER 10: 01.09. OLD TESTAMENT -- ECCLESIASTES - DANIEL
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Old Testament -- Ecclesiastes - Daniel by H A Ironside
Ecclesiastes
Man’s wisdom shown to be foolishness. The world by wisdom knew not God. Under
the sun—29 times. Vanity—37 times. Under the heavens—3 times. Upon the earth—7
times. God’s inspired record of what Solomon said in his heart as he considered
things under the sun. Do the pleasures of life really compensate for the energy
spent in obtaining them?
Ecclesiastes 1:1-11 Prologue.
Ecclesiastes 1:3 The ? of the Book.
Ecclesiastes 1:7 See 2 Corinthians 9:8-11.
Ecclesiastes 1:9 no new thing under the sun—the awful “sameness” of natural law.
Ecclesiastes 1:12-15 Introduction. Fully qualified to make the test and see if
there is happiness under the sun. 1 Kings 4:29.
Ecclesiastes 1:12-18, Ecclesiastes 2:1-26, Ecclesiastes 3:1-12, Ecclesiastes
4:1-16 The search for lasting good.
Ecclesiastes 1:16-18 Wisdom does not satisfy.
Ecclesiastes 2:3 Pleasure does not satisfy.
Ecclesiastes 2:4 Architecture.
Ecclesiastes 2:5 Agriculture.
Ecclesiastes 2:6 Irrigation systems.
Ecclesiastes 2:7 The comforts that wealth can give. Power and authority.
Ecclesiastes 2:8 [first part] “Money is a universal provider for everything but
happiness.” [last part] The liberal arts.
Ecclesiastes 2:12 Pleasures of learning philosophy. Materialism—living for the
present.
Ecclesiastes 3:1-8 Fatalism. The eternal circle of life.
Nothing abides—all moves—life is like a great wheel ever revolving.
Ecclesiastes 3:14 The works of God distinguished from the puny efforts of man.
Ecclesiastes 3:16 Legalized wickedness.
Ecclesiastes 3:18 The conclusion of the natural man when he only looks “under
the sun.”
Ecclesiastes 3:21 See the answer in Ecclesiastes 12:7.
Ecclesiastes 4:1 Injustice and oppression.
Ecclesiastes 4:10 The Second Man lifts up the first man!
Ecclesiastes 5:1-20; Ecclesiastes 6:1-12; Ecclesiastes 7:1-29; Ecclesiastes
8:1-17; Ecclesiastes 9:1-18; Ecclesiastes 10:1-20; Ecclesiastes 11:1-10
Considerations and conclusions based on experience.
Ecclesiastes 5:1 Reverence.
Ecclesiastes 5:4-5 Vows—See Numbers 30:1-16. Integrity.
Ecclesiastes 5:13-20 Philosophical conclusions but the heart still unsatisfied.
See Job 1:21.
Ecclesiastes 5:18-20 Moderation.
Ecclesiastes 6:6 [last clause] i.e., the grave.
Ecclesiastes 7:1-29; Ecclesiastes 8:1-17; Ecclesiastes 9:1-18; Ecclesiastes
10:1-20; Ecclesiastes 11:1-10 Commendation of morality.
Ecclesiastes 7:1-8 Note the seven comparisons.
Ecclesiastes 7:26 The love of women cannot satisfy.
Ecclesiastes 7:28 And he had 1000 wives and concubines!
Ecclesiastes 8:1-17 Commendation of wisdom.
Ecclesiastes 8:8 But Christ, when His work was done, “dismissed His Spirit.”
Ecclesiastes 8:10 See the case of Joram—2 Chronicles 21:20.
Ecclesiastes 9:1-18 The philosophy of self-expression.
Ecclesiastes 9:1 [last part] The Douay translates “no man knoweth whether he is
worthy of favor or hatred.”
Ecclesiastes 9:5 Not Annihilation—but a fact so far as one can see “under the
sun.” know not anything—See 1 Samuel 20:39; 2 Samuel 15:11.
Text used by materialists. Link with Job 3:13, Job 3:16; Job 10:18; Job 20:6-8;
Psalms 39:13; Psalms 6:5; Isaiah 38:18; Psalms 146:3-4; Psalms 49:19-20; Malachi
4:1-3. Note that these texts only have to do with man and the things of
earth—the death is that of the body—and so far as man under the sun can see he
disappears forever. But Christ brought life and incorruptibility to light
through the gospel.
Ecclesiastes 9:14-15 The forgotten deliverer. A glimpse of Christ!
Ecclesiastes 10:1-20 Commendation of sobriety, integrity, moderation, etc.
Ecclesiastes 10:4 Yieldingness. Php 4:5.
Ecclesiastes 10:8 There is a law of retribution in life that man cannot turn
aside.
Ecclesiastes 10:15 Unable to find the way.
Ecclesiastes 10:16 See Isaiah 3:4 and Isaiah 3:12.
Ecclesiastes 11:1 See Ecclesiastes 11:6. See Isaiah 32:20.
Ecclesiastes 11:2 The highest conclusions of human wisdom.
Ecclesiastes 12:1-14 God should be sought for Himself alone.
Ecclesiastes 12:3 keepers—hands strong—legs grinders—teeth look out of—eyes
Ecclesiastes 12:4 doors shall be shut—ears grinding—eating Ecclesiastes 12:5
almond tree—white hair
Ecclesiastes 12:6 silver cord—spinal cord golden bowl—brain pitcher—heart [last
part] circulation of the blood
All Failing
Ecclesiastes 12:7 The Spirit whether of the saved or lost has to do directly
with God—the Father of Spirits—the God of the spirits of all flesh.
Ecclesiastes 12:14 The Day of Judgment. Romans 1:32.
Song Of Solomon The Book of Communion—the mutual love of the king and his
bride—Solomon a type of Christ. Ephesians 5:25-26. A maiden of Israel—a
shepherdess whose heart is won by a stranger-shepherd who is really the king of
Israel.
Song of Solomon 1:1-17, Song of Solomon 2:1-17, Song of Solomon 3:1-5 Division
1—The rapture of first love. 1 The bride of the king—The soul’s awakening.
Song of Solomon 1:6 black—i.e., sunburnt.
Song of Solomon 1:7 Question 1—Seven questions asked in this song. See Song of
Solomon 3:3.
Song of Solomon 1:13-17 With the king in the bower—conjugal love.
Song of Solomon 2:1-17 The soul’s appreciation.
Song of Solomon 2:8-10 The shepherd’s fiancee waiting for the coming of the
bridegroom.
Song of Solomon 3:1-11 The soul’s yearning.
Song of Solomon 3:1-4 She dreams that she is searching for her shepherd-lover.
Song of Solomon 3:3 [last part] Question 2—See Song of Solomon 3:6.
Song of Solomon 3:4 I held him—As the babe clings to its mother—but it is the
mother’s arms that hold it.
Song of Solomon 3:6-11, Song of Solomon 4:1-16, Song of Solomon 5:1 Division
2—Nuptial rejoicing.
Song of Solomon 3:6 The king comes to claim her. Question 3—See Song of Solomon
5:3.
Heaven today is filled with the fragrance of the Cross of Christ.
It is the Lord in resurrection here in view.
Song of Solomon 4:1-16 The soul’s approval.
Song of Solomon 4:1-7 The shepherd-king expresses his delight in his bride.
Song of Solomon 4:8 Communion and separation. The “honeymoon.”
Shenir—part of Mount Hermon. See Deuteronomy 3:9; 1 Chronicles 5:23; Ezekiel
27:5.
Song of Solomon 4:12-15 The enclosed well-watered garden—Genesis 2:10; Isaiah
58:11; Jeremiah 31:12.
Song of Solomon 4:16—Song of Solomon 5:16 The soul’s fruitfulness and exercises.
Song of Solomon 5:2-16, Song of Solomon 6:1-13, Song of Solomon 7:1-13, Song of
Solomon 8:1-14 Division 3—Separation and reunion.
Song of Solomon 5:2-8 She dreams again of communion interrupted.
Song of Solomon 5:3 Question 4—See ch. Song of Solomon 5:9.
Song of Solomon 5:9 Question 5—See Song of Solomon 6:1 for part two.
Song of Solomon 6:1-13 The soul’s delight. Communion restored.
Song of Solomon 6:1 Question 5, part two. See Song of Solomon 5:10.
Song of Solomon 6:10 Question 6. See Song of Solomon 8:5.
Song of Solomon 6:10-13 Reflecting him as she walks in his company.
Song of Solomon 6:13 Second part of question 6.
Song of Solomon 7:1-13 The soul’s fellowship. Communion enjoyed.
Song of Solomon 7:5 Tresses—the glory of a woman is her hair.
Song of Solomon 7:11 Fellowship in loving service.
Song of Solomon 8:1-14 The soul’s union. The bride’s sense of her
inferiority—His gracious response.
Song of Solomon 8:5 Question 7.
Song of Solomon 8:6 Everlasting love—Jeremiah 31:3. See Exodus 28:29; John
15:13.
Song of Solomon 8:7 most vehement flame—flame of Jah.
Song of Solomon 8:11 Remembering the past.
Isaiah Isaiah 1:1 2 Chronicles 29:8.
Isaiah 1:13 Empty worship. Empty religion. Hosea 10:1; James 1:26; Matthew 15:9.
Isaiah 1:15 When it is no use to pray. Proverbs 28:9.
Isaiah 2:2 Micah 4:1-3.
Isaiah 2:3 Out of Zion. See Romans 11:26 and Isaiah 27:9.
Isaiah 2:4 Contrast Joel 3:10.
Isaiah 2:19 See the sixth seal, Revelation 6:1-17.
Isaiah 5:8, Isaiah 5:11, Isaiah 5:18, Isaiah 5:20-22;
Isaiah 6:5 Seven woes.
Isaiah 7:14 The Virgin’s Son to be the sign of Judah’s deliverance. But not in
Ahaz’ day. See Isaiah 9:6-7. virgin—Almah found six other places in O.T. Genesis
24:43; Exodus 2:8; Psalms 68:25; Song of Solomon 1:3; Song of Solomon 6:8;
Proverbs 30:19. Always a pure maiden.
Isaiah 8:7 An army likened to a river. See Isaiah 18:2.
Isaiah 8:9 The last great confederation to be of no avail.
Isaiah 8:13-14 The stone identified with Jehovah.
Isaiah 8:19-20 Spiritism forbidden of God.
Isaiah 9:2 When the Light of World was there!
Isaiah 9:6 God manifest. Faith’s appropriation of the promise of Isaiah 7:14.
Isaiah 10:5 The last Assyrian coming against Jerusalem in the days of the final
apostasy under antichrist.
Isaiah 10:12 The Assyrian to be dealt with by God in the time of the end.
Isaiah 10:20 The restoration of the remnant of Israel in the last days.
Isaiah 10:24 The message to the remnant.
Isaiah 11:1 Messiah, the Branch. See Jeremiah 23:5.
Isaiah 11:2 The seven spirits of God. Revelation 1:1-20.
Isaiah 12:3 “Wells of Salvation.” John 4:1-54 and John 7:1-53.
Isaiah 13:13 “Yet once more.” See Hebrews 12:26-27.
Isaiah 13:19 Babylon’s doom through the Medes—final—never to be restored.
Isaiah 14:2 [last part] Leading captivity captive—Psalms 68:18; Ephesians 4:8,
Judges 5:12.
Isaiah 14:9-11 Consciousness in Sheol.
Isaiah 14:12 Lucifer’s fall. See Ezekiel 28:12.
Isaiah 14:25 The last Assyrian, the king of the north. Daniel 11:1-45.
Isaiah 15:5 [first part] Moab began at Zoar.
Isaiah 17:6 The vine and the olive tree never to be totally destroyed. See
Romans 11:1-36.
Isaiah 17:10 Palestine to be denuded of its forests and orchards.
Isaiah 18:2 vessels of bulrushes—vessels that suck up water.
Isaiah 19:3 [last part] Is this the Turk?
Isaiah 19:7 paper reeds—papyrus.
Isaiah 19:19 An altar in Egypt to Jehovah.
Isaiah 21:2 The advance of the Persians and Medes upon Babylon foreseen.
Isaiah 22:13 [last part] Also written by a Greek poet in later years.
Isaiah 22:14 [last part] Sin unto death.
Isaiah 22:22 See the letter to Philadelphia. Revelation 3:1-22.
Isaiah 23:15 one king—i.e., Nebuchadnezzar.
Isaiah 24:13 The remnant in the great tribulation.
Isaiah 25:1-12 A psalm of praise.
Isaiah 25:8 See Revelation 7:1-17.
Isaiah 26:12 “God that worketh in you.” Php 2:1-30.
Isaiah 27:1The binding of Satan. Revelation 20:1-2.
Isaiah 27:3 Israel: Jehovah’s vineyard again under His care.
Isaiah 27:13 The great trumpet. The true feast of trumpets at last!
Isaiah 28:10 Line upon line. See this illustrated in the frequent repetitions of
the sacrificial ritual.
Isaiah 28:13 All God’s instruction misused.
Isaiah 28:15 The 7-year covenant of Daniel 9:1-27. Isaiah 24:5. See Isaiah 28:18
of this chapter.
Isaiah 28:20 The restless sleeper.
Isaiah 29:8 The disappointed dreamer—empty lives and empty religion—Hosea 10:1;
Isaiah 1:13; James 1:26.
Isaiah 29:10-12 The attitude of many towards the Book of Revelation—But see
Revelation 22:10.
Isaiah 29:20-21 The reprover hated. Amos 5:10.
Isaiah 30:18 God waits till the right time. We must wait too.
Isaiah 30:21 Hosea 11:3 Guidance. Proverbs 3:6. By the Word of God.
Isaiah 32:6 [last part], 8 Error cannot feed the soul, however much the
intellect may delight in it.
Isaiah 32:17 Righteousness the ground of peace. Hebrews 7:2.
Isaiah 32:20 Ecclesiastes 11:1, Ecclesiastes 11:6.
Isaiah 34:4 Compare the sixth seal in Revelation 6:1-17.
Isaiah 34:5 See Zechariah 13:7.
Isaiah 36:1-22; Isaiah 37:1-38; Isaiah 38:1-22; Isaiah 39:1-8 Historical
parenthesis.
Isaiah 37:14 The letter of blasphemy. Contrast Isaiah 39:1.
Isaiah 38:20 The Jews call Psalms 120:1-7; Psalms 121:1-8; Psalms 122:1-9;
Psalms 123:1-4; Psalms 124:1-8; Psalms 125:1-5; Psalms 126:1-6; Psalms 127:1-5;
Psalms 128:1-6; Psalms 129:1-8; Psalms 130:1-8; Psalms 131:1-3; Psalms 132:1-18;
Psalms 133:1-3; Psalms 134:1-3; Psalms 135:1-21; Psalms 136:1-26; Psalms 137:1-9
“Hezekiah’s Song Book.”
Isaiah 39:1-8 Letters and a present. Contrast Isaiah 37:4.
Isaiah 40:1-131; Isaiah 41:1-29; Isaiah 42:1-25; Isaiah 43:1-28; Isaiah 44:1-28;
Isaiah 45:1-25; Isaiah 46:1-13; Isaiah 47:1-15; Isaiah 48:1-22 Jehovah’s
controversy with idols.
Isaiah 40:8 1 Peter 1:25.
Isaiah 40:9-10, Isaiah 40:13 The Trinity—Isaiah 40:9 your God.—Isaiah 40:10 the
Lord God Jehovah, who is the Shepherd-King.—Isaiah 40:13 the Spirit of the Lord.
See Isaiah 48:16.
Isaiah 40:31 Eagles do not go in flocks. If you would mount up as an eagle, you
must be willing to go alone.
Isaiah 41:21-22 Jehovah’s challenge to the idol priests and the false prophet.
Isaiah 41:23 “Things to come” only to be made known by the Spirit of God.
Isaiah 43:9-12 Israel’s history, the witness to the truth of the prophetic word.
See also Isaiah 44:8.
Isaiah 43:13 2 Thessalonians 2:6.
Isaiah 44:3 Water and the Spirit.
Isaiah 45:2 Christ can make all our crooked places straight.
Isaiah 45:3 He opens the doors by His omnipotent power. See the message to
Philadelphia, Revelation 3:1-22.
Isaiah 45:13 Referring to Cyrus the Great.
Isaiah 45:15 See this illustrated in the Book of Esther.
Isaiah 45:18 The earth not created a waste—bohu—void—in vain—See Genesis 1:1-2.
Isaiah 45:22 Look—Heb. panah—to turn. To look to Him is to trust—to turn from
all else.
Isaiah 46:1-2 Fleeing from their foes with their idols. The gods of the heathen
have to be carried. The true God carries His people.
Isaiah 46:9-10 See Psalms 119:160.
Isaiah 46:13 Righteousness to be brought by the gospel.
Isaiah 47:1-15 Literal Babylon—compare spiritual Babylon in Revelation 17:1-18,
Revelation 18:1-24.
Isaiah 48:1 Pride of position, but in a wretchedly unspiritual condition.
Isaiah 4:5 Through Moses in Leviticus 27:1-34.
Isaiah 48:12 See the Alpha and Omega in Revelation 1:1-20.
Isaiah 48:16 The divine Trinity.
Isaiah 48:17 See Isaiah 40:9-13.
Isaiah 48:18 Psalms 81:1-16.
Isaiah 48:22 The end of Jehovah’s controversy with idols.
Isaiah 49:1-26; Isaiah 50:1-11; Isaiah 51:1-23; Isaiah 52:1-15; Isaiah 53:1-12;
Isaiah 54:1-17; Isaiah 55:1-13; Isaiah 56:1-12; Isaiah 57:1-21 The rejection of
the true servant of Jehovah.
Isaiah 49:3-4 Christ taking His place as the true Israel.
Isaiah 49:5 Rejected by the nation.
Isaiah 49:6 A Saviour of the Gentiles.
Isaiah 49:12 Sinim is generally identified with China or the Far East.
Isaiah 49:14-17 Zion is ever before God and dear to His heart, even during all
the years of Israel’s blindness and the desolation of the land.
Isaiah 49:18-19 Future restoration and blessing.
Isaiah 49:22 The return to God and to the land in the last days.
Isaiah 50:4 Psalms 40:6. The ear opened.—Discipleship. See Exodus 21:1-36.
Isaiah 51:5 God’s righteousness (Romans). See Isaiah 46:12-13; Isaiah 56:1.
Isaiah 52:1-15 The restoration of Israel to God and to the land in the new age.
Isaiah 52:3 See their complaint in Psalms 44:12.
Isaiah 52:13-15 The suffering Servant—His humiliation and exaltation.
Isaiah 53:1-3 The Servant before God and man.
Isaiah 53:4-6 The atoning Saviour.
Isaiah 53:7-9 His mock trial, death, and burial.
Isaiah 53:9 His grave was appointed with the wicked but He lay with the rich in
His death.
Isaiah 53:10-12 The sinner’s Substitute—His Resurrection and its results.
Isaiah 54:1-17 Israel’s future blessing based on the atonement of Christ.
Isaiah 54:1 He suffered that His redeemed might be able to sing for joy.
Isaiah 55:1 The gospel invitation.
Isaiah 56:1 The righteousness of God. See Isaiah 46:13; Isaiah 51:5; Isaiah
59:16.
Isaiah 56:8 other sheep have I.—John 10:1-42.
Isaiah 56:10 dumb dogs—Beware of dogs—Php 3:2.
Isaiah 57:15 Eternity—Only place in the English Bible.
Isaiah 57:19 the fruit of the lips—Hebrews 13:15; Psalms 119:108.
Isaiah 58:1-14; Isaiah 59:1-21; Isaiah 60:1-22; Isaiah 61:1-11; Isaiah 62:1-12;
Isaiah 63:1-19; Isaiah 64:1-12; Isaiah 65:1-25; Isaiah 66:1-24 The end of the
Lord’s controversies with Israel— Their restoration, conversion, and millennial
blessing.
Isaiah 58:9 Conditions upon which God answers prayer. Contrast Proverbs
24:11-12.
Isaiah 58:11 a watered garden—Genesis 2:10; Isaiah 27:2-3; Song of Solomon 4:15;
Jeremiah 31:12.
Isaiah 59:5-6 adder’s eggs and spider’s webs—Psalms 58:4; Psalms 140:3. See Job
8:14.
Isaiah 59:19 The restrainer. 2 Thessalonians 2:1-17.
Isaiah 60:1-22 Millennial glory following upon the repentance of Israel.
Isaiah 61:1-3 The anointed Saviour:1—the anointing, 2—the purpose of the
anointing, 3—the results of the preaching.
Isaiah 61:3 ashes—All the joys of life have burnt out.
Isaiah 62:1 The burning lamp. See Genesis 15:17.
Isaiah 62:5 [last part] Canticles.
Isaiah 63:1-19 Judgment on the nations that have rejected the gospel —the
precursor to Israel’s blessing.
Isaiah 63:10-14 The Holy Spirit in the O.T. A divine person who might be “vexed”
and who led the people and was “put within” some of them. See note at Ephesians
4:32. The Spirit of God in the wilderness (Nehemiah 9:20); in Moses —and with
the people in the land.
Isaiah 64:1-12 Confession and prayer of the remnant.
Isaiah 63:1 Removing mountains—Matthew 21:21, Matthew 21:23; Mark 11:23;
Zechariah 4:7.
Isaiah 65:3 altars of brick—human limitations.
Isaiah 66:4 [first clause] judicial darkness. 2 Thessalonians 2:1-17.
Isaiah 66:5 High exclusive claims.
Isaiah 66:7 Israel the mother of the man-child. Revelation 12:1-17; Jeremiah
4:31.
Isaiah 66:17 Sanctified to do iniquity.
Jeremiah
Jeremiah prophesied prior to the finding the book of the Law (2 Chronicles
34:1-33) in the days of Josiah—and continued to the end of Judah’s occupation of
the land—100 years later than Isaiah. Later than Hosea, Joel, Amos, Micah,
Nahum, Jonah. Contemporary with Zephaniah, Habakkuk, Obadiah, and Ezekiel.
Daniel studied Jeremiah (Daniel 9:1-27).
Jeremiah 1:1-19, Jeremiah 2:1-37, Jeremiah 3:1-25, Jeremiah 4:1-31, Jeremiah
5:1-31, Jeremiah 6:1-30, Jeremiah 7:1-34, Jeremiah 8:1-22, Jeremiah 9:1-26,
Jeremiah 10:1-25, Jeremiah 11:1-23, Jeremiah 12:1-17, Jeremiah 13:1-27, Jeremiah
14:1-22, Jeremiah 15:1-21, Jeremiah 16:1-21, Jeremiah 17:1-27, Jeremiah 18:1-23,
Jeremiah 19:1-15, Jeremiah 20:1-18, Jeremiah 21:1-14, Jeremiah 22:1-30, Jeremiah
23:1-40, Jeremiah 24:1-10 Division 1—Jehovah’s pleading with His erring
people—”A vessel chosen and fitted.”
Jeremiah 1:5 Jeremiah’s call.
Jeremiah 1:6 Compare with Moses.
Jeremiah 1:9 Isaiah’s was the touch of cleansing. Jeremiah’s is the touch of
power.
Jeremiah 1:10 Note the authority connected with the prophetic office. Consider
Paul—Peter—Savonarola—Gregory of Armenia—John Knox—Calvin—Luther—etc.
Jeremiah 1:11 almond tree—“hastening tree.”
Jeremiah 1:12 The pledge of reassurance.
Jeremiah 1:13-16 The judgment Judah must endure from the north—Chaldea, etc.
Jeremiah 2:1-37, Jeremiah 3:1-5 Entreaty and warning.
Jeremiah 2:2 Their first love. Connect with “Ephesus” in Revelation 2:1-29.
Jeremiah 2:7 Contrast with our inheritance—1 Peter 1:4.
Jeremiah 2:13 See John 4:14; John 7:37, John 7:39—God Himself will break every
cistern we make if we forsake Him.
Jeremiah 2:17 Reaping as they sowed.
Jeremiah 2:24 The wild ass—the unregenerate man.
Jeremiah 2:26 Not ashamed of the sin, but of its discovery.
Jeremiah 2:27-28 No right to count on God in the day of trouble if not walking
with Him before the trouble comes.
Jeremiah 3:3 Deuteronomy 11:14—The latter rain withheld because of idolatry. See
Jeremiah 5:24.
Jeremiah 3:6-25, Jeremiah 4:1-31, Jeremiah 5:1-31, Jeremiah 6:1-30 Future glory
conditioned upon repentance.
Jeremiah 3:7 Only one king of Israel is said to have sought the Lord—Jehoahaz. 2
Kings 13:4-5.
Jeremiah 3:8-11 There was much that was unreal in the great revival under
Josiah.
Jeremiah 3:12-13 Confession demanded as a prelude to blessing.
Jeremiah 3:16 Last mention of the Ark in the O.T.
Jeremiah 3:19 [first part] Repentance predicted—The Need of New Birth.
Jeremiah 4:1-2 The need of reality. Jehovah’s response to the cry of anguish in
the previous chapter.
Jeremiah 4:3 A good word for the evangelist!
Jeremiah 4:5-13 Vision of the invading army. Nebuchadnezzar and his Chaldean
army.
Jeremiah 4:14 The only door of escape unheeded, so the judgment must fall.
Jeremiah 4:23-31 The coming desolation of the land at the Babylonian conquest
and at the time of the end.
Jeremiah 5:1 Looking for one to stand in the breach.
Jeremiah 5:14 See the two witnesses of Revelation 11:5. Jeremiah 20:9.
Jeremiah 5:18-21 Judah to be carried back to the very land from which God had
called Abraham, because of unfaithfulness to the truth.
Jeremiah 5:24 Jeremiah 3:3—Israel exhorted to recognize the Giver of the latter
rain—See Hosea 6:3.
Jeremiah 5:30-31 The apostate condition fully exposed.
Jeremiah 6:1 Call to separation addressed to the Benjamites.
Jeremiah 6:4 The declining day!
Jeremiah 6:14 No peace.
Jeremiah 6:15 No shame.
Jeremiah 6:16 The old way and the old paths—See Proverbs 14:12.
Jeremiah 6:18 The nation called to witness the righteousness of the Lord’s
dealings.
Jeremiah 7:1-14; Jeremiah 8:1-22; Jeremiah 9:1-26; Jeremiah 10:1-25 “What
agreement hath the Temple of God with idols?” Judgment must begin at the house
of God.
Jeremiah 7:1-7 The defilement of the sanctuary.
Jeremiah 7:4 No time for high exclusive claims.
Jeremiah 7:5-7 Great pretensions while neglecting righteousness—2 Timothy
2:22—“Follow righteousness.”
Jeremiah 7:8-16 The divorce of position from condition.
Jeremiah 7:11 Referred to by our Lord in Matthew 21:13, linked with Isaiah 56:7.
Jeremiah 7:12 Jerusalem to be left desolate as Shiloh.
Jeremiah 7:16 Sin unto death—Too late for prayer to be of any avail.
Jeremiah 7:17-20 The Babylonian cult set up in Jerusalem. Astarte or Ashtaroth
(Semiramis) worship.
Jeremiah 7:21-28 Sacrifices of no value while living in sin.
Jeremiah 7:28 No heed to the prophetic message.
Jeremiah 7:29-34 Terrible retribution coming.
Jeremiah 7:31 The origin of Gehenna (outside Jerusalem) used by Christ as a
picture of eternal judgment. See Jeremiah 19:4-8.
Jeremiah 8:1-3 Unsparing judgment.
Jeremiah 8:3 Choosing death. Deuteronomy 30:19.
Jeremiah 8:4-12 Jerusalem given up to perpetual backsliding.
Jeremiah 8:6-19 Not saved Jeremiah 8:20 Why?
(1) Unrepentant Jeremiah 8:6.
(2) Unobservant Jeremiah 8:7—Nature would have instructed —but they heeded not.
(3) Pride of intellect—the Word rejected Jeremiah 8:8.
(4) Self-deceived Jeremiah 8:10.
(5) Utterly shameless Jeremiah 8:12.
(6) Carnal optimism Jeremiah 8:15.
(7) Religious formality Jeremiah 8:19.
Jeremiah 8:9 A word for modernists.
Jeremiah 8:13-17 Unsparing judgment.
Jeremiah 8:18-22 A lamentation over the awful state of the people.
Jeremiah 8:20 Not saved.
Jeremiah 8:22 Three Questions: Balm in Gilead.
1—Is there no remedy? Answer: God’s Word: “He sent His Word and healed
them”—Psalms 107:20. His wounds—“by His stripes—healed”—Isaiah 53:5. His
wings—“healing in His wings”—Malachi 4:2. His ways—“as they went—healed”—Luke
17:14.
2—Is there no physician? Answer: Christ.
3—Why not healed? The remedy refused.
Jeremiah 9:1-8 Jeremiah’s identification with the erring people.
Jeremiah 9:9-11 Jerusalem’s desolation.
Jeremiah 9:12-16 A challenge to consider these things.
Jeremiah 9:17-22 Time to mourn.
Jeremiah 9:23-24 True glory is to know the Lord.
Jeremiah 9:25-26 “No difference.”
Jeremiah 10:1-25 The Folly of Idolatry—Compare Isaiah 44:1-28.
Jeremiah 10:23 Self-judgment—Proverbs 4:26; Proverbs 5:21; Proverbs 20:24.
Jeremiah 11:1-23; Jeremiah 12:1-17 The burned branches and the swelling of
Jordan. Jehovah’s expostulation—Jeremiah 11:1-23.
Jeremiah 11:4 The iron furnace—See Abraham’s vision—Genesis 15:17.
[last part] Law—demands then gives. Grace gives and beseeches.
Jeremiah 11:11 Useless to pray if determined upon disobedience—Jeremiah 14:11.
Jeremiah 11:14 Sin unto death—1 John 5:16.
Jeremiah 11:16 The olive tree—compare with Romans 11:16-26.
Jeremiah 11:18-20 Jeremiah speaks for the godly remnant. The tree to be
preserved though the branches be destroyed.
Jeremiah 12:1-17 Jeremiah’s intercession—Compare with Habakkuk 1:12.
Jeremiah 13:1-27 The marred girdle—the girdle the sign of service— Israel set
aside as an unprofitable servant and must be carried to Babylon.
Jeremiah 13:9-10 Judah to be carried to the valley of the Euphrates and
chastised there for the sin of idolatry.
Jeremiah 13:16 Natural darkness—Ephesians. Wilful darkness—John 3:1-36. Judicial
darkness—Jeremiah 15:1-21. Eternal darkness—Jude. Judicial darkness because of
light rejected. Compare with 2 Thessalonians 2:11-12—Isaiah 66:4.
Jeremiah 13:18 Jehoiakim and his consort directly addressed.
Jeremiah 13:23 The trouble is in the nature of man.
Jeremiah 14:1-22 Dialogue between God and Jeremiah.
Jeremiah 14:1-22; Jeremiah 15:1-21 Famine—temporal and spiritual.
Jeremiah 14:1-6 The real famine was within.
Jeremiah 14:7-9 Confession and prayer.
Jeremiah 14:10-12 God’s answer.
Jeremiah 14:11 Too late for prayer.
Jeremiah 14:13-17 False prophets give false comfort.
Jeremiah 14:17-22 The prophet’s complaint.
Jeremiah 15:1-9 Jehovah’s answer.
Jeremiah 15:1 No hope of deliverance.
Jeremiah 15:4 Literally fulfilled.
Jeremiah 15:10 Jeremiah’s complaint.
Separation the path of the faithful.
Jeremiah 15:11-14 Jehovah’s answer.
Jeremiah 15:15-18 Jeremiah’s protestation.
Jeremiah 15:16 The Word and the Name—Eating the Word—See Ezekiel
3:1-3—Revelation 10:8-11.
Jeremiah 15:19-21 Jehovah’s promise.
Jeremiah 15:20 The separated man a witness for God.
Jeremiah 15:21 Redemption.
Jeremiah 16:1-21; Jeremiah 17:1-27 Apostasy till there is no remedy.
Jeremiah 16:7 The O.T. reference to the breaking of bread. See Psalms 45:17.
Jeremiah 16:14-15 The predicted return—See Jeremiah 31:36.
Jeremiah 17:1 Sin where the blood should be—See Leviticus 4:7, Leviticus 4:18,
Leviticus 4:25 and Leviticus 4:30.
Jeremiah 17:9 The deceitful heart of man—Illustration: Benedict Arnold wrote
Miss Shippen, afterwards his 2d wife: “I daily discover so much baseness and
ingratitude among mankind, that I almost blush at being of the same species.”
Jeremiah 7:20-27 The sabbath a test of the true condition of the people.
Jeremiah 18:1-23; Jeremiah 19:1-15 Lessons from the potter’s house.
Jeremiah 18:1-17 The message.
Jeremiah 18:14 [last clause] i.e., Had the snows of Lebanon ceased to supply the
cold flowing spring?
Jeremiah 18:18-23 The message rejected.
Jeremiah 19:1-15 The second message.
Jeremiah 19:6 Tophet: the Valley of Hinnom. Gehenna—See Jeremiah 7:31.
Jeremiah 20:1-18 Pashur the false prophet opposes.
Jeremiah 20:2 Jeremiah arrested.
Jeremiah 20:14 Compare with Job 3:1-26.
Jeremiah 21:1-14; Jeremiah 22:1-30; Jeremiah 23:1-40; Jeremiah 24:1-10 The siege
and captivity foretold.
Jeremiah 21:2 When it is no use to pray—See Proverbs 1:1-33.
Jeremiah 22:1-13 The doom of the kings of Judah. Four false shepherds to be
destroyed.
Jeremiah 22:11 Shallum—referring to Shallum or Jehoahaz, who had been carried to
Egypt.
Jeremiah 22:30 [first part] The curse of Coniah: If Jesus were Joseph’s natural
son He would be barred from the throne of David, but as Son of Mary by divine
generation He inherits the throne. See the two genealogies— Matthew 1:1-25 and
Luke 3:1-38.
Jeremiah 23:1-40 The true King.
Jeremiah 23:18 Quoted from in 1 Corinthians 2:16.
Jeremiah 23:21 False prophets misleading a credulous people.
Jeremiah 23:28-29 The Word of God in contrast to idle dreams. Fire and hammer.
Jeremiah 24:1-10 The good and bad figs. A judicial summing up.
Jeremiah 25:1-38, Jeremiah 26:1-24, Jeremiah 27:1-22, Jeremiah 28:1-17, Jeremiah
29:1-32, Jeremiah 30:1-24, Jeremiah 31:1-40, Jeremiah 32:1-44, Jeremiah 33:1-26,
Jeremiah 34:1-22, Jeremiah 35:1-19, Jeremiah 36:1-32, Jeremiah 37:1-21, Jeremiah
38:1-28, Jeremiah 39:1-18, Jeremiah 40:1-16, Jeremiah 41:1-18, Jeremiah 42:1-22,
Jeremiah 43:1-13, Jeremiah 44:1-30, Jeremiah 45:1-5, Jeremiah 46:1-28, Jeremiah
47:1-7, Jeremiah 48:1-47, Jeremiah 49:1-39, Jeremiah 50:1-46, Jeremiah 51:1-64
Division 2—Judgment executed because the people refuse to hearken.
Jeremiah 25:1-38 The seventy years’ captivity foretold.
Jeremiah 25:11 The seventy years’ servitude. See Daniel 9:2. Distinguish between
the 70 years’ servitude and the 70 years’ desolations.
Jeremiah 25:29 Compare 1 Peter 4:17.
Jeremiah 26:1-24 Danger and deliverance.
Jeremiah 26:11 Indignation against the “pessimist.”
Jeremiah 27:1-22; Jeremiah 28:1-17 Bonds and yokes.
Jeremiah 27:1 Jehoiakim—See R. V. Zedekiah—copyist’s error.
Jeremiah 27:6 The beginning of the times of the Gentiles. See Daniel 2:1-49. The
head of gold. For the end, see Luke 21:1-38.
Jeremiah 27:15 Linking the sacred Name with their own dreamings —See Jeremiah
29:9.
Jeremiah 27:22 The return of the vessels. See Ezra 1:1-11.
Jeremiah 28:1-17 The false prophet, Hananiah.
Jeremiah 28:3, Jeremiah 28:11 Time prophecies always a trap unless the prophet
be divinely inspired.
Jeremiah 29:1-32 The prophet’s letter to the first of the captivity (under
Jehoiachin). The seventy years are the length of one Babylonian empire. They
began B.C. 606 with the servitude of 2 Kings 24:1.
Jeremiah 29:14 The predicted return, Jeremiah 30:3.
Jeremiah 30:1-24; Jeremiah 31:1-40 Dispensational—Jacob’s trouble and the
restoration to follow.
Jeremiah 30:7 The great tribulation—Matthew 24:1-51; Revelation 7:1-17.
Jeremiah 31:15 Fulfilled when Herod sought to kill the infant Jesus.
Jeremiah 31:20 See the entire prophecy of Hosea.
Jeremiah 31:31 The new covenant—Hebrews 10:1-39. Note—It is to be made with
Israel and Judah—not with the Church.
Jeremiah 31:36 Israel’s Restoration. See Ezekiel 36:23. The unbreakable
covenant. See Jeremiah 23:35.
Jeremiah 31:38-40 The new city—See Zechariah 14:10. The corner of Hananeel has
already been uncovered.
Jeremiah 32:1-44; Jeremiah 33:1-26 Jeremiah’s imprisonment.
Jeremiah 32:10 The sealed title deed.
Jeremiah 32:11 Key to the sealed book in Revelation 5:1-14.
Jeremiah 32:17 Answer to God’s question—Genesis 18:14.
Jeremiah 32:35 They would do for their idols what they would never do for God
and what He would never ask of them.
Jeremiah 34:1-22 Bondage in place of liberty. A jubilee proclaimed and then
rescinded.
Jeremiah 35:1-19 The house of the Rechabites.
Jeremiah 36:1-32 The Word of God rejected.
Jeremiah 36:23 The man who knifed the Word of God! The first destructive critic
on record.
Jeremiah 36:32 Compare and contrast—Revelation 22:18-19.
Jeremiah 37:1-21; Jeremiah 38:1-28; Jeremiah 39:1-18 The fall of Jerusalem.
Jeremiah 37:3, Jeremiah 37:17 No use to pray when walking in disobedience.
Jeremiah 38:4 What passes for patriotism in opposition to God’s truth.
Jeremiah 38:7 The faithfulness of Ebed-melech: a Negro.
Jeremiah 38:19 “The fear of man bringeth a snare.”
Jeremiah 39:7 The man who would not see when he could, now cannot see when he
would. Ezekiel 12:13.
Jeremiah 40:1-16; Jeremiah 41:1-18; Jeremiah 42:1-22; Jeremiah 43:1-13; Jeremiah
44:1-30 The remnant left in the land.
Jeremiah 40:14 Gedaliah—a guileless man.
Jeremiah 41:1-18 Ishmael’s treachery.
Jeremiah 41:6 What a hypocrite!
Jeremiah 41:17 Chimham—Tradition connects this with the inn in which Jesus was
born.
Jeremiah 42:2-3 Insincere in their request. No use to pray if there be not
reality. See Jeremiah 42:20.
Jeremiah 43:4 Wilful disobedience in going down to Egypt.
Jeremiah 44:3-4 Idolatry—the sin that God hated above all others.
Jeremiah 44:15-19 The folly of depending on experience in place of obedience to
the Word of God. A common mistake in all dispensations. Faith in, and obedience
to the Word of God. See Jeremiah 7:18-19.
Jeremiah 45:1-5 The Word to Baruch.
Jeremiah 46:1-28; Jeremiah 47:1-7; Jeremiah 48:1-47; Jeremiah 49:1-39 God’s Word
to the nations.
Jeremiah 46:2 Egypt (1).
Jeremiah 46:7-8 Armies symbolized by rivers and overflowing floods.
Jeremiah 46:27-28 Israel to be punished but preserved by God.
Jeremiah 47:1 Philistia (2).
Jeremiah 47:6 The sword of the Lord—Zechariah 13:7—Ezekiel 21:3.
Jeremiah 48:1 Moab (3).
Jeremiah 48:37 Hair—the strength of nature.
Jeremiah 48:38 vessel wherein is no pleasure—Romans 9:1-33. Vessels of wrath.
Jeremiah 48:45 See the prophecy of Balaam—Numbers 21:28.
Jeremiah 48:46-47 Moab’s doom—compare the prophecy of Balaam—Numbers 24:17.
Jeremiah 49:1 Ammon (4).
Jeremiah 49:2 [last part] Captivity to be led captive.
Jeremiah 49:7 Edom (5). Connect with Obadiah.
Jeremiah 49:11 Insurance—A wonderful promise in the midst of words of judgment.
Jeremiah 49:23 Syria (6).
Jeremiah 49:28 Arabia (7).
Jeremiah 49:34 Elam (8).
Jeremiah 50:1-46; Jeremiah 51:1-64 Doom of Babylon and Judah’s deliverance.
Jeremiah 50:15 Righteous retribution.
Jeremiah 50:38 Babylon the mother of idolatry.
Jeremiah 50:39 Literally fulfilled for many centuries.
Jeremiah 51:6 The call to flee is given in mercy. It is not legal. See Jeremiah
51:45. Connect with Revelation 17:1-18.
Jeremiah 51:20 Israel: Jehovah’s battle ax.
Jeremiah 51:25 Connect with Revelation 8:8.
Jeremiah 51:37-39 All literally fulfilled through the centuries.
Jeremiah 51:45 The call to separation. See Jeremiah 51:6.
Jeremiah 52:1-34 Historical appendix by another hand. Compare with Jeremiah
39:1-18.
Jeremiah 52:28 The servitude.
Jeremiah 52:29 The captivity.
Jeremiah 52:30 The desolations.
Lamentations The prophet’s grief over the fulfilment of what he had himself
predicted. The Spirit of Christ entering into all the afflictions of His people.
Lamentations 1:1-22 The desolations of Jerusalem. An acrostic—each verse starts
with a letter of the Hebrew alphabet.
Lamentations 1:3 No rest!
Lamentations 1:6 No pasture!
Lamentations 1:9 No comforter!
Lamentations 1:12-13 The Spirit of Christ speaking in the prophet.
Lamentations 2:1-22 The day of the Lord’s anger—Same acrostic form as
Lamentations 1:1-22 and Lamentations 4:22.
Lamentations 2:4-5 As an adversary and an enemy—but not really one.
Lamentations 2:9 No Vision!
Lamentations 3:1-66 “Let us search and try our ways.”
Full manifestation of Judah’s fallen condition. The prophet fully identifies
himself with the people. Their sins are his, their woes are his. Their judgments
are shared by him. A triple acrostic. Each section of 3 verses begins with the
same letter in each verse.
Lamentations 3:8 See Lamentations 3:44.
Lamentations 3:18-20 He will never forget the wormwood and the gall.
Lamentations 3:21 Hope in the midst of deep grief.
Lamentations 3:22-23 Subjection under discipline.
Lamentations 3:31-32 Confidence in God in the hour of trial.
Lamentations 3:40 Call to repentance.
Lamentations 4:1-22 The fine gold become dim. Acrostic as Lamentations 1:1-22
and Lamentations 2:1-22.
Lamentations 4:19 “The lion with eagle’s wings.”
Lamentations 4:21 Connect with the prophecy of Obadiah.
Lamentations 5:1-22 Thou, O Lord remainest forever! The acrostic form is not
followed in this chapter.
Ezekiel The Sanctuary Book of the series—Ezekiel the priest leading us into the
presence of God. Division 1—Prophecies prior to the destruction of
Jerusalem—Ezekiel 1:1-28, Ezekiel 2:1-10, Ezekiel 3:1-27, Ezekiel 4:1-17,
Ezekiel 5:1-17, Ezekiel 6:1-14, Ezekiel 7:1-27, Ezekiel 8:1-18, Ezekiel 9:1-11,
Ezekiel 10:1-22, Ezekiel 11:1-25, Ezekiel 12:1-28, Ezekiel 13:1-23, Ezekiel
14:1-23, Ezekiel 15:1-8, Ezekiel 16:1-63, Ezekiel 17:1-24, Ezekiel 18:1-32,
Ezekiel 19:1-14, Ezekiel 20:1-49, Ezekiel 21:1-32, Ezekiel 22:1-31, Ezekiel
23:1-49, Ezekiel 24:1-27, Ezekiel 25:1-17, Ezekiel 26:1-21, Ezekiel 27:1-36,
Ezekiel 28:1-26, Ezekiel 29:1-21, Ezekiel 30:1-26, Ezekiel 31:1-18, Ezekiel
32:1-32. Division 2—Prophecies after the destruction of Jerusalem—Ezekiel
33:1-33, Ezekiel 34:1-31, Ezekiel 35:1-15, Ezekiel 36:1-38, Ezekiel 37:1-28,
Ezekiel 38:1-23, Ezekiel 39:1-29, Ezekiel 40:1-49, Ezekiel 41:1-26, Ezekiel
42:1-20, Ezekiel 43:1-27, Ezekiel 44:1-31, Ezekiel 45:1-25, Ezekiel 46:1-24,
Ezekiel 47:1-23, Ezekiel 48:1-35.
Ezekiel 1:1-28, Ezekiel 2:1-10, Ezekiel 3:1-27, Ezekiel 4:1-17, Ezekiel 5:1-17,
Ezekiel 6:1-14, Ezekiel 7:1-27, Ezekiel 8:1-18, Ezekiel 9:1-11, Ezekiel 10:1-22,
Ezekiel 11:1-25, Ezekiel 12:1-28, Ezekiel 13:1-23, Ezekiel 14:1-23, Ezekiel
15:1-8, Ezekiel 16:1-63, Ezekiel 17:1-24, Ezekiel 18:1-32, Ezekiel 19:1-14,
Ezekiel 20:1-49, Ezekiel 21:1-32, Ezekiel 22:1-31, Ezekiel 23:1-49, Ezekiel
24:1-27 Section 1—Judgments concerning Jerusalem.
Ezekiel 1:1-28; Ezekiel 2:1-10; Ezekiel 3:1-14 The vision of the glory of God
and the call to the prophetic office. The vision of the divine government. God
is over all and in all. The human linked with and controlled by the divine.
Winged directness. There are no second causes to the eye of the man of faith.
Ezekiel 1:3 the hand of the Lord was there upon him—This phrase found seven
times: Ezekiel 1:3; Ezekiel 3:14, Ezekiel 3:22; Ezekiel 8:1; Ezekiel 33:22;
Ezekiel 37:1; Ezekiel 40:1.
Ezekiel 1:4 The divine chariot.
Ezekiel 1:5 The cherubim. Intelligence—the universe is not at the mercy of
chance.
Ezekiel 1:7 brass—judgment. feet—winged stability, a sure foot.
Ezekiel 1:10 face of a man—Luke. face of a lion—Matthew. face of an ox—Mark—ox
literally cherub. See Ezekiel 10:4. face of an eagle—John. the man—intelligence.
the lion—strength and majesty. the ox—stability, dependableness, service. the
eagle—Providence, swiftness in judgment, perception. “Reason, courage, patience,
aspiration, all are winged: touched with the divine.”
Ezekiel 1:15-21 The wheels of the divine chariot. God’s ways with men on the
earth.
Ezekiel 1:16 Wheels within wheels—His ways past finding out.
Ezekiel 1:19 No turning aside the divine government.
Ezekiel 1:26 A Man upon the throne. “We see Jesus, crowned with glory and
honor.”
Ezekiel 1:28 Compare with Isaiah 6:1-10.
Ezekiel 2:1 Collapse—the result of coming into the presence of God.
Ezekiel 2:3-8 The call to the prophetic office. Ezekiel’s commission. Compare
with Isaiah, Moses, Jeremiah, Daniel, Peter, etc.
Ezekiel 2:8 Eating the Book. Compare with John in Revelation 10:1-11 and with
Jeremiah 15:16.
Ezekiel 3:3 The Word must enter into the inward parts.
Ezekiel 3:15-27; Ezekiel 4:1-17; Ezekiel 5:1-17; Ezekiel 6:1-14; Ezekiel 7:1-27
The judgment announced. Four signs.
Ezekiel 3:17 Commissioned to be a watchman.
Ezekiel 3:18-19 Compare with Paul to the Ephesian elders, Acts 20:1-38.
Ezekiel 4:1-3 The first acted-out sermon.
Ezekiel 4:4-8 The second acted-out sermon.
Ezekiel 4:5 390 Days of Israel’s apostasy.
Ezekiel 4:6 40 Days—Judah’s apostasy.
Ezekiel 4:9-12 The third acted-out sermon.
Ezekiel 4:12 bake it with—Note: Not mingle with but use as part of the fuel.
Ezekiel 4:15 Cattle chips as fuel.
Ezekiel 5:1-4 The fourth acted-out sermon.
Ezekiel 5:5 Jerusalem always in the center of the stage, as God views the
nations.
Ezekiel 5:14-15 All the centuries since have witnessed the truth of this
prophecy.
Ezekiel 8:1-18; Ezekiel 9:1-11; Ezekiel 10:1-22; Ezekiel 11:1-25 Visions
relating to Jerusalem.
Ezekiel 8:2 fire—“of a man.” In Heb. esh is “fire” and ish is “man.” See
Revelation 10:1-11.
Ezekiel 8:10 Creeping things and beasts of all kinds put in the place of God.
Romans 1:1-32.
Ezekiel 8:11 Shaphan the scribe who received from Hilkiah the book of the law
found in the Temple—2 Kings 22:8-11; Jeremiah 39:14.
Ezekiel 8:12 “Character is what a man is in the dark.”
Ezekiel 8:14 Tammuz the son of Nimrod, called by the Babylonians Dumuzi—The god
of spring vegetation who dies, goes to Hades, and returns in spring—Easter.
Ezekiel 9:1-11 The man with the inkhorn—Sealing of the faithful ones—As in the
coming great tribulation. The Word for mark is tav—the last letter of the Hebrew
alphabet. Formerly written as a cross.
Ezekiel 9:6 1 Peter 4:17.
Ezekiel 10:1-22 The coals of fire.
Ezekiel 10:2 Connect with Revelation 8:5.
Ezekiel 10:4 The slow departure of the Shekinah from the Temple.
Ezekiel 10:8 The angel of the covenant.
Ezekiel 10:12 The eyes of the Lord searching out evil.
Ezekiel 10:14 cherub—Note that what was before the face of an ox is now an
angel!
Ezekiel 10:18 The glory moving away in the divine chariot.
Ezekiel 11:1-25 Judgment on the leaders.
Ezekiel 11:13 Suddenly destroyed—no remedy.
Ezekiel 11:16-19 God to be the sanctuary of the scattered nation. Their
restoration promised when they shall be born again. John 3:1-36.
Ezekiel 11:22-24 Ichabod—the Shekinah on the Mt. of Olives. Complete withdrawal.
Whence the Lord Himself went up!
Ezekiel 12:1-28; Ezekiel 13:1-23; Ezekiel 14:1-23; Ezekiel 15:1-8; Ezekiel
16:1-63; Ezekiel 17:1-24; Ezekiel 18:1-32; Ezekiel 19:1-14 Signs, messages, and
parables.
Ezekiel 12:1-6 The sign of the evacuation of Jerusalem.
Ezekiel 12:13 [last part] Zedekiah blinded by the king of Babylon. Jeremiah
39:7.
Ezekiel 12:17-20 Sign of the affliction that was to come.
Ezekiel 12:21-28 Judgment not to be delayed.
Ezekiel 13:1-23 Against false prophets and prophetesses.
Ezekiel 14:3 Useless to pray with idols in the heart. See Ezekiel 20:2-3.
Ezekiel 14:21 See the 2d, 3d, and 4th seals of Revelation 6:1-17.
Ezekiel 15:1-8 Parable of the unfruitful vine—Contrast with the True Vine in
John 15:1-27.
Ezekiel 16:1-63 Parable of the abandoned child.
Ezekiel 16:3 i.e., Jerusalem originally a Canaanitish city, Jebus.
Ezekiel 16:6-14 It is all what He did!
Ezekiel 16:10 Only reference to badgers’ skin apart from the Tabernacle. Really
dolphin or seal skin, impervious to the elements. Typical of separation
sanctification. The feet protected from defilement.
Ezekiel 16:26 Egypt—type of the world, great of flesh. See James 4:4.
Ezekiel 16:55 No reference to eternal conditions but earthly blessing—which
Judah had forfeited, as had Sodom and Samaria.
Ezekiel 17:1-24 Parable of the two eagles, the cedar, and the vine.
Ezekiel 17:3 great eagle—Nebuchadnezzar. highest branch of the cedar—Jehoiakim.
Ezekiel 17:5 Zedekiah.
Ezekiel 17:7 another great eagle—Pharaoh Hophra, king of Egypt.
Ezekiel 17:9 The Egyptian alliance of no avail to ward off the judgment.
Ezekiel 18:1-32 God’s judgments are in righteousness.
Sour grapes. Putting the blame on God as in Exodus 34:7. Principles of the
divine government. The Divine Government. Not Soul Salvation. See also ch. 33.
Life for obedience. This is governmental law, not the gospel.
Ezekiel 18:32 2 Peter 3:9—God’s desire for all men. See Ezekiel 9:1-11
Lamentation over the princes of Israel.
Ezekiel 20:1-49; Ezekiel 21:1-12; Ezekiel 22:1-31; Ezekiel 23:1-49; Ezekiel
24:1-27 Final predictions concerning the doom of Jerusalem.
Ezekiel 20:1-49 Arraignment of the nation for its unfaithfulness. To be
chastened for their sins but restored to the Lord in the last days.
Ezekiel 20:3 No use to pray—See Jeremiah 21:1-7; Ezekiel 14:3.
Ezekiel 20:33 The future restoration.
Ezekiel 20:35 The wilderness of the people.
Ezekiel 20:47 The green and the dry trees. See Ezekiel 17:24; Hosea 10:8.
Ezekiel 21:1-12 The impending judgment—The sword song.
Ezekiel 21:3 Zechariah 13:7.
Ezekiel 21:5 The sword that was sheathed in the heart of Jesus.
Ezekiel 21:10 How can man make mirth with judgment like a sword hanging over
him?
Ezekiel 21:16 Decide!
Ezekiel 21:21 Literally, “he shook his arrows” in the divination ceremony.
Ezekiel 21:25 thou profane wicked prince of Israel—Zedekiah type of antichrist.
Literally, “O deadly wounded one, the prince of Israel.”
Ezekiel 21:26 The crown reserved for the Man of God’s counsels —Connect with
Hosea 3:1-5.
Ezekiel 22:1-31 Jerusalem’s abominations.
Ezekiel 22:7-13 Note how he rings the changes on in thee.
Ezekiel 22:12 Matthew 23:37.
Ezekiel 22:14 Two solemn questions. See Job 9:4.
Ezekiel 22:30 No mediator.
Ezekiel 23:25 [first part] Nose and ears taken away. Impossible now to discern
or hear the mind of God.
Ezekiel 24:1-27 The final message.
Ezekiel 24:2 The very date of the beginning of the siege made known by the
Spirit.
Ezekiel 24:25-27 The prophet to be dumb till tidings came of Jerusalem’s
fall—See Ezekiel 33:22.
Ezekiel 25:1-17; Ezekiel 26:1-21; Ezekiel 27:1-36; Ezekiel 28:1-25; Ezekiel
29:1-21; Ezekiel 30:1-13; Ezekiel 31:1-18; Ezekiel 32:1-12 Judgments upon the
nations.
Ezekiel 25:2 Ammon (1).
Ezekiel 25:8 Moab (2). Jeremiah 48:29.
Ezekiel 25:12 Edom (3). God had commanded Israel to be kind to Edom—Deuteronomy
23:7.
Ezekiel 25:15 Philistia (4).
Ezekiel 26:2 Tyre (5) rock. First mentioned in Joshua 19:29 as “the strong
city.”
Ezekiel 26:4 Literally fulfilled.
Ezekiel 27:5 Senir—i.e., Hermon. See Deuteronomy 3:9; 1 Chronicles 5:23; Song of
Solomon 4:8.
Ezekiel 27:14 Togarmah—Armenia.
Ezekiel 28:2 Type of the antichrist—2 Thessalonians 2:1-17.
Ezekiel 28:12-16 No human king. Satan’s former estate and his fall—See John 8:44
and Isaiah 14:12.
Ezekiel 28:15 Satan an apostate.
Ezekiel 28:16 Here the personal description ends.
Ezekiel 28:17 Tyre again before the mind of the prophet. The city has followed
the lead of the “king.” “The condemnation of the devil.”
Ezekiel 28:20 Zidon (6).
Ezekiel 29:1 Egypt (7).
Ezekiel 29:3 Pharaoh—type of Satan. The river the source of Egypt’s life, yet
God is not acknowledged.
Ezekiel 30:3 The time of the heathen. Connect with “the times of the Gentiles.”
Luke 21:24.
Ezekiel 30:13 No prince of Egyptian blood to sit on Egypt’s throne—yet there is
a king of the south in the time of the end.
Ezekiel 31:6 Compare with Daniel 4:1-37 and the parable of the mustard tree.
Ezekiel 32:1-32 The funeral dirge over Pharaoh—Hophra.
Ezekiel 32:17 An elegy over Egypt.
Ezekiel 32:21 Hell is Sheol, the unseen world.
Ezekiel 33:1-33; Ezekiel 34:1-31; Ezekiel 35:1-15; Ezekiel 36:1-38; Ezekiel
37:1-28; Ezekiel 38:1-23; Ezekiel 39:1-29; Ezekiel 40:1-49; Ezekiel 41:1-26;
Ezekiel 42:1-20; Ezekiel 43:1-27; Ezekiel 44:1-31, Ezekiel 45:1-25, Ezekiel
46:1-24, Ezekiel 47:1-23, Ezekiel 48:1-35 Part 2—Predictions after the
destruction of Jerusalem.
Ezekiel 33:1-33; Ezekiel 34:1-31; Ezekiel 35:1-15; Ezekiel 36:1-38; Ezekiel
37:1-28; Ezekiel 38:1-23; Ezekiel 39:1-29; Ezekiel 40:1-49; Ezekiel 41:1-26;
Ezekiel 42:1-20; Ezekiel 43:1-27; Ezekiel 44:1-31 Section 1—The watchman and the
shepherds.
Ezekiel 33:11 2 Peter 3:9. God’s desire that all men should be saved. See 1
Timothy 2:4; Matthew 23:37; Luke 13:34; Ezekiel 18:32.
Ezekiel 33:18-20 Summary of the principles of the divine government. God’s
governmental ways with men in the flesh. The principle laid down in Exodus
34:1-35 still holds good. The divine government. God is ever true to His
Word—but none can establish his own righteousness so God makes another change
and gives the individual who repents a promise of mercy and declares He will
judge those who sin against Him. It is law still. Life (on this earth) for
obedience is not the gospel, which is “believe and live.”
Ezekiel 33:21 Tidings of Jerusalem’s fall confirming the prophetic word.
Ezekiel 33:24 Their idle boast when they lacked the faith of Abraham.
Ezekiel 33:30 Hearing but not acting on what they hear.
Ezekiel 33:32 Entertained but not exercised.
Ezekiel 34:2 The false shepherds to be judged. The Lord Himself, the Good
Shepherd. Connect with John 10:1-42.
Ezekiel 34:8 The false shepherds.
Ezekiel 34:10 “As they that must give an account.” 1 Peter 5:2-3.
Ezekiel 34:11 The Good Shepherd.
Ezekiel 34:20 Jehovah the Saviour.
Ezekiel 34:23 The Coming Redeemer—The true Shepherd—Jeremiah 30:9; Hosea 3:5.
Ezekiel 34:26 “Showers of blessing.” The times of refreshing—Acts 3:19-20.
Ezekiel 35:1-15; Ezekiel 36:1-38 Section 2—Judgments upon Mt. Seir—and Israel’s
restoration predicted.
Ezekiel 36:1-38 Promises of grace for Israel following judgment on their
enemies.
Ezekiel 36:17 Contrast 1 Peter 1:4—“undeniable.”
Ezekiel 36:21 See Romans 2:24.
Ezekiel 36:23-38 Note the “I will’s” (18).
Ezekiel 37:1-28; Ezekiel 38:1-23; Ezekiel 39:1-29; Ezekiel 40:1-49; Ezekiel
41:1-26; Ezekiel 42:1-20; Ezekiel 43:1-27; Ezekiel 44:1-31; Ezekiel 45:1-25;
Ezekiel 46:1-24; Ezekiel 47:1-23; Ezekiel 48:1-35 Future blessing of Israel.
Millennial conditions following the great tribulation.
Ezekiel 37:1-3 A scene of death: man’s state as God beholds it. Life in the
message: “I am come that they might have life.” Compare with Daniel 12:2.
Ezekiel 37:5 Bones are no obstacle to the bonemaker.
Ezekiel 37:9-10 The breath in the winds and the voice of God in all
circumstances. Life is in the Word.
Ezekiel 37:24 One Shepherd. Note that in John 10:1-42 the saved from the
Gentiles “other sheep” are to be part of the flock of the same Good Shepherd.
Ezekiel 38:1-23 The great northern confederation of the last days. Compare with
the predictions of the Assyrian of the end times—Isaiah 10:1-34; Micah 5:5. Note
that these are largely nations outside of the Roman empire.
Ezekiel 38:2 chief prince—Prince of Rosh, i.e., Russia.
Ezekiel 38:15 Typical Cossack troops.
Ezekiel 38:22 Either natural hailstones, etc., or perhaps bombing from
airplanes.
Ezekiel 39:9 Seven years burning the weapons of war.
Ezekiel 39:12 Seven months burying the dead of the great invading army.
Ezekiel 39:17 The doom of the northern invader. See “the great supper of God” in
Revelation 19:1-21.
Ezekiel 39:23-29 Millennial blessing for Israel. The last foe defeated.
Ezekiel 40:1-49; Ezekiel 41:1-26; Ezekiel 42:1-20; Ezekiel 43:1-27; Ezekiel
44:1-31; Ezekiel 45:1-25; Ezekiel 46:1-24; Ezekiel 47:1-23; Ezekiel 48:1-35 The
vision of the millennial temple and its worship.
Ezekiel 40:1-49; Ezekiel 41:1-26; Ezekiel 42:1-20 Section 1—The sanctuary.
Ezekiel 40:1 beginning of the year—Rosh Hoshanah. fourteenth year—B.C. 572. 40:2
Compare with the vision of the heavenly Jerusalem from a “very high mountain” in
Revelation 21:1-27.
Ezekiel 41:1-26 The inner sanctuary.
Ezekiel 41:18 Two faces—intelligence and majesty.
Ezekiel 41:22 [last part] The altar called the table. See 1 Corinthians 10:1-33.
Ezekiel 41:2 narrow—closed. thick planks—the portals.
Ezekiel 42:6 straitened—narrowed, i.e., the stories were terraced.
Ezekiel 43:1-27; Ezekiel 44:1-31; Ezekiel 45:1-24; Ezekiel 46:1-24 Section 2—The
temple worship in the coming age.
Ezekiel 43:10 The vision intended to provoke to repentance that the soul may be
ashamed.
Ezekiel 43:12 Holiness the law of the house of God.
Ezekiel 44:31 The priestly food: the One who voluntarily went into death. “No
man taketh My life from Me.” I lay it down of myself.
Ezekiel 45:20 The “simple” one covered by the blood of atonement.
Ezekiel 45:21-23 The passover in the millennium. The memorial of the work of the
Cross.
Ezekiel 46:13-15 Continual memorial of the death of Christ and the recognition
of the perfection of His Person.
Ezekiel 47:1-23; Ezekiel 48:1-35 Section 3—The regeneration of the land of
Israel.
Ezekiel 47:1-23 The vision of the living waters—Joel 3:18; Zechariah 14:8. This
river runs all through the Scriptures. Genesis 2:10; Psalms 36:8; Psalms 46:4;
Psalms 65:9; Isaiah 58:11; Song of Song of Solomon 4:15; Isaiah 27:2-3.
“Before the prophet could tell others of the river he had to be brought into it
himself.” Dolman.
“As long as you remain in the stream you have clean feet.” Dolman. 1 Samuel 2:9.
“Cleansing of the daily walk.” Always in the stream.
Compare with the pure river of water of life, clear as crystal in Revelation
22:1-21. Wherever God rests a river flows forth to bless mankind.
Ezekiel 47:3 The walk in the Spirit—“up to the ankles.”
Ezekiel 47:4 knees—praying in the Spirit. to the loins—working in the Spirit.
Ezekiel 47:5 to swim in—all for God. Life in the fullness of the Spirit.
Ezekiel 47:10 En-gedi, En-eglaim—at the two ends of the Dead Sea.
Ezekiel 47:11-12 Chemicals to be obtained from the Dead Sea district. Compare
the river of Revelation 22:1-21.
Ezekiel 48:30-35 Answering to the gates in the heavenly city above. See
Revelation 21:1-27.
Daniel Daniel 1:8 Purpose of heart. See Acts 11:23.
Daniel 2:18-19 Prayer—ministry—worship.
Daniel 2:21 God changes the “times and seasons.” See Acts 1:7; 1 Thessalonians
5:1.
Daniel 2:31 The image of “the times of the Gentiles.”
Daniel 2:35 [last part] Matthew 21:44.
Daniel 2:36-45 The interpretation.
Daniel 2:38 Babylon.
Daniel 2:39 Medo-Persia—Greco-Macedonia.
Daniel 2:40 Roman.
Daniel 2:41 The nations in the last days.
Daniel 2:42 toes of the feet—the ten kingdoms. Revelation 13:1-18 and Revelation
17:1-18.
Daniel 2:45 “The stone that will fall from heaven.”
Daniel 3:12 certain Jews—the faithful remnant.
Daniel 3:19 [last part] the great tribulation in figure.
Daniel 3:27 Yielded bodies—Romans 12:1.
Daniel 5:1-31 Babylon’s destruction typical of the overthrow of the false
religious system in the time of the end. Revelation 17:1-18.
Daniel 6:17 The sealed stone—as at the tomb of Christ.
Daniel 7:1-15 The vision.
Daniel 7:4 lion—Babylon.
Daniel 7:5 bear—Medo-Persia.
Daniel 7:6 leopard—Greece.
Daniel 7:7 fourth beast—Rome.
Daniel 7:8 The last monarch.
Daniel 7:13 The kingdom of the Son of Man.
Daniel 7:16-28 The interpretation.
Daniel 7:19 The Roman empire.
Daniel 7:20 The last ten kings.
Daniel 7:21 The great tribulation.
Daniel 7:24 The same as the ten toes on the image of Daniel 2:1-49.
Daniel 7:25 [last part] 3 ½ years.
Daniel 8:5 Alexander the Great.
Daniel 8:6 Darius Codomanus.
Daniel 8:8 Alexander’s empire broken into four parts.
Daniel 8:9 Antiochus Epiphanes.
Daniel 8:22 Cassander, king of Greece; Lysimachus, king of Thrace; Seleucus,
king of Syria; Ptolemy, king of Egypt.
Daniel 9:1-27 Prophetic years are 360 days each. 3 ½ years in the Apocalypse,
1260 days or 42 months of 30 days. So 483 years would be 173880—the exact number
of days from Artaxerxes’ decree to Palm Sunday.
Daniel 9:2 Daniel a student of Jeremiah and Chronicles.
Daniel 9:13 [last part] Understanding the truth is the result of turning from
iniquity.
Daniel 9:24 The backbone of prophecy.
Daniel 9:27 The covenant between the beast and the antichrist.
See Isaiah 28:15-18.
Daniel 10:2 three full weeks—distinguished from the weeks of Daniel 9:24—which
were sevens of years.
Daniel 10:5 [first part] The up-look changes all.
Daniel 10:5-6 The majesty of God seen in His angel.
Daniel 10:8 The breakdown of the prophet.
Daniel 10:7-18 The collapse of man when he has a vision of God. Compare
Abraham—Jacob—Moses—Joshua—Gideon—Manoah—Isaiah—Jeremiah—Job—Peter—John—Paul.
Note the 3 touches:1—set on his knees, Daniel 10:10; 2— lips, Daniel 10:16;
3—touch of power, Daniel 10:18.
Daniel 10:12 Conflict in the heavenlies—restraining the answer to prayer.
Daniel 11:1-45 Porphyry declared this chapter must have been written after the
events mentioned, so accurately are the wars and intrigues of the Ptolemies and
the Seleucidse described. Prophecy is history prewritten. History is prophecy
fulfilled. “All history is His story.”
Daniel 11:2 three kings in Persia—Cyrus, Cambyses, Darius Hystaspes.
fourth—Xerxes.
Daniel 11:3 a mighty king—Alexander the Great.
Daniel 11:4 four winds of heaven—Cassander, Lysimachus, Seleucus, Ptolemy, after
battle of Ipsus. not to his posterity—Alexander left no heir. A posthumous son
was murdered and the empire eventually divided among his four leading generals.
Daniel 11:5 king of the south—Ptolemy Lagus succeeded by P. Soter. have
dominion—Seleucus Nicator annexed Babylon and Media, etc.
Daniel 11:6 Antiochus Theos married Berenice, daughter of P. Philadelphus,
divorcing Laodice to do so.
Daniel 11:7-8 out of a branch of her roots—Berenice murdered, her son Callinicus
reigned. P. Euergetes came against him. He won a great victory. Outlived
Callinicus by four years.
Daniel 11:10 his [Callinicus’] sons—Ceraunus and Antiochus the Great attacked
Egypt. Ceraunus died. Antiochus defeated by P. Philopater at battle of Raphia.
Daniel 11:13 Antiochus the Great allied with Philip III of Macedon.
Daniel 11:14 the robbers of thy people—Jewish apostates in army of Antiochus.
Daniel 11:15-16 Antiochus defeated the Egyptian general Sco-pias at Paneas.
Antiochus went to Egypt—won great victory, returned to Palestine.
Daniel 11:16 consumed—perfected Daniel 11:17 [last part] Cleopatra daughter of
Antiochus wedded to P. Epiphanes.
Daniel 11:18-19 Isles of Aegean Sea subdued by Antiochus. Greeks sought aid of
Romans. Lucius Scipio defeated A.—Antiochus slain while attempting to rob a
temple of Jupiter at Elymais.
Daniel 11:20 a raiser of taxes—Seleucus Philopater sent Helio-dorus to plunder
the temple at Jerusalem. Failing he assassinated his master.
Daniel 11:21 a vile person—Antiochus Epiphanes.
Daniel 11:22 also the prince of the covenant—i.e., the high priest in Israel.
Daniel 11:23-24 Antiochus Epiphanes in league with Jews and P. Philometer.
League broken. War between Epiphanes and Philometer.
Daniel 11:27 Professed truce Antiochus Epiphanes and P. Philometer.
Daniel 11:28 his heart shall be against the holy covenant— Antiochus Epiphanes
defiled the temple when Jerusalem was sacked. See Daniel 11:31.
Daniel 11:30 Popilius Loenus and Roman army forced Antiochus to keep peace. AE
the circle! After they left, Antiochus broke his promise and furiously attacked
the Jews.
[last part] Antiochus in league with Jewish apostates.
Daniel 11:31 [last part] 2300 days.
Daniel 11:32 [last part] The Maccabees.
Daniel 11:36-38 Isaiah 30:33. The last days, antichrist. In the 70th week of
Daniel 9:1-27. The Syrian little horn comes against him. See Daniel 11:40. In
league with the Roman little horn “The Prince that shall come.” The 7 years’
covenant.
Daniel 11:40 A king of the south at the time of the end: but not of Egyptian
blood—See Ezekiel 30:13; Zechariah 10:11.
Daniel 11:41-42 The Mahometan powers seeking to oust the Jew from Palestine. The
king of the north will be unfaithful to his own ally—the king of the south.
Daniel 11:45 Utter destruction of the last Mahometan ruler—the king of the
north.
Daniel 12:4 Contrast with Revelation—“seal not!”
Daniel 12:7 a time, times, and an half—See this period in the Apocalypse.
Daniel 12:9 Contrast with the unsealed book of Revelation 22:10. See Isaiah
29:10.
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CHAPTER 11: 01.10. OLD TESTAMENT -- HOSEA - MALACHI
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Old Testament -- Hosea - Malachi by H A Ironside
Hosea “A book written for naughty children.” Pastor Dolman.
Contemporary with Isaiah.
Hosea 1:1-11; Hosea 2:1-23; Hosea 3:1-5 Division 1—Israel, the unfaithful wife.
God’s dispensational ways.
Hosea 1:4 “The blood of Jezreel.” The destruction of Ahaz’s house in the field
of Naboth. Christ’s life sworn away—therefore the great tribulation.
Hosea 1:11 Judah and Israel to be reunited in the land.
Hosea 2:8 Note the place that knowledge has in this book—Hosea 2:20; Hosea 4:1;
Hosea 4:6; Hosea 5:4; Hosea 6:3; Hosea 6:6; Hosea 8:2; Hosea 14:9.
Hosea 3:3 Me for Himself—Romans 12:1. Himself for me.
Hosea 4:1-19; Hosea 5:1-15; Hosea 6:1-11; Hosea 7:1-16; Hosea 8:1-14; Hosea
9:1-17; Hosea 10:1-15; Hosea 11:1-12; Hosea 12:1-14; Hosea 13:1-16; Hosea 14:1-9
Division 2—Jehovah’s controversy with Israel.
Hosea 4:1 No truth, no mercy, no knowledge of God.
Hosea 5:5 Pride goeth before a fall.
Hosea 5:15 Messiah’s return to Heaven—awaiting Israel’s repentance.
Hosea 7:4 The leaven of uncleanness working—See 1 Corinthians 5:1-13.
Hosea 7:8 All dough on one side!
Hosea 10:1 Contrast John 15:1-27. See Isaiah 5:1-30; Revelation 14:1-20. Empty
lives and empty religion—Isaiah 29:8; Matthew 15:9; James 1:26; Isaiah 1:13; 1
Corinthians 15:2.
Empty lives; empty belief; empty religion; empty worship; empty profession.
Hosea 11:3 Teaching a child to walk. “My safety is not that I take the Lord’s
hand in mine, but that He takes mine in His—He takes me by the arms.” Dolman,
[last part] Illustrated in Acts 16:7, Acts 16:9, Acts 16:15.
Hosea 11:8-9 The sovereignty of God in grace. Hosea 13:14.
Hosea 12:1 “Every wind of doctrine.”
Hosea 12:3-5 Jacob—a supplanter from the first, yet saved by grace.
Hosea 12:7 The typical Israelite—in his fallen condition.
Hosea 13:7-8 The nations of the Gentiles. See Daniel 7:1-28.
Hosea 13:9-16; Hosea 14:1-9 Future blessing.
Hosea 13:11 Prayer answered in judgment.
Hosea 14:1-3 God Himself supplies the words for the repentant people to use when
they return to Him.
Joel The time of the end—The great tribulation and deliverance of the remnant
followed by the establishment of the kingdom on earth.
Theme—“The day of the Lord.” Joel’s date un-known. A recent locust plague seen
as a divine visitation and used as picturing the judgments of the day of the
Lord.
Joel 1:1 Joel—“Jehovah is God.”
Joel 1:6 The attack of the last Assyrian—the king of the north.
Joel 1:7 Israel—the vine and fig tree.
Joel 1:14-15 Learn from calamities to humble yourselves before God.
Joel 2:1-32 The promised outpouring of the Spirit.
Joel 2:1-14 The silver trumpets—See Numbers 10:1-36. The trumpet of alarm.
Joel 2:1 “Ye are come to Mount Sion.” Note the place that Zion has in Joel. (1)
The alarm sounded in Zion.
Joel 2:10 See Revelation 6:1-17. The sixth seal. Clearly this is symbolical —not
literal.
Joel 2:13 Call to repentance.
Joel 2:15 (2) The people called to Zion. See Joel 2:23-31. Joel 2:15-32 The
trumpet of the assembling.
Joel 2:20 The drying up of the Euphrates. The 6th vial following the 6th trumpet
of Revelation.
Joel 2:23 (3) Children of Zion—See Joel 2:32. The latter rain to be restored to
Palestine.
Joel 2:29 It was the same Spirit poured out on Pentecost— but not the same
period of time to which the prophet here refers.
Joel 2:32 (4) Deliverance in Zion. The call of God.
Joel 3:1-21 The premillennial judgments.
Joel 3:1-16 (5) Zion the place of judgment.
Joel 3:2 The judgment of nations as in Matthew 25:1-46.
Joel 3:11 The descent of the Lord and the heavenly saints.
Joel 3:13 See the harvest and the vintage—Revelation 14:1-20.
Joel 3:17 (6) Zion God’s holy mountain.
Joel 3:21 (7) Zion, the end reached.
Amos The Government of God. His divine sovereignty over Israel and the nations.
Somewhat earlier than Isaiah.
Amos 1:1-15; Amos 2:1-16 Division 1—Eight messages to the nations surrounding
Palestine and to Judah and Israel.
Amos 1:1 Tekoa—in the Hill country of Judea.
Amos 1:9 [last part] i.e., the covenant between Hiram and David.
Amos 3:1-15; Amos 4:1-13; Amos 5:1-27; Amos 6:1-14 Division 2—The Word of the
Lord to Israel—the northern kingdom.
Amos 3:2 Responsibility flows from acknowledged relationship.
Amos 3:6 i.e., Evil in the sense not of sin, but of calamity.
Amos 4:6-11 Jehovah’s five challenges.
Amos 4:12 Warnings unheeded. Judgment must fall.
Amos 5:5 A call to turn from false worship.
Amos 5:10 The reprover hated. Isaiah 29:21.
Amos 5:25 The idolatry of the wilderness never judged.
Amos 6:12 The fruit of righteousness—See Php 1:11, etc.
Amos 7:1-17; Amos 8:1-14; Amos 9:1-15 Division 3—Five visions having to do with
God’s sovereignty.
Amos 7:10-17 Parenthesis.
Amos 7:14 Amos’ “call to the ministry.”
Amos 9:9 Compare the sifting of Peter—Luke 22:31-32.
Obadiah Judgment of Edom.
Obadiah 1:1-15 The character of Edom exposed.
Edom—a type of the flesh characterized by seven things:
(1) Pride Obadiah 1:3.
(2) Self-confidence Obadiah 1:3.
(3) Self-exaltation Obadiah 1:4.
(4) Self-deception Obadiah 1:5-6.
(5) Worldly wisdom Obadiah 1:8.
(6) Violent opposition to the people of God Obadiah 1:10-11.
(7) Gloating over the sufferings of God’s people Obadiah 1:12.
Obadiah 1:16-21 Israel’s deliverance and Edom’s final judgment to be coincident
or concurrent.
Obadiah 1:17 It is a great thing when we really possess our possessions,
entering into our inheritance in Christ—See Ephesians 1:3.
Jonah The Divine Sovereignty.
Jonah 1:14 [last clause] key verse—for Thou, O Lord, hast done as it pleased
Thee. See Matthew 12:39; Luke 11:29.
Micah Contemporary with Isaiah. Cited in Jeremiah 26:16-19.
Israel’s blessing dependent on the coming Saviour.
Micah 1:1-16; Micah 2:1-13 Division 1—Arraignment of Israel for their sins.
Micah 1:2 As in the beginning of Leviticus: the voice of Jehovah from the
sanctuary.
Micah 1:11 Beth-ezel—The house at hand: that is the inn or half-way house.
Micah 1:15 David, the glory of Israel in his day, had sought refuge there.
Micah 2:10 The call to separation.
Micah 2:11 More ready to listen to false prophets who leave them free to follow
their own desires, than to the true man of God who rebukes sin.
Micah 3:1-12; Micah 4:1-13; Micah 5:1-15 Division 2—Future blessing through
Messiah conditioned upon repentance.
Micah 3:1-12 Princes and priests apostate.
Micah 3:5 Teaching for money—“Who when they have something to bite with their
teeth, cry Peace; but who prepare war against him that putteth nothing in their
mouths.” Lesser trans.
Micah 3:6 Judicial blindness visited upon the people.
Micah 3:8 Empowered by the Holy Spirit. See Acts 1:1-26; Zechariah 4:6.
Micah 4:1-3 Duplicate of Isaiah 2:2-4. The first dominion—the Kingdom of God.
Micah 4:1 Supreme.
Micah 4:2 Universal.
Micah 4:3 Peaceful.
Micah 4:4-5 Prosperous both in things temporal and things spiritual.
Micah 4:8 He who is to rule the nations with the iron rod comes from Israel.
Micah 4:10 Revelation 12:1-17—when Zion travails. The Babylonian captivity.
Micah 5:1 The smitten judge—Isaiah 50:6.
Micah 5:2 Christ to be born in Bethlehem.
Micah 5:8 This the Jew has been through the centuries of the dispersion, and
particularly in these last days.
Micah 6:1-16 Division 3—The Lord’s controversy with His people.
Micah 6:5-6 Chastening with a view to blessing.
Micah 7:1-20 Division 4—Confidence in God—The expression of the remnant in the
last days.
Micah 7:9 An exercised soul under the discipline of the Lord. See Job 34:31;
Hebrews 12:5.
Nahum (Consolation)—The Doom of Nineveh.
“Out of Galilee” Nahum and Jonah both came. Both the Galilean prophets had to do
with Nineveh. Nineveh and Babylon both founded by Nimrod.
Nahum 1:1-15 Jehovah the confidence of His people in every time of trouble.
Delivered before the death of Sennacherib and therefore a century before the
destruction of Nineveh.
Nahum 1:3 [last part] He is just above the clouds.
Nahum 1:7 What wondrous contrasts are seen in Him!
Nahum 1:11 The army of Sennacherib.
Nahum 2:1-13; Nahum 3:1-19 Division 2—The destruction of Nineveh.
Nahum 2:1-13 i.e., The leader of the Babylonians who destroyed Nineveh, entering
the city while the people were holding a drunken feast. The river Tigris
overflowed and carried away the flood gates, so overwhelming its palaces.
Nahum 2:11-12 The lion: the king, lioness, and young lions: his household.
Nahum 3:7 Nineveh literally laid waste as here prophesied.
Nahum 3:8 No—No-Anion destroyed by Sargon shortly before.
Nahum 3:11 The chastening of the Lord.
Nahum 3:17 See Revelation 9:7.
Nahum 3:18 i.e., Saracus grandson of Esar-haddon.
Habakkuk Possibly a contemporary of Jeremiah. He writes in view of the Chaldean
invasion.
Habakkuk 1:2 Habakkuk’s complaint.
Habakkuk 1:5 Jehovah’s answer. Cited by Paul, Acts 13:40-41.
Habakkuk 1:12 The prophet’s expostulation.
Habakkuk 2:2 Jehovah’s answer.
Habakkuk 2:4 The only place “faith” is found in the O.T. In the N.T. it is found
in every Book. The just—Romans. Shall live—Galatians. By faith—Hebrews.
Habakkuk 2:9 Woe—covetousness—See Hebrews 13:5; 1 Timothy 6:8.
Habakkuk 2:12 Woe—oppression.
Habakkuk 2:15 Woe—sensuality.
Habakkuk 2:19 Woe—idolatry.
Habakkuk 3:1-19 Prayer—In chapter 3 we have “prayer set to music.”
Habakkuk 3:1 Shigionoth—a wandering ode.
Habakkuk 3:2 REVIVE Thy Work—Psalms 138:7, Psalms 85:6.
Habakkuk 3:4 horns—or, bright beams out of his side—where the Roman spear
pierced Him!
Habakkuk 3:13 See the head that was wounded to death—Revelation 13:1-18.
Habakkuk 3:16 A sense of utter unworthiness.
Zephaniah “Hidden of Jehovah.”
Written to warn formalists and apostates of coming judgment and to comfort the
righteous remnant who cling to the Word of God. Link with the letter to
Philadelphia, Revelation 3:1-22.
645—610 b.c. Contemporary with Jeremiah.
Zephaniah 1:1-18 Division 1—Idolaters and apostates must suffer for their sin.
The day of the Lord announced.
Zephaniah 1:4 The false remnant of Baal. 1:6 Two classes.
Zephaniah 1:7 Details of the coming day of wrath.
Zephaniah 1:12 Searching out—not in grace but in judgment.
Zephaniah 2:1-15 The judgment of the nations.
Zephaniah 2:1-3 Division 2—The call to repentance.
Zephaniah 2:3 Meekness to be sought, see Matthew 11:28-30.
Zephaniah 2:4-15 Division 3—The nations in the day of the Lord.
Zephaniah 2:10 The pride of Moab.
Zephaniah 3:1-20 Blessing following judgment.
Zephaniah 3:1-7 Division 4—A second call to repentance.
Zephaniah 3:2 Four solemn indictments.
Zechariah 3:3-4 Princes, judges, prophets, priests, all apostate.
Zechariah 3:8-20 Division 5—Ultimate salvation.
Zephaniah 3:13 The true remnant.
Zephaniah 3:14-17 Jehovah “in the midst.”
Haggai [Many passages underlined but no marginal comments.]
Zechariah The Prophet of the Coming Glory.
Contemporary with Haggai—in the days of the restoration. Messages to encourage
the builders of the house of God.
Zechariah 1:4 A call to consider seriously and turn to the Lord.
Zechariah 1:7-21; Zechariah 2:1-13; Zechariah 3:1-10; Zechariah 4:1-14;
Zechariah 5:1-11; Zechariah 6:1-15 Eight visions in one night.
Zechariah 1:8-17 Vision 1—Israel guarded by God while in their lowly state.
Zechariah 1:18-21 Vision 2—The four Gentile powers under which they suffered, to
be eventually destroyed.
Zechariah 2:1-13 Vision 3—Jerusalem to be reclaimed and restored.
Zechariah 2:8 Israel, a missionary people in the last days.
Zechariah 3:1-10 Vision 4—The cleansing of the nation.
Zechariah 3:2 Sovereign grace.
Zechariah 3:4-5 Cleansed, clothed, crowned.
Zechariah 4:1-14 Vision 5—The filling and anointing with the Spirit.
Zechariah 4:6 The light sustained or maintained by the unseen oil— testimony in
the power of the Holy Spirit. See Micah 3:8.
Zechariah 4:10 [last part] Revelation 5:6.
Zechariah 4:14 Kingship or royalty and priesthood.
Zechariah 5:1-4 Vision 6—Iniquity searched out and removed.
“Cursed is everyone that continueth not.”
Zechariah 5:5-11 Vision 7—Commercialized religion, Babylonish in origin.
Zechariah 5:7 talent of lead—Lead—dross—imitation of silver—base metal—See
Ezekiel 22:18.
Zechariah 6:1-15 Vision 8—Though Israel be surrounded with the mountains of
judgment, all shall work for their good.
Zechariah 6:12 The Branch—behold the Man—John 19:5.
Zechariah 6:13 The Royal Priest—”crown Him Lord of all.”
Zechariah 7:1-14; Zechariah 8:1-23 Call to self-judgment in view of the divine
purpose of blessing.
Zechariah 8:7-8 The future return of the Jews.
Zechariah 9:1-17; Zechariah 10:1-12; Zechariah 11:1-17; Zechariah 12:1-14;
Zechariah 13:1-9; Zechariah 14:1-21 The prophetic program.
Zechariah 9:9 The First Coming of the Messiah.
Zechariah 9:10 [last part] His Second Coming.
Zechariah 10:1 The latter rain for Israel.
Zechariah 10:11 Connect with Ezekiel 30:13.
Zechariah 11:1-17 The Good Shepherd rejected: the idol shepherd accepted.
Zechariah 11:15 The antichrist.
Zechariah 12:1-14; Zechariah 13:1-9; Zechariah 14:1-21 The great tribulation and
the deliverance of Judah and Israel, followed by the Kingdom.
Zechariah 14:10 The corner of Hananeel—See Jeremiah 31:38.
Malachi Note Jehovah’s eightfold controversy with His people.
Malachi 1:2 Controversy 1—See Romans 9:13—“Loved” and “hated” have reference
here as in Romans 9:1-33 to God’s dealings with Jacob’s descendants and Esau’s
children in regard to privilege on earth.
Malachi 1:4 Edom—a type of the flesh—incurably evil.
Malachi 1:6 Controversy 2.
Malachi 1:7 Controversy 3.
Malachi 2:1-2 God’s Word to the priests.
Malachi 2:5 The covenant with Levi.
Malachi 2:10 Israel, nationally the children of God.
Malachi 2:14 Controversy 4.
Malachi 2:15 Warning against mixed marriages.
Malachi 2:17 Controversy 5.
Malachi 3:6 The unchanging One.
Malachi 3:7 Controversy 6.
Malachi 3:8 Controversy 7.
Malachi 3:13 Controversy 8.
Malachi 4:1 Not annihilation—but judgment on earth at the Lord’s return.
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CHAPTER 12: 01.11. NEW TESTAMENT -- MATTHEW - JOHN
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New Testament -- Matthew - John by H A Ironside
Matthew
133
I Timothy
170
Mark
137
II Timothy
170
Luke
139
Titus
171
John
144
Philemon
172
Acts
150
Hebrews
172
Romans
153
James
176
I Corinthians
157
I Peter
178
II Corinthians
159
II Peter
179
Galatians
162
I John
180
Ephesians
162
II John
181
Philippians
164
III John
182
Colossians
165
Jude
182
I Thessalonians
168
Revelation
183
II Thessalonians
169
Matthew
Christ the King.—The Branch of Jeremiah 23:5.—The Face of a Lion—Ezekiel 1:1-28
and Revelation 4:1-11.—Christ as the Trespass Offering.—The Gospel for the
Jew—proving that Jesus is Messiah.
Matthew 1:1-17 The genealogy of the King. The genealogy of Joseph—giving throne
rights to Mary’s Son—See Luke 3:1-38.
Matthew 1:1-5 Note the story of grace told in the names of the women in the
genealogy.
Matthew 1:11 Jechonias—Coniah. A curse rests on Coniah—Christ must come of
another line. See Luke 3:1-38.
Matthew 1:18-25 The birth of the King.
Matthew 1:25 The Virgin Birth—fulfilment of Isaiah 7:14.
Matthew 2:1-23 The recognition of the King.
Matthew 2:2 The first question of the New Testament—See Genesis 3:9.
Matthew 2:4 The people of the covenant in the right position but the wrong
condition.
Matthew 2:8 Hypocrisy.
Matthew 2:11 Worship God!—Revelation 22:1-21. He is God over all, blessed
forever. Gold—divinity. Frankincense—perfection of humanity. Myrrh—death.
Matthew 3:1-17 The consecration and anointing of the King.
Matthew 3:2 “Kingdom of Heaven” is a dispensational aspect of the Kingdom of
God—“the reign of the heavens” upon earth. It is a term used only in Matthew and
ana1hema connects with Daniel 4:1-37, “the heavens do rule.”
Matthew 3:10 Not merely to the “fruit” of the tree.
Matthew 3:15 Pledging Himself to meet every righteous demand of the throne of
God on behalf of sinners.
Matthew 4:1-11 The testing of the King.
Matthew 4:3 Appeal to the lust of the flesh.
Matthew 4:5-6 Appeal to the pride of life.
Matthew 4:8-9 Appeal to the lust of the eye.
Matthew 4:12-25 The works of the King. His credentials.
Matthew 5:1-48; Matthew 6:1-34; Matthew 7:1-29 The laws of the King. The royal
proclamation. The principles of the Kingdom.
Matthew 6:9-13 The disciple’s prayer.
Matthew 6:14-15 Mark 11:25-26—Governmental forgiveness.
Matthew 7:12 The golden rule—given by Confucius negatively.
Matthew 8:1-34; Matthew 9:1-38 Credentials—the works of the King. Ten signs.
Matthew 8:11 The Kingdom is Heaven’s rule on earth.
Matthew 8:17 Not vicarious atonement—but sympathy.
Matthew 8:20 The Son of Man—first instance—used by Jesus of Himself 72 times.
For last time see Revelation 14:14.
Matthew 8:34 Contrast Matthew 14:35.
Matthew 9:37-38 The waiting harvest—Compare John 4:35-38.
Matthew 10:1-42 The heralds of the King.
Matthew 10:23 An interrupted mission to be resumed after the rapture of the
Church.
Matthew 10:28 The soul lives after the body dies. Both may be lost in Hell. Luke
12:5.
Matthew 11:1-30; Matthew 12:1-50 The rejection of the King.
Matthew 11:3 The finality of Jesus.
Matthew 11:22 Differences in judgment according to privileges here.
Matthew 11:28 I will give you rest—only God can do this. It is the same promise
Jehovah gave to Moses in Exodus 33:14.
Matthew 11:29 My yoke—He was never under a yoke. He never needed to be
restrained, but we do.
Matthew 12:1-50 The authority of the King.
Matthew 13:1-58 The new Aspect of the Kingdom. The mysteries of the Kingdom of
Heaven.
Matthew 13:35 Secret things now revealed. Deuteronomy 29:29.
Matthew 14:1-36; Matthew 15:1-39 The authority and resources of the King.
Opposition to the Kingdom.
Matthew 14:2 The reasoning of a troubled conscience.
Matthew 14:9 More anxious to keep up appearances than to be right with God.
Matthew 14:35-36 Note their changed attitude since Matthew 8:34.
Matthew 15:22 As a Gentile she had no claim on “the Son of David.”
Matthew 16:1-28 The keys of the Kingdom—the first mention of the Church. Jesus
foretells His death for the first time—Matthew 16:21. He foretells His Second
Coming for the first time—Matthew 16:27. He tells of His Church for the first
time—Matthew 16:18.
Matthew 16:6-12 Leaven—always evil. Leaven of the Pharisees,
hypocrisy—self-righteousness. Leaven of the Sadducees, doctrinal
error—materialism—rationalism.
Matthew 6:18 The Living Stone—1 Peter 2:4.
Matthew 17:1-27 The glory of the King—a picture of the coming Kingdom.
Matthew 17:2 The glory of God in the face of Christ Jesus—2 Corinthians 4:1-18.
Matthew 18:1-35 Instruction as to discipline in the Church.
Matthew 18:19 agree—symphonize—to be in complete harmony with God and with each
other.
Matthew 18:23-35 Governmental forgiveness which may be revoked if there be
inconsistency.
Matthew 19:1-30; Matthew 20:1-34 The last journey of the King—Going up to
Jerusalem to die.
Matthew 19:8 Christ sets His O.K. upon the Genesis account of the beginning of
the human race.
Matthew 19:17 The test: He is God or he is not good!
Matthew 19:21 A call to recognize the lordship of Christ.
Matthew 19:28 Regeneration—only twice used in the Bible—See Titus 3:5.
Matthew 20:1-16 Reward is according to opportunities embraced —not merely the
amount of work performed.
Matthew 21:1-46 The triumphal entry of the King.
Matthew 21:22 The prayer of faith.
Matthew 22:1-46; Matthew 23:1-39; Matthew 24:1-51; Matthew 25:1-46 The teaching
of the King.
Matthew 22:16 What vile hypocrisy!
Matthew 24:1-51; Matthew 25:1-46 The second Sermon on the Mount. The King’s
prophetic discourse.
Matthew 26:1-75 The agony of the King.
Matthew 26:7-9 The flesh cannot understand heart-appreciation of Jesus.
Matthew 26:14 The depravity of the flesh seen in Judas.
Matthew 2:15 thirty pieces of silver—the price of a slave or a common ox.
Matthew 26:3 The confidence of the flesh.
Matthew 26:51 The forwardness of the flesh.
Matthew 26:61 Utter perversion of His words.
Matthew 26:70 The breakdown of the flesh.
Matthew 27:1-66 The crucifixion of the King.
Matthew 27:3 The remorse of the flesh.
Matthew 27:9 Zechariah was probably in the roll that began with Jeremiah.
Matthew 27:24 washed his hands—“Crucified under Pontius Pilate.”
Matthew 27:50 yielded up the ghost—dismissed His Spirit. “When He willed to die,
He died as He willed.” F. E. Marsh.
Matthew 28:1-20 The Resurrection of the King.
Matthew 28:19 [last part] The Holy Trinity—Isaiah 48:16.
Matthew 28:19-20 Going… teach—Disciple… Baptizing… Teaching… Disciple is the
emphatic word.
Mark
Behold My Servant! The Branch of Zechariah 3:8. The Face of an Ox. Ezekiel
1:1-28. Christ as the Sin Offering. Leviticus 5:1-19.
Mark 1:1-13 The Servant introduced. No geneology.
Mark 1:14-45; Mark 2:1-28; Mark 3:1-35 His early ministry.
Mark 1:23-26 His power over demons.
Mark 1:30-31 His power over disease. Fever—the power of sin.
Mark 1:40-41 Leprosy—the uncleanness of sin.
Mark 2:3-12 Palsy—the helplessness of the sinner.
Mark 2:22 The new wine of the gospel is not to be put into the old legal forms.
Mark 2:28 His authority, though in servant guise.
Mark 3:22 Blasphemy against the Holy Spirit.
Mark 3:28-29 Sin against Him as Man pardonable—but to reject Him as God is
fatal.
Mark 3:31-34 The new relationship.
Mark 4:1-41; Mark 5:1-43; Mark 6:1-56; Mark 7:1-37; Mark 8:1-38; Mark 9:1-50
Teaching and working.
Mark 4:13 This is the foundation parable.
Mark 5:4 Society restrains—Jesus liberates.
Mark 5:1-43 Three pictures: The man—desperate sinners controlled by furious
passions—dominated by satanic power. The women—timid and anxious souls groping
after light and help. The child—people dead spiritually to be awakened to life
by the gospel.
Mark 5:24-27 Many who thronged Him; few who touched Him in faith.
Mark 6:5 Limited by unbelief.
Mark 6:16 The voice of an accusing conscience.
Mark 7:1-37 A new doctrine of defilement.
Mark 7:6-7 Voiding the Word of God by human tradition.
Mark 7:21-23 The weeds that grow in the natural heart.
Mark 8:15 Matthew 16:6—leaven: symbol of evil.—leaven of the Pharisees
—hypocrisy.—leaven of Herod—worldliness. See 1 Corinthians 5:1-13.
Mark 8:35 “God harden me against myself This coward with pathetic voice; Who
craves for ease, and rest, and joys.” Christina Rosetti.
Mark 9:1-50 The Kingdom in embryo.
Mark 9:15 Was the glory still shining in His face?
Mark 10:45 The Servant of God and Man.
Mark 11:25 Conditions of answered prayer.
Mark 14:4 The flesh cannot appreciate what is done only for love of Jesus.
Mark 15:28 “He who knew no sin.”
Mark 15:33 “Made sin.”
Mark 16:1-20 The Servant exalted—His Resurrection.
Mark 16:2 The first Lord’s Day.
Luke
Christ as Son of Man.— The Branch of Zechariah 6:12.— The Face of a Man, Ezekiel
1:1-28.— Christ as the Peace Offering, Leviticus 3:1-17.
Outline: (1) Luke 1:1-80, Luke 2:1-52, Luke 3:1-38—The introduction. (2) Luke
4:1-44, Luke 5:1-39, Luke 6:1-49, Luke 7:1-50, Luke 8:1-56, Luke 9:1-50—From the
temptation to the Transfiguration. (3) Luke 9:51-62, Luke 10:1-42, Luke 11:1-54,
Luke 12:1-59, Luke 13:1-35, Luke 14:1-35, Luke 15:1-32, Luke 16:1-31, Luke
17:1-37, Luke 18:1-43, Luke 19:1-48, Luke 20:1-47, Luke 21:1-38—The last six
months of Ministry. (4) Luke 22:1-71, Luke 23:1-56, Luke 24:1-53—Closing scenes
and the Resurrection.
Luke 1:10 The fellowship of prayer.
Luke 1:20-22 Unbelief sealed his lips. See Luke 1:64. Dumb lips tell of an
unbelieving heart. Romans 10:9-10.
Luke 1:27 A Virgin in polluted Nazareth!
Luke 1:35 He who was ever God the Son becomes in grace the Son of God as Man
born of a Virgin.
Luke 1:64 Faith opened his mouth.
Luke 2:24 The offering of the poor.
Luke 2:38 [last part] The godly remnant.
Luke 2:46 Jesus in the midst—See John 19:18.
Luke 3:1 Note the definiteness of the dates.
Luke 3:21 Note the place given to prayer in the life of the Son of Man, as
related by Luke. See Luke 5:16.
Luke 3:27 Zorobabel—Salathiel—Note that the lines intertwine here.
Luke 4:1-13 Moral order of the temptations—”The lust of the flesh” Luke 4:3;
“The lust of the eye” Luke 4:5; “The pride of life” Luke 4:9.
Luke 4:10-11 Omitting what was vitally important.
Luke 4:20 He closed the book,—He puts the entire dispensation of grace into a
comma!
Luke 5:16 Prayer—See Luke 6:12.
Luke 5:21 And here was God in their midst, and they knew Him not!
Luke 5:29 “The table talk of the Son of Man.” The feast in the house of Levi.
See Luke 7:36.
Luke 6:1 In Greek—“the second first”—i.e., the second after the feast of
firstfruits.
Luke 6:11 filled with madness—angered by His grace!
Luke 6:12 Prayer. See Luke 9:18.
Luke 6:31 The “golden rule.”
Luke 6:42 beam—i.e., a large splinter—as in the everyday language of the common
people. Confirmed by the papyri.
Luke 7:29 God justified as they received His sentence against themselves.
Luke 7:36-50 The table talk of the Son of Man in the Pharisee’s house. See Luke
10:38.
Luke 8:10 The Kingdom of God is moral. In Matthew 13:1-58 it is “the Kingdom of
Heaven” which is dispensational—the form the Kingdom takes during a given age.
Luke 8:11 [last part] “The devil knows that men will be saved if they believe!”
A.H.S.
Luke 8:44 The blue border.
Luke 9:18 Prayer—See Luke 9:28.
Luke 9:28 Prayer—See Luke 11:1.
Luke 10:2 The waiting harvest—See John 4:35.
Luke 10:38-42 The table talk of the Son of Man—with Mary and Martha. See Luke
11:37.
Luke 10:42 [first part] “Of one thing there is need.”
Luke 11:1 Prayer—See Luke 22:41.
Luke 11:20 Exodus 8:19 The finger of God is the Spirit of God. Matthew 12:28.
Luke 11:31-32 Solomon typical of Christ as the wisdom of God, Jonah as the one
who went into death and rose again.
Luke 11:37-54 The table talk of the Son of Man—in another Pharisee’s house. See
Luke 14:1.
Luke 11:44 Defiling when men do not realize it. See Numbers 19:1-22.
Luke 12:1-59 Prophetic testimony—The Great Preacher, leaven— always symbolic of
evil. See 1 Corinthians 5:1-13.
Luke 12:5 Matthew 10:28—The soul immortal.
Luke 12:50 The baptism of wrath upon the Cross.
Luke 13:6 The fig tree: Israel nationally.
Luke 14:1 The table talk of the Son of Man in the house of a chief Pharisee. See
Luke 19:5.
Luke 14:14 [last phrase] The first Resurrection.
Luke 15:4-7 The seeking Saviour—The lost sheep.
Luke 15:7 Saints in heaven rejoice when souls are saved!
Luke 15:8-10 The Holy Spirit’s work—The lost coin.
Luke 15:11-24 The Father’s love—The lost son.
Luke 15:25-3 The elder son—“Not lost or not saved.” The self-righteous.
Luke 16:7 i.e., He made himself responsible for the difference.
Luke 16:23 hell—Hades—the abode of unclothed spirits.
Luke 16:27-31 Six brothers: one in hell and five on the way!
Luke 17:11-19 The ten lepers—See Leviticus 13:1-59.
Luke 18:9-14 The only two religions.
Luke 18:19 He is either God or He is not good.
Luke 19:3 [last clause] A man who had “come short.”
Luke 19:5 The table talk of the Son of Man in the house of Zacchaeus.
Conversation on the way to his home. See Luke 22:13.
Luke 20:4 It was at John’s baptism He was anointed as the Prophet, Priest, and
King. There the Father’s voice and the descending sign accredited Him.
Luke 20:35 The first resurrection.
Luke 21:24 [last clause] See Ezekiel 30:3—“The time of the heathen.”
Luke 21:25 distress of nations, with perplexity—”crowding pressure of nations
with no way out.”
Luke 21:29 Judah—fig tree. The Gentile nations of the prophetic earth. The Fig
Tree: Patriarchs firstripe of the fig tree—Hosea 9:10. See Joel 1:7; Jeremiah
24:1-10; Jeremiah 29:17; Luke 13:6-9; Matthew 21:18-20; Hosea 14:8; Isaiah 27:6;
Micah 4:4; John 1:47-51.
Luke 21:35 Them that dwell on the earth—see this class in Revelation.
Luke 22:2 Religious bigotry allied with treachery and covet-ousness.
Luke 22:10-11 The ministry of the Word—the water of life— leads to the place of
communion.
Luke 22:13 The table talk of the Son of Man. The last Passover and the Lord’s
Supper.
Luke 22:24 At such a time!
Luke 22:31 In Satan’s sieve. See Amos 9:9.
Luke 22:32 Advocacy even before the open failure.
Luke 22:33 The confidence of the flesh.
Luke 22:45 Peter was sleeping when he should have been praying. The slothfulness
of the flesh.
Luke 22:50 Peter acts in the energy of the flesh.
Luke 22:54 The backwardness of the flesh.
Luke 22:55 Seeking comfort among the enemies of Christ.
Luke 22:57-60 The denial.
Luke 22:61 The beginning of Peter’s restoration was that look of love.
Luke 23:8 It was not because he desired to know Christ as Saviour—but to satisfy
the craving for wonders.
Luke 23:25 The end of man’s free will.
Luke 24:19-21 They believed in and loved Him still but hope had fled.
Luke 24:25-36 Three lines of ministry: by the way—in the home—in the upper room.
Luke 24:25 Note the rebuke for not believing all that the prophets had spoken.
Luke 24:30 He became the Host!
Luke 24:31 Their eyes opened. See Luke 24:32.
Luke 24:32 Opened the Scriptures. See Luke 24:45.
Luke 24:45 Psalms 119:73—Opened their understanding.
Luke 24:51 See Acts 1:1-26—“He was taken up.”
John Christ as the Eternal Son— The Branch of Isaiah 4:2-5.— The Face of an
Eagle, Ezekiel 1:1-28.
John 1:1 [first part] When everything that had beginning began, the Word was. In
the beginning was the Word—eternity of being. the Word was with God—distinct
personality. the Word was God—full deity.
John 1:2 Eternal Son.
John 1:3 Creator.
John 1:4 [first part] Source of life. [last part] Source of light.
John 1:12 sons—children, born ones.
John 1:30 before—Christ’s preexistence before John the Baptist. See John 8:58.
John 2:6-10 Empty Jewish ceremonies filled with the water of the Word produce
rich wine of truth.
John 3:16 For God so loved the world—the lake. that He gave His only begotten
Son—the river. that whosoever believeth in Him—the pitcher. should not perish
but have everlasting life—the draught.
John 4:7 Note His method of approach to a sinner’s heart.
John 4:10 living water—The gospel message in the power of the Holy Spirit—John
3:5.
John 4:14 “Whatever water means here it must mean the same in John 3:1-36.”
John 4:16 Grappling with conscience.
John 4:34 Oh, to be more like Him!
John 4:35 The waiting harvest. Compare Matthew 9:37-38; Luke 10:2.
John 5:1-9 In John, the feasts are “of the Jews” not “of Jehovah” for the Christ
of God who is the antitype of all is seen as rejected from the very start. At
Bethesda there was help for the strongest and best. In the gospel there is
salvation for the weakest and the worst.
John 5:17 Jesus asserts His perfect equality with the Father.
John 5:19 So intimate are the relations of the Persons in the Godhead that
neither can do anything without the other.
John 5:32-39 Fourfold witness: John 5:33—John—See John 10:3. John 5:36—The works
He did—See John 10:25. John 5:37—The Father—See John 8:13-18. John 5:39—The
Scriptures—See John 5:46.
John 5:43 Antichrist—the wilful king of Daniel 11:1-45. The man of sin of 2
Thessalonians 2:1-17.
John 5:47 The Lord authenticates the Mosaic authorship of the Pentateuch.
John 6:3 A scene of communion. We do not read that a word was said. It was
hallowed fellowship. He loves thus to “sit” with His own.
John 6:27 The “sealed” Bread of God for hungry men!
John 6:40 God the Father’s will and the believer’s salvation bound up together.
John 7:23 Referring to the man healed at Bethesda, on His previous visit—John
5:1-47.
John 7:52 Overlooking Nahum and Jonah.
John 8:9 The Light of the world—exposing the hypocrisy of the accusers of the
woman.
John 8:16 Who but God the Son could rightfully say, “I and the Father.”
John 8:41 A slur at the Virgin birth. 8:44 Slanders God to man and man to God.
Satan—adversary. Devil—diabolous—slanderer. An apostate—“Abode not in the
truth.” Lucifer’s fall—Isaiah 14:12; Ezekiel 28:11. His activity—Genesis 3:1-24
to Revelation 20:1-15. His doom—Revelation 20:1-15. A deceiver—liar—no truth in
him. A manslayer—ruining men to spite God.
John 8:59 The stones that were for the adultress before, now are for Him!
John 9:1-41 From blindness and beggary to worship.
John 9:2 The Pharisees taught that a man could sin in the womb, basing it on the
words, “He took his brother by the heel in the womb.”
John 9:34 Men are born in sin—not in sins.
John 10:1-3 Judaism was the sheepfold, Christ the Good Shepherd entered in by
the door. John the Baptist, the porter.
John 10:11 Why Christ died. The Person who laid down His life. What He was gave
the value to what He did.
John 10:15-18 Five P’s: Person who died—John 10:15. Persons for whom He
died—John 10:15. Price He paid—John 10:17. Principle on which He acted—John
10:18 a. Power behind the action—John 10:18 b.
John 10:27 Marks of the sheep of Christ: 1—hear His voice. 2—follow Him.
John 11:1-57; John 12:1-50 The witness of the Father to Jesus.
John 11:25-26 i.e., In the hour when He is to be so manifested!
John 11:44 Life but not liberty.
John 12:1 New life.
John 12:2 Service, communion.
John 12:3 Worship.
John 12:28 i.e., glorified in the resurrection of Lazarus. He would glorify it
in Christ’s resurrection also.
John 13:23, John 13:25 leaning and lying—Note the two different words.
lying—“falling back on.”
John 13:36 The proper beginning of chapter 14. whither goest thou?—The answer is
found in John 14:2.
John 14:2 mansions—abiding places. “If it were not so would I have told you I go
to prepare a place for you?”
John 14:16 I will pray the Father—to ask as a demand, in one’s own right.
John 14:16, John 14:26 Comforter—“He dwelleth with you.” The Holy Spirit before
Pentecost. Striving with the Antediluvians: Genesis 6:3; 1 Peter 3:18-20.
Angelic ministry prominent in patriarchal days—Genesis 10:1-32, Genesis 11:1-32,
Genesis 12:1-20, Genesis 13:1-18, Genesis 14:1-24, Genesis 15:1-21, Genesis
16:1-16, Genesis 17:1-27, Genesis 18:1-33, Genesis 19:1-38, Genesis 20:1-18,
Genesis 21:1-34, Genesis 22:1-24, Genesis 23:1-20, Genesis 24:1-67, Genesis
25:1-34, Genesis 26:1-35, Genesis 27:1-46, Genesis 28:1-22, Genesis 29:1-35,
Genesis 30:1-43, Genesis 31:1-55, Genesis 32:1-32, Genesis 33:1-20, Genesis
34:1-31, Genesis 35:1-29, Genesis 36:1-43, Genesis 37:1-36, Genesis 38:1-30,
Genesis 39:1-23, Genesis 40:1-23, Genesis 41:1-57, Genesis 42:1-38, Genesis
43:1-34, Genesis 44:1-34, Genesis 45:1-28, Genesis 46:1-34, Genesis 47:1-31,
Genesis 48:1-22, Genesis 49:1-33, Genesis 50:1-26. The Holy Spirit the author of
the Scriptures—1 Peter 1:11; 2 Peter 1:20; 2 Samuel 23:2; Nehemiah 9:30. In the
wilderness—Nehemiah 9:20. Men empowered for testimony and service—Bezaleel and
Aholiab—Exodus 31:3; Exodus 35:30-35. Balaam—Samson— Gideon—Saul—David—etc.,
etc.—John the Baptist. The promise to give to those who ask— Luke 11:13.
John 14:27 Peace I leave—Peace with God. He left this when He died. He gives
peace—as the living One.
John 14:31 The burnt offering.
John 15:1 The true Vine—in contrast to Israel, the empty vine—Hosea 10:1; Isaiah
5:1-30, etc.; Psalms 80:8; Revelation 14:17.
John 15:3 Cleansing by the Word. See John 13:1-38.
John 15:4-7 “Abiding in Christ and abounding for Christ.” The soul’s need: Pure
air—prayer. Good food—the Word of God. Constant exercise—obedience to God.
Connect John 15:4; John 15:10; Colossians 4:2; 1 Corinthians 15:58; Psalms 84:7.
John 15:7 The secret of prevailing prayer.
John 16:1-16 The personality of the Holy Spirit. One with the Father and the
Son: the Holy Trinity. Matthew 28:19; Genesis 1:1; Isaiah 48:16; Luke 3:22; 2
Corinthians 13:1. Personality attributed to Him. He may be grieved— Ephesians
4:30; insulted—Hebrews 10:29; He guides, speaks, convinces (see John 16:8-13);
knows—1 Corinthians 2:11; searches out and reveals—John 8:10; teaches—John 8:12;
controls and distributes the gifts—1 Corinthians 12:16 His name on a check is
good for any amount. To the Bank of Heaven Pay to whosoever abides in Me
whatsoever he shall ask. —Jesus Christ John 17:1-26 The High Priest in
intercession.
John 18:4 The Eternal Son!
John 18:8 The gospel illustrated.
John 18:10 The energy of the flesh.
John 18:18 Warming himself at the world’s fire.
John 18:28 So careful of the ritual, so careless of the life of the Saviour!
John 18:36 His Kingdom heavenly in origin—but eventually to be set up on earth.
John 19:2 thorns—the fruit of the curse. See Genesis 3:18.
John 19:18 Luke 2:46. Jesus in the midst. See Matthew 18:20.
John 19:20 Hebrew, Greek, Latin—law, culture, and religion.
John 19:34-35 Witnesses of the death: the finished work of Christ. See 1 John
1:6, etc.
John 19:39 The burial of a King. They laid Him on a bed of spices.
John 20:17 My brethren: new creation relationship—the fruit of His death.
John 20:22 The last Adam: a quickening Spirit.
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CHAPTER 13: 01.12. NEW TESTAMENT -- ACTS - COLOSSIANS
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New Testament -- Acts - Colossians by H A Ironside
Acts
Acts 1:8 Power: “It is not skillfully composed discourse, nor the mode of
delivery, nor well-practised eloquence that produces conviction, but the
communication of divine power.”—From Origen (Commentary on John’s Gospel) Acts
1:22 The last official act of the old dispensation.
Acts 2:1 The new dispensation of the grace of God ushered in.
Acts 2:14 Filled, baptized, sealed, and anointed all at the same time.
Filled—See Acts 4:8.
Acts 2:16 this is that—the same in kind—but not the times of Joel 2:1-32.
Acts 3:17 through ignorance—A city of refuge opened to them.
Acts 3:24 [last clause] i.e., the days of the Messiah.
Acts 4:11 The rejected Stone—Matthew 21:42, Psalms 118:22.
Acts 5:15 Shadow ministry—Peter walked in the sunlight of God’s love and so his
very shadow was full of blessing.
“It is no hard work to cast a shadow, it is simply living in the sunlight.” Dr.
A.T.S.
“You can’t dispute with a shadow.” It is the life that counts when perhaps the
one who casts the shadow is quite unconscious of it.
Acts 5:33 they were cut to the heart—“they were infuriated.”
Acts 6:3, Acts 6:5 Full—a normal condition. See Acts 7:55.
Acts 7:2-3 Led by the God of glory up to the glory of God. See Acts 7:55.
Acts 8:29 join thyself—literally, “glue thyself.”
Acts 8:37 omitted in most mss. But we have here proof positive that in the early
church confession of faith in Christ preceded baptism.
Acts 10:2 Evidently a quickened soul—a proselyte from the Gentiles.
Acts 10:38 Jesus anointed by the Spirit as Prophet, Priest, and King.
Acts 11:23 Purpose of heart—2 Timothy 3:10; Daniel 1:8.
Acts 11:25 Evidently Paul’s sojourn in Arabia was just prior to this (?).
Acts 13:1-52; Acts 14:1-28 Paul’s first missionary journey.
Acts 13:9 From this time the apostle is called Paul.
Acts 14:1 so spake—It is possible so to speak that no one will believe.
Acts 14:28 End of the first mission to the Gentiles.
Acts 15:1 Adding to the work of Christ.
Acts 15:26 hazarded—literally—“delivered up”—same as in Galatians 1:14—“gave”
Himself. Ephesians 5:2, Ephesians 5:25.
Acts 15:36 Inception of the second missionary journey.
Acts 15:40 Beginning of the journey.
Acts 16:1-40 Guidance:
(1) By hearing—Acts 16:6.
(2) By the hand or feeling—Acts 16:7.
(3) Vision—by sight—Acts 16:9.
(4) Guidance by discernment—Acts 16:15.
Acts 16:10 Luke joins the party at Troas.
Acts 16:12 i.e., A Roman colonia—having the standing of the imperial city
itself.
Acts 17:6 The world was wrong side up ever since the fall of man.
Acts 17:27 feel—only place in the New Testament.
Acts 17:31 The Day of Judgment—Hebrews 9:27; Psalms 9:8.
Acts 18:12, Acts 18:17 Gallio—the indifferent.
Acts 18:22 End of the second mission.
Acts 18:23 The third missionary journey.
Acts 18:24-28 Apollos:
1—A man of great natural endowments.
2—A man of learning.
3—Mighty in the Scriptures.
4—Zealous.
5—Limited knowledge of the Lord Jesus.
6—Confined his preaching to what he knew.
7—Willing to learn from less gifted people.
8—Knew how to use knowledge aright.
Acts 19:1 N.B.—Not a Christian company—simply Jewish disciples of John the
Baptist.
Acts 19:2 [first part] Did you, upon believing, receive the Holy Spirit? literal
translation.
Acts 19:15 Demons know Him—Mark 5:7.
Acts 20:26 Compare Ezekiel 33:1-33.
Acts 20:35 [last part] was wont to say. It was a characteristic habit of His,
though nowhere recorded in the Gospels.
Acts 21:4 Note that the Holy Spirit seems distinctly to warn Paul not to go to
Jerusalem. It is very evident however that Paul did not recognize this. There is
no hint of self-will on his part.
Acts 21:11 The second warning—but not a command this time.
Acts 21:23 Was not this a trap, an effort to have Paul compromise the truth for
the sake of peace?
Acts 21:26 And this in the face of the truth of Hebrews 9:1-28 and Hebrews
10:1-39.
Acts 23:27 having understood—a prevarication.
Acts 24:25 Felix, the procrastinator.
Acts 24:26 Covetous and adulterous.
Acts 25:3 Hypocrisy of religious leaders.
Acts 25:18 Festus the scorner.
Acts 25:19-20 To Festus these were most trivial matters!
Acts 26:9 Conscience not a safe guide. It must be instructed by revelation. See
Acts 23:1.
Acts 26:10 voice—vote. Saul was evidently a member of the Sanhedrin.
Acts 26:26 Agrippa—the almost persuaded.
Acts 26:28 “With how little wouldst thou persuade me.”
Acts 26:29 both almost, and altogether—“Whether by little or by much.”
Acts 27:24 How blessed to be Sailing with Paul!
Acts 27:25 Divine sovereignty—See Acts 27:31.
Acts 27:31 Human responsibility.
Romans The Epistle of the Forum.—Note the large use of legal terms.
Theme: “The Righteousness of God.”
Part 1 Romans 1:1-32, Romans 2:1-29, Romans 3:1-31, Romans 4:1-25, Romans
5:1-21, Romans 6:1-23, Romans 7:1-25, Romans 8:1-39—Doctrinal—”The Righteousness
of God revealed in the gospel.”
Division 1 Romans 1:1-32, Romans 2:1-29, Romans 3:1-31, Romans 4:1-25, Romans
5:1-11—God’s way of dealing with our sins.
Section 1 Romans 1:1-32; Romans 2:1-29; Romans 3:1-20—The need of the gospel.
Romans 1:1-7 Sub-sec. 1—Salutation. The key in verse one—“gospel.”
Romans 1:3 Humanity of our Lord.
Romans 1:4 Deity of our Lord.
Romans 1:8-17 Sub-sec. 2—Introduction.
Romans 1:9 Acts 27:23—Service.
Romans 1:10 See Acts 27:1-44; Acts 28:1-31 for the answer.
Romans 1:17 i.e., faithwise—not of works.
Romans 1:18-32 Sub-sec. 3—The barbarian’s condition.
Romans 1:20 things that are made—“poem”—See Ephesians 2:10.
Romans 2:1-29; Romans 3:1-20 Sub-sec. 4—The cultured Gentile’s condition. The
moralist.
Romans 2:22 [last part] to buy and sell idols.
Romans 3:1-31 The summing up.
Romans 3:9 The great indictment.
Romans 3:21-31; Romans 4:1-25; Romans 5:1-11 The gospel in relation to sins.
Romans 3:24 freely—Dorion: same word is translated “without-a-cause” in John
15:25.
Romans 3:31 The law is not discredited, but its righteousness is fully
recognized in the gospel.
Romans 4:4 Reward is for works; justification is by grace. See Hebrews 10:35.
Romans 4:5 God justifies the ungodly who believe in Christ who died for the
ungodly—See Romans 5:6.
Romans 4:15 The law gives sin the specific character of transgression.
Romans 5:1 Note the 3 “therefores”:
Romans 5:1—“Justification.”
Romans 8:1—“Sanctification.”
Romans 12:1—“Consecration.”
Romans 5:10-11 Reconciled to God by the death of Christ. Colossians 1:21.
Romans 5:10-11 God received the atonement and we the reconciliation.
Romans 5:12-21; Romans 6:1-23; Romans 7:1-25; Romans 8:1-39 The gospel in
relation to sin.
Romans 5:14 death—King. Note the five kings.
Romans 5:17 Believers—kings.
Transferred—from Adam to Christ.
Transformed—into the Spirit of Christ.
Translated—at the Coming of Christ.
Romans 5:21 Sin—king.
Grace—king.
Christ—king.
Romans 6:11 Reckon!
Romans 6:13 Yield! See 2 Chronicles 30:8.
Romans 6:16 Obey! (George Matheson’s poem, “Make me a captive, Lord,” was pasted
in Dr. Ironside’s Bible beside this verse. It appears in full in the poetry
section in front.) Romans 7:1-25 The two husbands.
Romans 7:1 Death severs relationship to law.
Romans 7:4 Christ’s death to law was my death to that principle.
Romans 7:7 The old husband not to be confounded with the old master (Pharaoh).
Romans 8:2 The Spirit’s law: life in Christ Jesus.
Romans 8:9 Sealing with the Spirit.
Romans 8:16 The Spirit bearing witness. See Hebrews 10:1-39 and 1 John 5:1-21-
Romans 8:29 Note: Foreordination is not to salvation—but to Christ-conformity.
Part 2 Romans 9:1-33; Romans 10:1-21; Romans 11:1-36—Dispensational—The
Righteousness of God in harmony with His dispensational ways.
All Israel’s past blessings depended upon sovereign electing grace.
Romans 9:1-33 God’s past dealings with Israel. An elect nation cannot rightfully
call in question God’s electing grace as applied to the Gentiles in this age.
Romans 9:2 Great heaviness and continual sorrow are not inconsistent with
fullness of joy in the Lord.
Romans 9:6 Note—the theme here is that of a place of special privilege on earth.
Romans 9:22 Why object to God’s present work of grace when the Jew had rejected
the mercy shown him?
Romans 10:1-21 God’s present dealings with Israel.
Romans 11:1-36 God’s future dealings with Israel.
Romans 11:11-12 The calling of the Gentiles—See Isaiah 49:1-26.
Romans 11:16-26 The olive tree—The natural branches torn out. See Jeremiah
11:16.
Romans 11:25 The mystery of the olive tree.
Part 3 Romans 12:1-21; Romans 13:1-14; Romans 14:1-23; Romans 15:1-33; Romans
16:1-27—Practical—The Righteousness of God apprehended produces practical
righteousness in us.
Romans 12:1 A living sacrifice—See Numbers 8:11-21; Daniel 3:28; Acts 15:26.
Exhortation based on Romans 1:1-32; Romans 2:1-29; Romans 3:1-31; Romans 4:1-25;
Romans 5:1-21; Romans 6:1-23; Romans 7:1-25; Romans 8:1-39.
Romans 12:2 The free service of a willing mind as a result of the new life.
Romans 12:3 Responsibility toward brethren in Christ generally.
Romans 12:4-5 The One Body—1 Corinthians 12:1-31.
Romans 12:18-21 Belongs to the next chapter.
Romans 13:1-14 Responsibility toward governments and men of the world.
Romans 13:14 Augustine’s conversion.
Romans 14:1-25; Romans 15:1-7 Responsibility to walk charitably toward weaker
brethren.
“First. Is it lawful? May I do it and not sin? Second. Is it becoming in me as a
Christian? May I do it and not wrong my profession? Third. Is it expedient? May
I do it and not offend my weak brothers?” —Bernard of Clairvaux.
Romans 15:13 believing what?—Man’s ruin—1—Romans 3:20. God’s remedy Romans
3:21-31; Romans 4:1-25; Romans 5:1-11. In a new race with a new head—Romans
5:12-21. Dead to the sin within—Romans 6:1-23. Dead to law—Romans 7:1-25. In
Christ—Christ in us, God for us—Romans 8:1-39.
Romans 15:29 Yet he came bound with a chain after being twice shipwrecked.
Romans 16:1-24 Salutations.
Romans 16:25-27 Appendix—the mystery.
Romans 16:26 the scriptures of the prophets—“prophetic writings,” i.e., of the
N.T.
1 Corinthians The Church of God and its Order.
1 Corinthians 1:10 The unity of the Church.
1 Corinthians 1:17 Message of the Church.
1 Corinthians 2:2 “A Christless Cross no refuge is for me, A Crossless Christ my
Saviour might not be, But, O Christ Crucified, I rest in Thee.”
1 Corinthians 2:11 Personality of the human spirit.
1 Corinthians 3:1-23 The work of the Church.
1 Corinthians 4:1-21 Ministry of the Church.
1 Corinthians 4:6 Literally, I have used Apollos and myself as illustrations for
your sakes that ye might learn in us (the meaning of) nothing beyond what is
written.
1 Corinthians 5:1-13 Discipline of the Church.
1 Corinthians 5:6 The leaven—See Hosea 7:4.
1 Corinthians 6:1-20; 1 Corinthians 7:1-40; 1 Corinthians 8:1-13; 1 Corinthians
9:1-27; 1 Corinthians 10:1-33 Social life of the Church.
1 Corinthians 6:13-20 Note how the Holy Trinity is interested in the believer’s
body. The Lord for the body. The body indwelt by the Holy Spirit.
Glorify God in your body. Romans 12:1.
1 Corinthians 7:6 i.e.,—he permits but does not command the advice of 1
Corinthians 7:5.
1 Corinthians 8:2 See James 1:5.
1 Corinthians 9:26-27 “I am a boxer, who does not inflict blows upon the air,
but I hit hard and straight at my own body.” Weymouth’s translation.
1 Corinthians 10:11 Note four views of the Scriptures:
1. Literal—all these things happened.
2. Typical—unto them for ensamples.
3. Spiritual—written for our admonition.
4. Dispensational—upon whom the ends of the world (ages) are come.
1 Corinthians 10:32 The threefold division of mankind.
1 Corinthians 11:1-34; 1 Corinthians 12:1-31; 1 Corinthians 13:1-13; 1
Corinthians 14:1-40 Meetings of the Church.
1 Corinthians 12:1-31 Note: The “Body” here is the aggregate of believers on the
earth at a given time. In Ephesians it is all from Pentecost to the Lord’s
return.
1 Corinthians 12:4-6 The Trinity.
1 Corinthians 12:12 The human body.
1 Corinthians 12:13 The Body of Christ.
Baptized in the Spirit:
See the promise through John—Matthew 3:11; Mark 1:8; Luke 3:16; John 1:31. The
promise of the Lord—Acts 1:5-8. The promise of the Father—Luke 1:49; Isaiah
49:3; Joel 2:2; Ezekiel 37:26. The Promise fulfilled:
Israel—Acts 2:1-7.
Samaria—Acts 8:14-17.
Gentiles—Acts 10:44-48; Acts 11:15-16.
John’s disciples—Acts 19:1-6.
1 Corinthians 15:1-58 The confidence and hope of the Church.
1 Corinthians 15:3 The death of Christ:
1—Voluntary—John 10:1-42.
2—The purpose for which He became Incarnate— Hebrews 2:1-18.
3—Substitutionary.
4—To reconcile to God.
5—Ends our relationship with the old creation.
Dead to sin—the world—law.
1 Corinthians 15:24-26 The mediatorial kingdom to be delivered up to the
Father—The work of the Son—as receiver of the fallen universe—completed.
1 Corinthians 15:28 [last clause] i.e., God—the eternal Trinity, Father, Son,
and Holy Spirit.
1 Corinthians 15:36 Fool—not implying lack of intelligence—but one who makes a
bad use of it. Not moros as in Matthew 1 Corinthians 15:22 but aphron, heedless.
1 Corinthians 15:39 No evolution of species.
1 Corinthians 15:44 natural—psychical; spiritual—pneumatical.
1 Corinthians 15:52 “In a moment”—See Job 21:13.
1 Corinthians 15:58 The Lord’s Return—the incentive to service. See 1
Thessalonians 1:9-10.
1 Corinthians 16:1-24 Concluding exhortations and salutations.
2 Corinthians 2 Corinthians 1:10 Threefold deliverance. See Psalms 116:8.
2 Corinthians 1:14 [last part] i.e., at the judgment seat of Christ. See Php
1:6.
2 Corinthians 1:21-22 The operations of the Spirit of God.
2 Corinthians 2:3-5 Note how frequently he uses “you all” in Philippians, as
also here.
2 Corinthians 4:8-9 “Without a way but not without a by-way.” Emph. Bible.
2 Corinthians 4:16-18 Note the contrasts:
Outward man—inward man.
Perish—renewed.
Light—weight.
Affliction—glory.
Moment—eternal.
Things seen—unseen.
Temporal—eternal.
Continue in 2 Corinthians 5:1-21—contrasts throughout.
2 Corinthians 4:16 The outward man—the body. The inward man—the spirit and soul.
2 Corinthians 5:6 Galatians 2:20—Is the body all?—See 2 Corinthians 12:3.
2 Corinthians 5:19 The ministry of reconciliation—John 3:17; Deuteronomy 20:10.
2 Corinthians 5:21 The basis of reconciliation. The sin offering. We are now
made, in Christ, the display of divine righteousness. The Sinless One made sin.
Knew no sin:
1—Never sinned.
2—No sin within.
3—Incapable of sin, impeccable.
Made sin:
1—No change in Him.
2—No change in the Father’s love.
3—Bore divine judgment as sin offering.
Result: We—sinners—made the display of divine righteousness in Him. Php 3:1-21.
He did no sin—1 Peter 2:22.
“In Him is no sin.”—1 John 3:5.
Tempted apart from sin—Hebrews 4:15.
2 Corinthians 6:1-18 Ambassadors for Christ:
1—Their authority.
2—Qualifications.
3—Message.
4—Recall.
2 Corinthians 6:3 A blameless ministry.
2 Corinthians 6:4 The minister’s credentials.
2 Corinthians 6:6 The minister’s character.
2 Corinthians 6:7-10 The minister’s contrasts.
2 Corinthians 8:3 Willing beyond their ability.
2 Corinthians 8:4 [last phrase] Fellowship of serving by giving.
2 Corinthians 8:9 “When was He rich?”
2 Corinthians 9:8-11 “From God to God.” He the source of all blessing which in
turn leads the heart out in worship and praise to Him—See Ecclesiastes 1:7.
2 Corinthians 10:4 Ephesians 6:11-13—The Christian warfare.
2 Corinthians 10:7 outward appearance—1 Samuel 16:7.
2 Corinthians 11:2 The Church the espoused bride.
2 Corinthians 11:19 Keen irony.
2 Corinthians 12:2 Consciousness out of the body taken for granted.
2 Corinthians 12:8 Prayer to Christ, as to the Father.
2 Corinthians 13:14 communion—Fellowship, partnership, companionship.
“to eat bread together”—Latin. Together—breadship.
Galatians
Law and Grace.
Galatians 1:1-24; Galatians 2:1-21 Personal.
Galatians 1:1-5 Salutation.
Galatians 1:6-10 Introduction.
Galatians 1:11-23 Paul’s conversion and call to the apostolate.
Galatians 1:13 conversation—behavior.
Galatians 2:11 Controversy with Peter.
Galatians 2:20 The Cross—See Romans 6:6.
Galatians 3:1-29; Galatians 4:1-31 Doctrinal.
Galatians 3:27 See Colossians 2:12; Romans 6:3-4.
Galatians 5:1-26; Galatians 6:1-18 Practical.
Galatians 5:15 Dogs!
Galatians 6:14 The Cross. See Galatians 2:20. See the type in Numbers 19:6.
Cicero wrote: “Far be the very name of a cross, not only from the bodies of
Roman citizens, but from their imaginations, eyes, and ears.”
Galatians 6:17 “I bear branded in my body the stigmata of the Lord Jesus.”
Ephesians The N.T. Book of Joshua.—The Body of Christ.— The Heavenlies our
present portion.
Ephesians 1:4 according to—See Esther 2:18.
Ephesians 1:17-18 Prayer for knowledge. Paul’s first prayer—See Ephesians 3:14.
Ephesians 1:22 all—i.e., all principalities, powers, etc.
Ephesians 2:10 workmanship—“poem”—See Romans 1:20.
Ephesians 2:17 which were afar off—Gentiles. that were nigh—Jews.
Ephesians 3:3 the mystery—Colossians 1:26. Colossians 3:8 See Ephesians 3:16.
Ephesians 3:10 Angels learning the wisdom of God in us.
Ephesians 3:11 “Purpose of the ages.”
Ephesians 3:14 Prayer for power.
Ephesians 3:16 according to—not “out of” but “according to.” riches—1—Endowment.
“Glory is the excellence of anything in display.” Alex. Stewart of Glasgow,
quoted by F. E. Marsh, strengthened with might—2—Enduement—power or ability.
Ephesians 3:17 [first part] 3—Enthronement.
[last part] 4—Environment. rooted—like a tree. grounded—like a building.
Ephesians 3:18 Four dimensions—spiritual knowledge of the divine purpose.
comprehend—5—Enlightenment.
Ephesians 3:19 6—Enrichment.
Ephesians 3:20 Compare with Jude 1:24 and Romans 16:25.
[last part] 7—Empowerment or equipment.
Ephesians 4:8 Captivity captive explained in Isaiah 14:2. See Judges 5:12.
Ephesians 4:12 Omit the commas.
Ephesians 4:20 Christ glorified directs our attention to Jesus as He was here on
earth.
Ephesians 4:24 A new order of man—See Colossians 3:10 where a different word is
used.
Ephesians 4:30 The Holy Spirit—a divine person, who may be:
Vexed—Isaiah 63:10.
Resisted—Acts 7:51.
Grieved—Ephesians 4:30.
Quenched—1 Thessalonians 5:19.
Ephesians 5:2 The Burnt Offering—Leviticus 1:1-17; Psalms 40:1-17.
Ephesians 5:9 Fruit of the Spirit—Galatians 5:22—Some read “Fruit of the Light.”
Ephesians 5:14 [last clause] or “Christ shall shine upon thee.”
Ephesians 5:18 Filled with the Spirit—Compare Colossians 3:16.
See Acts 2:4; Acts 4:8; Acts 4:31; Acts 6:3, Acts 6:5; Acts 7:55; Acts 9:17;
Acts 11:24; Acts 13:9; Acts 13:52. Full of the Holy Spirit—the normal condition
of one who is walking with God. Filled— special filling for special occasions.
Ephesians 5:15 Contrast with the shoes of Joab—1 Kings 2:5.
Philippians Christian Experience: Christ in Life and Death.
Key words: Mind, Gospel.
“The dear Lord’s best interpreters Are humble, human souls. The gospel of a life
like theirs Is more than creeds or scrolls.”
Php 1:1-30 Christ, the believer’s Life.
Php 1:6 2 Corinthians 1:14—i.e., the judgment seat of Christ. See Php 1:10.
Php 1:9 judgment—“keen perception.”
Php 1:11 Amos 6:12—fruits of righteousness—See Hebrews 12:11; James 3:17-18.
Php 1:12-26 Personal.
Php 1:27-30 Exhortation.
Php 1:27 striving together—co-operating vigorously.
Php 2:1-30 Christ our Example—“Others.”
Php 3:1-21 Christ the believer’s Object.
Php 3:2-4 Deliverance from confidence in the flesh and the religion of the
flesh. Paul’s Personal Experience.
Php 3:5 Benjamin—A son of the free wife—not a bondmaid.
Php 3:9 Contrast Deuteronomy 6:25.
Php 3:11 “The out-resurrection from among.”
Php 3:13 one thing—Psalms 27:4; Luke 10:42.
Php 3:15 perfect—mature.
Php 3:20 our conversation—our citizenship and hope. Politeuma—commonwealth,
citizenship, politics.
Php 4:1-23 Christ our Strength.
Colossians The Headship of Christ.
Note the place the “will of God” has in this letter.
Probably written A.D. 63.
Colossians 1:1-29 The Pre-Eminent One.
Colossians 1:4-5 Faith, hope, and love—1 Corinthians 13:1-13. Note the order
here is changed. 1 Thessalonians 1:3.
Colossians 1:9-11 Prayer—seven petitions.
Colossians 1:9 True knowledge.
Colossians 1:10 Walk worthy: Of your calling—Ephesians 4:1. Of the gospel—Php
1:27. Of the Lord—Colossians 1:16.
Colossians 1:11 Divine strength.
Colossians 1:12-14 Thanksgiving.
Colossians 1:15-19 The First Begotten.
Colossians 1:15 Firstborn—not necessarily the one born first—but a title of
dignity. See Deuteronomy 21:16; Psalms 89:25-27. Christ —greater than
creation—not a part of it.
Firstborn of all creation—See Colossians 1:18.
Exact image—not a distant eon.
Colossians 1:17 before—See John 1:17; John 8:58. Christ’s pre-existance.
“What makes gravitation gravitate?” Christ!
Colossians 1:18 firstborn from the dead—Romans 8:29.
Colossians 1:19 In Him all the fullness was pleased to dwell.
Colossians 1:20-22 Twofold reconciliation.
Sin had ruptured the condition of concord or conciliation between man and God.
Christ has wrought the re-conciliation. See Romans 5:10-11; 2 Corinthians
5:18-21; Ephesians 2:10-17.
Colossians 1:23-29 Twofold ministry.
Colossians 1:23 If ye continue—the test of profession. made a minister—a
minister of the gospel.
Colossians 1:25 A minister of the Church Colossians 2:1-23 Our union with the
Head. Complete in Him.
Colossians 2:2 full assurance—See Hebrews 6:11.
Colossians 2:4-7 Our link with Him.
Colossians 2:4 Christ the Antidote for every fleshly system.
[last clause] lead you astray by persuasive talk.
Colossians 2:8 Christ the Antidote for human philosophy.
Colossians 2:9 the fulness—pleroma—not merely all the qualities of God, as Arius
afterwards taught, but the very essence—the nature—of God in all its entirety.
Colossians 2:10 complete—filled full.
Colossians 2:11 Not the “sins” here as in Romans 6:1-23—but the flesh itself.
Colossians 2:13-14 Jewish legality.
Colossians 2:14 The receipted bond—all sins settled for.
Colossians 2:16 Ritualism, asceticism, as in the Essenic Gnostics.
Colossians 2:18 Pagan mysticism (Persian), superstition, Gnosticism.
Colossians 2:23 Asceticism—not of any use against the indulgence of the flesh.
Colossians 3:1-25 Christ is all.
“Sometimes the loudest proclaimers of the truth are the poorest performers, and
so they discount what they say by what they do.” —A.T.R.
Colossians 3:1-4 Risen with Christ.
Colossians 3:2 set—like a watch set to the sun. Four circles:
Colossians 3:5-11—The inner circle—one’s own heart.
Colossians 3:12-17—Christian fellowship.
Colossians 3:18-20—The home.
Colossians 3:22-25; Colossians 4:1-6—The world without.
Colossians 3:5-11 Judgment of the old ways.
Colossians 3:5 mortify—put to death.
Colossians 3:8 The habits of the old man—our old clothes, i.e., the man of
old—the man you used to be before you knew Christ.
Colossians 3:12 The habits of the new man—our new clothes.
Colossians 3:14 [last phrase] “girdle of perfection.”
Colossians 3:15-17 Three rules of conduct.
Colossians 3:15 rule—umpire.
Colossians 3:16 Word of Christ—only place in N.T. psalms—to strike a note, as on
a harp or lyre.
Colossians 3:18-25; Colossians 4:1 Sanctification of natural relationships.
Colossians 4:2-4 Prayer.
Colossians 4:5-6 Walk and speech.
Colossians 4:17-18 Closing salutations. Contrast with Ephesians.
Colossians 4:16 [last phrase] Probably Ephesians.
Colossians 4:18 Paul—What would one not give to have this autograph!
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CHAPTER 14: 01.13. NEW TESTAMENT -- 1 THESSALONIANS - JAMES
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New Testament -- 1 Thessalonians - James by H A Ironside
1 Thessalonians The Coming of Christ for His Saints. The Lord’s Return mentioned
in every chapter.
1 Thessalonians 1:1-10 The child born.
1 Thessalonians 1:1 in God the Father—family relationship.
1 Thessalonians 1:2-7 The introduction of the gospel to Thessalonica.
1 Thessalonians 1:7 ensamples—models or types. “Topline believers.” See 1
Timothy 4:12.
1 Thessalonians 1:8-10 The effect of the gospel.
1 Thessalonians 1:8 from you sounded out—“God has cast us as bells in His
foundry that we may ring.” Inglis Fleming.
1 Thessalonians 1:9 The truth of the Lord’s Return an incentive to true
service—1 Corinthians 15:58.
1 Thessalonians 1:10 Our Deliverer from the coming wrath: The wrath of the
Lamb—Revelation 6:1-17. The wrath of God—Revelation 15:1-8; Revelation 16:1-21.
The wrath of Satan—Revelation 12:1-17.
1 Thessalonians 2:1-20 The child nursed.
1 Thessalonians 2:1-13 The manner of the ministry.
1 Thessalonians 2:7 As Moses’ mother—Exodus 2:9.
1 Thessalonians 2:14-20 The results of the ministry.
1 Thessalonians 2:19 Reward at the Lord’s Return.
Crown of Rejoicing. Connect with Php 4:1 and see 2 Timothy 4:8.
1 Thessalonians 3:1-13 Pastoral care. The child taught to walk.
1 Thessalonians 3:12-13 Love and holiness to be perfected at the Lord’s Return.
1 Thessalonians 4:1-18 The child comforted.
1 Thessalonians 4:1-2 Exhortations.
1 Thessalonians 4:13-18 The revelation of the rapture.
1 Thessalonians 4:15 prevent—precede or anticipate.
1 Thessalonians 4:16 rise—stand up.
1 Thessalonians 4:17 meet—To go to meet another in order to return with him.
Same as in Acts 28:15.
1 Thessalonians 5:1-28 The child taught to fight.
1 Thessalonians 5:1-11 The Day of the Lord.
1 Thessalonians 5:1 Daniel 2:21.
1 Thessalonians 5:12-28 Concluding exhortations and closing salutation.
1 Thessalonians 5:19 The Holy Spirit may be resisted, grieved, quenched.
1 Thessalonians 5:22 All appearances—every form.
2 Thessalonians The Coming of Christ with His Saints.
2 Thessalonians 1:3-12 Comfort in view of the Lord’s Return.
2 Thessalonians 2:1-12 The coming of antichrist. Characteristics of the
antichrist—lawlessness, overweening pride, impiety, false miracles.
2 Thessalonians 2:3 falling away first—the apostasy.
2 Thessalonians 2:7 iniquity—lawlessness—Zechariah 5:8.
2 Thessalonians 2:8 wicked one—or the lawless one.
2 Thessalonians 2:13-17 The believer’s assured hope.
2 Thessalonians 3:1-15 Concluding exhortations.
2 Thessalonians 3:16-17 Closing salutation.
1 Timothy [Word “some” underscored throughout the letter.] 1 Timothy 3:16
godliness—piety.
1 Timothy 4:6 Responsibility of a minister of Christ.
1 Timothy 4:7-8 The spiritual athlete—2 Timothy 2:5.
1 Timothy 4:10 Saviour—Preserver—1 Timothy 6:17; 1 Timothy 3:15.
1 Timothy 4:12 See 1 Thessalonians 1:7. despise—think down on—See Titus 2:15.
1 Timothy 4:13-15 Think not only of Paul but of Him who inspired Paul to write.
1 Timothy 4:16 continue—“Stay by these things.”
2 Timothy 2 Timothy 1:7 The spirit of fear—Romans 8:15. The spirit of power—Acts
1:8; 1 Thessalonians 1:5. The spirit of love—Romans 5:5; Colossians 1:8; 1
Timothy 1:5; 1 Peter 1:22; Ephesians 4:2. The spirit of a sound mind—1
Corinthians 2:10-12; Romans 12:1.
2 Timothy 1:10 immortality—incorruptibility.
2 Timothy 2:2 A teaching ministry—and the training of others.
2 Timothy 2:11-13 One of the earliest Christian hymns.
2 Timothy 2:14-21 “The usable preacher.”
“God can use anyone. But it’s up to the preacher not to strain Omnipotence!”
A.J.R.
2 Timothy 2:14 Not a verbal hairsplitter. strive not about words—“should not
make a war of words.”
2 Timothy 2:15 A skilled interpreter of the Word of God. “Don’t make a crazy
quilt out of God’s Word.” A.J.R. needeth not to be ashamed—some ought to be but
are not. study—be zealous. rightly dividing—cutting straight.
2 Timothy 2:16-18 Not Destructive but Constructive.
2 Timothy 2:16 shun—step aside. Let the babbler have the road. Do not waste time
arguing with him.
2 Timothy 2:19-21 A clean vessel.
2 Timothy 2:21 “Usable for the Master.”
[last part] prepared—Ready for every good work.
2 Timothy 4:8 The crown of righteousness—See James 1:12.
2 Timothy 4:13 cloke—Possibly the “book bag.”
Titus Titus 1:7 bishop—overseer. Elder is the same person.
Titus 1:11 1 Peter 5:2.
Titus 2:12 Internal, external, godward.
Titus 2:13 blessed—happy. A happy hope because:
Christ Himself is to return. The first Resurrection and the living changed. The
redemption of the body. The believer to be rewarded The earth to be blessed.
Titus 2:14 To loose from all bondage to sin.
Titus 2:15 let no man despise you—“think around you, i.e., outthink you.” Dr.
A.T.R. See 1 Timothy 4:12.
Titus 3:5 Regeneration—See Matthew 19:28.
Philemon “We are all God’s Onesimuses.” Luther Philemon 1:1-3 Salutation.
Philemon 1:1 Paul—“little.”
Philemon—“loving.”
Timothy—honored by God.
Philemon 1:4-7 Introduction.
Philemon 1:8-20 Paul’s request for Onesimus.
Philemon 1:17 Acceptance.
Philemon 1:18 Substitution.
Philemon 1:21-25 Closing salutations.
Philemon 1:21 Grace exceeds demand.
Hebrews A Wilderness Epistle. Written to Jews who professed to be Christians—to
call them to complete separation from the system of Judaism. The better things
of the new covenant contrasted with lesser things of the old. Note the frequent
use of the word “better.”
Hebrews 1:1-14 Christ the Divine Son. Better than angels.
Angels—at creation—Job 38:4-7.
Tested—sin began with angels—a satanic kingdom.
Elect angels—ministering.
Welcomed the Incarnation.
Ministered to Jesus—in the garden—at the Cross—at the
Resurrection—Ascension—Second Coming.
Executors of grace and judgment.
Hebrews 1:3 image of his person—exact expression of His character.
Hebrews 1:4 Being made—having become.
Hebrews 2:1-18 Christ the Sinless Son of Man—lower than angels yet superior to
them.
Hebrews 2:1-4 Parenthetical warning.
Hebrews 2:3 “The means that heaven yields must be embraced And not neglected,
else if heaven would And we will not, heaven’s offer we refuse.” Shakespeare,
Richard II, 3:2.
Hebrews 2:8-9 He has been put above everything that all may know everything will
be manifestly subjected to Him eventually.
Hebrews 2:10 perfect—He was ever perfect in nature, but He had to be perfected
as Saviour through His sufferings.
Hebrews 2:11 are all of one—one family, one Father, one life.
Hebrews 2:18 Jude 1:24—He is able to succor—See Hebrews 7:25.
Hebrews 3:1-19 Christ better than Moses—Head over the house of God.
Hebrews 3:7-19, Hebrews 4:1-2 Warning.
Hebrews 4:3 Christ better than Joshua (who succeeded Moses and led them into the
land).
Hebrews 4:11-13 Warning.
Hebrews 4:14-16; Hebrews 5:1-14; Hebrews 6:1-20; Hebrews 7:1-28 Christ better
than Aaron—His priesthood superior to the Aaronic.
Hebrews 4:16 [last clause]—for seasonable help.
Hebrews 5:12-14; Hebrews 6:1-12 Parenthetical warning.
Hebrews 6:1-2 The “pairs” of O.T. teaching: repentance and faith; baptisms and
laying on of hands; resurrection and eternal judgment.
Hebrews 6:13-20, Hebrews 7:1-28 Christ’s Melchisedec priesthood.
Hebrews 6:18 The cities of refuge—See Joshua 20:1-9.
Hebrews 7:1-28 Christ the true Melchisedec—the King Priest.
Hebrews 7:2 See Isaiah 32:17—Righteousness must precede peace.
Hebrews 7:3 The omissions of Scripture are as truly inspired as are its
declarations.
Hebrews 7:12 N.B.—“A change of the law!” Hebrews 7:18; Hebrews 8:7.
Hebrews 7:25 He is able—Hebrews 2:18.
Hebrews 8:1-13 The new covenant better than the old.
Hebrews 8:6 Better covenant—and better promises.
Hebrews 9:1-28; Hebrews 10:1-39 The better sacrifice.
Hebrews 9:2 and Hebrews 9:4 Note the difference between wherein and which had.
Hebrews 9:8 yet standing—i.e., had a standing before God.
Hebrews 9:12 Eternal redemption.
Hebrews 9:14 Eternal Spirit.
Hebrews 9:15 Eternal inheritance. Death gives validity to a will.
Hebrews 9:22 Peace made by blood—Colossians 1:20.
Forgiveness by blood—Ephesians 1:7.
Redeemed by blood—1 Peter 1:18-19.
Justified by blood—Romans 5:9.
Cleansed by blood—1 John 1:7.
Sanctified by blood—Hebrews 13:12.
Overcome by blood—Revelation 12:11.
Hebrews 10:22 Full assurance—Colossians 2:2.
Hebrews 10:26-39 Warning.
Hebrews 10:26 if we sin wilfully—i.e., he who wilfully rejects the gospel has no
other sacrifice.
Hebrews 10:29 done despite unto—insulted. Ephesians 4:30.
Hebrews 10:35 Reward for service—See Hebrews 11:24-26.
Hebrews 11:1-40 The walk of faith. Witnesses to the power of faith. We do not
read, “By faith Lot sat in the gate of Sodom!”
Saving faith— not:1—A mere historical faith.
2—Faith in ordinances or sacramental observances.
3—In the Church.
4—In one’s self.
5—In experiences. but: Confidence in what God has revealed. It is grounded in
repentance. Christ is its Object. The Word of God is its authority. It is a
personal interest in the Lord Jesus Christ.
Hebrews 11:1 evidence—assured conviction.
Hebrews 11:17 Note the use of only begotten—See John 3:16.
Hebrews 11:21 A worshiper at last instead of a schemer.
Hebrews 11:24 “Providence put Moses into Pharaoh’s court— but faith took him out
of it.” C.H.M.
Hebrews 11:26 Reward for service. See 2 John 1:8.
Hebrews 11:29 Faith vs. presumption.
Hebrews 11:37 sawn asunder—Isaiah is said to have suffered in this way. The walk
of faith—Exhortation.
Hebrews 11:5 Note that chastisement is not necessarily punishment. It is
education by discipline. One may faint under it—Hebrews 11:5; or despise
it—Hebrews 11:5, i.e., harden himself against it; or be exercised by it—Hebrews
11:11. Amos 7:9; Job 34:31.
Hebrews 12:15-17 Warning.
Hebrews 12:17 found no place of repentance—i.e., in the mind of his father.
Hebrews 12:18-24 The two systems contrasted.
Hebrews 12:18-21 Judaism—Deuteronomy 4:10-11.
Hebrews 12:22-24 Christianity.
Hebrews 12:25-29 Warning.
Hebrews 13:1-25 Concluding exhortations.
Hebrews 13:2 Abraham, Lot, Manoah, and others.
Hebrews 13:9 See Colossians 3:1-25.
Hebrews 13:15 The fruit of the lips—Isaiah 57:19.
James The Work of God in us. We do not have the unfoldings of redemption for us
here. The exact place of the Epistle of James is ere the little flock was
separated from the Jewish fold— before the Epistle to Hebrews called them out.
James 1:1 The 12 tribes. Not final rejection yet.
James 1:4 Connect with 2 Corinthians 12:12; Romans 5:3-5.
James 1:5 A giving God—Acts 20:35.
James 1:6 a wave—Motion but no real progress.
James 1:9 Christian equality—See James 2:1-4.
James 1:12 The crown of life—Revelation 2:10.
James 1:18 Sovereign grace. Born of the Word of God. 1 Peter 1:23.
James 1:25 The will of God should be, for the believer, a law of liberty.
James 1:2 Empty religion—See Hosea 10:1; Isaiah 1:13; Isaiah 29:8.
James 2:1 Believers distinguished from the other Jews.
James 2:2-3 Written at a time when the Church was not yet separated from the
synagogue.
James 2:8-12 Three laws: The royal law—”Thou shalt love,” etc.
“The law”—Ten Commandments. The law of liberty—the will of God for the believer.
James 2:12 The law of liberty—See Psalms 119:45.
James 2:14 Faith works by love—Galatians 5:6.
James 2:21 justified by works—i.e., before men—“but not before God.” Romans
4:1-25.
James 2:22-26 Faith leads people to do what men of the world cannot understand
at all.
James 3:1-18 The tongue: index of what is in the heart.
“It is easier to teach others than to govern ourselves.” J.N.D.
James 3:2 offend all—all stumble.
James 4:1-17 Addressed to “The 12 Tribes” as such. Struggling to obtain in a
carnal way what could be readily given in answer to prayer.
James 4:3 Prayer—why not answered.
James 4:4 See Ezekiel 16:26.
James 4:5 [last clause] The Spirit that dwelleth in us jealously yearneth.
James 4:11 i.e., he is taking the judge’s place and accusing the judge of
slackness in his dealings.
James 5:7 Patient—Revelation 3:10; 2 Thessalonians 3:5. The Imminence of the
Coming:
1—Foreseen by the events in the world.
2—Church.
3—Israel.
James 5:15 save the sick—relieve the exhausted.
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CHAPTER 15: 01.14. NEW TESTAMENT -- 1 PETER - REVELATION
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New Testament -- 1 Peter - Revelation by H A Ironside
1 Peter The Pilgrim Path. The journey and its end—suffering and glory. “The
pilgrim’s progress from this world to that which is to come.” Note the place
that “suffering” has in this Epistle.
1 Peter 1:1-25 The path through the wilderness.
1 Peter 1:3 Living hope.
1 Peter 1:4 Contrast with Jeremiah 2:7.
1 Peter 1:8 Christ apprehended by faith which worketh by love.
1 Peter 1:10-12 Prophetic testimony.
1 Peter 1:11 The inspiring Spirit—See 2 Peter 1:20. Sufferings of Christ—See 1
Peter 2:19.
1 Peter 1:13-16 Exhortation to steadfastness.
1 Peter 1:17-21 Holiness based on redemption.
1 Peter 1:18 [last part] empty behavior, ancestrally handed down.
1 Peter 1:20 foreordained—foreknown.
1 Peter 1:22 Love based on regeneration.
1 Peter 2:1-25; 1 Peter 3:1-22; 1 Peter 4:1-19 The Separated life.
1 Peter 2:2 “unto salvation”—J.N.D. and R.V.
1 Peter 2:4-10 The spiritual house and the new priesthood.
1 Peter 2:4 Living stone—Matthew 16:18.
1 Peter 2:5 Living stones.
1 Peter 2:11-17 Exhortation. Responsibility to walk in holiness through the
world.
1 Peter 2:18-25, 1 Peter 3:1-7 Sanctified relationships.
1 Peter 2:19 Suffering wrongfully—See 1 Peter 2:20.
1 Peter 2:23 Suffering of Christ—See 1 Peter 3:14.
1 Peter 3:1 without the word—i.e., without nagging.
1 Peter 3:12 Note how the quotation stops in the midst of a sentence—the Day of
Judgment not yet come.
1 Peter 3:14 Suffering for righteousness’ sake.
1 Peter 3:17-18 Suffering for well-doing—Christ suffered for sins.
1 Peter 4:1 Sufferings of Christ—suffered in the flesh.
1 Peter 4:12 Suffering for Christ’s sake.
1 Peter 4:13 Partakers of Christ’s sufferings.
1 Peter 4:15 Not to suffer as evildoers.
1 Peter 4:16 Suffering as a Christian.
1 Peter 4:19 Suffering according to the will of God.
1 Peter 5:1-14 Service and reward.
1 Peter 5:1 Sufferings of Christ—See 1 Peter 5:10.
1 Peter 5:2 Acts 20:28—Shepherding the flock.
1 Peter 5:7 Psalms 55:22.
1 Peter 5:9 Whom—not which!
1 Peter 5:10 Suffer “a while.”
2 Peter Steadfastness in view of apostasy.
2 Peter 1:1-21 Spiritual growth.
2 Peter 1:9 hath forgotten—“Forgetful Green.” Bunyan.
2 Peter 1:13 “Stir up”—connect with 2 Corinthians 5:1-21. See 2 Peter 3:1.
2 Peter 1:19 a more sure word of prophecy—the word of prophecy confirmed.
2 Peter 1:20 any private interpretation—of its own interpretation.
2 Peter 2:1-22 Apostate teachers.
2 Peter 2:1 Aspects of perdition.
2 Peter 2:15 Compare with the Epistle of Jude.
2 Peter 3:1-18 The Lord’s Return.
2 Peter 3:10 The Day of the Lord.
2 Peter 3:12 The Day of God.
2 Peter 3:13 See Isaiah 65:1-25 and Isaiah 66:1-24.
2 Peter 3:15 Is not Paul’s authorship of Hebrews here intimated?
2 Peter 3:16 hard to be understood—as in Hebrews 6:1-20 and Hebrews 10:1-29.
1 John The Epistle of Fellowship. Light and Love. In John’s Gospel: Eternal Life
Manifested in the Son of God. In first Epistle: Eternal Life Manifested in the
Children of God.
1 John 1:1 i.e., The beginning of Christianity. Not “in the beginning” as in
Genesis 1:1 and John 1:1.
1 John 1:2 “The manifested Life.”
1 John 1:7 Note: It is where we walk—not how. All real Christians walk in the
Light.
1 John 2:3-11 Obedience the evidence of life.
1 John 2:4 He who knows God seeks to obey Him.
1 John 2:7-8 See John 12:49—The testimony given by the Father to the Son. The
same Life in Him and in us.
1 John 2:12-28 The family of God.
1 John 2:29, 1 John 3:1-15 The two families.
1 John 3:1 The Father’s love for His children. the sons of God—and such we are.
R.V.
1 John 3:3 See 1 Thessalonians 3:12-13.
1 John 3:9 commit—practice.
1 John 3:16-24 Love, the manifestation of the new nature.
1 John 3:17 Active benevolence, a condition of answered prayer. See Proverbs
21:13.
1 John 3:20-21 The heart may condemn—then real prayer is impossible. See Psalms
66:18.
1 John 4:1-6 The spirit of truth and the spirit of error.
1 John 4:7-21 Perfect love—its manifestation and results.
1 John 4:12 John 1:18—God manifest in us.
1 John 4:15 The indwelling God.
1 John 4:17 Perfect love. Day of Judgment—See John 5:24.
1 John 5:1-13 Assurance through divine testimony.
1 John 5:1-5 Overcomers. Summary—Love and Obedience overcoming proofs of divine
life.
1 John 5:6-13 The witness—water for purification, blood for expiation.
Others—like the prophets—came by water— proclaiming the Word for cleansing—but
He only came by both water and blood. See Ezekiel 36:25.
1 John 5:14-21 Epilogue.
1 John 5:14-15 Confidence. The prayer that God answers.
1 John 5:16-17 Sin unto death—Jeremiah 11:14; Isaiah 22:14.
1 John 5:18-21 Divine certainties.
2 John An appendix to 1 John. Truth to be maintained at all costs. Only Epistle
to a lady.
2 John 1:1 the elect lady—Lady Electra.
2 John 1:3 The Son of the Father—the supreme test.
2 John 1:4-6 Love not inconsistent with loyalty to the truth.
2 John 1:8 Hebrews 11:26—Reward for service—Revelation 22:12.
2 John 1:10-11 Responsibility to test false teachers and refuse them.
3 John 3 John 1:1 Love ever to be manifested.
3 John 1:8 Fellowship in the truth.
3 John 1:9-11 Warning against ecclesiastical pretension.
Jude The Increasing Apostasy.
Jude 1:1 See Luke 6:16 as to the relationship of Jude and James, son of Alpheus.
Jude 1:3 The faith once for all delivered.
Jude 1:4 All creeping things were unclean—See Leviticus 11:41.
unawares—clandestine work.
Jude 1:5-7 Destruction of apostates.
Jude 1:8-10 Despisers of the truth.
Jude 1:11 Threefold apostasy.
Jude 1:12-13 Divine indictment of evil workers.
Jude 1:14-15 Enoch’s prophecy.
Jude 1:16-19 Unholy separatists—Proverbs 18:1.
Jude 1:20-23 Faith’s resources.
Jude 1:20 Studious, prayerful.
Jude 1:21 Trustful, hopeful.
Jude 1:22-23 Compassionate.
Jude 1:24 Compare with Ephesians 3:20. able—see Hebrews 2:18. The Revelation The
Book of the Throne. Throne —27 times. Book of the Lamb. Lamb—24 times.
Revelation 1:8 See Isaiah 48:12.
Revelation 1:16 See Isaiah 49:2.
Revelation 2:1 John 20:26—Jesus in the midst—See Revelation 5:6.
Revelation 2:2, Revelation 2:9, Revelation 2:19; Revelation 3:1, Revelation 3:8,
Revelation 3:15 I know thy works—the Lord’s estimate.
Revelation 2:4 The greatest heresy of all is the want of love.
Revelation 2:7, Revelation 2:11 Promise to the overcomer—tree of life—Genesis
3:22.
Revelation 2:17 Promise—manna—Exodus 16:1-36. White stone—division of the
tribes.
Revelation 2:20 Jezebel—A heathen princess linked to the people of God—the
virtual ruler of Israel; Leader in apostasy and seducer of the people. The papal
system—1 Kings 16:31.
Revelation 2:26 Promise—conquest of Canaan.
Revelation 2:28 Star out of Judah—Balaam’s prophecy.
Revelation 3:5 [first part] Promise—priestly garments. [last part] See Moses’
intercession. Contrast Psalms 69:28.
Revelation 3:7 The key to the treasury—See Isaiah 22:22.
Revelation 3:9 The conflict with legality. Judaizers in the professed church.
Revelation 3:12 Promise—the Temple of Solomon.
Revelation 3:14 Laodicea—A Phrygian city of great wealth—Trading in costly
mantles, unguents—Gold pouring in. The Church there largely patterned after the
city—self-sufficient, self-reliant, self-righteous.
Revelation 3:16 Neither enemy nor ardent friend.
Revelation 3:18 Exhortation—The Lord in the guise of a traveling merchant.
Revelation 3:20 Behold, I stand—what condescension! what patience! Behold, I
knock—By the Word, By adversity, By bereavement.
Revelation 4:1 First opening—See Revelation 11:19.
Revelation 4:3 See Exodus 39:10, Exodus 39:13—Sardius—Reuben. Jasper—Benjamin.
Revelation 4:4 Not king’s crowns—but rewards.
Revelation 4:6 The eyes of the Lord—See Zechariah 4:10.
Revelation 4:11 Man is for God; not God for man—See Colossians 1:18.
Revelation 5:1 The title deeds—See Jeremiah 32:10-11.
Revelation 5:6 Jesus in the midst—See Matthew 18:20.
Revelation 6:2 Bloodless victory—the triumphs of peace.
Revelation 6:4 Internecine and universal warfare.
Revelation 6:5 Famine—food doled out by weight.
Revelation 6:8 Pestilence Added to the Horrors of War and Famine.
Revelation 6:9 Jewish saints slain in the early part of the tribulation.
Revelation 6:12 See Isaiah 2:19, Isaiah 2:21. Also Isaiah 34:4.
Revelation 6:13 Collapse of civilization. Downfall of orderly government.
Revelation 7:2-4 144,000—the remnant of Israel—sealed before the last half of
the 70th week begins.
Revelation 7:9-10 Gentiles who welcome the message of the remnant of Israel in
the tribulation days.
Revelation 8:1 The calm before the coming storm of judgment.
Revelation 8:3 The angel-priest.
Revelation 9:2 Strong delusion blotting out the light.
Revelation 9:7 Nahum 3:17.
Revelation 9:8 Seductive.
Revelation 9:10 The prophet that speaketh lies.
Revelation 10:7 The mystery of God finished when the seventh trumpet sounds.
Revelation 10:9 Eating the Word of God—Jeremiah 15:16; Ezekiel 2:7; Ezekiel
3:1-3.
Revelation 10:11 before—in respect of.
Revelation 11:3 The two witnesses. Connect with Zechariah 4:1-14—Royalty and
priesthood.
Revelation 11:5 See Jeremiah 5:14.
Revelation 11:6 A testimony like to that of Moses and Elijah.
Revelation 11:8 Jerusalem is called Sodom—See Isaiah 1:10.
Revelation 11:12 The mid-tribulation rapture of the witnesses who are slain
under the beast.
Revelation 11:15 The seventh trumpet ushers in the Kingdom and goes on to the
judgment of the wicked, i.e., to the Great White Throne, thus completing a
prophetic series.
Revelation 11:19 Second opening—See Revelation 15:5.
Revelation 12:1-17 A “Sign” in Heaven—God’s thoughts of Israel. Jeremiah
4:31—See Isaiah 66:7. The woman is not in heaven—but on the earth as Revelation
12:12 proves. Israel the mother of the Messiah—See Isaiah 9:6; Micah 4:10; Micah
5:2-3; Romans 9:1-33; Romans 8:1-39; Romans 7:1-25; Romans 6:1-23; Romans
5:1-21.
Revelation 12:2 See full description of this same scene in Micah 4:8-13.
Revelation 12:14 The eagle—Exodus 19:4.
Revelation 13:2 The nondescript beast of Daniel 7:7.
Revelation 13:3 The imperial head wounded to death—but revived by satanic power.
The imperial head once wounded to death, shall rise again in the last days—See
Habakkuk 3:13.
Revelation 13:11 The lamb-like beast—the false Messiah. See Daniel 11:36-45; 2
Thessalonians 2:1-17; 1 John 2:1-29.
Revelation 13:15 life—breath. Contrast Habakkuk 2:19.
Revelation 14:11 See Isaiah 34:10.
Revelation 14:13 Blessed—See Revelation 16:15. “The returns are not all in yet!”
W. P. White.
Revelation 14:14 The Son of Man—last use of the term—See Matthew 8:20.
Revelation 14:15 The harvest—discriminative judgment—See Matthew 13:30.
Revelation 14:18 The vintage—Joel 3:13. The unsparing judgment of apostate
Israel.
Revelation 15:2 The saints slain in the great tribulation.
Revelation 15:5 Third opening—see Revelation 19:11.
Revelation 16:1 vials—bowls.—Compare the judgments of the bowls with the plagues
of Egypt.
Revelation 16:12 The eastern confederation, “The kings of the sunrising.”
Revelation 16:15 Blessed—Seech. Revelation 19:9.
Revelation 17:5 Who are the daughters? See Ezekiel 16:44.
Revelation 18:7 Babylon’s proud boast—See Isaiah 47:7.
Revelation 18:14 “The fruit season of thy soul’s desire has gone from thee.”
Revelation 19:9 Blessed—See Revelation 20:6.
Revelation 19:11 Fourth opening.
Revelation 19:15-16 The winepress—See Isaiah 63:1-10.
Revelation 20:6 Blessed—See Revelation 22:7.
Revelation 20:11 Job 14:12.
Revelation 20:15 Contrast Ezekiel 42:1-20.
Revelation 22:1 The river of God—See Genesis 2:10; Psalms 36:8; Psalms 46:4;
Psalms 65:9; Song of Solomon 4:15; Isaiah 58:11; Ezekiel 47:1-12.
Revelation 22:7 Blessed—see Revelation 22:14.
Revelation 22:10 Contrast with Daniel 12:1-13. See Isaiah 29:10-12.
Revelation 22:12 Reward at the judgment seat of Christ. See 2 John 1:8; Isaiah
40:10; Isaiah 62:11.
Revelation 22:14 do His commandments—“wash their robes,” correct reading.
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CHAPTER 16: 02.00.1. A HISTORICAL SKETCH OF THE BRETHREN MOVEMENT
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A Historical Sketch Of The Brethren Movement By Harry A. Ironside An account of
its inception, progress, principles, and failures, and its lessons for present
day believers.
Copyright 1941 A recent search of the Stanford, and Rutgers databases showed no
current copyright.
========================================================================
CHAPTER 17: 02.00.2. E-SWORD PREFACE
========================================================================
Preface As an e-Sword user, and a resource creator, I always try to find quality
works I believe will be beneficial to others in their studies. I hope this fits
that description, and that all who use this module will find it to be a
blessing. Your Brother In Christ, Jason L. Briggs
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CHAPTER 18: 02.00.3. TABLE OF CONTENTS
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Table Of Contents
Preface Chapter One The Beginning Of The Movement Chapter Two Widening Borders
Chapter Three Gathering Clouds Chapter Four Increasing Dissension Chapter Five
The Bethesda Question And The First Great Division Chapter Six Further
Developments Chapter Seven "Playing Church"
Chapter Eight The Montreal Division Chapter Ten "Ravenism" And Lesser Divisions
Chapter Eleven An Abortive Attempt At Reconciliation Chapter Twelve The Attempt
At Union Thwarted Chapter Thirteen Later Developments And Critical Comments
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CHAPTER 19: 02.00.4. PREFACE
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Preface The Preparation of these papers, both in their original form as a series
of articles in a periodical no longer published, Serving and Waiting, and in
re-editing and adding more and later material for book publication, has been to
me a definite labor of love. That the movement some of whose history I have
endeavored to trace out has been, and still is, a very definite work of the
Spirit of God, though like all other testimonies committed to man, seriously
marred by the failing human element, is my sincere conviction.
I have been importuned by many persons to put these papers in permanent form,
but for a number of years have refrained from doing this for I was not clear as
to whether the doing so would be for the glory of God and the blessing of souls
or not. But after much exercise of heart, considerable prayer for guidance, and
consultation with leading men among the assemblies of brethren who have
encouraged me to accede to this request, I have gone over the original papers,
endeavored to correct any inaccuracies, and added much additional material. The
question has been raised as to whether the story of the divisions among the
brethren is profitable, and some have suggested it would be kinder to eliminate
this part of the story and tell only the other side. This does not seem to me to
be right. Common honesty I feel would compel one to set forth the whole truth,
so far as possible, in connection with the movement, hoping that the portion
relating to strife and dissension might prove to be salutary reading for the
brethren themselves, and give warning and instruction to other Christian groups
that they may avoid the rocks which proved so disastrous to what was evidently a
marked work of God.
I do not pretend to infallibility in discussing the many questions involved. I
have had to depend on much ephemeral pamphlet literature. Many of the booklets
contradicted one another and it has been difficult to ferret out the exact
facts. But after conferring with many older brethren, numbers of whom are now
with Christ, I believe I have been enabled to give a fair and straightforward
account of what is here recorded.
During the past twelve years I have been pastor of the Moody Memorial Church of
Chicago, an independent church standing very largely for the very truths which
the brethren love and from which Dwight L. Moody profited so definitely. This
has, in measure, cut me off from that full communion with assemblies of brethren
which I enjoyed for years, but has in no sense lessened my love and respect for
them.
H. A. Ironside
Chicago, ill.
August, 1941
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CHAPTER 20: 02.01. THE BEGINNING OF THE MOVEMENT
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Chapter One - The Beginning Of The Movement
Among the various manifestations of the work of the Spirit of God in the last
century, reviving and enlightening His people, there was one sphere of Christian
fellowship and activity, which had its inception in the early part of the
nineteenth century, that has had a far wider influence upon Christians generally
than many realize. I refer to what is commonly known as the Brethren movement,
or by others denominated Plymouth Brethrenism. Because of the far-reaching
influence of this distinctive school of Christian thought it may not be
unprofitable to inquire into the causes of the movement, to seek to delineate
some of its outstanding features; discover, if possible, the reasons for the
antagonisms it has provoked in many quarters, and endeavor to make plain its
essential contribution to the fundamentalism of the present day. For that there
is a connection between this movement and the present revolt against modernism
should be plain to any instructed student of conditions. The Brethren as a whole
are fundamentalists. Their fellowship is of such a character that modernism
could not be tolerated among them without destroying their assemblies. By far
the great majority of outstanding fundamentalist leaders readily acknowledge
their indebtedness, in measure at least, to the oral or written ministry of the
Brethren, and only the facts that division and dissension have wrought such
havoc in their ranks (causing them to seem so hopelessly divided), and that
there has appeared among them the manifestation in some quarters of such
unexpected sectarian bias, has kept numbers of these from open identification
with the assemblies professedly gathered only in or to the name of the Lord
Jesus Christ. That there was a very definite action of the Holy Spirit in
exercising many widely separated believers simultaneously along similar lines,
eventually bringing them into one outward fellowship, a careful study of the
origin of the movement makes plain. As early as between 1812 and 1820, it is
proven that letters passed between a group of Christians in New York City,
seeking after a simpler and more Scriptural fellowship than they were enjoying,
and another group of believers in Great Britain who were also dissatisfied with
existing conditions. Some from among these companies were eventually identified
with the Brethren, but the true beginning of the movement seems to have been in
Ireland in the year 1825. On missionary fields in South America, notably British
Guiana, and in far-away Rangoon, India, similar movements began either at or a
little later than this time, and eventually letters were exchanged which showed
a remarkable unanimity of views among very widely-separated groups. This does
not alter the fact that we must go to southern Ireland for the first public
testimony to the conviction which many had timidly expressed.
Though the name Plymouth early became prominent, it was not in Plymouth,
England, but in Dublin, Ireland, that the first meeting of the kind was formed.
Similar assemblies were shortly afterward found in Plymouth, Bristol, London,
and other places; though some of the members composing these groups knew nothing
of others similarly gathered together until after the lapse of months or even
years. The first three decades of the nineteenth century were times of much
unrest in the Church of England and in the various nonconformist bodies of Great
Britain and Ireland. The Wesleyan revival and similar movements had brought new
life into communities that had been cold and formal for years. A spirit of
inquiry and yearning after better things was abroad. Christians were eagerly
searching their Bibles for fuller light as to their responsibilities, both
individual and collective. The Napoleonic wars had directed attention to the
prophetic Scriptures as never before, and the truth of the Lord’s imminent
return was rediscovered after it had been seemingly lost for centuries. That
much fanaticism was linked with this there can be no question; nevertheless
there was a modicum of truth which, followed out, led to a fuller understanding
of the prophetic Word. What was afterward misnamed Higher Criticism (since
utterly discredited by archeological findings) was just beginning to attract
attention, and real Christians were horrified to find unconverted state-paid
clergymen readily taking up the new-views, and some, like Bishop Colenso, a
little later, even deliberately attacking the authenticity of the Holy
Scriptures from within the church itself. This led many to despair of the
organized church as the “pillar and ground of the truth.” The Tractarian
movement with its trend toward Rome, the Irvingite heresy attempting to revive
the gifts and the apostolate, the many smaller bodies formed by frequent
dissensions among the followers of Wesley and Whitefield, the troubles of the
churches of Scotland, and the threatening disestablishment of the Church of
Ireland, all tended to cast true believers more upon God and the Word of His
grace and to lead them “to seek of him a right way for themselves and their
children.” And so it came to pass that out of the unsettled state of the
professing body, there grew up several very marked movements within the next
half century tending to magnify the name of the Lord Jesus, to exalt and honor
the Holy Spirit, to reassert the authority of the Bible as the all-sufficient
rule of Christian faith and practice, and to carry the gospel energetically to a
lost world, independent of clerical pretension. The great world-wide missionary
movement is one of these. The Bible societies may be looked at collectively as
another. And what is sometimes called “Brethrenism” is a third, and I am
persuaded not the least in point of interest. For though the Brethren assemblies
have never been large in numbers as compared with the great denominations of
Protestantism, their propaganda has been world-wide, and thousands have accepted
their views on many lines who are not openly identified with them. The names of
seven men have come down to us as in some sense the founders under God of this
movement or as some would call them the first of the Brethren. In using the term
in this sense, I only do so in order to avoid continual circumlocution and
lengthy explanations; for those who hold the principles of gathering which I
purpose examining in these papers, have from the first refused any names that
would be distinctive or that could not be applied rightfully to all of God’s
people. Therefore, they speak of themselves as brethren, believers, Christians,
saints, or use any other term common to all members of the body of Christ. With
this explanation, I trust I shall give offense to none in speaking of them
hereafter as the Brethren, and using the capital in order to make clear who are
intended, though its use is utterly condemned by these Christians
themselves.*(1) The seven above referred to are Edward Cronin, Edward Wilson, H.
Hutchinson, William Stokes, J. Parnell afterwards Lord Congleton, J. G. Bellett
and John N. Darby. Of these it would seem that Edward Cronin was the chosen
instrument to first affect the others, or at least to first act on his
convictions, though the last two had been thinking and studying along the same
lines independently of the rest for several years.
Mr. Cronin was a young dental student who had been brought up as a Roman
Catholic, but had been graciously enlightened by the Spirit of God, and led to
personal faith in Christ and into the knowledge of peace with God through
resting upon the atoning work of the Lord Jesus. Sometime after his conversion,
on account of ill health he was sent to Dublin. This was in the early twenties.
After taking his degree as a doctor, he remained in Dublin until about the year
1836, and devoted the major part of his life afterwards to the ministry of the
Word. It was during these years from 1825 onward that the movement of which I
write really had its inception.
Like many another divinely-quickened soul who for conscience sake had turned his
back upon the seeming unity of the papal system, Edward Cronin was greatly
disturbed and perplexed by the many divisions of Protestantism. It grieved him
much to find Christians of like precious faith divided into ofttimes warring
camps, (for sectarian feeling was running high in the early part of the
nineteenth century), and so powerless in the face of such desperate need. The
argument that they were but like various regiments or battalions in one great
army seemed valueless to him when he found them turning their guns, so to speak,
upon each other instead of unitedly facing the common foe.
Yet all alike welcomed him when he went among them at first, and rejoiced at his
deliverance from Rome. He was allowed to communicate with them at the table of
the Lord as a visitor, but when his stay in Dublin became prolonged, he was
urged to choose a definite church and settle down there, as church tramps were
looked upon with great disfavor and special membership was insisted upon. Which
church to choose troubled him exceedingly, but eventually he became a member of
the Independents at a meeting on York Street, and sat under the ministry of the
Reverend W. Cooper. His mind, however, was not at rest, and he was unable to
understand why the one church founded by the risen Lord should be so broken and
divided outwardly. At last he decided carefully to read the New Testament in
looking for light on this particular subject. As he weighed the utterances of
the apostolic writers and studied the history of the early church, he saw no
place for denominationalism, as such, in the Word of God. It became plainer and
plainer to him that the one church builded on Christ Himself, of which He was
the Corner Stone and in which every believer is a living stone placed there by
the Holy Spirit, was the only church contemplated in the Bible. He saw that this
church was also spoken of as the body of Christ of which the risen Lord is the
glorified head, and that believers ever since Pentecost have been baptized by
the Spirit into this body, thus becoming members of Christ and members one of
another. “The Lord added to the church daily such as should be saved.”
Membership of denominations, as such, he could not find in Scripture, though he
did see that there were local churches, made up of the members of the one body
of Christ gathered together for fellowship, for instruction, for the breaking of
bread and for prayer in local companies, but apparently one on the ground of the
body, receiving one another as such and not as subscribing to special tests or
forming minor organizations within the one great organism. How much of this was
clear to him at once it would be hard to say, but he soon began to speak of what
he was learning to others. He also found growing up within himself a feeling of
repugnance to a one-man ministry, for it seemed to him that there was no place
for this in the New Testament church, but that gifted men exercised their
ministry as led by the Spirit in dependence on the Lord, and that the idea of
one minister set over a church was foreign to Scripture. He did not mean by this
to deny that in many places the responsibility for preaching or teaching the
Word might be largely restricted to some one gifted individual, but he thought
he saw a different order for worship meetings, where the Spirit of God might use
whom He would to the edification of all, if believers were subject to His
guidance.
Writing of his early experiences years afterwards, he says: “This liberty was
continued till it was found that I became resident in Dublin. I was informed
that I could no longer be allowed to break bread with any of them without
special membership. This left me in separation from them for several months, and
then feeling unable to attend their meetings from the growing feeling of
opposition to one-man ministry, I was left exposed to the charges of irreligion
and antinomianism. This affected me to such an extent that it was a season of
deep exercise of heart, and separation from many that I loved in the Lord; and
to avoid the appearance of evil, I spent many a Lord’s day morning under a tree
or a hay-stack during the time of their services. My name having been publicly
denounced from one of their pulpits (Rev. W. Cooper’s), one of their deacons,
Edward Wilson (assistant secretary to the Bible Society), was constrained to
protest against this step, which led ultimately to his leaving also. Thus
separated, we two met for breaking of bread and prayer in one of his rooms,
until his departure for England.” This was in the year 1825 and, therefore, may
be said to be the first meeting on the ground afterward taken by the Brethren.
After Mr. Wilson left; two of Cronin’s cousins, the Misses Drury, also separated
from the chapel at York Street because of sympathy with their relative’s views,
and they were joined by a Mr. Tims who was a bookseller in Grafton Street. These
four met together for the breaking of bread regularly in the back parlor of
Edward Cronin’s house in Lower Pembroke Street. Others began to hear of the
strange little meeting with what many considered, the narrow and bigoted views,
and various persons became affected by the same teaching in regard to the unity
of the body and the presence of the Holy Spirit on earth to direct and guide in
ministry. It was in 1827 that H. Hutchinson found them out, and as the meeting
had now increased somewhat in members, he offered the use of a larger room in
Fitzwilliam Square. Very little now is known of Mr. Hutchison, but he was
evidently a gracious holy man, for J. G. Bellett wrote of him in after years:
“His memory is very dear to me and much honored by me.”
It was in 1827 that Mr. Bellett and J. N. Darby became definitely identified
with the little meeting started by Edward Cronin. The first of these became in
after years a well-known writer on Scriptural themes, but not of the kind that
appeals to the mass. His books are deeply spiritual, meditative in character,
rich in their ministry of Christ, and manifesting an insight into the mysteries
of God but rarely found in this workaday world. Bellett had literally steeped
himself in the truths of Scripture, and his wrapt soul delighted in the Saviour
therein revealed. No one can read his “Evangelists,” “Patriarchs,” or other
“Meditations,” particularly the “Son of God” and the “Moral Glory of the Lord
Jesus Christ,” without a spiritual quickening, if at all a lover of Him who is
the central theme of the Book of God. Mr. Bellett has left on record a letter
giving an account of the movement from the time of his connection with it,
though not going back to the actual beginning in 1825. We shall quote from this
letter later.
John Nelson Darby was at this time a young curate of the Church of Ireland. Born
in 1800 he was, at twenty-seven, a devoted laborer in work and doctrine, whose
yearning soul made him count no effort too great if he might be a blessing to
others. He had passed through deep waters ere he found his feet firmly planted
on the Rock of Ages, and he realized how much people needed establishment in the
Word of grace. He says himself that “There were three years in my life when the
only Scripture that gave me any comfort was the 88th Psalm, and that was because
there was not a ray of comfort in it; yet I was persuaded a saint had written
it, or it would not be in the Bible.” For a time he had hopefully followed the
will-o’-the-wisp of Tractarianism, and as a high churchman, he looked with a
bigoted youth’s disdain upon all other professing Christians, “hoping they might
find grace through the uncovenanted mercies of God,” but fearful that they were
living and dying “without the benefit of clergy.” One who knew him well in his
early days, and of whom Mr. Darby had high hopes at that time, but who became
one of the first of the modernists, Francis William Newman, brother of Cardinal
Newman, has written of him under the title of the “Irish Clergyman”:
“This (John Nelson Darby) was a young relative of his, a most remarkable man,
who rapidly gained an immense sway over me. I shall henceforth call him the
‘Irish Clergyman.’ His ‘bodily presence’ was indeed ‘weak.’ A fallen cheek, a
bloodshot eye, crippled limbs resting on crutches, a seldom-shaven beard, a
shabby suit of clothes, and a generally-neglected person, drew at first pity,
with wonder to see such a figure in a drawing-room. It has been reported that a
person in Limerick offered him a halfpenny, mistaking him for a beggar; and if
not true, the story was yet well invented. This young man had taken high honors
at Dublin University, and had studied for the bar, where, under the auspices of
his eminent kinsman, he had excellent prospects; but his conscience would not
allow him to take a brief, lest he should be selling his talents to defeat
justice. With keen logical powers, he had warm sympathy, solid judgment of
character, thoughtful tenderness and total self-abandonment. He before long took
holy orders, and became an indefatigable curate in the mountains of Wicklow
(Ireland). Every evening he sallied forth to teach in the cabins, and roving far
and wide over mountains, and amid bogs, was seldom home before midnight. By such
exertions his strength was undermined, and he so suffered in his limbs that not
lameness only, but yet more serious results were feared. He did not fast on
purpose, but his long walks through wild country and amongst indigent people,
inflicted on him much severe deprivations; moreover, as he ate whatever food
offered itself (food unpalatable and often indigestible to him), his whole frame
might have vied in emaciation with a monk of La Trappe . . .
“I was at first offended by his apparent affectation of a careless exterior, but
I soon understood that in no other way could he gain equal access to the lowest
orders, and that he was moved, not by asceticism, nor by ostentation, but by a
self-abandonment fruitful of consequences. He had practically given up all
reading but the Bible; and no small part of his movement soon took the form of
dissuasion from all other voluntary study. In fact, I had myself more and more
concentrated my religious reading on this one book; still I could not help
feeling the value of a cultivated mind. Against this my new eccentric friend
(having himself enjoyed no mean advantages of cultivation) directed his keenest
attacks. I remember once saying to him: ‘To desire to be rich is absurd; but if
I were a father of children, I should wish to be rich enough to secure them a
good education.’ He replied: ‘If I had children, I would as soon see them break
stones on the road as do anything else, if only I could secure to them the
gospel and the grace of God.’ I was unable to say Amen; but I admired his
unflinching consistency, for now, as always, all he said was based on texts
aptly quoted and logically enforced. He made me more and more ashamed of
political economy, and moral philosophy, and all science, all of which ought to
be ‘counted dross for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus our Lord.’
For the first time in my life, I saw a man earnestly turning into reality the
principles which others professed with their lips only . . .
“Never before had I seen a man so resolved that no word of the New Testament
should be a dead letter to him. I once said: ‘But do you really think that no
part of the New Testament may have been temporary in its object? For instance—
What should we have lost if St. Paul had never written, ‘The cloke that I left
at Troas bring with thee, and the books, but especially the parchments?’ He
answered with the greatest promptitude, T should have lost something, for it was
exactly that verse which alone saved me from selling my little library. No!
every word, depend upon it, is from the Spirit, and is for eternal service.’
“In spite of the strong revulsion which I felt against some of the peculiarities
of this remarkable man, I for the first time in my life found myself under the
dominion of a superior. When I remember how even those bowed down before him who
had been in the place of parents — accomplished and experienced minds — I cease
to wonder in die retrospect that he riveted me in such a bondage.” This young
man was the youngest son of John Darby of Leap Castle, King’s County, Ireland.
He was educated with a view to the Irish bar at Westminster and Trinity College,
Dublin, but deciding not to practice law, he took orders in the Church, much to
his father’s disgust. Mr. Bellet writes as follows:
“It was in the year 1827 that the late Archbishop of Dublin, in a charge
delivered to the clergy of his diocese, recommended that a petition should go up
to the legislature seeking increased protection from them in the discharge of
their ministerial duties, as the teachers of religion in these lands. John Darby
was then a curate in the County of Wicklow, and often did I visit him in his
mountain parish. This charge of his diocesan greatly moved him; he could not
understand the common Christianity of such a principle, as it assumed that
ministers of Christ in doing their business as witnesses against the world for a
rejected Jesus, should, on meeting the resistance of the enemy, turn round and
seek security from the world. This greatly offended him. He printed his
objections to such a principle in a pretty large pamphlet, and without
publishing it or putting it on sale, sent copies of it to all the clergy of the
diocese. All this had a very decided influence on his mind, for I remember him
at one time a very exact Churchman (as I may speak), but it was evident his mind
had now received a shock, and it was never again what it had been. However, he
continued in his mountain curacy, at times, as a clergyman, visiting different
parts of the country, either to preach sermons or to speak at some meeting of
the religious societies.”
He was thus just in the state of mind that would make Mr. Cronin’s views
agreeable to him, and he and Bellett together with others met frequently with
Cronin to study the Word of God. On a number of occasions, while still a
clergyman in the church, Mr. Darby joined the little company for the breaking of
bread, but as the months went on, he felt the incongruity of going on as a
clergyman, and he withdrew from the Church of Ireland and identified himself
wholly with the Brethren.*(2)
It was a little later that another earnest man threw in his lot with them—Mr. J.
Parnell, afterwards Lord Congleton. He was an enthusiastic adherent from the
first and soon became a leader among the Brethren. A man of singular devotion to
Christ, and yet judged by some to be of extreme and erratic tendencies, his
influence was largely felt in the movement. It is painful to have to record that
in after years he and his early associates felt they could no longer work
together. Of W. Stokes I have not been able to learn anything more than that he
was prominently linked with the company from about the beginning of 1827.
It is a mistake to suppose, as some have thought, that the Brethren movement was
founded upon particular views of prophecy. It was not until about 1830 that the
truth of the coming of the Lord began to grip these earnest men as they searched
the Word of God. What particularly marked them from the beginning was their
belief that there is no Biblical warrant for the idea that the Lord’s Supper was
ever intended to be the badge or exclusive possession of a sect or party; that
no ordained clergyman needed to preside in order to render the remembrance of
Christ in this way valid, but that any two or three gathered together in the
name of Jesus, whether for prayer, worship, or to take the feast of love, were
guaranteed His presence in the midst. They did not see in Scripture any evidence
of a clerical system in the early church at all, but recognized that the Word
taught the priesthood of all true believers having access into the holiest by
the blood of Christ. Acting upon this, after much exercise and in fear and
trembling at first, they began the breaking of bread on the ground of membership
in the body of Christ alone. Neither were they actuated by what has come to be
known in after years as “separation truth.” Their concern at first was not so
much with separating from the evil that was coming into the denominations, but
rather that they desired to find a simple and Scriptural basis upon which all
Christians could meet in happy fellowship. Nor did they intend to judge or
condemn others, because meeting apart. This is made very manifest by Mr. Darby’s
earliest tract on the subject, “The Nature and Unity of the Church of Christ.”
This was published in 1827 and aroused a spirit of inquiry in many places as to
the possibility of carrying out the simple principles it enunciated. There is no
doubt that Mr. Darby himself saw much more clearly than others of the little
company the rising tide of apostasy, and already the loyal Christian’s
responsibility to separate from evil when fully manifested, was becoming clear
to his mind; but it was not until after the Brethren movement was thoroughly
under way that he himself set forth his views in a paper entitled “Separation
from Evil God’s Principle of Unity.” In fact, at the very beginning, he himself
dreaded anything that looked like schism from the established order. Edward
Cronin makes this clear in the following paragraphs which I have taken from a
letter he wrote years afterwards, giving his recollections of the origin of the
movement:
“At this time J. G. B. and J. N. D. were more or less affected by the general
state of things in the religious world, but were unprepared to come out in
entire separation, and looked suspiciously at our movement, still able to attend
and minister in the Church of England, as well as to come occasionally to our
little assembly.
“We soon began to feel, as humbler brethren were added to us, that the house in
Fitzwilliam Square was unsuited, which led me to take a large auction room in
Angier Street for our use on Sundays, and, oh! the blessed seasons to my soul,
with J. Parnell, William Stokes and others, while moving the furniture aside and
laying the simple table with the bread and wine on Saturday evening — seasons of
joy never to be forgotten, for surely we had the Master’s smile and sanction in
the testimony of such a movement as this was.
“About this time G. V. W. [that is, George V. Wigram] paid us a visit from
England, having some intention of joining the Mission party to Bagdad. From that
time to my leaving Dublin (1836) there were continual additions of evangelical
Christians, all of us with very little intelligence as to the real character of
God’s movement among us.
“Special membership, as it is called among dissenters, was the primary and most
offensive condition of things to our minds, so that our first assembling was
really marked as a small company of evangelical malcontents. We all felt free up
to this time, and long afterwards, to make arrangements among ourselves as to
who should distribute the bread and wine, and take other ministries in the
assembly. We were also, from ignorance or indifference, careless as to
conscience and godly care one of another. I am led the more to make this
observation owing to the frequent way in which some of the early brethren who
are now in separation from us accuse us of departure from first principles in
our present actings. Nevertheless, I am convinced that even at that time we
would no more have tolerated false doctrine than now. The comfort of many who
loved us, but never met with us, was our staunch orthodoxy as regards the
mystery of the Godhead and the doctrine of grace and godliness.
“I would remark here a feature in the ways of God in the beginning of this
movement, how in and through obscure individuals, and in distant places and
diverse positions, the substance of His grace and truth dwelt in us; and though,
as I have said before, with little intelligence, led us in paths more or less
agreeable to the mind of God. It is striking that those able and honored
brethren, J. N. D., J. G. B. and G. V. W.,*(3) did not constitute the embryo of
it, while God has used, and continued to use them, in divine intelligence and
development of principles as to His church, etc.
“I have repeated somewhat on this point, owing to the charge alluded to above;
whereas God’s ways with us were, and are still, a gradual unfolding of His
truth, discovered to us in various practical details. So that what in the
beginning was no bigger, as it were, than a man’s hand (when we were few in
number, and weak and defective in understanding), has expanded itself to meet
the necessities of thousands, gathered on the same principles and to the praise
and glory of his grace.” The references in this letter to Mr. Wigram and to the
Bagdad Mission will be more fully explained in the next chapter.
(1)* I have often said myself and repeat here, that I am only one of “the
brethren” as long as no capital B is used.
(2)* For Mr. Darby’s own account of his early experiences, see Appendix A.
(3)* The Brethren have from the beginning been in the habit of designating their
leading teachers by the initials of their names with the perhaps mistaken idea
that they were hiding the identity of the human instruments in order that God
Himself might get the greater glory.
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CHAPTER 21: 02.02. WIDENING BORDERS
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Chapter Two - Widening Borders
After the publication of Mr. Darby’s pamphlet on the Nature and Unity of the
Church of God, to which reference was made in the preceding chapter, inquiries
began to reach him from Christians in many parts regarding the practical
outworking of what he there set forth. The result was the establishment within
the next few years of a number of similar gatherings to the one already under
way in Dublin. There was no attempt at first to enforce uniformity of procedure
in these meetings, and if I may be allowed to record here my profound conviction
as to the chief cause of the apparent failure of the testimony of the Brethren
and their eventual breakup into many different groups, I should say that it was
through their failing to maintain the principle that unity is not necessarily
uniformity. If the Brethren had been content to allow the Spirit of God to have
His own way in each place, and had not made the attempt to enforce common
methods of procedure and church order upon the assemblies as they did some years
afterwards, they might have still presented a marvelous testimony to the unity
of the Spirit. That this was Mr. Darby’s original thought, the following
quotations from the pamphlet in question will make plain: In the first place, it
is not a formal union of the outward professing bodies that is desirable; indeed
it is surprising that reflecting Protestants should desire it: far from doing
good, I conceive it would be impossible that such a body could be at all
recognized as the church of God. It would be a counterpart to Romish unity; we
should have the life of the church and the power of the Word lost, and the unity
of spiritual life utterly excluded. Whatever plans may be in the order of
Providence, we can only act upon the principles of grace; and true unity is the
unity of the Spirit, and it must be wrought by the operation of the Spirit ...
If the view that we have taken of the state of the church be correct, we may
adjudge that he is an enemy to the work of the Spirit of God who seeks the
interests of any particular denomination; and that those who believe in “the
power and coming of the Lord Jesus Christ” ought carefully to keep from such a
spirit; for it is drawing back the church to a state occasioned by ignorance and
non-subjection to the Word, and making a duty of its worst and most
anti-Christian results. This is a most subtle and prevailing mental disease, “he
followeth not us”; even when men are really Christians . . .
Accordingly, the outward symbol and instrument of unity is the partaking of the
Lord’s Supper, “for we being many are one body, for we are all partakers of that
one bread.” And what does St. Paul declare to be the true intent and testimony
of that rite? That whensoever we eat of that bread and drink of that cup, we “do
show the Lord’s death till he come.” Here then are found the character and life
of the church-that into which it is called-that in which the truth of its
existence subsists, and in which alone is true unity .
Am I desiring believers to correct the churches? I am beseeching them to correct
themselves by living up, in some measure, to the hope of their calling. I
beseech them to show their faith in the death of the Lord Jesus, and their boast
in the glorious assurance which they have obtained by it, by conformity to it-to
shew their faith in his coming, and practically to look for it, by a life
suitable to desires fixed upon it. Let them testify against the secularity and
blindness of the church; but let them be consistent in their own conduct. “Let
their moderation be known unto all men.” While the spirit of the world prevails,
spiritual union cannot subsist. Few believers are at all aware how the spirit
which gradually opened the door to the dominion of apostasy, still sheds its
wasting and baneful influence in the professing church . . . But there is a
practical part for believers to act. They can lay their hands upon many things
in themselves practically inconsistent with the power of that day-things which
show that their hope is not in it-conformity to the world, which shows that the
cross has not its proper glory in their eyes . . . Further, unity is the glory
of the church; but unity to secure and promote our own interests is not the
unity of the church, but confederacy and denial of the nature and hope of the
church. Unity, that is of the church, is the unity of the Spirit, and can only
be in the things of the Spirit, and therefore can only be perfected in spiritual
persons . . . But what are the people of the Lord to do? Let them wait upon the
Lord, and wait according to the teaching of His Spirit, and in conformity to the
image, by the life of the Spirit, of His Son . But if any will say, If you see
these things, what are you doing yourself? I can only deeply acknowledge the
strange and infinite shortcomings, and sorrow and mourn over them; I acknowledge
the weakness of my faith, but I earnestly seek for direction. And, let me add,
when so many who ought to guide go their own way, those who would have gladly
followed are made slow and feeble, lest they should in any wise err from the
straight path, and hinder their service, though their souls may be safe. But I
would earnestly repeat what I said before: the unity of the church cannot
possibly be found till the common object of those who are members of it is the
glory of the Lord, who is the Author and Finisher of its faith-a glory which is
to be made known in its brightness at his appearing, when the fashion of this
world shall pass away . . . The Lord Himself says, “That they all may be one, as
thou, Father, art in me and I in thee, that they also may be one in us; that the
world may believe that thou hast sent me. And the glory which thou gavest me I
have given them, that they may be one, even as we are one; I in them, and thou
in me, that they may be made perfect in one; and that the world may know that
thou hast sent me, and hast loved them, as thou hast loved me” (John 17:1-26).
From these extracts it must be plain to any unprejudiced reader that Mr. Darby
at this time had no thought of forming a confederacy of societies, organized or
unorganized, all of which were to be more or less dominated by some one
particular rule. It was rather that he and his associates in those early days
realized that the presence of the Holy Spirit on earth to direct and guide in
the church of God was in great measure ignored in the existing organizations. He
would call Christians back to dependence on the Word and the Spirit, and each
group gathering together to the name of Jesus alone would be dependent on their
glorified Head and His Vicar on earth to guide them through the Word on all
matters of procedure. By 1830 there were some five or six little meetings in
Ireland, and Mr. Darby had been invited to go over to England to meet some
Christians there who were similarly exercised. It was not, however, until 1832
that he began a work in Plymouth, having gone there at the earnest request of
Mr. Benjamin Wills Newton, a fellow of Exeter College, Oxford, whom Mr. Darby
recognized as a man largely taught of God and in many respects a kindred spirit.
The two were for some years most devoted friends and fellow-laborers, and it is
one of the tragedies of the Brethren movement that they were at last utterly
estranged from one another. Of Mr. Newton there will be much more to tell when
we consider the first great division among the Brethren. A meeting began in
London in the same year through a brother that Mr. Darby met while in Oxford.
Some little time before this, a group of earnest Christians had been meeting in
the castle of Lady Powerscourt for the study of prophecy. To these meetings Mr.
Darby and Mr. Bellett were invited. Here also they met George V. Wigram, who was
to become one of Mr. Darby’s most earnest collaborators in after years. At these
meetings a chairman was chosen, and he indicated who should speak on the subject
under discussion. It became soon evident that Mr. Darby’s enlightenment on
prophetic themes was considerably in advance of most of the others, but the
meetings were real conferences, the forerunners of the Bible readings so common
in Brethren’s meetings, except that in such meetings a chairman is dispensed
with. Many clergymen attended, and quite a few who were linked with the
Irvingites, thus giving rise to the erroneous impression that the Brethren
movement was more or less linked with the “Catholic Apostolic Church.” These
Irvingites, however, soon dropped out, because the teaching was so contrary to
what they held.
It was in these meetings that the precious truth of the rapture of the Church
was brought to light; that is, the coming of the Lord in the air to take away
His church before the great tribulation should begin on earth. The views brought
out at Powerscourt castle not only largely formed the views of Brethren
elsewhere, but as years went on obtained wide publication in denominational
circles, chiefly through the writings of such men as Darby, Bellett, Newton, S.
P. Tregelles, Andrew Jukes, Wigram, and after 1845 William Kelly, whose name was
then linked with the movement, C. H. Mackintosh, Charles Stanley, J. B. Stoney
and others.
It was but natural that from the first the question of the Christian’s
responsibility to carry the gospel to “the regions beyond” pressed upon the
hearts of these energetic believers. Messrs. J. Parnell and E. Cronin were
ardent believers in missions, and shortly after the start of the movement they
made the acquaintance of Anthony Norris Groves, in whom they found a kindred
spirit. He was a man of singular piety, most catholic in his attitude towards
other Christians, and deeply impressed with the solemn responsibility resting
upon the church to carry the gospel to “the uttermost parts of the earth” before
the return of the Lord, which to him seemed most imminent. He went out himself
to Bagdad in Mesopotamia to investigate conditions, accompanied by John Kitto,
and here he was shortly afterwards joined by E. Cronin and his sister, J.
Parnell and others. They left in September, 1830, sailing for France, intending
to cross the Syrian desert for Bagdad. Opposition developed of a serious
character and this, with the ill-health of various members of the party, soon
led to a disbanding of the mission and the return of most of its members to
Great Britain and Ireland. Groves, Cronin and Parnell came back to Dublin, and
all were prominently identified with the movement in various ways in after
years. Kitto returned to the Church of England, and is well-known as the author
of a helpful series of notes illustrating the Scriptures. Though the Brethren’s
first mission seemed to end in failure, they have ever been a missionary people,
yet this work has been greatly hindered by the divisions that have come in among
them. In the early thirties an apparently independent work of the Spirit of God
broke out in the southern part of India, where a number of British army officers
began to meet together for prayer and the study of the Word. They came to
similar conclusions as to the present state of the church and their
responsibility to meet in a simpler manner, taking the New Testament alone as
their guide. Many of these gentlemen began preaching in the various districts
where they were located, and the work spread until there was quite a stir in
British army circles. A number of retired officers in Plymouth took up the
testimony and were early identified with it in a public way.
Mr. Darby’s gifts and knowledge caused him to be greatly in demand, and he went
from place to place strengthening the little assemblies, and proclaiming the
Word of God to saint and sinner. In 1837 he felt the Lord was leading him to
Switzerland where, he learned, a remarkable work of God was going on in
connection with the free churches. At first he was cordially received
everywhere, but gradually a line of demarcation was drawn between the free
churches as such and Brethren meetings. The work has never ceased in that little
republic. It spread from there into France, Germany and Holland. In all of these
countries Mr. Darby labored earnestly. His knowledge of French and German
enabled him to preach in these languages, and he published many of his works in
them also. Translations were made into Dutch and Scandinavian when the work
opened up in the northern countries.
George Muller and Henry Craik were co-pastors of an independent church in
Bristol, England, but in the early thirties both became much exercised as to the
New Testament order of ministry and worship. They were used of God to spread the
teaching in their own communion, and practically the entire church took the form
of a Brethren’s meeting. Mr. Muller’s great work of faith in connection with the
Ashley Downs Orphan Houses has made his name well-known throughout Christendom.
It is pathetic to have to record that he and Mr. Darby were perhaps the most
prominent parties on the two sides in the first great division among the
Brethren. Some one has well said, “If the two could have gone on together, the
one would have balanced the other, for Mr. Darby will ever be remembered as the
man of truth and Mr. Muller as the man of faith.” This, of course, is not to
imply that the truth had not likewise gripped Mr. Muller’s heart, nor that Mr.
Darby was not a man of faith, but it is simply placing the emphasis where it
clearly belongs. From 1832 until 1845 Plymouth was one of the chief centers of
the movement. There were at one time over 800 Brethren in fellowship there, and
many devoted men of God were linked with them. Their first meeting place was
known as Providence chapel, and the persons gathering there were known to the
townsfolk generally as Providence people, because they refused all sectarian
names; but as evangelists and teachers went out from the chapel into the
surrounding parts ministering the Word, they gradually began to be spoken of as
“some of those Brethren from Plymouth,” and this naturally led to the nickname
“the Plymouth Brethren.” This name, of course, was never accepted by them, nor
by Brethren elsewhere, but it is the cognomen by which they are generally
designated today in English-speaking countries. On the continent of Europe they
are generally called Darbyists. Writing of the early days in Plymouth: Mr.
Andrew Miller says:
There was great freshness, simplicity, devotedness, and separation from the
world. Such features of spirituality have always a great attraction for certain
minds; and many no doubt, who left their respective denominations and united
with the Brethren had very undefined thoughts as to the nature of the step they
were taking. But all was new: they flocked together, and gave themselves to the
study of the Word of God, and soon experienced the sweetness of Christian
communion, and found the Bible-as they said-to be a new book. It was, no doubt,
in those days of virgin freshness a most distinct and blessed work of God’s
Spirit, the influence of which was felt not only throughout this country, but on
the continent, and in distant lands.
It was no uncommon thing at this time to find valuable jewelry in the collection
boxes, which was soon turned into money, and given to the deacons for the poor.
This last item is interesting because it emphasizes one side of things that the
Brethren stressed from the beginning; namely, that God’s work should be
supported by God’s people. Their preachers and assemblies have almost invariably
sought to act on the principle enunciated in 3rd John where, speaking of
traveling servants of Christ, the apostle says:
We therefore ought to receive such, that we might be fellow-helpers to the
truth. Because that for his name’s sake they went forth, taking nothing of the
Gentiles. 3 John 1:8; 3 John 1:7 In order to carry this out, public collections
were taboo, but when the Brethren gathered together for the observance of the
Lord’s-Supper they sought to carry out the letter and the spirit of 1
Corinthians 16:2 Upon the first day of the week let every one of you lay by him
in store, as God hath prospered him.
I do not mean that all the money thus laid by went into the offering boxes, but
these sums were disbursed privately by the individual as he felt led of the
Lord, or put together in a common collection for the spread of the gospel and
for ministry to those in need.
What was true of Plymouth was equally true of many other places where, in their
first love and their new-found liberty, companies of warm-hearted believers came
together to remember the Lord on the first day of the week according to what
seemed to them to be the apostolic pattern; and to search the Scriptures daily
and seek to make known to others the precious things they were discovering in
them. From the first the evangelistic note was very prominent. It was a new
thing in many parts of Great Britain to have these so-called “lay preachers” and
in many instances ex-clergymen who had renounced all their stipends, emoluments
and ecclesiastical titles, preaching in barns, public halls, theaters, on
village greens, the street corners, by the seaside, at race-tracks and in all
other places where the public could be gathered together. It was with amazement
that people listened to uneducated men from the humblest walks of life, and
cultured gentlemen from the highest society, even titled personages at times,
all preaching with fervor and holy enthusiasm the same wondrous truths. It was
no uncommon thing to hear Brethren spoken of as “walking Bibles”; for, having
turned away from traditional views, the Scriptures were their one source of
instruction and their one court of appeal. “They found it written” settled
everything for them. “Thus saith the Lord” was absolutely authoritative.
Troubled with no questions as to degrees of inspiration, they accepted the
entire Bible as the very Word of the living God, and the Old. Testament was as
precious to them as the New, for they realized as Augustine of Hippo wrote so
long ago that- The New is in the Old concealed; The Old is by the New revealed.
Great emphasis was placed upon the utter depravity and ruined condition of the
human race, man’s inability to save himself or in any way acquire merit; the
great fundamental truths of the Holy Trinity; the incarnation, sinless humanity
and true deity of the Lord Jesus Christ; the personality and indwelling of the
Holy Spirit who had come to earth to baptize believers into one body and to take
care of the church in the absence of its glorified head; the substitutionary
character of the atoning work of the Son of God, who not only bore our sins in
His own body on the tree but in matchless grace was made sin for us that we
might become the righteousness of God in Him; new birth through the Word, thus
giving eternal life by faith in Christ; the believer’s eternal security as
“accepted in the Beloved,” whose intercession in heaven prevails against all the
opposition of the enemy; the second coming of the Saviour to call His own to
Himself in the air, where in glorified bodies they will be manifested before His
judgment seat to be rewarded according to the measure of their service for Him
on earth, thus distinguishing between the judgment of a believer’s works at the
Lord’s return and the judgment of the wicked at the Great White Throne; the
great tribulation following the rapture of the church; the awakening of Israel;
the visible return of the Lord to establish His kingdom on earth and His
glorious millennial reign to be followed by the eternal day of God, when God
shall be All in All in the new heavens and new earth. This is but a bare outline
of the precious truths preached and taught by the Brethren. It is not to be
supposed that all of these lines of teaching were made clear at once, but as
time went on these were the predominant views promulgated by these enthusiastic
Christians. In numbers of instances, as the teaching became known, clergymen and
their entire congregations accepted them with deep exercise, and bodily
separated themselves from existing systems where these truths were denied. In
many cases the breaking of bread was carried on in the simple way with which the
Brethren began and with no human leader, but under the direct guidance of the
Holy Spirit, at an early hour, after which some gifted brother took the platform
and ministered the Word to edification. If again the writer may be permitted to
express his sincere conviction, he would say that had this practice been more
universal, the tragic failure of the movement might not have been so marked.
This, however, is merely the writer’s judgment, and many will think it open to
serious question.
Some of the assemblies were, if one may so say, much more organized than others.
Many of them repudiated all thought of leadership, nor would they recognize any
systematic arrangements of any kind. Others believed they saw in Scripture that
godly elder brethren, answering to the description of bishops given in Titus and
Timothy, should be accorded a special place in the local assemblies, and that
the direction of things should be largely in their hands. All alike, however,
repudiated the idea of a one-man ministry; though it is to be admitted that this
often gave occasion to another abuse equally as dangerous perhaps as that which
was rejected; namely, an any-man ministry. Mr. Darby and others sought to
correct this by insisting on the responsibility of the local assembly to refuse
ministry that was not for edification, even going so far as to counsel the
saints to rise and leave the room, if an unfit man persisted in attempting to
preach or teach after he had been informed that his ministry was not to
edification. Perhaps, if the Brethren everywhere had been more particular about
this, it would have been better for all concerned.
It will readily be understood that Satan would labor with unwearied energy to
destroy so gracious a work of the Spirit of God as that which we have been
considering. As long as the opposition to the truth came only from without, the
Brethren prospered, and multitudes received the Word with gladness, and many
through deep exercise of soul were added to them, but, as in the early church
and in practically every movement of the Spirit of God since, Satan set himself
to stir up dissension within. It could hardly be expected that it would be
otherwise. Jealousies among ministering Brethren, differences of views as to
age-old questions like the subjects and mode of baptism, details as to prophetic
events; even serious doctrinal divergences, soon came in to mar the peace and
happiness of the little assemblies. There were, too, some grievous cases of
backsliding, thus bringing the truth into great dishonor. A new line of
tradition grew up to supersede the old views left behind, and at last divisions
came in among Brethren which have never been healed to this day. These we must
sorrowfully consider in our next chapter, hoping thereby to glean some lessons
that will be for the blessing of God’s people today who sincerely desire to do
His will. To those looking on from the outside it has often seemed that one
great weakness of the movement has been the failure to recognize the true
pastoral office. They have felt that in seeking to avoid the Scylla of
Diotrephian clericalism, the Brethren were shattered on the Charybdis of extreme
individualism.
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CHAPTER 22: 02.03. GATHERING CLOUDS
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Chapter Three - Gathering Clouds
It has been a comparatively simple thing thus far to trace out the beginnings
and early progress of the Brethren’s meetings. A far more difficult task is now
before me; namely, to tell the story of the first great schism that divided them
into the two camps of “exclusive” and “open” meetings. To do this in an
impartial way, keeping severely to the historical and non-partisan method,
requires, it seems to me, an almost superhuman wisdom, something to which the
present writer can make no claim. While endeavoring to be strictly impartial,
one’s prejudices and predilections are bound to be manifested. It may as well be
acknowledged at once that the “exclusive” principle, if not pushed to an
extreme, seemed to me for many years to be most nearly Scriptural; but I hold no
brief for that wing of the movement, and I have come to the conclusion that it
may require greater spirituality to act upon it than most of us possess. I have
the warmest admiration for many of those who conscientiously differ from me as
to this. I only give this explanation here to make my own position clear, for I
fear I shall please neither conservative “exclusives” nor radical “opens” in
telling the story as I understand it.
I have already pointed out that all was not harmonious in the Brethren’s ranks
during the years that have occupied us. As they increased in numbers and
meetings were multiplied, difficulties arose that they had not foreseen in the
first happy days. At this time, while J. N. Darby was undoubtedly the leading
figure among the Brethren in Ireland, B. W. Newton was perhaps the man whose
learning, ability and piety outshone all others in England, though many
remarkable men had become identified with the movement. It was he who was used
of God to begin the work at Plymouth, where for fifteen years he was the
accredited leader, and from which center his influence, through his printed
ministry and frequent visits to other parts of the country, extended far and
wide. By 1840 there were over 800 gathered together at the Ebrington Street
meeting, where he exercised the teaching and pastoral gifts. By 1845 the number
had increased to 1,200. It is questionable if any other assembly of Brethren has
ever grown as rapidly. This in itself is proof of the esteem in which he was
held.
Mr. Darby did not come to Plymouth until the meeting there was well under way.
He was at first warmly received by Mr. Newton, who had met him previously at
Oxford, and the saints meeting with him; and he visited them frequently; though
for the first few years he preached generally in Anglican pulpits, as he had not
yet completely separated from the Church of England. Mr. Newton attended a
number of the Prophetic conferences, in Ireland, until it became evident that he
and Mr. Darby were hopelessly at variance, both on prophetic teaching and in
regard to the nature, calling and order of the church. Mr. Newton was warmly
supported in his views by the learned Dr. Tregelles, the textual critic who was
in the Plymouth meeting. Mr. Newton was a voluminous writer, as was Mr. Darby;
but the works of the former are of a much more finished character than those of
the latter, though there is a depth of spirituality about the writings of Mr.
Darby that few have attained to. His friends have described Mr. Newton as a
polished, scholarly speaker, gentlemanly in his bearing, and most gracious in
his demeanor. On the other hand, his opponents dwell on his irritation if
crossed, and his unyielding and relentless pressing of his own views in
opposition to those of other gifted brethren. He lived to be ninety-three years
of age, and after his separation from the Brethren became the pastor of an
independent congregation characterized by his particular teaching, in the city
of London. The late venerable man of God, Mr. Henry Varley, well known as an
evangelist and Bible teacher in Europe, America and Australia, said to me on one
occasion: “If I were asked to name the godliest man I have ever known, I should
unhesitatingly say, Benjamin Wills Newton.” He described him as tall and of
patriarchal bearing, with the calm of heaven on his brow, and the law of
kindness on his lips. His intimate associates loved him devotedly and listened
with rapt attention to his expositions. This was the man who was destined to be
the means of rending the Brethren asunder, or at least he was the figure over
whom the storm broke. In the minds of many he is to this day the very
incarnation of iniquitous teaching.
He viewed with extreme disfavor any departure from Puritan theology, except on
eschatological lines. For him, the church included all the faithful from Abraham
down. He considered Mr. Darby’s dispensational teaching as the height of
speculative nonsense. He was vehemently opposed to the idea of the church being
a special company of whose calling and destiny the Old Testament knows nothing,
a line of things emphasized by Mr. Darby, Mr. Bellett and their intimates. When
at the Powerscourt meetings the idea of the cancelled seventieth week of Daniel,
beginning after the rapture of the church, was suggested by Sir Edward Denny and
Mr. Darby, it was readily accepted as the key to the prophecies by G. V. Wigram
and J. G. Bellett. It was, however, utterly rejected by Mr. Newton, who
maintained that the church must go through the final tribulation and that the
“rapture” would be coincident with the “appearing.” Other differences gradually
led to Mr. Newton’s absenting himself from these gatherings in after years. He
remained at Plymouth with the avowed intention of making that place a center and
a model for other assemblies, and by printing press and in public meetings he
sought to oppose what many believed to be the special work of the Holy Spirit in
recovering precious truth long lost through the church’s declension and partial
apostasy. In April, 1845, he issued a statement showing wherein he differed from
the rest, and setting forth what he felt called upon to maintain. I give it in
full, though the reader will probably find it ambiguous in some particulars:
“It is my desire to maintain,-
“I. That the twelve apostles of our Lord and Saviour do represent believers
standing in acknowledged acceptance before God, through the name of Jesus, and
that they represent such only.
“II. That the Gospels of Matthew, Mark and Luke are Christian Scripture, in the
same sense in which the Gospel of John is Christian Scripture.
“III. That the Pentecostal church was not in a semi-Jewish or semi-Christian
condition, or in any sense ‘earthly,’ or ‘formed for citizenship in the earth;’
but in a true church position, as ‘partakers of the heavenly calling.’
“IV. That the Epistles of Peter, and the Epistle to the Hebrews or Galatians,
are not to be regarded as having a lower character than the Epistles to the
Ephesians or Colossians.
“V. That the introduction or presence of Jewish circumstances or characteristics
into any particular passage, does not necessarily make the subject-matter
Jewish.
“VI. That Peter and the Pentecostal church testified to the ascension and
heavenly glory of Jesus, equally with St. Paul.
“VII. That there is no salvation and no life apart from union with the person of
the Son of God, and that all who so rise in Him are sons of God.
“VIII. That the church is under covenant promise and dispensation, as much as
Israel will be; and is in no sense above dispensation, except in the sense in
which all the redeemed receive their calling to blessing in Christ Jesus before
the foundation of the world, and therefore independent of circumstances here.
“IX. That the resurrection of Christ, and resurrection in Christ, is never
regarded in the Scripture, save as abolishing all personal distinctions such as
that of Jew and Gentile, among the partakers thereof.
“X. That heavenly blessings, as well as earthly, were included in the promise to
Abraham, and that God never purposed or proposed to accomplish one branch of
these promises, without also adding the other.
“XI. That ‘the household of faith’ is an equivalent expression to ‘church.’
“XII. That the various expressions, etc., applied in Scripture to the church,
afford various aspects or positions of the same body, but do not imply that the
church is correspondingly divided into distinct and separating compartments.
“XIII. That Abraham and the Old Testament saints are equally with ourselves
included under such passages as the following:
“‘The dead in Christ shall rise first.’ ‘As in Adam all have died, even so in
Christ shall all be quickened.’
“‘All onewise.’”
During the years that these views were being developed at Plymouth, Mr. Darby
was busy preaching and teaching in Great Britain and Ireland, and on the
continent of Europe, particularly in Switzerland where many gatherings had been
formed. As assemblies were multiplied difficulties increased, and questions of
reception, discipline, and internal arrangement became prominent. The early
meetings, as we have seen, were of the simplest character. Persons wishing to
commune were not examined as to where they had come from, but were received
freely if they gave evidence that they belonged to Christ. As time went on,
however, there was a tendency to restrict communion in a way that caused some to
fear the Brethren would soon become a sect like those about them. Mr. A. N.
Groves wrote in 1828:
“My full persuasion is, that inasmuch as any one glories either in being of the
Church of England, Scotland, Baptist, Wesleyan, Independent, etc., his glory is
in his shame, and that it is anti-Christian; for as the apostle said, “Were any
of them crucified for you?’ The only legitimate ground of glorying is, that we
are among the ransomed of the Lord by His grace. As ‘bodies I know none of the
sects and parties that wound and disfigure the body of Christ; as individuals I
desire to love all who love Him. Oh, when will the day come when the love of
Christ will have more power to unite than our foolish regulations have to divide
the family of God! As for order, if it be God’s order, let it stand, but if it
be man’s order, I must examine whether or not it excludes the essence of
Christ’s kingdom; for if it does, I remember the word, ‘Call no man your master
upon earth; for one is your Master, even Christ, and all ye are brethren.” That
this was the mind of practically all these early Brethren I think has already
been made clear, but this word from Mr. Darby written in 1839, in a letter to
Rev. J. Kelly, will serve to clinch the subject:
“Whenever Christ has received a person, we should receive him. That false
brethren may creep in unawares is possible. If the church be spiritual they will
soon be made apparent; but as our table is the Lord’s and not ours, we receive
all the Lord has received, all who have fled as poor sinners for refuge to the
hope set before them, and rest not in themselves but in Christ as their hope.
“You say, ‘Would you receive a Roman Catholic?’ If a Roman Catholic really
extolled Jesus as Saviour, owned his one sacrifice of Himself as the sole
putting away of sin, he would have ceased to hold the error and delusion by
which the enemy has misled some souls who are still, I trust, precious to Jesus;
he would cease to be a Roman Catholic in the evil sense of the word, and on
those terms only would he be with us. I repeat, then, we receive all who are on
the foundation, and reject and put away all error by the Word of God and the
help of His ever-living Spirit.” The last clause will seem rather bombastic and
conceited, but it is well to remember that Mr. Darby wrote jerkily and did not
always fully express what was in his mind. Besides, he was still a young man,
just thirty-nine years of age, and not yet disillusionized as to the
impossibility of any company of believers putting away all error. His letter at
least shows how different were his views from those of many today who glory in
being known as his followers while forming sectarian circles of the narrowest
conceivable kind. But as to the inter-relation of assemblies Mr. Darby early
taught what afterwards came to be known as exclusivism. He believed geographical
distance did not relieve of responsibility to act in unison and he sought to
press upon the assemblies or gatherings of Brethren their responsibility to act
together in matters of discipline. This alarmed A. N. Groves, who after his
return from Bagdad found what seemed to him positive evidence of the formation
of a confederation of meetings which he considered would eventually put the
Brethren back again on full sectarian ground. In that year he wrote a letter to
Mr. Darby, whom he regarded as the leader in introducing new views, which those
afterwards called “Open” Brethren have looked upon as almost prophetic, and
every “exclusive” must admit it contains much food for thought. He says:
“I wish you to feel assured that nothing has estranged my heart from you, or
lowered my confidence in your still being animated by the same enlarged and
generous purposes that once so won and riveted me; and though I feel you have
departed from those principles by which you once hoped to have effected them,
and in principle returning to the city from whence you departed, still my soul
so reposes in the truth of your heart to God that I feel it needs but a step or
two more to advance, and you will see all the evils of the systems from whence
you profess to be separated, to spring up among yourselves. You will not
discover this so much from the workings of your own soul, as by the spirit of
those who have been nurtured up from the beginning in the system they are taught
to feel the only tolerable one; and not having been led like you, and some of
those earliest connected with you, through deep experimental suffering and
sorrow, they are little acquainted with the real truth that may exist amidst
inconceivable darkness: there will be little pity and little sympathy with such,
and your union daily becoming one of doctrine and opinion more than life or
love, your government will become-unseen, perhaps, and unexpressed, yet one
wherein overwhelmingly is felt the authority of men; you will be known more by
what you witness against, than what you witness for, and practically this will
prove that you witness against all but yourselves.
“It has been asserted . . . that I have changed my principles: all I can say is,
that as far as I know what those principles were, in which I gloried on first
discovering them in the Word of God, I now glory in them ten times more since I
have experienced their applicability to all the various and perplexing
circumstances of the present state of the church; allowing you to give every
individual, and collection of individuals, the standing God gives them, without
identifying yourselves with any of their evils. I ever understood our principle
of communion to be the possession of the common life, or common blood of the
family of God; these were our early thoughts, and they are my most matured ones.
The transition your little bodies have undergone, in no longer standing forth
the witnesses for the glorious and simple truth, so much as standing forth
witnesses against all that they judge error, has lowered them in my apprehension
from heaven to earth, in their position as witnesses . . . The position which
this occupying the seat of judgment places them in, will be this: The most
narrow-minded and bigoted will rule, because his conscience cannot and will not
give way, and therefore the more enlarged heart will yield. It is into this
position, dear Darby, I feel some little flocks are fast tending, if they have
not already attained it, making light, not life, the measure of communion.”
However, it is very evident that many Brethren were already beginning to feel
the need of some clearly denned rule as to matters of discipline, and as to this
A. N. Groves and B. W. Newton represented two extremes, while J. N. Darby seemed
to take a middle path. The latter would have the disciplinary act of one
assembly ratified by all if Scriptural authority could be shown for the action.
Moreover he would own as New Testament assemblies only those meetings where
common principles and similar teaching was held, and where there was a definite
testimony against evil in life or doctrine. At least this is what he was tending
to. Mr. Groves, on the contrary, would cast each assembly directly upon God,
refusing the thought of ‘interference’ by others. He held to the independence of
each local meeting. And as to discipline he counted largely on spiritual power
within repelling or else expelling unworthy intruders; a principle Mr. Darby
also recognized, but not as relieving meetings of their responsibility. Mr.
Newton on the other hand would organize each assembly, appoint elders and
deacons, recognize pastors; and these various officers would constitute an
official board to handle the affairs of the local church. This he sought to
carry out in Plymouth and in this he was ably assisted by Dr. Tregelles, and by
J. L. Harris, a former Anglican clergyman of marked ability, who was recognized
as co-pastor with himself. The great majority in Plymouth were thoroughly
satisfied with this arrangement, while a very small minority were very restless
under it and felt that the whole principle of Brethren’s meetings had been
gradually given up. Looking back through the years one can scarcely escape the
conclusion that it might have been better if the minority had quietly separated
and begun a new meeting in another part of the city-not in antagonism to the
older Brethren, but where fuller liberty could be enjoyed, and then have waited
on God to show the next step. As it was they were in frequent correspondence
with Mr. Darby and his co-laborers, and upon his return from the continent he
was persuaded to go to Plymouth, which he did, very much to the disgust and
indignation of Mr. Newton’s particular friends. He denies that he was sent for,
but he certainly was urged to go by many who viewed with alarm the changed
conditions there. He has given a very full, and, it would seem to me, a very
fair account of what followed in his “Narrative of Facts,” a lawyer-like
document in which he tells why he acted as he did at Plymouth in the months that
followed. But we must leave consideration of this until the next chapter. In
closing this very imperfect section may I add that a careful perusal of the
early writings of the Brethren shows that there had been a gradual declension
and lowering of the standard after the first happy years. Worldliness had crept
in, with its accompaniments of pride and vain-glory. To this G. V. Wigram bore
trenchant witness. Many Brethren became occupied with themselves, and commonly
wrote and spoke of their companies as “the latter day remnant,” “the godly
residue,” “the Philadelphian church,” and similar self-laudatory expressions,
obnoxious to a spiritual mind. They looked with supercilious contempt on saints
as godly as themselves-or even far more devoted-who remained in the various
organized bodies, and were not backward in claiming in some instances exclusive
possession of the table of the Lord. Is it any wonder that a holy God, who loves
all His people, equally, blew upon such pretension and permitted circumstances
to arise which scattered and divided them, and made them a witness rather to the
power of the flesh to break, than to the power of the Spirit to keep the unity
He has formed?
Yet are there not lessons to be learned from the failures of the Brethren to
maintain that unity in the bond of peace? Do we not, only too frequently, see
devoted men of God, leaders in the present mighty work of the Holy Spirit; the
protest against modernism,-arrayed against one another because of divergent
views on minor details, instead of standing together against the evil they seek
to combat? We may well be reminded of Nelson at Trafalgar who, coming on deck
and finding two British officers quarreling, whirled them about and pointing to
the ships of the adversary, exclaimed, “Gentlemen, there are your enemies!” That
it was the leaders who were chiefly responsible for the threatened breach of
communion seems very evident. The rank and file were simple, godly Christians
rejoicing in their liberty from what they regarded as sectarian bondage, and
were, generally speaking, ardent gospelers going out into the streets and public
places, as well as in their rented halls and chapels, to carry the glad tidings
of a known salvation received by faith and evidenced by the love of the Spirit.
That Satan hates this we may be sure and so he sought to destroy the testimony
by sowing discord among brethren.
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CHAPTER 23: 02.04. INCREASING DISSENSION
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Chapter Four - Increasing Dissension The vexed question of what has since been
called “the relation of assemblies to assemblies,” or “the inter-relation of
assemblies,” was what eventually divided the Brethren into two great camps,
afterwards denominated “open” and “exclusive.” As early as 1838, Mr. G. V.
Wigram, one of Mr. Darby’s most intimate associates, wrote:
“My Dear Friend and Brother: There is a matter exercising the minds of us at
this present time in which you may be (and in some sense certainly are)
concerned. The question I refer to is, ‘How are meetings for communion of saints
in these parts to be regulated?’ Would it be for the glory of the Lord and the
increase of testimony, to have one central meeting the common responsibility of
all within reach, and as many meetings subordinate to it as grace might
vouchsafe? Or to hold it to be better to allow the meetings to grow up as they
may without connection and dependent upon the energy of individuals only? I
think I have no judgment in the matter, save that (as those who have the
fellowship of the divine mind) our service ought to be intelligent, and whatever
is done to be done wittingly. As to feeling, I do indeed long to find myself
more distinctly associated with those who as brethren will feel and bear their
measure of responsibility, but this is all I can say; for truly, provided there
be in London some place where the wanderer can find rest and communion, my
desire is met; though the glory of the Lord will of course be still to be cared
for.
“I am, dear brother, yours in Jesus, Oct. 6, 1838. G. V. W.”
It is very evident from the wording of this letter that up to the time it was
written, there was no definite teaching among the Brethren as to the question
afterwards forced upon them by unlooked-for events.
Another seven years passed with no concerted effort to arrive at the mind of the
Lord in this matter. Had there been some far-sighted and influential men of God
among them who would have taken the responsibility of calling a conference of
accredited leaders to discuss the whole question in the light of the open Bible,
division might possibly have been averted. I say might possibly, for I cannot
but think the pride and self-will of many was what forced division at last and
if this state had not first been judged, no amount of teaching as to
“principles,” however Scriptural, would have preserved the unity. In 1845 Mr.
Darby went to Plymouth, where he found, as he had been warned he would find, an
entirely new order of things prevailing. Mr. Newton, as we have seen, had given
up his early views, both as to Christian fellowship and as to many details of
prophecy. Probably in some points he never had been in full harmony with the
rest of the teachers, and his system was in part rather a development than a
declension. But at any rate the Plymouth meeting was now quite at variance with
the assemblies generally. There was no longer room for open ministry as the
Spirit might lead. Mr. Newton and his co-laborer, J. L. Harris, were the
recognized elders. They ministered turn about each Lord’s day morning, their
sermons largely consuming the time, and the breaking of bread occupying a
secondary place. Certain persons were authorized or deputed by them to
participate in minor things, even to the giving out of and the starting of
hymns.
Mr. Darby found himself persona non grata with the leaders and their chief
adherents as soon as he appeared. Should he have simply gone away and left
things to work out as the Lord might overrule, or was it best to remain and
oppose the accepted pastors, whom he believed were misleading the rank and file?
These questions are hard to answer. At any rate he remained and that for several
months. During this time his presence encouraged a minority who were greatly
distressed over existing conditions. He protested publicly and privately against
what he considered to be the sectarianism and clericalism of the new order. He
drew the attention of other leading men in various parts to the conditions
existing there. Several conferences were held with responsible brethren, but Mr.
Newton refused to be present at any such meetings and declared he would consider
all such efforts to bring about an understanding as unwarranted interference. He
offered to meet a few for an investigation provided he be permitted to appoint
four of his friends and Mr. Darby four of his. This the latter refused, as he
felt it was a matter for the whole assembly and not a personal quarrel between
himself and Mr. Newton.
Finally, convinced that the Ebrington Street assembly no longer occupied the
ground on which Brethren had been meeting, he withdrew from its fellowship, and
with a few like-minded brethren secured another hall where a new gathering was
started on the last Lord’s day of the year 1845.
Mr. William Trotter writing of this says: At first Mr. Darby’s act was judged by
brethren almost everywhere to be rash and premature. They had not been inside
the scene, and so knew but little of the system that had been introduced.
Several of those who went down to Plymouth to inquire, found things so much
worse than they had any conception of, that they also separated from Mr. Newton
and his party. One thing which seems to have weighed greatly with these brethren
was the corruption of moral integrity, and the system of intrigue and deception
which attended the evil. In April, 1846, a meeting of brethren from all parts
was held in London for common humiliation and prayer, where the tokens of the
Lord’s presence were graciously vouchsafed to us, and from that time the eyes of
brethren seemed to open to the evil. Mr. Newton and his friends were invited to
that meeting but refused to attend. They printed their reasons for refusing,
which were widely circulated.
Mr. Darby’s Narrative of Facts’*(4) was printed soon after, and in the autumn of
that year a series of meetings was held in Rawstorne Street, London, very
important in their origin, character, and results. They originated in a visit of
Mr. Newton’s to certain brethren in the neighborhood of Rawstorne Street and
breaking bread there. He held some Scripture readings at the house of one of
them, after which he stated that his errand to town partly was to meet any
brethren who were wishful of information as to the charges brought against him
in the Narrative of Facts. Most providentially Mr. Darby was at the time in
London. He had come to town on his way to France, and had got his passports,
changed his money and was ready to depart, when brethren waited on him to detain
him till efforts were made to bring about an open investigation of the whole
case, with accused and accuser face to face. The brethren to whom Mr. Newton had
offered to give information proposed to him this open investigation. It was
proposed to him again and again by others, but steadily and invariably refused.
The brethren meeting at Rawstorne street then assembled, and after united prayer
and consultation concluded that Mr. Newton could not be admitted to the Lord’s
table there, so long as he refused to satisfy their consciences as to the grave
charges alleged against him. In connection with these events there were three
documents issued by Mr. Newton and his party. One a paper by Mr. Newton himself
in answer to the charges of untruthfulness. Another by his four co-rulers at
Plymouth assigning reasons for his non-attendance at Rawstorne street to satisfy
the consciences of saints meeting there. Also a remonstrance addressed by the
Plymouth rulers to the brethren meeting at Rawstorne street on their exclusion
of Mr. Newton from the Lord’s table. All these were examined at large in four
tracts entitled Accounts of the proceedings at Rawstorne street in November and
December, 1846. These four tracts are very important as showing the dishonesty
connected with the system of which the three papers before named were a defense.
The proceedings at Rawstorne street, and the publications growing out of them,
cleared the souls of many; and in February, 1847, a meeting was held in the same
place, attended by many brethren from the country, in which nearly all those who
had been at all looked up to amongst brethren gave their solemn testimony as to
the evil system which had grown up at Plymouth, and as to the need of absolute
and entire separation from it. The testimonies of Messrs. M’Adam, Harris, Lean,
Hall, Young, and others, were all most solemn and decisive. There was scarcely a
brother, whose name was well known amongst brethren as laboring in the word and
watching for souls, who did not at that time acquiesce in the sorrowful
necessity for separation from this evil and demoralizing system. The entire
matter was looked at from a very different standpoint by many others. Mr. Henry
Groves expresses their feelings as follows: In this melancholy year, that was to
test professions of a heavenly calling made and sacred truths held (as it
proved, too much in the head and too little in the heart by both teacher and
scholar), Mr. Darby comes to Plymouth, and finds Mr. Newton’s influence
paramount. What an opportunity for grace to shine in! for Christ to triumph in
the saint over self! But, alas! self triumphed over Christ on both sides of the
conflict, though in different ways; and the schismatic spirit of “I am of
Newton,” and “I am of Darby,” came in and carried all before it, but those who
had been really walking before God. These could but sigh and weep for the sin
and wickedness carried on in the holy name of Jesus, and keep aloof from that
which so dishonored the Lord. In Corinth, Paul would take no part in the unholy
strife that was going on, amongst those who contended to belonging to Paul, to
Peter, or to Apollos. He was content to remain the servant, and not to become
the master; for he belonged to all, and sought to raise them out of their
sectarianism, by telling them that Paul, and Cephas, and Apollos, were alike
theirs- theirs to serve in the bonds of the gospel; and in the same spirit the
eloquent teacher, Apollos, could not be persuaded by Paul to come among them, as
if to keep himself out of sight, that the crucified Lord might eclipse himself
as well as Paul. The result of this acting in grace was, that in the Second
Epistle we read nothing of the divisions that marked the First Epistle - grace
and forbearance had triumphed over self and schism. The grace of the teachers in
Corinth was, however, wanting in Plymouth; and regardless of the unity of the
body that had been boasted in, and the command to keep the unity of the Spirit
that had been taught, Mr. Darby meets what he considers the sectarianism of
another by a sectarianism of his own which he consummates by making a division
among the saints with whom he had been in fellowship from the commencement; and
that, notwithstanding the remonstrance of most of the brethren who came from a
distance to investigate the state of things in Ebrington street, where till now
all had met in fellowship. Having affected the division, he spread a table
elsewhere on the last Sunday of that sorrowful and eventful year, which was in
future to be exclusively “the table of the Lord,” around which himself and his
followers were to rally. From this meeting in December, 1845, we must date the
rise of Darbyism, and its development into a distinct and self-excommunicated
body, separated on grounds subversive of the great truth around which, as
opposed to all sectarianism, “the Brethren” had sought to rally the saints of
God; namely, that the blood of the Lamb was the basis of the union of the family
of heaven: as Mr. Darby expressed it, “to receive all who are on the
foundation.” The grounds of this melancholy division were, as we gather from Mr.
Darby’s Narrative, sectarianism, clericalism, and erroneous prophetic views.
There was no charge of heresy; there was not one Scriptural ground on which the
separation could be justified; but, as if there had been no injunction to mutual
forbearance and long-suffering, and as if the blood of the Lamb no longer
constituted the sure foundation of all true fellowship here, as it is of all the
fellowship in the glory; we find Mr. Darby either excommunicating the saints
with whom for so many years he had been in fellowship, or perhaps more
correctly, excommunicated himself; in either case, rending the body of the Lord,
and saying in fact, as one of old, who had no mother’s heart to yearn over the
child, “Let it be neither mine nor thine, but divide it.” Oh, for the bowels of
Christ Jesus, the heart of the loving Master, that yearned in the apostle, that
would have sacrificed self a thousand times on the altar of the Lord for His
body’s sake! Where was the love that travailed in birth again till Christ was
formed in the Galatian churches-the love that gave a mother’s solicitude for the
people of God that could not cut them off, though in love to them it wished that
the false teachers might be even cut off for their sakes? Oh, the awful sin of
schism! but a brother’s sin is our own, ours to bear in priestly power before
the altar. Let this be remembered, and a brother’s sin will cause grief and not
bitterness; and the dishonor to God and the shame to ourselves we shall seek to
bear in tears before our God, as did Daniel and Jeremiah. How clearly these
actings prove that real love to the Lord, and value for the unity of His body,
had declined; that leaders wanted to maintain their own opinions and keep their
own followers; and that these followers had made their leaders and their
opinions the real bond of their union, instead of Christ Himself, who binds all
into the same bundle of eternal life with Himself, the Lord and Master of them
all. Alas! how had the fine gold thus early become dim, and the silver turned to
dross. “To us belong shame and confusion of face.” A sober consideration of the
whole matter after the lapse of nearly a century will probably make one feel
that the truth is in neither extreme. Undoubtedly things were in a bad state at
Plymouth. Many were sighing and longing for deliverance who did not know what to
do nor where to turn.
Mr. Darby felt that Plymouth’s example might be copied in other places and
self-willed men might thereby shipwreck the entire movement. That he had no
thought of starting a new movement nor of setting up a counter-system, two
somewhat obscurely-worded papers of his, written about this time, make clear.
They are somewhat lengthy, but I think they are of value as showing the working
of his mind. He evidently desired to do the will of God at whatever cost, but he
was himself in great perplexity. Nevertheless, these papers prove, I think,
conclusively that he had no conception of the importance and the far-reaching
effect of the step he took in separating from the main meeting on the sole
charges of clericalism, sectarianism and moral condition. In conversation
sometime afterward Mr. Robert Chapman of Barnstaple said, “You should have
waited before acting as you did.” Mr. Darby replied, “I waited six months and
there was no repentance,” or words to that effect. Mr. Chapman replied that at
Barnstaple they would have waited six years ere taking a step that would have so
divided the brethren. The impression left on my mind is that Mr. Darby was
over-zealous for what he conceived to be the glory of God and was not actuated
by pride and self-will. But God alone can judge of this. He was a comparatively
young man still. For less than 20 years he had been one of the recognized
leaders of the new movement and it seemed to him he was called upon to save the
testimony from utter shipwreck. But let the reader judge of his spirit and his
views at this time from a perusal of the papers that follow:
I.
I believe that the churches have been merged in the mass of ecclesiastical
popular hierarchism and lost; but I believe also that the visible church, as it
is called, has been merged there too.
Still there is a difference, because churches were the administrative form,
while the church, as a body on the earth, was the vital unity.
What I felt from the beginning, and began with, was this: the Holy Ghost
remains, and, therefore, the essential principle of unity with His presence; for
(the fact is all we are now concerned in) wherever “two or three are gathered
together in my name, there am I in the midst of them.” When this is really
sought, there will certainly be blessing by His presence; we have found it so,
most sweetly and graciously, who have met separately. When there is an attempt
at displaying the position and the unity, there will always be a mess and a
failure; God will not take such a place with us.
We must get into the place of His mind, to get His strength. That is now the
failure of the church; but there He will be with us.
I have always said this. I know it has troubled some, even those I especially
love; but I am sure it is the Lord’s mind. I have said: We are the witnesses of
the weakness and low estate of the church.
We are not stronger nor better than others (Dissenters, etc.), but we only own
our bad and low state, and therefore can find blessing. I do not limit what the
blessed Spirit can do for us in this low estate, but I take the place where he
can do it.
Hence, government of bodies, in an authorized way, I believe there is none;
where this is assumed, there will be confusion. It was here (Plymouth); and it
was constantly and openly said, that this was to be a model, so that all in
distant places might refer to it. My thorough conviction is, that conscience was
utterly gone, save in those who were utterly miserable.
I only, therefore, so far seek the original standing of the church as to
believe, that wherever two or three are gathered in His name, Christ will be,
and that the Spirit of God is necessarily the only source of power, and that
which He does will be blessing through the lordship of Christ. These provide for
all times. If more be attempted now, it will be only confusion. The original
condition is owned as a sinner, or as a mutilated man owns integrity and a whole
body. But there a most important point comes in: -I cannot supply the lack by
human arrangement or wisdom; I must be dependent.
I should disown whatever was not of the Spirit, and in this sense disown
whatever was-not short of the original standing; for that, in the complete
sense, I am-but what man has done to fill it up; because this does not own the
coming short, nor the Spirit of God. I would always own what is of God’s Spirit
in any. The rule seems to be here very simple.
I do not doubt that dispensed power is disorganized; but the Holy Ghost is
always competent to act in the circumstances God’s people are in. The secret is,
not to pretend to get beyond it. Life and divine power are always there; and I
use the members I have, with full confession that I am in an imperfect state.
We must remember that the body must exist, though not in a united state; and so,
even locally. I can then, therefore, own their gifts, and the like, and get my
warrant in two or three united for the blessing promised to that.
Then, if gifts exist, they cannot be exercised but as members of the body,
because they are such, not by outward union, but by the vital power of the Head
through the Holy Ghost.
“Visible body,” I suspect, misleads us a little. Clearly the corporate operation
is in the actual living body down here on earth, but there it is the members
must act; so that I do not think it makes a difficulty.
I believe if we were to act on 1 Corinthians 12:14 farther than power exists to
verify it, we should make a mess. But then the existence of the body, whatever
its scattered condition, necessarily continues; because it depends on the
existence of the Head, and its union with it. In this the Holy Ghost is
necessarily supreme. The body exists in virtue of there being one Holy Ghost.
“There is one body and one Spirit, even as we are called in one hope of our
calling”; indeed this is the very point which is denied here [i.e. Plymouth].
Then Christ necessarily nourishes and cherishes us as His own flesh, as members
of His body; and this goes on “till we all come,” etc. (Ephesians 4:1-32).
Hence, I apprehend we cannot deny the body .and its unity (whatever its
unfaithfulness and condition), and (so far as the Holy Ghost is owned) His
operation in it, without denying the divine title of the Holy Ghost, and the
care and headship of Christ over the church.
Here I get, not a question of the church’s conduct, but of Christ’s; and the
truth of the Holy Ghost being on earth, and His title when there; and yet the
owning of Christ’s lordship. And this is how far I own others.
If a minister has gifts in the Establishment, I own it as through the Spirit,
Christ begetting the member of, or nourishing, His body. But I cannot go along
with what it is mixed up with, because it is not of the body nor of the Spirit.
I cannot touch the unclean; I am to separate the precious from vile. But I
cannot give up Ephesians 4:1-32 while I own the faithfulness of Christ. Now if
we meet (yea, and when we do meet), all I look for is that this principle should
be owned, because it is owning the Holy Ghost Himself, and that to me is
everything.
We meet and worship; and at this time, we who have separated meet in different
rooms, that we may in the truest and simplest way, in our weakness, worship.
Then whatever the Holy Ghost may give to any one, He is supreme, to feed us
with-perhaps nothing in the way of speaking-and it must be in the unity of the
body.
If you were here, you could be in the unity of the body as one of ourselves.
This Satan cannot destroy, because it is connected with Christ’s title and
power.
If men set up to imitate the administration of the body, it will be popery or
dissent at once. And this is what I see of the visibility of the body; it
connects itself with this infinitely important principle, the presence and
action of the Holy Ghost on earth.
It is not merely a saved thing in the counsels of God, but a living thing
animated down here by its union with the Head, and the presence of the Holy
Ghost in it. It is a real actual thing, the Holy Ghost acting down here. If two
are faithful in this, they will be blessed in it.
If they said, “We are the body,” not owning all the members (in whatever
condition), they would morally cease to be of it. I own them, but in nothing
their condition. The principle is all-important.
Christ has attached, therefore, its practical operation to “two or three”; and
owns them by His presence. He has provided for its maintenance. Thus in all
states of ruin, it cannot cease till He ceases to be Head, and the Holy Spirit
to be as die Guide and the Comforter sent down.
God sanctioned the setting up of Saul; He never did the departure from the Holy
Ghost. The “two or three” take definitely the place of the temple, which was the
locality of God’s presence, as a principle of union. That is what makes all the
difference. Hence, in the division of Israel, the righteous sought the temple as
a point of unity, and David is to us here Christ by the Holy Ghost. On the other
hand, church-government, save as the Spirit is always power, cannot be acted on.
II.
I suspect many brethren have had expectations, which never led me out, and which
perplexed their minds when they were not met in practice. I never felt my
testimony, for example, to be the ability of the Holy Ghost to rule a visible
body. This I do not doubt; but I doubt its proper application now as a matter of
testimony. It does not become us. My confidence is in the certainty of God’s
blessing, and maintaining us, if we take the place we are really in. That place
is one of the general ruin of the dispensation. Still, I believe God has
provided for the maintenance of its general principle (save persecution), that
is, the gathering of a remnant into the comfort of united love by the power and
presence of the Holy Ghost, so that Christ could sing praises there.
All the rest is a ministry to form, sustain, etc. Amongst other things,
government may have its place; but it is well to remember, that, in general,
government regards evil, and therefore is outside the positive blessing, and has
the lowest object in the church.
Moreover, though there be a gift of government, in general, government is of a
different order from gift. Gift serves, ministers, hardly government. These may
be united as in apostolic energy. Elders were rather the government, but they
were not gifts.
It is especially the order of the governmental part which (I believe) has
failed, and that we are to get on without, at least in a formal way. But I do
not believe that God has therefore not provided for such a state of things.
I believe “brethren” a good deal got practically out of their place, and the
consciousness of it, and found their weakness: and the Lord is now teaching
them. For my part, when I found all in ruin around me, my comfort was, that
where two or three are gathered together in Christ’s name, there He would be. It
was not government or anything else I sought. Now I do believe that God is
faithful, and able to maintain the blessing.
I believe the great buildings and great bodies have been a mistake: indeed I
always did. Further, I believe now (although it were always true in practice),
the needed dealing with evil must be by the conscience in grace. So St. Paul
ever dealt, though he had the resource of a positive commission. And I believe
that two or three together, or a larger number, with some having the gift of
wisdom in grace, can, in finding the mind of the Lord, act in discipline; and
this, with pastoral care, is the mainspring of holding the saints together, in
Matt. 18. This agreeing together is referred to as the sign of the Spirit’s
power.
I do not doubt that some may be capable of informing the conscience of others.
But the conscience of the body is that which is ever to be acted upon and set
right. This is the character of all healthful action of this kind, though there
may be a resource in present apostolic power, which, where evil has entered, may
be wanting; but it cannot annul “where two or three agree, it shall be done.” So
that I see not the smallest need of submission to popery; (i. e., carnal unity
by authority in the flesh), nor of standing alone; because God has provided for
a gathering of saints together, founded on grace, and held by the operation of
the Spirit, which no doubt may fail for want of grace, but which, in every
remaining gift, has its scope; in which Christ’s presence and the operation of
the Spirit is manifested, but must be maintained, on the ground of the condition
the church really is in, or it would issue in a sect arranged by man, with a few
new ideas. Where God is trusted in the place, and for the place, we are in, and
we are content to find Him infallibly present with us, there I am sure He is
sufficient and faithful to meet our wants.
If there be one needed wiser than any of the gathered ones in a place, they will
humbly feel their need, and God will send some one as needed, if he sees it the
fit means.
There is no remedy for want of grace but the sovereign goodness that leads to
confession. If we set up our altar, it will serve for walls (Ezra 3:3). The
visibility God will take care of, as He always did, the faith of the body will
be spoken of, and the unity in love manifest the power of the Holy Ghost in the
body.
I have no doubt of God’s raising up for need all that need requires in the place
where He has set us in understanding. If we think to set up the church, again I
would say, God forbid. I had rather be near the end, to live and to die for it
in service, where it is as dear to God: that is my desire and life.
Effort was made during the next thirteen months to bring about a reconciliation,
but all was in vain.
Then in February, 1847, something came to light that confirmed Mr. Darby in his
judgment that he had been guided by the Lord and which led many perplexed ones
to definitely side with him.
Mr. J. L. Harris had gone on with his colleague though in great distress of
mind, until he became convinced that there was a positive Satanic effort in the
Ebrington street meeting seeking to destroy the testimony of the Brethren. This
change of attitude was brought about by his discovery that Mr. Newton was
systematically propagating a line of teaching in regard to Christ that was
subversive of evangelical truth. In justice to Mr. Newton it should be pointed
out that the teaching was not exactly new. In part, at least, it had been given
out by Mr. Newton in an article printed in The Christian Witness, and edited by
Mr. Harris himself several years before, and apparently had escaped censure.
However, the full teaching was not set forth in this paper, nor did any suspect
what it might lead up to. The doctrine in question had to do with the Lord’s
relationship to God as a man and an Israelite here on earth. It was a system of
teaching founded on certain expressions in the Psalms and Mr. Newton first fell
into it in attempting to answer Edward Irving’s heresy as to “the sinful
humanity of Christ.” The way his fully-developed views were brought to light can
best be given by Mr. Harris himself, who first drew Mr. Darby’s attention to it.
He says:
“I desire explicitly to state how the manuscript came under my notice. About
three weeks since one of our sisters in Exeter very kindly lent the notes to my
wife, as being Mr. Newton’s teaching, from which she had found much interest and
profit. When my wife first told me what she had brought home, I did not pay much
attention to it; but shortly after I felt it was not right in me to sanction in
my house this system of private circulation, and I determined to return the
manuscript unread. Accordingly I wrote a note to the sister who had lent the
manuscript, thanking her for her kindness, and explaining my reason for
returning it unread. It was late at night when I had finished writing, and I
found in the meantime my wife had looked into the manuscript so as to get an
outline of its contents, which she mentioned to me, especially the expression
that “the cross was only the closing incident in the life of Christ.” She
thought she did not understand the meaning of the author, and referred to me for
explanation. I then looked into the manuscript myself, and on perusing it felt
surprised and shocked at finding such unscriptural statements and doctrine,
which appeared to me to touch the integrity of the doctrine of the cross . . .
In the law of the land there is such a thing as misprision of treason, involving
heavy penalties when any one who has been acquainted with treasonable practices
does not give information. In this case I believe the doctrines taught to
undermine the glory of the cross of Christ, and to subvert souls; and it seems
to me a duty to Christ and to His saints to make the doctrine openly known. The
manuscript professes to be notes of a lecture-I suppose a public lecture. With
these notes on Psalms 6:1-10 there was given, as accompanying it, notes on
Isaiah 13:1-22, Isaiah 14:1-32, if I recollect aright, with this notice, “This
to go with Psalms 6:1-10,” or something to that effect; so that it appears from
this title that these manuscripts are as regularly circulated among a select
few, in various parts of England, as books in a reading society.
Mr. William Trotter gives quotations from this lecture on Psalm 6, as follows:
“For a person to be suffering here because he serves God, is one thing; but the
relation of that person to God, and what he is immediately receiving from His
hand while serving Him, is another; and it is this which the sixth Psalm, and
many others, open to us. They describe the hand of God stretched out, as
rebuking in anger, and chastening in hot displeasure; and remember, this is not
the scene on the cross.” He says, on the same page, that this-the scene on the
cross-”was only one incident in the life of Christ. . . It was only the closing
incident of his long life of suffering and sorrow; so that to fix our eye simply
on that would be to know little what the character of his real sufferings were.”
After saying, “I do not refer to what were called His vicarious sufferings, but
to His partaking of the circumstances of the woe and sorrow of the human family;
and not only of the human family generally, but of a particular part of it, of
Israel,” he goes on to speak of the curse having fallen on them; and then adds,
“So Jesus became part of an accursed people-a people who had earned God’s wrath
by transgression after transgression.” Again: “So Jesus became obnoxious to the
wrath of God the moment He came into the world.” Again: “Observe, this is
chastening in displeasure; not that which comes now on the child of God, which
is never in wrath, but this rebuking in wrath, to which He was amenable, because
He was part of an accursed people; so the hand of God was continually stretched
out against Him in various ways.” From this dreadful condition he represents our
Lord as getting partially delivered at His baptism by John. I say partially; for
elsewhere he distinctly affirms that He only emerged from it entirely by death:
“His life, through all the thirty years, was made up, more or less, of
experiences of this kind; so it must have been a great relief to Him to hear the
voice of John the Baptist, saying, ‘Repent ye; for the kingdom of heaven is at
hand.’ Here was a door opened to Israel at once. They might come, and be
forgiven; so He was glad to hear that word. He heard it with a wise and
attentive ear, and came to be baptized, because He was one with Israel- was in
their condition, one of wrath from God; consequently, when He was baptized, He
took new ground; but Israel would not take it,” etc. Such were the doctrines
promulgated by Mr. Newton. No doubt much of this will be obscure to one who has
never seriously considered the questions involved. But to an instructed
Christian the teaching is most serious.
Mr. Darby at once exposed the error and even many of Mr. Newton’s strongest
adherents were shocked and dismayed when they learned what he really held.
Pressure was brought to bear upon him to reconsider and to retract and he agreed
to do so in measure, issuing a paper dated “Plymouth, Nov. 26th, 1847,” and
entitled “A Statement and Acknowledgment Respecting Certain Doctrinal Errors.”
In this paper he withdrew certain of his teachings for reconsideration and
confessed that he was wrong in attributing our Lord’s sufferings from God during
His life on earth because of His connection with Adam as His federal head. The
other parts of his teachings he wished to weigh further before expressing
himself. He closed with the words:
I would not wish it to be supposed that what I have now said is intended to
extenuate the error which I have confessed. I desire to acknowledge it fully,
and to acknowledge it as sin; it is my desire thus to confess it before God and
His church; and I desire that this may be considered as an expression of my deep
and unfeigned grief and sorrow, especially by those who may have been grieved or
injured by the false statement, or by any consequences thence resulting. I trust
the Lord will not only pardon, but will graciously counteract any evil effects
which may have arisen to any therefrom.
B. W. Newton.
Messrs. J. E. Batten and H. W. Soltau, leading Ebrington street teachers,
publicly renounced the erroneous views and separated from the Newton meeting,
and with them many others left and sought fellowship in the new gathering which
Mr. Darby had started. Mr. Batten has given a full outline of the teaching he
had imbibed. It shows how grievously Mr. Newton had been misled himself and was
misleading others.
These are the points in question:
I. That the Lord Jesus at his birth, and because born of a woman, partook of
certain consequences of the fall,-mortality being one,-and because of this
association by nature, he became an heir of death-born under death as a penalty.
II. That the Lord Jesus at His birth stood in such relation to Adam as a federal
head; that guilt was imputed to him; and that he was exposed to certain
consequences of such imputation, as stated in Romans 5:1-21.
III. That the Lord Jesus was also born as a Jew under the broken law, and was
regarded by God as standing in that relation to Him; and that God pressed upon
His soul the terrors of Sinai, as due to one in that relation.
IV. That the Lord Jesus took the place of distance from God, which such a person
so born and so related must take; and that He had to find His way back to God by
some path in which God might at last own and meet Him.
V. That so fearful was the distance, and so real were these relations by birth,
and so actual were their attendant penalties of death, wrath, and the curse,
that until His deliverance God is said to have rebuked Him, to have chastened
Him, and that in anger and hot displeasure.
VI. That because of these dealings from God, and Christ’s sufferings under them,
the language of Lamentations 3:1-66, and Psalms 6:1-10, Psalms 38:1-22 and
Psalms 88:1-18, etc., has been stated to be the utterance of the Lord Jesus
while under this heavy pressure from God’s hand.
VII. That the Lord Jesus extricated Himself from these inflictions by keeping
the law; and that at John’s baptism the consequent difference in Christ’s
feelings and experience was so great, as to have been illustrated by a
comparison of the difference between Mount Sinai and Mount Sion, or between law
and grace.
VIII. That beside all these relations which Christ took by birth, and their
attendant penalties and inflictions, and His sufferings under the heavy hand of
God, it has been further stated that He had the experience of an unconverted,
though elect Jew.
Later Mr. Newton reaffirmed some of these teachings while confessing that others
were erroneous.
Brethren generally repudiated the whole system, and Mr. Newton and the Ebrington
street meeting were looked upon as defiled and leprous. While all did not agree
with Mr. Darby’s earlier attitude, very few dissented from his position at this
time, and after a large meeting held in Bath, in May, 1848, it looked as though
further division had been averted and harmony was once more to reign among the
Brethren, with Mr. Newton and his followers outside.
(4)* This is published in the collected writings of J. N. Darby.
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CHAPTER 24: 02.05. THE BETHESDA QUESTION AND THE FIRST...
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Chapter Five - The Bethesda Question And The First Great Division
Many who know little else about the movement of which I am writing, have heard
of “the Bethesda question,” and perhaps wondered what was involved in it. This I
shall now endeavor to make plain.
Swete the theologian says, referring to the age-long controversy between the
eastern and the western churches about “the Procession of the Holy Spirit,” that
“it can never be composed until justice is done to the sincerity of both
parties.” How often has this been true of similar differences! And most aptly do
the words apply to the Plymouth Bethesda question, which rent the Brethren
asunder in 1848 and still keeps them divided, though sober men on both sides
decry much that then took place whether on the part of Mr. Muller and his
associates or Mr. Darby and his friends. So long as prejudice rules the mind a
reasonable judgment can never be arrived at. If each can see but self-will or
indifference to Christ’s glory on the part of the others there will never be a
healing of the breach.
I desire to recognize the integrity and devotedness of the leaders on each side
of the unhappy affair. To question Mr. Muller’s love for Christ and desire to
glorify Him is as foolish and sinful as to charge Mr. Darby with selfish
ambition and the spirit of Diotrephes. Both were men of God, greatly used in
their respective spheres. Their differences were as sad as those that separated
the Wesleys and Whitefield in the previous century.
George Muller was a German Baptist minister who had settled in England, and
Henry Craik was a Baptist pastor in Devonshire, where the two were near
neighbors in the later twenties of the 19th century. God had been leading both
along the same road that he was opening up to Dr. Cronin, J. N. Darby, and
others in Ireland. At Teignmouth Mr. Muller had begun a weekly meeting for the
breaking of bread under the direct guidance of the Holy Spirit, he himself
refusing to preside. This was but a few years after the work began in Dublin,
and some months before there was any meeting in Plymouth, or in any other part
of England, so far as is now known. Even earlier than this Mr. Henry Craik had
been a guest of Anthony Norris Groves in Exeter, and they often spoke together
of the fallen state of the church and the advisability of proceeding on simple,
Scriptural lines. Mr. Henry Groves, son of A. N. Groves, relates in Darbyism
that Mr. Craik said to him on one occasion “It was not at St. Andrew’s; it was
not at Plymouth; it was at Exeter that the Lord taught me those lessons of
dependence on Himself and of catholic fellowship which I have sought to carry
out.”
It is important to note this for there has been an effort by some to exalt Mr.
Darby as though he were the prophet of the movement, whereas it is evident that
there was a distinct work of the Spirit along the same lines in a number of
different places at about the same time.
Mr. Craik and Mr. Muller often conferred together and were of one mind as to
their principles and sought to carry them out so far as they had light while
still in Devonshire, refusing a stipulated salary and endeavoring to lead the
saints into the knowledge of their priestly privileges and of the heavenly
calling of the church. In regard to the establishment of Bethesda chapel I
cannot do better than quote Mr. Henry Groves who was thoroughly familiar with
the facts. He says:
“While Mr. Muller was at Teignmouth, Mr. Craik was at Shaldon, a village close
by, where for some years he had been laboring for the Lord. It was there that
they were first drawn together; and when in 1832 it was proposed to Mr. Craik to
come to Bristol, he only consented to do so on the condition that his brother
and fellow-laborer would go there too. Bethesda chapel was at that time for
hire, and was taken for them by a gentleman who had heard Mr. Craik preach; and
entering on its bare walls, they labored together during a period of more than
three and thirty years. This circumstance is mentioned because of the false
assertion often made, that the church at Bethesda was originally the remains of
a Baptist congregation. These brethren belonged to no denomination, but brought
to Bristol with them those views of church-fellowship and of faith which had
marked them in Devonshire, and which led to their being considered by both
churchmen and dissenters as occupying the anomalous position of belonging to no
party, and who without personal resources were content, as it was said at the
time, ‘to minister without salary, and to accommodate their hearers without pew
rents.’ But the Lord whom they served has these many years showed that ‘those
who honor Him He will honor.’ The Lord has so caused the light of the saints
gathered in fellowship to shine abroad that persons from Holland, Sweden,
France, Portugal, and other places far and near, have come to learn the way of
the Lord more perfectly, and to know the secret of that order, harmony and
fellowship which has for so many years characterized them.
“It is further an interesting fact, that there are many assemblies meeting in
the north of Ireland, the fruit of the late revival there, which owe their
present liberty of church communion and ministry to reading Mr. Muller’s
Narrative; and one who is now with the Lord, and was used as the instrument in
the Lord’s hand of the awakening in those parts, acknowledged to the writer when
he met him at Kells, in 1858, as he did subsequently in Bristol, that the sense
of the reality of prayer which he had obtained from reading Mr. Muller’s
Narrative, led him to seek for that faith in reference to the conversion of
sinners, which resulted in that remarkable revival which then began in the north
of Ireland.
“In 1832 the first seven members were received into fellowship in Bethesda. That
year cholera broke out, and the Lord wonderfully blessed the ministry of the
Word to the conversion of many a poor sinner; and from that small commencement
has the Lord been adding continually to the church, till the number in
fellowship at present stands about twelve hundred. It will not fail to be
noticed by those who have much intercourse with these saints, particularly with
the poorer class, how much the paths of practical godliness and of living faith
that have been taught and lived have been owned of God, in leading them to
follow in the footsteps of those who have sought to be examples to the flock in
daily life, not only ‘in word,’ but also ‘in behavior, in charity, in faith, in
purity.’ Such was the position occupied by Bethesda; and Mr. Wigram, after the
disruption, writing in reference to this time, says: ‘Time was once when
Bethesda was Nazarite in character, and derided by the world and by dissenters,
and I gloried in fellowship with her reproach.’" At first there was a question
in Mr. Muller’s mind as to whether unimmersed believers should be received to
communion. Were such to be considered as walking disorderly? This probably gave
rise to the idea that Bethesda was an independent Baptist congregation.*(5) But
upon consulting the saintly Robert Chapman of Barnstaple he became convinced
that difference of judgment as to the ordinance of baptism ought not to
constitute a ban to Christian fellowship, and so, ever afterwards saints were
received at Bethesda as such and not because of like views on an ordinance.
George Muller’s great work of faith and labor of love in connection with the
Ashley Downs orphan houses marks him out as one of the spiritual giants of the
19th century. This is too well known to require lengthy notice here. But I draw
attention to it because of the shocking way in which carnal men on the exclusive
side have referred to one whose shoes they were not worthy to bear. Of one thing
there can be no question. The prayer-hearing God who so marvellously honored
Muller’s faith in him never refused fellowship with him when others branded him
as contaminated with moral leprosy and with indifference to Christ because he
differed with many as to how the Plymouth matter should be handled. One trembles
to think what it will mean to answer at the judgment seat of Christ for casting
aspersions on a man of God like Muller and personally I would rather cut off my
right hand than pen one word of ungracious criticism, though it is my sincere
judgment that a mistake was made at Bethesda the results of which have been
far-reaching indeed. The matter was forced upon the assembly at Bristol in this
way. When the difficulties at Plymouth came to a culmination and Mr. Newton and
those remaining with him were considered under the ban of excommunication some
from the Newton meeting went to Bristol and applied for fellowship at Bethesda.
This at once aroused a minority, headed by a Mr. Alexander, who protested
against their reception on the ground that “a little leaven leaveneth the whole
lump.” They felt that to receive persons from Ebrington Street was virtually to
undo the discipline at Plymouth and besides was introducing the evil into the
meeting at Bristol. Against their protest the overseeing brethren decided that
the persons in question were not involved in Mr. Newton’s errors and might after
examination be received, which they were, with the result that Mr. Alexander and
the other protesters withdrew from fellowship. That this was hasty action on
their part I think any thoughtful person will recognize, while on the other hand
few will condone the action of the overseers in ruthlessly overruling their
objection and admitting the friends of Mr. Newton until a thorough inquiry could
be made. Doubtless the Bethesda elders desired to avoid perplexing the simple
and raising needless questions as to the exact character of the teaching of
Newton. But their action only served to spread the flames, so to speak, instead
of putting out the fire. There was much agitation and considerable
correspondence between Mr. Alexander and Mr. Darby, and the Bethesda meeting was
greatly disturbed thereby.
Finally a meeting of the elder brethren was called and after considerable
discussion a letter was drawn up setting forth their reasons for acting as they
did. This historic document I give in full. It is known as “The Letter of the
Ten”:
“Dear Brethren: Our brother, Mr. George Alexander, having printed and circulated
a statement expressive of his reasons for withdrawing from visible fellowship
with us at the table of the Lord; and these reasons being grounded on the fact
that those who labour among you have not complied with his request relative to
the judging of certain errors which have been taught at Plymouth; it becomes
needful that those of us who have incurred any responsibility in this matter
should lay before you a brief explanation of the way in which we have acted.”
“And first, it may be well to mention, that we had no intimation whatever to our
brother’s intention to act as he has done, nor any knowledge of his intention to
circulate any letter, until it was put into our hands in print. “Some weeks ago,
he expressed his determination to bring his views before a meeting of the body,
and he was told that he was quite at liberty to do so. He afterwards declared
that he would waive this, but never intimated, in the slightest way, his
intention to act as he has done, without first affording the church an
opportunity of hearing his reasons for separation. Under these circumstances, we
feel it of the deepest importance, for relieving the disquietude of mind
naturally occasioned by our brother’s letter, explicitly to state that the views
relative to the person of our blessed Lord, held by those who for sixteen years
have been occupied in teaching the word amongst you, are unchanged.
“The truths relative to the divinity of his person, the sinlessness of his
nature, and the perfection of his sacrifice, which have been taught both in
public teaching and in writing, for these many years past, are, through the
grace of God, those which we still maintain. We feel it most important to make
this avowal, inasmuch as the letter referred to is calculated, we trust
unintentionally, to convey a different impression to the minds of such as
cherish a godly jealousy for the faith once delivered to the saints.
“We add, for the further satisfaction of any who may have had their minds
disturbed, that we utterly disclaim the assertion that the blessed Son of God
was involved in the guilt of the first Adam; or that he was born under the curse
of the broken law, because of his connection with Israel. We hold him to have
been always the Holy One of God, in whom the Father was ever well pleased. We
know of no curse which the Savior bore, except that which he endured as the
surety for sinners-according to that Scripture, ‘he was made a curse for us.’ We
utterly reject the thought of his ever having had the experiences of an
unconverted person; but maintain that while he suffered outwardly the trials
connected with his being a man and an Israelite-still in his feelings and
experiences, as well as in his external character, he was entirely ‘separate
from sinners.’
“We now proceed to state the grounds on which we have felt a difficulty in
complying with the request of our brother, Mr. Alexander, that we should
formally investigate and give judgment on certain errors which have been taught
among Christians meeting at Plymouth.
“1st. We considered from the beginning that it would not be for the comfort or
edification of the saints here-nor for the glory of God - that we, in Bristol,
should get entangled in the controversy connected with the doctrines referred
to. We do not feel that, because errors may be taught at Plymouth or elsewhere,
therefore we, as a body, are bound to investigate them.
“2nd. The practical reason alleged why we should enter upon the investigation of
certain tracts issued at Plymouth was, that thus we might be able to know how to
act with reference to those who might visit us from thence, or who are supposed
to be adherents of the author of the said publications. In reply to this, we
have to state, that the views of the writer alluded to could only be fairly
learned from the examination of his own acknowledged writings. We did not feel
that we should be warranted in taking our impression of the views actually held
by him from any other source than from some treatise written by himself, and
professedly explanatory of the doctrines advocated. Now there has been such
variableness in the views held by the writer in question, that it is difficult
to ascertain what he would now acknowledge as his.
“3rd. In regard to these writings, Christian brethren, hitherto of unblemished
reputation for soundness in the faith, have come to different conclusions as to
the actual amount of error contained in them. The tracts, some of us knew to be
written in such an ambiguous style, that we greatly shrunk from the
responsibility of giving any formal judgment on the matter.
“4th. As approved brethren, in different places, have come to such different
conclusions in reference to the amount of error contained in these tracts, we
could neither desire nor expect that the saints here would be satisfied with the
decision of one or two leading brethren. Those who felt desirous to satisfy
their own minds, would naturally be led to wish to peruse the writings for
themselves. For this, many amongst us have no leisure time; many would not be
able to understand what the tracts contained, because of the mode of expression
employed; and the result, there is much to fear, would be such perverse
disputations and strifes of words, as minister questions rather than godly
edifying.
“5th. Even some of those who now condemn the tracts as containing doctrine
essentially unsound, did not so understand them on the first perusal. Those of
us who were specially requested to investigate and judge the errors contained in
them, felt that, under such circumstances, there was but little probability of
our coming to unity of judgment touching the nature of the doctrines therein
embodied.
“6th. Even supposing that those who inquired into the matter had come to the
same conclusion, touching the amount of positive error therein contained, this
would not have guided us in our decision respecting individuals coming from
Plymouth. For supposing the author of the tracts were fundamentally heretical,
this would not warrant us in rejecting those who came from under his teaching,
until we were satisfied that they had understood and imbibed views essentially
subversive of foundation-truth; especially as those meetings at Ebrington
Street, Plymouth, last January, put forth a statement, disclaiming the errors
charged against the tracts.
“7th. The requirement that we should investigate and judge Mr. Newton’s tracts,
appeared to some of us like the introduction of a fresh test of communion. It
was demanded of us that, in addition to a sound confession and a corresponding
walk, we should, as a body, come to a formal decision about what many of us
might be quite unable to understand.
“8th. We remembered the Word of the Lord, that “the beginning of strife is as
the letting out of water.’ We were well aware that the great body of believers
amongst us were in happy ignorance of the Plymouth controversy, and we did not
feel it well to be considered as identifying ourselves with either party. We
judge that this controversy had been so carried on as to cause the truth to be
evil spoken of; and we do not desire to be considered as identifying ourselves
with that which has caused the opposer to reproach the way of the Lord. At the
same time we wish distinctly to be understood that we would seek to maintain
fellowship with all believers, and consider ourselves as particularly associated
with those who meet as we do, simply in the name of the Lord Jesus.
“9th. We felt that the compliance with Mr. Alexander’s request would be the
introduction of an evil precedent.” a brother has a right to demand our
examining a work of fifty pages, he may require our investigating error said to
be contained in one of much larger dimensions; so that all our time might be
wasted in the examination of other people’s errors, instead of more important
service.
“It only remains to notice the three reasons specially assigned by Mr. Alexander
in justification of his course of action. To the first, viz., that by our not
judging this matter, many of the Lord’s people will be excluded from communion
with us”-we reply, that unless our brethren can prove, either that error is held
and taught amongst us, or that individuals are received into communion who ought
not to be admitted, they can have no Scriptural warrant for withdrawing from our
fellowship. We would affectionately entreat such brethren as may be disposed to
withdraw from communion for the reason assigned, to consider that, except they
can prove allowed evil in life or doctrine, they cannot, without violating the
principles on which we meet, treat us as if we had renounced the faith of the
gospel.
“In reply to the second reason, viz., ‘that persons may be received from
Plymouth holding evil doctrines,’-we are happy in being able to state, that ever
since the matter was agitated, we have maintained that persons coming from
thence-if suspected of any error-would be liable to be examined on the point;
that in the case of one individual who had fallen under the suspicion of certain
brethren amongst us, not only was there private intercourse with him relative to
his views, as soon as it was known that he was objected to, but the individual
referred to-known to some of us for several years as a consistent
Christian-actually came to a meeting of laboring brethren for the very purpose
that any question might be asked him by any brother who should have any
difficulty on his mind. Mr. Alexander himself was the principal party in
declining the presence of the brother referred to, on that occasion, such
inquiry being no longer demanded, inasmuch as the difficulties relative to the
views of the individual in question had been removed by private intercourse. We
leave Mr. Alexander to reconcile this fact, which he cannot have forgotten, with
the assertion contained under his second special reason for withdrawing.
“In regard to the third ground alleged by Mr. Alexander, viz., that by not
judging the matter, we lie under the suspicion of supporting false doctrine, we
have only to refer to the statement already made at the commencement of this
paper.
“In conclusion, we would seek to impress upon all present, the evil of treating
the subject of our Lord’s humanity as a matter of speculative or angry
controversy. One of those who have been ministering among you from the
beginning, feels it a matter of deep thankfulness to God, that so long ago as in
the year 1835,*(6) he committed to writing, and subsequently printed, what he
had learned from the Scriptures of truth relative to the meaning of that
inspired declaration, ‘The Word was made flesh.’ He would affectionately refer
any whose minds may be now disquieted, to what he then wrote, and was afterwards
led to publish. If there be heresy in the simple statements contained in the
letters alluded to, let it be pointed out; if not, let all who are interested in
the matter know that we continue unto the present day, ‘speaking the same
things.’
(Signed)
Henry Craik,
George Muller, Jacob Henry Hale,
Charles Brown,
Elijah Stanley,
Edmund Feltham,
John Withy,
Samuel Butler,
John Meredith, Robert Aitchison.”
I do not hesitate to say that it seems clear to me that far more importance has
been attached to this document than it deserves, or than the signatories ever
expected it to receive. It was manifestly never intended for widespread
circulation nor as establishing a precedent which other assemblies were to
follow.
It was simply a declaration by the leaders at Bethesda of their judgment at the
time and of their reasons for acting as they did. Persons might or might not
agree with them but there is certainly no ground to question their motives, nor
is it brotherly to charge them with lack of conscience and with neutrality as to
Christ because in their judgment the Newtonian question should not be forced
upon hundreds of simple believers. Mr. William Trotter, author of The Whole Case
of Plymouth and Bethesda, boldly accuses the signers of want of uprightness,
because one of them, Robert Aitchison, afterwards seemed to swing over
completely to Mr. Newton and left the Bethesda fellowship. But this is
uncharitable to say the least, and while he was ever an admirer of Mr. Newton
there is no evidence so far as I have been able to discover that would prove he
held Mr. Newton’s views when he signed the paper, He is not the first man who
repudiated at one time what he accepted at least in part, later on. The crux of
the whole matter is paragraph 6. Mr. Darby felt this was a most dangerous
principle, as undoubtedly it is, if it be not qualified. He considered that it
opened the door to all manner of defilement in the shape of evil teaching and
wicked principles. It was like receiving infected persons, or suspected ones at
least, from a plague-stricken house. His soul revolted from it with horror as a
most grievous evidence of indifference to Christ. He, the Holy One, had been
attacked. Bethesda would put peace before righteousness and would not take the
trouble to guard the assembly from such fearful errors as had been made manifest
at Plymouth. His sincerity cannot be rightly questioned. The pity is that he
failed to realize that Messrs. Muller and Craik were undoubtedly as desirous of
honoring Christ as he. The question was how best to do it? And it should be
emphasized that again and again it has been shown that the Ten at Bethesda did
not mean to commit the assembly to intercommunion with assemblies holding false
doctrine, but rather sought to so act as to deliver souls by receiving them in
hope that they would not have any further fellowship with their former teacher.
Mr. Muller and his associates were thinking of the saints. Mr. Darby was
thinking of Christ. His stern hatred of any system or doctrine that detracted
from the glory of the Holy One of God filled him with indignation toward what
seemed to him to be neutrality and indifference. He never wavered in this
judgment to the day of his death, but on the other hand he never contemplated
the wholesale refusal of brethren who did not see eye to eye with him, that many
of his followers and associates insisted on. His later letters prove this
conclusively.
It is to be regretted that there was so much correspondence by letters and that
the leaders on both sides did not get together in brotherly conference after the
letter of The Ten was written that they might carefully go into it together, but
doubtless neither party had the slightest realization of how widespread the
division would become over this vexed question.
Stripped of all unnecessary details it simply simmers down to this: What should
be the attitude of Scripturally-gathered assemblies of saints, to persons
themselves properly under sentence of excommunication, or to those associated
with them? Bethesda and those of like mind practically said, “Examine them
individually and receive such as have not inbibed the teaching or wilfully
endorsed the evil.” These were called “Neutral” or “Open” brethren by the
others, who maintained that inasmuch as it is written “a little leaven leaveneth
the whole lump,” an assembly tolerating known evil is like a leprous house and
any intercommunion with it, receiving from or commending to it, is but to spread
the defilement. Association with evil necessarily defiles the otherwise clean
and sound believers. Therefore they would refuse all fellowship with any church
or assembly tolerating moral or doctrinal evil. They maintained also that if one
were excommunicated for Scriptural reasons by any company of Christians, he was
by that act properly excluded from every assembly of saints on earth until by
repentance and confession he was re-instated. These were known as “Exclusives.”
Thus it will be seen that the terms “open” and “exclusive” have no reference to
the Brethren’s attitude toward Christians not regularly meeting with them or
holding denominational membership, but they relate solely to these matters of
internal discipline.
Reverting to the question under discussion, it may help to get the exclusive
point of view if I quote verbatim from William Trotter’s Whole Case, in regard
to events immediately following those already delineated. He writes:
“A meeting was held in Bethesda, October 31st, 1848, in which Mr. Muller gave
his own individual judgment of Mr. Newton’s tracts, stating that they contained
a system of insidious error, not here and there, but throughout; and that if the
doctrines taught in them were followed out to their legitimate consequences,
they would destroy the foundations of the gospel, and overthrow the Christian
faith. The legitimate consequences of these doctrines he stated to be ‘to make
the Lord need a Savior as well as others.’ Still, while recording so strong an
individual judgment as this, Mr. Muller said that he could not say Mr. N. was a
heretic, that he could not refuse to call him brother. And he was most careful
in maintaining that what he said was not the judgment of the church, but his own
individual judgment, for which he and he alone was responsible. As to the paper
of ‘the ten,’ and all the steps connected with it, he justified them entirely,
and said that were they again in the circumstances they would pursue the same
course. And what, I ask, is. the natural effect of such a proceeding as this? On
the one hand the individual judgment against the evil lulls to sleep consciences
that are beginning to awake. People say, surely there can be no danger of
unsoundness where such a judgment against evil is recorded as this. While on the
other hand the door is left as wide open to the evil as ever; and Satan is quite
satisfied if you will only let it in, whatever strong things you may say against
it.”
Bethesda, however, indignantly repudiated the charge of neutrality, indifference
to Christ, and of leaving the door open to the evil.
Meeting after meeting was held to see what more could be done. Mr. Newton’s
tracts were more carefully examined by the leaders, and finally so decided a
pronouncement was made against them that all of his friends withdrew from the
meeting. This, in the eyes of “open” brethren cleared Bethesda completely. And
it is related by Mr. Muller himself that in July, 1849, Mr. Darby made him a
personal call and acknowledged this. That interview was so brief and
unsatisfactory, however, that it accomplished nothing toward reconciliation, but
rather widened the breach, Mr. Muller’s letter is self-explanatory.
“Breslau, Germany, April 30, 1883.
“Dear Sir: On my way back from a missionary tour in Russia and Russian Poland to
England, your letter-of April 6-has been forwarded to me to this place. The
reply to your question is this: In July, 1849, Mr. Darby came to me to the New
Orphan House No. 1, on Ashley Down, Bristol, and said, ‘As you have judged
Newton’s tracts, there is no longer any reason why we should be separated.’ My
reply was, ‘I have this moment only ten minutes time, having an important
engagement before me, and as you have acted so wickedly in this matter I cannot
now enter upon it as I have no time!’ I have never seen him since.
Yours truly, George Muller.”
There is no way now of getting Mr. Darby’s side of this regrettable incident, as
he had departed to be with Christ two years before the letter was written. It is
known, however, that he never acknowledged having declared that Bethesda had
cleared herself of complicity with the evil. But he would be a bold man who
would question the veracity of so godly a brother as George Muller, though some
allowance should be made for prejudice and intervening years, as nearly
thirty-five years had elapsed between the event itself and the letter relating
it.
One wonders if these two men of God would have permitted any engagement, however
important, or prejudices, however strong, to keep them from arranging a full
brotherly conference, if they could have foreseen the years of strife and
sorrow, the heartbreaks and family estrangements, the bitterness and dissension,
and above all the stumblingblocks thrown in the way of others seeking after the
truth, which resulted from leaving this sad affair unsettled. It would almost
seem as if these two men of God had it in their power to end the division then
and there and both missed the opportunity. To go into further details here would
only weary the reader and be without profit to anyone. Suffice it to say that
everywhere that Brethren met - on mission fields and in the home lands - the
Bethesda question was carried and they were thus torn asunder into two
conflicting camps - yet holding the same truth.
Newtonianism never again lifted up its head among them. And as for Mr. Newton
himself he had no further place in their assemblies, whether open or exclusive.
He lived to be 93 years of age, and in all his later teaching there is no hint
of the views he held at the time of the strife. Neither have his early teachings
“leavened” the brethren of either class, for as intimated above it is everywhere
repudiated, yet the division continues and men unborn when it occurred take
sides for or against Bethesda and walk apart from one another still; though
there are not wanting evidences that the Spirit of God is moving in many
quarters toward the revival of first principles, which may in time lead to
restoration of fellowship between brethren long separated. The many divisions
among both branches, of which I have yet to write, have in themselves
contributed toward this much-to-be-desired end.
(5)* The Bethesda congregation was not originally a Baptist church. This error
has been repeated over and over again, and many imagine they see in it the root
cause of the whole after trouble, in that the church as a whole is said “to have
been received into fellowship, instead of insisting on individual examination.”
But this is all a mistake, and altogether wide of the mark (6)* Pastoral
Letters, by H. Craik.
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CHAPTER 25: 02.06. FURTHER DEVELOPEMENTS
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Chapter Six - Further Developments The thirty-odd years following the break over
the Bethesda questions were, in spite of much internal strife, owing to growing
ecclesiastical pretension and an ever-increasing emphasis on discipline for
minor details of doctrine or behavior, years of marked blessing in many ways.
This was, strange enough as it must have seemed to many “exclusives,”
particularly true in connection with those so ruthlessly spurned as neutral or
loose brethren. Even J. N. Darby owned that “God in His sovereignty has given
them much blessing in the gospel.” Their assemblies multiplied and through the
labors of earnest evangelists vast numbers were saved. Tract depots turned out
gospel papers by millions and itinerant gospelers went far and wide proclaiming
the glad tidings of a present salvation through faith in Christ alone. Hundreds
more, leaving all for Him who had saved them, went forth to the regions beyond
to establish .missions among the heathen. In China, India, the Straits
Settlements, Africa and among the aborigines of New Zealand and the islands of
the seas, they lifted up the standard of the cross, unsupported by salaries, and
unsustained by mission boards at home. Their trust was in the living God who,
through His own people, ministered to them, as “for his name’s sake they went
forth, taking nothing of the Gentiles.” F. S. Arnot, the pioneer of the Zambesi
country in Central Africa, and later on Dan Crawford of the “long grass country”
were among those whose names shall be in everlasting remembrance.
While the exclusive wing of the brethren turned more to occupation with truth
for believers, yet they too had many ardent gospel preachers, such as George
Cutting, author of “Safety, Certainty and Enjoyment” (which has had a
circulation in many languages of about seven million copies); Dr. W. T. P.
Wolston, a physician of Edinburgh, Scotland, for years editor of the Gospel
Messenger and author of many books; Charles Stanley of Sheffield, the well-known
tract writer; and a host of others. But the exclusives shine as teachers. It was
in these years that William Kelly started the Bible Treasury and edified
thousands by his clear Scriptural expositions. C. H. Mackintosh and Andrew
Miller founded Things New and Old, and Mr. Mackintosh wrote his Notes on the
Pentateuch, which D. L. Moody, Major Whittle and others found so helpful. J. B.
Stoney edited A Voice to the Faithful and Food for the Flock, periodicals of a
somewhat different type, decidedly introspective and subjective, which paved the
way for what afterwards came to be known as Ravenism. Others there were of equal
note, too numerous to mention. This Branch of the movement had its missions
also, though never in so large a way as the “open” section. But they began and
have maintained missionary work in the West Indies, Egypt, South and Central
Africa, the Guianas and parts of India, Burma and Japan. On the continent of
Europe, in America and the Antipodes the movement spread in a remarkable way,
but it is noteworthy that the farther removed assemblies were from British
influence the more they prospered. I know some will resent this, but the facts
speak for themselves.
There seemed a determination on the part of some to centralize the movement in
England and particularly in London, and this has ever proven a source of trouble
and weakness. An independent work of the Spirit of God sprang up in the
northeastern part of Scotland after the great revival work of Duncan Matheson;
and Donald Ross, Donald Munro, John Smith and many more were literally forced
outside of denominational lines and began meetings very similar to those of the
earliest brethren, though entirely apart from them. A great wave of blessing
swept over Aberdeen and adjoining shires extending to the north of Ireland, and
through emigration to Canada, Australia and New Zealand.
About 1870, meetings such as these were held in the house of my grandfather,
William Ironside of New Deer, Aberdeenshire, and a little later my uncle, Henry
W. Ironside, came out to Canada and was the means of interesting his elder
brother John, afterwards my father, in the movement. At this time Donald Munro
and John Smith came to Ontario. My father’s uncle by marriage, John Rae, was
pastor of a Baptist church in Scotland, when the revival reached his parish and,
finding himself in hearty accord with it, he came out to the name of the Lord
alone. I have heard him tell how tidings of this work, and the fact that the
breaking of bread had begun on simple Scriptural lines among the northeast coast
meetings, reached the ears of “Exclusives” at Edinburgh and elsewhere. Rejoicing
in this evident work of God, yet fearing anything that looked like
“independency,” they sent representative brethren to the place where Mr. Rae and
others were ministering, in order to confer with them as to the possibility of
full fellowship. But to the eternal shame of these unwise and shortsighted
messengers, be it said that they had no more sense than to bring before the
leaders and the newly-gathered converts the necessity of judging the Bethesda
question ere they could commune together! This demand to judge a matter of which
most if not all, had never heard, was indignantly refused and the discredited
representatives of a narrow sectarianism and rigid unscriptural exclusivism
returned to their homes to warn their assemblies against the new movement as
already defiled! What mistakes good men make when tied up to narrow principles
and bound by carnal prejudices! It was like the Erskines fighting George
Whitefield and declaring his work to be of the devil because he refused to own
their confederated churches as “the people of God in Scotland.” I believe it was
Mr. Donald Ross who refused to listen to anything reflecting on the character or
soundness of George Muller (of whose piety and labors he knew something by
report), and thereby brought the matter to a head. George Muller must be judged
as a defiled man or the Edinburgh brethren would have nothing to do with Mr.
Ross or his associates! What humbling facts are these, to be faced at the
judgment seat of Christ!
Sometime later it came to the attention of these men of God that a believer’s
conference was to be held in Glasgow and, yearning for fellowship, a number of
them, including Mr. Ross, decided to go down and see if the meetings were along
the lines they had been learning from the Word of God. Instead of suspicion and
a demand to judge a question of which they knew nothing, John R. Caldwell and
others warmly received them, feeling that they were already commended by the
reports that had reached Glasgow of the gospel they preached and the way they
had been used of the Lord. Without any questions as to their attitude in regard
to disciplinary matters elsewhere, they were welcomed to communion and accorded
the platform, to teach and preach the Word. Thus they became unconsciously
linked up with “open-brethrenism.” Had the “exclusives” shown anything like the
same common sense and brotherly love instead of meeting them with suspicion
their whole after-history might have been different. In the 70’s many of these
preachers from Scotland and the north of Ireland came to America and labored
with great blessing, particularly in the province of Ontario and in nearby
eastern states. Later the movement extended all over the two countries.
Alexander Marshall, author of God’s Way of Salvation, started a paper in Orillia
The Gospel Herald, and traveled far and wide, leading hundreds of souls to
Christ. Donald Ross was ever a pioneer and spent many years in Canada and the
States, until taken home.
Through immigration “exclusive” meetings were also started on this side of the
Atlantic and so the division was continued in America that had begun in England.
J. N. Darby, G. V. Wigram and others came over to minister the Word, and
American and Canadian teachers and preachers left all to go out proclaiming the
Word of life and truth. Numbers of clergymen getting in touch with the movement
became definitely identified with it, renouncing all ecclesiastical titles and
preferment. Of these I may mention Malachi Taylor, Frederick W. and Robert T.
Grant, A. H. Rule, and E. S. Lyman; to which list could be added many more. In
Iowa, Paul J. Loizeaux, a French Huguenot by birth whose family had emigrated to
America, was awakened and saved, and almost immediately began preaching the
grace of God to others. A college professor, cultured and of magnetic
personality, he became a spirit-filled and flaming evangelist and went
everywhere proclaiming the Word, in self-denying dependence on the Lord. Hearing
of Mr. Darby, he arranged to meet him and finding himself already in happy
agreement with him, he was received into fellowship and almost immediately
afterwards other members of the family followed. One wonders what would have
been the result if Mr. Darby (like some of his misguided followers) had insisted
that he “judge the question” before he would have anything to do with him! Many
know of P. J. Loizeaux as the author of The Lord’s Dealing with the Convict
Daniel Mann, a remarkable record of the grace of God to a condemned murderer,
whom the beloved author met and led to Christ in Kingston penitentiary.. It is a
marvelous story of sovereign mercy and has been circulated by hundreds of
thousands and I dare say blessed to myriads of anxious souls. The evangelist and
his brother Timothy founded the Bible Truth Depot, first at Vinton, Iowa, and
later removed to New York, where Loizeaux Brothers’ publishing plant has been
turning out fundamentalist literature for the past fifty-odd years. The Grants
were both Church of England clergymen in Canada and were men of culture and
piety. They at first were much opposed to the Brethren and considered their
teachings subversive of sound theology and proper ecclesiasticism. But through
the literature they were led to change their viewpoint and both resigned their
parishes to take their places henceforth among these despised brethren who gave
no recognition to clerical titles and looked with disdain on costly ornate
houses of worship and set forms of service. R. T. Grant eventually settled in
Los Angeles and began tract work and preaching among the Mexicans, out of which
developed under God’s good hand what is now known as the Grant Publishing House.
The founder never so designated it, but after his departure to be with Christ
Mr. W. H. Crabtree, to whom the work was committed, felt it but a fitting
tribute to the venerable pioneer to use his name. From the first it was a work
of dependence upon God, and marvelous were the stories Mr. Grant could tell of
answers to prayer for supplies when none but God and himself knew the
circumstances. From the unpretentious establishment out on the western hills
have gone forth millions of pages of books and tracts in Spanish, Italian,
French, Portuguese, Chinese, Japanese, Russian, Filipino dialects, English and
possibly other languages. While a nominal charge is made to those who are able
and willing to pay, the great bulk of it has gone out free and has been supplied
as heavenly ammunition to missionary soldiers representing all denominational
boards or none. Many who criticize the Brethren for lack of interest in missions
little realize how much the mission fields of the world are indebted to them for
literature that has brought light, life and liberty to many who were in
darkness, dead in trespasses and sins, and bound in cruel fetters of ignorance
and superstition. Under Mr. Crabtree’s direction the work is constantly
increasing. But I realize I am anticipating. I was to tell of the events of the
years from 1850 to 1880 and I have in my enthusiasm run along on some lines to
the present time.
During these years the exclusive wing of the movement was hardening and
crystalizing in an ominous way in Great Britain. Mr. Groves’ prophecy was
proving terribly and pathetically true. The early Scriptural principles were
being displaced by a rigid humanly-devised sectarianism which if left unchecked,
would have made the Brethren the narrowest and most bigoted denomination outside
the church of Rome. In spite of great activity in preaching and teaching, and
widespread circulation of sound literature the spirit of judging one another
wrought havoc among the local assemblies. Excommunications for the most trivial
things were frequent. Discipline became the great question of questions. Claims
were made regarding it that, today, seem almost ludicrous, if one forgets how
terribly in earnest these brethren were. Then they become sorrowful indeed. In
one such instance (what was known as the Sheffield case at the time) relative to
a man adjudged a trouble-maker and therefore excluded from a local gathering,
but who wished to commune elsewhere, Mr. Darby wrote a letter, often referred to
since, in which he said:
"I understood the breach arose between you and Rotherham by reason of your
rejection of Goodall. With the main facts of his case, I am acquainted, for I
took part in what passed, and now allow me to put the case as it stands as to
him. I put it merely as a principle. He (or anyone else) is rejected in London.
The assembly in London have weighed, and I with them, the case and counted him
as either excommunicated or in schism. I put the two cases, for I only speak of
the principle. I take part in this act, and hold him to be outside the church of
God on earth, being outside (in either case) what represents it in London; I am
bound by Scripture to count them so. I come to Sheffield; there he breaks bread,
and is-in what? Not in the church of God on earth, for he is not of it in
London, and there are not two churches on earth, cannot be, so as to be in one
and out of another. How can I refuse to eat with them in London and break bread
with him in Sheffield? I have one conscience for London, and another conscience
for Sheffield? It is confusion and disorder. I do not apprehend I am mistaken in
saying you received Goodall without having the reasons or motives of the Priory
or other brethren in London. If you have had their reasons, the case is only the
stronger, because you have deliberately condemned the gathering in London and
rejected its communion; for he who is outside in London is inside with you." The
letter was addressed to a Mr. Spurr of Sheffield and is dated Feb. 19, 1864. At
the time of writing Mr. Darby was on an evangelistic and teaching tour in the
south of France. Referring to the letter Mr. Henry Groves exclaims with much
feeling:
"Beyond the pale of an anti-Christian communion, no such arrogant assumption has
been made; and it has been reserved for Darbyism to develop a system, which,
upon the smallest basis, should erect the most tremendous superstructure - a
superstructure which, in the intolerance of its claim and the boldness of its
assertion, reminds us of the days of papal power in the middle ages. How has the
humble gathering of the two or three in the name of Jesus, from a “church in
ruins,” been forgotten and set aside by this new dogma! and instead of it a
position taken which is destructive of Scriptural standing. Can it be believed
possible, that those who started with the acknowledgment of the individual
responsibility of all saints to Christ, should dwindle down into the position
here taken, so as to assert, that being outside their small assemblies in London
is “outside the church of God on earth?” That original principles could be so
openly repudiated, and former testimony so entirely forgotten! But so it is.
These progressive steps in ecclesiasticism it is important to notice, as showing
how soon one who excommunicated Mr. Newton in 1845 on the ground of clericalism,
should fall into an ecclesiasticism that embodies in itself worse evils than
those condemned in another." But a fairer judgment of the letter will be arrived
at if it be borne in mind that Mr. Darby never for a moment held or taught that
the little assemblies among which he moved were the church of God on earth. What
he did hold most tenaciously was that every assembly of believers should always
act as representing the whole church in that particular place. If such a company
acted in righteous discipline therefore, the person put away, should, he
believed, be debarred from communion everywhere until restored. This would hold
equally true if the Christians putting the evil-doer away, in obedience to the
Word, were known as Baptists, Wesleyans or by any other name; as well as in the
case of an assembly of Brethren. This principle seems fair and sound, though I
recognize it is one that needs to be most carefully guarded, as further chapters
will abundantly prove. It is a very easy thing to find an assembly or church
moved by prejudice or stirred by false accusations ignorantly excommunicating
the wrong party and then just as ignorantly insisting that its action be
recognized by all. But I fear it will be said that I am trying to teach
principles where I set out only to narrate facts, so I forbear. In the year 1866
a breach occurred between Mr. Darby himself and some of his most intimate
friends, over his matured views on the sufferings of Christ. He published
sometime before this various papers purporting to examine into the depths of
Scripture’s teaching as to this most solemn of all themes whose mystery grows
the more one meditates upon it. Ever since the Newton controversy the extent and
nature of Christ’s sufferings had been more or less to the fore in the teaching
of the Brethren. ‘Mr. Darby’s book on the subject is still available and I refer
any really earnest inquirer to the volume in question. It gave great offense to
many at the time of publication. W. H. Dorman and Captain Percy Hall called upon
Mr. Darby to disavow its teachings, and as he refused they withdrew from
fellowship, followed by Mr. Thomas Newberry (afterward editor of The
Englishman’s Bible). These brethren wrote vigorously against the author of The
Sufferings of Christ, charging him with having fallen into practically the same
errors as Mr. Newton. Captain Hall definitely wrote:
"So like are they to Mr. Newton’s doctrines, that even had they not been as bad
in themselves as I judge them to be, I should be quite unable to maintain the
place of what is called testimony against Mr. Newton while connected with those
who hold what I think to be as bad."
Mr. Dorman and Mr. Newberry charged him with positive heterodoxy in teaching a
third-class of sufferings that were not atoning, and insisted that he had taught
that atonement was made by “wrath-bearing” rather than by “blood-shedding.”
Yet as one goes over the whole subject afresh it seems plain that each of them
completely misunderstood Mr. Darby. On the other hand it must be confessed that
his language was most ambiguous, so that it is difficult for another to make
clear exactly what he really did teach. But the three classes of suffering are
practically these:
(a) Christ suffered pre-eminently when He poured out His soul unto death, to
make atonement for our sins. In this He was absolutely alone. In the nature of
the case no one could share it with Him. He was the antitypical ark going on
ahead into the river of judgment to turn back its waters that His people might
pass through unscathed.
(b) He suffered as a martyr for righteousness’ sake - and this of course was not
atoning. It was what man laid upon Him and in which others have suffered with
Him before and since.
(c) But He also suffered in His deep and holy sympathies, entering into the
anguish and sorrows of His people - especially of the remnant of Israel in the
last days, beneath the sense of God’s displeasure because of their sin. He
entered into this as feeling for them anticipatively. This last is the
“third-class, non-atoning sufferings” which caused the charge of fundamental
error to be hurled at Mr. Darby. I may have awkwardly expressed it, but it is
what I gather from reading his book. As to the charge that he taught atonement
by wrath-bearing and apart from blood-shedding it seems plain to me that only
one who overlooked the great mass of his writings on the subject could ever make
such a claim.
One might almost as well declare the same of Isaiah because in his great
atonement chapter (Isaiah 53:1-12) it is the truth of Christ’s soul being “made
an offering for sin” that is dwelt on and nothing mentioned about the actual
shedding of blood. The same might be said of Psalms 22:1-31. The controversy
became most heated, and Mr. Darby offered to withdraw altogether from fellowship
rather than be the means of dividing brethren again, but the other leaders
refused to listen to this, and he was prevailed upon to remain. As a result Mr.
Dorman left the “exclusives,” declaring that they were now in the position that
Mr. Newton’s followers were in 1848. But as the years have passed and Mr.
Darby’s doctrinal views on this much-discussed and most sacred subject have
become better understood there are few indeed of those who really investigate
the matter who do not see in it precious truth to be accepted with reverence and
adoring love rather than dangerous error as Mr. Dorman thought. Had Mr. Darby
been less vehement in his denunciation of others he might not have been
subjected to such a severe grilling himself. But he bore it with remarkable
meekness, his adversaries themselves being judges. As he grew older he mellowed
considerably and it is evident that he began to look with dread upon the high
exclusive pretensions of many of his followers. One thing he always insisted on;
the title of every godly believer to a place at the table of the Lord. The
Bethesda split made it difficult to act on this, as it led many to say, “If we
cannot receive from assemblies very similar to our own, how can we receive from
churches where much that we value is altogether repudiated?” But Mr. Darby never
insisted on the refusal of all “open” brethren as such. His letters show that he
always tried to distinguish between leaders and those led. That this seems
hardly consistent with the “leaven” theory does not alter the fact. The
following letter gives his views as to reception; it was written just a few
years before his death:
"The question is, as to reception of saints to partake of the table of the Lord
with us, whether any can be admitted who are not formally and regularly amongst
us. It is not whether we exclude persons unsound in faith or ungodly in
practice: not whether we, deliberately walking with those who are unsound and
ungodly, are not in the same guilt-not clear in the matter. The first is
unquestionable: the last, brethren have insisted on, and I among them, at very
painful cost to ourselves. This is, to me, all clear and plain from Scripture.
There may be subtle pleas to get evil allowed, but we have always been firm, and
God I believe has fully owned it. The question is not these: but suppose a
person known to be godly and sound in faith, who has not left some
ecclesiastical system - nay, thinks Scripture favors an ordained ministry, but
is glad when the occasion occurs - suppose we alone are in the place, or he is
not in connection with any other body in the place, staying with a brother, or
the like; is he to be excluded because he is of some system as to which his
conscience is not enlightened - nay, which he may think more right? He is a
godly member of the body, known as such. Is he to be shut out? If so, the degree
of light is title to communion, and the unity of the body is denied by the
assembly which refused him. The principle of meeting as members of Christ
walking in godliness is given up, agreement with us is made the rule, and The
Assembly becomes a sect with its members like any other. They meet on their
principles, Baptist or other-you on yours, and if they do not belong to you
formally as such, you do not let them in. The principle of brethren’s meetings
is gone, and another sect is made, say with more light, and that is all. It may
give more trouble, require more care to treat every case on its merits, on the
principle of the unity of all of Christ’s members, than say “You do not belong
to us; you cannot come.” But the whole principle of meeting is gone. The path is
not of God."
I have heard, and I partly believe it, for I have heard some rash and violent
people say it elsewhere, that the various sectarian celebrations of the supper
are tables of devils. But this proves only the unbrokenness and ignorance of him
who says it. The heathen altars are called tables of devils because, and
expressly because, what they offered they offered (according to Deuteronomy
32:17) to devils, and not to God; and to call Christian assemblies by
profession, ignorant it may be of ecclesiastical truth, and hence meeting
wrongly, tables of devils is monstrous nonsense, and shows the bad state of him
who so talks. No sober man, no honest man, can deny that Scripture means
something totally different.
I have heard - I do not know whether it be true - that it has been said that the
brethren in England act on this ground. If this has been said, it is simply and
totally false. There have been new gatherings formed during my absence in
America which I have never visited, but the older ones, long walking as
brethren, I have known from the beginning have always received known Christians,
and everywhere I have no doubt the newer ones too, and so in every country. I
have known individuals take up the thought, one at any rate at Toronto, but the
assembly always received true Christians; three broke bread in this way the last
Lord’s day I was in London. There cannot be too much care as to holiness and
truth: the spirit is the Holy Spirit, and the Spirit of truth. But ignorance of
ecclesiastical truth is not a ground of excommunication, where the conscience
and the walk is undefiled. If a person came and made it a condition to be
allowed to go to both, he would not come in simplicity in the unity of the body;
I know it to be evil, and cannot allow it, and he has no right to impose any
conditions on the church of God. It must exercise discipline as cases arise
according to the Word. Nor indeed do I think a person regularly going from one
to another systematically can be honest in going to either; he is setting up to
be superior to both, and condescending to each. That is not, in that act, a pure
heart. May the Lord guide you. Remember, you are acting as representing the
whole church of God, and if you depart from the right as to the principle of
meeting, separating yourselves from it is to be a local sect on your own
principles. In all that concerns faithfulness, God is my witness, I seek no
looseness, but Satan is busy to lead us to one side or the other, to destroy the
largeness of the unity of the body, or to make it mere looseness in practice and
doctrine; we must not fall into one in avoiding the other. Reception of all true
saints is what gives force to the exclusion of those walking loosely. If I
exclude all who walk godily as well, who do not follow with us, it loses its
force, for those who are godly are shut out too-there is membership of brethren.
Membership of an assembly is unknown to Scripture. It is members of Christ’s
body. If people must be all of you, it is practically membership of your body.
The Lord keep us from it. That is simply dissenting ground.”
It is interesting to know that while in Chicago on one occasion Mr. Darby was
invited by D. L. Moody to give a series of Bible readings in Farwell Hall. These
were attended by many lovers of the Word of God, but unfortunately suddenly came
to an abrupt end as the two clashed over the question of the freedom of the
will. Mr. Darby held to what Mr. Moody considered extreme Calvinism on this
point, affirming that so perverted was man’s will he could not “will” even to be
saved and he based his contention largely on the texts “Which were born not ...
of the will of the flesh . . . but of God”; and, “It is not of him that willeth
. . . but of God that sheweth mercy.” Mr. Moody insisted that man as a
responsible person was appealed to by God to turn to Him and would be condemned
if he did not. “Ye will not come to me that ye might have life,” said Jesus to
those who refused His message. “Whosoever will” is the great gospel invitation.
The controversy became so heated one day that Mr. Darby suddenly closed his
Bible and refused to go on, thus losing one of the great opportunities of his
life, as it will seem to many. In after days he and F. W. Grant clashed, though
not openly, over the same subject. Separating from Mr. Moody, Darby did not
hesitate to condemn Mr. Moody’s work in his characteristic way. In his letters
he warned his followers against it as likely to bring a great increase of
worldliness into the church. It is a striking instance of how prejudice can
blind and mislead an otherwise great man. Were he living today how surprised he
might be to see the work begun by the great warm-hearted evangelist a veritable
bulwark against both worldliness and apostasy. Mr. Moody ever confessed his
indebtedness to the writings of the Brethren for much help in the understanding
of the Word, but it was C. H. Mackintosh and Charles Stanley who had the
greatest influence. The writings of the former he always highly commended.
Another American leader whom Mr. Darby met was Dr. Daniel Steele, the great
Methodist divine, and advocate of Wesleyan perfectionism. He was at first
greatly delighted with Mr. Darby’s downright earnestness of purpose and vast
knowledge of the Word and attended many of his readings in Boston. But he could
not accept the doctrines of grace and considered Mr. Darby’s teaching on the two
natures and the believer’s eternal security utterly false.
One day when Mr. Darby was expounding 1 John 1:7 showing that the subject dwelt
on there is “where you walk, not how,” Dr. Steele interrupted with the question,
“But, Brother Darby, suppose a real Christian turned his back on the light, what
then?” “Then,” replied Mr. Darby, “the light would shine upon his back!” Later
Dr. Steele wrote a book against the brethren, called Antinomian-ism Revived, or
Plymouth Brethrenism Exposed. This was ably answered by F. W. Grant in Christian
Holiness: Its Roots and Fruits, which is now out of print.
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CHAPTER 26: 02.07. "PLAYING CHURCH"
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Chapter Seven - "Playing Church" The thirty years following the Bethesda break
were, as we have seen, the flood-tide for the Exclusive section of the Brethren.
The ebb was bound to come but few expected it to come so soon. Yet keen
observers inside the fellowship had, for long, predicted disaster as they saw
the ever-increasing evidences of weakness, - the growing ecclesiastical
pretension, spiritual pride, and scarcely-concealed contempt on the part of many
for less-instructed believers; all of which had resulted slowly but none the
less surely in a gradual narrowing-down of the fellowship and restricting of
communion. .Mr. Darby’s early thought that he only desired to see “what would
serve as an available mount of communion where all godly believers could meet,”
had, despite his frequent protests, been superseded by a system of teaching that
the fellowship of saints was largely a fellowship of meetings governed by the
same principles and recognizing one another’s disciplinary acts.
Mr. R. T. Grant told me in 1898 that G. V. Wigram, ere he died in 1879, bitterly
lamented the fact that Brethren had been “blowing ecclesiastical bubbles” and
“playing church,” and that he felt God could not go on with them in such folly.
He passed away just as his prophetic words were in course of fulfilment.
It is noteworthy that Dr. Cronin, the first of the Brethren so-called, was the
one who unwittingly brought about the crash. In the year 1876 the exclusive
assembly at Ryde in the Isle of Wight, fell into a most grievous state as a
result of bickering and strife over the question of the rightfulness of marrying
a deceased wife’s sister. According to English law, such a marriage was within
the prohibited decrees, and condemned alike, at that time, by church and state.
(The ban has since been removed.) In France such a marriage was recognized as
honorable and in every way legal. One in the Ryde assembly, whose wife had died,
crossed the Channel and married his sister-in-law. Upon his return to England a
storm of protest was raised. It is needless to dwell upon the details, but as is
ever the case when the unruly members gets its unhallowed work in, the assembly
was soon in a wretched state. So bad was its internal condition that Mr. Darby
refused to visit it and emphatically described it as “rotten.” In Ryde there was
an English Church clergyman, Finch by name, a friend of Dr. Cronin’s, who was
deeply interested in and exercised by the teachings of the Brethren. Attending a
convention or conference in London he was received at the communion, and
returned to Ryde fully determined to leave the establishment and take the
Brethren’s position. But he found that most of his congregation were prepared to
take the same step so all withdrew together from the established church, and
were ready to begin meeting simply as Brethren. Immediately a difficulty arose.
It seems that it was one rule of the solemn game of “playing church,” to use Mr.
Wigram’s expression, that there could be only one church in a city. There might
be many meetings, as in London and elsewhere, but all must be recognized as one,
and it was held necessary that Mr. Finch and his friends should all disband and
apply individually for fellowship in the already-recognized Ryde meeting. This
Mr. Finch firmly refused, knowing well the condition of the local gathering. One
wonders how any true under-shepherd, with a real heart for Christ’s sheep and
lambs could have done otherwise than to refuse to be a party to the bringing of
a company of earnest believers, anxious to walk in New Testament truth, into a
meeting almost torn in pieces by unseemly gossip and un-Christlike wrangling.
Accordingly they broke bread as a separated company as all brethren had done at
the first. In this they had the counsel and advice of Dr. Cronin who doubtless
recalled early days as he saw the way these saints were being led on. He visited
Ryde and tried to help the local assembly but felt it was impossible, and so he
notified them that he was perfectly free to break bread with the new company,
which he did; an action that was looked upon as a fearful sin in the eyes of
those who put the new game above the souls of saints.
Upon the aged doctor’s return to his home assembly at Kennington, he learned
that his act had been construed by many as a definite overt attack on “the
ground of the one body.” Kennington, it was said, was one body with the “rotten”
assembly at Ryde. It could not be one body with the new gathering, however godly
and fragrant with Christian love and devotion. But many saw otherwise and for
about six months it was impossible to get concerted action at Kennington.
Finally the patriarchal offender was excommunicated and for months set back with
the tears streaming down his face as his brethren remembered the Lord, and he,
the first of them all was in the place of the immoral man or the blasphemer.
Finally he promised that, although unable to confess his act as sin, he would
not offend in the same way again out of deference to the consciences of his
brethren but still he was kept under the ban. Is it any wonder that some critic
said of the Brethren that they are “people who are very particular about
breaking bread, but very careless about breaking hearts”? But lest my account
seem to be prejudiced and one-sided I think it best to permit one of Dr.
Cronin’s opponents to tell the story as it appeared to him, so I quote here from
a pamphlet, published anonymously, and widely-circulated after the division had
actually been consummated. It may seem to be anticipating to use a part of this
document here, but I want to make clear the results of Dr. Cronin’s act in
participating in the sacred observance of the Lord’s Supper with what was
considered an independent meeting, by brethren who had all been looked upon as
independent by other godly believers a few years back: Is not a True Judgment of
the Independency at Ryde, and the Conduct of Kennington Essential to Discovering
a Right Path as to Ramsgate?
There would have been no division amongst us, on this matter surely, if we had
been adequately sensible of the real character of the attack made three years
ago on the testimony of God as to the “one Body-one Spirit,” and if there had
been faithfulness to Christ in dealing with the offender. How many of us were
not clear about it. Strange to say, the attack was not merely schismatic (in
this case, fellowship with a meeting not recognized), it undefined undefined
undefined undefinedwas also the usurpation by a single brother (in a place far
removed from the sphere of his local responsibilities) of the Lord’s authority
(only rightly exercised) in and by the Assembly (Matthew 18:18-20; 1 Corinthians
5:4, etc.). The attempt was virtually to excommunicate a whole Assembly gathered
on divine ground, with which brethren were avowedly in fellowship, and have
remained in fellowship to this hour; and, in the same town, to form another
Assembly in opposition, without the fellowship of brethren.
If the Assembly sought to be dealt with had deserved excommunication, it would
not have affected the principle involved in the attack. This being so, we need
not repeat here the charges brought against the Ryde Assembly and the answers to
them. The instrument used of the enemy was well calculated to darken our
vision-a venerable and greatly esteemed brother, one of the earliest identified
with this testimony of God! The motive, too, was the deliverance of saints by an
exercise of power alleged to have been used for God in righteousness. For a time
even some long known as spiritual, intelligent, and godly were deceived
(Proverbs 9:15). Their love and veneration for this brother surely it was which
blinded them. His previous career, and recognized position, gave additional
force and importance to his course, and it really acquired a deeper character of
evil, causing wider disaster in consequence (Leviticus 4:22; Acts 20:17; Acts
20:30). After more than five months’ delay at Kennington, he was excommunicated;
but have we even yet fully seen what his assumption really involved? Our
endeavor to clear ourselves of his act and course cost us dearly.
What contentions there were, disintegrating us to the very core!... Was this
attack “a mistake,” a “blunder” merely, as suggested by some? It was no single
mistaken act of Dr. C. It was a deliberate course of unscriptural independency
on his own individual responsibility on the lines mentioned, viz., disowning the
Ryde assembly and setting up an independent Table. It extended over a period
from May, 1877 (when, on his own individual responsibility, he judged and
disowned the Ryde Assembly by not breaking bread, and going into their room at
the close of the meeting, stating that he could not own the Table to be the
Lord’s, and that “Ichabod” was written on it), to February and March, 1879 (when
he consummated fellowship with the new meeting he had helped to start). All this
was in violation of the remonstrances and consciences of the saints of God, and
of the judgments expressed by those most esteemed amongst us for spiritual
discernment. It is not the fact, therefore, that Dr. C. thought he had, or
expected to have, the approval of his brethren. He admitted this himself. He
knew he was acting in direct opposition to the principles of God for the rule of
the church of God, owned by brethren, and ultimately said that, according to the
principles, he ought to be declared out of fellowship. On his return from Ryde,
after his first breaking bread with the new meeting on the 9th and 16th
February, 1879, brethren in London remonstrated with him; but he told the
brethren at Kennington, on the 10th March, that he knew he had acted contrary to
brethren’s rules, but he did not own the cordon of brethren! At a meeting of
brothers at Kennington on the 13th March, 1879, it was unanimously decided that
they had no fellowship with Dr. C.’s act in setting up a Table at Ryde. Dr. C.
had, in the meantime, again gone down to Ryde, so on the 14th March a leading
and elder brother at K. wrote him and told him of the judgment of the brothers
at K., and entreated him not to break bread again at Ryde, but he did so, in
spite of this letter and of the judgment of his brethren. Again, when he called
on Mr. F., at Ryde, on 8th February, preparatory to breaking bread with his
meeting next day, he said, “I’ve come, without any letter, to be with you
tomorrow.” Further, in his written statement of his proceedings at Ryde,
prepared for a few brethren on his return, he says, “I felt free to cast my lot
in with them, disorderly as it must have seemed, and disowned as it may be.” But
he went to Ryde on 8th February for the express purpose of breaking bread with
Mr. F.’s meeting, having beforehand written him that he should, if in Ryde, ask
to break bread with his meeting, and he inquired the direction of the Johnstreet
Room, where he thought Mr. F. was breaking bread. He had also previously written
to Mr. F. to encourage him in starting the new meeting, whilst at the same time
the Assemblies in the Isle of Wight and elsewhere still owned the Ryde Assembly,
and they told Mr. F. that they had no confidence in his independent action.
Individual brethren also wrote and warned him (Mr. F.) in the strongest way as
to the result of independency. In Dr. C.’s letter to Mr. F. of 17th December,
1878, he says, “I have made a note of the direction of the Upper Room.” There
were other painful features attending this matter, to dwell upon which would
make this paper too long. No amount of gracious waiting and entreaty
subsequently to confess the wrongness of his (Dr. C.’s) course - not the
heart-rending state of things consequent upon it, not even the condemnation of
his act by Kennington brothers on 13th March had any real weight with him.
It was therefore a deliberate intentional act, expressive for him of a
principle, held at all cost, for which he claimed divine guidance and sanction.
A year ago, he scorned the suggestion that he should confess his act as wrong
with a view to restoration, and (to adopt his own recent phrase) he does not
consider himself as “excommunicate of God.” That is what he thinks of the solemn
judgments of Assemblies everywhere excluding him. Those most friendly (if there
is any difference amongst us towards him) say in extenuation that “he never saw
the truth of the ‘one Body.’ “Well, if so, 1 Corinthians 14:38 is surely the
Word for us in such a case. Let us be clear at all cost. But why dwell upon this
now? For two reasons: -
1. Because it is needful still to be clear as to the origin of our deplorable
division, on account of the activities known to be going on to undermine the
action of 1879.
2. Because much observation and long, anxious consideration has produced the
deep conviction that, in proportion as we are now clear as to the Ryde attack in
conscience before God (not an assent merely to the judgment of others), shall we
be helped to a right judgment as to the Ramsgate sorrow. There is only one test.
How does the Lord-the Head of the Body- the Church-view all this? Do we consider
the point involved vital, necessitating a faithful stand?
Without controversy, the cause of the present divisions lies here. But this is
not said to ignore concurrent causes on which others have dwelt, though they
have been sometimes referred to, as if this matter were not enough to demand a
decisive judgment. Have we the slightest doubt that what has been and is going
on is a deadly assault of Satan on the precious truth of God- “One Body-One
Spirit”? These words are often uttered as a formula, but alas how feebly held!
That which is most precious to Christ in this world will be the object of the
special malice of Satan. “It [a work of Satan] will be ever founded on
practically setting aside the power of that truth which has been in any given
case, the gathering principle, and the testimony of God to the world.” (J. N. D.
copied in Bible Treasury Jan. 7, 1882, p. 7.) Do we think we escaped by our
course in 1879? No: -Satan is our persistent foe. There is a continuity in the
assault from 1879 to 1881. The Lord’s prerogative in the Assembly, the “two or
three gathered to His Name” is also again lightly called in question in another
form. Hence confusion and every evil work, with a view to disintegrate and
scatter that which we trusted the Lord had gathered. Surely what we are going
through is unmistakably an attack of Satan.
Doubtless such pretentious words carried great weight with many, but read
thoughtfully after the lapse of fifty years they seem almost grotesque, and
would be actually so if they were not so bad, in their amazing declarations and
reckless charges of wickedness and defiance of Scriptural principles.
While the matter was still up for discussion at Kennington, other assemblies
were greatly roused and were trying to hurry them to definite action. At
Ramsgate a majority party, led by a fiery zealot, Mr. Jull, proceeded to
excommunicate the entire Kennington Meeting for its dilatoriness in dealing with
the “wicked old doctor.” Because the minority refused to go with them in this
hasty action they disowned them in like manner and went out to start a new
meeting “on divine ground.” The majority met in Guildford Hall and the minority
at Abbott’s Hill, and these two names were destined to become well known in the
months and years that followed. Owing to an oversight about procuring the key to
the Hall, the Abbott’s Hillers did not get in to break bread the first Lord’s
day after the division and so were later considered off church ground
altogether. This is an important point to bear in mind in view of what happened
in Montreal a few years later. The whole matter was referred to London when a
letter was presented at a London assembly from Guildford Hall. This was held to
necessitate an investigation to decide whether Guildford Hall or Abbott’s Hill
was in schism. A course of meetings were held at Park Street, London, and the
whole matter was thoroughly canvassed. It soon turned out that William Kelly was
not likely to acquiesce in any extreme measures. He had long viewed with alarm
the encroachments of ecclesiasticism, and he could see no wickedness in Dr.
Cronin’s action. Mr. Darby, now in his 81st year and a very sick man, pleaded
vainly that no ultra severe measures be taken, and declared that if questions
like these were made tests of fellowship he “would not go with such wickedness.”
Particularly did he plead that nothing be done that would result in a separation
from Kelly, the man whom Spurgeon said had “a mind made for the universe,
narrowed by Darbyism.” But another question had for a long time caused friction
between W. K. and many on the other side, namely, his open and pronounced
opposition to infant-baptism, or as they preferred to call it, household
baptism. The result could therefore readily be anticipated. At the last meeting
the London leaders upheld the seceders at Ramsgate, though not endorsing all
their acts and declared Abbott’s Hill out of fellowship, because they refused to
own the others unless they came back individually confessing their sin. As J. B.
Stoney and others left Mr. Darby’s bedside to go to this meeting he pleaded that
grace be shown and begged that Kelly be not turned out. But things had now gone
so far it seemed impossible to avert division, and when they returned they told
him that Kelly had refused to act with them in regard to Ramsgate and was now
outside! Darby was greatly agitated, but too feeble to resist. He muttered, “It
must be the will of the Lord!” and made no further protest. Stoney, and the
“high church” party had triumphed. All who refused to accept the Park street
decision were henceforth looked upon as schismatics and refused the privilege of
communion. Andrew Miller, J. A. Von Poseck, Dr. Neatby, and many other
well-known leaders, together with a large number of assemblies in the British
Isles and many in the West Indies, were “off the ground of the church of God.”
The reader will, I judge, be interested, if he has followed me thus far, in
William Kelly’s own statement, showing why he refused to bow to the London
decision. It is entitled, Why Many Saints Were Outside the Park Street of 1881
While Dr. Cronin’s matter was before Kennington, Park Street sent out (in 1879)
an independent and sectarian Declaration, on which Mr. Jull and others left the
Ramsgate meeting. The rest there waited for London’s decision, declining as in
duty bound to prejudice a case still pending. The Jull party went out, several
brothers “one by one declaring that they withdrew from the assembly as then
constituted.” It was they who sought to reconstruct or revolutionize. The rest
were content to act like as all others, save a very few small meetings full of
the same fanaticism which actuated the seceders. This was ecclesiastical
independency, a breach of unity subversive of the church. Not content with
groundless secession of itself demanding repentance and of course condemned by
all the meetings that did not so act, the seceders after one day’s interval set
up a counter meeting outside recognized fellowship, and gave plain proof of
“new-lumpism” by rejecting summarily and clerically some of their own following.
This was what Scripture calls “heresy” or “sect” (1 Corinthians 11:19; Galatians
5:20). He who was thus active is (in Titus 3:10-11) branded as “heretical” and
self-condemned.’’
Claiming that “they broke bread together on the alone divine ground of one body,
one Spirit,” they quickly ceased nevertheless. Too self-confident to see or
judge the real evil of their proceedings, yet finding out their mistaken policy,
they seized on flaws in their Brethren who remained, both to deny their standing
and to reintegrate their own pretensions. Hence (in. 1880) they repeated their
party effort, with the bold assumption that “the Lord would own and protect”
their second table. This the Lord did not; nor was it long before they
themselves dropped it.
Then came their third and too successful renewal (in 1881) after private
encouragement. It was Brethren now who sunk low enough to ask if they were never
to break bread. Was this a right or godly question then? Had they truly
condemned their party work throughout, all would have rejoiced; but justifying
themselves as they did in the main, how in this state could it be allowed
without compromising the Lord’s honor and Word? The Park Street meetings
followed. It is idle to say that no other course was open. Who can gainsay that
Scripture teaches us to localize mischief by dealing with evil on the spot of
its outbreak? It was the enemy’s snare to precipitate division, long sought by
fiery zealots everywhere, of whom H. J. Jull was one. Park Street then
intervened, where was a known predisposition, not to say determination, to at
length endorse the seceding party, still impenitent as to their gravest
offenses, though ready to own other failures-a blind for themselves and their
supporters. It is false that they there cleared away, as was pretended, their
open wrongs against the Lord’s name in the assembly. “Haste and errors of
judgment” were confessed, but neither independency nor heresy, of which
thousands of saints knew them to be guilty; nor were they asked to confess
either, as far as was shewn. But chief men among Brethren, who of late lent
secret countenance, led Park Street into public sanction of their third start;
and other subordinate men were glad to push it on: yet these knew that J.
adhered to the Park Street Declaration which led him into the ditch, though J.
N. D. had got it withdrawn. For he thought it independency, as he told J. H. B.
who at once reported this to J. This was the evil deliberately committed by Park
Street in the Lord’s name, and sought accordingly to be imposed upon all. Its
acceptance was not left as usual for the Lord to vindicate if sound, or disannul
if wrong. It was speedily required on pain of forfeiture of fellowship, in the
face of known, wide, and deep disapproval. This meant nothing short of
separation forced through on a question of discipline. What could those do who
were sure that the entire procedure was unscriptural and a party snatching a
triumph for party? They could not agree to what they judged unrighteous and
untrue, cleaving the more in their weakness to His name and Word, as all once
used to do together. They neither went nor sent to Park Street or its allies,
but were in sorrow, humiliation, and prayer, if per-adventure the Lord might
purge through sense of a false position, and of the previous evil that brought
it about. We at Blackheath acted as was done at Plymouth in 1845-6, when a small
minority left Ebrington Street, after it got wrong ecclesiastically as well as
morally, before the heterodoxy of B. W. N. when known gave it a far darker
character; we did not reject souls from Park Street, though not going there.
Crying to the Lord for His gracious interference, we had suspicion and insult
for our forbearance. We wrote plainly when challenged for receiving several of
Lee, our neighbors, who could not more than ourselves subscribe a decree we
believed to be sinful.
Some blame us, notwithstanding our common and solemn convictions, for not
refusing those despised little ones. We think it would have been justly
despicable, as well as error, if we had not received saints suffering for a
godly protest, in order to retain a fellowship no longer true to the Lord’s
name. By letting them break bread with us, we well knew that our adversaries
rejoiced to have the occasion they desired. Surely our Lord has said, when the
preliminaries are done in obedience, “Hear the church”; but is this His voice
when they were not? Has He not also called him that has an ear “to hear what the
Spirit saith unto the churches?” To idolize assembly judgments as necessarily
right is condemned by His Word. But we may come still closer. The more that
episode of sin, shame, and sorrow is weighed, the clearer it will be that
ecclesiastical independency had unconsciously and extensively infected those,
who talked loudly of “one body and one Spirit.” This was evident in the
discredited Park Street Declaration. This carried away, not only H. J. J. and
his companions in their secession and even worse, but the numerous party that
might blame but aided and abetted them, at last bent at all cost on having them
back without confession of their evil acts which betrayed false principles. Had
they honestly been ashamed of their heretical or party ways the third time more
than the first or the second? They themselves strenuously denied their guilt in
this kind; yet no intelligent believer acquainted with the facts, and without
strong personal predilection, can doubt it. Therefore, till repentance for those
public wrongs was known to give them the right hand of fellowship was both to
become partakers of their sins, and to part from all unprepared to join in that
universally imposed unrighteousness. Far from penitence on that score, they
indignantly and uniformly repudiated every charge of independency, or even
schism, to say nothing of heresy. Yet it is as certain as can be that they were
thus guilty, and that those who knew it as surely as ourselves joined at Park
Street to condone it in their reception.
Therein ensued the strange and grievous fact of Park Street, judging for itself,
and leading each company in London to judge for itself, independently of others.
Thus through influence were enticed many with a conscience defiled, as also the
fear of being “cut off” alarmed no fewer into acquiescence. For the advocates of
division, without check somehow from those that knew better, applied to an
ecclesiastical question the extreme measure, which we in obedience to Scripture
had hitherto confined to Antichrists and blasphemies. Who could anticipate a
great and good man, that had written “I shall never be brought into such
wickedness,” drawn by inferiors into that very stream? We know how strongly he
resisted it for years, alas! beguiled at length into what he had ever hated when
left to himself with the Lord. Witness, only a little before, his letter to
Jull, which it was sought to hide; as they did shamefully a postscript of his on
a critical occasion previously.
It would have been evil if (not Park Street and other self-isolating fragments,
but) the assembly in London had acted independently of a known widespread
conviction elsewhere, that its proposal was utterly wrong, and must if confirmed
demoralize, or repel, saints all over the world. How much worse when the
independency of Park Street gave the signal to every other part of the same
city, and then to the country meetings, as well as everywhere, to follow that
fatal course! In the new departure truth was forgotten, and grace prevailed
quite as little. Nor (apart from the wrong change of venue to London, perhaps
above all to Park Street for a reason already given) was there the least excuse
for failing to act in the unity of the Spirit and obedience of the Word. A
proposal might have been submitted to all the gathered saints, and action taken
or refused, as judged due to the Lord. It was the more to be heeded when passion
was letting in disorder. But dissolving for the time, and for this matter only,
into independent assemblies, each judging for itself, was to adopt the human
device of a voluntary society, and to ignore the ground of God’s church,
abandoning for the nonce our divine relationship and its duty. God thus allowed
an evil movement of party to fall into a flagrant contradiction alike of his
principle and of our own cherished practice in faith. Could it be for anything
else but the worldly and rather vulgar end of catching votes? A sad fall for
saints who for many a year walked together in faith, if but “two or three” here
and there, and rejoicing to suffer for the Name, whatever the show or scorn of
enemies! It caused heart-breaking to not a few that were hustled out, and that
for the Lord’s sake rather than their own: has it ever been matter of grave
self-judgment to many prominent in those days, when good men were too often
swayed by the more unworthy? Nor can plea be more hollow than claiming heaven’s
sanction of a measure so begun, carried on, and completed. A commendatory letter
to one meeting or another was no valid reason for shifting the place Scripture
indicates for a decision without prejudice or favor, even if all had to wait in
our weakness ever so long. How shocking to take it up hotly where partiality was
rife, notorious, and violent-where was the expressed desire for a division to
get rid of all but “the spiritual” i.e. their own sort! Acts of the assembly
done in obedience, without bias or connivance, all are bound to accept, even if
individually one regretted over leniency or over severity, as may be sometimes.
Just before indeed was a case in London, closely related to the Ramsgate
rupture, by which the party of division hoped through unprecedented rigor toward
one in error but greatly beloved, to drive out largely of their Brethren. But
grace prevailed. Almost all bowed, though in grief. The ill-wishers were sorely
disappointed, and grew more relentless and overbearing. So Park Street took up
the Ramsgate question; with what character and result we too well know. Since
then God has permitted many an object-lesson, last and worst of all in the
heterodoxy as to Christ and eternal life,*(7) before which even party is
comparatively a small thing. Some there are who, if they had been entangled more
or less by the divisionist party in the past, have by grace cleared themselves
from that worst evil. But if they can neither deny nor justify the fact here
stated (and I believe truly), are they not in an unsound ecclesiastical
position? May faith and love work deliverance to the praise of the Lord’s name.
W. K. When the news of the division reached Canada and the United States it was
generally accepted that Mr. Kelly was now in independency, and the assemblies on
this continent went wholesale with Park Street. In Toronto about 50 persons
whose consciences revolted against such pretentiousness, were declared out of
fellowship. The letter setting forth the position of the majority follows:
Toronto, Canada, October 2nd, 1882. To the Saints gathered to the Name of the
Lord Jesus throughout Canada:
Beloved Brethren, - At a meeting of the Assembly in Toronto, on the 13th
September, 1882, to consider our position with respect to the decision of Park
Street, London, England, on the “Ramsgate Question,” after patiently waiting
upon and remonstrating with a few Brethren who refused to accept the judgment,
we were forced in deep sorrow of heart to withdraw from them, in order to affirm
and maintain the principles of the Church of God (Ephesians 6:1-24; 1
Corinthians 11:19; 2 Timothy 2:19). Our acceptance of the judgment of the Park
Street decision is not based on a knowledge of the facts and circumstances
connected with it, but upon the ground that “there is one body and one Spirit.”
This decision we fully receive as having the sanction of the Lord, and must
therefore be binding upon us, for “whatsoever ye shall bind on earth shall be
bound in heaven, and whatsoever ye shall loose on earth shall be loosed in
heaven” (Matthew 18:18). We adopt this course in order to preserve fellowship
with our Brethren who are “endeavoring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the
bond of peace”; otherwise we should deny the very foundation of the church of
God, and the truth of the one body as a principle of gathering.
Among the many signatories to this amazing letter we find F. W. Grant, who was
destined within a very short time to have a rude awakening in regard to the
seriousness of the principle for which he here stood sponsor. But there seemed
to be a spell upon the minds of Brethren generally. Even the godly and
enlightened C. H. Mackintosh (author of the “Notes,” etc.) wrote: “All we have
to do is thankfully to accept the judgment of our Brethren gathered at Park
Street. If that judgment be wrong, God in his own time and way will make it
manifest.”
Henceforth there were two Exclusive parties, and, singularly enough, Mr. Kelly’s
associates became, many of them, as stiff and rigid in their views as any they
had separated from, despite the fact that their revered leader W. K. ever
advocated the reception of all godly saints, except of course from other
sections of Brethren! The following extracts from his writings give his
principles in no uncertain way:
“We receive every Christian walking as such, without reference to their
connection with Nationalism or Dissent; we rejoice to have communion with them,
whether privately or publicly. They may join us in worship and the supper of the
Lord. They are as free as any of us to help in thanksgiving, prayer, or a word
of edification, if so led of God; and this without stipulation either to leave
their old associations or to meet only with us. Where is this done save only
with ‘Brethren?’ With us on the contrary, if any godly Churchman or Dissenter
thought fit to come when we remember the Lord together, he would be quite in
order if he did any or all of these things spiritually; and this, not from any
permission on our part, but as a matter of responsibility to God and His Word.”
Extracts from a letter on “Openness in Receiving and Freedom in Service”:
Blackheath, August 31, 1875. My dear Brother… Individuals among Brethren may
urge their private views on evangelists or others; but all such narrowness is
censured by every wise man in our midst; and, what is more important, it is dead
against that return to keeping Christ’s Word and not denying His name which
characterizes the work. The question has often arisen as to fellowship as well
as service; and as often those who are entitled to speak have resisted the
tendency to a restrictive school. If some have sought to require intelligence in
those received my own answer has been that it is vain and unscriptural; that
they themselves when received were the very reverse of intelligent; that if
intelligence is to be anywhere, it should be in those who receive; and that
those who require it in the received fail in the intelligence they demand from
others; else they would not expect it where it could not be… Hence Scripture
knows nothing of keeping outside a godly-walking member of Christ. As little
does it countenance the church’s interference with the Lord’s work, and
especially in the gospel. To set the servant in the simplest dependence on the
Lord, to foster his immediate responsibility to the Lord, without the
intervention of the church is what every brother holds as a sacred duty and
principle… This maintains the evangelist intact in his liberty and
responsibility to his Master. Ever yours, W. K.
But, alas, Kelly like Darby was not strong enough to control the zealots in his
party! Soon the same rigid principles were seen in many of the so-called Kelly
meetings as in those they had left.
(7)* This refers to the development of what came to be known as “Ravenism” which
will be discussed later.
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CHAPTER 27: 02.08. THE MONTREAL DIVISION
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Chapter Eight - The Montreal Division In 1882 J. N. Darby died “old and full of
years.” His life began with the 19th century and he lived through more than
four-fifths of it. He was the great outstanding figure of “Brethrenism,” though
he never accepted the “Darbyism” of many who professed to follow him. Dr. James
H. Brookes, in whose church Mr. Darby held two weeks’ meeting while in St. Louis
in the 70’s, considered him one of the greatest Bible scholars of his
generation. His published writings in English, including three volumes of
letters, comprise 44 volumes. He wrote voluminously also in German and French
and to a lesser extent in Italian. He translated the New Testament into Italian
and the entire Bible into French, German and English, (except the later Old
Testament Books, which not being completed in English at the time of his death
were translated from his French and German Bibles by his helpers in the work).
His style of writing is not easy to read, though he could, on occasions write
the purest of English. In a letter to C. H. Mackintosh, commending his “Notes on
the Pentateuch,” he said, “You write to be understood. I only think on paper.”
Mr. Darby was not, however, a good judge of human nature. He was easily imposed
on by designing men and often used unconsciously to further schemes of which he
did not at heart approve. “All my pets turn out badly,” he said on one occasion.
In his later years he was largely under the influence of J. Butler Stoney, a man
of undoubted piety and ability but whose subjective teaching was considered by
many as being anything but healthful spiritually. We have seen how he was
persuaded to acquiesce in the Park Street decision that resulted in the Kelly
Division. Many believed that had he withstood that piece of ecclesiastical folly
the divisions that followed might never have occurred. In America F. W. Grant
had become by 1880 the leading figure among the exclusive Brethren. His platform
gifts were not of a high order but as a teacher he was unexcelled. Many consider
him, to this day, the superior of Darby himself in accuracy and spiritual
insight, but he always held himself as but a disciple greatly indebted to J. N.
Darby. Up to the last, the two were fast friends, though for a number of years
there had been slight doctrinal differences between them. But they were in no
sense fundamental, although resulting in division after Darby passed away. They
concerned the exact application of the 7th of Romans, the sealing of the Spirit,
the impartation of life and other minor details. Undoubtedly on these subjects
there was wide room for diverse views and there had been different schools of
thought among the Brethren for years. But after J. N. Darby died there was an
effort made by English leaders to force this particular teaching on all, which
resulted in disaster.
Several years before the Montreal or Grant Division there was considerable
friction in Canada over the question of “Sealing.” When is a believer sealed
with the Spirit? Mr. Darby and his adherents answered, “When he believes the
gospel.” Others said, “When he trusts in Christ.” To the ordinary mind there
might not seem to be any difference between the two answers. But to the
theologian (and all Brethren seemed suddenly to become theologians) the
difference is immense!
Let me illustrate by an actual occurrence-the earliest of which I can get any
record:
F. W. Grant was editing a periodical called “Helps by the Way,” about the year
1879 or 1880 and was living in Toronto. R. T. Grant, his brother, was there on a
visit. On Lord’s day it was mentioned in the assembly that a young man, who had
been converted on what proved afterwards to be his death-bed had expressed a
desire to partake of the Lord’s Supper ere he passed away. This was made much of
and it was decided that he must be examined as particularly as though he were to
be actually received into the now rigid Toronto meeting, so far had these
brethren drifted from their first principles.
Two brethren were deputized to call on him and report to the gathering. He was
very weak but they catechized him most unmercifully. Finally he said wearily, “I
can’t answer all your questions, but I know I am trusting Jesus, Is not that
enough?” “Not at all,” one replied. His aged father (a Baptist) was sitting by
the bedside and indignantly asked, “Pray what more is required?” “He must be
sealed by the Spirit ere he can be permitted the communion, and he cannot be
sealed till he sees the finished work of Christ,” they replied. And so he was
refused the hallowed privilege of obedience to his Saviour’s request, “This do
in remembrance of me.” For ere this wretched meddling could be rectified by
wiser and more gracious Brethren, he was absent from the body and present with
the Lord. R. T. Grant was at the weekly celebration of the Lord’s Supper when
they gave their report. His soul was filled with holy indignation and he
expressed his abhorrence of such supercilious conduct in stern language.
Returning to his room, he wrote a paper for his brother’s magazine on “When is
the Believer Sealed?” pointing out that nowhere is it said that sealing is
dependent on a certain understanding of the gospel scheme but that the Spirit
seals all who believe in Christ at once and until the day of redemption. This
drew down upon him the ire of English Brethren who thought they saw in it a
direct attack on J. N. Darby’s views. Lord Adelbert P. Cecil, a brilliant but
eccentric young nobleman who had become an earnest and able evangelist (but who
was in no true sense a teacher), wrote the editor, who on his part returned it
saying that if purged from its abusive expressions he would publish it but not
otherwise. Cecil rewrote it and it was published, and with it a note from F. W.
Grant inviting comment and explaining that he was not himself clear on the
subject. All this was related to me by R. T. Grant himself. From Mr. Darby’s
sickroom in England there came forth a pamphlet entitled “The Sealing of the
Spirit” to which F. W. Grant gave much thought and attention, but the aged
leader had died ere the editor of “Helps” could prepare his own statement. Never
dreaming of its being construed as a personal attack on a dead man, F. W. Grant
finally published his matured convictions. These being challenged by many he
prepared a larger booklet, entitled, “Life in Christ and Sealing with the
Spirit,” which became the immediate cause of division.
Let me digress long enough to say that even this difference did not alienate the
two great teachers. In Feb. 1881 Mr. Darby wrote F. W. Grant the following which
proves the contrary:
Thank you for your very kind letter. We both believe that the blessed Lord is at
all times sufficient for His church, both in love and faithfulness and power.
Nor does the state of the saints expose them by the departure of any one to what
it was at the first. The church is not a concentrated whole as it was then.
Still I believe my going would make a change; not that I have an idea that
anything depends on me. God forbid it should. How could it? Depend on what? A
man can receive nothing except it be given him from above. But the last link
with the first start of this truth would be gone. If it does come may it only
link them more together. But I am much better. I was as low as I could well be,
and the bad fall I had at Dundee shook me, I do not doubt, more than I thought.
My heart and lungs were a feeble spring to my body, but this, like all the rest,
is in the Lord’s hand. Last night I did not even sit up any part of the night.
At first I had to sit up all night, though propped up and sleeping. I take a
little food, too, at night. I had long felt my place was to be quiet here, so
the Lord in His wisdom kept me here. Thank God my mind is as clear as ever and I
enjoy the Word and the Lord’s goodness, I suppose more than ever. At first I
could not long find to work. Now I do as much as usual, only I don’t hold
meetings save one reading for laborers at the house. I went last Lord’s day
morning. My lungs are the most sensibly weak. I have not been ill, but knocked
up and overworked. There is a great desire for the Word, I may say, everywhere,
and blessing, too, in the way of conversions in a good many places. The shake
has done the Brethren a great deal of good, though we are far from what we ought
to be, but there is more healthfulness of tone and regards towards God. A great
effort in South London to make a party, but none active in it. I think that
anybody who knows them respects them, and they labor on under God’s hand to
bring about His judgment concerning themselves. And the rest go on quietly and
leave it all to Him, and so I trust they will. I am sure He is faithful and
true. What a comfort it is to think he watches over us and condescend to take
notice of all our need and to order our ways.
I work morning and afternoon as far as I can, and in the evening let the strain
go and indulge in the Word and feed on His own love. One of my present studies
is Adonai. Please tell Robert (I sent a message) that I will write when I can,
though I answer some daily, I have still an arrear of close on thirty letters,
which are a pull on me. The Lord be with you and guide you in your work. Love to
the brethren. Affect, yours in the Lord,
J. N. Darby The original of this is in possession of the Grant family. With F.
W. Grant it was purely a question of truth. In his booklet he taught that divine
and therefore eternal life was the possession of believers in all dispensations,
“Life in the Son,” who was ever the fountain of life. But that in the present
age of grace the knowledge of eternal life is given through the Word and that
all who receive Christ possess it and are immediately sealed by the Spirit. The
man in Romans 7:1-25 had both life and the Spirit but did not have experimental
knowledge of either till he saw his place in Christ risen, as set forth in
Romans 8:1-39.
All this was attacked by Cecil and others as heterodoxy of a virulent character.
It was said that F. W. G. taught that Old Testament saints were in the Godhead a
monstrous misconception. Many, however, who were favorably disposed toward Mr.
Grant thought it would have been wiser if he had been less pronounced, and
particularly advised him not to publish his pamphlet. He sent it in manuscript
to a number of teaching brethren, asking for a candid consideration of his
positions on the controverted points. Many agreed with him. Others were neutral.
While as mentioned above the strict Darbyites (I do not mean to use the term
offensively) thought it very dangerous propaganda and not only counselled him
not to make it public but predicted division if he did. He replied, “If the
truth will divide us, the sooner we are broken to pieces the better.” This was
construed to mean that he was determined to head a schism. But I think it best
to let a brother tell the rest of the pitiful story, who passed through it
himself. I quote from a statement by Wm. Banford of La Chute, Quebec:
I have been seeking to know, for my own satisfaction at least, when the first
abberations as to eternal life began. It was admitted to us in England by a
leading brother that J. N. D. held during part of his ministry, the same views
in the main as F. W. G. on eternal life and sealing. As near as I can find the
modification of these views came in at the end of the 60’s, and in connection
with Romans 7:1-25, Romans 8:1-9. This was the question of Deliverance, of
course: but the new views gradually necessitated the bringing in also of a
difference between the life received at new birth and eternal life received at
some later time, the former characterizing the one in Romans 7:1-25 - the latter
that of one in the full Christian place as in Romans 8:1-39. It has never been
made clear by those who held these strange views, whether one must receive the
Holy Spirit and eternal life to be delivered, or be delivered to receive either
or both. F. W. G. took the whole question up in the full teaching of Scripture
and put it before his Brethren. None among those who opposed him have ever
attempted this. They have never put forth any consistent teaching of Scripture
for the new views. There are only detached expressions on certain passages
relating to eternal Life and sealing which run directly contrary to the teaching
of many other portions, and there is no attempt to bring out a consistent line
of truth or to explain the differences. For us since Christianity was
established our being born again is under the shelter of the blood of Christ,
and being so is sealed by the Holy Spirit, as in the type the oil was put upon
the blood. For us the types of the passover, Red Sea and Jordan coalesce. Under
the shelter of the blood of the Lamb of God we are (not only safe but) saved
from the judgment of God: - pilgrims in the wilderness, and in Christ in the
heavenlies. This is our standing in Christ by sovereign grace. The knowledge and
experience of all this glorious portion is all learned gradually from the Word
of God, and we need to have the Holy Spirit indwelling in us to lead us into all
this. But all is ours from the first moment of faith, and it is now fully
admitted (which was denied 28 years ago) that faith cannot be separated from new
birth-a born-again believer and a believer has eternal life and the Holy Spirit.
The effect of the new teaching, however, was to turn souls in upon themselves to
learn whether they had received the Holy Spirit yet or no. J. N. D. referred
frequently to these conditions as coming out everywhere in the 70’s, although he
attributed them to an entirely wrong source. “No matter where we begin our
readings,” he would say, “it is not long before we are in the seventh of
Romans.” It also developed the thought of a class among believers (I don’t
forget the new teaching that a merely born-again person cannot be called a
believer, though this is being largely modified)-who had eternal life in
contrast with another which had only new birth.
Along with this error as to “life” and “sealing” came in another and these two
were very rife in the 70’s. I refer to the teaching as to the church which
became so exaggerated that it largely threw into the shade the true ministry of
Christ. The central error of this was (more or less modified by one or another)
that it had such wonderful place, such wonderful authority and power-that
whatsoever it bound or loosed on earth was bound and loosed in heaven whether
right or wrong. Many were the discussions arising over these things among young
and old during many years preceding the fatal days of ‘80 to ‘85. The moral
sense revolted against the view, but it carried many of us along who wanted,
doubtless, to be considered in the advanced class. I was myself quite along with
these doctrinal and ecclesiastical views. When Lord A. P. C. came to Canada from
England several months before the culmination of his course, he visited many of
the gatherings in the large centers of Canada and the eastern states and
continuously carried on a deliberate campaign of attack on F. W. G. Thus far F.
W. G. had only put out an edition of about 80 copies of his small tract,
entitled, “Life and the Spirit.” He sent these to leading brothers in Britain
and America, drawing attention briefly to errors coming in and developing among
us. A. P. C.’s attack came on because of this. F. W. G. had not yet put out his
large tract “Life in Christ and Sealing with the Spirit.” It is true (though I
have not seen it used as a reason) that he had also earlier written openly
against the “Unity of Church in a City” such as existed in London, because of
its unscripturalness and the dangerous influence thus given, and sort of
metropolitanism. This roused leaders over there into great bitterness against
him. But the public attack began because of the small tract, which being for the
leading brothers alone, showed how above-board this servant of God was. This is
not the way of a heretic. If there were heresy (that is in the sense of division
making) A. P. C.’s whole course during those many months indicate that he was a
heretic. But we make no charge. He has to do with God about that. And no charge
was made against him for this, though it might well have been. The whole line of
attack came from him. He constantly quoted and read from letters from English
Brethren, as being behind him. He also publicly threatened F. W. G. with
penalties at a general meeting, if he put out his larger pamphlet which went
more into details, and which was already prepared, entitled “Life in Christ and
Sealing with the Spirit.” But why should not a servant of the Lord put forth the
word which he firmly holds to as the truth? We are all too prone to keep back
the truth lest others should be offended, but would he be a faithful servant of
God who would do so? Who is it who says: “He that hath my Word let him speak my
Word faithfully” (Jeremiah 23:8); and again, “Let the prophets speak two or
three and let the others judge” (1 Corinthians 14:29). Would he be fitted to be
a servant of God in such a world as this who would quail before any threat of
church penalties and withhold the truth given of God? It is said: “he might have
waited till the storm had passed over!” Then he would have waited forever, I
believe, for truth must always force its way here. Faith looks up to God its
source, and not to man or even “the church.” Where would early Christianity have
been if God’s servants had waited for the south wind to blow softly? Or the
Reformation? Or any movement of the Spirit of God at any time in old days or
new? The time to give out truth is when God gives it, . . . and when the time
comes when “the church” says to God’s servant: “You shall not put out what you
have under penalties” that order of things has about reached its limit in the
holy government of God. J. N. D.’s voice comes in here as the voice of a man of
God indeed; that was already well forgotten 28 years ago. “Do not mind the whole
church (they are but chaff) when they interfere with our responsibility to the
Lord. Exercise the gift in subjection to God’s Word, and those who will judge
let them judge” (Coll. writings, Vol. 31, page 459). F. W. G. put out his
pamphlet, the publishers assumed the responsibility of it in spite of threats
from England, and how many since have thanked God for the edification they found
in it! In the meantime, for local reasons doubtless, Montreal was found by A. P.
C. to be a congenial place to bring his work to a head, with the assistance of
Mr. Mace who was having gospel meetings in Albert Hall, and Mr. Baynes, the aged
gospeler beloved by the rank and file of the gathering. Both were popular on the
gospel’s account. There he carried on his agitation until the news reached F. W.
G. from different sources that there was grave danger of division. This brought
him rightly to Montreal, for if division had taken place, those who blame him
for going would probably have been the first to blame him for not going. All
such questions must be left with God and His servant. He went avowedly to
prevent any such thing as division, and pressed repeatedly that there was no
reason for it in the differences between A. P. C. and himself, or other Brethren
who were claimed to be behind A. P. C A strong party was formed at Montreal and
there was great secrecy. The paper of the 38 rejecting the ministry of F. W. G.
was signed and read at a meeting called. Few of the signers knew anything about
what they signed, and young persons and simple people signed this paper, calling
upon the Lord’s people and His servants everywhere to reject his ministry, who
scarce could have any spiritual exercises or knowledge of these things.
Brethren hoped the agitation would end with this, but not so. Emboldened by
evident success, and a majority of the meeting assured, they pressed on and soon
this party assumed to be the assembly. Under the new ecclesiastical practices
this was easily accomplished. Protests of godly men were quietly ignored,
letters from Brethren and assemblies elsewhere were not allowed to be read and
it was announced that no outside interference would be allowed. Another meeting
was called, the last of many, and in spite of a large number of protests,
representing 40 persons, the action was taken, and F. W. G. was an
excommunicated man. The paper prepared beforehand was read by Mr. B. and several
brothers protested moderately and sorrowfully, and it was evident there was no
power to carry it through. It was read a second time, and again several brothers
protested, many more than spoke in favor of it, and it was plain the conscience
of the assembly was against it. It could not go through. How was it going to be
done then? Mr. B. read his prepared paper a third time, and called on those in
favor of it to stand up. Very few were present that night-the poor sheep were
frightened and scattered, but it was declared carried, and Mr. Hart read Matthew
18:18. They didn’t call for the “Nays.” That would be too low ground for the
church to take! A brother asked if this action was final. Mr. B. replied that it
was. A brother from Hamilton who dropped into the room that night not knowing
what was on said: “I cannot accept this as an assembly judgment.” Mr. B.
replied-”I cannot help that.”
Let it be remembered that this scene was the finale of an indescribable period
of many months duration, that many of the protesting brothers were already
“silenced” by authority of this party, that outside Brethren were publicly
notified they would be allowed no voice, that it was promised publicly that
other gatherings would be attended to when they were through with Montreal, that
they refused to allow letters from other gatherings to be read, that all was
being done deliberately and in fellowship with others elsewhere already worked
up by A. P. C. and Mr. Mace, that A. P. C. claimed he represented English
Brethren, that by his canvas he knew he could depend on many in the leading
centers in the states, that Mr. Mace was already away working in Ottawa and
Toronto, that the gathering for months knew only constant attack and
denouncement of F. W. G. and all who did not fall in with A. P. C.; that it was
intimated they were going to deal with others one by one or in lots in the
meeting; and we can realize the hopelessness of continuing a protest which had
already gone on so long. It was as useless as protesting to a hurricane. I was a
silent witness at most of the meetings after F. W. G. came. He of course was
away at Ottawa and elsewhere for some time before the last act. This culmination
of the whole movement, this final rejection of a servant of Christ along with
the formal deliberate rejection of him as a minister of the Word of God, and so
the truth for which he stood, the assumption of a party to be the Assembly, the
assumption of Eldership, the violence, the attaching the Holy Name of the Lord
to this solemn iniquity, give for all who want the will of God, the character
now fastened upon this meeting. Up to this final act our protesting Brethren
rightly bore all, including the act of the 38 rejecting and refusing the
precious ministry of F. W. G. an act the consequences of which remain still most
disastrously for all who endorse it. But now an overt act is committed putting
away unrighteously in spite of all protests, and these Brethren who have gone on
thus far can go on no longer. They must either endorse this action of a party
assuming to be the assembly and join in this act, or separate from it to keep a
good conscience and communion with God. They were hitherto willing-pleaded-for
continuance with N. H. H., with F. W. G. but they would listen to nothing.
It is necessary to explain some things in this statement. Lord Cecil went to
Plainfield, New Jersey, where F. W. Grant then lived (having moved from Toronto
shortly before) and where there was a large assembly. He tried to prove that the
“new teaching” was heretical and demanded that the booklet be withdrawn and not
published. But others felt he had no right so to act and reproved him for his
violent language and insisted that the book be published that all might consider
the teaching. Cecil then went to Montreal where he forced a division.
Henceforth, there were in America two kinds of exclusives: one known as the
Natural History Hall party (from the name of the meeting-place in Montreal)
affiliated with the Park Street party in England, and the other known as the
Grant party. Approximately three-fourths of the exclusives in Canada and the
states refused the Natural History Hall judgment and sided with Mr. Grant, not
necessarily endorsing all he taught but as protesting against such high-handed
methods as those employed by Cecil and his associates.
These insisted that the Lord’s authority was behind their action and it must be
bowed to. If any refused to own the judgment as of God they were excommunicated.
Thus the game of “playing church” went ruthlessly on to the . scandal of the
godly and the delight of the carnal. In the course of years the Brethren of the
so-called Grant party have attempted again and again to heal the breech, but
thus far it seems hopeless, though many individuals and assemblies have thrown
down the barriers erected in 1884.
Lord Cecil was drowned shortly after the division was consummated, in the Bay of
Quinte, off Lake Ontario. He was an earnest man, of rare devotion, but not
fitted by natural gifts nor by grace for the place he assumed. Upon getting news
of his death F. W. Grant wired to R. T. G. (who was in California): “Dear Cecil
is drowned and with him goes all hope of healing the division.”
Sixty years have gone by and it still exists. In the meantime the London party
has broken into six or more fragments while the Grant party has been added to
each time by distressed and exercised individuals and whole assemblies returning
to it, or as some would say amalgamating with it.
F. W. Grant put forth much written ministry, notably “Facts and Theories as to
the Future State” which Charles H. Spurgeon said gave “the last word on the
right side of every question discussed”; the “Numerical Structure of Scripture”
and the “Numerical Bible” an exceptionally helpful commentary taking cognizance
of the spiritual meaning of Scripture numerals, which however, he did not live
to complete. He was never strong physically and died a comparatively young man
in 1901, at his home in Plainfield.
I called on the veteran “Open” brother, Donald Ross, in Chicago just after word
came of F. W. G.’s demise. Mr. Ross was a patriarchal figure with long flowing
beard. He sat in a big chair and when his son Chas. Ross mentioned that I was
with the exclusives he asked sharply “which branch?” I replied, “With those who
refused the judgment against F. W. G.” “Oh,” he said, “I’m glad of that.” Then
after a moment or two of silence, he exclaimed, “Frederick Grant is in heaven!”
“Yes,” I replied, “He is with the Lord.”
“Frederick Grant is in heaven!” he declared a second time with peculiar energy.
Again I answered as before. Almost fiercely he exclaimed, “I tell you Frederick
Grant’s in heaven! Aye-and they were glad to get him there! A little clique of
them tried to cast him out of the church of God on earth. They let him die, so
far as they were concerned, in the place of the drunkard or the blasphemer. But
oh, what a welcome he received up there! And he’s with Cecil now and the two are
reconciled. Soon I’ll be there too- and we’ll all have fellowship together at
last.” Then musingly, he added, “Aye, aye, Frederick Grant was cast out himself,
and yet he would not have had fellowship with me down here. But we’ll all be
together up there!” A few months passed by and Donald Ross had also joined “the
choir invisible” whose one song shall ever be, “Unto him that loved us and hath
made us kings and priests.”
What a pity persons destined to such glorious privileges misunderstand one
another so sadly on earth!
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CHAPTER 28: 02.09. INCREASING DISSENSION
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Chapter Nine - Increasing Dissension The Reading Division The late Rev. W. H.
Griffith Thomas, who held tenaciously to much for which the Brethren stand, said
on more than one occasion, “The Brethren are remarkable people for rightly
dividing the Word of truth and wrongly dividing themselves.” It was in no spirit
of unkindness that he made this remark but rather as lamenting what has ever
caused pious souls among themselves deepest grief. Yet the remedy seems most
elusive. Organization has not precluded division in the various Protestant
denominations, nor for that matter in what proudly calls itself the Catholic
church; even as lack of organization has not kept the assemblies of Brethren
united in one fellowship. All Christians know that division cures nothing. It
only puts off the evil day, leaving questions for a later generation to settle
that have not been properly faced when they first demanded attention.
While the Grant division was being perpetrated in America another equally
groundless, in the judgment of many, was forced through in Great Britain.
While Mr. Darby lived his strong influence and dominant personality held the
conflicting elements within the London exclusive party in check. When he was
called home it seemed as though dissension was to be unchecked both in Britain
and abroad. Walter Scott, one of the most prolific writers among the Brethren,
has written of him:
It has been the experience of most men brought into personal contact with Mr.
Darby, that the influence exercised over them has been almost overwhelming. His
marvelous power in grappling with principles and tracing their application to
their legitimate results; his simple and unaffected piety, combined with the
ripest scholarship and unequalled ability in expounding the Word of God,
accompanied by a generous appreciation of the good and excellent outside the
ecclesiastical sphere in which he moved, fitted him to become, as he undoubtedly
was, a recognized leader in the church of God. The same writer has given an
account of the funeral of this man of God which I am sure will have a tender and
pathetic interest to such of my readers as shall peruse the balance of this
book, therefore, I give it in full. The Funeral of John Nelson Darby at the
Cemetery in Bournemouth 2nd May, 1882
J. N. D. had been brought to Bournemouth some weeks before his death, to the
house of Mr. Hammond, an ex-clergyman of the Church of England. On the morning
of the funeral there had been a prayer meeting at Sunbridge House (Mr.
Hammond’s), at which a farewell letter of Mr. Darby’s to Brethren was read, and
which was subsequently copied for private circulation. The time fixed for the
interment was 3:30 p.m., and within about five minutes of that time the hearse
was at the cemetery gate.
There the coffin was placed on a bier, under which, at either end, a long pole
was placed transversely, so that, while a brother held the handles of the bier
at each end, other brethren took hold of the pole on either side; and as the
distance from the gate to the grave was considerable, the bearers were changed
several times, so as to give as many brethren as possible the privilege of
carrying the body to the grave. No regular procession was formed, but
brethren-and there was a good sprinkling of sisters as well-followed the body en
masse. The effect at this point was striking. Every voice was hushed; and
nothing was heard but the tread of many feet, almost as regular as the measured
tread at a military funeral.
Many friends had already congregated around the grave, whither the body was at
once taken.
After about a minute’s silence, Mr. M’Adam gave out the Hymn 229 in The Little
Flock Hymn Book, “O Happy Morn,” sung to Praise. Just as the last note of this
hymn died away, a lark rose from the greensward close by, and poured forth its
joyous notes. Perhaps many did not notice it-to the writer’s ear it was quite in
harmony with the scene.
Mr. C. E. Stuart, of Reading, read from Matthew 27:57-60, and in a few words
pointed out the contrast between the burial of the Master and the burial of the
servant. To the few around the Master’s grave it seemed that all their hopes had
been cut off. How different was it to us today in committing the servant’s body
to the grave, through the death of the Master. We were not there to eulogize the
servant, but we could speak of the Master.
Mr. Hammond prayed.
Dr. Wolston, of Edinburgh, then read from Genesis 48:21 :”Israel said unto
Joseph, Behold I die but God shall be with you”; Php 2:12-13; and Revelation
1:17-18, and said a few words suggested by the passages.
Mr. Blyth gave out the one-verse hymn, 286, “Soon thou wilt come again,” sung to
Indian.
Mr. C Stanley read from John 14:1-3, and 1 Thessalonians 4:14-17, “The Father’s
House and the Rapture of the Saints,” and in a few words referred to our
departed brother as having been the means of reviving the truth as to the Lord’s
coming.
“Lord Jesus Come,” Hymn 324, was then given out by Dr. Christopher Wolston, and
sung to American. The coffin was lowered into the grave by Brethren.
Mr. Roberts, of Worcester, prayed.
“Brightness of Eternal Glory” was then sung to Alma, followed by the Doxology,
“Glory, Honor, Praise and Power,” which closed the meeting. The coffin was of
polished oak, with a brass plate on which was engraved: - John Nelson Darby Born
18th Nov., 1800 Died in the Lord 29th April, 1882 There was a very large number
of friends present from all parts of the country - from eight to ten hundred.
The S. W. Railway ran a “special” to London in the evening to take back those
who had come from the city.
There has been erected a large plain stone to mark the resting place of the
richly-gifted servant of the Lord, on which is carved an inscription of 11 lines
as follows:
John Nelson Darby “As Unknown And Well Known”
Departed to be with Christ, 29th April, 1882
Aged 81 2 Corinthians 5:21 Lord let me wait for Thee alone, My life be only
this, To serve Thee here on earth unknown, Then share Thy heavenly bliss.
J. N. D. The Mr. C. E. Stuart mentioned above was one of J. N. D.’s old friends.
A courteous and courtly gentleman, of independent fortune, a man of culture and
refinement, a Christian of deep piety and transparent character, he had early
identified himself with the movement and was an honored and beloved servant of
Christ whose ministry, both oral and written was of an invaluable character. At
Reading, his home, he was held in most affectionate esteem by the large assembly
in which he ministered to edification. But he had long foreseen certain
tendencies against which he mildly protested, which brought him into conflict
with the subjective school. At the time of the Kelly division he sided with
London, feeling that “Abbott’s Hill had not a leg to stand on,” because of their
refusal to receive the Guildford Hall Brethren as a body. This blinded him to
the greater evil of condoning the ecclesiastical pretension of Park Street, from
which he, as F. W. Grant, was to suffer so soon afterwards.
It is pathetic to have to record that in less than three years from the time he
preached at Mr. Darby’s funeral, he was himself branded as an heretic and
declared excommunicated by the London party.
There were two issues involved in the Reading trouble. One was a moral question
involving a charge of untruthfulness which was sifted to the bottom and shown to
be groundless, when investigated by the local assembly. The graver matter was
one of doctrine and though his home assembly looked into this also and cleared
him, their judgment was ruthlessly set aside by London and the stigma of heresy
fixed upon Mr. Stuart and all who continued in fellowship with him. The supposed
heresy was contained in a booklet entitled “Christian Standing and Condition”
which was construed as a direct challenge to views taught by J. B. Stoney and
others in two periodicals denominated, “Food for the Flock,” and “A Voice to the
Faithful.” In his treatise C. E. S. distinguished between “Standing” and
“Condition” as follows:
Standing, he said, invariably has to do with the ability to stand before the
throne of God. It is a forensic, or judicial term and “a Christian can have no
higher standing than to be justified before the throne of God.” His condition or
state is the new place God has given him in Christ. His old condition was “In
Adam,” his new condition is “In Christ.” Practice flows from the apprehension of
these truths. The doctrine is quite fully developed in his Exposition of the
Epistle to the Romans.
J. B. Stoney declared this teaching was a complete giving up of Christianity and
a reversal to Judaism. With him standing involved “the removal of the First Man
from under the eye of God.” While condition was the Spirit’s work forming Christ
within. It will be seen that both used the terms somewhat differently to most
teachers among the Brethren before and since the trouble that developed.
Refusing the decisions of the Reading assembly, which according to their own
teaching were “bound on earth and therefore bound in heaven,” London undertook
to re-try the case. Once more the ecclesiastical machinery was set in motion and
almost before the Reading Brethren realized the seriousness of the opposition, a
meeting was called at Park Street and, though absent and therefore not permitted
to speak for himself, C. E. Stuart was declared out of fellowship and the
Reading assembly with him, unless they acquiesced in the London judgment, which
was solemnly affirmed to be the voice of the Lord in the midst of his
assemblies, and from which there could be no appeal. So for the third time in
five years division swept through the ranks of the exclusives, until some eighty
assemblies in Great Britain and many in New Zealand, Australia, and other parts,
were cut off as schismatic, and, for the time being Stoneyism had again
triumphed. The ostracized meetings became known as the Reading or Stuart
Brethren.
Those with Mr. Grant in America saw in the high-handed action against C. E. S. a
repetition of the Montreal schism and hands were stretched out across the sea to
their distressed Brethren and fellowship cemented between them. There was also a
desire for intercommunion with the Kelly brethren but differences between W. K.,
and C. E. S. hindered this; though the American Brethren have always freely
received from either of these two parties whenever they presented themselves. In
fact they have always taken the ground that inasmuch as London and Montreal made
the divisions, the doors of the so-called Grant meetings were open to any from
the various exclusive parties whenever they desired communion with them. Later
this was modified in regard to the Raven party where strange teaching was soon
manifest.
F. W. Grant completely repudiated the principle of assembly judgments being
binding on the consciences of the saints even though there was no proof of their
Scripturalness. Had he seen this at the time of the Kelly division he would not
have signed the Toronto letter. The following extracts from one of his papers
will serve to make his position clear when fully awake to the pretentiousness of
the London party. To all whose hearty endeavor is to keep the unity of the
Spirit in the bond of peace:
- Beloved Brethren: - That the hand of God is upon us is but too evident. Our
shame is public. It requires no spirituality to see that exactly in that which
we have professedly sought we have failed most signally. The unity of the Spirit
in the bond of peace is just, most surely, what we have not kept. It is easy, of
course, to reproach each other with this, and to protest that we of any one
particular section are free from the responsibility of this. It is not possible
to escape, after all, the reproach which God has permitted to be against us
all,-the reproach, not of here and there some local divisions, but of division
from end to end; and not where separation from manifest evil has been a divine
necessity, but upon points of ecclesiastical discipline or of doctrine
confessedly in no wise fundamental, - too minute, in fact, to be made a ground
of division by the narrowest and most sectarian of sects around us! Yet we all
disclaim as injurious the accusation of being sects. Some of us have separated
from the doctrine that “in Christ” is state, not standing!
Some, from the doctrine that the Old-Testament saints had life in the Son!
Some, because they differed as to the judgment of an assembly with regard to
fellowship with one of the divisions of a divided gathering! And on account of
such things, those who could receive Christians freely from the denominations
around, refuse absolutely and decidedly, saints with whom in every other respect
they are in the fullest accord, and whom they do not charge with anything else
they would call ungodly! And more, one of the greatest and most decisive
arguments used and admitted to uphold these divisions is that we are to
“endeavor to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace!”
Alas! who hath bewitched us, that such things should be possible at all,-that we
should not be able to recognize the true character of an endeavor to keep the
unity of the Spirit by such means as cutting off all who differ from us, and
building the wall of separation highest where the real differences is in fact
the slightest?
I know, of course, the fact will be disputed. They are too condemnatory, seen
simply in the light, for one to care thus to face them. Yet is it not better at
once to face them, than to leave them to be met for the first time where we must
each one of us give account of himself to God? . . . Are there no principles
which have been accepted as truth, and which have worked disastrously? Is there
not reason for testing afresh by the Word our ecclesiastical principles, as, for
example, those of fellowship and discipline, in view of the course to which they
have led? If “by their fruits ye shall know them” is a test recognized in
Scripture, is not the fact of three divisions in five years enough to beget
suspicion that all is not right here? especially when, as already said, we find
the plea of unity urged constantly for division, and most efficacious (strangely
enough) in producing this.
Many at the present time are involved in deeper trouble than would be found in
answering the question, Which of these divisions has truth and righteousness
upon its side? And it is little to be doubted that many are deprived of energy
to act for God by the palsy of fear that some fundamental error must be
somewhere in principles which they had believed divine. Can it be of God, they
ask, that questions which can scarcely be made intelligible to many a simple
soul must be forced upon all, under the severest ecclesiastical penalties, with
the certainty, at any rate, of being broken up by them; and that those who,
attracted by the plea that the church of God is one, seek for something in
principle as broad and catholic as this implies, should be confronted with the
Park-street judgment and much else, as problems needing to be solved before they
can discern which of several conflicting yet kindred bodies can justify a claim
to this? Is there, then, left no plain path in which the feet even of the lame
may not be turned out of the way-may even be healed? At one time, as we all
know, we had something easily defined and easily maintainable by
Scripture,-carrying true consciences, not perplexing them. Have we suffered this
to be taken from us? Could we have lost it without being ourselves in some way
guilty for the loss? Was it not while we slept we lost it? Assuredly, the way of
the Lord is still and ever a way not needing great intellect or attainments for
its discovery, but a way in which the wayfaring man, though a fool, should not
err. Would it be like our God if it were otherwise?... The method has been to
appeal to the local assemblies around for a new decision, and thus to initiate a
division which might extend far and wide. Thus, in fact, have we been again and
again broken up. For one assembly has, in fact, no jurisdiction over another,-no
title to be heard more than another. And the same is true of any number of such
assemblies. It would be merely the principle of a majority upon a large scale,-a
principle, we are all clear, is not sanctioned by the Word. By this
counter-action, then, of local assemblies, we are committed at once to division.
Yet it is where the actual gathering to Christ’s name is there is He in the
midst, and whatsoever they bind on earth is bound in heaven. This neither
insures the infallibility of those so gathered, nor implies-as so many
apparently now suppose- that to deny the righteousness of their action is to
deny Christ to be in their midst. Where in Scripture is the warrant for such a
thought? What they “bind on earth” is indeed “bound in heaven”; but can any
“bind” unrighteousness in the Lord’s name? Surely not: such an act cannot be
“bound” by anybody of men whatever. The character of the act is necessarily
implied in the word used by the Lord . . . But if the assembly fail, or appeal
be made against its decision, to whom now is the appeal? and in what way should
this be carried out? As to the first question, it is easily answered. For the
reason already stated, to the local assembly it is not, but to that which the
local assembly represents-the church at large. This is the only alternative, and
it is as simple as instructive to consider that at this point the assembly as a
whole takes the place of any local assembly when judging of any ordinary case.
There is more difficulty, more gravity, no doubt, but the application of the
very same principles in the one case as in the other. To see this, helps us also
in whatever necessary differences result from the larger sphere . . . As to
fellowship in its open expression at the table of the Lord, it is with all
Christians, truly such, with only this limitation in Scripture, that we put out
from among ourselves a “wicked person” (1 Corinthians 5:13). . .
Three characters of wickedness the Word specifies: moral evil, the leaven of I
Cor. 5; doctrinal evil, the leaven of Galatians and Matt. 16; and willful
association with this, as in 2 John 1:10-11. I do not need, for those to whom I
am speaking, to insist more on these. But there is need to ask, Can we
Scripturally refuse any of the Lord’s people except on one of these grounds?
Perhaps most would agree we cannot, while many, however, would so indefinitely
extend the idea of these as to narrow their fellowship practically much more
than this.
These extracts are from “The Relation of Assemblies to Assemblies,” a perusal of
which in its entirety will prove most illuminating to those who may be further
interested, but for which there is not space in the present chapter. There can
be no question but that the principles therein taught would if consistently
carried out, soon put an end to division, but consistency is a rare plant and
does not often come to full flower even in Christian assemblies.
C. E. Stuart, always an independent thinker, refusing to be subject to any
defined creed, written or unwritten, put forth some views on propitiation as one
element in Atonement shortly after the 1885 division, that caused quite a furore
at the time. W. Kelly thought he detected positive heresy and attacked him
strenuously, but as the atmosphere cleared it became evident there was nothing
fundamental at stake. But for a time a five-sided debate went on in Brethren’s
periodicals and from their lecture-platforms. The question at issue was the
exact meaning of propitiation and the time when it was effected.
C. E. Stuart taught that Christ became High Priest to make propitiation (Hebrews
2:17). He maintained that He was never Priest on earth (citing Hebrews 8:4 as a
proof-text) and that, therefore propitiation was but one element in atonement
and must have been made by our Lord after death. He held that in the disembodied
state He entered the heavenly sanctuary and there made propitiation by
presenting His blood, upon and before the mercy seat. This W. Kelly refused as a
slight upon the work of the cross. He agreed with C. E. S. that Christ was not a
Priest on earth, but held that He acted as Offerer on the cross when He offered
up Himself and there made an available propitiation for all men, though He was
only the Substitute for all who believe on His name. This distinction between
propitiation and substitution was one on which J. N. Darby had dwelt in his
writings at considerable length.
R. T. Grant felt W. Kelly was begging the question raised by C. E. S. as to
propitiation being priestly work, and agreed with C. E. S. that Christ was not a
Priest on earth, therefore, propitiation must have been made in heaven-but he
held that in the disembodied state our Lord could not be considered as High
Priest for it was necessary that His manhood be complete ere He could act as
Priest and therefore propitiation could not have been made until as the
resurrected man, at His ascension, He passed through the heavens in the power or
value of His own blood.
E. C. Pressland, an English teacher of some ability who was in the Reading
fellowship, sought to reconcile the divergent views by holding that, inasmuch as
there are three heavens-atmospheric, starry and the divine abode-our Lord when
lifted up on the cross was in the heavens and therefore could act as Priest and
so make propitiation, which was all completed when he cried, “It is finished.”
It remained for F. W. Grant to offer the fifth suggestion, namely that Hebrews
8:4 does not deny that Christ was a Priest while on earth but simply states that
He was not of the Aaronic order. That as Priest He offered up Himself to make
propitiation and, that the terms propitiation, expiation, and atonement are
identical in meaning, as all are translations of the same Greek word, as used in
the Septuagint and the New Testament. He held that propitiation is by
substitution. For several years the controversy went on and even after C. E.
Stuart had been taken home there were not wanting some to charge him with vital
error, while many who accepted his views felt as strongly in regard to W. K. and
F. W. G., being convinced that they both rejected vital truth.
Still the examination of Scriptures was helpful and opened up new lines of truth
to many, as is often the case. What is needed is brotherly confidence and the
spirit of humility with readiness to learn one from another and an honest desire
to know the truth for its own sake, for it is written, “We can do nothing
against the truth but for the truth.” Scripture leaves room for large
differences of opinion where fundamental truth is not called in question, and it
is always wrong to endeavor “to make a man an offender for a word.” As the years
have passed the Reading meetings, so-called, have dwindled until at the present
time there are very few left of any size in Great Britain, though they are
somewhat stronger numerically in New Zealand.
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CHAPTER 29: 02.10. "RAVENISM" AND LESSER DIVISIONS
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Chapter Ten - "Ravenism" And Lesser Divisions In retracing the experiences the
Brethren have passed through, an impartial observer cannot but be struck by
their apparent inability to deal with a crisis when it actually arrives, even
though their literature abounds with the most careful and minute instruction as
to the methods of disciplinary action according to Scripture. The principles
consistently carried out would have kept them from division and averted their
multiplied schisms from the first, but the weakness of the movement has been in
its lack of coherence and therefore of anything like unanimity of action when a
grave crisis has arisen. Even where good and godly men believed the same things
and were in agreement that evil ought to be dealt with, they seemed incapable of
acting together. This has been clearly demonstrated in the four divisions
already noticed and it is equally apparent in the so-called Bexhill-Greenwich,
or Raven schism of 1890.
Less than five years after the Reading trouble, disastrous results of wrong
principles were again manifested in the London party, which eventually
culminated in another world-wide separation. To make plain what led to this, it
is necessary to make the reader more fully acquainted with a unique figure,
whose teaching was indirectly responsible for what took place at this time. J.
Butler Stoney was one of the young men attracted to J. N. Darby in the thirties.
He was a brilliant and wealthy youth, educated as a barrister, and seemingly had
the world at his feet when the attractive power of the cross brought him to the
place where he saw the emptiness of all earth’s dazzling prospects, and Christ
became henceforth the absorbing passion of his soul. In the new movement he
found just what he delighted in: unworldliness, and a fellowship with
spiritually-minded believers that his soul craved. He gladly threw aside
splendid opportunities for advancement down here to “lay hold on that which is
life indeed.” His affection for Mr. Darby was almost extravagant-yet not to be
wondered at-so much did he see of Christ in his servant in those early days, and
so eager was he to learn the truth that was being unfolded. For some sixty years
Stoney was an outstanding figure among the Brethren. He edited several monthly
papers, notably Food for the Flock, and A Voice to the Faithful (the latter
envelope size), and was a frequent contributor to the other periodicals. Perhaps
no finer expository and pastoral ministry was put forth by him than his
Discipline in the School of God, though most of his books are of a very high
order and are edifying to a degree. On the other hand their intensely subjective
character requires that they be read with great care and with due regard to the
other side of the truth, developed by the objective teacher. His mind was of the
character of that of Fenelon or, perhaps more aptly, that of Tauler, although
without a trace of asceticism. This comes out very manifestly in his written
ministry, as noted above. As most of the Brethren’s teaching was decidedly
objective, it may be that this particular line was given by God in grace to
preserve the balance of truth-but, as is so often the case, soon it became
apparent that there were two rival schools among them, the majority following
the objective teachers, and a minority delighting in the subjective, which
ministry soon considered itself “the remnant testimony,” led by Stoney and a few
others whose mental processes were similar in character. These developed what
came to be known as “The Brethren’s Perfectionism.”
J. B. Stoney died on May 1, 1897, having been confined to his room from October,
1895, with a severe illness. It is blessed to note how preciously he entered
into the realities of spiritual things during those months in which he was shut
away from all outside activities: months, too, in which the movement with which
he had been so long connected was passing through a severe trial, the direct
result of the perversion of his own teaching.
A. E. Knight summarizes those sickroom experiences in a way that will refresh
the souls of those who know Christ. He says: In those October days of 1895,
physical weakness and suffering were a new thing to Mr. Stoney, and soon after
being confined to his room he was heard reviewing before the Lord these
unfamiliar experiences. “I am learning a new road in dependence upon Christ ...
He has fought the battle and we get the good of it. Thank Thee, glorious Lord!”
His thoughts go out to beloved fellow pilgrims traveling the same road, and he
communes helpfully; “The reason people find their path so difficult is that they
have not a single eye for a single Person.” How fully the Lord was his own
object at this time may be gathered from the admission so remarkable in its
utterness and finality, “I have learnt to do without anything or anyone but the
Lord. He is enough without letters, or friends, or anything else.” All his
springs were in God. The affections of this beloved saint of God were indeed set
on things above, the things where Christ is (Colossians 3:2), and he realized
more than ever in those first days of his illness how clean must be the cut with
the world ere full attainment of his quest could be realized. “There is a great
gap between God’s things and man’s things,” he was heard saying ... “I began
with, ‘I will delight in the Lord,’ and it brought me to the end of all things
here.” Anon he asks-and the goal of his affections seems nearer than before-”Do
we belong to the scene where the brightness is, or to the scene where blindness
is? It is not the scene only that is bright, but the Person in it. He belongs to
it. Wonderful way to open heaven ... by a Person!” He did not pretend, of
course, that earthly things had no beauty-his mind was keenly alive to the
beauties of the old creation; but the more excellent beauty of “things above”
eclipsed them all, and they became by comparison of no account. “If a man would
only dwell on the divine reality of God’s world,” he soliloquizes, “he would see
that this is only man’s world. In God’s world all is divinely beautiful. This is
a beautiful world, but it is only like a flower. In God’s world all is according
to God. I am roaming in beautiful worlds, and I rouse up and find myself in this
world.” Then, as he poises the one against the other-man’s world against God’s
world-his soul exclaims, “How small everything is in contrast to eternal
things!” Small, indeed, and how transitory! Does not the prophet say, “All flesh
is grass, and all the goodliness thereof is as the flower of the field; the
grass withereth, the flower fadeth; because the Spirit of the Lord bloweth upon
it” (Isaiah 40:6-7)? Death and decay are here; that is the trouble. Yonder there
is no decay, no death; “There everlasting spring abides, and never-withering
flowers.”
He is still engaged with this study of contrasts in the following meditation,
wherein his experience is not so much a condition of ecstasy as the peace of
communion, a holy tranquil resting in Christ. “There is a great contrast between
things outside this scene and the things here; but no matter what they are, you
must look up to the Lord for small matters as well as for great. My rest is,
that I am not conscious of anything here until I open my eyes; I am above the
things here in the sense of His power; that is rest even in the night. Outside
of everything with the Lord, that is communion, that is what I call rest-the
great thing is to stay in it. Make the Lord your delight and not any
circumstance; when lost in Him, that is rest.” Weighty words, as emanating from
a bed of weakness and pain, where the speaker was practically cut off from all
creature streams save the ministrations of a devoted daughter, his companion to
the last. Ripe for glory, it needed but a very brief experience of the sickroom
to reconcile him to the new conditions; indeed he was heard saying on the very
first day: “A day’s experience in bed. I began with grace and I came to praise.
Then I came to see what service is. I see that the great lack in the servant is
that the purpose of God is not his ideal. If it is not, if he does not know the
purpose of God, he cannot lead souls to glory. You must begin with grace in
order to end with glory. Your knowledge of the glory is according to the measure
of your knowledge of the grace.” . . . At times he must have had memorable
entrance into the experience described in 2 Corinthians 3:18, “beholding as in a
glass the glory of the Lord,” and the reflected glimpses we get of these
experiences are very sweet. “I had a wonderful night,” he told his daughter
somewhere in February, 1896. “The whole sky seemed lighted up; the light
circling around, and the Lord in the midst, immensely great, surveying the
earth. I was there too. It seemed as if He were showing it to me, or at least
there it was for me to see at a distance, and I was but a speck looking at it.”
“The whole sky seemed lighted up and the Lord filling the whole space,” he said
on another occasion, alluding to the same experience; and doubtless this
“beholding’ with open face the glory of the Lord” (2 Corinthians 3:18) was still
in his mind when he declared, “I have been in the courts of glory. What do you
think is the first thing you learn when you get there? You find that glory is
your destination.”
Sometimes these visions of the night were of a less tranquil character, but the
record of them is vivid and stimulating. “I think you would like to hear of my
experience last night,” he writes to a friend in March, 1896. “I awoke in the
night with great fervor, occupied with a verse, ‘saved by the mighty power of
God.’ I had been contending for it in my sleep, but the people were making such
a rant of it, and I was panting like a hunted hare. I tried to explain to them
that salvation was effected on the cross, and that the believer is given the
power of God to enjoy it. My great text for myself was, ‘I sat under his shadow
with great delight’; but that only in the Spirit of God could I enjoy it. The
moment I went to sleep the rant began again, and I awoke in excitement. I looked
to the Lord to establish the fact to myself, that it is only in the Spirit of
God we can get clear of excitement in the flesh, and the Lord in a marked way
made me know that I was free from the flesh, and could enjoy it all in the
Spirit. When I awoke this morning I felt like a man after a race; and in
reviewing it, my meditation was, that the first great thing is to overcome the
man that was removed in the cross, and the next great thing is to walk in the
power of God-to walk in the Spirit. Those I was contending with were all
imaginary people whom I did not know, but you can imagine the sort of night I
had.” . . . In October one seems to mark a further step. Six months before he
had spoken sweetly of enjoyment found in the Lord’s shadow; now he remarks to a
friend: “When I last saw you I was sitting under His shadow with great delight.
Now I am with Him in heaven. I could not express what He brings before me-the
sense of His love and favor . . . Keep yourself in the love of God-in the love
of God ... I delight in the love of God ... In the beginning of my illness I
used to say that my body is the Lord’s. Now I say that I am a member of Christ”
(1 Corinthians 6:15).
It would be of profit to quote more at length but space forbids.
One of Mr. Stoney’s most intimate disciples was Mr. F. E. Raven, an English
gentleman, who until his retirement held a position under the government. His
mind was even more mystical than that of Stoney, and he was greatly valued as an
exponent of the subjective school; but his unguarded utterances soon exposed him
to much criticism from the rest. In a special meeting held at Witney, near
Oxford, about Easter, 1888, certain of Mr. Raven’s teachings were called in
question by a number of laboring brethren, led by Mr. J. H. Lowe, who objected
seriously to statements made that seemed plainly to deny the believer’s present
possession of eternal life. Mr. Raven at that time insisted that he meant
nothing more than what J. N. Darby had taught in connection with life and
sealing. But the teaching in question seemed clearly to deny the believer’s
present possession of eternal life. He spoke in a vague way of eternal life as a
sphere of blessing, and a condition of soul, rather than as something
communicated to the believer in new birth. He was also very confused as to the
hypostatic union of the divine and human in the Person of the Lord. In November,
1889, some one hundred and fifty Brethren in London, who had been looking into
the teaching considered questionable, felt the matter so seriously that they
were much relieved when Mr. Raven stated: “In view of what happened at the last
meeting, I do not want to set myself in opposition to Brethren. I am not
conscious of having taught anything contrary to the truth, though I do not wish
to justify expressions. But in present circumstances, out of respect to
Brethren’s consciences, I will abstain from ministry in London. Further, if
Brethren wish it, I will abstain from attending these meetings.” While this
relieved the tension temporarily, it settled nothing, as “F.E.R.” was as active
as ever in disseminating his teaching elsewhere. In essence, the teaching
objected to can be given in F. E. R.’s own words as published in 1890. (There
are lengthy footnotes which for brevity’s sake are omitted, though of
importance) :
Greenwich, March 21, 1890.
I have thought it well, I trust before the Lord, to reprint, on my own
responsibility, the text of my letter to Mr. O. of December 6th, 1889, adding
some notes in explanation of points that in the text may not be quite clear, or
may appear open to question. The text remains unchanged, save that the last
paragraph is omitted for the reason that I believe some of the thoughts therein
referred to have been withdrawn or modified. I take the opportunity of avowing
in the most distinct and emphatic way that I never had in my mind the thought of
separating eternal life from the Person of the Son of God, or of asserting that
eternal life, is, for a Christian, any other than Christ. I would add that I
have not been nor am without exercise of heart or sorrow before the Lord in
regard to the strained and painful state of feeling existing amongst us; and I
regret, on my own part, the measure in which it has been contributed to by
obscure or defective expressions of mine which have gone abroad, taken from
letters to individuals, or reports of readings. I can only say I wrote or spoke
according to the light I had, and I have since sought to make all the amends in
my power, without sacrificing the truth, by rendering explanation, I trust in
patience, to all who desired it, both publicly, privately and by letter.
Believing that what I have sought to maintain is substantially the truth as to
Christianity in its proper heavenly character, such as it has been brought
before us by those most highly esteemed, I have confidence that the Lord will
care for the simple who desire God’s will, and assure their hearts as to what is
or is not of God.
(Signed) F. E. R. The key to almost all that I have said lies in my objection to
apply in an absolute way to the believer in his mixed condition down here
statements in Scripture which refer to what he is, or what is true of him,
viewed as in Christ. Such a practice results in the statements becoming mere
dogmas, conveying little sense of reality. This may be seen in regard to divine
righteousness as spoken of in 2 Corinthians 5:21. The believer is in Christ, and
as there, is become God’s righteousness in Christ: but besides this, he still is
in a condition here, in which the existence of sin and the flesh are taken
account of (the Spirit lusts against the flesh), and this is wholly distinct
from our state in Christ, to which divine righteousness in its fullest sense
applies. Christ in glory is the full expression of divine righteousness, and to
be there as he is, is that into which grace introduces us in Christ. Hence, Paul
looked to be found in Him having the righteousness which is of God by faith. The
above in no sense weakens or sets aside the reality of the believer’s present
standing in Christ; it is his true position according to grace; but it needs to
be borne in mind that it is the position of the believer before God, distinct
from his actual condition here with the consciousness of the existence of the
flesh in him.
I may add a word of explanation as to the use of the word “state.” I have
commonly used it as indicating that which is true of us as new-created in Christ
(as seen in the new man) apart from any question of the Christian’s walk here.
Next, as to eternal life. It was God’s purpose in Christ from eternity; it was,
in essence, with the Father in eternity, but has now been manifested in the only
begotten Son of God, who came here declaring the Father, in such wise as that
the apostles could see it, and afterwards declare it by the Spirit-but I regard
it of all importance to maintain, clear and distinct from any purpose of
blessing for man, the true deity, the eternal Sonship of the Word. Eternal life
is given to us of God, and is in God’s Son-for us it is the heavenly
relationship and blessedness in which, in the Son, man is now placed and lives
before the Father, the death of Christ having come in as the end before God of
man’s state in the flesh. “He that has the Son has the life”; the testimony he
has received concerning the Son is, by the Spirit, the power of life in the
believer, he having been born of God to receive it. He has also eaten the flesh
of the Son of man, and drunk His blood. But at the same time, the believer still
has part in seen things here (which the Son has not) and all that is seen is
temporal, and will come to an end. It has no part in eternal life, though it may
be greatly influenced by it. As to eternal life being a technical term, it
simply referred to the fact of its having been a term in common use among the
Jews without any very definite meaning. They frequently came to the Lord with
questions as to it, and thought they had it in the Scriptures…
I may add a few words in regard to new birth. It is an absolute necessity for
man, if he has to do with God in blessing. It lies at the beginning of
all-without it a man cannot see, much less receive any saving testimony. It is
the sovereign act of the Spirit of God. Peter and John both recognize that those
who were really in the faith of Christ were born again of the Word of God, or
born of God-a seed of God has been implanted in them from the outset. None the
less, new birth of itself does not conduct into heavenly relationship or
blessing. For this, something more was needed, namely, redemption, which in its
full power, sets man in Christ in glory, and the renewing of the Holy Ghost,
which fits man for the new order of things. Of course, these are now, through
grace, the portion of the believer.
(Signed) F. E. R. The objection to this was that eternal life was made a state
or condition-not a new life imparted. New birth, too, was in order to believe,
not through believing. The more Mr. Raven labored to make his position clear,
the more he seemed to involve it in obscurity. Finally, at a large convention in
Greenwich, in 1890, there was open dissension over it and when some who sided
with Mr. Raven went from Greenwich to Bexhill (where there was a very small
assembly), their letter of commendation was refused. Bexhill and Ealing
assemblies acted together and in June of that year definitely declared Greenwich
out of fellowship. Messrs. J. H. Lowe, W. T. Whybrow, Major H. M. McCarthy and
others insisted that Bexhill’s action be accepted as the judgment of the Lord.
C. Stanley died just as the division was being pressed through. He stood with
the opponents of Mr. Raven. C. H. Mackintosh on the other hand went with Park
Street which exonerated F. E. R. and refused Bexhill’s action as schismatic. His
stand is peculiar, inasmuch as he never taught in all his ministry the vagaries
advocated by Mr. Raven. But it was a time of great confusion, and C H. M. was
wearied out by constant bickerings and separations. He wrote J. A. Trench as
follows:
Dublin, Ireland, November 29, 1890.
I feared that you would have to encounter a good deal of trial in consequence of
the sad and humiliating condition of things amongst us. I have never known
anything like it during the fifty years I have been on the ground. Only think of
some who have walked for years in ostensible fellowship with us, now charging us
with being identified with heresy, blasphemy and attacking the adorable Person
of the Son of God; mark the bitterness of feeling, the diligent effort to gather
up in all directions dirt to fling back upon their brethren; where is the spirit
of Christ in all this? Where the broken heart and weeping eyes at the terrible
thought of our being involved in such evil? Alas, there is what looks much more
like a malignant effort to extract heresies out of papers, which if read with an
unprejudiced mind would yield profit and edification. It is all most deplorable.
As to the charges brought against Mr. Raven of heresy, blasphemy, and attacking
the Person of the Son of God, they are simply monstrous, there is no foundation
for them. Some seem possessed with the idea that there is behind and underneath
a regular system of doctrine subversive to Christianity. I ask such, what have
we got to do with what is behind and underneath? We can judge what is before and
above and they have utterly failed to produce adequate evidence to sustain their
charge, but beloved C. ... I am persuaded that we needed all this terrible
sifting, else the Lord would not have allowed it to come upon us, and further I
believe that the Lord will bring rich blessing out of it all to individual
souls, indeed I see it already in many; I see more earnestness; more reality;
more knitting of hearts in true brotherly love, instead of cold, formal, nominal
fellowship. For myself I am conscious of feeling a real spring in the inner man,
a more profound sense of love of God; the preciousness of Christ and authority,
majesty, fulness and loving depths of Holy Scripture, and I look for much more
for myself and others through the infinite grace of Christ. I do trust that we
may soon be done with this heart-sickening, soul-withering discussion and strife
and be allowed to go on heart to heart in communion and worship shoulder to
shoulder in service and testimony, that is what I long for, nothing else has any
charm or interest for me. This is what I have been seeking for in my poor way to
realize and promote for the last fifty years, and by the grace of Christ shall
never accept anything else.
C. H. M. His hopes, however, were vain, for trouble followed upon trouble as the
years went on.
Shortly after the division was consummated, Mr. Raven came out with what savored
of Apollinarianism, declaring of our Lord that in incarnation “He was not
personally man. He was personally the Logos, in human condition.” It is this
that C. H. M. refers to above. This aroused William Kelly, who after a minute
examination of Raven’s doctrines, declared him to be “heterodox as to eternal
life, but above all, as to Christ’s person.” F. W. Grant reviewed his teaching
in a booklet entitled Re-tracings of Some Truths and concluded he had definitely
departed from the teaching current among Brethren from the beginning. Many feel
that it was the refusal of F. W. G.’s teaching as to eternal life and sealing of
the Spirit that had opened the door to a great host of erroneous conceptions. In
1902, the Raven party divided again over a question of how to treat simple
believers when an assembly had been broken up by the ill-behavior of its guides.
This resulted in the Glanton party as distinct from the London party. Nearly all
the evangelical men that were left sided with Glanton assembly in the reception
of the scattered ones at Alnwick, a nearby town. London actually put Glanton
away for thus caring for Christ’s bewildered ones! Dr. W. T, Wolston tells the
story in a trenchant manner in Hear the Right. The Glanton Brethren shortly
afterwards made certain confessions to the Stuart and Grant brethren (who on
their part confessed haste and a low state resulting in division), which have
resulted in the partial re-establishment of fellowship-;save that a few on both
sides are still demanding fuller confessions of one another as to failures in
the past. The Bexhill party was also divided in 1906 over a question of the
jurisdiction of an assembly in regard to silencing a teacher whose ministry was
considered unprofitable in Tunbridge Wells and was enjoyed in Acton, England.
The one assembly declared the man unfit either to minister or to break bread-the
other endorsed him fully-and assemblies everywhere in the Bexhill fellowship
were called to side with one or the other.
More recently the so-called Raven meetings have been divided over the teaching
of an American leader who denied the truth of the Eternal Sonship of Christ.
This most serious error caused many to take a definite stand against it and led
to another separation. But sadly enough by far the greater majority saw nothing
wrong in such views and have gone on with the promulgator of them. This puts
these meetings entirely off the ground of the early Brethren who considered a
true confession of Christ the very first consideration.
It has been an unpleasant task seeking to present in some measure of detail the
grounds of these various divisions, yet I am persuaded the consideration of them
will not be without profit, if other Christians learn thereby to avoid the
snares and pit-falls which caused such grief and sorrow among the brethren whose
cry was “Unity” but whose practices wrought such widespread schism among
believers.
NOTE: ONE PAGE OF THIS CHAPTER IS CURRENTLY MISSING - WE WILL RESTORE THIS
PORTION OF THE DOCUMENT SHORTLY. him to go on with what was called the Taylor
meeting. Shortly afterwards, as we have seen, Mr. Stuart’s peculiar views on
propitiation were published and these Mr. Kelly not only refused but in his
usual intense way violently attacked them as setting forth a “ghostly theory of
the atonement.” In America, however, any Brethren coming commended from Kelly
Meetings have always been received by the Grant Meetings. Mr. R. T. Grant was
firmly convinced that had all American Brethren taken their stand definitely
with Mr. Kelly against ecclesiastical pretension in 1881 it would have saved the
Exclusives from a vast amount of trouble afterwards. He felt to the day of his
death that the Ramsgate question was God’s controversy with the Brethren.
Pursuing the chain from which we were turned aside by this digression, we note
that just as the Reading and Grant Meetings became one, so through Park Street’s
endorsation of the Natural History Hall judgment at Montreal the two extreme
companies of England and America were also one. Afterwards, the Park Street
party divided over the Raven question, those who refused Mr. Raven’s teaching as
unscriptural becoming known as the Lowe or Bexhill party and the others
generally bearing the name of their principal teacher. The Raven branch again
divided over the Alnwick question, those refusing London’s excommunication of
the Glanton assembly for showing kindness to the distracted saints at Alnwick
becoming known as the Glanton Brethren. These latter have, generally speaking,
agreed to freely receive their formerly separated Brethren from the Grant and
Reading Companies as they recognized when their own difficulties arose that they
were the victims of the same high church ecclesiastical tyranny that had so
ruthlessly cut off thousands of saints in Britain and America who could see no
evil whatever in the teaching and principles of F. W. Grant and C. E. Stuart. It
is only fair to say that some Glanton Brethren have not been prepared to go the
whole length, and a number of the Reading Assemblies insist that the Glanton
people have not fully judged the sin committed when Mr. Stuart was
excommunicated for teaching what they believed to be precious truth. Therefore,
there has been here and there division among the Reading Brethren over the
question of the reception of those with Glanton. In America, too, a very few of
the Grant Meetings refuse anything like the thought of amalgamation with the
Glanton Brethren, while generally receiving individuals from them after making
certain that they are not in any way identified with the vagaries of what is
generally called Ravenism. The Bexhill party also divided into the Tunbridge
Wells and Acton branches, each of which still claims to have the only table of
the Lord on earth and to be “the original company of Brethren.” Many of those in
the Acton meetings individually repudiate such pretension, and individuals in
many cases have sought fellowship in the Grant Meetings in America. But others
refuse to recognize these Brethren as on divine ground until they confess what
they call the sin of setting up another table when they went on with Mr. Grant
after the Montreal judgment. The following incident will give the conception of
some of these, though it occurred before the Tunbridge Wells and Acton break. A
Bexhill brother explaining the various divisions used the following simile: “The
Brethren may be likened to a biscuit. A large piece was broken off. That
represents the Open brethren. Other pieces also were broken off: namely, the
Grant, Reading, Kelly and Raven Brethren; but, thank God,” he piously exclaimed,
“we remain the middle of the biscuit.” Could conceit and self-complacent
narrowness go farther? Yet in some degree each offshoot of the London party with
the exception of the Glanton companies would take that very ground. With three
different “middles of the biscuit,” though, it is a little difficult for simple
souls to distinguish the original center from the broken pieces. But now having
seen how rigid Exclusivism has utterly failed to do the very thing it was
supposed to effect; that is to enable believers to keep the unity of the Spirit
in the bond of peace, it may be well to ask: Has Open Brethrenism fared any
better? The answer may be both Yes and No.
Yes-for no such worldwide divisions have taken place among these assemblies as
among the Exclusive Brethren. No-because actual organic unity is as far from
being manifested among the Open Meetings as among the Exclusives.
Starting with the idea of the independency of the local assembly and the
rejection of the Exclusive view of the ground of the one body, the Open Meetings
have become largely congregational in character. While this in itself militates
against widespread schism and localizes division, it has really fostered the
spirit of disunion and independency. Now, in using the latter word, I do not
wish to be offensive, for I fully recognize that what Exclusives call
independency, Open Brethren think of as immediate dependency on God, rather than
the recognition of a union of meetings. Nevertheless, the fact remains that
assemblies holding this principle break up into warring fragments very often on
the slightest provocation; and where they do go on unitedly in happy fellowship
and active gospel testimony, it is generally because of the individual spiritual
energy of some leader or leaders in the local meetings whose influence over the
rest is so strong that others yield to such leadership and so division is
averted. But it is no uncommon thing to find in one given locality several
meetings, all recognized as Open, which have no real fellowship with each other;
although if a conference is held in a distant city, representatives of all these
meetings might be there who would break bread together at the time and share
alike in the ministry and fellowship; but on returning home they would not in
some instances so much as enter one another’s halls or meeting rooms.
Illustrations of these unhappy conditions could be given, but it seems better
simply to state the fact rather than to draw attention to particular places, for
one realizes that the brethren in all such meetings doubtless mourn over the
separations and misunderstandings; but the difficulty is how to rectify them.
Nor do I mention such things here with the thought of advertising the failures
of Brethren, but rather with the hope that a fair, plain statement of conditions
might lead to the recognition of a Scriptural way out.
Often these divisions are simply the result of some one individual’s energy or
eccentricity. Possibly some leader cannot get on with the rest; so he goes out,
takes a certain number of followers with him, and rents a new hall beginning
another meeting, not as hiving off from the older one and in full fellowship
with it, but as advocating somewhat different principles, as a result of which
the older meeting immediately closes the door on the new one and refuses to
receive from it, unless persons returning utterly repudiate the more recent
gathering. Or, it may be that some prefer an organ or other musical instrument
to guide in the singing in the Sunday school or gospel meetings, and to legal
Brethren this is ever taboo. So one company goes out and puts in an organ or
piano, while the others go on without such help, but are equally content to go
on without their Brethren too, even charging the latter with lack of conscience
because in this matter they desire to become all things to all men if by any
means they may save some. Singularly enough, those refusing to have any
fellowship with their Brethren who use musical instruments in gospel work will
perhaps have a piano or organ in their own homes; and while with amazing
inconsistency they denounce their Brethren as going in the way of Cain (whose
son invented the harp and organ) because they use music to aid in Christian
testimony, yet these same Brethren will gladly avail themselves of many another
product of Cain’s world such as modern inventions, like the automobile for
instance, which is the result of Tubal-Cain’s inventive genius, for personal
use; while perhaps, as I have known in some instances, bitterly protesting
against so much as sending a Ford car to a missionary for use in his work, on
the ground that it is an unapostolic method of reaching the masses, as there is
clearly no Scripture that indicates the apostle Paul or any of his co-laborers
ever toured the ancient world in an auto!
Again, some meetings are much freer in communion than others or in reception of
ministry for other companies of believers. Gatherings where people are put
through a rigid process of examination ere being allowed to break bread, and
where it is insisted upon that they should separate from all denominations and
possibly be baptized by immersion before they can sit at the Lord’s table are
generally spoken of as “tight” meetings. Others having various degrees of
fellowship with Christians not formally with them are spoken of contemptuously
by their “tight” Brethren as “loose.” Yet it will generally be found that
meetings so stigmatized seldom if ever receive believers of whose Christian
character and soundness in the faith there is any reasonable doubt. It may be
said of Brethren as a whole, taking in all shades and distinctions, that they
stand for the reception of converted people sound in the faith at the table of
the Lord, and of none others. In regard to ministry, there are some Open
meetings, and it has to be acknowledged some of the very best of them, who have
a stated preacher, perhaps not exactly serving on a salary basis, but to whom
regular monthly or weekly remittances are given that he may pursue his work
without distraction; while other meetings would not even permit the arrangement
beforehand as to who is to declare the gospel on a given night. They come
together without any prepared program and wait upon the Lord after the meeting
starts, looking to the Spirit to guide the right man to take the platform, if
indeed a platform there be, for more than one meeting has been torn to pieces
over the question as to whether the brother addressing the meeting should be
raised a few inches above his fellows in order that all may see and hear better.
The platform has been looked upon as a badge of clerisy, and the attempt to
introduce it has marred the harmony of the meeting, if it has not led to actual
division. In certain quarters, the plan above mentioned of having no stated
preacher but carrying on gospel testimony in dependence on the guidance of the
Holy Spirit has worked out well when there were spiritually minded Brethren
possessing evident gift and sensitive to the Spirit’s guidance. But in other
cases, it has proven a dismal failure, the most illiterate and ignorant men
often pushing to the front and insisting on being heard, while godlier and
better instructed servants of Christ shrink into the background and keep in
retirement. As a result of this fleshly activity it has come to pass that in
most of the Brethrens’ conferences and other gatherings for public testimony,
speakers are now selected beforehand in order to avoid confusion and waste of
time. Even among the Exclusive Brethren this is generally the case as well as in
the Open Meetings.
It will be seen from the above how very difficult it would be at the present
time to get anything like unity in judgment upon any particular question among
the assemblies of Open Brethren. This makes it exceedingly hard for Exclusives
who are so accustomed to act organically to understand their Open Brethren who
act locally. It also calls for a good deal of consideration when one remembers
that thousands of these Open Meetings have been formed in complete independence
of what may have transpired in past years. While Exclusives as a rule are fairly
well read on questions of division, the Open Brethren generally avoid such
questions and seek to act as local meetings before the Lord. Possibly Mr.
William Shaw of Scotland who for years edited a little periodical called The
Believers’ Pathway, puts the open position as clearly as anyone could. I quote
from an article entitled, “Fellowship Among Saints,” which was published many
years ago: When we came out at first our path was simplicity itself. Our eyes
had just been opened to the great beauty of the gathering name of our Lord Jesus
Christ, and to the truth that we were one with every saint that loved His
name... A great tide of joy arose in the hearts of the saints as they beheld
that “goodly land” into which the Lord had brought them, and their union, not
only with Christ the Head in heaven, but with every member of His body on earth!
We had no call to found “a church.” We were in the church; we realized that we
were bound up, with every believer, in the bundle of life with the Lord our God;
and we found it blessed to be in the bundle. Neither had we any call to found a
form of church-government. The Lord Himself had already furnished us with the
New Testament pattern. Recognizing our oneness with all the people of God, we
saw and rejoiced to see that the place we occupied was the birthright place of
every believer. We perceived that the Lord’s table was for the Lord’s people,
and that the qualification for sitting there was simply this, that you are a
believer in Jesus and walking godly.
Many believers did not see that their true place was there; but that was their
responsibility, not ours. What we were to see was simply that the principles on
which we gather would include every child of God on the face of the earth who
was sound in faith and practice. That is, that the constitution of the assembly
would include all whom the Lord included, and exclude only those He excluded. We
therefore acted on the Scriptural precept, “Receive ye one another, as Christ
also received us to the glory of God” (Romans 15:7). We found believers who had
very little light upon “separation truth.” But that was no reason why they
should be rejected. We felt that the measure of a brother’s light could not be
made “a test of fellowship,” provided he was sound in the great fundamentals of
the faith. Indeed, in those days many a believer in the earliest twilight of his
“learning the ways which be in Christ” was wonderfully helped and established by
being welcomed as a member of the great family of God.
Thousands of the believers who so gathered had never heard of Bethesda or
Plymouth. The names of Darby, Kelly, Grant, Stuart, Raven, Cecil or Lowe would
all have been strange to them. They, did not even know that there ever bfacl
been any other meetings similarly gathered. Yet when such Christians presented
themselves at meetings of the various Exclusive parties for reception, they were
refused until taken over the entire ground of the Plymouth Bethesda controversy
and forced to take sides. Of course, this was only true if they fell into the
hands of legal or ignorant men. The more spiritually minded and better
instructed of the Exclusives have always sought to receive such brethren in
their simplicity without raising questions of which they knew nothing. But as
the years went on, among the Open Meetings themselves many questions arose that
led to another type of Exclusivism, and Mr. Shaw refers to this in the following
remarks, though he does not by any means seem to understand what was originally
meant by the term Exclusivism:
Such was the divine simplicity of the principles on which we gathered at the
first. The question then that comes here is simply this-Are these the principles
on which we are gathered today? In many cases we fear the answer must be a
decided “No!” While professing to be as “open” as ever, we cannot disguise the
fact that in the course of the past twenty years a tightening process has been
at work. We may not be able to explain how it has come to pass. But we have to
do with the fact. It stares me in the face. The leaven of Exclusivism nas been
at work among the assemblies-yea, among those who abjure Exclusivism and all its
works. This tightening process, as he calls it, at last led to the development
in Great Britain of the Needed Truth Party, a company maintaining that only
those gatherings that acted together upon questions of reception, recognition of
elderhood, believers’ baptism, separation from all sects and denominations,
including even other companies of Brethren, could be recognized as churches of
God. Some of the statements of the Brethren who advocated these views are almost
beyond belief. They took up the terms “within” and “without” used by the Apostle
Paul in I Corinthians, the fifth chapter, and made the “within” apply wholly and
solely to their particular meetings while the “without” referred, so they say,
not to the ungodly but to Christian people, members of the body of Christ, who
were not in the Needed Truth meetings. As it may seem almost incredible that
such teaching could ever have become current, I give a few quotations that will
make it clear. J. A. Boswell, writing on the “Kingdom Present,” in Needed Truth,
Volume 4, 147, says:
It seems to us that it has in great measure been lost sight of, that God has a
purpose not only through the individual testimony of His children-by their lives
or the gospel from their lips, but also by the collective testimony of His
gathered together saints in accordance with His will. As we have already said,
it is in the house of God, and in it we believe alone, that the government of
God can be carried out in this age,- or in other words, the kingdom of God can
be manifested. Let us not be misunderstood here. We do not say that Christians
who are in the sects will not be eternally saved, as well as those gathered out,
for the salvation of God reached to those who were outside the kingdom of
Israel. The same today, but we do not believe that those ensnared by Satan in
the many false systems of men are in the kingdom of God, or in the place where
they can carry out the rule of God collectively on earth, that which Paul
preached at Ephesus (Acts 20:25). At a meeting of what were known as the elders
of Great Britain, the following six points were laid down to be accepted by all:
I. There is on earth a unique concrete thing (called in Acts 2:42 “the
Fellowship”) which consists of all those whom God has brought together in a
visible unity; the being in this is conditional. It is quite distinct from the
Body of Christ, the church of Matthew 16:1-28.
II. The Fellowship finds its expression in churches of God; and the churches are
linked together in the Fellowship.
III. The existence of the present Fellowship does not admit of a church of God
coming into existence except in connection with the already formed churches.
IV. It is the bounden duty of every man exercising oversight in the Fellowship
to do his utmost to maintain the unity of the Fellowship.
V. Does the responsibility to receive into or put out from the circle of
overseers reside in the circle of overseers in a town, or in that of a county or
district?
VI. When overseers in a given circle have a difficulty in becoming of one mind
in the Lord, the next larger circle of overseers should come in to assist in
producing the desired oneness of mind. Because the leaders from Scotland refused
to accept points five and six, they were all cut off, thus making two rival
confederacies of “churches of God.” The Needed Truth division never got any real
foothold on the American continent but similar teaching has been widely
propagated, and there are, both in Canada and the United States many so-called
Open Meetings that are in reality Needed Truth Meetings without the name. The
following utterances from a Colonel W. Beers some years ago show what these
meetings stand for:
According to 1 Corinthians 5:12-13 God has a within and a without. Those within
it is the prerogative of the assembly to judge, and bye and bye they will “judge
the world” (1 Corinthians 6:2). Those “without” God judges: “therefore,” says
the apostle, “put away from among yourselves the wicked person,” and since the
Epistle is addressed to the church of God at Corinth, it is to that divine
organization this command is given. Nowhere in the Word of God do we read of
God, in the present age, judging unbelievers; they are condemned already; their
judgment is future, and coming swiftly; but God is now judging His people only.
See 1 Corinthians 11:30-32; 1 Peter 1:17. Therefore when we read in the passage
before us “them without God judgeth” (1 Corinthians 5:13) it is His people that
we are referred to, and not unbelievers. This teaching has made its way in many
places and often with very sad results. People have been cast out of assemblies,
not for any wickedness in life or evil in doctrine, but because they could not
conscientiously endorse such extravagances. Instances have been known where
believers were actually excluded from fellowship on the ground of adultery or
fornication, and when they indignantly protested against such abominable
accusations, they were calmly told that the sin consisted in having attended
some meeting held for Christian testimony apart from the “Assemblies of God” and
that to go to such a meeting was to be guilty of spiritual adultery, which was
in God’s sight worse than the carnal sin. I know of a specific instance where a
godly brother was excommunicated as guilty of fornication because he preached,
by invitation in a city mission. This, of course, is based upon the idea that
all of Christendom has now gone into Babylon and these meetings of “gathered
saints,” alone are the house of God being rebuilt at the place of the Name! It
is surely a far cry from the beautiful simplicity of the early Brethrens’
meetings to such pretentiousness as this. In beautiful contrast, as it seems to
the present writer, are the Catholic views set forth by the late J. R. Caldwell
in “The Gathering and Receiving of Children of God,” some extracts from which
will help to clarify the questions under examination:
It has been fully proved in the past that God does not own “high church” claims.
In the providence of God, that which assumes to be, or even to represent, “the
church of God on earth,” has always been quickly proved to be wanting, and a
very few years have sufficed to reduce it to fragments. So must it ever be, for
God will never attach His power to that which assumes to be what it is not . . .
It has also been contended that the very mention of a “within” and a “without”
(1 Corinthians 5:12) involves a corporate and formal receiving into the church;
but when we turn to the last glimpse historically of the church found in
Scripture, namely, in III John, and find there the apostle John and the more
spiritual of the saints “without” and Diotrephes and his followers “within,” it
is vain to assert now, when confusion has developed a thousandfold, that any
circle of confederate assemblies forms a full and divinely recognized “within.”
As a matter of fact, the assertion is a mere assumption, and is disproved by the
experience and testimony of very many who, though regarded by some as
“outsiders,” are really “inside,” and enjoying richly the fellowship of the
Father and the Son. This does not at all imply that the command to “put away
from among yourselves that wicked person” is not as binding as ever, or that God
will fail to give effect to such action when it is according to His Word, and
carried out in faith and in the Holy Spirit. This God is able to do, and faith
may count upon His faithfulness even in the midst of the existing confusion.
Scriptural reception by the saints is personal and individual. It is on the
ground of having been received already by God (see Romans 14:3), and because
“Christ hath received him” (Romans 15:7). . .
While Scripture lays down no rule of procedure in receiving, it is asserted that
the reception of Paul at Jerusalem is typical, an example to be followed
throughout the dispensation in every case. But is it not evident that the case
of Paul, so far from being typical, was altogether exceptional? He very
naturally, drawn by love and desire for fellowship, assayed to join himself unto
the disciples. Had it been an ordinary case of conversion, and no special
circumstances known giving rise to suspicion, it seems clear that he would have
had his place amongst them at once. But the saints were in fear of him: they
supposed it was another ruse of the devil-they “believed not that he was a
disciple.” Hence the procedure adopted. Barnabas, with special knowledge of what
the grace of God had wrought in Paul, knowing what all the rest were in
ignorance of, set him before the apostles, assured that if they, the guides,
were satisfied, no further hindrance would stand in the way of his fellowship
with the saints. But to assert that this procedure is necessary in the case of
one who is well known to many as a genuine child of God, and against whose
character no suspicion exists in the minds of any, is an absurdity that could
only be entertained because it fits in with some theory not found in Scripture .
. . An expression in common use requires to be examined, and its use tested,
namely, “the saints gathered to the name of the Lord.” By this is meant a
certain approved circle of assemblies to whom alone the title is applicable.
Some claim it for one association of assemblies; others claim it for some other
circle, but in each case it is an exclusive claim denied to all other saints or
gatherings… This use of the term “gathered to the name of the Lord” we have
searched for in vain in Scripture. The expression betrays the thought that the
object in view is a reconstruction of the church of God upon a new and narrow
basis unknown to Scripture.
I may add that it should be remembered that many Exclusive Brethren have through
the years become discouraged and even disgusted with the bewildering divisions
among themselves and have sought a way out by going in among the Open Meetings.
These have carried with them much that they had learned in their former
associations and the result is that many Open Meetings are now much more like
Exclusive Meetings than in past years. It will not, therefore, be cause for
surprise that thousands of godly Brethren in all the various fellowships are
looking longingly toward one another and crying to God to make plain some means
whereby fellowship might be re-established between the different factions and
that all together may present a united testimony in defense of the great
fundamental truths for which all Brethren have stood from the beginning. With
the various parties of Exclusives, this is comparatively an easy problem as,
being more used to acting together, it is simply a matter of convincing leaders
among them that there is no cause for further separation; but much more
difficulty is experienced when it comes to negotiating with Open Brethren on
account of their lack of organic union, and even if, in a given locality Open
and Exclusive Brethren are able to come together and bury their differences,
that does not necessarily affect Open Meetings in nearby places nor perhaps
others in the same city.
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CHAPTER 30: 02.11. AN ABORTIVE ATTEMPT AT RECONCILIATION
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Chapter Eleven - An Abortive Attempt At Reconciliation In spite of all the
divisions and differences of judgment among the people of God there is a most
blessed sense in which our Lord’s prayer for His own “that they all may be one”
has ever been answered. One in life and in family relationship they are. And
because of this precious fact the renewed soul ever longs for the practical
display of that unity with fellow-believers.
And, divided though the Brethren became, it has generally been leaders who have
kept the sheep in the various separate corrals. Left to themselves they would
soon flock together around the one Shepherd. So it becomes a real pleasure to be
able to tell of an honest effort on the part of godly leaders toward mutual
understanding, though it failed at the time to accomplish what was desired. The
Montreal division took place as we have seen in 1884. A few years later there
developed among the so-called Grant Exclusives an uneasy feeling that their
attitude toward Open Brethren was not entirely consistent with the position they
themselves had been forced into through the operation of tyrannous
ecclesiastical principles unwarranted by Scripture. Evangelists and teachers
moving about among assemblies frequently came in contact with Christians from
the Open meetings whose piety and general soundness in the faith they could not
but recognize as being of a very high order. Was it right to go on treating such
as wicked persons because they were supposed to be identified by association
with something that had occurred in a distant land over forty years ago? A new
generation, and even a second, had come on the scene since the unhappy Bethesda
division. Was it to be for ever made a test of fellowship?
Both the Grants, Robert and Frederick, were keenly exercised about this, as were
many other recognized leaders-both of those wholly given to the ministry of the
Word and those having local oversight. Could Scripture-clear-cut definite
passages from the Word of God. not hazy deductions labeled “divine
principles”-be found to warrant continued exclusion of godly believers Because
blessing had come to them through the Word ministered by preachers in the Open,
instead of the Exclusive, meetings? The Egyptian could enter into the
congregation of the Lord in the third generation. What of fellow-members of
Christ’s body, holding similar teaching and walking largely in a similar path?
Must they be excluded for ever?
Lord Chesterfield wisely said in one of his “Letters”: “Individuals forgive
sometimes, but bodies and societies never do.” Even among Christians this often
seems to be true. However, so real were the exercises referred to above that on
Oct. 15, 1891, a letter was sent out by the “Grant” leaders to their own
assemblies at home and abroad, and to Open Brethren also, inviting all who were
interested to come to a general conference to be held in the following year at
Plainfield, New Jersey, to consider the questions that separated them.
Even before this there had been much coming and going but without really
cementing fellowship. Instead, suspicion was raised as to the integrity of those
who, as some put it, “tried to play fast and loose with divine principles.” And
often Exclusives found themselves as unwelcome in Open meetings as the Opens
were among Exclusives.
However, the letter referred to above was sent out and saints were asked to
spend much time in prayer before the proposed conference, which was scheduled to
convene in July, 1892. It was felt that there would be great opposition in some
quarters and there was a danger of hasty action in others, so in the letter they
inserted the following paragraphs: And now, beloved brethren, the object of this
letter is to inform you of this, and at the same time earnestly and
affectionately to entreat you to a patient waiting upon God during this
interval. . . . We feel constrained, dear brethren, in all love, earnestly to
entreat you not to take any hasty or independent action whatever in this
connection. Our earnest desire is that we may all look at it together. The
desire was for a happy unanimity of judgment. The letter brought joy to many,
but numbers were distrustful. Among Open Brethren, leaders like Donald Ross,
Donald Munro, John Smith and others, refused to attend, but drew up a letter
declaring their adherence to Scriptural principles and sent it on to the
meetings. Mr. J. H. Burridge from Great Britain came to speak for the Open
Meetings and many local Brethren from these gatherings attended. Upwards of a
thousand brethren, Open and Closed, came together at the appointed time and
after ten days of frank brotherly conference the following letter was sent out
as giving the judgment of the meeting.
Plainfield, July 12, 1892. To the Brethren in the Lord whom it concerns:
Greeting. In response to the call sent forth to brethren to assemble here to
consider the questions in connection with our relation to (so-called) “open”
brethren, a large number came together. We would thankfully recognize the Lord’s
grace in enabling us to feel our dependence upon as well as our responsibility
to Him, with love also to those that are His people. Several days were devoted
to the consideration of the matter from all sides, and free expression of
judgment was given. The following conclusions were accepted with great
unanimity, for which we give thanks to God. As to their condition, proofs were
given that there is no present association with evil doctrine, and this both
from those amongst them and others outside. An authoritative circular from
leaders amongst them in this country, agrees with the testimony of some well
acquainted with them at Bethesda, Bristol, England, as well as elsewhere, that
this is the case. The “Letter of the Ten” has been, from the time when it was
put forth to the present, a main hindrance to communion. In this it was stated
that, supposing a teacher “were fundamentally heretical, this would not warrant
us in rejecting those who came under his teaching, until we were satisfied that
they had understood and imbibed views essentially subversive of
foundation-truth.” It is, however, stated by the leaders in Bethesda, “We do not
mean that any would be allowed to return to a heretical teacher. He would become
subject to discipline by doing so. Our practice proves this. We had no thought
of intercommunion with persons coming from a heretical teacher when that
sentence was written.” In the same way Mr. Wright’s letter, at a much more
recent date, affirming upon the face of it the same principle with the “Letter
of the Ten,” has been explained not to mean intercommunion.
We dare not say that we accept these statements as really satisfactory; and
there are still others, as in E. K. Groves’ more recent book (“Bethesda Family
Matters,” p. 133), which show, to our sorrow, that all among them are not yet
clear. Yet the late statement from leaders in this country, accepted by those in
Bethesda itself, together with the testimony from all sides as to their actual
present condition and practice necessitate our acceptance of the conclusion, in
the “love that thinketh no evil,” that looseness in this respect does not now
exist. There are doubtless gatherings still “open” in this unhappy way, but from
these we have every reason to believe that the brethren to whom we refer are
really separate. In this belief, which it is a joy to be permitted to entertain,
we shall be able to welcome them among us, as we do other Christians.
We only regret to have to express our inability to go further; the insistence
upon certain views of baptism hindering the liberty of the Spirit in ministry,
and which becomes thus in our judgment, a grave evil; questions also as to the
past still remaining, with other matters of real importance, compel us, at
present, to stop here. But we are thankful to be able to go thus far, and to
show our sincere desire to take all hindrances to genuine Christian fellowship
out of the way, as far as we can justly do it. In conclusion, we feel for
ourselves the necessity of much prayer and patience, and great respect for one
another’s consciences, that these desires for unity may not be used by the enemy
to foster further division. “Whereto we have already attained, let us walk by
the same rule, let us mind the same thing” (Php 3:16). “Let us therefore follow
after the things which make for peace, and things wherewith one may edify
another” (Romans 14:19).
B. C. Greenman,
Samuel Ridout,
F. W. Grant, and others.
Some among the Grant Brethren viewed this letter with alarm and felt it was the
beginning of what would eventually be a complete surrender to independent
principles. Others hailed it with delight as indicating that the divisions would
soon come to an end and happy fellowship be enjoyed together. Open Brethren
generally felt it did not go far enough and were disappointed. But others among
them were grateful to God that it went as far as it did, and hoped it would lead
to a better understanding and fuller fellowship in the future.
Some Exclusives felt the decision had been hastily arrived at, forgetting
apparently the months of prayer that had preceded it. In several cities efforts
were made to go beyond the circular by combining the Open and Exclusive
meetings, but with few exceptions the results were unsatisfactory and the
attempt even led to greater distrust of each other. The two classes of Brethren
had been apart so long and had been trained in such different schools that they
found it hard to lay aside preconceived notions and walk together in the love of
the Spirit. In Great Britain, the Bahamas and New Zealand pronounced opposition
developed. Mr. William Rickard, a much respected English brother, editor of
Words in Season, a monthly publication of considerable merit, wrote
expostulating with American Brethren for their haste in committing themselves to
a position which Old Country assemblies could not endorse. I have been unable to
find a copy of his letter but its contents can be gathered in great measure from
the following lengthy answer which I give in full because of the vast amount of
information it contains: To our brother, mr. rickard, and those Brethren who
signed the late Circular with him:
Beloved Brethren: In owning receipt of your letter of Oct. 1st, 1892, and before
referring to the main subject therein considered, we would explain that it was
through no oversight or carelessness on our part that you were not at once fully
and directly informed as to the result of our meeting here on July 12th.
Twenty-five copies of our circular were forwarded at once to our brother
Blatchley, and must have unaccountably miscarried. We regret that this should
have happened; but we trust, dear brethren, that this explanation will show that
we had no thought of keeping you “in the dark,” as you speak. With reference to
your next complaint that no “representative brethren of the United Kingdom were
present,” we certainly felt quite sure of the fellowship and sympathy of at
least one brother, and even up to the last moment expected his presence, which
we should sincerely have welcomed; but if we have failed in not making our
invitations more general, we can only ask you to forgive us.
Recognizing your right to receive full information and satisfaction as to our
action in the recent gathering at Plainfield with regard to our relation with
so-called “open” brethren, we desire to give you this to the utmost of our
ability, as sincerely desirous of the maintenance of fellowship in truth and
holiness.
We do not believe that our principles have changed in any wise. They resolve
themselves, as far as we are now concerned with them, into the responsibility to
“endeavor to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace”-the living unity
of the church of God; therefore in separation from evil, as what destroys this.
This separation we hold, as we did before, to be from all fundamental error, as
well as moral wickedness, and from those knowingly in association with these.
Upon this ground, we had refused those in fellowship with open brethren, as
“open” to receive from gatherings infected with false doctrine. And this was, as
to those so-called in America, most certainly true that they were so in the
past. But a change has come with the advent of certain evangelists and leaders,
principally from Scotland, who disclaim having ever been upon this loose ground.
The old gatherings were either repudiated or purged from the evil, and others
sprang up, and are springing up in various places, with which the old and
Scriptural test failed to show evil. The question was raised, and more and more
pressed upon us, how could we maintain the old attitude toward those who, while
still called “open brethren,” were in fact another people from those formerly
known as such. But there was still a link that remained, as we believed, with
evil, not here, but in England,-the link with Bethesda,-a name of distress and
reproach among us for many years, and as to which we believed we had recent
testimony of unsoundness, above all in Mr. Wright’s letter. This for a time held
us back from any general clearing, even of these newly formed gatherings, from
the charge of complicity with evil.
We are now, however, in a different position. First of all, we have a statement,
concurred in by a number of their leaders in America, expressly repudiating
fellowship with those in association with evil. Then, a letter from D. D.
Chrystal, formerly in our own fellowship, as to Bethesda’s present position
being in accordance with this. Of another from Col. Molesworth to the same
effect we have no copy. Another statement from forty-eight leaders of the open
brethren in England, extracted from “What are the Facts?” published by Hawkins
of London, is not perhaps so explicit, but still repudiates “all identification
with unsound doctrine” such as they name. Another testimony was given by a
brother, J. H. Burridge, from among them, present at the meeting, who assured us
that he had personally inquired into the looseness charged against them in W.
K.’s tract, and found that the meeting in question was not in fellowship. A
letter from our brother, W. Scott, also read at the conference, acquits them of
any present fellowship with evil. All that we know as to America agrees with
this. The explanation of the “Letter of the Ten” was unsatisfactory, and many of
us were unable to believe that it could be rightfully interpreted as not meaning
inter-communion; but the “pastors and elders” who gave the interpretation to
“Philadel-phos” (Mr. Bewley) were not perhaps any of those who had written the
letter. Mr. Wright’s, of later date than either, showed clearly to us remains of
the old spirit, and yet was taken by them with the same reserve, that there
could be no inter-communion with heretical meetings. As to their practice, they
invite personal visitation and examination on the part of some accredited
persons; and in all this, however evident it may be that the old failure has not
been judged as one desires, yet it is clear that the mercy of God has come in,
and the evil is not there in present activity. In individuals, it may not be
repented of; but as a body, even in Bethesda itself, the open brethren are
committed against fellowship with evil; and it surely should be a “joy” to
believe that this is so. Can we accept this testimony! How is it possible to
refuse it? It is not merely their own, but that of others as to them. They give
it openly, challenging examination. You, beloved brethren, do not show that it
is false. And, indeed, who ever heard of a large body of Christians, numbers of
them allowed to be most earnest and devoted, putting forth as their principles
and practice what all amongst them must know to be false and deceptive? We might
well lose faith in the power of the gospel over men’s hearts and lives if this
could be. Does the Lord require us to go behind this? Is not sufficient witness
to be received? And this is the witness of thousands practically, who by their
silence at least agree with it. Are we not bound in the “love that thinketh no
evil,” to receive it? The blot upon the past can scarcely now be removed. It may
be turned even to profit, if it rebuked the Pharisaism so tending to rise up,
and which has, we must fear, sadly marred our own later history. May not God
even thus make the last first? And are we to refuse, on account of a blot like
this, Christians personally as godly as any, who were not themselves implicated
in the Bethesda trouble, and whose principles and practice, as regards this
attitude toward evil, are as pure as our own? Is it not to be sectarian to do
so? Does this reception of individuals mean that of the whole? It is said they
are on the ground of the one body, and so we have no option! Some of themselves
most earnestly deny that they are on the ground of the one body, and this
principle has been stamped by a leader among them as the first “heresy” into
which those who leave them for the “exclusives” fall, the second being household
baptism. Would that they could show us, or that they cared to show us, that they
are not rather a Baptist body with at least independent principles, though more
or less “open” as to communion! But they are brethren-children of God, as we, to
whom our hearts should quicken as such, and who are making a firm stand now
against the false doctrines and unbelief at present so fearfully spreading; and
if compared with other Christians round about, we shall find them nearer to us
than any outside of the other bodies of so-called “brethren,” which, to the loss
and shame of all, are broken asunder from one another. Should it not be “joy” to
us to be able, by recognizing the change referred to in our brethren, to get
back to the simple ground on which we once were, and to find a path which will
not turn even the feet of the lame out of the way? Should it not be “joy” to be
able rightfully to throw down any existing barriers to fellowship among those
who once were united, and to say, “Brethren, the sin shall not be ours of
dividing the body of Christ: let us walk the rest of the way together”? In all
this, we do not believe that we are giving up principles. Perhaps the Lord is
teaching us more that, after all, we are in days of ruin, and that, as those
self-judged before him, we must carry those out in tenderness and grace more
than we have done. Of some amid dead Sardis the Lord Himself says, “They have
not defiled their garments.” How is it that, with us, just those spiritually
nearest akin to us are those who, in the breaches that have taken place, are to
be most religiously refused and turned away from? May He turn our hearts to one
another, and Judah vex Ephraim no more! What a promise of blessing yet for us
would be in this!
Show us, however, that the open brethren are not what they profess to be-that
they do, in principle as well as in practice, let in evil,-then, with whatever
pain, we shall be compelled to retrace our steps. Show us gatherings
acknowledged as in fellowship with Bethesda, Bristol, which are in this way
guilty, not of mistake and failure, but of willful wickedness of this kind, and
from which they will not purge themselves, and you will have done us essential
service, for which we shall be most thankful. If these cannot be found, how can
we be leavened by contact with that which, according to the best judgment we can
make of it is not itself leavened? And this brings us, beloved brethren, to your
closing sentences, in which you pronounce “judgment” and “condemnation” upon us
for what you term “a new departure,” and which you tell us is a “dishonor to
Christ,” a “denial of the truth of the one body,” “another secession from the
true ground of the church of God.” Solemn words! and although of late years, we
fear, far too frequently and lightly spoken, still such as can never be heard by
any to whom “the light of his countenance is better than life,” and who know,
too, something of their own feebleness, without serious consideration and
heart-searching. But if they are not lightly to be heard, even far less are they
to be lightly spoken; and awful indeed must be the error, grave indeed the sin,
that could justify your charging us with dishonoring our blessed Lord Jesus
Christ, with denying the truth of the one body, with seceding from the ground of
the church of God! Surely nothing less than our hands joined with corrupt
doctrine or evil practice,-some willful association with wickedness by which we
have become wicked and corrupt. Is there a word in your letter to show this? No,
you do not; and, in the fear of God, we say you cannot find grounds for such
charges against your brethren. Instead of this, you reason in this way: -
(a) “Here is a sentence, written nearly fifty years ago, involving a wicked
principle of association with evil.”
(b) “This has never been repudiated, withdrawn, or even modified.”
(c) “You, in opening the door of fellowship to any who are in any way connected
with the gathering where this sentence was written, partake of the evil it
embodies, and-we cannot follow you.” This reasoning, dear brethren, is not only
weak, but false. Your conclusion depends upon your premises, and if the latter
be incorrect, the former must necessarily be so too. The principle of evil
association involved in the sentence quoted from the “Letter of the Ten” has
been repudiated again and again, as we have shown you above. Even your own
quotation-”We do not mean that any would be allowed to return to a heretical
teacher. He would become subject to discipline by doing so,” etc.-is sufficient
to show how wrong is your statement that it has not been “even modified.”
Surely, but a very little measure of the love that “thinketh no evil,” that
“believeth all things, that hopeth all things,” would see a very important
modification, at least, in these words, and we would venture, as brethren, to
press this a little upon you. But in our judgment, it speaks even more than
simple modification; and, when we remember that it is now forty-five years since
the original letter was penned, and that leaven must from its nature, have
spread through and through Bethesda, and far and wide in those connected with
her, in that time, surely you can have no difficulty in showing us clear proof
of this;-if not, (and we can speak with some authority for this side, that you
cannot,) is it not again proof that your statement that “it has never been
repudiated or even modified” is incorrect?
Upon better consideration, therefore, we may trust that you will find the
judgment you pronounce as to this matter to have been at least premature, and
will be happy in withdrawing it. Give us only the proof of present evil
sanctioned by those whom our circular simply restores to the common rights of
Christians, and we will be with you heartily in the judgment of it. Apart from
this, to cut off the members of Christ’s body, would not this be really to
secede from the ground of the church of God, and grieve and dishonor Him whose
prayer for His own is, “that they all may be one”? With true love in Him,
believe us, dear brethren, ever yours in bonds that cannot be broken- Signed,-
In behalf of the gathering at
Tames Brown, G. H. Graham, New York
James Carr,
Edward G. Mauger, H. E. Lampe, South Brooklyn.
Paul S. Cohn, S. Northworthy, Rutherford, New Jersey.
C. Marty, F W. Grant, Passaic, New Jersey.
T. O. Loizeaux, J. T. McFall, Plainfield, New Jersey.
John F. Gray, John F. Gilmore, East Brooklyn.
Writing about the same time to some in the Bahamas who were troubled, Mr. F. W.
Grant pertinently said:
What could we do but withdraw charges we believed no longer truthful? Surely
there was no alternative if we would retain uprightness ourselves. Our brethren
who reject the circular cannot (we believe) put their finger upon one gathering
today in admitted fellowship with Bethesda, Bristol, and which is “open” to
receive fundamental evil. Certainly they do not attempt it. If the thing were
true, it could hardly help being (at the present time) notorious. A door is not
long left open for evil without evil being found to enter in at the door. But
our brethren urge that as to the past, Bethesda has not cleared herself. We wish
much we could say that in our belief she had, but we have not been able to say
this. We fear there are those connected with her at this day that are not clear;
and that the original false step never has been openly judged we know. But that
was taken a generation since; and the principles involved being refused by them
today, the mass cannot be charged with that with which they had nothing to do,
and which in any evil sense of it they do not uphold. All agree that there are
among open brethren thousands of godly souls. Is it of God to cut off wholesale
these godly ones? Surely, surely, Scripture cannot be produced for this. This is
all plain and distinct, and seems to be the utterance of one who had thoroughly
investigated the whole matter and was clear before God as to his course.
Some will be amazed to learn that inside of a year afterwards, not only Mr.
Grant, but many of the others, who signed the letter to Mr. Rickard, had
completely reversed themselves. What led to this will be taken up in the next
chapter.
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CHAPTER 31: 02.12. THE ATTEMPT AT UNION THWARTED
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Chapter Twelve - The Attempt At Union Thwarted
It has been pointed out already that from the first, there were leaders among
the “Grant” Brethren who did not look with favor upon the effort to reconcile
Open and Exclusive Brethren. Mr. Paul J. Loizeaux, the able evangelist whose
fiery eloquence had made him the outstanding preacher in this particular section
of the movement, dreaded any apparent lowering of the standard and shrank from
re-opening a question which it was felt the fathers had settled. Yet his sense
of fairness, was such that once an attempt was determined upon he entered into
it heartily, placed his beautiful grounds at the disposal of the Brethren as a
meeting place and personally bore a large share of the expense, far more than
one in his position might seem well able to afford. When the Plainfield decision
was arrived at he accepted it, though with misgivings, and sought to act upon it
until he felt convinced of its impracticability. Others shared his exercises and
pursued a “policy of watchful waiting.” A protest couched in no uncertain terms
was soon forthcoming from the Stuart or Reading Meetings as we have seen, who
wrote a solemn letter charging American Brethren with ignoring many facts of
importance, acting hastily and on faulty information. This letter insisted on
the unchanged character of Bethesda and declared that the fact that the Letter
of the Ten had not been withdrawn or its principles repudiated, made fellowship
impossible.
Mr. J. H. Burridge who had appeared at Plainfield to speak on behalf of Open
Brethren gave out the following statement in regard to Bethesda which re-assured
some troubled ones but did not go far enough for others:
1st. Bethesda gathering has had no fellowship with Mr. Newton from the time of
the seven church meetings in which his heresy was considered very fundamental.
2d. No intercommunion of those meetings with Mr. Newton has ever been allowed.
3d. Hundreds of the Lord’s people have been kept by grace in happy harmony and
fellowship together without division for nearly fifty years.
4th. Though during this time she has been the object of attack from all parts;
brethren have tried again and again, but in vain, to fix the charge of
unscriptural looseness and heresy upon her; but it has never been proven. May
she not forget that she is still dependent upon the same grace that has kept
her.
5th. Though to our shame be it said, the company known as exclusives have been
shattered into half a dozen pieces. May our gracious Lord gather us more
undividedly around Himself!
6th. At the present time Bethesda has about thirteen hundred in fellowship who
meet in four different meeting rooms, and over twenty brothers laboring in
foreign mission work, and for the last ten years has proved to be a place of
refuge for many an exclusive brother distracted and perplexed by division and
strife.
7th. Any brother or brothers may visit Bethesda to see for themselves if the
above is not true.
Mr. Walter Scott of Hamilton, Scotland, widely known as a teacher of repute,
came over to America in 1893 to verbally back up the protest of English and
Scotch Brethren against any recognition of the Open assemblies. He was armed
with a multitude of documents which seemed to show that these meetings were
honeycombed with moral and doctrinal evil, and he practically threatened a
complete disruption between the Grant and Stuart Brethren unless the action of
the Plainfield conference was rescinded. This opposition was at first firmly met
and with seeming decision by F. W. Grant and others of prominence. They insisted
that ample time had been allowed to produce any such evidence in the months’
interval between the printed call to Plainfield and the conference itself, and
that it was neither fair nor honorable to bring it forward at so late a date,
unless indeed new facts had come to light that were not available earlier. On
the other hand they felt a statement was due their Brethren to allay suspicion
and distrust, and to make clear just what their attitude was, so the following
letter was drafted and sent far and wide:
New York, June 1st, 1893. To our Brethren in Christ, in England and elsewhere,
gathered with us to the name of the lord jesus.
Beloved Brethren: In view of the evident misapprehension on the part of many
brethren in this country and elsewhere, as to the meaning and intent of the
Plainfield Circular of last July (which we are free to admit was imperfectly
expressed), it was deemed advisable to have a conference of brethren in these
parts, to consider the subject and express a judgment as to the result of the
Plainfield meeting, and the true meaning and object of the circular.
Accordingly such a conference was held on the afternoon of Tuesday the 30th ult.
It was agreed that intercommunion with those in fellowship with Bethesda-or Open
Brethren, so called-was not contemplated so long as The Letter of the Ten with
its evil principles was unjudged and allowed to stand. At the same time, godly
persons, unintelligent as to their associations, ought not to be denied
fellowship amongst us should they desire it. This action is found especially
necessary from the fact that certain laboring brethren from amongst us have
construed the matter differently, by fellowshiping with “Open” gatherings,
practically denying that there has been occasion for division in the past, and
assuming that the evil principles of Bethesda have been really judged, which we
should be only too happy to learn, but of which we are sorry to say there exists
no evidence.
We also generally feel that we have allowed ourselves to go too far in
fellowshiping certain persons from among them, giving thereby cause for the
alarm which some have taken.
Humbled through the events which have transpired among us of late years, we
sincerely desire to increase in love toward all our brethren in Christ, whatever
ecclesiastical position they may occupy. At the same time we realize that these
are no times to grow slack, but contrariwise, increase in vigilance, remembering
the promise and the warning, “Behold, I come quickly: hold that fast which thou
hast, that no man take thy crown” (Revelation 3:11).
E. G. Mauger, South Brooklyn.
James Brown, New York.
F. W. Grant, Plainfield, New Jersey.
W. S. Heron, South Brooklyn.
George Bezer, South Brooklyn.
John F. Gilmore, Brooklyn, E. D.
H. E. Lampe, Rutherford, New Jersey.
C. Jouard, New York.
Julius Overbury, Orange, New Jersey.
A. McGilchrist, New York.
James Manahan, Jersey City, New Jersey.
G. H. McCandless, Elizabeth, New Jersey.
James Welsh, Elizabeth, New Jersey.
W. S. Rolston, Elizabeth, New Jersey.
T. O. Loizeaux, Plainfield, New Jersey.
Paul J. Loizeaux, Plainfield, New Jersey.
Shortly afterwards a statement was sent to America, signed by representative
Open Brethren in Great Britain endeavoring to make clear their position in
regard to the much-discussed Letter of the Ten, which many trusted would have
settled the entire controversy. I give it in full:
Statement
It has been suggested that brief statement on the subject of fellowship of
saints might, with God’s blessing, prove helpful towards “keeping the unity of
the Spirit in the bond of peace,” and therefore we gladly mention a few points
with a view of removing misapprehensions from the minds of any believers,
especially in America, and we trust that this statement will be received with
the same sincerity with which we make it.
1. Those commonly known as “open” brethren only seek to maintain liberty to
carry out all the will of God, as unfolded in the Scriptures, and to receive all
believers who are not plainly disqualified by the Word of God, because of evil
doctrine or immoral practice.
2. Intercommunion is not permitted with assemblies where the false doctrine of
annihilation or other fundamental error is tolerated.
3. Although cases of reception of persons holding such false doctrines have been
alleged, they have not been substantiated when proof was requested.
4. On the contrary, cases have now and again occurred (though we are thankful to
say not frequently) in which persons holding such doctrines have been put away
from fellowship.
5. When Christians who are sound and careful as to fundamental truths, but
without sufficient light to renounce a sectarian position, desire to break
bread, as being of the one body, and are permitted to do so, we believe that it
is on the ground that each one is responsible to Christ as Lord of the
conscience and in the hope that by remembering with them the love wherewith all
His members are loved they may be helped to learn the way of God more perfectly.
6. Though ourselves conscious of much shortcoming it is our desire to carry out
our Lord’s Word, “He that doeth truth cometh to the light.” We do not strive to
make a party, but we endeavor to hold the Head, and we trust that where there is
a similar aim, misconception regarding us, though of long standing, will be
removed. The name of our Lord Jesus will thereby be glorified, we shall receive
mutual comfort and help and the father of lies be defeated.
7. With regard to difference of judgment on points not involving vital
doctrines, we seek to give ourselves to humiliation and prayer, knowing that God
would have us to be of one mind, while exercising forbearance with one another
and carrying out our convictions as to the truth.
8. We must add that we do not attach our signatures as representing the
assemblies with which we are connected, but, rather as those who have had more
or less lengthened experience, we give according to our personal knowledge the
information that is desired.
Finally. We would love and serve all who unfeignedly love our Lord Jesus Christ,
and would cultivate fellowship with all who aim at walking in the truth, and,
though declining controversy on this subject, some of us will gladly reply to
any brotherly enquiry, so far as time allows.
C. Underwood - For over 40 years in fellowship at Orchard Street and Welbeck
Street, London.
John C. McVicker-Now of Clapton Hall, London. For over 30 years among those
known as “open” brethren.
George Mueller-Ashley Down, Bristol.
G. Fred Bergin - For over 30 years in fellowship at Cork, Cardiff and Bristol.
James Wright-For 50 years in fellowship in “Bethesda,” Bristol.
Henry Dyer-For 50 years meeting with fellow saints to the name of the Lord,
namely: from 1843 to 1848 at Rawstorne Street, London, and elsewhere, and from
1848 till now, to the same name of the Lord, with those known as “open”
brethren, Bournemouth, Hants.
J. L. Maclean-Bath.
Thomas Cochran-Patrick, Glasgow.
John R. Caldwell-Glasgow.
F. C. Bland-5 Upper Fitzwilliam Street, Dublin.
Martin Shaw-Belfast, in fellowship from I860 (part of the time, 1863, in
Dublin).
Robert E. Sparks-Belfast, in fellowship for 26 years.
W. H. Bennet-Yeovil. To this was added a personal explanation by the godly and
esteemed W. H. Bennet of Yeovil, the last of the signatories:
If there is anything I can say to help our brethren whose consciences are
troubled by false statements, and who are not sufficiently acquainted with us to
know that they are false, I would be glad to do so. But may I again draw your
attention to the statement dated February 9th, 1894, and signed by several
brethren?
No. 1 and No. 3 clearly state that we only receive “believers who are not
plainly disqualified by the Word of God because of evil doctrine or immoral
practice,” and that any who make allegations to the contrary have not been able
to substantiate such allegations “when proof was requested.” But is not No. 2 as
clear on the question of association? It says, “Intercommunion is not permitted
with assemblies where the false doctrine of annihilation or other fundamental
error is tolerated.”
If this assertion had been received with the candor with which we made it, ought
it not to have settled the question? What is understood by “intercommunion”?
Does it not denote receiving from and going to or commending to any meeting?
Then if we specified “annihilation” only, it is because that is the doctrine
which has been more often referred to of late; but we were careful to say “other
fundamental error” in order to make it inclusive. That this clause refers
definitely to assemblies that profess to be gathered to the Lord’s name, on what
is called church ground, should such be found tolerating “fundamental error,”
ought, I think to be evident, because it is in No. 5 that we refer to the mode
of dealing with “Christians who are sound and careful as to fundamental truths;
but without sufficient light to renounce a sectarian position.”
We have no desire, dear brother, to seek “self-justification.” That we have been
indifferent in the matter of association with evil, we cannot allow; but
whenever any beloved brethren who had charged us with this, have, by patient and
honest investigation, discovered that they had been mistaken and have met us
before the Lord, they have found us as ready to bow in confession and
self-judgment as they themselves were, and far indeed from seeking to “fasten
sin or failure” upon them. And if some will not thus meet us, but persist in
refusing to give us credit for common truthfulness in our statements, we seek
rather to humble ourselves before God than cherish hard thoughts of them. With
love in our Lord, Yours affectionately in Him,
W. H. Bennet.
Before these letters were actually in the hands of the American Brethren another
grave barrier was raised up in the publication of a paper by a Mr. H. G.
Holborow, of Selsley, Gloucestershire, England, designed to allay the fears of
those who were not sure but that evil teaching as to Christ had been definitely
held by Mr. Henry Craik, so long associated with Mr. George Muller at Bethesda.
It had been reported at the time of the Newton difficulty that Mr. Craik had
said that our Lord’s humanity was of such a character that he would have died of
old age, or if he had drunk a cup of poison -thoughts abhorrent to the
Scripture-taught mind-as He Himself so distinctly affirmed His death to be
voluntary in the solemn words, “No man taketh my life from me, but I lay it down
of myself.” As the calumny in regard to Mr. Craik had been repeated by many who
had never taken the trouble to investigate it, Mr. Holborow evidently considered
it due to the memory of this departed brother to clear him of such imputation.
But he was unfortunate in his effort, owing probably to his unfamiliarity with
the theological terms, for he left the distinct impression upon the minds of his
readers that he personally considered the body of the Lord on earth as mortal,
or subject to death. I cannot find a copy of his pamphlet at this time, but the
answer to it sent out by Mr. R. T. Grant entitled Some Remarks on Mr. Holborow’s
Doctrine indicates by direct quotations the error into which he had
inadvertently fallen:
Some Remarks on Mr. Holborow’s Doctrine
It is a little strange that a pamphlet sent out to prove the justice of
Bethesda’s cause should need, in the very part which refers to doctrine, to be
patched with the pen so extensively, after being printed. I refer, of course, to
one entitled Correspondence about Bethesda in 1892, and being circulated in the
hope of justifying the position taken by O. B. (That is, Open Brethren, Ed.). To
one or two points in it I desire to call attention, and to the sad fact that Mr.
Holborow’s statements are extremely bad, and defective, to use the mildest term
possible, where they ought to enunciate the truth emphatically. I fancy that
many of the Lord’s dear people who are in fellowship with Bethesda, will hardly
feel very comfortable, as they read what Mr. H. says in defense of his party.
The accusation brought by Mr. Rickard reads thus:
“But what do we find was taught by the man whose name appears first to the
Letter of the Ten, Mr. H. Craik? ‘If the Lord Jesus had taken poison, would he
not have died?’ Another says of him, ‘We have heard, and we do believe, a
shameful, irreverential, and vile expression attributed to Mr. Craik.’ Mr.
Trotter says of him, “What he says there of the Lord’s humanity, leaves no room
for doubt that he does, to a great extent, sympathize with Mr. N.’s unsound
views.’ Mr. Wigram, in An Appeal, page 8, thus writes:
“He (Mr. Craik) said with great warmth the other day, that J. N. D. and his
followers made too much of the humanity of the Lord Jesus, and that he believed
if the Lord had not been crucified, He would have lived to be a shrivelled old
man, and have died a natural death; and more to a similar effect.” On page 10,
and paragraph 35, Mr. Holborow says, after some words of extenuation, speaking
of Mr. Craik: “He never admitted that he had been correctly reported, but
explained he uttered the phrases in question in opposition to assertions which
appeared to him to involve a denial that Jesus Christ came in flesh, and was
perfectly human as well as Son of God.” The italics are mine, and making all due
allowance for what is said in the first part of the sentence, the words
italicized, involve an acknowledgment that in substance he said what was imputed
to him. (But see note*(8) below, Ed.) In paragraph 36 Mr. H. begins his defense
of the statements, and I would call attention to the Scriptures he refers to:
first as to Hebrews 2:17, evidently the Spirit of God would teach by these
words, “being made like unto his brethren,” that in his life of suffering, and
on the cross, He who by title was exempt from it all, underwent what gave Him
His acquired perfectness, or fitness for the place which He fills for us with
God. Always perfect, He yet had to be perfected, and the latter through
suffering; yet nothing of this involves the idea of what Mr. H. asserts of the
Lord’s humanity being “identical with ours.” These last are Mr. H.’s words, but
the need of some correction has been felt, and with a pen is added, “as God made
ours.” He is not satisfied with “veritable flesh and blood” (page 180), which
Mr. R. uses to state his view of the Lord’s person; but insists it was
“veritably identical with ours,” the danger of which statement was felt
evidently when with the pen some corrector has added, “as God made ours.” With
Mr. Holborow “being made like unto his brethren” is taken for identity in
nature, whilst it evidently refers to something entirely different. The
“brethren” are fallen, sinful men, and to be made like them in the sense in
which he would have the passage taken, would involve what no one who loves the
Lord Jesus truly could accept. I do not say Mr. H. would allow such a thing or
tolerate the thought, but his view of the passage is dangerous in the extreme,
and involves it. A lot of unhappy reasoning follows (page 180) as to what could
have happened, but unfortunately all these things only help to hinder clear
seeing for simple souls, and one fatal defect is that they leave out and ignore
the character and ways of God. It is not true that God could have sent these
marks of age and infirmity upon the Lord Jesus, nor the things of which Mr.
Craik spoke, and one has to ask what makes these brethren write so, as to the
Holy One of God, if there is not something radically unsound in their views? Why
speak of things as possible to Him, which were only possible to a sinner? The
Scripture pictures the Lord Jesus growing up from infancy to perfect maturity,
manifesting at each step and in every circumstance, His own inherent perfection,
and there it stops; and to say that anything else could have happened is to
involve the Lord in the consequences of the fall, and one wonders how one who
owes his salvation to the humiliation of the Son of God, can do other than
reject with indignation such unholy trifling. Referring to the Lord’s body after
death Mr. H. asks: “Why does he say, ‘Neither wilt thou suffer thine Holy One to
see corruption,’ concerning the Lord’s body, if before there could have been
natural decay its very nature must be changed?” “Is not the interposition of God
here clearly indicated?” he adds. The answer is simple and evident, that is,
that the Lord had given himself up to the judgment of sin as the Substitute for
others and had been brought by the holy hand of God down to the dust of death,
the consequence and penalty of sin. When all had been done that was needed to
satisfy the claims of divine righteousness and glory, the answer came in the
power of God raising Him from the dead. Thus was fulfilled the Scripture, and
thus was secured God’s glory, and no indignity was permitted, nor could be, that
was not absolutely necessary for the work accomplished; to this the character of
God was pledged, even to the providing the new tomb of the rich man wherein
never man had been laid; according to Isaiah 53:9, and to use the words of the
Holy Spirit as to the dead body of Christ, “Thou wilt not suffer thine Holy One
to see corruption,” to justify Mr. Craik’s assertions, is a sad proof of what
has to be defended. Does Mr. H. not know that the things named as possible to
the Lord, could not even have happened to an obedient Israelite, if such could
have been found? Decay is the way to death and dissolution, and can only be the
consequence of sin. Yet Mr. H. says (page 18):”Mr. Craik’s statements involve no
imputation of sin to Christ, nothing impossible to the humanity of our Lord.
:but he was wrong in predicting such things would without his authority.” Then
Mr. Craik did predict they would happen, and Mr. Holborow undertakes to defend
and extenuate such expressions! Is there no leaven at work in Bethesda? Saying
such things would come on the Holy One of God then is no serious outrage upon
the person of the Lord for “he (Mr. R.) has to prove Mr. C. a heretic before he
can talk about ‘Craik’s heresies’ (page 18). But if this is not counted heresy
by Mr. H. he asserts at the end of the same paragraph that those who hold the
doctrine maintained by Mr. R. as to the Lord’s person would not be suffered in
fellowship at Bethesda!! A reference to page 17 will show what it is Mr. H. thus
stigmatizes as Gnosticism and which would therefore be refused.*(9) But I turn
back to consider a moment the second of Mr. H.’s quotations from Hebrews 11:1-40
(page 10, paragraph 36): “Forasmuch then as the children are partakers of flesh
and blood, he also himself likewise took part of the same,” etc. To this Mr. H.
adds, “and you cannot deny that the statements Mr. Craik made are true of his
brethren; it is just as wrong to deny them as to assert them”; “for with God all
things are possible,” is added here in ink in the copy I have before me. What
does this mean? These things are true of his brethren, and the passage is quoted
from Hebrews to preface the sentence, and it is “as wrong to deny the assertions
attributed to Mr. Craik; and Mr. C. was just as wrong in asserting them.” I am
perplexed to know what to understand here, but I leave it with the reader to
unravel the knot, and content myself with the thought that if it was true it
would not be wrong to assert it, nor if false to deny it; and it is either true
or a very grave departure from the truth.
It is unhappy for Mr. H.’s doctrine, but an unspeakable comfort for those who do
not tolerate what, if followed to its legitimate results, would put a blemish on
the Holy One of God, that neither of the passages he relies on afford the least
foundation for what they are cited in support of, but the opposite. If the
reader will turn to Hebrews 11:14 and look it up in the Greek Testament, there
will be seen something of the care of the Spirit of God in guarding against such
irreverent notions. The children were partakers of flesh and blood “and he also
himself took part of same.” Now two different words are used in this passage.
The children are partakers of flesh and blood: the word used is koinoneo, or a
sharing in common, connected with the word communion. Had this word been used as
the Lord’s participation in humanity there might have been some ground for Mr,
H.’s views, but the word took part is meteko, and by referring to Luke 5:1-39
the difference is clearly seen. There are two words translated “partners” in
Luke 5:7 and Luke 5:10. In Luke 5:7, “they beckoned to their partners which were
in the other ship, that they should come and help them.” Partners here is
metokos, and might better be translated fellows; that is, they were fishermen
also, but did not share equally in the proceeds of the fishing. It is the verb
of this noun that is used of the Lord in Hebrews 11:1-40, “took part of the
same,” and the same word in Hebrews 1:9”Above thy fellows.” In Luke 5:10, we
have, “which were partners with Simon.” These were truly sharers in the full
sense with Simon, and the same word is used as in Hebrews 2:1-18, “The children
were partakers of flesh and blood”; they shared it in common, were alike
identically. This has been often noticed, and it is a wonder Mr. H. could have
overlooked the importance of it. (See a note on Hebrews 11:14 in the new
translation by J. N. D.)
Let me add in conclusion that in writing what I have, it is as deeply deploring
the controversy, and the need of it; but the attack has come from themselves,
and from the persistent effort to force upon us unrestricted fellowship, whether
we wish it or not. A forced fellowship would be a poor substitute for that which
the Spirit of God produces. I know no way amidst the sad discord and humbling
divisions of today, but to cultivate, as far as can be, within the prescribed
limits of the Word of truth, brotherly love towards those manifestly the
children of God according to Ephesians 4:1-32, and no fleshly zeal can
accomplish this.
Mr. Burridge sought to get a retraction of his erroneous views from Mr.
Holborow, but the latter at first did not seem to sense the gravity of the
situation. Later he sent out the following letter of withdrawal and explanation:
Letter from Mr. Holborow, Selsley, near Stroud, Gloucestershire, April 18th,
1895.
Mr. J. H. Burridge.
Dear Brother in Christ: Your letter of 8th instant just to hand. In reply, after
reading its contents, I pen you an unqualified withdrawal of the sections of my
paper, Correspondence About Bethesda, 1892, in question; those I have already
particularlized in my letter to Mr. Buss. I withdraw them because the language
is faulty, and capable of being understood in a different sense from what I
intended- and therefore in that light they are wrong; also because they have a
savor that is not godly about them; they have a spirit of strife about them that
cannot be right, and they dwell upon subjects that it is impossible for a finite
mind to adequately express in language that is not the very words of the Holy
Spirit. And I am sorry I ever wrote them.
But, in writing the above, I do not justify the perversions and false witness
concerning them that have been circulated by some. In confessing wrong on my own
part, I should not be right in justifying what is wrong in others.
It will be asked, “Why did you not say this before?” I explain-because the
perversions I refer to draw my mind away from a calm consideration of the nature
of my words in the light of the Word; but I told a brother in England last
summer, that I did not like my own expressions on recurring to them again. May
the brethren forget all about them-that they ever existed-and forgive me for
ever sending them out. My only plea is this: that I did not like to see Mr.
Craik so spoken of, and that I simply endeavored to explain that the expressions
attributed to him did not necessarily convey the evil teaching some have sought
to attach to them.
H. G. Holborow.
Open Brethren generally repudiated the doctrine, but did not consider there was
any further step necessary after this letter had been published, as Mr. Craik
had long since definitely refused any such thoughts as had been attributed to
him, and was with his Lord long ere the question was again raised by Mr.
Rickard.
Nothing however could now allay the feeling among many of the Exclusives that
there was something radically evil, still unjudged, in the Open fellowship and
the most amazing charges were made by utterly misinformed men and circulated as
truth. It was even declared that Mr. Muller maintained frequent intercourse with
Mr. Newton and had “all his books in the Bethesda lending library.” To this
slander Mr. Muller replied as follows:
New Orphan House, Ashley Down, Bristol, August 23, 1895. My Dear Brother:
1. Neither Mr. Newton nor any of his friends have been in fellowship with us
since 1848. If the contrary is stated, I ask who and where?
2. I have only seen Mr. Newton once since 1848, to know of his present state;
this was about 10 years since; yet you say I attend .his Bible readings. See how
false! !
3. You state that Bethesda library contains all his books. False. We have no
Bethesda lending library. There is a library at the Orphan Houses, for the
teachers, a private library, in which there are three books of Mr. Newton’s on
prophecy. They are quite sound.
Yours in our Lord,
George Muller. But it seemed that nothing could be done to stem the tide of
distrust that had set in against any further effort to bring about communion
with Open Brethren. Already in July, 1894, at a conference in Pittsburgh,
Pennsylvania, a letter had been sent out signed by twenty-three laborers
repudiating the Plainfield circular. A similar letter had also gone out from New
York City. Later another went forth from a conference at Dunkirk, New York. The
direct result was most unhappy. Division and dissension spread throughout many
of the Canadian and American assemblies. When the clouds had somewhat cleared
there was a new party to be reckoned with, known as the “Independents,” who
steadfastly refused to repudiate the Plainneld letter and have ever since sought
to keep their doors open to Exclusives or Opens alike, who desired to commune
with them. On the other hand many of the Grant meetings have gone steadily on,
receiving godly, properly-commended saints coming from Open or Independent
meetings, as they have never recognized the authority of the Pittsburgh and
Dunkirk circulars. This was the attitude of Mr. R. T. Grant himself and has been
consistently followed by many others through the years, in spite of the
opposition of some of a more legal tendency. But the definite declaration of Mr.
F. W. Grant that “the refusal of simple godly souls has never been
contemplated,” makes any other course plainly inconsistent, even though full
inter-communion cannot yet be enjoyed.
(8)* It was afterwards proven that what Mr. Craik really said was that if it had
been the will of God the Lord might thus have died. But it is a pity such a
subject was ever broached.
(9)* Note: -Mr. Rickard says: “That Holy Thing which was born of Mary was
essentially free from every element of decay. Before there could have been
natural decay its very nature must be changed.”-”It was real humanity, but it
was His, in our human circumstances never subject to decay or dissolution.” This
is branded by Mr. Holborow, as “a most dangerous error, and it must be exposed
at once.”
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CHAPTER 32: 02.13. LATER DEVELOPEMENTS AND CRITICAL COMMENTS
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Chapter Thirteen - Later Developments And Critical Comments
It was in the year 1896 that I became identified with the movement of which I
have been writing; at first going into fellowship with the so-called Open
Brethren and a little later, after some distressing experiences, casting in my
lot with the Grant Exclusives. I have never thus far had occasion to regret the
step I took at that time and I have, generally speaking, been greatly blessed,
and I hope been permitted to be a blessing to others, notwithstanding the fact
that “I have seen an end of all perfection” and have long ago been obliged to
take the place of lowly confession and say “I and my people have sinned.” For a
few years I regret to say I was under the soul-withering influence of very legal
and narrow views regarding both service and fellowship, but as time went on God
graciously gave deliverance and led me to see, at least in some measure, how far
I, and others, had departed, not only from New Testament teaching but from the
original principles of the Brethren themselves. With this came an ever-widening
sphere of service as I recognized my responsibility to seek to help all
believers, and to reach the lost wherever the Spirit of the Lord opened a door
of opportunity. When called to succeed the devoted Dr. P. W. Philpott as
minister at the Moody Memorial Church it was only after much prayer and exercise
that I became assured such was for me the undoubted will of God. As the years
have passed I do not find my love for the Brethren, nor my appreciation of the
precious things of Christ for which they stand, growing less, but rather do I
value them more. The preparation of these chapters has been a labor of love
buoyed up by the hope that they may be used of God to call many back to the joy
of simplicity and spiritual freshness of early days. Heretofore I have been
writing of events all of which can either be verified by reliable documentary
evidence, or were communicated to me by men who could speak with authority. If I
attempt to trace the further history of the movement to any extent I must of
necessity rely largely on my own fallible judgment and, I would doubtless often
find my estimates of men and their actions decidedly at variance with others far
more gifted and godly than I. Therefore I think it wise to close this very
imperfect record with a general review of present-day conditions, touching only
on principles or referring to documents which are easily accessible.
After the Dunkirk and Pittsburgh circulars and the consequent rejection of many
godly brethren like Mr. F. C. Jennings, Messrs. Edward and Nicholas Mauger and
other brethren who had ever been esteemed as “guides” among the Grant Brethren
since the early days of the movement, there was as we have seen considerable
agitation and unrest in the American assemblies.
Brethren beloved and longed-for, against whom there was no charge of wickedness
or evil teaching, found themselves in opposite camps and as the years have gone
on there has been very little change on the part of the older generation. It is
noticeable, however, that the younger believers of all the different fellowships
are becoming more and more restive about being whipped into party lines and all
are yearning for a broader and more Scriptural fellowship- a return to the first
principles of the Brethren which we have seen have been so largely given up.
Shortly after the death of Mr. F. W. Grant in 1898, Mr. Alfred Mace wrote a very
full confession of failure in the matter of the Montreal division and henceforth
repudiated the very exclusive position he had previously held. A little later
Mr. Walter Scott (who had so successfully blocked the entente cordiale of the
Exclusive and Open Brethren in 1893) found himself excommunicated by the Stuart,
party in Great Britain for the very grave offense of breaking bread with a
simple company of believers not recognized as in any particular circle of
fellowship! Awakened at last to see what Brethren had drifted into he wrote an
arousing appeal entitled, Shall the Sword Devour For Ever? This was circulated
all over the world and produced a tremendous reaction. The present writer,
however, ventured to reply to it in Help and Food, pointing out that he who
first asked that question-Abner-was himself a fomenter of division, and until
his own confession of wrong done to the scattered people of God was forthcoming,
his appeal could be of little weight. It was probably presumption on my part so
to write. It showed the training I had been under. Walter Scott was ever after
counted among the “Independent Brethren,” until his death at a very advanced
age.
Since those days effort after effort has been made to bring about a better
understanding, and certainly party spirit is rapidly declining among the mass,
but a few in all parties, generally known as “die-hards,” still insist on the
old rigid geographical and disciplinary tests of fellowship. It is noticeable
that where Christian liberty prevails the meetings flourish, souls are saved,
and a warm spiritual atmosphere is found. But where the opposite is true there
is very little in the way of active evangelizing or of edification of believers.
With the new yearning for a more Scriptural basis of communion has come
increased exercise as to gospel testimony both at home and abroad. Many have
been getting their eyes opened to see the folly of exalting century-old methods
as though of equal force with divine revelation and so there has come a better
understanding and appreciation of the apostle’s words, “I am made all things to
all men if by any means I may win some.” Hence it is not uncommon now to find
assemblies putting on earnest evangelistic campaigns with hearty gospel singing
and common-sense advertising. In many places it had become an iron-clad
tradition that any singing accompanied with instrumental music was opposed to
the spirit of the New Testament, through failure to distinguish between singing
as an act of worship and singing to attract the needy and careless to hear the
gospel. Hence there were in nearly all of the Brethren’s assemblies many unused
gifts-people who had divinely-given talents which they did not dare use lest
they come under the censure of the more conservative. To many also has come an
awakening as to the way they have neglected the apostolic injunction: “Let all
things be done respectably and by arrangement” (1 Corinthians 14:40, literal
rendering). The result has been a recognition of the importance of more
systematic service for the Lord, which is already bearing blessed fruit.
Needless to say, they who prefer human tradition to the present energy of the
Holy Spirit look with disfavor on any change from methods and practices that
have become hoary with age, but have no more actual Scriptural authority than
methods more in accord with the times.
What the future holds in store for this movement if our blessed Lord tarry but a
few years longer no man can predict. But one thing is absolutely certain:
Brethren must either break from traditionalism and go on with God, as the Spirit
leads through the opened Word and the sanctified judgment of men who have
understanding of the times, or they will themselves be literally broken to
pieces; in which case the unity they originally aimed at keeping may be nearer
than we think. The late Captain R. Carey-Brenton, one of the most devoted
missionaries ever in fellowship with the assemblies, who died in Mexico a few
years ago, said to me once: “I have been so burdened about our divisions, and
have been praying that God would bring our divided gatherings together. Lately I
was watching a man break stones and I observed that it was only when the
boulders were all broken to gravel that they became one. It may be that God will
have to deal in the same way with us!” His words are impressive and well worthy
of our consideration.
Perhaps the gravest failure we have made as a people has been in dissociating
ourselves in thought from the great mass of our fellow-Christians. It is a
common thing to make a distinction between “Christians in systems and believers
gathered to or in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ.” To consider this a special
privilege is but spiritual pride of the most elusive kind. And each fellowship
of Brethren is as truly a system as any other body of believers. If any one
doubts it let him venture to act on his own initiative, or as he believes the
Spirit leads, contrary to custom, and he will soon find out how sectarian an
unsectarian company of Christians can be!
Nevertheless it seems to me any unprejudiced student of the movement who really
knows his Bible must see that the primary object of the Brethren has been to get
back as nearly to New Testament order and teaching as is possible in days of
apostasy such as we live in. But the mistake has been in claiming the presence
and authority of the Lord in a way other Christians cannot claim them.
Some years ago Dr. James Black*(10) of Edinburgh, Scotland, published a lecture
in which he attempted to appraise the Brethren movement, which was reasonably
fair though containing some inaccuracies, undoubtedly the result of faulty
information. The following answer appeared in The Witness, an organ of the Open
Brethren and may be of interest in giving the view-point of one of the people
thus criticized by the learned Doctor:
Dr. James Black on the “Plymouth Brethren” On a recent journey to Edinburgh, the
writer enjoyed a pleasant conversation with a Presbyterian fellow-traveller, in
the course of which Dr. Alexander Whyte was referred to, and afterwards his
successor, Dr. James Black, of St. George’s, Edinburgh.
Dr. Black, I was informed, had been giving recently a series of lectures on
“Freak Religions,” in the course of which he had ably exposed Mormonism,
Russellism, and other American patents, a particularly useful thing to do. A day
or two later I saw the July number of the United Free Church magazine, The
Record, and found there an article by Dr. Black on “The Plymouth Brethren: How
They Arose and What They Believe,” and was led to wonder whether this was the
substance of a later lecture which classified the people so nicknamed among the
freaks! I hope the Doctor doesn’t place these much-abused folks in the same
category as the Mormons! Be it said, that the article is kindly in tone, and
written without bitterness. It is somewhat in the style in which a venerable
Cardinal of Rome would write of United Presbyterians. The only approach to
warmth is when the writer deals with the views of “Plymouth Brethren” on the
subject of the Christian ministry, and any man may be pardoned if he wax warm
defending his hearth and home.
Some of the writer’s strictures are fully deserved. Sorry divisions in the
history of these protesters against sectarianism give ample room for many a
jibe; but the Doctor is merciful, remembering, no doubt, how hard unity is to
preserve; so hard, indeed, that even Scottish Presbyterianism hasn’t succeeded
in it. In one or two matters Dr. Black is evidently either misinformed or
uninformed. For instance, it is less than fair to speak of “present
ineffectiveness at home and abroad of ‘Plymouth Brethren.’”With all humility,
their record in the foreign field is grievously wronged by such a statement. The
Doctor cannot have read Echoes of Service, or have perused their Missionary
Prayer-list, or he would not have made this statement. As regards work at home,
we take leave to inform Dr. Black that in spite of the allurements of the times,
the social auxiliaries from the pulpits of our land, there is a great and
growing volume of young life in and about the churches of those whom he terms
“Plymouth Brethren.” Things are not important in proportion to the noise they
make. His suggestion of the origin of “Plymouth Brethren” will not do. The
naughty-boy-who-ran-away-from-home theory does not fit the facts. The separate
and spontaneous movements in British Guiana, Ireland, England, Italy, Russia,
and Germany cannot be so accounted for. The “movement” at the first was a return
to the Scriptures as affording all requisite instruction and guidance for
corporate as well as individual Christian life; an endeavour to carry out what
is written without qualifying or nullifying it by giving equal authority to
sub-apostolic traditions, medieval Church councils, or “modern thought.” The
need to maintain such a position is more urgent today than ever, and Dr. Black
simply misses the whole point when, with fatherly benevolence, he bids “Plymouth
Brethren” recognize that their day is past, and come back like naughty children
now repentant to the bosom of mother-church. As to their “not seeking to save
the world, but to save a people out of it,” their “rejecting the ancient
practice of all the true ‘Catholic’ churches (being educated, we had all along
imagined there was but one Catholic Church) of baptizing the children of
believers,” and their “celebrating the Lord’s Supper every Sunday,” they plead
guilty; but are prepared to discuss these things over an open Bible with Dr.
Black or anyone else who can show therefrom the error of them. That they have no
separate, ordained, educated, and maintained ministry or clergy is a statement
that is only partly true; for they recognize a separated, educated, and
maintained ministry, though the manner of its separation, education, and
maintenance differs from that considered essential in Presbyterianism. The
humorous account given to the Doctor by the two young people who were leaving
“Plymouth Brethren” for Presbyterianism, of how in the church they were leaving,
“the Spirit always ‘led’ the same boring old elder,” could be matched by the
accounts of some who prior to coming out from Presbyterianism have been bored
fifty-two Sundays per annum for half a lifetime by a dry-as-dust “educated”
minister, without hope that the boring process would be interrupted until the
Lord took him to Heaven. The views on “ordination” most shock the Doctor,
however. “It shocks me,” he says, “to think that any stray man, without
preparation, is presumed to be able to lead and guide the worship and thought of
the people.” It shocks “Brethren” also to think such a thing. They are yet more
sure than Dr. Black that “many so-called lay’ members can do this more usefully
than many ministers”; so sure that they believe every member of a church to be
under direct obligation to the Lord to fulfil whatever measure of ministry has
been committed to him, and accordingly seek to give him opportunity so to do;
being convinced that not even to Dr. Black has the Lord given all the gifts
whereby He would minister to the needs of the congregation year in and year out,
for “the Spirit divideth to every man severally as He will” (1 Corinthians
12:11). On this subject Dr. Black appeals to history-if to the history of the
church they are deaf to such an appeal-but if to the inspired history of the New
Testament, they ask for one instance of a man being chosen by a church to be its
teacher or pastor, or to evangelize; for one instance of a salaried minister
under agreement to be responsible for the ministry of a particular church. That
an educated ministry is essential, they agree with Dr, Black; but as to the kind
of education essential they differ from him. Other things being equal, a liberal
education is to be preferred to a broad-school one. Yet the essential thing in a
minister of Christ is that he shall have been educated in a way no university
can guarantee-that he shall have been divinely taught, that his soul shall be
rich in its experience of God and that he shall have spiritual understanding of
His Word.
Since they must choose, “Plymouth Brethren” prefer a ministry which, though
Doctors of Divinity stigmatize it as uneducated, is exercised by men whose
qualification lies not in scholastic degrees merely, but in spiritual capacity,
energy, insight, and devotion, rather than expose themselves to that “learned
ministry,” much of which is in such terrible evidence today, exercised by men
whose aim appears to be to explain away on rationalistic lines every vital
doctrine of our most holy faith.
Though Dr. Black may continue to regard “Plymouth Brethren” as “hard-shells”
(his own expression), we assure him that some of them at least will continue to
intercede that he may be kept faithful and fresh to fulfil the ministry which it
is so evident he has received in the Lord.
J. B. Watson. A few words from one of Mr. Darby’s letters, written as late as
1870, eleven years before his death, will show more clearly than any remarks of
mine could do how far some of the Brethren have departed from their own first
principles. If these views had been carried out the entire history of the
movement might have been happier, and thousands of devoted saints helped who
have rather been hindered.
Dear -:
There is no difference between breaking bread as a Christian, and fellowship,
though some may not be always there; because the only fellowship or membership
is of the body of Christ, and if a person breaks bread and is thus recognized as
a member of the body of Christ, he is subject to all the discipline of the
house. I may not enforce constant attendance with us only, because he may come
with the desire to show unity of spirit, and yet think that his ways are more
orderly conscientiously. If his heart be pure (2 Timothy 2:22) I have no reason
to exclude him; but if anything in his path require he should be excluded, he is
liable to it like any one else. But I know no fellowship other than of
membership of the body of Christ. Being met, the question is has he done
anything which involves disciplinary exclusion?
Only I believe Brethren alone walk in consistency with the fellowship of saints
in the unity of the body; but I know no particular corporation as that body-not
even Brethren-nay, these least of all. This would deny themselves. Though they
have this, that they meet on principles of that unity, but for that reason must
own all its members, on the one hand, and maintain its discipline on the other.
Yours affectionately in the Lord,
J. N. D.
These are still the principles on which many of the assemblies act. This is
particularly true in Great Britain, where Brethren are, generally speaking in
the very fore-front of real evangelical testimony. It is to be hoped that in
days to come there will be an even more widespread return to early practices.
(10)* Knowing Dr. Black personally I am sure this gracious and kindly minister
did not intend to misrepresent the “Brethren.”
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CHAPTER 33: 03.00.1. ADDRESSES ON THE SONG OF SOLOMON
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ADDRESSES ON THE SONG OF SOLOMON by
H. A. Ironside, Litt. D.
Author of “Notes on Hebrews,” “Lectures on Romans,” “Colossians,” “Revelation,”
etc., etc.
Loizeaux Brothers, Inc. Bible Truth Depot
A Non-Profit Organization, Devoted to the Lord’s Work and to the spread of the
Truth
Copyright @ 1933
========================================================================
CHAPTER 34: 03.00.2. BAPTIST BIBLE BELIEVER'S TITLE PAGE
========================================================================
BAPTIST BIBLE BELIEVER’S TITLE PAGE ADDRESSES ON THE SONG OF SOLOMON by
H. A. Ironside, Litt. D.
Author of “Notes on Hebrews,” “Lectures on Romans,” “Colossians,” “Revelation,”
etc., etc.
Loizeaux Brothers, Inc. Bible Truth Depot
A Non-Profit Organization, Devoted to the Lord’s Work and to the spread of the
Truth
Copyright @ 1933
edited for 3BSB by Baptist Bible Believer in the spirit of the Colportage
ministry of a century ago
~ out-of-print and in the public domain ~
No Evidence of a Current Copyright for the Printed Book Found
During online Internet searches of the Library of Congress database in
Washington D.C., performed on 6-10-2010, no evidence of a current copyright
renewal within 28 years of copyright prior to 1964 was found for this
publication.
Please note: If you wish to read (which is absolutely free), simply click on the
chapter title. You will have the option to either open it or to save it to your
computer. To create a folder, right click and choose new - Folder, and name it
the title of the book.
GOD bless you from the Baptist Bible Believers website!
Please tell everyone you know about this website, pray for this ministry - and
that will be payment enough!
“Buy the truth, and sell it not; also wisdom, and instruction, and
understanding” (Proverbs 23:23)
========================================================================
CHAPTER 35: 03.00.3. CURRENT COPYRIGHT STATUS
========================================================================
CURRENT COPYRIGHT STATUS
Reviews of both the Stanford University and Rutgers University copyright renewal
databases on July 15, 2010 found no evidence of current copyrights for this
work.
========================================================================
CHAPTER 36: 03.00.4. PREFACE TO THE E-SWORD EDITION
========================================================================
PREFACE TO THE E-SWORD EDITION
E-Sword has become a significant part of my Bible study routine and I am
grateful to many who have made that possible. If you have ever contributed
material to e-Sword, you are among that group. I am especially grateful to Brent
Hildebrand, Dr. David Thomason, Pamela Marshall and Jason Briggs. Each of them
has played a significant role in my journey with e-Sword. The original document
file that is the basis of this module was graciously provided by Virgil Butts of
Baptist Bible Believer’s. Virgil maintains an excellent web site with a great
collection of materials for online access. His web site can be found at
. This module has not been altered in any
substantive way. The Bible references have been converted to references that can
be recognized by the e-Sword Scripture ToolTip. Some minor spelling issues may
have been corrected. The formatting has been altered in a effort to present the
material in a more easily readable form. As far as I know, those are the only
changes since the author originally published this work. Needless to say, any
errors introduced by my changes are my responsibility.
I would be remiss if I did not recognize two other people who have made it
possible for me to make this contribution. My wife, Kaye, has provided support
and encouragement as I have spent more and more time with e-Sword. And Jesus, my
Lord and Saviour, truly makes all things possible.
Ed Sandlin
Corinth, Texas
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CHAPTER 37: 03.00.5. TABLE OF CONTENTS
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TABLE OF CONTENTS 01. Song of Solomon 1:4 02. Song of Solomon 2:4 03. Song of
Solomon 3:1 04. Song of Solomon 4:1-11 05. Song of Solomon 4:12-32, Song of
Solomon 5:1 06. Song of Solomon 5:2-16, Song of Solomon 6:1-13, Song of Solomon
7:1-13, Song of Solomon 8:1-5 07. Song of Solomon 8:6-7 08. Song of Solomon
8:8-14
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CHAPTER 38: 03.00.6. PREFATORY NOTE
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PREFATORY NOTE
The little volume now before the reader consists of revised notes, considerably
abbreviated, of addresses delivered in the Moody Memorial Church, Chicago,
during a part of the winter of 1931-32. Many of those who listened to them
professed to find blessing and edification, and there were hundreds of requests
for their publication in book form, to which I have been pleased to respond.
Their preparation for publication has brought added joy to my own soul while
meditating afresh on this singularly delightful portion of the Word of God. The
attentive reader will realize at once that there has been no attempt to fully
expound the Song, but rather to stress in each address some one or more of the
outstanding features of the particular portion discussed.
I hope none will charge me with intentional plagiarism if they find a
re-emphasis of precious truths on which others have dwelt before me. I am glad
to acknowledge my indebtedness to many to whom this book has proven a
well-spring of spiritual refreshment, and undoubtedly I have incorporated much
that they have written, into my own addresses.
I have profited particularly from the reading of “The Song of Solomon,” by
Adelaide Newton; “Meditations on the Song of Solomon,” by Andrew Miller; “The
Canticles,” by J. G. Bellett; “The Song of Songs,” by J. B. Jackson; “The Song
of Solomon,” by H. Friend, and an excellent work on the same subject by Dr. A.
C. Gaebelein.
All of these I can most heartily recommend to any wishing fuller exposition than
I have attempted to give in these fragmentary discourses.
If God be pleased to own this attempt to create a greater yearning for
fellowship with Himself and to lead the way into a deeper knowledge of the love
of Christ, the labor expended will be well worth while.
H. A. Ironside Chicago, Ill.,
February 1933
***
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CHAPTER 39: 03.01. CHAPTER ONE SONG OF SOLOMON 1:4
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CHAPTER ONE
Song of Solomon 1:4
“We will be glad and rejoice in thee, we will remember thy love more than wine”
(Song of Solomon 1:4).
THE Song of Solomon is a little book which has had a peculiar attraction for
many of the people of God all through the centuries, and others of them have had
great difficulty in understanding just why such a book should have a place in
the canon of Holy Scripture at all.
Frequently I have heard those who, it seemed to me, ought to have known better,
say that as far as they were concerned they could see nothing of spiritual value
in this little book, and that they questioned very much whether it were really
entitled to be considered as part of the inspired Word of God. As far as that is
concerned, it is not left to the Church in our day to decide which books should
belong to the canon of Scripture and which should be omitted. Our blessed Lord
Jesus Christ has settled that for us, at least as far as the Old Testament is
concerned. When He was here on earth He had exactly the same Old Testament that
we have, consisting of the same books, no more and no less.
Those that are sometimes called the Apocryphal books did not belong to the
Hebrew Old Testament which He valued and fed upon, and which He commended to His
disciples, and, more than that, upon which He placed His divine imprimatur when
He referred to the entire volume and said, “The Scripture cannot be broken.”
Therefore we do not have to raise any question as to the inspiration of the
Canticles. He declared the Hebrew Bible to be the Word of the living God, and
there are many figures from this little book in various parts of the New
Testament; for instance:
- “The well of living water” (John 4:1-54); - “The veiled woman” (1 Corinthians
11:1-34); - “The precious fruit” (James 5:7); - “The spotless bride” (Ephesians
5:27); - “Unquenchable love” (1 Corinthians 13:8); - “Love strong as death”
(John 15:13); - “Ointment poured forth” (John 12:3); - “Draw me” (John 6:44); -
“The Shepherd leading His flock” (John 10:4, John 10:5, John 10:27); - “The
fruits of righteousness” (Php 1:11).
Who can fail to see in all these allusions to the Song of Solomon?
If we grant that it is inspired, what then are its lessons? Why do we have it in
Holy Scripture?
Many of the Jewish teachers thought of it simply as designed of God to give a
right apprehension of conjugal love. They thought of it as the glorification of
the bliss of wedded life, and if we conceived of it from no higher standpoint
than this, it would mean that it had a right to a place in the canon.
Wedded life in Israel represented the very highest and fullest and deepest
affection at a time when, in the nations surrounding Israel, woman was looked
upon as a mere chattel, as a slave, or as the object of man’s pleasure to be
discarded when and as he pleased. But it was otherwise in Israel. The Jewish
home was a place where love and tenderness reigned, and no doubt this little
book had a great deal to do with lifting it to that glorious height. But down
through the centuries, the more spiritually minded in Israel saw a deeper
meaning in this Song of Solomon; they recognized the design of God to set forth
the mutual love subsisting between the Lord God and Israel. Again and again, in
other scriptures, the Lord God is likened to a bridegroom, Israel to His chosen
bride, and so the spiritual in Israel, in the years before Christ, came to look
at the Song in this way.
They called it “the Book of Communion.” It is the book that sets forth the Lord
God and His people in blessed and happy communion. And then all through the
Christian centuries those who have had an insight into spiritual truth have
thought of it from two standpoints.
First, as typifying the wondrous relationship that subsists between Christ and
the Church, the glowing heart, the enraptured spirit of our blessed Lord
revealing Himself to His redeemed people as her Bridegroom and her Head, and the
Church’s glad response.
And then, looking at it from a moral standpoint, as setting forth the
relationship between an individual soul and Christ, how many a devoted saint has
exclaimed with gladness, “Oh, I am my Beloved’s, and His desire is toward me.”
Rutherford’s meditations were evidently based on this little book when he
exclaimed:
“Oh, I am my Beloved’s, And my Beloved’s mine, He brings a poor vile sinner Into
His house of wine; I stand upon His merit, I know no safer stand, Not e’en where
glory dwelleth In Immanuel’s land.”
Therefore we may think of the book from four standpoints.
- Looking at it literally, we see the glorification of wedded love. - Looking at
it from a dispensational standpoint, we see the relationship between the Lord
God and Israel. - Redemptively, we find the wonderful relationship between
Christ and the Church. - Studying it from the moral or spiritual standpoint, we
see it as the book of communion between an individual soul and the blessed,
glorified, risen Lord.
It is a bit difficult to get the exact connection of the different portions of
the book. It is not a drama, as the book of Job is; it does not present to our
consideration any continued story. It consists rather of a series of love
lyrics, each one complete in itself. It is the lover with heart enraptured
setting to music the thrill of the soul, and thus you have this cluster of
song-flowers, each one setting forth some different phase of communion between
the beloved and the one so loved.
And yet, back of it all, there must be some kind of story. What is this
background?
Something like a hundred years ago, Ewald, the great German critic, who has been
called the father of higher criticism, suggested that the story was something
like this. In the hill country north of Jerusalem there was a family in charge
of a vineyard belonging to King Solomon. The young shepherdess had been won by a
shepherd who had drawn her heart to himself, and their troth had been plighted.
But King Solomon, as he rode along the lane one day, saw this young shepherdess
in the vineyard, and his heart went out to her. He determined to win her for
himself, and so tried by blandishment to stir up her affections. But she was
true to her sylvan admirer. By-and-by the king actually had her kidnapped and
taken to his palace, to the royal harem, and there again and again he pressed
his suit and tried to alienate her from her shepherd lover in the hills.
Sometimes she was almost tempted to yield, for her case seemed a hopeless one,
but then she would remember him, her former lover, and she would say, “No, I
cannot turn from him. ‘I am my beloved’s, and his desire is toward me.’”
Eventually King Solomon set her free and she went back to the one she loved.
That view of things has been accepted by a great many Bible students, and I have
been a little surprised at times to hear some of my fundamental brethren set it
forth, apparently without realizing its source.
Personally, I reject it.
I do not think it at all likely that a man like Ewald, who had no real spiritual
insight, ever understood this little book of communion. A man who could be
called the father of higher criticism, who gave the start to the present modern
trend of handling the Bible, refusing to recognize its true inspiration, does
not seem to me to be such an one as the Spirit of God would use to open up this
little book to us.
There are several other reasons why I refuse this view.
First and foremost, it would make King Solomon “the villain of the piece,” and
when we turn to the Word of God, we find that Solomon is viewed by the Holy
Spirit of God as a type of the Lord Jesus Christ. You will find that in the
Psalms Solomon is portrayed as the prince of peace succeeding David after years
of warfare, and setting forth Christ’s coming again to reign as Prince of Peace.
In the New Testament the Lord Jesus says, “The queen of the south shall rise up
in the judgment with this generation, and shall condemn it: for she came from
the uttermost parts of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon; and behold, a
greater than Solomon is here” (Matthew 12:42).
When I say that Solomon is a type of Christ, I do not mean Solomon personally.
Whenever any man is spoken of as a type of Christ, you are not to think of what
the man is in himself, but what he is officially.
David officially was a type of Christ; David personally was guilty of very
grievous sin, but the Lord is the sinless One. Solomon was guilty of very
serious departure from God during certain periods of his life, but officially he
represented our Lord Jesus Christ as the Prince of Peace.
It is not the way of the Spirit of God to present a character, or some other
animate or inanimate object, as a type of Christ in one place and a type of that
which is wicked and unholy in another; and if we were to take Ewald’s suggestion
as the real story behind this book, we would have to think of Solomon as the
type of the world, the flesh, and the devil, trying to win the heart of this
young woman away from the shepherd who represents the Lord Jesus Christ.
Another reason why I reject this is that it would mean that we would have to
understand some of the most lovely and tender passages of this little book in
which the king addresses himself to the shepherdess, as mere blandishment
instead of a sincere and holy love. These very passages are those which all down
through the centuries have thrilled the heart of the people of God. They have
reveled in them; they have delighted in them, and fed their souls upon them.
It is not likely that they have been misled, that the Holy Spirit who came to
guide into all truth has thus deceived, or allowed to be deceived, so many of
God’s most spiritual people throughout the centuries, and therefore, I refuse to
take the story that I have given you from Ewald as the explanation of the Song
of Solomon.
Let me give you another story, the one that came to me one day when I was alone
on my knees.
I had to teach this little book and was a bit perplexed about it. I did not like
the story of Ewald, and so I went to the One who wrote the book and asked Him to
tell me what was behind it.
“Oh,” you say, “did you know the Author of the book?”
Yes, I have known Him for a long time. At that time I had known Him about thirty
years, now it is forty-one years.
“Well,” you say, “the book is rather a recent thing if you know the author.”
No, not at all, it is a very old book; but the Author is the Ancient of Days and
I have known Him ever since in grace He saved my soul. And so I took Him at His
word and reminded Him of His promise that when the Holy Spirit came, He would
take of the things of Christ and show them unto us; and I said, “Blessed Lord, I
am all perplexed about this little book; by Thy Spirit show it to me so that I
will really understand its meaning.”
I am going to give you the story that it seemed He gave to me. You may not think
I am correct. Very well, you go to Him and ask Him about it, and if He tells you
something different, come and tell me, and I will be glad to correct my story if
you can show me that I am wrong. This is what I thought I could see behind it
all. Up there in the North Country, in the mountain district of Ephraim, King
Solomon had a vineyard (we are told that in Song of Solomon 8:11), and he let it
out to keepers, to an Ephraimite family.
Apparently the husband and father was dead, but there was a mother and at least
two brothers, two sons.
We read, “My mother’s children were angry with me.” In Hebrew it is, “My
mother’s sons.”
There may have been more sons, but there were at least two. And then there were
two daughters, two sisters, a little one spoken of in the 8th chapter - “We have
a little sister.” She was a little undeveloped one. And then there was the older
daughter, the Shulamite. It would seem as though this one was the “ugly
duckling,” or the “Cinderella” of the family. Her brothers did not appreciate
her and foisted hard tasks upon her, denying her the privileges that a growing
girl might have expected in a Hebrew home. “My mother’s sons were angry with
me.” That makes me wonder whether they were not her half brothers, if this were
not a divided family.
“My mother’s sons were angry with me; they made me the keeper of the vineyards;
but mine own vineyard have I not kept” (Song of Solomon 1:6).
They said to her, “No; you can’t loll around the house; you get out and get to
work. Look after the vineyard.”
She was responsible to prune the vines and to set the traps for the little foxes
that spoiled the vines. They also committed to her care the lambs and the kids
of the flock.
It was her responsibility to protect and find suitable pasture for them. She
worked hard, and was in the sun from early till late.
“Mine own vineyard have I not kept.” She meant, “While working so hard in the
field, I have no opportunity to look after myself.”
What girl is there that does not value a few hours in front of the
looking-glass, the opportunity to fix her hair and to beautify herself in any
lawful way? She had no opportunity to care for her own person, and so she says,
“My own vineyard have I not kept.”
I do not suppose she ever knew the use of cosmetics of any kind; and yet as she
looked out on the road she would see the beautiful ladies of the court riding on
their palfreys and in their palanquins, and as she got a glimpse of them, or as
she bent over a woodland spring and saw her own reflection, she would say, “I am
sunburned but comely, and if I only had the opportunity, I could be as beautiful
as the rest of them.” That is all involved in that expression, “Mine own
vineyard have I not kept.”
One day as she was caring for her flock she looked up, and to her embarrassment
there stood a tall and handsome stranger-shepherd, one she had never seen
before, gazing intently upon her, and she exclaimed, “Look not upon me, because
I am black, because the sun hath looked upon me.”
And then she gives the explanation, “My mother’s children were angry with me;
they made me the keeper of the vineyards; but mine own vineyard have I not
kept.”
But he answers quietly without any offensive forwardness, “I was not thinking of
you as swarthy and sunburnt and unpleasant to look upon. To my mind you are
altogether lovely; behold, thou art fair, my love; there is no spot in thee.”
Of course that went a long way toward a friendship, and so little by little that
friendship ripened into affection, and affection into love, and finally this
shepherd had won the heart of the shepherdess. Then he went away, but before he
went, he said, “Some day I am coming for you, and I am going to make you my
bride.”
And she believed him. Probably no one else did. Her brothers did not believe
him, the people in the mountain country felt she was a poor simple country
maiden who had been deceived by this strange man. She had inquired of him where
he fed his flock, but he put her off with an evasive answer, and yet she trusted
him. He was gone a long time. Sometimes she dreamed of him and would exclaim,
“The voice of my beloved,” only to find that all was quiet and dark about her.
But still she trusted him.
One day there was a great cloud of dust on the road and the country people ran
to see what it meant. Here came a glorious cavalcade. There was the king’s
bodyguard and the king himself, and they stopped just opposite the vineyard. To
the amazement of the shepherdess, the royal outriders came to her with the
announcement, “The king has sent us for you.”
“For me?” she asked.
“Yes, come.”
And in obedience she went, and when she looked into the face of the king,
behold, the king was the shepherd who had won her heart, and she said, “I am my
beloved’s, and his desire is toward me.”
One great reason why I think this is the story of the Canticles is because all
the way through this wondrous volume, from Genesis to Revelation, we have the
story of the Shepherd who came from heaven’s highest glory down into this dark
world that He might woo and win a bride for Himself. And then He went away, but
He said, “I will come again, and receive you unto Myself.” And so His Church has
waited long for Him to come back, but some day He is coming to fulfil His word,
and,
“When He comes, the glorious King, All His ransomed home to bring, Then anew
this song we’ll sing, ‘Hallelujah, what a Saviour!’” And so I think that is the
background of the expression of loving communion in this little book, the Song
of Songs.
You notice that very title reminds you of the holy of holies; it is the
transcendent song.
The Jews did not allow a young man to read the book until he was thirty years of
age, lest he might read into it mere human voluptuousness and misuse its
beautiful phrases, and so we may say it is only as we grow in grace and in the
knowledge of Christ that we can read this book understandingly and see in it the
secret of the Lord.
I think the first chapter divides itself into three parts.
1. Song of Solomon 1:1-4 give us the soul’s satisfaction; it is the expression
of the bride’s delight in her bridegroom. She exclaims, “The Song of songs,
which is Solomon’s. Let Him kiss me with the kisses of His mouth: for Thy love
is better than wine.”
I remember a dear servant of God saying at one time, “I have sometimes wished
there were only one masculine personal pronoun in the world, so that every time
I say, ‘Him,’ everyone would know I mean the Lord Jesus Christ.”
You remember Mary Magdalene saying, “They have taken away my Lord, and I know
not where they have laid Him.” Then, looking up to the one she supposed to be
the gardener, she said, “Sir, if thou have borne Him hence, tell me where thou
hast laid Him, and I will take Him away.”
She did not think it necessary to use the name Jesus. There was only One to her,
and that was the Lord who had saved her; and so the enraptured soul says, “Oh,
to enjoy His love, His communion; to enjoy the blessedness of finding
satisfaction in Himself.”
“Because of the savour of Thy good ointments Thy name is as ointment poured
forth, therefore do the virgins love Thee” (Song of Solomon 1:3).
We are reminded how the house, was filled with the odor of the ointment when
Mary broke her alabaster box and poured it upon His head.
“How sweet the name of Jesus sounds In a believer’s ear! It soothes his sorrows,
heals his wounds, And drives away his fear.” And now the heart cries out, “Draw
me, we will run after Thee: the King hath brought me into His chambers: we will
be glad and rejoice in Thee, we will remember Thy love more than wine: the
upright love Thee” (Song of Solomon 1:4).
The shepherdess has been brought from the hill country into the royal palace, as
you and I from the distant country into the very presence of the Lord Himself,
and how often our hearts have sung,
“I am Thine, O Lord, I have heard Thy voice, And it told Thy love to me; But I
long to rise in the arms of faith, And be closer drawn to Thee.
“Draw me nearer, nearer, nearer, blessed Lord, To the cross where Thou hast
died; Draw me nearer, nearer, nearer, blessed Lord, To Thy precious bleeding
side.
“We will run after thee: the king hath brought me into his chambers: we will be
glad and rejoice in thee, we will remember thy love more than wine.”
She has been claimed by the King. What a wonderful picture we have here of real
communion.
No one has ever entered into the truth of communion with Christ until He Himself
has become the all-absorbing passion of the soul. His love transcends every
earthly joy, of which wine is the symbol in Scripture. Why is it so used?
Because of its exhilarating character.
Wine speaks of anything of earth which stimulates or cheers.
When a worldling is cast down and depressed, he says,
“Give strong drink unto him that is ready to perish, and wine unto those that be
of heavy hearts. Let him drink and forget his poverty, and remember his misery
no more” (Proverbs 31:6-7).
And so wine speaks of the joys of earth to which we once turned before we knew
Christ. But after we know Him, we say, “We will remember Thy love more than
wine.”
For that reason I am always grieved in spirit when some young Christian comes to
me with the old, old question, “Do you think there is any harm in this or
that?-any harm in the theater, in dancing, in a game of cards, in the social
party that has no place for Christ?”
I say to myself, “If they only really knew Him, they would never ask such
questions.”
“We will remember Thy love more than wine.”
One minute spent in fellowship with Him is worth all the joys of earth. That is
what this book is designed to teach us.
There is a fulness in His love, a sweetness found in fellowship with Christ, of
which the worldling knows nothing. If you are in Christ, these things fall off
like withered autumn leaves.
I often hear people singing:
“Oh, how I love Jesus, Oh, how I love Jesus, Oh, how I love Jesus, Because He
first loved me!” And yet the same people who sing those things sometimes never
spend half-an-hour a day over the Bible; never spend ten minutes alone with God
in prayer; have very little interest in the coming together of the Lord’s people
to wait on Him. Invite them to a prayer-meeting and they are never there, but
invite them to a social evening and they are all present. It is evident that the
love of Christ is not yet the controlling passion of the heart.
The surrendered soul exclaims, “We will remember Thy love more than wine.” And
in Ephesians we read, “Be not drunk with wine, wherein is excess, but be filled
with the Spirit.”
The Spirit-filled believer never craves the follies of the godless world. Christ
is enough to satisfy at all times.
2. The next section takes in Song of Solomon 1:5-11.
Here you have that little retrospect that I have already given you. It looks
back to the time when she first met her lover and inquired of him as to where he
fed his flock.
He answered,
“If thou know not, O thou fairest among women, go thy way forth by the footsteps
of the flock, and feed thy kids beside the shepherds’ tents” (Song of Solomon
1:8).
In other words, it is as when the disciples of John came to Jesus and said,
“Master, where dwellest Thou?” And He said, “Come and see.” And so the soul
cried out, “O Thou shepherd of my heart, where feedest Thou?”
And he said to her, “Just go along in the shepherds’ path, feed your flock with
the rest, and you will find out.”
If you take the path of devotedness to Christ, you will soon know where He
dwells. If you walk in obedience to His Word you cannot fail to find Him.
3. In Song of Solomon 1:12-17 we have a wonderful picture of communion with the
king .
There he and his beautiful bride are together in the royal palace, and she says,
“While the king sitteth at his table”-and the table is the place of
communion-“my spikenard sendeth forth the smell thereof. A bundle of myrrh is my
well-beloved unto me.”
In other words, “He is to me like a fragrant nosegay in which my senses
delight.”
And so as we enter into communion with Christ, He becomes all in all to us and
the heart goes out in worship and praise, like Mary, as already mentioned, in
the house of Bethany bringing her alabaster box of ointment and pouring it on
the head of Jesus. The king sat at the table that day, and her spikenard sent
forth its fragrance and the house was filled with the odor of the ointment. That
is the worshiper. There can be no real worship excepting as the heart is
occupied with Him.
It is common nowadays to substitute service for worship, and to be more taken up
with hearing sermons or with ritual observances than with adoration and praise.
God has said, “Whoso offereth praise glorifieth Me.” He tells us He dwells amid
the praises of His people! It is the satisfied heart that really worships. When
the soul has been won for Christ there will be appreciation of Himself for what
He is and not merely thanksgiving (important as that is); for what He has so
graciously bestowed upon us. “Whom having not seen, ye love; in whom, though now
ye see Him not, yet believing, ye rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of
glory.”! This causes the spirit to go out to Him in worship and praise.
“The Father,” Jesus told the Samaritan woman, “seeketh such to worship Him.” He
yearns for the adoring love of devoted hearts. May we indeed respond to His
desire and ever “worship Him in spirit and in truth.”
~ end of chapter 1 ~
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CHAPTER 40: 03.02. CHAPTER TWO SONG OF SOLOMON 2:4
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CHAPTER TWO
Song of Solomon 2:4 “He brought me to the banqueting house, and his banner over
me was love” (Song of Solomon 2:4). THE figure of the bride and the bridegroom
is used very frequently in Scripture.
Isaiah in the Old Testament says, “As the bridegroom rejoiceth over the bride,
so shall thy God rejoice over thee.”
It is used of the Church in the New Testament, “Christ loved the Church and gave
Himself for it; that He might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water
by the Word.” And when the apostle Paul speaks of the divine institution of
marriage he says, “For this cause shall a man leave his father and mother, and
shall be joined unto his wife, and they two shall be one flesh. This is a great
mystery: but I speak concerning Christ and the Church.” And then writing to the
Corinthian believers, he says, “I have espoused you to one husband, that I may
present you as a chaste virgin to Christ.”
Therefore, this delightful figure of the sweet and intimate marriage
relationship is used through-out Scripture to set forth our union and communion
with the Eternal Lover of our souls.
I have said that the Song of Solomon is the Book of Communion. We have that
beautifully set forth in Song of Solomon 2:1-7.
The bride and the bridegroom are conversing together.
We delight to speak with those whom we love. One of the wonderful things about
love is that when someone has really filled the vision of your soul, you do not
feel that any time that is taken up communing with him is wasted.
Here then you have the lovers out in the country together and she exclaims, for
it is evidently she who speaks in Song of Solomon 2:1, “I am the rose of Sharon,
and the lily of the valleys.” Generally we apply those words to the blessed
Lord; we speak of Him as the Rose of Sharon. We sing sometimes, “He’s the Lily
of the Valley, the Bright and Morning Star.”
It is perfectly right and proper to apply all of these delightful figures to
Him, for we cannot find any figure that speaks of that which is beautiful and of
good report that cannot properly be applied to the Lord. But the wonderful thing
is that He has put His own beauty upon His people. And so here the bride is
looking up into the face of the bridegroom saying, “I am the rose (really, the
narcissus, a blood-red flower) of Sharon, and the lily of the valleys”-the lily
that thrives in the hidden place, not in the town, not in the heat and bustle of
the city, but out on the cool country-side, in the quiet field.
Does it not speak of the soul’s separation to Christ Himself?
It is when we draw apart from the things of the world, apart to Himself, that we
really thrive and grow in grace and become beautiful in His sight.
I am afraid that many of us do not develop spiritually as we should, because of
the fact that we know so little of this heart-separation to Himself. One of the
great griefs that comes to the heart of many a one who is seeking to lead others
on in the ways of Christ, is to know the influence that the world has upon them
after they are converted to God.
How often the question comes from dear young Christians, “Must I give up this,
and must I give up that, if I am going to live a consistent Christian life?” And
the things that they speak of with such apparent yearning are mere trifles after
all as compared with communion with Him.
Must I give up eating sawdust in order to enjoy a good dinner?
Who would talk like that? Must I give up the pleasures of the world in order
that I may have communion with Christ? It is easy to let them all go if the soul
is enraptured with Him; and when you get to know Him better, when you learn to
enjoy communion with Him, you will find yourself turning the question around;
and when the world says, “Won’t you participate with us in this doubtful
pleasure or in this unholy thing?”
Your answer will be, “Must I give up so much to come down to that level? Must I
give up communion with Him? Must I give up the enjoyment of His Word? Must I
give up fellowship with His people in order to go in the ways of the world?”
That would be the giving up.
Dear young Christian, do not think of it as giving up anything to go apart with
Him and enjoy His blessed fellowship. It is then the separated soul looks into
His face and says, “I am like the rose of Sharon, and the lily of the valleys,”
and He at once responds, “As the lily among thorns, so is My love among the
daughters.” It is the heart-satisfaction that He has in His people.
See the contrast between the beautiful, fragile, lovely lily and the rough,
unpleasant, disagreeable thorn.
The thorn speaks of those who are still under the curse, walking in the ways of
the world, and the lily sets forth His sanctified, devoted people, those who
have turned from the world to Himself.
This is His estimate of His saints, and as this little colloquy goes on-for it
is just the soul speaking to Him and He responding, a beautiful holy dialogue
-the bride looks up and says, “As the apple-tree among the trees of the wood, so
is My Beloved among the sons. I sat down under His shadow with great delight,
and His fruit was sweet to my taste.”
He says to her, “You are like a lily to Me in contrast to the thorns.”
And she says, “And You to me are like a beautiful fruit-tree in contrast to the
fruitless trees of the wood.”
Scholars have wondered just what word should be used here to translate the name
of this tree. Is it the apple-tree that we know, or is it the citron, a tree of
a beautiful, deep green shade, producing a lovely fruit, like a cross between
our grapefruit and orange, a most refreshing fruit?
But the thought that the bride expresses is this: You are so much more to me
than any other can possibly be. I have shade and rest and refreshment in your
presence. “I sat down under His shadow with great delight, and His fruit was
sweet to my taste.”
How often the Spirit of God employs the figure of a shadow.
To understand it aright you have to think of a hot eastern clime, the tropical
sun shining down upon a wayfarer. Suddenly he sees before him a place of refuge,
and exclaims as David does in Psalms 17:1-15, “Keep me as the apple of the eye,
hide me under the shadow of Thy wings.” Again in Psalms 36:7, “How excellent is
Thy loving-kindness, O God! Therefore the children of men put their trust under
the shadow of Thy wings.”
Isaiah speaks of “the shadow of a great rock in a weary land.”
The figure is used very frequently in the Bible in speaking of rest and of
comfort found alone in communion with Christ.
There is no drudgery here. You married folk who are here today, do you remember
when you first fell in love with the one who afterward became your
life-companion? Did you find it hard to spend half-an-hour with him? Did you try
to find an excuse for staying away from that young lady? Did you always have
some other engagement so that you would not be at home when that young man
called on you? No; but you tried to put everything else out of the way so as to
have the opportunity to became better acquainted with the person who had won
your heart.
So it is with the believer.
The more we get to know of Christ the more we delight in His presence. So the
bride says, “I sat down under His shadow with great delight, and His fruit was
sweet to my taste.” Her bliss was complete.
“Delight thyself also in the Lord, and He shall give thee the desires of thine
heart.”
You cannot delight in Christ if you are going after the things of the world. “No
man can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other;
or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and
mammon” (Matthew 6:24). And so you cannot enjoy Christ and the world at the same
time.
Then we go a step farther in this scene of communion. “He brought me to the
banqueting house, and His banner over me was love.” This is the place of the
soul’s deep enjoyment when all else is shut out, and Christ’s all-satisfying
love fills the spirit’s vision, and the entire being is taken up with Himself.
This is indeed the “house of wine,” the rest of love. In Song of Solomon 2:5-6
you have the soul so completely enthralled by the one who has won her heart that
she does not care to think of anything else.
Then Song of Solomon 2:7 we have his tender answer, for it is the bridegroom
speaking now: “I charge you, O ye daughters of Jerusalem, by the roes, and by
the hinds of the field, that ye stir not up, nor awake my love, till she
please,” not “till he please.” The word is in the feminine, and the point is
this: He sees such joy in His people when they are in communion with Him that He
says, “Now do not bring in anything to spoil this until she herself please.”
We have that illustrated in the Gospels. Jesus had gone to the house of Mary,
Martha, and Lazarus, and Martha served and was cumbered about her serving. But
Mary took her place at the feet of Jesus and listened to His words. She was in
the banqueting house and His banner over her was love. He was enjoying communion
with her. But Martha said, “I have something more important for Mary than that;
it is more important that she put the dishes on the table and get the dinner
ready.”
But Jesus said, as it were, “Martha, Martha, I charge you that ye stir not up,
nor awake my love till she please.”
In other words, “As long as she is content to sit at My feet and commune with
Me, this means more to Me than the most enjoyable repast.” When the poor
Samaritan woman came to Him at the well outside the city of Sychar, His
disciples came and wondered if He were not hungry, but He said, “I have meat to
eat that ye know not of.” It meant more to Him to have that poor sinner
listening to His words, and drawing near to Him and entering into the love of
His heart, than to enjoy the food that they had gone to the city to get. Service
is a wonderful thing; it is a great thing to labor for so good a Master. But oh,
there is something that comes before service, something that means more to Him
and should mean more to us, and that is fellowship with Himself! A husband and
father was bereft of his precious wife and had just a darling daughter left to
him.
In those lonely days after the wife had passed away, he found his solace and his
comfort in this beautiful girl she had left behind, and evening after evening
when he came home from work, they would have their quiet little meal together,
and then after the dishes had been put away they would go into the sitting-room,
and talk or read, and enjoy each other’s company.
But now it was getting on toward the holiday season, and one evening after doing
up the dishes, the daughter said, “Now, Father dear, you will excuse me tonight;
I have something to occupy me upstairs. You can read while I go up.”
So he sat alone, and the next night the same thing happened, and night after
night for about two weeks he sat alone each evening. On Christmas morning the
girl came bounding into his room saying, “Merry Christmas, Father dear,” and
handed him a beautiful pair of slippers she had made for him.
He looked at them, and then kissed her and said, “My darling, you made these
yourself?”
“Yes, Father.”
“Is this why I have been denied your company the last two weeks?” he asked.
“Yes,” she said; “this is my secret.”
Then he said, “That is very lovely, but next time I would rather have you than
anything you can make for me.”
Our blessed Lord wants ourselves. Our heart’s affection means far more to Him
than service.
And yet there will be service, of course, but service that springs out of
communion, and that accomplishes a great deal more than when we are too busy to
enjoy fellowship with Him.
Another section of the chapter is Song of Solomon 2:8-13, and that we may call
“Love’s Expectation.”
In this section he is absent from her and she is waiting for him to return.
Suddenly she thinks she hears his voice, and she springs up saying, “The voice
of my beloved! Behold, he cometh leaping upon the mountains, skipping upon the
hills.”
You and I who know His grace realize something of what this means. He has saved
us, won our hearts, as this shepherd lover won the heart of this shepherdess,
and He has gone away, but He said, “I will come again, and receive you unto
Myself,” and when He comes, He will be the glorious King.
- It was the shepherd who won her heart; - It was the King to whom she was
wedded.
And so Jesus, the Good Shepherd, has won us for Himself, but He will be the King
when we sit with Him upon the throne. Does it not stir your soul to think that
at any moment we may hear His voice saying, “Arise, My love, and come away?”
Listen to the way she depicts it here.
“My beloved spake and said unto me, Rise up, my love, my fair one, an come away.
For, lo, the winter is past, the rain is over and gone; the flowers appear on
the earth; the time of the singing of birds is come and the voice of the turtle
[dove] is heard in our land the fig tree putteth forth her green figs, and the
vines with the tender grape give a good smell. Arise, my love, my fair one, and
come away.” (Song of Solomon 2:10)
It is not merely the singing of bird as you have it in the Authorized Version,
but “the time of singing,” when He will sing and we shall sing, and we shall
rejoice together, when earth’s long winter of sorrow and trial and perplexity is
ended and the glorious spring will come with our blessed Lord’s return.
You see this is just a little poem in itself, a complete love-lyric in
anticipation of the bridegroom’s return. How soon all this may be fulfilled for
us, how soon He may come for whom our hearts are yearning, we do not know. We
have waited for Him through the years; we have known the cold winters, the hard
and difficult days; we have known the trying times, but oh, the joy, the
gladness when He comes back! He has said, “A little while and He that shall come
will come and will not tarry.”
“‘A little while’-the Lord shall come, And we shall wander here no more; He’ll
take us to His Father’s home, Where He for us is gone before- To dwell with Him,
to see His face, And sing the glories of His grace.”
We shall then share the glory that He went to prepare. What will that mean for
us and for Him! He will have the joy of His heart when He has us with Him. The
closing verses speak of that which should be going on during all the time of His
absence.
In the first place, we ought to be enjoying Him anticipatively, and then there
should be self-judgment, putting out of the life anything that would grieve or
dishonor Him. The bridegroom speaks; may He speak to our souls. ‘O My dove, that
art in the clefts of the rock.” That is where we are resting, in the cleft of
the rock.
“Rock of Ages, cleft for me, Grace hath hid me safe in Thee.”
“O My dove, that art in the clefts of that rock, in the secret places of the
stairs,” or “in the hidden places of the going up.”
We are moving upward from day to day, soon to be with Himself.
“Let Me see thy countenance let Me hear thy voice; for sweet is thy voice and
thy countenance is comely.”
Have you heard Him saying that to you, and have you sometimes turned coldly
away?
Probably when you arose in the morning you heard Him say, “Let Me see thy
countenance before you begin the work of the day; spend a little time with Me,
let Me hear thy voice; talk with Me before you go out to speak to other people;
let Me enjoy a little time with you, the one for whom I died, before you take up
the affairs of the day.”
And you have just turned coldly away, looked at your watch, and said, “I am
sorry, but I cannot spare any time this morning; I must hasten to the office or
the shop,” and so all day He waited for you. When evening came, He spoke again
and said, “Let Me see thy countenance, let Me hear thy voice,” and you said,
“Oh, I am so tired and weary tonight, I have to hurry off to bed.”
Have there not been many days like that? Are there going to be many more? Or
will you seek by grace to respond to the love of His heart and let Him see your
face and hear your voice a little oftener?
Then we have her response, “Take us the foxes, the little foxes, that spoil the
vines: for our vines have tender grapes.”
You see, her brothers had driven her out to be the vinedresser. Now she thinks
of that, and sees a figure there, and says, “I know how I had to watch the vines
so carefully, and now I have to watch the growth of my own spiritual life. As I
set traps for the little foxes, so now I have to judge in myself anything that
would hinder fellowship with Him, that would hinder my spiritual growth.”
What are the little foxes that spoil the vine? I can tell you a good many. There
are the little foxes of vanity, of pride, of envy, of evil speaking, of impurity
(I think this though is a wolf instead of a little fox).
Then there are the little foxes of carelessness, of neglect of the Bible, of
neglect of prayer, of neglect of fellowship with the people of God. These are
the things that spoil the vine, that hinder spiritual growth. Deal with them in
the light of the cross of Christ; put them to death before they ruin your
Christian experience, do not give them any place. “Take us the foxes, the little
foxes, that spoil the vines.” And now we have the closing words, “My beloved is
mine, and I am his: he feedeth among the lilies.”
We need to be reminded of this again and again.
The most intimate sweet, and unsullied spiritual relationship is brought before
us here. And this is to continue, “Until the day break, and the shadow flee
away.”
When will that be? When our blessed Lord returns. “Turn, my beloved, and be thou
like a roe or a young hart upon the mountains of Bether,” that is, the mountain
of separation. He is the object of her soul she abides upon the mountains of
separation until he comes back.
Oh, that these things were more real with us all!
We profess to “hold” the truth of our Lord’s near return. But does it hold us in
such a way that we esteem all earthly things but loss for Him who is so soon to
claim us wholly for Himself?
“Let us search and try our ways," and make sure that we allow nothing in our
lives that destroys the power of this “blessed hope” over our souls.
~ end of chapter 2 ~
***
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CHAPTER 41: 03.03. CHAPTER THREE SONG OF SOLOMON 3:1
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CHAPTER THREE
Song of Solomon 3:1
“I sought him whom my soul loveth; I sought him, but I found him not” (Song of
Solomon 3:1).
THE third chapter of this exquisite book is divided into two parts; the first
comprises Song of Solomon 3:1-5, and the second, the balance of the chapter,
Song of Solomon 3:6-11. The opening section which we now consider sets before us
communion interrupted and renewed.
We are not told just what it was that had disturbed the fellowship of the
lovers. It may have been the absence of the Beloved, resulting in a temporary
lethargic condition on the part of his espoused one.
Possibly the entire section is to be treated as a dream. In fact, this seems the
most likely explanation. But dreams often reflect the disturbed state of the
heart. “A dream cometh through the multitude of business” (Ecclesiastes 5:3).
The opening verse depicts the restlessness of one who has lost the sense of the
Lord’s presence. What saint has not known such experiences? David once
exclaimed, “Lord, by Thy favor Thou hast made my mountain to stand strong; Thou
didst hide Thy face, and I was troubled” (Psalms 30:7).
This withdrawal of the light of His countenance is not necessarily in anger.
Sometimes it is admonitory. It is love’s way of bringing the soul to a
realization of something cherished or allowed that grieves the Holy Spirit of
God. Or it may be the testing of faith to see whether one can trust in the dark
as well as in the light. Rutherford’s experience is depicted thus:
“But flowers need night’s cool sweetness, The moonlight and the dew; So Christ
from one who loved Him, His presence oft withdrew.” To His disciples He said,
when He announced His going away, “Ye believe in God, believe also in Me.” That
is to say, “As you have believed in God whom you have never seen, so when I am
absent believe in Me. I will be just as real-and just as true-although to sight
unseen.” For though the soul lose the sense of His presence nevertheless He
still abideth faithful.
He never forsakes His people though He seems to have withdrawn and He does not
manifest Himself. This is indeed a test of faith and of true-hearted devotion.
We say, “Absence makes the heart grow fonder,” but there is often greater truth
in the old proverb, “Out of sight, out of mind.”
When the Lord as a boy stayed in the temple, even Mary and Joseph went on
“supposing Him to be in the company,” not realizing the true state of affairs.
Here the bride feels her loss. She seeks for him; he is not there. There is no
response to her cry.
For her, rest is impossible with this awful sense of loneliness upon her. She
must seek until she finds; she cannot be contented without him. Would that this
were always true of us! But, alas, how often we go on bereaved of the assurance
of His presence, yet so insensate that we scarcely realize our loss.
Here there is energy-determination-action! She must find him who is all in all
to her. Love abhors a vacuum. Only the sense of his presence can fill and
satisfy her heart. In her dream-or possibly in reality-she leaves her mountain
home and goes forth in search of the object of her deep affections. To the city
she wends her way, and wanders about its streets and peers into every hidden
place, looking only for him!
But at first her search is unrewarded. In fact it is not until she bears witness
to others of his preciousness that he gladdens her vision. Note the terms used:
“I sought him; I found him not; I will seek him; I found him not.” The watchmen,
guarding the city at night, are surprised to see a lovely and yet apparently
respectable woman going about at such an hour. But she turns eagerly to them ere
they can reprove her, crying in the distress of her soul, “Saw ye him whom my
soul loveth?”
The abrupt question conveyed little information in deed. To the prosaic
guardians of the peace, it must have sounded almost incoherent. But to her it
was all that was necessary. There was only one for whom her soul yearned. Surely
they too would know his worth! But, from them, she gets no response.
Leaving them, she has scarcely gone from their sight ere she comes upon the
object of her search. In an ecstasy of rapture she lays hold of him, and
clinging to him as to one who might again vanish away, she brings him into her
own home where she first saw the light of day. The more the passage is pondered,
the more evident it seems to be that all this happened in a dream. But it tells
of the deep exercises of her soul. She misses him; she cannot be happy without
the sense of his presence. Her only joy is found in abiding in his love. She
finds him when she seeks for him with all her heart. This is what gratifies him.
And so again we have the refrain of satisfied love. “I charge you, O ye
daughters of Jerusalem, by the roes and by the hinds of the field, that ye stir
not up nor wake my love until she please” (Song of Solomon 3:5), for, as
previously mentioned, the expression here is in the feminine in the Hebrew
language. Nothing gives our Lord more delight than to find a heart that joys in
Him for what He is in Himself. Too often we think rather of His gifts, the
gracious favors He bestows. It is right and proper that these should stir us to
thanksgiving; but it is as we get to know Himself and to joy in His love that we
really worship in blissful communion.
“The bride eyes not her garments, But her dear Bridegroom’s face; I will not
gaze at glory, But on my King of Grace! Not at the crown He giveth, But on His
pierced Hand; The Lamb is all the glory Of Immanuel’s land.” The latter part of
the chapter is of an entirely different character, and sets forth the truth of
union rather than of restored communion. It is a little gem, complete in itself.
The espoused one has waited long for the return of the shepherd whose love she
has prized above all else. His promise to return for her has been cherished and
relied upon, even though at times his continued absence has made the heart sick
with yearning and even overwhelmed the drooping spirit with fear. But never has
she really lost confidence in his plighted word. Eagerly she has awaited the
fulfillment of his promise.
One day all the simple folk of the countryside are astir and filled with
interest and wonder as they behold a grand procession wending its way along the
highway up from the glorious city of God. Outriders and trumpeters on prancing
chargers herald the approach of a royal equipage.
“Who is this that cometh?” This is the question raised by every onlooker. Whose
progress is this? Who travels in such grandeur and splendor? One can imagine the
scene, and none can blame the curious conjectures as the peasants of the hills
gaze with wonder upon the advancing cavalcade. In the Hebrew the question is
really, “Who is she that cometh?” It is a bridal procession. But who is the
honored maiden called to share the love of the King? Evidently at first they
look in vain for a sight of her. Everything proclaims a nuptial parade, but no
bride is really seen. The bridegroom, however, is clearly in evidence. It is the
son of David himself. In excited admiration the wondering people exclaim:
“Behold his bed, which is Solomon’s!” The royal conveyance is recognized. Sixty
valiant soldiers guard their king as he journeys through the country. Clad in
armor, each with his sword ready to defend his sovereign against any lurking
traitorous foes, they move on in orderly array, as the excitement among the
shepherds and vinedressers grows ever more intense. Not often have their eyes
been regaled by such a scene as this! Perhaps they will never see its like
again!
How magnificent, how costly is that royal palanquin! It is the King’s provision
for the comfort of his bride. And that bride is half-hidden among the rest of
the country-folk, not daring to believe that such honor is for her. All eyes are
on the King. It is his crowning day-his nuptial hour-the day of the gladness of
his heart. He has come forth to seek and claim his spouse whom he won as the
shepherd, and to whom he now reveals himself as the King.
There is no actual mention of the claiming of the bride and bringing her to the
King, it is true. But it is clearly implied. He has come to fulfil his promise
to make her his own. With deep and chastened joy she responds to the royal
summons and takes her place at his side, and so the procession sweeps on,
leaving the bewildered on-lookers gasping with startled amazement at the sudden
change in the estate of her who had been through the years but one of
themselves. It is a worthy theme for a Song of Songs! And most graphically it
portrays the glorious reality which the Bride of the Lamb shall soon know when
the Shepherd-King comes to claim His own.
“He is coming as the Bridegroom, Coming to unfold at last The great secret of
His purpose, Mystery of ages past; And the bride, to her is granted, In His
beauty now to shine, As in rapture she exclaimeth, ‘I am His, and He is mine!’
Oh, what joy that marriage union, Mystery of love divine; Sweet to sing in all
its fulness, ‘I am His, and He is mine!’”
How short then will seem the waiting-time; how trifling the follies of earth
which we gave up in order to be pleasing in His sight! How slight too will the
sufferings of the present time appear, as compared with the glory then to be
enjoyed.
If some fancy we have drawn too much upon imagination as we have sought to
picture the real background of these lovely lyrics, let me ask, Is it possible
to mistake the picture when all Scripture tells the same story?
What was the marriage of Adam and Eve intended to signify? What shall be said of
the servant seeking a bride for Isaac, and what of the love of Jacob as he
served so unweariedly for Rachel?
Of what “great mystery” does Asenath, the Gentile wife of Joseph, speak? And
what shall be said of the love of Boaz for Ruth?
Hosea who bought his bride in the slave-market gives a darker side of the
picture, yet all is in wonderful harmony. All alike tell the story that “Christ
loved the Church and gave Himself for it, that He might sanctify and cleanse it
by the washing of water by the Word, and present it unto Himself a glorious
Church, not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing” (Ephesians 5:26-27).
“All fair” indeed will she then be in His eyes, and one with Him forever, for,
“It is written, For this cause shall a man leave his father and his mother and
shall be joined to his wife, and they twain shall be one flesh. This is a great
mystery, but I speak concerning Christ and the Church” (Ephesians 5:31-32).
Surely all this should speak loudly to our hearts, we who through grace have
been won for One we have never yet seen, but of whom we read, “Whom having not
seen, ye love; in whom, though now ye see Him not, yet believing, ye rejoice
with joy unspeakable and full of glory.”
What will it be when we behold Him coming in royal array to claim us as His very
own, when we discern in the King of kings, the Good Shepherd who gave His life
for the sheep, and who, ere He left this scene, gave the solemn promise, “If I
go . . . I will come again and receive you unto Myself.”
That glad nuptial hour draws on apace. Well may our hearts be stirred and our
spiritual pulses quickened as we join the wondering cry, “Who is this that
cometh?” When the bride is caught away, what will the astonishment be on the
part of those who had never understood that she was the loved one of the Lord
Most High? When they realize that the Church is gone and the heavenly procession
has passed them by, what will be their thoughts in that day? But we must pause
here for the present.
The next chapter gives us the glad recognition and the happy response.
~ end of chapter 3 ~
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CHAPTER 42: 03.04. CHAPTER FOUR SONG OF SOLOMON 4:1-11
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CHAPTER FOUR
Song of Solomon 4:1-11
“Thou art all fair, my love; there is no spot in thee” (Song of Solomon 4:7).
IT is not strange that as we think of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Heavenly
Bridegroom, our souls are moved to their deepest depths, but it is hard for us
to realize that He has a greater love for us than we could ever possibly have
for Him. And so here in this fourth chapter of the Song of Solomon, we hear the
bridegroom expressing to his loved one the feelings of his heart toward her, and
as we read these words, as we listen to these heart-breathings, we should
remember that the speaker is really our Lord Jesus Christ, and that the bride
may be looked at in various ways, as we have already seen.
Prophetically, we may think of the bride as Israel, and the Lord God rejoicing
over her in that coming day; individually, we may think of the bride as
representing any saved soul, and the Lord expressing His delight in the one He
has redeemed to Himself by His precious blood; or as that Church which Christ
loved and for which He gave Himself. So we may see in these utterances His
delight in His Church.
In Song of Solomon 4:1-7, you will notice that He addresses Himself directly to
the bride, and He speaks of her beauties as He sees them in a very wonderful
way. The imagery, of course, as throughout this book, is strictly oriental, and
goes considerably beyond what we prosaic occidentals are in the habit of using.
And yet as we read it, we see that there is nothing coarse, nothing that would
bring the blush to the cheek of modesty.
It is the fullest, most rapturous delight of the bridegroom in the bride, but
every expression is in keeping with the holiness of this blessed little book.
First, he speaks of her general appearance. Four times over in this chapter, he
tells her of her fairness. Twice he declares it in Song of Solomon 4:1. He says,
“Behold, thou art fair, my love; behold, thou art fair.” In verse seven we read,
“Thou art all fair, my love; there is no spot in thee.” Again in Song of Solomon
4:10, “How fair is thy love, my sister, my spouse! How much better is thy love
than wine!”
And yet she had no fairness in herself, as we had no beauty in ourselves.
In an earlier chapter we heard her say, “I am black as the tents of Kedar, as
the curtains of Solomon.” But he says, as he looks at her through love’s eyes,
“Thou art all fair.” Does it not bring before us the wondrous thing that our
Saviour has done for every one of us who have been redeemed by the precious
blood of Christ?
We would never have been saved at all if we had not realized in some measure our
own wretchedness, our own sinfulness, our unlovely character. It was because of
this that we fled to Him for refuge and confessed that we were anything but
fair, anything but beautiful. We took our places side by side with Job and
cried, “I have heard of Thee by 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).
We knelt beside Isaiah and exclaimed, “I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell
in the midst of a people of unclean lips” (Isaiah 6:5). We took part with Peter
and cried, “Depart from me; for I am a sinful man, O Lord” (Luke 5:8). But when
we took that place of repentance, of acknowledgement of our own natural
deformity and unloveliness, He looked upon us in His grace and said, “Thou art
perfect in Mine eyes by the comeliness which I have put upon thee.”
And now as those who have been washed from our sins in His own precious blood,
He addresses us in the rapturous way that we have here, “Thou art all fair, My
love; there is no spot in thee.”
What! No spot in us, when we were stained by sin, when we were polluted by
iniquity? Once it could be said of us, “From the sole of the foot even unto the
head there is no soundness in it; but wounds, and bruises, and putrifying sores:
they have not been closed, neither bound up, neither mollified with ointment”
(Isaiah 1:6). And now His holy eyes cannot find one spot of sin, nor any sign of
iniquity.
Let this give us to understand what grace hath wrought.
“Amazing grace, how sweet the sound, That saved a wretch like me!”
It is only God’s matchless grace that has thus made us accepted in the Beloved.
Then you will notice that the bridegroom looking upon his bride speaks of her
person in the most glowing terms, referring to seven different things.
First, he speaks of her eyes and says to her, “Thou hast doves’ eyes within thy
locks.” What does that mean? The dove was a clean bird, the bird of love and
sorrow, the bird offered in sacrifice upon the altar, and thus typified our Lord
Jesus as the heavenly One. And now he sees reflected in his bride that which
speaks of himself. “Thou hast doves’ eyes.” We may not have stopped to realize
it, but the dove is very keen of sight.
Recently in an eastern city, a poor carrier pigeon fell exhausted on one of
those high buildings, and somebody working on the roof of the building caught it
utterly unable to rise. They found attached to it a message that had come over
three thousand miles, and that little dove had seen its way all along the miles,
and had flown on and on until at last it had brought the message to that eastern
city. When our blessed Lord says to us, “Thou art fair, My love; behold, thou
art fair; thou hast doves’ eyes within thy locks,” it means not only that we
have eyes of beauty, but eyes quick to discern the precious and wonderful things
that are hidden for us in His holy Word. Do we respond to this, or do these
doves’ eyes sometimes take to wandering, going out after the things of a poor
godless world?
He says, “Thy hair is as a flock of goats, that appear from Mount Gilead.” He
refers to the Syrian goat with its long silken hair. One can imagine the beauty
of the scene, a flock of goats up yonder on the mountain-side. The bridegroom
says, “Your hair reminds me of that.”
Hair, in Scripture, is a woman’s glory. That is one reason why she is not
supposed to follow the styles of the world and cut away her beauty and glory.
You remember the woman of old who loved Jesus and knelt at His feet and washed
them with her tears and wiped them with her hair. She was using that which spoke
of her beauty and her glory to minister to Him, the loving, blessed Saviour.
Some of my sisters will forgive me if I say that it would be difficult for them
to dry anyone’s feet with their hair! Yes, her hair is a woman’s glory and
beauty, and, incidentally, that is exactly the reason why the Word of God tells
the woman to cover her head when she comes into the presence of the Lord. When
she comes in before Him whose glory fills the heavens, to join with His
worshipping people, she is to cover her own glory that no one’s attention may be
distracted, but fixed on Christ Himself.
When you get the inwardness of these things, you find there is a beauty and a
privilege in them that does away with all legality, and also does away with
leaving us free to follow our own judgment.
In Scripture, some things are commanded because they are right, and other things
are right because they are commanded. When He makes known His will, the subject
Christian bows to His Word, assured that there is a reason for it, though he
does not always understand it. How He delights to behold His obedient people;
how He glories in their moral beauty!
Then, in the third place, he speaks of her teeth, and we may think that strange,
but there is nothing more beautiful than a lovely set of pearls half-hidden in
the mouth.
“Thy teeth are like a flock of sheep that are shorn, which came up from the
washing; whereof every one bear twins, and none is barren among them.”
The two sets of teeth answer to the twins in their cleanliness and sparkling
beauty, so attractive in his eyes. And how important the teeth are, spiritually
speaking, because they speak to us of mastication, of the ability to properly
lay hold of and digest our food.
I am afraid there are a number of toothless Christians from that standpoint.
Some say, “I do not know how it is, but other people read their Bibles and find
such wonderful things, when I do not find much in mine.”
The trouble is you have such poor teeth, you do not masticate your spiritual
food properly. It is by meditation that we appropriate our daily provision.
David said, “My meditation of Him shall be sweet” (Psalms 104:34).
Until He gives you a new set of spiritual teeth, you had better use some
second-hand ones. Thank God for what others have found; read their books, and
get something that way! By-and-by if you will wait on Him, the Lord will give
you back your teeth, even if you have lost them, and you will be able to enjoy
the truth for yourself.
Song of Solomon 4:3 is most lovely: “Thy lips are like a thread of scarlet, and
thy speech is comely.”
This is different from that abominable custom of today that leads so many women,
of course not consistent Christian women, but those of the world and Christians
living on the edge of the world, to put that filthy stuff upon their lips that
makes them look like a cross between poor, low women of the street and circus
performers.
Here it is the red lip of health, of spiritual health.
“Thy lips are like a thread of scarlet, and thy speech is comely.” Why? Because
it is speech that has to do with Him! The bride loves to speak of the
bridegroom, as the Christian loves to speak of Christ, and her lips are like a
thread of scarlet, for she exalts that blood by which she has been brought nigh
to God.
Every real Christian will have lips like a thread of scarlet, for he gladly
confesses that he owes everything for eternity to that precious atoning blood of
the Lord Jesus Christ.
It is not only when we gather at the table of the Lord, when we bow in worship
as we take the bread and cup as from His blessed pierced hand, that we love to
sing and speak and think of the blood; but always!
Everywhere, at all times, the believer delights to remember that he has been
redeemed to God by the precious blood of Christ.
You will find the scarlet thread running right through this Book.
God has said:
- “The life of the flesh is in the blood, and I have given it to you upon the
altar to make an atonement for your soul; it is the blood that maketh an
atonement for the soul.” - “When I see the blood, I will pass over you.” - “We
have been redeemed to God by the precious blood of Christ, as of an unblemished
spotless lamb, foreknown indeed from the foundation of the world, but manifest
in these last times for you.” - “The blood of Jesus Christ, God’s Son, cleanseth
us from all sin.”
And when at last we get home to heaven, our lips will be like a thread of
scarlet still, for we will join in that new song and sing our praises to Him who
was “slain and has loosed us from our sins in His own blood,” and we will render
adoration unto the Lamb whose blood was shed, that we might be made kings and
priests unto God.
O Christian, make much of the blood, speak often of the blood. Do not be
satisfied with the namby-pamby, bloodless religion of the day. When you ask the
question, “Are you a Christian?” and you get the ready answer, “Oh, yes; I
belong to the church,” then see that your lips are like a thread of scarlet and
ask, “Are you trusting in the precious blood of the Lord Jesus alone for
salvation?”
So often you will find that the idle profession made a moment ago was only an
empty thing. They are Christians in name only. There are thousands about us who
know nothing of the cleansing value of the blood of Jesus.
“Thy temples are like a piece of a pomegranate within thy locks.” You know the
temple speaks of the dome of thought, and so the bride’s thought is about her
bridegroom. She loves to think of him, to meditate upon the treasures found in
his word. Then he delights in her as she delights in him. In Song of Solomon 4:4
we have the strength of her character, given her by divine grace. “Thy neck is
like the tower of David builded for an armory, whereon there hang a thousand
bucklers, all shields of mighty men.”
David’s tower, you see, is the place of defense, the place of strength, and the
bride here is one of those who can stand up straight and boldly look the world
in the face, assured of the love and protection of her matchless bridegroom. And
so we are called upon to be “strong in the Lord, and in the power of His might.”
The head won’t be hanging down like a bulrush when our hearts are taken up with
Him. There will be a boldness that is never known when out of communion with
Him.
Then, last of all, in the seventh place he speaks of that which tells of
affection. “Thy two breasts are like two young roes that are twins, which feed
among the lilies.” Her heart is his, her whole being belongs to him, and he
rejoices in her. We may well sing:
“Jesus, Thou art enough The mind and heart to fill; Thy patient life-to calm the
soul; Thy love-its fear dispel.
“O fix our earnest gaze So wholly, Lord, on Thee; That, with Thy beauty
occupied, We elsewhere none may see.” As we joy in Him, we will find that He
will joy in us. You remember what Faber wrote:
“That Thou should’st so delight in me And be the God Thou art, Is darkness to my
intellect, But sunlight to my heart.”
I cannot understand why He should say, “Thou art all fair, My love; there is no
spot in thee.”
I cannot comprehend such matchless grace, but my heart can rejoice in it, and so
I love Him in return because He first loved me.
Following this section in which we have the bridegroom’s joy in the bride, in
Song of Solomon 4:8-11 we have his summons to companionship with himself.
The bridegroom would call his bride away from everything else that has occupied
her in order to find in him her all in all.
“Come with me from Lebanon, my spouse, with me from Lebanon: look from the top
of Amana, from the top of Shenir and Hermon, from the lions’ dens, from the
mountains of the leopards. Thou hast ravished my heart, my sister, my spouse;
thou hast ravished my heart with one of thine eyes, with one chain of thy neck.
How fair is thy love, my sister, my spouse! how much better is thy love than
wine! and the smell of thine ointments than all spices!”
He sees her upon the mountainside. And, you know, the mountain is the place of
privilege, the place of beauty, of worldly grandeur and glory, but it is also
the place of danger. The leopard’s lair is there and the lion’s den, and as he
beholds her there alone, he cries, “Come with me from Lebanon . . . from the
lions’ dens, from the mountains of the leopards.”
Our blessed Lord wants the companionship of His redeemed people.
How sweet those words, “Come with Me!”
He never calls His people from anything, either the beautiful things of the
world or the dangerous things (and after all, the beautiful is often the most
dangerous), simply to take a path alone, but it is always, “Come with Me,” and
you cannot afford, you who love His name, to draw back, to say, “There are other
things so lovely, so beautiful, that my soul must have; I cannot leave them to
go with Thee.”
He who died for you, He who left heaven’s glory in order to redeem your soul,
calls to you and says, “Come with Me.”
Can you draw back and say, “No; it is too much to ask; I cannot leave these
surroundings; I cannot leave these worldly follies; I cannot quit this place of
danger for Thy sake, Lord Jesus?”
Surely there is not very much love there. You need to get down before Him and
confess the sin of your cold-heartedness and indifference, and ask for a fresh
vision of the love that He manifested in the cross that your heart may be weaned
away from everything else.
Dr. Watts has put it:
“He calls me from the lion’s den, From this wild world of beasts and men, To
Zion where His glories are, No Lebanon is half so fair. Nor dens of prey, nor
flowery plains, Nor earthly joys, nor earthly pains, Shall hold my feet or force
my stay, When Christ invites my soul away.” Does your heart respond to that?
What He desires above everything else is to see His people finding satisfaction
in His company. And then in the closing two verses of this section, Song of
Solomon 4:10-11, we read,
“How fair is thy love, my sister, my spouse! how much better is thy love than
wine! and the smell of thine ointments than all spices! Thy lips, O my spouse,
drop as the honeycomb; honey and milk are under thy tongue; and the smell of thy
garments is like the smell of Lebanon.”
You remember in Song of Solomon 1:4 it is she who said, looking up to him, “We
will remember thy love more than wine.”
Now it is he who responds to her and says,
“How much better is thy love than wine! and the smell of thine ointments than
all spices! Thy lips, O my spouse, drop as the honeycomb: honey and milk are
under thy tongue; and the smell of thy garments is like the smell of Lebanon.”
His people should be fragrant with the sweetness of Christ.
It is said of the disciples of old, “They took knowledge that they had been with
Jesus,” and if we are in His company, there will be a rich fragrance of
holiness, of heavenliness, about us wherever we are found. A minister tells of
riding with another preacher on top of a bus in London, England. As they came
down a poor-looking street with a big factory on one side, they were halted, and
they noticed the doors of the factory had opened and hundreds of girls were
pouring out and making their way across the street to a lunch room; suddenly the
air was filled with a sweet delightful fragrance.
The visitor said, “Isn’t that remarkable in a factory district here in
London?-such wondrous fragrance! It seems like the odor of a great garden. You
would not think of finding such fragrance in this district.”
“Oh, you don’t understand,” said his friend; “this is one of the largest
perfume-factories in all the British Isles, and these young people are working
constantly among the perfumes, and every where they go the fragrance remains
upon their garments.”
Beloved, if you and I are living in fellowship with Christ, if we keep in touch
with Him, everywhere we go His fragrance will be manifested in our lives.
~ end of chapter 4 ~
***
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CHAPTER 43: 03.05. CHAPTER FIVE SONG OF SOLOMON 4:12-5:1
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CHAPTER FIVE
Song of Solomon 4:12-15, Song of Solomon 5:1
“A garden inclosed is my sister, my spouse; a spring shut up, a fountain sealed.
Thy plants are an orchard of pomegranates, with pleasant fruits; camphire, with
spikenard, spikenard and saffron; calamus and cinnamon, with all trees of
frankincense; myrrh, and aloes, with all the chief spices: a fountain of
gardens, a well of living waters, and streams from Lebanon. Awake, O north wind;
and come, thou south; blow upon my garden, that the spices thereof may flow out.
Let my beloved come into his garden, and eat his pleasant fruits. I am come into
my garden, my sister, my spouse: I have gathered my myrrh with my spice; I have
eaten my honeycomb with my honey; I have drunk my wine with my milk: eat, O
friends; drink, yea, drink abundantly, O beloved” (Song of Solomon 4:12-15; Song
of Solomon 5:1).
WE have been noticing in chapter after chapter how the blessed Lord puts before
us our privileges as those who are permitted to enter into communion with
Himself, and now in this little section we have the believer (if you think of it
as the individual), or Israel, or the Church, whichever you will, pictured as a
watered garden set apart for our Lord Himself to bring forth fruit that will be
to His delight. It is a lovely figure, one used on a number of other occasions
in Scripture.
In Isaiah 58:1-14, God pictures His people as such a garden. In Isaiah 58:11, He
says,
“The Lord shall guide thee continually, and satisfy thy soul in drought, and
make fat thy bones: and thou shalt be like a watered garden, and like a spring
of water, whose waters fail not.”
This is a beautiful picture. Primarily it refers to Israel, and morally it
speaks of any believer, of that which God would see in all His saints as they
walk with Him.
In the book of the prophet Jeremiah, Jeremiah 31:12, we read, “Therefore they
shall come and sing in the height of Zion, and shall flow together to the
goodness of the Lord, for wheat, and for wine, and for oil, and for the young of
the flock and of the herd: and their soul shall be as a watered garden; and they
shall not sorrow any more at all.”
It is the Risen Christ Himself from whom we draw abundant supplies of mercy and
grace; but did you ever think of your own heart as a garden in which He is to
find His joy? Your very life is as a garden which is to be for His pleasure.
That is the figure you have here. It is the bridegroom looking upon his bride
with his heart filled with delight as he says to her, “You are to be for me, you
are like a lovely garden yielding its fruit and flowers for me, set apart for
myself.”
“A garden inclosed is my sister, my spouse; a spring shut up, a fountain
sealed.”
We in America like open gardens that anybody can enjoy, but in Syria and in
other parts of the old land, they have many inclosed gardens, gardens that are
walled in. This is necessary in some of those countries, as otherwise they would
be destroyed by marauding creatures and robbers. It is as though the Lord says,
“That is what I want My people to be, separated to Myself; I want them to have
about them the wall of holiness, for I have marked them off as My own.”
In the Psalms we read, “The Lord hath set apart him that is godly for Himself.”
Some Christians shrink from the idea of separation. If it is only a legal thing,
it may become mere Phariseeism with no heart to it, but if it is to Himself, if
it is the soul going out to Him, if one turns away from the world for love of
Him, then separation is a very precious thing indeed, and one does not need to
think of it as legal bondage, for it is being set apart for God Himself.
Could one think of a higher privilege on earth than that He might find His joy
in us and we might find our joy in Him?
“A garden inclosed is my sister, my spouse.”
How Satan likes to break down the wall, to destroy that principle of holy
separation which would keep our hearts for the Lord alone; but what a loss it is
to our own souls, and what a loss it means to Him, when His people become like a
garden trodden under foot, as it were, by every wayfarer. That is what the
Christian becomes who does not keep the path of separation.
Then notice the next figure, “A spring shut up, a fountain sealed.”
Pure water is a very precious thing in the Far East and so often, when a spring
is discovered, it is walled about, covered, and locked, and the owner of it
keeps the key so that he can go and drink when he will, and the water is kept
from pollution and waste.
That is what our Lord would have in His people. He has given His Holy Spirit to
dwell in us, and the Holy Spirit is Himself the Fountain of Water within every
believer’s heart, that we might be to His praise and to His glory. This living
water within the garden will, of course, result in abundant fruit and flowers.
“Thy plants are an orchard of pomegranates, with pleasant fruits; camphire, with
spikenard.”
The orchard suggests more than a mere garden of beautiful flowers; not only
something fair to look at, or something that is fragrant to the senses, but
something fruitful as well. What precious fruit is borne by the believer; what
precious fruit is found in the heart of the one who is shut up to God!
In Philippians one, the apostle tells those dear saints that he is sure that God
who has begun the good work in them, will perform it until the day of Jesus
Christ. In Php 1:9-11, he says, “And this I pray, that your love may abound yet
more and more in knowledge and in all judgment; that ye may approve things that
are excellent; that ye may be sincere and without offence till the day of
Christ; being filled with the fruits of righteousness, which are by Jesus
Christ, unto the glory and praise of God.”
It seems to me that every one ought to understand that a life that is lived for
God is one bringing forth the fruits of righteousness.
Love, purity, goodness, sweetness, kindness, compassion, and consideration for
others, all of these things are the beautiful fruits that grow in this garden
when the living water is properly fructifying the soil.
In Galatians 5:22 we have a long list of the fruit of the Spirit. Challenge your
own heart by asking, “Am I producing this kind of fruit for Him, ‘Love, joy,
peace, longsuffering’?” It is that patience, you know, that makes you willing to
endure. Then there is “gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance.”
This is the delightful fruit that our Lord is looking for in the lives of His
people. He would have every one of us as a garden that produces fruit like this.
That word translated “orchard” is really similar to the Persian word for
“Paradise,” and it may suggest that as God has a paradise above for His own
people, where they shall share His joy for all eternity, so a believer’s heart
when it is producing fruit like this, is for God a paradise where He finds His
joy and His delight. I wonder if we think enough of that side of it. Are we not
likely to become self-centered and merely think of God as serving us, the
blessed Lord Jesus giving Himself for us, dying for us, rising again for us,
nurturing our souls, guiding us through the wilderness of this world and
bringing us at last to glory?
Some of the hymns we sing are almost entirely occupied with the blessings that
come to us, but these do not rise to the height of the Christian’s communion at
all.
It is when we are through thinking about what God is doing for us, and are
seeking by grace to adore the One who does all this for us, and are letting our
lives go out to Him as a thank-offering in praise and adoration, that we truly
rise to the height of our Christian privileges. Then it is that He gathers these
sweet and lovely fruits in His garden. It is not only fruit upon which He feeds,
but it is that which gives satisfaction in every sense.
“Camphire, with spikenard, spikenard and saffron; calamus and cinnamon, with all
trees of frankincense; myrrh and aloes, with all the chief spices.”
Some of these plants give forth their fragrance as the rain and dew fall upon
them; some of them send forth a subtle aroma when the rays of the sun are
warming them. Others never exude, never give out their fragrance, until they are
pierced and the sap flows forth. So is it with our lives. We need all kinds of
varied experiences in order that we may manifest the graces of Christ in our
behavior, and it is not only that we are to be for His delight in the sense in
which I have been speaking, but we are to be for His service too, in making
known His grace to a lost world. In Song of Solomon 4:15 we read, “A fountain of
gardens, a well of living waters, and streams from Lebanon.”
Let us see if we can correlate that. There is Lebanon, that backbone mountain
range of Palestine, with Mt. Hermon to the north covered with snow. The streams
coming down from Lebanon sink into the ground, and as they do so, springs rise
here and there in vales and dells to the surface of the earth, and so the living
water flows forth to refresh the thirsty soil.
The living water represents, as we know from John’s Gospel, the blessed Holy
Spirit. Our Lord Jesus said, “If any man thirst, let him come unto Me and drink.
He that believeth on Me, as the Scripture hath said, from within him shall flow
rivers of living water. But this spake He of the Spirit, which they that believe
on Him should receive: for the Holy Ghost was not yet given; because that Jesus
was not yet glorified” (John 7:37-39).
Now the Spirit of God descending from above enters into our inmost being and
then we have the living water springing up unto everlasting life. Our own hearts
are refreshed and gladdened, and the living water in abundance flows out from us
for the blessing of a lost world around.
Is this not a beautiful picture?
My brother, my sister, what do you know of this life in the fulness of the Holy
Spirit? Far too many of us seem to be content to know that our sins have been
forgiven, that we have a hope of heaven based upon some testimony that we have
received from Holy Scripture. But it is more than this.
We are not merely to have the assurance of our own salvation, but every one of
us should be as watered gardens for Him, with streams flowing out for the
refreshment of dying men and women all about us. In what measure is your life
touching others?
In what measure are you being used of God to win other souls for Christ?
If we have to confess, as many of us would, that we have never had the privilege
of winning one soul, that so far as we know we have never yet given a testimony
to any one that has really been blessed in his or her coming to Christ, let me
suggest that there must be something that is hindering the outflow of the living
water.
Can it be that great boulders of worldliness, selfishness, pride, carnality,
sinful folly or covetousness are literally choking the fountain of living water,
so that there is just a little trickling when there should be a wonderful
outflowing? If this is the case, seek by grace to recognize these hindrances and
deal with them one by one.
Away with worldliness, away with pride. Who am I to be proud? What have I to be
proud of? “What hast thou that thou hast not received?”
- Away with carnality, - Away with self-seeking, - Away with covetousness, -
Away with living for my own interests.
Let me henceforth live alone for Him who shed His precious blood for me and
redeemed me to Himself. As I thus deal with these things that hinder the outflow
of the living water, I will myself enter into a new, living, blessed and
wonderful experience, and my testimony then will count in blessing to those
about me, and my life will be at its best for Him.
There has been some question as to the identity of the first speaker in verse
sixteen.
It is very evident that the one who speaks in the last sentence is the bride,
but is it the bride or the bridegroom in the first part of the verse?
“Awake, O north wind; and come, thou south; blow upon my garden, that the spices
thereof may flow out.”
If it is the bridegroom who is speaking, then he it is who is calling on the
winds to blow upon what he calls, “my garden,” the heart of his bride, in order
that she may be at her best for him. If, on the other hand, as I am personally
inclined to believe, it is the bride who is speaking, then it indicates her
yearning desire to be all that he would have her to be.
Dear child of God, is that your desire?
Do you yearn to be all that Christ would have you to be, or are you still
actuated by worldly and selfish motives that hinder communion with Him? Listen
to these words again, as we think of them as coming from the lips of the bride,
“Awake, O north wind.”
That is the cold, bitter, biting, wintry blast.
Naturally she would shrink from that as we all would, and yet the cold of winter
is as necessary as the warmth of summer if there is going to be perfection in
fruit-bearing. It is as though she says, “Blessed God, if need be, let Thy
Spirit breathe upon me through trial and sorrow, and difficulty and perplexity;
take from me all in which I have trusted from the human standpoint; bereave me
of everything if Thou wilt; leave me cold, naked, and alone except for Thy love,
but work out Thy will in me.” The best apples are grown in northern climes where
frost and cold have to be faced. Those grown in semi-tropical countries are apt
to be tasteless and insipid. It takes the cold to bring out the flavor. And it
is so with our lives. We need the north winds of adversity and trial as well as
the zephyrs of the south so agreeable to our natures.
The very things we shrink from are the experiences that will work in us to
produce the peaceable fruits of righteousness.
If everything were easy and soft and beautiful in our lives, they would be
insipid; there would be so little in them for God that could delight His heart;
and so there must be the north wind as well as the south. But, on the other
hand, we need the south wind also, and our precious Lord tempers the winds to
every one of us. “Awake, O north wind; and come, thou south; blow upon my
garden, that the spices thereof may flow out.”
It is a blessed thing to be in that state of soul where we can just trust
ourselves to Him.
Charles Spurgeon tells of a man who had the words, “God is love,” painted on his
weather-vane.
Someone said, “That is a queer text to put there. Do you mean to say that God’s
love is as changeable as the wind?”
“Oh, no,” said the other; “I mean that whichever way the wind blows, God is
love.”
Do not forget that. It may be the north wind of bereavement when your dearest
and best are snatched from you, but “God is love.” It may be that the cold wind
of what the world calls ill-fortune will sweep away like a fearful cyclone all
that you have accumulated for years, but “God is love,” and it is written, “The
Lord hath His way in the whirlwind and in the storm, and the clouds are the dust
of His feet” (Nahum 1:3).
Perhaps you have been asking questions like this, “Why has God allowed the
sufferings we have had to undergo? Why has He allowed these weeks and months
with no employment and everything slipping away, the savings of years gone?”
Dear child of God, He giveth not account of any of His matters now, but, “When
you stand with Christ in glory, Looking o’er life’s finished story,” then He
will make it clear to you, and you will know why He allowed the cold wind to
blow over His garden as well as the south wind, and if you would bow to Him now,
and recognize His unchanging love, perhaps He would be able to trust you with
more zephyrs from the south than you ordinarily experience.
We are not subject enough to the will of God. We need to learn the lesson that,
“All things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the
called according to His purpose” (Romans 8:28).
“Awake, O north wind; and come, thou south; blow upon my garden, that the spices
thereof may flow out.”
In other words, “Anything, Lord, that will make me a better Christian, a more
devoted saint; anything that will make me a more faithful child of Thine, so
that Thou canst find Thy delight in me.”
Is that your thought? And then she looks up into the face of her bridegroom and
says, “Let my beloved come into his garden, and eat his pleasant fruits.”
How He delights to get such an invitation as that from His people.
He responds to her immediately, for the first verse of chapter five really
belongs to this section. She no sooner says, “Come,” than he replies, “I am come
into my garden, my sister, my spouse: I have gathered my myrrh with my spice; I
have eaten my honeycomb with my honey; I have drunk my wine with my milk: eat, O
friends; drink, yea, drink abundantly, O beloved.”
It closes with a scene of rapturous communion. And when you look up to the
Beloved of your heart and say, “Come into Thy garden and eat Thy pleasant
fruits,” He will immediately respond, “I am come.” You will never have to wait;
you will never have to give Him a second invitation. If you have any time for
Him, He always has time for you.
~ end of chapter 5 ~
***
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CHAPTER 44: 03.06. CHAPTER SIX SONG OF SOLOMON 5:2-8:5
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CHAPTER SIX
Song of Solomon 5:2-16, Song of Solomon 6:1-13, Song of Solomon 7:1-13, Song of
Solomon 8:1-5
“I sleep, but my heart waketh; it is the voice of my beloved that knocketh,
saying, Open to me, my sister, my love, my dove, my undented: for my head is
filled with dew, and my locks with the drops of the night. I have put off my
coat; how shall I put it on? I have washed my feet; how shall I defile them? My
beloved put in his hand by the hole of the door, and my bowels were moved for
him. I rose up to open to my beloved; and my hands dropped with myrrh, and my
fingers with sweet smelling myrrh, upon the handles of the lock. I opened to my
beloved; but my beloved had withdrawn himself, and was gone: my soul failed when
he spake: I sought him, but I could not find him; I called him, but he gave me
no answer. The watchmen that went about the city found me, they smote me, they
wounded me; the keepers of the walls took away my veil from me. I charge you, O
daughters of Jerusalem, if ye find my beloved, that ye tell him, that I am sick
of love” (Song of Solomon 5:2-8).
WE have a very long section before us beginning with the second verse of chapter
five and concluding with the fifth verse of chapter eight.
In this entire portion we have traced out for us in a very wonderful way the
interruption of communion and its final restoration. We have already had one
similar picture in this book where the bridegroom’s absence produced a temporary
sense of estrangement. We have that dealt with more fully in this section, where
the bridegroom’s advances are coldly spurned. If we will remember that the bride
speaks of any regenerated soul and that the bridegroom is our blessed Lord Jesus
Christ, I am sure we shall have no difficulty in getting the spiritual lesson of
these chapters.
We have all experienced interrupted communion. We have all known such periods of
glad joy in the Lord as those brought before us in the previous chapter. But how
often have we found that, following almost immediately on a period of great
blessing and delightful fellowship with the Lord, there may come a time of
spiritual dearth and broken fellowship. You recall that in Israel’s history they
were scarcely through rejoicing over the wonderful victory at Jericho before
they were wringing their hands in despair because of the defeat at Ai.
How often in our Christian lives we have similar experiences. Perhaps you go to
an edifying meeting where your whole soul is stirred by the singing, by the
prayers, and by the ministry of the Word, and you feel as though you would never
again lose sight of your blessed Redeemer’s face; and yet the spirit is willing
but the flesh is weak, and within a very short time you find yourself inquiring,
“Where is the blessedness I knew When first I saw the Lord?” And everything
seems dark and cloudy and you no longer discern your Saviour’s presence. Is
there anyone who has had uninterrupted communion with the Lord throughout all
the years? I am sure there is not. Even if we imagined so, it would simply be
because we lacked that sensitiveness which would enable us to apprehend the fact
that He was in some sense grieved because of our behavior.
We have a wonderfully beautiful picture here.
The bride has retired and she is drowsing, just about asleep, and yet a bit
restless, when there comes a knock at the door. It is the knock of the beloved
one who has returned from a distant journey and he cries, “Open to me, my
sister, my love, my dove, my undefiled; for my head is filled with dew, and my
locks with the drops of the night.”
We have the same picture in the New Testament in the third chapter of the book
of Revelation, in which we see the Lord Jesus waiting outside the door of the
Laodicean church. He says, “Behold, I stand at the door and knock: if any man
hear My voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him,
and he with Me.”
But what lethargy there is! How few respond to His gracious request! And so here
the bride exclaims, “I have put off my coat; how shall I put it on? I have
washed my feet; how shall I defile them?”
There is a fretfulness about it. Why am I disturbed at this hour? Why did you
not come at some other time? I have taken off my coat; why should I put it on
now? I have washed my feet; why should I defile them? This refers to the eastern
custom of washing the feet before seeking repose, for in that land they wore
sandals and the upper part of the foot had no covering. In other words, she did
not want to bestir herself even so much as to open the door to him. Have you
never known similar experiences? Have you never been so much concerned with your
own affairs, with seeking your own ease, with self-pleasing, that when His voice
called you for an hour of communion and fellowship with Him, you really repelled
His advances, instead of gladly throwing open the door and saying, “Blessed
Lord, nothing else is worthwhile but to enjoy the sunshine of Thy smile, to
enjoy fellowship with Thyself?” In this instance, we may see in the bride’s
behavior evidence of just such a state of soul. But then, as she lies there
drowsing, neither actually asleep nor awake, she discerns something that moves
her heart. She says, “My beloved put in his hand by the hole of the door.”
We will not understand the simile unless we are familiar with those eastern
doors and locks. The lock was on the inside of the door, and there was an
opening where the owner could, if he had the key, reach in and use the key from
the inside to open the door. He comes, but he does not open the door in that
way. He has asked admission and wants her to rise and open for him. She sees
that hand come through the opening and the moment she does so, her heart is
stirred and she cries, “Oh, I must let him in.”
And now she rises and hurries to the door and even as she lays hold of the lock,
she exclaims, “My hands dropped with myrrh, and my fingers with sweet-smelling
myrrh, upon the handles of the lock.”
That refers to another eastern custom.
When a lover came to visit the one who had won his heart and found that she was
not at home, or if at home, she did not respond to his advances, he covered the
lock of the door with sweet-smelling ointments and left flowers as a token of
his affection. And so the bride says, “My hands dropped with myrrh, and my
fingers with sweet-smelling myrrh.” It was not a dream then; he had really been
there and had gone. But she threw the door open to enable him to hear her cry,
“Come, come in!” but there was no answering response. “My beloved,” she said,
“had withdrawn himself and was gone.”
Love is very sensitive. The trouble with many of us is that we fail to recognize
this. We have an idea that the beloved one should be ready whenever we are for a
time of gladness together, but it is not always so. And so, sometimes when He
comes to the heart’s door we practically say, “No; it is inconvenient. I do not
want to drop things right now.” But later when we would enjoy His presence we
find He has gone.
Have you never had such experiences? Has He come to you and said, “I want you to
sit down with Me over My Word; I want you to spend a little time in prayer; to
dismiss other things from your mind and commune with Me,” and you have said,
“Oh, but I have so much to occupy me; I cannot do it now.”
Plenty of time for self but very little for Him. And then some wonderful token
of His loving-kindness came to you, and you said, “Oh, I must respond to His
heart,” and you threw open the door as it were and called, but He was not there.
And did you ever know what it was to go on for days and weeks without any real
sense of His presence? “My beloved had withdrawn himself.”
If you do not respond to His voice when He comes to you in tender grace, you may
seek Him for a long time before you will enjoy fellowship with Him again. Such
is the sensitiveness of love. He wants to make you feel that His love is
worthwhile, and wants to test you as to whether you are really in earnest when
you profess to desire fellowship with Him. And so as the story goes on, she
leaves the house and goes out into the city seeking after him, and as she makes
her way from street to street, perchance calling his name and looking here and
there and wondering where he has hidden himself, she says, “The watchmen that
went about the city found me, they smote me, they wounded me; the keepers of the
walls took away my veil from me.”
You will always have to suffer if you refuse obedience to the voice of Christ
when He calls you. You will always have to be tested before communion is
restored.
There is a word in the New Testament that has troubled some of our sisters. In 1
Corinthians 11:1-34 we are told that a Christian woman, when she is engaged in
worship with the people of God or in public prayer or testimony, is to cover her
head with a veil. And people say, “Why the veil?”
The Bible says that the veil is her “power.” Is not that a strange thing? In the
margin of our Bible we have a rather peculiar interpretation of that. I think it
must have been suggested by a man. It says, “Power, a sign that she is under the
power of her husband.” But I do not think that is it, at all.
This verse, I believe, explains what it means. The covering on her head is her
power. In what sense? Look at it this way. As long as her head was veiled that
was her power, but when the keepers saw her going about the streets at night,
they misunderstood her motive and character, and they took away her veil. The
unveiled woman was marked out as one who was unclean and unchaste; but the
covering on her head was the sign of the chaste and modest wife or maiden.
Years ago I was a Salvation Army officer. I remember that our Army girls could
go anywhere with those little blue bonnets. I never knew but one in all the
years I was connected with them, who was insulted by any one in any place as
long as she had that little bonnet on. I have been seeking the lost in the
lowest kind of dives on the Barbary Coast of San Francisco, and have seen them
come in with their papers and go from one rough ungodly man to another, and
ordinarily no one ever said an unkind or a wicked word to them. But once a
drunken sailor dared to say something insulting to one of them, immediately
practically the entire crowd jumped on him and knocked him down and gave him
such a trouncing as he had never had before; and then threw him into the street
for the police to pick up. The little blue bonnet was the power of the Salvation
Army lassie.
Just so the covered head of the women in that oriental land.
The uncovered head bespoke the immoral woman, while the covered head was her
power, and told that she was seeking to live a life of goodness and purity. So
here, because the bride has lost the sense of her bridegroom’s presence, she is
branded as though she were impure and unholy. This shame has come upon her
because she did not immediately respond to her bridegroom’s call.
She turns for help to the daughters of Jerusalem as the morning dawns and she
sees them coming down the street. “I charge you, O daughters of Jerusalem, if ye
find my beloved, that ye tell him, that I am sick of love.” In other words,
“Tell him my heart is yearning for him; tell him I repent of my indifference, of
my cold-heartedness and my unconcern, and want him above everything else.”
Christian, is that what your heart says? Are you a backslidden believer? Do you
remember times when you enjoyed communion with your Lord, when life with Him was
sweet and precious indeed? But alas, alas, that fellowship has been broken, and
you are saying with Job, “Oh, that I knew where I might find Him!” Does your
heart say today, “Tell Him that I am sick of love, that my whole being is
yearning after Him; I want to be restored to Him, to the sweetness of
communion?”
The daughters of Jerusalem say, “What is thy beloved more than another beloved,
O thou fairest among women? What is thy beloved more than another beloved, that
thou dost so charge us?” This one that you say means so much to you, why is he
more to you than you might expect another to be to us? The world says, “Why is
Christ more to you than any other?”
Why does Jesus mean so much more to us than the things that you and I have known
in the world? “Tell us that we may seek him with thee.”
Then at once she begins to praise him and laud him. From verse ten to the end of
the chapter in wonderful oriental imagery she praises his kindness, his
graciousness, his aptness to help, his strength, and his tenderness. She cries,
“My beloved is the chiefest among ten thousand.”
And when she thus praises him they turn again and say, “Where has he gone? How
is it that you have let him slip out of your sight if he is so much to you?”
Is that not a proper question? If Christ is so precious to you, if He means so
much to you, why is it that you so easily allow fellowship to be broken? Why do
you so readily permit other things to come in and hinder communion?
“Whither is thy beloved gone, O thou fairest among women? Whither is thy beloved
turned aside? that we may seek him with thee.”
And then instantly as she bears testimony to him, she recalls the last words he
said to her before that eventful night, “I am come into my garden,” and her own
heart was the garden, and she says, “I know where he is. My beloved is gone down
into his garden, to the beds of spices, to feed in the gardens, and to gather
lilies.”
And instantly he speaks; he is right there. He had been waiting and watching for
her to come to the place where he was everything to her soul, and at once he
exclaims, “Thou art beautiful, O my love, as Tirzah, comely as Jerusalem,
terrible as an army with banners.”
And then through all the rest of the chapter he praises her; he expresses his
appreciation of her as she had expressed hers of him.
In Song of Solomon 7:1-9, he uses one beautiful figure after another to tell all
his delight in her. It is a wonderful thing to know that the Lord has far more
delight in His people than we ourselves have ever had in Him.
Some day we shall enjoy Him to the fullest; some day He will be everything to
us; but as long as we are here, we never appreciate Him as much as He
appreciates us. But as she listens to his expression of love, her heart is
assured; she has the sense of restoration and fellowship.
In Song of Solomon 7:10 she says, “I am my beloved’s, and his desire is toward
me.”
In other words, he has not turned against her. When we turn from Him, the
natural thought of our hearts is that He has turned against us, but He has not.
If He allows us to go through trial, it is like Joseph testing his brethren in
order to see if there was genuine repentance of sin.
Three times in this little book we have similar expressions to this, “I am my
beloved’s and his desire is toward me.”
In Song of Solomon 2:16, we read, “My beloved is mine, and I am his.” That is
very precious. Are you able to say, “My beloved is mine, and I am His?”
In other words, Have you given yourself to Him? Have you trusted Him as your
Saviour? If you have, He has given Himself to you. Just the very moment you give
yourself to Him in faith, that moment He gives Himself to you and comes to dwell
in your heart. This is the assurance, then, of salvation. “My beloved is mine,
and I am His.”
And then in Song of Solomon 6:3, she says, “I am my beloved’s, and my beloved is
mine.”
That is communion. I belong to him and he belongs to me, that we may enjoy one
another together.
And then in Song of Solomon 7:10, we read, “I am my beloved’s, and his desire is
toward me.” Every doubt and every fear is gone. She has found her satisfaction
in him and he finds his in her. What a wonderful picture! Shall it be only a
picture, or is it to be a reality in our lives?
Is it not a fact that so often we do the very things the Shulamite did? So often
we turn a deaf ear to the Bridegroom’s voice. We can be so busy even with
Christian work that we do not take time for Him. I can be so occupied with
preaching that I do not have time for prayer. I can be so taken up with
preparing sermons that I do not have time to feed on the Word. You may ask,
“Why, how can you prepare sermons without feeding on the Word?”
It is one thing to study the Bible in order to prepare an address which I am to
give to other people, but it is another thing to sit down quietly in the
presence of the Lord and say, “Blessed Saviour, as I open Thy Book I want to
hear Thy voice speaking to my heart. I want Thee to talk to me, to express
Thyself to me in tones of tender love.”
As I read in that attitude, He speaks to my soul, and as I lift my heart to Him
in prayer, I talk with Him. That is communion. Do not be content with the
knowledge of salvation; do not be content to know that your soul is eternally
secure; do not be content to know that you are serving Him in some little
measure.
Remember, there is something that means more to Him than all your service, and
that is to sit at His feet and delight your soul in His love. As you read this
description in the sixth chapter it will remind you of the fulness there is in
Christ. It seems as though every figure is exhausted to show His wonder.
“Join all the glorious names Of wisdom, love, and power, That angels ever knew,
That mortals ever bore All are too mean to speak His worth, Too mean to set the
Saviour forth.”
Oh, to have the heart so occupied with Him that we shall lose sight of
everything else, and Christ alone will satisfy every longing of our souls!
~ end of chapter 6 ~
***
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CHAPTER 45: 03.07. CHAPTER SEVEN SONG OF SOLOMON 8:6-7
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CHAPTER SEVEN
Song of Solomon 8:6-7
“Set me as a seal upon thine heart, as a seal upon thine arm: for love is strong
as death; jealousy is cruel as the grave: the coals thereof are coals of fire,
which hath a most vehement flame. Many waters cannot quench love, neither can
the floods drown it: if a man would give all the substance of his house for
love, it would utterly be contemned” (Song of Solomon 8:6-7).
IT is, of course, the love of the bridegroom for his bride that is thus spoken
of. We have been tracing the manifestations of it throughout this little book,
from the time when the shepherd first looked upon the shepherdess and his heart
went out to her until the time when they were united in marriage. It is a
beautiful picture, first of the love of Christ reaching us in our deep, deep
need, and then that glorious union with Him which will be consummated at the
marriage supper of the Lamb.
Now you hear the bride exclaiming, “Set me as a seal upon thine heart, as a seal
upon thine arm.”
The seal speaks of something that is settled. One draws up a legal document and
seals it and that settles it. And so Christ and His loved ones have entered into
an eternal relationship, and He has given us the seal, the Holy Spirit. “After
that ye believed, ye were sealed with that Holy Spirit of promise.”
This is “the earnest of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased
possession.”
That seal is the pledge of His love, and you will notice that in the words that
follow we have love spoken of in four ways, at least we have four
characteristics of love.
First, there is the strength of love. “Love is strong as death.”
Second, the jealousy of love. In our Version we read, “Jealousy is cruel as the
grave,” and of course that is often true of human love. It may be a very cruel
thing indeed, the word translated “cruel” is the ordinary Hebrew word for “firm”
or “unyielding.” It may be paraphrased, “Jealousy is unyielding as the grave.”
“The coals thereof are coals of fire, a vehement flame,” and this expression, “a
vehement flame,” in the Hebrew text is “a flame of Jah.” That is the first part
of the name of the Lord God and it is one of the titles of God.
In the third place we have the endurance of love. “Many waters cannot quench
love, neither can the floods drown it.”
And then lastly, the value of love. “If a man would give all the substance of
his house for love, it would utterly be contemned.”
First let us meditate on the strength of love; and we are thinking, of course,
of the love of our God as revealed in the Lord Jesus Christ, for Christ is the
Bridegroom of our souls.
“Love is strong as death.” This He has already demonstrated. “Christ loved the
Church and gave Himself for it.” And that giving Himself meant going into death
to redeem His own.
“Love is strong as death.” We might even say in His case, “It is stronger than
death,” for death could not quench His love. He went down into death and came up
in triumph that He might make us His own, and it is of this we are reminded as
we gather at the Lord’s Table. It is this which He wishes us to cherish in a
special way when we come together to remember Him. He knows how apt we are to
forget; He knows how easy it is to be occupied with the ordinary things of life,
and even with the work of the Lord, and forget for the moment the price He paid
for our redemption; and He would call us back from time to time to sit together
in sweetest and most solemn fellowship, and meditate on that mighty love of His
which is “strong as death.” Nothing could turn Him aside.
“Love that no thought can reach, Love that no tongue can teach, Matchless it
is!”
Because there was no other way to redeem our souls, “He stedfastly set His face
to go to Jerusalem.”
When He went through that Samaritan village, they did not receive Him because
they realized that there was no desire upon His part to remain among them at
that time, but they saw “His face as though He would go to Jerusalem,” and they
said as it were, “Well, if He prefers to go to Jerusalem rather than remain here
with us, we are not going to pay attention to His message. We are not interested
in the proclamation that He brings.”
How little they understood that it was for them, as truly as for the Jews in
yonder Judea, that He “set His face stedfastly to go to Jerusalem.” If He had
not gone to Jerusalem and given Himself up to the death of the Cross, there
could be no salvation for Samaritan, Jew, or Gentile. But oh, the strength of
His love! He allowed nothing to divert Him from that purpose for which He had
come from heaven. Before He left the glory, He said, “Lo, I come (in the volume
of the book it is written of Me) to do Thy will, O God” (Hebrews 10:7).
And to do the will of God meant for Him laying down His life on the cross for
our redemption. Do we think of it as much as we should? Do we give ourselves to
meditation, to dwelling on the love of Christ, a love that passeth knowledge,
and do we often say to ourselves, “The Son of God loved me, and gave Himself for
me”? Oh, the strength of His love!
Then we think of the jealousy of love.
I know that jealousy in these poor hearts of ours is often a most contemptible
and despicable thing. Jealousy on our part generally means utter selfishness. We
are so completely selfish, we do not like to share our friends with anyone else;
and what untold sorrow has come into many a home because of the unreasonable
jealousy of a husband, of a wife, of parents, or of children. But while we
deprecate a jealousy which has selfishness and sin at the root of it, there is
another jealousy which is absolutely pure and holy, and even on our lower plane
someone has well said that, “Love is only genuine as long as it is jealous.”
When the husband reaches the place where he says, “I do not care how my wife
bestows her favors on others; I do not care how much she runs around with other
men; I am so large-hearted I can share her with everybody,” that husband does
not love his wife, and if you could imagine a wife talking like that about her
husband, you would know that love was gone, that it was dead.
Love cannot but be jealous, but let us see that it is a jealousy that is free
from mere selfishness and unwarranted suspicion. When we think of it in
connection with God we remember that one of the first things we learned to
recite was the Ten Commandments, and some of us were perplexed when we read, “I
the Lord thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the
children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate Me.”
We shrank back from that because we were so used to thinking of jealousy as a
despicable human passion, that we could not think of God having it in His
character. But it is He who has a right to be jealous. God’s jealousy is as pure
as is His love and it is because He loves us so tenderly that He is jealous.
In what sense is He jealous? Knowing that our souls’ happiness and blessing
alone will be found in walking in fellowship with Himself, He loves us so much
He does not want to see us turning away from the enjoyment of His love and
trying to find satisfaction in any lesser affection, which can only be for harm
and eventual ruin. “The end of these things is death.”
Paul writing to the Corinthian church says, “I am jealous over you with a godly
jealousy, for I have espoused you to one husband, that I may present you a
chaste virgin to Christ.”
And then he gives the ground of his jealousy. “But I fear, lest by any means, as
the serpent beguiled Eve through his subtilty, so your minds should be corrupted
from the simplicity that is in Christ.”
You see Paul was a true pastor. He loved the people of Christ’s flock and knew
that their only lasting joy was to be found in living in communion with their
Saviour; and His heart was torn with a holy jealousy if he saw them turning
aside to the things of the world, following after the things of the flesh, or
being ensnared by the devil. Every God-anointed pastor will feel that way.
Young believers sometimes imagine that some of us who try to lead the flock of
God are often needlessly hard and severe, and they think us unsympathetic and
lacking in compassion and tenderness when we earnestly warn them of the folly of
worldliness and carnality. They say, “Oh, they don’t understand. That old fogey
preacher, I have no doubt, had his fling when he was young, and now he is old
and these things no longer interest him, and so he wants to keep us from having
a good time!”
Let me “speak as a fool,” and yet I trust to the glory of God.
As a young believer coming to Christ when I was fourteen years old, the first
lesson I had to learn was that there is nothing in this poor world to satisfy
the heart, and by the grace of God I sought to give it all up for Jesus’ sake.
The only regret I have today is that there have ever been times in my life when
I have drifted into carnality and fallen into a low backslidden state, and so
allowed myself something which afterward left a bad conscience and a sense of
broken fellowship, and I never was happy until it was judged, and I was once
more in communion with the Lord.
If sometimes we speak strongly to you about going in the ways of the world,
reminding you that God has said, “Come out from among them, and be ye separate,
and touch not the unclean thing,” it is because we have learned by years of
experience that there is no peace, there is no lasting joy, there is no true
unspoiled happiness for those who walk in the ways of the world. If you want a
life of gladness, a life of enduring bliss; if you want to be able to lie down
at last and face death with a glad, free spirit, then we beg of you, follow the
path that your blessed Lord Jesus took.
Oh that we might not be turned aside but that we might rouse our souls to a
godly jealousy.
I wonder if you have ever noticed that the blessed Holy Spirit who dwells in
every believer is Himself spoken of as jealous. There is a passage found in
James 4:4-5, that I am afraid is not often really understood, but it is a very
striking one:
“Ye adulterers and adulteresses, know ye not that the friendship of the world is
enmity with God? Whosoever therefore will be a friend of the world is the enemy
of God. Do ye think that the Scripture saith in vain, The Spirit that dwelleth
in us lusteth to envy?”
Take that home, dear young Christian. Do not be seduced by the world and its
folly; do not be turned aside from the path of faithfulness to Christ by the mad
rush for worldly pleasure and amusement; do not allow the flesh to turn you away
and rob you of what should be your chief joy.
“The friendship of the world is enmity with God. Whosoever therefore will be a
friend of the world is the enemy of God.’”
It is James 4:5 that perhaps we might not understand. “Do ye think that the
Scripture saith in vain, The Spirit that dwelleth in us lusteth to envy?” One
might gather that this expression, “The Spirit that dwelleth in us lusteth to
envy,” was a quotation from Scripture, as though He were asking, “Do you think
the Scripture [that is, the Old Testament], saith in vain, ‘The Spirit that
dwelleth in us lusteth to envy?’”
But you can search the Old Testament from the beginning of Genesis to the end of
Malachi, and you will not find those words or anything that sounds like them. So
it is clear that that is not what is meant. In fact, there are really two
distinct questions in the Greek.
First there is the question, “Do ye think that the Scripture speaketh in vain?”
Do you? Do you think that the Scripture speaks in vain? Having read its warnings
and its admonitions against worldliness, against the unequal yoke, against the
pleasures of sin, against following the path of the flesh, do you sometimes say
in your heart, “I know it is all in the Bible, but after all, I am not going to
take it too seriously?” Do you think that the Scripture speaketh in vain?
Why has God put these things in His Word? Is it because He does not love you,
and desires to keep you from things that would do you good? That is what the
devil told Eve in the beginning. He insinuated that God did not love her. He
said, “God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be
opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil” (Genesis 3:5). And Eve
said, “I am going to eat of it; I will try anything once.”
Is that what you have been saying too? If you can only do this or do that, you
think you will have an experience you have never had before. The whole world is
looking for new thrills today. Before you act, put the question to yourself,
“Does the Scripture speak in vain?”
It tells you that the end of all these things is death and you may be assured
the Scripture does not speak in vain.
Then there is a second question, “Doth the Spirit that dwelleth in us jealously
desire?” And the answer is, “Yes.”
The Holy Ghost dwelling in the believer jealously desires to keep us away from
the world and to keep our hearts true to Christ. Do you realize that you never
tried to go into anything that dishonored the Lord, you never took a step to go
into the world, but the Spirit of God within you was grieved, and sought to
exercise you because He jealously desired to keep you faithful to Christ? I am
talking to Christians. If you are not a Christian, the Spirit does not dwell in
you, and you do not know what this is. Our blessed Lord wants you all for
Himself. People say sometimes, “Well, I want to give the Lord the first place in
my heart,” and they mean that there will be a lot of places for other things.
The Lord does not merely want the first place; He wants the whole place; He
wants to control your whole heart, and when He has the entire control,
everything you do will be done for His glory. A striking little incident is told
by Pastor Dolman.
Before the world war he was in Russia holding some meetings in the palace of one
of the Russian nobility. Among those who attended the meetings was a Grand
Duchess. She was a sincere evangelical Christian. Dr. Dolman was talking one day
about a life devoted to Christ, about separation and unworldliness, and when he
finished, the Grand Duchess stepped forward and said, “I do not agree with
everything Pastor Dolman said.”
“What did I say with which you do not agree, Your Imperial Highness?” asked Dr.
Dolman.
“You said it is wrong to go to the theater. I go to the theater, but I never go
without first getting down on my knees and asking Him to go with me, and He
does.”
Pastor Dolman said, “But, Your Imperial Highness, I did not say a word about the
theater.”
“I know; but you meant that.”
“Your Imperial Highness,” said Dr. Dolman, “are you not turning things around?
Who gave you or me authority to decide where we will go or what we will do, and
then to ask the Lord to be with us in it? Instead of getting down on your knees
and saying, ‘Lord, I am going to the theater, come with me,’ why don’t you wait
until He comes to you and says, ‘Grand Duchess, I am going to the theater, and I
want you to go with Me?’”
She threw up her hands and was honest enough to say, “Pastor Dolman, you have
spoiled the theater for me. I cannot go again.”
“Where He leads me, I will follow,” but don’t you start and ask Him to tag
along. Let Him lead. Because He knows that your real, lasting happiness and joy
are bound up in devotion to Him, He is jealous lest you should be turned aside.
Now we notice the endurance of love. “Many waters cannot quench love, neither
can the floods drown it.”
How precious that is! How blessedly it was proven in His case. He went down
beneath the floods of divine judgment. He could say, “Deep calleth unto deep at
the noise of Thy waterspouts: all Thy waves and Thy billows are gone over Me”
(Psalms 42:7). But it did not quench His love, and through all the years since
His people have had to endure many things; they have had to pass through deep
waters, to go through great trials, but He has been with them through it all.
“In all their affliction He was afflicted, and the angel of His presence saved
them” (Isaiah 63:9).
In Isaiah 43:2 we read, “When thou passest through the waters, I will be with
thee; and through the rivers, they shall not overflow thee: when thou walkest
through the fire, thou shalt not be burned; neither shall the flame kindle upon
thee.”
Don’t you love to have somebody to whom you can go with all your troubles and
know He will never get tired of you?
Some years ago I became acquainted with a poor little old lady in a place where
I was ministering the Word. She was going through all kinds of sorrow, and she
came to me and said, “I would just like to tell you about my troubles.”
I felt like saying, “Dear sister, I wish you would tell them to the Lord.” But I
sat down and listened, and now for over ten years I have been getting her
troubles by mail, and I try to send her a little encouraging and sympathetic
word in reply.
Recently I met her again and she said, “You must be getting awfully tired of my
troubles,” and if I had told the truth, I would have had to say, “Yes, I am,”
but I said, “What is troubling you now?”
“Oh,” she said, “it is not anything new, but it is such a comfort to find
somebody who will enter into them and understand!”
And she was so effusive in her gratitude I was ashamed that I had not entered
into things more deeply.
Ah, we have a great High Priest who never wearies of our trials. We weary of
hearing of them sometimes because they stir our hearts and we would like to do
that which we cannot do; but He has power to see us through. No trial, no
distress, can quench His love. “Having loved His own which were in the world, He
loved them unto the end” (John 13:1). Somebody has paraphrased it this way,
“Having loved His own which were in the world, He loved them all the way
through.” Through what? Through everything. He even loved Peter through his
denial, through his cursing and swearing, and loved him back into fellowship
with Himself. His love is unfailing. Having taken us up in grace, He loves to
the end.
Let us look now at the value of love.
Can you purchase love? Can you pay for it? I was in a home at one time where a
very rich man of seventy years of age, worth millions, had married a girl of
eighteen. Her ambitious, worldly-minded mother had engineered the marriage. I
could not help noticing that young wife off in a corner sobbing to herself and
crying bitterly, but I tried never to interfere, for I did not want her to tell
me what was in her heart. But one day the husband said, “Do you notice how
downhearted my wife is?” I said, “She must have had some great sorrow.”
“I am her sorrow,” he said. “She was a poor girl, very beautiful and talented,
and, as you know, I have been very successful, and I just thought that I could
give her every comfort and could surely make her love me. I know that we do not
seem to be suited; she is so much younger than I. But she can have everything,
all the beautiful clothes and jewels she wants, and surely any girl ought to be
happy in a home like this. But, you know, it is all in vain; I cannot seem to
buy her love.” Of course not. He ought to have known that he did not have that
in his heart to which she could respond. They belonged to two different ages, as
it were.
“Many waters cannot quench love, neither can the floods drown it: if a man would
give all the substance of his house for love, it would utterly be contemned.”
You cannot buy love, but oh, His love to us creates love in us. It is not the
wonderful things that He has done for us, it is not the fact that He has
enriched us for eternity, but it is because of what He is. “We love Him because
He first loved us.”
“His is an unchanging love, Higher than the heights above; Deeper than the
depths beneath, Free and faithful, strong as death.”
What a blessed thing to know Him and love Him and be loved by Him!
Oh, to be kept from wounding such a Lover, from grieving His Holy Spirit! For we
read, “The love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Spirit which is
given unto us.”
~ end of chapter 7 ~
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CHAPTER 46: 03.08. CHAPTER EIGHT SONG OF SOLOMON 8:8-14
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CHAPTER EIGHT
Song of Solomon 8:8-14 “What shall we do for our sister?” (Song of Solomon 8:8).
THIS question was put by the bride to the bridegroom after she had been brought
into the full enjoyment of the privileges that he delighted to lavish upon her.
He had found her a shepherdess there in the hill country, and loved her and won
her heart in those trying days when she felt herself so despised and neglected.
Brought to the palace and united in marriage to the king, enjoying to the full
his tender consideration and surrounded by the evidences of his affection, she
could not keep from thinking of the little mountain home from which she had
come.
She thought of the dear old mother who had raised her and cared for her after
the father’s death, for it is evident that the mother was a widow, and the
family by superintending the king’s vineyard earned a precarious living; and
then she thought of the little sister, much younger than she, who had none of
the privileges that she was enjoying.
And as she thought of her, she seemed to say, “This bridegroom of mine, my king,
the one who has loved me and brought me into these privileges, cannot but take
an interest in my family, in my household, and I am going to speak to him about
that sister of mine.”
And so she turned to him in the tenderest, most confiding way, and said, “I have
a little sister, a little undeveloped sister, up there in the vineyard. I am
concerned about her. Is there not some thing we could do for her? What shall we
do for our sister?”
And he responds at once,
“If she be a wall, we will build upon her a palace of silver: and if she be a
door, we will inclose her with boards of cedar.”
You see, this is just the oriental way of saying, “I am so glad you spoke to me
about that little sister of yours; I am so glad that you have not forgotten her
and her needs. It will be a real privilege for me to show my love for you by
what I do for her.” And so he uses the striking figures of the wall and the door
as he asserts his willingness to help. It was as though he said, “Whatever her
circumstances are, and whatever her needs are, I will be delighted to minister
to them and I will make you my agent in doing it.”
It seems to me this expresses one of the very first evidences of union with
Christ.
We are no sooner saved ourselves, no sooner rejoicing in the knowledge of Christ
as our Redeemer, as the Lover of our souls, as our heavenly Bridegroom, than we
begin to think of others less privileged, and our hearts cry out with longing,
“What about my little sister? What about my brother? What about those who are
still in their sins and still in their deep deep need, who do not know, do not
understand this incomprehensible love of Thine which means so much to me?”
And it is the Holy Spirit Himself who puts that yearning into our hearts that
leads us to manifest an interest in the souls of others. In other words, every
real Christian feels within him something that impels him to missionary service.
Are you saved yourself? Then have you been to the Lord about that little sister,
or about that neglected brother? Perhaps it is a little sister or a brother you
have never seen, and maybe, strange to say, of an altogether different color
from yours! Perhaps that little sister of yours is away yonder, a child-widow in
India, perhaps a down-trodden native woman in Central Africa, or a degraded
Indian in the wilds of South America, but yet your little sister; for we read,
“God hath made of one blood all nations that be upon the face of the earth.”
And while you may say, “But she is so sinful, so undeserving,” you must remember
that you too were sinful and undeserving and the grace that is lavished upon you
came from His heart of love. He delights to give to the undeserving, and the
very need of that little sister of yours is the reason why you should be going
to the Lord about her. The bride here is really praying about her sister.
Do you often go to the blessed Lord in prayer for that little sister of yours?
Perhaps it is a brother. My brother, you who rejoice in Christ Jesus, do you
think very often of that poor, ignorant, under-privileged, degraded, sinful
brother of yours, living perhaps in heathen darkness today, or dwelling in the
slums of one of our great cities, or, it may be, enjoying all that this life has
to offer and yet not knowing Christ? Have you been to Him about that degraded
one? Somebody has said, “A selfish Christian is a contradiction in terms,” and
yet we do hear people talking about selfish Christians.
Christianity is the manifestation in the life of the love of Christ and that
same love which was lavished upon you He would now have you lavish upon others
in their need. What wonderful pictures we have along this line! In the beginning
of John’s Gospel we read how the Lord revealed Himself to one and another, and
everyone who got that divine revelation went after someone else. Each said, “I
have a brother, a friend, a dear one in need, and I must go to that one and tell
the story of Jesus; tell him that we have found Him.”
The privileges, the blessings that God has given to us in Christ are not given
to us for ourselves alone. We may say in connection with them all: You must
either use them or lose them. “What,” you say, “are you telling us that we may
lose our souls after having been truly converted?” That is not a blessing. Your
soul is you. Of course you cannot lose that if it is saved. I recognize the fact
that having life eternal, you shall never perish, but I am talking about the
blessings that the Lord lavishes upon you from day to day. They are in order
that you may share them with others. To what extent do you enter into that?
I would have you think of three things.
First, to what extent do you use your time for the blessing of other people?
When I find Christians who need so much physical recreation and have so little
time to seek to win souls, I do not quite understand it. I was speaking with a
young man some months ago, and I said, “Do you do anything to win others for
Christ?” He said, “I would like to, but it doesn’t seem to be my gift. I work
hard all day, and when Saturday comes I have to go off and get some physical
exercise.” I think his great invigorating exercise was throwing horse-shoes at a
little stick.
I said, “Did it ever strike you that you could get wonderful exercise by taking
a bundle of tracts and going out on a country road and visiting the homes along
the way, telling people about their souls? Walking is wonderful exercise.”
“But,” he said, “you see, I am thinking of serious things all week, and I cannot
be serious on Saturday afternoon.”
Time is given us to use in view of eternity. I quite recognize that we need a
certain amount of physical exercise or we would go to pieces, but you will find
you can get on beautifully if you give more of your time to God.
I was saved forty-one years ago, and I can honestly say my best times ever since
have been those in which I have spent my days trying to help other people to a
knowledge of Christ, and it is the greatest exercise in the world.
I was visiting a preacher some time ago, and he asked, “What do you do for
physical exercise?”
I replied, “I preach.”
“But I mean when you want to get a rest,” he said.
“I preach some more and that rests me,” I answered; “the more you do in the work
of the Lord, the better you feel.”
“Brother,” he said, “you will have a nervous breakdown if you are not careful.”
“But I am trying to be careful,” I said. It isn’t the Lord’s work that gives
people nervous breakdowns, it is getting into debt, getting mixed up in
questionable things, and then you get worried and upset. Just keep at solid
service for the Lord Jesus Christ, and you will not have a nervous breakdown.
Paul was at it for thirty years. They tried to kill him again and again; he was
half-drowned several times, and was thrown to wild beasts, but the old man, when
about seventy years of age, had much more vigor than a lot of worldly preachers
that I meet, who have to go on a prolonged vacation every once in a while. Your
time belongs to the Lord Jesus, and He gives it to you in order that you may use
it to bless and help other folk. “Look not every man on his own things, but
every man also on the things of others” (Php 2:4).
Some time ago, I knew a dear man, one of the greatest men for physical exercise
I ever saw. He worked hard on the street railroad. I would see him down on his
knees, a great big covering over his eyes to shield them from the brilliant
light, as he welded the steel rails. By Saturday noon, he was just worn out, and
he would get a bundle of books and off he would go for exercise, over the hills
and far away, hunting up poor needy souls, maybe in the County Hospital,
possibly in the jails, and to poor families. Sometimes he would hear of somebody
lying sick and poor and miserable, and he would go to see that one. And you know
he had a remarkable way of preaching the Gospel. He would often lay down a
five-dollar bill at the side of the bed, if he found out that they had no money
to pay the bills. On Sunday he would say, “My! I was worn out yesterday, but I
had a wonderful time Saturday afternoon, and I am all rested up.” He was living
for others.
“Live for others while on earth you live, Give for others what you have to
give,” and then you will find the secret of a really happy Christian life. Your
time is to be spent in the service of Christ for the blessing of others, for the
blessing of the little sister, of that poor brother. And then there is something
else. He has entrusted you with your talents.
“Oh, but,” you say, “I haven’t any.”
Oh, yes; you have. You would not like it if others said you had none. But who
are you using them for? For Christ, for the blessing of that brother, of that
sister in need? It is the investment that you make of your talents here for the
glory of the Lord Jesus Christ that is going to bring you a reward at His
judgment seat. You remember what He said, “Unto every one that hath shall be
given . . . but from him that hath not shall be taken away even that which he
hath.”
You are to use the talents God has given you for Jesus’ sake.
- Is it the ability to speak? Use it for winning souls to Christ. - Is it that
you know how to be a kindly sympathetic friend? Then surely you have a wonderful
sphere for service. - Is it looking up the shut-ins, the sick and needy, and
giving them a tender loving word?
You would bless and help so many you never think of now, if you would only begin
to use those talents for Him. It is not all the work of the man on the platform.
I never see souls coming to Christ in a meeting but I wonder what started them.
Years ago, when I was young and ignorant, I would go home to my wife and say, “I
won six souls tonight,” and she would look at me and say, “Are you sure you did
it?”
I would say, “No,” of course, “but the Lord used me.”
But you know it really began away back of that.
Perhaps it was a dear Sunday school teacher who had been sowing the seed in the
heart of that young man or woman. It was lying there dormant for days, months,
or years, and as the Word of God came anew, something was said that just caused
it to fructify and burst into life, and that boy or girl came to Jesus.
Perhaps it was the lesson the mother taught as the child knelt at her knee long
ago.
Perhaps it was the father’s word dropped into the heart.
There is seldom a soul who comes to Christ but there were a lot of folk who had
to do with it. It is not just the preacher and the preached message. God give us
to use our talents for Christ. Paul planted, Apollos watered, “but God gave the
increase.”
Then there is my privilege not only to use my time and my talents but my money,
to help and bless that little sister, that neglected brother.
What a wonderful thing consecrated money is! There never would have been a
dollar bill, a piece of silver money, a gold, copper or nickel coin in the
world, if it had not been for sin. That is why Jesus calls it the mammon of
unrighteousness. Every coin in your pocket is a witness that sin has come into
the world.
If men and women had remained as they were when God created them, there would
have been no money. People would not have sought to build up fortunes, and buy
and sell things. We would still be living in a glorious state on this earth, and
we would not have had to go out and earn our bread by the sweat of our brow.
And now Jesus says,
“Make to yourselves friends of the mammon of unrighteousness; that when ye fail,
they may receive you into everlasting habitations” (Luke 16:9).
Since the money is here, and we cannot get along without it, do not live for it;
do not let it get a hold on you (“The love of money is the root of all evil”),
but use it now in reference to the everlasting habitations; use it to meet, of
course, your own needs and those of your family, but then use it as God enables
you, to bless and help others in their deep spiritual need and in their temporal
need too.
Then, by-and-by, when at last you reach the glorious habitation, you will see a
throng running down the golden street to meet you, and they will say, “Welcome,”
and you will ask in amazement, “Who can these be?”
And one will answer, “We are so glad to welcome you here, for it was your dollar
that paid for that Testament that brought me the message of Christ.”
Another, “You met my need when in such distress I thought nobody cared for me,
and then you gave me the money for a good dinner, and I could not help but think
of the God of all grace who had put it in your heart to do that for me”; and
another, “I came to Jesus because of the kind deed you did for me.”
Then we will feel it was worthwhile that we spent and were spent for others.
“What shall be done for our little sister?” Let us share with her the good
things we have. The king says, “If she be a wall, we will build upon her a
palace of silver.”
A wall speaks of security. If she has already entered into the blessings of
Christ, we will build upon her a silver palace. We will add to that which is
already hers. We will try to help and lead her on and build her up in the things
which be in Christ.
“If she be a door, we will inclose her with boards of cedar.”
A door speaks of responsibility, or opportunity for service.
“A great door,” says the apostle, “and effectual is opened unto me, and there
are many adversaries” (1 Corinthians 16:9).
“Behold, I have set before thee an open door, and no man can shut it: for thou
hast a little strength, and hast kept My word, and hast not denied My name”
(Revelation 3:8).
But what use is a door if it has no side-posts to swing from? “If she be a door,
we will inclose her with boards of cedar.”
If she wants an opportunity for service, we will help to make it possible, and
we will assist her in whatever is required, that she may work the better for the
Lord Jesus Christ.
Then as the chapter closes and the little book closes, the bride, her heart
content to think she has come into blessing and that her little sister too has
come into blessing, goes over the past, and talks about the vineyard days, the
love that has been shown and the bliss now hers, and then she turns to her
beloved one and says, “Make haste, my beloved, and be thou like to a roe or to a
young hart upon the mountains of spices.” “Till the day break and the shadows
flee away.”
The consummation of all bliss will be when we are at home forever with Him. Till
then, let us seek to spend and be spent for His glory.
You have heard of the missionary offering that was being taken, and as the box
was handed to a very wealthy man, he brushed it to one side and said, “I do not
believe in missions.” “Then,” said the usher, “take something out; this is for
the heathen.”
How can you be a real Christian and not be concerned about those who are less
privileged than you are? God stir our hearts to think of the millions still in
their great, great need. If we can do nothing else for them, we can bring their
case to Him; we can be prayer-helpers; we can intercede on their behalf.
The wonderful thing is that when you begin to pray, the rest follows. Men who
pray devise ways and means for giving. A lady said to me one time, “You know my
husband is unsaved, and he never lets me have any money. He says he wouldn’t for
the world give me a dime to put in the missionary offering. But I started
praying about missions, and as I prayed, there came such a burden on my heart to
do something. I had two or three chickens that I had bought with a little money
I received from doing some sewing for a neighbor. It was all mine, and I said,
‘I am going to devote one chicken to the Lord, and every egg that this chicken
lays will belong to Him.’ It has been wonderful to me to see that the other
chickens lay every once in a while, but my husband growls and says, ‘That
missionary chicken of yours lays nearly two eggs a day.’ Of course that is an
exaggeration, but every little while I have another dozen eggs, and I take them
to the corner store and get my money, and that goes for missions.”
I believe that the Lord will take that money and do with it what He did with the
five loaves and two fishes: multiply, and multiply, and multiply them. Maybe one
way in which He will multiply it will be to start some of you giving, and then,
you see, the Lord will turn to this lady and say, “You are the woman that had
that chicken the preacher told about. I am going to give you a part of the
reward, for these folk just copied from you!”
Let us seek by grace to make every day count for the blessing of others. Loving
Him truly we cannot be selfish or indifferent to the needs of those for whom He
died, “until the day break and the shadows flee away.”
~ end of book ~
***
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CHAPTER 47: 04.00.1. ADDRESSES ON THE EPISTLES OF JOHN AND JUDE
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Addresses On The Epistles Of John And Jude By Harry A. Ironside Originally
published in 1931, now in the Public Domain* *I did a search of both the Rutgers
and Stanford databases, and couldn’t find a current copyright.
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CHAPTER 48: 04.00.2. E-SWORD PREFACE
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Preface As an e-Sword user, and a resource creator, I always try to find quality
works I believe will be beneficial to others in their studies. I hope this fits
that description, and that all who use this module will find it to be a
blessing. Your Brother In Christ, Jason L. Briggs
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CHAPTER 49: 04.00.3. TABLE OF CONTENTS
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Table Of Contents
First John 01.0 Author’s Introduction 01.1 God Is Light 01.2 Living In God’s
Light 01.3 God Is Love 01.4 Living In God’s Love 01.5 God Is Life
Second John 02.0 Letter To A Lady
Third John 03.0 Letter To A Friend
Jude 04.1 Introduction 04.2 Confronting Apostasy 04.3 Defining Apostasy 04.4
Call To Persevere
04.5 Doxology
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CHAPTER 50: 04.01.0. AUTHOR'S INTRODUCTION
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Author’s Introduction The writings of the apostle John have always had a
peculiar charm for the people of the Lord. This attraction is due, I suppose, to
the fact that they are particularly addressed to the family of God.
If you want truth concerning the kingdom of God in its present aspect-the
mystery days of the kingdom-you will find it in the Epistles of Peter, James,
and Jude. If you desire truth concerning the church of God-the body of Christ
which is being formed by the Spirit during the present dispensation of grace-you
find that in the writings of the apostle Paul. But if you seek truth for the
family of God-believers who have been born again into the divine family-you find
that particularly in the writings of the apostle John. I do not mean, however,
that any of these sections of Scripture are confined to the subjects indicated.
While Peter deals primarily with the kingdom, he also speaks of the church and
of the family of God. While Paul deals primarily with the church, he also speaks
of the kingdom and of the family. And while John deals primarily with the
family, he also has something to say about the church and about the kingdom.
But, as indicated before, God gave a special ministry to each of these New
Testament writers.
John’s writings were the last given by the Spirit of God for our edification.
There are some people who put, it seems to me, undue value on the writings of
Paul, particularly his later prison Epistles, as though they contain the last
instructions God had for His people. However, Paul had probably been in Heaven
for over twenty years before the apostle John wrote his Gospel. It was years
later that John wrote his Epistles. The book of Revelation was, so far as we can
learn, the last book given by the Spirit near the end of the first century. We
may be sure of this much-that as God reserved the writings of the apostle John
for the close of the apostolic age, He kept the best wine until the last. In the
Gospel of John we have eternal life as revealed in the Son of God. In the
Epistles of John we have eternal life as revealed in the children of God. In
John 20:30-31 the apostle gives his reason for writing that particular book. He
said, “Many other signs truly did Jesus in the presence of his disciples, which
are not written in this book: But these are written, that ye might believe that
Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; and that believing ye might have life
through his name.” Why was the Gospel of John written? In order that we might
believe that Jesus is the Christ. Is there any reader who doubts or questions
whether Jesus is in fact the Christ of God? Read the Gospel of John. “Faith
cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God” (Romans 10:17). John’s Gospel
was written that you might know, that you might “believe that Jesus is the
Christ, the Son of God; and that believing ye might have life through his name.”
Now look at 1 John 5:13, “These things have I written unto you that believe on
the name of the Son of God; that ye may know that ye have eternal life, and that
ye may believe on the name of the Son of God.” The Epistle was written to people
who already believe that Jesus is the Christ, but have never been sure of their
present position or their possession of eternal life. “That ye might know.” If
you have any doubt as to the person, life, and atoning death of Jesus, as to His
messiahship, or His divinity, read the Gospel. But if, after having believed the
message of the Gospel, you are still perplexed about the assurance of your
salvation, whether you really possess eternal life or not, read the Epistle. It
was written to “you that believe on the name of the Son of God; that ye may know
that ye have eternal life.” The Epistle of John is the Epistle of fellowship.
God wants His people to be in communion with Him, and John shows us the way to
fellowship with God.
John used certain key words or phrases: “Ye know” or “we know.” He wants us to
rest on nothing short of a definite, positive knowledge of divine reality. There
is the word believe. This is one of his favorite words, both in the Gospel and
in the Epistles. We also read a great deal about light-“God is light,” “Walk in
light.” Then there is the word love-“God is love.” We are to “walk in love.”
After the death of Paul, somewhere around a.d. 67, there arose among the
churches, particularly in Asia, a sect known today as gnostics. An agnostic is a
man who says, “I do not know.” But a gnostic is the very opposite to an
agnostic; the gnostic says, “I do know.” The gnostics came into the church and
said, “We have superior knowledge to that of these simple Christians.” This sect
grew very rapidly, and threatened for two hundred years to overwhelm the
orthodox church of God. They had peculiar ideas regarding Jesus. Some of them
thought Jesus was simply a man, the natural-born son of Joseph and Mary, and
that Christ was the divine Spirit who took possession of Jesus at His baptism in
Jordan. This Spirit was with Him through life, but left Him when He hung on the
cross. Those who held this view were called Cerinthian gnostics, and there are
groups today who still promote this false doctrine. Cerinthian gnosticism is the
basic doctrine in Christian Science, The Unity School of Christianity,
Theosophy, and other modern cults. But this doctrine is thoroughly contrary to
Scripture. 1 John 5:1 says, “Whosoever believeth that Jesus is the Christ is
born of God”-not that Jesus was possessed by the Christ or was controlled by the
Christ, but He is the Christ. The one who hung on the cross was not only Jesus,
the man of Nazareth, but Christ, the Son of God. “ Christ died for our sins” (1
Corinthians 15:3). We must never distinguish between Jesus and the Christ any
more than we would distinguish between Mr. Hoover and the President. Mr. Hoover
is the President, and Jesus is the Christ. It is true that Christ is a title,
but that title belongs to Him.
There was another set of gnostics, the docetists, who denied the reality of the
manhood of Jesus-the reality of His human body. They held that evil was linked
with the flesh, and therefore it was unthinkable that deity should ever
condescend to dwell in a human body. The docetists believed that while you could
look at Jesus, if you had tried to touch Him, you would have touched thin air-He
was simply a phantom. John confronted both gnostic systems in his three
Epistles.
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CHAPTER 51: 04.01.1. GOD IS LIGHT
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Chapter One - God Is Light Reality of Christ’s Manhood (1 John 1:1-4) The
opening verses of this chapter deal particularly with the docetic system. Listen
to John, “That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have
seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon, and our hands have handled, of
the Word of life. (For the life was manifested, and we have seen it, and bear
witness, and show unto you that eternal life, which was with the Father, and was
manifested unto us.)” What John said is that eternal life was manifested on
earth in a man. We heard that man speak, listened to His words, looked upon His
face, and handled Him. We know that He was a real man. We walked with Him for
three and one-half wonderful years. If you want the truth about Christ, do not
believe these things that spring up overnight like mushrooms, but go back to
that which was from the beginning. We may be sure of this, “What is new is not
true, and what is true is not new.”
There are three distinct beginnings emphasized in Scripture. We read, “In the
beginning God created the heaven and the earth” (Genesis 1:1). That was the
beginning of creation. Some speculate that was about six thousand years ago; it
might have been much more than that, but the Bible does not say. But go back as
far as you want and you still find that, “In the beginning God created the
heaven and the earth.” Whenever that event took place, it was God who did it. He
was there. He brought the universe into existence. It may have gone through a
great many changes before the conditions described in Genesis 1:2, but it was
created by a personal God in the beginning-the beginning of creation. Then in
John 1:1 we read, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and
the Word was God.” That is the unbeginning beginning. When everything that ever
had a beginning began, the Word was. He had no beginning but was the eternally
existing Son subsisting in the bosom of the Father. Then in the first chapter of
this Epistle, “That which was from the beginning” is not the beginning of the
creation, neither is it the unbeginning beginning of John 1, but it is the
beginning of the new dispensation-the beginning of Christianity when the truth
was revealed in Christ.
There are several verses that support this interpretation. 1 John 2:7 :
“Brethren, I write no new commandment unto you, but an old commandment, which ye
had from the beginning. The old commandment is the word which ye have heard from
the beginning”. This refers to the teaching of our Lord Jesus Christ, the
commandment given by Him. When was that given? From the beginning of
Christianity, the beginning of the new dispensation. “The old commandment is the
word which ye have heard from the beginning.” In other words, John was saying,
“Do not take up with anything new; go back to that which was from the beginning
of Christianity.” Then read verse 1 John 2:14, “I have written unto you,
fathers, because ye have known him [that is] from the beginning.” He was writing
to the “fathers” who had known Him from the beginning of this new age of grace.
Then in verse 1 John 2:24 we read, “Let that therefore abide in you, which ye
have heard from the beginning. If that which ye have heard from the beginning
shall remain in you, ye also shall continue in the Son, and in the Father.” In 2
John 1:5 we find these words, “And now I beseech thee, lady, not as though I
wrote a new commandment unto thee, but that which we had from the beginning,
that we love one another.” In other words, don’t fall for something new. The
message you received at the beginning is the message you must cling to and is
the message that must abide in you. These passages make it clear that this term
“from the beginning” does not, as some have thought, refer to eternity. It
refers to the start of a new era. When people come to you and say, “We have a
new doctrine, a new teaching, a new system of thinking,” you can say, “Keep it;
as for me I will cling firmly to that which was from the beginning.” We have a
“faith which was once delivered unto the saints” (Jude 1:3). When the Mormon
says, “We believe the Bible, but we have the Mormon Bible too, and it is a new
revelation,” you can reply, “I do not need your new book. I have that which was
from the beginning.” When Mrs. Mary Baker Patterson Glover Eddy says, “Of course
we believe the Bible, but here is my little book, Science and Health, which is
something new,” you can say, “Thank you, madam, but I do not need your Key to
the Scriptures. The Word of God interpreted by the Holy Spirit is all I need.”
When the Swedenborgians say, “Sure, we believe the Bible, but we add to it the
dreams and visions of Emanuel Swedenborg,” we can reply in the words of
Scripture, He “that hath a dream let him tell a dream; and he that hath my word,
let him speak my word faithfully” (Jeremiah 23:28). When Pastor Russell and
Judge Rutherford come along and say, “Of course we believe the Bible, but we
must add to it our Studies in the Scriptures and The Harp of God, if you would
really understand it,” we can reply, “Keep all your seven or ten volumes; we
will go back to that which we have heard from the beginning. We do not want
anything added to the Scripture. We go back to what God gave at the start.”
John showed that Jesus was a real man. He said in effect, “We have heard Him; we
listened to His teaching as we walked with Him; we heard Him speak; we have seen
Him with our eyes.” The gnostics said that He was merely a phantom, but John
insisted on His true humanity, “That which we have looked on intently.” He was
not deceived. If someone comes up to me and says, “I want you to meet my friend,
Mrs. so-and-so;” I say, “I am glad to meet you,” and turn away because others
are crowding about me. The next day I meet this person on the street and she
says, “Don’t you know me? Why, I met you yesterday at the Moody Church.” I would
have to say, “I’m sorry, I did not look intently enough to have your face
impressed on me.” The apostle said, “We were not deceived. We saw Him and gazed
intently on Him. We know He was a real man, and He filled the vision of our
souls.” Then John added, “That which our hands have handled, of the Word of
life.” It was not merely that he heard and looked, but he touched Him, and when
he touched His arm, it was not thin air. When John leaned against Him at supper,
it was not a delusion. Christ Jesus is a man of true flesh and blood!
What a wonderful thing it is that the very first truth in the Christian
revelation is that God became man-the amazing grace of it. God came down into
His own world as a man. He came near to us in order that He might reveal Himself
to us and die for our sins. He was made a little lower than the angels in order
that He might settle the sin question for us. And so the apostle said in 1 John
1:2, “For the life was manifested, and we have seen it, and bear witness, and
show unto you that eternal life, which was with the Father, and was manifested
unto us.” Think of it! Eternal life appeared on earth! Do you want to know what
eternal life really is in all its fullness, in all its purity? Study the life of
Jesus in the four Gospels. John wrote, “The Word was made flesh, and
[tabernacled] among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only
begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth” (John 1:14). Although you and
I do not see Him now with our natural eyes, yet through the testimony of John
and his fellow apostles we are enabled to see Jesus-to see the manifestation of
eternal life. So John continued, “That which we have seen and heard declare we
unto you, that ye also may have fellowship with us: and truly our fellowship is
with the Father, and with his Son Jesus Christ” (1 John 1:3).
Fellowship is a distinctly New Testament word. Not that you won’t find the
English word in our translation of the Old Testament, but there it has the
thought of companionship. In Christianity fellowship is far more. When you hear
the benediction pronounced, “The love of God and the communion of the Holy
Spirit, and the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you,” do you stop and
think of what that means? People of different heredity, environment, and
cultural standards, are saved by the same grace, indwelt by the same Holy
Spirit, and brought into marvelous fellowship one with another.
I remember a number of years ago sitting at a table eating with two Christian
workers, one a colored man, the other a Japanese. Suddenly my Japanese friend
said to us in his quiet oriental way, “What a wonderful thing is the grace of
God! Just look at this, a black man, a yellow man, and a white man, all one in
Christ Jesus! By nature each one filled with suspicion of the other, and even
with a feeling of repugnance toward each other, but by grace all one in Christ.”
This is not something artificially pumped up or produced by any effort of your
own. It is the effect of the indwelling Holy Spirit of God. The Christian’s
object of fellowship is occupation with Christ. The apostle John said, “Truly
our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son Jesus Christ.” I like that-
our fellowship. In 1 Corinthians 1:9 we read, “God is faithful, by whom ye were
called unto the fellowship of his Son.” Men try to start fellowships, but they
are poor things at best. The only fellowship I know anything about is the
fellowship of God’s dear Son. Men may create their own fellowships, but thank
God every believer has been called into the fellowship of God’s Son.
Years ago I was telling a brother about a certain missionary. The man to whom I
was speaking happened to be part of a particular group of Christians with whom I
am intimately associated. He looked rather bored while I was speaking with him,
and when I had finished he said, “And is the brother in our fellowship?” “If you
mean some little clique of Christians, no, I don’t think he is in our
fellowship. But if you mean the fellowship of the Son of God, yes, he is in our
fellowship.” Our fellowship is the fellowship of the body of Christ as
demonstrated in the communion. “The bread which we break, is it not the
communion of the body of Christ?” What a marvelous fellowship this is! Do you
want to know how to get into this fellowship? There is only one way-through a
second birth and the gift of the Holy Spirit of God. Believe in the Lord Jesus
Christ and you will be born again. The Spirit will come to dwell in you and
bring you into “our fellowship.” Fellowship means common thoughts and interests.
Have you learned to know a Savior’s love? Do you enjoy the precious things that
the apostle John is talking about? Has the glorious truth of eternal life as
revealed in the Son of God become a reality to you? Then we can share it
together. As I tell you a little about Christ and you tell me a little of what
you know, our hearts are warmed. That is real fellowship.
John concluded this section with these words, “And these things write we unto
you, that your joy may be full.” You have a measure of joy now, but you will
have more as you get better acquainted with Christ. You have a measure of
happiness now; you will have more as you get to know Him more intimately. The
Christian Message (1 John 1:5-10) In this section John briefly gives us the
Christian message-a synopsis of the gospel that the Lord Jesus Christ
commissioned His apostles to carry into all the world. This gospel, if believed
fills the heart with joy. What is the message? “This then is the message which
we have heard of him, and declare unto you, that God is light, and in him is no
darkness at all” (1 John 1:5). They had heard the message from His own lips
while He was on earth. You may say, “I don’t see anything about these verses
that is particularly encouraging or that would fill my soul with joy.” If you
are going on to know fullness of joy, you must first of all be brought into the
presence of God as He is; and God is light.
There are two expressions used in this book that tell us the nature of God. Here
we read that God is light, and in 1 John 4:1-21 we read that God is love. Light
is used throughout Scripture as a synonym for infinite holiness, purity, and
perfect righteousness. “God is light, and in him is no darkness at all.” There
is nothing in God but absolute purity, absolute perfection, absolute holiness.
You say, “Well, how then can I, a guilty sinner, ever have fellowship with an
infinitely holy God? I might as well give up now, for if ‘God is light, and in
Him is no darkness at all,’ if He can discern every secret thought of my heart,
if He sees every evil way in me, how can I ever have fellowship with Him?” He
has provided the way, but He first wants me to recognize that if I ever have
fellowship with Him, it must be in the light.
John went on to say, “If we say that we have fellowship with him, and walk in
darkness, we lie, and do not the truth” (1 John 1:6). There is no use talking
about having fellowship with God and living in sin. “He that covereth his sins
shall not prosper: but whoso confesseth and forsaketh them shall have mercy”
(Proverbs 28:13). To walk in darkness is to walk in sin. To walk in sin is to
follow the dictates of our own natural minds and hearts. “For ye were sometimes
darkness, but now are ye light in the Lord: walk as children of light”
(Ephesians 5:8). “Having the understanding darkened, being alienated from the
life of God through the ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness of
their heart” (Ephesians 4:18). This is the description of the nature of all men.
The unsaved man belongs to the darkness. He is in Satan’s kingdom of darkness;
he walks in it and loves it. Scripture says, “Men loved darkness rather than
light, because their deeds were evil” (John 3:19). If you are doing something
shameful, corrupt, or vile, you don’t want to do it in the full light of day.
You look for some hidden place either alone or with someone like yourself. You
cannot have fellowship with God in darkness, for God is light.
We have darkness presented in four different ways in Scripture. There is the
natural darkness, “having the understanding darkened” (Ephesians 4:18). This
darkness is natural to all men. No man by nature understands God. No man
naturally loves holiness and purity. Have your ever noticed that you do not have
to teach little children to tell lies? You do have to teach them to tell the
truth. You never have to teach them to lose their temper, but you do have to
teach them to control it. You never have to teach them to be disobedient, but
you do have to teach them to be obedient. Why is this? Because people naturally
are children of darkness. As we look into the faces of babies we do not like to
think that in their little hearts there are the same sinful tendencies we find
in ourselves. Nevertheless sin is present, and so there is the necessity of
regeneration. “Ye must be born again” (John 3:7).
Someone might say, “I am not responsible for my sin because I was born a sinner
and my understanding was darkened. God is responsible for permitting me to come
into the world like this.” God accepts full responsibility, and is not going to
send anyone to eternal judgment because he was born a sinner. He is not going to
send anyone to everlasting ruin because he was born in darkness. God has come to
men and offered them a way out. That way is in the gospel. In the second place,
we have willful darkness. Our Lord Jesus said, “This is the condemnation [not
that men were born sinners], that light is come into the world, and men loved
darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil” (John 3:19). “He that
doeth truth cometh to the light, that his deeds may be made manifest, that they
are wrought in God” (John 3:21). Everyone who does evil hates the light. Men are
therefore responsible when they reject the light that comes to them. That is the
condemnation. That is willful darkness. The solemn result of willful darkness is
judicial darkness. In Jeremiah 13:16 we read, “Give glory to the Lord your God,
before he cause darkness, and before your feet stumble upon the dark mountains,
and, while ye look for light, he turn it into the shadow of death, and make it
gross darkness.” Does a God who is light sometimes cause darkness? Yes, if men
deliberately reject and turn their backs on the light. Pharaoh rejected the
light. He hardened himself against God, and God hardened him in his sins. In 2
Thessalonians 2:10-12 we read of those who “received not the love of the truth,
that they might be saved. And for this cause God shall send them strong
delusion, that they should believe a lie: That they all might be damned who
believed not the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness.” My friend, if God
has given you a measure of light, thank Him for it. Seek grace to go on in that
light. Don’t turn away from it, lest you go into judicial darkness. In Jude we
read of the final result of rejecting the light, “To whom is reserved the
blackness of darkness for ever” (Jude 1:13). If you lean towards universalism
and believe the dream of the final restoration of all men to God, how do you
account for this verse? There are certain men for whom is “reserved the
blackness of darkness for ever.” God does not want any man to live in the dark
or die in the dark. He wants men to come into the light, and in order that they
may do so He has come to them. When Christ died, the veil that once separated
God and man was torn in two from top to bottom. Now the true light is shining,
and “if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with
another, and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin” (1
John 1:7).
Long ago God’s glory was veiled in the thick darkness. Man tried in vain to find
and comprehend Him. But now God is “in the light”; He has been fully manifested.
He is no longer hidden. He has been perfectly revealed in Christ, and the torn
veil permits His glory to shine forth.
Notice that the cleansing of the blood depends on our walking in the light. What
is the apostle telling us? For many years I was very confused about this. I
thought it said, “If we walk according to the light, the blood of Jesus Christ
His Son cleanseth us from all sin.” I thought it meant that if I was very
careful about obeying every command of God, that if I walked according to all
the light I might have, He would cleanse me. But we find that the worst sinner
may have this cleansing. When does he get it? When he turns away from the
darkness and comes to the light. Notice, it does not say if we walk according to
the light, but it says, “If we walk in the light.” It is where you walk, not how
you walk-it is to walk in the presence of God. By nature we do not want to come
into the presence of God. But when the Holy Spirit has done His convicting work
in our souls, we cannot stay away any longer. When we run toward the light,
making our way into the very presence of the One we have been dreading, we find
the light is shining from the blood-sprinkled mercy seat.
Remember the picture in the tabernacle. In the holiest of all there was the ark
of the covenant, the mercy seat, and the cherubim overshadowing it. They are
mentioned in the Psalms as portraying divine justice and judgment. As a poor
sinner, justice and judgment are waiting, as it were, to bring divine wrath on
my guilty soul. But here the divine justice and judgment are seen above the
mercy seat. What makes the throne of God a mercy seat? It is the sprinkled
blood, the blood of sacrifice. And so divine justice and judgment are gazing
down on the blood, and it is from this very place that the light shines. Between
the cherubim is an uncreated light, the shekinah glory. I used to shrink from
the light, loving my sin and the darkness. Now led on by the Spirit of God, I
come to the light, face it, and let it shine full on me. What does it reveal? It
reveals my sin and my iniquity. But I am not alone there, for “if we walk in the
light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another” (1 John 1:7).
I find that I am simply one of a great group of people who are all just as bad
as I am by nature. Many people have the idea that they could never be happy
coming into the presence of God until they first become saints. But the first
time you come into His presence, you must come with all your sins, either in
this life or in the day of judgment. If you come into His presence with your
sins on you in the day of judgment, it means that you will be lost forever. But
if you bring your sins before Him in this life, then you will find that though
the light exposes all your corruption, iniquity, and wickedness, “the blood of
Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin.” We do not need to fear the
light, for the blood is in the very place from which the light comes. Let me
emphasize again, It is not how we walk, it is where we walk. Do you walk in the
light; have you come into the presence of God; have you ever had that light
shine upon you? The word cleanseth suggests to many a continual cleansing. I do
not think that is the thought of Scripture. The marvelous thing about salvation
is that when you put your trust in the Lord Jesus, the blood of Christ cleanses
eternally and completely in the sight of God. The blood abides on the mercy
seat; it is there constantly before God in its eternal power. There is never a
moment that the blood is not there before God. I may fail in words, actions, and
thoughts that grieve the Spirit of God, but the blood abides and it cleanseth
from all sin. When it comes to practical cleansing we have the washing of water
by the Word (Ephesians 5:26). God’s estimate of the sacrificial work of His Son
will never change, and therefore my standing before God will never change.
Once in Him, in Him forever, Thus God’s faithful record stands.
“The blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin.” This verse could
be translated, “The blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from every sin.”
It cleanses from the guilt of sin. The moment I put my trust in the Lord Jesus
Christ, the blood cleanses from it all. I once thought of this as a kind of
inward experience. I considered myself a Christian with a sinful nature, and
that little by little it would be cleansed. But the marvelous fact is that in
contrast to all my guilt is the infinite value of the atoning blood of the Lord
Jesus Christ. God does not see one sin resting on the soul that trusts that
precious blood.
“If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us” (1
John 1:8). Suppose someone says, “I have no need of this cleansing blood; I am
good enough as I am I am not a sinner; I do not need forgiveness.” One of our
poets has said, “I need no Christ to die for me,” and he is not the only one who
takes that position today. Very well, the apostle said, “If we say we have no
sin, we deceive ourselves.” Notice, we do not deceive anyone but ourselves. You
never saw a man that could deceive his wife by saying he had no sin. He might
have been able to deceive her before they were married, but she soon begins to
see his flaws and cannot be deceived. We do not deceive those closest to us; the
only person we deceive is ourselves. The Word goes on to tell us that “the truth
is not in us.”
I remember years ago when Henry Varley was having some meetings in Oakland,
California and spoke on this verse. He said, “I have been told that you have a
good many sinless people out here in California. I have never seen one such
person myself, and I have a real curiosity to see one. If there is one here
tonight, I would like to see him as soon as the meeting is over.” After the
meeting, one man came up to the preacher and said, “I understand you want to see
a perfectly sinless man. I have never sinned in twenty-two years, since I was
wholly sanctified.” “Well now, my dear brother,” said Mr. Varley, “let me get
this right. You recognize, of course, that there are sins of omission as well as
of commission?” “Yes,” he said. “And you are telling me that you have never been
guilty either of sins of commission or of omission for twenty-two years?” the
preacher asked. The man started to justify himself when an old lady came up the
aisle, and before he could say a word, she said, “Yes, there are some folks that
say they never commit sins, but ask their neighbors. They can tell a different
story.” The man left without a word. “If we say we have no sin, we deceive
ourselves, and the truth is not in us.” That is why we need the cleansing value
of the precious blood of Christ. As a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ, I can
no more stand before God on the grounds of my own spiritual experience than I
could as a sinner. I stand before Him on the grounds of the redemption that is
in Christ Jesus. Can we go on then living in sin? No, not at all. Cleansing by
the blood is our judicial cleansing. But “If we confess our sins, he is faithful
and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness” (1
John 1:9). This is our practical cleansing. You see, I come to God not only
wanting my sins put away from before Him, my evil record omitted from the books
of eternity, but also wanting practical deliverance by His power. I want to know
what it is to have actual cleansing in my life in word, thought, and deed. I
must come to God as a penitent, for it does not say that if we pray our sins
will be forgiven, but, “If we confess our sins.” Of course, as a sinner, when I
come to Christ I come on the grounds of this verse, and He cleanses me. But as a
believer confessing the failures in my life, I come confessing my sin, and He is
“faithful and just to forgive.” In the Old Testament a person was to come to God
with an offering and “confess that he hath sinned in that thing” (Leviticus
5:5). This implies definiteness in confession. I’m afraid many of us never
really get to God in confession because we are so indefinite. Someone may pray
and say, “If You have seen any sin, anything wrong in me, forgive me.” Hold on a
minute! Is there any sin; do you know of anything wrong? The proper way to make
confession is to come to God acknowledging the wrong I have done. A lady who
came to Charles Wesley said, “I want you to pray with me, for I am a great
sinner. I am a saint of God, but I fail so dreadfully, and I want you to pray
with me.” Mr. Wesley said rather sternly, “I will pray for you, for indeed you
need it. You are a great sinner.” “What do you mean?” she asked indignantly; “I
have never done anything terribly bad!” Oh, dear friends, if you want blessing,
do not be vague in your confession. Go into the presence of God and tell Him all
about your sins. Tell Him about your bad temper, about your scandalous tongue,
about all the things you do to grieve His Holy Spirit. Some of you say, “Pray
for my husband, I would like him to be converted.” He is more likely to be
converted if you will say, “O God, I confess that my bad temper is hindering my
husband from being saved and is alienating my children. I am not surprised that
my friends are not converted.” Then go to them and make confession to them. If
you have been saying it was nervousness when it was really bad temper, confess
that it is temper, and stop trying to excuse your sin.
He will cleanse us by the washing of the Word and give victory in our lives. He
will enable us to live here to His praise and glory. “If we say we have not
sinned [if we dare to take the ground that we have never sinned] we make him a
liar, and his word is not in us” (1 John 1:10). We have not yet come into the
light, but are still in the darkness trying to cover up our sins. May God enable
us to be real with Him and with one another. Then we will know the blessing of
fellowship in the light.
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CHAPTER 52: 04.01.2. LIVING IN GOD'S LIGHT
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Chapter Two - Living In God’s Light Christ Our Advocate (1 John 2:1-2)
These two verses constitute the second part of the message we were studying in
Chapter One. Remember in 1 John 1:5 we read, “This then is the message,” and
then in 1 John 1:5-10, 1 John 2:1-2, we have the message in its entirety. This
is the message that John and the other apostles were commissioned by Christ to
carry throughout the world. It is the message of man’s utterly lost condition in
darkness, and of the atoning value of the precious blood of Christ. This message
tells us the importance of facing our sins in the presence of God, and finding
forgiveness. Now John goes on to address the failures of believers, those who
have been cleansed judicially from all sin. What about our failures?-for you
know we do fail, all of us, much as we may regret the sad fact.
I remember one summer I was rather amused listening to a sermon in which the
speaker was telling about a little girl who had been left by her parents with
another family while they were away. When at last the mother and father returned
for her and she was on her way home, she said to her father, “Daddy, there were
four little boys at that house where I have been staying.”
“Yes, I knew that,” he said.
“Daddy, they have family worship there every night.”
“I’m glad to hear that.”
“Daddy, every night their father prays for those four little boys.”
“That is very nice.”
“He prays, Daddy, that God will make them good boys, and that they won’t do
anything naughty,” said the little girl.
“That is very nice.”
She was silent a moment and then said, “But Daddy, He hasn’t done it yet.”
There are a great many folk like that. We are praying that God will make us
good, and holy, and that our lives may be lives of victory. But I’m afraid many
of us have to confess that God hasn’t done it yet. We recognize the fact that we
do sin, and we do fail. Our hearts are nearly broken by our failures. What about
the sins of believers?
First of all, believers should not sin. John tells us, “My little children,
these things write I unto you, that ye sin not. And if any man sin, we have an
advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous” (1 John 2:1). The word
translated “little children” could better be translated “children” or “dear
children” because the original word does not refer to age or size. It is a word
that takes in everyone who is born of God. It literally means “born ones,” those
who are born into God’s family. “My children, these things write I unto you,
that ye should not be sinning.” It is the desire, the will of God for His
children that we should not sin. God has redeemed us to Himself not only to take
us to Heaven, but that we should live to the praise of His glory in this world.
Farther on we read, “Whosoever is born of God doth not commit sin” (1 John 3:9).
In other words, they do not live in the practice of sin. When an individual is
saved, a change takes place. If there is no change in a person’s life, they have
never been born of God. From the time of their new birth they hate sin and love
holiness. If they do not hate sin and love holiness, they are not born of God.
On the other hand, I recognize the fact that “there is not a just man upon the
earth, that doeth good, and sinneth not” (Ecclesiastes 7:20). There is no one
who does not fail. It is not that God is powerless to deliver us, but we fail to
steadfastly keep our eyes fixed on Christ-to reckon ourselves “to be dead indeed
unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord” (Romans 6:11). The
moment a believer becomes self-occupied, undisciplined, and negligent in prayer,
he sins. Remember that sin consists not only in doing overt evil acts, but also
in not doing the good that you know you should. ‘To him that knoweth to do good,
and doeth it not, to him it is sin” (James 4:17).
I frequently meet people who say they never sin. I ask them, “Just what do you
mean by that? Do you mean that you never break any of the ten commandments?”
“Yes,” they say. “Do you mean that you never commit any actual overt acts of
iniquity?” “Yes.” “Do you also mean that you do everything that you know you
could do for God, that you take advantage of every opportunity of doing good, of
every opportunity of speaking for Christ, of every opportunity of glorifying
your Lord and Savior?” If there is the least bit of honesty, they bow their head
and say, “No, I am afraid that I do not.” Then you sin. Sin is not merely the
violation of certain moral principles, it is also failure to do the good that
you know you should do.
“If any man sin”-here the word sin is in the Greek aorist-it means, “If any man
commit a sin at a given point of time.” It is not a question of the practice of
sin, but of a definite failure. “If any man sin,” what then? Some believe that
sin immediately severs the link that binds the believer to Christ. If that were
true, no one would ever have the assurance of being a Christian. But there are
two links that bind us to Christ. First there is the link of union. That link is
so strong that the weight of the world could not break it. Our blessed Lord
Himself said, “My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me: and
I give unto them eternal life; and they shall never perish” (John 10:27-28).
Nothing can ever break our link with Christ once it has been formed by the
Spirit of God. But there is another link that binds the believer to the Lord,
and that is the link of communion. This link is so delicate, it is easily
broken. One unholy thought will snap it. One unchristlike action will destroy
it. One minute given to foolishness will break it, and that link could never be
formed again if it depended entirely on us. We often speak of the finished work
of Christ, and rightly so. Our blessed Lord as He hung on the cross cried, “It
is finished” (John 19:30). He bowed His head and dismissed His spirit, and there
the work that saves our guilty souls was completed. “Whatsoever God doeth, it
shall be for ever: nothing can be put to it, nor any thing taken from it: and
God doeth it, that men should fear before him” (Ecclesiastes 3:14). The finished
work of Christ stands alone in absolute perfection. Our souls can rest on that
finished work. As a believer was dying, someone leaned over him and asked, “Is
everything all right?” The man replied,” ‘It is finished’; on that I can rest my
eternity.”
Upon a life I did not live, Upon a death I did not die, Another’s life,
Another’s death, I stake my whole eternity. It is finished, yes, indeed;
Finished, every jot! Sinner, this is all you need! Tell me, is it not?
Nothing can be added to a finished work. While it is perfectly Scriptural to
speak of the finished work of Christ, it is just as Scriptural to speak of the
unfinished work of Christ. Our blessed Lord who completed one work when He died
for our sins, began another when He ascended to the Father’s right hand in
Heaven. There in the glory “he ever liveth to make intercession for [us]”
(Hebrews 7:25). That intercessory work has two aspects. We read in Hebrews that
He is there as our High Priest with God. As High Priest He is able to give us a
perfect representation before God. We are seen in Him, and He is there to
minister grace in our time of need. As a High Priest He can be “touched with the
feeling of our infirmities”, and sympathizes with us in all our weakness. His
sympathy has nothing to do with our sins, but with our infirmities-our
weaknesses. If we avail ourselves of His high priestly work, we will not fall
into sin. We can go to Him-our great High Priest-to “obtain mercy, and find
grace to help in time of need” (Hebrews 4:15-16).
Scripture not only presents Christ as our High Priest, but also as our Advocate.
It is as our Advocate that He confronts the believer’s sins. He is said to be a
High Priest with God, but He is our Advocate with the Father. The more I read
the Bible the more I realize the exactness of Scripture. The more I hear people
talk about the Bible, the more I am impressed with how inexact we are when
talking about divine things. It is quite natural for us to talk about Christ as
the High Priest with the Father, or the Advocate with God, but that would dilute
the truth of Scripture. My sins are put away by the blood of Christ, and I have
a perfect representation before the throne of God in my great High Priest.
“Wherefore he is able also to save them to the uttermost that come unto God by
him, seeing he ever liveth to make intercession for them” (Hebrews 7:25). When I
was converted, God became my Father. There is no such thing in the Bible as the
universal Fatherhood of God. He is Father only to those who are born again. As a
believer if I fail or fall into sin, I read, “If any man sin, we have an
advocate with the Father” (1 John 2:1). Not an Advocate with God, but with the
Father. Why with the Father? Because the Spirit of God teaches me that our
relationship has not been disturbed! When you sin, the devil says, “Now you’ve
done it; you were a Christian before, but not any more. God is no longer your
Father.” This is just a lie of the devil, for it is written, “If any man sin, we
have an advocate with the Father” Our relationship is undisturbed. In the
original the word paraclete (translated “advocate” in 1 John 2:1) means “one who
comes to your side to help.” This same word is translated “Comforter” in John
14:16; John 14:26; John 15:26; John 16:7. In the Gospel Jesus spoke of the
“Comforter” that the Father will send in His name. The Comforter-the Spirit of
God-comes from the Father and is sent both by the Father and the Son. The Lord
said in effect, “I am going away, but I will send the Paraclete-One who will
come to your side to help in every time of need.” On the other hand, in 1 John
2:1 we read that we have a Paraclete or “advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ
the righteous.” In other words, God sent the Holy Spirit down to earth to dwell
in me, to be my Advocate here on earth-to look after God’s interests in me. Then
He took the blessed Lord up to Heaven to be my Advocate with the Father-to look
after my interests with the Father.
Why do I need an Advocate in Heaven? Because I have a great adversary. An
advocate is someone who goes into court to represent you and to plead your case.
You cannot defend yourself, but, when you go to your advocate, he defends you
and pleads your case against your adversary. Satan is called in Revelation
12:10, the “accuser of [the] brethren…which accused them before our God day and
night.” When you sin, the devil appoints himself the prosecuting attorney in the
high court of Heaven. The devil goes right into the presence of God and says,
“Is this one of your Christians? Listen to what he is saying now; see what he is
doing!” He is there to accuse, but the blessed Lord is there. He shows His
wounds and spreads His hands, and says to the Father, “I took all that into
account when I died on Calvary’s tree.”
I hear the accuser roar Of ills that I have done; I know them well, and
thousands more, Jehovah findeth none. Though the restless foe accuses- Sins
recounting like a flood, Every charge our God refuses; Christ has answered with
His blood.
I realize my unrighteousness when I fall into sin, and could easily give up in
despair. But I have an Advocate in the presence of the Father who gives me a
perfect representation. God sees me in Him. I do not plead my case on the basis
of my own righteousness but on the absolute righteousness of Christ Jesus. And
so I can plead with power; I can plead effectively, because Christ died for the
very sin that is now troubling me. “If any man sin, we have an advocate with the
Father, Jesus Christ the righteous: And he is the propitiation for our sins” (1
John 2:1-2). This word, propitiation, as used in John’s Epistle is a different
word from the one used in Romans. Propitiation in Romans means the mercy seat.
Romans 3:25 reads, “Whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith
in his blood.” The reference is to the mercy seat-the meeting place between God
and man. But in 1 John 2:2; 1 John 4:10, propitiation means an “atonement” or an
“expiation.” My failures cannot undo the work of the cross. Christ has died,
been raised, and gone up to God’s right hand, and is there as my Advocate
interceding for me. There He undertakes my case. He Himself is the propitiation.
1 John 2:1 does not say, “If any man repent, we have an advocate; if any man
confess his sins, we have an advocate; if any man weep over his sins, we have an
advocate.” Instead it says, “If any man sin, we have an advocate with the
Father.” It is not just when I am repentant that I have an Advocate, but the
very moment I fail, Christ takes up my case, even before I am sorry about it.
The moment that unkind word left my lips, the moment I did that spiteful thing,
the moment I was thoughtless in some business matter, that very moment before my
conscience was exercised and I was troubled, the devil was in the presence of
God to accuse me. But the same instant the Son of God was there to represent me.
As a result of His advocacy, the Spirit takes the Word of God and applies it to
my conscience, and I confess my sin. It is possible that my conscience was not
troubled until some time after my failure. Perhaps I did not realize the true
condition of my heart until the night I could not pray, and I said to myself,
“What is the matter?” Then I cried, “Search me, O God, and know my heart: try
me, and know my thoughts” (Psalms 139:23). In answer to the advocacy of my
blessed Lord, the Spirit of God says, “Don’t you remember that unkind word, that
unholy thought, that spiteful thing you did, that unforgiving spirit, that
selfishness, that worldliness?” The guilt overwhelms me, and I break before God
and say, “O God, I cannot go to sleep tonight until I have told You all about
it.” Then I tell my story, confess my failures, my weakness and my sins, and as
I do so, I know the blessing of the promise, “If we confess our sins, he is
faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all
unrighteousness” (1 John 1:9). You see the wonderful truth is that all the
experiences I have gone through have not touched my relationship in the family
of God. My wife and I have raised two boys. Like other boys they are usually
very good, but sometimes they give us a great deal of trouble. There are times
they have given us a great deal of comfort, and then there are times when they
have not been everything they should be, and it has concerned us. Often we have
had to discipline them and say, “Go up to your room and stay there until you can
face this thing, until you are ready to acknowledge your wrong and ask for
forgiveness.” Sometimes the child’s will sets itself against the will of the
parents. Hour after hour goes by without acknowledgment of wrong. Then
suppertime comes and as the child hears the rattling of dishes, he calls out,
“Father!” I go upstairs and he asks, “Can I go down to supper?” “That depends on
you. Confess your wrong and you may come down.” “Well,” he says, “if you think I
have done anything wrong, I am sorry.” “No, that won’t do,” and so I leave him
and go back downstairs. Soon the meal is served and the odor wafts upstairs. He
is getting hungry, and so he calls again. I go upstairs, and he tries to avoid
the issue by saying, “Since you and Mother both think what I did is wrong, I
guess it is, and I am sorry.” “No, guessing will not do,” and I turn to go
downstairs. Maybe halfway down the stairs I hear him cry, “Father, Father,
Please forgive me. I have been very naughty and stubborn.” Oh, how glad I am to
throw my arms around him and put the kiss of forgiveness on his forehead, and
say, “Come on down; we will all enjoy dinner better with you there.” So it is
with our God and Father. Sin does not touch our relationship, but it does hurt
our fellowship. But our blessed Lord is in the presence of God the Father to
plead for His people, and as a result of His advocacy, we are brought to
repentance and confession, and He graciously restores our fellowship.
Obedience, the Proof of the New Life (1 John 2:3-11) The apostle now presents to
us some tests of our Christian profession. It is one thing to say, “I am a
Christian,” but it is another to possess eternal life. It is one thing to say,
“I am a child of God,” and quite another to know the marvelous blessing of
regeneration. Do we say we are Christians? Do we claim to be children of God?
Then we must prove it by our lives.
“We do know that we know him, if we keep his commandments” (1 John 2:3). He is
not speaking from a legal standpoint. In the Old Testament the commandments of
God were presented to us with a view of obtaining life. The law said of the man
who kept His commandments, “Which, if a man do, he shall live in them”
(Leviticus 18:5). But here, under grace, it is the opposite. The man who lives
by faith will do His commandments. The one who says he lives for God and yet is
completely indifferent to the will of God, has never been born of God. He is
still in “the gall of bitterness, and in the bond of iniquity” (Acts 8:23). The
child of God delights in obedience to the will of God. Not that his obedience is
perfect, for it is never that. There is only One who could say, “I do always
those things that please him” (John 8:29). But love for the will of God springs
up in the soul of the man who is truly regenerated. He delights to walk in
obedience to God’s Word, and thus he proves that he is a child of God. He not
only rests on the Word that says, “He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting
life,” but he finds within himself that which corroborates his faith-that which
proves he has been born of God. This new desire to do the will of God is not of
the natural man. By nature we prefer to do our own will, we prefer to take our
own way. But in trusting Christ, we learn to delight in His divine will.
“He that saith, I know him, and keepeth not his commandments, is a liar, and the
truth is not in him” (1 John 2:4). How outspoken the apostle John was! Some
people do not appreciate this kind of strong language. But we need to realize
that the apostle was dealing with great abstract truths. Men either love God or
do not. They either walk in darkness or they walk in light. There is no in
between. The principle here is that we can test ourselves to see where we are.
We should ask, “Do I delight in the will of God; do I love His commandments?” If
I do not, there is no use professing to be a Christian, for I am professing a
lie. It is hypocrisy to claim to be a Christian while my works deny my
profession.
“He that saith, I know him, and keepeth not his commandments, is a liar, and the
truth is not in him. But whoso keepeth his word, in him verily is the love of
God perfected: hereby know we that we are in him” (1 John 2:4-5). There is a
difference between keeping God’s word and keeping His commandments. Of course, a
little farther down we are told that the “commandment is the word” (1 John 2:7),
but we could hardly say the word is the commandment. The commandment is included
in the word, but the word is more than the commandment. The word is the
expression of the will of God, either given in direct commandment or otherwise,
and we who are saved delight to keep His word. This is the commendation that the
Lord gave the church in Philadelphia, thou “hast kept my word, and hast not
denied my name” (Revelation 3:8). The Lord Himself makes this distinction
between keeping His commandment and keeping His word. In John 14:15 He says, “If
ye love me, keep my commandments,” but farther on He adds, “If a man love me, he
will keep my words” (John 14:23). The following story illustrates the difference
between “commandment” and “word”. There is a little girl who after school enjoys
playing with her friends. One day her mother said, “My dear, when you come home
from school today, there are some chores I want you to do. Dust the living room
and set the table for supper. I will be out for a while, but when you are
finished you can go out and play.” Because she is an obedient child, when she
returned from school she did the things her mother had commanded her to do. She
showed her love in this way. On another occasion she was under no such command,
but coming home heard her mother speaking to the next door neighbor. Her mother
said, “You know, I really don’t know how I am going to get through this
afternoon. I have invited company for dinner, and I am in a panic because I
don’t have anything ready. I am so exhausted and yet there are potatoes to peel,
vegetables to prepare, and I don’t know how I will get it all done.” Now in the
morning the mother had told her daughter, “When you come home from school today
you can go out and play until I call you for dinner.” But the little girl, after
hearing this conversation between her mother and the neighbor said, “Mother, you
go and lie down for an hour. I will peel the potatoes, prepare the vegetables,
set the table, and help you get dinner ready.” “But I told you you could play
today,” the mother answered. “Oh, but I wouldn’t be happy out playing knowing
you were here at home feeling so badly,” the child replied. Yesterday the little
girl kept her mother’s commands; today she is keeping her word. How it must have
delighted the mother’s heart to have her daughter doing these things even when
she was not commanded to do them! The believer, in studying the Word of God,
finds direct commands-certain things the Lord has told him to do, and because he
loves his Lord, it is his delight to keep those commandments. But as he
continues to read, he comes across passages containing no command whatever, but
that express God’s desires-the longings of His heart for His own people. The
true believer says, “Because You have won my heart, dear Savior, I will keep
Your words.” “Whoso keepeth his word, in him verily is the love of God
perfected: hereby know we that we are in him” (1 John 2:5). The word is the
revelation of what God is and of His dwelling in the believer. Therefore keeping
His word is the demonstration of the life of Christ in the one whom He has
redeemed. So the apostle added, “He that saith he abideth in him ought himself
also so to walk, even as he walked” (1 John 2:6). I cannot be all that Jesus is;
that is impossible. Jesus is the Holy One of God, and I, although regenerated,
am still a poor, failing, sinful man. But I am called to walk as He walked, for
Christ has left us “an example that [we] should follow his steps” (1 Peter
2:21). I am to glorify Him by following in His footsteps.
“Brethren, I write no new commandment unto you, but an old commandment which ye
had from the beginning. The old commandment is the word which ye have heard from
the beginning” (1 John 2:7). Earlier we examined the expression, “From the
beginning,” and saw that it differs from the words in Genesis 1:1, which speak
of the beginning of creation. When John said, “I write no new commandment unto
you, but an old commandment which ye had from the beginning” (1 John 2:7), he
was not referring to something strange and new, but was referring back to the
word spoken by the Lord when He was here on earth. He was referring to the
beginning of the Christian dispensation.
False teachers had come into the church and were deceiving the people of God
with their teachings. The apostle said to test these teachings by asking, were
these things taught from the beginning? As we have already seen, in
Christianity, “What is new is not true, and what is true is not new.” We are not
in the process of discovering Christianity. Christianity was a revelation
committed to godly men by the Holy Spirit in the very beginning of the church
age. In other words John said, “Go back to the records of our Lord’s life, see
what He Himself taught, and walk in obedience to His Word.” Our Lord was not
merely summing up the commandments when He said, “A new commandment I give unto
you, That ye love one another” (John 13:34), but it was His instruction
concerning obedience to the will of God. But now the commandment takes on a new
character. Since Christ has died, risen from the dead, ascended to Heaven, and
sent the Holy Spirit to dwell in the hearts of believers, there are millions of
regenerated men and women. To them the apostle declared, “Again, a new
commandment I write unto you, which thing is true in him and in you: because the
darkness is past, and the true light now shineth” (1 John 2:8). The commandment
is the word of God, and the word was expressed in the life of Christ. If we are
born again, the life of Christ has been given to us, so what is true in Him is
true in us. The only thing Jesus could do when He was here on earth was the will
of God. He had no other thought or desire. Now He dwells in us, and if we are
Christians, we have His life in us. When John speaks of His commandment, he says
it is new because divine life is ours, and so the word is both in Him and in us.
By calling on the believer to do the will of God, our Lord is asking him to do
the very thing he longs to do.
Suppose a mother calls the doctor to see her young child. The little one seems
to be very ill. After a careful examination, the doctor says, “I’m afraid the
baby is very sick. I’m going to leave you some medicine. Don’t neglect the
child, or be indifferent to its needs. Watch it carefully, see that it gets the
medicine regularly, and is protected from anything that might make it worse
instead of better. Please take good care of this child!” Is he asking the mother
to do something that is difficult? No. She would probably reply, “That is
exactly what I want and intend to do. I love that little child and nothing would
cause me to be careless with it. I want to do the very best that I can for it.”
The mother is told to do the very thing her heart yearns to do. And so it is
with the believer, “You, that were sometime alienated, and enemies in your mind
by wicked works” (Colossians 1:21), now love to do the things He asks. We
delight in the will of God.
“A new commandment I write unto you…because the darkness is past, and the true
light now shineth” (1 John 2:8). The word past does not exactly suggest the
tense of the original. What he was really saying is, “The darkness is passing,
and the true light is now shining.” We can see as we look on the world around us
and in us that the darkness is not past. Even though the gospel of the grace of
God has been preached for almost two thousand years, the darkness is not gone.
There are still millions in darkness and in the shadow of death. And no matter
how well I know my Lord and His Word, I cannot say that the darkness is past
even in me. But the darkness is passing, and the true light is shining. Every
day I am getting to know my Lord better, and every day I understand His will
more perfectly. But until the time comes when I leave this body and see my
blessed Savior face to face, there will still be a measure of darkness in me,
even though all is light in Him.
Schiller, the German poet, said as he was dying, “I see everything clearer and
clearer.” It won’t be long until all the darkness will be gone, and we will see
everything in all its clearness in His own blessed presence. In 1 John 2:9-10
the apostle speaks very seriously and very solemnly concerning something that
may well convict some of us. “He that saith he is in the light, and hateth his
brother, is in darkness even until now” (1 John 2:9). If you hate your brother,
no matter what you profess, you are still in darkness. Notice he did not say you
may be a real Christian who has fallen into darkness; but he said, if you hate
your brother you are “in darkness even until now.” You have never been anywhere
else. You have never been in the light at all. You cannot have divine light or
the Holy Spirit or the love of God dwelling in you, and still hate your brother.
And yet we often see people professing the name of Christ while showing hatred
toward others.
“He that loveth his brother abideth in the light, and there is none occasion of
stumbling in him” (1 John 2:10). With new life comes light and love. God is
light and love, and as we walk in fellowship with Him, nothing will cause us to
stumble. Instead, we will constantly demonstrate the love of Christ. There is no
room for hatred in the heart that is filled with the love of God.
“He that hateth his brother is in darkness, and walketh in darkness, and knoweth
not whither he goeth, because that darkness hath blinded his eyes” (1 John
2:11). This is the natural darkness in which all men are born. “Having the
understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God through the
ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness of their heart” (Ephesians
4:18). That is the condition of man by nature. But remember, we are not
condemned because of what we are by nature. “This is the condemnation, that
light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because
their deeds were evil” (John 3:19). You are not responsible because you are a
sinner by nature, but you are responsible if you reject the Savior. You are not
responsible because you were born in darkness and your understanding is
darkened, but you are responsible if you reject the light that comes to you
through the Word of God. This light will chase away all the darkness if you walk
in it. Don’t turn from its searching rays. But if men persist in rejecting the
light, there may come a day when God will withdraw that light. In Jeremiah 13:16
we read, “Give glory to the Lord your God, before he cause darkness, and before
your feet stumble upon the dark mountains, and, while ye look for light, he turn
it into the shadow of death, and make it gross darkness.” This is the “strong
delusion” we read about in 2 Thessalonians 2:11. Then there is only one more
step-eternal darkness-“Wandering stars, to whom is reserved the blackness of
darkness for ever” (Jude 1:13). “He that hateth his brother is in darkness, and
walketh in darkness, and knoweth not whither he goeth, because that darkness
hath blinded his eyes” (1 John 2:11). But Jesus said, “I am the light of the
world: he that followeth me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light
of life” (John 8:12). Have you honestly trusted Him? Is He your light? Is He
your life today?
I heard the voice of Jesus say, “I am this dark world’s Light; Look unto Me, thy
morn shall rise, And all thy days be bright.”
I looked to Jesus, and I found In Him my Star, my Sun, And in that light of
life, I’ll walk Till trav’ling days are done. Horatius Bonar The Children of God
(1 John 2:12-13)
These verses introduce a distinct section of John’s Epistle in which he has a
word of exhortation for all God’s children. Whatever their years of Christian
life or their experience, all are addressed in 1 John 2:12 when he said, “I
write unto you, [dear] children, because your sins are forgiven you for his
name’s sake.” I purposely omitted the word little, which is in the King James
version and substituted the word dear. I did this because the word translated
“little children” in 1 John 2:12is a very different Greek word from the one
translated “little children” in 1 John 2:13. The first word takes in all those
who are bom into the family of God. It is a term of endearment. But the second
word refers just to those who are young. In 1 John 2:12, John is addressing all
who have been redeemed to God by the precious blood of the Lord Jesus
Christ-those who have been bom into the great family of God. They are all God’s
beloved children. If you have made Christ your only ground of confidence, and
are now able to say, “On Christ the solid rock I stand, / All other ground is
sinking sand,” then you are numbered among the children of 1 John 2:12). “I
write unto you, children, because your sins are forgiven you for his name’s
sake.” He has given us in 1 John 1:7 the basis of that forgiveness: “The blood
of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin.” There is no other way that
sin can be blotted out. No other way that guilty men can be given a standing in
the presence of a holy God. No other way is needed, for on Calvary’s tree our
Lord shed His precious atoning blood. Thank God that “Sinners plunged beneath
that flood, / Lose all their guilty stains.” These are the children of God.
All men are by nature the children of Adam. They are “alienated from the life of
God through the ignorance that is in them” (Ephesians 4:18), and, “Except a man
be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God” (John 3:3). Those who have
trusted the Lord Jesus and believed the gospel are already born into His family.
Peter said, “Being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by
the word of God, which liveth and abideth for ever…And this is the word which by
the gospel is preached unto you” (1 Peter 1:23; 1 Peter 1:25). But now, although
all believers are equal as the redeemed of the Lord, and all who have trusted
Christ are in one family as the children of God, yet there are obviously
differing degrees of spirituality-degrees of progress in the Christian life. So
in 1 John 2:13, the apostle divides the children of God into three classes
according to the measure of their growth “in grace, and in the knowledge of our
Lord and Savior” (2 Peter 3:18).
“I write unto you, fathers, because ye have known him that is from the
beginning. I write unto you, young men, because ye have overcome the wicked one.
I write unto you, little children, because ye have known the Father” (1 John
2:13). John was not referring here to age or sex. He was not writing just to the
men in Christ and excluding the women. These three terms, fathers, young men,
and children, are used to distinguish believers according to the measure of
their growth in grace. Who are fathers? They are those who for years have known
the Lord, walked with God, and grown old in the things of Christ. To them John
said, “I write unto you, fathers, because ye have known him that is from the
beginning.” It is quite possible to have been a Christian for many years, and
yet not be a father. There are many who have been saved a great many years but
are spiritually dwarfed because they give so little attention to spiritual
things. They give so little time to the Word of God, are so seldom exercised in
holy things, and know so little of the blessedness of prayer and communion with
the Lord, that they do not grow. But when the apostle spoke to the fathers, he
was speaking to those who through long years have availed themselves of their
Christian privileges, learned to love the Word of God, sought to walk with
Christ, labored for the blessing of others, and learned experientially to know
the blessed Lord in all His fullness. When John said, “Ye have known him [that
is] from the beginning,” he did not mean, “Ye have known concerning him,” or
“known about him,” but “ye have known him.” Spiritual fathers have lived in
fellowship with Him, walked with Him, and talked with Him. He has become dearer
and nearer and more real to them than any earthly friend. He draws very near to
His own, and, if I may coin an expression, He presences Himself with them. He
shows them His hands and feet, and says, “It is I myself: handle me, and see”
(Luke 24:39). He asks us to remember that it was for us He bore the wounds and
endured the agony of the cross, in order that we might become His own. So the
fathers are those who have learned to know Him throughout the years. They have
learned to appreciate His love. The world has lost its power over their souls
because Christ has filled the eyes of their hearts.
Next John wrote to the “young men.” These are the strong Christians who,
although they may not have walked with God for as many years as the fathers,
have yet gone on with Him into spiritual maturity. They have learned the secret
of overcoming. In the book of Revelation we read, “They overcame him by the
blood of the Lamb, and by the word of their testimony” (Revelation 12:11). When
John said, “I write unto you, young men, because ye have overcome the wicked
one,” we can be sure that it is through their faith in the atoning blood of
Christ that they have been able to turn away from the world that crucified Him.
They have said farewell to anything that has no place for their Lord. My old
companions, fare you well, I cannot go with you to hell; I mean with Jesus
Christ to dwell I will go. Do you remember an experience like that? Have you
turned from the world that rejected your Savior, and clinging to Him, taken His
place of rejection? If so, then even when Satan seeks to terrify you by bringing
before you your past sins, you are able to plead the infinite value of Christ’s
atoning blood. That is the way to overcome.
Finally, there is a third class into which the apostle divides the family of
God. These are the little ones, new believers in Christ, and to them he says, “I
write unto you, little children, because ye have known the Father.” A little
while ago they were walking with the world in darkness, but they heard the
gracious invitation of the loving Savior, “Come unto me, all ye that labour and
are heavy laden, and I will give you rest” (Matthew 11:28). Responding to His
invitation, they came with all their sins and grief, and found how true a friend
Jesus is to those who trust Him. Now, though they do not know much else, they
know the Father and have been given the Holy Spirit.
God does not wait until we become mature Christians before the Holy Spirit is
given to us. “Having begun in the Spirit, are ye now made perfect by the flesh?”
(Galatians 3:3) We began in the Spirit. We received the Spirit of God as soon as
we believed in Jesus, and He teaches us to cry, “Abba Father.” We look up into
His blessed face and are able to say, “My Father.” There is a great deal for the
“little children” to learn. Many varied experiences are still ahead of them, and
there are wonderful truths yet to be opened. But they are just as accepted in
the Beloved as the fathers. They are just as cleansed from every sin as the
young men who “have overcome the wicked one.”
How to Overcome (1 John 2:14-17)
Beginning with 1 John 2:14 John goes on to give a word of encouragement,
warning, and exhortation, to each group of believers, so he mentions them all
again in order. To the fathers he says, “I have written unto you, fathers,
because ye have known him that is from the beginning” (1 John 2:14). John does
not add anything to what he said in 1 John 2:13. It is exactly the same. Why
doesn’t he add anything? Because you cannot add to the climax of Christian
experience-“Ye have known him that is from the beginning.” “From the beginning,”
refers to Jesus’ incarnation here on earth. It must have been wonderful to trace
His footsteps as He walked the sands of earth, and see Him in His perfection-God
revealed in the flesh. It is even more wonderful to know Him now as the One who
passed through death, was raised by the glory of the Father, has ascended to
Heaven, and sits exalted at God’s right hand as our great High Priest and
Advocate.
There are not many fathers in the faith. People may be very old in Christ and
yet not be fathers in a spiritual sense. Sadly, many who have been Christians
for years are still very worldly minded and know little of true fellowship with
Christ. Paul earnestly prayed, “That I may know him, and the power of his
resurrection, and the fellowship of his sufferings, being made conformable unto
his death” (Php 3:10). It is this personal knowledge of God that constitutes one
a father in Christ. This is the height of Christian maturity, and comes through
a life of intimate fellowship with Christ. Does your soul long to know Him? Do
you seek to know Him better through the years? There is only one way that you
will ever become a father in Christ-it is to know Him. Many people are quite
clear regarding certain great doctrines, or convinced as to where they stand on
the fundamental and liberal controversy. They have rigid ideas as to how the
people of God should meet together, and yet there is one thing very evident-they
do not know Christ in this intimate relationship that is indicated here.
How do you get to know a person? By living with them day after day. How do you
get to know Christ? By living in intimate fellowship with Him day after day
throughout the years. You know Him when He ministers to you in your sorrow. You
know Him when you put Christ first and find your chief joy and gladness in Him.
To know Him! This is to be a father in Christ. John does not add a word of
exhortation. Why? Because when Christ becomes the sole object of the heart,
nothing more can be added to that. The heart completely devoted to Christ is
delivered from the power of sin, saved from worldliness, and kept from jealousy,
envy, and everything that is of the flesh. These things will not be present in
the heart where Christ is all in all.
Next the apostle turned his attention to those who have not reached the depths
of experience that the fathers have, and yet are strong, vigorous Christians. He
said, “I have written unto you, young men, because ye are strong, and the word
of God abideth in you, and ye have overcome the wicked one” (1 John 2:14). When
he spoke to them previously, he simply said, “I write unto you, young men,
because ye have overcome the wicked one” (1 John 2:13). But now he reveals the
secret of that overcoming. They are not strong in their own power, but “in the
Lord, and in the power of his might” (Ephesians 6:10). In other words, you are
strong because “the word of God abideth in you.” Many of us spend the greater
part of the week occupied solely with the things of earth-things that in
themselves are very right and legitimate. Once a week we come together for Bible
study or worship, and say, “How encouraging and helpful!” It is like someone
eating one good meal a week. That is not the way to be strong. We are
strengthened by reading the Word of God first thing in the morning, meditating
on the Word of God all day long, and studying the Word of God the last thing at
night. If you go to bed with the Word of God in your mind, you will wake up with
the Word of God in your mind. It is the Word of God that keeps us from the power
of the enemy throughout the day. Some say, “I do not think this is possible.”
But it is possible, and many have proven it can be done. Someone said to me once
concerning a fellow Christian, “I like your friend. He is like a walking Bible.”
That was because my friend was constantly feeding on the Word.
I knew a blacksmith who was so eager to become a man of God that he used to cut
his Bible into sections, and tie one section up with a piece of string beside
his forge. He would pull a page of it off and tack it up before him so that as
he worked away at the blacksmith shop, he would be reading the Word. Was it any
wonder that three years later God called that man away from the blacksmith shop
into active Christian service? For forty years he has been an evangelist,
leading many to the Lord Jesus Christ. Another man I knew was a printer. He had
his Bible on a little stand in front of him, and as he worked away on those
great circular presses, he had his heart set on the things of God. He would read
a verse and meditate on it as he worked, and then read another, and another. It
was not long until God took that man away from the printing press and sent him
out preaching. He always said he got his theological seminary training standing
at his printing press.
“Because the word of God abideth in you.” You know there are many Christians who
think of the Word of God as something to take up an extra hour or so when they
have nothing else to do. But you will never grow that way. What little strength
you get from that hour is all used up when you become occupied with other
things. You do not get anywhere on small doses. When the Word of God is the
supreme thing in your life, and everything else is made to fit into that, then
you will grow and become a strong Christian. The world is bidding for strong
young Christians, and its allurements are all around them. The devil would do
anything to trip up an earnest Christian. There are some believers the devil
could care less about. But the ones who are out and out for God, Satan pursues
with his snares and attractions, trying to trip them up. If they flee from one
thing, he has another temptation waiting for them. And so the exhortation comes,
“Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love
the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world,
the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not
of the Father, but is of the world. And the world passeth away, and the lust
thereof: but he that doeth the will of God abideth for ever” (1 John 2:15-17).
What is this world that we are not to love? It is not the earth, for that in
itself has nothing that can hurt our souls. We can love nature. We do not need
to be afraid of a beautiful view or a lovely flower. Some Christians have the
idea that we are not to enjoy the world of nature. I said to one, “Isn’t that a
beautiful rose bush?” He replied, “I am not interested in roses; I am not of
this world.” That is not the world that is spoken of in Scripture. The universe
is the expression of the Father’s wisdom and goodness.
Heav’n above is softer blue, Earth beneath is sweeter green! Something lives in
ev’ry hue Christless eyes have never seen: Birds with gladder song o’erflow,
Flow’rs with deeper beauties shine, Since I know, as now I know, I am His, and
He is mine! George W. Robinson The Lord loved the lilies of the field. He drew
attention to the beauties of nature. They stirred His own soul, and He wants His
people to see in them the evidences of the wisdom and goodness of the Father.
But what, then, is the world we are to hate? It is the system that man has built
up on earth, in which he is trying to make himself happy without God. The
world’s system really began back in Genesis when Cain went out from the presence
of the Lord and built a city. It was a wonderful world. They were skilled in all
kinds of arts, sciences, business, and pleasure-anything and everything to make
them happy without God. But it ended in corruption and violence, and God had to
sweep the whole thing away with a flood. The principles of the world that caused
the corruption and violence before the flood were carried into the ark in the
hearts of some of Noah’s children. They brought the world into the ark, and when
they emerged from the flood, they brought the world out of the ark with them and
set it up again.
What is then the world, which John described as the “lust of the flesh” (the
gratification of the flesh), and “the lust of the eyes” (the desires of the
unregenerate soul)? When some think of the world, they think of things that are
abominable, vile and corrupt-saloons, gambling halls, and every kind of
violence. These things offer little to attract the Christian heart. The world
the Christian needs to beware of is the world of culture-the world that appeals
to their esthetic nature. That world should hold as little attraction for the
Christian as the corrupt, abominable world in the slums of our great cities.
Don’t imagine yourself safe and free from worldliness because your world is in
the arts and sciences. Even the business world may become a great snare. But you
ask, “Don’t we have to work?” Yes. Jesus said, “I pray not that thou shouldest
take them out of the world, but that thou shouldest keep them from the evil”
(John 17:15). In all these things we have to watch against the evils of the
world.
I remember when I was a young Christian, the world I had to guard against most
was the world of literature. I used to love its poetry, essays, and wonderful
books. I still appreciate them to a certain degree. But I have to remember that
if ever these things come between my soul and my love for God’s Word, I have to
turn away from them and give my time and attention to Scripture. And so it is
with anything that comes between you and your Lord.
There was a young lady with great musical ability preparing to go on the concert
stage when the Lord saved her. She said one day, “You know I have made an
amazing discovery. My love for music is coming between my soul and Christ.” That
young woman, for eight years, would not touch a musical instrument for fear she
would become so absorbed that she would not enjoy the things of God. But the
time came when she said, “Although I can’t enjoy music for its own sake, I can
use it as a vehicle to bless the souls of people.” She gave her talent to
Christ, and He used it in attracting people to hear the gospel. No matter what
your world is, if you lay it down at Jesus’ feet and use it for Him, you do not
need to be afraid of it. But do not put your world before Jesus Christ. For some
a fine house is “the world.” Suppose there is a Christian who has little worldly
wealth. He lives in a quiet little home and is happy and content. But then the
Lord trusts him with a good deal of money, and he immediately says, “I must have
a better house now. I must live in style. I must have magnificent furniture and
fine draperies.” What for? Is he any more comfortable? He can only eat three
meals a day; he can only sleep in one bed and sit in one chair at a time. But he
feels he must impress people. He is in love with “the things that are in the
world.”
Physical beauty can also get between you and Christ, and will prove to be “the
world” if one is not careful. “For all that is in the world, the lust of the
flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father,
but is of the world” (1 John 2:16).
What is “the pride of life?” It is the pretentiousness of living, of trying to
make an impression on others. It is the excessive exalting of oneself in the
eyes of the world. I sometimes think if Christians took two-thirds of the money
they invested in a mansion in this world, and invested it in sending the gospel
to a lost world, they would have a much finer mansion in the eternal world. I
was walking down the street one day with a friend. As he pointed out a
particular home he said, “There is an awful lot of tragedy connected with that
house. A man built this great home for his beautiful wife, and suddenly she
died. Here is a house that had a lot of money put into it, but there was a
suicide in the family, and now no one wants to live in it.” There is no real joy
in things. As Christians, our joy in Christ is the only joy that will last
forever. Our joy is in the things that will never pass away, and yet it is sad
to think that we can be so foolish and invest so much in what is fleeting and
will leave us dissatisfied and unhappy in the end.
“But he that doeth the will of God abideth for ever.” In obedience to God’s will
there is lasting joy and endless gladness. In the light of that, who would not
say, Take the world, but give me Jesus, All it’s joys are but a name, But His
love abideth ever, Through eternal years the same.
Fanny J. Crosby Have you made your choice? As a believer you made your first
choice when you turned from sin to Christ. Have you made your next choice? Have
you turned from the world to Christ? There are many who have trusted Jesus as
their Savior from judgment, who have never learned to know Him. They have never
learned to walk with Him in blessed fellowship No one can ever put this world
beneath his feet until he has found a better world above. When your heart is
taken up with Christ in that eternal world, it is an easy thing to heed the
exhortation, “Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world.”
God’s Little Children-Their Privileges and Dangers (1 John 2:18-27)
We have noticed that the Holy Spirit in addressing the family of God has divided
it into three classes, according to the measure of their growth in grace. We
have already considered what the Lord has to say to the fathers in Christ and to
the young men. Now we come to consider His message to God’s little children.
“Little children, it is the last time: and as ye have heard that antichrist
shall come, even now are there many antichrists; whereby we know that it is the
last time” (1 John 2:18). The word translated “little children” here, as pointed
out on a previous occasion, is very different from the word translated “little
children” in the first part of verse twelve. There it is a term of affection,
and implies all who are born into God’s family, all His dear children, who are
at varying degrees in their spiritual experience. But here the term includes not
only those who have been recently saved, but also those who although saved for
years, have not been well nourished or built up in Christ. While they should be
in one of the more spiritually mature classes they are still God’s little
children. These immature believers are passing through a world in which there
are a great many adverse influences seeking to turn them away from the
simplicity that is in Christ. So the apostle immediately warned them, and
interestingly enough, he warned them against the spirit of antichrist. “Ye have
heard that antichrist shall come, even now are there many antichrists; whereby
we know that it is the last time.” John is the only writer who used the term
antichrist. Other terms used in Scripture are the “idol shepherd” (Zechariah
11:17), the one who “shall come in his own name” (John 5:43), the “son of
perdition” and the “man of sin” (2 Thessalonians 2:3), the “lawless one” (2
Thessalonians 2:8), and the “false prophet” (Revelation 16:13; Revelation 19:20;
Revelation 20:10). These different terms describe the same person, the one who
will arise during the great tribulation and lead apostate Christendom and
Judaism farther away from God than they are at the present time. The antichrist
has not yet appeared, but the spirit of antichrist is in the world, for “even
now are there many antichrists.” The “spirit of antichrist” is the putting of
man in the place of God and His Christ. It is self-worship or humanism. The
little children need to be warned against this. Sadly many of the advocates of
these unholy systems once claimed to be Christians. They took their places at
the communion table, had fellowship outwardly with God’s people, were baptized,
but now have turned away from Christianity and Scripture. They deny the precious
blood they once confessed. Scripture says, “My sheep hear my voice, and I know
them, and they follow me: And I give unto them eternal life; and they shall
never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand” (John 10:27-28).
So how are we to account for people who for years seemed to be just as real as
any other professed believers, but now count “the blood of the covenant,
wherewith [they were] sanctified, an unholy thing, and have done despite unto
the Spirit of grace” (Hebrews 10:29) and spurned the love of Jesus? The answer
is, “They were not of us: for if they had been of us, they would no doubt have
continued with us” (1 John 2:19).
I remember how my heart was stirred after the war as I read of one of our great
American preachers who was great from the standpoint of ability, culture, and
rhetoric, but knew nothing of the saving grace of God. He said that after he had
been to Europe and after his experience in the trenches, he threw overboard the
doctrine of blood-atonement through the precious sacrifice of our Lord Jesus
Christ, gave up the doctrine of the deity of Christ, and scoffed at His virgin
birth and resurrection. How could so great a preacher repudiate these truths? We
don’t need to guess about this, for the answer is given by the Holy Spirit
Himself in 1 John 2:19, “They went out from us, but they were not of us; for if
they had been of us, they would no doubt have continued with us; but they went
out, that they might be made manifest that they were not all of us.” Their going
out made it evident that they were not genuine believers. They carried the
Christian name, they joined a Christian church, they were baptized in the name
of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit, and they took the bread and the wine at the
table of the Lord. But He who sees not as man sees said, “The hand of him that
betrayeth me is with me on the table” (Luke 22:21). He knew what Judas really
was, and so said, “Have not I chosen you twelve, and one of you is a devil?”
(John 6:70) He was never anything else.
God knows who are the unreal among His people today. He knows all who mingle
with the people of God, who profess the name of Christ, but have never known the
blessing of regenerating grace, never bowed in repentance at the cross of
Christ, never been washed from their sins in the Savior’s precious blood. The
hardest thing in the world to do is to attempt to live like a Christian when you
have no Christian life. It would be easier for one of the beasts of the field to
set himself up in a mansion and try to live the life of a millionaire human
being, than for an unregenerate sinner to try to live the life of a Christian.
“Ye must be born again” (John 3:7). “Except a man be born again, he cannot see
the kingdom of God” (John 3:3). And so John wrote of men mingling with
Christians and outwardly looking like them, but he said, “They were not of us.”
They were not genuine.
Oh, may each one of us search our hearts in the presence of God and ask
ourselves, have I really faced my sins in the light of the cross of Christ? Have
I truly turned to God in repentance, admitting my guilt, acknowledging my
iniquity, and fled for refuge to the hope given me in the gospel? Do I show
evidence of a regenerate soul? Do I love the brethren? Do I love the
commandments of God? Is the Word of God sweet to me, and do I delight to feed on
it? Is it my joy to serve the Lord, or are these things wearisome to me? I am
persuaded, and I say this with love, that there are tens of thousands of people
today whose names are on a church roll who have never had their names enrolled
in the Lamb’s Book of Life. There are tens of thousands of people struggling to
live a Christian life, and making a complete failure of it because they have
never yet been born again.
If a great revival were to come to this land, one of the first evidences of it
will be that people who have used the Christian name and passed for Christian
workers will begin to find out that they themselves have never been saved. They
will break down before God, and confess their sins and judge their iniquities
and selfishness. How dreadful to never find out the truth until the day of
judgment when it is too late to rectify the error!
John wrote of these pretenders, “They went out, that they might be made manifest
that they were not all of us” (1 John 2:19). Once outside they became the worst
opponents of those who stood for the truth of God. There is no one who hates the
gospel like the man who once professed to be saved but afterward turned to a
life of sin because there was no reality in his profession. These were the
antichrists John warned the little children about in his day.
How are the little children to guard against these false teachers? Look at 1
John 2:20-21. “But ye have an unction from the Holy One, and ye know all things.
I have not written unto you because ye know not the truth, but because ye know
it, and that no lie is of the truth.” He said, “Ye know all things”-not actually
every detail, but potentially. You have dwelling in you the One who does know,
and therefore you don’t need to be carried away by any form of error. What do
young believers have as their resource? They have the Spirit of God and the Word
of God. They have the Word of God in their hearts and the Spirit of God dwelling
in them to open the truth to them. When people come with their false teachings
that deny the atoning blood, or the deity of Christ, or emphasize human
attainment, the young ones in Christ can turn back to the Word of God, and the
Spirit of God dwelling in them opens the Word to them and thus preserves them
from error. The story is told by a well-known English minister, how one night,
when he was just ready to retire, there came a knock at his door. When he went
downstairs, he found at the door a poor, wretched little girl, dripping wet. She
had come through the storm, and she said, “Are you the minister?”
“Yes,” he said, “I am.” He was at that time one who had turned away from the
simplicity of the gospel.
“Will you please come and get my mother in?” she asked. The minister replied, “I
was just about to retire, and besides it is hardly proper for me to go out in
this weather and bring your mother in. If she is drunk, you can get a policeman
to fetch her. He has his oilskins on and is prepared for the storm.”
“Oh no,” said the little girl, “you don’t understand! My mother is not out in
the storm, and she is not drunk. She is at home dying, and she is afraid to die.
She is afraid she is going to be lost forever. She wants to go to Heaven and
doesn’t know how, so I told her I would get a minister to get her in.”
He asked where she lived, and she told him of a district so corrupt that even in
the daytime respectable people did not go there without a police escort. “Why,”
he said, “I can’t go down there tonight.” To himself he reasoned, It would ruin
my reputation to be seen with a girl like this in that district in the middle of
the night. No, I cannot go. I am the preacher of a large and important church.
What would my congregation think if it should get into the papers? To the girl
he said, “I will tell you what to do. You go down and get the man who is running
the Rescue Mission. He will be glad to help you.” He felt ashamed as he said it,
but decided his reputation had to be maintained.
“He may be a good man,” replied the girl, “but I don’t know him. I told my
mother I would get a real minister, and I want you to come and get her in.
Please come quickly; she’s dying.”
“I couldn’t stand the challenge in those eyes,” the preacher confessed. He felt
ashamed, and so he said to her, “Very well, I will come.” He went upstairs, got
dressed, and put on his overcoat.
Then the girl led him down through the city, into the slum district, into an old
house, up a rickety stairway, and along a long dark hall into a little room
where lay the poor woman. “I have gotten the preacher of the biggest church in
the city,” said the girl. “He will get you in. He didn’t want to come, but he’s
here. You tell him what you want, and do just what he tells you to do.” The
woman looked up and said, “Oh, sir, can you do anything for a poor sinner? All
my life I have been a wicked woman, and I am going to Hell. But I don’t want to
go there. I want to be saved and go to Heaven. Tell me what I can do.” The
preacher related how he stood there looking down at that poor anxious face, and
thought, Whatever will I tell her? I have been preaching in my own church on
salvation by character, ethical culture, and reformation. But I can’t tell her
about salvation by character, for she hasn’t any. I can’t tell her about
salvation by ethical culture, for there’s no time for culture, and besides she
most likely wouldn’t know what I meant. I can’t tell her about salvation by
reformation, for she has gone too far to reform. Then it came to me, why not
tell her what my mother used to tell me? She’s dying, and it can’t hurt her,
even though it will do her no good. And so he said, “My poor woman, God is very
gracious, and the Bible says, ‘God so loved the world, that he gave his only
begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have
everlasting life.’”
She replied, “Does it say that in the Bible? My! This should help get me in.
But, sir, my sins! What about my sins?” The minister said that it was amazing
the way the verses came to him, verses he had learned years ago and never used.
He said to the woman, “The blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all
sin” (1 John 1:7).
“All sin?” she asked. “Does it really say that the blood will cleanse me from
all sin? That ought to get me in.”
“This is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus
came into the world to save sinners; of whom I am chief (1 Timothy 1:15).
“Well,” she said, “If the chief got in, I can come too. Pray for me!”
He knelt down and prayed with that poor woman and got her in, and while he was
getting her in, he got himself in. Those two poor sinners, the minister and the
dying harlot, were saved together in that little room.
Those messages that have nothing in them to help a poor, guilty, Hell-bound
sinner, are an abomination in the sight of God! But, thank God, He has given His
little children the blessed Holy Spirit to guide, direct, instruct, and open to
them the truth. And through the truth they are kept from the power of the evil
one.
Then we read, “Who is a liar but he that denieth that Jesus is the Christ? He is
antichrist, that denieth the Father and the Son” (1 John 2:22). John continued
with strong language: “Whosoever denieth the Son, the same hath not the Father:
but he that acknowledged the Son hath the Father also” (1 John 2:23). The words
placed in italics in our King James version generally represent words not found
in the Greek, but since the New Testament was translated in 1611 many other
manuscripts have been discovered, and they all contain these words.
“Let that therefore abide in you which ye have heard from the beginning. If that
which ye have heard from the beginning shall remain in you, ye also shall
continue in the Son, and in the Father” (1 John 2:24). If the gospel has not
gripped your heart, you will some day drift away as others have drifted away.
“These things have I written unto you concerning them that seduce you. But the
anointing which ye have received of him abideth in you, and ye need not that any
man teach you: but as the same anointing teacheth you of all things, and is
truth, and is no lie, and even as it hath taught you, ye shall abide in him” (1
John 2:26-27). They were not to be dependent on human wisdom, for they had the
Word of God opened to them by the Holy Spirit. This then is the comfort, stay,
and protection of God’s little children. They may not know very much, but they
know Christ. They have the Holy Spirit dwelling in them, and they have the Word
of God to instruct them. May we all learn to value what God has graciously
committed to us.
Christ’s Appearing (1 John 2:28-29) In 1 John 2:28 as in 1 John 2:12, John used
once again the term, dear children, to address all the family of God
irrespective of maturity or age. He said, “And now, [dear] children, abide in
him.” To abide in Him is to live in fellowship with Him. It is one thing to be
in Him-having life in Him-but it is another thing to abide in Him-enjoying
communion with Him. There are many who have life in Christ but are not happy in
His presence. They permit something to come into their life that hinders
fellowship.
You know how it is in a family. When the children are in harmony with the father
and mother they give their parents satisfaction and there is peace, joy, and
fellowship. But if one of the children is out of touch with the rest and has
been willful, disobedient, and ungrateful in one way or another, there is a
barrier between that child and the parents. Not that the parents do not love the
child as much as ever, but they realize that his behavior has come in the way of
fellowship. So it is with the children of God. John says, “And now, [dear]
children, abide in him; that, when he shall appear, we may have confidence, and
not be ashamed before him at his coming” (1 John 2:28).
It is at the appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ that our rewards will be given
out. “Behold, I come quickly; and my reward is with me, to give every man
according as his work shall be” (Revelation 22:12). In 2 Corinthians 5:10 we
read, “We must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ.” The apostle was
desirous that when the day of reckoning comes, “we may have confidence, and not
be ashamed before him.” Notice the pronoun we. He was addressing the children,
and so you would expect him to say, “That, when he shall appear, you may have
confidence, and not be ashamed before him at his coming.” But he was speaking as
a servant of Christ, and was addressing those whom he had either led to Christ
or sought to help in the ways of God. He spoke for all Christ’s servants as he
addressed all God’s people, and said in effect, “We are accountable, and have a
tremendous sense of responsibility in regard to you.” Another apostle spoke of
Christ’s undershepherds as those who had heavy responsibility, and said, “They
watch for your souls, as they that must give account, that they may do it with
joy, and not with grief: for that is unprofitable for you” (Hebrews 13:17).
I remember some years ago trying to speak on 1 John 2:28 to a crowded house in Detroit. After dismissing the audience at the close of the meeting, I saw a young woman on the left side of the church push her way across to the right side. She threw herself weeping into the arms of a beautiful Christian woman, saying, “Oh, Mrs.M------, will you forgive me? Can you forgive me?” The woman tried to quiet and soothe her, and said, “It is not I who needs to forgive you. If you have sinned, you have done so against the Lord. Go to Him.” “Oh,” the young woman said, “but you led me to Christ. You were my Sunday School teacher, and you tried to encourage me on. I used to be so happy as a young Christian, and then I fell in love with an unsaved man. You warned me that it was not the right thing for a Christian girl to do. You warned me about the unequal yoke, but I reasoned that I would soon bring him around, and he would become a Christian. But it hasn’t worked that way. He has taken me away from the church of God and into the world. This is the first meeting I have attended for months. I have been going with him to the theater and dance hall and have lost out. It never dawned on me how ashamed you would be of me at the judgment seat of Christ. I want to be right with God.” I saw that dear woman take her into a side room for a time of prayer. When they came out their faces were shining.
It is one thing to come to Christ. It is another thing to behave yourself in
such a way that those who led you to Christ and watched over your soul can give
account with joy in that great day. Sometimes even here on earth I have been a
little ashamed. I have gone into certain places and met someone who did not seem
to be a devoted Christian. Then someone would ask, “Don’t you know so and so?”
“I’m not sure that I do,” I replied. “Well, he is one of your converts.” I know
that they mean he has professed to be converted in one of my meetings, but he
has not been living for Christ. Nothing gives a true servant of Christ greater
joy, after the conversion of sinners, than to see those he has won for the
Savior glorifying Him in their lives. Do you remember when you first came to
trust in Christ? What have you been doing since? What has the Lord been getting
out of your life? Have you been flirting with the world, trying to straddle the
fence? You cannot do this without going astray. If you have been redeemed to God
by the precious blood of Christ and regenerated by the grace of His Holy Spirit,
let Him have the best of your life. Abide in Him. Then in that coming day when
the servants of Christ come up before the judgment seat to be rewarded according
to their service, they won’t be ashamed of you. Think of D. L. Moody standing
before the Lord, and saying, “Lord, behold, I and the children whom You have
given me,” and then think of some of those converts as they stand there saying
to themselves, “Oh, how I wish I had lived more in accord with what my dear
father in Christ taught me.” In 1 John 2:29 John reminded us of what should
characterize those who have been born of God. “If ye know that he is righteous,
ye know that every one that doeth righteousness is born of him.” Don’t be
content to say, “I have trusted Christ and have been made the righteousness of
God in Him.” When God justifies a man by faith, He proceeds to make that man
just by the working of His Holy Spirit. He does not justify people by faith and
leave them in an unjust condition. Everyone that is born of God does
righteousness, loves righteousness, and seeks to walk in righteousness. Let us
test ourselves by some of these things, and see whether or not we are professing
to be Christians when we have never known righteousness.
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CHAPTER 53: 04.01.3. GOD IS LOVE
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Chapter Three - God Is Love The Father’s Love and Christ’s Appearing (1 John
3:1-3)
What beautiful words are written to believers in the opening 1 John 3:1. First
comes the “manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be
called the sons of God: therefore the world knoweth us not, because it knew him
not.” This is something different from the general love of John 3:16, “For God
so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth
in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.” That is infinite love to
lost men everywhere. If you are not a believer, be assured of this: the love of
God goes out to you and he has extended His love to you in that while you were
yet a sinner Christ died for you. However, there is a love sweeter and more
precious than that, but it is not for you until you trust in Christ. But if you
have already trusted in Him, then you can enter into the Father’s love. “Behold,
what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us.” It is the children who
are addressed, not sons. It is a peculiar thing in the King James version, that
often in the translation of John’s writings, the word sons is used where it
should be children: “That we should be called the children of God.” And because
we are the children of God “the world knoweth us not, because it knew him not.”
If you are using a revised version you will notice that there are several words
added, which were found in some old manuscripts that were not known when the
King James version was translated, “Behold, what manner of love the Father hath
bestowed upon us, that we should be called children of God, and so we are.” It
is not that we hope to be, but we are. Are you clear about that? If you are, you
will never sing, Tis a point I long to know, Oft it causes anxious thought, Do I
love my Lord or no? Am I His, or am I not?
I would not dishonor my Lord by singing words like that when I read, “Rejoice,
because your names are written in heaven” (Luke 10:20). Therefore, because we
are-because we have been born of God and regenerated-the world does not
understand. The world does not know us because it did not know Christ. If it did
not know Him, we cannot expect it to recognize us. Because He passed through
this world a stranger and a pilgrim, we too go through it as strangers and
pilgrims, refusing to look at things from the world’s standpoint.
“Beloved, now are we the [children] of God”-not we hope to find that we are such
when we get to Heaven but-“ Now are we the children of God” (1 John 3:2). But
there is something we are waiting for. “It doth not yet appear what we shall be:
but we know that, when he shall appear, we shall be like him; for we shall see
him as he is.” Soon every believer will be fully conformed to His blessed
image-this is our great expectation. What a wonderful day that will be! Even now
God looks at His people as they are going to be when He gets through with them.
We look at each other as we are now, and get discouraged with ourselves and with
one another. But God is looking at us as we will be when we see our blessed Lord
and are changed into His glorious image. A story is told of an artist who had in
his mind the conception of a great picture he was going to paint. He stretched
his vast canvas straight across one side of his large studio, put up the
scaffolding, brought the big, thick brushes, and prepared the paint. It looked
like a job of house painting. He painted with great sweeps of his brush as he
put in the background. Day after day he would walk back and forth putting a dab
of gray here, and dab of blue there, and some black there. One day he came down
from the scaffolding to look at it. He kept moving back, and back, and back. A
visitor had come in unnoticed, and as the artist moved backward he bumped right
into him. He turned around and said, “Why are you here? I didn’t know you had
come in. What do you think of my picture? It is going to be the masterpiece of
my life. Isn’t it magnificent?” The other said, “I don’t see anything there but
a lot of great daubs of paint.” “Oh, I forgot,” said the artist; “you can see
only what is there, while I can see the picture as it is going to be.” The
blessed Lord sees us as we are going to be when we see Him, for then we will be
just like Him. Even now on earth, “We all, with open face beholding as in a
glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to
glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord” (2 Corinthians 3:18). And when we see
Him as He is, we will become just like Him.
“And every man that hath this hope in him purifieth himself, even as he is pure”
(1 John 3:3). It is literally, “Every man that hath this hope set on
Him”-looking forward to the coming of the Lord Jesus, the blessed hope of His
return. I do not know any incentive to godly living like the hope of the coming
again of the Lord Jesus Christ. People must be weaned away from the world by
heart-occupation with the coming Savior. You cannot be occupied with Him and
occupied with the world at the same time. It is impossible not to be weaned away
from the world when your heart is totally surrendered to Him. You do not have to
give up the world for Jesus’ sake. The fact of the matter is that, “The things
of earth will grow strangely dim / In the light of His glory and grace.” When
you are looking for His return, you cannot enjoy the things of the world that
crucified Him. Conversely, if you are a Christian and trying to enjoy the world,
forgetting that you are called to be separate from the world, you cannot enjoy
Christ. You cannot enjoy Christ and the world at the same time. In the flyleaf
of John Bunyan’s Bible he had written, “This Book will keep you from sin, or sin
will keep you from this Book.” And so we may say, occupation with Christ will
save you from worldliness, or worldliness will hide the glory of His wonderful
face. “Every man that hath this hope in him purifieth himself, even as he is
pure.” The Two Natures (1 John 3:4-10)
We have in 1 John 3:4 what appears to be a definition of sin. What is sin? There
was a little boy who when his Sunday school teacher asked him this question,
said, “I think it is anything you like to do.” That is not far from wrong,
because in our natural state we are so utterly out of touch with God that we
like to do those things that are contrary to His holy will. The definition of
sin is given in 1 John 3:4, “Whosoever committeth sin transgresseth also the
law: for sin is the transgression of the law.” The King James translation is not
very accurate. The verse should read, “Whosoever committeth sin committeth
lawlessness, for sin is lawlessness.” In other words, sin does not consist
merely in the breaking of a revealed law. The King James version seems to
indicate this, but if we turn back to Romans, we are told that “where no law is,
there is no transgression” (1 John 4:15), but “until the law sin was in the
world” (1 John 5:13).
If sin is the transgression of the law, how could sin have been in the world
before the law was given? If we accept the more accurate rendering, all is
clear. “Sin is lawlessness,” and that is the very essence of sin. It is
rebellion against God-taking my own way. This is something we all do naturally.
Isaiah said, “All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to
his own way; and the Lord hath laid on him the iniquity of us all” (Isaiah
53:6).
I was a wand’ring sheep, I did not love the fold, I did not love my Shepherd’s
voice, I would not be controlled: I was a wayward child, I did not love my home,
I did not love my Father’s voice, I loved afar to roam. Horatius Bonar
Rebellion characterizes every man or woman who has never been subdued by divine
grace. Sin therefore is self-will-it is taking my own way and not subjecting
myself to the will of God.
1 John 3:5 tells us, “And ye know that he was manifested to take away our sins;
and in him is no sin.” Here John declared more than he did in his Gospel. In
John 1:29 John the Baptist exclaimed as he pointed to the Lord Jesus Christ,
“Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world.” In his Gospel
John directed us to Christ’s work on the cross. There He settled the sin
question and because of that finished work He is able to show grace to all men
everywhere. But here in the Epistle, we have deliverance from the practice of
sin for those who are already saved: “He was manifested to take away our sins.”
“Sin shall not have dominion over you: for ye are not under the law, but under
grace” (Romans 6:14). The Word says, “Thou shalt call his name Jesus: for he
shall save his people from their sins” (Matthew 1:21). Our blessed Lord not only
saves us from the guilt of sin through the work of His cross, but He has
provided the means whereby He may save us from the power of sin. He takes away
the habit of sinning through the indwelling Holy Spirit after the new nature has
been communicated to us through the new birth. People who loved to sin and go
their own way, now delight in holiness and find their joy in doing His will.
This is the characteristic mark of a Christian. A man who has professed to
accept Christ as his Savior, to have been justified by faith through His atoning
blood, and yet goes on living in the world and liking the world, shows that he
has never had a renewed nature. He is simply a hypocrite because he is
pretending to be what he is not. A real Christian is one who has been born
again, one who has a new life and a new nature and is indwelt by the Holy
Spirit, and therefore has learned to hate the sin in which he once lived.
“Ye know that he was manifested to take away our sins; and in him is no sin” (1
John 3:5). It was said of the sin offering, “It is most holy” (Leviticus 6:17).
If our blessed Lord Jesus would become the great sin offering for the world, He
must be the Holy One- the Lamb without blemish and without spot, both outwardly
and inwardly. The Spirit of God is careful to insist that this perfection is
true of our Lord Jesus Christ. Again and again Scripture dwells on His infinite
beauty and holiness. “He did no sin” (1 Peter 2:22) and, “In him is no sin.” And
now this absolutely sinless One, who in grace became sin for us that we might be
reconciled to God, dwells by the Spirit in the believer. Our new nature is
really His very life imparted to us. It is in the power of this life that we
triumph over sin.
There is a friend of mine who has been for a long time a confirmed addict to the
disgusting cigarette habit. He has tried to free himself from this habit, and
wants to be free, but this thing has such a hold on him that unfortunately
physicians have told him it would be best to continue smoking. I cannot tell you
how many times I have looked at him and said, “Oh, how I wish it were possible
for me in some way to get control of your will so that this habit would go away,
because I detest it so! If I could only get within you so that my mind could
control yours, and my feelings toward this thing would take possession of you,
then you would never smoke again.” That is exactly what the Lord does for those
who trust Him. He dwells within us, and as we yield to Him, He takes full
control. He dominates the believer so that he lives to His praise and to His
glory.
Next the apostle went on to show what holiness really means in the Christian’s
life. “Whosoever abideth in him sinneth not [is not characterized by sinning]:
whosoever sinneth hath not seen him, neither known him” (1 John 3:6). This verse
used to trouble me, because I was not clear about it. I used to read it as
though it said, “Whosoever committeth a sin hath not seen him, neither known
him.” Verse eight was particularly disturbing: “He that committeth sin is of the
devil; for the devil sinneth from the beginning.” And as I got my eyes off the
Lord and allowed myself to fall into something that dishonored Him, those words
were the torment of my life-“He that committeth sin is of the devil.” This verse
seems to says that whoever sins has never been a Christian at all. I was greatly
troubled, for I knew I had not gotten to the place of sinless perfection, even
though I was trying to get there in those days. I was so sure I was born of
God-that I was converted-but wondered if it had all been a mistake. I went to a
teacher and asked him about this, and he said, “You have been converted all
right, but every time you commit a sin you become unconverted again, and a child
of the devil once more.” That made me even more bewildered than before, and I
wondered how I would ever know when I was converted to stay. If I were converted
over and over again how would I know for sure that I was still converted just
before I died? I might suddenly become a child of the devil again and miss
everything.
What a relief of mind it was to get a better understanding of the tense of the
verbs! Contrast 1 John 3:6 with 1 John 2:1, “If any man sin, we have an advocate
with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous.” He does not say if any man sin he
ceases to be a child of God, but, “We have an advocate with the Father.” The
word sin is in the aorist tense, and refers to a definite action at a given
point of time, “If any man should fall into a sin.” But chapter three verse six
(1 John 3:6) is in the present continuous tense, “Whosoever goes on practicing
sin, whosoever makes it the habit of his life to live in sin, hath not seen him
neither known him.” Peter fell into grievous sin, and that sin was repeated and
repeated. But when the Lord turned and looked at him, he went out and wept
bitterly. His heart was broken because of his failure, and he was soon restored.
True believers fall into sin if for a moment their eyes are taken off the Lord
Jesus Christ. But the advocacy of the Lord Jesus begins at that moment, and He
restores their souls. The fear of losing his salvation troubled a dear Irishman
who had been wonderfully saved. The thought came to him, “Dear me, if I am so
happy in the Lord now, what an awful thing it would be if something happened
that cut me off from Christ and I should be lost after all!” He went to a
meeting, and a preacher read these words, “Ye are dead, and your life is hid
with Christ in God” (Colossians 3:3). The truth of that verse dawned on the
Irish brother with such clarity that he shouted, “Glory to God, whoever heard of
a man drowning with his head that high above water!”
“Whosoever abideth in him sinneth not: whosoever sinneth hath not seen him,
neither known him. Children [this is the word that takes in the whole family of
God], let no man deceive you: he that [practises] righteousness is righteous,
even as he is righteous. He that [practises] sin is of the devil; for the devil
sinneth [has made sin a practice] from the beginning” (1 John 3:6-8). All
through his fearful history the devil has been characterized by rebellion
against God. He practiced sin from the beginning. Those who are children of the
devil exhibit the moral characteristics of their father, while those who belong
to the family of God exhibit the moral characteristics of their Father. They
delight in holiness even as the others roll sin as a sweet morsel under their
tongues.
“For this purpose the Son of God was manifested, that he might destroy [undo or
annul] the works of the devil.” Dear believer, there is not only deliverance
from the judgment due your sin, but deliverance has been provided from the power
of sin. He provides deliverance over sin that He might annul the works of the
devil. He sets His people free from the power of sin and Satan that they might
live in this world to the praise of His glory.
“Whosoever is born of God doth not commit sin [practice sin]; for his seed
remaineth in him: and he cannot sin [cannot be sinning], because he is born of
God” (1 John 3:9). When I think of justification, I think of a forensic act of
God by which I am cleared of every charge of guilt. When I think of
regeneration, I think of the imparting of a new nature through the power of the
Holy Spirit in which the whole direction of my life is changed.
Years ago when I went to California as a boy, the only oranges we knew were the
ones with seeds. But then two of the Washington navel orange trees were brought
to Riverside from Brazil and cultivated. Cuttings were taken from these parent
trees at Riverside, and orange trees were budded with the Washington navel
shoots, and their character was completely changed. A man having a forty acre
orchard and not wanting to be left completely without fruit, would have the tops
of one half of the trees cut off. Twenty acres would go on bearing the oranges
with the seeds. But he would cut under the bark of the lopped trees, and put in
the navel orange cuttings, and in a couple of years all those trees would have
new branches and would be loaded with oranges. I might say to the owner, “What
kind of oranges are these?” “Washington navel oranges,” he would reply. “Is that
the only kind of oranges they bear? Don’t they sometimes bear oranges with
seeds?” “Oh no,” he would say; “A budded tree does not produce seeded oranges.”
But even as he speaks I stoop down and see a little shoot under the branches
coming out of the trunk of the tree, and say, “Look, what is that shoot?” He
would snip it off, or taking his knife out of his pocket would cut it away,
saying, “That’s from below the graft. It must be pruned off.” You see what is
characteristic of the budded tree is that it bears the navel oranges, but if one
does not watch, below the grafting there will be a shoot of the old nature.
Likewise as children of God we cannot go on living in sin. If you ever find a
Christian slipping into anything unclean or unholy, you know that this comes
from below the graft- it is the old nature manifesting itself!
How can you keep the old nature from producing sin? By using the pruning knife
of self-judgment. Whenever you find any tendency of rebellion against God, any
tendency of self-will, any tendency to think of unclean or unholy things, get
out the pruning knife and use it unsparingly on yourself. These tendencies are
of the old nature, not of the new, and they must not be allowed to grow and
develop, or they will destroy your fellowship with God. “Whosoever is born of
God doth not commit sin,…because he is born of God.” The new life given to him
is eternal life. It abides in him, and he cannot continue in sin because he is
born of God.
1 John 3:10 summarizes it all: “In this the children of God are manifest, and
the children of the devil: whosoever doeth not righteousness is not of God,
neither he that loveth not his brother.” We must face the fact that there are
two families. Men talk about the universal Fatherhood of God and the brotherhood
of man, and would have us believe that all men are considered by God as His
children. But it was our blessed Lord Jesus Christ who taught the very opposite.
What did He mean when He said to the Pharisees, “Ye are of your father the
devil, and the [works] of your father ye will do”? (John 8:44) What did He mean
when He said to Nicodemus, “Except a man be born again, he cannot see the
kingdom of God”? (John 3:3) John walked with the Lord for three-and-one-half
years, drank in His testimony as perhaps no other, and is referred to several
times in the Gospel of John as “the disciple whom Jesus loved.” He wrote his
Epistle when he was an old man, and gathered up what he had been taught by the
Lord and what he had experienced through the years. He said in effect, “Here are
the two families. The family that loves God and delights in righteousness is the
family of God. But the family that hates, that harms, that loves sin and
iniquity is the family of the devil.”
Let us challenge our own hearts. Let us face the question honestly in God’s
presence. Have I been regenerated by divine grace? If we are really saved, we
will find the answer in 1 John 3:14 : “We know that we have passed from death
unto life, because we love the brethren. He that loveth not his brother abideth
in death.”
Love, the Proof of Divine Life (1 John 3:11-24) This is the message that ye
heard from the beginning, that we should love one another” (1 John 3:11). We
have noticed a number of times that this expression, “From the beginning,” is
characteristic of John’s Epistle. In a day when men were trying to bring in
false teachings and seeking to palm them off on unsuspecting people as
Christianity, when in reality they were doctrines of demons, the apostle called
the Christians back to what they had been taught from the beginning. He
emphasized the teaching of our Lord Jesus and His immediate successors, the
apostles.
There are three distinct words used for love in the Greek language. One of these
words is never used in the New Testament. It is the word eros. This word was
also the name of the Greek equivalent to Cupid. According to Roman mythology
Cupid was the son of Venus, the goddess of sensual love and physical beauty.
Among the Greeks they used the name Aphrodite for the goddess, and Eros for her
son. This word for love is never used in the New Testament probably because it
had been degraded among the Greeks. It would seem that the Holy Spirit of God
stood guard over the pages of the New Testament, and said as it were, “Don’t
pollute these pages with a word that has become so debased.” The other words for
love are phileo and agapao. Phileo means affection or friendliness-the kind of
love that good-natured people feel one for another. This word is used frequently
in the New Testament. It is used of God in one place-”After that the kindness
and love of God our Savior toward man appeared, Not by works of righteousness
which we have done, but according to his mercy he saved us, by the washing of
regeneration, and renewing of the Holy Ghost (Titus 3:4-5). “Love…toward man” is
just one word in the original. It is really our word philanthropy. In other
words, the philanthropy of God was revealed in sending His Son. Ordinarily
phileo is the word that is used for love between friends, brothers, sisters,
husband, wife, and sometimes between Christians. But it is not used in the sense
that the word agapao is used. This word signifies a divine love.
God is agape. He Himself is love in His very essence, and “he that dwelleth in
love [in this sense], dwelleth in God” (1 John 4:16). It is this highest of
divine loves- agape love-that is brought before us in this portion of the
Epistle. This love is the proof of a new nature, the evidence that we have been
regenerated. The one great command that is laid on us by our Lord Jesus is that
we love one another as He loved us-unselfishly, in a Godlike, Christ-like way.
“Not as Cain, who was of that wicked one, and slew his brother. And wherefore
slew he him? Because his own works were evil, and his brother’s righteous” (1
John 3:12). Cain was stirred up by jealousy and lured on by envy. What a
terrible thing is this sin. Scripture says that jealousy is “cruel as the grave”
(Song of Solomon 8:6). Never allow yourself to harbor jealousy in your heart.
Check it immediately. Go into the presence of God at once and confess it, and
ask Him to fill you with Himself so there will be no place for it. I have seen
jealousy among Christian workers and have felt it in my own heart in connection
with other preachers. One man has a message from God and gives it in the power
of the Holy Ghost, but another cannot bear to think that his brother’s message
is appreciated more than his own. He falls under the power of the same sin that
led Cain to slay his brother, Abel. I have seen it also among those who sing,
among Sunday school teachers, and even among those ministering to the temporal
needs of the saints.
I remember attending a fellowship tea where two dear sisters would not speak to
nor look at one another because one had found that the efforts of the other were
appreciated more than her own. What a wretched thing is jealousy! There is no
room for it in love or in the new nature. Whenever you find it, it is simply an
evidence of a shoot from the old nature that needs to be pruned and cut away.
Jealousy is indeed as cruel as the grave. Because of it, people will tear one
another’s reputations to shreds and go to extreme lengths in order to belittle
and degrade them. It seems strange that we Christians, hated by the world and
small in number, should ever allow ourselves to indulge in such unkind feelings
towards one another. The story is told of Nelson, who, as his ships were drawn
up in battle array facing the Dutch fleet, saw two English officers quarreling.
He threw himself between and pushed them apart. Pointing to the ships of Holland
he said, “Gentlemen, there are your enemies!” If only Christians would truly
love one another, then it would not bother us if the world hated us. “Marvel
not, my brethren, if the world hate you. We know that we have passed from death
unto life, because we love the brethren. He that loveth not his brother abideth
in death” (1 John 3:13-14). Do we know that we have passed from death unto life
because we are sound in the faith, because we are fundamentalists, because we
are earnest Christian workers, or because we give liberally to missions or the
Lord’s work? No. “We know that we have passed from death unto life, because we
love the brethren.” We love them in the divine sense-with agape.
Dear friend, if you don’t have that testimony you better begin to investigate
the foundations of your Christian profession. “We know that we have passed from
death unto life, because we love the brethren.” As unbelievers, some of us did
not love Christians very much. I remember some Christian men who would come to
our home when I was a boy. They were stern old Scotsmen, and would say, “Harry,
lad, are ye born again yet?” I wouldn’t know what to say, and so I detested
them! Then one day God came in grace and saved my soul. I could hardly wait to
see some of them and say, “Thank God, I am saved!” Regeneration made such a
difference. Being born again, being converted to God, is a real thing. It is the
imparting of a new, divine nature, the very essence of which is love.
“Whosoever hateth his brother is a murderer: and ye know that no murderer hath
eternal life abiding in him” (1 John 3:15). The same thing that leads you to
hate your brother, produces the sin of murder. It may not have gone that far
yet. I heard a professed Christian woman speaking of another, and between her
clenched teeth, she said, “I wish she were dead.” That is murder! That is what
sends men to the electric chair. “Whosoever hateth his brother is a murderer:
and ye know that no murderer hath eternal life abiding in him.” “But,” you say,
“you heard a Christian woman say that?” Yes, but that was just for a moment,
when she allowed the old nature to assert itself. She soon judged it and put it
away. If Christians get out of touch with God, there may be a demonstration of
the old flesh, or carnal mind. But they are indwelt by the Holy Ghost, and He
will soon make them intensely miserable, and they will judge their sin and put
it to death. No one who willfully goes on in these sins has any business calling
himself a child of God. No one who is characterized by hatred has eternal life
abiding in him. No murderer possesses eternal life, and hatred is the root of
murder. This does not mean that an actual murderer cannot be saved. It does mean
that if he is saved, he will no longer live in hatred.
“Hereby perceive we the love of God, because he laid down his life for us: and
we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren” (1 John 3:16). You will observe
that the words “of God” are italicized in the King James version. John was
saying that if we want to understand what divine love is, we need to look at
Christ’s example. We recognize what love is because, “He laid down his life for
us: and we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren”-that is, if you want to
know what is meant by divine love, Christ is the example. As a Christian, that
which is manifested in Christ must be manifested in you. You must be willing to
lay down your life for others, to endure any kind of hardship in order that you
may help and bless others.
Years ago when I was a Salvation Army officer, General William Booth was over in
London. He was an old, blind man. They had hoped to have him present at a great
congress, but word was sent that he could not come. Then they asked for a letter
from him- some message to read to the assembled officers-but no letter came.
While the congress was in session, a boy came up the aisle with an envelope. It
was given to the officer in charge, and as he held it up he exclaimed, “A
message from General Booth!” He opened it, and said, “My comrades, it contains
just one word-’Others.’” That was all. That was what the old man had lived for,
and that was what he would impress on those who followed him. After all, that is
the only happy life. The most miserable people are those who are trying to get
the best for themselves, while the happiest people are those who give the most,
sacrifice the most, and expend themselves the most for the blessing of others.
There is real joy in laying down one’s life for the brethren. There are always
those who will say, “You are working too hard; you ought not to do this, and
ought not to do that.” The devil always has a lot of lieutenants to say, “Be
careful; your health is much more important.” It is ten thousand times better to
wear out for Jesus by blessing others, and hear a “Well done, good and faithful
servant,” than to have to go to the judgment seat of Christ and give account for
a lifetime of selfishness.
“But whoso hath this world’s good, and seeth his brother have need, and shutteth
up his bowels of compassion from him, how dwelleth the love of God in him?” (1
John 3:17) Do you say to yourself, “I know he has need, but if he had saved his
money as I have done, he wouldn’t be in such a fix,” or “I know his clothes are
shabby, but if he would take care of them as I do mine, he wouldn’t look like
that”? We read in James 2:16 of those who say to the needy, “Depart in peace, be
ye warmed and filled, notwithstanding ye give them not those things which are
needful to the body; what doth it profit?” God is looking down and taking note
of it all, and some day the one who turns down God’s poor is going to be poor
himself. Perhaps not poor financially in the same way that the other was, but a
time of great need will come, and he will go to God and begin to call upon Him
in that hour of distress and wonder why the heavens seem silent above him.
“My little children, let us not love in word, neither in tongue; but in deed and
in truth. And hereby we know that we are of the truth, and shall assure our
hearts before him. For if our heart condemn us, God is greater than our heart,
and knoweth all things” (1 John 3:18-20). If in the secret of our hearts and in
the presence of God, our conscience says, “You know you were selfish and
inconsiderate, you did not act in love or show the Spirit of Christ,” remember
that “if our heart condemn us, God is greater than our heart, and knoweth all
things.” Then we read, “Beloved, if our heart condemn us not, then have we
confidence toward God. And whatsoever we ask, we receive of him, because we keep
his commandments, and do those things that are pleasing in his sight” (1 John
3:21-22). Do you get the inference? When you do not receive from Him, perhaps it
is time to ask, “Is my heart condemning me? My need is great, yet God does not
seem to minister to it. Have others come to me in their need, and have I failed
to minister to them? I have cried to God in the depths of my grief and sorrow,
but He does not seem to listen. Did anyone ever cry to me in their grief and
sorrow, and did I refuse to listen?” “Whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he
also reap” (Galatians 6:7). Christianity is intensely practical. We may ask, “Is
it not true that all who believe on the Lord Jesus Christ will be saved?” Yes.
But we recognize real faith by its works of love. Do not forget that. If we have
gone to Him in prayer and there has been no answer, then the secret of our
unanswered prayer is in our own heart. Perhaps we have been selfish and
indifferent to the needs of others. “And this is his commandment, That we should
believe on the name of his Son Jesus Christ, and love one another, as he gave us
commandment. And he that keepeth his commandments dwelleth in him, and he in
him. And hereby we know that he abideth in us, by the Spirit which he hath given
us” (1 John 3:23-24). The Holy Spirit is the Spirit of “power, and of love, and
of a sound mind” (2 Timothy 1:7), and when He dwells within the believer and
controls him, that believer walks in love and manifests the kindness of God to
his brethren.
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CHAPTER 54: 04.01.4. LIVING IN GOD'S LOVE
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Chapter Four - Living In God’s Love Jesus Christ Come in the Flesh (1 John
4:1-6) The Scriptures recognize the fact that there is an unseen spirit world,
and in that world there are both good and evil spirits. Of the angels it is
written, He “maketh his angels spirits, and his ministers a flame of fire.”
These good spirits have a certain ministry to the people of God here on earth,
for we read, “Are they not all ministering spirits, sent forth to minister for
them who shall be heirs of salvation?” (Hebrews 1:7; Hebrews 1:14). Their
ministry has to do with temporal mercies rather than with the unfolding of
spiritual truths. There is another Spirit greater than all created spirits,
whose job it is to guide us into all truth-that is the Holy Spirit of God. We as
believers are not to look to angels for guidance and understanding, but to the
Comforter, the Holy Spirit. This third person of the Trinity came into the world
to take the things of Christ and open them to us. On the other hand, there is a
realm of evil spirits. We are told in Ephesians 6:12 that “we wrestle not
against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the
rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high
places.” It is possible for a man to be under the control of the Holy Spirit to
such an extent that He is able to use that man to spread the truth of God in a
mighty way. It is just as possible for a man to be under the control of the evil
spirits, and teach lies instead of truth. When under their control he will seek
to turn people away from the revealed message that God has given in His Word,
and bring them into bondage to some form of error. It is important, therefore,
that we be able to distinguish between the spirit of truth and the spirit of
error. In the early days of the Christian church there were those who came in
among the assemblies, professing to be speaking by the Spirit of God, but
teaching something contrary to what was plainly declared in God’s Word. So John
wrote, “Believe not every spirit, but try [or test] the spirits whether they are
of God.” But how do we test them? Study Scripture to see if what they say is in
accordance with what is revealed in the Bible, for it was given by inspiration
of God. “Holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost” (2 Peter
1:21). Therefore, no one who is truly speaking through the Holy Spirit will
teach anything that contradicts that revelation.
John’s exhortation is of tremendous importance today as well, for there are
still multitudes who profess to interpret the message of God to man, and claim
to be under the controlling power of the Holy Spirit, who in reality are
controlled by evil spirits. They speak things that they ought not to speak.
Scripture says that for the sake of money many false prophets are gone out into
the world. A prophet is not necessarily one who foretells the future, but also
one who comes to man with a message from God. “He that prophesieth speaketh unto
men to edification, and exhortation, and comfort” (1 Corinthians 14:3). So, when
one comes professing to be a messenger from God, he must be tested by the Word
of God. The test is given in 1 John 4:2-3, “Hereby know ye the spirit of God:
Every spirit that confesseth that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is of God:
And every spirit that confesseth not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is
not of God: and this is that spirit of antichrist, whereof ye have heard that it
should come; and even now already is it in the world.” Notice the simplicity of
this test. Does a man confess that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh or does he
deny the great doctrine of the incarnation? If a man confesses the incarnation,
he is of God. That does not mean that everything else he teaches is necessarily
Scriptural, but he had the right foundation if he confesses the incarnation of
our Lord Jesus Christ.
We begin-the whole Christian system begins-with the incarnation, not with an
apotheosis. I do not like to use this theological term, for some of you may
wonder what it means. But it is such a convenient term, and stands in direct
contrast to the term incarnation. The word apotheosis comes from two Greek
words, one meaning “from,” and the other “god” or the “deity.” So we speak of an
apotheosis as a man entirely under an influence from God-a deified man. There
are many ministers and instructors today who teach that our Lord Jesus Christ
was a remarkable youth, a child born into this world in many respects the
superior of any other child, a religious genius, who from budding consciousness
was God-intoxicated. His sole direction in life was toward a greater knowledge
of deity. He was always reaching out after God. They teach that Jesus was so
constantly under God’s influence and so absorbed in Him that He eventually
became like Him. Therefore, we see in Jesus Christ, God manifested. That is an
apotheosis, and what is commonly taught by those who are called modernists. They
deny the incarnation and affirm an apotheosis. The Word of God does not teach an
apotheosis, but it does teach the incarnation.
What do we mean by the incarnation? We mean that God, who existed from eternity
in three persons, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, desired to make Himself known to
men, and take upon Himself man’s sin and iniquity, thus making full atonement
for them. He stooped in grace in the person of the Son to identify Himself with
humanity, and became incarnate by taking upon Himself flesh and blood. But,
remember, it was God who did that. The baby in Bethlehem was not merely a
remarkable child who was born with a great religious instinct, but that baby was
God the Son. It was God who stooped in grace to dwell in the virgin’s womb, and
was born into this world as man. But He did not cease for one moment to be God.
“Every spirit that confesseth that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh, is of
God.” Not that Jesus Christ began to be when he was born into the world, but
that He came-from where?-from Heaven. This is the incarnation, and every spirit
that confesses this is of God. Did you ever stop to think what a remarkable
expression this is, “Jesus Christ came?” You were born into the world; you had
no existence before you were conceived. Poetically, we ask, Where did you come
from, baby dear? Out of the everywhere into here. Where did you get those eyes
so blue? They came from the sky as I came through. But that is only poetry. You
began here on earth. You came into existence when you were born of your parents.
But Jesus did-not begin to be when He was born in the stable and cradled in the
manger. He came from Heaven’s highest glory down into this world to be the
Savior of the world. He who was higher than all of the angels-He, their
Creator-became a little lower than these glorious beings in order that He, by
the grace of God, might taste death for every man.
Men may profess to honor Him while teaching an apotheosis. They may profess to
think a great deal of Him by speaking of Him as the greatest religious genius
that the world has ever known. They may even go so far as the French infidel,
Renen, who declared, “From henceforth shall no man distinguish between Thee and
God.” But Renen only meant that Jesus, a man, had become so godlike that we saw
God revealed in Him. That is not the incarnation. The great truth is that “God
was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing their trespasses
unto them; and hath committed unto us the word of reconciliation” (2 Corinthians
5:19). “Great is the mystery of godliness: God was manifest in the flesh,
justified in the Spirit, seen of angels, preached unto the Gentiles, believed on
in the world, received up into glory” (1 Timothy 3:16). This is the Christian
confession. Men may profess to honor Jesus by recognizing Him as the mightiest
among the mighty, the greatest of all the great men of the world, the most
marvelous of all its ethical teachers, but in reality they are only degrading
Him unless they acknowledge Him as God over all. Jesus is God come in the flesh.
The denial of this fundamental doctrine is the spirit of antichrist. Notice,
whether this denial is couched in rude or ignorant terms, or presented in
beautiful language, it is the denial of the incarnation. To think of Jesus as
anyone else than God-the Creator become man for our redemption-is to deny the
truth concerning Him revealed in this Book and is the spirit of the antichrist.
Turning to believers with a word of warning, the apostle said, “Ye are of God,
little children, and have overcome them: because greater is he that is in you,
than he that is in the world” (1 John 4:4). None of us would be what we are
apart from the work of the Holy Spirit. It is not by chance that one person
believes in the deity of Jesus and one does not. No man would ever acknowledge
Him as God become flesh except by the illumination of the Holy Spirit. Even if
men only acknowledge it intellectually, they do so because God has illumined the
mind. But when men bow at the feet of the Savior and own Him as their Lord and
Redeemer, that is the work of the Holy Spirit of God winning their hearts for
Himself. From that moment on it is He who dwells in them and leads them on into
fuller and clearer light and enables them to overcome. The believer takes no
credit for himself, but gives all the glory to God for illuminating him and
saving his soul. My responsibility begins here. The Spirit of God illumines the
mind and exercises the conscience, and I follow in accordance with His leading,
until I am brought to a full acceptance and acknowledgment of Jesus Christ as
Savior and Lord. The man who follows the leading of the Holy Spirit of God must
see in Jesus Christ, God the Son become man for our redemption. It is to these
believers that John said, “Ye are of God.” When we speak of believing on the
Lord Jesus Christ, we mean a great deal more than simply accepting a dogma
regarding the deity of Jesus Christ. If I acknowledge Jesus Christ as God, I owe
the allegiance of my heart and life to Him, and when I have been led by the
Spirit of God to so put my trust in Him that makes me a Christian. To believe in
Him is to trust Him. You could stand by the sea looking at a large ship lying at
anchor, and say, “I believe that is a splendid ship. I believe that it is
thoroughly seaworthy and properly manned. I believe it would take me on a long
journey.” You may believe all that, but if you don’t step aboard that ship it
will never take you there. And so intellectually you may believe what is
recorded about Jesus Christ, you may accept the full Scriptural declaration
about Him, but unless you trust yourself to Him, He will never be your Savior
and Redeemer. When you trust Him, you come into this family of which John is
writing, and are made one of God’s children. So it can be said of you, “Ye are
of God, little children.” When you turn away from the world and walk in
obedience to His Word, you are a member of His family, not through any power of
your own, but through the indwelling Holy Spirit, for, “greater is he that is in
you, than he that is in the world.”
Those who deny the deity of our Lord are of the world. They will always be
popular in the world’s eyes because “they speak of the world, and the world
heareth them” (1 John 4:5). The world will always ridicule the person who stakes
everything for eternity on a divine revelation, and it will honor the man who
says, “I do not accept anything from God. I depend entirely on my own sound
judgment.” The world understands that kind of talk, for the wisdom of God is
foolishness to the worldly-wise, but “it pleased God by the foolishness of
preaching [not, through foolish preaching] to save them that believe” (1
Corinthians 1:21). Those who are born of God have an understanding far beyond
that of earth.
It is not egotism that leads John to say, “We are of God” (1 John 4:6). This was
a truth that he and his fellow apostles could claim having had the privilege of
walking with the Lord for three-and-one-half years. John said of Jesus Christ,
“the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us (and we beheld his glory, the glory
as of the only begotten of the Father), full of grace and truth” (John 1:14).
Knowing Him so intimately, John had irrefutable proof that Jesus was more than
man. When He died, and rose triumphantly from the tomb, they met Him on
resurrection ground and their faith was again confirmed. Later, when the Holy
Spirit descended at Pentecost and brought them the message that the risen Christ
was exalted to God’s right hand, they were empowered to go out and preach the
gospel. There were no doubts left-the last vestige of unbelief disappeared, and
they could say, “We know that ‘we are of God.’”
“He that knoweth God, heareth us; he that is not of God, heareth not us. Hereby
know we the spirit of truth, and the spirit of error” (1 John 4:6). Any man who
knows God will hear the Word of God. We can test ourselves by that. Do you
accept the testimony given in God’s Word-the testimony of our Lord Himself? He
that is of God hears this testimony, and he that is not of God rejects it. John
says, “Hereby know we the spirit of truth, and the spirit of error.” What a
blessed thing it is to know God as revealed in the Lord Jesus Christ. What a
wonderful thing it is to realize that He has come so close to us. Jesus, the
infinite holy One-the One whom our poor finite minds could not comprehend-has
become man that we might see in Him God fully revealed. Shouldn’t we praise and
adore Him?
Life and Propitiation in Christ (1 John 4:7-10)
After the parenthesis of 1 John 4:1-6 in which believers are warned against the
false teachers and evil spirits that are seeking to turn the hearts of God’s
people away from Christ, the apostle returned to his previous theme-the love
that gives evidence of the divine nature.
If you remember from our study in 1 John 3:1-24, there are two words for love
used in the New Testament- phileo and agapao. Phileo refers to a mere human
affection, although it is used once when God is spoken of as being a friend to
man. Agapao speaks of a more utterly unselfish affection, a love which is seen
in all its fullness in God Himself, and which was displayed in our Lord Jesus
Christ here on earth. When the apostle said, “Beloved, let us love one another,”
he does not merely seek to encourage a natural affection, but has in mind a
divine affection. As believers, the love of God is poured out into our hearts by
the Holy Spirit. Being possessed of a new and divine nature, having been
regenerated, the natural thing for the believer in the Lord Jesus is to love.
“Let us love one another: for love is of God” (1 John 4:7). This love is simply
the manifestation of the divine nature He has implanted within us. If you find a
person who is not characterized by divine love, bearing the name of Christian,
you can be reasonably sure that person has not yet been born again. On the other
hand, be careful about snap judgments lest you yourself fail to exhibit divine
love.
“Every one that loveth is born of God, and knoweth God.” Not merely everyone who
has natural affection for a father or mother or children or sister or brother,
but everyone who loves in this divine unselfish way, demonstrates that he is
born of God. Have you been born of God? I’m afraid too many people get in the
habit of attending services and listening to Bible expositions, and to a certain
degree even enjoying them, yet the power of God’s Word never grips their souls.
Let us never forget the solemn words of our Lord Jesus Christ, “Ye must be born
again.” We are told that John Wesley used to preach on this text over and over
again, until some people grew weary of hearing it and wished that he would use
another theme. Once after having preached on it in a place where he had done so
many times before, someone said, “Mr. Wesley why do you preach so often on that
one text, ‘Ye must be born again?’” “Why?” exclaimed Mr. Wesley. “Because ‘ye
must be born again!’” Many people think they must join the church, be
benevolent, turn over a new leaf, be good citizens, or be one hundred percent
American in order to be a Christian. But you can do and be all these things and
yet be lost for all eternity. “Except a man be born again, he cannot see the
kingdom of God.” The proof that someone has been born again is that he exhibits
this divine love. “Every one that loveth is born of God, and knoweth God” (1
John 4:7). On the other hand, “He that loveth not, knoweth not God; for God is
love” (1 John 4:8). Twice in this chapter we have that wonderful statement, “God
is love.” Nowhere else in the world will you find this wonderful truth than in
the Bible.
Years ago a lady who prided herself on belonging to the intelligentsia said to
me, “I have no use for the Bible, Christian superstition, and religious dogma.
It is enough for me to know that God is love.” “Well,” I said, “do you know it?”
“Why, of course I do,” she said; “we all know it, and that is religion enough
for me. I do not need the dogmas of the Bible.” “How did you find out that God
is love?” I asked. “Why,” she said, “everybody knows it.” “Do they know it in
India?” I asked. “That poor mother in her distress throwing her little baby into
the Ganges to be eaten by filthy and repulsive crocodiles as a sacrifice for her
sins-does she know that God is love?” “Oh, well, she is ignorant and
superstitious,” she replied. “Those poor natives in the jungles of Africa,
bowing down to gods of wood and stone, and in constant fear of their fetishes,
the poor heathen in other countries-do they know that God is love?” “Perhaps
not,” she said, “but in a civilized country we all know it.” “But how is it that
we know it? Who told us that God is love? Where did we discover it?” “I don’t
understand what you mean,” she said. “I’ve always known it.” “Let me tell you
this,” I answered. “No one in the world ever knew it until it was revealed from
Heaven and recorded in the Word of God. It is here and nowhere else. It is not
found in all the literature of the ancients.”
“God is love”-this is the divine nature, the very nature of God, and twice over
you get it in this Epistle. How has that love been manifested? That is what the
apostle explained in the next two verses.
“In this was manifested the love of God toward us, because that God sent his
only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through him” (1 John 4:9).
That is the first manifestation of divine love. Creation proclaimed God’s
omnipotent power and wisdom, but creation could not proclaim His love. When God
looked down on a world groaning under the sentence of death because of sin, a
world of people who were alive to the things of this life, but dead to the
things of God, God found it in His heart to go down after those people and find
a means of bringing “whosoever will” into newness of life. He said in effect, “I
am going to give them the greatest gift that one could possibly give, My only
begotten Son. I am going to send Him into the world that they may have life
through Him.”
Five times in the New Testament you will find the expression, “The only
begotten,” and it always speaks of our Lord’s eternal relationship to the
Father-the eternal Son, the Only Begotten. It doesn’t imply priority or
generation. Notice the use of the same word in Hebrews 11:1-40. There you read
of Abraham who had received the promise and offered up his only begotten son.
Isaac was not his only son. Abraham was the father of Ishmael years before Isaac
was born, but Isaac is called his only begotten son. Why? Because Isaac was his
son by a miraculous, unique relationship in which no other son could ever share.
He had other sons afterwards, through Keturah, but none had the same
relationship to him that Isaac had. And so this term “The only begotten son,”
describes our Lord as one person of the trinity in eternal relation with the
Father. It might be translated His unique Son. Others are sons by creation, as
Adam was and as angels are, or by new birth, as believers are, but Jesus alone
is the unique Son.
Five times He is called “The only begotten,” and five times “The first
begotten.” In the latter term you have a different thought altogether. You have
Christ coming into the world, going down into death, and rising in triumph at
the head of a new creation. Thus He is the First Begotten, through whom God is
“bringing many sons into glory” (Hebrews 2:10). In eternity the many sons will
shine resplendent in the same glory, but not one of us will enter into the
relation of the Only Begotten Son. That relationship remains unique for all
eternity. Think of it! God the Father loved a world dead in trespasses and sins
in such a way that He gave His unique Son, the darling of His bosom, that we
might live through Him.
Because we were dead we needed life, and there is no life apart from Him. “He
that hath the Son hath life; and he that hath not the Son hath not life” (1 John
5:12). No work or effort of our own, could ever produce divine life. You cannot
make yourself become a Christian. You cannot become a child of God by any effort
of your own. No prayers or penances can produce one spark of divine life within
your soul. But the moment you receive Christ, you have received Him who is the
life. “God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that
whosoever believeth in him, should not perish, but have everlasting life” (John
3:16).
Life is found alone in Jesus, Only there ‘tis offered thee- Offered without
price or money, ‘Tis the gift of God sent free. Take salvation- Take it now, and
happy be.
While it is true that as dead sinners we need life, there is something required
in order that God may righteously accept us as being perfectly justified in His
sight. There was a work that had to be done that we could never do. That work
God, in His infinite love and grace, sent His Son to accomplish. The second
great proof of His love is found in 1 John 4:10, “Herein is love, not that we
loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our
sins.” It is God who came out to us. We did not seek after Him. We did not love
God, and our hearts were filled with hatred for Him. But He met our every need.
You see, because we were dead we needed life and God sent Christ that we might
live through Him. Because we were lost and guilty sinners it was necessary that
a propitiation be made for sin, and God sent His Son to effect that
propitiation.
It is an interesting fact that the original word translated “propitiation” is
exactly the same word that is used for “atonement” in the Septuagint translation
of the Old Testament. In this Greek translation of the Old Testament, wherever
the translators sought to reproduce the Hebrew word caphar, or atonement, they
used the Greek word here rendered “propitiation.” The Hebrew word atonement
comes from a root meaning “to cover.” This word speaks of an expiation, a
settling of the sin-question, so that one who was once lost and guilty may stand
in the presence of God without one charge against him. All his transgressions
are covered by the finished work of the Lord Jesus Christ-covered so effectually
and completely that they will never be found again.
“Clean ev’ry whit;” Thou saidst it, Lord; Shall one suspicion lurk? Thine surely
is a faithful Word, And Thine a finished work. On the cross the Son of God took
our place in judgment. It was not merely the sufferings that men heaped on Jesus
that settled the sin-question, but there as he hung upon the cross and
supernatural darkness covered the scene, we read that Jehovah made “his soul an
offering for sin” (Isaiah 53:10). In those hours of darkness God was dealing
with His Son in judgment. There He bore in His inmost soul the punishment that
you and I would have to bear ourselves for all eternity if left without a
Savior. There He became the propitiation and expiation for our sins. It is at
the cross that we see the fullest extent of God’s love.
“Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son
to be the propitiation for our sins” (1 John 4:10). This indeed is love. We
hated Him, we loved our own way, we wanted to take our own course, and we did
not want to be submissive to His will. But He loved us and looked upon us in
grace. He yearned to have us with Him in glory, free from every stain of sin.
And because there was no other way whereby we could be justified, He sent His
Son to become the propitiation for our sins. Don’t talk about believing God is
love if you won’t accept the gift of His love, the Lord Jesus Christ. It is in
Christ alone we have life and propitiation. “There is none other name under
heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved” (Acts 4:12), but the name of
our Lord Jesus Christ.
God Manifested in Love (1 John 4:11-13)
Notice carefully what the Spirit of God brings before us here. First, “Beloved,
if God so loved us” (1 John 4:11). What does he mean when He puts in this little
word so? He is referring back to the tenth verse, “Herein is love, not that we
loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our
sins.” That is how God so loved us. He did not wait for us to love Him first; He
did not wait for us to behave ourselves before loving us, but “God commendeth
his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us”
(Romans 5:8). God loved us when there was nothing lovable about us. God loved us
when we were at enmity against Him and “alienated…by wicked works” (Colossians
1:21). God loved us when our desires were contrary to His desires, when we were
trampling His Word beneath our feet, spurning His grace, and breaking His
commandments. Now we read, “Beloved, if God so loved us, we ought also to love
one another.”
We remember the words of our Lord Jesus Christ, “If ye love them which love you,
what reward have ye? do not even the publicans the same?” (Matthew 5:46) Even
the most corrupt people in the world love those who seem to give them some
return for their affection. But the great principle laid down here is that after
we have been born of God and are partakers of the divine nature, we will not
wait for people to love us, but will love them no matter how they behave. That
is divine love demonstrated through the new nature. This kind of love is a
challenge even to Christians, because we still have the old nature in us. Though
born of God, the Christian has a nature that came from fallen Adam, and that
nature is selfish and is looking for satisfaction in others and in the things of
this world. It is only through the power of the new, divine nature inherited at
the second birth, that the Christian can rise to the standard set before him.
“Beloved, if God so loved us, we ought also to love one another.” I like that
word, ought. It suggests duty. Sometimes Christians do not like to be reminded
of duty, for they have an idea that duty is not consistent with grace. But the
grace of God, when it is active in the life, leads men and women to do the
things they ought. Here is one thing we ought to do-we ought to love one
another. We ought to love those who do not love us, who mistreat us, who speak
evil of us, who harm us, and who would ruin us if they could. That is the way
God loves us. Nothing that men did to our blessed Lord Jesus, nothing that they
said about Him, could change the attitude of His heart toward them. As He was
hanging on the cross and the angry rabble cried out for His life, He prayed,
“Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do” (Luke 23:34). This is not
natural love. No one loves like this naturally. This is divine, spiritual love,
and is possible only by walking in the power of the new nature, which God gives
to those who believe.
“No man hath seen God at any time” (1 John 4:12). This is not the first time
this expression is found in the Scriptures. In John 1:18 you will find the exact
same words, “No man hath seen God at any time.” Let’s examine these
controversial words, for Scripture seems to indicate that there were many
instances where men saw God. Didn’t God speak with Moses face to face, and
didn’t He put him in a cleft of the rock while He passed by? Didn’t Adam speak
with God in the garden? And doesn’t Isaiah say that “In the year that king
Uzziah died, I saw also the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up, and
his train filled the temple” (Isaiah 6:1)? Didn’t Ezekiel have visions of God,
and didn’t the glory of the Lord appear to Daniel and many others? Yes, and yet
it remains true that, “No man hath seen God at any time.” God is a Spirit,
infinite and eternal, and is Himself invisible. Christ, however, has revealed
God to men. But before Jesus became incarnate, God the Father, God the Son, and
God the Spirit were all invisible. The Old Testament characters of whom it is
written that they saw God, saw a form that God took-a Theophany-by which He
revealed Himself to them. They saw His glory and splendor, but they could not
see His deity. No one, in a sense, has ever seen you. People have seen your
body, your face, and your eyes, but they have never seen the real you-the spirit
that looks out through your eyes. We cannot see the real man, for under present
conditions the spirit of man is invisible. We shall never really see one another
as long as we are in the flesh, but in eternity we shall see and know one
another in spirit. No one has ever seen the sun. Someone might object to that
and say, “How can you tell me that I have never seen the sun! Of course I have
seen it. I have seen it rise, I have seen it moving through the heavens, I have
seen it set as it dips into the west.” But you are mistaken. You have never seen
the sun! You have seen the robe of glory that envelopes it, but you cannot
pierce that glory and see behind the flame that enfolds mat great globe. That
would be impossible. It is the sun that gives out that glory and you cannot even
gaze on that in its full strength at noonday for one minute, because of its
blinding glare. A great astronomer was so delighted when one of the finest
telescopes was first invented that, in his haste to look at the sun through it,
he forgot to put the dark glass over the lens. Swinging that great instrument
into place, he leaned down and with the naked eye looked through the lens at the
sun. The next moment he uttered a cry of pain as the blinding light burned his
eye, destroying its sight completely.
Plato said, “The radiant light is the shadow of God.” David declared of God,
Thou “coverest thyself with light as with a garment” (Psalms 104:2). The light,
the glory, the radiance is just the garment, and God is behind it all,
invisible.
We read in John 1:18 that “the only begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the
Father, he hath declared him.” Jesus Christ came into the world as God revealed
in the flesh and made God known to man. We understand God as we could not have
done otherwise. Jesus said, “He that hath seen me hath seen the Father” (John
14:9). In Hebrews 1:3 we read that Christ is “the express image” of the Father.
In other words, Jesus is the exact expression of God’s character. All that God
is is seen in Jesus. Jesus walked this world for a brief period of thirty-three
and one-half years, and during that time God was manifest, God was seen on the
earth, in the person of His Son. When Jesus went back to Heaven was God left
without any manifestation on earth? We read, “No man hath seen God at any time.
If we love one another, God [abideth] in us, and his love is perfected in us” (1
John 4:12). God dwells in all believers, but the Greek word for dwelleth is
different from that for abideth. If we love one another, we exhibit the new and
divine nature. If we walk in love, then men can see God in us, for God abideth
in us. If we are living in fellowship with God, we are manifesting and making
Him known.
We have read the account of the professed conversion of the President of China
(Chiang Kai-shek). We hope there has been a real work in his soul, but only
eternity will tell. I was reading how he came to his Christian wife who was
saved long before he made a profession, and said, “I can’t understand these
Christians. They have been treated most abominably here. They have been robbed,
beaten, and many of them killed. They have been persecuted fearfully, and yet I
never find one of them retaliating. Anytime they can do anything for China and
for our people, they are ready to do it. I do not understand them.” “Well,” said
his wife, “that is the very essence of Christianity. They do that because they
are Christians.” That is how God is manifest in China, and how you and I are
called on to manifest Him wherever we may be. There are many who will never read
the Bible, but they are reading us. They are looking at our lives. How much of
God is really seen in us?
You are writing a gospel, a chapter a day, By deeds that you do, by words that
you say. Men read what you write, whether faithless or true; Say, what is the
gospel according to you?
People may never read the Gospel of Matthew, never look at the Gospel of Luke,
never heed the Gospel of Mark, and never consider the Gospel of John, but they
are reading the gospel of you-they are watching you, listening to you, and
observing you. They are getting their ideas of Christ and of God from what they
hear and see in you. A number of years ago I was down in Ganado, Arizona,
visiting a Presbyterian mission. In the hospital there was a poor Navajo woman
who had been desperately ill but had been nursed back to life and health through
the Christian missionary doctor and nurses. She was a poor Indian woman who had
been cast out by her own people when they thought she was going to die. She had
been thrown behind a clump of brush and left there for three or four days. It
was the middle of August when the heat is terrific during the daytime and the
nights become bitterly cold. There she lay without food or drink, suffering
terribly. This missionary doctor found her, brought her to the hospital, and did
everything that Christian love and surgical skill could suggest. At last he
brought her back to health.
After nine weeks in the hospital, she began to wonder about the love shown to
her and said to the nurse, “I can’t understand it. Why did he do all that for
me? He is a white man and I am an Indian. My own people threw me out. I can’t
understand it. I’ve never heard of anything like this before.” The Navajo nurse,
a sweet Christian girl, said to her, “You know, it is the love of Christ that
made him do that.” “What do you mean by the love of Christ? Who is this Christ?
Tell me more about Him.” The nurse was afraid she would not tell it in the right
way and so called the missionary doctor. He sat down and talked to her, and day
by day unfolded the wonderful story.
After a few weeks (for she could take in only a little at a time) the hospital
staff thought she understood enough to make her decision. They had a special
prayer meeting for her then gathered around her bed and prayed that God by His
Spirit would open her blind eyes. Again they told her the story of God’s love,
and asked, “Can’t you trust this Savior? Turn from the idols you have worshiped,
and trust Him as the Son of the living God!” She looked at them with her big
dark Indian eyes and was silent a long time. Then the door to her room opened
and the doctor stepped in. Her face lit up and she said, “If Jesus is anything
like the doctor, I can trust Him forever,” and she came to Christ. Do you see
what had reached her? She had seen divine love manifested in a man. That is what
you and I are called to exhibit to the world.
“No man hath seen God at any time. If we love one another, God dwelleth
[abideth] in us, and his love is perfected in us.” The love that was revealed so
fully in Jesus is now being revealed in those who have trusted in the risen
Christ. They are called to make known to a lost world the same wondrous love
that led Him to go to the cross. So the apostle concluded this section by
saying, “Hereby know we that we dwell [abide] in him” (1 John 4:13). If we love
in this divine way, we abide in Him. You cannot abide in Christ and have hatred
in your heart. You cannot abide in Christ and have jealousy in your heart; you
cannot have unlovely thoughts and unholy desires. All these break fellowship
with the Lord.
“Hereby know we that we abide in him, and he in us, because he hath given us of
his Spirit.” Notice carefully these last words. Notice what John does not say,
and then what he does say. The longer I live the more I am filled with
admiration for this wonderful book. It is absolutely perfect. God does not say
here that He gives us His Spirit, although He does that at salvation. We would
not be Christians if He had not given us His Spirit: “If any man have not the
Spirit of Christ, he is none of his” (Romans 8:9). But He is speaking to people
here to whom He has already given His Spirit and is telling them how they can
show divine love. “Because he hath given us of his Spirit.” What does that mean?
He has Himself implanted within us something that He has given us from His
Spirit. That is the new nature. His Spirit is that of love, and this is the very
essence of the new nature. All you and I have to do is to let the Spirit of God
control us and we will manifest the love of Christ. To an unbeliever, this seems
like a high standard, and they may say, “I don’t see how I could ever live up to
this, and what is more, I don’t know that I have ever seen a Christian who fully
did so.” Yes, I know I have failed to live up to Christ’s standard, but that is
my objective, desire, and aim. It is better to have a high objective and fail to
obtain it than to have a low one and meet it. Perhaps you feel you could never
be a Christian because you can’t live up to divine expectation. An Indian once
said to me, “Well, you know what I see in this? Here we are in our sin, and a
great abyss is before us. On the other side is Heaven. We must get from our sins
over to Heaven. There is a bridge across that chasm, but it is like a razor
edge, and I have to walk on that in order to get to Heaven!” On the contrary,
Christ Himself has bridged the chasm and will carry us over from sin to
salvation, from Hell to Heaven. And in order that we may exhibit the love of
Christ, He has given us His divine nature. We are called to receive Christ, and
then He gives us the nature that delights to love. “Whosoever loveth [in this
sense] is born of God.”
Perfect Love That Casts Out Fear (1 John 4:14-17)
We have already noticed that the manifestation of divine love is the gift of the
Lord Jesus Christ. We had Christ presented to us in two different ways in 1 John
4:9-10. Because we were dead in trespasses and sins, the Father sent the Son
that we might live through Him. Because we are guilty on account of our
iniquity, God sent His only begotten Son into the world to be the propitiation
for our sins.
John summed it all up in 1 John 4:14 : “We [the apostolic company who knew
Christ personally] have seen, and do testify [bear witness] that the Father sent
the Son to be the Savior of the world.” Notice again, “The Father sent the
Son”-the relationship of Father and Son did not begin after Jesus was born into
the world. It existed from all eternity where the Father and the Son lived
together in holy fellowship. Christ is the eternal Son. He did not become the
Son after He was sent, but “the Father sent the Son to be the Savior of the
world.” This does not imply, of course, that all men will be saved. It does
imply that God has provided a Savior for all men. So the great question between
God and man today is not merely the question of our sins but what are we doing
with the Lord Jesus Christ?
“God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ
died for us” (Romans 5:8). If we have accepted Him and put our trust in Him,
then we know Him as Savior. If we reject Him, all His wondrous work is worth
nothing as far as we are concerned, and only adds to our condemnation. But
“whosoever shall confess that Jesus is the Son of God, God dwelleth [abideth] in
him, and he in God” (1 John 4:15). There is no other meeting place between God
and man except Christ Jesus. To accept Him as a great teacher does not save. To
acknowledge Him as the greatest among the sons of men does not bring
deliverance. But to own Him as Son of God-to put one’s trust in Him as Savior,
and thus confess Him before men-this alone brings salvation.
You find the word whosoever used in John’s writings over and over again. What an
all-inclusive word it is! We read in John 3:16, the verse that Luther called the
miniature Bible, that “Godso loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son
that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.”
It is strange that anyone should question the universality of the offer of mercy
with a verse like that in the Bible. “Whosoever believeth [hath]”-anyone in any
circumstance or condition who puts his trust in the Lord Jesus Christ enters
into the present possession of eternal life. And so we read in 1 John,
“Whosoever shall confess that Jesus is the Son of God, God dwelleth in him, and
he in God.”
Notice, it is “whosoever shall confess,” not merely whosoever shall profess.
There are a great many people who profess that they believe Jesus is the Son of
God but they have never trusted Him as such. You cannot confess Him as Son of
God until He is your own Savior. You confess the One in whom you have trusted.
“If thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine
heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved” (Romans
10:9). But on the other hand, let us not forget that there is another very
solemn “whosoever,” and that is also found in the writings of John, “Whosoever
was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire”
(Revelation 20:15). Think of the solemnity of that declaration. It is the same
word, whosoever. “Whosoever believeth…[hath] everlasting life,” therefore the
believer’s name is inscribed in the book of life. Whosoever refuses to believe,
whosoever will not put his trust in the Lord Jesus Christ, “whosoever” is “not
found written in the book of life,” must be banished eternally from the presence
of God.
After all the gospel preaching you have listened to, after all the Christian
people you have known through the years, are you among those who have never yet
definitely received the Lord Jesus Christ as their Savior? I beg of you not to
postpone the settlement of this question for even one hour. Wherever you are,
lift your heart to God. Tell Him you are the sinner for whom Christ died. Tell
Him you are coming to Him for the salvation which He has provided through His
blessed Son. Tell Him you are trusting the Lord Jesus Christ as your own Savior.
Then go forth to confess Him before men, for, “Whosoever shall confess that
Jesus is the Son of God, God dwelleth in him [God abideth in him] and he in
God.”
“And we have known and believed the love that God hath to us” (1 John 4:16).
This is the declaration of faith, the declaration of one who has definitely laid
hold of the gospel message for himself. “And we have known and believed the love
that God hath to us. God is love.” This is the second time that statement is
made in this chapter. We have already considered it in 1 John 4:8 : “He that
loveth not knoweth not God; for God is love.” And now here again the Spirit
reminds us that “God is love.” This is His very nature. This is the very essence
of His being; and “he that [abideth] in love [abideth] in God, and God in him.”
There you have fellowship in the light, according to the nature of God Himself.
You cannot have fellowship with Him while harboring malice, unkindness, or
hatred in your heart. It is impossible. All those things spring from that old
corrupt nature inherited from Adam. But if converted we have received a new
nature. We may sometimes forget Him for a while, and malice, envy, unkindness,
hatred, and all these evil things spring up anew. But as long as we permit any
of these evil things to control our lives, we are not abiding in love, and
therefore not abiding in God. We are not living in fellowship with Him.
Fellowship can only be enjoyed as we walk in light and in love.
Now that there may be no misunderstanding as to what this love is, John wrote in
1 John 4:17, “Herein [hath love with us been perfected], that we may have
boldness in the day of judgment: because as he is, so are we in this world.” I
confess there was a time in my Christian life when I was confused as to what
these words really meant. Today, however, I know of no passage of Scripture that
gives me greater joy or seems clearer, than this verse. As a young believer, I
tried to understand it and gave up in frustration. I was misled by the King
James version, and did not notice how beautifully it is corrected in other
translations. I studied the words, “Herein is our love made perfect, that we may
have boldness in the day of judgment,” and I said to myself, If boldness in the
day of judgment depends on my love being perfect, how can I ever be sure that
everything will be right with me on that day? I was looking within my own heart
for perfect love, and as I searched that poor heart, I was always finding
something there that was contrary to perfect love. How was I ever going to stand
in the day of judgment?
It was like a second conversion when God showed me that perfect love is in
another Man altogether. I had been looking for it in myself for six and one-half
years until one day God turned me away from myself and said, “Look up!” By faith
I saw another Man-the man Christ Jesus-seated in glory at the Father’s right
hand. God said to me, as it were, “There is perfect love. It is displayed in
Christ.” “In this was manifested the love of God toward us, because that God
sent his only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through him.
Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son to
be the propitiation for our sins…And we have seen and do testify that the Father
sent the Son to be the Savior of the world” (1 John 4:9-10; 1 John 4:14). At
last I understood. Perfect love led Christ to come from the Godhead’s fullest
glory down to Calvary’s depth of woe. Perfect love led Jesus to look at a lost,
ruined, guilty world, take all our sins upon Him, and die in our place on a
felon’s cross. A line in one of our hymns says, “I lay my sins on Jesus.” But we
do nothing of the kind. Scripture tells us that when Jesus hung on Calvary’s
cross, the Lord “laid on him the iniquity of us all” (Isaiah 53:6). Bliss has
written:
What, lay my sins on Jesus, God’s well-beloved Son? No, ‘tis a fact most
precious That God e’en that hath done.
God laid our sins on Jesus when He died on Calvary. He made full atonement, and
there perfect love was displayed in all its fullness. Now He is seated at the
right hand of the Father in Heaven. What about my sins? When He hung on the
cross my sins were on Him. Are they on Him now as He sits there? Impossible. He
could not have entered Heaven with one sin on Him. Perfect love has settled the
sin-question. Perfect love has put my sins away forever, and now we may have
“boldness in the day of judgment.” I am not afraid of the day of judgment now.
Why not? Because my penalty has been paid-my case has been settled.
I would not be afraid to go into a courthouse to view an important case for I am
only a spectator. There is nothing against me. And so I can be bold in the day
of judgment because I am there with my Lord. I am not there to be judged. I am a
spectator, and not just any spectator, but an associate of the Judge Himself.
Years ago we had a very odd judge out in San Francisco. Tourists going through
the city would often be taken to see Judge Campbell’s court. One day a group of
us were going through the courthouse, and in our party were four distinguished
looking ladies. When the judge saw them, he invited them to join him on the
judge’s seat. They went up and sat with him on the bench. He heard the evidence
of the first case and then turned to one of the ladies and said, “I will let you
pronounce sentence “I don’t know what to do,” she answered. “This offense would
get from ten to thirty days,” the judge informed her. “Oh,” she replied, “don’t
give him more than ten days.” “The lady says you are to have ten days,” the
judge announced. Case after case of that kind came up while the ladies were
sitting there, but they “had boldness in the day of judgment.” Why? Because they
were not being judged. They were associated with the judge. If you are a
believer in Christ, when the great white throne is set up, you are going to be
there in association with the Judge. “The world shall be judged by you” (1
Corinthians 6:2), and I will tell you something more, you are going to see the
devil, who has caused you so much trouble throughout the years, bound in chains
and brought to your feet to know what you want done with him. The Bible says,
“We shall judge angels” (1 Corinthians 6:3). The lost angels will receive their
sentence of judgment from the people of God. No wonder the apostle Paul said,
“The God of peace shall bruise Satan under your feet shortly” (Romans 16:20).
Yes, we have boldness in the day of judgment because perfect love has settled
the sin question.
Jesus said in John 5:24, “Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that heareth my
word, and believeth on him that sent me, hath everlasting life, and shall not
come into condemnation; but is passed from death unto life.” I like the Roman
Catholic translation of that verse. The rendering of the Douay Bible is, “Amen,
amen, I say unto you, He who hears my word and believes him who sent me, has
eternal life, and comes not into judgment, but is passed out of death into
life.” Isn’t that a wonderful message? It is enough to settle the sin question
forever for anyone who believes. The person who knows Christ has eternal life
here and now. He does not hope to have it eventually, but has it now, and shall
never come into judgment, but is already passed out of death into life.
Look at the rest of 1 John 4:17, “As he is, so are we in this world.” Some of
the greatest truths in the Word of God are packed into the shortest and simplest
sentences. Sometimes when preachers want to impress their audiences, they use
theological words that make things sound profound. One time a preacher was
speaking in such a way that no one could understand the meaning, and a man spoke
up and said, “Brother, put the cookies on the lower shelf so the children can
reach them.” Spurgeon used to say, “The Lord said, ‘Feed My sheep,’ but some
ministers have the idea that He said, ‘Feed My giraffes.’ They put things so
high that few can attain to them.”
Here is one of the most profound truths of Scripture, and it is embodied in nine
monosyllables, only three of which have more than two letters. “As he is, so are
we in this world.” Nine monosyllables, and yet how profound. I used to think
that this verse meant that “as he is, so ought we to be in this world.” I
thought we were to aim for perfection-to be like Christ-and even if we could not
hit it, it was better than aiming at something lower. But that is not what this
verse means. Then I thought it must be, “As he is, so shall we be when we get
out of this world and get safe home to Heaven.” But that is not what the verse
says either. Instead, it means exactly what it says, as Scripture always does.
“As he is [as Christ is] so are we in this world.” How are we like Christ? We
are as He is in relation to judgment. When Christ died on Calvary for my sin,
that was the judgment day. Christ settled everything for me that day. Now God
has raised Him from the dead and taken Him to His own right hand, and there He
sits exalted. Christ will never again come under judgment. Likewise, right here
and now we have the testimony of the Word of God that we are just as secure from
judgment as He is because we are accepted in Him. So near, so very near to God,
I could not nearer be; For in the person of His Son I am as near as He. So dear,
so very dear to God, Dearer I could not be; The love wherewith He loved His Son,
Such is His love to me.
What an incentive to live for Him! What an incentive to yield our lives as a
living sacrifice since He in grace has settled the whole question of our
justification, our acceptance with God, and our immunity from judgment!
Made Perfect in Love (1 John 4:18-21)
We have noticed that perfect love is something that is not natural to us. No
Christian, no matter how devoted or how mature, has ever on his own exhibited
perfect love. There is always some selfishness, jealousy, envy, or self-seeking
in the heart of every child of God. Sometimes people imagine that they have
gotten beyond all this, but circumstances soon bring out the fact that they have
not. When we look for perfect love, we find it only in the Lord Jesus Christ. It
was manifested when He gave Himself on the cross for guilty sinners such as
ourselves. It is the contemplation of this love that banishes all our fear.
“There is no fear in love” (1 John 4:18). If it were a question of our own love,
then every honest Christian would be continually in fear if he thought that his
final acceptance depended on his own inward perfection in love. But, thank God,
we are turned away from ourselves and from our experiences and directed to the
full revelation of perfect love in the cross. There you see love triumphant.
Love expressed in all its fullness, reached down to the deepest depths and
lifted up poor sinners utterly lost and ruined and undeserving. You can be sure
He will never give you up. “Having loved his own which were in the world, he
loved them unto the end” (John 13:1).
“There is no fear in love.” Watch a little child who really believes that you
love him with all your heart and see how trustful that little one is. If you
believe that “God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that
whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life,” how
can you ever fear that you may perish? How can you dread being shut out of
Heaven, for “perfect love casts out fear?”
“There is no fear in love; but perfect love casteth out fear: because fear hath
torment.” This word torment is used elsewhere in Scripture. It speaks of a
grief-a form of pain and anguish caused by spiritual and mental distress-which
unsaved men and women have in this life, and which will go on eternally if they
leave this world in their sins. The Scriptures plainly teach that if men and
women die in their sins, they are going to suffer consciously under the judgment
of God for all eternity. This should move our hearts to weep over lost men and
women as the Lord did when He said, “Ye will not come to me, that ye might have
life” (John 5:40). We read in Matthew that “these shall go away into everlasting
punishment” (Matthew 25:46), and, “shall be tormented day and night for ever and
ever” (Revelation 20:10). There is no hint that their suffering will ever come
to an end. But now having said that, I want to say that while the Word of God
plainly teaches the eternal punishment of Christ-rejecters, it never even so
much as hints at the eternal torture of lost men. I say that because I think it
is well that we should keep God’s character clear. There is nothing vindictive
about God. He has no desire to inflict any unnecessary pain or anguish on men,
so Scripture never speaks, as preachers sometimes do, of eternal torture. God
will never torture men, nor will He permit the devil to torture them. He will
never permit demons to torture them, and they will not be allowed to torture one
another.
Hell is not a kind of pandemonium where wicked men and lost angels torture one
another and sin against God for all eternity. It is God’s well-ordered prison
house where men who never behaved before will have to behave at last, and where
“every knee shall bow…and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the
glory of God the Father” (Php 2:10-11). Satan will not torture men, and he will
not reign as king in Hell. He will be the most miserable being there. Hell was
created for the devil and his angels, and it is his prison, where he will be in
the lowest depths of the lake of fire, suffering for the sins he has committed
throughout the ages. And so, every man will be judged according to his own sin
and will suffer according to his own transgression. No statement is ever made in
the Bible of the torture of lost souls. But while Scripture never teaches
torture, it does teach the eternal torment of men who die unrepentant.
I know that our English words torment and torture come from the same Latin root,
which means “to writhe and twist in anguish,” but torture suggests the
infliction of physical suffering, and torment is used for the suffering of the
mind. “Fear hath torment.” You know the awful anguish of mind that fear can
throw you into. Here is a man who has shut his eyes to the perfect love of God,
refused to believe the gospel testimony, and he sees rising before him the great
white throne. He knows he must answer for his sins. He is rightfully filled with
fear, and “fear hath torment.” If that man refuses to bow in repentance before
God, and to accept the Lord Jesus Christ as his Savior, and goes out of this
life spurning the grace of God, then he goes out to be tormented forever. I
think the most awful torment that can come to a lost soul in Hell will be to
think of days gone by, to remember mercies rejected, to meditate on grace
despised, and cry in the anguish of his soul, “Jesus died for me, and I knew all
about it. He shed His precious blood for sinners, and I heard about it over and
over again. He died for me, and I rejected Him. I rejected His mercy, and here I
am shut away from the light and joy of God for all eternity, and it is my own
fault. I might have been saved from the penalty for my sins, but I refused to
trust the Savior that God provided and now His wrath rests on me forever.” I
cannot imagine anything worse. This anguish of soul and mind, as I understand
it, will be the very essence of the torment that lost men and women must endure
for eternity.
We remember the word of Abraham to that once-rich man, “Son, remember!” (Luke
16:25). All is wrapped up in that word, remember-remember for all eternity!
Psychologists tell us that we never forget anything that we have ever known; it
is all stored away in our minds. We may think we have forgotten, but things will
come to the surface when we least expect them. They come to mind even when we
are not thinking of them. So it will be with men in a lost eternity. Every sin,
every iniquity, every transgression, and every disobedience will come to
rememberance, and will remain throughout all the ages to come. Men will remember
the follies of this life and how foolishly they treated God’s offer of mercy.
“Son, remember!” For the righteous, the word remember also has its place. We
read, “Thou shalt remember all the way which the Lord thy God led thee”
(Deuteronomy 8:2). Memory for the child of God is a blessed thing! Memory for
the lost soul is a fearful thing! If you are still unsaved, I pray you will
accept the perfect love manifested in the cross. Then all your fears will be
dissipated, your torment will disappear, and your heart will sing, He “loved me,
and gave himself for me” (Galatians 2:20). This is the love that casts out fear.
John continued, “He that feareth is not made perfect in love.” Imagine a group
of students in a Latin class. They know that next Monday there is to be an exam.
All day Saturday some of them cram and endeavor to get ready for the test. Even
on Sunday their minds are not quiet. Their fear tells us that they are not made
perfect in Latin, and they know that they are not. They would not be cramming or
worrying if they knew their lesson. Suppose there is another student in the
class, a bright young girl who is neither cramming nor worried. One of the
others meets her and says, “Don’t you realize you have a Latin examination on
Monday?
“Yes.”
“Well, aren’t you worried?”
“Not at all.”
“Why aren’t you anxious?”
“Because I have been studying every day. I am thankful to have a good memory. It
is all stored away, and so I am not afraid.” The one who is perfect in Latin is
not afraid. The one who is not perfect in Latin is afraid. If we are made
perfect in love, we have learned our lesson and our fear is gone. It is not my
love that keeps; it is His love.
Now we come to the practical side in 1 John 4:19, and I am going to remove a
word from the text in the King James version, for if you will consult the Greek
you will find that one word does not appear. It is omitted in all the older
manuscripts. The correct rendering is, “We love, because he first loved us.”
Maybe some of you feel that you have lost something. You like to read, “We love
him, because he first loved us.” But think it over, and you will see how much
more precious the correct translation is after all. It is easy to talk about
loving Christ and loving God, and yet be cold and unkind and discourteous toward
those for whom Jesus died. The test of whether we really love Him is found in
the way we behave toward His people, and what a test that is! You say you love
Him, but you do not love Him any more than you love the child of God of whom you
think the least. Think of that cantankerous, ill-tempered person who always
seems to upset you, and yet who you know belongs to the Lord Jesus Christ. You
do not love Christ any more than you love that person, and so “we love, because
he first loved us.” When our hearts are occupied with His wonderful love, we
remember that He loved us when we were unlovely, and some of us are not very
lovely now. We remember that He loved us when we were unlovable, and some of us
are not very lovable yet. If He could love us when we were rebellious, and if
that same love is now filling our hearts, we ought to be able to love those who
are sinful and unkind and selfish. It is love triumphing over evil. “We love,
because he first loved us.”
Here is the last of the tests that John brings before us: “If a man say, I love
God, and hateth his brother, he is a liar: for he that loveth not his brother
whom he hath seen, how can he love God whom he hath not seen?” (1 John 4:20)
John used very strong language sometimes. A great many people have a wrong idea
of the apostle John. Many of the ecclesiastical pictures present him as a fair
and effeminate-looking individual, rather than a real vigorous man. He was
probably a young man about eighteen years old when he and his brother James came
to Christ, for John was the youngest of the disciples. As the Lord looked at
those two brothers, James and John, in their earnest youth, He said in effect,
“I am going to give you another name, I am going to call you Boanerges, the sons
of thunder.” All of his life John was true to that name given by Jesus. Long
after Paul and Peter and all the rest of the disciples had died, John was still
ministering the Word at Ephesus, and afterward he was sent to Patmos because of
his faithfulness in witnessing for Christ. He died about a.d. 96, and at that
time he was an aged man and could look back to the days of his youth when he
walked with Jesus. There was nothing effeminate about John. On one occasion as
they were going through Samaria James and John were so stirred up by the action
of the Samaritans that they said, “Lord, wilt thou that we command fire to come
down from heaven, and consume them, even as Elias did?” (Luke 9:54) You see the
Samaritans at first were desirous to have Jesus with them, but when they noticed
that He was anxious to get on to Jerusalem, they would have nothing to do with
Him. They did not know that He was eager to go there in order to die for them.
They thought He was not interested in them but only in the people at Jerusalem,
and so they did not want Him. And because of this John and his brother wanted to
destroy them. But Jesus said to James and John, “Ye know not what manner of
spirit ye are of (Luke 9:55). There was nothing gentle about wanting to call
fire down from heaven! John was not an effeminate kind of a young man. He was
strong, vigorous and red-blooded.
Notice the strong language John used. Turn back to 1 John 2:4, “He that saith, I
know him, and keepeth not his commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in
him.” In 1 John 2:22 of the same chapter we read, “Who is a liar but he that
denieth that Jesus is the Christ?” And now in 1 John 4:20, John used no fancy
words but said, “If a man say, I love God, and hateth his brother, he is a liar:
for he that loveth not his brother whom he hath seen, how can he love God whom
he hath not seen?” The way you treat your brother is the test as to whether you
really love God.
“And this commandment have we from him, That he who loveth God love his brother
also” (1 John 4:21). If you do not keep His commandments, you are not walking in
obedience to His Word. “A new commandment I give unto you…that ye also love one
another” (John 13:34). We also need to remember the command, “Let us not love in
word, neither in tongue; but in deed and in truth” (1 John 3:18). Think of this
the next time you feel provoked with somebody. Say to yourself, “How often I
have grieved the Holy Spirit, but He loves me still. How often I have provoked
the Lord to anger, but He loves me still. How often I have dishonored the
Father, but He loves me still. Dear God, by Your Holy Spirit let that same
divine all-conquering love be poured into my heart. May I never think of myself
but of others for whom Christ has died, and be ready to give myself in devoted,
loving service for their blessing.” This is Christianity in practice.
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CHAPTER 55: 04.01.5. GOD IS LIFE
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Chapter Five - God Is Life Overcoming the World (1 John 5:1-5)
Whosoever believeth that Jesus is the Christ, is born of God: and every one that
loveth him that begat, loveth him also that is begotten of him” (1 John 5:1).
This verse continues the theme found in the closing verses of the former
chapter, where we read, “If a man say, I love God, and hateth his brother, he is
a liar” (1 John 4:20). Who is our brother? Some people have the idea that our
brethren are those who happen to belong to the same denomination. If I belong to
one certain church, my brothers are those who go to that church. In other words,
if I am a Methodist, my brothers are Methodists. If I am a Presbyterian, my
brothers are Presbyterians. If I am a Baptist, my brothers are Baptists. Our
poor minds are inclined to narrow down the family of God to some special
fellowship. But in 1 John 5 the Lord Himself gives the limits of the family when
He says, “Whosoever believeth that Jesus is the Christ, is born of God.” Our
brothers are those who in every place have exercised faith in the Lord Jesus
Christ. The statement, “Whosoever believeth that Jesus is the Christ,” is not
merely an intellectual acceptance of the fact that Christ is the Son of the
living God, but rather a true, vital confidence-a personal faith in the Lord
Jesus as the Christ, the anointed One of God. If you have faith in Him, you are
born of God. All who trust in Him enter into this relationship. It is not a
question of who you associate with or what church you attend, for there is only
one great assembly-the body of Christ-which God Himself recognizes as His
church. When we speak of church membership, we are usually referring to a local
fellowship, but when the Word of God speaks of church membership, it is
referring to the vast company of believers over whom Christ is the glorified
Head in Heaven. Every believer belongs to that church. Our brothers include the
whole church of God and our love must go out to them all.
There is no use talking about loving the Father if you do not love the Father’s
children. There is no use talking about our devotion to the Lord Jesus Christ if
we are not devoted to those for whom He died. Love is a very real and practical
thing. We often speak sentimentally of loving the people of God, but how do we
show it? What form does our love take? Scripture says that love “suffereth long,
and is kind; [love] envieth not; [love] vaunteth not itself, is not puffed
up…Beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all
things” (1 Corinthians 13:4; 1 Corinthians 13:7). Take some of these simple
statements and test your own love to find where you stand. Are you envious of
any of God’s people? When honor comes to others that does not come to you, do
you rejoice with them? Scripture says, “Whether one member suffer, all the
members suffer with it; or one member be honoured, all the members rejoice with
it” (1 Corinthians 12:26). When people are saying good things about someone else
and not saying them about you, does your heart rejoice in that? Are you thankful
to see others honored and exalted, even though you may be passed over? Real love
of others will lead to that very thing. It will always endeavor to put others
first.
Love is active. It seeks to serve and delights to minister. Are you trying to
serve the people of God or are you someone who loves to be served? Some
Christians are always wanting others to do for them, while other Christians are
always trying to do for others. The people who are constantly looking for
attention are never happy. They are always feeling hurt and slighted. But how
different with those who are showing the love of Christ! Someone once said to
me, “When I go to such and such a church, I find they are very cold. I never see
any love exhibited.” I replied, “Do you ever show any?” He looked at me and
said, “Well, perhaps not as much as I should.” Standing next to him was a woman
who attended the same place. “How do you find them down there?” I asked her.
“Are they cold?” “Why,” she said, “I think they are the most loving and
affectionate group of Christians I have ever seen.” She was showing love to
them, and was getting love in return. You usually find what you are looking for.
A while ago I read of a man who spent a few months in India. When he came back,
he was discussing India at the home of some of his friends, and the talk drifted
to missions. This man, out of his wide experience of about five months in India
said, “I have no use for missions and missionaries. I spent five months there,
and didn’t see that they were doing anything. In fact, in all that time I never
met a missionary. I think the church is wasting its money on missions.” A quiet
old gentleman spoke up and said, “Pardon me, how long did you say you were in
India?”
“Five months.”
“What took you there?”
“I went out to hunt tigers.”
“And did you see any tigers?”
“Scores of them.”
“It is rather peculiar,” said the old gentleman, “but I spent thirty years in
India, and in that time I never saw a tiger but I saw hundreds of missionaries.
You went to India to hunt tigers and you found them. I went to India to do
missionary work and found many other missionaries.”
Love is a practical thing-“Every one that loveth him that begat, loveth him also
that is begotten of him.” Scripture also says, “Love covereth all sins”
(Proverbs 10:12). And again, “[Love] shall cover the multitude of sins” (1 Peter
4:8). In the King James version the word charity is better translated love.
These verses mean that if you know your brother or your sister has failed-if you
know of some sin, even some grievous sin that has come into their lives-you will
never mention it to anyone but God. If you really love them, you will go to them
first and try to help them recover. “Love covereth all sins.” You will never be
a talebearer. You will never be a gossip. You will never go around talking
against your brother. When you know of anything wrong, you will go to God about
it. When you talk to other people against your brother, you only spread things
that hurt others, but when you go to God, the Holy Spirit of God can, in answer
to your prayer, begin to work in the heart and conscience of the wrong-doer. He
will be brought to repentance or be broken down under the discipline of the
Lord. Love in all its fullness will lead you to go to that brother and tenderly,
graciously, and kindly seek to help him in his trouble. You will lovingly point
out the wrong, offer to pray with him, and leave it with God if he bows in
repentance before Him.
There is a beautiful picture in the Old Testament which illustrates this point.
Among the furnishings of the tabernacle was a candlestick. The Lord told Moses
to make a golden candlestick with seven lamps. The candle was really an olive
oil lamp with a wick. The wick would burn just so long, and then turn over
charred and blackened, needing to be trimmed. The snuffers and the snuff dishes
were made of pure gold (Exodus 25:31-40). What is important about snuffers and
snuff dishes? Well, you see if a lamp is going to shine brightly, it needs to be
snuffed or trimmed sometimes, and if I want to burn brightly for Christ, there
will be many a time when I have to judge myself in the presence of God, or I
will be just like the burned wick that obscured the light. The Old Testament
priest was to go in and trim the lamp using a golden snuffer. Gold in Scripture
speaks of that which is divine, so the believer who reproves his brother is to
go to him in fellowship with God. I may be able to help my brother if I go in
tenderness and grace. What did the priest do with the wicks when he trimmed them
away? Did he scatter them around, get them on his robe and hands, and go around
defiling the garments of other priests? No. He was to take that dirty black
snuff, put it in a golden snuff dish, and cover it up so that it would not
defile anyone else. That is what love does. You do not spread around your
brother’s failures, but you show real love by covering them up in the presence
of God. That is love in a practical sense.
1 John 5:2 suggests something more. “By this we know that we love the children
of God, when we love God, and keep his commandments.” What an interesting book
the Bible is! First, John said, that we know we love God because we love the
brethren. Then he said we know we love the brethren when we love God. It seems
like circular reasoning, but God is above all our rules of logic. In God’s eyes
the two are inseparable. If we love God, we love the children of God also. If we
love the children of God, we love God and keep His commandments. Love is
faithful. It does not make light of sin. It does not seek to excuse evil. It
leads us to put the truth of God first and to bring all else into subjection to
it.
I do not love my brother when I condone his wrong-doing, or agree (for the sake
of peace) to what is in direct opposition to the command of God. Take the
question of divorce and remarriage. There may be circumstances where people have
to be separated, but if so, they are to remain unmarried (unless divorced for
clear scriptural reasons), and yet what a lot of preachers there are who marry
people who have been divorced contrary to the Word of God. Some ministers may
say, “I love these people so much I don’t want to hurt their feelings.” But love
does not help them to do something that is contrary to the Word of God. “By this
we know that we love the children of God, when we love God, and keep his
commandments.” Real Christian love exhibits itself when we put the will of God
first and seek to show love to His people, according to His Word, and lead our
brethren in the path of obedience to that Word.
“For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments: and his
commandments are not grievous” (1 John 5:3). But someone might say, “That’s all
very well, but I find it awfully hard to do some things that God wants me to
do.” If I felt that way, I would begin to wonder whether I were really born
again. If unsaved you have only one nature, and that nature hates the things of
God. When you are born again, you have a new nature, and you ought to glory in
the will of God. You will do so if you are walking in the power of the Spirit.
If you are a Christian and do not find delight in the will of God, it is because
you are grieving the Holy Spirit. There is something in your life that is
dishonoring the Lord, and so you have lost your joy. Judge everything in your
life that is contrary to the Word of God, and you will be surprised to find how
sweet His will is. “His commandments are not grievous.”
“For whatsoever is born of God [the new nature, the new life which is
communicated to you] overcometh the world” (1 John 5:4). It is a blessed fact
that every true believer will be an overcomer at the last. But some of us, like
Jacob, will never be overcomers until we are almost at the end of life. Jacob
had been a child of God for many years, but it was not until he was down to the
very end that he manifested the graces that God was seeking to work in him
throughout all those years. Then we read, “By faith Jacob, when he was a dying,
blessed both the sons of Joseph; and worshipped, leaning upon the top of his
staff (Hebrews 11:21). By faith when he was dying, he was brought to the place
of an overcomer. What a pity to have lost all that time. What a pity if you and
I should be so set on having our own way that we lose out through the
years-years that can never be recalled.
What does it mean to overcome the world? “All that is in the world” is described
in 1 John 2:16 -“the lust of the flesh,” which is carnal indulgence of any kind;
“the lust of the eyes,” or the pleasures of the senses; and “the pride of life,”
ambition and struggling after fame and praise in the world. These are the things
that constitute “the world.” Some Christians have the idea that worldliness
consists of going to the theater, playing cards, dancing, taking part in certain
worldly pleasures. No doubt these satisfy one form of worldliness-the lust of
the flesh and perhaps the lust of the eye. But you may never have crossed the
threshold of a theater, you may never sit down at the card table, you may never
have been on the dance floor in your life, and yet you may be just as worldly as
the people who do these things. The lover of money is as worldly as the lover of
pleasure or fame or ambition. The one who is trying to crush others and push
himself to the front is just as worldly as the man who spends half the night at
the theater. Don’t think that you can, as Samuel Butler said, “compound for sins
(you) are inclined to by damning those (you) have no mind to.” Overcoming the
world means being delivered from the “lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes,
and the pride of life.” As you obey the desires of the new nature you are set
free from the world, because this new life finds delight in the things of God.
“And this is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith” (1 John
5:4). Seven times over in Revelation we hear the Lord say to the seven churches,
“To him that overcometh.” He is not singling out a superior class of Christians,
but is saying that in every age Christians will be overcomers. By faith they
will finally overcome the world in every instance.
“Who is he that overcometh the world, but he that believeth that Jesus is the
Son of God?” (1 John 5:5) Do you believe Jesus is the Son of God? It is not
merely accepting a statement of creed, but it is trust in the blessed Son of
God. It is trust that He went to Calvary’ s cross, and there shed His precious
blood to put away your sins. Have you trusted Him? Have you believed on Him?
Peter wrote, “Being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible,
by the word of God, which liveth and abideth forever…And this is the word which
by the gospel is preached unto you” (1 Peter 1:23; 1 Peter 1:25). When you
believe the message of the gospel and receive the Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of
God, as your personal Savior, then you are born of God. You are given a new
nature, and your faith is manifested by love. Whatever failures, struggles, or
temptations you may have to meet, you will come through triumphant at last
because it is God who will bring you through. It is not a question of your own
power or steadfastness, but you are “kept by the power of God through faith unto
salvation ready to be revealed in the last time” (1 Peter 1:5). The Three
Witnesses (1 John 5:6-13)
We have three witnesses presented to us in this section. Contrary to how it may
appear in the King James version we do not have six witnesses in this
chapter-three in Heaven and three on earth. In the King James version, verse
seven reads, “For there are three that bear record in heaven, the Father, the
Word, and the Holy Ghost: and these three are one.” This verse is not found in
any critical translation of the New Testament. My statement may trouble some and
cause you to question the dependability of Scripture. Let me try to explain,
very briefly.
You must remember that the Bible was translated into English from Hebrew and
Greek sources. The Hebrew and Greek were hand written and came down through the
centuries, copied first by one scribe and then by another. It is quite possible
for one man writing a manuscript to insert or to leave something out. It is
possible for something to be put in the margin of one manuscript which the next
scribe may assume belongs to the text. The oldest Greek manuscripts from which
the King James version was taken were probably written in the twelfth century.
Since then literally thousands of manuscripts have come to light from as far
back as the end of the second and the beginning of the third century, and in
none of them are these words found. They probably got in because some scribe
made a comment on the margin of his manuscript, and someone copying it thought
the words belonged to the text, and so inserted them. In 1 John 5:6 we read,
“This is he [that is, the Lord Jesus Christ spoken of in 1 John 5:5], that came
by water and blood, even Jesus Christ; not by water only, but by water and
blood. And it is the Spirit that beareth witness, because the Spirit is truth.”
Then 1 John 5:8 reads, “And there are three that bear witness in earth, the
spirit, and the water, and the blood: and these three agree in one.” What does
the apostle mean when he speaks of these three that bear witness or testimony?
To what do they give testimony? They testify to the effectiveness of the work of
our Lord Jesus Christ. The three witnesses are the Spirit, the water, and the
blood. The Spirit, of course, is the Holy Spirit of God who, after the death,
resurrection, and ascension of our Lord Jesus Christ, came from Heaven to dwell
in the church on earth. He came to empower those proclaiming the finished work
of our Lord Jesus Christ. There is a vast difference between merely explaining
doctrine and preaching the gospel in the Spirit’s power. Anyone can do the
former, and everything said might be true, but there is no power in it.
Preaching the gospel in the energy of the Holy Ghost is another thing
altogether, and therefore we read, “It pleased God by the foolishness of
preaching to save them that believe” (1 Corinthians 1:21). Jesus said, “Ye shall
receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you: and ye shall be
witnesses unto me, both in Jerusalem, and in all Judaea, and in Samaria, and
unto the uttermost part of the earth” (Acts 1:8). The Holy Spirit, then, is a
witness to the effectiveness of the cleansing power of the blood of Christ. He
has come down from Heaven to assure us that Christ’s sacrifice has been accepted
for us. The other witnesses are the water and the blood. In John’s Gospel we are
told that they broke the legs of the thieves who hung on either side of the Lord
Jesus Christ. When they came to Jesus, they marveled because He was already
dead, and so they did not break His legs, for it was written, “A bone of him
shall not be broken” (John 19:36). Instead one of the soldiers pierced His side
with a spear, and, John writes, “Forthwith came there out blood and water” (John
19:34). That made a great impression on the mind of John as he saw those two
elements mingled and flowing from the wounded side of the Savior.
Years later when John wrote this Epistle to the children of God, he said, “This
is he that came by water and blood, even Jesus Christ; not by water only, but by
water and blood” (1 John 5:6). Why does he draw our attention to the water and
the blood which flowed from the side of the Son of God? In these two elements we
have suggested two characters of cleansing. As a sinner I learn that the blood
of Jesus Christ cleanses from all sin. But that cleansing is judicial-that is my
cleansing before God. When God looks at me as a believer, He sees me cleansed
from every stain by the blood of His Son. But that cleansing alone does not
satisfy me. As a Christian, I want to know practical deliverance from the power
of sin. I am not content to know that my sins have been put under the blood if I
find that I am still living under the power of sin. I want sin to be taken away
practically-I want to be set free, to be cleansed from the things that curse my
life-and I find practical cleansing through the “washing of water by the word.”
We read in Ephesians 5:25-26, “Christ loved the church, and gave himself for it;
That he might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word.”
The Word of God applied to my heart and conscience sets me free from sin as a
habit. I am delivered from its power. A Christian poet wrote:
Let the water and the blood, From Thy riven side which flowed, Be of sin the
double cure, Save me from its guilt and power. Augustus M. Toplady The blood
cleanses from sin’s guilt. The water of the Word applied in the power of the
Holy Spirit cleanses from the defilement of sin. So then these are the three
witnesses: the blood witnesses that the sin question is settled to God’s
satisfaction; the Word witnesses that there is power to deliver from sin in a
practical way; the Spirit bears witness that this power is for every believer in
the Lord Jesus Christ.
“If we receive the witness of men, the witness of God is greater: for this is
the witness of God which he hath testified of his Son” (1 John 5:9). Men come to
us and tell of things we have never seen, and we believe them. They make us
promises that we believe. The entire commercial system of the world depends
largely on the witness of men. Companies make certain promises, and because we
trust them we go ahead and do business with them. If we are willing to trust our
fellow men who may fail to keep their promises, and whose word may prove
unreliable, surely we can say, “The witness of God is greater.” God has given us
the witness of His Word, and His witness can be relied on, because it is
impossible for God to lie.
“For this is the witness of God, which he hath testified of his Son.” God in His
Word has given a testimony concerning His Son. He has told us that the Lord
Jesus died on the cross for our sins, that He “was delivered for our offenses,
and was raised again for our justification” (Romans 4:25). This is God’s
witness, and He calls on us to believe it.
“He that believeth on the Son of God hath the witness in himself: he that
believeth not God hath made him a liar; because he believeth not the [witness]
that God gave of his Son” (1 John 5:10). The witness is not a question of
feeling happy, or of a great emotional experience. Neither is it a question of
“getting religious,” but it is a question of believing God and receiving His
Word in your heart. When you do that, you have the witness in yourself, and the
Spirit of God makes it real to you. When asked, “Are you saved?” you may answer,
“Yes.” If someone inquires, “How do you know?” you say, “Because God has told me
so.” You don’t know you are saved because you feel happy. You feel happy because
you know you are saved. People often put the cart before the horse. They look
for feelings of happiness as a testimony that they are saved, when they must
first believe the Word. Then the joy will follow.
Alex Marshall, the Scottish evangelist, went as a young boy to a circus where an
evangelist was preaching. As he sat in the balcony, he felt the need to be
saved, but thought to himself, “If I could only get the happy feeling that some
of these people have, I would know if it were real.” Often the Spirit of God
gives a preacher just the right message for someone in the audience, and this
preacher leaned over the pulpit, pointed to where Alex sat and said, “Young man,
believing is the root, feeling is the fruit.” At that moment Alex Marshall
understood, believed, and passed out of death into life. “He that believeth on
the Son of God hath the witness in himself.” Take God at His word and say, “Let
God be true, but every man a liar” (Romans 3:4). You can rest on His Word.
Others may have believed on Christ but have no assurance of salvation because
they are waiting for a feeling-waiting for the witness. This is what God says,
“He that believeth not God hath made him a liar; because he believeth not the
record that God gave of his Son.” As long as your assurance depends on a
feeling, you are making God a liar. God has told you something that He asks you
to believe. What does it imply if you don’t believe? Suppose I told you
something and you said, “Yes, well, I would like to believe you. I am even
trying to believe you, but somehow I just cannot believe you.” What would that
mean? It would imply that you really thought I was lying to you. It is just the
same when you fail to believe what God has said in His Word.
“He that hath the Son hath life” (1 John 5:12). God’s Word says, “Believe on the
Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved” (Acts 16:31). You might believe that
you are saved, and not be saved at all. But you cannot believe in the Lord Jesus
Christ and trust Him as your Savior without being saved. When you lack the
assurance of salvation after putting your trust in Him, you make God a liar,
because you do not believe “the record that God gave of His Son.” A friend of
mine who died some years ago in India did not have the assurance of salvation.
The thing that troubled him above everything else was that he believed that God
had chosen an elect few that should be saved. As he had no evidence that he was
among them, he could not know that he was saved. He went to a meeting where the
preacher declared that a man was saved the moment he believed in Jesus, that he
possessed eternal life, and that he could never perish. He wanted to have the
same assurance. When he got home, he got down on his knees and prayed, “O God,
if it is possible for a man to be sure he has eternal life, show it to me now
from Your Word. But if it is not possible, show me that, and I will leave it
with You.” He turned to 1 John 5:1-21. When he came to 1 John 5:10 he read, “He
that believeth not God hath made him a liar; because he believeth not the record
that God gave of his Son.” “I don’t want to make God a liar,” he said, “but I
don’t know what that record is.” Then he read 1 John 5:11, “And this is the
record.” He put his thumb down on the rest of the verse, and shut his eyes and
prayed, “O God, I have just been reading that if a man does not believe the
record that You have given of your Son, he makes You a liar; I don’t want to
make You a liar, but I don’t know what the record is. I suppose I have it under
my thumb. I am going to lift my thumb, and when I do, help me to believe
whatever I find there, because I don’t want to make You a liar.” He almost
dreaded to lift his thumb, but finally did, and read, “And this is the record,
that God hath given to us eternal life, and this life is in his Son.” “Oh,” he
said, “Blessed be God! Right here and now I can know!” His faith was confirmed
as he read, “He that hath the Son hath life; and he that hath not the Son of God
hath not life” (1 John 5:12). He saw that salvation was a matter of receiving
Christ. Assurance of salvation was a matter of believing God’s Word. His heart
found peace, and for years he preached this same truth to others.
“He came unto his own, and his own received him not. 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” (John 1:11-12). Have you received Christ? Then, “He that hath the
Son hath life.” Are you rejecting Him? “He that hath not the Son of God hath not
life.” If you have not received the Son of God by faith as your Savior you are
still dead in your sins. But if you have received Him as your Savior, God says
you have everlasting life. Take Him at His word.
“These things have I written unto you that believe on the name of the Son of
God; that ye may know that ye have eternal life, and that ye may believe on the
name of the Son of God” (1 John 5:13). John was not speaking of an intellectual
belief. Do you have faith in the Son of God? Do you trust in Him? Listen, then;
I have a message for you, and I wish I could drive it home to every heart with
power. Suppose a letter came addressed, “To you who believe on the name of the
Son of God.” The courier announces, “I have a letter, and if the person to whom
it is addressed is here, please come and claim it. It is addressed to ‘You who
believe.’” What would you say? Do you believe on the name of the Son of God? Is
the letter for you? Very well, then, open it and see what it says. “That ye may
know that ye have eternal life, [even you who] believe on the name of the Son of
God.” It is a message from Heaven to every believer in the Lord Jesus Christ.
Have you been doubting the assurance of your salvation? Are you “sometimes up
and sometimes down,” yet hoping all the while that you are Heaven-bound, but not
very sure of it? Get it settled today. Put away your doubts and fears, and look
by faith at the risen Christ. Take it from God Himself that “He that believeth
on the Son hath everlasting life” (John 3:36).
Faith’s Confidence (1 John 5:14-21) In these closing verses we have three major
sections. First, John spoke of the confidence of faith, and of prayers heard and
answered. Second, he gave a warning to those who sin unto death. And finally, in
1 John 5:18-21, the apostle summarized the teaching of the entire Epistle. In 1
John 5:14-15 we read, “This is the confidence that we have in him, that, if we
ask any thing according to his will, he heareth us: And if we know that he hear
us, whatsoever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we desired of
him.” The ordinary word for confidence in the New Testament is the same Greek
word that is generally translatedfaith, but the word used here is a different
one. The apostle was not simply saying, “This is the faith that we have in him,”
or “This is the trust that we have in him,” but he used a word that literally
means boldness. “This is the boldness that we have in him, that, if we ask
anything according to his will, he heareth us.”
What a bold thing it is for a man or a woman, once a sinner condemned to die
under the judgment of God, to dare to come into the presence of the infinite
God, bringing the petitions of his heart. What boldness to know that if we bring
these to Him, inasmuch as they are in accordance with His will, “he heareth us.”
This is a boldness that the world cannot understand. Men and women who do not
know Christ ask, Do you think that your puny prayers and petitions are going to
change the mind of divine Omnipotence, and that the infinite God is going to
listen to the pleadings of a poor finite creature of the dust? Abraham felt like
that, and yet boldly came to God and said, “Behold now, I have taken upon me to
speak unto the Lord, which am but dust and ashes” (Genesis 18:27). And because
he came in faith and in accordance with the will of God, his prayer was heard.
Today we who know Him as Savior have this boldness, and so we come to Him
knowing that “if we ask anything according to his will, he heareth us.”
How do we know if our petition is in accordance with His will? This is a very
important question. For a prayer to be in accordance with the will of God, it
must first of all be in accordance with the Word of God. I might pray earnestly,
but my pleadings will never be heard if they are contrary to the Word of God. On
the other hand I might pray in accordance with the Word of God, but if I am not
living in the will of God my prayer will still go unanswered, for “if I regard
iniquity in my heart, the Lord will not hear me” (Psalms 66:18). The Lord tells
us, “If ye abide in me, and my words abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will,
and it shall be done unto you” (John 15:7). Under such circumstances, God’s will
becomes our will, and so as we ask according to His will, we know He hears us.
“And if we know that he hear us, whatsoever we ask [that is, of course,
whatsoever we ask in accordance with His will], we know that we have the
petitions that we desired of him.”
We may not get the answer to our petitions immediately. But if we ask in
accordance with the will of God, and if we are in fellowship with God as we
bring the petition, we may be definitely assured that He has heard and has
answered, and that sometime, somewhere, we will see the answer. Of course, we
have to remember our human limitations, for we do not always know what is wisest
or best. Therefore we must be prepared to find that the answer sometimes comes
in a way we least expect.
There was a Christian man who was the only survivor from a wrecked vessel after
a storm at sea. He found himself on a small island, and by great effort managed
to make a little shelter from the equatorial storms. He waited day after day
praying for God to send a ship to rescue him. He used to go down to the shore of
the island and wave a piece of his clothing every time he saw a ship passing in
the distance, but they never saw him. One day as he was cooking his dinner, he
spotted a ship some distance away and hurried to the shore, earnestly praying
that this time they might see him and come to his relief. He waved frantically,
but to no avail. Returning to his hut he was astonished to see that it had burst
into flames. The wind had caught some embers and set the place on fire.
Everything burned. He stood there utterly distressed, not knowing where he would
be able to gather sufficient material to build another shelter. However, to his
amazement, he noticed that the vessel he had seen earlier was headed straight
for the island. As they neared the shore they sent a boat for him and took him
on board. “Did you see me waving?” he asked. “Waving!” they replied; “We saw
your smoke, and so we came to rescue you.” God had answered his prayer, but not
at all in the way he expected it. Someday when we get home to Heaven, we will
see that many of the prayers we thought God had not heard were answered in His
own wonderful way.
What about faith healing? If we pray for the sick, will they be healed? Yes, if
it is His will. But sometimes it is not. While on earth, Jesus healed all the
sick that came to Him, but that is not how He works today. It is true that the
Lord is “the same yesterday, and today, and forever” (Hebrews 13:8). He is an
unchanging Savior, but His methods are not always the same. When He was here on
earth He raised the dead, but He is not raising the dead now. However, when He
returns, He will raise the dead and prove that His power is the same now as when
He was on earth. In 1 John 5:16 we read, “If any man see his brother [referring
to a child of God] sin a sin which is not unto death, he shall ask, and he shall
give him life for them that sin not unto death.” The implication clearly is that
sometimes-not always, but sometimes-sickness comes to the children of God as
divine chastening. It is a means of correction and discipline because of
waywardness. Sometimes the discipline has the desired effect in the spiritual
restoration and the body is healed. But other times it does not seem to be the
will of God to restore the disciplined believer. “There is sin unto death: I do
not say that he shall pray for it” (1 John 5:16). Of course it is physical death
that John referred to, not eternal death. He is not speaking of the death of the
soul, but of the death of the body under divine discipline. The indefinite
article in this part of the verse should be omitted. It is not that there is
some specific sin that always results in death, but there is sin unto death.
Moses and Aaron sinned unto death when they became angry with the children of
Israel and struck the rock in anger instead of speaking to it as they had been
commanded. The Lord said, “Because ye believed me not, to sanctify me in the
eyes of the children of Israel, therefore ye shall not bring this congregation
into the land which I have given them” (Numbers 20:12). Now Moses had immediate
repentance and restoration to fellowship. He pleaded with God that He would
forgive him and permit him to enter the land, but the Lord said, “Speak no more
unto me of this matter” (Deuteronomy 3:26). Moses had sinned unto death. If
today every time Christians got angry they sinned unto death, how few of us
would be here! I’m afraid most of us would be at home in Heaven. Why then was He
so severe with Moses? Moses was one who spoke with God face to face, and with
greater privilege comes greater responsibility. Don’t forget that.
Turning to the New Testament, we find the Spirit of God was working in great
power in the early church. Among the professed converts were two, Ananias and
Sapphira. They sinned against the Holy Ghost by pretending to have a devotion to
God that they did not possess. When they were faced with the sin, they told a
lie. The result was that first Ananias and then Sapphira his wife fell down
dead. They had sinned unto death. If God were dealing with all Christians that
way today, there would be few believers still here. How many Christians have
never permitted others to think that they were holier than they really are? And
is there a believer who has never been guilty of a lie? Perhaps you have
repented, but for Ananias and Sapphira there was no restoration. They had sinned
unto death when they pretended to be more spiritual than they were and then lied
concerning it.
We find another incident recorded in 1 Corinthians. There was a great deal of
laxity and carelessness of behavior at Corinth when they gathered together to
take what we call today the communion or the Lord’s supper. Because of this
laxity and carelessness that marked them, the apostle wrote, “For this cause
many are weak and sickly among you, and many sleep” (1 Corinthians 11:30). Sleep
is a term used throughout the Bible for the believer’s death. If every time a
Christian took communion carelessly God were to visit with temporal death, how
often tragedy would follow the observance of the Lord’s supper! We cannot say of
any particular sin that it is the sin unto death. God gives His people
opportunity after opportunity, but if at last they deliberately go on refusing
obedience to His Word, He says, “I am going to take you home; I can’t trust you
in the world any longer. I will deal with you at the judgment seat of Christ.”
Imagine a group of children playing in the evening, and eventually a quarrel
develops. A mother appears in the doorway and calls to her child, “What’s going
on here? You behave yourself.”
“Yes, Mother. I will try to do better.”
“If you don’t, you will have to come in.” After a while there is a fuss again,
and the mother calls out, “You come inside.”
“Oh Mother, I’m sorry. We are in the middle of a game. I promise to be good.”
“Very well, but you be careful.” The game goes on, and once again there is a
quarrel. The mother tells her child, “You come inside now.”
“But Mother-.”
“Not another word; you come inside.”
“But Mother, I will try to behave myself.”
“No, I can’t trust you anymore tonight. Come inside.” So it is with God and His
children here in this world. He gives them many chances because He is
wonderfully gracious. After a failure they repent and say, “Now I have learned
my lesson.” Perhaps a little later the same thing occurs, and God says, “Now I
am going to lay My hand on you.” Perhaps there is a long siege of illness, and
they have an opportunity to bring everything to God in sincere confession, but
the Lord says, “You have sinned unto death. I can’t trust you anymore, so I am
going to take you home.”
I knew a young man who left his home in obedience to the call of God to engage
in Christian work in a needy district. He had not been there long before an
offer of a prosperous job came between him and the Lord. His fiancee declared
she would never marry a preacher, and so he decided to take the position. He
settled down, made money, and succeeded in his work, but inwardly was always
very unhappy. He knew he had sinned against the Lord because he had been called
to a different service. Eventually he developed tuberculosis. He gave up his
position and spent his savings in a sanitarium, where he lay flat on his back.
He sent for me and said, “Brother, I want you to pray with me, but not that the
Lord will heal me, unless He should make it very clear to you that it is His
will. I have been facing a great many things lately. I see my failure now as
never before. I believe I have sinned unto death.” I looked to the Lord asking,
if it was His will, to heal him, but if not to give him great joy in departing.
Two weeks later I saw him again and he said, “I will never see you on earth
again. I have had two very wonderful weeks. The Lord has been very near to me,
but He has told me that He is going to take me home. I lost my opportunity, and
inasmuch as I chose my own comfort instead of His will He can’t trust me here
any more. But, thank God, I am perfectly resigned to His will. I am going home!”
And, sure enough, three days later he died. He had sinned unto death, and it was
useless to pray for his healing, but he went home happy in Christ.
“All unrighteousness is sin: and there is a sin not unto death” (1 John 5:17).
All unrighteousness is sin and is therefore distasteful to God, but there are
certain circumstances that do not make some conditions quite so serious as
others. In 1 John 5:18-21 we have the epitome of all that has gone before. This
section is divided into three parts. Each part is introduced by the expression,
“We know.” The word translated know really means “an inward knowledge.” We know
not merely because we have read it or heard it, or because someone told us, but
we know because of an inward assurance that has come to us. John said, “We know
that whosoever is born of God sinneth not [doth not practice sin]; but he that
is begotten of God keepeth himself, and that wicked one toucheth him not” (1
John 5:18). This is another way of saying that the child of God has received a
new nature. Even though he falls into sin, he has an Advocate with the Father,
Jesus Christ the righteous. The accuser of the brethren will not be permitted to
lay one charge against them, for they are in the hands of their own Father who
will deal with them about their failures. In the next verse we read, “And we
know that we are of God, and the whole world lieth in wickedness” (1 John 5:19).
This is sometimes translated, “The whole world lieth in the wicked one.” It may
seem like a bold assumption for Christians to say that they have inward
knowledge-absolute assurance that they are of God-and that the whole world lieth
in the wicked one. Yes, it may seem like assumption to men who do not know God,
but there is a reality about it that cannot be explained to the world. For
instance, a young Christian who has recently come to Christ may be confronted by
the specious arguments of atheists, agnostics, and other unbelievers and find
that he is unable to answer their questions. They say to him, “See we have
proven to you that you are wrong and that God never spoke to men.” The young
believer looks them full in the face and says, “I don’t know how to answer your
arguments, but I know I have passed from death unto life.” A Christian who has
been saved out of a life of sin is often unable to explain the transformation
that has taken place in his life. But one thing he knows and can boldly claim,
“Whereas I was blind now I see. Whereas I was once the victim of sinful habits
that were wrecking and ruining my life, now I have found liberty in Christ
Jesus.” Explain that if you can. Every believer as he walks with God has this
blessed inward knowledge. The only believer who loses this knowledge is the one
who is disobedient to God. He loses his sense of assurance. But when he comes
back to God, makes a frank confession of his failure and is restored, he once
again has this blessed inward knowledge given by the Holy Spirit.
1 John 5:20 reads, “And we know that the Son of God is come, and hath given us
an understanding, that we may know him that is true, and we are in him that is
true, even in his Son Jesus Christ. This is the true God, and eternal life.” Of
course John could speak from actual knowledge, for he had leaned on the breast
of the Lord. He had walked with Him for three and a half wonderful years. He had
heard the message proceeding out of His mouth, and had seen His works of power.
We have no such evidence, but we know nonetheless, for He has revealed Himself
to us in His Word. The same divine life that was revealed in all its fullness in
Christ can be part of every believer. And so, “we are in him that is true.”
Having spoken of our Lord Jesus, John immediately added, “This is the true God,
and eternal life.” Eternal life is seen personally in Christ and is communicated
by Christ to those who believe in Him. In 1 John 5:21 we have the closing
exhortation, and though brief, it is an important one: “Little children, keep
yourselves from idols.” Anything that comes between your soul and the path of
obedience to God is an idol. Sometimes God has to come and take these idols away
from us in a way that seems very hard, and we may even charge Him with being
cruel. But He takes them away in order that Christ may have His rightful place
and our hearts may be entirely devoted to Him. “Thou shalt have no other gods
before me” (Exodus 20:3). Scripture says of Jesus Christ, “This is the true
God.” Therefore, any god other than the God revealed in Jesus Christ is an idol.
In Christ alone is God made fully known.
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CHAPTER 56: 04.02. LETTER TO A LADY
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Second John - Letter To A Lady
John’s second and third brief letters, while altogether different from the first
Epistle are nevertheless of great importance. They bring before us guiding
principles that have often been overlooked, but are needful if the people of God
are to walk in a way pleasing to God.
John deals primarily, as we have seen, with truth concerning the family of God.
Peter’s letters deal chiefly with the government of God. Paul’s Epistles are
concerned mainly with the church of God. But in these last letters, written many
years after both Peter and Paul had sealed their testimony with their blood, we
get instruction regarding church fellowship that we cannot afford to ignore if
our fellowship is to be real. In 2 John a Christian lady is warned regarding
false teachers. Through John’s warning we learn what our individual attitude
toward all anti-Christian propagandists should be. In 3 John the message is the
very opposite. We learn through the apostle’s instruction to Gaius what our
behavior should be towards those who are lovers of Christ and who go forth
proclaiming His truth. These Epistles are charming in their simplicity, and give
us a wonderful insight into the heart of a man who speaks of himself as an elder
rather than as an apostle, even though we know he was that. In this second
letter John addressed himself to “the elect lady and her children, whom I love
in the truth; and not I only, but also all they that have known the truth” (2
John 1:1). There is no reason to suppose that the elect lady is the church, as
some have thought, nor yet that we should read, “the Lady Electa,” as others
have suggested. The elect lady was evidently a Christian woman who, with her
children, had embraced the doctrine of Christ. In all probability she was one
who had been blessed and helped through John’s ministry. She had evidently
written to him for advice as to how she would be expected to act when imposed
upon to open her home to false teachers. Would Christian charity demand that
courtesy and hospitality be shown even to these, or were there other
responsibilities which must first be considered? John’s letter is clearly an
answer to hers. He emphasized faithfulness to the truth, “For the truth’s sake,
which dwelleth in us, and shall be with us for ever” (2 John 1:2). In his
salutation he invoked grace, mercy, and peace “from God the Father, and from the
Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of the Father, [and this] in truth and love” (2 John
1:3). How full the title here! Men were teaching derogatory things concerning
our Lord. The Spirit would give Him fullest honor and recognition.
John’s heart had been gladdened by the good report that had reached him of the
ways of “the elect lady’s” household. Her children walked in the truth in
accordance with the commandment received from the Father. Hers was a truly
Christian home in the midst of an ungodly world. The commandment referred to in
2 John 1:4 is that which had been made known “from the beginning” (2 John 1:5).
It is the revelation of the will of God as given by our Lord that “we love one
another.” But this love is not to be confused with mere fleshly sentimentality.
“This is love, that we walk after his commandments” (2 John 1:6). Again he
emphasized the fact that he was speaking of nothing new (as is customary with
deceivers), but he said, “That, as ye have heard from the beginning, ye should
walk in it.” The Christian teaching is not in the process of evolution. It is
not passing from one stage to another as theologians and religious philosophers
devise new systems. It is “the faith once…[for all] delivered unto the saints”
(Jude 1:3). That which is new and not “from the beginning” is a deceit and a
delusion.
Many had already come to consider themselves as advanced, and gloried in being
freed from the dogmas of the past. John spoke of these people when he wrote,
“For many deceivers are entered into the world who confess not that Jesus Christ
is come in the flesh” (2 John 1:7). He referred to those, later known as docetic
gnostics, who denied the humanity of our Lord. According to them Jesus only
appeared to be a man. It is this error that John combated in the opening verses
of his first Epistle. All such teachers the apostle branded as deceivers and
antichrists. They were opposed to the Christ of God. Their denial of His manhood
marked them out as unsaved men, enemies of the truth of God. To associate with
these apostates in any way was dangerous, hence the admonition: “Look to
yourselves, that we lose not those things which we have wrought, but that we
receive a full reward” (2 John 1:8). Real believers cannot lose what God has
bestowed in grace, but there is a grave danger that they will deprive themselves
of the rewards for faithfulness if they ever tamper with the errors that are
being taught by these apostates. The primary reference, beyond all doubt, is to
the gnostics of various sects, whether Cerinthian, who distinguished between the
man Jesus and the divine Christ who, according to them, came to abide on and
indwell Jesus at His baptism, or docetists, who denied the reality of His
physical body and held that it was only an “appearance” by which the Christ
revealed Himself to men. There were many widely divergent schools of thought
among these false teachers, but all rejected Christ’s vicarious sacrifice for
sin on the cross. All alike would rob the believer of the great foundation
truths upon which the soul rests. They all boasted of progress in the revelation
of divine mysteries, but the apostle condemned all such haughty claims as he
solemnly declared: “Whosoever transgresseth, and abideth not in the doctrine of
Christ, hath not God. He that abideth in the doctrine of Christ, he hath both
the Father and the Son” (2 John 1:9).
John certainly is not referring to believers who may not see eye to eye with
others regarding certain doctrinal subtleties. The teachers described are not
Christians at all. They have therefore no claim whatever on the sympathetic
cooperation of the people of God. So to this elect lady John said, “If there
come any unto you, and bring not this doctrine, receive him not into your house,
neither [greet him]: For he that [greeteth him] is partaker in his evil deeds”
(2 John 1:10-11). This instruction is clear. It positively forbids a Christian
to show any fellowship whatever with a teacher of soul-destroying error. Such
teachers have no right to the hospitality of believers who owe everything for
eternity to the Savior whom these apostates blaspheme. The closing verses are
beautiful in their simplicity, but require no comment.
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CHAPTER 57: 04.03. LETTER TO A FRIEND
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Third John - Letter To A Friend
Third John is the correlative of Second John. In this letter we learn the
breadth of Christian fellowship, and in it narrow ecclesiasticism is sharply
rebuked. In this Epistle the apostle addressed Gaius, a brother in the Lord,
honored for his large-heartedness, and whose home was always open to preachers
of the gospel. To him John expressed the wish that he may “prosper and be in
health, even as [his] soul prospereth” (3 John 1:2). There was no doubt of the
latter condition, but a weak body is often the dwelling of a happy and
prosperous soul. Traveling brethren had reported to John of the graciousness of
Gaius and his walk in the truth. He was possibly a convert of John’s, as seems
implied in the words, “I have no greater joy than to hear that my children walk
in truth” (3 John 1:4).
Then he added, “Beloved, thou doest faithfully whatsoever thou doest to the
brethren, even to strangers; Which have borne witness of thy [love] before the
church: whom if thou bring forward on their journey after a godly sort, thou
shalt do well: Because that for his name’s sake they went forth, taking nothing
of the Gentiles” (3 John 1:5-7). What a sidelight this throws on conditions in
the early church! As itinerate evangelists and teachers traveled about, they
were graciously entertained by such as Gaius and helped on their way. They did
not look to the world for sustenance. They recognized the fact that the Lord’s
work should be supported by the Lord’s people. Thus they were happily
independent of the heathen to whom they ministered, and so had a rightful claim
on the sympathetic help of fellow believers. “We therefore ought to receive
such, that we might be fellow helpers to the truth” (3 John 1:8). Not everyone
may be gifted as preachers or teachers, but all can help those who are and thus
keep them independent of the world, but dependent on God.
What a contrast this delightful Christian simplicity is to the unholy and
utterly unchristian financial methods of many today who are presumably
attempting to follow in the steps of these first century workers! High-pressure
efforts to squeeze money out of Christ-rejecters and even carnal Christians is
thoroughly opposed to the grace of the gospel. On the other hand Christians need
to be reminded that “we ought” to further the gospel by supporting godly men as
they launch out in dependence on the Lord. From 3 John 1:9-10 we learn that
already men had arisen in the churches who were of a narrow sectarian spirit-men
of hard, rigid ecclesiastical views who despised these “free lancers,” and
refused to recognize anyone outside their “group.” John had evidently written to
the church where Gaius was locally connected commending an itinerant named
Demetrius, but he said, “Diotrephes, who loveth to have the preeminence among
them, receiveth us not” (3 John 1:9). He rejected Demetrius, and in rejecting
him he was rejecting the apostle who endorsed him. “Wherefore when I come,” John
continued, “I will remember his deeds which he doeth, prating against us with
malicious words: and not content therewith, neither doth he himself receive the
brethren, and forbiddeth them that would, and casteth them out of the church” (3
John 1:10). Diotrephes was the sample ecclesiastic to whom church order meant
more than love of Christ’s sheep. “He does not follow us,” would be his slogan,
“therefore we cannot receive his ministry or show him fellowship!”
Unfortunately, the spiritual descendants of Diotrephes are many. They may be
found not only in the great denominations but in the humblest Christian
assemblies. They are self-seeking, self-important, self-elected “bishops” and
“overseers,” lording it over their brethren and arrogantly relegating to
themselves the right to say who may or may not be recognized.
John himself, an inspired apostle, had no fear of the anathema of Diotrephes,
but many a humbler worker has been utterly discouraged and turned aside by the
presumptuousness of men of similar spirit. And so the message comes: “Beloved,
follow not that which is evil, but that which is good. He that doeth good is of
God [whether approved by Diotrephes or not], but he that doeth evil [whatever
his ecclesiastical standing] hath not seen God” (3 John 1:11).
It is evident that the servant who had been so ruthlessly rejected by this
self-elected leader is the man named in 3 John 1:12. “Demetrius hath good report
of all men, and of the truth itself: yea, and we also bear [witness]; and ye
know that our [witness] is true.” But such a report matters little to those with
the spirit of Diotrephes. They could care less that a man is honored of God,
that he proclaims the truth, that his walk is blameless, that many can testify
to his devotedness, piety, spirituality, and helpfulness of his ministry. These
arrogant people feel that if “he followeth not with us” he must be treated as a
publican and a sinner, or rejected as though he were a blasphemer. What an
insult to Christ, the head of the church, and to the Holy Spirit of God! How
aptly the second and third Epistles of John thus counterbalance each other-the
one testifying against fellowship with apostasy, the other inculcating
fellowship in the truth. The closing verses of 3 John again are too plain to
need any comment, but they testify to the freedom of communion between the
apostle and his friends in Christ.
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CHAPTER 58: 04.04.1. INTRODUCTION
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Chapter One - Introduction The Salutation (Jude 1:1-2)
There seems no good reason to doubt, and every reason to believe, that the
writer of this solemn yet comforting letter is the “Judas the brother of James,”
mentioned in the list of the apostles, as given twice by Luke (Luke 6:16; Acts
1:13). Matthew referred to him as “Lebbeus, whose surname was Thaddeus” (Matthew
10:3), and Mark simply as “Thaddeus” (Mark 3:18). John distinguished him in a
special way by speaking of him as “Judas…not Iscariot” (John 14:22). It is
evident, from the way Paul wrote of James, the son of Alpheus (the brother of
Judas), that he was a close relation to the Lord Jesus. After mentioning his
first interview with Peter, he said: “but other of the apostles saw I none, save
James the Lord’s brother” (Galatians 1:19). James the great, the son of Zebedee,
had met a martyr’s death earlier than the visit here referred to. Therefore it
is clear that James the less is meant. The term “the Lord’s brother” does not
necessarily mean the same in Greek as it does in our language. It often implies
just a very close relationship. Lot is called Abram’s brother, when actually he
was his nephew (Genesis 14:16). Yet if Jude had wanted to boast of his close
relation to the Lord as man, he would not have written of himself as he does
here, “Jude, the servant of Jesus Christ.” He had known Christ by ties of
kindred common to few; but he knows Him as such no more. He gladly owns Him as
God’s anointed, his Lord and master. Another might have used the term brother;
but writing of himself, Jude is simply the “slave of Jesus Christ.” James spoke
of himself in the same way- “a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ”
(James 1:1).
What a withering rebuke are these two lovely examples of devotion to Christ to
those who thoughtlessly speak or write of “our brother Jesus,” or use similar
terms, all calculated to detract from the glory of Christ. His own words to His
disciples, after washing their feet, were, “Ye call me Master and Lord: and ye
say well; for so I am!” (John 13:13). How abhorrent is the pride that leads some
to call themselves Christ’s “brothers,” as though He were merely a creature like
themselves!
It is true that in infinite grace, as the captain of our salvation, “he is not
ashamed to call [us] brethren, Saying, I will declare thy name unto my brethren”
(Hebrews 2:11-12). But this is a very different thing from calling Him
“Brother,” or speaking of ourselves as His brothers. If any object to this, let
them search the Scriptures and see if anyone ever spoke of or to Him in such a
way. James and Jude, who had every right to call Him “brother” scrupulously
avoided such familiarity and called themselves His slaves. This is made all the
more prominent in Jude’s letter, as he immediately added for the purpose of
identification, “brother of James.”
He addressed himself to the “called” ones of God. It is a common title given to
those whom grace has saved. The Lord’s words to His disciples while on earth
were: “Ye have not chosen me, but I have chosen you” (John 15:16). Some consider
it a hard saying, when He declared, “Therefore said I unto you, that no man can
come unto me, except it were given unto him of my Father” (John 6:65). All
believers are called by His grace, as was Paul (Galatians 1:15), and are drawn
to Christ from a world controlled by the wicked one (1 John 5:19). What
unspeakable grace is bestowed, for who is it He calls? Those who have some
goodness to plead? Some merit to commend? No. He calls those who are utterly
vile and corrupt, those who are completely lost. All such are “called unto the
fellowship of his Son” (1 Corinthians 1:9). “And whom he called, them he also
justified: and whom he justified, them he also glorified” (Romans 8:30). There
can be no failure here. He who called has justified, and will bring every called
one to glory for eternity.
Such are “[beloved of] God the Father” (Jude 1:1). The King James version reads,
“sanctified by,” but editors generally favor the former. Both statements are
true, but Jude is emphasizing our place in the affections of the Father. Do we
know the measure of that love? Our Lord Himself declared it when He said, “The
glory which thou gavest me I have given them; that they may be one, even as we
are one: I in them, and thou in me, that they may be made perfect in one; and
that the world may know that thou hast sent me, and hast loved them as thou hast
loved me” (John 17:22-23). This is the measure of the Father’s love to every
child of grace. There are no degrees in His affection for His children. The
feeblest and the strongest are alike “[beloved of] God the Father” as truly as
His Son is the Beloved of His heart. From this flows our preservation-”Preserved
in Jesus Christ.” Whatever may be the difficulties of life, however great the
trial of our faith, in the love of God we are preserved by the One who has saved
us. He it is who, “having loved his own which were in the world, he loved them
unto the end” (John 13:1). Were it not for His preserving grace not one saint
would persevere. “He is able also to save them to the uttermost that come unto
God by him, seeing he ever liveth to make intercession for them” (Hebrews 7:25).
There is no ground for self-confidence, or fleshly elation. Such grace calls for
reverent and adoring gratitude, and a walk that corresponds to the
lovingkindness lavished on creatures so unworthy.
Jude used a different greeting from that of the other apostles. It is not “grace
and peace,” nor yet “grace, mercy, and peace,” which he invoked upon the saints,
but “mercy unto you, and peace, and love, be multiplied” (Jude 1:2). They were
already enjoying these precious things; he wanted them abundantly increased, so
their souls would be filled with holy joy. Every saint needs mercy while passing
through a world like this. Peace is his portion while abiding in Christ. “Peace
I leave with you, my peace I give unto you: not as the world giveth, give I unto
you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid” (John 14:27). In
the enjoyment of this peace the soul can pass quietly on its way amid all the
strife and evil of the day, resting in Him who is over all. Love is the outflow
of the new life. God is love, and the divine nature in the believer can only
produce love. This love is very different from mere sentimentality, as the
Epistle goes on to show. “Love in the truth” (2 John 1:1; 3 John 1:1) is that
which is according to God.
Abundant is the provision for each tried saint. If mercy, peace, and love are
ever lacking, it is not due to a stinted supply of grace, but rather a failure
to enter into what is freely given to all who receive with thanksgiving what our
God so delights to give. He never abandons a trusting, honest soul to its own
resources, but has promised to meet every need according to His riches in glory,
through Christ Jesus. “Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace,
that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need” (Hebrews
4:16). Never will that time of need be over until we reach our heavenly home
where strife and warfare are past forever. The Faith Once for All Delivered
(Jude 1:3)
Carried along by the Spirit, Jude sat down to write. His own heart was filled
with the joy of God’s salvation, and as he put pen to parchment, he would have
been glad to write of this salvation common to every saint. But the same Holy
Spirit who caused him to give all diligence to write, directed his mind as to
the theme he must emphasize-a note of warning and exhortation urging believers
to “earnestly contend for the faith which was once delivered” (Jude 1:3). The
faith mentioned here is not saving faith, but rather the truth of that
salvation, with all that accompanies it. This abiding faith has been given never
to be added to. It is the faith “once delivered unto the saints” and no new
revelations will be given to complete this truth. Like John, Jude turned the
saints back to “that which was from the beginning.” There may be evolution in
theology, for theology is simply the reasoning of man’s mind as to the things of
God. But there is no evolution in regard to the truth. God has given His last
word on the subject. It is for this truth we are called to contend. This simple
expression shuts out all the pretentious claims of new prophets, seers, and
revelators. False are the claims of misguided enthusiasts who boldly declare
themselves sent of God and add to His words. The signs and wonders that may
accompany such pretensions are no more remarkable than those of the antichrist
yet to come. The simple-hearted believer turns away from them all, and exclaims
with holy confidence, “The faith has been once for all made known. Neither
assumption nor miracle will induce me to accept any additions to it.” Many
seekers have been attracted by the false claims of cult leaders that angels have
appeared to them and given them secret spiritual teachings. The faith once
delivered needs neither angelic nor human additions. It is perfect and complete,
and the man of God will refuse all other and newer revelations. The apostle Paul
was given the responsibility of completing the Word of God. He was the chosen
servant to whom the mysteries hidden from past ages were made known (Colossians
1:24-27). After having completed the outline of divine teaching, he wrote,
“Though we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel unto you than that
which we have preached unto you, let him be accursed” (Galatians 1:8).
Jude added no new doctrine to what had already been presented, but exhorted
those who had received this sacred truth to contend earnestly for it. Even John,
in the book of Revelation, sets forth no additional line of teaching, but shows
what the outcome is to be in regard to the conflict between truth and error. It
is fitting, therefore, that Jude’s letter should be so placed in our Bibles as
to form a preface to the book of Revelation. He gave a graphic and solemn
picture of the evils (already springing up among the saints in those early days)
that in Revelation are portrayed in all their hideous development. The second
letter of Peter bears a close resemblance in many particulars to that of Jude.
They are so similar that some who never look below the surface have surmised
that one might be but an imperfect copy of the other. To the spiritually-minded
there are, however, marked differences despite the striking similarity. Peter
warned of false teachers, corrupting those who are not established in the truth.
If false doctrine and damnable heresies are not refused, they will bring to
their followers swift destruction. But Jude was concerned more with the
ungodliness that results from forsaking the truth. He warned against the grace
of God being turned into lasciviousness.
Men may belittle sound doctrine, and ridicule the notion that a system of belief
is of any importance in regard to a man’s behavior, but Scripture shows that
there cannot be proper behavior apart from soundness in the faith. The couplet,
“For modes of faith let graceless zealots fight; / He can’t be wrong whose life
is in the right,” expresses what is in the minds of many, that life will never
be right unless the truth of God is accepted and prevails in the heart.
Therefore, there is great need for Jude’s exhortation, inspired by the Holy
Spirit, to contend for the faith. The admonition is addressed, not to leaders
alone, but to all the called in Jesus Christ. Since the faith was delivered to
the saints as a whole, each one is responsible, in a time of departure from the
truth, to contend earnestly for all that God has revealed. The believer is
viewed as a soldier. He is called on to fight for what is of prime importance in
God’s sight. As Shammah defended a patch of lentils, the food of God’s people (2
Samuel 23:11-12), so the Christian should boldly defend the truth against all
enemies. If Christians were zealously guarding the treasure committed to the
whole church, evil workers and false teachers would be unable to obtain a
foothold. But because of the indifference of many believers, ungodly men are
able to entrench themselves in the church.
It is one thing to contend, but quite another to be contentious. “The servant of
the Lord must not strive; but be gentle unto all men, apt to teach, patient, In
meekness instructing those that oppose themselves; if God peradventure will give
them repentance to the acknowledging of the truth; And that they may recover
themselves out of the snare of the devil, who are taken captive by him at his
will” (2 Timothy 2:24-26). These verses indicate the spirit that is to
characterize the one who would contend for the truth. Firmly, yet with tender
compassion for those being led astray, he is to stand for all that God has
revealed. When a bad, carnal spirit takes possession of someone, he is powerless
to help or bless others. And it should always be remembered that in contending
for the faith, the soul of the sinner has to be thought of as well. It is not
enough to uphold the doctrines of Christ-actions must commend the truth that the
lips proclaim. The phrase in Ephesians 4:15, translated “speaking the truth in
love,” has been literally rendered, “truthing in love.” It is far more than
speaking the truth that is in question- it is the truth lived out in all we do.
Unless this is characteristic of the one who contends for the faith of God’s
elect, the utterances of his lips will be in vain.
Clandestine Workers (Jude 1:4) From the days of Simon Magus to the present it
has always been the object of Satan to secretly introduce evil workers into the
assemblies of God’s saints, and deceive the unwary and lead them astray. And
Satan has never been lacking in those who would do his devious work. The truth
of God, if not submitted to, has a hardening effect on the one who is familiar
with it. To trifle with what God has revealed is an affront to Him, and has dire
consequences. Jude next warned the people of God against such men, who have a
mental acquaintance with the truth but whose ways are not in accordance with
that which they profess to hold. Secretly they have slipped into the assemblies
of the saints, and have managed to deceive His people, but they are not unknown
to God. “Before of old [they were marked out] to this condemnation” (Jude 1:4).
Ordained (KJV) is too strong a word here, and fails to give the true thought.
Far be it from God to ordain any man to acts of impiety and ways of deceit! But
He had of old marked them out, declaring by His prophets that such men would
arise. He described them clearly, so that they might readily be recognized. And
He pointed out that their end is judgment.
They are described as ungodly men. This term ungodly is used five times in
Jude’s Epistle, the other four instances occurring in the quotation from Enoch.
It means refusing subjection to God, and acting independently of and in
opposition to Him. “Christ died for the ungodly” (Romans 5:6). All men in their
sins are ungodly. Jude wrote of those who by profession claim to be delivered
from their sins, but who actually are still in them, and secretly turning others
to their own iniquitous ways. The grace of God has neither reached their souls
nor controlled their consciences. They make that very grace an occasion for
lasciviousness of speech and life. Such evil workers have abounded in all ages
since the gospel was made known. But the remedy given in Scripture is never
legality, but rather a bowing to the truth of man’s need of the very grace he
has been misusing. The sinner who judges himself before God and finds his need
met in that wondrous provision of grace, will not turn from such unmerited
favor. It is the unrepentant “professor” who has never seen himself in the light
of God’s holiness that Jude is referring to. In what ways do men turn “the grace
of our God into lascivious-ness”? They do so by going on in their own ways,
gratifying the lusts of the flesh, while professing to believe in the grace that
does not impute sin to the justified soul. This is what has been well-named
antinomianism. These perpetrators deny “the only Lord God [Master] and our Lord
Jesus Christ.” They don’t necessarily deny Him at all times with their
lips-often they are found professing to know Him, but denying Him by their
works.
We do not need to look far to find such men. Christendom today abounds with
them. They are often in the seats of honor, professing allegiance to Christ
while ignoring His Word and even treating the Scriptures with contempt and
assumed superiority. Nothing is too holy for their profane reasonings to set
aside. “From such turn away” (2 Timothy 3:5). At no time in the past history of
the church have Jude’s words applied with greater force than in the present age.
In Romanism, emissaries make strenuous efforts to allure the unwary by
presenting a softened, subdued Catholicism to non-Catholics. They emphasize
whatever is Scriptural, or ethically and esthetically lovely in the teachings of
the Papacy, and carefully cover the more disgusting dogmas and practices of that
apostate church. In Protestantism, the boldest infidelity and skepticism are
proclaimed from thousands of pulpits, and minor sects of all kinds are
everywhere spreading their pernicious and soul-destroying errors. Therefore the
man of God needs to be alert and vigilant-determined to stand for the faith once
for all delivered to the saints.
Many false teachers would say that it makes little difference what a man
believes if he lives well and is sincere. Scripture teaches, however, that the
gospel alone is “the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth”
(Romans 1:16). The Holy Spirit has pronounced a solemn curse against any-even an
angel from Heaven-who brings a different gospel. Living a “good life,” according
to the divine standard of holiness and uprightness, is a delusion and an
impossibility, apart from the sanctifying power of the truth of God. And so we
find that where false teaching prevails, ungodliness abounds. Indifference to
evil teaching, and genuine love for Christ and His truth cannot coexist in the
same breast. Neutrality in such a case is a crime against the Lord who has
redeemed us to Himself.
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CHAPTER 59: 04.04.2. CONFRONTING APOSTASY
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Chapter Two - Confronting Apostasy Destruction of Apostates (Jude 1:5-7) When
the saint of God considers the end awaiting all apostates from the truth, all
bitterness toward them must of necessity be banished from the heart. They may
seem to ride now on a crest of popular appreciation and support, but they will
soon fall. For “surely thou didst set them in slippery places: thou castedst
them down into destruction” (Psalms 73:18). This is the solemn lesson we are
taught by observing the unbelievers who fell in the wilderness. They started out
well. All were baptized unto Moses in the cloud and in the sea. All drank the
same spiritual drink and ate the same spiritual food. But unbelief manifested
itself when the time of testing came. Murmuring, idolatry, and the gainsaying of
Korah (of which particular note is taken further on in this Epistle), told out
the true state of many who sang with exultation on the banks of the Red Sea.
Kadesh-Barnea, the place of opportunity, became but the memorial of unbelief.
Though once saved out of Egypt, they were destroyed in the wilderness because of
having apostatized from the living God. In the same way the Nephilim (the fallen
ones) had been dealt with long before. Though created as sinless angels of God,
they like Lucifer, the son of the morning, bartered the realms of Heaven for
selfish ends. These angels “kept not their first estate, but left then-own
habitation, [and are now] reserved in everlasting chains under darkness unto the
judgment of the great day” (Jude 1:6).
Whether the apostle is here referring to the “sons of God” of Genesis 6 has been
a debated question throughout the Christian centuries. That the beings there
referred to could possibly be angels has been denounced by many
spiritually-minded teachers, who see in “the sons of God” simply the seed of
Seth, and in “the daughters of men” the maidens of the line of Cain. Others,
equally deserving to be heard, identify the sons of God in the book of Job with
those of Genesis. They accept the passage before us as the divine commentary on
the solemn scene of apostasy described as the precursor of the flood, and
believe that in Jude they learn the judgment of those fallen angels.
It must be admitted that Jude 1:7 seems to corroborate the latter view. “As
Sodom and Gomorrah, and the cities about them in like manner giving themselves
over to fornication and going after strange flesh, are set forth as an example,
suffering the vengeance of eternal fire.” Scripture seems to indicate a close
relationship between the sin of these cities and that of the angels referred to
in Jude 1:6. At any rate both angels and the men of the plain fell into grievous
sin through unbelief, and were punished accordingly. They rejected the light and
are now presented as an example of those who will suffer and undergo the
vengeance of eternal fire.
Nothing can be more solemn than this. Many centuries have elapsed since fire
from heaven destroyed those cities, but the guilty apostates of that distant day
are at this moment still suffering the judgment of God because of their wicked
deeds. They are, along with the rich man of Luke 16:1-31, tormented in the
flames of Hades. They await the awful hour when, as Revelation 20:14 declares,
“death and hades shall be cast into the lake of fire.”
Contrary to the Scriptural teaching of eternal punishment of the wicked, there
are those who hold out instead the delusive dream of annihilation. They refer to
Malachi 4:1-3 as the basis for their belief:
For, behold, the day cometh, that shall burn as an oven; and all the proud, yea,
and all that do wickedly, shall be stubble: and the day that cometh shall burn
them up, saith the Lord of hosts, that it shall leave them neither root nor
branch. But unto you that fear my name shall the Sun of righteousness arise with
healing in his wings; and ye shall go forth, and grow up as calves of the stall.
And ye shall tread down the wicked; for they shall be ashes under the soles of
your feet in the day that I shall do this, saith the Lord of hosts. This passage
is looked upon by the annihilationist as one of his strongest proof-texts.
Assuming that the passage is talking of the final judgment, he exclaims, “What
could be clearer? If the wicked are burned up like stubble, if neither root nor
branch is left remaining, wouldn’t they have utterly ceased to exist?
Furthermore, if they become as ashes under the soles of the saints’ feet, where
is room for the awful thought of an immortal soul suffering endless judgment?” A
more careful study of Malachi 4:1-6 reveals the fact that it makes no reference
to judgment after death. The Holy Ghost is describing the destruction of
apostates at the coming of the Lord to establish His kingdom prior to the
millennium of Revelation 20:1-15. It is the bodies of the wicked, not their
souls, which are to become as ashes under the feet of triumphant Israel. Like
stubble, their physical bodies will be destroyed as with devouring fire, so that
neither root nor branch shall remain. So it was in the day when Sodom and
Gomorrah and its surrounding cities met their doom. Lot or Abraham might then
have trampled on the wicked, who would have been ashes under the soles of their
feet after the terrible conflagration. All had been burned up-root and
branch-but were they then annihilated? No. Our Lord Jesus said, “It shall be
more tolerable for Sodom and Gomorrha in the day of judgment” than for those who
rejected His ministry when here on earth (Mark 6:11). The very men and women who
were burned to ashes so long ago are to rise from the dead for judgment. Where
are they now, and what is their condition? Are they wrapped in a dreamless
slumber, waiting in unconsciousness until the sounding of the trump of doom? No,
the soul-sleeper and the annihilationist are both wrong. The inhabitants of
those cities “are set forth as an example, suffering the vengeance of eternal
fire!”
Truly, “it is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God” (Hebrews
10:31). Judgment must be the portion of all who trifle with the grace shown on
the cross to guilty sinners. It would be better to have never heard of Christ
and His blood, than having heard, to turn from the truth to the soul-destroying
fables of false teachers. Be awake to the solemnity of these things! “Knowing
therefore the terror of the Lord,” cried the apostle Paul, “we persuade men”.
Paul also wrote, “The love of Christ constraineth us” (2 Corinthians 5:11; 2
Corinthians 5:14). Man, energized by Satan, would divorce the fear of the Lord
from His love, making much of love, and ridiculing the thought of eternal
punishment. Scripture teaches that “God is light” just as much as “God is love.”
God has said, “If any man draw back, my soul shall have no pleasure in him”. But
the Holy Ghost is careful to say of true believers, “We are not of them who draw
back unto perdition; but of them that believe to the saving of the soul”
(Hebrews 10:38-39). It is only those who endure to the end who will be saved-but
all who are born of God will endure through divine grace. “Who is he that
overcometh the world, but he that believeth that Jesus is the Son of God?” (1
John 5:5).
Irreverent and Irrational Despisers of the Truth (Jude 1:8-10)
Unholy ways always accompany, and indeed spring from, unholy teachings.
Therefore we can easily understand the readiness with which apostates from the
truth give themselves up to what is defiling and abominable. Present-day
advocates of “free love,” are in large measure persons who have apostatized from
a nominal Christianity, and now tolerate and even stand for what they once would
have abhorred. What would once have been rebuked, even by the world, is now
advocated by a Christless pulpit. Men and women sustaining unholy relations are
rocked to sleep in their sins while death, judgment, and eternal punishment are
fast approaching! The rejection of the inspiration of the Bible places the law
of God, as expressed in the ten commandments, among the productions of the human
mind. Therefore its code of morals is spurned and a lower ethical system, more
in keeping with present day conditions, is substituted. And so loose standards
prevail where Scripture no longer speaks with authority. “They have rejected the
word of the Lord, and what wisdom is in them?” (Jeremiah 8:9).
Coupled with this new standard of morals, so opposed to the purity of Scripture,
will be found a limitless pride that boasts itself against every unseen power.
Satan is no longer feared, but his very existence denied on the one hand, or his
superhuman ability ridiculed on the other. How different was the behavior of
Michael the archangel, who, “when contending with the devil he disputed about
the body of Moses, durst not bring against him a railing accusation, but said,
The Lord rebuke thee” (Jude 1:9). All kinds of ingenious theories have been
advanced concerning the nature of this dispute, but as God Himself has not given
us the particulars, it would seem useless to speculate. When we know as we are
known, this and all other mysteries will be solved in a place where we can no
longer pride ourselves in our knowledge.
It is important to observe that in Scripture, the word archangel occurs only in
the singular. Michael (meaning, “who is [as] god”) is the archangel. Gabriel is
never given that title. Some have sought to identify Michael with the Son of God
Himself, but as there is no hint of such an identity, it is unwise to theorize.
Michael appears in the book of Daniel as “the great prince which standeth for
the children of thy [the prophet’s] people”-that is, of Israel (Daniel 12:1). In
Revelation 12:7 he appears as the leader of the angelic hosts driving Satan from
the heavens when his days of accusing the brethren are ended. Here he is seen
contending for the body of Moses; and in 1 Thessalonians 4:16 he seems to be a
distinct being, whose voice (as Israel’s prince) will be heard in connection
with the rapture of the church. It is noticeable that in Daniel 10:13 he is
called, “Michael, one of the chief princes,” a title that would be completely
inconsistent with our Lord Jesus Christ, the only-begotten Son of God.
It is solemn indeed to be told that such a great being “durst not bring a
railing accusation” against the devil, while proud, ignorant men speak boldly
against all that is high and beyond their comprehension. Even in what they do
understand they do not behave with propriety, but like natural brute beasts,
they corrupt themselves, and display an inability to curb their fleshly lusts.
They know no shame, and complain loudly against the unknowable. Such actions are
the result of the deification of the human mind and scientific knowledge.
Judgment is fast approaching and it becomes increasingly important that those
who know God search His Word and value His truth. Remember that perilous times
have come, when, if it were possible, Satan would deceive the very elect. It is
only by the grace of God that any are kept from error and the evil practices
that result. Paul reminded the Thessalonians of this sustaining grace: “But we
are bound to give thanks always to God for you, brethren beloved of the Lord,
because God hath from the beginning chosen you to salvation through
sanctification of the Spirit and belief of the truth” (2 Thessalonians 2:13). If
any abide in the truth, it is due to the fact that God himself has chosen them,
and sustains them in their path. “Where is boasting then? It is excluded”
(Romans 3:27).
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CHAPTER 60: 04.04.3. DEFINING APOSTASY
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Chapter Three - Defining Apostasy
Jude presents a three-fold apostasy. He identifies them as, “the way of Cain,”
“the error of Balaam,” and the “gainsaying of [Korah].” The Way of Cain (Jude
1:11 a)
Strictly speaking there are only two religions in the world-true religion, that
of God’s appointing, and false religion, the product of man’s own mind. The
first is the religion of faith; the second that of credulity or superstition, in
whatever form it may appear. In the beginning God made known to guilty man the
truth that death and judgment were his rightful portion, only to be averted by
the sacrifice of the seed of the woman. In the fullness of time He would appear
as the sinner’s Savior, bruising the serpent’s head, though Himself wounded in
the heel. This was the revelation in the garden of Eden (Genesis 3:15). In
accordance with this revelation, faith taught those who were saved by grace, the
propriety of approaching God, the Holy One, on the ground of sacrifice. Each
bleeding sacrifice pointed to Jesus who was to be made sin so that guilty men
might be delivered from their sins and stand before the throne of the Most High
uncondemned. Therefore we read, “By faith Abel offered unto God a more excellent
sacrifice than Cain, by which he obtained witness that he was righteous, God
testifying of his gifts: and by it he being dead yet speaketh” (Hebrews 11:4).
Abel did not offer his sacrifice by intuition, but by faith-through a revelation
apprehending the mind of God. He brought a sacrifice which told of a life
forfeited-a sinless substitute, whose vicarious death could take the place of
the guilty one. This lamb of Abel’s speaks loudly, even though he who offered it
has long been numbered with the dead in Christ. This is the heart of the gospel:
“Christ died for the ungodly” (Romans 5:6). “He was wounded for our
transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace
was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed” (Isaiah 53:5). “It is the
blood that maketh an atonement for the soul” (Leviticus 17:11). Everywhere in
Scripture the same testimony is given, for “without shedding of blood [there] is
no remission” (Hebrews 9:22).
Now this is exactly what, in principle, Cain denied. He brought an offering to
God according to the promptings of his own heart “deceitful above all things,
and desperately wicked” (Jeremiah 17:9), as is the heart of every natural man.
His sacrifice seemed fair and lovely: the fruits of the ground, brought forth by
toil and labor. But there was no recognition of the true character of sin and
its punishment. God’s sentence of death on account of sin is refused; therefore
no life is given, no blood is shed. This is natural religion as opposed to what
has been divinely revealed. The fruit of Cain pictures man’s effort to attain
all that is fair in character-building, all that is lovely in human
accomplishment. These things are beautiful indeed if the fruit of divine grace
already exists in the soul. But they are of no use whatsoever to meet the claims
of divine justice, or to purge the conscience and cleanse the soul from the
stain of sin. It is clear that “the way of Cain” is a comprehensive title,
embracing every form of religious teaching, ceremony, or cult that ignores the
need of the vicarious atonement of our Lord Jesus Christ. The substitution of
rites and ceremonies for simple faith in Christ and the subtle speculation of
modern religious systems tend to deify man in his own estimation and free him
from “the degrading thought” that he is a sinner needing a Savior. These
humanistic religions all spring from one and the same thing-the pride of the
human heart. This pride substitutes the notions of the unregenerate mind for the
revealed truth of the Word of God. These “religions” are merely different forms
of one common human religion-the way of Cain- and can only lead their deluded
followers to share Cain’s doom.
Every “new theology” of the day is as old as the fallen creation. It was first
pictured in the fig-leaf garments of Adam and Eve; then crystalized, as it were,
in the offering of Cain. Every sinner who is too proud to admit his guilt and
trust the atoning sacrifice of the Christ of God is a follower of the way of
Cain, whatever form his superstition may have taken. Thousands who follow this
way consider Christ as just a martyr merely following His conscience. They
trample beneath their feet the atoning value of the blood of Christ and proudly
dare to approach a holy God with the fruits and flowers of nature-the works of
their hand. So with readiness, refusing the ministry of the Holy Spirit, these
followers of Cain give themselves up to the second apostasy. The Error of Balaam
(Jude 1:11 b)
Three times in the New Testament we read about Balaam, the false prophet who
“taught Balac to cast a stumbling block before the children of Israel”
(Revelation 2:14). In a passage very nearly similar to the one before us, Peter
wrote of “the way of Balaam” (2 Peter 2:15). The glorified Christ, in Revelation
2:14 speaks of “the doctrine of Balaam.” And here in Jude 1:11, Jude mentioned
his error. That the three are intimately related is self-evident. Out of
Balaam’s error sprang both his way and his doctrine. He was a striking example
of those whose sole object of godliness is greed. They consider it right and
proper that religion should be used to minister to one’s personal advantage. Leo
the Tenth was a true disciple of Balaam when he exclaimed to his cardinals,
“What a profitable thing this myth about Jesus Christ has been to us!” This was
also the thinking of Simon the magician in Acts 8:18-19. Every person, of
whatever sect or system, who enters religious ministry solely for financial gain
has followed after the error of Balaam.
Balaam’s history, as recorded in the book of Numbers, is an intensely solemn
one. He “loved the wages of unrighteousness” (2 Peter 2:15). While professedly a
prophet of God, he endeavored to prostitute his sacred office for the
accumulation of wealth. At times deterred by fear and at times by a sense of
propriety, he yet persisted in the effort to either curse or seduce the people
of God for his own advantage. He stands before us branded on the page of the
Bible as one who, for temporary profit, would stifle his own convictions and
lead astray those directed by him. The same dreadful error is at the bottom of
the vast majority of false “religious” systems. Which of them would exist for a
month without the influence of money? Try to imagine the false teachers giving
freely what they profess to believe is divine, suffering uncomplainingly in
order to carry their false gospels to the ends of the earth, or dying
triumphantly to seal their testimony in blood as did the early Christians. All
human systems, however orthodox outwardly, come under the same covetous spell
when they depart from the Word of truth. This covetousness leads them to please
not God, but men. Only comforting things are prophesied, and offensive truths
are scarcely mentioned, or altogether avoided. False doctrines are taught in
order that the purse strings of the ungodly may be loosened, and the ministry be
made a profitable and honorable occupation. In the early church, Christ’s
followers went forth in simple dependence on the Lord, “taking nothing of the
Gentiles” (3 John 1:7). Like Elisha, they refused anything that looked like
payment tendered for the gift of God. Like Abraham, they would not be enriched
by Sodom’s king. And like Peter, they spurned the money of the unworthy that
nothing evil should taint their ministry. But it is far different with the
“popular apostles” of a Christless religion. Like Gehazi, they run after every
healed Naaman and beg or demand a fee. Like Lot, they pitch their tent towards,
then build a house in Sodom. Like Simon Magus, whose very name gives title to
this most odious of all sins, they practice their simony unblushingly, and think
that the gift of God can be purchased with money. But the dark clouds of
judgment are gathering overhead, and soon they will learn, as Balaam did, the
folly of pursuing such evil.
Korah’s Rebellion (Jude 1:11 c)
Korah represents the last of the unholy trinity of apostasy. The way of Cain is
false religion. The error of Balaam is false ministry. The rebellion of Korah is
false worship and denial of Christ’s authority.
Korah was not a priest, and neither were any of his rebellious company. They
were Levites, whose business it was to attend to the outward service of the
tabernacle. But lured on by pride they rose up against Moses and Aaron (types of
Christ as “the Apostle and High Priest of our profession”), and setting aside
God’s anointed, sought to force their way into His presence as priests and to
worship before Him without divine warrant or title. This mindset is prevalent
today. Independent and inflated with a sense of their own self-importance, vain
men openly rebel against the authority of the Lord as Apostle and Priest. They
dare to approach God as worshipers apart from Him, and ignore His claims. This
is the leaven that is fast permeating unbelieving Christendom-the claim that all
men by nature are sons of God. The declaration that they need no mediating High
Priest is heard on every hand, and will increase and spread as the end draws
nearer. Jude says that these apostates “perished in the gainsaying of Core”
(Jude 1:11). He speaks of their doom as a settled thing. Just as sure as
judgment came to Korah and all his company when the earth opened her mouth and
they went down alive into the pit, so shall judgment overtake those who rebel
against the Lord of glory and follow in Korah’s footsteps.
It is precious to read in Numbers 26:11, “Notwithstanding the children of Korah
died not.” Linked as they were by natural ties to the proud rebel, Korah’s
children chose a different course, and are heard singing in Psalms 84:10, “I had
rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my God, than to dwell in the tents of
wickedness.” Happy are all who are numbered in the same holy company! The Divine
Indictment of Evil Workers (Jude 1:12-13)
There is something unspeakably solemn in this severe indictment of those who
profess to be followers of Christ and servants of God, but who really walk in a
self-chosen path. Elsewhere they are described as “enemies of the cross of
Christ: Whose end is destruction, whose God is their belly, and whose glory is
in their shame, who mind earthly things” (Php 3:18-19). Remember that throughout
Jude’s warning letter, the evil-workers referred to are not those who oppose
Christ outside the circle of profession, but rather are those inside the nominal
church who make their profession of faith in the Lord Jesus a cover for their
own selfish ends. They are often considered leaders of Christian thought and
champions of truth and righteousness. But underlying all they say and do, there
is the open, or covert, denial of everything that really makes for godliness. To
the heavenly calling they are strangers; hence their aim and object is to
advance their own interests in this world. They dwell upon the earth. They know
nothing of pilgrimage in the Scriptural sense. Their place and portion are in
this world, not in Heaven where Christ sits at the right hand of God.
Metaphor after metaphor is used by the Holy Spirit to describe these false
apostles and ministers of unrighteousness. Every phrase is important, and
demands careful consideration. “These are spots in your [love] feasts” (Jude
1:12). Perhaps, in place of “spots,” it will be clearer if we read, “sunken, or
hidden rocks.” Such are these apostate teachers. Clearly-marked rocks are not a
great danger to the mariner. It is the rocks that are hidden, over whose jagged
edges roll the deceitfully peaceful waters, that are most to be dreaded. If
these false teachers were to openly proclaim their opposition to what the godly
hold sacred, their influence would be quickly nullified. But, posing as
advocates of the truth, they deceive the hearts of the simple with their good
words and fair speeches. The expression, “they feast with you.. .without fear,”
shows how fully they have gained the confidence of the mass. They participate
fearlessly in holy Christian communion, but never enter into the spirit of love
and fellowship with the Lord. They observe the form, pretending to piety and
devotion, while all the time looking but to their own interests.
“Feeding themselves,” these apostates attend to their own needs instead of
shepherding the flock of God. They who should feed the sheep and lambs of
Christ’s flock, fleece them instead, and consider them as those whose place it
is to contribute to their honor, wealth, and dignity. Scripture knows of no
distinction between clergy and laity. All believers are God’s kleros (or
clergy)-His allotted portion. If some are raised up to act as pastors, by
guiding and caring for those weaker or less instructed, they do it as a service
to the Lord, the Chief Shepherd. These godly elders serve “not for filthy lucre,
but of a ready mind; Neither as being lords over God’s heritage [kleros], but
being examples to the flock” (1 Peter 5:1-4). To this sincere and true-hearted
devotedness these deceitful workers are utter strangers. Their true characters
are even more graphically depicted in the metaphors taken from nature that
immediately follow.
“Clouds they are without water, carried about of winds.” Big with promise,
pretentious and impressive, their utterances are a disappointment to any who
know the mind of God as revealed in His Word. In place of refreshing showers of
spiritual blessing accompanying their ministry, there are but empty vapors and
idle threatenings. In place of divine certainty, their fanciful theories and
ever-changing notions reveal the fact that they themselves are blown around by
every wind of human teaching (Ephesians 4:14), “ever learning, and never able to
come to the knowledge of the truth” (2 Timothy 3:7).
They are further described as “trees whose fruit withereth, without fruit, twice
dead, plucked up by the roots.” Having a fair outward appearance, they are like
trees which in the season of fruit bear only leaves-like the fig tree cursed by
the Lord, which dried up from the roots. These indeed are “twice dead,” for they
are “dead in trespasses and sins,” and dead too in a false profession. “Every
plant,” said the Lord Jesus, “which my heavenly Father hath not planted, shall
be rooted up” (Matthew 15:13). So these apostles are seen already, in God’s
estimation, as plucked up by the roots. In man’s eye they make a fair show in
the flesh, but in the sight of God their judgment is already pronounced.
Impatient of restraint or rebuke of any kind, they are next likened to “raging
waves of the sea, foaming out their own shame” (Jude 1:13). They feel no shame
or remorse at what they say or do. By their very speech they show the true
condition of their rebellious hearts when confronted with the Word that exposes
the hollowness of their arguments. “The unjust knoweth no shame” (Zephaniah
3:5), but rather proudly glory in their evil before God and man. It is a
blessing for those who cling to the Lord that He has set bounds to this sea, as
to that in nature, beyond which its angry waters cannot go. He makes the wrath
of man to praise Him, and the remainder of wrath He restrains (see Psalms
76:10). The last description of apostates portrays the doom that yet awaits
those who trifle with holy things. They are “wandering stars, to whom is
reserved the blackness of darkness for ever.” Like lost planets hurled out of
their natural orbit, they flare brilliantly for the moment, then plunge off at a
tangent into ever-deepening darkness as they rush through the fathomless depths
of space farther and farther from the source of light. Such will be the end of
all who now refuse the Light of life, and prefer instead to kindle their own
fire, and compass themselves about with sparks (Isaiah 50:11). Solemnly the Holy
Spirit says to every child of grace, “From such turn away” (2 Timothy 3:5).
Enoch’s Prophecy (Jude 1:14-15) The source of Jude’s information as to this
prophecy of Enoch “the seventh from Adam” is not given. Critics have tried to
find out, but to little purpose, or profit. There is an apocryphal book bearing
Enoch’s name which dates from pre-Christian times. It contains language very
similar to that here recorded, but the nature of the book forbids the thought
that it can be equated with Holy Scriptures. Yet it seems evident that in some
way, whether orally or in writing, God has seen fit to preserve Enoch’s
prophecy. It was partially fulfilled in the flood. Jude, by divine inspiration,
declared that a more complete fulfillment awaits the return of the Lord Jesus,
to take vengeance on all who have refused His grace and spurned the Holy Spirit.
What is referred to here in Jude 1:14-15 is something very different from the
happy event predicted in John 14:1-3, 1 Corinthians 15:51, and 1 Thessalonians
4:13-18. In those Scriptures, the theme is the return of the Lord to translate
His saints to Heaven, of which Enoch’s rapture was a type. This could take place
before the reader lays down this book. In a moment, the Lord may descend and
call all His own to meet Him in the air. But this will not be the believer’s nor
Christ’s unveiling before the world. That manifestation will take place later.
While the judgment seat of Christ and the marriage supper of the Lamb transpire
in Heaven, on earth apostasy will rise to its full height in the revelation and
acceptance of antichrist, and the utter rejection of all that is of God. Then,
when the cup of guilty Christendom’s iniquity is full, the Lord will come to the
earth with a myriad of His redeemed saints and unfallen angels to execute the
judgment long foretold on the despisers of His word. A very similar expression
occurs in Zechariah 14:1-21 prophecy: “The Lord my God shall come, and all the
saints with thee” (Zechariah 14:5). In each passage “saints” or “holy ones” does
not, of itself, necessarily refer to redeemed humanity. Angels are also referred
to as “saints” or “holy ones,” and some would therefore limit the application to
them alone. But Scripture clearly teaches the double aspect of the second coming
of the Lord. He is coming for His saints (John 14:3, 1 Thessalonians 4:15-17).
He is also coming with them (Colossians 3:4). Caught up to meet Him as He
descends with a shout, they will return with Him in manifested glory- when
Enoch’s prophecy and that of Zechariah will be fulfilled. Then will
righteousness reign. Every enemy will be destroyed. No longer will impious
deceivers profit by a profession of Christianity while secretly working to
undermine the faith of God’s elect. To every one will be rendered according to
their works.
While the present period (from the cross to the coming again of the Lord) lasts,
God endures sinful men with much longsuffering. But when this period ends, the
day of the Lord begins, when He who has been so long silent will arise to act in
judgment on those who have taught blasphemous and damnable heresies. Then
apostate men, who have despised the Word of truth, will learn too late that “all
Scripture is given by inspiration of God.”
Reader, challenge your heart now as to how you will stand then!
Unholy Separatists (Jude 1:16-19)
Just as the true servant of the Lord bears not only the doctrine of Christ, but
commends himself by displaying the fruits of the Spirit, so Satan’s false
apostles not only deny the truth, but display characteristic signs that soon
reveal them as wolves in sheep’s clothing. They may attempt to speak as
believers, but their habits and ways betray them.
Like the mixed multitude who came up out of Egypt, in company with redeemed
Israel, those of whom Jude wrote to warn us are murmurers and complainers. Never
having learned the initial lesson of subjection to God, they soon find the path
of outward obedience to His Word incredibly irksome, for “the carnal mind.. .is
not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be” (Romans 8:7). Therefore
they continually object to the plainest precepts of the Holy Scriptures.
Aiming only to please themselves, they walk unashamedly after their own lusts,
using their sacred calling as a ladder to worldly gain and ecclesiastical honor.
They do not understand self-denying service for Christ’s sake, or being
constrained by His all-conquering love. Yet they resent with indignation the
suggestion that greed for money and power is the controlling principle of their
lives. But He who sees not as man sees has searched them through and through,
and here records their true character.
Great swelling words fall glibly from their unsanctified lips as they boast of
human progress and accomplishments, while forgetting the dreadful fact that
man’s will, until subdued by divine grace, is as much opposed to God as ever it
was in the past. They forget it was man’s sinful, stubborn will that nailed
God’s Son to a cross and poured judgment on His devoted head. The fifth
accusation against these deceitful workers is one to which many are now so
accustomed that it never occurs to them as one of the special signs of
apostasy-admiring persons for the sake of profit. The extent to which the public
fawns over church dignitaries is shameful and disgusting. Adulation is carried
to such an extreme as to be positively nauseating. But it is the order of the
day, and will become increasingly prevalent as man is, inch by inch, pushed into
the place of God. The consummation of this evil is found in the man of sin
described in 2 Thessalonians 2:1-17. The deification of humanity and the
humanizing of deity in the minds of men is the natural outcome of all this. How
different was the spirit of Elihu, who declared, “Let me not, I pray you, accept
any man’s person, neither let me give flattering titles unto man. For I know not
to give flattering titles; in so doing my maker would soon take me away” (Job
32:21-22).
It is good for the soul guided by Scripture to remember that nothing man sees
around him was unforeseen by God. Unbelief and apostasy may abound, but nothing
takes God by surprise. The coming of mockers, walking after their own unholy
desires, has been foretold from the beginning. The apostles warned of the
spiritual declension that would characterize the last days.
Believers should not be overtaken by fear and gloom when they see teacher after
teacher apostatizing from the truth, and the love of many growing cold, while
erroneous teaching carries many away. Like the prophet, they may be ready to
cry, “Truth is fallen in the street, and equity cannot enter. Yea, truth
faileth; and he that departeth from evil maketh himself a prey.” But Isaiah also
added, “The Lord saw it, and it displeased him that there was no judgment”
(Isaiah 59:14-15). They will be encouraged to know that the prevailing evil has
been foreknown by God from eternal times. In fact they should not expect
anything else. The events they see around them firmly establishes the truth of
Scripture. All this must happen before the coming of the King of kings and Lord
of lords. Therefore they are strengthened in the realization that this very
darkness will usher in the shining-forth of the Morning Star, and the rising in
glory of the Sun of Righteousness. Prophecy is “a light that shineth in a dark
place, until the day dawn, and the day star arise in your hearts” (2 Peter
1:19). Led on by this sure and steady gleam, the humble child of God will not be
dazzled by the pretensions, nor disheartened by the evil influence of these
haughty resisters of the truth.
“These be they who separate themselves, sensual, having not the Spirit” (Jude
1:19). These apostates set themselves apart as a select circle, pretending to
have attained a level of spirituality beyond the common Christian. There is a
spiritual and a carnal separation. The former is separation from evil at the
call of the Word of God. The latter is a walking apart in fancied superiority,
led on by pride and boastfulness. This is what marks out the class Jude is
portraying, in the day of their power.
It should be noted that Jude traced for us the growth of apostasy. He began with
evil workers privily creeping in, under cover of a Christian profession. Before
he closed they are pictured as having cast off all fear, as though their very
strength made secrecy unnecessary. In place of caution and covered tracks, we
have exaggerated pride and superiority even to the forming of an elite sect who
delegate to themselves all spiritual light and privilege, as well as human
learning and scholarship. But great swelling words, even when coupled with the
most arrogant presumption, can never overthrow the truth of the eternal Word.
“The scripture cannot be broken” (John 10:35). Of the Word of God, as of the Son
of God, it can be said, “Whosoever shall fall on this stone shall be broken: but
on whomsoever it shall fall, it will grind him to powder” (Matthew 21:44). God
is silent now, while men blaspheme His name and stumble over His Word. But soon
He will speak from Heaven, when all will know “with whom [they] have to do”
(Hebrews 4:13). Then it will be revealed that those who opposed Him in their
pride were but natural men without the Spirit. “The natural man receiveth not
the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can
he know them, because they are spiritually discerned” (1 Corinthians 2:14). This
explains the difficulty many have in regard to believing the great truths of
Scripture. They are unregenerate, natural men, attempting to act as ministers of
Christ. But their speech betrays them.
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CHAPTER 61: 04.04.4. CALL TO PERSEVERE
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Chapter Four - Call To Persevere
Dark and gloomy as the picture has been drawn for our warning by the pen of
inspiration, there is yet no cause for despair. “Upon this rock,” said Christ,
“I will build my church; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it”
(Matthew 16:18). The final result is sure. Victory will rest on the
blood-stained banner of the Prince of Peace. In the hour of His triumph His
faithful ones will share in His glory. In the present moment of their trial and
His rejection they have an abundant solace and cheer, for they know that the
power of Satan and his doctrine of error will never vanquish the truth. The
saint of God needs to daily build himself up on his “most holy faith” (Jude
1:20). It is the revealed will of the Lord that is referred to here, as in Jude
1:3 -”The faith which was once delivered unto the saints.” On it the believer
rests. Assured that it forms a foundation impregnable by every attack of men or
demons, he is now to build himself on it. This building implies continual
feeding on the Word, that the soul may be nourished and the spirit edified.
Linked with this we have prayer in the Holy Spirit-not perfunctory saying of
prayers, but spiritual communion with God, bringing to Him every need and every
difficulty, assured that He waits in grace to meet the one and to dissolve the
other. Praying in the Holy Spirit can only result from a walk in the Spirit. For
if there is no self-judgment, prayer will be selfish. We will ask and receive
not, because we will be asking that our own lusts may be gratified. When Christ
is first in the soul, and the heart is finding its delight in Him, the Holy
Spirit will Himself give us the petitions that God delights to grant. A definite
command follows: “Keep yourselves in the love of God” (Jude 1:21). Notice, it is
not, “Keep God loving you.” Such a thought is opposed to Him whose nature is
love. The cross demonstrated that love to the fullest. Daily the believer proves
His lovingkindness. Nor did the apostle exhort us to keep loving God. The divine
nature in every believer causes us to love Him who has saved us: “We love him,
because he first loved us” (1 John 4:19). Rather we are told to “keep ourselves
in the love of God.” It is as though I say to my child, “Stay in the sunshine.”
The sun shines whether we enjoy it or not. And so God’s love abides unchanging,
even if we do not stay in the conscious enjoyment of it. Let nothing make the
troubled soul doubt that love. Circumstances cannot alter it. Difficulties and
failures cannot strain it. The soul that relies on His love will be carried in
triumph above the conflicts and discouragements of life. In the second half of
Jude 1:21 we have another exhortation. We are to look for the coming of our Lord
Jesus Christ. We are to await His mercy unto eternal life. We have eternal life
now, by faith in Him who is Himself life eternal. But we are going on to a place
where life will reign, and where everything will be suited to the life we
already have by the Spirit. And so the trusting soul looks up in hope and waits
in patience for the return of the Lord.
Jude 1:22-23 tell us how to deal with bewildered souls led astray by the wicked
deceivers against whom we have been warned. “And of some have compassion, making
a difference: And others save with fear, pulling them out of the fire; hating
even the garment spotted by the flesh.” There is considerable manuscript
variation here. In addition to the King James version, the following is
suggested: “And some convict, when contending; but others save with fear,
snatching them out of the fire; hating even the garment spotted by the flesh.”
There is not much difference in the meaning of the exhortations. Both direct
that a godly discrimination be used in dealing with persons taken in error. A
hard and fast rule for treating all alike is contrary to this verse, and to the
tenor of Scripture.
Undoubtedly souls have been driven more completely into evil systems by the
harshness of well-meaning but unwise persons who so feared contamination with
the error that they did not seek, in a godly way, to help the deceived one
before refusing him their fellowship. The instruction in 2 John 1:10 applies to
a willful teacher of what is opposed to the doctrine of Christ. Such are to be
shunned, and even refused a common greeting.
Other methods apply to dealing with those who are often entrapped in error
through ignorance. Admittedly these persons have followed their own corrupt will
or they would have been kept in the truth by God’s power. Often what is needed
is to deal with the sinner as to his ways, rather than the teaching he has
accepted. When there is self-judgment the Holy Spirit can be depended on to do
His work of guiding into all truth.
Others need to be snatched from the fire. Energetic effort should be made to
warn and deliver these souls before the evil gets so firm a hold on them that it
is too late for them to seek blessing. But in every instance the believer needs
to remember that unholy teaching is defiling and leads to unholy living. Care
must be exercised lest, in seeking to aid another, the believer himself becomes
ensnared by the evil influence. In so doing he will be unfit to help others
because his own fellowship with God in the truth has become marred.
Truth is learned in the conscience, and only as one walks carefully and soberly
before God is there security from error. Because Hymenaeus and Alexander did not
maintain a good conscience, they shipwrecked their faith-as have untold
thousands besides (1 Timothy 1:18-20). When the Spirit is grieved by a careless
demeanor and wreckless living He no longer confirms that soul in the truth, but
actively convicts the conscience of the sin and failure that have dishonored the
Lord. Therefore, if there would be growth in the knowledge of His Word, there
must be a walk in the power of the Spirit ungrieved.
So, in seeking the recovery of those who have erred from the truth, the Spirit’s
ministry to the conscience must not be lost sight of. Otherwise while we may be
able to reason with them from Scripture as to the error of their beliefs, the
state of their soul may be lost as ever. When the deceived one is dealt with in
the fear of God, and holy faithfulness, his restoration to fellowship will be
the first step sought. Then he will see more clearly the seriousness of the evil
teaching that led him astray. But in all this the believer always needs to have
godly concern lest he himself becomes defiled when seeking to recover another
from defilement. This is what is especially emphasized in Jude 1:23.
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CHAPTER 62: 04.04.5. DOXOLOGY
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Chapter Five - Doxology
What a song of holy exultation with which to close a letter that has drawn so
dark a picture of the dangers besetting the path of the faithful man! God lives
and reigns. His power is limitless. His grace is boundless. His glory and
majesty will through all eternity remain untouched by all the evil thoughts and
ways of sinful men. The Christian can pillow his head on these blessed and
soul-inspiring truths, and so rise above all discouragement, and go on in holy
confidence to more than conquer!
“Unto him that is able” (Jude 1:24)-this is what gives new strength to the
wearied warrior. Weak and helpless in himself, he looks up in faith to the One
who is able and thus out of weakness he is made strong. Let the difficulties of
the path be what they may-however thickly strewn with briars and snares-God is
able to keep the trusting soul from stumbling. David knew this when he sang,
“Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no
evil: for thou art with me” (Psalms 23:4). This is comfort enough for faith in
the darkest and most trying hour. I may not see a step before me, but He who is
able sees the end from the beginning, and bids me confide in His love and
wisdom. Thus I implicitly trust myself to His guidance. No believer would
question the power of God to keep him five minutes without stumbling. But He who
can keep for five minutes can keep you for sixty. He who can keep for an hour
can keep you for twenty-four. And He who can keep for one day can keep you all
the days if your eye and heart are fixed on Him. For this very purpose our Lord
Jesus Christ has been “separate from sinners” (Hebrews 7:26). He prayed, “For
their sakes I sanctify myself [or, set myself apart], that they also might be
sanctified through the truth” (John 17:19). Thus He became in heavenly glory the
object of His people’s hearts, that daily “looking unto Jesus” (Hebrews 12:2)
they might be kept from stumbling. And as He has everything we need for our
earthly journey, so the end is sure. He is able “to present you faultless
before.. .his glory.” There will be no failure here. God has predestined every
believer to be conformed to the image of His Son (Romans 8:29). To this end
Christ, who loved the church and gave Himself for it, is now engaged in its
sanctification and daily cleansing by water-washing of the Word, that He might
present it to Himself a glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle, or any such
thing (Ephesians 5:25-27). Then the Eve of the last Adam will be revealed in the
same glory with Himself-and all because God is able! Blessed heart-refreshing,
and soul-uplifting truths are these! In Jude 1:25 the King James version
ascribes adoration and praise to “the only wise God our Saviour.” The Revised
version, and all later translations, omit the word “wise,” as unsupported by the
better authorities. But granting it to be an alteration made inadvertently or
otherwise by some pious scribe, it shows the effect that the transcribing of
this Epistle had on this unknown soul. Contemplating it, his heart was filled
and he cried in hallowed ecstasy, “This God is the only wise God. He is indeed
perfect in wisdom.” He is indeed the only God, for all others are but the
imaginings of men’s minds. The believer does not view Him as judge, but with
purged conscience worships before the mercy seat as he acknowledges Him as his
Savior-God. He it was who so loved the world as to give His only-begotten Son
that we might live through Him.
Thus all blessing flows down to us from the heart of God “through Jesus Christ
our Lord,” in whose name we return our feeble praises. To Him belongs all “glory
and majesty, dominion and power, both now and ever” (Jude 1:25). For this Christ
Jesus gave Himself when He died to put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself.
Thus He became the Lamb of God who carries away the sin of the world. Even
though we still see the effects of sin that mars God’s creation, He is still
working out His eternal purpose. When time has run its course, and the last
remains of sin are banished to the lake of fire, then the sinless ages of
eternity will be ushered in. Then God will be all and in all forevermore, and
none will dispute His authority or seek to detract from His glory again.
“Amen,” swells up from every believer’s breast, and faith looks on with joyful
anticipation to the accomplishment of every one of His good promises. This
affirmative word is, in the succeeding book of Revelation, used by the Son of
God as one of His own names, or titles: “These things saith the Amen, the
faithful and true witness, the beginning of the creation of God” (Revelation
3:14). He is, in His own character, the affirmation of all God’s plans and ways.
Through Him all will end in perfection. All glory, majesty, and authority will
be ascribed to the God of all grace while endless ages roll on to infinity. Amen
and Amen!
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CHAPTER 63: 05.00.1. ADDRESSES ON THE FIRST EPISTLE TO THE CORINTHIANS
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Addresses on the First Epistle to the Corinthians by
H.A. Ironside
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CHAPTER 64: 05.00.2. PREFACE TO THE E-SWORD EDITION
========================================================================
Preface to the e-Sword Edition When I first discovered the amazing power of
e-Sword, I was connected to the internet with a 56k fax modem. My enthusiasm for
the program and its plethora of resources motivated me to stay up all night
downloading its riches. I spent the next several days exploring the amazing
variety of study material. As a busy pastor, I’ve tried to assemble a classic
research library. As a busy pastor of a small church, I’ve tried to
inexpensively assemble a classic research library. E-Sword immediately added
many valuable assets that I hadn’t yet purchased; and those resources that
e-Sword duplicated were much easier and faster to use than the paper versions.
Since that wonderful first week, I’ve discovered many more treasures through
Google searches. Then one day I realized that I owed a debt. I made a
contribution to Rick Meyers (Rick - you are the modern day Gutenberg; should the
Lord not return in the near future like I believe He will, you will do for Bible
study the next 100 years what Gutenberg did in the 1500’s), and then started
looking for public domain resources to convert to .topx files. And so my
personal journey has come full circle: from the excitement of discovering
e-Sword to the excitement of creating .topx files for others. Like Rick quotes
from Matthew 10:8, "freely ye have received, freely give."
Thank you, Michelle, Jeremiah, Isaiah & Micah, for understanding my debt and
graciously tolerating my near compulsive computer use for hours on end. My
thanks to the creator of e-Sword, Rick Meyers - www.e-sword.net. Thank you, H.A.
Ironside, for converting your studies to eternal print. Thanks to OMLB of module
builders and proofers (Ed, Jason & Miss Pamela!) - you folks are a great team to
work with. And of course - most importantly - my thanks to the Lord Jesus who
saved my soul for all eternity. This Edition There have been no changes to
Ironside’s work, except for the following:
Scripture references have been converted to Scripture hyperlinks using the
"Format Scripture ToolTip."
A few obvious Scripture reference errors have been corrected, as well as some
obvious spelling errors.
The copy and paste process has unfortunately removed most of the italicized
print. While the words have not been changed, some of Ironside’s emphasis may be
missing. It is with regret that I have not taken the time to correct this. The
sense is still accurate. [By the way - would you understand this paragraph
without italics? Of course!] Also, the italicizing of the foreign words have
been lost. It is my hope that the reader will be able to follow the flow
regardless of these flaws. They - the flaws - are mine, not Ironside’s.
I am quite sure my edition of Ironside’s work is rather imperfect. I pray that,
nonetheless, it will be productively useful in the study of God’s Word.
Finally Feel free to contact me with comments. You can reach me via e-mail at
DoctorDaveT@gmail.com
Also, if you convert a classic resource to e-Sword .topx file (or .dctx, .cmtx,
etc.), send me your work! I’d love to utilize it!
If you’ve enjoyed this module, and are interested in hundreds of other good,
conservative Bible study modules, make sure you visit www.DoctorDaveT.com - your
home for conservative Bible study modules built for eSword and The Word. May the
Lord bless you as study His word.
Dr. David S. Thomason
Florida, USA
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CHAPTER 65: 05.00.3. COPYRIGHT INFORMATION
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Copyright Information This book was originally published in 1938. It is now in
the public domain.
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CHAPTER 66: 05.00.4. PREFATORY NOTE TO THE FIRST EDITION
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Prefatory Note to the First Edition For nearly two years, 1934 and 1935, it was
my privilege to attempt to expound the Corinthian Epistles at the regular Sunday
morning gatherings, numbering from 2500 to 3500 people, in the auditorium of the
Moody Memorial Church in Chicago. With radio equipment these addresses were
broadcast over a large stretch of territory, thus reaching many thousands more.
So insistent has been the demand for their publication in printed form that I
have decided to send them out in this way. The original messages were taken down
by a competent reporter and have been considerably revised and shortened, as
otherwise it would have taken several volumes to reproduce them.
I am more firmly convinced than ever that there is need to emphasize the
fundamental principles set forth in these letters given by inspiration through
the apostle to the Gentiles, in order that Christians generally may be called
back to the simplicity of early days. In 1 Corinthians we have the order that
should prevail in Christian assemblies, while the second Epistle deals more
particularly with the ministry of the church. If it please God, the addresses on
that second letter will be published later.
I hope my readers will not come to this book looking for a critical analysis of
the Epistle. If so, they will be disappointed. The object I had in view was to
expound the Word as simply as possible for the edification and instruction of
plain people who have neither the time nor the learning to follow heavy and
erudite comments. If any such are helped to a greater appreciation of the value
of this portion of the Word of God, I shall be abundantly repaid for the time
and labor required to reproduce the spoken messages.
H. A. Ironside
Chicago, 1938
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CHAPTER 67: 05.01. WE PREACH CHRIST CRUCIFIED
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We Preach Christ Crucified The two letters to the Corinthians, the letter to the
Romans, and the letter to the Galatians form a quartet of Epistles that were
apparently written during Paul’s third missionary journey and are intimately
related to each other. In Romans the great fundamental doctrine of justification
by faith alone is set forth. In Galatians that doctrine is defended after having
been questioned by legalistic teachers. Therefore these two Epistles, Romans and
Galatians, form the very foundation of Christian teaching. In the two letters to
the Corinthians Paul gave instruction concerning the church: in the first
Epistle, the ordering, calling, and discipline of the church; in the second
Epistle, the ministry of the church. If we should lose all the rest of the New
Testament-and God forbid that we should-and have only these four letters
preserved, they would be sufficient to show us the way of salvation and to show
us how to conduct ourselves as Christian people coming together in a church
relationship. Therefore we can see the importance of being thoroughly familiar
with these letters.
How the gospel reached Corinth we learn from Acts 18, where we are told that
after his visit to Athens, the apostle Paul traveled to Corinth and began the
work in a very quiet way. He did not enter the city with a blare of trumpets; he
was not advertised as a great evangelist or Bible teacher; he simply went to
work as an unknown craftsman. He was a tentmaker and in association with his two
friends Aquila and Priscilla, who were engaged in the same business, he opened
up an establishment. Elsewhere we are told that they labored night and day, and
that by means of tentmaking the apostle was able to support not only himself but
also those who ministered with him when the churches forgot their responsibility
to them.
Paul was a great foreign missionary and when the churches of God did recognize
their responsibility and send gifts, as in the case of the Philippian church, he
gladly received the money and used it for the glory of God. But when he was
neglected, he did not sit down and pine and whimper because of the
coldheartedness of Christians in other places; he simply created a job for
himself and went to work making tents and providing the wherewithal to carry on
his testimony. This in a way was helpful to his ministry, for sometimes when a
preacher or a missionary goes out as a well-supported individual bearing an
official title and relationship to the church, people are not as interested in
him and his message as they would be if he had come to work with his own hands
as they have to do.
Having established his business in Corinth, the apostle began to move among the
Jews. He attended the local synagogue where he doubtless listened to the regular
services and then when opportunity was given, presented the gospel. There was a
great deal of freedom in a Jewish synagogue. Jewish visitors, particularly if
attired in the teacher’s garb, were permitted to take part in the service.
Undoubtedly when Paul went there, he wore the garments that showed that he was a
graduate of the school of Gamaliel and therefore the apostle was recognized as a
teacher. On one occasion when he and Barnabas attended a synagogue, the rulers,
having completed the first part of the service, recognized the two men as
teachers and said, “Ye men and brethren, if ye have any word of exhortation for
the people, say on.” And we read, “Then Paul stood up, and beckoning with his
hand said, Men of Israel, and ye that fear God, give audience” (Acts 13:15-16).
This would be the customary procedure in the Jewish synagogue. There was nothing
irregular and nothing disorderly about it; Paul was simply availing himself of a
privilege. So from sabbath to sabbath-that was on Saturday of course- he
reasoned with the Jews and any Gentiles who might be present. It was a common
thing for inquiring Gentiles to attend the Jewish services. Tired and weary of
the customary recurring heathen festivities, finding nothing in paganism to
answer the yearning desires of their hearts, they sought in the synagogue what
they could not find elsewhere. When they in a measure at least accepted the
Jewish doctrines, they were recognized as “proselytes of the gate” or
“God-fearers.” To these people as well as the Jews, the apostle presented the
message; he reasoned with them on the sabbath day.
Some of our present-day legalistic friends who have never known the blessedness
of deliverance from law say, “We read in the book of Acts that Paul preached on
the sabbath day, and that day is Saturday; so we are duty-bound to recognize
that day rather than Sunday as the Lord’s day.” The fact is that the apostle was
simply accommodating himself to the Jews who met on their sabbath. If he wished
to reach them, he had to reach them on that day. The Christians themselves met
together on the first day of the week to break bread and pray. This was their
custom from the beginning, but on the Jewish sabbath they found opportunity to
minister to the Jews and so used that day for that purpose.
Paul at first simply dealt with them from the standpoint of the Old Testament,
but “when Silas and Timotheus were come from Macedonia [to Corinth], Paul was
pressed in the spirit, and testified to the Jews that Jesus was Christ” (Acts
18:5). The apostle’s work up to this time was preparation, but now that he had
the backing of other helpers, he felt the time had come to give a clear ringing
testimony, to show that all these Old Testament Scriptures pointed to the One
who had been crucified outside Jerusalem, who had been raised from the dead, and
who had ascended into Heaven. When many of the Jews opposed this message and
turned from him, Paul did a very significant thing. Shaking the long eastern
robes that he wore, he said, “Your blood be upon your own heads; I am clean:
from henceforth I will go unto the Gentiles” (Acts 18:6). And so he left the
Corinthian synagogue, never to enter it again. He found a preaching place in the
house of a man named Justus.
Evidently Justus was a Gentile proselyte; his house adjoined the synagogue and
he had accepted the Jewish revelation about God. When Paul began preaching in
the home of Justus, one of the first converts was Crispus, the chief ruler of
the synagogue; he believed “with all his house.” The work went on for a year and
a half “and many of the Corinthians hearing believed, and were baptized” (Acts
18:8).
Notice the order: they heard the message; they believed the gospel; and then
they were publicly baptized, thus confessing that they had received the
crucified One as their own personal Savior. I emphasize that final step because
some people imagine that in his Epistles the apostle seems to minimize the
importance of Christian baptism. He did not ordinarily do the baptizing himself,
but he always insisted that it be done. The fact that Paul himself was generally
not the baptizer does not indicate that he slighted the ordinance. As we go on
in Acts 18:1-28 we read of the insurrection stirred up against Paul in the days
of Gallio, and we are told that the Greeks caught Sosthenes, who had become the
chief ruler of the synagogue, and beat him for attempting to foment a riot. It
would seem that the beating did him good because when we next find his name, it
is linked with the apostle Paul’s in 1 Corinthians 1:1. Of course we have no
positive proof that this Christian brother is the same man, but I take it for
granted that he is. His beating brought him at last to accept the Lord Jesus
Christ as his Savior. A mighty work of God was accomplished during the year and
a half that Paul was in Corinth. It was not a likely field for missionary
service. This metropolis with a population between six and seven hundred
thousand people was given over to the worship of the goddess Aphrodite, the
Greek name for the one whom the Romans worshiped as Venus, the goddess of lust
or carnal love. In celebrating the rites of Aphrodite, the Corinthians gave
themselves up to the most shameful licentiousness. So notorious was their
worship that in all parts of the Greek-speaking world if men or women were found
behaving in an unclean way, the worst that anyone could say of them was that
they acted like Corinthians. Today if it is said that a person is like the
people of Sodom and Gomorrah, we at once understand that he lives a life of the
vilest uncleanness; similarly in Paul’s day if it was said that a person was
Corinthianized, the intimation was that he had totally lost all sense of
morality and decency.
Such was the city into which Paul went to preach the gospel of the grace of God,
and in that city the gospel won many to the knowledge of Christ. It was the
means of delivering people from their lives of wickedness and making saints out
of those who had been vicious and utterly lost to all sense of decency. The
Sanctified in Christ Jesus (1 Corinthians 1:1-3)
What interest this background gives to the opening verses of 1 Corinthians!
“Paul, called an apostle of Jesus Christ through the will of God, and Sosthenes
our brother.” I left out the italicized words “to be” (which had been added to 1
Corinthians 1:1 by the editors of the King James version) because I wanted to
convey the fact that they should be left out of the second verse also. Paul was
not called “to be” an apostle; he was an apostle-a “called” apostle, an apostle
by divine calling. And so you and I are not called “to be” saints if we have
trusted the Lord Jesus; we are saints, saints by calling.
Keep in mind that Paul’s apostleship, as he told us in Galatians 1:1, was “not
of men, neither by man.” No one had anything to do with putting him into the
apostolate except the risen Lord. An apostle was one who had seen the Lord and
went forth to proclaim His message. Paul, as Saul, saw the Lord that day on the
Damascus turnpike and went forth to proclaim Christ to the Jews and Gentiles. It
was “the will of God” that made him what he was.
Notice how Paul linked himself with “Sosthenes our brother.” I take it for
granted that this must have been the Corinthian Sosthenes because those
receiving the letter would at once recognize his name. A thrill would go through
their hearts as they exclaimed, “Yes, Sosthenes, once the persecutor but
converted here in our own city, is still with the apostle Paul and is sending
his greetings to us!” Just as we value the greetings of those we love and
respect in the Lord, and when they go elsewhere we are always pleased to hear
from them, so the Corinthians would find pleasure in seeing his name linked with
that of the apostle Paul.
Paul wrote “unto the church of God which is at Corinth.” What a change had taken
place since the years when this very man-as Saul of Tarsus-persecuted the church
of God! I have heard of a strange teaching that the church of the book of Acts
is not the church of our day, that the church, the body of Christ, did not begin
until after Paul was put in prison in Rome. But Paul persecuted the church of
God when he was still unconverted; how could he have persecuted that which had
no existence? The church had its birthday on the day of Pentecost, and after
that, churches of God were established in local communities. The local church in
Corinth was composed of those who were once legalistic Jews or blind Gentiles,
but were now all one in Christ Jesus. And the apostle spoke of them as the
“sanctified… called saints.” Often we think of a saint or a sanctified one as a
sinless person. We see someone in whom the grace of God shines out most
wonderfully and we say, “Well, certainly there is a saint.” Or perhaps someone
has just gone home to Heaven and we speak of him as “the sainted so-and-so”
because he has gotten beyond the reach of sin. But that is not the way Scripture
uses these terms. It says “them that are sanctified,” not “them that are
sinless”; it says “saints,” not “absolutely holy ones.” The saints are the
separated; the sanctified are those set apart to God in Christ Jesus.
“Sanctified” and “saints” are two words that come from the same root meaning
“separated, set apart, devoted to a holy purpose.” If you are saved, the moment
you put your trust in the Lord Jesus Christ, God separated you from a world
under judgment and set you apart for Himself in Christ Jesus. In that instant
you became a saint; in that moment you were sanctified, and that sanctification
is a perfect one.
We read in Hebrews 10:14, “He hath perfected for ever them that are sanctified.”
I used to be taught, and perhaps some of you have been told, that a man has to
be justified first, and then sometime afterward he goes on to receive what some
call “the second blessing” and he becomes sanctified. When I turn to the Book of
God, however, I find that the order is just the opposite. I find that a man is
sanctified by the work of the Spirit in his heart even before he comes to the
knowledge of Christ. It is the sanctifying, separating work of the Spirit of God
that leads him to faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. The moment he puts his faith
in Christ, God sees him as sanctified in Christ Jesus, as set apart to God, as
separated from the old life, from the old ways, from the world to which he once
belonged; that moment God counts Him as clean in His sight because of the
infinite value of the atoning work of His beloved Son.
You may say, “I would hardly dare say that I am sanctified. I know I am a
Christian. I trust I am justified. But I am afraid I am not good enough yet to
say that I am sanctified.” But just as your goodness had nothing to do with your
justification, it is not your goodness that entitles you to take your place
among the sanctified. When you were justified by faith in the Lord Jesus Christ,
all the past was put away forever and God gave you a new standing before Him.
Sin makes men not only guilty but also unclean. Because we are guilty we need to
be justified; because we are unclean we need to be sanctified. We are cleansed
by the blessed atoning blood through which we are justified. So we read of being
sanctified by the blood of His covenant: “Wherefore Jesus also, that he might
sanctify the people with his own blood, suffered without the gate” (Hebrews
13:12).
Jesus said, “For their sakes I sanctify myself, that they also might be
sanctified through the truth” (John 17:19). The moment He rose from the dead God
saw all believers as linked with Him. In Hebrews 2:11 we read, “He that
sanctifieth and they who are sanctified are all of one: for which cause he is
not ashamed to call them brethren.” So if you are a Christian and have any doubt
about your sanctification, put the doubt away and thank God that you are in
Christ and therefore sanctified. As we go on reading in 1 Corinthians, we will
find that the apostle had to bring to the attention of his readers many things
that needed correction. He told them that they were carnal, for they were taking
one another to court and tolerating all kinds of unholy things in their midst.
Some of the Christians in Corinth had wrong ideas about the marriage
relationship, and some were ignorant about their relation to their past
idolatry, but still the apostle speaks of them all as the “sanctified in Christ
Jesus.”
Observe that Paul not only addressed this letter to “the church of God which is
at Corinth, to them that are sanctified in Christ Jesus, called saints”; he
widened out the address so that it takes in every Christian to the end of the
dispensation: “with all that in every place call upon the name of Jesus Christ
our Lord, both theirs and ours.” Do you see the importance of that? There are
many things in this Epistle that some Christians today try to dodge and get away
from, and very often you will hear them say as the Epistle is read, “Oh well,
that was for that age and that day, or for folks living in Corinth, but not for
people today.” They ignore the fact that the letter is addressed to each one who
seeks to acknowledge the lordship of Christ. As we study the Epistle, let us
accept it as a personal message from the Holy Spirit of God to each one of us as
Christian individuals. We would not like to think that the passages about grace
were only for the Corinthians, so we should not attempt to apply the passages
about responsibility only to the people of Corinth. We must remember that the
whole letter was written for the whole church of God until the coming of our
Lord Jesus and our gathering together unto Him. In 1 Corinthians 1:3 we find the
apostolic salutation, “Grace be unto you, and peace, from God our Father, and
from the Lord Jesus Christ.” We are saved by grace, but of course this is not
the grace to which Paul here referred. He knew that people who are “sanctified
in Christ Jesus” are already justified by faith, saved by grace. And all
Christians have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. We read in Romans
5:1, “Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our
Lord Jesus Christ” (italics added). It is a settled thing. In 1 Corinthians 1:3
Paul was not praying for Christians to obtain saving grace. He was praying for
the grace that sustains Christians in all the trials of the way, the grace that
enables us to overcome in every hour of temptation. In Hebrews 4:16 we are
bidden to “come boldly unto the throne of grace [upon which our Great High
Priest sits], that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need.”
We need grace every day of our lives. The grace of yesterday will not suffice
for today. Morning by morning we need to draw down from above, through
meditation and prayer, supplies of grace to start the day aright. Throughout the
day we need to “pray without ceasing” (1 Thessalonians 5:17); our hearts should
continually be reaching out to God so that new supplies of grace may come down
to us constantly. We cannot keep ourselves even for one moment, so we need the
grace that is in Christ Jesus. And the peace that Christians need is not peace
with God, but the peace o/God, the peace of which we read in Php 4:6-7 : “Be
careful for nothing; but in every thing by prayer and supplication with
thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God. And the peace of God,
which passeth all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ
Jesus.” You see, this has nothing to do with the sin question; that has been
settled. We have peace with God because our sins have been forever put away. The
peace of God has to do with the question of things that would keep us anxious,
the trials of life that would trouble our hearts. How blessed is the privilege
to go to God about them all!
I am afraid that many dear Christians miss a great deal of peace because they
have never learned to go to Him about their temporal affairs as well as their
spiritual needs. Some look at me aghast when I tell them of praying about money
and family matters. They say, “You do not mean to say that the God who created
the world is concerned that I have money to meet my rent and to pay for food?
Are you saying that He will intervene in my family problems?” Scripture answers,
“Be careful for nothing; but in every thing [that word is all-inclusive] by
prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto
God.” Brothers and sisters in Christ, no matter what trial comes to you, no
matter what perplexity you are called on to face, no matter what need you have
to meet, God invites you to come to Him about it, and He will “supply all your
need according to his riches in glory by Christ Jesus” (Php 4:19). That is a
promise. The Fellowship of God’s Son (1 Corinthians 1:4-9)
We cannot help noticing how frequently the full name and title of our Savior is
used in these verses-and throughout the entire Epistle. We will never find in
the Bible the undue familiarity in the use of divine names that is so common in
the irreverent days in which we live. No one in Scripture ever addressed our
blessed Savior merely as Jesus. He was sometimes spoken of as Jesus; for
example, by divine inspiration when His atoning work was particularly in view,
the angel said, “Thou shalt call his name Jesus: for he shall save his people
from their sins” (Matthew 1:21). But when He was addressed directly, and
ordinarily even when He was spoken of by His followers, He was called the Lord
Jesus, the Lord Jesus Christ, or Jesus Christ our Lord.
I am sure there is a lesson for each one of us in Paul’s reverence. The One who
brought the Corinthian Christians out of darkness into His marvelous light is
the One who through grace has brought those of us who are Christians today to a
saving knowledge of Himself. He is our Lord Jesus Christ. Let us ever remember
when we approach Him in prayer that He is our Lord. Let us ever remember when we
speak of Him to others that “God hath made that same Jesus [who was] crucified,
both Lord and Christ” (Acts 2:36).
Let us also beware of calling Jesus Lord and then slighting His commands.
If He is not Lord of all, Then He is not Lord at all. The Epistles to the
Corinthians emphasize His lordship throughout. Christ said to His disciples, “Ye
call me Master and Lord: and ye say well; for so I am” (John 13:13). Thank God,
we delight to know Him as our supreme sovereign Master.
Later in 1 Corinthians Paul pointed out many irregularities in the church at
Corinth and reproved the believers there for a number of things that were
bringing dishonor to the name of the Lord. Yet in this introductory portion of
the Epistle the apostle first of all gave God thanks for what His grace had
already wrought. As he remembered the year and a half that he labored in
Corinth, during which time most of those he was primarily addressing in this
letter were brought into a saving knowledge of Christ, he said, “I thank my God
always on your behalf.” It brought great joy to the heart of that soul-winner to
think of those whom he had the privilege of pointing to Christ.
Paul expressed gratitude for “the grace of God,” for His free unmerited favor
toward those deserving the very opposite. For the moment he was not thinking
merely of the grace that saves. The Corinthian Christians were saved by grace
and we are saved by grace; no one is saved in any other way. But having been
saved, we are endowed by grace with all we need for our journey through this
world. Among other things, provision is made for us to be built up as companies
of believers when we gather together in church fellowship. God’s will is that
believers gather in various localities as churches, and the Lord makes Himself
responsible to minister that which will profit and edify such assemblies of
believers. It is this aspect of grace on which the apostle was particularly
dwelling here.
He thanked God for the grace given by Jesus Christ so that “in every thing [the
Corinthian Christians were] enriched by him, in all utterance, and in all
knowledge.” In other words, the church at Corinth was greatly blessed with gifts
of the Spirit. Some of the Corinthians could minister the Word of God most
acceptably; others who had the gift of evangelist could go out and carry the
message to the world; some who were gifted as teachers could impart spiritual
instruction to their brothers in Christ; many had miraculous gifts (see 1
Corinthians 12:1-31). It is questionable that there ever was a Christian church
more enriched with spiritual gifts, yet it is a solemn fact that although the
Corinthians were so wonderfully endowed, they were very carnal. That fact leads
us to realize that gifts in themselves are not preservative. One may have great
ability individually, yet not have a close walk with God. One may be very
gifted, yet not be guided by the Holy Spirit in the use of His gift. A church
may have in its fellowship many on whom God has bestowed special gifts of the
Spirit, but these gifts do not in themselves prove that that church is more
spiritual than other fellowships.
We live in a day when there is a very unhealthy craving for what we may call the
miraculous gifts, and people have an idea that if these were more in evidence in
the church there would be more spirituality and more accomplished for God. I
think the history of the Corinthian church proves the unsoundness of such
reasoning. No church that I know of has ever been blessed with more spiritual
gifts, yet they were anything but a truly spiritual church. In Ephesians 4:7
Paul wrote, “Unto every one of us is given grace according to the measure of the
gift of Christ,” and then he went on to mention the different gifts that the
ascended Christ has given to the church. It is the grace of God that leads the
Holy Spirit to bestow such gifts on His people. How much we need to respond to
the grace of God by holding each gift in subjection to Him and by not becoming
occupied with the gift rather than the Giver! The Corinthians became so occupied
with the gifts that they all wanted to do miraculous things, and so their eyes
were taken off Christ and fixed on demonstrations of supernatural power. As a
result they lost the sweetness of communion with Him.
We should be careful never to confuse natural talent with spiritual gifts. God
gives the gifts of wisdom, knowledge, teaching, preaching, and exhortation, but
those gifts are altogether different from any mere natural ability along what we
might call oratorical lines. A man may be a born orator; it may be just as
natural for him to preach in an interesting, compelling way as it is for another
to sing beautifully. But whether speaking or singing, one needs something more
than mere natural talent to be truly effective, and that something is the power
of the Holy Spirit. If a man is naturally talented, he is not to discard his
talents when yielding himself to Christ, but they are not to be put in the place
of spiritual gifts. Mere natural talents are displaced by spiritual gifts when
the Holy Spirit of God takes possession of a human instrument, works through
him, and anoints him.
After people are converted and yielded to Him, the Holy Spirit bestows gifts on
them “severally as he will” (1 Corinthians 12:11). Often the Spirit gives
amazing power to people who are not at all remarkable for natural talent in
presenting spiritual truth. Such power is a divine gift. The apostle said,
“Covet earnestly the best gifts” (1 Corinthians 12:31), so if you are already
saved, if you are trusting Christ as your Savior, look to God to bestow on you
some special gift of His grace so that you may be better able to win others to
Christ and better able to help His beloved people. But never confuse mere human
eloquence with divine ministry; never substitute mere oratory for the preaching
of the Word. Preaching the Word may be oratorical or it may lack that
characteristic entirely. The apostle Paul was naturally a wonderful orator, but
when he stood before people to preach the gospel, he said he held all that back
lest their faith should stand in the wisdom of man rather than in the power of
God (1 Corinthians 2:5). Divine gifts enable servants of Christ to minister to
edification, to the salvation of sinners, and to the building up of saints. But
one may have these gifts and be out of fellowship with God; therefore it is
important to live day by day in the spirit of self-judgment so that He may have
the controlling power in the exercise of the gifts.
Paul wrote to the Corinthians, “The testimony of Christ was confirmed in you: So
that ye come behind in no gift.” The apostle had come to Corinth to minister the
Word; they had believed and in turn ministered to others. God graciously
confirmed that testimony in blessing until there was no gift that was not found
in their assembly. In other churches there may have been a few people with some
special gift, but in Corinth there were a great number. Yet as we read the
Epistle, we are amazed to find how far many of them had dropped from
faithfulness to Christ and true communion with the Lord. Surely this is a
warning to us.
Paul went on to say that the Corinthian Christians were “waiting for the coming
of our Lord Jesus Christ.” The word translated “coming” here in 1 Corinthians
1:7 is not parousia, the term generally used for the coming of the Lord to the
air when saints rise to meet Him; the Greek word here is apokalupsis, which
refers to His unveiling when He is revealed to the whole world. We too are
waiting for the unveiling of Jesus Christ. This of course is the goal. The
Lord’s descending and calling His people to meet Him in the air is a
preparation, but the goal is the unveiling. When He is revealed in glory, we
will be manifested with Him. We should be content to live quiet, godly,
unworldly lives now because in that day we will have our reward as we shine
forth with Him. That revelation of Jesus Christ was put before the Corinthian
saints as the goal of all their hopes. Then the apostle told them that the One
for whom they were waiting would keep them until the end.
I wonder whether you have noticed the method of the Spirit of God throughout the
Scriptures when He has to reprove Christians because of failure in their lives.
He begins by commending them for all that He can and by assuring them that
everything is going to come out all right in the end. In Php 1:6 the apostle
assured his readers, “Being confident of this very thing, that he which hath
begun a good work in you will perform [complete] it until the day of Jesus
Christ.” In 1 Corinthians 1:8 Paul said, “[He will] confirm you unto the end,
that ye may be blameless in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ.” Note that both
verses mention “the day of our Lord Jesus Christ.” The day of our Lord Jesus
Christ is the day when He will return to call His own to be with Himself, the
day when we will stand before His judgment seat. On that day we will be turned
inside out, as it were; all our hidden motives will be brought to light and we
will be rewarded according to deeds done since His grace saved us.
Until that day the Lord will “confirm” us. Some people make confirmation a
ritual in a special church service-a child is under the care of the church until
a certain year and then he is confirmed and brought into the full membership of
the church. The Bible has much to say about confirmation, but never presents it
as a rite. Confirmation in the Bible is always the work of the Spirit of God
making His truth real to the soul. This is our confirmation.
Paul was saying to the Corinthians, “I am absolutely sure that your confirmation
will go on until the day of Jesus Christ.” In other words, the apostle did not
have the slightest thought that anyone who had ever been born again would fail
to reach Heaven. He knew that many of them might fail grievously on the way, but
he also knew that they were not responsible to keep themselves, for they were
being kept by the power of God. People say to me, “Oh, you are one of those
old-fashioned folks who believe in the perseverance of the saints.” I generally
answer, “To be perfectly frank, I am not at all conceited about the perseverance
of the saints. My experience with myself and with a great many other saints is
that most of us are not very much given to perseverance. We need to be prodded
along most of the time.”
I heard Sam Jones explain why the Lord allowed the Presbyterians to believe
once-saved-always-saved and the Methodists to believe that a person would only
be saved at last if he held on. Jones said he sometimes thought the reason was
that some of the Presbyterians were “such an ornery crowd” that they never would
go on if they did not feel sure that they were eternally saved, and some of the
Methodists were “such a poor type” that if the Lord did not keep the whip over
them, they would never go on! That could be said of a great many people, but
when we turn to the Word of God we find that everything for a Christian depends
on the perseverance of the Savior. He who took us up in grace has committed
Himself to carry us through to the end. He knows how to deal with each
individual saint so that he may be confirmed unto the end. And the final
consummation is this, that every believer will appear “blameless in the day of
our Lord Jesus Christ.” The word translated “blameless” here in 1 Corinthians
1:8 may also be translated “unimpeachable” or “unaccusable.” In other words,
when we stand at last at the judgment seat of Christ, God Himself is going to
see to it that no charge can stand against any believer because the Lord Jesus
Christ has atoned for all our sins with His own precious blood. Every failure in
the life will be dealt with there; all the wood, hay, and stubble will be burned
in the fire of that day and we will stand before our Lord unimpeachable. The
next subject Paul brought up is most precious to every Christian’s heart: “God
is faithful.” I would like to take time to dwell on those three words, but I do
not really need to say much about them. You who have known the Lord for years,
do I need to try to reason with you to show that God is faithful? As you look
back over the years, do not all His dealings with you tell the story that you
have served a faithful God? You can be sure that when we come to the end of the
way, when at last we meet with loved ones around the throne, we will realize
then as never before the faithfulness of God. When I shall meet with those that
I have loved, Clasp in my eager arms the long-removed, And know how faithful
Thou to me hast proved, I shall be satisfied.
I never have been and I am afraid I never will be faithful in the absolute
sense, but I have to do with a faithful God who has promised to see me through.
“God is faithful, by whom ye were called unto the fellowship of his Son Jesus
Christ our Lord.” God does not save us merely as individuals, but having saved
us individually, He introduces us into a wonderful fellowship of which our Lord
Jesus is the risen glorified Head in Heaven. Every local church should be an
expression of this fellowship of the body of Christ. As the apostle said in 1
Corinthians 10:16 : “The cup of blessing which we bless, is it not the communion
of the blood of Christ? The bread which we break, is it not the communion of the
body of Christ?” If you have been redeemed by His blood, if by the Holy Spirit
you have been baptized into the body of Christ, you are called into the
fellowship of God’s Son, and you are one with every other believer on the face
of the earth. It makes little difference what labels people may
use-denominational, interdenominational, or undenominational. The important
question is, Are they members of the fellowship of God’s Son? The word
translated “fellowship” in 1 Corinthians 1:9 really means “partnership.” We have
been taken into partnership in a wonderful firm of which the Lord Jesus is the
Head and in which every believer has a place. Do you wonder that some of us
never crave any other fellowship? In His we have found all we need. When we
trace this word “fellowship” through the New Testament, we find that many
beautiful truths are associated with it. In 1 John 1:3 we read that we have been
brought into fellowship with the Father and the Son. Is not that a wonderful
thing? We are in partnership with the Father and the Son! We share their common
thoughts. When you are interested in something that I am interested in, we get
together and have fellowship, but just think of it: God the Father and God the
Son have taken us into partnership with Them in Their thoughts in regard to
redemption, the glorious plan of salvation! In Php 2:1 we read about the
fellowship “of the Spirit” because it is not a natural thing. It is produced by
the indwelling Holy Spirit of God. There is no real Christian fellowship apart
from Him, and that fact shows the incongruity of unsaved people uniting with the
visible church of God. Lost souls cannot have fellowship with God’s redeemed
ones because that fellowship is produced by the Holy Spirit and He does not
dwell in unsaved people. The apostle Paul commended the Philippians for their
participation in the fellowship of the gospel (1 Corinthians 1:5). Fellowship is
not only a sweet and lovely sentiment; it is a practical thing, for we labor
together for the blessing and the salvation of a lost world. Each one is to do
his part. The preacher is not to do all the work; we have been called into a
company in which each partner has service to do for the blessing of all. In 2
Corinthians 8:4 Paul spoke of “the fellowship of the ministering,” in which
every believer (not just certain individuals) ministers according to his or her
ability. This is the Christian ideal, and if you and I seek wholeheartedly to
walk in accordance with it, we will have real blessing in our church
relationships.
I wonder if anyone who is reading this commentary is saying to himself, “If in
order to have fellowship like this I must possess the Holy Spirit, I am afraid I
got into the visible church too soon, for I am not conscious of possessing the
Spirit of God; I am not conscious of the indwelling Christ.” If those are your
thoughts, what you need to do is to come to God as a poor sinner, put your trust
in the Lord Jesus Christ, and come right out into the light where God is, for it
is written, “If we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship
one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all
sin” (1 John 1:7).
Contention in the Fellowship (1 Corinthians 1:10-17)
We have seen that God has established here on earth a wonderfully blessed
fellowship into which He has called His saints. The fellowship of God’s Son is
that communion of saints embracing all believers everywhere, all who have been
washed from their sins in the precious blood of Christ and indwelt by the Holy
Spirit.
Men, however, have formed denominations, and so the visible church of God is in
our day divided into many different factions, and unhappily some of these
factions are very markedly un-Christian in their attitude toward others. Yet in
all real Christian groups there are those who belong to the fellowship of God’s
Son and who, I am sure, are often troubled and distressed as they think of the
way Christians are divided among themselves.
I have heard people justify these denominational divisions by saying that each
one represents a different regiment in the army of the Lord; just as the
military has the cavalry, the infantry, the artillery, the air corps, and the
engineers, we have different denominations, and each Christian can choose for
himself the one he prefers. This is a very comfortable way of looking at it if
one does not want to have his conscience exercised by present-day conditions,
but the fact of the matter is that Scripture tells us that divisions are the
work of the flesh. It is not the Spirit of God who divides His people into these
different companies. It is the work of the flesh in believers that leads them
thus to separate from one another.
You say, “What should we do under such circumstances? Should we leave all the
denominations and start another company?” I reply, “If you started a new group,
in what sense would you be better than the denominations? You would simply be
adding one more to the many divisions of Christendom.” But what should we do? We
should recognize the fact that in spite of man’s divisions there remains “one
body, and one Spirit, even as ye are called in one hope of your calling”
(Ephesians 4:4). We should welcome all real believers who uphold the truth of
God as fellow members with us in the body of Christ and thus endeavor to rise
above the spirit of sectarianism and denominationalism that prevails in so many
places.
It was not denominationalism, however, that the apostle was directly rebuking in
1 Corinthians 1:10-17. Rather it was incipient divisions in the local church,
for the Corinthian believers were not as yet separated from one another into
various sects. Within that one church in Corinth there were cliques and
factions, and so there was dissension and trouble. The members were losing sight
of the blessedness of true Christian fellowship.
Notice how the apostle addressed them: “Now I beseech you, brethren.” How in
keeping that approach is with grace! Where grace rules, “I command” becomes “I
beseech.” The admonition that followed was to refrain from murmuring and
complaining and from fractiousness in the local assembly of Christ in order that
all might be bound up together “in the same mind and in the same judgment.” Of
course the Spirit of God speaking through the apostle does not attempt to force
all believers to look at everything from exactly the same standpoint. That will
never happen. No two people ever see the same rainbow. If you were to stand near
me looking at a rainbow, you would get a slightly different view because you
would be a little bit away from me-besides that, my eyes are very astigmatic and
yours may be perfect. How foolish it would be for us to stand there and quarrel
about the rainbow’s tints! Instead I should say, “I am so glad you are able to
see it so much more clearly than I am; with your perfect eyes you can get a much
better view of it than I can with my astigmatism.” And you should think kindly
of me and say, “Well, I hope the day will come when you will be able to see as
clearly as I do.”
Paul wrote to the Philippians, “Let us walk by the same rule, let us mind the
same thing,” and “If in any thing ye be otherwise minded, God shall reveal even
this unto you” (Php 3:16; Php 3:15). But we do not see eye to eye even as we
read the Scripture. So much depends on our education, our cultural standards,
our environment. We often misunderstand statements of Scripture because of not
being more familiar with the languages in which the Bible was originally
written. If we were to insist that we could have no real fellowship unless we
agreed on everything, I am afraid our church fellowship would become a very
small circle indeed. I do not know where you could find a dozen people who see
eye to eye on everything.
We have all laughed at the old Quaker who left one meetinghouse after another
until finally someone said to him, “Well, what church are you in now?”
He said, “I am in the true church at last.”
“How many belong to it?”
“Just my wife and myself, and I am not sure about Mary sometimes.” Our church
would boil down to just that if we could not have fellowship with any except
those who saw things exactly as we do. How then can we be “perfectly joined
together in the same mind and in the same judgment”? Paul explained in 1
Corinthians 2:16 that “we have the mind of Christ.” So “the same mind” is the
lowly mind, the subject mind, the mind that was displayed in Jesus. You may look
at things one way and I may look at them another way, but if we have the mind of
Christ, we are not going to quarrel; we will get along in true, happy
fellowship, considering one another and praying for one another. And “the same
judgment”-what does that mean? It does not refer to judging one another; it
refers to discernment. Every believer has the Spirit of God dwelling within him
to give him discernment, and when things come up about which we differ, if we
depend on the guidance of the Spirit of God, He will give us the good judgment
we need. Php 1:9 tells us that we are to increase “in knowledge and in all
judgment,” but I am afraid that some of us never get very far in real
discernment because we neglect the study of our Bibles.
We are discerning about our food. If a dish that is brought to you smells as if
something is wrong with it, you do not want to eat it. Your nose helps you avoid
food poisoning. In Old Testament times a man who had a flat nose was not allowed
to be a priest. Why? The nose speaks of discernment. A flat-nosed priest was one
who could not discern, and God said that he could not serve (Leviticus
21:17-23).
We are called “a royal priesthood” (1 Peter 2:9), but I am afraid that many of
us as believers are flat-nosed. We are taken up with almost anything that seems
to have some Scriptural backing; we listen to all kinds of teaching and pay
little attention to the careful study of the Word of God. Some people say, “I go
anywhere; I listen to everything, for I can get a little good out of
everything.” But when they do that, they soon lose all ability to discern the
truth as it is in Jesus. It is barely possible that you could train your
digestive powers to get nourishment out of sawdust, but why eat that when you
can eat good substantial oatmeal? What is the use of going after all kinds of
fads and follies when you can have the pure unadulterated Word of God? “Ye shall
know the truth,” John 8:32 says, “and the truth shall make you free.”
After pleading with the believers in Corinth to be of “the same mind,” Paul
stated one of his reasons for writing: he had heard a bad report about these
“brethren.” Observe that the apostle wrote to them about it and told them
exactly who had brought the report to him. He would have had no sympathy with
anonymous authors who write letters like the following:
Dear Pastor:
Perhaps you do not know it, but there is a woman in the church doing very
prominent work who is a thorough hypocrite. I hope you will see that she is
disciplined.
Sincerely yours, A lover of Christ The apostle would never have paid any
attention to such a letter, nor would he have taken any action if a person came
to him and said, “Brother Paul, I am sorry to speak to you about this, but there
is one of our brethren-don’t for anything say that I told you-but Mr.
so-and-so-oh, it is perfectly dreadful. I do hope you will do what you can, but
don’t give him the least idea that I told you.” I think Paul would have sternly
said, “What business do you have coming to me and slandering a brother when you
are not willing to face him openly about it?” And so when Paul received a bad
report regarding the Corinthians, he wrote to them about it and said that it had
come from the house of Chloe. Paul was straightforward about the source. If the
report were not true, the house of Chloe would have to face the fact that they
had been guilty of libeling the Corinthians, but in this case the report was
true.
“It hath been declared unto me of you, my brethren, by them which are of the
house of Chloe,” the apostle wrote, “that there are contentions among you.” So
one reason for writing the letter was that there was division right in the local
assembly of Corinth. Paul added an illustration to show what he meant: “Every
one of you saith, I am of Paul; and I of Apollos; and I of Cephas; and I of
Christ.” We can almost overhear their heated discussions:
Some favor Paul, the teacher. “I am of Paul,” one of them says. “I like real
Bible teaching. I do not have much use for evangeUsm and exhortation. I like
Brother Paul, for he feeds my soul.”
Apollos is “an eloquent man, and mighty in the scriptures” (Acts 18:24), so some
prefer him. One of his admirers says, “I am of ApoUos. I like a man who can
stand up and give a wonderful oration, a man who gives a great address and winds
it up with a marvelous conclusion that almost lifts me out of my seat. He is the
man for me. I am not inspired by dry Bible teachers. I want to hear something
that thrills my soul.”
Someone else says, “I am of Cephas. I like practical men, exhorters such as
Cephas, who over and over again says, ‘I stir you up.’”
“Well, you can have Paul and Apollos and Cephas,” objects a man from another
faction; “I am of Christ. I am not interested in anyone else. I do not need a
man to teach me, for I am of Christ and I do not recognize human leaders. Stand
by, for I am holier than thou.” (Have you ever seen that crowd? They are the
most conceited of all.) But Paul was not using actual names in this
illustration. In 1 Corinthians 4:6 we read, “These things, brethren, I have in a
figure transferred to myself and to Apollos for your sakes; that ye might learn
in us not to think of men above that which is written, that no one of you be
puffed up for one against another.” There Paul was saying, “You see, I have
simply used the names of Paul, Apollos, and Cephas figuratively.” The division
in Corinth was not actually over Paul and Apollos; it was over local men, and
the Corinthians were saying, “Well, I am for this brother,” or “I am for that
one,” or “I am of Christ and I am not interested in any of the rest of them.”
And so Paul used his own name and the names of Apollos and Cephas to show how
wrong the contention was.
Then Paul asked the question, “Is Christ divided?” (1 Corinthians 1:13) In other
words, “Is it only one little group who are ‘of Christ’? Even those who
sometimes say, ‘I am of Paul,’ or ‘I am of Apollos,’ or ‘I am of Cephas’ are all
‘of Christ’ if they are truly converted. No one group should arrogate that
distinction to themselves.”
Paul asked another question: “Was Paul crucified for you?” What did he mean by
that? He meant that we are not to make any man the head of a party. We are to
remember that the fellowship to which we belong is that of the One who was
crucified for us. It is true that we owe a great deal to Paul. I think that
after I have seen the Lord Jesus Christ and my father and mother in Heaven, the
next one I want to see is the apostle Paul; I want to have a good talk with him
and tell him how much the messages he left on record have meant to me. But Paul
was not crucified for me. He just helped to give me a better understanding of
the One who was crucified for me and so I value his ministry.
Why did Paul go on to ask, “Were ye baptized in the name of Paul?” The reason is
that the only One whom we are to recognize as the Head of the church of God is
the One in whose name we were baptized. Do not get the idea as some have that
the apostle was putting a slur on baptism, that he meant to imply that baptism
was an unimportant thing and eventually would have no place in the church of
God. By basing his argument on baptism he was recognizing it as a tremendously
important thing. When you became a Christian, in whose name were you baptized?
You were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. You belong to Him and
you should recognize the entire fellowship of which He is the Head. But do not
try to make His name the head of a party; and do not make the names of His
servants the heads of parties, for the only real Head in the fellowship is
Christ.
Because of the fact that the Corinthians were making so much of individuals,
Paul said in effect, “I am very thankful as I look back that I personally did
not do the baptizing in many cases.” He was not saying, “I am thankful that you
were not baptized,” for they were baptized. Acts 18:8 says, “Many of the
Corinthians hearing believed, and were baptized.” Their baptism followed their
believing. Paul was saying, “I am very thankful, since you are so given to a
party spirit, that few of you can say, ‘I was baptized by Paul.’”
Paul’s actual words were, “I thank God that I baptized none of you, but Crispus
[the ruler of the synagogue] and Gaius; Lest any should say that I had baptized
in mine own name. And I baptized also the household of Stephanas.” Evidently
Stephanas was not with the Corinthians at the time Paul was writing, for we read
in 1 Corinthians 16:17, “I am glad of the coming of Stephanas and Fortunatus and
Achaicus: for that which was lacking on your part they have supplied.” Stephanas
apparently was a traveling preacher, and his household “addicted themselves to
the ministry of the saints” (1 Corinthians 16:15). Besides Crispus, Gaius, and
the household of Stephanas, there was no one else in Corinth Paul could remember
baptizing.
Giving his closing argument in reference to baptism, Paul said, “For Christ sent
me not to baptize, but to preach the gospel.” Observe, he was not saying that he
was not commissioned to baptize. He was saying that he was not sent to make
baptism the important thing. He was sent to preach the gospel. As an apostle he
went out preaching, and when any believed the gospel they were baptized. This
sequence is the opposite of the order of events in Roman Catholic missions and
other church systems today. When Romanism goes to a new missionfield, the
priests make it their first order of business to get as many infants together as
possible and baptize them.
There are numerous things that are right and proper in their own sphere and that
must of necessity occupy much of a preacher’s time, but it was not to do these
things that he was set apart as a servant of God and sent into the world. He was
ordained of God to preach the gospel. Likewise Paul’s great ministry was making
Christ known, “not with wisdom of words, lest the cross of Christ should be made
of none effect.” He depended not on mere human oratory or rhetoric, but on the
power of the Holy Spirit enabling him in all simplicity to present to the people
a crucified, risen, ascended, and returning Christ, that all hearts might be
focused on Him and brought to put their trust in Him. As Christ is presented to
the hearts of God’s people they become occupied with Him, their glorious Head.
As they are drawn to Him, they are drawn together. That is the thing that
unifies. The Simplicity of Preaching (1 Corinthians 1:18-24) The apostle Paul’s
great business was proclaiming the cross. “The preaching of the cross,” he said,
“is to them that perish foolishness; but unto us which are saved it is the power
of God.” There is a challenge in almost every word of this verse. The word
translated “preaching” here is not the usual term that can also be translated
“announcing” or “proclaiming”; it is logos, the term that is used to refer to
Christ Himself in the Gospel of John: “In the beginning was the Word [Logos],
and the Word was with God, and the Word was God” (1 Corinthians 1:1). In its
ordinary sense, logos refers to a spoken message, and in 1 Corinthians 1:18 Paul
used it to put the word of the cross in contrast to the word of wisdom in 1
Corinthians 1:17. There he said that his aim was to preach the cross “not with
wisdom of words [logos]” or-changing the order to give the exact meaning of the
original-“not with the words of wisdom.” When Paul presented the doctrine of the
cross, he did not want to hide it with beautiful verbiage; he would not obscure
the message with human eloquence, or weaken or dilute the message in any way
with charming rhetoric. He did not desire people to listen to him with
admiration and go away exclaiming, “What a brilliant preacher, what a splendid
orator!” instead of saying, “What guilty sinners we are and how amazing is the
love of God that sent His Son to die for us and bear the shame of the cross for
our redemption!”
Some years ago a gentleman living in a country town in England went to London
and while there heard some renowned preachers. Writing home to his wife, he
said, “Last Sunday I went in the morning to hear Dr. so-and-so [he named one of
the most eloquent men occupying a London pulpit at that time] and in the evening
I went to the Metropolitan Tabernacle to listen to Charles Spurgeon. I was quite
impressed by both of them. Dr. so-and-so is certainly a great preacher, but Mr.
Spurgeon has a great Savior.” Do you see the difference?
Since it is possible to spoil the message by dependence on that which simply
appeals to the human mind, the apostle tried not to preach Christ with words of
wisdom-that is, this world’s wisdom- “lest the cross of Christ should be made of
none effect.” With eloquence, oratory, or rhetoric, a preacher can win the
appreciation of even the most utterly godless man, but it is not the will of God
that any of His servants should tickle the ears of their hearers. His will is
that they should grapple with the consciences of those to whom they are
speaking. An unsaved person is in a most precarious position. If the brittle
thread of his life should snap, he would be ushered out into a Christless
eternity. How foolish and wicked we would be if when we preach to people who are
still in their sins, we simply entertained them! We would be guilty before God
if we sought the admiration and praise of our hearers instead of bringing them
face to face with their sins and urging them to flee to the cross for refuge.
The thought of souls going to Hell had gripped the apostle Paul. He knew that
men were lost without Christ, that there was no hope for them except in the
cross, so he said in effect, “I do not want to say anything that will hide the
cross. I do not want to decorate the cross with flowers and ribbons and tinsel,
and make people lose sight of what it really is.” The cross is the declaration
of man’s utter depravity and the demonstration of God’s infinite love. This word
of the cross, compared with the world’s word of wisdom, “is to them that perish
foolishness.”
What do we mean when we speak of the cross? I wonder sometimes if we have any
conception in our day of what the cross meant when Paul wrote about it. Cicero
said, “The cross, it speaks of that which is so shameful, so horrible, it should
never be mentioned in polite society.” Yet Paul exclaimed, “God forbid that I
should glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world is
crucified unto me, and I unto the world” (Galatians 6:14). The cross meant far
worse than the gallows or the electric chair means today because the cross
declared that the one who was hanging on it was guilty of the vilest, the most
awful crimes, that he was utterly unfit to live, that he was rejected of man and
accursed of God. And a cross bore our Lord Jesus Christ! What does it mean? It
means that man’s heart was so wicked, so sinful, that there was no way for him
to be saved unless the eternal Son of God became man and suffered the most
ignominious death for his redemption. The cross also means that man’s heart has
been completely exposed, for when God thus sent His Son, man cried, “Away with
Him! Crucify Him! crucify Him!” There at the cross man told out the very worst
of his nature while God told out the infinite love of His heart. Peter said to
the men of his day, “Him, being delivered by the determinate counsel and
foreknowledge of God, ye have taken, and by wicked hands have crucified and
slain” (Acts 2:23). If you want to know how wicked you are by nature, if you
want to get an understanding of the awfulness of the sins of which your heart is
capable, stand in faith before that cross and contemplate again God’s holy,
spotless Son hanging on that tree suffering unspeakable anguish. That anguish is
the very expression of man’s attitude to God; it is the word of the cross.
It was not merely the physical suffering that men heaped upon Jesus that made
atonement for sin, for we read in Isaiah 53:10, “Thou shalt make his soul an
offering for sin” (italics added). God made Him to be the great sin-offering.
And so the word of the cross is the story of God’s infinite love for guilty men.
Righteousness demanded that sin be punished, and there on the cross it was
punished to the full in the person of our blessed substitute. Now the word of
the cross goes out to all the world, and since man at last is going to be judged
by his attitude toward that cross, the word of the cross “is to them that perish
foolishness” (italics added).
I am sorry that the translators used the English word “perish” here in 1
Corinthians 1:18, for that may throw us off the track. Some may think Paul meant
that if a person rejects the cross and the One who died there, he is in danger
of perishing, but that is not what the apostle was saying. He meant something
far more solemn, something that ought to affect you very much more if you are
unsaved. What he was really saying is, “The word of the cross is foolishness to
them that are lost” The same Greek word is found in 2 Corinthians 4:3 : “If our
gospel be hid, it is hid to them that are lost.” Do you realize the solemnity of
that? They are not just in danger of being lost by and by. For them it is not
just a case of being lost if they persist in rejecting Christ and die in their
sins. That would be terrible enough. But Paul’s thought was even more solemn:
they are lost.
If the Christ of that cross is not yet your Savior, you are lost. If you get
into your car and drive off, you drive off as a lost man or a lost woman; and if
there is a crash and you are suddenly ushered into eternity, you go into
eternity lost, to be lost forever.
People do not think of these things; they do not face these facts. They say, “I
do not understand it at all. The very idea that a man, no matter how good He
was, could be nailed to the cross and there make atonement for my sins, is
foolish. The idea is repugnant to me.” My response is, “Very well, the Bible
says, ‘If our gospel be hid, it is hid to them that are lost.’“ That is why
people do not understand; they do not understand because they are lost. What a
terrible condition to be in!
Now let’s go back to 1 Corinthians and look at the other side: “But unto us
which are saved it is the power of God.” Of whom was Paul speaking? He was
speaking of people who once were lost but are now saved. Someone might object,
“I do not get that. Don’t you mean they they are in the process of being saved?
Nobody can be sure of his final salvation until the day of judgment when at last
he stands before God and the question is there definitely decided.” But that is
not what the Book teaches; it speaks of people already lost and people already
saved. Remember, “By grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of
yourselves: it is the gift of God: Not of works lest any man should boast”
(Ephesians 2:8-9).
I am reminded of an old Scottish woman who had always been very religious; she
had gone to church all her life and she hoped that at the end of her life she
would get dying grace and be fit for Heaven. She went one time to a meeting
where two earnest servants of God were preaching and when she came home, her
grandchildren said to her, “Well, Grandma, how did you like the preachers?”
“Well,” she said, “I could not make them out. The first man got up and talked to
folk he said were saved already. He talked to folk who were so good that I did
not know there were any of them in our town. And then another man got up and
preached to folk who were so wicked that he said they were lost and going to
Hell. But there was not one word for me.” She was not lost and she was not
saved, according to her own estimation. But there are just the two classes of
people: those who are lost; and “us which are saved”-that is, those who have put
their trust in the Lord Jesus Christ. These have faced their sins in the
presence of God and have seen in the work of the cross that which has satisfied
God and that in which their hearts can rest. They are saved right here and now.
Years ago my father had an old friend who was a familiar figure in our home when
I was a boy. One day after he had been saved for many years someone said to him,
“Mr. Ross, do you ever doubt that you are saved? Has the thought ever crossed
your mind that you may have been mistaken and that you are not really saved?” He
said, “It is strange that you should ask me that question today, for last night
when I was on my way to the meeting where I was to preach the gospel, a voice
seemed to say to me, ‘Donald Ross, what an old hypocrite you are! You have never
been saved at all.’ I could hardly tell whether it was the voice of the devil or
the voice of the Lord. I said, ‘Man, could that be true? After years of
preaching Christ to others, could it be true that I have never been saved?’ And
then I said, ‘Well, Lord, if it is true that I have just been thinking I am
saved, I am so thankful that Jesus died for hypocrites, and I come to Him now
just as I am.’”
Just as I am, without one plea But that Thy blood was shed for me, And that Thou
bidd’st me come to Thee, O Lamb of God, I come! I come!
(Charlotte Elliott) That dear old saint said that in a moment the cloud was
lifted and he knew that he had been listening to the voice of the devil and not
the voice of God.
If you are not sure you are saved, you can lift your heart to God right now and
trust the One who died on the cross for you; you can trust Him as your Savior.
“Be it known unto you therefore, men and brethren, that through this man is
preached unto you the forgiveness of sins” (Acts 13:38). To us who are saved,
the word of the cross is “the power of God.” There is no human energy that
converts people; we cannot convert them by using any ability of our own.
Somebody said to me a short time ago, “You know Dr. so-and-so, well, he is a
grand man of God. He converted me ten years ago.” I know that he meant that when
this dear servant of God had presented the gospel, he had believed the gospel,
for it is not servants of Christ who do the converting. We cannot save people;
we cannot give men peace with God. Here is what happens: a poor, troubled,
anxious soul does not know what to do or where to go; suddenly the Spirit of God
presents the cross, the fact that on the cross “Christ died for our sins
according to the scriptures” (1 Corinthians 15:3); then faith leaps up in the
heart, and the soul says, “Thank God, He died for me!” In a moment that soul
passes from death to life. The word of the cross is the power of God.
Sometimes we have to preach about a great many other things, but in a sense I
begrudge the time that has to be given to other subjects when I think of men who
might be sitting before me who have not seen the truth as it is in Christ Jesus.
The word of the cross writes “folly” over everything of the natural mind.
Referring to Isaiah 29:14, the apostle said, “It is written, I will destroy the
wisdom of the wise, and will bring to nothing the understanding of the prudent.”
Men pride themselves in their philosophies, in their reasoning powers, but no
philosophy in the world would ever have reasoned out the need of the cross or
suggested that only through the death of God’s Son could sinners be saved.
Reasoning amounts to nothing in the light of the cross.
“Where is the wise?” Paul asked. “Where is the scribe?” In other words, “Where
are the reasoners?” When he mentioned the scribe, he was naturally referring to
the Jews, the wise men in Israel who tried to work out a way of salvation
through systems and ritual. The apostle brushed them to one side, for they did
not know of the word of the cross.
“Where is the disputer of this world?” With this question Paul was referring to
the Greek philosophers, proud of their learning, investigating all the various
sciences and systems of thought of their day. But not one of them would ever
have dreamed of Christ dying on a cross as the means of salvation for sinners.
So the apostle said, “Hath not God made foolish the wisdom of this world?” Mere
wisdom would never have delved into the mystery of the cross.
It is a striking fact that our English word “world” is made to do duty for two
Greek words in 1 Corinthians 1:20. The verse might also be rendered, “Where is
the disputer of this age? Hath not God made foolish the wisdom of this world?”
In the first instance the Greek word is aion, “the age,” and in the second
instance it is kosmos, this “ordered universe” in which we live. The whole trend
of the age is against the word of the cross. The wisdom of this age would never
have thought that only by the death of the Son of God on the cross could
salvation be worked out. As far as our explanations of the universe are
concerned, the things that men pride themselves in are only foolishness in the
sight of God. “He that sitteth in the heavens shall laugh: the Lord shall have
them in derision” (Psalms 2:4). Well might the omnipotent God laugh (I do not
say this irreverently) as He hears the ravings of godless professors in our
universities, trying to explain the mystery of the universe as they measure
everything by their own little twelve-inch rulers. They delve into things
utterly beyond human comprehension and deliberately turn away from the
revelation that would make everything plain. In His wisdom God has permitted man
to grope and grope and do his best to find out these hidden mysteries and to
come to an end of himself at last. “After that in the wisdom of God the world by
wisdom knew not God, it pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save them
that believe.” What is preaching? It is a simple proclamation, and it has
pleased God by what looks to man like foolishness, by the simplicity of making
an announcement, to save them that believe.
I stand up in the name of the God of Heaven and declare that “Christ died for
our sins according to the scriptures; And that he was buried, and that he rose
again the third day according to the scriptures” (1 Corinthians 15:3-4). The
world says, “Foolishness! You could not prove that if you had to.” No, I could
not; but I repeat the announcement: “Christ died for our sins…” And whenever a
man is humble enough and lowly enough to believe the announcement, he is saved.
It pleased God by the simplicity of an announcement to save those who believe,
but “the Jews require a sign.” In other words, they say, “Give us some evidence
that the word of the cross is true; work some miracle.” Now and then people ask
me, “If you could work miracles today, wouldn’t it be wonderful?” I do not know
that it would. If I had apostolic power and could in front of an audience lay my
hands on a poor cripple so that he would leap to his feet well and whole, I
imagine large crowds would come to my meetings, but I have never heard of
anything like that causing poor sinners to awake and turn to Christ. When the
apostles performed miracles, men turned on them and tried to kill them, as in
the case of Paul at Lystra.
It is the preaching of the cross that saves. That is what guilty sinners need.
“The Jews require a sign, and the Greeks seek after wisdom: But we,” Paul said,
“preach Christ crucified, unto the Jews a stumblingblock, and unto the Greeks
foolishness.” Someone might have asked Paul, “If you know it is a stumblingblock
and foolishness, why don’t you serve it up to your audience in such a way as to
get rid of those offending elements?” And Paul would have answered, “If I make
the message attractive to the natural man, it will not be the means of salvation
to sinners.” The preaching of the cross involves the work of the Spirit of God;
He must prepare the heart. His work is the effectual call.
There is a general call that goes to all men, and there is an effectual call
when the Spirit of God drives the truth home and a man realizes that God is
tugging at his heart to draw him to Christ. “Unto them which are called, both
Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God, and the wisdom of God.” This was the
apostolic message. In Him “are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge”
(Colossians 2:3). That God-given message has the same power today as it did in
Paul’s day. We are to preach it in dependence on the Holy Spirit.
Christ the Wisdom of God (1 Corinthians 1:25-31)
“The foolishness of God is wiser than men.” What a striking expression-“the
foolishness of God”! I remember on one occasion a friend of mine, a very
faithful preacher, advertised on a large signboard in a Canadian city that he
would preach on these words. He was almost immediately summoned before the
magistrate and asked if he knew that there was a law in Ontario against
blasphemy. He had to explain that the topic advertised was simply a quotation
from Holy Scripture. The expression of course is akin to “the foolishness of
preaching” (1 Corinthians 1:21), which as previously suggested might be rendered
“the simplicity of preaching”; and so here in 1 Corinthians 1:25 we learn that
the “simplicity” of God is wiser than men. Paul was saying that the program of
the gospel, which seems so simple to the worldly-wise, is actually the source of
all wisdom and is wiser far than all of man’s philosophies. The apostle went on
to say that “the weakness of God is stronger than men.” The weakness of God
refers to the cross. Christ was crucified through weakness. He, the omnipotent
One, chose in infinite grace to take the place of a helpless prisoner in the
hands of His enemies. At any moment He might have destroyed them by His power
or, if He was still to stay in the place of weakness, He could have prayed for
help from above and twelve legions of angels would have been sent to rescue Him.
But He did neither. “He humbled himself, and became obedient unto death” (Php
2:8), “that through death he might destroy him that [up to that time] had the
power of death, that is, the devil” (Hebrews 2:14). The believer’s calling is
brought out very effectively in 1 Corinthians 1:26-29. In making up the members
of the body of Christ, God has not chosen many from among the wise, the mighty,
the noble, or the great men of this world. Lady Huntingdon, who was a friend of
Whitefield and the Wesleys and took an active part in the great revival movement
of their day, used to say that she was only going to Heaven by an “m.” When
someone asked her what she meant, she stated that she was so thankful that
Scripture does not say, “Not any noble are called.” It says, “Not many noble”
(italics added), and therefore she got in by an “m.” Had God selected those whom
the world admires to be the pillars of His church, to a large extent He would
have destroyed the very thing He had in view, for it was His desire to
demonstrate the results of His grace. He works not with what He finds, but with
what He brings. He delights to take up those whom the world looks down on and
make them devoted saints and faithful servants who will “be to the praise of his
glory” throughout all the ages to come (Ephesians 1:12). So we read that “God
hath chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise.” He has in His
sovereign grace taken up “the weak things of the world to confound the things
which are mighty.” Paul went on to say that “base things of the world, and
things which are despised, hath God chosen, yea, and things which are not, to
bring to nought things that are.”
Look back over the history of the Christian church. What wondrous stories it
tells of grace reaching down to the lowest, the poorest, the most insignificant,
and bringing such to repentance; grace creating faith in their souls by the word
of truth of the gospel; grace regenerating them, justifying them from all blame;
grace sanctifying them by the Holy Spirit and the Word, and then sending them
out as ambassadors for Christ to turn the world upside down by the simplicity of
preaching the message of the cross. The early followers of the Lord Jesus Christ
were, with very few exceptions, men from the lower walks of life: fishermen,
tax-collectors, Galilean peasants! Judas from Judea was the only “gentleman” in
the entire apostolic band-he was the treasurer of the little company-and he
turned traitor. God filled those men from the common walks of life with the
power of His Holy Spirit and through them won thousands more to a saving
knowledge of His Son.
Paul himself stands out in vivid contrast. Whether saved or not, he would have
had some great place among the people of his day, but he is the one who wrote
the words that we have been considering. He counted himself among “the base
things” and the “things which are not” and thanked God that to him was given the
opportunity to be used of God “to bring to nought things that are.” The reason
for all this comes out clearly in the succinct statement in 1 Corinthians 1:29 :
“That no flesh should glory in his presence.” Had God taken up the wealthy and
the powerful, it would have given their abilities prominence in the eyes of men
at least, but by choosing the weak He had the greater opportunity to display His
own power. In themselves the early believers could accomplish nothing; through
Him they did valiantly. Therefore all the glory belongs not to them but to Him.
As He said in Isaiah 42:8, “My glory will I not give to another.”
How we need to remind ourselves again and again of these things today! It has
always seemed to me that there is so much mawkish sentiment linked with
so-called religious leaders, even in the professing church of Christ. It is
considered the proper thing to do when presenting teachers and preachers to
audiences, to laud them to the skies, to elaborate on their brilliancy and
learning and wonderful personality-until I myself have often felt grieved and
shocked and thoroughly ashamed as I listened to such laudations. One cannot
imagine the apostle Peter so introducing his beloved brother Paul, nor can one
think of Paul presenting Epaphroditus, Titus, or Timothy in such a manner to
those to whom they were to preach. Paul did indeed say the kindest things about
these fellow laborers, for he loved them truly and was grateful to God for all
their good traits; but as he spoke of them, he dwelled not on their ability or
personality or charm or wonderful gifts, but on their devotedness to Christ in
suffering for His name’s sake. Surely there is a lesson in all this for us. If
we give to man the glory that belongs to God alone, we may be certain that we
will incur divine displeasure.
Let us now consider 1 Corinthians 1:30, and as I quote this wonderful verse, let
me make a slight change from the text of our splendid King James version, a
change that I believe any scholar will recognize as warranted by the original
text. The change brings out more vividly the actual truth that the apostle meant
to set forth: “But of him are ye in Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto us
wisdom: even righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption.” Paul was
telling us not that Christ is made four things to the believer, but that Christ
is made one thing to the believer, and out of this one three others spring.
Christ is made unto us wisdom. He Himself is the wisdom of God. He is the One
“in whom,” as we have seen in Colossians 2:3, “are hid all the treasures of
wisdom and knowledge.”
People often speak of the “problem of Jesus,” the “problem of Christ.” There is
no problem of Christ. Christ is not a problem; He it is who explains every
problem. Listen to that poor sinful Samaritan woman at the well. She had many
questions over which she had puzzled for years. As she conversed with the Lord
Jesus, the conviction evidently grew in her that here was One whose wisdom was
superhuman. Timidly, and yet hopefully I am sure, she exclaimed, “I know that
Messias cometh, which is called Christ: when he is come, he will tell us all
things.” No doubt the thought in her mind was this: Oh, if I could only see Him.
If He could come in my day, I would go to Him with all my cares, with all my
problems and perplexities, and He would explain everything.
Jesus, looking at her with those kindly eyes of His (they had already seen into
the very depths of her soul), answered, “I that speak unto thee am he” (John
4:25-26). Startled, she looked at Him again and feasted her own eyes on that
wonderful face until she was absolutely convinced that the words He had spoken
were true. One might have expected a torrent of questions, but no-she had found
the Messiah and every problem was settled. Away she went to the city to call
others to meet Him too. And so I say again, there is no problem of Christ;
Christ is the key to every problem. To know Him is to have all the knowledge
that is really worthwhile.
Returning to 1 Corinthians 1:30, we read that we who are saved are in Him-”in
Christ Jesus.” Paul used that remarkable phrase over and over again. It speaks
of our new standing before God. It tells of the intimate union that exists
between the risen Lord and all His own. In Him there is no condemnation. In
Him-in all His own blessed perfection-we are acceptable to God. And God has made
Him to be our wisdom. Everything we need for our souls’ deliverance is found in
the knowledge of Christ. Our righteousness, our sanctification, our
redemption-all are found in Him.
We have no righteousness of our own, for “it is written, There is none
righteous, no, not one” (Romans 3:10). We have learned that all that we thought
to be righteousness is like polluted rags in the sight of an infinitely holy
God. But He has set forth the risen Christ, who once bore our sins “in his own
body on the tree,” as the expression of the righteousness of God, and we are
“made the righteousness of God in him” (1 Peter 2:24; 2 Corinthians 5:21). “This
is his name whereby he shall be called, the Lord our Righteousness
[Jehovah-tsidkenu]” (Jeremiah 23:6), and so we stand before God in a perfect,
unchallenged righteousness, complete in Christ. Our sanctification is also found
in Him, whether we think of it as practical or positional. To be sanctified is
to be set apart. For us of course, to be sanctified means to be set apart for
God, set apart in all the perfection of Christ’s finished work. This is our
positional sanctification. Our practical sanctification involves being set apart
from the sin, pollution, uncleanness, and corruption that prevails in this
world, as the Word of God is applied to our lives. Our Lord prayed, “Sanctify
them through thy truth: thy word is truth” (John 17:17). It is as our hearts are
taken up with Christ that we will know the reality of this. Our redemption is
found in Him as well. We who had sold ourselves for nought have been redeemed
without money. We “were not redeemed with corruptible things, as silver and
gold,.. .but with the precious blood of Christ” (1 Peter 1:18-19). He gave
Himself for us; His life was the price of our redemption. His life was given up
to death so that we might be delivered from the fear of death and enter into
life eternal. We have everything in Jesus, and Jesus is everything to us. And so
we have nothing for which we can give ourselves credit. Therefore, as Paul
reminded the Corinthians, “He that glorieth, let him glory in the Lord.” Like
David, each one of us can exclaim, “My soul shall make her boast in the Lord”
(Psalms 34:2). John Allen, the converted railroad section hand who was one of
the first officers of The Salvation Army, declared as he was dying, “I deserve
to be damned; I deserve to be in Hell; but God interfered!” Yes, and each
redeemed one may say the same. The sinning was ours, the disobedience was ours;
the curse, the wrath, the judgment-all were our desert. The holiness is His; the
perfect obedience unto death is His. He became a curse for us; He drained the
cup of wrath for us; He bore the judgment for us. Thus He has become in very
truth our righteousness, sanctification, and redemption, and to Him belongs all
the glory now and through eternal ages.
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CHAPTER 68: 05.02. THE DEEP THINGS OF GOD
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The Deep Things Of God Jesus Christ and Him Crucified (1 Corinthians 2:1-8) The
book of Acts gives an account of Paul’s entry into Corinth. After a year and a
half of earnest work there he left behind a church that was blessed with every
spiritual gift, but when he first went into that brilliant but godless city, the
apostle’s soul was deeply stirred. He found that the people of Corinth not only
gloried in human ability and human attainment and made much of the various arts;
they also deified human lust and they knew nothing of the true God. A few days
before entering Corinth, he had been in Athens. There he had gone by invitation
to the place where the philosophers, the intelligentsia, gathered “to tell, or
to hear some new thing” (Acts 17:21), and where at their own request he
attempted to explain the message of the gospel. However, they did not permit him
to come to the crucial point, for they interrupted him as soon as he spoke of a
Savior who died and was raised again, and they refused to listen to any further
explanation. Probably a more eloquent sermon was never preached than that which
the apostle delivered on Mars hill, yet the results were somewhat meager. There
were a few who “clave unto him, and believed” (Acts 17:34), but the great
majority turned away, rejecting him and his proclamation. From Athens Paul went
to Corinth. I do not believe there is any reason to think that he felt he had
made a mistake in preaching as he did at Athens. His rule was this: “I am made
all things to all men, that I might by all means save some” (1 Corinthians
9:22). At Athens he was addressing men of the highest culture and he realized
that he had to present the message in a way that he hoped would appeal to them.
But upon going to Corinth he put aside, as far as he possibly could, everything
that was merely human and went in absolute dependence upon the Spirit of God
with one great message: “Jesus Christ, and him crucified.”
He later wrote to the Corinthians, “I, brethren, when I came to you, came not
with excellency of speech or of wisdom, declaring unto you the testimony of
God.” He realized it was quite possible with the flowers of rhetoric to cover
up, to obscure the shame of the cross, so he did not permit himself any flights
of fancy or of the imagination in presenting the glad tidings. He seriously,
earnestly, solemnly, as became a man who stood between the living and the dead,
preached the message of the cross in all simplicity, for he had “determined not
to know any thing among [the Corinthians], save Jesus Christ, and him
crucified.” That should be the method of any servant of God, for after all,
there is no other message that will avail for the salvation of sinners or the
edification of God’s beloved people. Everything centers in the cross of our Lord
Jesus Christ. “Jesus Christ, and him crucified”-that is the person and the work.
The person of Christ was always presented in apostolic preaching. Men were not
asked to believe a creed or to subscribe to a system of doctrine, but they were
asked to receive a person, and that person was the Lord Jesus Christ.
I think we make a mistake if we suppose that just pinning our faith to a verse
of Scripture will save us. I wonder how many have deceived themselves in that
way. I hear people speak of knowing that they are saved, and when they are asked
why they know, they reply, “Because I believe John 3:16,” or “Because I believe
John 5:24”; then I look for some evidence of a new life in them and I do not
find it. They never appear at a prayer meeting, but if there is a social affair,
they are present. Apparently they have no real interest in the Word of God, for
they never attend a Bible study. They have time for anything that ministers to
the flesh, but very little time for spiritual food. I tremble for them because I
cannot think of anything more dreadful than for one to go through life thinking
that he is really saved and then at the end to be suddenly ushered into eternity
where he will wake up forever lost.
You see, believing a text does not save anybody. Believing in Christ saves all
who trust Him. I believed every text in the Bible before I was converted. I
never thought of doubting one of them until after I was converted. That may seem
like a strange thing to say, but as a lad I believed all that I was told; I
accepted all of the Bible as the Word of the living God, but I was not saved.
Some years after I was converted I became perplexed over certain things and
began to doubt; the doubts led me to a deeper investigation and then my faith
was confirmed. But in all those years before I was saved, I believed everything
in the Bible. Yet I had never been regenerated; I had never received a new
nature. I was lost and if I had died in my sins, I could have quoted hundreds of
Bible texts-I could have repeated chapter after chapter of Holy Scripture in the
flames of Hell-while bewailing the fact that I had never been acquainted with
the person that these passages of Scripture glorified. Do not make any mistake
here, for it is one that can never be remedied if you go into eternity resting
on a false hope. Examine your foundation. Ask yourself, Is Christ Himself
precious to me? If He is, why do I not enjoy His Word more? Why do I not love to
spend more time with Him in prayer? Why is there so much frivolity and levity
and carelessness in my life? Why do I do so many things that I know the Lord
Jesus would never do? Do I really love Him? Remember, He said: “If a man love
me, he will keep my words”; “If ye love me, keep my commandments” (John 14:23;
John 14:15).
What is the use of professing to be a Christian if there is no evidence of
salvation in my life? What is the use of speaking of the new birth, or of
talking about having eternal life if I live the same kind of life that tens of
thousands of respectable Christless men and women live all around me? There is
no difference between my life and theirs. If, however, I have opened my heart’s
door to Christ and received Him, He has come to dwell in me and that has changed
everything about my life. “As many as received him, to them gave he power to
become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name: Which were born,
not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God”
(John 1:12-13). So we preach the person (“Jesus Christ”) and the work (“him
crucified”). Some just say, “We preach Christ,” but the Christ who lived on
earth for those thirty-three wonderful years could never have saved one poor
sinner apart from His death. When Jesus Christ was crucified, it was as though
God said, “That cross, the symbol of shame and agony, will become the great
altar upon which will be offered the one supreme sacrifice that atones for the
sin of the world.” The crucifixion of our Lord Jesus Christ throws into relief
several tremendous facts. For one thing, it emphasizes the wickedness, the
corruption, the vileness of man. Jesus Christ was God manifest in the flesh; He
was here in the world that His hands had made, and His own creatures cried,
“Away with Him! Crucify Him!” Could there be any worse commentary on the
iniquity of the human heart than that? Man, as far as he was capable, was guilty
of the awful crime of deicide; he murdered God, drove Him out of His own
universe.
Psalms 14:1 says, “The fool hath said in his heart, no God.” The King James
version reads, “The fool hath said in his heart, There is no God,” but that
translation is not exact. Many a man who admits there is a God says, “No God,”
and that is what the verse really tells us in the Hebrew. The fool says, “No God
for me.” In other words, “I do not want God to come into my life; I do not want
to be troubled about God; I want to take my own way, to do my own will.” And
because men were set on having their own way, they nailed the Christ of God to a
cross. If there is anything that reveals what man is, Christ’s crucifixion does.
Stand in faith by that cross; see the blessed Savior suffering, dying there; see
the nails on which He hangs and the blood dripping from those awful wounds; see
the thorns crushed on His sacred brow and the blood enwrapping His naked body as
with a crimson shroud. That is what sin has done, the sin that is in your heart
and in mine. That scene shouts the story of the wickedness and the deceitfulness
of our hearts. The men who thronged about that cross and cried out in derision,
“Thou that destroyest the temple, and buildest it in three days, save thyself.
If thou be the Son of God, come down from the cross” (Matthew 27:40), were not
different from us; their hearts were like our hearts. They were representative
men. We may see ourselves among them. The cross brought out and declared all the
malignity that was in the heart of man, but it also proclaimed the infinite love
that was in the heart of God. One might well have understood if God, looking
down on that scene, had let loose the thunders of His wrath and the lightnings
of His judgment and had destroyed that throng in a moment. One might have
expected Him to say, as He did so long ago, “My spirit shall not always strive
with man…I will destroy man whom I have created from the face of the earth”
(Genesis 6:3; Genesis 6:7). But He didn’t. “God so loved the world, that he gave
his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but
have everlasting life” (John 3:16). When man cast Him out and nailed Him to a
tree, God in infinite love for sinners made His soul an offering for sin. What
wonderful evidence of God’s love for sinners is seen in that cross! In the light
of that cross how can men still go on doing the things, living in the sins, that
led to it? The cross of Christ casts its light on everything that men glory in
in this world and outshines all this glory, so that the apostle could say
elsewhere, “God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus
Christ, by whom the world is crucified unto me, and I unto the world” (Galatians
6:14). Did you ever think of the cross in that way? You profess to be a
Christian and you say that you owe everything for eternity to the One whom the
world rejected, but what effect does that have on your life? Do you still have
fellowship with the world that cast Him out? Do you still participate in the
things that characterize that world?
One day a Christian decided to go see a questionable movie. He walked down the
street toward the theater, came to the very entrance, even stepped up and bought
his ticket, and then the next moment a thought came flashing into his mind: If I
go in there, I “crucify…the Son of God afresh, and put him to an open shame”
(Hebrews 6:6). He tore his ticket up, ran from the place, and was thankful to be
delivered.
If a Christian goes back into the things of the world from which the death of
Christ has separated him, he is denying the cross of Christ. If we understood
this, what a separated people we would be! We would do away with all our
dilly-dallying with the world and its folly. We would realize that we owe too
much to the One whom the world rejected to be a part of the world system that
has thus treated the eternal Lover of our souls.
Paul was determined to preach Christ crucified, but he said to the Corinthians,
“I was with you in weakness, and in fear, and in much trembling.” I think every
preacher feels a little bit like that. Often as I think of facing an audience,
my heart fails and my spirit cries out, “O Lord, what can I do? What can I say?
Suppose I should make a mistake. Suppose I should give the wrong message. How
dire the effect might be on some! I would never be able to undo the consequences
for eternity!” I can see Paul bowing before God every time he contemplated going
out to preach the Word, and crying out, “O Lord, keep me from mistakes. Let me
have just the right word. Let me be Thy messenger. Save me from trying to
attract attention to myself. Save me from glorifying man.”
Paul continued, “My speech and my preaching was not with enticing words of man’s
wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power.” The apostle recognized
the fact that there is such a thing as meeting man on the soul-plane. A preacher
might depend on that which simply appeals to the human mind, and finding that at
the right psychological moment he has gotten a grip on the audience by telling a
tender story, he might ask for decisions; and when the people respond, he might
say, “There now, what a lot of people have come to Christ!” But perhaps in that
crowd not one conscience has been reached nor one soul convicted of his sins.
Paul was afraid of that. He said in effect, “I do not want to preach in such a
way that my human effort will persuade men. I am depending on the Holy Spirit of
God and divine power to do the work.” In the Epistle the apostle gave the
Corinthians his reason: “That your faith should not stand in the wisdom of men,
but in the power of God.” If a person makes a profession of salvation on the
strength of a discourse that has simply stirred his emotions and made him feel
that he ought to do something, and if he has been stirred because of his
admiration for the preacher, what will happen when the preacher is gone? When
the new convert’s emotions are no longer stirred, he will find himself wondering
whether he is converted or not, and whether there is any reality in the message
or not. He felt so different under the spell of that emotion and now he does not
feel that way at all. If, however, the Holy Spirit of God has presented Christ
to him and he has received Him, he does not have to worry about his feelings. He
is saved, and saved for eternity. His faith stands not “in the wisdom of men,
but in the power of God.” The truly converted person can rest on His sure
testimony. The apostle did not mean that we have nothing but the simplicity of
the gospel message to give to men; we seek also to lead believers into the deep
things of God. “We speak wisdom among them that are perfect,” Paul said. What
does that mean? Did you ever see a perfect Christian? Surely not in the absolute
sense. Paul meant perfect in the sense of “well-developed.” When he talked to
the unsaved or to young believers, he had one message, and when he talked to
mature saints he sought to lead them further into the wisdom of God. He did that
in this Epistle and elsewhere. When Paul said, “We speak wisdom,” he was not
referring to “the wisdom of this world.” Christianity is a divine revelation,
not a human theory. The apostle said, “We speak the wisdom of God in a mystery,
even the hidden wisdom.” The mystery is hidden from the Christless, but the
Spirit of God reveals it to believers. There are rich treasures of wisdom,
wonderful truths for a preacher to make known, for in Christ “are hid all the
treasures of wisdom and knowledge” (Colossians 2:3). And as we go on with Him,
we enter into a depth of understanding that the world knows nothing about. This
wisdom, Paul told the Corinthians, is something “which none of the princes of
this world knew.” If they had only known that the man who stood in Pilate’s
judgment hall that day-so meek, so lowly, answering never a word as He was
vehemently accused- was God manifest in the flesh, “they would not have
crucified the Lord of glory.” And so God meets mankind on the ground of
ignorance and says in effect, “I am going to excuse your ignorance, but there is
one thing I will never excuse. After I enlighten you and present My Son to you,
if you do not receive Him, I will never excuse that.” Men are excused because
the light has not come, but they are not excused when the light has come. “This
is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness
rather than light, because their deeds were evil” (John 3:19).
I am not saying that God will not judge sin wherever it is found; I am simply
saying that He holds men responsible for the knowledge of His truth that they
have, and not for what has never come to them. “All have sinned” and all are
“guilty before God” (Romans 3:23; Romans 3:19), but judgment will be according
to works and rendered in perfect righteousness. When one trusts the Lord Jesus,
he is delivered forever from judgment. What a wonderful thing it is to know
Him-“Jesus Christ, and him crucified”!
Divine Revelation (1 Corinthians 2:9-13) The apostle declared that in making
known the gospel he sought to use simplicity of speech, but when it came to
opening up the truth of God to believers, he spoke of deep things that form the
hidden wisdom of God, wonderfully precious things that cannot be given to the
world at large. Just as the world has its various schools of philosophy, its
intellectual pursuits to which the average man on the street does not pay much
attention, God’s deep things are not for the world outside; they are for those
who have already received the gospel message. The Lord Jesus Himself warned His
disciples against casting pearls before swine. What did He mean by that? Simply
this: the unsaved man, the man who has never been regenerated, has no more
ability to appreciate, enter into, or enjoy spiritual unfoldings than swine have
to set a value on beautiful pearls. Therefore the message for the unsaved is the
gospel; but to the Lord’s own people He would impart hidden wisdom.
“None of the princes of this world” who “crucified the Lord of glory” knew that
wisdom. “It is written,” Paul said, “Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither
have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them
that love him.” The apostle was quoting from Isaiah 64:4. The singular thing is
that a great many people stop at the end of this Old Testament quotation in 1
Corinthians 2:9 and say, “You know we cannot understand; we cannot be expected
to understand or enter into the things that God hath prepared for us, because
the Word tells us, ‘Eye hath not seen…’” And so they settle back and conclude
that we must be content to be ignorant of these things, for God has said that
they are not for us to know. But let us look at that passage in the Old
Testament and see the context in which it is found. The English translation of
the Hebrew reads, “For since the beginning of the world men have not heard, nor
perceived by the ear, neither hath the eye seen, O God, beside thee, what he
hath prepared for him that waiteth for him.” The quote in the New Testament is
the translation of the Greek version of the Old Testament-hence the difference
in words, though the meaning is exactly the same. Isaiah was telling us that no
man apart from divine revelation can understand what God has in store for His
people in times to come. That was true in Old Testament days, but now God has
revealed Himself in the person of His Son and given the revelation of the new
covenant in the Gospels and the Epistles, so when we read the New Testament, we
must not stop at 1 Corinthians 2:9.
We must not be content to take for granted that we are still where God’s people
were in the Old Testament days, for that is the very thing the apostle told us
is not the case. He went on to say, “But God hath revealed them unto us by his
Spirit” (italics added). In other words, the Old Testament speaks of times when
there were great and wonderful mysteries that were kept hidden from all men;
even the prophets themselves, enlightened as they were, knew nothing of the
special truths of this dispensation, but God has made them known now.
Read the books of the Old Testament; read the Psalms, for instance, which give
you the highest inspiration of the saints before the veil was rent. You get no
inkling there of the heavenly calling or of believers entering through the rent
veil into the very presence of God without a priest officiating as a go-between.
You read nothing of Christ exalted at God’s right hand, or of believers linked
with Christ and thus able to say that God “hath raised us up together, and made
us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus” (Ephesians 2:6). In the Old
Testament we read of the preparation time. There God’s people are presented as
children going to school, learning through symbols and types and shadows, but
with no realization of the wonderful truths now made known, and therefore Isaiah
could say, “Eye hath not seen…” But all that has changed today. Now our eyes do
see, our ears do hear, and our hearts should be able to comprehend the glorious
things that God has prepared for those joined to Him through the Lord Jesus
Christ. “God hath revealed them unto us by his Spirit,” Paul said.
We still need the Old Testament, for things were written there “for our
learning” (Romans 15:4). When we read the Old Testament, we see the exercises of
the people of God in years gone by, but we do not stay there; we learn important
lessons, but we move on to the full revelation that God has given in the new
dispensation. It is here our souls revel in the precious truths now made known.
Christians sometimes imagine that if they come to God in worship, singing the
very words of Holy Scripture-as some of our friends do who sing the Psalms-their
worship is of a higher character than that of Christians who sing what they call
manmade hymns. Yet we might gather together and sing the Psalms week after week
and year after year and always be conscious of the fact that we are singing the
very words of Scripture, and there would not be a syllable that would give us
our place within “the holiest” as “accepted in the beloved” (Hebrews 10:19;
Ephesians 1:6). You will find that where Christians are content thus to approach
God in worship, they have no realization of the fullness of the Christian’s
position. They could not, because the Psalms as all other Old Testament
Scriptures lead us up to the door, but they do not carry us inside into the
fullest blessing. Therefore you will generally find that people who are wedded
to the Psalms, precious as they are, are a legal people, knowing very little of
the fullness of grace, and most of them are content to go through life thinking
it is altogether too much to believe that a man can be saved and know it in this
life. They think that if they go on trusting and hoping, perhaps God will give
them dying grace at last. A good old Scottish woman said, “We will not sing any
of these manmade hymns; we will sing just the Psalms of David to the tunes that
David wrote!” The fact is that a Spirit-taught Christian today can enjoy in a
hymn precious and wonderful truths that would have been amazing to David, truths
of which he knew absolutely nothing. What a wonderful thing it is to think that
we live in the dispensation of the grace of God! By the Holy Spirit, God has now
revealed things formerly hidden, “for the Spirit searcheth all things,” Paul
told the Corinthians, “yea, the deep things of God.” “The Spirit searcheth” may
seem like a peculiar expression. The Holy Spirit is One with the Father and with
the Son. Our Lord Jesus put the trinity all on a level of equality when He told
His disciples to teach and to baptize in the name of the Father and of the Son
and of the Holy Spirit. We would not think of substituting the name of a created
being, of baptizing in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the blessed
virgin Mary or in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the holy
apostles. We could not do that, for we would be putting God’s creatures on a
level with Himself. When we say, “In the name of the Father and of the Son and
of the Holy Spirit,” everything is in keeping because all are coequal and
coeternal. In what sense then does the Holy Spirit have to search to find out
the mind of the Lord? In Himself the Holy Spirit does not need to search; He
does not have to study to learn the mind of God. But the marvelous thought is
that in our dispensation the Holy Spirit has come to dwell in us, and it is
through Him that we do the searching and the studying, and the Spirit of God
opens the truth of God to us.
You might say, “I do not know how some folks get such wonderful things out of
their Bibles. I do not get them out of mine. I know I ought to read my Bible,
and I do read it, perhaps a chapter a day, but I do not have much appetite for
it. I do not get much out of it.” I will tell you why. The reason is that you do
not sit down with your Bible in a self-judged, humble spirit, putting out of
your life everything carnal, everything worldly, everything unholy, and then
depend absolutely on the Holy Spirit who dwells within you to search the
Scriptures for you and open the truth of God to you. God has given you the Holy
Spirit for that very purpose. The Lord Jesus Christ said:
Howbeit when he, the Spirit of truth, is come, he will guide you into all truth:
for he shall not speak of himself; but whatsoever he shall hear, that shall he
speak: and he will shew you things to come. He shall glorify me: for he shall
receive of mine, and shall shew it unto you (John 16:13-14).
If a poor, simple, ignorant Christian who can barely read or write sits down
with his Bible and reads it in dependence on the Holy Spirit of God, he will get
more out of a given passage of Scripture than will a doctor of divinity or a
doctor of psychology with a lot of learned tomes about him who depends on his
intellect instead of the Holy Spirit. I am afraid that many of us are absolutely
careless of the Holy Spirit who dwells within us. We are trying to make our own
way through the world, trying to find out what is right and wrong in spiritual
things instead of handing over everything to the Spirit of God and depending on
Him to guide and lead and unfold the Scriptures. He came to do this very thing
and He delights to fulfill this mission. The Holy Spirit knows everything that
goes on in the mind of God. Is not that a wonderful thought? Paul strikingly
illustrated this truth for the Corinthians: “What man knoweth the things of a
man, save the spirit of man which is in him? even so the things of God knoweth
no man, but the Spirit of God.” What did the apostle mean by “the spirit of
man”? Materialists tell us that the spirit of a man is the breath of a man, for
in Greek and Hebrew the same word may be translated “spirit,” “air,” “breath,”
“wind.” They say the spirit has no personality. If that were true, would it not
be absurd for the apostle to speak as he does here? If we substituted the word
“breath” for “spirit,” the verse would read, “What man knoweth the things of a
man, save the breath of man which is in him?” Is it your breath that knows
things? Is it your breath that reasons and weighs evidence? Surely not. It is
the spirit of a man. And what is the spirit of a man? It is the real man. When
God created man, He created him a spirit living in a human body and therefore
God is called “the Father of spirits” (Hebrews 12:9). God is a Spirit and man is
a spirit and therefore in that sense even unregenerated men are God’s sons. The
spirit is the personality. It is that which differentiates him from the lower
creation and enables him to think, to weigh evidence, to reason, to investigate.
I cannot read your thoughts; you cannot read my thoughts. There are people who
profess to be able to do so, but they always make a botch of it. We try to read
people’s minds by studying their faces and as a result we often accuse them of
things that are not so, as Eli falsely accused Hannah. “What man knoweth the
things of a man, save the spirit of man which is in him?” I might talk as humbly
as possible and you might be foolish enough to go away thinking, “What a lowly
man that is,” and all the time I might be a kind of Uriah Heep with a false
humility. Someone else might seem to you to be proud while in reality he might
be very humble. So Jesus said, “Judge not, that ye be not judged” (Matthew 7:1).
If my human spirit knows what is going on in my mind, do you not see Paul’s
argument? The Holy Spirit knows everything that goes on in the mind of God. And
He has chosen to make these things known to us. I can make known my thoughts to
you, and you can make yours known to me. Likewise the Holy Spirit of God makes
known the thoughts of God to us. “Now we have received, not the spirit of the
world, but the spirit which is of God; that we might know the things that are
freely given to us of God.” This blessed Holy Spirit has been received by
believers. He has come to indwell us, to control us, for the glory of the Lord
Jesus Christ and in order that we might understand the truth. That is the secret
of learning the Bible: if you come to the Book and study it in dependence on the
Holy Spirit who dwells within you, He will make the truth clear. But let me give
you another secret: He won’t do that if you are grieving Him. As long as the
Spirit is happy within you because you are living in a godly, unworldly,
consistent manner, it is His delight to take the things of Christ and open them
up for you. But the moment you give yourself to unholy thoughts or worldly
behavior, the moment you yield to carnality or to things contrary to the
character of the Lord Jesus Christ, whom you are called on to represent here,
you grieve the Spirit of God. Then instead of the Holy Spirit being free to do
what He delights to do-that is, to show you the things of Christ-He has to take
the time to show you your failures and sins and shortcomings in order to bring
you to the point of repentance and confession where you will seek to put
everything right before God. So the secret of getting the mind of God as you
study His Word is to live in the power of an ungrieved Spirit and to go to the
Book in dependence on Him.
We have received the Holy Spirit “that we might know the things that are freely
given to us of God.” We have these things here, but do we know them? It is one
thing to have a vast amount of knowledge shut up between the covers of a book;
it is another thing really to know it. You may have a large library. Everything
in all those books is yours. But it is quite another thing to make all that
accumulation of knowledge yours practically. It requires diligent study and
careful reading. The same is true of God’s wonderful Library, the Bible. We need
the illumination of the Holy Spirit as we meditate on its wondrous truths, for
only by depending on Him can we enter into the Bible’s treasures. This Book was
not written by men; they were just used as penmen. It was given by God. “Holy
men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost” (2 Peter 1:21). What
folly to expect to understand it just by approaching it from a carnal or
intellectual standpoint! That is not the way to know God’s truth. He has given
it to me, but if I am to appreciate it, the Spirit must open it up, and I must
walk in the Spirit.
Some people wonder what we mean when we speak of the verbal inspiration of the
Bible. There are those who talk of the Bible being inspired in the sense that
God gave to the writers of the different books certain thoughts and they
embodied them in their own language to suit themselves, but that is not the
truth of inspiration as taught in the Book. Referring to its content, Paul said,
“Which things also we speak, not in the words which man’s wisdom teacheth.” The
penmen did not take divine truths and write them down in their own words. They
expressed divine truths in the words that the Holy Spirit gave. He gave the
words as well as the thoughts. Verbal inspiration means inspiration of the
words. If the Bible is inspired at all, it is inspired in its words, and that is
what the apostle insisted on. If when you study this Book you recognize the fact
that the words were given by God, you will have such a conception of the wonder
of the Book that you will delight in lingering over every syllable.
Often when I have studied the Book and one little word has seemed to jump out at
me, I have looked up the original meaning in the Hebrew or the Greek, found out
what the root was, and discovered that there was no other word that would have
expressed that truth. The Bible is like God Himself-perfect.
Paul concluded this passage with an expression that is a bit peculiar, and
theologians have had a great many different views about it: “Comparing spiritual
things with spiritual.” The expression may suggest a comparison of one
divinely-imparted line of truth with some other opening-up of eternal verities.
That perhaps was the thought that the translators had in mind, and it is a good
thought, but there is something deeper than that in the Greek.
Another translation reads, “Expounding spiritual things to spiritual minds,”
which surely is an important idea. If men are not spiritual, they cannot take in
spiritual truth. One might endeavor to give them the deepest and most wonderful
revelation from the Word of God, but they would not be able to understand it.
Here is an illustration from the natural sphere: I heard a man once tell of
going to hear Jenny Lind, the famous “Swedish nightingale” who eventually gave
up the concert stage for love of Christ. Beside the man sat a sea captain who
had paid five dollars for his ticket, but who drowsed and slumbered all through
the concert. He came out of curiosity to see the noted singer, but he had no ear
for music and was unable to appreciate her remarkable voice. To enjoy music, one
must have music in his own soul. Similarly, to understand spiritual things, one
must be living a spiritual life; he must be born again and be walking in the
Spirit. A third translation reads, “Communicating spiritual things by spiritual
methods,” or “by spiritual words.” This rendering might be better, for the
expression is not exactly personal in the Greek; it does not necessarily refer
to individuals. What it suggests is that it is the business of servants of
Christ to communicate spiritual things by spiritual methods. They should not
stoop to the cheap claptrap methods of the world as they seek to expound the
Word of God, but in a reverent way and with suitable words they should explain
the testimony that the Holy Spirit Himself has given men. May God give to each
one of us a deeper appreciation of the marvelous revelation that we have in His
Word.
Natural and Spiritual Men (1 Corinthians 2:14-16) In 1 Corinthians 2:14-16; 1
Corinthians 3:1-8 Paul presented three kinds of men to us: the natural, the
carnal, and the spiritual. We often say that there are only two classes of
people in the world: those who are regenerated and those who are not, or to put
it another way, those who are saved and those who are lost. Of course that
distinction stands, but here in 1 Corinthians 2:1-16 and 1 Corinthians 3:1-23
the apostle divided mankind into three classes. He began in 1 Corinthians
2:14-16 by introducing two of these classes: the natural man and the spiritual
man. Who is the natural man? We read that “the natural man receiveth not the
things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he
know them, because they are spiritually discerned.” The natural man has only
experienced natural birth. Our Lord Jesus said in John 3:6, “That which is born
of the flesh is flesh [that is the natural man]; and that which is born of the
Spirit is spirit [that is the genesis of the spiritual man].” But the word
translated “natural” in 1 Corinthians 2:14 does not merely mean “of the flesh.”
It is the adjective form of the Greek word meaning “psyche,” which refers to the
soul. In 1 Thessalonians 5:23 the apostle Paul said, “I pray God your whole
spirit and soul and body be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord
Jesus Christ.” He was showing that man is tripartite. The spirit, the highest
part of man, is that which differentiates him from the lower creation and gives
him intelligence above that of the brute. By the spirit man reasons and weighs
evidence, and by the spirit he is able to listen to the voice of God. The second
part of man is the soul or the psyche.
Someone has well said that when God created man, he was like a three-story
house-the lower story being the body; the second story being the soul, the seat
of his natural instincts and emotions; and the third story being the spirit, the
highest part of man from which he could look up to God. But when man sinned
there was a moral earthquake and the top story fell down into the basement. That
disaster left the soul in the pre-eminent place instead of the spirit and left
him a natural man. When you remember that the soul is the seat of man’s
emotional nature, you will realize that the natural man is a creature led not by
conscience, and not by an enlightened spirit, but by his own affections and
desires. Every sin appeals in some way to the emotions of the natural heart. We
sin because we think we will find a measure of satisfaction in that sin. Sin is
always selfish and the natural man is a selfish being. He is self-centered, for
the soul is the self. The natural man therefore is the man who lives the
self-life, the man whose spirit has never been quickened into newness of life.
His spirit is still a captive down there in the basement, if you will.
You can see at once whether the label “natural man” applies to you. What is your
motive in life? Are you living to glorify God or are you living to enjoy
yourself? Are you seeking your own desires or are you seeking to please the Lord
Jesus Christ? As every saved person looks back to the old life, he can say:
I lived for myself, for myself alone, For myself and none beside;
Just as if Jesus had never lived, And as if He had never died. The natural man
may outwardly be a good man, a gracious man, a courteous man, and a kind man as
long as he can have his own way. He lives for himself, but he learns as he goes
through life that honesty is the best policy, that he is happier when he is
honest- and therefore many an unregenerate man is a model of integrity. He gets
a degree of happiness out of meeting the needs of other people; there is a glow
of warmth in his heart when he hands something to a needy person and that person
responds, “God bless you, sir; you don’t know how much good you are doing.” The
natural man may find a certain satisfaction in doing good, and yet have no
thought of living for God, no thought of glorifying the Lord Jesus Christ.
Some natural men grovel in things that are debasing; their appetites lead them
into licentiousness and drunkenness. Other natural men take what has been called
the clean side of the broad way, but it still is the way that leads to
destruction. If you walk down that broad way, you will find all classes and
conditions of people-some openly immoral, some vicious, some abominably unclean,
some eminently respectable, some admired by their fellows. Some on that broad
way are very religious and feel that they are doing the right thing when they
wend their way to a great cathedral or a little chapel, as the case may be. They
sit in a Christian, Jewish, or some other kind of service and are affected by
the music; if the preacher happens to be eloquent and appealing, they enjoy
listening to him, and sometimes even if he is not eloquent, if he is earnest
they like to listen to him. When Charles Spurgeon was at the height of his fame
as one of the greatest preachers of the gospel, many unbelievers thronged to
hear him; many men who rejected Christianity delighted to listen to his sermons.
On one occasion a well-known infidel was returning from Spurgeon’s meeting and
he met a friend who said, “Where have you been today?”
“I have been to hear the great preacher Charles Spurgeon,” the infidel said.
“You surprise me,” said his friend; “you do not believe a word he says.”
“No, I do not, but he does, you know; and I get a certain amount of satisfaction
in listening to a man preach as though he really believed what he was
preaching.” So it is very possible that one may value earnestness and intensity,
be outwardly good, conduct his business with integrity, be kind and benevolent,
have a certain amount of religious feeling, and yet be a natural man.
What is needed to bring a man out of that state? He needs a new nature, a
renewing of the mind; he needs to be born of God. “Except a man be born again,
he cannot see the kingdom of God” (John 3:3). The natural man at his best with
all his amiability and respectability cannot understand divine things.
If you talk to him of the wondrous truths of the Word of God, he will look at
you in amazement and say, “I do not see the importance of those things.” If you
tell him that God became man for our redemption, that He was born of a virgin,
he will smile tolerantly and say, “If you get any comfort in believing that, all
right, but I cannot accept such a biological miracle.” If you tell him that
Christ died for our sins on Calvary’s cross, that there He shed His blood for
our redemption, he will smile again and say, “Rather an old-fashioned idea, that
idea of blood atonement. I notice in my studies it has quite a large place in
all the ancient religions, but of course I do not see it at all.” As Paul said
in 2 Corinthians 4:3, “If our gospel be hid, it is hid to them that are lost.”
If you talk to the natural man about the physical resurrection of our Lord Jesus
Christ, he will say, “Of course it does not make very much difference whether
His body rose; that is a small thing. His principles have been resurrected after
being rejected by the men of His day, and those principles abide. If we follow
the rules He laid down, everything will be all right.”
It is only as the Spirit of God lays hold of the natural man and enables him to
see his lost condition that the gospel appeals to him. Believing it, he ceases
to be a natural man; he is no longer to be placed in that category. He may be a
babe in Christ, but he is a Christian. As you think of the category of
Christian, you may ask, “Are all Christians alike?” Paul’s comments in 1
Corinthians 3:1 seem to suggest that there are two classes of Christians: the
spiritual and the carnal. Who are the spiritual? They are those who walk in a
spiritual way, who are guided by the Spirit of God. The highest part of man is
in ascendancy in a spiritual man. Self does not predominate in him, for he lives
to glorify Christ.
Paul said, “He that is spiritual judgeth all things, yet he himself is judged of
no man” (1 Corinthians 2:15). The word translated “judgeth” here is translated
“discerned” in 1 Corinthians 2:14, so 1 Corinthians 2:15 could be rendered, “He
that is spiritual discerneth all things, yet he himself is discerned of no man.”
What did the apostle mean? He meant that the spiritual man is able to see the
difference between what is of God and what is of man, between what is of the
flesh and what is of the Spirit, and between what is of the new nature and what
is of the old nature. The spiritual man is discerning, but he cannot be
discerned. Other men cannot understand him if they are not spiritual. They say,
“He is a strange kind of man. He does not seem to be actuated by the same
motives as other men. He is not dominated by the principles that dominate other
men.” Sometimes they even say, as they did in Hosea’s day, “The spiritual man is
mad” (Hosea 9:7); in other words, “He is not normal.” Of course he is not normal
according to the present world’s value system, for he is controlled by a higher
power. One of those old New England philosophers wrote, “If I do not seem to
keep step with others, it is because I am listening to a different drumbeat,”
and if a man of God does not seem to keep step with the carnal and the worldly
and the Christless, the reason is that his ear is attuned to Heaven and he is
getting his instructions from above.
I remember reading a long time ago a little poem that seems to me to bring out
very preciously what should characterize the spiritual man:
There is no glory halo around his devoted head, No luster marks the sacred path
in which his footsteps tread; But holiness is graven upon his thoughtful brow,
And all his steps are ordered in the light of heaven e’en now.
He often is peculiar and oft misunderstood, And yet his power is felt by both
the evil and the good, And he doth live in touch with heaven a life of faith and
prayer, His hope, his confidence, his joy, his all are centered there. Would you
like to be a spiritual man or a spiritual woman? If you would, there is a price
to pay. You must surrender your own will; you must yield yourself unreservedly
to the control of the indwelling Holy Spirit of God. That means putting an end
to all human ambitions. Thenceforth it will make no difference what men may
think or say, for you will have only One to please, and that is the Lord Jesus
Christ.
Some Christians talk a lot about surrender and spirituality, but they reveal by
their demeanor the carnality that controls them. Paul went on to describe
carnality in 1 Corinthians 3:1-23.
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CHAPTER 69: 05.03. THE TEMPLE OF GOD
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The Temple Of God As previously noted, in 1 Corinthians 2:14-16; 1 Corinthians
3:1-8 Paul presented three kinds of men: the natural, the carnal, and the
spiritual. He introduced the natural man and the spiritual man in 1 Corinthians
2:14-16, and in chapter 3 he introduced the carnal man.
Carnal Christians (1 Corinthians 3:1-8)
Paul wrote to the Corinthians, “I, brethren, could not speak unto you as unto
spiritual, but as unto carnal.” Let us look at the word “carnal.” The Greek word
translated “carnal” is an adjective form of the word meaning “flesh.” The term
“flesh,” as used doctrinally in Scripture, refers not to human flesh as such,
but to the nature that we have received from Adam-“That which is born of the
flesh is flesh” (John 3:6).
Now in Biblical terms a carnal man, strange as it may seem, is a believer. There
are many such persons. The carnal man has been regenerated, he has received a
new nature, and his spirit has been quickened into newness of life. That spirit
that fell into the basement is being elevated into its proper place by divine
power, but the man is still under the control of that old fleshly nature in
large measure. Many a Christian’s life is made up of mingled victories and
defeats. As he walks with God, as he takes the place of lowliness and
humiliation before God, as he feeds on the Word, and as he breathes the
atmosphere of prayer, his spiritual life is developed and he grows in grace and
in the knowledge of God. But if this believer is slothful in availing himself of
the means of grace, he may find that even after being saved for some years, he
is still far from being the kind of Christian that the Lord wants him to be.
What does Scripture say about the carnal believer? In 1 Corinthians 3:3 we read:
“Ye are yet carnal: for whereas there is among you envying, and strife, and
divisions [factions], are ye not carnal, and walk as men?” Let’s say that you
enjoy making the acquaintance of a fellow Christian, one who has really trusted
the Lord Jesus Christ, but as you get to know him more intimately, you find he
is a very selfish person. He is delightful to be with as long as he can have his
own way. As long as he can run everything to suit himself, he is perfectly happy
and agreeable, but if you cross him in the least degree, if you suggest
something that is contrary to his own desires, at once there is a stirring of
the flesh within him; and he is shown to be a carnal man because there is
strife.
Think of the Lord Jesus Christ. No matter how He was treated, He was always the
meek and lowly One. His enemies could not rouse His temper by ill-treatment, and
yet He had a temper. A spiritual Christian is not one who has no temper. Just as
a knife amounts to very little if not properly tempered, the Christian amounts
to nothing if he is not properly tempered. We read of our Lord Jesus Christ
being angry. Once when He was in a synagogue on a sabbath day, a poor man with a
withered hand was there, and His enemies watched Him to see whether He would
heal him on the sabbath. He asked them, “Is it lawful to do good on the sabbath
days…?” and when they would not answer Him, He “looked round about on them with
anger, being grieved for the hardness of their hearts” (Mark 3:1-5).
What made Him angry? It was their hypocrisy. Hypocrisy always provoked the
indignation of the Lord Jesus Christ. They could heap every insult on Him they
desired; that never roused Him to anger. But when they heaped insults on one of
the least of His children, that stirred Him to the very depths of His being.
When Saul of Tarsus was persecuting the Christians, Christ Jesus spoke to him
and said, “Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me?” (Acts 9:4) He never talked that
way to people when they ill-treated Him on earth, but when they ill-treat His
own while He is in glory, He feels it keenly. When you find a Christian who is
quick to resent what you do to him but not at all quick to resent what is done
to others, you may be sure he is still carnal.
Envy is another mark of carnality. We are members of one body. If I and every
other Christian are really members of the same body, I ought to be delighted
when my brothers in Christ are honored (just as delighted as I would be if I
were the one being honored) and I ought to be deeply concerned when my brothers
are distressed and in trouble (just as concerned as I would be if I were in
their place). Scripture says that if “one member be honoured, all the members
rejoice with it” (1 Corinthians 12:26). And we are exhorted to “rejoice with
them that do rejoice, and weep with them that weep” (Romans 12:15).
How different it often is! I can do something reasonably well, but someone
else’s work is preferred before mine, so I cannot appreciate what he does. I
think I can preach a good sermon, but someone else’s preaching is enjoyed more
than mine, so instead of saying, “Thank God for the way He is using His
servant,” I sit in a corner and think, What is it that makes the people so
interested? I don’t see anything in that kind of preaching. When I do this, I am
carnal, and if you cannot enjoy having someone else preferred above you, you are
carnal.
Some carnal men are faction-makers, division-makers; they try to bring in strife
among the people of God. At Corinth the Christians were divided into little
cliques, saying, “I am of Paul; and another, I am of Apollos.” Everyone had his
favorite and Paul said in effect, “That is just carnality. When you go on like
that, you are acting like little babies.” Christians would be ashamed if they
realized that when they compare one with another and say unkind things about
some and laud others to the skies, their words sound like baby-talk.
Paul was telling us that such talk only reveals carnality. He told the
Corinthians in effect, “There you are in Corinth. You have such wonderful
attainments and are so proud because you have all the spiritual gifts. Yet you
are so immature that I cannot explain the things that I would like to explain to
you. I have had to feed you with milk, and even now you are still not able to
eat meat. You are still big babies.” The Corinthians gloried in men and in great
swelling words. Some I suppose listened to Paul and said, “We don’t get anything
out of his preaching; we learned all that years ago. Why doesn’t he go into the
deeper things?” The reason was that they were “babes in Christ.” A candidate for
the pastorate of a country church preached for the congregation on the text,
“Thou shalt not steal.” The congregation thought the sermon was great and the
pulpit committee met after the service to decide whether or not to give him a
call. Finally one of the members spoke up and said, “I don’t believe in calling
any man on the basis of one sermon. That was a fine sermon he preached, but I
think we should ask this brother to come back again before we call him.” So they
decided to ask him to come back the next Sunday.
He came back, used the same text, “Thou shalt not steal,” and preached the same
sermon. At the close of the service the committee met again and said, “He must
have forgotten that he preached that sermon last Sunday. We had better ask him
back again.” So the next Sunday he got up in the pulpit and said, “You will find
the text for my sermon in Exodus 20:1-26 : ‘Thou shalt not steal.’“ Before he
could go on, a member of the pulpit committee got up and said, “You are
forgetting that you preached that sermon here twice already; we want to hear you
preach on something else.” The preacher replied, “I am going to preach on that
text every time I come to this church until you learn to keep away from Widow
Jones’ hencoop at night.”
Paul too had to keep repeating himself. He said in effect, “I cannot unfold the
great things to you because you are still little babies. You are not developed
yet; you are just carnal.” The spiritual are a different class, walking on a
higher plane than the carnal. As believers we should be spiritual Christians,
controlled by God and guided by the Holy Spirit. The apostle wanted the
Corinthians to be spiritual and thus occupied not with man, but with Christ; so
he asked, “Who then is Paul, and who is Apollos, but ministers by whom ye
believed, even as the Lord gave to every man?” And what are ministers? They are
servants.
Just imagine a wealthy family with a number of servants-Chloe, Nellie, Tom, and
Bill-and the whole family is upset because various members are saying, “I am of
Chloe,” or “I am of Nellie,” or “I am of Tom,” and “I am of Bill.” The whole
family is divided over the servants. What absurdity!
God’s ministers are the servants of the people of God; let the people accept the
service thankfully, but never let them put the servant in the place of the
Master. Paul said, “I have planted, Apollos watered; but God gave the increase.”
The servant has no power to cause the Word to produce fruit. “So then neither is
he that planteth any thing, neither he that watereth; but God that giveth the
increase.” The servant is nothing; God is everything. “He that planteth and he
that watereth are one”; they are both just nothing-two ciphers. But put Christ
in front of the ciphers and then you have something worthwhile. However, “every
man shall receive his own reward according to his own labour.” The Test of Fire
(1 Corinthians 3:9-23) The apostle had warned the people of God against putting
His servants in a place that belongs only to the blessed Lord. Every minister is
simply what that name implies: a servant. The danger is that the servant will be
exalted and the Master lost sight of, or that the servant will be so censored
and blamed that the message will be refused and the Master dishonored. The
servants in themselves are nothing but channels through whom God speaks to His
people. The important thing is the message they bring. And so now Paul spoke of
himself and his fellow servants as “labourers together with God.”
God could do all His work without us. He does not need to use us to spread His
gospel. He could write it in letters of fire across the heavens or He could send
angels of glory to preach the “unsearchable riches of Christ” (Ephesians 3:8),
just as He sent them to proclaim the birth of Christ and direct the shepherds to
Bethlehem’s manger. The wonderful thing is that He has chosen to give to us the
privilege of making known the riches of His grace-a holy privilege that carries
with it a heavy responsibility. This responsibility should lead every servant of
Christ to ask himself, “Am I really in touch with God? Am I seeking my own
interests? Can it be that I am actuated by selfish motives or vainglory? Am I
simply trying to attract attention to myself and my ministry instead of taking a
place like that of John the Baptist who, pointing the people away from himself
to Christ, said, ‘He must increase, but I must decrease’ (John 3:30)?” John’s
attitude, which was shared by Paul, will be the attitude of every true minister
of God. The laborers work “together with God”-they are not left to work in their
own strength. They are to give out their message in dependence on the indwelling
Holy Spirit, and that is the difference between preaching and worldly oratory.
An orator may take a passage from the Bible and expound on it in a most
thrilling way, but if he is not doing it in the power of the Holy Ghost, he is
not preaching. On the other hand, if a poor unlettered man stands up and
preaches the gospel in halting English but with divine power, men’s hard hearts
will be broken and they will be led to confess their sins and trust the Savior.
That is what Paul meant when he said, “The preaching of the cross is to them
that perish foolishness; but unto us which are saved it is the power of God” (1
Corinthians 1:18).
God’s servants would preach better if you prayed for them more; there would be
more response to their preaching if they were more upheld in the secret closet
of prayer by the people of God. How the apostle felt his dependence on the
prayers of God’s people! He pleaded often with the saints to remember him in
prayer that he might preach as he ought to preach. So I plead with you, for
Christ’s sake and for the sake of dying men and women, take the ministry to God
in prayer daily that those who preach the Word may proclaim it “in demonstration
of the Spirit and of power” (1 Corinthians 2:4). It is only as God works in and
through us preachers that anything is accomplished.
Turning from preachers in particular to God’s servants as a whole, Paul likened
them to a field and a building. First we read, “Ye are God’s husbandry [tilled
field].” You remember how the Lord Jesus Christ used similar figurative language
in Matthew 13:1-58. The sower sowed the Word, and the people who believed it
were like wheat in a field. So a tilled field of wheat is a beautiful picture of
God’s people. One lovely thing to notice in that picture is that the heads of
wheat rising up toward the sun are much the same height. Likewise we are all
“members one of another”; one is not to tower above the other, but together we
are to bring forth fruit to the glory of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Then we read, “Ye are God’s building.” The building in 1 Corinthians 3:9 is
really the temple referred to in 1 Corinthians 3:16 : “Know ye not that ye are
the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you?” When Solomon
built his temple, he built it on the solid rock of mount Moriah. The hilly
nature of the terrain made it necessary to create a level foundation, so stones
were collected in the quarries below and brought up to make a great platform for
the building to stand on. Thus when the apostle said, “Ye are God’s building,”
he meant that the church of God collectively is the temple of God. In 1
Corinthians 3:16 Paul was not speaking of the individual. In 1 Corinthians 6:19
he was; there he wrote, “What? know ye not that your body is the temple of the
Holy Ghost which is in you?” And in one sense you are a temple of God apart from
every other believer, but in 3:16 the apostle was speaking of the assembly of
God, which as a whole constitutes the temple of God, “the church of the living
God, the pillar and ground of the truth” (1 Timothy 3:15).
Continuing the comparison to the temple in 1 Corinthians 3:10, Paul said, “I
have laid the foundation.” Just as a foundation was laid before the temple was
erected, Paul came to Corinth and by preaching the Word laid the foundation of
the church; that is, he was used to bring the first members into the church of
God in that locality. Very few of us can do foundation work like that these
days. Our missionaries often have that privilege-they usually do not have to
build on another man’s foundation-but most of us work where the foundation has
already been laid.
Paul laid the foundation in Corinth-it did not need to be laid again-and others
were building on it, but the apostle warned, “Let every man take heed how he
buildeth thereupon.” In other words, they should preach the truth of God in the
power of the Holy Ghost and not allow unscriptural and worldly and carnal things
to mar the work that the Spirit of God was doing.
Paul continued, “Now if any man build upon this foundation gold, silver,
precious stones, wood, hay, stubble…” The word translated “precious” in 1
Corinthians 3:12 should be translated “costly,” so “precious stones” refers not
to diamonds and rubies, but to the great and costly stones built into the temple
of old. Paul was saying that converts should be added onto the foundation of the
spiritual temple of the Lord, for if unconverted, worldly, careless people are
brought in, they will hurt and hinder the work of Christ.
1 Corinthians 3:12 primarily has to do with building up the church through the
servants of God, but if you apply the words to each individual believer, the
same principle abides. If you are a Christian, you rest on the one foundation,
Christ, and you are building a life, a character. How are you building and with
what are you building? You may build with gold, which speaks of divine
righteousness; silver, which speaks of redemption; and costly stones, which
speak of that which will stand the test of that coming day. On the other hand,
you may build with wood, hay, and stubble. Wood may be fashioned to be very
beautiful and has a certain value attached to it; hay, though less valuable than
wood, has a measure of worth because it contains nourishment; stubble is utterly
worthless. Wood, hay, and stubble speak of life-building materials that will not
stand the test of fire. Stubble should have no place whatever in the lives of
the people of God. How are you building?
God takes care of us so marvelously. When we wonder how we are ever going to get
through, God brings us through. We have found that the things we have worried
about should have just been left with Him. Someone has well said, “I have had a
great many troubles in my life, but most of them never happened.” God has been
so gracious. Is this not a good time to look back and take stock? How have you
been building?
Everything in our lives that has glorified God will be looked on in that day of
testing as the gold that has His approval. If we have acted like men and women
redeemed by the precious blood of Christ, our actions will shine out as silver.
All things that have been in accordance with the Word and have sprung from the
renewed nature that we have through grace, will be like costly stones built into
the edifices of our lives.
How have you been building? Do you see a great many things that make you pause
and say, “There has been so much selfishness, so much carnality, so much
downright bad temper, and so much that is unchristlike”? Then, dear believer, go
to God and judge all these things in His presence, and they will be burned up
now and you won’t have to face them later. If you do not judge them now, you
will have to face them at the judgment seat of Christ. “If we would judge
ourselves, we should not be judged” (1 Corinthians 11:31). We are called to
confess all the things that the Spirit shows us are merely of the flesh. A great
deal that is called Christian work is done in the energy of the flesh. It is not
done for the glory of God at all. What motives actuate us? How do we feel if
others are preferred before us? Asking ourselves these questions is a good way
to test ourselves to see whether what we are doing is for the Lord. Only that
which is done for Christ will be rewarded in that day. He Himself will point out
the differences.
“Every man’s work shall be made manifest,” Paul said. He was referring not to
the judgment of the great white throne, but to the judgment seat of Christ,
before which believers will stand at the Lord’s coming. “The day [the day of
Christ] shall declare it, because it shall be revealed by fire.” Paul was
referring to the purging, testing fire of divine approval, discernment, and
righteousness, for He is going to judge everything by His standards, not by
ours. “The fire shall try every man’s work of what sort it is.” I beg of you,
consider that little word s-o-r-t. The apostle did not say “how much it
is”-there may be much that amounts to very little in that day. He said “of what
sort it is.” It is the character of our work that counts; the motives that lie
behind our service are what matter. The secrets of the heart are to be revealed.
God will test everything in the light of His own truth.
It is a great comfort, when you cannot do all you would like to do, to know that
if your work is of the right character, you will be rewarded just the same. This
lovely thought reminds me of the story of the dear woman who anointed the feet
of the Lord. When others objected, Jesus said, “She hath done what she could”
(Mark 14:8). Is that what the Lord will be able to say of you in that day? “He
hath done what he could”? “She hath done what she could”? And then I do like the
word that the Lord spoke to David when he wanted to build a temple to the Lord,
but God would not allow him to do so. The Lord said, “Thou didst well that it
was in thine heart” (1 Kings 8:18).
Possibly there is a sister in Christ who wanted to be a foreign missionary, but
because of poor health was not able to go. Perhaps she was a semi-invalid at
home for years and was only able to write kind and helpful letters to those in
distress or give of her slender means to others so that they could take the
gospel to the ends of the world. She might say, “I feel as though my life has
amounted to so little; I wanted to be a missionary, and instead of that I have
lived this humdrum existence.” I would tell her, “Do not be discouraged; if what
you did was done for Christ, He will say, ‘She hath done what she could; thou
didst well that it was in thine heart.’“
Perhaps there is a brother in Christ who as a young man thought, How I would
like to go into the ministry; how I would love to devote my life to proclaiming
the gospel! But that would have required years of preparation and study, and
during those years when he would like to have been going to school, he had an
aged mother depending on him, or he had to be the wage earner of the family
because his father was sick. And so he toiled on to help those dear ones, and
now he says, “Well, I have missed it; my life has not been the kind I wanted it
to be; I wanted to be a minister of the gospel and here I have had to live in
this matter-of-fact kind of way, handling butter and eggs, working in an
office.” My response would be, “My dear brother, the Lord has taken note of all
that self-denying care you have given your father or mother, and He is not going
to lose sight of any of it. In that coming day He will say, ‘Thou didst well
that it was in thine heart,’ and He will give you the same kind of reward you
would have earned if you could have gone out and preached the gospel.”
It is the heart God looks at-“of what sort it is.” God grant that our work may
be of the right sort.
Paul said, “If any man’s work abide which he hath built thereupon, he shall
receive a reward.” This reward is in addition to salvation. We are saved by
grace, but the reward is for faithful service. Of course the reward too is of
grace, for we cannot earn anything but by divine power. The Lord enables us and
then rewards us. So after we are saved, there is superabounding grace. On the
other hand, Paul said that “if any man’s work shall be burned, he shall suffer
loss.” What does that mean? It means that in that day I will come before the
Lord and He will review my life from the day His grace saved me. As my life
passes like a panorama before me, He will give a reward for everything that was
the outworking of His Holy Spirit, for everything that was in accordance with
His Word. He will gather that which was for His glory together and say, “I am
going to reward you for that.” But He will bring everything to light that was of
self, that was contrary to the Spirit of Christ, and say, “All that is just so
much lost time. If you had devoted all that time to My glory, I could have
rewarded you, but I cannot reward you for that which did not please Me. But I am
going to burn it up, and you will never hear of it again for all eternity.”
There will be nothing left but that which brought glory to the Lord Jesus
Christ.
Suppose that in that day it is revealed that someone has done nothing to glorify
Him; he has trusted Him as his Savior but his life has amounted to nothing. Paul
said that such a person “shall suffer loss: but he himself shall be saved; yet
so as by fire.”
Let’s say that you have a beautiful home. You have spent a long time in building
it, but one night it catches fire and you wake up to find flames roaring through
the halls. You leap out of the window and are saved, but the house is burned up.
That is an illustration of what will happen to many a believer whose life has
amounted to nothing. If his life and testimony have been wasted, there will be
no reward, but the believer himself will be saved, “yet so as by fire.”
Look at Lot. He spent years in Sodom building up a great reputation and even
became a judge, but he had no business being there. We read, “That righteous
man…in seeing and hearing, vexed his righteous soul from day to day with their
unlawful deeds” (2 Peter 2:8). Abraham’s soul was not daily thus distressed.
Why? Because he was not there at all; he was separated from the lawlessness.
Finally God destroyed Sodom with fire and saved Lot-“so as by fire.” Everything
he had lived for was burned up. Believer, what a solemn thing it would be if
that should be true of you or of me when the blessed Lord takes account of our
service! The apostle presented an extreme case in 1 Corinthians 3:15, but in 1
Corinthians 4:5 he showed that actually no believer will lose everything. There
Paul said, “Judge nothing before the time, until the Lord come, who both will
bring to light the hidden things of darkness, and will make manifest the
counsels of the hearts: and then shall every man have praise of God.” God will
find something in every believer’s life that He can reward-some little act of
unselfishness, some feeble testimony for Himself. Everything that was of the
Spirit will be rewarded in that day. But Paul used strong language in 1
Corinthians 3:15 to help us distinguish between salvation, which is of grace
alone, and reward which is related to service. So Paul spoke of various members
of the church of God: those who build with gold, silver, and precious stones;
and others who build with wood, hay, and stubble. Then in 1 Corinthians 3:16-17
he spoke of a third group: those who “defile the temple of God.” Paul was now
referring to those who are the enemies of God’s truth, who attempt to destroy
His church, who seek to ruin the work of the Lord-men from the outside who creep
in. I tremble when I think of what will happen to men who profess to be servants
of Christ and ministers of God, but despise His Book and deny every fundamental
truth of Holy Scripture. For filthy lucre’s sake they get into pulpits of
orthodox churches and instead of building with gold, silver, and precious
stones, they build with wood, hay, and stubble, thus destroying as much as they
can of the temple of God. God said in effect, “I will destroy them; they will
have to account to Me by-and-by.”
I dwell on 1 Corinthians 3:16-17 because some have misunderstood the passage and
have thought of the temple as the temple of the human body. They have thought
the verses might mean that if someone fell into some kind of habit that defiled
the body, God would destroy him. If you allow yourself to indulge in any habit
that injures your body, you will have to answer for that, but in these verses
the apostle was talking about the temple that is the church of the living God.
Paul went on to write about “the wisdom of this world.” Note that he was not
writing about the knowledge of this world. Knowledge is perfectly right and
proper-gain all you can. But the wisdom-the philosophy, the reasoning-of this
world is foolishness in the eyes of God, “for it is written, He taketh the wise
in their own craftiness.” Men may think they are very wise, but God is ahead of
them. Because He has “made foolish the wisdom of this world” (1 Corinthians
1:20), how absurd it is for Christians to glory in the wisdom of man.
“Let no man glory in men,” Paul wrote, “for all things are yours.” Christians
have been given title to a fortune. We are rich beyond our wildest dreams. “All
things” includes “Paul, or Apollos, or Cephas [the ministers of Christ], or the
world, or life, or death, or things present, or things to come.” Is the world
mine? Yes, because “the earth is the Lord’s, and the fulness thereof (Psalms
24:1). This is my Father’s world and I can say, “Thank God, it all belongs to
me, and I am going to reign over it some day.” Is life mine? Yes, life is mine;
in life I can glorify God. Is death mine? Yes, death is the servant that will
usher me into the presence of the Lord. Are “things present” mine? Yes, they are
all mine-the trials, the difficulties, and the perplexities as well as the happy
things. Are “things to come” mine? Yes, and what riches are soon to be revealed!
“All are yours; And ye are Christ’s; and Christ is God’s.” What a wonderful
culmination to this chapter that emphasizes our responsibility!
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CHAPTER 70: 05.04. THE MINISTERS OF CHRIST
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The Ministers Of Christ Stewards of the Mysteries of God (1 Corinthians 4:1-5)
As we have seen, there was a tendency to factionalism and sectionalism in the
church at Corinth because the Christians were rallying round various leaders and
exalting them instead of recognizing that those leaders, evangelists, pastors,
and teachers were simply servants of Christ who were given by God for the
blessing of the whole church. In 1 Corinthians 3:1-23 Paul sought to put the
servants of Christ in their right place in the minds of the saints at Corinth. 1
Corinthians 4:1-21 follows very naturally, for it concerns the responsibility of
the servants of Christ. Paul wrote, “Let a man so account of us, as of the
ministers of Christ, and stewards of the mysteries of God.”
We are inclined to go to one extreme or the other: either we laud and praise and
overestimate the ability and character of God’s servants, or we set them at
naught and disdain the instruction and help God intended them to give. God would
have us take the middle course, not foolishly flattering His servants, but
recognizing that we have a great responsibility toward them as they seek to
fulfill their responsibility toward us. “They watch for [our] souls, as they
that must give account” (Hebrews 13:17) and we are not to be angry or indignant
if they have serious things to say to us at times concerning worldliness,
carelessness, and carnality. Rather we are to judge ourselves in the light of
the Word of God that they bring to us, for they are ministers of Christ.
Notice that in 1 Corinthians 4:1, Paul did not use the word “servant,” which he
used so frequently in his Epistles in the sense of “bond servant.” Instead he
used a word that conveys the thought of an official minister who has been
specially appointed to a particular service. When Paul said, “Let a man so
account of us,” he was linking himself not only with Cephas, who was an apostle,
but also with Apollos, who was not. Apollos, that “eloquent man, and mighty in
the scriptures” who first preached “only the baptism of John,” was not above
being instructed by a godly woman and her husband, Priscilla and Aquila; when
Apollos had learned the gospel more fully from them, he went forth to preach
with greater liberty and power (Acts 18:24-28). Paul said in effect, “Do not put
Peter, Apollos, and me on pedestals and form parties around us. Think of us as
official ministers of Christ. We are sent with a commission from the Most High
to proclaim His Word, and we are responsible to do it faithfully. We are
stewards of the mysteries of God.” A steward is one who is entrusted with
certain things that he is to use for the benefit of others. Paul wrote of such
things to Timothy: “That good thing [deposit] which was committed unto thee keep
by the Holy Ghost which dwelleth in us” (2 Timothy 1:14). God had committed His
truth to Paul, and he was responsible to teach it faithfully. We too have been
made stewards of the divine mysteries.
We have seen that the New Testament mysteries are not abstruse truths that are
difficult to understand, but sacred secrets that had not been known in previous
ages. In Deuteronomy 29:29 we hear Moses speaking to the people of Israel on the
plains of Moab just before they went over the Jordan to take possession of the
promised land; he says, “The secret things belong unto the Lord our God.” But
when our Lord Jesus Christ came into the world, he uttered “things which have
been kept secret from the foundation of the world” (Matthew 13:35), and before
He left His apostles He said:
I have yet many things to say unto you, but ye cannot bear them now. Howbeit
when he, the Spirit of truth, is come, he will guide you into all truth: for he
shall not speak of himself; but whatsoever he shall hear, that shall he speak:
and he will shew you things to come (John 16:12-13). And so the truth revealed
by the Holy Ghost in our dispensation constitutes the mysteries, the sacred
secrets, that the servants of God are now to make known. What are some of the
mysteries?
There is the mystery of the gospel, that grand and wondrous truth that the mind
of man would never have ferreted out if God had not revealed it-“God was in
Christ, reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing their trespasses unto
them” (2 Corinthians 5:19). The good news is that Christ on the cross died “to
put away sin by the sacrifice of himself”; that having been “delivered for our
offences, [He] was raised again for our justification” (Hebrews 9:26; Romans
4:25). Now in resurrection life He sends the message out into all the world that
he that “believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life” (John
3:16). This is God’s great secret. Man never would have thought of it.
I know that the gospel is from God, for I am somewhat familiar with almost all
of the religious systems prevalent in the world, and apart from that which is
revealed in the Bible, not one of those systems ever intimates that God Himself
should provide a righteousness for sinful man. They all demand a righteousness
from man and simply point out different ways by which men are supposed to work
out for themselves a righteousness that will make them fit for God. The gospel
alone explains the mystery of how righteousness is provided for men who never
could obtain it themselves. Our Lord Jesus Christ “is made unto us wisdom,
[even] righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption” (1 Corinthians 1:30)
and we are stewards of this great mystery of the gospel.
There is also the mystery of godliness or piety-that is, the great mystery of
the incarnation of our Lord Jesus, who was God and man here on earth in one
person. We read in Matthew 11:27, “No man knoweth the Son, but the Father;
neither knoweth any man the Father, save the Son, and he to whomsoever the Son
will reveal him.” It is utterly impossible for human intelligence to understand
the union of deity and humanity, yet this mystery is plain to us who believe. We
simply accept the revelation that God has given and end all questioning. People
talk about “the problem of Christ.” Christ is not a problem; He is the key to
every problem. Everything else is made plain when we know Christ in whom
dwelleth “all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge” (Colossians 2:3).
Another mystery that Paul wrote about is the great mystery of Christ and the
church. The apostle compared their relationship to that of a body and its head,
and to that of a bride and a bridegroom. The glorified Lord Jesus Christ is
characterized as the Head of the body, and every believer indwelt by the Holy
Spirit as a member of that body, which thus becomes “the fulness of him that
filleth all in all” (Ephesians 1:23).
Christ is also characterized as a bridegroom, and the church as His bride. What
a beautiful picture! We are told that He who made Adam and Eve in the beginning
made them male and female and “therefore shall a man leave his father and his
mother, and shall cleave unto his wife: and they shall be one flesh” (Genesis
2:24), and in speaking about this marriage relationship, Paul said, “This is a
great mystery: but I speak concerning Christ and the church” (Ephesians 5:32).
Linked with this is the mystery of the rapture and that of the olive tree-that
is, Israel’s present rejection and future regeneration. These various mysteries
are the revelation to us of things kept secret from the foundation of the world.
To unfold these mysteries is the responsibility given to Christ’s servants, yet
how few who take the place of being ministers of Christ fulfill that
responsibility!
Paul went on to say, “It is required in stewards, that a man be found faithful.”
The business of a steward is not to electrify people by his eloquent sermons,
not to dazzle them by his wonderful ability, not to please them with his
rhetoric, not to speak in words that will simply be to them as a “lovely song of
one that hath a pleasant voice, and can play well on an instrument” (Ezekiel
33:32). The business of a servant of Christ is to open up the truth of God, to
unfold, expound, make known these mysteries so that the people of God will
appreciate the heritage that He has given them in His Word. In fulfilling this
ministry, the servant of Christ may open himself up to criticism, but that
should not deter him. The apostle said to the Corinthians, “With me it is a very
small thing that I should be judged of you, or of man’s judgment: yea, I judge
not mine own self.” In other words he was saying, “As long as I am faithful in
opening up the Word of God, I am not concerned about whether my sermons
particularly appeal to you. As long as I know that I am pleasing Him who sent
me, I am not greatly disturbed if I displease you.” The Corinthians appreciated
eloquence, oratory, and other special gifts, and they said of the apostle Paul,
“His bodily presence is weak, and his speech contemptible” (2 Corinthians
10:10). But he could say, “Well, that doesn’t trouble me at all. Did I give you
God’s truth? That is what I am concerned about. Your appraisal does not matter
to me in the least.” Paul was not bothered by “man’s judgment” (1 Corinthians
4:3). The term translated “judgment” here can also be translated “day,” so the
phrase would be “man’s day,” which is the entire period of time lasting from the
rejection of Christ until He comes back again. During this period God is letting
men try out one scheme after another to see what they can make of a world out of
which they have cast the Lord Jesus Christ.
Paul did not even attempt to appraise his own service. He felt he had no right
to say, “Well, I think I did pretty well today; that was an excellent address.”
Self-appraisal can encourage the pride of the natural heart, or it can make a
person so depressed that he throws himself down under a juniper tree and says,
“It was all a failure; I certainly did make a mess of things.” No servant of God
is capable of appraising his own service. That which he thinks was excellent may
have been just so much wasted time. That which he thinks was wasted time may
have been just the right message for the moment.
Then we read, “I know nothing by myself.” A more accurate translation is, “I
know nothing against myself.” Paul was not conscious of anything of a harmful
character in his ministry. “Yet am I not hereby justified,” he said, for he may
have been blundering even when he did not realize it. “He that judgeth
[appraiseth] me,” the apostle added, “is the Lord.” The Lord appraises
everything rightly in accordance with His own holy Word.
Then Paul warned the saints against attempting to get on the judgment seat. It
is not our place. “Judge nothing before the time,” he said. What time? He meant
the time when the Lord comes back. When He returns He is going to examine
carefully all the service of His people. He will distinguish between the
precious and the vile; He will separate the gold, silver, and precious stones
from the wood, hay, and stubble. He will pronounce correct judgment on the
labors of His ministers. You and I cannot do that now, so it is better for us
just to wait. The Lord will “bring to light the hidden things of darkness, and
will make manifest the counsels of the hearts.” That is what you and I cannot
do; we can hear what comes from the lips or note the actions, but we do not know
the hidden springs behind the words and deeds. When the Lord Jesus examines all
our labors, He will bring everything to light. If there was envy and jealousy
and pride and carnality, he will drag it all out into the light. Many a sermon
that sounded very beautiful, that was almost perfect as a piece of oratory, will
be shown to have been utterly spoiled by the pride that was behind it. The Lord
will show where there was earnest preaching to glorify Him, even though the
speech was faltering and the expressions used were not all they should have
been. He looks on the heart, not merely on the outward appearance.
Observe, however, what Paul added: “Then shall every man,” and he is speaking of
believers, “have praise of God.” You might say, “Oh dear, I can do so little,
for I do not seem to have any gifts. I am afraid there won’t be anything the
Lord can reward me for in that day.” But if you are in Christ, the Holy Spirit
of God is dwelling in you, and in that coming day it will be revealed that every
Christian has accomplished something for God, something for which he can be
rewarded.
Once when I preached that every Christian will receive a reward, a brother came
up to me at the close of the meeting and said, “Didn’t you go a little strong
there?”
I said, “No, I do not think I did.”
“Well,” he said, “think of the dying thief; that man was saved just as he hung
by the side of Christ. What opportunity did he have to do anything for which to
get a reward?”
“Why, my dear brother,” I said, “think of the dying thief again. There he hung
nailed to a cross; he could not move a hand or a foot, but he recognized in the
man on the central cross the coming King of the ages and said, ‘Lord, remember
me when thou comest into thy kingdom.’ The thief turned to his fellow and
rebuked him and bore witness to the perfection of Christ: ‘We [suffer] justly;
for we receive the due reward of our deeds: but this man hath done nothing
amiss’ (Luke 23:41-42). At the judgment seat of Christ I think I see that
redeemed man coming before his Lord, and saying to himself as he comes, “I was
saved only a few minutes before my Savior died, and I had no opportunity to
serve Him or to witness for Him. I cannot expect any reward.” And then I think I
hear my Lord saying, “Every one present who was converted through some sermon
you heard about the dying thief, come here.” And I imagine I see them coming
until there are thousands and thousands of them, and I see my blessed Lord
turning to that man and saying, “I want to give you this crown of rejoicing for
all these souls that you have helped to win to a knowledge of My salvation.” Do
you not see it? “Then shall every man have praise of God.”
True Apostolic Succession (1 Corinthians 4:6-16) A great deal is said in certain
circles about a ministry that can date back to the days of the apostles, the
first followers of our Lord Jesus Christ. According to this definition of
apostolic succession, the ordination given to the apostles has been passed on
through their successors, one clergyman after another down through the centuries
without a break to the present time-as though that in itself would confer any
particular grace on them! Undoubtedly Charles Spurgeon was right when he said,
“When men count on receiving the Holy Spirit through the laying on of hands and
because of any fancied apostolic succession, you can depend upon it, it is just
a case of empty hands laid on empty heads.” Even if we could show an
uninterrupted line from apostolic days to the present time, there would be no
merit in anything like that. As we read 1 Corinthians 4:6-16 we will see what
true apostolic succession is.
Earlier in the Epistle the apostle warned against making overmuch of the
servants of God. He indicated that in Corinth they were divided into sections in
the local church because some were saying, “I am of Apollos,” while others were
saying, “I am of Paul” or “I am of Cephas,” and some were even making Christ the
head of their party and boasting that they were “of Christ,” the implication
being that the others were not “of Christ.”
Now he wrote, “These things, brethren, I have in a figure transferred to myself
and to Apollos for your sakes.” He meant that it may not actually have been his
name or the name of Apollos or that of Cephas that was being used in this
sectarian way, but he put himself and Apollos, his fellow laborer who was
thoroughly of one mind with him, to the front and used the names Paul and
Apollos as illustrations to help reprove the tendency to sectarianism among the
people of God.
Paul explained to the Corinthians why he used these names as illustrations:
“That ye might learn in us not to think of men above that which is written.” The
words “of men” are italicized because they were added by the translators who
thought something was needed to help make the meaning of the Greek text clear.
The clause has also been translated like this: “That you might learn in us
nothing above that which is written.” In other words, “You are not to put men in
such a place of authority that you rally to them and to their instruction, and
are carried away with admiration for their abilities, and forget that they as
well as you have to be tested by that which is written.” The basic question is,
What is written? The Bible is just as open to you readers as it is to the
learned doctors and great commentators; in this respect you “need not that any
man teach you,” for the Holy Spirit will teach you concerning all things as you
ponder over the Word of God (1 John 2:27). The reason that so many people
constantly refer to the thoughts of others, men like themselves, is that there
is so little real familiarity with the Book. God has given His written Word, and
any extraneous thoughts of even the best teachers will be mere speculation. God
has given teachers to the church not so that they may supplant the Bible and
save His people the trouble of studying the Word for themselves, but so that
they may spur the people of God on to more intensive searching of the
Scriptures. If men get occupied with teachers, they get puffed up one against
another.
1 Corinthians 4:6 suggests that for believers to attach themselves to people who
have certain gifts and neglect others who may also have special ministries from
God, is to become very one-sided. Consider the Christian who says, “I am not
interested in teaching; I like the preaching of the gospel. I like to go to
evangelistic meetings, but I am not interested in attending Bible studies.” Such
a person, being only partially developed, is very easily carried away by all
kinds of winds of doctrine. Wherever there is plenty of emotional appeal and a
great deal of enthusiasm and excitement, he is present; but when thought and
meditation will be required, he stays away. Believers like him lose a great
deal.
Another type of Christian speaks sneeringly and slightingly of evangelistic
efforts, of gospel preaching, and says, “I like to go to a meeting where some
able teacher unfolds the Word of God, for that builds me up in Christ, but I am
not interested when only the gospel is presented.” Only the gospel? The gospel
is the most precious thing that I know about. It is the glad, glorious message
of God’s love to a needy world. The preaching of the gospel is a very rare jewel
these days. Recently someone came up to me after a meeting and said, “How is it
that one can wander about from church to church, and go Sunday after Sunday,
month after month, and never hear the gospel? It was such a refreshment to come
in today and listen to the gospel.” The people who say “only the gospel” had
better try tramping about a bit to find out what is being preached. Perhaps
after they have sampled the rubbish that is being proclaimed in place of the
gospel, they will have a higher opinion of gospel preaching.
Someone else says, “Well, there is so-and-so; I like to hear him; he is an
exhorter and he always stirs me up. I am not interested in dry teaching.”
Teaching of course can be dry if the power of the Holy Spirit is lacking. But
mere exhortation, if not backed up by the Book, will not accomplish very much.
Yet exhortation is a gift given by the risen Christ to the church.
If one has a gift that God has given, he is to use it for the glory of God and
not to attract attention to himself. There is no reason for any servant of
Christ to exalt himself over another. Paul asked the Corinthians, “Who maketh
thee to differ from another? and what hast thou that thou didst not receive? now
if thou didst receive it, why dost thou glory, as if thou hadst not received
it?”
Then Paul turned his attention to another factor that was contributing to the
problems in Corinth. The people were not profiting from the ministry that God
had provided for them, and that was an indication of a low spiritual condition.
We learn from 1 Corinthians 4:8 that the Corinthians were settling down to enjoy
the gospel’s benefits, but ignoring its call for self-denial. They received the
good things that God’s servants brought to them, they congratulated themselves
on the fact that they were saved and going to Heaven, and then they made
themselves comfortable in this world. Paul exclaimed in effect, “You are
reigning like kings now, before the time. Already, you are full; already you are
rich.” It is true that we will reign by and by, but the reigning time has not
yet come. This is the suffering time. This is the time when we are to show our
loyalty to Christ by our identification with Him in His rejection.
Since the apostles shared in that rejection, Paul said, “I think that God hath
set forth us the apostles last, as it were appointed to death.” In other words,
“We are like men who are already under sentence of death and going out to die”
(also see 2 Corinthians 1:9). With this sentence hanging over their heads, they
went on in their devoted service. “We are made a spectacle,” Paul added in 1
Corinthians 4:9. The word translated “spectacle” here is theatron, from which we
get our English word “theater.” Paul was saying, “We apostles are like
performers on a stage. Others look at us and see something of the lowliness,
gentleness, and rejection of our Lord Jesus Christ.” The word translated “world”
in the last part of 1 Corinthians 4:9 is kosmos, which refers to the entire
universe, so Paul was saying, “We are made a spectacle to the universe, to both
angels and men.” From Heaven angels are looking down on the servants of Christ,
and here on earth men are looking at them. If Christians are proud, haughty,
self-indulgent, and self-seeking, the hearts of angels are grieved and the
hearts of men are filled with contempt. If believers are lowly, devoted,
Christlike, unworldly Christians, men recognize their reality and angels
rejoice.
Years ago when I was a young Salvation Army officer, our old colonel called us
in for an officers’ council and I will never forget his advice to us on that
occasion. He said, “Comrades, remember as you go about your work that men will
forgive you if you are not eloquent. They will forgive you if you lack culture,
if your educational privileges have been greatly curtailed, if you sometimes
murder the king’s English as you try to preach the gospel, but they will never
forgive you if they find that you are not sincere.” Men look for reality, and
the Lord looks for reality in His servants. With angels and men watching us, we
must be sincere and play our parts well to the glory of God.
Next Paul put the apostles and the Corinthians in vivid contrast. “We are fools
for Christ’s sake,” he said, “but ye are wise in Christ.” Everywhere the
apostles went, men branded them as fools because they had given up earthly
privileges. They had given up the opportunity of settling down comfortably so
that they might devote their lives to the gospel of God, and therefore the world
said, “They are throwing their lives away!” The Corinthians, on the other hand,
were settling down, making money, getting on in the world, and having a
comfortable time.
Notice the difference in the prepositions in 1 Corinthians 4:10 : “We are fools
for Christ’s sake, but ye are wise in Christ.” Paul did not say “wise for
Christ.” The Corinthians, as real Christians, were in Christ. They imagined that
they were wise too because they were holding on to a place and position in this
world, but the apostles who were counted as fools for Christ were the ones who
were really wise for Him.
Paul added, “We are weak, but ye are strong.” Oh, the irony of all this! He was
saying, “You think that you are strong and we are weak because we give our lives
to propagating the gospel.” Continuing the contrast, the apostle remarked, “Ye
are honourable, but we are despised.” In other words, “Men look up to you, for
‘men will praise thee, when thou doest well to thyself (Psalms 49:18), but we
have given up everything for Christ’s sake and of course we are despised.” In 1
Corinthians 4:11-13 Paul gave us an outline of what true apostolic testimony and
experience really were. “Even unto this present hour,” he began, “we both
hunger, and thirst, and are naked, and are buffeted, and have no certain
dwellingplace; And labour, working with our own hands.” The apostle was not the
kind of man who had such regard for “the cloth” that he would not dirty his
fingers in some temporal occupation. When there was not sufficient money to take
care of his needs, he got a job making tents. He was simply a humble servant of
Christ and was not above anything that the Lord would have him put his hand to.
“Being reviled, we bless,” Paul added. Note that he did not say, “Being reviled,
we give them as good as they give us.” He continued, “Being persecuted, we
suffer it: Being defamed, we intreat: we are made as the filth of the world, and
are the offscouring of all things unto this day.” Paul did not look on the
service of Christ as something that introduced one into high circles in cultured
society. To be a servant of Christ was to be misunderstood, to be rejected; it
meant a path of self-denial all along the way.
Why did Paul write to the Corinthians about these trials? He assured them so
tenderly, “I write not these things to shame you.” Why then? He wrote to
exercise them, to stir them up, to get them to realize how selfish their own
lives were. “But as my beloved sons I warn you,” he explained. He was saying in
effect: “You are mine. I brought you to Christ, and I grieve when I see you
forfeiting future reward for present ease. [How often the servants of Christ are
burdened like that and people do not understand!] You can take your choice. If
you want to get a place and a position in the world and be well-thought-of down
here, go on with the frivolity. But if you want to be well-thought-of up there,
and if you want to be a Christian who will really count for God, then make a
clean break with everything that would hinder fellowship with Him. You will get
far more pleasure from a prayer meeting than from a frivolous social, once you
get better acquainted with the Lord Jesus. You are my sons in the gospel and I
love you, and because I love you I warn you. You will lose out by wasting your
time in things that just appeal to the flesh instead of using that time for
self-denying service for the glory of the Lord Jesus Christ.”
Paul added in 1 Corinthians 4:15, “Though ye have ten thousand instructors in
Christ, yet have ye not many fathers: for in Christ Jesus I have begotten you
through the gospel.” The word translated “instructors” here does not mean
“teachers.” The Corinthians did not have many teachers-there have never been a
great many real teachers of the Word of God-and Paul’s intention was not to slur
teachers or speak of their gift as a very small thing. The term rendered
“instructors” means “child trainers”; it is the root of our word pedagogue. A
child may have many trainers, but only one father. Paul was saying as it were,
“You Corinthian babies have plenty of child-trainers, but only one father. I
brought you to Christ, and I am your father in Christ.”
How can we tell if people are still in spiritual babyhood? One indicator is that
they cannot enjoy the deep things of God. “I have fed you with milk,” Paul said
to the Corinthians in 1 Corinthians 3:2, “and not with meat: for hitherto ye
were not able to bear it, neither yet now are ye able.” I have known Christians
who, after being converted a number of years, say, “I am not interested in Bible
studies. They are too dry for me; I do not understand them. I like something
simple.” They give the impression that they would prefer to lie down on a couch
and be given a bottle with a nipple on it so that they can suck a little weak
truth from it. They should have been teachers themselves by this time, but they
are still babies.
Another indicator is the things with which they play. Paul said in 1 Corinthians
13:11, “When I was a child, I spake as a child, I understood as a child, I
thought as a child: but when I became a man, I put away childish things.” Many
have been converted long enough to put away all childish things and get down to
real business with God, but they are still spiritual babies. Some have been
saved so long that they ought to have a whole host of spiritual children, but
they have never yet led one soul to Christ! In a wonderful climax to the passage
in 1 Corinthians 4:6-16, Paul said, ‘Wherefore I beseech you, be ye followers of
me.” A man must live wholly for God in order to speak like that, and the apostle
did. When he stood before people and said, “I want your lives to glorify God,”
if they answered, “But we do not know what to do,” he could say, “Well then,
imitate me. As an apostle of the Lord Jesus Christ I have counted everything
loss for Him. My one desire is to glorify Him.” In 1 Corinthians 11:1 Paul said,
“Be ye followers of me, even as I also am of Christ.” That is a safe thing. That
is true apostolic succession, and if you will follow that line, you will find
apostolic blessing in your life and God will use you to win others to Christ.
Discipline in the Church (1 Corinthians 4:17-21) This first Epistle to the
Corinthians is the charter of the church and it brings before us certain
divinely-given rules and regulations for the ordering of the local churches of
God here on earth. This portion deals with the question of how to discipline an
open offender against holiness and righteousness. The church is the house of
God. When I use that word house, I do not mean a building. God’s house made of
stone and mortar was the temple at Jerusalem and He has never owned another. His
present house is made of living stones, men and women “builded together for an
habitation of God through the Spirit” (Ephesians 2:22). This house of God, this
assembly of God, is the church of the living God in this present age of grace.
Holiness becomes God’s house. He dwells in His church-that is, in the assembly
of His saints-and therefore it must be a holy assembly. That is why again and
again in the New Testament we are exhorted to absolute separation from the world
and its ways.
Sometimes when those who watch for our souls seek to prevent worldliness and
carnality and unholy things from cropping up in the church of God, they are
looked upon as censorious and harsh and possibly unkind. When they try to deal
with matters of this character, people fall back on Scripture verses like
Matthew 7:1-2 : “Judge not, that ye be not judged. For with what judgment ye
judge, ye shall be judged: and with what measure ye mete, it shall be measured
to you again.” In these particular verses, however, our Lord was speaking of the
motives of the heart. You have no right to judge my motives; I have no right to
judge your motives. If for example I see someone put a hundred-dollar bill in
the offering basket and I say to myself, “He is just trying to be ostentatious;
he did not give that out of real love for Christ,” I am wrong, for I am judging
his motive, and I have no right to do that. But the church of God is called on
to judge the unrighteous behavior of any of its members. 1 Corinthians 5:12
says, “What have I to do to judge them also that are without? do not ye judge
them that are within?” The world outside goes on its way and the church has no
jurisdiction there, but the church is responsible for the character of its
fellowship. The church is also responsible as to those who sit down together at
the table of the Lord and are involved in Christian service. Where there is
failure, the individual who fails is held responsible by God. It is a serious
thing to profess to live the life that should characterize members of the church
of God. Ours is a high and holy calling, and if we lower the standard, we are
not only dishonoring Christ individually; we are also giving the wrong testimony
to the world. The story is told of a man who wanted to hire a coachman. The man
lived in a mountainous region and the road to his home ran along a precipice. A
number of drivers applied for the position. He said to one of them, “Tell me,
are you adept at handling fractious horses?”
“Yes, I am,” the applicant replied.
“Can you drive a six-horse team?”
“Yes.”
“How near can you drive to the edge of the cliff without going over?”
“I have a steady hand and my eye is pretty true; I can get within a foot of it
and not go over.”
“You step outside,” said the man, and he called another and asked him the same
questions. This applicant answered, “I am an expert in handling horses; I can
drive right along the edge and not go over.”
“Step outside,” the man said, and he called another and quizzed him.
“If you want someone to drive on the edge of the precipice,” said this
applicant, “you do not want me. When I drive, I keep as far away from the edge
as I can.”
“You are the coachman I want,” the man responded. “I will hire you.”
Christian, be careful of the edge of the precipice. Do not get near it, for the
first thing you know, you will go over and your testimony will be ruined. And
the sad thing is that you are also liable to drag others over with you. Keep
away from the edge, and do not resent it if those who “watch for your souls, as
they that must give account” (Hebrews 13:17) try to impress on you the solemnity
of these possibilities. The apostle Paul had heard negative reports concerning
internal conditions in the church at Corinth, but he had been hindered from
getting there to deal with them. Certain carnally-minded members of the church
who knew that the apostle’s coming would probably mean that they would be
rebuked for their worldly behavior were evidently saying, “Paul is really afraid
to come to Corinth; he knows he hasn’t the influence he once had.” So Paul, who
was not afraid to come, wrote with apostolic authority, “Some are puffed up, as
though I would not come to you. But I will come shortly, if the Lord will, and
will know, not the speech of them which are puffed up, but the power.” In other
words, when he came, he was going to look into some things very carefully.
There is a tremendous amount of pretense among professing Christians-they
pretend to a piety that they do not possess and a devotedness that is not
genuine. So Paul would find out whether the power of God was working in the
Corinthians’ lives or whether it was just bravado and conceit that led them to
justify themselves. He would inquire not only about the talk of their lips but
also about the behavior that characterized them, “for the kingdom of God is not
in word, but in power.” Mere lip profession is not enough; the power of the Holy
Spirit must be demonstrated in the life. The apostle said in effect, “I want to
come to you, but do you want me to come with a rod of discipline?” He could come
as the representative of the Lord to chastise the Corinthians for their bad
behavior, or he could come in the spirit of meekness so that they and he might
sit down together over the Word of God and enjoy the precious things of Christ.
If they desired him to come in the latter way, there were some things to be
settled first, and in the subsequent chapters he told them what they were.
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CHAPTER 71: 05.05. MAINTAINING HOLINESS
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Maintaining Holiness The Unrepentant Man (1 Corinthians 5:1-5) As we have
previously noted, in the church at Corinth there were some problems that needed
to be handled, and Paul confronted them in his letter. Dealing in 1 Corinthians
5:1-13 with a particularly difficult situation, he wrote: “It is reported
commonly that there is fornication among you.” This was not merely a matter of
some individual’s gossip; it was widely known. Getting more specific, the
apostle said in effect, “You are tolerating one of the vilest forms of
immorality; even the heathen Gentiles would disapprove. One of your members has
actually taken his father’s wife [not of course his mother, but his stepmother]
as his own wife. This is an abomination in the sight of God, but you have not
recognized the wickedness of it. Rather you have prided yourselves on the
broad-mindedness that enabled you to function while a thing like that was going
on. You are puffed up when you ought to be brokenhearted.”
Even if the Corinthians felt that they did not know how to handle such a
situation, they could have been down on their knees, crying to God to intervene,
and He would have taken the wicked man out from among them. But they had not
mourned, the problem had persisted, and the evil report had reached Paul.
Therefore, as the representative of the Lord Jesus Christ, he was going to tell
them how to deal with the matter, and in so doing he was giving instruction
concerning the handling of similar questions that would come up in the future,
down through all the centuries of this dispensation.
“I verily,” wrote Paul, “as absent in body, but present in spirit, have judged
already.” In other words he was saying, “Because we are all one in the Lord, I
have looked into this matter already. I have investigated and discerned the
facts concerning him who has done this deed, and I have reached a verdict.”
Having made a judgment, the apostle gave the Corinthians the following
instructions: “In the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, when ye are gathered
together, and my spirit, with the power [or authority] of our Lord Jesus Christ,
To deliver such an one unto Satan.” What does that mean? It means that the man
should be put back into the world where Satan rules.
1 John 5:19 says, “We know that we are of God, and the whole world lieth in
wickedness [or in the wicked one].” The guilty man in Corinth was in the circle
of those who are “of God.” Someone might say, “The way to help such a person is
to keep him in the circle. Let him sit down with you at the communion table; do
not be hard on him; try to win him back; throw your arms of love about him and
sympathize with him.” But an unrepentant man will become more hardened in his
iniquity if he is kept in the circle. If he is put outside in the devil’s
domain, he will know that he has forfeited all title to a place with the people
of God.
Paul said, “Deliver such an one unto Satan for the destruction of the flesh.”
What had caused all this trouble in Corinth? The activity of the flesh. “Very
well then,” Paul said in effect, “put him out in the sphere where he will
discover that it is an evil and bitter thing to forsake the Lord his God” (see
Jeremiah 2:19). When such a person finds himself rejected by men and women who
love Christ, when he realizes that his sin is a stench in the nostrils of
Christian people, he may break before God. If, in spite of his sin, he has
really been born again, he will break. If he has been a false professor, he will
plunge deeper and deeper into evil things. So Paul commanded, “Deliver such an
one unto Satan for the destruction of the flesh, that the spirit may be saved in
the day of the Lord Jesus.” We do not like to carry out extreme commands such as
this, but it is the Word of God, and the greatest kindness that the people of
God can do to a man who is deliberately going on in willful sin is to refuse him
Christian fellowship. As long as we treat him as a brother, he will only be
puffed up in his ungodly ways and it will be even harder to reach him. But if we
obey the Word, God Himself will work toward his recovery and restoration. The
church of God is largely afraid to exercise discipline today, but where
discipline is carried out in obedience to the Word of God, the church is kept in
a condition where God can work. A Little Leaven (1 Corinthians 5:6-8)
“Your glorying is not good,” Paul pointed out. “Know ye not that a little leaven
leaveneth the whole lump?” Housewives know that. If someone takes a large bowl
of dough, inserts a little leaven, and lets it work all night, the batch will
run over onto the table by morning. Likewise if a church allows one wicked man
to go unrebuked and undealt with after the wickedness has been fully revealed,
the evil will spread like an infection-working, working, working to the ruin of
others and to the harm of the testimony of the entire church. When the apostle
urged the Corinthians to remove the leaven, he was not acting on mere hearsay;
there was definite evidence of the guilt of the accused man. Likewise the church
of God today is not to jump to conclusions; we are not to believe every rumor
that people try to circulate. There is a specific rule for us to follow:
If thy brother shall trespass against thee, go and tell him his fault between
thee and him alone: if he shall hear thee, thou hast gained thy brother. But if
he will not hear thee, then take with thee one or two more, that in the mouth of
two or three witnesses every word may be established. And if he shall neglect to
hear them, tell it unto the church: but if he neglect to hear the church, let
him be unto thee as an heathen man and a publican (Matthew 18:15-17).
If you know of definite wickedness, you should go first to the guilty person and
try to set it right. If you do not succeed, take a witness with you the next
time. Then if the guilty one still will not listen, take the matter to the
church of God and be prepared to verify all your statements. If the person will
not listen to the church, he has to be put under discipline.
Paul continued, “Purge out therefore the old leaven, that ye may be a new lump,
as ye are unleavened.” Before God the whole body is looked upon as unleavened,
for “Christ our passover is sacrificed for us.” We are men and women who began
with the blood of the cross, and like the Israelites in Egypt who were sheltered
by the blood of the Passover, we are to put all leaven away. In the Bible leaven
symbolizes wickedness. When Paul said in Galatians 5:9, “A little leaven
leaveneth the whole lump,” he was speaking of evil and unsound teaching
permeating the assembly of God.
If we have been redeemed by the precious blood of “Christ our passover,” it is
incumbent on us to recognize our responsibility to keep the feast of communion
and fellowship with Him, but not with old leaven-that is, not with the
corruption of the old nature or with unjudged malice. Our God looks for reality,
for “the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.” It is not enough to say,
“Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name?.. and in thy name done many
wonderful works?” (Matthew 7:22) All who have been redeemed must demonstrate
subjection to the Lord in their lives.
Refusing Christian Fellowship (1 Corinthians 5:9-13) In the concluding verses of
this chapter the apostle stressed the punishment that should be meted out to
evildoers who have gotten into the church. Recognizing that we cannot discipline
the world, Paul said, “I wrote unto you in an epistle not to company with
fornicators: Yet not altogether with the fornicators of this world, or with the
covetous, or extortioners, or with idolaters.” If we were to attempt to deal
with all the immorality in the world, we would have an impossible job on our
hands. The apostle’s point was that the rules apply in cases involving a man who
calls himself a brother.
Paul said, “If any man that is called a brother be a fornicator, or covetous…”
What was that? Was Paul coupling covetousness with fornication? Yes! “The love
of money is the root of all evil” (1 Timothy 6:10), and covetousness-reaching
out and grasping for wealth-is just as vile a thing in God’s sight as indulgence
in unholy lust along other lines.
Reading on, we find other examples of evil: “If any man that is called a brother
be a fornicator, or covetous, or an idolater, or a railer…” What is a railer? He
is a person who has a tongue loose at both ends and on a pivot in the middle; he
is a vicious talker, an evil speaker, one who can destroy the reputation of
another just as surely as a murderer who drives a dagger into a heart destroys a
life. “Oh,” somebody says, “I don’t mean any harm, but I am so careless with my
tongue.” What would you think of a man who goes around with a machine gun and
keeps firing away on this side and that, and when someone says, “What are you
doing?” he replies, “Oh, I don’t mean any harm, but I am so careless with this
machine gun.” A character assassin is as wicked in the sight of God as one who
takes another’s life.
There is more: “If any man that is called a brother be… a drunkard, or an
extortioner; with such an one no not to eat.” No drunkard will inherit the
kingdom of God. I would say to young readers in these permissive days that if
you never want to be a drunkard, do not yield to the pressures of a society in
which it is fashionable for everybody to drink a little bit. No man ever became
a drunkard who was not first a moderate drinker. Someone may say, “I do not
believe in total abstinence; I can take a little and it does me no harm.” But it
may do your brother harm, and Paul said, “If meat make my brother to offend, I
will eat no flesh while the world standeth” (1 Corinthians 8:13). An extortioner
is one who squeezes the poor. Perhaps he tries to cover up his sin in this way:
he squeezes the poor, makes an extra thousand dollars, and then on Sunday goes
to church and says to the pastor, “I want to donate a hundred dollars for
missions.” God would say, “Keep your dirty money; you got it the wrong way.” God
wants holy money to use in holy service. An extortioner is a wicked person and
God says we are not to sit down at the table with such an individual. Applying
that command would cut down our dinner parties considerably!
I take it that Paul was including the Lord’s table when he said, “With such an
one no not to eat.” People should be warned to stay away from the Lord’s table
if they are fornicators or covetous or idolaters or railers or drunkards or
extortioners.
Outside in the world God judges. He will deal with the unsaved in due time, but
He calls on the church of God to maintain careful discipline over its members
for the glory of the Lord Jesus Christ. His own good name is at stake. People on
the outside say, “What! Is that one of your Christians? Does he belong to Christ
and yet do thus and so?” That is one reason why the church of God is responsible
to maintain holiness in this world.
“Therefore,” Paul concluded, “put away from among yourselves that wicked
person.” Of course there is a great deal of instruction in other Scripture
passages about discipline. For example Galatians 6:1 says, “If a man be
overtaken in a fault, ye which are spiritual, restore such an one in the spirit
of meekness; considering thyself, lest thou also be tempted.” So every effort
should be made to restore the wanderer, but if he will not be restored, if he
persists in his sin, if he goes on defying the discipline of the church of God,
the time comes when the instruction in 1 Corinthians 5:13 has to be acted on.
Perhaps some of you feel like saying what one of the Hopi Indians said to me
after I had tried to teach them the responsibility of a Christian. He said, “Man
with the Iron Voice [that was their rather peculiar name for me], you have made
the way very hard today. I thought I was saved by grace alone, but now it looks
as though I have to walk to Heaven on the edge of a razor.” We are saved by
grace alone, but we are called to walk in holiness, and while we have no ability
to do this ourselves, the Holy Spirit has come to dwell in every believer and He
is the power of the new life. “If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the
Spirit” (Galatians 5:25), and we will thus be enabled to honor the Lord Jesus
Christ by holy, unworldly, devoted, godly lives.
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CHAPTER 72: 05.06. YOU ARE NOT YOUR OWN
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You Are Not Your Own In our study of 1 Corinthians we have seen that the apostle
Paul was used of God to correct many erroneous concepts and to suggest remedies
for many wrong practices in the church of God in his day, but this letter with
its varied instructions was never intended to be read only by the early
Christians. It is addressed to “all that in every place call upon the name of
Jesus Christ our Lord.” If the churches of God today would be subject to the
teachings of this first Epistle to the Corinthians, we would be delivered from a
lot of things that hinder the progress of the gospel and impede the working of
the Spirit of God among us.
Resolving Disputes (1 Corinthians 6:1-11) In this section Paul inveighed against
a practice that was growing in Corinth and I am afraid has been in evidence in
many other places since: Christians quarrel with other Christians about temporal
matters and sometimes even drag one another into the world’s law courts for the
adjudication of their difficulties. This is utterly abhorrent to the spirit of
Christianity. Going to law puts the Christian in a false position both before
the world and before his brothers in Christ. He is saying to the world, “We
Christians are just as covetous and just as quarrelsome as you of the world are.
We are just as much concerned about having our own way and pleasing ourselves.
We recognize your judges as having authority over the church of God.” It is
degrading to the Christian thus to act. The apostle demanded, “Dare any of you?”
He was stirred with indignation and his language was very strong. “Dare any of
you, having a matter against another [he meant of course another brother] go to
law before the unjust and not before the saints?”
Paul was not teaching that a Christian should never go to law. It is quite
impossible at times to avoid it and even the apostle himself, when falsely
accused before a Roman governor, said, “I appeal to Caesar.” Paul claimed his
natural rights as a Roman citizen and insisted that his case be heard in the
imperial court. I know some brethren are wiser than the apostle Paul and feel
that he made a mistake. They are quite certain that if they had been in his
place, they would have acted more wisely. It is a pity that the apostle could
not have availed himself of their advice! But he acted quite within his rights
as a Christian, for when he appealed to the caesar, he was not taking his
brothers in Christ to court “before the unjust.” Rather he was asking for a
chance to respond to the complaints of the Jews in a clear, straightforward way
before the supreme tribunal of the Roman empire. When Paul and Silas were
arrested in Philippi, the judges would have dismissed them and let them leave
the jail covertly without a clear public justification, but Paul said in effect,
“No, we have been wrongfully accused and unjustly treated by you magistrates.
Admit you have made a mistake; make the admission publicly.” That was all
perfectly right and proper. But in 1 Corinthians Paul was addressing an entirely
different situation. If Christians have disagreements that they are not able to
iron out between themselves, they should go “before the saints.” The individuals
involved should consult their brothers in Christ, bring together those in whom
they have confidence, and agree to abide by these brothers’ judgment, just as
they would have to abide by the decision of a worldly court. When Paul asked,
“Do ye not know that the saints shall judge the world?” he was referring to
something that many Christians have lost sight of. Our Lord Jesus Christ is
coming again to reign for a thousand wonderful years. When He reigns we will
reign with Him, for it is prophesied, “Judgment was given to the saints of the
most High; and the time came that the saints possessed the kingdom” (Daniel
7:22). If we are going to reign with Christ, if we are going to sit on thrones
of judgment with Him in that coming glorious kingdom age, it is absurd to think
that we are not fit to judge “the smallest matters” on earth when our brothers
are in difficulty.
After all, temporal things are so trivial; matters of money, matters of
property, matters concerning personal reputation are such small things when
viewed in the light of eternity. We may make a great deal of them; we may
magnify them and give them a place of importance altogether beyond that which
they deserve, but the apostle declared that they are relatively insignificant
and he strengthened his position by adding, “Know ye not that we shall judge
angels?” What was he saying? Are we going to sit in judgment on angels who are
greater in power and might than we are? Are angels going to be judged? Yes, we
read twice in the New Testament of angels coming to judgment. 2 Peter 2:4 says,
“God spared not the angels that sinned, but cast them down to hell, and
delivered them into chains of darkness, to be reserved unto judgment.” And Jude
1:6 says, “The angels which kept not their first estate [their own
principality], but left their own habitation, he hath reserved in everlasting
chains under darkness unto the judgment of the great day.”
It is the final judgment that is in view here, and at that last great assize
these fallen angels will all be brought before the throne of judgment. And who
will sit on that throne? Our Lord Jesus Christ and all the redeemed throughout
the ages who will be associated with Him as assessors. If this dignity is to be
ours, if we are to judge the world during the kingdom age, if we are to judge
angels when eternity begins, how can we be unfit to judge affairs of this life?
How much more should we be able to judge between our brothers in Christ! In 1
Corinthians 6:4 Paul said something that evidently was not very clear, it seems
to me, to the minds of those who years ago prepared the wonderful King James
version. It says, “Set them to judge who are least esteemed in the church.”
According to this translation, the thought being expressed was that these
matters are so trivial, they are of so little importance, that even those who
are least esteemed in the church ought to be fit to adjudicate such cases. I
question whether that is what the apostle was really saying, for in the next
verse he added, “I speak to your shame. Is it so, that there is not a wise man
among you? no, not one that shall be able to judge between his brethren?” There
he was implying that if the church is to take up matters of this kind, there
should be wise men to give decisions; and that thought hardly seems to be in
harmony with the King James rendering of 1 Corinthians 6:4.
Another translation turns the verse into a question: “If then ye have judgments
of things pertaining to this life, do you set them to judge who are of no
account in the church?” In other words, Paul was saying, “If you drag your
Christian brother before one of the judges of this world, you are bringing him
before a man who, whatever his place in the world may be, is of no account in
the church of God (unless he himself happens also to be a Christian). His
dignity and probity do not give him a place in the church. Whether honorable or
not, if he has not been born again, if he has not been converted, he is of no
account in the church.” In going to court, the Corinthians were degrading
themselves and therefore ought to have bowed their heads in shame. What they
were doing was altogether wrong: “Brother goeth to law with brother, and that
before the unbelievers.” Paul said, “There is utterly a fault among you, because
ye go to law one with another.”
Someone might say, “I do not know of any Christian to whom I could submit my
case,” but even if that is true, there is another way out. “Why do ye not rather
take wrong?” Paul asked. “Why do ye not rather suffer yourselves to be
defrauded?” You do not have to insist on your own rights; it is not necessary
that you should always be cleared of charges; it is not necessary that you
should always prove that you have been wronged in matters of this kind. You can,
if you will, bow your head and say, “I leave all with God. I am not going to say
anything about it; if they wrong me, He understands.” When I was a little fellow
I attended a church in Toronto where some difficulty had come up between members
and they did as the apostle suggested. My dear mother took me along to the
hearing. Little pitchers have big ears, and I well remember how horrified I was
to see men whom I esteemed and had been taught to respect so indignant with each
other. One man sprang to his feet and with clenched fists said, “I will put up
with a good deal, but one thing I will not put up with. I will not allow you to
put anything over on me; I will have my rights!” An old Scottish brother who was
rather hard of hearing leaned forward holding his ear and said, “What was that,
brother? I did not get that!”
“I say, I will have my rights,” said the man.
“But you did not mean that; did you? Your rights? If you had your rights, you
would be in Hell; wouldn’t you? And you are forgetting-aren’t you?-that Jesus
did not come to get His rights. He came to get His wrongs, and He got them.”
I can still see that man standing there for a moment like one transfixed, and
then with tears in his eyes he said, “Brethren, I have been all wrong. Handle
the case as you think best.” He sat down, buried his face in his hands, and
sobbed before the Lord, and everything was settled in three minutes. When
Christians are in this spirit, it is so easy to clear things up; when we bow
before the Lord, He straightens them out.
After reminding the Corinthians “that the unrighteous shall not inherit the
kingdom of God,” Paul set forth a fearful catalog of sins and transgressions
against God, nature, and man. As he recited this awful list, he turned to that
redeemed company and said, “And such were some of you.” Paul was saying, “These
are the sins from which you have been delivered; these are the transgressions
that have been forgiven; from these unholy, wicked, impure things you have been
cleansed. Think of what grace has already done for you. Think of how marvelously
God has dealt with you in spite of all the sin and iniquity that you have been
guilty of in the past. You were sinners of five hundred pence, but God has
forgiven all [see Luke 7:41]. Should you hold your brother accountable because
he owes you some small debt when God has so graciously dealt with you?”
“Such were some of you,” he said, “but ye are washed, but ye are sanctified, but
ye are justified in the name of the Lord Jesus, and by the Spirit of our God.”
Notice the order: washed, sanctified, justified.
I went into a mission in San Francisco years ago and sat for perhaps half an
hour listening to marvelous testimonies of redeeming grace. One after another
rose and painted a dreadful picture of his past life and then told how God had
saved him. I had come to that meeting with a sermon all made up, but as I sat
listening to these testimonies, I thought, O dear, my stupid little sermon! To
think I imagined I could go into my study and develop a little discourse that
would suit a congregation like this. I had no idea of the kind of people I was
going to address. So I just “canned” my sermon; I put it out of my mind, and
when I rose to speak, I took this text: “And such were some of you: but ye are
washed, but ye are sanctified, but ye are justified.” It was easy to preach to
them then even without a lot of preparation. The sermons that I get up are hard
to preach, but those that come down are much easier. At the close of the meeting
a dignified man came up to me and asked, “Do you know that you got your theology
terribly mixed up tonight?”
“Did I?” I replied. “Straighten me out.”
“You put sanctification before justification. You have to be justified and then
you get the second blessing.”
“Pardon me, but you are mistaken,” I said. “I did not put sanctification before
justification.”
“You most certainly did.”
“I most certainly did not; it was the apostle Paul who did.”
“Why, you cannot blame your theology on him.”
“I was simply quoting Scripture.”
“You misquoted it. It reads, ‘Ye are justified, ye are sanctified.’“ And he
began to read, “But ye are washed, but ye are sanctified, but ye are justified,”
and then he said, “Why, there is a misprint there. Wait a minute; I will get a
revised Bible.” He got it, looked at it, and read, “Washed, sanctified,
justified.”
“Why,” he said, “I never saw that before; all I have to say is that the apostle
Paul was not clear on the holiness question when he wrote that!”
What was the apostle really saying? “Ye are washed.” What does that mean? Paul
was referring to the washing of regeneration. When an individual is first
awakened and turned to the Lord and the Word of God is applied to his heart and
conscience, he is delivered from the impurity of the old life. We are cleansed
by “the washing of water by the word” (Ephesians 5:26).
“Ye are sanctified.” What does that mean? To be sanctified is to be set apart to
God in Christ, and everyone who turns to the Lord Jesus Christ has been thus set
apart. There is a work that begins even before a man is conscious of his
justification. Were it not for that, not one of us would ever turn to Christ.
The Spirit begins that work which disturbs and convicts and leads us to feel our
need, and through the Word we are washed and cleansed; thus Christ is revealed
to our souls and, putting our trust in Him, we are justified from all things.
“Washed”-that has to do with the practical cleansing. “Sanctified”-that has to
do with being set apart to God in Christ. “Justified”-that has to do with being
judicially cleared before the throne of God; He has nothing against the man who
stands justified before Him. These are the blessings of every believer. How our
hearts ought to thrill with worship and praise as we think how God has dealt
with us! The Temple of the Holy Spirit (1 Corinthians 6:12-20) In this passage
Paul considered some of the practical results of the believer’s cleansing,
sanctification, and justification. If we have been redeemed to God by the
precious blood of His beloved Son, if we have been regenerated by the Word and
the Holy Spirit, we are no longer to live to please ourselves. We are to live to
please the One who has made us His own at such a cost, and so the apostle
particularly stressed the importance of recognizing that our bodies belong to
our risen Lord. The honor of the body was never really revealed until our Lord
Jesus Christ came. If you are at all familiar with the different heathen
philosophies and pagan religions, you know that men as a rule distinguish
between the inner man and his relation to God and the body and its relation to
earth. Many philosophers and teachers would tell you that how you use your body
does not make any difference, for it is merely physical and when you die, it is
gone; even though your soul may persist after death, your body will never rise
again and therefore it is impossible to defile your soul by anything you may do
with your body. That was the essence of the philosophy that was being taught in
Corinth, where the apostle had been used of God for the calling out of a company
of redeemed ones whom he addressed as “the church of God.” There was grave
danger that these converts might retain some of their old pagan concepts and as
a result fail to appreciate the holiness, the purity, that should be connected
with the physical as well as the spiritual life of the believer. The apostle
showed that the believer has not come into any legal relationship with God; he
is not under law. He has marvelous liberty, but not the liberty to do wrong. He
must distinguish between license and liberty. An instructed believer will never
say, “Oh, I am in Christ, and it does not make much difference what I do.” A man
who talks like that shows that he has never comprehended the reality of what “in
Christ” means. The very fact that I am in Christ means that God has claims on me
that He did not assert when I belonged to the world. Then I was allowed to take
my own way, but now I am called on to present my body, not merely my spirit, as
“a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God,” which is my intelligent service
(Romans 12:1). And so Paul told us in 1 Corinthians, “All things are lawful unto
me, but all things are not expedient [befitting].” I am “not under the law, but
under grace” (Romans 6:14), but there are many things that are utterly unsuited
to a Christian, things that would bring my testimony into disrepute. There are a
great many things about which there is no direct instruction in the Word of God,
and thus some people think they don’t matter. But the question I must ask is,
What effect would it have on other people if I as a Christian were to indulge in
them? I belong to Christ, and men will form their opinion of Christ as they
watch me; my behavior therefore must commend Christ to them.
Paul repeated, “All things are lawful for me,” then added, “but I will not be
brought under the power of any.” That is a good answer to those who, excusing
their use of intoxicants and tobacco, say, “Well, why shouldn’t a Christian feel
perfectly free to indulge himself if he wants to?” It is bad to create habits
that are not easily broken, and the apostle said in effect, “I will not allow
myself to be a slave to appetite.” There are things with which one cannot tamper
without being brought under their power. You lose your liberty when you say, “I
have liberty to form habits like this,” for in forming such habits you become a
slave. So Paul said, “All things are lawful for me, but I will not be brought
under the power of any.” Applying the same principle in a different way, I could
say, “I am the Lord’s free man and I am going to preserve my liberty in Christ.
I am free to please Him, not free to please myself, even in the matter of food
and drink.”
Proverbs 23:21 says, “The drunkard and the glutton shall come to poverty.”
Notice that it is not only the drunkard but also the glutton. During pagan
festivals in Corinth the people gorged themselves in the most disgusting way in
honor of their heathen gods, but we as Christians honor the true God by being
careful not to overeat. The saying is true, “Meats for the belly, and the belly
for meats.” The two are created for each other: food is suited to the digestive
tract, and the digestive tract is suited to food. But you are not to live for
these things; you are not to live to feed your bodies, for “God shall destroy
both it [the belly] and them [meats].” Do not live as though your major business
in life is the gratifying of your appetite. Let there be some higher goal before
you. As Christians your business is to glorify the Lord Jesus Christ.
Paul also referred to the sex instinct, for there were those who said, “God has
implanted certain appetites in the bodies of men and women and it does not make
any difference whether people indulge these appetites in or out of the marriage
relationship.” To counteract the influence of this kind of philosophy, the
apostle wrote, “The body is not for fornication, but for the Lord; and the Lord
for the body.” The body is not to be used for vile gratification that is
contrary to the holiness of God; it is to be kept for the Lord and as it is kept
for the Lord, the Lord is for the body.
It is the resurrection of the body of the Lord Jesus that has given dignity to
our bodies, for as Paul affirmed, “God hath both raised up the Lord, and will
also raise up us by his own power.” Since our bodies too are going to be
resurrected, we must remember that they are not to be used for any degrading
purpose here on earth. The apostle continued, “Know ye not that your bodies are
the members of Christ?” You know that your spirit is a member of Christ, and you
know that your soul belongs to Christ, but do you think as often as you should
about the fact that your body is a member of Christ? What a wonderful
relationship we have been brought into! It is not merely as an aggregation of
redeemed souls that the church is “the body of Christ” (1 Corinthians 12:27). As
men and women having physical constitutions we belong to Christ, and therefore
our bodies are to manifest the holiness of Christ. Our bodies are to be used in
devotion to Him.
Since our bodies are “the members of Christ,” how can we take the members of
Christ, these bodies of ours, and defile them by using them for unholy purposes?
How can we who profess to have been bought with the blood of God’s dear Son do
that? Paul asked, “Shall I then take the members of Christ, and make them the
members of an harlot? God forbid. What? know ye not that he which is joined to
an harlot is one body? for two, saith he, shall be one flesh.” The apostle
continued, “But he that is joined unto the Lord is one spirit.” What a mystic
union this is! The same Holy Spirit who dwells without measure in the Head now
dwells in every member of Christ’s body here on earth. Thus the body is “for the
Lord.” This truth can solve every problem in regard to sensual pleasure and
worldly folly. For example if you are invited to go to a place where you are not
quite sure you can glorify God, you can stop a moment and say, “My body is a
member of Christ; is it consistent for me as a member of Christ to go where He
will be dishonored?” You must not go where you cannot glorify Christ. That is
the Christian standard.
Because of our union with Christ, we must flee everything that is of a carnal,
corrupt nature. “Flee fornication,” Paul wrote. “Every sin that a man doeth is
without the body; but he that committeth fornication sinneth against his own
body.” Many other sins do not affect the body, but this sin is ruinous to body
and soul alike, and so Paul said in effect, “Run from anything that would tend
to stir the body to unholy lust.” In his Confessions St. Augustine related how
in his unconverted days he had allowed himself to become the willing victim of
vile and fleshly lusts. He lived carelessly like the pagans of that day and
associated with the corrupt and wicked members of society. When he was
converted, the great question on his mind was, “Will I ever be able to live
according to the Christian standard of holiness? Will I ever be able to keep
myself from the vile, sensuous life in which I have lived so long?” When he
first yielded himself to Christ, he took as his life-text Romans 13:13-14, in
which the apostle exhorted the believer to “put… on the Lord Jesus Christ, and
make not provision for the flesh, to fulfill the lusts thereof.” For a long time
after his conversion Augustine did not dare go near the part of the city where
his godless companions of former days lived. But one day a matter of business
called him there, and as he was walking along the street he suddenly saw one of
the beautiful yet wicked companions of his folly. The moment her eyes lit on
him, her face was illuminated with delight and she came running with
outstretched arms and crying, “Austin! Where have you been for so long? We have
missed you so.” He turned and gathered up his long philosopher’s gown and
started to run. It was not a very dignified proceeding for a doctor, a professor
of rhetoric, to run up the street with a godless girl running after him. She
called to him, “Austin, Austin, why do you run? It is only I!” He looked back
and exclaimed, “I run because it is not I.” And he was off again.
“The life which I now live in the flesh,” Paul said, “I live by the faith of the
Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me” (Galatians 2:20). That is our
standard and so in all our behavior, in the use of our bodies, we are to glorify
Him.
Paul came to the crux of the whole matter when he asked: “What? know ye not that
your body is the temple [the sanctuary] of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which
ye have of God, and ye are not your own?” Note how the Holy Spirit links us
again with Christ. When Christ was here on earth, He said to the Jews of His
day, “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.” They,
misunderstanding, looked at the great temple on mount Moriah and said, “Forty
and six years was this temple in building, and wilt thou rear it up in three
days?” But we are told, “He spake of the temple of his body.” (John 2:19-21).
He, the holy One, had a real human body and that body was the sanctuary of
deity. Now He has gone back to Heaven, saved our souls, claimed our bodies, and
sent His Holy Spirit down to dwell in the body of each believer. So we read,
“Your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost.” Do we think about this as much as
we should? If we were constantly meditating on that statement, would we allow
many things about which we are careless? We regard a church building as a
sanctuary set apart for the work of the Lord. We step in from the outside and
immediately our hats come off. We teach our boys and girls not to be boisterous
or frivolous in the church building, for it is the house where we meet God and
we realize that reverent behavior should characterize us there. But do we
remember that each of our bodies is a sanctuary? It is the temple in which the
Holy Spirit dwells, and how careful you and I ought to be that we do not grieve
the blessed One who dwells within! How careful we ought to be that we do not
bring dishonor on the name of the Savior who has sent His Spirit to live in our
bodies!
Say these words over and over again to yourself until they get such a grip on
you that you will never forget them: “My body is the temple of the Holy Spirit.
God dwells in me.” Then you will realize the dignity of the body and the
responsibility that attaches to it.
Paul said, “Ye are not your own”-does your heart respond to that?-“for ye are
bought with a price.” And what was the price? The precious blood of God’s dear
Son. At Calvary He purchased us to be His own. An old Puritan writer remarked,
“Calvary was the marketplace where the Saviour bought us with His blood, but He
never got His money’s worth.” We have been such poor servants; we have responded
so poorly to His love. We should be able to sing with sincerity: Not my own, but
saved by Jesus, Who redeemed me by His Blood;
Gladly I accept the message, I belong to Christ the Lord. Not my own; to Christ
my Saviour I, believing, trust my soul, Everything to Him committed, While
eternal ages roll. Not my own; my time, my talents, Freely all to Christ I
bring, To be used in joyful service For the glory of my King. Not my own; the
Lord accepts me, One among the ransomed throng Who in Heaven shall see His
glory, And to Jesus Christ belong.
(Daniel W. Whittle)
It will be wonderful to be His own up there. I would not want to miss it then,
but it is a great privilege now to be His own as we walk the streets of this
world.
Paul concluded, “Ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your
body.” In another translation the text stops here, but our King James version
adds the words “and in your spirit, which are God’s.” I think that someone
making a copy of the original Greek manuscript did not understand the thought at
all, felt that there was something left out, and added those words in the
margin; and later a translator incorporated the marginal words into the verse
itself. But “Glorify God in your body, and in your spirit” is the very thing the
apostle was not saying here. What he was saying is, “Be guided by this thought:
your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit; if you glorify Him in your body, you
will glorify Him in your spirit.” In other words, “Glorify God in your body, and
the spiritual side will take care of itself.”
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CHAPTER 73: 05.07. CELIBACY, MARRIAGE, AND DIVORCE
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Celibacy, Marriage, And Divorce This seventh chapter of 1 Corinthians deals with
a subject that has caused a great deal of confusion down through the centuries.
The marriage relationship occupies a large place in the Word of God, both in the
Old Testament and in the New. The teaching of our Lord Jesus Christ and the
direct ministry of the Holy Spirit after our Lord’s ascension put this whole
matter on a very high plane, so that marriage for a Christian is God’s own
wonderful picture of the mystic union-as is often said in wedding
ceremonies-that subsists between Christ and the church.
We can understand that in the early church there were a great many
irregularities to be corrected in regard to this entire subject. The Jews under
the law permitted a certain laxity that our Lord Jesus Christ forbade in the
dispensation of grace. Then again in the heathen world of Paul’s day, conditions
were such that it was probably difficult to find people whose attitude in regard
to marriage was at all like that of the New Testament church. Therefore Paul
found it necessary to do some very plain speaking. The Christian Standard (1
Corinthians 7:1-17) In the first part of this chapter the apostle was evidently
dealing with questions that had been sent to him, so he said, “Now concerning
the things whereof ye wrote unto me: It is good for a man not to touch a woman.”
People have inferred from this statement that the apostle was an advocate of
celibacy. The Roman church is very fond of pointing to this verse as though it
teaches that the unmarried monk or priest or the unwed nun is a holier person
than the Christian husband or wife, father or mother. The apostle did not say
that, though later in this chapter he did speak of serving the Lord without
distraction, particularly in a time of persecution; he supposed that celibacy
was “good for the present distress” (1 Corinthians 7:26).
Paul wrote in a day when to become a Christian, to be publicly baptized as
confessing Christ, was to put one’s life in jeopardy. Under such conditions it
might really be best for a man not to be married at all. Yet certain inherited
tendencies of human nature might make celibacy a dangerous option, one that
could work against purity, against the highest type of morality, instead of
working for greater holiness. So Paul said, “Nevertheless, to avoid fornication,
let every man have his own wife, and let every woman have her own husband.” The
husband is to “render unto the wife due benevolence,” or as the apostle Peter
very beautifully put it, the husband is to give “honour unto the wife, as unto
the weaker vessel” (1 Peter 3:7). “And the wife,” Paul said in Ephesians 5:33,
is to “see that she reverence her husband.” Both husband and wife are to
remember that having entered into this mutual relationship, neither is any
longer his or her own master; they have agreed to subject themselves to one
another and there can be no happy Christian home unless they do so.
“The wife,” Paul said in 1 Corinthians 7:1-40, “hath not power of her own body,
but the husband: and likewise also the husband hath not power of his own body,
but the wife.” They are to be sure that they pay due regard to one another’s
conjugal rights. There may be circumstances in which they draw apart for a
while; they might separate for a limited time, but they should be careful not to
do so except by mutual agreement. Paul said, “Defraud ye not one the other,
except it be with consent for a time, that ye may give yourselves to fasting and
prayer; and come together again, that Satan tempt you not for your
incontinency.”
All down through the centuries of the Christian dispensation there have been
strange sects who have advocated the celibate condition even for persons already
entered into the marriage relationship, and teachers who have said that to serve
the Lord better, husbands and wives should live entirely apart from one other.
But the apostle said that to attempt such a life is to place yourself in a
position of great temptation, and therefore to do so is not only unwise but also
thoroughly opposed to the divine institution of marriage.
It is all right for a husband and wife to say, “We think it would be best for us
to live apart from each other for a little while so that we may be more entirely
devoted to the Lord and so that we might wait on Him in fasting and prayer in
order to be more fully conformed to His image. Then we will come together
again.” But if they attempt this, they should be careful that they do not run
off into some strange inconsistency.
“I speak this by permission,” Paul added in 1 Corinthians 7:6, “and not of
commandment.” Some people point to this verse and say, “You see, the apostle
himself did not always claim to be inspired. In this portion he declared that he
was speaking only by permission and not by commandment, and therefore he was not
inspired of God.” And I respond, “Oh no, he was just as truly inspired to give
this permission as he was a little further on to give a direct command.”
What may be permitted in one family might throw another family into hopeless
confusion. Take for an example a family with a number of little children. The
wife gets a high notion of the demands of personal holiness and comes to her
husband and says, “My dear, I want to be altogether for God, and so I am going
to request that I separate entirely from you for a time. I am going to a
spiritual retreat. You get along with the children as best you can.” Going to
that retreat would disrupt her entire family. She would glorify the Lord better
by looking after the children than by spending the time on her knees in some
retreat. Many a Christian today would glorify God far better by caring for her
youngsters at home than by going to a church meeting every night.
Let us not forget that God established the home before He created the church and
when people are married they have a tremendous responsibility resting on their
shoulders. No one feels that more keenly than men like me who are called to
preach the gospel. I do not know how often I have felt like crying out with the
bride in the Canticles, “They made me the keeper of the vineyards; but mine own
vineyard have I not kept” (Song of Solomon 1:6). A servant of Christ who is
called to travel through the world with the gospel message finds it difficult to
give enough time to training his own children in the fear of God. People who do
not have such a calling should give priority to their responsibility in the
home.
I think God must have a special place in Heaven for preachers’ wives. They have
had so much more to contend with than the average woman. If the children go
wrong, folks wag their heads and blame their mother. Probably the trouble was
that the father was not able to cooperate with her more. Yet how God honors
preachers’ wives! Someone said that preachers’ children are always the worst. I
cannot boast of my own, though I do thank God that they are all saved, but you
will find that some of the greatest names on the pages of history are preachers’
children. When 2 Chronicles states that a king of Israel or Judah was especially
willful or especially good, it also mentions his mother’s name. It is tragic
when a child has an evil mother, for we can scarcely expect much good from him.
Turning our thoughts back to 1 Corinthians 7:5, we have to admit that while some
households might be thrown into hopeless confusion if husband and wife were to
separate for a while, other households might be able to continue functioning if
such times of seclusion were arranged. And so the apostle did not mean that he
was not inspired when he said, “I speak this by permission, and not of
commandment”; he meant that the Spirit of God allowed him to give husbands and
wives this permission, but did not allow him to command them to separate for
prayer and fasting. It is nowhere commanded that husband and wife should for any
time separate from each other.
Paul went on to say, “I would that all men were even as I myself.” For the
gospel’s sake he had chosen to remain unmarried, and in circumstances such as
many were passing through at the time, the single state was to be preferred,
other things being equal.
Having once entered into the marriage relationship, however, husbands and wives
should remain married. Paul said, “Unto the married I command”-not merely permit
but command-”yet not I, but the Lord.” What did he mean by “not I, but the
Lord”? Simply this: he was merely repeating something that the Lord had already
said. Paul was reminding them that the Lord had declared: “It hath been said,
Whosoever shall put away his wife, let him give her a writing of divorcement:
But I say unto you, That whosoever shall put away his wife, saving for the cause
of fornication, causeth her to commit adultery: and whosoever shall marry her
that is divorced committeth adultery” (Matthew 5:31-32). Those are the solemn
words of the Lord Jesus. In Matthew 19:9 He reiterated the one exception that
permits the innocent party in a divorce to marry again according to Scripture.
In Matthew 19:5-6 the Lord said: “For this cause shall a man leave father and
mother, and shall cleave to his wife: and they twain shall be one flesh?
Wherefore they are no more twain, but one flesh. What therefore God hath joined
together, let not man put asunder.” I have heard people try to get around that
command by subterfuge, saying, “I don’t believe the Lord joined us together; I
think the devil did it and therefore I think I am free to get a divorce and
marry somebody else.” But it was God who pronounced those words in the garden of
Eden: “Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave
unto his wife: and they shall be one flesh” (Genesis 2:24). It is He who joins
people together in the marriage relationship and once joined in that
relationship, they should never break it. The Pharisees asked the Lord, “Why did
Moses then command to give a writing of divorcement, and to put her away?” In a
hard, rough age when men were often very uncouth and cruel, God commanded that
instead of holding a wife who was hated as a kind of slave or chattel, a man
should give her legal divorce papers and permit her to go home to her people.
But now under the dispensation of grace when men are born again and transformed
by the Spirit of God, no such thing is tolerated. “Moses because of the hardness
of your hearts,” the Lord said, “suffered you to put away your wives: but from
the beginning it was not so. And I say unto you, Whosoever shall put away his
wife”-again observe the exception-“except it be for fornication, and shall marry
another, committed! adultery: and whoso marrieth her which is put away doth
commit adultery” (Matthew 19:7-9).
Notice, there is a sin that dissolves the marriage relationship and if one
partner is guilty of that sin, he or she may be put away and the other party is
free; and if that innocent party marries again, the new marriage is not called
adultery. There are those who are so legalistic that they refuse to take note of
that “except,” but the Son of God has put it there so that the innocent party
may not have the onus of immorality attached to him or her. There you have the
New Testament standard given by the Lord Himself. So Paul wrote to the
Corinthians, “Unto the married I command, yet not I, but the Lord, Let not the
wife depart from her husband.” Then the apostle immediately added, “But and if
she depart.” He was implying that there may be circumstances in which no
self-respecting woman could continue in a marriage relationship; a man may be so
absolutely brutal or so vile and filthy and perverted in his whole character
that no decent, good woman could live with him. In such a case, Paul implied,
she is free to leave him but not free to be divorced and remarried unless she
has definite New Testament grounds. “If she depart,” he said, “let her remain
unmarried.” Although it may be necessary for her to leave, she can at least
continue to remember her husband before God in prayer, and perhaps through her
prayers the day will come when he will be broken down by divine grace and saved.
If that day does come and he begs her to return to him, she can go back and,
finding him a new man, make a home for him once more. But if she has already
entered into another relationship, she is in a pitiable condition.
“Let not the husband put away his wife,” Paul continued, “but to the rest speak
I, not the Lord.” Was he not speaking by inspiration? Keep in mind the whole
argument. When he said, “I command, yet not I, but the Lord,” he meant that the
Lord had already spoken on the subject. Here when he said, “To the rest speak I,
not the Lord,” he meant that by the inspiration of the Holy Ghost he was laying
down a divine principle in regard to a matter about which the Lord had not
already spoken. So by divine inspiration Paul wrote, “If any brother hath a wife
that believeth not, and she be pleased to dwell with him, let him not put her
away.” This legislation was not needed during the Lord’s time on earth, for He
came to the lost sheep of the house of Israel, but now Paul was reaching out to
the Gentiles, and it was a common thing for one member of a Gentile family to be
converted and the others not. Think of a case of a man in Corinth who has been
saved, but his wife is a devotee of the heathen cults; she is indignant that he
no longer burns incense to idols, yet she is willing to live with him. “Let him
not put her away,” Paul said. The husband is not to be self-righteous and say,
“I am a Christian and cannot acknowledge you as my wife any longer.” In Israel
if a Jew were married to a pagan, he had to put her away, for she was unclean in
the sight of God. But under grace, if a pagan wife is pleased to dwell with her
Christian husband, he is to show her kindness and consideration and seek to be a
blessing to her. If it is the woman who has been converted, the rule is similar:
“The woman which hath an husband that believeth not…if he be pleased to dwell
with her, let her not leave him.” The book of Ezra tells us that in Israel many
Jews had entered into alliances with heathen women, and Nehemiah 13:24 says that
“their children spake half in the speech of Ashdod, and could not speak in the
Jews’ language.” Likewise when a husband is a Christian and his wife is not (or
vice versa), their children will generally speak half in the language of Heaven
and half in the language of earth. It is a difficult thing to bring them up for
God in a mixed home like that. Ezra told Israel in effect, “You will have to put
all these wives and children away as unclean.” But notice the difference under
grace: “The unbelieving husband is sanctified by the wife, and the unbelieving
wife is sanctified by the husband: else were your children unclean; but now are
they holy.” The unbelieving husband may be hard, he may be wicked, and he may
hate the very name of Jesus, but he has been brought outwardly into a new
relationship with God through the conversion of his wife. There is now someone
in that home to pray, someone who loves the Word of God, someone to live the
Christian life and let the others see what it means to be regenerated. Perhaps
some of you readers are wives who are breaking your hearts over unsaved
husbands. Will you not take comfort from this verse? Perhaps some of you readers
are husbands who are grieved because the wives whom you love are still outside
of Christ. You too may be comforted. Keep on praying; keep on bearing them up
before God; keep on believing that He has saved you out of an unconverted family
because He wants the whole household for Himself. When the pagan jailer cried,
“What must I do to be saved?” the answer rang clear, “Believe on the Lord Jesus
Christ, and thou shalt be saved, and thy house” (Acts 16:30-31). God was saying,
“Jailer, I not only want you; I not only want to cleanse your heart; I also want
to make your household a Christian one, a testimony to My grace right here in
Philippi.” And so it came to pass.
Wives with unsaved husbands, and husbands with unsaved wives, keep on praying.
Your children are sanctified because they have a father or a mother, as the case
may be, to take them to God in prayer and to teach them the Word of God. You can
count on Him to bless that ministry to them by bringing them eventually to
Christ.
Next Paul dealt with a case in which the unsaved partner will not remain in the
marriage. He said, “If the unbelieving depart, let him depart.” The believer
cannot do anything about it and thus “is not under bondage in such cases,” but
then she is to live her own life as a single person to the glory of the Lord
Jesus. Rather than looking around for another mate, she should devote herself to
Christ and keep on praying for the wandering one, for “God hath called us to
peace. For what knowest thou, O wife, whether thou shalt save thy husband?” Even
though the husband is gone, even though he has left the home, the wife should
keep on praying for him, for God may intervene and bring him back penitent and
broken-hearted to try to make up for the willfulness of the past by living a
peaceful life with her. To the husband whose wife has left because he loves
Jesus and she does not, Paul said, “How knowest thou, O man, whether thou shalt
save thy wife?” The man should not be too hard in his thoughts. He should pray
and ask himself, “Was there something in me that turned her away? If I had had a
little more grace and Christlikeness, might she have remained?” He should bear
her up before God and if some day she should be ready to return, he should
receive her as God receives His erring ones when they come back to Him.
Closing this section of the chapter, Paul wrote, “As God hath distributed to
every man, as the Lord hath called every one, so let him walk. And so ordain I
in all churches.” In other words, the issues that Paul had been dealing with are
not matters with which we may play fast and loose. He had been stating
principles that are divine requirements concerning the marriage relationship and
they apply to all Christians and all the churches of God.
Why is God so insistent about these principles? The reason is that from the
beginning it was His intention that the marriage relationship would portray the
eternal union between Christ and His redeemed. When people marry they take each
other for life. Many of you men remember when you stood before the minister and
he said, “Do you take this woman to be your lawful wedded wife? Will you love,
honor, and cherish her so long as you both shall live?” and you said, “I will.”
Have you lived up to your vow? And many of you women remember when the minister
said, “Do you take this man to be your lawful wedded husband? Will you love,
honor, and obey him so long as you both shall live?” and you answered, “I will.”
Does your conscience tell you that you have been true to that vow? When you made
that vow, you entered into a relationship that pictures the relationship between
the soul and the Savior.
Way back in the Old Testament Abraham wanted to find a partner for his son, so
he sent out his messenger with an offer of marriage. When the servant found
Rebecca and she became the affianced wife of Isaac, her family thought she
should not leave home immediately but decided to find out what her wishes were.
Referring to Abraham’s servant, they asked, “Wilt thou go with this man?” and
without a moment’s hesitation she answered, “I will go,” and she went out across
the desert to be united to Isaac (Genesis 24:58). In a similar manner the Lord
sends His message of love and kindness to the unsaved and invites them to enter
a union with Himself by accepting the offer of the man Christ Jesus. The Time Is
Short (1 Corinthians 7:18-40) In the previous section the apostle, inspired by
the Holy Spirit, laid down for us the Christian standard of marriage. With a
single exception, which the Lord Himself indicated, marriage is indissoluble.
The marriage relationship once entered into cannot be broken with impunity, and
if anyone attempts to break it and marries another, he is guilty of the sin of
adultery. That at once raises a question, for there are many people who have had
rather unhappy marital experiences before their conversions. After having been
separated, divorced, and remarried, the grace of God has found them and they
have been saved. What about them? The apostle made the answer to that question
clear when he added, “Let every man abide in the same calling wherein he was
called.”
Paul illustrated his point by referring to circumcision. In effect he said, “If
God saved you as Jew, do not try to Gentilize yourself; just remain a Jew.
Although you are now a member of the body of Christ, you cannot undo what you
are by nature, and you cannot undo what has taken place before you were
converted. On the other hand, if you were a Gentile before you were converted
and now find yourself in a community of Jewish believers, do not attempt to make
a Hebrew of yourself, for that is impossible. You were saved as a Gentile; God
opened the door of faith to you as a Gentile. He took you in as you were;
therefore “therein abide with God.” To be either Jew or Gentile means nothing
now. The great thing for the future is obedience to the Word of God.”
Once a person becomes a Christian, he has a new standard by which to live, for
God has given His Word to him. When he was converted, all the past was wiped out
by the precious blood of Christ. God called him and He saved him in the
condition in which He found him. That applies even where people have had rather
mixed experiences along the line of marriage and divorce. God did not ask, for
instance, that the husband and wife who had been married contrary to Christian
principles separate in order to be saved. He took them as they were and made
them members of Christ. Now He recognizes them as His own who have been
sanctified by the Holy Spirit and cleansed by the blood of Christ. They should
remain in the marriage relationship that they were in when His grace found them
and by living faithfully as husband and wife adorn the doctrine of Christ. The
apostle continued, “Art thou called being a servant?” The word translated
“servant” means “bondman” or “slave.” When this Epistle was written, slavery
extended over the entire world and many of the early Christians were slaves, but
Paul said to them, “Care not for it.” In other words, “Do not get restless
because of that, but if you are set free, use your liberty for the glory of the
Lord Jesus Christ.” Paul explained, “For he that is called in the Lord, being a
servant, is the Lord’s freeman.” He is no longer a slave in God’s eyes; he is
free to serve Christ. As the Christian slave serves his earthly master, he is
also serving the Lord Christ. What a wonderful thing for him to realize! He can
glorify the Lord even in the circumstances in which he was saved.
He that is free is not to say, “Well, I have no master; I am free; I am not a
slave; I can do as I please.” Paul said, “He that is called, being free, is
Christ’s servant,” and here again he used the word meaning “bondsman.” The
freeman has been bought, so instead of seeking to have his own way, he is now to
take the way of the Lord who purchased him.
Paul reminded the Corinthians, “Ye are bought with a price; be not ye the
servants of men,” and then he reiterated, “Brethren, let every man, wherein he
is called, therein abide with God” (italics added). That suggests a restriction,
for one might, after all, be saved in circumstances in which he could not “abide
with God.”
Reverting to the subject of the first section of 1 Corinthians 7:1-40, Paul
wrote, “Now concerning virgins I have no commandment of the Lord: yet I give my
judgment, as one that hath obtained mercy of the Lord to be faithful.” Some say,
“Well, the apostle recognized that he was not inspired when he wrote this,” but
they are again mistaken. Paul was simply telling us that the Lord had given him
no commandment to say that a virgin must marry or must not marry, but that he by
inspiration was passing on his judgment in the matter. As a wise pastor who
recognized the conditions prevailing at that time, he said, “I suppose therefore
that this is good for the present distress.” The days in which this letter was
written were days of great persecution, of fearful suffering, when one might
have to flee at a moment’s notice and leave home and loved ones for Christ’s
sake. And so Paul was saying, “I will tell you what is the best thing under
these circumstances.”
“Art thou bound unto a wife? seek not to be loosed.” Those who were already
married should not of course seek to break the tie. “Art thou loosed from a
wife? seek not a wife.” However, if a man said, “Yes, but I have found one who
appeals very much to my heart and I would like to make her my wife,” Paul would
tell him to go ahead if she is willing to share the risk and danger. “If thou
marry, thou hast not sinned,” the apostle said, “and if a virgin marry, she hath
not sinned.” Paul was not suggesting that the Corinthians take vows either to
marry or not to marry; he was simply telling them to be guided by the Lord under
existing circumstances.
Emphasizing that “the time is short,” the apostle said in effect, “Whatever you
do, keep in mind that you are here for only a little while. You are here to
glorify God and that is far more important than seeking your own happiness. You
are living in difficult times, in perplexing days, but your hope is the Lord’s
near return.” This is always the blessed hope for the Christian, and Paul was
urging the Corinthians to live with that in view. We are not to allow any
temporal relationship or any human occupation to hinder our fellowship with God
or our obedience to His will. When the apostle said, “It remaineth, that both
they that have wives be as though they had none,” he did not mean that married
men were to disown their wives, or be cold and indifferent toward them. Nothing
like that was intended, for he had already emphasized the very opposite
principle. He meant that the one thing Christians should live for is not their
own happiness as husband and wife. If they are united in the Lord, their goal
should be to live for Him. A dear friend of mine spent a great deal of his time
traveling around the world to preach the gospel while his precious wife remained
at home perhaps two-thirds of the year to care for their little family. I once
remarked to her, “It must get awfully lonely for you. You hardly have any
married life living like this.” Her eyes filled with tears and she said, “The
day my husband and I were married, we promised each other that we would never
let our personal comfort interfere with our devotion to the work of the Lord. I
believe He called my husband for this great evangelistic ministry and therefore
I am glad to keep the house while he goes out to his work.”
I said, “I have a choice tidbit for you. Have you noticed what David said
concerning those that abide by the stuff while the others go out to war? He
said, ‘As his part is that goeth down to the battle, so shall his part be that
tarrieth by the stuff (1 Samuel 30:24). And so if you carry out your part, when
the judgment seat of Christ is set up and you and your husband stand there
before God, if he is to be rewarded in that day for winning thousands of
precious souls, you will get half of the reward even though you could not go out
and do the preaching.” The principle is that everyone is to act in view of the
fact that time indeed is fleeting. The Lord’s return is nearing and no
consideration of personal comfort is to be allowed to hinder devotion to the
will of God. So “they that have wives be as though they had none” and, Paul
added, “they that weep, as though they wept not.” The apostle did not mean that
you must not weep; he meant that if you do weep now, you can be joyful even in
the midst of your sorrow if you are looking on to the glad day of the Lord’s
return. The causes of weeping will soon be over and God will wipe away all tears
from your eyes. And since “the time is short… they that buy [should be] as
though they possessed not.” You cannot get through this world without buying; it
is impossible to live on this earth without spending something for physical
comfort as you go along. But do not set your heart upon such possessions; do not
let your affections be entwined about earthly things. It is perfectly right and
proper to enjoy many privileges here-God “giveth us richly all things to enjoy”
(1 Timothy 6:17)-but do not let the spirit of the world get hold of you. While
enjoying the good things that God in His grace lavishes on you, do not set your
heart on them, for they are all fleeting; they will be gone some day. If your
treasure is all here, when everything here has disappeared, what will you have
left? If you have Christ, you have that which satisfies the soul even when
everything else is gone. Remember that the “fashion of this world passeth away.”
The apostle was careful to explain that he did not intend to put people under
legal restriction when he said that under certain circumstances the single life
was preferable and possibly the wiser choice. Evidently the explanation was
necessary because within a century and a half after these words were written,
monasticism had come into the church. Some people lived in deserts and caves as
hermits and took vows never to marry, and communities of monks and nuns were
supposed to be holier than other people because they were dedicated to a virgin
life. So Paul said in effect, “I am not urging anything like that on you when I
speak, but I want to point out that in these troubled times those who remain
single may have less anxiety than those who marry.” He told the Corinthians, “I
would have you without carefulness.”
What a crushing burden must have rested on the heart of a husband and father who
had to go away on a mission at a time when his family was exposed to persecution
and perhaps a cruel and awful death! He would not have been able to get his
loved ones out of his mind and thus he would have found it difficult to serve
the Lord without distraction. So Paul said, “He that is unmarried careth for the
things that belong to the Lord, how he may please the Lord.” An unmarried man
may have said, “I have only one life anyway, and if I am called to lay it down
for the Lord, very well.” It would have been a great deal harder for him to say
that if he had had to think of a wife and children in grave danger because of
affliction and persecution.
“He that is married,” Paul said, “careth for the things that are of the world,
how he may please his wife.” This was not meant as a slur, as though it were
wrong to be occupied with temporal things. A married man has to think of the
provision for and the safety of his loved ones. It is very right and proper that
he should.
There is the same difference “between a wife and a virgin. The unmarried woman
[if dedicated to the work of the Lord] careth for the things of the Lord, that
she may be holy both in body and in spirit.” Some of the most wonderful
Christians who have ever lived have been women who for Christ’s sake chose never
to marry so that they could devote their lives to the service of the Lord Jesus
Christ.
I never quite understand why married people who have the comforts of home often
speak in a disparaging and unkind way of unmarried people. I should think, if
marriage is so delightful, that married people would talk in a very tender and
sympathetic way of people who have not married, but instead of that they speak
sometimes in a contemptuous way. I never like to hear people say, “Oh, she is
just an old maid,” or “He is just an old bachelor.” To them I say, “Wait a
moment! That bachelor may be glorifying the Lord in a way he could not have if
he were the head of a household. That maiden lady may be rendering wonderful
service to God and humanity.” I repeat, some of the most devoted Christians I
have ever known have been unmarried men and women who gave themselves wholly to
the work of the Lord Jesus Christ. All honor to them!
Paul wrote, “I speak for your own profit; not that I may cast a snare upon you.”
Continuing the theme, he said in effect, “You are perfectly free to choose in
the Lord which life you want to lead. I am simply exhorting you concerning that
which seems appropriate so that you can serve the Lord without any conflicting
interests. If you have lived up to the present time unmarried, but after
thinking it all over you still think it might be better for you to marry, do
what you want; you do not sin in being married. On the other hand, if you can
stand steadfast against temptation, if you do not feel any particular yearning
for the marriage relationship and have resolved in your heart to live singly, do
that. Whether you keep your virginity or you do not keep it, you are doing well
as long as you live unto the Lord. Under the present circumstances, however, he
who does not marry does better.”
Laying down a more definite principle, Paul said, “The wife is bound by the law
as long as her husband liveth.” Mark this; do not let anyone miss this. Paul did
not say, “As long as the man liveth”; he said, “As long as her husband liveth.”
Our Lord Jesus showed that there is one sin that dissolves the marriage
relationship, so if he who was her husband became an adulterer, he ended the
marriage, although he may be forgiven.
“If her husband be dead,” Paul continued, “she is at liberty to be married to
whom she will; only in the Lord.” What does “only in the Lord” mean? It means
that a Christian must do a great deal more than just follow his or her own
fancy. We are distinctly told in 2 Corinthians 6:14 that we are not to be
“unequally yoked together with unbelievers.” If you are a Christian and
unmarried and you have never thought this through, take this principle to heart.
If you ever contemplate marriage, put it out of your mind at once that you might
possibly marry somebody who is unsaved. That would be positive disobedience to
the Word of God. Of course if you are saved while married to an unsaved person,
remember the instruction in 1 Corinthians 7:1-40 not to leave him or her; pray
that he or she may be brought to Christ. But if you are not married, settle it
in your mind that you will never permit your affections to be entwined around an
unsaved person. An old Puritan said, “If you are a child of God and you marry a
child of the devil, you will be sure to have trouble with your father-in-law.”
Do not forget it. For a child of God to take the devil for his father-in-law is
a fearful mistake; nothing but problems will follow, for God has said so in His
Word.
You may say, “Well, I am thinking of being married, so I must marry a Christian
person.” That is good but something even more than that is meant by the phrase
“in the Lord.” One is to be led by the Lord in this important matter as truly as
in anything else, so marriage “in the Lord” is marriage in subjection to Him
whom we own as Lord and Christ.
“Oh,” you may then say, “if I marry in the Lord, I will always be happy and
never have any troubles!” That is not necessarily true, but when the troubles
come you can affirm, “The Lord gave me this husband, or wife, and the Lord will
give me grace to get along with him, or her.” When your marriage is of the Lord,
the Lord will enable you to get through any problems to His honor and glory.
Finally, speaking of the widow who “is at liberty to be married,” the apostle
said, “She is happier if she so abide, after my judgment.” Again he was giving
inspired judgment, but not a command. It is good sound judgment, for a second
marriage is often a mistake, though of course sometimes it is a blessing.
I think there might be a little irony in the last part of 1 Corinthians 7:40.
There were some people questioning Paul’s apostleship and judgment, so he added,
“I think also that I have the Spirit of God.” In other words, “Some say I
haven’t, but I think I have.” He wrote these words as truly by inspiration as
when he penned that matchless eighth chapter of Romans.
Let me bring you back to 1 Corinthians 7:29 : “This I say, brethren, the time is
short.” We have only a little while to testify for God. As Christians we should
seek to use every moment for His glory. Whatever our circumstances are, we
should earnestly seek to be used in blessing for a lost world. We should put out
of our lives anything that hinders fellowship with God and usefulness in
testimony.
If you are unsaved, take Paul’s warning especially to heart. The time when mercy
is being offered is quickly slipping by.
Life at best is very brief, Like the falling of a leaf, Like the binding of a
sheaf: Be in time!
Fairest flowers soon decay, Youth and beauty pass away, Oh, you have not long to
stay: Be in time! Our Lord’s return draws near; death too is ever following on
your track, and if you are unsaved, you are still outside of Christ. In grace He
“came from Godhead’s fullest glory down to Calvary’s depth of woe” for your
redemption. Does He not deserve to have you trust Him and confess Him openly as
your Savior? “If thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt
believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be
saved” (Romans 10:9).
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CHAPTER 74: 05.08. CHRISTIAN LIBERTY
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Christian Liberty In 1 Corinthians 8:1-13 the Spirit of God deals in a very
remarkable way with the great theme of Christian liberty and brotherly concern.
It is almost impossible for us, in a land like ours, to comprehend the customs
of the society in which the early Christians lived, but missionaries who have
labored for any length of time among heathen people will understand the problem
that the apostle was dealing with here. It was the question of whether a
Christian was at liberty to eat the meat of animals that at the time of their
killing had been dedicated to idols. This was a common practice; in fact
practically all the meat that was sold in the markets had been so dedicated.
One can understand that many of the early Christians feared that if they ate
such meat, they would dishonor the name of the Lord and possibly appear to
tolerate idol worship. I have noticed a similar concern among the Pueblo Indians
of New Mexico and Arizona and among Navajo and other Indians when they become
Christians. They are concerned about doing anything that looks like
participation in or recognition of heathen ceremonies, because they want
everyone to understand that they have made a clean break with the old life. In
Corinth eating meat offered to idols was quite a problem and it is evident that
the believers there had written to the apostle Paul for guidance.
We read in 1 Corinthians 7:1, “Concerning the things whereof ye wrote unto me,”
and this expression introduces the rest of the Epistle. From that point on the
apostle dealt with matters that had been submitted to him so that he might give
his inspired judgment for the guidance of the church. One of these matters was
“things offered unto idols.”
Knowledge Puffs Up (1 Corinthians 8:1-3)
“As touching things offered unto idols,” Paul said, “we know that we all have
knowledge.” He was indicating that “we all”-that is, we Christians-know the one
true and living God and we know the folly of idolatry. However, the apostle went
on to stress the importance of not being proud of our attainments in grace and
our knowledge of the truth. Since we know certain things that others do not, we
might act on our knowledge in such a way as to put a stumblingblock in the path
of someone else, so the knowledge that God has given us should be held in the
spirit of humility.
We understand that there are no such beings in the world as those represented by
the idols, but that does not do away with the fact that Satanic power is behind
idolatry. “The things which the Gentiles sacrifice, they sacrifice to devils,
and not to God” (1 Corinthians 10:20) and therefore there must be no compromise
whatever between Christianity and pagan religions. We know that those who are in
the darkness of heathenism are in the bondage of Satan, and therefore our
missionaries are not to take the good from the pagan religions and then share
what we have with the pagans. Not at all. Our missionaries are to turn lost
people from darkness to light and from the power of Satan to God. This was what
the apostles and their fellow workers set out to do, and their methods should be
our methods. We need nothing new. The gospel is still “the power of God unto
salvation to every one that believeth” (Romans 1:16). Where the gospel is
preached in dependence on the Holy Spirit, miracles will happen in the hearts
and lives of heathen men just as truly today as in Paul’s day and the centuries
that followed.
“We know that an idol is nothing in the world” (1 Corinthians 8:4), but
everybody does not have this knowledge; therefore it may not be wise to claim,
“It does not make any difference to me whether these meats were offered to
idols, so I am at liberty to eat.” Yes, as far as your own conscience is
concerned, you are at liberty to eat, but you should stop to consider the effect
on others.
“But,” you say, “I know that idols are nothing.” Yes, but “knowledge [mere
knowledge] puffeth up.” It is quite possible for you to be conceited and proud
over the fact that you have a little knowledge that someone else does not have,
but “what hast thou that thou didst not receive?” (1 Corinthians 4:7) There is a
tendency to pride in all our hearts even in the things of God. We get a
smattering of His Word that some others do not have and instantly we are lifted
up in our own conceit.
“Knowledge [if it is only that] puffeth up, but charity edifieth.” Do you see
the difference? Knowledge puffs up, but love builds up. Some of us get to be
like a great swollen frog, puffed up with wind and sitting on a log. We imagine
that we have advanced wonderfully over other folk. But if you throw a stone at
that frog, he will suddenly shrink to about one-fifth of the size he seemed to
be. Yes, knowledge puffs up, but love encourages real solid growth.
We need to “grow in grace, and in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus
Christ” (2 Peter 3:18). If we put knowledge before grace, it will work harm to
ourselves as well as to others. Paul said, “If any man think that he knoweth any
thing, he knoweth nothing yet as he ought to know.” Although God has given me a
little light on His Word, I still know very little compared with the many things
I do not yet know, and so let me thank Him for what He has imparted, hold it in
all humility, and walk carefully before Him.
Paul continued, “If any man love God, the same is known of him.” We might have
expected the apostle to say, “If a man loves God, he knows God.” That is true,
but the other side is the wonderful part of it. If a man loves God, God knows
him, and it is that in which we can rejoice. I like the way the apostle John
spoke of himself so often as “the disciple whom Jesus loved.” If you or I had
been writing, we probably would have said “the disciple who loved Jesus.” And I
do not know if we would even have stopped there; we might have said “the
disciple who loved Jesus and whose name is so-and-so.” That is what most of us
do. Naturally we all like to get our own names to the front, so we need to be
brought low to the feet of our blessed Savior. John gloried in the fact that he
was the disciple whom Jesus loved, and we should rejoice in the fact that we are
known and loved of God.
Only One God (1 Corinthians 8:4-6)
There is a science, one of relatively recent vintage, known as the science of
comparative religions. I think it had its origin largely in the world’s fair
held in Chicago in 1893, when there was a great congress of religion, and
teachers came from all parts of the world to exchange thoughts on religious
concepts. From that time on men began comparing one religion with another. So
there is a science of comparative religions, but Christianity is not one of
them. Christianity is not a religion; it is a revelation.
Christianity is not something that men have thought out; it is not a system of
philosophy or ethics. It is something revealed from Heaven by the power of the
Holy Spirit. Idolatrous systems, on the other hand, are the works of men
energized by the enemy. These systems are hollow and empty, as Paul showed in 1
Corinthians 8:4-6.
“We know,” the apostle said, “that an idol is nothing in the world, and that
there is none other God but one.” That God is the God who has been revealed as
the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. Paul continued, “For though [in the world
around and in the pagan nations] there be that are called gods, whether in
heaven or in earth, (as there be gods many, and lords many,) But to us [to those
of us who have accepted the revelation that has been given in this holy Word]
there is but one God, the Father, of whom are all things, and we in him; and one
Lord Jesus Christ, by whom are all things, and we by him.” Observe, the apostle
was not speaking here of the doctrine of the trinity; neither was he intimating
that it might be a mistake to put our Lord Jesus Christ, the divine eternal Son,
on the same level with the Father and the Holy Spirit. Paul was saying that
there is one God, and that God is the One who has revealed Himself in the Word
as the Creator of all men and the Father of all who believe.
He is the Father of the universe because it was through Him that it came into
existence; it came out of Him and therefore there is a sense in which it is
perfectly right to speak of the universal fatherhood of God and the brotherhood
of man. He is the God of the spirits of all flesh; all men came into existence
through Him. But man is a fallen creature; he has turned away from God. Man is
dead spiritually and therefore needs to be quickened into newness of life, and
it is only when he is regenerated, when he is born again, that he comes into the
family of God through redemption. Then he can look up into the face of God and
say “our Father,” which is something that he could not do in his unconverted
state. The apostle said, “There is but one God,” and that is perfectly true.
Elsewhere in Scripture we find that He subsists in three persons: the Father,
and the Son, and the Holy Spirit. That comes out very clearly in the baptismal
formula: “Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of
the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost” (Matthew 28:19). How
incongruous it would be to insert the name of a mere created being in there! We
revere the one who was blessed and favored above all women because she was
chosen to be the mother of the Son of God, but suppose that we said “in the name
of the Father, and of the Son, and of the blessed virgin Mary.” How
instinctively every Christian heart would shrink from that!
We must never put a creature in the place of deity, but we can say “in the name
of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit,” for the Father with the
Son and the Holy Spirit is God. The Father without the Son and the Holy Spirit
would not be God. The Son with the Father and the Holy Spirit is God; the Son
without the Father and Holy Spirit would not be God. The Spirit with the Father
and the Son is God; but the Spirit without the Father and the Son would not be
God. That is a definition that was coined some years ago by the venerable Joseph
Cook of England, and it sets forth the truth as it is in Scripture. When we
speak of Christ in His mediatorial position, we bring Him down to the place He
took in grace as a man without denying His deity. Someone asked me this
question: “Is there any sense in which God the Father is greater than Jesus
Christ?” When we think of the Lord Jesus as the eternal only-begotten Son, He is
coequal with the Father. When He speaks of Himself as the Son, He says, “All men
should honour the Son, even as they honour the Father. He that honoureth not the
Son honoureth not the Father which hath sent him… I and my Father are one” (John
5:23; John 10:30). But having stooped in grace to become man, the man Christ
Jesus voluntarily took a place of subjection to the Father and therefore, as the
Son born on earth of a virgin mother, He was the same person, but the same
person in different circumstances. He voluntarily assumed humiliation and said,
“My Father is greater than I” (John 14:28). There is no difficulty about this if
we remember that He is Son of God in two senses: God the Son from eternity; and
the Son of God born of a virgin mother here on earth, with no human father.
“There is but one God, the Father,… and one Lord Jesus Christ, by whom are all
things, and we by him.” We recognize that the Lord Jesus, the One to whom we
yield the allegiance of our hearts, is our Savior and the originator of both
creations. “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the
Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God. All things were made by
him, and without him was not any thing made that was made” (John 1:1-3). The
entire creation came into existence through the word of His power. “He spake,
and it was done; he commanded, and it stood fast” (Psalms 33:9). He who is God
is the Son from all eternity. But this creation fell and a mediator was needed,
so He came into the world in lowly grace; He assumed a servant’s form and became
man without ceasing for one moment to be God. As man He went to Calvary’s cross
to settle the sin question. He was buried, but He rose again in triumph and as
the risen One He is Head of the new creation. “By whom are all things”-that is
the old creation. “And we by him”-that is the new creation. God has “raised us
up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus”
(Ephesians 2:6).
We who were dead in sins have been quickened together with Christ (see Ephesians
2:5) and it is because we know this, because we know that God has thus revealed
Himself, that we are through forever with idols. There are those who speak
slightingly of the work of missionaries, as though it yields very poor returns.
But we only have to go back a few centuries to find that our own ancestors were
idolaters. The gospel came to them with the knowledge of God; faith in the Lord
Jesus Christ delivered them from their idolatry; and thus we are what we are
today. Should we think for one moment of refusing to share the gospel with those
still sitting in the darkness in which our forefathers once sat?
Brotherly Care (1 Corinthians 8:7-13) In this passage the apostle dwelled
especially on the importance of concern for the consciences of others. We may
not face exactly the same problems that the Corinthians did, but we need to have
the same care for the consciences of other people. As a Christian you may say,
“I am quite sure that this thing is right; I have perfect liberty and I am not
going to let somebody else dictate to me what I should or should not do.” But
stop for a moment. Suppose someone who does not have as much light as you have
is quite convinced that you are deliberately and willfully disobeying the Word
of God. If by and by that person comes to the conclusion that since you, a
stronger Christian, feel free to do that thing, he is free to do it too, what
then? Do you not see that his conscience might be dulled and his testimony
eventually ruined? So the apostle said, “There is not in every man that
knowledge: for some with conscience of the idol unto this hour eat it as a thing
offered unto an idol”-that is, they believe that an idol is a reality and they
believe that they are committing an idolatrous act. Under such circumstances we
can deny ourselves of that which might injure and hurt others if they were to
persist in the activity.
“But meat commendeth us not to God: for neither, if we eat, are we the better;
neither, if we eat not, are we the worse.” Why do I need to be concerned about
nonessentials like these? If such a matter will trouble someone else, I will put
it out of my life. I will not use my liberty to gratify my own desires if doing
so will cause another to stumble.
“Take heed,” Paul said to the Corinthians, “lest by any means this liberty of
yours become a stumblingblock to them that are weak. For if any man see thee
which hast knowledge sit at meat in the idol’s temple, shall not the conscience
of him which is weak be emboldened to eat those things which are offered to
idols?” Let us suppose that you exercise your liberty in some way and another
individual observes your behavior. Perhaps he is just a young convert, or simply
an inquirer, or maybe someone not at all established, or perhaps a person not
yet truly regenerated. If he sees you do something that hurts his conscience and
he does the same thing, he defiles his conscience, and thus your lack of concern
may lead to the shipwreck of his faith. Because you insist on your liberty,
“shall the weak brother perish?” When Paul made that appeal, he was not
affirming that any true child of God will ever be lost; the apostle was just
raising a question. He was asking, “Would you be willing so to behave that it
would cause another’s shipwreck?”
Some years ago when I was preaching in a gospel hall in Detroit, I met a former
Muslim from India who had been brought to know the Lord Jesus Christ. When the
Sunday school had its annual outing, we all went over to a beautiful spot, and
spent the day together. I was chatting with this brother, Mr. Ali by name, when
a young girl came by passing out sandwiches. She said, “Won’t you have a
sandwich?”
“Thank you,” I said. “What kind have you?”
“I have several different kinds.”
“I will help myself to several of them.” And then she turned to Mr. Ali and
said, “Will you have one?”
“What kind are they?” he asked.
“There is fresh pork and there is ham.”
“Have you any beef?”
“No, I do not.”
“Have you any lamb?”
“No.”
“Fish?”
“No.”
“Thank you, my dear young lady, but I won’t take any.”
Laughingly she said, “Why, Mr. Ali, you surprise me. Are you so under law that
you cannot eat pork? Don’t you know that a Christian is at liberty to eat any
kind of meat?”
“I am at liberty to eat it,” he answered, “but I am also at liberty to let it
alone. You know I was brought up a strict Muslim. My old father, nearly eighty
years of age now, is still a Muslim. Every three years I go back to India to
render an account of my tea business, of which my father is really the head, and
to visit with the folks at home. Always when I get home I know how I will be
greeted. The friends will be sitting inside and my father will come to the door
when the servant announces that I am there. My father will ask, ‘Son, have those
infidels taught you to eat their filthy hog meat yet?’ ‘No, Father,’ I will say.
‘Pork has never passed my lips.’ Then I can go in and have the opportunity to
preach Christ to them. If I took one of your sandwiches, the next time I go home
I would have to answer my father’s question honestly and as a result I would not
be able to go in and preach the gospel.” Of course the young lady understood. He
was acting exactly as the apostle was suggesting here. We have liberty to
refrain from doing certain things if they will trouble other people. Love is to
be the dominating motive. Paul wrote, “When ye sin so against the brethren, and
wound their weak conscience, ye sin against Christ.” The chapter comes to this
striking conclusion: “Wherefore, if meat make my brother to offend, I will eat
no flesh while the world standeth, lest I make my brother to offend.” This is
true Christian liberty coupled with brotherly care.
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CHAPTER 75: 05.09. REWARDS FOR SERVICE
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Rewards For Service Muzzling the Ox (1 Corinthians 9:1-23)
Everywhere the apostle went, his steps were dogged by legalistic men who hated
the doctrine of grace and who sought in every way possible to shake the
confidence of his converts. They questioned his commission and denied that he
was a true apostle. In order to be an apostle of the Lord Jesus Christ in an
official sense, it was necessary that one should have seen the Lord and been
commissioned by Him. Moreover the signs of an apostle-that is, the working of
wonders-should be in evidence. Paul’s enemies intimated that he could not be a
true apostle, for he was not one of the Lord’s witnesses when He was here on
earth. They said he had never seen the Lord, had no true commission from Him,
and was not able to work the wonders that were the signs of an apostle. Paul
answered his detractors in this way: “Am I not an apostle? am I not free? have I
not seen Jesus Christ our Lord?”
Certainly Paul had seen the Lord. He saw the risen Savior when he was thrown to
the ground on the Damascus turnpike. That day the Lord said to him:
I have appeared unto thee for this purpose, to make thee a minister and a
witness both of these things which thou hast seen, and of those things in the
which I will appear unto thee; Delivering thee from the people, and from the
Gentiles, unto whom now I send thee, To open their eyes, and to turn them from
darkness to light, and from the power of Satan unto God, that they may receive
forgiveness of sins, and inheritance among them which are sanctified by faith
that is in me (Acts 26:16-18).
Thus Paul received his commission. And had he not performed the signs of an
apostle? Although he did not even deign to speak of the miracles to the
Corinthians, he had indeed wrought wonders, as had the twelve. But there was a
far greater sign that always accompanied his ministry, and so he said to those
who had been turned to the Lord through his preaching of the Word: “If I be not
an apostle unto others, yet doubtless I am to you: for the seal of mine
apostleship are ye in the Lord.” The evidence that Paul was truly a God-sent
servant was found in this fact: wherever he went, the Spirit of God confirmed
the message that he carried, convicted men of their sin, led them to definite
faith in Christ, and gave them the assurance of forgiveness and justification.
Afterward they demonstrated by their new life the reality of the work that had
taken place in their souls. And so Paul said in effect, “Do you listen to men
who impugn my apostleship? Are you prepared to believe that possibly the signs
of an apostle are not found in me? What about yourselves? Who brought you to
Christ? To whom are you indebted under God for the knowledge of His grace?”
Others were saying, “Well, you can see he is not as confident in his own
leadership abilities as the other apostles are. He does not even have a wife; he
goes about alone.” There are people who tell us that Paul was a bachelor and
that this possibly accounts for some things that he said in this letter and
elsewhere in regard to the place and ministry of women. But many believe that
this view is mistaken because when the blood of the martyr Stephen was shed,
Paul gave his voice (or literally, his vote) against him. That seems to imply
that Paul was a member of the Sanhedrin, the high council of the Jews, and that
he voted for the death of Stephen. Paul could not have been a member of the
Sanhedrin if he had not attained the age of thirty years and if he had not been
a married man. So it may be that he had been married in his earlier life, but
now was a widower and he chose to devote the rest of his life to the service of
the Lord Jesus Christ. His reason for remaining single was not that he thought
it was wrong for a minister of Christ to have a wife. The idea that those who
preach the gospel should live the celibate life was unknown in apostolic days;
as already noted, that was a superstitious fiction of later years when men came
to believe that the unmarried monk and the childless nun were holier than the
Christian father or mother.
Paul said in effect, “I have full authority to lead about a sister in Christ as
a wife. I have full authority to marry a sister in Christ if I desire to do so.
The other apostles did.” This of course proves that the celibacy of the clergy,
so-called, was unknown in those days. Paul specifically asked, “Have we not
power to lead about a sister, a wife, as well as other apostles, and as the
brethren of the Lord, and Cephas?” That means James, Jude, and Cephas (Simon
Peter) were married men (see Matthew 8:14). Some people tell us that Peter was
the first pope. Well then, he was a married pope! Paul and Barnabas chose the
celibate life so that they might be untrammeled in their missionary work as they
traveled from land to land and endured hardships one should not expect a wife to
share.
Others objected to Paul’s apostleship on this ground: he knows he is not a true
apostle, for he does not depend on his ministry for his temporal support. I
suppose if he were living today, there would be those who would say, “He
degrades the cloth by working for a living.” Paul was a tentmaker and some were
saying, “He would never soil his hands making tents if he knew that he was a
genuinely appointed apostle; he would never stoop to anything like that.” But he
himself said in effect, “Oh no, I have a perfect right to be supported in the
same way as others, but I have reasons for refusing to permit you to support
me.”
Paul came to the Corinthians when they were heathens, when they were pagans
living vile ungodly lives, and he did not intend to pass the collection plate
then and ask them to contribute toward his support. He preferred to go among
them and labor, working with his own hands to support himself and his companions
in order to keep the gospel absolutely “without charge.” I wish the church of
God had never given up that position. It is a great reproach on the church of
God when its representatives turn to a Christless world and beg and wheedle
money out of ungodly men to support the work of the Lord. The divine method is
that the work of spreading the gospel of God should be supported by the people
of God who give out of love for Christ, and when a servant of Christ under
certain circumstances is not thus properly supported, he should not be above
working with his own hands while he continues to minister the gospel as
opportunities present themselves. To demonstrate that it is quite right and
proper for the Lord’s servants to be supported by the church of God, the apostle
asked some pertinent questions. “Who goeth a warfare any time at his own
charges?” If a man is a soldier, he is not expected to support himself; the
country for which he is fighting takes care of him. “Who planteth a vineyard,
and eateth not of the fruit thereof? or who feedeth a flock, and eateth not of
the milk of the flock? Say I these things as a man? or saith not the law the
same also?”
Then Paul used an apt illustration from the law of Moses. It is written in
Deuteronomy 25:4 : “Thou shalt not muzzle the ox when he treadeth out the corn.”
The reference is to the old-fashioned way of threshing corn or wheat: the ox
went around and around and trod on it. How inhuman it would have been if the ox
when becoming hungry had not been permitted to munch a little of the grain as he
was treading! The law permitted him to have some for himself. “Doth God take
care for oxen?” Paul asked the Corinthians. “Or saith he it altogether for our
sakes? For our sakes, no doubt, this is written.” There is an admonition here,
something for the people of God to take note of: “That he that ploweth should
plow in hope; and that he that thresheth in hope should be partaker of his
hope.” And so Paul laid this down as a principle: “If we have sown unto you
spiritual things”-that is, if the servant of Christ gives his whole time and
energy to the study of the Word of God so that he might better minister to the
spiritual needs of his flock, if he turns from what people call secular life-“is
it a great thing if we shall reap your carnal things?” Just as the ox finds its
food in the work it is doing, so the Lord has appointed that His servants should
be cared for by those who receive the benefit of the ministry that they give.
“If others be partakers of this power over you, are not we rather?” Paul asked.
“Nevertheless we have not used this power…lest we should hinder the gospel of
Christ.” In other words, “We prefer to forego our own rights in order that you
may see that our service is an unselfish one and in order that the heathen may
not say that we are in the ministry for what we can get out of it.”
Paul then asked, “Do ye not know that they which minister about holy things
should live of the things of the temple? and they which wait at the altar are
partakers with the altar?” These words refer to the priests in Judaism, for they
were sustained by tithes and offerings. In our dispensation there is no distinct
priesthood and all believers are priests, yet those who give themselves
completely to ministering the Word are to be sustained by the people of God.
Thus we read, “Even so hath the Lord ordained that they which preach the gospel
should live of the gospel.” But if a servant of Christ declares, “I choose to
forego that privilege; I am able to support myself and still carry on the work
of the Lord,” he is free to do it. Paul chose that path; he did not want even
one person to say that a selfish motive prompted him. The apostle said, as it
were, “I preach the gospel because I am a servant and my Master sent me to
preach it. He gave me a compulsion to preach; yes, I find myself in trouble if I
do not preach.” To the Corinthians he wrote, “Woe is unto me, if I preach not
the gospel!” I wonder if that word has been forgotten by many who once gave
themselves to the ministry of the gospel, but today seldom mention the great
truths whereby men and women are saved. Is it not a sad fact that many today who
are looked on as evangelistic preachers never tell sinners that Christ died for
the ungodly, never proclaim the saving power of the Lord Jesus, never exalt the
cross as the only means of redemption? What an accounting they will have to give
the Lord when they face Him some day! I wish that ministers of Christ who devote
themselves to what they call a social program and merely ethical preaching would
be awakened through these words of the apostle: “Woe is unto me, if I preach not
the gospel!” Our responsibility is to make Christ known as the only Savior of
sinners.
If I do this willingly, if I gladly go forward preaching the gospel for the sake
of the name of the Lord Jesus, by and by when I stand at the judgment seat, I
will be rewarded. Never mind whether people appreciate me now; never mind
whether I get any reward down here. I can wait until that day when the Lord will
evaluate everything fairly. But even if I do not preach the gospel willingly,
the message is still going out and God will bless the message, but I myself will
lose the reward.
“A dispensation [a stewardship] of the gospel is committed unto me,” Paul said,
and he felt compelled to fulfill it. What was his present reward? Did he say,
“The money that I make from preaching it”? No! He said, “What is my reward then?
Verily that, when I preach the gospel, I may make the gospel of Christ without
charge, that I abuse not my power in the gospel.” Paul meant, “I will not go to
dying men and say, ‘Give me your money and if you do, I will preach to you,’ but
I will go and preach the Word freely whether I ever receive a penny for it or
not. After they become converted, the question of financial support remains
between them and the Lord. It is my business to give out the message.” The
apostle took a very high and noble position.
It must be a most obnoxious thing to God when those of us who profess to be
ministers of the Word commercialize His truth by setting a price on our service:
only so much preaching for so much money. Paul was saying, “It is my joy to
preach whether supported by men or not.”
He was not concerned about what men thought of him, but he had deliberately and
of his own volition made himself to be the servant of men. “Though I be free
from all men,” Paul said, “yet have I made myself servant unto all, that I might
gain the more.” What did he mean by that? Simply this: “I am the servant of
Christ, but Christ has sent me to minister His Word and I seek to do so in the
way that is best for reaching men in their need; and in this sense I put myself
under bondage to men in order that I may make the gospel clear to all.”
Paul continued, “Unto the Jews I became as a Jew, that I might gain the Jews.”
When he preached to the Jews, he referred to the Old Testament and to their
Jewish ceremonies and laws (you will find instance after instance in the book of
Acts), based everything on the Jews’ hope of the Messiah, and showed how all
prophecy has been fulfilled in Christ. On the other hand, when speaking to the
Gentiles, who were not familiar with the law of Moses, Paul put himself on their
level. He talked of God as the Creator of all things, who gives us “rain from
heaven, and fruitful seasons, filling our hearts with food and gladness” (Acts
14:17). Paul argued that the God who does all this cannot be an image, an idol
made with man’s hands; He created the heavens and the earth. And then he showed
how God sent His Son to save men who have sinned against Him. Paul preached the
gospel in terms that the Gentiles could understand.
“To them that are under the law,” Paul said, “[I became] as under the law, that
I might gain them that are under the law; To them that are without law, as
without law.” This is very interesting and should be a help to many who may not
quite understand the Christian’s relation to the law. Here we have two classes
of men. First there are those who are “under the law”; they are the Jews or, in
our day, any to whom the law of God has been revealed. Second there are those
who are “without law”; they are the Gentile nations, the pagan nations who have
never heard the law of God. If Paul himself were still under the law, as some
Christians think a believer is, he would not have said, “I became as under the
law.” Paul was neither under the law, nor without law. Then where was he? He was
not subject to legal ritual, nor was he lawless. Where then did he stand?
Between the two, “being not without law to God, but under the law to Christ.” He
said, as it were, “I am not under the law of Moses; neither am I lawless. I am
under law to God since I am legitimately subject to Christ.” Do you see the
place of the believer? It is neither under law nor without law, but in
legitimate subjection to Christ. And where has Christ revealed His will for me?
In the four Gospels and in the Epistles. I know some will protest, “You must not
mean the four Gospels! Don’t you know that they are altogether Jewish?” But they
should remember that the Spirit of God has said something very serious about
those who object: “If any man teach otherwise, and consent not to wholesome
words, even the words of our Lord Jesus Christ, and to the doctrine which is
according to godliness; He is proud, knowing nothing, but doting about questions
and strifes of words, whereof cometh envy, strife, railings, evil surmisings” (1
Timothy 6:3-4). Let us be very careful that we do not teach anything that is not
in accordance with the words of our Lord Jesus Christ. The words of our Lord are
found in the four Gospels (and nowhere else except in the first part of the book
of Revelation and in one or two sentences in the book of Acts) and in these the
Lord shows us the manner of life Christians should live. The Lord has further
revealed His will in what we call the Epistles. Through the Holy Spirit He has
shown us the heavenly calling and the kind of lives that would correspond to it.
We should be very careful if we say we are not under the law-which is true-lest
we be found to be lawless; that is antinomianism and repugnant to God. We are to
be legitimately subject to Christ.
“To the weak became I as weak,” Paul added, “that I might gain the weak.” He
meant that in ministering the Word of God he delighted to enter into the
circumstances of the people to whom he spoke. Suppose a preacher makes up a
sermon in the quiet of his study, works it all out carefully-his introduction,
his firstly, secondly, thirdly, and as many other numbers as he likes, and then
his conclusion-and says, “There, I have a sermon on such and such a text.” And
then he goes to the pulpit without taking the needs of the people into
consideration, and he pours out the sermon that he has made up for them in the
study. That was not Paul’s way; he had the needs of his audience in mind when he
preached the Word. A minister told me about a difficult position in which he
found himself one time. He had been asked to preach to a certain congregation
and since he always read his sermons, he looked through the barrel, selected
one, and shoved it into his briefcase with his Bible. When he got on the
platform, he pulled the sermon out, spread it before him, and discovered that he
had brought a different sermon from the one he had intended to bring. So he had
to confess, “I am very sorry, dear friends. I have made a mistake. It is autumn
but I am going to give you a sermon I preached on Memorial Day and I can only
hope you will get something out of it.” Is it any wonder that people get so
little edification when they listen to messages as inappropriate as that? As a
true minister of Christ, Paul’s great object was to get to the hearts of men and
give them the Word that they needed. “To the weak became I as weak, that I might
gain the weak.” He did not try to astonish people with his eloquence; he gave
them the Word to convict and help and bless and cheer and make things plain to
them. In fact he said, “I am made all things to all men, that I might by all
means save some.” This should be the object of any gospel testimony. We have
been commissioned to go “into all the world, and preach the gospel to every
creature” (Mark 16:15).
Striving for a Crown (1 Corinthians 9:24-27)
Two lines of truth that run parallel through the Word of God are salvation,
which is by grace alone; and reward, which is earned by devoted service.
Salvation is not a reward for anything that you or I may do, nor is Heaven a
reward for a life of faithfulness here on earth. Salvation is a free gift;
eternal life is a free gift; Heaven, the home of all the redeemed, is open to
everyone who puts his or her trust in the Lord Jesus Christ. We cannot pay for a
place in Heaven; we cannot earn it by tears, by sacrifices, by our gifts, or by
anything that we can do. Could my zeal no respite know, Could my tears forever
flow, All for sin could not atone;
Thou must save and Thou alone.
Nothing in my hand I bring, Simply to Thy cross I cling;
Naked, come to Thee for dress, Helpless, look to Thee for grace.
(Augustus M. Toplady) That must ever be the confession of each saved soul, for
Ephesians 2:8-9 says, “By grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of
yourselves: it is the gift of God: Not of works, lest any man should boast.”
Salvation, eternal life, a place in Heaven-these are all set before us as God’s
free gifts to believing sinners; but the Word of God also has a great deal to
say about the importance of service and about rewards for faithfulness. “Behold,
I come quickly,” said our blessed Lord, “and my reward is with me, to give every
man according as his work shall be” (Revelation 22:12). Obviously this reward is
not a place with the Lord in Heaven, but a special expression of His
satisfaction with the believer because of his devoted-ness and faithfulness in
life. The importance of this is brought out in 1 Corinthians 9:24-27. In this
passage the apostle Paul had the race course in mind. There is a great deal in
the Bible about athletics. One can scarcely help coming to the conclusion that
Saul of Tarsus was a thoroughly red-blooded man, interested in games, sports,
and everything else that would challenge a normal decent young fellow, such as
he evidently was even before he was converted. What Saul saw in the games made a
deep impression on his mind, and the Holy Spirit used all this in later years to
give us some very striking and remarkable illustrations, one of which we have
here: “Know ye not that they which run in a race run all, but one receiveth the
prize?”
What is the prize at the end of the race? For a young Greek it would not be
citizenship, for it was a law among the Greeks that no one could contend in the
games unless he could first prove that he was of pure Greek parentage; that had
to be settled before he became a contestant. As the people watched the races
they knew that the runners were already Greeks by birth. For what then were
those Greek citizens running a race? To obtain honor, to obtain glory, to obtain
a prize. And so the apostle pictured those who are saved as running a race. We
are already heavenly citizens. Of every Christian it is written, “Our
conversation [citizenship] is in heaven; from whence also we look for the
Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ: Who shall change [transform] our vile body, that
it may be fashioned like unto his glorious body” (Php 3:20-21). Our citizenship
is settled if we believe in the Lord Jesus Christ. We are not born Christians,
but we are born-again Christians. The Lord Jesus said, “That which is born of
the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. Marvel not
that I said unto thee, Ye must be born again” (John 3:6-7).
It is a great moment in a soul’s history when he awakes to the realization that
by nature and practice he is an alien, “alienated and enemies in your mind by
wicked works” (Colossians 1:21); that he does not belong to the family of God;
that before he can belong to the family of God a change must take place, a
change that he himself cannot effect, but which God brings about by His
sovereign power. “Of his own will,” said James, “begat he us with the word of
truth” (James 1:18). Notice, it is through the Word that we are begotten of God.
Peter said: Being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by
the word of God, which liveth and abideth for ever. For all flesh is as grass,
and all the glory of man as the flower of grass. The grass withereth, and the
flower thereof falleth away: But the word of the Lord endureth forever. And this
is the word [not the whole Bible as such] which by the gospel is preached unto
you (1 Peter 1:23-25).
Believing the gospel, we were born into the family of God, and now, as already
in the family of God, we are running a race. We are not running in order to get
to Heaven, for as far as that is concerned, “it is not of him that willeth, nor
of him that runneth, but of God that sheweth mercy” (Romans 9:16); we are
running a race for a reward for Christian service, for Christian responsibility.
If we run our race well, there is a reward at the end, but if we fail in the
race, we fail in the reward. We do not, however, fail to reach Heaven because
our work is not all it ought to be or all we would like it to be. “If any man’s
work shall be burned, he shall suffer loss: but he himself shall be saved; yet
so as by fire” (1 Corinthians 3:15), provided he is a Christian. So the apostle
said, “Know ye not that they which run in a race run all, but one receiveth the
prize? So run, that ye may obtain.” If I am going to run in order to obtain a
prize, I must do it in obedience to the Word of God. Paul said in 2 Timothy 2:5,
“If a man also strive for masteries, yet is he not crowned, except he strive
lawfully.” Another translation reads, “If a man contend in the games, yet is he
not crowned if he hath not observed the rules.” God has given us instruction in
the Word concerning how we are to serve, how we are to run, and what we are to
do, and we will be rewarded if we live in accordance with the Book. An incident
struck me forcibly some years ago when I was working among the Indians in New
Mexico during the time of the Olympic games in Stockholm, Sweden. One Saturday
night I went to the store of the trader, who was my interpreter and a very
intelligent Christian Indian. Entering the store, I found him standing on a
chair with perhaps forty or fifty Indians crowded around him. He was reading
from a newspaper and interpreting it for his audience. I stepped up behind him
and as I looked over his shoulder, I saw that he had a metropolitan newspaper
containing an account of the games in Stockholm. The article recounted the
triumphs of the well-known Indian athlete, James Thorpe, whom many of these
Indians knew well. How proud they were to think that he had gone to the
Olympics, contended with numerous athletes, and carried away many of the prizes.
Their enthusiasm knew no bounds when the interpreter translated the words of the
king of Sweden as he took Thorpe by the hand and said, “You, sir, are the
greatest amateur athlete in the world today.” A few weeks later I went into the
store again. Once more the trader was reading from a newspaper, but this time
the atmosphere was tense. I could feel that something was wrong. The Indians
were scowling and grunting and I wondered what it was all about, so I stepped
behind the interpreter again, looked over his shoulder, and read that a certain
man, being indignant that one athlete should have carried off so many prizes,
made an investigation of Thorpe’s past life and found that some years before the
Stockholm games Jim had received five dollars a week during the summer months
for playing on a village baseball team. The man sent the evidence to the king of
Sweden and proved to him that Thorpe had no right to participate in the games at
all because they were entirely for amateurs. He had taken money for playing ball
and that put him out of the amateur class. The king wrote to Thorpe and asked
him to send back all the certificates and medals. Jimmie’s heart was nearly
broken, but he sent them all back with his apologies and wrote to the king, “I
hope your majesty will not think too hard of me. I did not know that taking five
dollars a week for playing on the village baseball team made me a professional.
I never meant to deceive.” The sequel to the story is that the athlete who came
in second in the contests was given the awards, but he sent them all back to
Jim. “I won’t keep them,” the runner-up said. “You did better than I, and you
deserve them.” James Thorpe did his work well, but he had not observed the rules
and he lost out accordingly.
I am afraid there are many who do a great deal of what we call Christian work,
who work early and late and hard and often, yet will fail to be rewarded at the
judgment seat of Christ because instead of going by the Word of God they have
simply been following their own ideas and inclinations. “So run, that ye may
obtain,” warned Paul. How important it is, fellow Christians, that we study the
Bible and learn what God’s mind is, and then work accordingly!
Now notice the importance of self-control: “Every man that striveth for the
mastery is temperate in all things.” One cannot help but admire splendid young
athletes as they look forward to a contest. How self-denying they can be as they
train! They tell themselves, “I must enter the field weighing just so many
pounds, for I must be at my very best.” Friends say, “Come on, let’s go out and
indulge in this and that.” But the athletes who intend to succeed reply, “I
cannot do that. I must be at my best when I go into the arena. I cannot, I dare
not, dissipate.” As Paul said, “They do it to obtain a corruptible crown.” In
the case of the Corinthians it was a wreath of laurel, which would fade away in
a few hours. Yet how much young men were willing to endure to win that crown, to
have it placed on their brow by the judge among the plaudits of the people!
“They do it to obtain a corruptible crown; but we an incorruptible.” Should we
who have an incorruptible crown in view be less consistent, less self-denying,
less self-controlled than they? For us there stands in the distance the blessed
Lord Himself waiting to place on our brow that incorruptible crown, yet many of
us are in danger of losing it because we are so self-indulgent, so careless, so
carnal, and so worldly-minded. Let us take a lesson from the athletes and be
willing to give up present pleasures for future glory. The crown, you see, is
the symbol of reward. It is presented in different ways in Scripture. In 1
Thessalonians 2:19 the apostle said to his own converts, “What is our hope, or
joy, or crown of rejoicing? Are not even ye in the presence of our Lord Jesus
Christ at his coming?” What is the “crown of rejoicing”? It is the soul-winner’s
crown. Oh, to get home to Heaven and, standing at the judgment seat of Christ,
see there a great throng whom one has had the privilege of leading to Christ!
What a crown, what a reward that will be! Think what it will mean for the
apostle Paul when, surrounded by all his converts, he comes before the Lord and
says, “Behold I and the children whom Thou hast given me.” Are you striving for
a crown of rejoicing? It is your privilege if you know Christ. In 2 Timothy
4:7-8 the apostle said, “I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course,
I have kept the faith: Henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of
righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, shall give me at that day:
and not to me only, but unto all them also that love his appearing.” The gift of
righteousness is ours by faith. Every believer has been made the righteousness
of God in Christ, but the “crown of righteousness” is the reward given to those
who behave themselves in the light of the coming again of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Do you love His appearing? How do you show it? You can show it by ordering your
behavior now in view of His close return. “Every man that hath this hope in him
purifieth himself, even as he is pure” (1 John 3:3). In James and Revelation we
find a third term: the “crown of life.” In Revelation 2:10 we read, “Be thou
faithful unto death, and I will give thee a crown of life.” And in James 1:12 we
read, “Blessed is the man that endureth temptation: for when he is tried, he
shall receive the crown of life, which the Lord hath promised to them that love
him.” Eternal life is ours by faith. “The wages of sin is death; but the gift of
God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord” (Romans 6:23). “He that
believeth on the Son hath everlasting life” (John 3:36). But the “crown of life”
is earned by suffering patiently, even unto death if need be, rather than to
deny the name of Jesus. The crown of life is earned by enduring trials and
temptations and taking it all as from the hand of God Himself. In 1 Peter 5:1-4
we read of still another crown: The elders which are among you I exhort, who am
also an elder, and a witness of the sufferings of Christ, and also a partaker of
the glory that shall be revealed: Feed [not fleece!] the flock of God which is
among you, taking the oversight thereof, not by constraint, but willingly; not
for filthy lucre, but of a ready mind; Neither as being lords over God’s
heritage, but being ensamples to the flock. And when the chief Shepherd shall
appear, ye shall receive a crown of glory that fadeth not away.
I like that: a “crown of glory”! Every believer will be glorified- “Whom he
justified, them he also glorified” (Romans 8:30)-but the crown of glory is the
reward for feeding the sheep and the lambs. The earliest Chinese translations of
Scripture used different terms for some of the idioms in the original. A
translation of 1 Peter 5:4 from Chinese to English would read, “When the chief
Shepherd appears, you will receive a bright hat that will never wear out.” The
reward, however it is termed, is to be given by the blessed Lord Himself. We
must not allow the things of time and sense to so absorb us that we will lose
out in that day. Rather may we gladly say:
Take the world, but give me Jesus, All its joys are but a name; But His love
abideth ever, Through eternal years the same.
(Fanny J. Crosby)
“Let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and
let us run with patience the race that is set before us, Looking unto Jesus the
author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before him
endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the
throne of God” (Hebrews 12:1-2). This was Paul’s determination: “I therefore so
run, not as uncertainly; so fight I, not as one that beateth the air.” Some
people imagine that Paul was not quite sure that he would get to Heaven, that he
feared that something might happen that would turn him aside. But when he wrote
these words, he was thinking of the reward at the end and he was not afraid of
losing this, for he was determined to go through life with God. He said that he
was not uncertain.
Paul was not engaged in a sham battle: “So fight I,” he said, “not as one that
beateth the air: But [and how important this is!] I keep under my body, and
bring it into subjection: lest that by any means, when I have preached to
others, I myself should be a castaway.” What did he mean? Did he have a haunting
fear that he might backslide and be lost after all? No.
Keep in mind what he was speaking of here. He was speaking of reward for
service, and he was saying, “I want to serve so that I can have the Lord’s
approval in that day. I must not be careless or self-indulgent. I must not let
my passions master me, but I must master them and keep my body under control. My
body is not to be the lord of me; I am to be the lord of my body. Sustained by
divine grace I will keep every physical appetite in its place so that I will not
bring dishonor on the name of the Lord and become a castaway.”
What did Paul mean by “a castaway”? The word translated “castaway” is adokimos,
which means “disapproved.” The apostle wanted to avoid being disapproved. He did
not want the Lord to have to say to him some day, “Paul, I had a crown for you;
I was counting on you, and for a while you ran well. What hindered you? You
became self-indulgent and careless and you broke down and brought dishonor on My
name. I cannot crown you, Paul. You will have to stand to one side and let
someone else have the crown.” God grant that you and I may not have to endure
the disappointment of being set to one side when the Lord is giving out the
crowns! Have you not known of those who ran well for years and then little by
little began to let down? They were not as prayerful as they used to be; they
did not give as much time to the careful study of the Word as they did in the
early days; they gave freer rein to the natural appetites; they thought more of
their own pleasure and of taking their ease. Then one day the whole Christian
community in which they were involved was startled to hear of a terrible
failure. With hearts breaking and tears streaming from their eyes, the
backsliders confessed their sin. They had judged it all and turned from it, yet
people never trusted them again as they had before, and they were never able to
go on with their ministry. No matter how freely and fully God had forgiven them,
never again could they be what once they were. So to those who preach and to
everyone else who attempts to help others in spiritual matters, the word is, Be
careful of yourselves. “Take heed unto thyself,” said the apostle writing to
Timothy (1 Timothy 4:16). Paul meant, “Keep your physical appetites in
subjection; keep your body in its place. If you do not allow any appetite to
master you, you will be able to serve to the glory of the Lord Jesus Christ. If
you become careless, He may have to put you to one side, and He who once used
you will not be able to use you in the future the way He did in the past.” The
word translated “castaway” here is used elsewhere in Scripture to denote
complete disapproval. You may be a church member taking part in so-called
Christian work, but see to it that there is a real work of grace in your own
soul. Otherwise the day may come when you will be utterly disapproved and you
will find yourself outside the number of those who enter into the Father’s
house-not because you lost your salvation, but because your life has proved that
you were never truly born of God.
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CHAPTER 76: 05.10. THE CUP OF BLESSING
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The Cup Of Blessing Old Testament Types (1 Corinthians 10:1-14)
If I were to choose one verse out of these fourteen as a text, it would be verse
1 Corinthians 10:11 : “Now all these things happened unto them for ensamples
[types]: and they are written for our admonition, upon whom the ends of the
world are come.”
I learn a number of things, two in particular, from 1 Corinthians 10:11. In the
first place I learn that all that is recorded concerning the nation of Israel in
the Old Testament is sober, reliable history. The Word says, “All these things
happened.” This is the testimony of the Holy Spirit and therefore I believe it
without a question. I believe the Genesis account of the origin of mankind
because the account was given by the only One who was there, and that is God
Himself. The history of mankind as further unfolded in that early book is all
true. “All these things happened.” After the calling of Abraham and the
separation of the Hebrew people from the Gentile world, the story of God’s
dealings with these people, as related in the rest of the books of the Old
Testament, is true history and there is nothing imaginary or legendary about it.
“These things happened.” The second thing I learn from this verse is that in the
preparation of the Holy Scriptures, the Spirit of God guided and directed the
human writers to eliminate anything extraneous, anything not particularly
helpful to us, and therefore the incidents recorded are there for a definite
purpose. These incidents took place literally just as we are told they did, but
their significance was something beyond their place in history. The nation of
Israel is a typical (that is, pre-figurative) nation; the redemption of Israel
is atypical redemption; the sacrifices offered under the law were typical
sacrifices; the sanctuary of the Hebrew people was a typical sanctuary. And so
we may profitably read all of the Old Testament with the light of the New
Testament shining on it, revealing marvelous pictures, wonderful types, of the
person and work of our Lord Jesus Christ and of the people of God today. There
are both encouragements and warnings for us in the history of Israel.
Before writing 1 Corinthians 10:11, the apostle referred to some of the Old
Testament narratives. He reminded us how a great multitude went out of Egypt and
headed for the land of Canaan, the land of promise, but many of them failed to
reach that land because of unbelief, which led to other kinds of sin. “Moreover,
brethren,” Paul began, “I would not that ye should be ignorant, how that all our
fathers were under the cloud, and all passed through the sea; And were all
baptized unto Moses in the cloud and in the sea; And did all eat the same
spiritual meat; And did all drink the same spiritual drink; for they drank of
that spiritual Rock that followed them: and that Rock was Christ.” As that great
company of hundreds of thousands of Israelites left the land of Egypt, it would
have been impossible for anyone to have drawn any distinction between those who
were genuinely faithful and those who because of sin and unbelief would have to
be destroyed. And so the warning comes home to us: It is one thing to profess to
be a Christian-to participate in the ordinances of Christianity, to be baptized
in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, to take part in
the Lord’s supper, to receive the consecrated elements that speak of the
precious body and blood of the Lord Jesus Christ who was given up to death for
us, to associate outwardly with the people of God. It is quite another thing to
prove oneself to be genuine by living for God and by bearing a faithful
testimony right on to the end. Of course where there is a real work of the
Spirit of God in a man’s soul, that work will be continuous, but alas there are
many of whom it can be said, “Thou hast a name that thou livest, and art dead”
(Revelation 3:1). A number of years ago I was invited by a very godly minister
to address his congregation on a certain Lord’s day. Never having preached from
his pulpit before, and not knowing what kind of congregation I might be expected
to face and therefore being rather at sea as to the nature of the message that
would be most suitable, I said to him, “Doctor, when I come to speak to your
people, what kind of an audience will I address? Will they be mainly your own
members, all Christian people, or many strangers and possibly unconverted
people?” I can still see the look of sadness that came over his face and the
tears that came into his eyes as he answered, “Well, my brother, I think that
most of them will be our own people; we do not get a great many strangers in our
place. But I am afraid that very few of our own members are Christians. After
having been with them for a number of years, I greatly regret to say that I fear
that the majority of them are like the foolish virgins. They have no oil in
their lamps and therefore I hope you will come to us with a clear, definite
gospel message. I shall be praying that God may use it for the awakening and the
salvation of many of our people.”
What a solemn thing to have to make a confession like that! Yet is that not the
case in many places today? We take too much for granted when we suppose that
membership in a Christian church and participation in Christian ordinances and
outward fellowship mean that one is really a child of God. Often there has been
no second birth; there is no personal faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. In Israel
there were two groups: those who had true faith in God and those who simply had
an outward relationship to the people of the covenant. Those who had that
outward relationship went with the rest through the Red Sea-and the apostle
likened that to baptism. They were all sheltered by the pillar of cloud and
fire-and Paul compared that to the gift of the Holy Spirit. They all ate of the
manna that came from Heaven-and that speaks of participation in Christian
fellowship at the Lord’s table. They all drank the water that came from the
smitten rock-and that was a picture of those who drink today of the water of
life that flows from the side of the wounded Christ.
Some of the Israelites who drank from the rock had no true faith in God; there
was no reality in their hearts, no genuine work in their souls. Those who were
real “drank of that spiritual Rock that followed them: and that Rock was
Christ.” In other words, it was not enough to drink of the water that came from
the smitten rock. Those whose relationship was not just outward drank of the
stream that flowed from the “Rock that followed them,” or as another translation
reads, the “attendant Rock”-and “that Rock was Christ.”
It was Christ who led the people of Israel across the desert into the land of
Canaan as the Angel of the Lord. Jehovah said, “My name is in him” (Exodus
23:21). And in every dispensation all who have been saved have been saved
through the Lord Jesus Christ. All who have been genuine in their profession at
any time and at any age have been saved because they have put their trust in the
revelation that God gave concerning the Seed of the woman who was to bruise the
head of the serpent.
Some of that company of Israelites were genuine believers, but with the others
“God was not well pleased” and these were overthrown. Why? Because of sin. And
so the warning comes home to us now to learn from God’s dealings with this
typical people the importance of being right with God today. Turn from
everything unholy; judge every tendency to impurity and uncleanness in yourself
so that God may be glorified in you.
There are five more warnings in 1 Corinthians 10:6-10. Introducing the first of
the five, Paul wrote, “Now these things were our examples [types], to the intent
we should not lust after evil things, as they also lusted.” Christ is the
portion that satisfies the heart. The only way that one can be delivered from
“the corruption that is in the world through lust” (2 Peter 1:4) is by finding
satisfaction in the Savior.
O Christ, in Thee my soul hath found, And found in Thee alone, The peace, the
joy I sought so long, The bliss till now unknown.
I tried the broken cisterns, Lord, But, ah! the waters failed;
E’en as I stooped to drink they fled, And mocked me as I wailed. The pleasures
lost I sadly mourned, But never wept for Thee, Till grace my sightless eyes
received, Thy loveliness to see.
Now none but Christ can satisfy, None other name for me;
There’s love and life and lasting joy, Lord Jesus, found in Thee. When people
claim to be Christians, when they openly declare that they belong to the church
of the living God yet give every evidence that their hearts are still in the
world, one may doubt their professions of faith. When people give no evidence of
separation from the world, when they do not break away from the things that
dishonor our blessed God, when they are still taken up with “the lust of the
flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life” (1 John 2:16), one may
stand in grave doubt as to whether they have ever really drunk of that spiritual
“attendant Rock,” which is Christ. In his second warning Paul cautioned us
against putting anything in the place of God. “Neither be ye idolaters, as were
some of them; as it is written, The people sat down to eat and drink, and rose
up to play.” The apostle was referring to the making of the golden calf that the
Israelites set up in the wilderness when Moses was up on the mountain. Their
leader who had brought them out of Egypt was no longer visible, just as our
blessed Lord is at the Father’s right hand in Heaven and our eyes do not now see
Him. Therefore the people turned to Aaron and said in effect, “We cannot see
this man Moses; he has disappeared from us. Make us gods that will go before us,
tangible gods that we can see and worship.” And so Aaron told them to bring all
their gold ornaments, and he would make a god out of them. And the people
brought their earrings and he melted down all the gold, poured the metal into a
mold, made a calf, set it on a pedestal, and even gave it Jehovah’s name; he
said, “To morrow is a feast to the Lord” (Exodus 32:5). Then the people danced
around the golden calf and sat down to eat a sacramental meal in the presence of
the image.
Because of this the judgment of God burned fiercely against them, and you
remember the dreadful results. Many of them died under the hand of God and those
who were spared had to drink the golden calf! Moses took the calf, ground it
into fine dust, and poured the dust into the water that the people drank. That
was the “gold cure” to show them the folly of worshiping any other than the one
true and living God. The lesson for us is that if we dare to put anything else
in the place of God, no matter how precious it may seem to be, the time will
come when we will rue it.
Yet the golden calf is still worshiped. Many worship money, wealth, or pleasure
though they claim to be followers of the lowly Savior, “who though in the form
of God, thought equality with God not something to be grasped after: but emptied
Himself, and became obedient unto death, and such a death, even the death of the
cross” (Php 2:6-8, literal rendering). How can I be a consistent follower of Him
if I put self or anything that this poor heart of mine can crave on earth in the
place of the true and living God? “Little children,” warned John, “keep
yourselves from idols” (1 John 5:21). The third solemn warning is against every
kind of uncleanness: “Neither let us commit fornication, as some of them
committed, and fell in one day three and twenty thousand.” We are living in a
day when uncleanness is everywhere. Our modern novels are reeking with it, our
newspaper stands are filled with vile pornographic literature that comes from
Hell, and men are enriching themselves by poisoning the minds of our young
people. Many of the pictures they see and the songs they hear are filled with
suggestions of impurity. How sternly the Christian church needs to set its face
against everything of this kind!
We should not compromise. Pictures, books, and songs all have their effect on
the flesh, and before people know it, they are drifting off into unholy things
because of the constant incitement in the music and literature of the day. Let
us give everything like that a wide berth. As Paul wrote in another Epistle, “Ye
have been called unto liberty; only use not liberty for an occasion to the
flesh” (Galatians 5:13).
I am reminded that 1 Corinthians 10:8 is a verse that unbelievers and modernists
like to point to as an evidence that the Bible cannot be fully inspired. We read
there that there “fell in one day three and twenty thousand,” and in Numbers
25:9 we read that “twenty and four thousand” were destroyed because of the sin
of fornication. Therefore the objectors say, “There is a contradiction in your
Bible; in one place it says twenty-four thousand were destroyed and in another
place it says twenty-three thousand.” But it is not difficult to harmonize the
two accounts. In Numbers the complete account is given: there were twenty-four
thousand destroyed during that particular period in which God was dealing with
His people. In 1 Corinthians the Holy Spirit was stressing the fact that
twenty-three thousand died on the very first day of that period of judgment; the
other thousand of course died later on. Paul was inspired to emphasize how
indignant God was when His people fell into the sin of uncleanness; He was so
indignant that in one day He destroyed twenty-three thousand.
Notice the fourth warning: “Neither let us tempt Christ, as some of them also
tempted, and were destroyed of serpents.” How did they tempt Him? They limited
the Holy One of Israel when they said, “Can God furnish a table in the
wilderness?” (Psalms 78:19). We too limit God if we say, “Can God take care of
me? I am in very difficult circumstances. Is God able to see me through?” When
we doubt, we limit the God of all grace who gave His Son for us. “He that spared
not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him also
freely give us all things?” (Romans 8:32) Faith never tempts God; it believes
God and goes forward in obedience to His Word. The fifth warning reads, “Neither
murmur ye, as some of them also murmured, and were destroyed of the destroyer.”
The reference here is to the destruction of Koran, Dathan, and Abiram in the
wilderness when they murmured against God, against His servant Moses, and
against the high priest Aaron. Those rebels said to Moses and Aaron, “Ye take
too much upon you, seeing all the congregation are holy, every one of them, and
the Lord is among them: wherefore then lift ye up yourselves above the
congregation of the Lord?” (Numbers 16:3) They were practically saying, “We do
not need a mediator; we do not need a high priest. We are good enough for God as
we are.” They found fault with God’s provision for them and destruction was the
result.
Let us heed the warning and be grateful to God for the provision He has given
through His Word and the Holy Spirit for the salvation of our souls and the
building up of our lives in Christ. Let us never allow ourselves to become
self-confident and imagine that we can get along without the daily ministry of
our risen and glorified Lord, who is our High Priest in Heaven. In view of all
these types and the accompanying admonitions, let us walk carefully and “let him
that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall.” Let him test his foundation,
make sure that he is taking the Word of God as his guide, and be certain that he
is resting on the testimony that God has given so that when the hour of trial
comes, he will be confident that there is abundant grace to sustain him.
Having warned the Corinthians, Paul offered these words of assurance: “There
hath no temptation taken you but such as is common to man: but God is faithful,
who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able; but will with the
temptation also make a way to escape, that ye may be able to bear it.” God did
this for Israel in Old Testament times. As we read the story of His dealings
with them, we find instance after instance of His wonderful intervention when
they were at their wits’ end. The God who sustained His people in the
wilderness, fed them on manna from Heaven, quenched their thirst with water from
the rock, and drove out their enemies from the land of Canaan is living still.
In the measure in which we learn to depend on Him, to count on Him, we too will
find deliverance in the hour of difficulty and trial. The passage closes with
another reference to idolatry. Solemnly emphasizing his earlier warning, Paul
wrote, “Wherefore, my dearly beloved, flee from idolatry.” This and all the
other admonitions are serious, so let us take them to heart, remembering that it
is one thing to have made a profession, but it is another thing to prove that
profession to be real by backing it up with a godly life.
Undivided Devotion (1 Corinthians 10:15-30) This passage contains very important
and solemn teaching regarding the celebration of the Lord’s supper, which has
been maintained in the Christian church throughout the centuries. Earlier Paul
warned us against compromising with the world and here Paul continued that
warning, particularly in reference to idolatry and the Lord’s supper. In
civilized lands we do not come in contact with idolatry in the sense that the
apostle primarily referred to here. We are more concerned about the
pleasure-seeking, godless world around us. 2 Corinthians 6:17 seems more
relevant to us today. There we read the challenge of the Spirit of God: “Come
out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the
unclean thing; and I will receive you.” If we are wise, however, we will apply
the principles of both passages to the conditions under which we live.
Idolatry is still a very live issue in pagan lands. There it is necessary to
separate converts from absolutely everything of a heathenish or idolatrous
character, because if there is any compromise, any fellowship with pagan
practices, these things tend to drag the converts back to the old way of life.
Since as Christians we are associated with the table of the Lord, let us see to
it that we “have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather
reprove them” (Ephesians 5:11). Paul asked the Corinthians, “The cup of blessing
which we bless, is it not the communion of the blood of Christ? The bread which
we break, is it not the communion of the body of Christ?” With these questions
the apostle showed us that the Lord’s supper, as we commonly call it, proclaims
the foundation principles of Christianity. It is a rallying point, as it were,
where God’s people come together to confess openly their adherence to great
fundamental truths.
Notice the order here: the cup is mentioned first, the bread second. When we
participate in communion, we follow the order instituted by our Lord: we thank
for the bread first, and then for the cup. But the apostle mentioned the cup
first because it represents the precious poured-out blood of our Lord Jesus
Christ, and there can be no relationship with God for those who by nature and
practice are lost sinners, until they have been cleansed by the blood of Christ.
Every time the communion feast is celebrated, the great fact is emphasized that
it is the blood, the blood of Jesus alone, that cleanses from sin and gives
access to the presence of God. That is the reason for Satan’s antagonism against
this ordinance. The ordinance of the Lord’s supper has suffered in two ways.
Some people have added to it many unscriptural, superstitious practices, making
it such a strange and weird mystery that many Christians are almost afraid to
approach the table of the Lord. On the other hand there are those who,
pretending to have a deeper spirituality and a greater Bible knowledge than
ordinary Christians, have put the Lord’s supper to one side; they claim that we
have no need of ordinances of any kind in the Christian era since it is a
spiritual dispensation.
We need to remember that baptism and the Lord’s supper were given not so much to
be helpful to Christians-though both ordinances are helpful to them-as to be a
testimony to the world outside and to form as it were a line of demarcation
between the church and the world. We have already seen how baptism does that: I
trust the Lord Jesus Christ in my heart, I accept Him as my Savior, and by my
baptism I say to the world, “I have identified myself with the Christ that you
have rejected; henceforward I am dead to the world.”
Dead to the world and all its toys, Its idle pomp and fading joys;
Jesus, my glory be!
If baptism does not mean that to me, it is really nothing more than a mere empty
form; but if I see that by my baptism I am confessing my identification with the
rejected Christ, it becomes a sweet and precious ordinance and is a testimony to
the world outside. The Lord’s supper is also a testimony. While baptism speaks
of my death with Christ, the Lord’s supper speaks of Christ’s death for me and
the fact that it is only because of Christ’s death that I can approach God and
have fellowship with Him. Paul told the Corinthians, “As often as ye eat this
bread, and drink this cup, ye do shew the Lord’s death till he come” (1
Corinthians 11:26). The word translated “shew” here is exactly the same word
that is translated “preach” in many places in the book of Acts and the Epistles.
So the verse could be rendered, “As often as ye eat this bread, and drink this
cup, ye do preach [or proclaim] the Lord’s death till he come.” By participation
in the Lord’s supper today we are preaching to the world around us the fact that
Christ has died and that His blood alone can cleanse from sin. That is why Paul
put the emphasis on the cup.
“The cup of blessing which we bless, is it not the communion of the blood of
Christ?” Communion is the expression of fellowship that is based on the blood of
Christ. Therefore you can readily see that no one ought ever to participate who
does not put his or her trust in the precious blood of the Lord Jesus Christ for
salvation. I cannot understand how anyone who denies the atoning efficacy of the
blood of Jesus would even desire to take part in the celebration of the Lord’s
supper, and yet I am told that in places where men ridicule the thought of
salvation by His blood, the ordinance of the Lord’s supper is still observed in
a formal way. It seems to me that such a hypocritical observance is an insult to
God, an insult to the blessed Savior whose death is being commemorated. Christ
died for sinners; He poured out His blood to redeem us to God and therefore from
time to time we come together to remember Him as we drink the cup. The bread
used in the Lord’s supper has, if I may say so, a double significance. It speaks
of the literal body of our Savior, which was offered for us on the cross, and in
another and wider sense it speaks of the mystical body of Christ to which all
believers belong. “The bread which we break, is it not,” Paul asked, “the
communion of the body of Christ?” The breaking of bread expresses our fellowship
with the church as the body of Christ.
Using the bread as a symbol of His literal body, Christ said, “This is my body
which is given for you” (Luke 22:19). That precious body came into being in a
unique way. It was the direct creation of the Holy Spirit of God in the womb of
the virgin Mary. When Christ came into the world, He said, “A body hast thou
prepared me” (Hebrews 10:5). It was a human body, a body in every respect like
ours except that it had no sinful tendencies whatever. Our Lord Jesus Christ was
from the moment of His birth, as He had been in all eternity, the Holy One of
God. In that prepared body Christ went to the cross and died for our sins; in
fact He assumed that body so that He might die. Deity as such cannot die. God,
no matter how much He loved us, could not die, but God becoming man, God taking
humanity into relationship with deity could die, as Christ died on Calvary’s
tree. Every time we participate in the Lord’s supper we are again announcing the
fact that “Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures” (1 Corinthians
15:3). The communion service preaches-preaches loudly-salvation only through
that vicarious sacrifice offered on the cross. The wider meaning attached to the
use of the bread in the communion service is evident in these words, which the
Spirit of God inspired Paul to write: “We being many are one bread, and one
body: for we are all partakers of that one bread.” Of course “we” means
“Christians.” The apostle was speaking of believers, not mankind in general. Let
us never make the mistake of thinking that all men are included in this “we,” or
that all believers in all ages have been included in the body of Christ. If I
read my Bible correctly, the church came into existence on the day of Pentecost.
There were believers in the world before that. One hundred twenty of them were
gathered together that very morning, but they were one hundred twenty
individuals, separate units. Then the Holy Spirit came according to the Savior’s
promise and in a moment baptized those one hundred twenty individuals and made
of them one body of which the risen and glorified Christ is the Head. That body
exists in the world today and includes all who through the years since Pentecost
have put their trust in Christ. The body as presented in Ephesians takes in all
saints, living and dead, from Pentecost to the rapture. The body as presented in
1 Corinthians takes in all saints on the earth at a given moment of time. They
are all members of the body of Christ. The body of Christ on earth is in the
place of responsibility; the body of Christ in Heaven of course is in the place
where praise and thanksgiving alone prevail. In Heaven there is no longer the
need of prayer because saints have passed beyond the bounds of responsibility.
But while we are in the world, how blessed it is to realize that when we partake
of the Lord’s supper, we are recognizing our unity with every fellow believer on
the face of the earth!
There is only one Lord’s table in all the world. Wherever bread and the fruit of
the vine are placed on a table in commemoration of the death of the Lord Jesus
Christ, that is the Lord’s table, and Christians are responsible to behave
themselves accordingly. The apostle emphasized that when he pointed out that
there are only two other tables: the table of Judaism, which is the fellowship
of Israel; and the table of demons, which is the fellowship of idols. A person
can only feast at one of these three tables.
Paul had the table of Judaism in mind when he wrote, “Behold Israel after the
flesh: are not they which eat of the sacrifices partakers of the altar?” He was
referring to the peace offering. All in Israel were entitled to participate when
the peace offering was offered; that identified them as a special communion. The
fellowship of Gentiles, on the other hand, was at the table of demons. The
apostle wrote, “The things which the Gentiles sacrifice, they sacrifice to
devils, and not to God: and I would not that ye should have fellowship with
devils.” Idolatrous feasts and heathen festivals were all expressions of
fellowship, just as the Lord’s table is an expression of fellowship and the
peace offering in Israel was an expression of fellowship. But those idolatrous
festivals expressed fellowship with demons, whether the participants realized it
or not.
Some people say that we make a great mistake in sending missionaries to heathen
lands. As previously noted, they contend that instead of drawing a line of
demarcation between heathenism and Christianity, we should get all the good we
can out of pagan religions and then share what we have with the heathen. These
critics may not realize it, but behind the heathen idols and images are demon
powers controlling the hearts and minds of the worshipers. Christians are to be
separated from everything like that.
Paul said, “Ye cannot drink the cup of the Lord, and the cup of devils: ye
cannot be partakers of the Lord’s table, and of the table of devils.” And let me
say, you cannot be living for the world, the flesh, and the devil and be a
partaker at the table of the Lord. You can sit in a church pew and when the
bread and wine are passed you can eat and drink of them, but you have not
partaken of the fellowship, for that you cannot do. You can in an outward sense
take your place with Christians, but there is no real fellowship if you still
love the world and its ways. It is the heart that is occupied with Christ that
enjoys the sweetness and preciousness of fellowship at His table. To attempt to
partake of both tables is to “provoke the Lord to jealousy.”
Consider the case of a young man who is engaged to a beautiful young woman who
does not yet know that his ways are very careless. By and by she learns that
although he comes to visit her on some nights and treats her with kindness and
affection, on other nights he is out with other women and is just as
affectionate with them, and then he comes back to her as though nothing has
happened. After she makes this discovery, do you think she will still accept him
on the same good terms? No. She will say, “You cannot go out with others if you
expect me to be devoted to you alone.” Likewise our Lord has called us to
proclaim our wholehearted devotion to Himself and thus our separation from the
world that has rejected our Savior. When we look at the Lord’s supper from this
standpoint, how important its frequent celebration becomes! The early Christians
used to call communion “the sacrament.” Where did that term come from? The word
translated “sacrament” referred to the oath of allegiance that emperors required
soldiers of the Roman legions to take. By using the term, the Christians were
saying, “In a similar way, every time we gather at the table of the Lord we are
renewing our allegiance to our Lord; we are confessing our devotion to Him who
in grace gave Himself for us.” That is what makes this ordinance so precious in
His eyes. The believer, remembering that he is always associated with the Lord’s
table and that his behavior is to be in accordance with that communion, should
be careful about his participation in things that worldlings think nothing of.
“All things are lawful for me,” Paul wrote, “but all things are not expedient:
all things are lawful for me, but all things edify not.” In other words,
although the believer is not bound by rules and regulations, although he is at
liberty to do whatever he believes is right, he should stop and ask himself some
questions about any activity: Will it edify? Will it bless? Will it help me to
love Christ more? Is there a possibility that it may cause anyone else to
stumble? If an activity will not edify, he should turn away from it, for he is
not bound to do it. He is here to seek the blessing of others, not to do his own
will. So the apostle, writing to the Corinthians of his day, said, as it were,
“When you go to the market, purchase whatever meat you want and take it home and
eat it. If you are invited to a meal, feel perfectly free to accept the
invitation and eat what is placed before you. But if when you go to the market
and are about to purchase your meat, the butcher says, ‘This has been dedicated
to idols,’ you should refuse it. If you go out to dinner and your host says, ‘We
are eating this meat today in recognition of such and such a god,’ you must say,
‘I cannot eat this meat with you because I am a partaker at the table of the
Lord.’“
We are not to make objections unnecessarily, but we are to be very careful of
the consciences of other people. For instance Paul did not want the butcher in
Corinth to be able to say, “I had some meat dedicated to Apollo and I sold it to
that Christian, so he evidently recognizes that there are other gods.” Paul did
not want a host to be able to say, “We used to think that Christian was very
narrow. We used to think he recognized only Christ as God, but he took part in
the recognition of our god. He has so much more liberty than we thought.” The
apostle said in effect, “Flee all that kind of liberty; be out-and-out for
Christ; do not give anyone the wrong impression.”
Paul continued, “If I by grace be a partaker, why am I evil spoken of for that
for which I give thanks?” In other words, although a Christian may feel
perfectly free to partake of something, he should not allow himself to partake
of it if doing so would mislead those who are weak in the faith. He should use
his liberty responsibly “for conscience sake.” The conscience of a young person
may be more active than some of us older folks think. Often we get in the habit
of speaking disparagingly of the young and forget to give them time to grow in
grace. We should not expect too much of new believers. We had to grow; we had to
learn little by little what a poor wretched thing this world is. We had to learn
how Christ could more than make up for everything else, and they have to learn
it too. We should give them credit for being just as honest as we were when they
say they want to live for God.
Young people come to me and say, “What do you think of thus and so?” It is
generally some kind of amusement. They ask, “Do you think that it is all right
for a Christian?” And I always say, “My dear young brother, or my dear young
sister, don’t you think that you are turning that around? Instead of asking, ‘Is
there any harm in it?’ you should ask, ‘Is there any profit in it? Will it
really do me good? Would it be a blessing to me physically, spiritually, and in
other ways? Will it help me to be a better testimony for Christ?’ If it will
help you, do not be afraid of it. But beware if your conscience says, ‘It would
not be profitable and it would not be a good testimony to others. It may mislead
the weak and it will not lead you toward a deeper knowledge of Christ.’ In such
a case you should decide, on the basis of the principle that the apostle laid
down in 1 Corinthians 10:1-33, to avoid the amusement. The guiding principle is
to let Christ be the one supreme object of the devotion of your heart.”
Consistent Living (1 Corinthians 10:31-33) The words of this passage form a
fitting conclusion to the previous portion in which Paul emphasized the behavior
that should characterize those who are linked with the table of the Lord. A
table is an expression of fellowship; there is no place where we enjoy one
another’s companionship so much as there. As we sit down to partake of the good
things provided, there is a feast of reason and a flow of soul, and we find
ourselves enjoying fellowship together. As we have seen, in the spiritual sense
there are three tables, representing three fellowships in this world. First,
there is the table of the Lord, and that represents Christian fellowship. The
loaf and the cup on that table speak of the body and the blood of our Lord
Jesus. All who have been redeemed to God by the blood of our Savior are members
of one body and so partake together of that one communion feast.
Second, there is the table of demons, as the apostle solemnly designated it. He
was referring to heathen festivals, the kind of feasts that were held in his day
and are still being held in pagan lands today. Devotees of idolatry gather
together for fellowship in their mysterious and unspeakably evil rites and
ceremonies. Behind all this is the power of Satan. “The things which the
Gentiles sacrifice,” Paul said, “they sacrifice to devils, and not to God” (1
Corinthians 10:20).
Third, there is what might be called the table of Israel. “Are not they which
eat of the sacrifices partakers of the altar?” Paul asked (1 Corinthians 10:18).
That used to be the table of the Lord, but when the Lord Jesus was rejected,
those Jewish forms and ceremonies became void and empty. Yet today we recognize
that there is that fellowship in the world, a fellowship which is neither
Christian on the one hand nor pagan on the other-the fellowship of the house of
Israel.
Now 1 Corinthians 10:31-33 show us that as Christians we are to be aware of the
different fellowships and seek to be a blessing to everyone in each of those
circles. First, however, we have our individual responsibility to order our own
lives for the glory of God. “Whether therefore ye eat, or drink, or whatsoever
ye do,” Paul said, “do all to the glory of God.” How far-reaching is this
commandment! I wonder whether we always keep it in mind as we should. I am quite
certain that many of us would live very different lives if we always remembered
it. That admonition takes in my entire life. A great many people try to live
their lives in sealed compartments, as it were-one compartment for the church,
another for the family, another for business, and another for pleasure and
recreation-and the same man may seem to be an altogether different person in
each one. When he comes to church he is the essence of sanctimoniousness, for he
has a long face and reverent mien as he sits in his pew. We might think that an
unholy thought never passed through his mind. His eyes are either uplifted to
Heaven or closed as if in rapt meditation. But when that same man goes out into
the business world, his eyes are never closed and certainly never lifted
heavenward. He looks about him furtively in a most anxious way and is always
interested in how he may make a dollar-honestly or dishonestly. In fact he
sometimes does not make the dollars at all; he simply gets them.
There is a great deal of difference between making money and getting money. We
make money when we give a legitimate return for it; we get money without giving
a legitimate return for it. In their efforts to get money, even professing
Christians often engage in nefarious schemes that would not stand the test of
the Word of God or even a close application of the law of the land. When they
are questioned they answer, “Well, you know what the Bible says: ‘Not slothful
in business.’” That Scriptural saying (Romans 12:11) has made quite an
impression on many minds. When the same man goes home, he is another altogether
different person. In business he is so affable, at church so reverent and
solemn, but in his home he is sometimes anything but affable and solemn. There,
where he feels he is best known, he is a boor; he shows a miserably bad temper
and makes everyone around him uncomfortable. You may have heard the story of the
wife who said of her husband who was a preacher, “When I see him in the pulpit,
I think he never ought to come out of it, and when I see his behavior at home, I
think he never ought to go into it.” There are many people like that; they live
one way at home and an altogether different way outside. They are like the man
John Bunyan spoke of as a “devil at home and an angel abroad.”
It is amazing to see how the compartmentalized person who looks so serious on a
Sunday morning acts during his leisure time. On a weeknight he may make his way
into some unholy place of amusement. I wonder how people can attempt to combine
the two, how they can show any respect whatever for the things of God if they
indulge in the vile, wicked pleasures that so many are running after today.
We are not to live our lives in these air-tight compartments; we are to do
everything “to the glory of God.” If we gather with the people of God in church
services, we should do it so that He may be glorified; if we go out to take our
place in the business world, we should do it so that we may bring glory to His
name. A straightforward, upright, godly businessman may be a far better
testimony for God than a preacher. Men expect the preacher to unfold the Word of
God, but they are pleasantly surprised when they see a businessman living out
the Word of God. Such a testimony appeals to them and proves to them that what
the preacher declares is true. The home is the place, perhaps above every other,
where a man may show what a Christian really should be, as in the presence of
his wife and his children he demonstrates the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and
seeks to lead those who are young in His ways. And how can a Christian glorify
God in his leisure? A Christian needs recreation; he has a body and a mind to
take care of and he needs to get out in the open and give a certain amount of
time to that which is not so serious. But in his recreation he will say to
himself, “I am still to have this in view, that I am to live to the glory of
God. Whatever I do, I must be careful that I do not allow myself to participate
in anything that would not have the approval of the Lord Jesus Christ.” We can
easily test our plans by asking ourselves, “If I do thus and so, would it
disconcert me in the least if the Lord Jesus would suddenly appear, if He would
look down on me and say, ‘What are you doing?’”
I had never been in a theater before I was converted, but seven years after my
conversion I fell into a backslidden state and I said, “I am going to find out
what the theater is like.” I felt like Moses when he looked this way and that
way to see if anyone was watching before he killed the Egyptian. I looked to the
right and to the left, but I forgot to look up, for there was One watching me
from above, the blessed Lord Jesus Himself. I paid for my ticket and went in and
the miserable movie began. I had not been sitting there long when I seemed to
hear a voice say, “What doest thou here, Elijah?” and I thought, Where does that
come from? Oh yes, I remember. That is in the Bible. I was so stirred that I got
up and ran from the place.
If you want to be the kind of Christian who grows “in grace, and in the
knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ” (2 Peter 3:18), you must order
your life according to His Word. You must heed 1 Corinthians 10:31 and the
similar admonition in Colossians 3:17 : “Whatsoever ye do in word or deed, do
all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God and the Father by him.”
If you call yourself a Christian, the next time you think of going to some
ungodly place of worldly amusement, get down on your knees first and say,
“Blessed God, in the name of the Lord Jesus I am going to the theater [or
whatever other place it may be] to see some of those Hollywood stars cavorting
on the screen and I pray that the movie may be for my spiritual blessing and
that I may be enabled to glorify God at the theater.” If you can pray that way
without biting your tongue for being a hypocrite, you may go; but if you find
that you cannot pray like that, you had better give the place a wide berth. If
you do not sense the Lord’s approval of an activity, you should avoid it.
Before World War I, Pastor D. H. Dolman was giving some addresses in a palace in
Russia. He had been invited to come from Germany by a Russian princess who was
an earnest evangelical Christian. She had gathered together many of the old
Russian nobility and it was to them Pastor Dolman was speaking. At one of his
meetings he was talking of the Christian’s attitude toward the world. A grand
duchess was there and she was a professed Christian. Being a strong-minded lady,
she spoke up at the close of the meeting and said, “I do not at all agree with
some things that Pastor Dolman has said today.”
He turned to her and said, “Your Imperial Highness, what have I said with which
you disagree?”
“You said a Christian should not go to the theater, and I do not agree with you.
I go to the theater, and I never go without first getting down on my knees and
saying, ‘I am going to the theater today, and I want Thee to go with me and
protect me from all evil,’ and He always does.”
“Your Imperial Highness, may I ask you a question? Where did you get the
authority to decide what you were going to do and then ask the Lord to go with
you? Why do you not wait until the Lord says to you, ‘Grand Duchess, I am going
to the theater tonight and I want you to come with Me’? Then you could follow
Him to the theater.”
She threw up her hands and said, “Pastor Dolman has spoiled the theater for me,
for if I wait for the Lord to bid me go, that time will never come!” That is
true of a great many other worldly places. Give the Lord the opportunity to
guide you and He will lead your steps in the right way. You may say, “Oh well,
whose business is it how I behave?” That is something like the question Cain
asked: “Am I my brother’s keeper?” If you profess to be a Christian, there are a
great many eyes fixed on you. People are watching you to see what a Christian
should be and they are judging your Master by your life. If your life is
worldly, mean, and ungodly, they decide that your Master is not the blessed,
glorious, holy Christ that your lips tell them He is.
Reminding us that there are three classes of people looking on, the apostle
said, “Give none offence, neither to the Jews, nor to the Gentiles, nor to the
church of God.” Paul did not mean that we are not to offend anyone, for it is
impossible to keep from offending somebody. For instance, if I preach the Lord
Jesus Christ, I offend my unbelieving neighbor. If I try to live for God, I
offend people who do not want to live for God. If I stand against the liquor
traffic, I offend all those who are engaged in that abominable business and are
interested in it from the standpoint of revenue. It is impossible for a
Christian to live as he should without offending somebody. The English word
“offence” had an altogether different meaning in King James’ day. In more modern
terms, Paul was saying, “Give no occasion to stumble.” We should not allow
ourselves to do anything that would seem inconsistent to other people and thus
cause them to stumble.
Christians should live consistently before the Jews, God’s covenant people. They
are the people to whom He gave the revelation of His Word, which they preserved
for us down through the centuries. They are the people to whom the Savior came;
in fact He was one of them. Romans 9:5 speaks of the Israelites as those “of
whom as concerning the flesh Christ came.” But the Jews fulfilled their own
Scriptures when they condemned and rejected the Savior, and because they
condemned and rejected Him, God has set them to one side. Christ went out to
die, sadly saying to Israel, “Your house is left unto you desolate. For I say
unto you, Ye shall not see me henceforth, till ye shall say, Blessed is he that
cometh in the name of the Lord” (Matthew 23:38-39).
Because of their awful sin in rejecting their promised Messiah, the Jews are
scattered everywhere among the Gentiles today. With yearning and longing for the
salvation of the Jews, every honest Christian heart goes out in tender sympathy
toward Israel. We realize that as a result of Israel’s having been set aside,
great blessing has come to the Gentile nations to which we belong, but we desire
that God’s ancient people may share this blessing with us. A Jewish lady once
said to me, “If Jesus is the Messiah, the One predicted by our prophets, why is
it that it is you Gentiles who enjoy the blessings that Jesus brings while we
are bereft of them?” I answered, “My dear friend, the Lord came and spread a
table laden with all good things and said, ‘I am not sent but unto the lost
sheep of the house of Israel.’ And He invited the people of Israel to come and
partake of those good things, but they turned away and did not come; they
rejected the Savior and the blessings He brought. It was then that He threw open
wide the door to the Gentiles and told them to come in and partake of the good
things that Israel had refused, and that is why we have come in. But we still
recognize Israel as God’s ancient covenant people and know from the Word of God
that the day is coming when their eyes will be opened and ‘they shall look upon
[him] whom they have pierced, and they shall mourn for him, as one mourneth for
his only son, and shall be in bitterness for him, as one that is in bitterness
for his firstborn.’ In the meantime ‘blindness in part is happened to Israel,
until the fulness of the Gentiles be come in.’” (See Matthew 15:24; Zechariah
12:10; Romans 11:25.)
We as Christians are to live carefully before the Jews. We are to be
considerate, remembering that judicial blindness has come upon them, and we are
to commend our Christ to Israel by our godly lives. I am afraid that some Jews
might well be excused for rejecting Christ Jesus because of the behavior of
those who profess to belong to Christ. It is a shame it ever should be so.
Perhaps there never was a day when it was more important for real Christians to
confirm their love toward Israel, for at the time I am writing there seems to be
a rising tide of antisemitism sweeping all over the civilized world. Some
writers give the impression that the Jew is responsible for all our national and
political ills. But we know who is responsible. Professing Christian people have
turned away from the living God, spurned His Word, rejected His Son, and
dishonored His Holy Spirit, so God is teaching the Christian nations of the
world that it is an evil and a bitter thing to forsake the Lord their God. But
Israel is blinded and many of them have turned away from the God of their
fathers, and instead of being a blessing to the world, they are a curse.
However, the great majority of Jews today are simple, kind, earnest people. How
dare we try to blame on them the ills of the nations? We as Christians should
show that our hearts are compassionate toward them and that we desire to have
them share with us the blessings which we have found through the One who came
from them, Jesus of Nazareth, the rightful King of the Jews.
Christians should also live consistently before the Gentiles, the Christless
nations all about us. Most of us are Gentiles by birth and at one time we were
outside “the covenants of promise” and “aliens from the commonwealth of Israel”
(Ephesians 2:12). Today the greater part of the Gentile world still remains in
its ignorance, darkness, and sin although centuries have elapsed since the Lord
Jesus said, “Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature”
(Mark 16:15). At the time I am writing, there are over a billion people in this
world who are still without God and without hope. What a tremendous
responsibility rests on us to proclaim the gospel to them! We do not need to go
across the sea to find Gentiles, for we work with them day by day. How careful
we should be not to cause them to stumble!
I have said to some Gentiles, “Are you a Christian?” When they have answered,
“No,” I have asked, “Wouldn’t you like to be?” To that they have replied, “Well,
I have sometimes thought so, but I have seen so many hypocrites among people
professing to be Christians that I do not have much interest.” That of course is
a very foolish rationalization. It is like the response of a man who, when
offered a ten-dollar bill, said, ‘Thank you, but I have seen so many counterfeit
bills that I don’t like to touch it.” I do not excuse anyone for such foolish
reasoning, for no one will talk that way on the day of judgment. When the Lord
says, “Why didn’t you trust Me?” no one will dare to look up and say, “I would
have, but I saw so many hypocrites among those professing to be Christians.” On
the other hand, you and I are to behave so carefully that it will be impossible
for people to get a wrong conception of Christianity because our lives are not
what they should be.
Christians should also live consistently before the church of God. What is the
church of God? There was a time when the church of God had no existence. After
Peter made his confession, our Lord Jesus said, “Upon this rock I will build my
church; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it” (Matthew 16:18).
There was no church of God existing on the earth during the period covered by
the four Gospels, but the book of Acts records that after the descent of the
Holy Spirit on the day of Pentecost, a new company, the church, came into
existence. Paul’s Epistles also refer to it. For instance the apostle, speaking
of what he was in his unconverted days, said, “I persecuted the church of God,
and wasted it” (Galatians 1:13). Speaking to the Ephesian elders, he said, “Feed
the church of God, which he hath purchased with his own blood” (Acts 20:28).
Writing to Timothy long years afterward, Paul told him how he ought to behave
“in the house of God, which is the church of the living God, the pillar and
ground of the truth” (1 Timothy 3:15).
What is the church of God? It is not the building in which we meet. When we
speak of a church in that sense, we use the word colloquially. The church is the
company of people who have been redeemed to God by the precious blood of His
Son. In the beginning the great majority of these people were Jews and then God
began to work in power among the Gentiles, and the two together constituted the
church of God. Ephesians 3:6 speaks of the mystery “that the Gentiles should be
fellowheirs, and of the same body, and partakers of his promise in Christ by the
gospel.” It was the Jew first and then the Gentile, and now all who believe form
this wonderful company called the church of God.
Let me ever remember as I walk down the street that I am a member of the church
of God. As I meet with fellow Christians, let me remember that I am a member of
the church of God. In my home life and in my business life, let me ever be
mindful of the fact that I am a member of the church of God. I cannot get out of
the church, so I always have to behave as one who is in the church. Some people
behave one way when they are in what they call a church building and another way
when they are outside of it. Parents say to their children, “You must be good in
church,” and let me say to every Christian that you and I must always be good,
for we are always in church! We are members of the church of God and we are to
behave ourselves accordingly. The apostle said, “Give none offence,” and then
added, as it were, “I am not asking you to do something that I do not ask myself
to do.” That is what he meant when he said, “Even as I please all men in all
things.” Of course he used the word “please” in the sense of seeking to profit
all men. You cannot please people in the sense of doing what each of them wants
you to do. If you did, you would not please God, but we are to behave ourselves
properly toward others.
Why is it so important that I should behave myself properly as a Christian?
“That they may be saved.” Others who are not saved are watching me, and if I am
not careful, my behavior will perhaps turn them away from the Lord. They will
say, “I have no use for God or Christianity or the Bible. I have been watching
that man who professes to love God, to love Christ, and to honor the Bible, and
I do not see anything in his life to commend either God or Christ or the Bible.”
We Christians have a responsibility to behave ourselves so that people looking
at us will see Christ.
Paul was seeking “the profit of many, that they may be saved.” Those words
indicate that there are many people who are not saved. Scripture divides all
mankind into two classes: the lost and the saved. Who are the lost? 2
Corinthians 4:3-4 explains, “If our gospel be hid, it is hid to them that are
lost: In whom the god of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe
not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God,
should shine unto them.” The lost are those who reject the gospel, who live on
in their sins, who do not come to Christ. Who are the saved? They are those who
put their trust in Jesus, who believe the gospel, who come to Christ.
I would ask each reader, Are you lost or are you saved? If you have not trusted
Christ as Savior, you are not merely in danger of being lost; you “are lost”
now. But if you are lost, you may be saved, and you may be saved now.
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CHAPTER 77: 05.11. COMING TOGETHER FOR THE BETTER
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Coming Together For The Better In our study of this Epistle we have noticed that
in 1 Corinthians 1:1-31, 1 Corinthians 2:1-16, 1 Corinthians 3:1-23, 1
Corinthians 4:1-21, 1 Corinthians 5:1-13, 1 Corinthians 6:1-20 the apostle wrote
to the Corinthian church about certain matters that required correction and
instruction. We can be very thankful that God providentially permitted so many
things to come up in the early church in order that they might be corrected by
apostolic authority during that first century of the Christian era, because
similar things have continually come up in the churches of God down through the
years. The remarkable fact is that no circumstance can arise, no sin can cause
trouble and distress, no irregularity may appear that has not already been
provided for in the Epistles of the New Testament. Problems such as ours were
rife in the beginning of the church’s history, and because they were addressed
by the Holy Spirit through inspired men, all we need to do today is walk in
obedience to the Word. In 1 Corinthians 1:1-31, 1 Corinthians 2:1-16, 1
Corinthians 3:1-23, 1 Corinthians 4:1-21, 1 Corinthians 5:1-13, 1 Corinthians
6:1-20 the apostle dealt with such issues as divisions among Christians, schisms
of various kinds, immorality in the church of God, Christians going to court
against one another, and other lapses that disturb the peace of the church. As
already noted, beginning with 1 Corinthians 7:1-40, 1 Corinthians 8:1-13, 1
Corinthians 9:1-27, 1 Corinthians 10:1-33, 1 Corinthians 11:1-34, 1 Corinthians
12:1-31, 1 Corinthians 13:1-13, 1 Corinthians 14:1-40, 1 Corinthians 15:1-58, 1
Corinthians 16:1-24, Paul dealt with subjects concerning which the Corinthian
church had written for instruction and help. He said, “Now concerning the things
whereof ye wrote unto me,” and then proceeded to respond. In 1 Corinthians
7:1-40 he addressed the questions of marriage and divorce, and the relationship
of a Christian wife and a heathen husband, or a Christian husband and a heathen
wife; in 1 Corinthians 8:1-13, 1 Corinthians 9:1-27 the apostle wrote about meat
offered to idols and the Christian’s relationship to idol temples; in 1
Corinthians 10:1-33 Paul showed how carefully the Christian ought to walk apart
from everything that savors of idolatry. Continuing his response, in 1
Corinthians 11:1-34 Paul touched on more problems that were disturbing the early
church.
Head Coverings (1 Corinthians 11:1-16) In order to understand this portion
properly we need to try to visualize conditions existing in those distant days.
Corinth was a loose, dissolute city. I question if any of the other great cities
in which the apostle preached the gospel were worse in character. We are rapidly
getting into the same condition, for we are living in a day when everything like
purity and chastity is looked on as a joke, and people are utterly cynical and
indifferent in regard to personal morality. The literature of our day reeks with
filth, pictures are vile and lewd, and plays and movies are just as bad. Low
standards of behavior are prevalent. But Corinth was even worse.
Therefore the apostle desired that Christian women especially not do anything
that would cast the least cloud on their reputation for purity. Loose women in
those days went about bareheaded and were found in the streets unblushingly
seeking those who might be companions with them in their sin and wickedness.
Women who sought to live in chastity and purity were very particular never to
appear in public unveiled. The unveiled woman was the careless woman, the
immoral woman; the veiled woman was the careful wife or mother who was concerned
about her character and her reputation.
It seems that after Christianity came to Corinth and converted women rejoiced in
a liberty they had never known in the old pagan days, some of them were inclined
to be rather careless and indifferent about the customs of the day. They perhaps
were saying, “We are all one in Christ; Paul himself has taught us that in the
new creation there is neither male nor female, and so there is no reason now why
Christian women should be subject to any of the conventionalities of the day. We
can go unveiled and bareheaded in public places, and we need not be concerned
about it.” The Corinthians wrote to Paul to get his judgment in this matter and
he introduced his answer with this comment: “Be ye followers of me, even as I
also am of Christ.” In other words, “I am about to give you instruction,
instruction that I have a right to give as a divinely appointed apostle of the
Lord Jesus Christ. I seek in all things to be subject to Christ. When He speaks,
I endeavor to obey. Now I trust that you will have the same spirit in regard to
the guidance I am about to give you, that you will seek to follow me, to be led
by me just as I seek to be led by the Lord Jesus Christ.”
Then Paul praised the Corinthians for their obedience to instructions he had
given them in the past. “I praise you, brethren,” he said, “that ye remember me
in all things, and keep the ordinances, as I delivered them to you.” He was the
one who under God had founded the church at Corinth, and before leaving them he
had taught them what they needed to know to carry on. Now he had to approach a
rather delicate subject and give them directions that some might resent, but
first he gave them credit for all their past cooperation. When Paul used the
word “ordinances,” he was not referring simply to the two Christian ordinances
of baptism and the Lord’s supper, though these would certainly be included. It
is unthinkable that any Christian should ever set them to one side, but the word
here has a much wider meaning. It refers to the instruction given to the
Corinthians regarding a great many things that have to do with the happy
fellowship of saints. A little while ago these people had been idolaters, led by
Satan, captive at his will; now they were redeemed and seeking to walk together
as Christians. They needed to subject themselves to the revealed will of God if
they were to have joyful fellowship in the church. As we study Paul’s teaching
here about woman’s place in nature and in the church, I wish you would bear in
mind that he was not speaking, as he does elsewhere, of woman’s place in the new
creation. In the new creation, as already intimated, there are no distinctions.
“There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free, there is
neither male nor female: for ye are all one in Christ Jesus” (Galatians 3:28).
We were all sinners alike; we have all been redeemed alike; we are all indwelt
by the Holy Ghost alike; we have all been baptized into one body alike. All
distinctions vanish as we think of one another as members of Christ. We are all
one in Christ. But this does not alter the fact that we still have our natural
place, which we must maintain. The Christian is not to be careless as to his
responsibilities and you will see how important this is if I illustrate it as
follows: According to the Word of God I am a heavenly citizen, but if I say,
“Since I am a heavenly citizen, I have no responsibilities to any country here
on earth,” I will soon have to reckon with the tax collector and other
authorities. The governors of this world will soon teach me that I have earthly
relationships that must be maintained. Likewise, although there is neither male
nor female in the new creation, we have our distinct places to fill in nature
and in the church.
“I would have you know,” Paul wrote, “that the head of every man is Christ; and
the head of the woman is the man; and the head of Christ is God.” Someone may
ask, “But is not Christ the Head of every woman?” Yes, in the new creation
Christ is the Head, and men and women are members of His body, of His flesh, and
of His bones, but here Paul was speaking of creation, not the new creation. In
creation the Head of every man is Christ. When God said, “Let us make man in our
image” (Genesis 1:26), He had Christ in view, and when the first man came into
the world, he came as the type of Him who was to come. And so the Head of every
man is Christ, and man is to be subject to Christ and to represent Christ. But
God did not leave man alone in the world. He said, “I will make him an help meet
for him” (Genesis 2:18), and He created woman. “Thy desire,” He said to the
woman, “shall be to thy husband, and he shall rule over thee” (Genesis 3:16).
When God gave Eve to Adam, she saw Adam as her head, and that relationship still
exists: “The head of the woman is the man.”
I suspect there are some modern women who resent that; they would like to make
the woman the head of the man. They resent the thought that God has given to
woman anything that looks like an inferior place, but let us put aside any
suggestion of inferiority. The point is that it is the responsibility of the
husband to care for and to protect the wife-the husband “giving honour unto the
wife, as unto the weaker vessel” (1 Peter 3:7). When a woman marries and agrees
to take her husband’s name, she tacitly consents to Paul’s teaching. Some women
do refuse to take their husbands’ names. They say, “We will not subject
ourselves in any way, and in taking our husbands’ names, we would be subjecting
ourselves.” I believe that a woman should not marry a man until she is willing
to accept him as her head and assume his name. If she is not willing, it would
be far better for her to remain single so she can run things to suit herself.
If a woman had said to Paul, “I refuse to take that place of subjection,” he
would have replied, “The Head of Christ is God.” In other words, “Remember, the
Lord Jesus took the place of subjection. He humbled Himself, but it is His glory
to be in that place. When the Son of God became man, He assumed that position
and He will keep it for all eternity.”
Paul continued, “Every man praying or prophesying, having his head covered,
dishonoured! his head. But every woman that prayeth or prophesieth with her head
uncovered dishonoured! her head.” If a man should stand up in public to pray or
to preach (the word translated “prophesieth” here really means “preach”) wearing
a covering on his head, he would be dishonoring his Head-not that which is above
his neck, but his Head who is Christ. If I stood in this pulpit preaching with
my hat on, every one of you would rightfully say, “Has he no respect for the
Master whom he professes to serve?” When I come into the presence of God and
Christ and the angels who are learning the wisdom of God in the church, I remove
my hat. For the same reason when a woman comes into the church, she keeps her
hat (or head covering) on to honor her head. Who is her head? The man. To
uncover her head would be to show that she wants to be like the man. She
dishonors her head if she says, “I am not going to be subject to such a rule; I
have as much right to have my head uncovered in a public meeting as a man has.”
Paul did not say that she dishonors the Lord Jesus Christ. She may be quite
unconscious of dishonoring anyone, but I am telling you what the Word of God
says.
Concerning this and other matters it has well been said, “Some things are
commanded because they are right; other things are right because they are
commanded.” “Thou shalt not steal” is an example of the former. The commandment
did not make it wrong to steal; it was always wrong to steal. “Let her be
covered,” on the other hand, is right because it is commanded. God has spoken
and it is often in little things like this that our state of mind is
revealed-either our self-will is still at work or we are ready to be subject to
the Word of God. In that pagan city of Corinth it would have been a great shame
and disgrace for a woman to appear in public with her head uncovered; it would
have marked her out as an immoral person. Of course we must recognize that
customs change, but the principle of this chapter remains the same. God is
calling Christian women to modesty of deportment so that they may be
distinguished from worldly women.
Paul emphasized his point by saying, “If the woman be not covered [veiled], let
her also be shorn.” In other words, “If she does not have a covering over her
hair, let her really be like a man. Let her go to a barbershop and have her
beautiful locks cut off.” I do not understand why a woman would want to be so
manlike anyway; a womanly woman is one of the sweetest creatures God ever made.
I like a womanly woman and a manly man, and I wonder if anyone really admires a
manly woman or a womanly man. Let each one keep his proper place in God’s
creation. The apostle went on to explain: “For a man indeed ought not to cover
his head, forasmuch as he is the image and glory of God: but the woman is the
glory of the man.” She is superior to the man in so many ways that she lowers
herself when she gets out of her own sphere and tries to take the place of the
man. I wonder sometimes whether women have any idea how even worldly men express
their disgust at the manlike behavior of women in public places these days. When
a woman takes out a cigarette and begins to smoke, I hear even unsaved men say,
“What are we coming to? I am glad I did not have a mother like that.” Men hate
to see women aping men, and Christian women should be absolutely above reproach.
The woman was taken from man-“The man is not of the woman; but the woman of the
man.” An old writer said, “When God created man, He made him of the dust of the
ground; when He created woman, he took her from the man. He did not take her
from his head in order that she might lord it over him; He did not take her from
his feet that he might trample on her; He took her from his side, close to his
heart, in order that she might be his companion and that he might love and care
for her.” And so we read, “Neither was the man created for the woman; but the
woman for the man… Nevertheless neither is the man without the woman, neither
the woman without the man, in the Lord. For as the woman is of the man [through
creation], even so is the man also by the woman [through birth]; but all things
of God.” So everyone has his place to fill in creation and none can take the
place of the other.
We have skipped over 1 Corinthians 11:10, which comes in parenthetically: “For
this cause ought the woman to have power on her head because of the angels.”
Admittedly this is a somewhat difficult verse. A marginal note in some Bibles
reads, “Power-in sign that she is under the power or authority of her husband.”
I think that marginal note was probably inserted by some worthy brother in years
gone by who may have had a little difficulty in maintaining his position as head
of the house! I question that this is what “power” means here. You see, if a
woman in a city like Corinth appeared in a public place with her head uncovered,
she would at once be exposed to insults. But if when going shopping or visiting
friends or going to the Christian services, she put a veil over her head, she
walked down the street unmolested. Her covering was her power.
I spent the first six years of my Christian experience as an officer in The
Salvation Army. In those days I often had occasion to see how that beautiful
little blue bonnet was the power of the Salvation Army lassie. One day when I
was seeking the lost in a saloon on the Barbary Coast in San Francisco, two of
our Salvation Army lassies appeared and I noticed that everyone treated them
respectfully except for one man, a half-drunken sailor. When the Salvation Army
girl approached him with a tract, he turned toward her and made a movement as
though he would have kissed her. As she drew back, five of those ungodly men
immediately sprang to their feet, knocked the sailor down, thrashed him within
an inch of his life, and threw him out into the gutter for the police to pick
up. Her bonnet was “power on her head.”
Lots of other girls were in that saloon-God help them-whom nobody would have
fought for or protected. There they were with their brazen faces and uncovered
heads, lacking the lassie’s power, and proving the apostle right. So Paul was
saying, “Women, you are not belittling yourselves when you show proper respect
by appearing in public places with your heads covered. You are simply availing
yourself of that which is your protection against insult.” But what does the
expression “because of the angels” mean? It is a little difficult to know
nineteen centuries later just what was in the mind of the apostle. Many think he
meant that whenever Christians are gathered together, God’s holy angels in
Heaven are looking down with delight on the scene; that the angels note with
approval everything that savors of subjection and obedience to the Word of God;
and that they also observe with disapproval everything that savors of self-will
and insubordination.
However, since we are told that angels are learning the wisdom of God in the
church, the apostle may have been saying, “Let the angel hosts see in Christian
women a reverence, a modesty, and a respect for holy things that are not found
in the women of the world.” If that is the meaning of Paul’s words, it is very
beautiful.
Isaiah 6:2 refers to a class of holy angels called the seraphim, each of which
“had six wings; with twain he covered his face, and with twain he covered his
feet, and with twain he did fly.” The apostle may have been picturing these
angels, who cover their faces in the presence of God, looking down to see the
covered women sitting in reverence and modesty in the presence of God. That may
be the meaning of “because of the angels.”
William Thompson had another suggestion. In his work The Land and the Book he
pointed out that from the days of the apostle John the word “angel” was used for
the minister in a church. Dr. Thompson said that no one who has not seen for
himself the conditions under which the ministers in eastern churches worked can
understand why the apostle told Christian women that they should keep their
faces veiled “because of the angels.” Until recent times in oriental lands the
women and men were segregated as they gathered together so that there would be
nothing to disturb the equanimity of the men, but the “angel” or minister stood
on a platform and saw both groups. Probably he had never looked at the uncovered
face of a woman other than his mother or sister or other near relative, and
therefore if the women were not veiled, he would be so disconcerted by looking
into all those unveiled faces that he might not be able to keep his mind on his
message!
Moving on in the passage we read, “Judge in yourselves: is it comely that a
woman pray unto God uncovered?” Paul was saying, “Should she not take a reverent
attitude? It is perfectly right for me to pray with my head uncovered, but a
woman is to cover her head as a sign of reverent subjection.”
Going back to nature the apostle said, “Doth not even nature itself teach you,
that, if a man have long hair, it is a shame unto him? But if a woman have long
hair, it is a glory to her: for her hair is given her for a covering.” Someone
may say, “That settles the question. Her hair is her covering.” But the apostle
said earlier that if she does not cover her hair, she is to let it be cut short.
She has that natural covering which distinguishes her from man and over that she
is to put a veil. Why? Because a woman’s hair is her glory. Is not that most
striking? In the presence of God she is to cover her chief beauty so that no
mind may be turned from Christ to her beautiful hair. It is precious to think of
Mary of Bethany and of the poor woman in Luke 7 who anointed the feet of Jesus
and wiped them with their hair. They cast their glory at His feet.
Closing this passage, Paul wrote, “If any man seem to be contentious, we have no
such custom, neither the churches of God.” He was saying, “If people are going
to make a fuss about a matter of this kind, all I have to say is that we have no
such custom. If women will persist in being disorderly in this way, you cannot
discipline them; you cannot put them out of the church. I have laid down God’s
Word. Now let the women settle it themselves; let them decide how far they will
subject themselves to the Word of the living God.”
What is the real importance of head coverings? It is the test of whether our
wills are subject to God or whether we are going to be subject to the fashions
and customs of the day in which we live. The Christian is one who has forsaken
the world for Christ’s sake; he has turned his back on “the fashion of this
world [that] passeth away” (1 Corinthians 7:31) so that he may subject himself
to another, even the Lord from Heaven. I beg of you, my brother and sister,
remember Romans 14:22 : “Happy is he that condemneth not himself in that thing
which he alloweth.” Settle with God just how far a passage like this, having to
do with customs of long ago, has authority over your conscience at the present
time, but do not go beyond conscience. In all things seek to be obedient to the
Word of the living God, for this is the path of blessing. The Lord’s Supper (1
Corinthians 11:17-26) This passage contains perhaps the fullest instruction in
Scripture concerning the correct observance of the Lord’s supper. It is evident
that communion should have a large place in the hearts and minds of Christians
during the dispensation in which our blessed Lord is absent in body, but sitting
“on the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in the heavens” (Hebrews 8:1).
The Lord’s supper was intended to call Him so vividly to mind that His people
might be occupied with Him and that Christ Himself might be the joy of their
hearts as they go out afterward in service.
Apparently at a very early date Christians began to misunderstand the Lord’s
supper. It is rather a sad commentary on our fallen human nature that everything
God has given us has been abused by man. The physical appetites He has given
have been abused, and the privileges He has given have often been misused. Under
the law, God gave Israel the sabbath, and you would think that men would have
recognized it as a part of His gracious provision for the comfort of His
creatures (Exodus 20:9-10). But many people learned to loathe the sabbath
because they connected it with all kinds of laws and prohibitions that God
Himself had not added to it. Our Lord Jesus had to reprove the men of His day by
saying, “The sabbath was made for man, and not man for the sabbath” (Mark 2:27).
Other observances in Old Testament times were also misrepresented and the same
is true of the two ordinances of the Christian church. The Lord’s supper and
baptism were designed to continue to be observed in the church until the end of
the present age-until the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ and our gathering
together unto Him-but in the meantime people have misunderstood their
significance. Some folks go to the extreme of making these ordinances saving
sacraments, and other people become very careless about them. The fact is that
neither baptism nor the Lord’s supper has anything to do with the salvation of
our souls, except that they picture the way in which we are saved through the
death and resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ. And yet these ordinances are of
great importance because they help to draw our hearts to Him and give us a more
vivid realization of our identification with Him who loved us and gave Himself
for us. In the early church the Lord’s supper was observed very frequently; for
a time at least it was observed every day. The opening chapters of Acts indicate
that Christians participated in the breaking of bread daily. Afterward it was
observed on the first day of the week, as Acts 20:7 seems to show. I am sure
that the more often we gather together to “shew the Lord’s death till he come,”
the greater will be the blessing that we receive and the greater will be the
glory that is given to the Lord Jesus Christ. In spite of frequent observance in
the early church, the believers fell into ways that abused the ordinance. The
apostle said that he could not praise them for the way they attempted to
celebrate the Lord’s supper: “I praise you not,” he wrote to the Corinthians,
“that ye come together not for the better, but for the worse.” So it is possible
to assemble to celebrate the Lord’s supper, yet go away harmed rather than
benefited.
How was it that these believers were celebrating it “for the worse” rather than
“for the better”? In the first place there was a divisive spirit working among
them. Instead of recognizing that the Lord’s supper speaks of the unity of the
whole church of God and that all alike partake of that one loaf and one cup that
represent the body and blood of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Corinthians were
grouping together under various leaders. They were under one roof, it is true,
but some were saying, “I am of Paul the teacher”; some, “I am of Apollos the
preacher”; some, “I am of Cephas the exhorter”; and others, “We do not recognize
any of these leaders, for we are of Christ.” It was just as bad to make Christ’s
name the head of a party as any other name; Christ is the Head of all believers
and not merely of some little group. So instead of praising the Corinthians,
Paul had to write, “When ye come together in the church, I hear that there be
divisions among you: and I partly believe it. For there must be also heresies
among you, that they which are approved [of yourselves] may be made manifest
among you.” The people were focusing on leaders instead of being occupied with
Jesus Christ.
Another abuse of the Lord’s supper was that the people were linking it with the
agape meal, the love feast of which Jude wrote. Many of the early Christians
were slaves and could not get away from their duties very often, but when they
could come to gatherings, they wanted to stay at the meeting place as long as
possible, so they brought their food with them. Between services they would
spread it out and partake of it together. In time the believers fell into the
habit of tying the Lord’s supper into this fellowship. At these meals some
people had a great deal to eat, while others had nothing; some drank until they
were inebriated, while others did not have enough to quench their thirst. The
rich banqueted while the poor remained hungry and so Paul said in effect, “It is
far better to do your eating at home.” He was not insisting that it is wrong for
Christians to come together for love feasts, which are Scriptural. He was just
saying that if the effect of these meals was to separate believer from believer,
it was far better for them to eat at home.
Having reproved the Corinthians for their misbehavior at the table, Paul spoke
clearly of the revelation that the risen Christ had given him from Heaven
concerning the proper observance of the communion service. The apostle never
knew the Lord here on earth; he was not with the twelve in the upper room when
Jesus instituted the ordinance; therefore he must have received his knowledge of
it as a direct revelation from Heaven. “I have received of the Lord that which
also I delivered unto you,” he wrote. That is very significant; there must be
something extremely precious to our risen Savior about the frequent observance
of the Lord’s supper if from the glory He, the glorified One, gave to His
apostle a special declaration regarding the ordinance. And this is what He told
him: “That the Lord Jesus the same night in which He was betrayed took bread.”
Why did the apostle slip in the expression “in which he was betrayed” if not for
us to realize that the Lord’s supper was meant to appeal to the hearts of His
people? The expression reminds us that on the same night when our Savior was to
know to the fullest extent the untrustworthiness, wickedness, treachery, and
perfidy of the human heart, He instituted this feast so that His people might
continually be made aware of His loving heart in giving Himself for them.
There is something very tender in the thought that Judas evidently was not
present when Jesus “took bread.” Some people disagree, but if you carefully
follow Judas through the accounts in the different Gospels, I think you will see
that he was present at the Passover feast, but when that was concluded, the
Savior said, “That thou doest, do quickly…[and Judas] went immediately out: and
it was night” (John 13:27-30). Judas went out and in his absence the Savior gave
the memorial feast to His own. That suggests that the Lord’s supper is only for
those who have been redeemed by His precious blood. It is not for the unsaved or
those who are hoping to be saved; it is for those who know Christ as Savior. It
was to them the Lord spoke when He took that bread and gave thanks and said,
“Take, eat: this is my body, which is broken for you: this do in remembrance of
me.”
Some people tell us that the Lord meant that the bread and the wine are changed
into the actual body, blood, soul, and divinity of Christ when we give thanks to
God for it. Others say that this is not true, but that when we receive the
bread, in some special sense we are actually receiving the body of Christ. I do
not think it is necessary to consider these various views, for the Lord sat at
that table in His complete human body and did not divide it among the disciples.
When He took the loaf and said, “This is my body,” His own hands held that loaf,
so it seems to me the simple and clear meaning is that the bread on the Lord’s
table is just a symbol of the precious, holy body of our Lord Jesus Christ. But
it certainly is true that as we receive that bread with honest and sincere
hearts, with minds occupied with Christ, we do receive our Lord in faith in a
sense in which we do not receive Him at other times. Thus far I am willing to go
with sacramentalists. The Lord’s supper is a memorial, and it is one that makes
Christ very real to us and gives us a definite sense of His presence. A member
of a large church in Christendom once said to me, “We believe in the real
presence of the Savior in the sacrament, and you believe in His real absence.” I
said, “Oh no, you are mistaken. We do not believe that the bread and the wine
are actually changed into the body, blood, soul, and divinity of Christ, but we
do believe in the real presence in Spirit of our blessed Lord, for He said,
‘Where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of
them’ (Matthew 18:20)”.
There is no time when Christ’s presence is so definitely realized and so
distinctly felt as when we are remembering Him in the breaking of bread. Since
His body was broken for us, the Lord’s supper is a continual reminder of the
vicarious character of His death, and that is one reason our Lord desires
communion to be celebrated frequently.
After breaking the bread, Christ took the cup and said, “This cup is the new
testament in my blood: this do ye, as oft as ye drink it, in remembrance of me.”
That cup of wine (I do not speak now of whether the fruit of the vine partaken
of by the people of God be fermented or unfermented) is a continuing testimony
to the fact that redemption is only through His precious atoning blood.
I cannot understand how people who deny the vicarious character of the death of
our Lord Jesus Christ can with consistency participate in the celebration of the
Lord’s supper, for Paul said, “As often as ye eat this bread, and drink this
cup, ye do shew [proclaim] the Lord’s death till he come.” (As noted before, the
word translated “shew” here is translated “preach” elsewhere in the New
Testament.) Whenever Christians eat this bread and drink this cup, they preach a
sermon. By participating in the Lord’s supper they declare that His death was
not merely that of a martyr for righteousness’s sake; He died as a sacrifice for
sinners. Christ shed His blood for them. A dear Japanese man who attended some
meetings in Sacramento, California, was troubled about his soul, but would not
come to Christ because of his love for money. He would say, “If I accept this
Jesus as my Savior, I do not see how I can make money.” So we told him he would
have to make a choice between two alternatives: being rich on earth but poor in
eternity, or being poor on earth but rich in eternity. When I use the pronoun
we, I am referring to myself and a Japanese evangelist who was associated with
me at the time, and through whom I met this man. A year went by and I returned
to the city of Sacramento for more meetings. One night when I was preaching the
gospel on the street corner, I saw this little Japanese man in the audience.
There was an expression of concern on his face that stirred my heart. At the
close of the meeting he stepped up and shook my hand and said, “I so glad to see
you again.”
I said, “And so am I glad to see you. Have you accepted Christ as your Savior
yet?”
Tears filled his eyes as he said, “No, I fight against Him. I cannot give up. If
I accept Him, I cannot make money. Do you have some meetings here where you are
speaking?”
I said, “Yes,” and told him where the meetings were being held.
He said, “On Sunday do you have a meeting in which you eat the bread and drink
the wine showing how Jesus died?”
I said, “Yes, next Sunday morning.”
“I come,” he said. So on Sunday morning we gathered together to participate in
the Lord’s supper and as the meeting commenced, the Japanese man came in and sat
up front. I was praying that God might speak to him and as the meeting went on
it was evident that he was greatly perturbed. Finally the people of God partook
of the bread and the fruit of the vine while this heathen man looked on. Just as
the elements were replaced on the table, he rose and said, “I like to pray.”
I thought, My! I wish I had told him that he would not be expected to take part
in the meeting! But he prayed like this: “O God, I all broke up. For one whole
year I fight You. I fight You hard. Your Spirit break me all to pieces. O God,
today I see Your people eating the bread, drinking the wine, and telling how
Jesus died for sinners like me. O God, You love me so You give Your Son to die
for me. I cannot fight You any more. I give up. I take Him as my Savior.”
It did not spoil our meeting at all to have him take part with such a prayer. We
realized that this simple ordinance had preached to him, for Scripture tells us,
“As often as ye eat this bread, and drink this cup, ye do [preach] the Lord’s
death till he come.” At the close of the meeting we gathered about him to
rejoice with him and then he turned to me and said, “Jesus say before He go
away, when you believe Him, you bury in water, show old life gone, new life
begin. I like bury.”
“You want to be baptized?” I asked. “I will see you during the week and perhaps
we can do it next Sunday.”
Referring to the Japanese evangelist, he said, “A year ago he tell me Jesus
Christ coming back again, so?”
“Yes,” I said, “that is true.”
“He coming soon?”
“He may.”
“He not come before next Sunday?”
“Well, I can’t say; He might come before then.”
“Then I no like to wait till next Sunday. I like show I no fight any more. I
like be buried today.”
I said, “Forgive me for trying to put it off; we will go down to the river this
afternoon.” And so in the afternoon, dressed in his best, he came with the
Japanese mayor (we called the richest man in the Japanese settlement “mayor”)
and forty other Japanese merchants behind him. We preached the Word and he gave
his testimony, and then he was buried in the waters of baptism. The Lord’s
supper, if given the place our Savior intended it to have, will constantly
preach to the world and will say more than any words of ours can say.
You may have known the Lord Jesus Christ for years, but I wonder whether this
ordinance is precious to you. I am afraid that to some it is just an obligation;
they feel that they ought to come and partake of the Lord’s supper because He
commanded it. Let me suggest that the Lord’s words were not so much a command as
a request. When our Savior said, “This do in remembrance of me,” He did not
mean, “You must do this.” He meant, “I would like to have you do this.”
It was as though a loved one was dying and before slipping away he called the
children around the bed and handing each one of them a photograph of himself, he
said, “Here are pictures of myself. I am going to leave you, and you won’t see
me again for a little while. But I would like each of you to cherish your
picture and from time to time take it out, and as you look at it, remember me.”
Would it be a difficult task to do something like that in response to the
request of a loving mother or father or possibly a darling child? Surely not. If
you loved that one, you would be delighted again and again to take down that
picture and look at it. You would say, “There is the one who loved me and is now
gone from me, but I am so glad that in this way I can remind myself of my dear
one.”
There is no legalistic requirement about observing the Lord’s supper. You do not
have to participate if you do not want to. You can go to Heaven by trusting the
Savior even if you have never once partaken of the cup that speaks of His
suffering and death, but if your heart is filled with love for Him, you will be
glad to gather with His people from time to time to remember Him.
If you are unsaved, you may have thought of the Lord’s supper as a means whereby
you might obtain salvation. Perhaps you have come to the communion table hoping
that thereby you might obtain the assurance that your sins are forgiven. But my
dear friend, the message of the Lord’s supper is this: “Christ died for our sins
according to the scriptures;… was buried, and… rose again” (1 Corinthians
15:3-4). What you need is not an ordinance, for the sacrament cannot save you;
you need the blessed Savior Himself. You need to trust the One whose death is
pictured in the Lord’s supper, the Savior who gave Himself for you.
Judging Ourselves (1 Corinthians 11:27-34) This passage deals with the state and
condition of believers as they approach the table of the Lord. Paul wrote,
“Whosoever shall eat this bread, and drink this cup of the Lord, unworthily,
shall be guilty of the body and blood of the Lord.” These are very solemn words,
which should surely hold the carelessness and levity of our hearts in check. How
often some of us have been guilty of approaching the table of the Lord casually,
forgetting that in the eyes of God communion is a sacred ordinance.
What does it mean to eat the bread and to drink the cup unworthily? A
misunderstanding of the term “unworthily” has kept some conscientious people
from ever approaching the table. They reason like this: I never can be sure that
I am worthy. I know that my Savior is worthy, that all holiness, purity, and
goodness are His, but I am so conscious of the impurities that surge up from my
own evil heart. I am so conscious of my frequent failure in thought, word, and
deed, that I dare not come to the table of the Lord. I dare not receive those
sacred elements, for I am very far from being worthy.
Let me say to such conscientious friends that the word is not “unworthy,” but
“unworthily.” It refers not to the person, but to the state of mind in which he
comes to the table of the Lord. Of course in ourselves we are all altogether
unworthy, but we have found acceptance in the worthy One, and in Christ every
believer is worthy to approach the table.
I remember reading of an aged saint who was oppressed by a sense of his
unworthiness. He bowed weeping as the sacred emblems were being passed around
and refused to touch the bread. When the deacon offered it, he sobbed, “I am too
great a sinner to receive that which is so holy.” His Highland minister
exclaimed, “Take it, mon; take it. It is for sinners and for none else that
Jesus died.” My acknowledgment of my sinnership is that which gives me the right
to come to the table, for 1 Timothy 1:15 says, “This is a faithful saying, and
worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save
sinners.” If I truly feel my sinfulness, confess it, and put my trust in the
Savior of sinners, I find in Him my worthiness. But in 1 Corinthians 11:27 Paul
did not use a noun or an adjective. He used an adverb: “unworthily.” It
describes, as we have noted, how I come to the Lord’s table. If I come in a
light, frivolous, careless way; if as the bread and the wine are being prayed
over, I am thinking of a thousand and one other things; if I am occupied with
the business of the week; if I am recalling the latest foolish story I have
heard; if when the bread and the cup are actually passed to me, I am not
thinking of the Savior of whom they speak; if I am perfunctorily participating
in communion as a religious ordinance-then I am taking the loaf and the cup
unworthily. Or perhaps I come altogether unprepared, having spent no time with
God in the morning. Perhaps I have not meditated on the solemnity of all this
and, rushing into His presence, I bring strange fire, as it were, and fail to
recognize that the loaf and the cup represent the precious body and blood of the
Lord Jesus Christ. To partake in any such spirit is to do so unworthily.
Those who partake unworthily, Paul said, “shall be guilty of the body and blood
of the Lord.” It is as though “they crucify… the Son of God afresh, and put him
to an open shame” (Hebrews 6:6). They forget that it was their sins that caused
His death on the cross, they act as though He did not even die, and they fail to
realize what the symbols represent. To avoid partaking unworthily, am I to
remain away from the table? Not if I am a Christian. Instead “let a man examine
himself, and so let him eat of that bread, and drink of that cup.” Observe, Paul
did not say, “Let a man examine himself, and so let him refrain from
participating.” He said, “Let a man examine himself, and so let him eat.” No
matter what evil he sees in himself, if he judges himself before God and
confesses his own unholiness, he is free to participate in this sacred service.
In other words, he is to come into the presence of God with self-judgment. He
who does not do this “eateth and drinketh damnation to himself, not discerning
the Lord’s body.” If he does not judge himself, he only exposes himself to
divine judgment because of his frivolous behavior. In what sense does he fail to
discern the Lord’s body? Let me answer with an illustration: We have all gone to
a funeral service and seen the casket containing all that was mortal of some
loved one. What a solemn time it was! What would you have thought if some
shallow, flippant person had come to such a service and had hardly sat down
before he leaned over to the person next to him and said, “By the way, I heard a
most amusing story; let me tell it to you while we are waiting for the minister
to begin.” Every respectable person would have looked at him with indignation
and said, “What is the matter with the foolish man? Does he fail to discern the
body of our dear one lying there?”
Likewise the bread and wine on the Lord’s table represent the precious body and
blood of the Lord Jesus Christ, and anyone coming carelessly to the table fails
to discern the Lord’s body. He does not recognize that communion is a memorial
of death, a remembrance of the One who died for our sins.
Because the Corinthians had allowed themselves to become very casual in the way
they partook of the Lord’s supper, the apostle said to them, “For this cause
many are weak and sickly among you, and many sleep.” Just what did he mean? What
does the word “sleep” mean? If you read through the Epistles of Paul, you will
see that it is a term used over and over again for the death of the believer. It
is not the sleep of the soul, but the sleep of the body. When the believer dies,
the spirit is “absent from the body, and.. .present with the Lord” (2
Corinthians 5:8).
Let me direct your attention to that lovely sentence in Ephesians 3:14-15 : “For
this cause I bow my knees unto the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, Of whom the
whole family in heaven and on earth is named.” When Paul used the phrase “the
whole family,” he was referring to all of God’s children, the entire redeemed
family. Part of them he located “in heaven” and part “on earth.” If the apostle
believed in soul sleep, he would have said, “Of whom the whole family in the
grave and on earth is named.” But he did not think of our departed loved ones in
Christ as being in the grave. He thought of them as being in Heaven. Php 1:23
indicates that death for the believer is “to depart, and to be with Christ;
which is far better.” The word “sleep” is used many times in Scripture, but only
in reference to the body. The weary bodies of believers are put to sleep to rest
until they are awakened on the resurrection morning. It is a blessed thing to
sleep in Christ, and yet there is such a thing as a believer being put to sleep
before his due time. We read in Psalms 55:23 that the ungodly “shall not live
out half their days,” and it is quite true that even a godly person may fall so
far into sin that God may not permit him to live on to a ripe old age. He may
take him home in youth or midlife.
I would not say that when a young believer dies it is always an act of
discipline, for many a young saint has in grace been taken away from the evil to
come. Then too, some ripen earlier than others. Some of us develop so slowly
that it will take fifty or sixty or seventy years to bring us to spiritual
maturity, but there are others like Borden of Yale who ripen so young that the
Lord can say, “I am going to pluck that fruit now and take it home to Heaven; it
is ready early.” But early death can be an evidence of the Lord’s discipline. In
effect Paul was saying to the Corinthians, “You have been dishonoring the Lord
at His table by approaching it in a light and trifling manner. You have been
given to levity and misused this sacred ordinance by combining it with a feast
for yourselves. Therefore, many of you are weak, many of you are sickly, and
many of you are even dying early.”
Sickness is one tool the Lord often uses to chasten His people. Chastening is
not necessarily punishment, but it is educational, and the Lord uses sickness to
make us realize our littleness, our insufficiency, and the importance of living
only for eternity. Many a young or middle-aged Christian has gone on perhaps for
years without giving much recognition to the Lord’s authority over his life, and
then sickness has come and for long weary weeks or months and sometimes years
that dear one has been laid aside. At first he has asked restlessly, “O God, why
do I have to suffer? Why cannot I go out to enjoy things with others?” But
little by little a change has come and after a while the sick one has been able
to say with a chastened spirit, “Lord, perhaps You have lessons to teach me that
I would not learn if I were healthy and strong; make me a willing pupil in Your
school.” God uses such chastening to lead that believer into deeper fellowship
with Himself.
It is a very serious thing to be under the hand of God in chastening. I am
afraid that some of us are more or less under it almost all our days because we
are so slow to learn our lessons, so self-willed. It takes us a long time to get
to the place where we judge ourselves in the presence of God so that His hand
may be lifted.
Paul called us to self-judgment: “If we would judge ourselves, we should not be
judged.” But how am I to judge myself? By bringing my inmost thoughts and my
outward behavior into the light of the Word of God and asking myself, “Are these
thoughts of mine, is this behavior of mine in accordance with what is written
here?” If I find that I am cherishing certain ambitions that are contrary to the
Word, if I find that this Word has something to say to me personally about my
thoughts and ways, I am to turn to God and confess my failure, acknowledge my
sin, and seek by His grace to walk in obedience to His Word. As I thus judge
myself, I come out from under the hand of discipline.
God’s Word should always be the standard of judgment when I examine myself. When
I see something in the Bible, I may say, “Certainly this has no application to
me,” though it is God’s direct word to my soul. If I ignore it, I am putting
aside my good conscience, and I need not expect to hear Him speak to me again
until I am ready to listen. Why should He reveal other things to me when I
refuse to bow to Him in this matter? When you read the Bible, do you read it
only to become acquainted with it as literature, to become familiar with its
history and philosophy, and to derive help from its comforting passages, or do
you also read it so that you can obey it and make it your counselor?
Let me give you a word of personal testimony. For the first six years of my
Christian life I was largely dependent on what I called the Spirit’s guidance. I
knew very little of the guidance of the Word. When perplexed I would say, “I
will ask the Lord what His will is,” and as I felt impressed I would act. But I
found as I read my Bible that I was often acting contrary to the written Word.
I will never forget the night when I knelt before God and opened my Bible to a
passage about baptism, which I had been avoiding for years. During those years I
would say, “I am going to ask the Lord about it,” and then I would have an
inward feeling that the baptism of the Holy Spirit was all I needed. Every time
I read a portion of Scripture about baptism, I would dodge it. I had a lot of
dodging to do, for there were a great many Scripture passages that had to do
with that subject. Finally that night before the open Word I said, “Blessed God,
by Thy grace from today on I will never try to dodge one thing that is written
in Thy Word for Thy people in this age. If Thou wilt make it clear to me, by Thy
grace I will walk in obedience to it.” From that time I had blessing I had never
experienced before. Two weeks after that I went down to the seaside and was
buried with Him in baptism and a week later I sat at the table of the Lord.
Previously I had said, “All you need is to feed mentally on the body and blood
of Christ; you do not need the outward symbols.” One by one many things came to
my attention that I had tried to make myself believe were all right, but I found
they were actually contrary to His Word.
I have sought conscientiously now for many years to yield obedience when God
speaks. I do not always understand why He tells me to do certain things, but it
is not necessary for me to understand. What is necessary for me is to obey, to
do what God has asked me to do. ft is as we obey the Word that we are kept
clean. Ephesians 5:25-26 tells us that Christ “loved the church, and gave
himself for it; That he might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water
by the word.” If we judge ourselves, obey the Word, and confess our failures, we
will not have to be judged by the Lord.
“But when we are judged”-when we become the objects of divine discipline, when
God has to deal with us because we will not judge ourselves-”we are chastened of
the Lord, that we should not be condemned with the world.” The unsaved man is
going to be dealt with in the day of judgment; the child of God is judged by the
Father during his lifetime. “Whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth, and scourgeth
every son whom he receiveth” (Hebrews 12:6). Every bit of pleasure that the
worldling has is in this life. Sometimes people say, “I do not understand it. I
am a Christian and yet it seems to me that I have nothing but trouble. I look at
the people of the world and they seem to take things so easily.” You do not need
to be surprised at that, for the worldling gets all his heaven right here.
Christians get all the sorrow, all the trouble, all the tears they will ever
have right here. Here they are chastened of the Lord; they come under the rod
and are disciplined for their naughtiness, but when they get to Heaven there
will be no more punishment. They will be forever with the Lord and “God shall
wipe away all tears from their eyes.”
Until we get to Heaven, let us remember that we are here to glorify our Lord.
That is the only thing worth living for; nothing else matters. We have only a
little while to live for Jesus and glorify Him. I do not want any thought of
ease or pleasure in this world to keep me from being the kind of person God can
use until He calls me to Himself.
“My brethren,” continued the apostle, “when ye come together to eat, tarry one
for another.” That is very sweet, for the Lord’s supper is a matter of
fellowship; that is why we observe it together and why we read, “Where two or
three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them”
(Matthew 18:20). And so we tarry and together proclaim the Lord’s death until He
comes. The Lord’s supper is not something to gratify one’s appetite. “If any man
hunger,” Paul said, “let him eat at home.” Just a morsel of bread, just a sip of
wine will do. It is only a reminder. We “come not together unto condemnation,”
but in a serious manner, so truly occupied with Christ that we will have the
Lord’s approval.
I like to think of the last words of chapter 11 as not merely the words of the
apostle Paul to the Corinthians, but as the words of our Master to the whole
church: “The rest will I set in order when I come.” There is so much that we can
never regulate, so much that will never be right in this world. There are so
many things that are out of gear in our individual lives, in our families, and
in the church of God. We may try to set them in order, but we readily blunder.
The Master says, as it were, “Walk in obedience to My Word and I will straighten
out the rest when I come. I will be back soon, and what a day it will be!”
I have searched this Bible for a great many years and have never found in it one
portion that would intimate that I must put one moment between this present hour
and the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ. He may come today. I rejoice to know
that all who have put their trust in Him are ready to meet Him when He returns.
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CHAPTER 78: 05.12. CHRIST'S GRACIOUS PROVISION
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Christ’s Gracious Provision
1 Corinthians 12:1-31, 1 Corinthians 13:1-13, 1 Corinthians 14:1-40, Paul’s
subject is the gifts of the Spirit and the exercise of those gifts in the
church. The apostle’s instructions regarding behavior in the church apply to all
who have been redeemed and have grouped themselves into local assemblies of
believers.
Spiritual Gifts (1 Corinthians 12:1-11) In the churches of God spiritual gifts
are given to individuals for the blessing of all. In Ephesians 4:8 we read,
“When he ascended up on high, he led captivity captive, and gave gifts unto
men.” The Lord desires that His gospel should be preached, that His Word should
be expounded, and that His people should be built up in their most holy faith,
and it is to these ends that He has imparted certain spiritual gifts. He has not
given the same gifts to everyone, but to everyone He has given some gift for the
benefit of the whole company.
“Now concerning spiritual gifts, brethren,” Paul wrote to the Corinthians, “I
would not have you ignorant.” Notice that the word “gifts” is in italics here,
indicating that it was supplied by the editors of the King James version;
perhaps they were justified, for the word appears farther on in 1 Corinthians
12:4. However, if it were proper to speak of “spirituals” in English, that would
seem to be a more literal translation of what Paul wrote in 1 Corinthians 12:1.
In proper English, the meaning of the Greek is “spiritual manifestations.” There
are various ways in which the Spirit of God is manifested and we should not be
ignorant of them. These manifestations are called gifts because they are
bestowed freely by the ascended Christ for the edification of the church and the
proclamation of the gospel. The Corinthians in their unconverted days knew
nothing of this gospel. “Ye were Gentiles,” Paul said, “carried away unto these
dumb idols, even as ye were led.” The phrase “carried away” suggests Satanic
power, and there is Satanic power behind all idolatry. “The things which the
Gentiles sacrifice, they sacrifice to devils, and not to God” (1 Corinthians
10:20). There is a terrible demonic power working in every idolatrous system,
and nothing can deliver a man from this power but the gospel of the grace of
God. Our mission is to go “into all the world, and preach the gospel to every
creature” (Mark 16:15). We are not to go to antagonize people; we are not to go
to find fault with their religions; we are to go to preach Christ and Him
crucified. And as the gospel is preached, it delivers people from the Satanic
power that is working in their false religious systems. There is something that
absolutely distinguishes all those systems from Christianity: They have no place
for Jesus Christ. They all unite in calling Him anathema, “accursed.”
“I give you to understand,” Paul wrote, “that no man speaking by the Spirit of
God calleth Jesus accursed.” Thus the apostle marked the clear dividing line
between Christianity and every system of man’s devising. Christianity exalts
Jesus Christ as Lord; the other religions deny His lordship and think of Him as
accursed. Even Muhammad-anism, which recognizes Jesus Christ to a certain extent
as a prophet of God, sees Him as the accursed one. Judaism and paganism have
also counted Jesus Christ as an accursed one. Therefore people must be delivered
from those systems if they would know the truth.
Paul added, “No man can say that Jesus is the Lord, but by the Holy Ghost.” It
is by the Holy Spirit that we recognize His lordship. The apostle applied the
title “Lord” to our Savior numerous times in 1 Corinthians. This is the Epistle
of the lordship of Christ and in it we are called on always to recognize His
lordship-that is, His absolute authority over our hearts and lives. When He
speaks, we can only obey. It is not our place to question Him, reason with Him,
or ask why. Our part is to do what we are commanded to do, for we are His
servants and He is our Lord.
We read of the entire trinity in connection with the giving and using of gifts:
the Holy Spirit in 1 Corinthians 12:4, the Lord Jesus Christ in 1 Corinthians
12:5, and God the Father in 1 Corinthians 12:6. 1 Corinthians 12:4 says, “There
are diversities of gifts, but the same Spirit.” The one Holy Spirit manifests
Himself through the church of God in different ways. We do not all have the same
gift; we are not all constituted alike even from the human and intellectual
standpoint, and when it comes to spiritual matters, we do not all have the same
ministry committed to us. A great many people in our day would be saved from the
wildest fanaticism if they realized this. Fanatics urge everyone to seek certain
gifts and they say that if a person does not possess these gifts, he does not
have the Holy Spirit dwelling in him at all. But there is a diversity of gifts,
though the one Spirit operates in every case.
Referring to God the Son, Paul said, “There are differences of administrations,
but the same Lord.” The gifts of the Spirit of God within the believer are to be
used in subjection to the lordship of Christ. If God has given me a particular
gift, I am not to use that gift whenever and in whatever way I think fit; I am
to use it as the Lord Jesus Christ thinks it should be used.
Some time ago I officiated at the funeral of the mother of one of our state
senators in California. The mother had been a devoted Christian woman, but I did
not know whether her son was a Christian or not. Many of his friends were
present-perhaps seventy-five or more men from the legislature-and naturally I
was anxious to use that opportunity to the best of my ability in subjection to
God. I wanted not only to comfort those who were bereaved, but also to present
clearly and definitely the precious gospel message, which had been the joy of
the one who had gone home to be with the Lord, for I did not know if those
politicians had ever heard the gospel.
I was told that the dear lady who had passed away had a number of friends given
to the use of a gift that they called “speaking in tongues,” though it certainly
was not that which the Bible refers to as the gift of tongues. They had a habit
of going off into a semitrance condition and uttering strange sounds. Someone
forewarned me, “Just as you stand up to preach, these women will immediately
begin to exercise this weird gift of theirs. Their jaws will work in a peculiar
way for a few minutes and after that they will start to babble.” I was concerned
about the effect of this on the unsaved, so I said to the undertaker, “There are
four women back there by the door. I wish you would keep an eye on them. If you
see their jaws begin to work in an unusual way, you might suggest that they go
outside and not remain for the funeral service.”
I began to preach and, sure enough, in a minute or two I saw the jaws begin to
work. But the undertaker was on the job and immediately suggested to the four
ladies that they leave. In a moment they straightened up, but answered with
indignation, “This is a gift of God and we are free to use it where we will.”
The undertaker replied, “Not here in my undertaking parlor,” and so they were
quiet.
One might have a genuine gift of God, but that does not mean that he is at
liberty to use it wherever he will. “The spirits of the prophets are subject to
the prophets,” Paul said in 1 Corinthians 14:32. If anyone is gifted by God, he
is to use his gift in subjection to the Lord Jesus Christ and not make a
spiritual nuisance of himself. Our Lord’s authority must always be recognized in
the use of gifts.
Referring to God the Father, Paul wrote, “There are diversities of operations,
but it is the same God which worketh all in all.” There are different ways in
which the Word of God is given out, but it is the same God who is at work. He
may have given you a very modest gift. Your voice may never be heard in public,
but you are to use your gift, in subjection to the Lord Jesus Christ, if only in
the quiet place of your home, just as faithfully as you would if you were called
to preach or to teach in an assembly.
Paul continued, “The manifestation of the Spirit is given to every man to profit
withal.” In other words, a spiritual gift is not given for show; it is not given
so that a man may attract attention to himself; it is given for the edification
of others. If God gives me any little gift at all, He gives it not that I may
gather people about myself, but that it may be used for the blessing of others,
for the salvation of sinners, and for the edification of saints. In John the
Baptist we have a lovely picture of what every gifted servant of Christ really
ought to be. John declared, “I am the voice of one crying in the wilderness,
Make straight the way of the Lord,” and, pointing to the Savior, “He must
increase, but I must decrease” (John 1:23; John 3:30). John found his delight in
lifting up Christ, not in directing people’s attention to himself. All gifts are
given that Christ may be exalted, and in that way others find blessing.
Paul went on to specify what some of the gifts are. We may not see them all in
evidence today, and probably there are some that we will never see, but that
does not mean that they are not in the church. There are commentators who insist
that some of these gifts have absolutely disappeared, but I do not know of any
Scripture portion that tells us that. I do not know of any passage that says
that the age of miracles has passed and I would not dare to say that the sign
gifts all ended with Paul’s imprisonment. I know from early church history that
this is not true. As the early servants of God followed up the work of the
apostles, gifts of healing and other signs were frequently demonstrated and
marvelous help was given to the servants of God to preach in languages that they
had never known before. Therefore I do not think it is correct to take the
position that these sign gifts have necessarily disappeared from the church. I
do, however, believe that many of the gifts are not often seen today, and I
think there is good reason for that. In 2 Corinthians 11:2 the apostle wrote, “I
have espoused you… as a chaste virgin to Christ.” Paul was writing to a
separated company, the affianced bride of the Lamb, and it was the delight of
the blessed risen Lord to lavish upon her gift after gift. The Corinthians
“[came] behind in no gift,” we are told in the first Epistle (1 Corinthians
1:7). However, it seems to me that we can see in the book of Acts that as time
went on and the church began to drift a little, and as dissension and other
things that grieved the Lord arose, there was more reserve on His part in
bestowing gifts. That, I believe, explains the lack of many of these gifts
today. The church has gotten so far away from what she should be and there is so
much strife, division, worldliness, and carnality that the Lord no longer
delights in lavishing His gifts as freely as He did in the beginning.
Let me give you an illustration. A young man is engaged to be married to a
beautiful young woman and he seals that engagement by giving her an expensive
diamond ring. Now suppose that he has to be away from her for some time before
the marriage; we will say he is going abroad on business. When he has earned
enough money to build a home for his bride, he will send for her. In the
meantime, every once in a while it is a joy to him to pick out some lovely thing
and send the gift back to her, and she in turn is proud and happy to know that
she is constantly being remembered by him. But then suppose that his absence,
instead of making her heart grow fonder, makes her careless. She thinks, Well,
he is going to be away from me for so long and he cannot expect me to forego the
pleasures of the young folk, and so she allows other young men to take her out
and to pay a great deal of attention to her. Eventually he hears, perhaps from
his mother or his sister, “Your fiancee is not as true to you as she promised to
be; you had better come home if you want to win her heart again.” Perhaps he
cannot get home right away and he writes her a letter that provokes a rather
indignant answer. He no longer finds the same delight in sending gifts to her as
before when he believed her to be true to him. He loved to lavish his gifts on
her once, but now he becomes more reticent in his own expressions of love and is
more careful in what he spends on her. Likewise our Lord does not now give to
His church all the sign gifts that He did when she was walking with Him in
holiness and separation from this godless world.
Another reason for fewer gifts is that since we have the whole Bible, the New
Testament as well as the Old, the sign gifts are not needed as they were at the
beginning.
Let us now look at the spiritual gifts that Paul listed in 1 Corinthians
12:8-10. He began with “the word of wisdom” and “the word of knowledge.” Here
are two gifts intimately linked together. What is the difference between them?
Let me speak of knowledge first. The Lord gives to some the knowledge of His
Word, a remarkable insight into the Holy Scriptures. I have known men who filled
me with holy envy, for they seemed to know this Book from Genesis to Revelation;
they could turn unerringly to almost any portion. I have prayed, “O Lord, make
Thy Word to me what it is to them; give me the gift of knowledge.” I realize of
course that one does not get this gift in a sudden miraculous way; if you and I
want it, we must seek for it. Those who seek are in perfect accordance with the
Word of God, for in Proverbs 2:1-5 we read: My son, if thou wilt receive my
words, and hide my commandments with thee; So that thou incline thine ear unto
wisdom, and apply thine heart to understanding; Yea, if thou criest after
knowledge, and liftest up thy voice for understanding; If thou seekest her as
silver, and searchest for her as for hid treasures; Then shalt thou understand
the fear of the Lord, and find the knowledge of God. The gift of knowledge is
given to those who earnestly study the Word of God in dependence on the Holy
Spirit. But one might have the gift of knowledge, yet lack the ability to use
that knowledge correctly, and so there is the gift of wisdom. This gift enables
one to use God’s revelation in a way that helps and blesses others. Many a
person knows a little of the Word of God, but uses it in such a way that he
drives people from him. Everything he says may be Scriptural, but Scriptural
things can be said in such an unwise way that they upset people instead of
helping them. Of course I know there are some people who are upset no matter
what we do. A lady came up to a preacher and complained, “I don’t like to hear
you preach because you always rub the fur the wrong way.” He answered, “Not at
all, sister; just turn around.” Very often no matter how carefully we use the
Word of God, we seem to rub people the wrong way, but that is usually because
they are going the wrong way. The gift of wisdom is the ability to use the Word
of God wisely, so that people will be edified and built up instead of being
driven away. The next gift Paul mentioned is faith. This of course is not the
faith by which we are saved; otherwise many might say, “I would like to believe
in the Lord Jesus, but I have not the gift of faith and so cannot believe.” To
such I would say, “Faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God”
(Romans 10:17). To anyone who opens his heart when the Word is preached, God
will give saving faith; 2 Thessalonians 3:2 says “All men have not faith” only
because some men turn from the Word of God. However, when God gives to His own
people the spiritual gift of faith, it is a special faith for a special service.
George Muller, who carried on the work of the Bristol Orphan Houses, was, I
believe, the outstanding man of faith in the nineteenth century. God called him
to open an orphanage to care for homeless boys and girls, but he had no money
and so he said to the Lord, “You will have to supply the means.” In the name of
the Lord he went forward and spent every cent he received in opening the first
building. The Lord sent more money, the children came, and the work went on. In
fifty years he received $6,500,000 for that work, yet he never asked people for
a penny. He did not beg for money; the Lord sent it in.
I have met a number of people who have told me that they were going to do the
same kind of work as George Muller. Each of these people who talked to me
started a home and announced that it was a faith work but, with one exception,
their ventures ended in failure. Why? Because they were trying to do George
Muller’s work without George Muller’s gift of faith. When God calls a person to
do a work of faith, He gives him the gift of faith. The same thing is true in
connection with missionary work. When God raised up Hudson Taylor to start the
China Inland Mission, he knew that he was to trust the Lord alone and not ask
for money. Every once in a while someone else has declared, “I am going to start
a mission and run it on faith like Hudson Taylor.” The mission has gone on for a
time, but then there have been reports of starving missionaries and soon the
whole work has gone to pieces. Such people have tried to do Hudson Taylor’s work
without Hudson Taylor’s faith. This faith is a special gift for a special work.
Then we read of the gift of healing, which is the ability to lay one’s hands on
the sick in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and call them back to life and
health. I do not know whether any believers today actually have that gift. I
have never seen it exercised. I have united with other Christians to pray for
the sick and we have seen the Lord graciously raise them up, but it does not
seem to me that anyone in those prayer meetings had the gift of healing. There
have been reports of this gift being exercised today, but my investigations of
some of those rumors have revealed that the people who were supposed to have
been miraculously healed were either dead or worse than ever.
I thought at one time that a certain dear man of God had this gift-until one day
I was with him when he was praying for a sick woman and she did not get healed.
He turned on her, scolded her soundly because she did not have more faith, and
told her that she must have some hidden sin in her life. If that brother had had
the gift of healing, her faith would not have made any difference. If there are
people with the gift of healing in the world today-and there may be-we can thank
God for them. Personally I have never known such a person.
We read next that God gives to certain of His servants the ability to work
miracles. A miracle is anything that cannot be accounted for by mere natural
law. God has often wrought wonderful things not to be accounted for naturally.
Here is an example: Once there was a terrible drought in Africa and the natives
had cried and cried to their false gods, but no relief had come. A certain
missionary felt called to bring them all together and say, “Now I am going to
cry to the God of Heaven to give rain.” He stood before them and offered a
prayer and as he began to pray the sky above him was cloudless, but he had not
finished praying before there was a terrific clap of thunder. The thunder and
lightning continued and in half an hour rain was pouring down. That was a
miracle. The gift of prophecy is bestowed on other servants of God. In its New
Testament sense, “prophecy” does not refer to foretelling future events.
Prophecy is preaching in the power of the Holy Spirit of God, preaching that
meets actual needs.
Still another gift on the list we are considering is the “discerning of
spirits,” the ability to see through people. That is a gift I fear I do not
have. I am too apt to believe every story that anybody tells me, at least until
I have proven it to be false.
Finally we read about “tongues.” The gift of “divers kinds of tongues” was the
ability bestowed on some to preach the gospel in languages that they had never
learned. Without having taken any course in school to learn the language, a
person with this gift was able to stand up and preach in the power of the Spirit
in a foreign tongue. Other people were given the ability to interpret a language
that they had never learned. God gave those gifts in the beginning, but I have
not heard evidence of their being in the world today.
“All these [gifts],” Paul said, “worketh that one and the selfsame Spirit,
dividing to every man severally as he will.” If it is His will for us to have
any of these gifts, He will give them to us; otherwise, He will not. Therefore
it is folly for anyone to insist on having one or more of these gifts as the
definite evidence of the indwelling of the Spirit of God. In Ephesians we read
of certain gifts that will remain in the church to the end: teaching and
preaching for the edification of the saints. The Body of Christ (1 Corinthians
12:12-26) In this passage Paul first emphasized the unity of the body of Christ
and compared that unity to the unity of the human body. The human body has many
different “members,” each one having a special function, yet the body is one; it
has one heart, one circulatory system, and one mind dominating and controlling
everything.
“As the body is one, and hath many members, and all the members of that one
body, being many, are one body; so also is the Christ.” The definite article is
found in the original, although we do not see it in our King James version. When
the apostle used the term “the Christ,” it was just the same as if he had said
“the church,” for as the context shows, he was thinking of the entire church as
linked with the Lord Jesus Christ, its Head in Heaven. As the human body is one,
so also is the Christ.
“Christ” means “the anointed,” and our Lord Jesus is the anointed One. “God
anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Ghost and with power” (Acts 10:38);
that is why He is called Christ. But 2 Corinthians 1:21 speaks of all believers
as being anointed, so we have been “Christed” by the same Spirit with whom God
anointed Jesus. Therefore our risen Head in Heaven and the members of the body
everywhere on earth constitute the Christ, the anointed One.
We cannot break the link that joins the believer to his Head in Heaven, “for by
one Spirit are we all baptized into one body.” Notice, it is not by the
possession of divine life that we become members of the body of Christ. All
believers from Adam and Abel down to the end of time have life from Christ.
(Adam believed God when the promise came that the seed of the woman would bruise
the seed of Satan, and God declared His satisfaction in that faith by clothing
Adam and his wife with coats of skin.) There is no other source of life, and no
natural man (unbeliever) in any dispensation was ever a child of God. The only
way a man can become a child of God is through a second birth, through the
reception of divine life, and this is given when he believes the gospel.
I know that people sometimes say, “But we must have life first before we believe
the gospel.” We have life before we believe a great many particulars in the
gospel, but 1 Peter 1:23-25 says that we are “born again, not of corruptible
seed, but of incorruptible, by the word of God, which liveth and abideth for
ever…And this is the word which by the gospel is preached unto you.” Therefore
men are born again by believing the gospel, whatever form it takes in the
various dispensations; God’s message to man has differed in the various ages,
but it has always had to do with Christ.
However, being born again is not the same thing as being baptized into the body
of Christ. No one is baptized into the body of Christ until the Spirit of God
dwells in him, and the Spirit comes to dwell only in people who have been born
again. There is as much difference between being born by the Spirit and being
indwelt by the Spirit as there is between building a house and moving into it.
New birth is by the Word of God and the Spirit of God. The Holy Ghost builds the
house, and then He comes to indwell the believer; He comes to take possession.
In our dispensation there is no appreciable difference in time between a man’s
being born again and his being baptized into the body of Christ, but there was a
time when there were numbers of people who were born again by the Spirit, but
were not indwelt by Him. On the day of Pentecost the Holy Spirit came to indwell
believers and baptize them into one body. What took place then has been going on
ever since. The Spirit of God now dwells within us and makes all believers one.
That is what Paul meant when he wrote, “By one Spirit are we all baptized into
one body.” I like the good old translation of the word rendered “baptized” here;
some people object, but I take the Greek word to mean “immersed.” With this
rendering the sentence reads, “By one Spirit are we all immersed into one body.”
We who were so many individuals before have now been immersed into one, and in
this body there is neither Jew nor Greek.
Some used to be Jews and some used to be Gentiles before they were born of God
and indwelt by His Spirit. Now they have lost their old standing in the flesh.
When I meet my Hebrew Christian brothers, I do not think of them as Jews
anymore; I think of them as fellow members of the body of Christ. And when they
look at their Gentile brothers, they think of them not as unclean Gentiles, but
as fellow members of Christ’s body. In this body there are neither bond nor
free. There are neither masters nor servants. In the world outside we meet one
another on that basis; if I am employed by another, I am to render proper
service to my master. But when we come into the church of God, we come together
as fellow members of Christ’s body. A Christian worker once told of her visit to
the beautiful palace of an English duchess who was a very humble Christian. On
the Lord’s day morning the duchess took the visitor to a meeting of a little
group of Christian people gathered together around the table of the Lord, and as
they sat there, a man got up and expounded the Word to them. The duchess
whispered to the lady, “That is my coachman.” The Christian worker, being a
little surprised that this lady would go and listen to her coachman expound the
Word, said to her later, “Isn’t it hard on your pride to have to listen to your
coachman open the Scriptures to you?” The duchess replied, “In the church of God
there is neither Jew nor Greek, bond nor free; we are all one in Christ Jesus.”
All these earthly distinctions are wiped out in the presence of God.
“We…have been all made to drink into one Spirit,” the apostle added. Just as by
water baptism a line of demarcation is drawn between the Christian and the
world, by drinking into one Spirit we are definitely linked with the one body
and enjoy fellowship in Him. As you enjoy spiritual fellowship with your
brothers in Christ, you are enjoying fellowship with the Holy Spirit, who now
indwells you.
We are all one in the Lord, but each of us has a position in the body of Christ.
1 Corinthians 12:14-17 warn against being discontent with that position. As men
and women not yet glorified, we still possess the old carnal nature, and even
though we have the new nature and are set apart to God in Christ, we often find
envy and jealousy working within us. There is still the tendency to say, “Well,
since I cannot do what so-and-so does, I will not do anything.”
Whenever you are tempted to make such a statement, remember that every member of
your physical body has its own special function. Just imagine your foot going on
strike. Some morning when you are getting out of bed, you want to put your foot
on the floor and it says, “I do not like being a foot. I do not like always
being covered up with a stocking and a shoe. I have just as much right to be
free and uncovered as your hand has. I do not like it that the hand does all the
writing, the painting, and the playing of the piano, while I have to be hidden
away all the time. I am not going to function unless you train me to write,
paint, and play the piano. I refuse to work any longer as a foot.” I have seen
folks just like that foot, folks who won’t participate in anything unless they
can do things that other people do.
Now a man born without arms can be wonderfully trained to hold a pen between his
toes and write and paint with his foot, but normally that is not the case. A
foot cannot do the work of a hand. When a foot is content to do its own work, it
is a splendid thing, but what a failure a foot would be if it tried to do the
work of a hand! When every member of the body does its own work and does it
well, the whole body is benefited. The same is true in the church or assembly of
God. God does not gift everyone in the same way. Some are given special public
ministries, while others are enabled to do quiet, private service for the Lord,
but all are important.
I think that until I get to Heaven and stand at the judgment seat of Christ, I
will never have the least inkling of how much I owe to quiet saints shut away in
hidden places who have bowed down on their knees before God and asked His
blessing on my ministry during the forty-three years that I have been preaching
the gospel. I have been in the public place, but I am sure that the greatest
amount of the credit for what has been accomplished belongs to those who have
thought enough about me to bear me up in prayer that God might keep me from sin
and use my testimony for the glory of His name. So let us be content to labor on
in the place God has given us.
Now imagine an ear going on strike and saying, “I refuse to hear; if I cannot be
an eye, I am not going to do anything.” What a foolish thing! And yet there are
people like that ear. The apostle said, and I suppose he smiled as he said it,
“If the whole body were an eye, where were the hearing?” Just picture a body
that looked like a great big walking eye! Paul continued, “If the whole were
hearing, where were the smelling?” If the body were one immense ear, would it
not be a peculiar thing? And so each member has his place, and each is to act
for God in that place. Thus Paul warned against discontent.
There is no room for natural ambitions because “now hath God set the members
every one of them in the body, as it hath pleased him.” When I think, “I should
like to do so much that I cannot,” it is comforting to realize that it is He who
has set me right here where I am, that I am in the place where He has put me,
and that He will give me grace to live for Him here.
While some are discontent, others cherish a disdain for other members of the
body of Christ. Rebuking that disdain, Paul wrote, “But now are they many
members, yet but one body. And the eye cannot say unto the hand, I have no need
of thee: nor again the head to the feet, I have no need of you.” Our Christian
fellowship would be ten thousand times more precious if we all would settle it
with God that by His grace we will never let an unkind criticism of any of His
people escape our lips. I find that the people who are the most sensitive to
criticism are the most ready to criticize. Those who get all broken up and upset
if someone makes the least derogatory remark about them are those who will speak
in the most cruel, unkind, and critical way of others.
Preachers, I fear, are more guilty of this than anyone else. We often think and
speak of one another in a most unkind way. Is it not a shame that men who have
been set apart by God for the proclamation of His truth, who ought to stand
shoulder to shoulder and be very jealous of each others’ reputations, should try
to climb up on the failures of others? We who try to minister the Word should
set an example for our brothers in Christ by covenanting with God that we will
always say good, kind, and helpful things about our fellow servants. If we see
faults in them, we should go to them personally and seek to help them.
I once saw a sign in a restaurant that read, “If you like our food, tell others;
if you don’t, tell us.” I think that would be a good sign in a church of God. If
you do not like something, tell the person responsible about it, and together
seek to put things right. We need each other and we ought to be helpers of one
another. The tongues of some of us are so vitriolic; we can say such unkind
things and forget that the people to whom and about whom we speak are souls for
whom Jesus died-He loves them that much. They are so dear to God that He gave
His Son for their redemption.
Oh, that when Christians meet and part, These words were graved on every heart-
They’re dear to God!
However wilful and unwise, We’ll look on them with loving eyes- They’re dear to
God!
Oh, wonder!-to the Eternal One, Dear as His own beloved Son;
Dearer to Jesus than His blood, Dear as the Spirit’s fixed abode- They’re dear
to God! When tempted to give pain for pain, How would this thought our words
restrain, They’re dear to God! When truth compels us to contend, What love with
all our strife should blend!
They’re dear to God! When they would shun the pilgrim’s lot For this vain world,
forget them not; But win them back with love and prayer, They never can be happy
there,
If dear to God. Shall we be there so near, so dear, And be estranged and cold
whilst here- All dear to God? By the same cares and toils opprest, We lean upon
one faithful Breast, We hasten to the same repose;
How bear or do enough for those So dear to God!
“Those members of the body, which seem to be more feeble,” Paul wrote, “are
necessary.” Sometimes perhaps we discount someone’s gift because it does not
appeal to us, and yet that person may be God’s messenger to others. Years ago
when I was in The Salvation Army, I knew a girl who was certainly imbued by the
Spirit of God, but she had worked in the open air so much that her throat was
affected. I remember listening to her once as she tried to sing a song, but she
could not sing. I felt so sorry for her, and somebody standing next to me said,
“Why does she make such a fool of herself by trying to sing?” But on the other
side someone said to me, “Oh, it does me so much good every time I hear that
girl sing; it comes from her heart and she is doing it for love for Christ.”
Remember, the people whom you do not appreciate may be God’s instrument to reach
other folk. Be careful that you do not do anything to spoil the effect of their
testimonies.
I once visited in a home where the parents said to me, “We wish you would pray
for our sons and daughter. We have tried to bring them to Christ. They do go to
church with us, but they are becoming less and less interested.”
I said, “I am sorry; we must pray for them.” There had just been a change of
pastors in their church, and I had come to help the new pastor in some meetings,
so at the dinner table I said, “This new pastor of yours seems to be a fine
godly man.” The mother said, “I haven’t any use for him; he doesn’t know how to
dress for one thing and he murders the king’s English.” The father said, “Yes,
we are most disappointed in him.”
Then the two boys and the girl, joining the discussion, commented to their
parents, “We would like to know why you expect us to go to church.”
After the meal I said to the father, “How do you expect your boys and your girl
to be interested in spiritual things when you tear the messenger of Christ to
pieces at the dinner table?”
Let us be careful to value one another, even “those members of the body, which
we think to be less honorable.” You may have visited a mission and heard a man
testify whose grammar was so bad that you said, “Oh, I wish he would sit down.”
But some poor wretch in that meeting listened and said, “What! Did God save a
man like that? Maybe He can save me. I am about as bad as he was when God saved
him.” The man who testified was not a handsome or brilliant member of the body,
but you never could have reached that down-and-outer as he did.
“And those members of the body, which we think to be less honourable,” Paul
said, “upon these we bestow more abundant honor.” A woman who had a deformed ear
bestowed more honour on that ear by combing her beautiful hair over it. Thus
that uncomely part became most attractive. We too try to cover up the things in
ourselves that we do not think are pleasing, and I wish we would learn to cover
up the uncomely things in our brothers in Christ.
I have never seen a perfectly beautiful woman cover her face with a dark, heavy
veil-unless she was about some nefarious business. “Our comely parts have no
need,” Paul wrote, “but God hath tempered the body together, having given more
abundant honour to that part which lacked: That there should be no schism in the
body.” God desires that there be no divisions or strife in the body, “but that
the members should have the same care one for another.”
Honestly now, if you had loved that brother or that sister as much as you love
yourself, would you have made such a disparaging comment the other day? On one
occasion a man came to the late Leon Tucker and started talking to him about
another preacher. Mr. Tucker asked, “Is it because you love this brother so much
that you are telling me this?” The man turned red and did not know how to
answer. We can test ourselves with Paul’s words: do we “have the same care one
for another”? When there is “no schism in the body,…whether one member suffer,
all the members suffer with it.” This principle too can be illustrated with the
human body. When you have an infected finger, do you say to yourself, “That
affects only my finger, and I am not going to let the rest of the body bother
about it”? Of course you don’t because you know that your whole body is
affected. Let me say something serious and solemn: Your entire local assembly is
affected if there is one member that is not living for God in it. Because we are
so intimately linked together, the whole body of Christ is affected if there is
even one member playing fast and loose with holiness and purity and
righteousness.
We understand that we are to suffer with one another, but if one member is
selected for some special recognition, how should we react? Should we be jealous
of that one? No, for we also read that if “one member be honoured, all the
members rejoice with it.” The Best Gifts (1 Corinthians 12:27-31)
Someone writing on a political theme said, “It is important for us to remember,
as Scripture says, we are all members of one body and therefore should work for
the good of every nation.” But the Bible is not talking about nations when it
speaks of members of the body of Christ; nor does it use the word “body” as we
use that term to speak of a legislative body or a body of soldiers-that is, a
collective company. The New Testament uses the term “body” in comparing the
church of the living God, the body of Christ, to the human body. As the human
body is one, but has many members, so also is the body of Christ; every member
joined together and linked with the Head is to work for the good of the whole.
And so it is Christians that the apostle had in view when he said, “Ye are the
body of Christ, and members in particular.” In one sense we Christians have lost
our former identities. We are not just so many units as once we were, having no
special relationship to one another, for we are now united. We who are saved,
who are indwelt by the Holy Spirit, are thus baptized into one body. On the
other hand, we have our individual responsibilities as members of that one body.
Just as each of the various members of my human body has its part in the
building up of the whole, so every Christian has his special responsibility for
the blessing of the entire body of Christ. Each of us has a place to fill, so
let each of us seek to fill his place to the glory of God.
God has given to the church special gifts which are for the edification of the
body, and in these gifts we see Christ’s gracious provision for His church. In
Ephesians 4:8 we read, “When he ascended up on high, he led captivity captive,
and gave gifts unto men.” In Ephesians 4:11 we are told what some of those gifts
were: “He gave some, apostles; and some, prophets; and some, evangelists; and
some, pastors and teachers.”
Then in Ephesians 4:12 we are told why He gave them. The King James version
gives the impression that there were three purposes. Notice the punctuation as
you read: “For the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for
the edifying of the body of Christ.” From this translation you would gather that
Christ had given these gifts (1) to perfect the saints, (2) to do the work of
the ministry, and (3) to edify the body of Christ. But let me point out that the
punctuation marks were put in by English editors, and have no real place in the
Greek text.
Now read the verse omitting the punctuation marks. “For the perfecting of the
saints for the work of the ministry for the edifying of the body of Christ.” God
did not give these special gifts to certain ones so that they could do
everything, and the rest could sit back and be perfected and helped and blessed
through them. God gave these gifts so that the gifted ones might, through the
ministry of the Word, perfect the saints, so that the saints might go out and do
the work of the ministry and thus edify the body of Christ. It never was the
intention of the Spirit of God to have any drones in the gospel hive. In 1
Corinthians 12:1-31 the gifts some men most highly esteem are made to seem the
least valuable. For instance we hear a great deal about the gift of tongues, and
many people imagine that this is the most important gift of all. Often such
individuals say to me, “Brother, do you have the Holy Spirit?”
I say, “Yes, I have. I believe the gospel, and that tells me that upon believing
I was ‘sealed with that holy Spirit of promise’“ (Ephesians 1:13).
“Well then,” they say, “can you speak in tongues?”
“Well, I speak a little English, and a very, very little Chinese, but I had to
study hard to learn those languages.”
“But that is not it,” they say. “Can you speak in tongues in the power of the
Spirit?” They mean some strange language that I have never learned, and they
tell me that speaking it is the supreme evidence of the gift of the Holy Spirit.
But notice the order in which the gifts are listed in 1 Corinthians 12:28 : “God
hath set some in the church, first apostles.” And where do we have their
ministry today? In the blessed Word of God. Their voices have long since been
silenced, but the witness still goes on and through their written ministry they
will abide in the church until the end of time. Linked with the apostles are the
prophets and they too have long since been silenced in the primary sense. Luke
and Mark (who were not apostles as Matthew and John were) were prophets who gave
us their written ministry and went home to Heaven. And so we are told that the
church of the living God is built on the foundation of the apostles and
prophets.
Next observe that in the third place are teachers. The teacher is one of the
special gifts that God has given to the church. If I could ask for only one
gift, there are two that I would find very difficult to choose between. If the
Lord were to say to me, as He did to Solomon, “Ask what I shall give thee”-if He
were to say, “I am going to give you any gift that you want to use for the
blessing of a needy world and the blessing of My people”-I would have difficulty
in choosing between the gift of an evangelist and that of a teacher of the Word.
My heart yearns to be able to preach the gospel in a way that will grip dying
men and women and bring them face to face with the realities of eternity. The
gift of an evangelist is one of the greatest of all. On the other hand, when I
see how the people of God are bewildered, misled, and “carried about with every
wind of doctrine” (Ephesians 4:14), I realize how much they need careful,
thoughtful Biblical instruction. My heart cries out, “O God, help me to feed Thy
people; give me the gift of teaching in order that I may open Thy Word to Thy
people.” After all, “Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that
proceedeth out of the mouth of God” (Matthew 4:4). And so I crave the gift of
the teacher. The teacher is not someone who gives men his own thoughts; he is
not someone who makes up beautiful essays, which he calls sermons. He is someone
who expounds the Word of God. Our Lord Jesus described the teacher in a
wonderful way when He said, “Every scribe which is instructed unto the kingdom
of heaven is like unto a man that is an householder, which bringeth forth out of
his treasure things new and old” (Matthew 13:52). The treasure house is the Word
of God. The other day I heard a widely-advertised man telling ministers how to
preach. He is thought of as an outstanding religious leader, but although I
listened carefully for nearly an hour, I did not hear him quote one verse of
Scripture. Instead he quoted from Shakespeare, from George Bernard Shaw, and
from a number of trashy novels, and he drew his illustrations from ancient and
modern literature. If preachers have to listen to that kind of teacher, it is no
wonder they deliver sermons that never could convert one poor sinner.
Scripture says, “The entrance of thy words giveth light; it giveth understanding
unto the simple” (Psalms 119:130). The apostle Paul, writing to Timothy, said,
“Preach the word… For the time will come when they will not endure sound
doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers,
having itching ears” (2 Timothy 4:2-3). The teacher is the man who calls the
people of God back to the Book and opens up the Word of God to them.
One of our well-known American pulpit orators stated that expository preaching
is the poorest type of preaching in the world because it leaves so little scope
for the imagination. Thank God for any kind of preaching that leaves little
scope for man’s imagination, because the Word of God says, “God saw that the
wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the
thoughts of his heart was only evil continually” (Genesis 6:5). It ought to be
the earnest desire of the real minister of Christ to subject himself to the Word
so that all unholy imagining might be cast down and only the solemn serious
truth of God be brought to bear on the minds of people. God give us teachers of
the Bible!
Any minister who is troubled by empty pews ought to begin to dig into the Book
and teach the Word, and then he will soon draw the people--just as a good cup of
coffee will draw customers to a restaurant. I know two young ladies who, not
knowing what to do to support themselves after they graduated from college,
opened up a wee restaurant on a little side street in my old hometown of
Oakland, California. The dining room was so small that only about seven people
could sit down at one time. I went over to sample their cooking and found that
their coffee was different from what most lunchrooms served, so I went back to
my bookroom and said to the other workers, “If you want a good cup of coffee, go
to such and such a place.” The next day people were standing outside waiting for
the seven inside to finish their lunch. Soon the girls had to rent the place
next to them. The last time I was in Oakland, they had a great big restaurant
serving hundreds of people. The word had gone out: “You can always get a good
cup of coffee and excellent things to eat there.” So if people can tell their
friends, “You can always get the Word of God in that church, for that minister
gives you the truth of God to refresh your soul,” there won’t be any problem
with empty pews.
I heard a minister suggest to a group of pastors: “One thing that will help
boost attendance is different colored lights; people will come from far and wide
to see the special effects. Then you can do so much with rhythmic dancing. And
movies will draw a crowd to your night service. Some of you may not approve of
such modern ideas, but I say you have to take your choice between empty pews and
up-to-date methods.” But he was wrong; we do not have to make any such choice.
The church of God does not exist for the amusement of people. If the Book is
presented in simplicity and in the power of the Holy Spirit, people will come,
for they are ready to listen to the Word of God. Ministers should fill their own
minds with the truth of God and then give it to others.
Having mentioned apostles, prophets, and teachers, Paul wrote, “After that
miracles, then gifts of healings.” Some people may have expected the verse to
read, “First of all, miracles,” but Paul said, “After that miracles.”
I am not a miracle worker and do not pretend to be. I have prayed with a great
many sick people and some of them have been healed very quickly, but I do not
possess the gift of healing. To pray for people is one thing; to have the gift
of healing is another. If a lame man were here and I turned to him and said, “In
the name of Jesus, rise up and walk,” and in a moment he sprang to his feet and
became whole, that would be evidence of the gift of healing. That would be
working a miracle. I have seen some people throw away crutches, but I have heard
that they came back for them a week or two later. And so I say of the gifts of
miracles and healing: the Lord may give such gifts, and if He does I will thank
Him for them, but I do not know of anyone with these gifts at the present time.
The next gift, “helps,” is something we can all understand, and here it is
linked with “governments.” Accordingly, other passages of Scripture imply that
both these gifts are characteristic of the officers of the church-that is, its
deacons and elders. A true deacon is a help; he is one who can help in all the
temporal and business affairs of the church. A true elder is one who has
spiritual discernment and can govern in the church of God. What a wonderful
thing it is when a church is really gifted of the Lord with “helps” and
“governments”! What a pitiful thing it is when a church is bereft of these
gifts! The word deacon means “servant,” but there are too many deacons who are
deacons in name only; they are not the ministering servants that they should be.
There are too many elders who are elders in name only; they are not real guides
and helps to the church of God.
Finally Paul mentioned “diversities of tongues.” He placed it last of all in
this list of gifts, as though it is to be accounted of as least of all. And why
is that? Because anybody with a little intelligence can learn a new language,
and in most instances it is better for him to do that than to receive it
miraculously. One may say the same about receiving the truth of God. God could
give everyone a sudden illumination so that we might have amazing insight into
His truth, but He does not choose to give it in that way. He says, “Study to
shew thyself approved unto God” (2 Timothy 2:15). There are too many Christians
today who would like to have everything predigested. They would like not to have
to go to any trouble to get the truth into their inmost systems. But God does
not want us to learn His truth in an easy way; He wants us to study His Word.
After listing the gifts, Paul asked a series of questions. “Are all apostles?”
Admittedly, no. (I do not know of any apostles in the full sense today.) “Are
all prophets?” Again the answer is no. (There may be prophets today, but they
are very few, and as far as I know there are none in the full sense.) “Are all
teachers?” Again the answer is no (but there are people whom God has thus gifted
today). “Are all workers of miracles?” No. (I know of very few indeed, if any.)
“Have all the gifts of healing?” No (and whether there are any who have the gift
today, I cannot say). “Do all speak with tongues?” No (and none in the Biblical
sense). “Do all interpret?” They do not.
We are not to be concerned if we do not have all these gifts, but we are to
“covet earnestly the best gifts.” We are to seek those gifts that are for the
edification of the church of God. But if it does not please God to give us any
of these gifts, He will still show us the “more excellent way.” These final
words of 1 Corinthians 12:1-31 lead us right into the wonderful “love chapter,”
1 Corinthians 13:1-13. The greatest gift of all is to have the Spirit of God
dwelling in us and shedding abroad the love of God in our hearts so that we
reveal the love of Christ. There is something more excellent than signs and
wonders, for “though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, and have not
charity, I am become as sounding brass, or a tinkling cymbal.” A poor little
Irish boy started going to classes at a small mission near his neighborhood in
the lower part of Manhattan in New York. He got a great deal out of the lessons
and attended regularly. But by and by when his folks made more money, they moved
from that section of the city. They said, “Now, Patrick, you must attend one of
the more stylish churches,” and they enrolled him in a new Sunday school. The
little fellow attended two times, but the third week he was found way down near
the Battery sitting in the mission Sunday school. When he got back home, his
folks said, “O Pat, why didn’t you go to the nice church?”
“I wanted to go back to the other Sunday school,” he said. “But why did you want
to go back there?” He hesitated and they said, “Come, tell us why.” “Well,” he
said, “they love a fellow down there.” Love is what brought him miles downtown
to the simple little mission. It is a great testimony for any church, assembly,
mission, or Sunday school when people can say not only that the Word of God is
preached there, but also that “they love a fellow” there. This divine love is
not something that is pumped up out of the natural heart; it is divinely given.
“The love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given
unto us” (Romans 5:5). When we confess our sins and put our hearts’ trust in the
Lord Jesus Christ as our own Savior, we are born of God and the Holy Spirit
comes to dwell in us, and thus the love of Christ shines forth in our lives.
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CHAPTER 79: 05.13. THE LOVE CHAPTER
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The Love Chapter In between 1 Corinthians 12:1-31, which discusses the gifts
that the risen Christ gave to His church, and 1 Corinthians 14:1-40, which deals
with the use of those gifts, 1 Corinthians 13:1-13 reveals the spirit in which
the gifts are to be exercised. Someone has said that 1 Corinthians 13:1-13 is
“the divine smithy”; the phrase alludes to the furnace in the blacksmith’s shop
where the tools of 1 Corinthians 12:1-1 are heated red-hot to be properly used
in 1 Corinthians 14:1-40. In 1 Corinthians 13:11-13 the apostle emphasized the
importance of love, not only in the life of the servant of God, but also in the
lives of all Christians. A gift without love is a poor thing. One might preach
with great clarity and even eloquence, but if there is no love behind his
message, he would be almost wasting words. It is love that pleases God. The word
translated “charity” in the King James version refers not to the good works and
kindness that we associate with charity today, but to the root and source of
those good deeds: love. There are three well-known Greek words that we translate
as “love”: eros, phileo, and agape. If you are familiar with Greek mythology,
you will recognize Eros at once as the name of the god of love, the son of
Aphrodite. Eros is the word ordinarily used in classical Greek for love between
the sexes, the love of sweethearts, the love of husband for wife and wife for
husband. Phileo, a broader word speaking of a kindly, friendly affection, is
generally employed in reference to the love of friends. It also refers to the
love of parents for children and of children for parents and the love of
citizens for the country to which they belong. The third word, agape, speaks of
a higher type of love, a love that is all-absorbing, a love that completely
dominates one’s whole being. This is the word that Paul used in 1 Corinthians
1:1-13.
It is significant that in the writing of the New Testament the Spirit of God
seemed to forbid the use of the word eros. It is found frequently in the
writings of the Greek poets and philosophers, but never in the New Testament.
This word had been so abused and degraded by the Greeks that God, as it were,
stood over His Book and said to those who were writing, “Do not put that word in
here; it is too capable of being utterly misunderstood. I do not want that word
in My Book, for so many vile things have been linked with it.” Eros had been so
misused that it was not even right to think of it as expressing the true love of
a chaste wife and good husband. So God did not allow eros to have any place in
the New Testament.
Phileo occurs in its verbal form in many places in the New Testament, but only
in reference to human friendliness, kindly feelings, or brotherly love. In
reference to that which is divine, the Holy Spirit chose most carefully and used
agape. “God is agape”-”God is love”-in the highest, most utterly unselfish
sense. This word is used in the New Testament for God’s love to us, for our love
to God, and for the love we have for anything we put in place of God. We are
warned against the love (agape) of the world, for some men devote themselves
wholly and completely to obtaining money and to the things of the world and thus
make gods of the world and money.
We can readily see how beautifully Paul’s choice of words brings before us an
absolutely holy love that ought to be supreme in our lives. This divine love is
not that which is in the heart of the natural man; it is not a love that a
person can pump up out of his own heart if he is not a child of God; agape is
not there. He or she may have phileo. A poor heathen mother loves her child and
may even love her husband. Unsaved men and women love their country. They
usually love those who love them in this lesser sense, but it is only when they
have been born of God that they love in the higher sense represented in 1
Corinthians 13:1-13.
We read in 1 John 4:7, “Every one that loveth [agapao] is born of God.” If the
word phileo had been used there, you might say that every mother who loves her
children, every patriot who loves his country is born of God. But that is not
true. Agape, the completely unselfish divine love, is the portion of only those
who are regenerated and indwelt by the Holy Spirit. “The love [agape] of God is
shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given unto us” (Romans
5:5). The Value of Love (1 Corinthians 13:1-3)
Paul warned against substituting mere talent for love: “Though I speak with the
tongues of men and of angels, and have not charity, I am become as sounding
brass, or a tinkling cymbal.” A preacher might be so talented that he could stir
his audience to deepest emotion, but not accomplish anything for God. Apart from
divine love, the eloquence of an angel would not reach the needy hearts of men.
Paul continued, “Though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all
mysteries, and all knowledge…and have not charity…” You may ask, “Is it possible
to have the gift of prophecy and not have love?” Oh yes! They said of Saul, who
was not a child of God, “Is Saul also among the prophets?” (1 Samuel 10:11-12)
When associating with prophets, he talked like a prophet; when associating with
the world, he talked like a worldling.
Then there is the tragic case of Balaam, to whom God actually gave the gift of
foresight. Balaam was able to look down through the years and utter marvelous
prophecies, yet his heart was motivated by covetousness. He wanted Balak’s money
and therefore desired to curse Israel-but the Lord forbade him. Balaam said,
“How shall I curse, whom God hath not cursed?” and then made the predictions
recorded in Numbers 23:1-30, Numbers 24:1-25. Since his words have proven true,
we know that he had the gift of prophecy, but he certainly did not have love.
His mere intelligence was illuminated by the Spirit. Balaam prayed, “Let me die
the death of the righteous,” but he died under the judgment of God because he
was never regenerated. What an empty thing the gift of prophecy is without love!
Paul went on, “Though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, and
have not charity, I am nothing.” Of course here he was speaking not of saving
faith, but of the gift of faith mentioned in 1 Corinthians 12:1-31. He was
saying, “Even if God gave me faith that could scatter the hills, without love I
would be nothing.” It is absolutely impossible for any man to produce such love
(agape, not mere sentiment) in himself apart from divine grace. Thus how solemn
are the words of our Lord Jesus: “Ye must be born again” (John 3:7)! A minister
was leaving his church for another pastorate. He was one of those modern,
up-to-date preachers who say a lot of sweet nothings that can neither hurt a
flea nor do anyone any good. On his last Sunday a young man came up to him and
said, “Pastor, I am so sorry we are going to lose you. When you came to us three
years ago, I did not care for God, man, or the devil, but since listening to
your beautiful sermons, I have learned to love them all.” That is the kind of
sentiment that passes for love these days, but it is not what Paul was speaking
of. The apostle was referring to a love that is the result of divine life in the
soul, a love that is absolutely unselfish.
He continued, “Though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give
my body to be burned, and have not charity, it profiteth me nothing.” You may
say, “But I can’t give my goods to feed the poor if I don’t love them.” Oh yes,
you can. You can do it because you want people to see you doing it. The
Pharisees of old did their alms that way; they blew trumpets to attract
attention to their giving and “verily… they have their reward” (Matthew 6:1-2).
There was no love in their giving. It was merely hypocrisy. So we see the
uniqueness of love; it is distinct from mere charity, as we use the word today.
Even if someone is a religious zealot so wedded to an idea that he is willing to
die for it, he may not be motivated by real love. Of course it was the love of
Christ that enabled the early Christian martyrs to go to the stake; it was the
love of Christ that enabled those devoted believers to face the lions. Having a
song of love in their hearts, they were ready to die for Jesus’ sake. But it is
quite possible to die for an idea, to yield one’s body to the stake because of
some great principle, yet have no real love in the heart. The Character of Love
(1 Corinthians 13:4-7)
What is the character of this love of which Paul was speaking? How can we know
it? How can we recognize it when we see it? To answer these questions, we will
examine 1 Corinthians 13:4-7 phrase by phrase, and as we do, think of Paul’s
words as a pen portrait of the Lord Jesus Christ. In these verses we can see our
blessed Savior moving about in this world as He fulfills His mission of love. In
fact we can substitute the word “Christ” each time the word “charity” occurs:
Christ suffereth long, and is kind; Christ envieth not; Christ vaunteth not
Himself, is not puffed up, doth not behave Himself unseemly, seeketh not His
own, is not easily provoked; thinketh no evil; rejoiceth not in iniquity, but
rejoiceth in the truth; beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all
things, endureth all things. This character sketch of the Lord Jesus Christ can
be taken as a divine picture of what every man ought to be. It tells me that
only as Christ dwells in me, can I display these characteristics and truly say
with Paul, “I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but
Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the
faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me” (Galatians
2:20).
If I dare to say that not until this character sketch is true of me am I really
fit for a place with God in Heaven, I might sink into utter despair, for I never
could measure up to this portrait. There is so much in my heart of self, evil,
and unholiness, but as I receive Christ as my personal Savior, as I put my trust
in Him who died because of man’s selfishness, sin, and unholiness, I am born
again of the Holy Spirit and the Word of God, and Christ comes to dwell in my
heart by faith. Now to the degree that I yield myself to Him, He lives out His
wonderful life through me, and thus I am able to demonstrate the love that is
revealed in 1 Corinthians 13:1-13. This love “suffereth long.” It does not
become impatient when tried, wronged, or misunderstood. When people disapprove,
love moves on just as sweetly and graciously as when people do approve. Love
“suffereth long, and is kind.” How much we need to realize that! Ella Wheeler
Wilcox expressed a pretty sentiment about kindness, but it is not altogether
true: So many gods, so many creeds, So many ways that wind and wind, While just
the art of being kind Is all this poor world needs. The world needs a great deal
more than that. It needs God; it needs Christ. But the world does need people
who can be kind. The kindness of God is seen in the Lord Jesus Christ, but I am
afraid many Christians are not always very kind. An old Scottish preacher had in
his congregation some folks who imagined that they had attained a spiritual
experience far beyond that of the majority of the members; they imagined that
all inbred sin had been removed from their very beings and that they had
achieved a state of perfect holiness. Because they were so holy, they were
extremely critical of other people and harsh in their judgments. The minister
was not much of a theologian and was not able to counter their doctrinal
arguments, but when he heard them censoring others, he would lean over the
pulpit and say, “Remember, if you are not very kind, you are not very holy,
because holiness and kindness cannot be separated.”
Paul continued, “Charity envieth not.” He meant that love is never jealous. Did
it ever occur to you that jealousy implies selfishness? Love delights to see
another honored and esteemed. Of course there is a holy jealousy. The Lord is a
jealous God; He would have us altogether for Himself. But a carnal jealousy
makes us unhappy when others are preferred before us. Jesus always took the
lowest place and was content to be despised and rejected.
Then too, love “vaunteth not itself.” In plain English, love never brags. Love
never exalts itself or its ability; it never tries to draw attention to itself.
Love “is not puffed up.” Paul said in 1 Corinthians 8:1 that “knowledge puffeth
up, but love edifieth.” I may think I know a great deal more than other people
and so become puffed up or conceited. But real love does not puff up; it builds
up.
Love “doth not behave itself unseemly” or literally “is never boorish.” The
finest gentleman in the world is the man who knows Christ best. I remember
reading a history of the world written by an Englishman about the year 1600. The
author, when dealing with the reign of Caesar Augustus, said, “In his days,
there was born in Bethlehem of Judea that goodly gentleman, Jesus Christ.” Taken
aback, I thought, I do not know whether I like that. But when I stopped to
analyze it, I thought, What words could have more truly described the life of my
Lord here on earth?
What is a gentleman? Is he someone born heir to a vast estate? Is he someone who
has the right to put a title before his name? Not necessarily. A man might be
heir to millions but be a perfect boor. On the other hand, a man might be the
poorest of the poor, yet be controlled by divine love and so be a perfect
gentleman. Have you ever noticed the refining influence of the Lord Jesus
Christ? Watch a man brought out of the gutter and saved by grace, and see how
the Spirit of God quiets him and transforms him until his whole character
becomes different. Love never behaves in an “unseemly” ill-mannered way.
Love “seeketh not her own.” The apostle’s word to the quarreling Christians in
Philippi was, “Look not every man on his own things, but every man also on the
things of others” (Php 2:4). When divine love controls the heart, the rule will
be “others first” instead of “self first.”
Love “is not easily provoked.” Ephesians 4:26 says, “Be ye angry, and sin not.”
A Puritan once remarked, “I am determined so to be angry as not to sin;
therefore to be angry with nothing but sin.” Sin may well stir my indignation,
but love “is not easily provoked.” Was Christ ever provoked? Oh yes. About what?
About the wickedness, the sin, the hypocrisy of men. When, because of their
pretended regard for the sanctity of the sabbath, they would have hindered His
healing the poor man with the withered hand, Jesus “looked round about on them
with anger” (Mark 3:5). There is an anger that is divine, but Christ was not
easily provoked.
Love “thinketh no evil.” How apt we are to make snap judgments of people. If you
were to say, “I think everything she does is done ostentatiously,” I would
reply, “What right do you have to be thinking those things? Love credits people
with the best possible motives.”
Love “rejoiceth not in iniquity, but rejoiceth in the truth; Beareth all things,
believeth all things, hopeth all things.” If something happens that could be
construed to be very bad, Love says, “Could I put a better construction on that?
I will not give what I saw a negative interpretation if I can possibly think of
a positive one. I will hope for the best. I will never be guilty of marring a
brother’s or a sister’s reputation because of something said or done that looks
unwise to me, yet might be innocent.” That is love.
Finally, love “endureth all things.” It is willing to suffer, for that is the
character of love. The Permanence of Love (1 Corinthians 13:8-13)
Everything else may disappear, but love will remain. Love “never faileth.”
Prophecy will be fulfilled eventually and tongues will “cease,” but love will
continue forever. We do not know exactly when tongues passed away from the
church, but as already noted we have no evidence that there are men today who
have the ability to preach in languages they have never learned. The word
translated “cease” is a very strong term. Paul knew that the day would come when
the gift of tongues would no longer be seen, but love would remain. Knowledge
too “shall vanish away.” In the sense that we have it now, knowledge is only a
partial thing at best and it will vanish away in the light of the coming of our
Lord Jesus and our gathering together unto Him.
Paul explained, “For we know in part, and we prophesy in part. But when that
which is perfect is come, then that which is in part shall be done away.” Then
he used a little illustration comparing the present with the days of our
childhood, and our glorious future with the years of maturity: “When I was a
child, I spake as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child: but
when I became a man, I put away childish things.”
I wonder whether that is actually true of all of us. Are we all through with
childish ways? I am afraid that some of us are quite childish still. I know
fully grown men and women who profess the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, but who
still have a great many characteristics of children. Let them have their own way
and they are perfectly delightful to get along with, but cross them and they
pout like little children. May I make a plea for true Christian manhood and
womanhood in the matter of praise? One thing that often grieves my own heart is
mat mere are so few Christian people content to do their duty as God shows it to
them without human praise. If we are men and women in Christ who have “put away
childish things” and are doing what is right, what difference does it make
whether men praise us or blame us?
If we have “put away childish things,” in one sense we have reached adulthood.
But we must confess that we are still in our childhood if we compare our present
state with the glorious maturity that will be ours when our Lord returns and we
are fully conformed to His image. Some day we will be just like Him. But now,
Paul said, “we see though a glass, darkly.” There were no glass windows in his
day. There was a crude kind of glass, but it could not be used for windows.
Sometimes people used a very thin pressed-out horn or an almost transparent
crystal, and that may be what Paul was referring to, but in all likelihood he
had a brass mirror in mind. You can see enough in a brass mirror to know whether
your hat is on straight, but you cannot see what your complexion is like. So the
apostle was saying that we are just like folk looking at themselves in a brass
mirror. We see nothing now as we will see it when we see “face to face.”
“Now I know in part.” I know some things through the revelation that God has
given-and thank God for that. How little I would know without it! But there are
still many things about which He has not yet given me information. How many
questions there are that even the Bible does not answer! “But then shall I know
even as also I am known.” If I were to use the exact tense of the original, I
would say, “Even as also I have been known.” I will know others and I will know
all mysteries in that coming day, even as God knows me now and has known me down
through all the years.
“Now abideth faith” because “faith is the substance of things hoped for, the
evidence of things not seen” (Hebrews 11:1). “Now abideth… hope” because I am
living in hope of the coming of the Lord Jesus and our gathering together unto
Him. “Now abideth… charity” because love is the result of divine life. “But the
greatest of these”-even at the present moment here on earth, even before I enter
eternity-is love.
God grant that we may demonstrate the love of Christ through yielding ourselves
wholly to Him so that He may live out His life in us! Then when faith has
changed to glad fruition, when our most wonderful hopes have all been
accomplished, when we stand face to face with our blessed Lord, love will remain
throughout all the ages to come. We will understand then what we cannot
understand now: the love that moved the heart of God and led Him to send His
only begotten Son into this dark world that we might live through Him. What a
wonderful thing to know Christ! Let us go out and live Him before men.
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CHAPTER 80: 05.14. THE EXERCISE OF GIFTS
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The Exercise Of Gifts In 1 Corinthians 12:1-31 we considered the diverse gifts
of the Spirit, who gives them “to every man severally as he will.” In this
matter the Holy Spirit is sovereign. No one has the right to demand that he be
given any particular gift or gifts as an evidence of the Spirit’s baptism. What
He gives will be for the edification of the church as a whole, not for the
enjoyment or aggrandizement of some individual.
While we are not told of any specific time limit, we know both from Scripture
and church history that most of the so-called miraculous gifts passed away
shortly after the Bible was completed. They are not needed now as they were at
the beginning. If the Spirit so wills, He might give them today under special
circumstances, but we need not be surprised if we do not see them being
exercised. These signs served their purpose, a very useful one: when they
followed the initial proclamation of the truth, they authenticated the message
as divine. Now with God’s complete revelation in our hands, we do not require
signs to prove it is the Word of the Lord; when preached in power, the Word
authenticates itself. In 1 Corinthians 13:1-13 we learned that apart from love,
the gifts are useless. Love is the evidence of the indwelling of the divine
nature. Romans 5:5 tells us that “the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts
by the Holy Ghost which is given unto us.” In 1 Corinthians 14:1-40 we will read
about the gifts being exercised in love for the edifying of the body of Christ.
A Gift to Covet (1 Corinthians 14:1-25)
“Follow after charity,” Paul wrote, “and desire spiritual gifts, but rather that
ye may prophesy.” As a member of the body of Christ I should desire to be a
means of blessing to my brothers and sisters in the Lord, and to be used of God
in proclaiming the gospel to a lost world. I can only do this right as I am
filled with the Spirit and gifted by Him in some special way.
It is therefore quite in keeping with my Christian profession to seek to be at
my best for God. Worldly ambition is obnoxious and unholy, but there is a
laudable ambition, and that is to desire spiritual gifts. But I must be sure
that I exercise my gifts in love. Every gift is given for the blessing of the
whole assembly, and not in any sense for the glory of the individual possessing
that gift. In the church of God as a whole and in the local assembly of
believers gathered together as a worshiping company, there is no place for mere
carnal display. If I am gifted of God in preaching the gospel, I am not to take
advantage of that to exhibit my abilities ostentatiously or to gather people
about myself. If I have been gifted of God to sing the fine old gospel songs
that people enjoy hearing so much, I am not to use that talent to attract
attention to myself or my voice; I am to use my gift to give out a message that,
winged by melody, will move human hearts that the spoken word might not reach.
If I am gifted of God to teach the Holy Scriptures, I am not to take advantage
of that gift by exercising people’s minds about strange and perplexing problems
in order to make them think that I am more educated than most men; I am to make
things as plain and simple as possible so that the saints may receive
edification. This is the standard for using the gifts that God has given. All
are to be exercised in love. The apostle singled out prophecy as a gift that we
should earnestly covet. If you read the seventeen prophetic books of the Old
Testament, you will be surprised to find how small a portion of those writings
is devoted to foretelling future events. There are indeed many most remarkable
predictions that have been fulfilled to the utmost detail down through the
centuries; and there are many more that are yet to be fulfilled. But a larger
portion of the prophetic books is concerned with bringing home the truth of God
to the hearts and consciences of His people.
There is a difference between the teacher and the prophet. The teacher expounds
the Scriptures and illuminates the mind and understanding. The prophet brings
the truth home to the heart and conscience in a way that causes people to
examine themselves before God. As a teacher I might take this letter of Paul and
through divine help be able to expound it so that my hearers would thoroughly
understand just what it is that the Spirit of God is saying, yet their
consciences might not be affected in the least degree. I might be able to edify
my students intellectually, but their hearts might not really be lifted to God.
However, if I had the gift of prophecy, I could take exactly the same passage of
Scripture and, as the Spirit of God enabled me, so impress the hearts and
consciences of my hearers that they would go away to a secret place, kneel down,
search themselves, and ask God to help them live the truth that they have been
learning. That is the highest form of ministry.
Paul went on to contrast the gift of prophecy with one of the “show gifts,” the
gift of tongues. Suppose that I as a native of an English-speaking land had the
ability to learn and speak one of the many dialects of the Chinese language; and
suppose that, endeavoring to exercise the wonderful gift the Spirit of God had
given me, I poured out my heart in public in Chinese. At once my
English-speaking congregation would say, “We cannot understand a word that he is
saying.” I might be quite happy and perfectly self-satisfied to think that I was
able to use such a remarkable gift, but others would not understand me unless
they were Chinese. So you see the gift of speaking in tongues is not for one’s
home assembly of Christians; it is for the missionfield. Let the gift of
speaking Chinese, for example, be exercised where that tongue is spoken. Do not
get up in a church service and take the time of God’s people by speaking in a
language that they cannot understand.
“He that speaketh in an unknown tongue…speaketh mysteries. But he that
prophesieth speaketh unto men to edification, and exhortation, and comfort.”
Notice the three aspects of the spiritual ministry of the prophet:
First, the man who is divinely gifted to give a message from God speaks to men
for their edification. They get something from the message for their spiritual
good. If I am able to open up the Word of God to you in a way that instructs and
feeds your soul, then you are edified. It is a great thing to build up God’s
people. The second aspect of the prophet’s ministry is exhortation. How you and
I need the message of exhortation! We are so apt to slumber in our spiritual
lives. An exhortation is something to awaken, something to arouse the one who
has gone to sleep or become apathetic. How the Word of God arouses the
conscience! I know some folks do not like that kind of Bible teaching, but the
faithful servant of God will cause men to seek after God and will show them
their true state as God Himself sees it. The third aspect of prophetic ministry
is comfort and encouragement, and how much you and I need comfort! When
addressing a group of theology students, the great London preacher Dr. Joseph
Parker said, “Young gentlemen, always preach to broken hearts, and you will
never lack for an audience.” How many broken and bereaved hearts there are! So
many things come home cruelly to the heart-distressing financial circumstances,
ill health, trouble in one’s own family. God’s people need the word of
encouragement. The apostle did not want to slight the gift of tongues, but he
told the Corinthians that he wished “rather that [they] prophesied: for greater
is he that prophesieth than he that speaketh with tongues, except he interpret,
that the church may receive edifying.” If anyone had the gift of tongues, Paul
wanted him to use it to the glory of God. The person who speaks in an unknown
tongue enjoys it, but no one else does. The same would be true if I were to try
to sing a solo. I love to sing. Out in the woods or on the mountainside I just
let myself go and delight myself in singing. However, if I were to do that in a
choir, I might put someone else out of tune. And if I were to sing a solo, I
might enjoy it thoroughly, but you would not, and there would be good reason.
Likewise if one speaks in tongues he edifies himself, but others are not
edified. Do not covet a gift that makes you as selfish as that.
Let me point out that the word “unknown,” which occurs before “tongues” many
times in this chapter, is in italics because it does not represent anything in
the original text. Strictly speaking, the apostle was not thinking of unknown
tongues, but of definite languages. The miracle of Pentecost was that the eleven
apostles were empowered to preach the gospel in languages they had never
learned, so that all who listened heard the message “in [their] own tongue,
wherein [they] were born” (Acts 2:8). I know of nothing like this happening
today. The Corinthians were anxious to have the showy gifts of the Spirit, the
gifts that would attract widespread attention. They were particularly interested
in speaking in tongues. Through this remarkable gift the gospel was spread in a
wonderful way in the earliest period of the church of God. Speaking in tongues
was nothing like the rhapsody that people give way to when they utter weird
sounds; those strange sounds may in truth be called “unknown” tongues, for they
are unknown to Heaven or earth. The tongues Paul referred to were definite
languages. Thus we can see at once why the apostle rebuked the display of such a
gift when there were no people present who could understand the language. The
gifted man would get a great thrill from speaking in a language that was
incomprehensible to others, but there would be no blessing to the church.
We have no record that Paul ever had to learn the languages in which he spoke to
the people. He spoke to the Greeks in their own language, to the Romans in
theirs, to the Hebrews in theirs, and to the various barbarians in the tongues
to which they were accustomed. If he spoke to the Corinthians in the language of
another land, he would not be edifying them unless he gave them an
interpretation or the Spirit of God enabled someone else to interpret. Similarly
no one can understand what song is being played if a piano does not give “a
distinction in the sounds.” If a trumpeter goes ahead of the army, but plays
notes that nobody can understand, the soldiers are unable to respond.
Paul said, “So likewise ye, except ye utter by the tongue words easy to be
understood, how shall it be known what is spoken? for ye shall speak into the
air.” I think the apostle was not only referring to the misuse of the gift of
tongues; he was also rebuking the vanity of ministers who delight to use the
pulpit as a place to display their education and culture, and the tendency of
preachers to use language that is far above the heads of the people to whom they
are ministering. Charles Spurgeon said, “I am afraid that many of my ministerial
brethren must imagine that when Scripture tells them to ‘Feed My sheep,’ it
means ‘Feed My giraffes,’ for they put the food so high that people would have
to be giraffes to reach it.” Shepherds should always put the food down where the
sheep can get it. It should be the ambition of the preacher of the Word to use
language so simple and so plain that everyone can understand. In one of the
churches where I preached, a lady accompanied by a boy about ten years of age
came up to me and said, “I want my little grandson to meet you. I hope you won’t
be offended if I tell you what he said. I had been talking about you and he
wanted to hear you speak, so I brought him tonight. After the service he said to
me, ‘Why, Grandma, he is not a great preacher; I could understand every word he
said.’”
I replied, “Well, my dear madam, I consider that a great compliment. I hope you
will always pray that when I stand up to minister the Word, I will speak in such
a way that the youngest child as well as the oldest saint may understand every
word. If they do not understand, I am just speaking ‘into the air.’” The apostle
noted that there are many different voices in the world and all of them have
some significance, but if the person listening does not understand the
significance, the voices accomplish nothing. If Paul spoke in a tongue that
others did not understand, he would be like a barbarian to them and they would
seem like barbarians to him. He said to the Corinthians, “Forasmuch as ye are
zealous of spiritual gifts, seek that ye may excel to the edifying of the
church.” In other words, “Try to get from God that which will be the greatest
blessing to the people to whom you minister.”
Even when we pray, we are to speak with our understanding as well as our
spirits. I may have within me a great urge and a great sense of need, and I
might express it in foreign sounds, but I would not be praying with my
understanding; the apostle repudiated anything like that. People recited long
prayers in Latin in the early days, but they did not understand Latin. Their
spirits may have been prayerful, but their understanding was unfruitful. The
Reformation brought back the use of people’s native tongues in addressing God
and in the worship of God so that their understanding might keep up with their
spirits. Certainly I should pray with the spirit; my inmost being must be
aroused. But “I will pray with the understanding also.”
We should understand what we sing as well and therefore it is important to sing
hymns that express Scriptural truth. Some people think that a song is suitable
because they like the tune, but they forget that the words may not be in
agreement with Scripture at all. On the other hand, some people think that any
song is suitable if the words are from the Bible, but they forget that the
Psalms for example were written before redemption was accomplished. There are
many lovely things in the Psalms that can be used to express the worship and
praise of our hearts, but we are to sing from the standpoint of people who have
already been redeemed. I won’t sing, “Turn away Thy wrath,” because divine wrath
has been turned from me. It fell on my Substitute and therefore I am saved from
judgment. There should not be any question about our relationship with God. If
we do not understand this, we will always be confused.
We are also to give thanks in an understandable way. In the early church when a
man gave thanks, the rest were to say, “Amen,” but how could they do that if
they did not understand what he was saying? He might give thanks well with his
spirit, but the others would not be edified.
Paul said to the Corinthians, “I thank my God, I speak with tongues more than ye
all.” He was not boasting, just stating a fact. Then the apostle qualified his
statement by saying in effect, “I would rather speak five words in a language
you can understand, than ten thousand words in a foreign language.” When he went
out to the barbarians, he was glad to talk to them in their native tongue, but
when he came into the assembly in Corinth, he would not speak to them in the
language of the barbarians.
I know some dear people who, I am sorry to say, would rather speak five words in
an absolutely unknown tongue than ten thousand words in good, plain English.
They wish they could feel the thrill of some power taking hold of them so that
they could speak in some weird language that no one could understand! Their wish
is really a selfish desire to have something that other people do not have. The
folk that are running after these things are like children. Paul wanted the
Corinthians to have the understanding of men, yet the sweet, kindly spirit of
children. “Be not children in understanding,” he said. “In understanding be
men.”
Going back to the book of Isaiah, the apostle showed how the prophet had to
reprove Israel. Referring to Isaiah 28:11 Paul said, “It is written, With men of
other tongues and other lips will I speak unto this people; and yet for all that
will they not hear me, saith the Lord.” God was saying through Isaiah, “I will
send Gentiles to speak to Israel,” and for more than nineteen hundred years, He
has proclaimed the gospel to the Jews through converted Gentiles. Thus tongues
became a sign to those unbelievers that it was the Spirit of God that was
working in power in His messengers.
Then Paul stressed again the value of prophecy. He said in effect, “Suppose the
whole congregation comes together in one place and everybody is able to speak
with tongues; one after another, they stand up and speak in strange languages.
Suppose also that unsaved people come in. They would go away saying, ‘What a lot
of lunatics they are! I could not understand a word.’ But if, exercising the
gift of prophecy, the servants of God clearly proclaim His truth in the power of
the Spirit, the unsaved would be convicted, the careless would be awakened, and
the anxious-realizing that God is speaking through human lips to their
souls-would be led into assurance.”
Order in the Assembly (1 Corinthians 14:26-40)
We will now consider the practical aspects of the exercise of gifts in the
public assemblies of the people of God. As you read these verses, which speak of
order in the early churches, I think you will instinctively feel that we know
very little today of their way of worship. This surely ought to lead us to
examine our own ways, to see how far we have departed from the simplicity of
primitive Christianity.
I do not mean to imply that there is not a certain amount of liberty given in
Scripture to adapt ourselves and the order of our meetings to the times in which
we live and to the recognized customs prevailing among different races and
nations. It is clear that the Holy Spirit is the Spirit of liberty, and He does
not seek to press everyone into one mold. He is the Spirit of a sound mind and
He expects us to use God-given common sense in carrying out the work of the Lord
and in ordering our assemblies. But Paul laid down certain principles that
should govern us when we are gathered together for worship and the ministry of
the Word. It is God who gathers His people around His blessed Son, our risen
Lord, who said, “Where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I
in the midst of them” (Matthew 18:20). While these words had reference
originally, as the context shows, to a prayer meeting, they really apply to all
assemblies of the saints of God, whether they come together for worship, for
ministry, or for intercession. On such occasions all should be subject to the
Holy Spirit’s direction. With the practical application of his principles in
mind, Paul asked the Corinthians: “How is it then, brethren? when ye come
together, every one of you hath a psalm, hath a doctrine, hath a tongue, hath a
revelation, hath an interpretation. Let all things be done unto edifying.”
Because of the liberty they had in Christ, those early Christians were in the
habit of participating in the meetings as their own feelings prompted them and
the result was confusion. The apostle showed that all things should be done in
an orderly and godly manner and with the edification of the whole company in
view, not the personal enjoyment of some gifted individuals.
Several people must not speak in tongues at the same time and if there is no
interpreter, they should not speak at all. Someone might say, “It is the Lord
who has given me the gift of tongues, so I must speak out in meeting.” But this
does not necessarily follow, for “the spirits of the prophets are subject to the
prophets.” Paul made it plain that even if one has such a gift, if he cannot
interpret, he must remain silent in the church. The fact that a tongue might be
interpreted shows that a tongue is a definite language.
People may prophesy, but not more than three in one service. “Ye may all
prophesy one by one,” Paul said. If one person is speaking and another has
something to say, the first should wait until the other is through, “for God is
not the author of confusion, but of peace.”
“Let the prophets speak,” the apostle said, “and let the other judge.” Paul was
speaking here of judging in the sense of discerning. Those who listen to the
prophesying are to weigh all that they hear carefully before God. None of us has
a right to say, “This is the truth of God and I demand a hearing.” Our Lord
Himself urged the people to search the Scriptures. The preacher is to speak; the
people are to listen and then compare what they hear with the Word. So there are
several situations in which a person should keep silent. If someone wants to
speak in tongues, but there is no interpreter, he is to “keep silence [sigao].”
If a prophet is speaking and another has something to share, Paul said, “Let the
first hold his peace [sigao].” And then the apostle said something over which
there has been a great deal of controversy in the church of God, though there
should not be: “Let your women keep silence [sigao] in the churches.” Surely
Paul meant exactly the same thing here as in the other two instances. By
“churches” Paul did not mean buildings. He was not telling us that no woman
could give a testimony or offer prayer in a religious building. The word
translated “churches” means “assemblies.” He was saying, “When you are gathered
together in your regular church service, let the women keep silent in the
assembly.” Some have objected that Paul was an old bachelor and did not like
women, but we need to remember that he was the inspired servant of God and wrote
as directed by the Holy Spirit. In 1 Corinthians 11:5 Paul referred to women
praying in some other sphere, but in 1 Corinthians 14:34-35 Paul was referring
to the official meeting of the church when all are gathered together as a
worshiping company. The women are not to seek to teach at such a time, or if the
women hear something they do not understand, they are not to interrupt the
meeting by inquiring aloud. Paul said, “Let them ask their husbands at home.”
One lady said to me, “Well, that is not meant for me; I have no husband.” But
the word translated “husbands” here is elsewhere rendered “men.”
Neither men nor women were to interrupt in a public assembly. Instead they
should discuss things at home if there is something they do not understand. In
these days it is often the men who do not understand and they ask the women at
home! It should be noted that in those early days only a comparatively few women
could read or write. We have to take into consideration the time when the
Epistle was written; slavery and debasement of women were common. But I think
the principle is clear enough. The Word of God has come to us, and we are not to
decide what we are going to accept or reject. God Himself speaks with authority
and we are to do as He commands. Paul’s instructions that we have just been
reading in this passage are the commandments of the Lord. Lest there be any
misunderstanding, the apostle wrote, “If any man think himself to be a prophet,
or spiritual, let him acknowledge that the things that I write unto you are the
commandments of the Lord.” Anyone who objected, Paul put down among those who
are ill-taught. Such an ignorant man should confess that he does not understand
rather than pretend to be wiser than those who obey the injunction of the Lord.
I realize that there has been a great deal of controversy over this passage, but
it is one that the Spirit of God has given for the edification of the whole
church, and we always find our greatest blessing when we are subject to His
direction. Sometimes we think that we can improve on what God has commanded, but
we may be sure that His ways are always best. This is not only true in the
assembly of God, but in all details of every individual life.
Women have a wide sphere for service and testimony outside of the worship
meeting of the assembly. The home is pre-eminently the woman’s sphere, but in
social gatherings too she has abundant opportunity to witness for Christ. And no
one is better equipped to work among children and to help her own sex than a
godly well-instructed woman. In visitation work, in the sickroom, and elsewhere,
her services are invaluable. If God has restricted her by forbidding her to
usurp the place of pastor or teacher in the public assembly, He is not slighting
her gifts or ignoring the value of her service. He knows best what each one of
us should do in order to glorify Him. A Priscilla may teach an Apollos, a Mary
Magdalene may be the risen Lord’s messenger to His fainthearted disciples, a
regenerated woman of Samaria may evangelize the men of her city, a Dorcas may
serve by ministering to the comfort of the poor, and a Phoebe may be a deaconess
of the assembly. But no matter how gifted and godly a woman is, she is not to
take the place of the man in the assembly of God. She is to set an example of
lowly subjection to the revealed will of God, for she has the assurance that He
values devoted obedience above any possible form of activity, however much it
may be approved by those who have never learned to let God’s Word be the supreme
authority. The true test of love for Christ is obedience to His Word. Our
happiness should be found in acting in accordance with His revealed Word. This
honors God and glorifies the Head of the Church, our blessed Lord.
After giving us the divine order for the assembly of God (chapters 10-14), the
Spirit concluded, “Covet to prophesy, and forbid not to speak with tongues. Let
all things be done decently [respectably] and in order [by arrangement].” In
other words, things should be done in the way the Word of God authorizes; we are
not to substitute an order which Scripture condemns.
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CHAPTER 81: 05.15. VICTORY OVER DEATH
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Victory Over Death
There was a small party in the Corinthian assembly who had imbibed Sadducean
notions and were seeking to foist them on believers as the truth of God. This
faction denied the reality of a physical resurrection. We need not suppose that
they went so far as to deny spiritual survival after death, but they were like
many today who refuse to accept the teaching of Scripture that the physical body
of Christ came forth from the tomb and that therefore the bodies of all men will
eventually be raised.
Paul addressed that serious error in this great chapter on the resurrection. We
can almost be thankful that the error was permitted to arise so early so that it
might be countered by the pen of inspiration. How much we would have lost had
there been no occasion for this magnificent treatise to be written! In preparing
to combat-yes, to annihilate-the false teaching, the apostle first gave a
restatement of the gospel. He showed that there is no gospel to preach to dying
men if the resurrection is denied. The whole proclamation of Paul and the other
apostles can be summarized in the phrase from Acts 17:18 : “Jesus, and the
resurrection.” Even Festus recognized their theme, for we read that he wondered
at the strange “superstition” about “one Jesus, which was dead, whom Paul
affirmed to be alive” (Acts 25:19).
Yes, Jesus died and lives again! He lives in a material body and, though
glorified and marvelously changed, it still bears the print of the nails. The
Resurrection of Christ (1 Corinthians 15:1-11) In this passage Paul restated the
gospel and referred to the witnesses of the resurrection, which alone gives
validity to that message of redeeming grace.
Paul had preached the good news for lost sinners, and the Corinthians had
received it. It was the gospel of grace, and in this they stood. We need to
remember that our standing is in grace as truly as our salvation is by grace.
Through this gospel the Corinthians had been saved-if their faith was genuine.
If their faith was not real, Paul said, they had “believed in vain.” He was not
intimating that some who had believed the gospel might be lost at last; rather
he was saying that continuance in the faith was the evidence of the genuineness
of their faith. This is important. Christ said, “He that endureth to the end
shall be saved” (Matthew 10:22).
It is quite possible to give mere mental assent to the truth of the gospel and
by baptism and lip profession take the place of a Christian when there has been
no actual work of grace in the soul. To have such an empty faith is indeed to
believe “in vain,” for it accomplishes nothing as far as the salvation of the
individual is concerned. Real faith will be emphasized by godly living, and “he
which hath begun a good work” in the believer “will perform it until the day of
Jesus Christ” (Php 1:6).
Paul reviewed the basic truths of the gospel, as he had preached it in Corinth
and elsewhere. First, “Christ died for our sins.” When the apostle wrote,
“Christ died,” he was stating a historical fact, which in itself might not mean
anything more than the death of a martyr. But when he added “for our sins,” he
completed a definite doctrinal statement that explains the reason for that
death. It was an expiatory sacrifice. Christ “gave himself a ransom for all” (1
Timothy 2:6). He took the sinner’s place and bore the sinner’s judgment. He died
that we might never die.
This, Paul told the Corinthians, was “according to the scriptures.” Throughout
the Old Testament, in type and actual prophetic declaration, we find the
sacrificial, atoning death of Christ. Psalms 22:1-31 and Psalms 69:1-36, Isaiah
53:1-12, and Zechariah 12:1-14, Zechariah 13:1-9 are examples. All the
sacrifices of former dispensations pictured His one offering of Himself on the
cross. The prophets looked forward to that great event as the supreme fact of
revelation. God declared in Leviticus 17:11, “The life of the flesh is in the
blood, and I have given it to you upon the altar to make an atonement for your
souls.” Yet we know that “it is not possible that the blood of bulls and of
goats should take away sins” (Hebrews 10:4). Only through the propitiatory death
of Christ could this be accomplished and, thank God, it did indeed take
place-and all “according to the scriptures.” The second basic truth Paul
reviewed was, “He was buried.” This suggests the reality of His death. It was
not, as Mrs. Eddy has intimated in her blasphemous chapter on the atonement, His
“seeming” death. He actually died and because He was dead, they buried His
precious body in Joseph’s new tomb. But as Robert Lowry’s hymn reminds us,
“Death cannot keep its prey…He tore the bars away,” and so we come to the third
basic truth in Paul’s declaration of the gospel: “He rose again the third day.”
The resurrection of Christ was the Father’s expression of satisfaction in the
work His Son accomplished on the cross when He “gave himself a ransom” for our
sins. The sin question having been settled, God raised Christ from the dead and
set Him at His own right hand in the highest glory, exalted to be “a Prince and
a Saviour” (Acts 5:31).
We need to remember that apart from His physical resurrection there was no proof
that God had accepted Christ’s work as an atonement for our sins. But having
been delivered up to death “for our offences,” Christ was raised again “for our
justification,” or as some render it, “because of our justification” (Romans
4:25). His death so fully met all the righteous claims of God’s throne against
our sins that God declared, by bringing Him back from the dead, that there is no
longer a barrier to our complete justification. The physical resurrection of our
Lord Jesus Christ is fundamental. There is no room for human theories here. It
will not do to say, as one individual has said, that “the body of Jesus sleeps
in a Syrian tomb, but His soul goes marching on.” This is to deny His
resurrection altogether. His soul was never dead, but His body died, and it was
His body that was raised again.
Note that the resurrection of Christ is ascribed to each person of the trinity;
all three had part in that glorious work. Romans 6:4 says, “Christ was raised up
from the dead by the glory of the Father” (also see Hebrews 13:20). In John
2:19-21 we read that the Lord Jesus said, “Destroy this temple, and in three
days I will raise it up… He spake of the temple of his body.” And in Romans 8:11
His resurrection is attributed to the Holy Spirit. There is no contradiction in
these verses; they are all in harmony because the entire godhead was involved in
the resurrection.
Paul reminded us that Christ’s resurrection, as His death, was “according to the
scriptures.” For example in Leviticus 23:1-44 the resurrection is pictured in
the feast of the firstfruits on the day after the Passover sabbath. Psalms 16:10
and Isaiah 53:10 reveal that for Christ the path of life lay through death;
after death He would “see his seed” and “prolong his days.” Psalms 110:1-7
portrays Him as the risen One taking His seat at God’s right hand in Heaven.
Having thus restated the gospel, Paul went on to mention witnesses to the
resurrection. God had provided positive testimony regarding this great fact to
those who were appointed to go out and proclaim the message of salvation
throughout the world. The risen Christ’s many visible appearances to so large a
number of reputable witnesses, the fact that His dead body could never be
located anywhere, the demonstrations of the Holy Spirit’s power, the confident
assurance and new bravery of Christ’s apostles, and the way God set His seal on
their ministry with miracles of healing and the salvation of thousands-all alike
proved that Jesus had indeed vanquished death and come forth alive from Joseph’s
new rock-hewn tomb. That crypt is still empty and always will be. The body that
once lay wrapped in linen cloths came out of its shroud like a butterfly leaving
its cocoon when God’s appointed hour struck (see John 20:4-8).
Survival of the spirit after the death of the body might be considered
immortality, but it is not resurrection. What Scripture plainly declares is that
the body that hung on the cross is the same body that was raised from the grave.
Christ’s resurrected body still bore the print of the nails in His hands and the
wound in His side (see John 20:27). Long years afterward, John the beloved saw
“in the midst of the throne… a Lamb as it had been slain” (Revelation 5:6). The
marks of His passion will be visible on His body forever.
Thy wounds, Thy wounds, Lord Jesus, Those deep, dark wounds, they tell The
sacrifice that frees us From sin and death and hell.
They bound Thee once forever To all who own Thy grace; No power those bonds
shall sever, No time those scars efface.
Christ’s literal bodily resurrection is the pledge that eventually “all that are
in the graves shall hear his voice, And shall come forth” (John 5:28-29). The
Lord Jesus said to His disciples, “Because I live, ye shall live also” (John
14:19). Paul declared that He is “the firstfruits of them that slept” (1
Corinthians 15:20).
It is true that a great change came over Christ’s body in resurrection. After He
rose from the dead He could enter a room when all the doors were locked; He
could appear and disappear at will. And so we are told in regard to ourselves
that what is sown in burial is “not that body that shall be” (1 Corinthians
15:37). Nevertheless there is positive identity: “It is sown;…it is raised” (1
Corinthians 15:42-44). The body that died will live again, but under altogether
new and wonderful conditions.
Adding himself to the list of witnesses to the resurrection, Paul said he saw as
one “born out of due time.” We are apt to think he meant that he was born much
later than the other witnesses, but the Greek word he used precludes any such
thought. The original word means “born before the time.” The apostle was
thinking of that glorious day when the risen, glorified Christ is to appear on
earth once more and His people Israel will “look upon [Him] whom they have
pierced” (Zechariah 12:10). As they recognize Him as their Lord and Savior, the
nation will be born in a day. Paul had known that experience already: he first
saw Christ in resurrection and, receiving Him as Savior, became part of the new
creation. The apostle could never forget that he had once been an opponent of
Christ and a persecutor of His church. Paul felt that he was not fit to be
called an apostle because of this, yet he could rejoice in the infinite grace
that had made him what he was: the messenger of the Christ he had once hated.
Taking the glorious gospel message to the Gentile world, he went from country to
country and from people to people. God worked through him in such a mighty way
that he could say in all humility, “I laboured more abundantly than they all:
yet not I, but the grace of God which was with me.” Paul wanted to emphasize not
the work of the servant, but the message that the servant carried. Regardless of
who the preacher was, when people believed the message, they were saved.
Let me remind you again that Christ’s bodily resurrection is proof that God
accepted His propitiatory work. The way into the holiest is now opened up for
all who would draw nigh, trusting Christ’s precious blood as the only basis of
redemption. In this great resurrection chapter the inspired writer insisted on
the absolute necessity of Christ’s rising again to validate His death as an
atonement for sin. “If Christ be not raised,” he said in 1 Corinthians 15:17,
“your faith is vain; ye are yet in your sins.”
It is useless to laud Jesus as a teacher while denying His bodily resurrection.
He Himself predicted it. He declared that He must be rejected and be put to
death and rise from the dead the third day. His disciples could not understand
what He was saying at the time, but the empty tomb and the subsequent appearance
of their Lord in His resurrection body made everything clear. Then they
remembered His words, and after His ascension to Heaven in that same body and
the descent of the Holy Spirit, they went everywhere declaring Christ’s
resurrection from the dead. Apart from this they would have had no gospel to
preach.
Without His resurrection there would be no message for sin-laden, condemned
humanity today. The proclamation that has brought life and blessing to untold
millions through all the Christian centuries is that embodied in Romans 10:9-10
: “If thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in
thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. For
with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession
is made unto salvation.” We rest on His Word and rejoice in hope of the glory of
God. The Basis of Our Hope (1 Corinthians 15:12-20) In this passage the Holy
Spirit developed and vigorously defended the fundamental truth of the bodily
resurrection of the saints. There were some in the Corinthian assembly who,
because of the influence of the pagan philosophies with which they were familiar
before their conversion, were questioning this teaching. I do not suppose that
they thought for one moment that people cease to exist when they die. One can
hardly think of any real Christian believing that, but some doubtless thought
that while the spirit lives on in another world, the body ceases to exist; death
is the end of it. They never expected either to meet their deceased loved ones
again in physical form or to inhabit a material body again after their own
deaths. The apostle identified their belief as a definite error and showed how
serious the consequences of such a view would be.
Paul asked the Corinthians, “If Christ be preached that he rose from the dead,
how say some among you that there is no resurrection of the dead?” The apostle
was referring to the very foundation of Christianity. Everywhere the apostles
went they preached “Jesus, and the resurrection.” Our faith rests on that. The
two great truths that Scripture teaches are that He was put to death because of
our sins and that He was raised again as the token of God the Father’s
satisfaction in the work that His Son’s death accomplished. Thus as the risen
One He ever lives “to save them to the uttermost that come unto God by him”
(Hebrews 7:25).
Though changed in a most wonderful way, our Savior’s resurrection body was a
real human body. The print of a nail was in the palm of each hand, and the mark
of the Roman spear was still on one side; and the Bible indicates that the
raised body of the Lord Jesus will bear those marks for all eternity. In this it
will differ from the bodies of all the saints.
I do not think there is any reason to suppose that even those who have been
martyred for Christ’s sake will bear in their resurrection bodies any evidence
of suffering; there will be no scar, spot, blemish, or any such thing (see
Ephesians 5:27). Our bodies will be absolutely perfect when raised and
glorified. Why then should the body of our Lord Jesus bear scars that speak of
His sufferings and of His passion? Because those marks will be the visible
evidence throughout the ages to come that the same Jesus who died for our sins
on the cross has been raised in the power of an endless life.
Yes, He lives in Heaven in the same body in which He once walked on this earth,
but that body is now changed and glorified. Christian testimony begins with this
fact. If one who is seeking the way of life inquires, “What must I do to be
saved?” the answer comes in unmistakable clearness: “If thou shalt confess with
thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised
him from the dead, thou shalt be saved” (Acts 16:30; Romans 10:9). Therefore we
have no right to think of any man as a Christian if he denies the physical
resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Paul said, “We preach Christ crucified” (1 Corinthians 1:23), but that was not
all that the apostles proclaimed. They also preached Christ raised from the dead
and exalted to God’s right hand. “We have testified of God,” Paul wrote in 1
Corinthians 15:15, “that he raised up Christ.”
Some wonder, “If He is living in Heaven, is that not sufficient?” No, for Paul
continued, “If Christ be not raised, your faith is vain; ye are yet in your
sins.” If our Lord Jesus Christ did not come forth triumphant from that tomb, we
have no gospel to preach to lost men. If the body of Jesus still sleeps in the
grave, then you and I are absolutely hopeless; there is no salvation for us. The
fact that He rose from the dead is the proof that His sacrifice on the cross
satisfied the claims of divine righteousness and met every requirement of
infinite holiness.
You may ask, “Why do you say that if Christ did not rise there is no way of
knowing that redemption is an accomplished fact?” You see, when our Lord was
here on earth, He told His disciples that He was going to die: “The Son of man
came not to be ministered unto, but to minister, and to give his life a ransom
for many” (Matthew 20:28). He also told them, “The Son of man must be delivered
into the hands of sinful men, and be crucified, and the third day rise again”
(Luke 24:7). If that latter statement was never fulfilled, He stands convicted
of false testimony. Either He was deluded in thinking that He was the Savior,
the Redeemer who was to die for sinners and rise again; or He was a deliberate
deceiver. It was His resurrection, the fulfillment of His own prediction, that
proved Him to be the sacrifice for sin that He had proclaimed Himself to be.
Thank God, that testimony is true. More than five hundred witnesses saw Christ
after He rose from the dead. As Horace Bushnell said, “The resurrection of Jesus
Christ is absolutely the best attested fact in ancient history.” My sins nailed
Him to the cross; He, the sinless One, took my place and died under the judgment
of God. After settling the sin question by pouring out His life and dying for
us, Christ lay in the tomb. Three days were permitted to elapse to prove the
reality of His death and then God brought Him back from the dead to declare His
acceptance of the sacrifice of His Son. The resurrection is the testimony that
God is satisfied and now can open His arms of love to every poor sinner in the
world and proclaim a full, free, and eternal salvation for all who believe. I
know that my sins are gone because He who made Himself responsible for them, who
died for them, now sits enthroned at God’s right hand and there are no sins on
Him there. As a sinful man, I could not cleanse my own heart. “If I wash myself
with snow water, and make my hands never so clean,” said Job, “yet shalt thou
plunge me in the ditch, and mine own clothes shall abhor me” (Job 9:30-31). But
when the absolutely holy One went in grace to Calvary’s hill and hung on that
cross of shame, Jehovah “laid on him the iniquity of us all” (Isaiah 53:6).
Darkness enwrapped His soul and in anguish He cried, “My God, my God, why hast
thou forsaken me?” (Matthew 27:46). The Holy One who knew no sin, God made Him
sin for us; The Saviour died our souls to win, Upon the shameful cross.
Having borne sin’s judgment, Christ descended to the grave and lay there for
three days and three nights. During that interval no one in all the world knew
whether His work was satisfactory. No one knew whether He had really settled the
sin question until, when the first day of the week came, He rose in triumph from
the grave and broke the bands of death asunder. No sins remain on the risen
Christ, for He has left them all behind in His open grave and has ascended to
God’s right hand without them. The Irishman was right when he said, “What a
wonderful salvation! If anybody will have to be kept out of Heaven because of my
sins, it will have to be Jesus; but, blessed be God, they cannot keep Him out,
for He is there already.”
If Jesus did not rise from the dead, we are in a hopeless state. Those who have
trusted in Him are trusting in a bruised reed; we who are counting solely on the
work He did, have believed in vain. As Paul wrote, “If in this life only we have
hope in Christ, we are of all men most miserable [or to be pitied].” I suppose
there are miserable men living for the devil, but if Jesus did not rise,
Christians would be the most to be pitied, for we stake everything on the
redemptive work of the Lord Jesus Christ. Because of our faith in Him we have
given up the world and its pleasures and follies; we have become strangers and
pilgrims on this planet. If our faith is all a mistake, we are going to lose
both worlds. We gladly gave up this world because we thought we saw another
above our heads, but it was only an illusion, a fantasy, if Christ did not rise.
The unconverted man can at least enjoy this present world, but the converted man
says, “There is nothing here for my heart. It has been won by that One who has
gone over yonder, and for His name’s sake I have surrendered the things that
other men live for down here.” If Christ did not rise, he is simply following a
will-o’-the-wisp that will land him at the end in darkness and despair.
However, the apostle did not close this passage with any such dreary suggestion.
He immediately added, “But now is Christ risen from the dead.” There is no
question about it. We know that He who died has been raised again. He Himself
said, “I lay down my life, that I might take it again” (John 10:17). He who was
put to death was quickened by the Spirit. “The God of peace… brought again from
the dead our Lord Jesus, that great shepherd of the sheep” (Hebrews 13:20). The
resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ is the basis of our hope for eternity. His
resurrection is not debatable; it is not something about which those professing
the name of Christ may have different opinions. He came out of the grave as a
sample of the great harvest that is yet to come forth from the tomb at His
return.
Christ is risen, and His resurrection is the assurance of ours. He has become
“the firstfruits of them that slept.” Every Israelite understood that figure of
speech. When the days of planting and cultivation had gone by, when the summer
was ending and the time of harvest was just beginning, the Israelite went out in
his field and plucked a fast-ripening sheaf. He presented it to the Lord in the
temple or at the tabernacle gate as “the firstfruits,” the pledge of the coming
harvest. A few days or weeks later he went back to his field and found ripened
grain everywhere-all like the firstfruits. Likewise our Lord Jesus is the
firstfruits of resurrection. The day will come when all His own will be called
forth from the tombs; that will be the glorious harvest and we will be like the
firstfruits-that is, we will be like Him, our glorious Lord. We too will have
resurrection bodies; we too will be forever triumphant over death and throughout
an eternity of bliss we will glorify the One who has redeemed us. The Last Enemy
(1 Corinthians 15:21-28)
It was Adam who as federal head of the race plunged humanity into death and
judgment by his sin. But the Second Man, the Lord from Heaven, went down into
death and triumphed over it. Coming forth a victor, He robbed death of all its
terror. “Since by man came death, by man came also the resurrection of the
dead.”
Now through Him will come the resurrection of the dead, “for as in Adam all die,
even so in Christ shall all be made alive.” All-the righteous dead and the
wicked dead-will come forth from the tomb through Him. The emphasis here is on
the fact that it is the man Christ Jesus who will call the dead to life, for God
is contrasting the first man, who plunged the race into ruin, with the Second
Man, who brought redemption. As we stress the importance of the deity of the
Lord Jesus, we must never belittle or in any way lose sight of the perfection of
His humanity. He is as truly man as if He had never been God, and He is as truly
God as if He had never become man.
“There is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus;
Who gave himself a ransom for all” (1 Timothy 2:5-6). And it is the Son of man
whose voice will eventually be heard by all the dead: first by the righteous
dead, the saved dead, when He comes again to call His own to be with Himself;
and then at last by the unsaved dead when they are summoned from the tomb to
judgment.
Scripture distinctly teaches two resurrections, not one general resurrection.
Our Lord spoke of those who will be rewarded “at the resurrection of the just”
(Luke 14:14) and Paul told Felix, “There shall be a resurrection of the dead,
both of the just and of the unjust” (Acts 24:15). Christ said of Himself, “The
hour is coming, in the which all that are in the graves shall hear his voice,
And shall come forth; they that have done good, unto the resurrection of life
[that is the first resurrection]; and they that have done evil, unto the
resurrection of damnation [that is the second resurrection]” (John 5:28-29). In
Revelation 20:6 John wrote, “Blessed and holy is he that hath part in the first
resurrection: on such the second death hath no power, but they shall be priests
of God and of Christ, and shall reign with him a thousand years.” But in
reference to the resurrection of the unjust, he wrote, “The rest of the dead
lived not again until the thousand years were finished” (Revelation 20:5).
It seems that when writing 1 Corinthians 15:1-58 the apostle Paul had especially
in mind the resurrection of the righteous, for he began the chapter by saying,
“I declare unto you the gospel which…ye have received, and wherein ye stand.”
However, the phrase “in Adam” in 1 Corinthians 15:22 includes all who received
their natural life from Adam. We are all his children by natural birth. He was
the head of a race and over that race hangs the death sentence. So the phrase
“in Adam” takes in an entire race. Similarly the phrase “in Christ” takes in a
race, but naturally a narrower, smaller group, for while everyone born into the
world is in Adam, only a limited number are in Christ by grace. When we receive
divine life from the risen, glorified Christ, we are then said to be in Christ.
We are in Christ only through that second birth, only through becoming members
of a new creation. In Romans 16:7 Paul referred to some of his relatives as “my
kinsmen…who also were in Christ before me.” I do not know whether they were
older than Paul-they may or may not have been in Adam before him-but they were
in Christ before Paul was. I often wonder if that might be one reason the
apostle had his remarkable experience on the Damascus turnpike. His relatives
had probably been praying for him and partly in answer to their prayers God
broke him down and saved him.
“In Christ shall all be made alive,” Paul wrote to the Corinthians, “but every
man in his own order.. .at his coming.” The word translated “order” was a
military term used to describe the various companies or cohorts of soldiers. So
the dead in Christ for example form one “cohort.” 1 Thessalonians 4:16-17 tells
us that the Lord “shall descend from heaven with a shout.. .and the dead in
Christ shall rise first: Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up
together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we
ever be with the Lord.”
“Then cometh the end,” Paul told the Corinthians. I do not know that we need
that italicized word “cometh,” for it does not represent anything in the
original text. Another translation reads, “Then the end.” The apostle was
referring to the time when the glorious kingdom reign of our Lord Jesus will
have come to an end, “when he shall have delivered up the kingdom to God, even
the Father; when he shall have put down all rule and all authority and power.”
Now our Lord Jesus Christ is sitting at the Father’s right hand until the time
comes for Him to return to this planet. Then He will take the kingdom and reign
for a thousand wonderful years. He will bring in that age when “the earth shall
be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord, as the waters cover the
sea” (Habakkuk 2:14). During those thousand years the Lord will exercise
righteous government and righteous judgment in this world. Then will come the
day of judgment when the wicked, raised from their graves, will appear at the
great white throne, where they will be sentenced according to their works. When
the mediatorial kingdom is ended, all will be handed back to the Father, “that
God may be all in all.” Christ may be likened to a receiver-that is, a person
appointed by a court to administer the property of a bankrupt company. Suppose a
business in San Francisco is owned by a firm of three persons in New York City.
They send a manager out to take charge of the business, but the manager proves
to be dishonest and incompetent, and the business gets into inextricable
difficulties. One of the owners says to the other two, “You allow me to go out
there and act as receiver and I will try to straighten everything up and put the
business on its feet.” He goes out there, takes charge of everything, goes over
all the books, and uncovers the crookedness. It may take him months, or perhaps
years, to straighten things out, but he stays there until everything is cleared
up. After every bill is paid and all debts are settled, he goes back to New
York, accounts for what he has done, and hands the business back to the firm.
Does he cease to have an interest in it? No, for he is a member of the firm. But
the firm takes complete charge and he no longer administers the business as a
receiver.
Similarly when this world was put under the dominion of Adam, Satan interfered
and the whole earth was thrown into turmoil. And so our Lord Jesus, one of the
eternal trinity, is going to come back to this world and take charge of it. When
everything has been subjected to God, and all the wicked and utterly impenitent
have been dealt with, Christ will hand the earth back to the Father “that God
may be all in all.” Will we lose our Savior then? No, He will remain the same
loving Jesus that He has always been since His incarnation, but the kingdom will
be delivered up to the Father, and God (the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit) will
maintain it in righteousness for all eternity. When Christ takes charge of the
earth, “he must reign, till he hath put all enemies under his feet” and “the
last enemy that shall be destroyed is death.” Death will hold within its grasp
all the wicked dead up to the end of the millennium, but God will not permit
that condition to last forever. Death will be destroyed. Satan himself will be
banished to the lake of fire and the wicked will share his doom because they
refused God’s grace. When the Lord Jesus puts all things under the feet of God
the Father, Jesus Himself will voluntarily occupy the place of the Father’s
beloved Son and the Servant of the redeemed. He will serve us through all the
ages to come, for love delights to wait on the objects of its affection.
There is a beautiful picture in the Old Testament of Christ as a Servant. We
read in Exodus 21:1-36 that when a Hebrew who had been sold into slavery
completed six years of service, he could “go out free.” If his master had given
him a wife, the wife and children would remain in bondage. But if that servant
said, “I love my master, my wife, and my children; I will not go out free,” he
was put through a peculiar ceremony. The master placed his slave’s ear against
the door and pierced it through with an awl, and he would then serve his master
forever.
What a striking picture that is of the place our Lord Jesus voluntarily took in
order to be identified with us for eternity! When He came into this world, He
took a servant’s place, and having completed His service, He could have gone
back free at any time to the Father’s house. But He chose not to do so, for
there were those down here on whom His love was set: “Christ also loved the
church, and gave himself for it” (Ephesians 5:25). We can think of Him saying to
the Father, “I love My Master, My bride, and My children; I will not go out
free.” He bears the marks of eternal subjection because of His love for us. When
meditating on Exodus 21:1-36, I have often pictured that Hebrew servant sitting
in his little cabin on his master’s plantation. His wife is preparing a meal and
his children are playing about. One little tot climbs up on his knee and says,
“Father, what is that ugly hole in your ear? I do not like that.” The child’s
mother hears the question and says, “Oh, my darling, don’t speak that way; to me
that hole is the most beautiful thing about your father. He could have gone out
free and left us behind in bondage, but he wouldn’t do it. He loved me and gave
himself for me; he loved you and the other children and because of his love for
us he chose to remain a perpetual servant. That mark tells of his undying love.”
Our reaction will be similar to that wife’s when we see our Lord Jesus, the One
who has subjected Himself for all eternity. As we look on His wounds, which will
never be effaced, we will say, “There we have the evidence of His unchanging
love.” What a Savior!
“Man of sorrows!” what a name For the Son of God, who came Ruined sinners to
reclaim!
Hallelujah, what a Savior! When He comes, our glorious King, All His ransomed
home to bring, Then anew this song we’ll sing:
Hallelujah, what a Savior!
(Philip P. Bliss)
We will be the joy of His heart and He the joy of ours for an eternity of bliss.
We will delight in looking back and remembering His suffering on the cross for
us. Others may think of His beauty as a lowly Nazarene, or of His glorious
transfiguration on the mount, but to us who are redeemed He seems most beautiful
when we think of Him wearing His crown of thorns, bleeding, suffering, and dying
for us.
Filling Up the Ranks (1 Corinthians 15:29-34)
1 Corinthians 15:20-28 formed a parenthesis, as it were, in which the apostle
turned aside from his reasoning regarding the resurrection, but in 1 Corinthians
15:29 he picked up the thread of the argument from 1 Corinthians 15:19 : “If in
this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men most miserable… Else
what shall they do who are baptized for the dead, if the dead rise not at all?
why are they then baptized for the dead?” The expression “baptized for the dead”
is found nowhere else in Scripture. Exactly what does it mean?
Down through the centuries a number of different interpretations have been
suggested. One of the most common among orthodox believers is that we as
Christians are baptized for or in honor of our Lord Jesus Christ who died. He
went down into death and we have been identified with Him, and in our baptism we
confess our death with Him. Therefore it could be said that “baptized for the
dead” really means “baptized for Christ who died.” Certainly that interpretation
is not repugnant to Christian consciences. It is absolutely true that believers
are baptized into the death of Jesus Christ, for that in fact is the exact
meaning of the ordinance of baptism. But is that what Paul meant here? In
baptism we confess that we were sinners, that we deserved to die, but that our
Lord Jesus Christ died in our place. We say before the world, as it were, “I
take my place with the Christ who died; I desire henceforth to be recognized as
one identified with Him in His death, in His burial, and in His resurrection.”
Looked at in this way the ordinance is wonderfully precious. I never can
understand the state of soul of Christians who would try in any way to belittle
or set aside Christian baptism. Many people have been brought to Christ simply
by witnessing the carrying out of this ordinance. There is something so solemn
about it as it definitely reminds us of Christ’s death on our behalf and
demonstrates our identification with Him, that it cannot but speak to everyone
who has ears to hear. So I fully understand the view that “baptized for the
dead” could mean “baptized for Christ who died,” but I do not believe that
interpretation explains the context: “Else what shall they do which are baptized
for the dead, if the dead rise not at all?” A second suggested interpretation,
which has found favor with many, is that “baptized for the dead” refers to the
fact that we who are baptized confess that we ourselves are dead, that we have
died with Christ; in baptism we take the place of the dead. We bury the dead and
since we have died to the old life, we are buried. Although we are in this
world, we no longer belong to this world. We who were once living for this
world, we who were once living to gratify the flesh, have now in the cross of
Christ died to all that. Undoubtedly baptism teaches this; the ordinance speaks
of a burial, but I do not think this interpretation explains the expression in
the text either. From the earliest days a third explanation has been suggested,
but it is rather grotesque. In recent times the Mormons have spread it abroad as
though it were the very gospel of God. Mormons are known as Latter Day Saints,
but I am more interested in “former day saints”; it is my joy to be linked with
the saints of all ages unto whom Christ Jesus has been made “wisdom, and
righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption” (1 Corinthians 1:30). The
view held by these Mormons and a few others is based on the belief that baptism
in itself is a saving ordinance, that apart from it none will ever be saved. It
would follow that since a great many people have died without having had the
opportunity of being baptized, someone else must be baptized for them if they
are going to be saved. Therefore the Mormons say that the apostle was referring
to-and approving of-living Christians being baptized vicariously on behalf of
people who have died unbaptized. This is a common practice among the Latter Day
Saints. In fact they have temples in which they carry out the ceremony of
baptism for the dead, and people are urged to be baptized, some over and over
and over again, for the dead who were never baptized in this life. When I was in
Salt Lake City some years ago, a young Mormon elder told me about a wealthy lady
who had been baptized over thirty thousand times. Every time she was baptized
she paid a sum of money to the Mormon church, so you can see that baptism for
the dead is a rather good thing from the financial standpoint! She had spent her
entire fortune redeeming people, so she thought, from death and destruction. She
had been baptized for all her deceased friends and relatives; then she had taken
thousands of names from history and literature and had been baptized for every
one of them. Alexander the Great, Nebuchadnezzar, Julius Caesar, Napoleon
Bonaparte, and Cleopatra were among those for whom she wanted to be the means of
salvation. The youthful elder said to me with a very solemn face, “I believe
that in the day of judgment it will be proven that this lady, through being
baptized for the dead, has saved more souls than Jesus Christ ever saved through
dying on Calvary’s cross.” That ridiculous and blasphemous theory of course
finds no support whatever in the Word of God. In the first place the Word of God
never teaches that baptism is essential to salvation. Nowhere in Scripture are
we told that if people die unbaptized, they are lost. It is quite true that it
is perfectly right and proper for people who are saved to be baptized. We find
this ordinance linked with faith because it is the confession of the faith that
we have. But when Scripture says, “Go ye into all the world, and preach the
gospel to every creature. He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved,” it
never adds, “He that is not baptized shall be damned.” It says, “He that
believeth not shall be damned” (Mark 16:15-16, italics added).
We have the remarkable example of the first soul ever saved after Christ was
nailed to the cross: the penitent thief who hung beside Him was saved that day
without any possibility of being baptized. With hands and feet nailed to the
tree he could do nothing; he could not carry out any ordinance or do anything to
earn salvation. He was saved only by the finished work of the One who hung on
the central cross. And every man who is ever saved will be saved only through
what Jesus did when He died on that tree. So we can put away the Mormon concept.
There is a fourth view, which certain Christians have held throughout the
centuries. According to their interpretation, the apostle was referring to that
practice of vicarious baptism without saying whether it was good or bad. (The
Mormons say he approved of vicarious baptism.) But we can be sure that Paul
would not refer to it in the way he did without telling his readers that it was
contrary to the mind of God.
I have spoken of four suggested interpretations and now I will tell you what I
believe to be the exact meaning of 1 Corinthians 15:29. First let me say that
the expression translated “baptized for the dead” literally means “baptized in
place of, or over, the dead ones, or those who have died.” The word translated
“dead” is plural; since it is not a singular noun, it cannot refer to the Lord
Jesus Christ. Neither can the preposition be translated “because of or “on
behalf of or “for the benefit of.” Thus “baptized because of Christ” and
“baptized on behalf of the dead” and “baptized for the benefit of the dead” are
not permissible interpretations. The actual rendering would have to be “baptized
in place of dead ones.” So Paul was thinking of the fact that when people
professed faith in Christ and availed themselves of the ordinance of baptism,
they were filling up the places made vacant on earth by Christians who had died.
1 Corinthians 15:29 may be translated, “What shall they do who are baptized in
the place of the dead ones if no dead ever rise? Why are they then baptized in
the place of dead ones?” Paul was saying, “If those who have died are lost, they
have gained nothing by their profession. Why then should people fill up the
ranks if there is nothing to be gained by it? They might as well go on enjoying
this world, for death ends all if Christ did not rise.”
Perhaps the apostle was making a comparison to a regiment of soldiers going into
battle. After the battle is over, they count the men and find, let us say, that
seventy-five have been slain. Immediately they begin to recruit others to take
the place of the dead-not to do the dead any good, but to take their places-and
seventy-five replacements are drawn into that regiment. They don the uniform and
take part in the next conflict. But if they are fighting a losing battle, if
there is no possibility of ever winning, if they are just wasting their lives,
why were they recruited to take the place of the dead? It is the height of folly
if they know there is nothing but certain defeat and destruction awaiting them.
Think of Christian people as a mighty army. Down through the centuries the
church has been in conflict with the powers of sin and death and Hell; over and
over again one generation of Christians has fallen and another has taken its
place. By being baptized the new converts in each generation have publicly
demonstrated the fact that they have thus enlisted in the army of the Lord. But
what a pointless thing it would have been to enlist if Christ had not risen and
“if the dead rise not”! What would the reinforcements have gained by being
baptized in place of the dead? Would it not have been better to have wound up
the history of Christianity in the first century and to have declared: “The
whole movement is a failure; there is no risen Christ; there is no possibility
for salvation”? A man may accept the philosophy of Christianity and keep it to
himself. Possibly his neighbors will never suspect his belief and he will not be
subject to ridicule-or persecution or perhaps even martyrdom in some countries.
But if he really believes in the Lord Jesus Christ, he will say, “I must make it
known.” So he is baptized, and in that way openly confesses Christ as the One
who died and rose again. Afterward one neighbor may say, “That man is a
Christian,” and another may ask, “How do you know?” The first will reply, “He
has been baptized, confessing the name of the Lord Jesus Christ.” In Paul’s day
and for many centuries afterward, the moment a man was baptized he put himself,
as the apostle wrote, “in jeopardy.” Paul was risking his own life “every hour,”
for there were enemies of Christianity on every hand. He declared, “I die
daily.” In other words, “I am exposing myself to death every day, and I am ready
to die for Jesus Christ.” Why should Paul and his fellow laborers have taken
those risks? Because they knew that Christ had risen; in fact the apostle had
seen Him in the glory as He appeared to him that day when he fell stricken on
the Damascus road. For the name of Christ, Paul took his life in his hands daily
and became the outstanding defender of Christianity. He said in Php 1:17, “I am
set for the defence of the gospel.” When Paul wrote to the Corinthians, “I have
fought with beasts at Ephesus,” he was referring to the beast-like men who were
ready to tear him apart in the riot at Ephesus. He was prevented from going into
their midst, but the angry mob, shouting “Great is Diana of the Ephesians,”
thronged his companions and would have destroyed them if the townclerk had not
intervened (Acts 19). But the apostle assured his friends in Corinth, in effect,
“It is all right no matter what people do to me. Christ is real, for He rose
again. I know Him as the risen One and am ready to die for His name’s sake.” If
Christ had not risen, there would have been no advantage to living in such
jeopardy.
Why should any Christian give up the world and live a life of self-denial and
devotion to the One whom this world has rejected “if the dead rise not?” If
there is no reality in Christianity, why shouldn’t we get all the enjoyment out
of the world that we can? Why not accept its philosophy? “Let us eat and drink;
for to morrow we die” (the apostle was quoting from Isaiah 22:13). Let’s have a
good time while we live. If death ends everything, why shouldn’t we get what we
can out of this life? But there is a better world beyond the grave. There is a
Savior who died to put away our sins and who lives triumphant in glory waiting
to receive those who trust Him. So we say to the world, “You can have your
feasts, your fame, your frivolity, and your wealth. Christ is more to me than
all of these.” The Christian, you see, is a man who has heard the drumbeat of
another country and no longer keeps step with the drumbeat of this world.
Some people say, “It does not make any difference whether or not Jesus died and
rose; we can be just as good without this assurance.” But when they deny the
death and resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ, they inevitably will give free
rein to their lusts, live for the world, and please themselves. So to us the
challenge comes: “Be not deceived: evil communications corrupt good manners.
Awake to righteousness, and sin not.” If you are a Christian, you are joined to
a risen Christ and you are in this world to glorify Him. Let that risen One
control your heart and life, and yours will be a holy life devoted to the glory
of God. A number of years ago I was leading the funeral service of an aged saint
who had devoted his life to God’s glory. For a great many years he had been a
bright witness for Christ in the part of the city where he lived and had brought
up his family in the fear of God. In fact one of his children was a missionary
in the Philippines. But the deceased man had grandchildren who, though they
attended church, had not yet confessed faith in the Lord. As I closed the
funeral service and we were about to take our last look at his face until the
coming of our Lord Jesus and our gathering unto Him, I felt led to step up to
the casket and say, “Just wait a minute before we take our farewell look at the
face of our beloved brother. He has been a witness for Christ in this city for
many years and his place will not easily be filled. He will be greatly missed by
Christians. I wonder whether anyone at this funeral service would like, by the
grace of God, to take his place. Is there anybody here who has heard the voice
of God speaking to you? Perhaps you have never yet come to Christ, but right
here you will take Him as your Savior and be ready to be baptized for the dead?
Since this brother has gone, there is a vacant place in the ranks. Will you take
his place?”
I waited a moment and then his grandson, a fine young man, rose from his seat
and came forward. He faced the audience and said, “Today I accept my
grandfather’s Savior and I want you to pray that I may be able in some measure
to take his place.” Then he knelt at that casket and gave himself to the Lord;
the next Sunday night I baptized him for the dead. Thus he gave public testimony
that he had turned from the world, trusted Christ, and would now seek to live
for His glory.
Lessons from Nature (1 Corinthians 15:35-49)
Having settled the question of the resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ, the
apostle took up another problem that has perplexed and exercised the minds of
many: If there is to be a resurrection of the dead, in what kind of bodies will
they arise? In answering this Paul gave us a special divine revelation, and we
should remember that apart from revelation, we can know nothing of this matter.
We are just as ignorant today of what comes after death as philosophers like
Plato, Socrates, and Aristotle were five hundred years before Christ. If God had
not spoken, all our discussions on life, death, and immortality would be mere
speculation at best. But He has spoken. He has given us His sure Word, and we
may be certain that “all scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is
profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in
righteousness” (2 Timothy 3:16). Let us read then in this letter to Corinth what
God Himself, the Creator of all, the God of the resurrection, had to say on the
subject. Our salvation is threefold: salvation from the guilt of sin, salvation
from the power of sin, and salvation from the presence of sin. We who believe
have already received the redemption of our souls; we are already saved from the
guilt of sin and the judgment due to sin. But we are still looking forward to
“the redemption of our body” (Romans 8:23); we still inhabit poor, failing human
bodies. Christians get sick just as other people do, and Christians die just as
other folks die.
Every once in a while somebody rises up to tell us that we may have redemption
of the body in this life and that no Christian need ever be sick if he will just
claim the Lord as his healer. But no matter how fervently people believe such a
new gospel, no matter how faithfully they teach it, they all catch cold if they
sit in a draft, they all get indigestion when they eat things that do not agree
with them, and they all get sick and die eventually-unless they die by accident.
Christians are just as truly subject to sickness and death as other people are.
Even the faith healers of the past have died, and the faith healers of the
present will die soon-unless the Lord Jesus should come in our lifetime and we
should all be changed and caught up to meet Him without passing through death.
All under the Adamic sentence die; but, thank God, there is a provision for the
redemption of the body. The hour is coming when our Lord Jesus Christ will
return from Heaven and transform these bodies of our humiliation to make them
like the body of His glory. This is just as true for those who have died and
whose bodies have decayed as it is for those who are still living when our
Savior returns. The natural mind says, “I can understand how He could touch this
mortal body of mine and make it immortal if I am living when He returns. But if
I die before He comes, my body will go back to the dust from which it came, and
that dust will be scattered to the four winds; I cannot understand how it could
possibly be raised again. I may have a body in resurrection, but it will surely
be another body; I cannot actually be raised from the dead.” Scripture answers
that objection in 1 Corinthians 15:35-49.
Paul began, “Some man will say, How are the dead raised up? and with what body
do they come?” In other words, “In what way are they brought from the tomb, and
what kind of body will they have in the resurrection?” The apostle answered in
effect, “Take a lesson from nature, thou simple one.” The word translated “fool”
in 1 Corinthians 15:36 is rather strong, but Paul was not insulting the inquirer
the way we would be if we called a person a fool. The Greek word simply means
“unthinking one,” so Paul was just saying, “If you would only stop to think, you
would realize that there are many analogies in nature to the resurrection.”
We can think of some analogies in addition to those given in Scripture. Consider
the caterpillar crawling along the leaves. Suddenly a strange alteration comes
over it, and it spins a cocoon around itself. The whole appearance of the
caterpillar is changed and it dies to its old life altogether. It stays in that
cocoon awhile and eventually emerges as a beautiful butterfly, a lovely creature
that is able to soar above the ground. That transformation is a wonderful
picture of what the resurrection will be. The apostle used the illustration of a
farmer sowing seed. He sows it, to use the words that are so often recited in
funeral services, “in the sure and certain hope of a glorious resurrection.” The
farmer sows the “bare grain” because he believes that when it falls in the
ground and seems to rot away, that will not be the end of it; it will soon have
a fuller life than it has known before. When the resurrection of that grain
takes place, the farmer does not see the seeds he has sown coming up from the
ground; he sees first a blade of green, then a stalk, and then a head of wheat,
oats or barley.
“God giveth it a body as it hath pleased him, and to every seed his own body.”
There is no mistake made. If wheat is sown, wheat rises from that grain; if oats
are sown, oats rise from the ground; if barley is sown, barley rises from that
grave. The same will be true of our resurrection bodies; in some way there will
be absolute identification with the body that died. There is absolute identity
and yet a wonderful change. The beautiful head of grain is much more lovely to
look on than the simple little seed that went into the ground.
How much of the seed of wheat is in the new stalk? If you look at the root of
that stalk, you will still find the little shell out of which this stalk came.
Just so will it be in the resurrection. God will not have to use every part of
this body. As a matter of fact, I do not possess today a particle of the body
that I had a few years ago. When I was a boy in school, my teachers told me that
the body changes every seven years. Now they say it changes every three years. I
am not conscious of that change except of course that I know my nails and hair
grow and have to be cut. Like my nails and hair, my entire body is changing
continuously. I do not have a bit of the body that I had three and a half years
ago, yet I know that I am I. If I say to you, “You are looking so much better
than you did the last time I saw you,” you do not answer, “Well, that is because
you never saw me before if you haven’t seen me for three and a half years.” No,
you are the same person, and the body is your body, and you know it is; yet
there is not a cell in it that was there three and a half years ago. And so we
say that in resurrection there is identity, though the entire body that is put
into the grave is not necessarily used in the resurrection body.
After giving the illustration of the grain, the apostle stressed the fact that
there are different kinds of flesh: “All flesh is not the same flesh: but there
is one kind of flesh of men, another flesh of beasts, another of fishes, and
another of birds.” We do not understand the differences, yet we know that they
exist and that one kind never changes to another. Men are made to live on the
earth, and that is the only environment in which they are comfortable. Beasts
are also made to live on the earth, but in a different way. For instance the
bear and the raccoon hibernate; as winter approaches, they go into a burrow or a
hollow tree and become dormant until spring comes again and then they emerge.
That would be impossible for a man.
Fish, another kind of flesh, are adapted to a different environment. Beasts and
men can survive in water for limited periods, but they would drown if they
stayed under water indefinitely. Fish are at home there, but they are so
constituted by God that when they are taken out of the water, they die. One
writer has well said, “If fish are philosophers, if they are capable of
thinking, I am absolutely certain that every philosophical fish is quite sure
that it is impossible for any creature to live out of water.” Birds, differing
altogether from mankind and beasts and fish, are suited to fly in the air. And
so if there are such differences in kinds of “flesh,” why should we wonder about
the differences between bodies suited to Heaven and bodies suited to this
planet?
Paul told the Corinthians there are “celestial [heavenly] bodies” and “bodies
terrestrial [earthly].” Our Lord Jesus came into this world and took on a
terrestrial body, but after having made satisfaction for our sins on the cross,
He came forth at the resurrection in a celestial body. In that body He ascended
through the heavens into the very presence of God where “he ever liveth to make
intercession” for us (Hebrews 7:25). His celestial body is the pattern for ours.
Our resurrection bodies will not be subject to the laws that control us now.
When we read in Scripture of our Lord talking with the Sadducees, who denied
that there is any resurrection, we get a little better understanding of
celestial bodies. They said, “There were therefore seven brethren: and the first
took a wife, and died without children. And the second took her to wife, and he
died childless. And the third took her; and in like manner the seven also: and
they left no children, and died. Last of all the woman died also. Therefore in
the resurrection whose wife of them is she?” (Luke 20:29-33) They thought they
had asked a puzzling question. But the Lord Jesus simply answered, “You do err,
not knowing the scriptures, nor the power of God…They which shall be accounted
worthy to obtain that world [attain to the coming glorious age of the kingdom],
and the resurrection from the dead, neither marry, nor are given in marriage..
.for they are equal unto the angels, being the children of the resurrection”
(Matthew 22:29; Luke 20:35-36). The angels are sexless; they do not propagate
their kind. Each is an individual creation, and believers, in resurrection, will
be like the angels. That means we are not going to be men and women as we are
now. We will simply be redeemed people with no sex distinctions whatsoever
because the day will have gone by when the human race is to be propagated. As
long as we are in this world our bodies have to be nourished by food, so we have
digestive tracts by means of which we are able to take from our food those
elements that repair and build up our physical constitutions. But in the
resurrection our digestive tracts are to be destroyed. You will remember that
when the apostle was reproving the Corinthian believers for making a fuss over
questions of clean and unclean foods, he said, “Meats for the belly, and the
belly for meats: but God shall destroy both it and them” (1 Corinthians 6:13).
It is not that we will not be able to eat, for Jesus ate a piece of broiled fish
and a piece of honeycomb after His resurrection, but he no longer needed a
digestive tract to process the food. In the resurrection we too will have bodies
that need no nourishment or repairs. All the changes of time will have come to
an end and our bodies will be like the glorified body of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Turning his attention to the sun, moon, and stars, Paul thought about the light
shining from those celestial bodies and related it to the resurrection. When we
get our resurrection bodies, they will be bodies of light like the body in which
our blessed Lord was seen on the mount of transfiguration and on the Damascus
road. Saul of Tarsus said, “I saw in the way a light from heaven, above the
brightness of the sun” (Acts 26:13).
Daniel 12:3 says, “They that be wise shall shine as the brightness of the
firmament; and they that turn many to righteousness as the stars for ever and
ever.” This suggests that when we have our celestial bodies, there will be
differences in the glories that we will enjoy. Contemplating this fact, the
apostle noticed how even the material celestial orbs-the sun, the moon, and the
stars-differ in glory: “There is one glory of the sun, and another glory of the
moon, and another glory of the stars: for one star differeth from another star
in glory.” In that day there will be differences in glory according to the
measure of our devotedness to Christ down here, for Paul added, “So also is the
resurrection of the dead.”
We are all saved by the same grace, and through the same grace we will all be
raised and changed at the coming of the Lord. But we will not all be rewarded in
the same way, for reward is for faithful service. I am afraid that many of us
are going to lose a great deal at the judgment seat of Christ because we have
not been as true and earnest as we should have been. The day is soon coming when
you and I would give worlds, if we possessed them, for another chance to let God
have His way absolutely in our lives. The greatest joy that can come into any
life results from wholehearted surrender to the will of God, no matter how
difficult it may seem at the time. Often the things we most dread are the things
that bring us the greatest blessing as we seek to walk with our gracious God and
Father. When the Lord reviews our lives, when He goes over everything with us,
when He says, “Well done, thou good and faithful servant… Enter thou into the
joy of thy lord” (Matthew 25:21), how we will rejoice in His approbation! And
how we will wish that we had been more devoted! There is not one soul with
Christ today who, looking back on his earthly life, says, “I wish I had not been
quite so out-and-out for God; I wish I had been less self-denying; I wish I had
been more concerned about my own comforts.” But I imagine there are many who
say, “If I had my life to live over again, no matter what suffering it might
mean, no matter what heartbreak it might entail, I would never hesitate a moment
to let God have His will in everything in my life.” It is not a question of
whether or not we get to Heaven. All who are saved by grace will be there, but
there will be a difference in our rewards. As you read on in 1 Corinthians
15:1-58, observe the repetition of the impersonal pronoun in verses 1
Corinthians 15:42-44 : “So also is the resurrection of the dead. It is sown in
corruption; it is raised in incorruption: It is sown in dishonour; it is raised
in glory: it is sown in weakness; it is raised in power: It is sown a natural
body; it is raised a spiritual body. There is a natural body, and there is a
spiritual body.” These verses tell us again that there will be differences in
appearance; but the sameness of the pronouns indicates that there will be
identification of the body that dies with the body that rises. The body that is
sown is the one that is raised, yet it is changed.
Corruption of the natural body begins only a few hours after death occurs, but
the new body will be incorruptible; it will be a glorified body. Just what that
means may be seen in what the disciples beheld on the mount of transfiguration.
They saw Moses and Elijah shining in the same glory with the Lord Jesus. Moses
had died, yet he was there in a glorified body. Elijah had been caught up to
Heaven without dying and he also was in a glorified body. The dead will be
“raised in power.” How weak our poor bodies are! “The spirit [often] is willing,
but the flesh is weak” (Matthew 26:41). We find ourselves hindered by the body,
but the day is coming when instead of being a hindrance to the spirit, the body
will be like wings to the spirit; we will be able to go to the uttermost parts
of the universe on the Lord’s business more easily than we can cross the street
today. The natural body “is raised a spiritual body.” Do not misunderstand that.
A spiritual body is not a body formed of spirit. God is a Spirit and is not said
to have a body. He took a body when the Lord Jesus Christ became incarnate. “In
him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily [in a body]” (Colossians
2:9). Likewise you and I are spirits dwelling in bodies. But I am not all
spirit; I am also soul. Paul acknowledged that when he wrote, “I pray God your
whole spirit and soul and body be preserved blameless unto the coming of our
Lord Jesus Christ” (1 Thessalonians 5:23). The soul is the seat of my emotional
nature, the seat of all my natural instincts; the soul is my human self. The
spirit is the highest part of my nature, the part to which God can make Himself
known. Romans 8:16 says, ‘The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit,
that we are the children of God.” As a Christian I ought to be constantly under
the control of the spirit; I ought to live according to the highest part of my
nature. But once in a while I find that instead of being controlled by the
spirit part of me, I am controlled by my soul and I am more or less a creature
of emotions. I am easily influenced this way or that by my emotions, and often
to my detriment and that of others. The word translated “natural” in 1
Corinthians 15:44 is simply the adjective form of the Greek word meaning “soul,”
so the “natural body” is a soulish body. This body is the suited vehicle for the
expression of the emotions of my soul, but in resurrection I will have a body
that is suited to and dominated by the spirit. There will be nothing then to
hinder the full expression of the spirit and I will be absolutely subject to God
who is a Spirit.
Paul continued, “And so it is written, The first man Adam was made a living
soul; the last Adam was made a quickening spirit.” The first Adam was the head
of the old creation, and God formed him out of the dust of the ground. If you do
not believe that, wait awhile and your body will go back to the dust and prove
that Scripture is right. God breathed into the first Adam, and he became a
living soul, the progenitor of the human race. The last Adam is our Lord Jesus.
He is the risen One and so has become the quickening Spirit who breathed on His
disciples and said, “Receive ye the Holy Ghost” (John 20:22). As descendants of
Adam we have bodies like his, but since we are now linked with “the Lord from
Heaven,” we will in resurrection have bodies like the one He has now.
Paul reminded the Corinthians that the first man, Adam, was of the dust,
dusty-or of the dirt, dirty. That is what man is by his relationship with Adam.
The very word “Adam” means “red clay.” But just as we have looked like our first
father and have had the appearance of the natural man in this world, we will one
day “bear the image of the heavenly,” the image of the Second Man, our glorified
Savior.
I think this helps explain another passage (1 John 3:2) that has bewildered many
people: “When he shall appear, we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he
is.” A lady expressed the confusion of many when she said to me one day, “If we
are all going to be like Him, we will all look alike. How are we ever going to
know each other?” She had misunderstood what Scripture says.
It is true, as Paul said, that “we have borne the image of the earthy” and we
are like Adam, but we certainly do not all look the same. If all the people in
the world were to pass before you, you would never find two exactly alike. There
are cases where two people are so nearly alike that we can hardly tell them
apart, but there is always some little difference. The infinite variety in
creation is amazing when you think that there is so little to work with: only
one nose, one mouth, two ears, two eyes, one chin, two cheeks, and one forehead!
I do not know much about music, but I am always dumbfounded when I think how
much can be made from seven tones. One would think that all the music that could
have been written would have been written years ago, that no one could possibly
make up another melody; but there are symphonies to be written that men have
never dreamed of yet. Likewise in resurrection there will be infinite variety.
Although we will all be like Christ in that we will have incorruptible bodies,
we will know each other in Heaven as we have never known each other down here.
What a wonderful hope this resurrection chapter holds out for believers! The
Rapture (1 Corinthians 15:50-58) In the concluding verses of this chapter Paul
revealed that while all believers will have part in the glorious event at the
resurrection of the saints, some will not have passed through death; these will
not need to be raised from the grave, but they will need to be changed.
“Flesh and blood,” the apostle said, “cannot inherit the kingdom of God.” Paul
was referring to that future reign when the authority of God will be exercised
in Heaven and earth. The kingdom of God will consist of two spheres. We read of
one sphere in Matthew 13:43, where our Lord Jesus said, “Then shall the
righteous shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of their Father.” Those are the
heavenly saints in the kingdom day. In the other sphere are the people who are
brought into blessing here on earth during the period of the kingdom; they of
course will be in bodies of flesh and blood. The apostle was considering the
heavenly side of the kingdom when he said, “Flesh and blood cannot inherit the
kingdom of God.” As we have noted before, the heavenly saints “neither marry,
nor are given in marriage, but are as the angels of God in heaven” (Matthew
22:30).
Observe that the apostle did not say, “Neither flesh nor blood.” He said, “Flesh
and blood.” In other words, our bodies in their present condition, sustained by
blood, are not suited for the coming glorious heavenly kingdom and therefore we
must be changed.
Introducing an explanation of how this change will take place, Paul declared,
“Behold, I shew you a mystery.” A mystery in the New Testament is not something
mysterious, strange, or difficult to understand; it is something revealed only
to the initiated. Some of you have been initiated into secret societies and
although you have not discovered anything very mysterious in them, you have
found that there are certain things that folks like me on the outside do not
know anything about. Paul was revealing something to the initiated, and all
God’s beloved people are looked on by Him as His initiated ones. The only lodge
I have ever joined is the grand army of the redeemed. I was initiated into that
by being born again, and then the Holy Spirit revealed to me the mysteries that
are found in the Word of God. A number of sacred secrets were kept hidden from
the people of God in past dispensations, but have been made known now in the
glorious dispensation of the Holy Spirit. One of these secrets is this “mystery”
of the first resurrection and the rapture of the living saints: “We shall not
all sleep, but we shall all be changed.” This is a remarkable statement.
We often hear it said that there is nothing more certain than death and taxes.
Taxes seem to be quite certain, but I am glad to say that death is not
absolutely certain for the Christian. Someone may say, “Doesn’t the Word say,
‘It is appointed unto men once to die’?” (Hebrews 9:27) That is the divine
appointment for man as such, but there will be a generation of God’s redeemed
people who will be exempt. When Paul wrote to the Corinthians, “We shall not all
sleep,” he used the word “sleep” in place of “die” because death to the believer
is the putting of the tired, weary, worn body to sleep until the Lord Jesus
comes to waken it again. It is only the body that sleeps. The real man, his
spirit and soul, is “absent from the body, and.. .present with the Lord” (2
Corinthians 5:8); he is taken home “to be with Christ; which is far better” (Php
1:23). So the bodies of our friends in Christ who have died are sleeping, but
they themselves are with Christ and wonderfully happy in His presence. The
apostle Paul gave us an idea of their state and condition when he spoke of being
“caught up to the third heaven” (2 Corinthians 12:2). The first heaven is the
atmospheric heaven, the second is the starry heaven, and the third is God’s
dwelling place. When the apostle had his experience in “the third heaven,” he
was so enraptured that he could not tell whether he was “in the body” or “out of
the body.” That teaches us that if Paul was in the body, his body did not impede
him, and thus when we are in the presence of the Lord in the body, our bodies
will be no hindrance to us as they often are now. On the other hand, if Paul was
taken out of the body, he did not miss his body; he was just as conscious when
he was out of it as when he was in it. Some say that it is impossible to live
outside of the body, but it is not. Just as the works of a watch go on running
without the case, the body dies but the spirit of the believer lives on. Then in
the first resurrection the body is raised in glory, and the spirit comes to
dwell in the body again. That is the state of the believer when Christ calls him
forth from the tomb.
There may be some of us in this generation who will be living when our Lord
Jesus Christ returns, but whether living or dead we will all be changed. Every
one of us must undergo the glorious transformation in order to have part in the
heavenly side of the kingdom. This change will take place instantly, “in a
moment, in the twinkling of an eye.” Paul did not say “in the winking of an
eye,” but “in the twinkling of an eye,” which is much faster. At the coming of
the Lord Jesus Christ, we will be changed as quickly as a gleam of light shines
in the eye.
I have often tried to think of what the swiftness of the change will mean to
dear children of God who are lying on hospital beds-weak and suffering, enduring
days of pain and nights of anguish, they cry out in the distress of their souls,
“O Lord, how long?” One moment they will be in excruciating pain, and the next
they will be rising to meet the Lord in the air in bodies that can never suffer
again. I have also thought of God’s people whose minds have failed because of
stress; some are shut away in sanitariums and, in their melancholy, are
imagining that God has forsaken them and there is no hope for the future. Their
poor brains, which have given way completely, will in a moment be filled with
the intelligence of angels, as they find themselves in their glorified bodies
looking into the face of the Lord Jesus Christ. What a marvelous hope that is!
No wonder the apostle spoke of it as “that blessed hope” in Titus 2:13. When
will we be changed? “At the last trump,” Paul told the Corinthians. Many have
attempted to link this trump with the trumpet of the seventh angel in
Revelation. In that book we read of a series of seven trumpets; when they are
blown, various judgments are poured out on the earth, and when the seventh is
blown, the kingdom of God is ushered in. If Paul had been referring to that
seventh trumpet, he would have been indicating that the church of God is to go
through the tribulation until that trumpet is blown. But the book of Revelation
was not written until approximately thirty years after 1 Corinthians was
written, so there can be no connection between these trumpets. And when we turn
to 1 Thessalonians 4:16, we find that “the last trump” is called “the trump of
God”; it is not the trumpet of an angel.
Why did Paul use the phrase “the last trump” when writing to the Corinthians?
The reason is that the expression, being in common use in connection with the
Roman army, was familiar to the people who lived in Paul’s day. When a Roman
camp was about to be broken up, whether in the day or in the middle of the
night, a trumpet was sounded. The first blast meant, “Strike tents and prepare
to depart.” The second meant, “Fall into line.” And when what was called “the
last trump” sounded, it meant, “March away.” Likewise when the last trump of
this age of grace sounds, we will be called away to be forever with the Lord.
Most of you readers have heard the first blast. At the time you were part and
parcel of the world; you were living with the world and like the world and you
were settling down here, but you heard the gospel trumpet awaking you out of
your sleep. And then I trust you have heard the second trumpet calling you to
take your places in fellowship with God’s beloved people as soldiers in this
world. And now what do you and I wait for? We are waiting for the last trump,
when we will be summoned; we will not be called to march away or fly away, but
we “shall be caught up together.. .to meet the Lord in the air” (1 Thessalonians
4:17). When will we be caught up? We do not know the date. It may be today; it
may be tonight. Whether the trumpet sounds at midnight or in the morning or in
the daytime will make no difference to us, for we have been redeemed with the
precious blood of Christ.
Paul told the Corinthians, “The trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be
raised incorruptible, and we [who are living] shall be changed. For this
corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality.”
Notice the two groups: the “corruptible” and the “mortal.” The “corruptible” are
the dead; their bodies, which have decayed, will be “raised incorruptible.” The
“mortal” are those who are alive but subject to death if time goes on; they must
“put on immortality.” The terms “mortal” and “immortal” refer to the body, never
to the spirit or soul. The everlasting existence of man is taught in Scripture,
but immortality is a blessing that will be experienced when our Lord comes. In
Romans 8:10 we read, “If Christ be in you, the body is dead because of sin.” A
little word is omitted there, which may be added to make the meaning more clear:
“The body is still dead because of sin.” In other words, you may be a believer,
but your body is still under the Adamic sentence: “Dying thou shalt die”
(Genesis 2:17, Hebrew). But the spirit is alive and is the pledge of the new
life yet to be: “If the Spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell
in you, he that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal
bodies by his Spirit that dwelleth in you” (Romans 8:11). I know that some have
taught that the indwelling Spirit gives new life to the mortal body right here
and now, but the apostle denied that when he said, “If Christ be in you, the
body is [still] dead because of sin.” At the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ,
the Spirit of life will raise our mortal bodies into newness of life.
“Then,” Paul told the Corinthians, “shall be brought to pass the saying that is
written, Death is swallowed up in victory” (also see Isaiah 25:8 and Hosea
13:14). Now death comes in and takes from us our nearest and dearest, and our
hearts are pained because of the separation. But if we know Christ, and if our
loved ones were in Christ, the sting of death is gone and we can look forward to
a glorious reunion when Jesus comes again. What a wonderful event it will be
when saints who have been separated here on earth recognize one another as they
are caught up to meet the Lord in the air. Then we will sing, “O death, where is
thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory?” What makes death terrible to the
unsaved is sin: “The sting of death is sin.” But if we know that sin has been
put away, that sin has been purged by the precious atoning blood of Christ, the
sting is gone.
Paul continued, “The strength of sin is the law.” Some people think that the law
is the strength of holiness. They imagine that the way to be holy is to be under
the law, and they try to obtain sanctification by keeping the law. But the law
simply stirs up everything in the human heart that is opposed to God, and
instead of producing holiness, it produces greater transgression. The law never
produces holiness; it is the heart’s being occupied with the Lord Jesus Christ
that produces holiness. When you have seen that the law condemns, but that
Christ has borne the condemnation for you, you can look away to Him; and as you
are occupied with Him, you will be a holy man or woman. You cannot make yourself
holy by obeying rules and regulations. Not even God’s law given at Sinai has the
ability to make men holy; but the living glorified Christ can change people into
His image as their minds dwell on Him, and in that way they become holy.
Absorbed with Christ and confident of the final victory, Paul offered heartfelt
thanks. Death may seem for the moment to triumph. Years ago it seemed like death
was triumphing when it came into our home and took one after another of those
whom I loved most tenderly; but as I look on to the glorious future and realize
that death is to be conquered at the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ, by faith I
claim the conquest and cry, “Thanks be to God, which giveth us the victory
through our Lord Jesus Christ.” The verse with which Paul closed the
resurrection chapter comes home to every one of us: “Therefore [because these
things are true], my beloved brethren, be ye stedfast, unmoveable, always
abounding in the work of the Lord, forasmuch as ye know that your labour is not
in vain in the Lord.” Some people say that occupation with the precious truths
that have to do with the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ may have a tendency to
make people theoretical, impractical, and no longer useful in the church of God
here on earth; but I do not know anything that should so grip the soul and
motivate one to work for God as the knowledge of the truths we have just been
considering.
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CHAPTER 82: 05.16. MARANATHA
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Maranatha
1 Corinthians 16:1-24 seems to be some what prosaic and we may wonder why it has
been preserved for us down through the centuries as part of Holy Scripture. We
can easily understand that certain personal things would be of interest to the
Corinthians, but would it make any difference to us if this chapter had been
lost? Yes, it would, for these personal touches in the letters of Paul and other
apostolic writers are what prove that the Epistles are not forgeries. Anyone
trying to forge a letter to pass off on people as the Word of God would
certainly leave out details such as we read here. The personal comments came
bubbling up from the warm heart of the actual writer, who was in touch with all
the people to whom and of whom he wrote. The First Day of the Week (1
Corinthians 16:1-12) The Christianity of Paul was very practical and so he
wanted to help the many Jewish believers who were suffering greatly as a result
of the prolonged famine in the land of Palestine and other parts of Syria. The
apostle, moving around among the Gentile Christians in Europe where conditions
were very different, convinced those converts that they should minister to the
needs of their Hebrew brothers in Christ. The Gentile believers shared liberally
and Christians have sought to imitate them ever since, thus demonstrating the
unity of the church of Christ and the compassion of our Lord toward those in
need. In this passage Paul showed that he expected the Corinthian church to
accept their responsibility to help their Jewish brothers. The Corinthians could
not say, “Oh well, those folks in another land are not intimately related to us.
If they have not been provident enough to lay their surplus aside during the
years of plenty, why should we share our possessions with them?” Christianity
demands that we recognize that “we are members one of another” (Ephesians 4:25)
and if “one member suffer, all the members suffer with it” (1 Corinthians
12:26). In fact Christianity demands that we show deep interest even in men and
women of the world who are not with us in Christ, for we are told, “As we have
therefore opportunity, let us do good unto all men, especially unto them who are
of the household of faith” (Galatians 6:10). Obedience to this teaching has
characterized the true church of God wherever there has been a cry of need. When
nations, peoples, or cities are in distress, Christian people are the first to
put their hands into their pockets and share with those who are in need. I wish
that those who spurn the church, those who ridicule the message of the gospel,
would bear this in mind. For example the Red Cross is a product of Christianity;
its logo is the blood-stained cross of our Lord Jesus Christ. Such practical
ministries show that believers have the same love that animated our Savior when
He came from Heaven to give Himself for a lost world. So Christians are to look
out for those in need and seek to make things easier for them. The apostle was
careful to insist that collections be taken in a manner that was beyond
reproach. He never set out to accumulate large sums of money for the poor
without making himself accountable to someone. Otherwise he would have opened
himself up to suspicion, and people might have said, “He used our money to
feather his own nest.” So he said to the Corinthians in effect, “I do not want
to be responsible for your money: I want you to gather your offerings in my
absence.” He wished to have nothing to do with their “gatherings.” Instead he
allowed the Corinthians to appoint men whom they trusted to take charge of the
fund and to carry it later on to Jerusalem. He told them that if they wished, he
would go with them, but he would not take the responsibility of handling the
funds. That is a good principle, for many a professed servant of Christ has
gotten into difficulty through soliciting and obtaining money for which he gave
no proper accounting. We can all take a leaf out of Paul’s book when it comes to
handling funds.
Paul was planning his work for the coming season, for he was not one to allow
his schedule to be determined by haphazard opportunities. He planned to visit
the Corinthians when he passed through Macedonia and possibly spend the winter
with them. First, however, he intended to visit Ephesus and minister there until
he moved on to Jerusalem. He was anxious to get to Jerusalem by the feast of
Pentecost, the time when, years before, the Holy Spirit had descended and the
church had been formed. Paul wanted to be there on that specific occasion, for
it would give him a remarkable opportunity to present the gospel to the
thousands of Jews who would come from all over the world to keep the feast. Many
Christians would be there too so he also looked forward to having happy
fellowship with them.
“For a great door and effectual is opened unto me,” Paul wrote, “and there are
many adversaries.” God had opened a door for his testimony, but of course there
were those who opposed him. No servant of God who is in the current of the
divine will, ever has to hunt for open doors for witnessing; he simply needs to
be obedient to the Lord. The trouble is that we are not all willing to let the
Lord guide us. He has told us that it is He who “openeth, and no man shutteth;
and shutteth, and no man openeth” (Revelation 3:7). The business of the servant
of Christ is to be in His will and say, “Here, Lord, I am at Your bidding. Open
doors or close them as You will. If You want me to go, I will go; if You want me
to refrain from going, I am under Your command and Your control.”
If the Lord opens the door, never mind the adversaries. They did not frighten
Paul. He went forward, “strong in the Lord, and in the power of his might”
(Ephesians 6:10), knowing that “greater is he that is in you, than he that is in
the world” (1 John 4:4).
Notice Paul’s kindly interest in his younger fellow servant. “Now if Timotheus
come,” Paul wrote to the Corinthians, “see that he may be with you without fear:
for he worketh the work of the Lord, as I also do.” I take it that our friend
Timothy was a bit troubled with what psychologists call an inferiority complex.
He was not constantly shoving himself forward; he underrated rather than
overrated his own ability and Paul realized that because Timothy was so humble
and lowly, there were some who might belittle him and set him to one side. Paul
was saying, “He is my companion in ministry; he does the same kind of work that
I am doing, so help him succeed.”
I think we can also learn something from the way Paul spoke of Apollos. Some
folk have an idea that the apostles were the first bishops of the church, that
they had all authority in their jurisdictions, and that the apostle Paul was an
archbishop of western Asia and eastern Europe. If that were the case, he would
have commanded the other Christian workers associated with him to go where he
directed. He would have said to Timothy, “You go here,” and to Apollos, “You go
there,” and they would have gone. But there is no hint of that in 1 Corinthians
16:1-24.
Paul did not occupy any such place of power; he did not lord it over other
servants of Christ. Paul was a servant himself, subject to the Lord Jesus, and
he recognized that the others were in exactly the same position. He would say a
good word for Timothy, but he would not command him. Paul suggested to Apollos
that he go to Corinth and minister to the believers there; he had been there
before and they had been greatly benefited by his ministry. But Apollos said in
effect, “I do not have any leading of the Lord to go there; at some later day I
may.” And we can infer that the apostle replied, “Very well, it is not for me to
tell you where to go; you are the Lord’s servant.”
Paul’s comments reveal the conditions that prevailed in the early church. There
was no hierarchy dictating to the rest-just the various local assemblies of
believers and the servants of Christ, gifted by the Lord and acting as subject
to Him. I would not like to tear this chapter out of my Bible. It helps me
understand God’s way of guiding His servants in their ministry for Him.
However, what Paul especially wanted to stress in this passage was “the first
day of the week.” I would like to trace with you the place that the first day of
the week had in the early Christian church and the place that it should have in
the church of God today. Let us turn first to Leviticus 23:1-44, where we read
about the seven outstanding Hebrew festivals, the feasts of the Lord. These were
occasions on which the people of Israel came together in a special way,
beginning with Passover and finishing with the feast of tabernacles. In
Leviticus 23:10-11 we read: “Speak unto the children of Israel, and say unto
them, When ye be come into the land which I give unto you, and shall reap the
harvest thereof, then ye shall bring a sheaf of the firstfruits of your harvest
unto the priest: And he shall wave the sheaf before the Lord, to be accepted for
you: on the morrow after the sabbath the priest shall wave it.” When was the
sabbath? Leviticus 23:3 says, “Six days shall work be done: but the seventh day
is the sabbath of rest, an holy convocation; ye shall do no work therein: it is
the sabbath of the Lord in all your dwellings.” The sabbath then was the seventh
day. The feast of the firstfruits took place on “the morrow after the sabbath,”
which was the first day of the week. And what was this feast of firstfruits? It
was the feast that immediately followed the Passover.
What was the Passover? Its typical significance is explained in 1 Corinthians
5:7-8 : There the apostle said, “Christ our passover is sacrificed for us:
Therefore let us keep the feast, not with old leaven, neither with the leaven of
malice and wickedness; but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.”
The Passover was the recurring memorial feast of the death of the lamb. By the
shedding of the blood and the sprinkling of the blood on the door posts and
lintels in Egypt, the people were delivered from judgment, for God had said,
“When I see the blood, I will pass over you” (Exodus 12:13). The Passover speaks
of the death of Christ.
Following the Passover, the sheaf of the firstfruits was presented before the
Lord. It spoke of grain that had fallen into the ground in death, but had come
forth in new life. Jesus said, “Except a com of wheat fall into the ground and
die, it abideth alone: but if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit” (John
12:24). He was the com of wheat who fell into the ground in death; He has come
up in resurrection. The apostle explained in 1 Corinthians 15:22-23 : “In Christ
shall all be made alive. But every man in his own order: Christ the firstfruits;
afterward they that are Christ’s at his coming.” On the first day of the week
the sheaf of the firstfruits was presented before the Lord, and this is a type
of the resurrection of Christ. In Matthew 28:1 we read, “In the end of the
sabbath [the Greek word is plural and should be translated ‘sabbaths’] as it
began to dawn toward the first day of the week, came Mary Magdalene and the
other Mary to see the sepulchre.” But they found that the Lord had risen in
power on that first day of the week, that morning after the sabbath, and from
that time on the first day of the week has had a very special place in the
thoughts, hearts, and minds of followers of our Lord Jesus.
Psalms 118:22-23 prophetically sets forth the rejection of Christ and then His
resurrection: “The stone which the builders refused [Christ’s rejection and
crucifixion] is become the head stone of the corner [Christ’s resurrection].
This is the Lord’s doing; it is marvellous in our eyes.” Men crucified Him; God
raised Him from the dead, and thus made Him the Head of the corner. The Psalm
continues, “This is the day which the Lord hath made; we will rejoice and be
glad in it” (Psalms 118:24). What day? The day when Christ was made the Head of
the corner. It was the day of His glorious resurrection, the day of the
presentation of the firstfruits, the first day of the week. Do you see what an
honored place the first day of the week has in God’s Word?
Going back once more to Leviticus 23:1-44, we read: “Ye shall count unto you
from the morrow after the sabbath, from the day that ye brought the sheaf of the
wave offering; seven sabbaths shall be complete: Even unto the morrow after the
seventh sabbath shall ye number fifty days; and ye shall offer a new meat [meal]
offering unto the Lord” (Leviticus 23:15-16). This would be another first day of
the week, and the feast would be Pentecost. And one year, on the day after the
seventh sabbath following the Passover, which typified the death of our Lord
Jesus Christ, while the disciples were gathered together in Jerusalem, “suddenly
there came a sound from heaven as of a rushing mighty wind, and it filled all
the house where they were sitting. And there appeared unto them cloven tongues
like as of fire, and it sat upon each of them. And they were all filled with the
Holy Ghost, and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them
utterance” (Acts 2:2-4). The day of Pentecost had “fully come,” and the Lord
received to Himself a new meal offering in those that had been redeemed by His
precious blood. It was on the first day of the week that the Holy Ghost came
from Heaven to baptize believers into one body and so from that time on, the
first day of the week has always had its special place in the church of God. In
Acts 20:1-38 we read of Paul coming to Troas and remaining there a week. Luke
wrote, “And upon the first day of the week, when the disciples came together to
break bread, Paul preached unto them, ready to depart on the morrow; and
continued his speech until midnight” (Acts 20:7). Scripture does not say that on
the first day of the week the disciples came together to hear Paul preach; it
says they came together to “break bread.” That is what they were accustomed to
doing on that day; they came together to participate in what we call the
communion service. On the first day of the week they took part in the breaking
of bread and the drinking of the cup, which speak of the precious body of our
Lord Jesus given up to death and of His blood poured out for our redemption. And
when the disciples in Troas came together that night, they found they had a
wonderful visitor ready to minister the Word to them. Many of them were slaves
and had to work during the day, and so they came together at night. Paul
participated with them in the meeting and preached the Word to them, and the
service went on until midnight.
If you go back to the earliest records of those whom we call the apostolic
fathers, those who wrote shortly after the New Testament was completed, you will
find that it was still the custom of believers to gather together on the first
day of the week for worship, for ministry of the Word, and above all for
participation in what they called the Eucharist. They thought of the Lord’s
supper as a feast of thanksgiving when Christians came together to give thanks
to the Lord Jesus for the suffering and sorrow that He went through for their
redemption.
Some people tell us that we are all wrong in recognizing the first day of the
week as a special day for worship and praise, that we should Judaize
Christianity and go back to the law of Moses, which made the seventh day holy.
But the sabbath has been set aside with the old dispensation, for in the new
dispensation God gives special honor to a new day, the first of the week. On
this day the disciples came together to break bread. On this day the Holy Ghost
descended. On this day Christ arose from the dead. And on this day the early
Christians gave their offerings for the work of the Lord. The apostle told the
Corinthians to put aside their offerings at home, as God had prospered them, so
that when they came together, they could give something to the Lord. They were
to go over what they had received during the week to see how God had blessed
them, and then give the Lord a part. Of course I take it that no Christian would
give less than a Jew did, and he gave a tenth to God. Thus God would be given a
tenth at least, and more if the Christians could afford it. So when they came
together to break bread, they gave their offering to meet the needs of the
Lord’s work and to care for the poor.
Yes, we can thank God for preserving for us the privilege of gathering together
on the first day of the week. How we ought to praise Him that we live in a land
that, in some sense at least, recognizes the sanctity of the day so that we are
free to come together to worship and praise Him. How much we would lose were we
to be denied this privilege!
Closing Messages (1 Corinthians 16:13-24)
There is something delightfully personal in most of the closing messages of the
apostle Paul to the various churches. He was a very human man as well as a very
spiritual one. Dr. C. I. Scofield used to say that when we are first converted
we have to be changed from natural to spiritual, but after being saved awhile we
need another conversion to become natural again-in a different sense of course.
So many of us allow ourselves to become rather stilted and unnatural in our
desire to be spiritual and we lose much of that sweet, gracious warmth that
should characterize us as Christian men and women.
Paul was a man with a tender heart. He made deep friendships and never turned
his back on a friend. He may have grieved over some of them who forsook him, but
he continued to pray for them even when they turned away from him. Those with
whom he could continue to have happy fellowship were a real joy to him. In 1
Corinthians 1:1-31 Paul mentioned that he had baptized the household of
Stephanas and then in 1 Corinthians 16:1-24 he told us something about that
household. The household must have consisted of adults, for the apostle said
that they were “the firstfruits of Achaia” and had “addicted themselves to the
ministry of the saints.” The very first home to be opened up to the gospel when
Paul went to Corinth was that of Stephanas. He and his family were brought to
Christ and from that time on they ministered. Evidently they were in a position
to help others. The word translated “addicted” in 1 Corinthians 16:15 is exactly
the same word that is elsewhere translated “ordained.” So one could say that the
household of Stephanas had “ordained themselves to the ministry of the saints.”
What a blessed ordination! Instead of constantly looking for other people to do
things for them, it seems that they said, “We are going to do things for others;
we will try to be a blessing to them; we will set ourselves apart to help God’s
beloved people.” The apostle said to the Corinthians, “Submit yourselves unto
such, and to every one that helpeth with us, and laboureth.” Like Epaphroditus,
the household of Stephanas made themselves servants so that they might bless
other people.
Stephanas himself had evidently launched out into evangelistic work, and he with
others had come to meet Paul. Writing to Corinth fromPhilippi, Paul said, “I am
glad of the coming of Stephanas and Fortunatus and Achaicus: for that which was
lacking on your part they have supplied.” I take it that he meant, “I knew you
wanted to send me something to help with my expenses but have not had
opportunity to do so, but now these brothers have brought an offering and I
appreciate it very much.” When Paul was in Corinth, he would not take anything
from them because they had just come out of heathenism and he did not want
anyone to say, “Paul is just here for what he can make out of us.” Later the
apostle even said, “I robbed other churches, taking wages of them, to do you
service” (2 Corinthians 11:8). Others gave the money that enabled him to meet
part of his expenses, and whatever he lacked he earned by tentmaking. But now
that he had left Corinth, he was willing to receive from the Corinthian church a
missionary offering to help him in his work. Like the Corinthians, we at home
are glad to send our money to those laboring in heathen lands to help make the
gospel known.
Paul did not have such great regard for “the cloth” that he would not soil his
hands with manual labor. He went into business with Priscilla and Aquila when
they lived in Corinth, and Paul stayed with them when he was there. Now they too
were away and naturally sent their greetings back to the home church. Paul
wrote, “Aquila and Priscilla salute you much in the Lord, with the church that
is in their house.”
Then the apostle instructed the Corinthians, “Greet ye one another with an holy
kiss,” for there is such a thing as a Judas kiss. In those early times women
kissed women, and men kissed men, but whatever the prevailing custom is, the
principle is the same. Do not profess to love someone when deep in your heart
there is resentment and unkindness toward him or her. Greet each other with
sincerity, for an insincere handshake is an unholy greeting. Let the heart
behind the greeting be right. Said Jehu, “Is thine heart right, as my heart is
with thy heart?” And when Jehonadab said, “It is,” we read that Jehu “took him
up to him into the chariot” (2 Kings 10:15). We need to get rid of hypocrisy in
our fellowship. Paul wanted the Corinthians to be genuine in all things. For the
moment let us turn back to 1 Corinthians 16:13-14, where we will find Paul’s
closing exhortation: “Watch ye, stand fast in the faith, quit you like men, be
strong. Let all your things be done with charity [love].” How we need to heed
this.
“Watch ye.” As long as we are in this world, we are in the place of danger; we
are surrounded by pitfalls and snares. “Watch ye and pray, lest ye enter into
temptation,” said our Lord Jesus Christ (Mark 14:38). We dare not trust
ourselves and we certainly cannot trust the world through which we journey. Are
there no foes for me to face?
Must I not stem the flood? Is this vile world a friend to grace, To help me on
to God?
Since I must fight if I would reign, Increase my courage, Lord!
I’ll bear the toil, endure the pain, Supported by Thy word.
(Isaac Watts)
One of the first principles of soldiery is to keep a sharp lookout for the
enemy, and so we must be constantly on the watch for the enemy of our souls.
“Stand fast in the faith.” There are too many people who blow hot and cold; they
act one way in one group and quite a different way in other company. But the
servant of Christ, the child of God, should be one who realizes that there has
been committed to him the greatest of all possible responsibilities and
therefore he is to “stand fast in the faith.” The apostle wrote in 2 Timothy
1:14 : “That good thing [deposit] which was committed unto thee keep by the Holy
Ghost which dwelleth in us.” It is only in the power of the Holy Spirit that we
can keep the faith.
“Quit you like men.” Some of the Corinthians were acting like babies, dividing
themselves into little sectarian groups, and Paul told them they were childish.
“I have fed you with milk, and not with meat: for hitherto ye were not able to
bear it,” he wrote in 1 Corinthians 3:2.
Whenever Christians fuss and quarrel about their rights, whenever they complain
because they are not properly recognized or because people do not greet them as
they think they should or because they do not get enough applause for what they
do, their “baby” spirit is revealing itself. They have not yet reached spiritual
maturity. May God deliver His children from their babyishness! In some churches
half the time of the minister is spent trying to keep weak Christians from
causing trouble over little slights. The man who is “in Christ” is indifferent
to praise or blame. If I belong to Christ, I am here to serve Him and if I have
His approbation, that is what counts. And if you are living for God, people
cannot slight you, because you will not let them; it will not make any
difference to you if they try.
“Be strong.” You may confess, “I know I ought to be strong, but I am so weak.”
Of course you cannot be strong in your own strength. Ephesians 6:10 says, “Be
strong in the Lord, and in the power of his might.” The more you realize your
own weakness and the more you throw yourself upon Him, the more you will be able
to “withstand in the evil day” (1 Corinthians 6:13), for His strength is made
perfect in our weakness (see 2 Corinthians 12:9).
You are not to be strong in your own human spirit, but you are to be made strong
by the Spirit of the Lord. Note that the apostle said to the Ephesians, “I bow
my knees unto the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.. .that he would grant you,
according to the riches of his glory, to be strengthened with might by his
Spirit in the inner man; That Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith”
(Ephesians 3:14-17). The Holy Spirit is the Spirit of Christ and He has come to
dwell in you if you are a believer. If He is controlling your life and
dominating your will, you do not need to depend on your own ability to stand;
you can depend on His ability. As you are yielded to Him, you are enabled to be
strong and stand for His glory.
However, you do need spiritual nourishment; you become strong through the Word.
The apostle John said, “I have written unto you, young men, because ye are
strong, and the word of God abideth in you” (1 John 2:14). How did those young
men get their strength? By meditating on Scripture. If you show me a weak,
wobbling believer, I will tell you that he is not giving much time to the Word
of God. If you show me a strong, devoted, earnest Christian, seeking only the
glory of the Lord Jesus Christ, I will tell you that he is living on the Book.
As you eat the Word, as you feed on the truth, you acquire strength that you
cannot obtain in any other way. I get so tired of people lamenting their
weakness and their leanness. They say, “Do pray for me that I may be a stronger
Christian,” but what is the use of praying for them if they do not read their
Bibles?
Suppose you said, “Do pray that I may get stronger physically,” and suppose that
I replied, “What kind of food do you eat?” If you answered, “Not any,” I would
say, “Then there is no use praying for you.”
What you need as a Christian is a good meal of spiritual nourishment and you can
only get it in the Book. You may do all the praying you like to be a strong
Christian, but your prayers will never be answered until you begin to answer
them yourself by feeding on the Word of God. But do not stop there, for you also
become strong through obedience. The Lord told Joshua: “Be thou strong and very
courageous, that thou mayest observe to do according to all the law, which Moses
my servant commanded thee: turn not from it to the right hand or to the left,
that thou mayest prosper withersoever thou goest” (Joshua 1:7). Notice the words
“to do.” We are lacking in obedience when we know but do not “do.” Joshua 1:8
continues, “This book of the law shall not depart out of thy mouth; but thou
shalt meditate therein day and night, that thou mayest observe to do according
to all that is written therein: for then thou shalt make thy way prosperous, and
then thou shalt have good success” (italics added). Scripture consisted of only
the five books of Moses when God gave that command, but today we should apply
the directive to the whole Bible with its sixty-six books.
If you want to make a success of your life, that is the divinely-appointed way
to do it. If you want strength, live in fellowship with Christ, walk in the
Spirit, feed on His Word, and obey His Word. Then when the hour of trial comes,
you will not be weak-kneed; you will not be vacillating; you will not be carried
about like a leaf before the wind. You will have strength to stand, and you will
be able to glorify God even in the fire of testing. In the testing is the proof.
It is easy enough to be pleasant, When life flows on like a song, But the man
worthwhile is the man with a smile When everything goes dead wrong. The
Christian who is really worthwhile is the man who can be bereft of everything-he
can lose his money, his home, his health- and still say, “The Lord gave, and the
Lord hath taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord” (Job 1:21). That is the
kind of Christian God wants you to be-strong in the hour of trial, and strong in
the hour of temptation.
I am afraid that many of us keep from falling into various sins because they
never come very close to us, and then we look with contempt on the person who
does fall when stress comes. If we had been exposed to the same temptation that
that poor failing brother or sister was exposed to, we might have succumbed just
as he or she did. We too would have fallen if we had not been kept by the mighty
power of God. It is only by living in fellowship with God that we will be kept
from yielding.
Someone has said, “I can resist everything but temptation.” A good many of us
are like that. If you go through the Book of God, you will find that the men who
could resist in the hour of temptation were the men who knew God before the test
came. If David had been in fellowship with God when his awful temptation came,
he never would have gone down. Joseph was tempted under far more adverse
circumstances and he stood fast, exclaiming, “How then can I do this great
wickedness, and sin against God?” (Genesis 39:9) Our Lord could say, “I have set
[Jehovah] always before me: because he is at my right hand, I shall not be
moved” (Psalms 16:8). The man who resists temptation is the man who is strong in
the Lord before temptation comes.
Paul finished his closing exhortation to the Corinthians by adding, “Let all
your things be done with charity.” There is always the danger that the strong
will be contemptuous of the weak. Be exacting with yourself, but generous in
your judgment of other people; be very, very strict with yourself, but gracious
in dealing with those who are weak. Consider what they have to contend with.
Perhaps they do not know the Lord as well as you do, so seek by grace to show
the love of Christ to them.
Moving now to the end of the chapter, we find a solemn statement in 1
Corinthians 16:22 : “If any man love not the Lord Jesus Christ, let him be
Anathema Maranatha.” What strange expressions, “Anathema” and “Maranatha”! I
think the Holy Spirit of God providentially allowed our translators to leave
those two peculiar words untranslated. “Anathema,” a Greek word, means
“accursed, devoted to judgment.” “Maranatha,” a Syriac word, means “the Lord
comes.” If you translated the entire verse, it would read like this: “If any man
love not the Lord Jesus Christ, let him be devoted to judgment at the coming of
the Lord.” I wonder whether any of my readers do not love the Lord Jesus Christ.
If not, may the Spirit of God help you realize your danger. The Lord has not yet
returned, so if you do not love Him now, there is still time to turn to Him. You
cannot stir up any love in your own heart, but you can trust Him-the One who
loves you, the One who gave Himself for you, the One who died on the cross for
your sins. You can open your heart to Him, receive Him, and bow at His feet in
repentance. Hide nothing; confess your sins of hypocrisy, or dishonesty, or
immorality, or selfishness, or covetousness-whatever wickedness there may be in
your heart. Tell Him all about it. Do not say, “O Lord, I am not much of a
sinner; I never did many things that are wrong, but please forgive me.” Get into
the company of David who, when his conscience was awakened, said, “O Lord,
pardon mine iniquity; for it is great” (Psalms 25:11). We might have expected
him to say, “It isn’t very great, so pardon it,” but he said, “It is great.” Sin
is such great iniquity that only a great God can pardon it and only a great
Savior can deliver you from it. As 1 Chronicles 28:9 says,” If thou seek him, he
will be found of thee.” In Jeremiah 29:13 God said, “Ye shall…find me, when ye
shall search for me with all your heart.” If you turn to the Lord, honestly face
your sin, acknowledge your guilt, trust Him as your Savior, and confess Him
before men, He will put love in your heart. Then you will be able to say, “I
love Him, my Savior, my Redeemer,” and you will be saved from judgment. You will
be able also to enjoy all the benefits of Paul’s closing benediction: “The grace
of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you.”
After his benediction the apostle added so humanly, “My love be with you all in
Christ Jesus.” We could well respond, “Thank you, Paul. We are glad to get this
message from you and when we get home to Heaven, we will look you up and talk it
over together. Until then we will seek to live in the light of the truth we have
found in this Epistle.”
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CHAPTER 83: 06.00.1. ADDRESSES ON THE GOSPEL OF LUKE
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Addresses on the Gospel of Luke by
H.A. Ironside
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CHAPTER 84: 06.00.2. PREFACE TO THE E-SWORD EDITION
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Preface to the e-Sword Edition When I first discovered the amazing power of
e-Sword, I was connected to the internet with a 56k fax modem. My enthusiasm for
the program and its plethora of resources motivated me to stay up all night
downloading its riches. I spent the next several days exploring the amazing
variety of study material. As a busy pastor, I’ve tried to assemble a classic
research library. As a busy pastor of a small church, I’ve tried to
inexpensively assemble a classic research library. E-Sword immediately added
many valuable assets that I hadn’t yet purchased; and those resources that
e-Sword duplicated were much easier and faster to use than the paper versions.
Since that wonderful first week, I’ve discovered many more treasures through
Google searches. Then one day I realized that I owed a debt. I made a
contribution to Rick Meyers (Rick - you are the modern day Gutenberg; should the
Lord not return in the near future like I believe He will, you will do for Bible
study the next 100 years what Gutenberg did in the 1500’s), and then started
looking for public domain resources to convert to .topx files. And so my
personal journey has come full circle: from the excitement of discovering
e-Sword to the excitement of creating .topx files for others. Like Rick quotes
from Matthew 10:8, "freely ye have received, freely give."
Thank you, Michelle, Jeremiah, Isaiah & Micah, for understanding my debt and
graciously tolerating my near compulsive computer use for hours on end. My
thanks to the creator of e-Sword, Rick Meyers - . Thank you,
H.A. Ironside, for converting your studies to eternal print. And of course -
most importantly - my thanks to the Lord Jesus who saved my soul for all
eternity. This Edition There have been no changes to Ironside’s work, except for
the following:
Scripture references have been converted to Scripture hyperlinks using the
"Format Scripture ToolTip."
A few obvious Scripture reference errors have been corrected, as well as some
obvious spelling errors.
The copy and paste process has unfortunately removed most of the italicized
print. While the words have not been changed, some of Ironside’s emphasis may be
missing. It is with regret that I have not taken the time to correct this. The
sense is still accurate. [By the way - would you understand this paragraph
without italics? Of course!] Also, the italicizing of the foreign words have
been lost. It is my hope that the reader will be able to follow the flow
regardless of these flaws. They - the flaws - are mine, not Ironside’s.
I am quite sure my edition of Ironside’s work is rather imperfect. I pray that,
nonetheless, it will be productively useful in the study of God’s Word.
Finally Feel free to contact me with comments. You can reach me via e-mail at
doctordavet@gmail.com
Also, if you convert a classic resource to e-Sword .topx file (or .dctx, .cmtx,
etc.), send me your work! I’d love to utilize it!
If you enjoy this module, stop by www.DoctorDaveT.com and see 200+ other good,
conservative, Bible Believing and Christ-honoring Bible study modules formatted
for e-Sword and The Word. May the Lord bless you as study His word.
Dr. David S. Thomason
Florida, USA
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CHAPTER 85: 06.00.3. COPYRIGHT INFORMATION
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Copyright Information This title by H.A. Ironside, "Addresses on the Gospel of
Luke," was originally copyrighted in 1947 and published by Loizeaux Brothers.
It is not listed by either the Stanford nor the Rutgers Copyright Renewal
Databases - which places this work in the public domain. The text for this work
comes from http://www.plymouthbrethren.org/series/6275.
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CHAPTER 86: 06.00.4. AUTHOR'S PREFACE
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Author’s Preface This volume consists of the substance of a series of expository
messages on the third Gospel, given on consecutive Lord’s Days over many months
in the Moody Memorial Church of Chicago. They were stenographically reported at
the time, hut considerable work was needed in the way of editing to make them
presentable in book form.
Naturally, in a lengthy series such as this, with an ever-changing audience
because of visitors added to regular attendants, much in the way of repetition
was necessary in order to make things clear and lucid for those who had not
heard the former messages. To a large extent these repetitions have been
eliminated, except where such deletion would have destroyed the continuity of
thought. It is hoped the careful reader will recognize the reason for occasional
reiteration of certain truths or incidents mentioned. To have altered the whole
structure of the discourses would have destroyed their colloquial character.
Such as they are I give them to the public, Christian and otherwise, hoping the
Lord will be pleased to use them for the blessing of souls and for His own
glory.
H. A. Ironside.
Chicago, Ill.
January, 1946.
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CHAPTER 87: 06.01. ITS THEME AND AUTHOR -- LUK_1:1-4
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Its Theme And Author -- Luke 1:1-4
“Forasmuch as many have taken in hand to set forth in order a declaration of
those things which are most surely believed among us, even as they delivered
them unto us, which from the beginning were eye-witnesses, and ministers of the
word; it seemed good to me also, having had perfect understanding of all things
from the very first, to write unto thee in order, most excellent Theophilus,
that thou mightest know the certainty of those things, wherein thou hast been
instructed”- Luke 1:1-4. In taking up the study of any one of the Gospels it is
always well to look at it in relation to the other three. We have four Gospels
in the New Testament, and the questions are often asked, “Why are there four?”
and “Why do they differ one from the others as they do?” and, “Would it not have
been just as easy to have given us one continuous biography of Christ rather
than four accounts, all written by different writers?” This was not God’s
desire. By giving us four different records written by four different men, we
have a stronger foundation for our faith in the stories of the birth, life,
death, and resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ. We are told in Matthew 18:16,
“In the mouth of two or three witnesses every word may be established.” God has
given us this testimony not only from three, but four witnesses; each one
written by the guidance of the Holy Spirit.
Another reason why He has given us the four Gospels is to present our Lord Jesus
Christ in four different aspects. Matthew was chosen to present Him as the
promised Messiah, the King” of Israel. Mark presents Him as Jehovah’s perfect,
faithful Servant. Everywhere in Mark’s Gospel we see active service to God and
man. John presents Christ as the manifestation of Deity, the Eternal Son of the
Father, who became Man to bring us salvation. He deigned to become flesh: “And
the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld His glory, the glory
as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth” (John 1:14).
But when we turn to Luke, Jesus is presented as Man in all perfection, the “Son
of Man.” That is Luke’s favorite expression. As we examine this book carefully,
we shall see many evidences of this.
Luke dwells much on the prayer-life of Jesus Christ, and prayer, of course, is
connected with His Manhood. Jesus never makes a move but He looks first to His
Father in heaven. We see Him praying, praying, praying, as every important
occasion arises. In this Gospel we also see frequently the Lord Jesus Christ as
a guest in the homes of various people. He sat with them and ate with them, and
talked over their problems. No other Gospel presents Christ going out to dinner
so often as Luke does. Jesus shares their joys and sorrows and partakes of the
good things that are presented to Him. When you meet a man at the dinner-table
you find out what he really is. I had read forty or fifty biographies of Martin
Luther, but he always seemed to be a figure on a pedestal until I read “Luther’s
Table Talks.” Then I felt that he and I were friends. I felt that I knew the man
as I could not have known him otherwise. So these accounts of Christ at the
dinner-table give us an understanding of His Manhood, which we would not get in
any other way.
Luke was an educated man. He was a “beloved physician,” and yet a very humble
man. He never mentions himself, either here or in the book of Acts. He and Paul
met at Troas on the second apostolic journey. After that, Luke was almost a
constant companion of the apostle, but as you read the book of Acts from the
sixteenth chapter on, you will notice that whenever Luke was with the company,
he says, we or us. When he remains behind as Paul and the rest move on, he
changes to they and them. When Luke joins them again he reverts to we and us. He
was with Paul to the end. In his last letter from Rome, Paul writes, “Only Luke
is with me.” He was a widely traveled man, highly-educated, and was of a
scientific mind and temperament. In all likelihood he was a Gentile. He may have
been of Jewish descent, but his name is a Gentile name, and he writes for the
information of Gentiles. His special object in writing this letter was to make
clear to a Gentile the facts concerning the life, ministry, death, and
resurrection of Jesus Christ. His friend, who is mentioned here in the prologue
in verse 3, as “most excellent Theophilus,” was possibly a governor of a Roman
province. He uses the title given to a high Roman official. Theophilus was, we
gather, a Gentile Christian who evidently held high position in the Roman
empire, and Luke was an intimate friend of his. He wrote this Gospel to give
Theophilus a clear understanding of what had taken place in Palestine.
Luke gives us a great deal of information that is not found in the other
Gospels. It is he alone who relates the stories of the visits of the angel
Gabriel to Zacharias and to Mary. No one else tells us of the song of Mary, and
the prophecy of Zacharias. The birth of Christ in a stable is recorded only
here, as also the angel’s announcement to the shepherds. The presentation of the
Child Jesus in the temple at Jerusalem, and the welcome given by Anna and
Simeon, also are mentioned only here. The first meeting in Nazareth, as recorded
in chapter four; the great draught of fishes; the interview with the woman of
the city in the house of Simon the Pharisee, as found in chapter seven; the
beautiful incident of Mary at the feet of Jesus; and the mission of the seventy
(Luke 10:1-42) are found only here. Much of the material of Luke 11:1-54, Luke
12:1-59, Luke 13:1-35, Luke 14:1-35, Luke 15:1-32, Luke 16:1-31, Luke 17:1-37,
Luke 18:1-43 inclusive is told only by Luke, as also the story of Zaccheus. It
is he alone who mentions the coming of the angel to our Saviour to strengthen
Him in His Gethsemane agony. And had it not been for Luke, we would never have
known of the penitent thief, nor of the visit of our risen Lord with the two
disciples on the way to and in their home at Emmaus.
Then when we think of the parables, it is striking to note how many are only
related in this Gospel. The story of the Good Samaritan, the rich fool, the
barren fig-tree, the great supper (not to be confounded with the marriage of the
king’s son as given in Matthew) the lost coin, the prodigal son, the unjust
steward, the story of Dives and Lazarus, the unjust judge and the widow, the
Pharisee and the publican, and the parable of the pounds, are all given by Luke.
The last-mentioned, while similar to the parable of the talents, is,
nevertheless, quite a different story.
How much then we would be bereaved of, if Luke had not been moved by the Spirit
of God to search out so many things that no other inspired writer has recorded.
There is nothing redundant here. All is of great importance and cannot be
overestimated, so far as its value to the Church of God is concerned, and also
its importance in presenting the gospel of the grace of God in its manifold
aspects. The book divides itself into three parts: Luke 1:1-80, Luke 2:1-52,
Luke 3:1-38, Luke 4:1-44 deal with the birth, baptism, and temptation of the
Lord Jesus Christ. The second division, Luke 4:1-44, Luke 5:1-39, Luke 6:1-49,
Luke 7:1-50, Luke 8:1-56, Luke 9:1-62, Luke 10:1-42, Luke 11:1-54, Luke 12:1-59,
Luke 13:1-35, Luke 14:1-35, Luke 15:1-32, Luke 16:1-31, Luke 17:1-37, Luke
18:1-43, gives the opening up of the way of salvation and approach to God. Luke
19:1-48, Luke 20:1-47, Luke 21:1-38, Luke 22:1-71, Luke 23:1-56, Luke 24:1-53
gives us the story of the crucifixion and resurrection. In each Gospel the
crucifixion is linked with a different offering, as found in Leviticus 1:1-17,
Leviticus 2:1-16, Leviticus 3:1-17, Leviticus 4:1-35, Leviticus 5:1-19. Matthew
presents it as the trespass-offering. Mark gives us Christ as the sin-offering.
John takes up Christ as the burnt-offering. Luke brings Him before us as our
great peace-offering-Christ making peace between God and man by shedding His
blood on the cross. The trespass-offering sets forth the death of Christ because
of the sins actually committed against God and man. The sin-offering speaks of
Christ dying for what we are, not only for what we have done. The burnt-offering
speaks of Christ dying to glorify God. The peace-offering speaks of peace made
by the shed blood of the Lamb of God. In the book of Ezekiel we have the four
faces of the cherubim-the lion, ox, eagle, and man. These answer to the four
Gospels. In Matthew we have the majesty of the lion; in Mark the patient service
of the ox; in John the penetrating eye of the eagle -the heavenly One; Luke
shows us the face of the Man.
Luke was a careful and conscientious investigator. He sought out those who had
known the Lord Jesus personally and learned the facts from their own lips. He
was, of course, inspired by God, but the Spirit of God led him to make use of
all reliable sources of information. Notice how he begins his book: “Forasmuch
as many have taken in hand to set forth in order a declaration of those things
which are most surely believed among us, even as they delivered them unto us,
which from the beginning were eyewitnesses and ministers of the Word: it seemed
good to me also, having had perfect understanding of all things from the very
first.”
Let us stop there for the moment. Luke was sure of his ground. He knew the
certainty of the things of which he wrote. There were doubtless many uninspired
records, now lost, setting forth much that was commonly reported concerning our
Lord’s life and ministry. These, however, were not authoritative; God would not
leave us dependent upon untrustworthy records. Early in the next century, many
such apocryphal Gospels appeared, none of which have the dignity, the
transparency, the sanctity of the inspired Gospels. People talk of the “lost
books” of the Bible, but this is all wrong. We have all the Bible God ever meant
us to have, in the Old and New Testaments. The so-called “lost books” are
unreliable and legendary.
Whether Mark and Matthew had written earlier than Luke we cannot say. If so, he
did not copy from them. He wrote as divinely-directed, just as they did. John,
we know, was not written until many years afterwards. It is the last of the
Gospels in point of time. Luke was not seeking to cast doubt on any other
apostolic record, but he wished Theophilus to have an altogether accurate
account of “all that Jesus began to do and teach, until the day in which He was
taken up” (Acts 1:1), so he wrote as an independent investigator.
He speaks of those who were “ministers of the word.” The last term may be either
the word of the gospel, or perhaps we should capitalize it and read “the Word,”
thus referring to Him who, though the Eternal Word, became flesh for our
redemption. Whether we think of Christ’s servants as ministers of the written
word or of the living Word, it comes to one and the same thing, for Christ is
the theme of all Scripture. He is the gospel personified.
We may think of Luke as going to Palestine, seeking out the still-living friends
of Jesus, interviewing them and so learning firsthand many facts concerning the
Lord’s words and ways that others were not led to put on record. This is the
only one of the four Gospels that gives us the wonderful account of the virgin
birth of the Lord Jesus Christ, though it is corroborated by Matthew. Luke was a
physician, and the facts brought out here are facts which could only be expected
of a physician. He had exact knowledge of everything he wrote. He probably knew
the virgin mother intimately and learned from her own lips the great mystery of
the incarnation. In the same way he would learn of other facts. And so he wrote
in order that Theophilus might “know the certainty of the things wherein he had
been instructed.” May I say to the young people who are troubled with doubts as
to these things: If one has an open mind and an honest heart, the Holy Spirit
will reveal to him the truth of God’s Word. Let me ask that you give special
attention to the details Luke sets forth, and pray that the Holy Spirit of God
will open the Word to you, as He did to this beloved physician, and to many
millions since his day.
Let us notice carefully each verse of this section. To begin with, Luke tells us
that many had taken in hand to set forth in order a declaration of those things
which were most surely believed among the early Christians. Luke 1:1 says that
already there had appeared numerous records purporting to give the life-story of
Jesus, which have been lost to us. Perhaps both Matthew and Mark had already
appeared, and as these were divinely given, they too have been preserved, with
Luke, and John, which came later, to give us a fourfold view of our Lord’s life
on earth. In these records an orderly account had been given of those great
facts upon which our Christian faith rests.
These things had been made known to him by those who were personally acquainted
with the Lord, who had known Him from the beginning, for Luke 1:2 states that,
as in John’s writings (1 John 1:1, etc.), from the origin of the Christian
testimony, God has given us, through reputable “eyewitnesses, and ministers of
the Word,” a faithful account of those important events which mean so much for
our heart’s rest and confidence.
Luke insists that he had perfect understanding of all things from the very
first. From Luke 1:3 it is clear that he had made a very careful, independent
investigation, as became a scientific man, questioning eyewitnesses and visiting
the localities where Jesus had lived and wrought His works of power. The facts
thus gleaned he desired to lay before his friend, the “most excellent
Theophilus,” as a result of which we have this precious portion of the Word of
God. For the Holy Spirit used the pen of Luke to give what would be of permanent
value not only to Theophilus, but to all people to the end of time.
Note the expression in verse Luke 1:4, “The certainty of those things.” The
gospel rests upon these divinely-accredited certainties. It is not an imaginary
system based upon weird and unproved legends, but a substantial and logical
message resting upon an assured foundation of facts. The Gospels are true
histories. Therefore the incidents they record actually occurred.
We need not fear to rest our faith upon this definite testimony which God has
preserved for our instruction.
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CHAPTER 88: 06.02. THE COMING FORERUNNER -- LUK_1:5-25
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The Coming Forerunner -- Luke 1:5-25
“There was in the days of Herod, the king of Judaea, a certain priest named
Zacharias, of the course of Abia; and his wife was of the daughters of Aaron,
and her name was Elisabeth. And they were both righteous before God, walking in
all the commandments and ordinances of the Lord blameless, and they had no
child, because that Elisabeth was barren, and they both were now well stricken
in years. And it came to pass, that while he executed the priest’s office before
God in the order of his course, according to the custom of the priest’s office,
his lot was to burn incense when he went into the temple of the Lord. And the
whole multitude of the people were praying without at the time of incense. And
there appeared unto him an angel of the Lord standing on the right side of the
altar of incense. And when Zacharias saw him, he was troubled, and fear fell
upon him. But the angel said unto him, Fear not, Zacharias: for thy prayer is
heard; and thy wife Elisabeth shall bear thee a son, and thou shalt call his
name John. And thou shalt have joy and gladness; and many shall rejoice at his
birth. For he shall be great in the sight of the Lord, and shall drink neither
wine nor strong drink; and he shall be filled with the Holy Ghost, even from his
mother’s womb. And many of the children of Israel shall he turn to the Lord
their God. And he shall go before him in the spirit and power of Elias, to turn
the hearts of the fathers to the children, and the disobedient to the wisdom of
the just; to make ready a people prepared for the Lord.
“And Zacharias said unto the angel, Whereby shall I know this? for I am an old
man, and my wife well stricken in years. And the angel answering said unto him,
I am Gabriel, that stand in the presence of God; and am sent to speak unto thee,
and to show thee these glad tidings. And, behold, thou shalt be dumb, and not
able to speak, until the day that these things shall be performed, because thou
believest not my words, which shall be fulfilled in their season.
“And the people waited for Zacharias, and marvelled that he tarried so long in
the temple. And when he came out, he could not speak unto them: and they
perceived that he had seen a vision in the temple: for he beckoned unto them,
and remained speechless. And it came to pass, that, as soon as the days of his
ministration were accomplished, he departed to his own house. And after those
days his wife Elisabeth conceived, and hid herself five months, saying, Thus
hath the Lord dealt with me in the days wherein He looked on me, to take away my
reproach among men”- Luke 1:5-25.
There is an interval, as you know, of about four hundred years between the book
of Malachi, the last book of the Old Testament, and the Gospels of the New
Testament. We speak of these sometimes as “the four hundred silent years”
because in those years we have no record, so far as inspired history is
concerned, of God’s speaking audibly to man, either directly Himself or through
angelic ministration. Of course, in the books sometimes called “Apocrypha” we do
read of angels visiting men and prophets being raised up, but in the inspired
Scriptures we have no record of anything of the kind during those four hundred
years. They were years of waiting. The people of Israel had returned from
captivity in Babylon about B.C. 536 to 445. God had spoken to His prophet
Daniel, saying that at the end of a certain limited period-483 years to be
exact, 69 periods of seven years each-the Messiah was to come, and the people
were waiting for His coming. They knew that the time had almost expired, and one
can understand the expectancy with which the Jews would go up to Jerusalem year
after year to keep the feasts of the Lord, hoping that the promise would be
fulfilled. But nothing happened until a never-to-be-forgotten day when a priest
named Zacharias was ministering in the holy place in the temple at Jerusalem. We
read in verse Luke 1:5 : “There was in the days of Herod, the king of Judsea, a
certain priest named Zacharias, of the course of Abia: and his wife was of the
daughters of Aaron, and her name was Elisabeth.” You will remember that, as
recorded in 1 Chronicles 24:1-31, King David divided the priesthood of Israel
into twenty-four courses, each course to serve two weeks at a time annually in
the temple, and then give place to the next course. The course of Abia was the
eighth. (In the Old Testament it is called Abijah, but it would be pronounced as
it is spelled here in Luke.) Zacharias, then, belonged to this particular
course, and he may or may not have served in the temple on previous occasions,
but this day he was burning incense at the sacred altar, the golden altar in the
holy place. We read of him and of his wife that, “They were both righteous
before God, walking in all the commandments and ordinances of the Lord
blameless” (Luke 1:6). That is not to say that they were sinless, “for there is
not a just man upon earth, that doeth good, and sinneth not,” we are told; but
blameless refers to motives. Their motives were right. They were seeking to obey
God, to walk with God, and they had, in a sense, His approval except for one
thing. It was a great reproach in Israel if a married woman did not give birth
to a child; therefore, people must have wondered whether God was displeased with
this couple, whether, after all, He did not look upon them with disfavor. But
sometimes, you know, God does not do immediately that for which our hearts
crave, and yet He has it in His own purpose to reward in due time. The years
went by and this couple were still childless, until now they were quite elderly,
and had given up all thought that they might become the parents of a child. But
we are told here that while Zacharias on that particular day “executed the
priest’s office before God in the order of his course, according to the custom
of the priest’s office, his lot was to burn incense when he went into the temple
of the Lord” (Luke 1:9-10). As he stood at the altar and sprinkled the incense
upon the fire that was ever burning there, the multitude of the people gathered
outside were bowed in prayer before God. It was a lovely picture of the
fellowship of prayer, Zacharias here might really speak of our blessed Lord, who
has entered into the Holiest above, ever living to make intercession for us,
while we His people join in prayer down here. As Zacharias was praying and the
people were lifting up their hearts to God, suddenly the silence of four
centuries was broken. We read: “There appeared unto him an angel of the Lord
standing on the right side of the altar of incense” (Luke 1:11). It must have
been a startling thing. No living Israelite had ever seen an angel. They had
read of angelic appearances in years gone by, but they must have thought that
perhaps all that was over forever and that none of them was ever likely to be
so-visited. As Zacharias looked upon this glorious being, we are told, “He was
troubled, and fear fell upon him” (Luke 1:12).
It was a customary thought among the Jews that it meant death to look either
upon God or upon any heavenly representative. You remember in the Old Testament
how when angels appeared to various ones they were filled with dread, and
thought that it meant they were about to die. But the angel immediately quieted
his mind. “The angel said unto him, Fear not, Zacharias: for thy prayer is
heard; and thy wife Elisabeth shall bear thee a son, and thou shalt call his
name John” (Luke 1:13). “Fear not!” This seems to have been a favorite
expression on the lips of Gabriel, for farther down in the chapter the same
angel is said to have appeared to the blessed virgin Mary, and we read in Luke
1:30 : “And the angel said unto her, Fear not, Mary: for thou hast found favor
with God.” Then in Luke 2:10, where the angel host appeared in glory unto the
shepherds tending their flocks on the hillside, we read: “The angel said unto
them, Fear not: for, behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy.” The gospel
message is intended to take away all fear and to fill the heart with assurance,
the knowledge of God’s deep and abiding interest in His people. So the angel
quieted Zacharias’ fears and gave him the promise, “Fear not, Zacharias: for thy
prayer is heard; and thy wife Elisabeth shall bear thee a son.” And the angel
named the son: “Thou shalt call his name John” (Luke 1:13). What a wonderful
thing for a heavenly messenger to give the name for a child! We have several
instances like that in Scripture. God told Abraham that he was to call his son
“Isaac.” Here the angel named the child that he said would be born, “John.” It
simply means, “The grace of Jehovah.” This son who was to be born was to be the
means of bringing joy and gladness to many people, and first of all to his own
parents. “Thou shalt have joy and gladness; and many shall rejoice at his birth.
For he shall be great in the sight of the Lord” (Luke 1:14-15). You remember
what the Lord Jesus Himself said of him later on; that “of those who were born
of women there was none greater than John the Baptist. And yet he that is least
in the kingdom of God is greater than he.” This man was great, destined to be
great, because he was to prepare the way for the coming of the King. He was to
baptize the King and to present Him to Israel, but he himself was to go home to
be with God, as a result of Herod’s bitter cruelty, before he saw the new order
fully established here in the earth. Therefore, the very least who now receives
Christ and enters into the kingdom of God occupies a greater position than John
the Baptist himself. He said, “The King is coming.” We can say, “Thank God, He
has come, and we are definitely linked up with Him.”
John was to be a Nazarite. Long years before, when God gave the Law, He said
that if any in Israel were especially devoted to the Lord, they were to keep
away from anything that came from the vinetree. They were not even to touch
dried raisins or any other product of the vine, because the vine itself was the
symbol of joy, and these men gave up the joys of earth in order that they might
be more wholly devoted to God Himself. Then there were other regulations laid
upon them. They were not to become defiled by coming near any dead body. They
were to grow long hair, indicating the place of dependence, until the days of
their Nazariteship were fulfilled. Samson was to be a Nazarite from his birth,
and he became weak when he allowed his long hair to be cut. John the Baptist
also was to be a Nazarite from his birth. He was to be wholly devoted to the
service of the Lord from the very beginning. But more than that, he was to be
especially, singularly marked out and empowered by the Holy Spirit even from the
moment he came into the world. We read: “He shall be great in the sight of the
Lord, and shall drink neither wine nor strong drink; and he shall be filled with
the Holy Ghost, even from his mother’s womb. And many of the children of Israel
shall he turn to the Lord their God” (Luke 1:15-16).
God prepared him from his earliest days for the great mission that he was to
fulfil. I think you will often find that when the Lord selects a man for some
special work, He puts His hand upon him very early in life and impresses upon
him the possibility and the joyful privilege of becoming His messenger to a lost
and needy world. How many of God’s servants who have had a great ministry
throughout the years were called as little children, children of godly parents,
and from their earliest days were made acquainted with the things of the Lord,
exercised in regard to their responsibility to God, and then when there came the
full, clear consciousness of salvation through faith in Jesus Christ, it seemed
as though nothing could hold them back. Young as they were, they began
proclaiming the unsearchable riches of Christ.
John, then, was called from his very babyhood to be Christ’s servant, and the
assurance was given: “Many of the children of Israel shall he turn to the Lord
their God” (Luke 1:16). His coming had been foretold back in the book of Isaiah.
The Holy Spirit definitely spoke of the coming of this one into the world. In
the fortieth chapter, beginning with Luke 1:3, we read: “The voice of him that
crieth in the wilderness, Prepare ye the way of the Lord, make straight in the
desert a highway for our God. Every valley shall be exalted, and every mountain
and hill shall be made low: and the crooked shall be made straight, and the
rough places plain: and the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh
shall see it together: for the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it” (Luke 1:3-5).
This was a prophecy uttered seven hundred years before John’s birth concerning
the coming into the world of him who was to be the preparer of the Saviour’s
way. And then Malachi, the last Old Testament prophet, speaks of him twice. In
Malachi 3:1, God says through Malachi: “Behold, I will send My messenger, and he
shall prepare the way before Me: and the Lord, whom ye seek, shall suddenly come
to His temple, even the messenger of the covenant, whom ye delight in: behold,
he shall come, saith the Lord of hosts.” John the Baptist was that messenger,
sent to prepare the way of the Lord. I might add that here you have clear,
definite proof as to the Deity of our Lord Jesus Christ, because it was Jehovah
whose way was to be thus prepared, and John came to prepare the way of Jesus.
The Jesus of the New Testament is the Jehovah of the Old Testament. Then in the
last chapter of Malachi, Malachi 4:5, we read: “Behold, I will send you Elijah
the prophet before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the Lord: and he
shall turn the heart of the fathers to the children, and the heart of the
children to their fathers, lest I come and smite the earth with a curse”
(Malachi 4:5-6). This was prophetic of the ministry of John the Baptist. It was
not exactly that Elijah himself was coming back from heaven to earth, but John
was to come in his energy. Referring again to, we find that they emphasize the
fact that John was the messenger of Jehovah. “And many of the children of Israel
shall he turn to the Lord their God. And he shall go before Him in the spirit
and power of Elias, to turn the hearts of the fathers to the children, and the
disobedient to the wisdom of the just; to make ready a people prepared for the
Lord.” The reference is definitely to the prophecy given in Malachi.
You remember how later on, the apostles came to the Lord Jesus as He spoke of
His second coming, and asked, “Why say the scribes that Elias must first come?”
Jesus answered them, “Elias is indeed come, and they have done unto him
whatsover they listed”; and then He explained that John came in the spirit and
power of Elijah. We have no other scripture intimating that Elijah is yet to
come. He has already come in the person of John the Baptist. You may say, “Well,
he is to come before the great and dreadful day of the Lord.” Yes, and so he
did! The great and dreadful day of the Lord is still in the future, and we have
this dispensation of grace in between; but that is in accordance with all Old
Testament prophecy. This present age is all hidden. It is the great parenthesis
in God’s plan. “He shall go before Him in the spirit and power of Elias, to turn
the hearts of the fathers to the children, and the disobedient to the wisdom of
the just”; that is, to call the people of Israel back to the testimony of the
Word of God and to that law which had already been committed to their fathers.
When this announcement was made to Zacharias he was filled with amazement. See
how human he is! He and his devoted wife had prayed for years, “O God, that it
would please Thee to give us a son;” and they thought they prayed in faith, but
the years had gone and no son had come into their home to brighten their lives.
And now, when the angel appears and says, “You shall soon embrace a son, and you
will call his name ‘John’” Zacharias looked at the angel doubtfully. He forgot
how he had prayed all these years. He forgot that God can be depended on to hear
the prayer of faith, and he asked the angel: “Whereby shall I know this? for I
am an old man, and my wife well stricken in years” (Luke 1:18). In other words,
he is practically saying, “Well, what sign will you give me that this promise
will be fulfilled? It is almost too much for me to believe. I can scarcely think
that my prayer is really going to be heard. What sign will there be that God is
going to do this for me?” The angel-may I say it reverently?-seemed to be just a
little bit nettled over Zacharias’ lack of faith.
I wonder if our God is not often grieved in the same way over our lack of faith!
He gives us such great and precious promises, and we come to Him in prayer, and
we spread out our needs before Him and He gives us His Word, and we find
ourselves asking, “Whereby shall I know this?” Hath He spoken, and shall He not
do it? That is all that is necessary for faith-the word of the living God. We do
not need some other sign in order to make God’s word more certain of fulfilment.
So the angel answered Zacharias and said: “I am Gabriel, that stand in the
presence of God; and am sent to speak unto thee, and to show thee these glad
tidings” (ver. Luke 1:19). In other words, he is practically saying, “Zacharias,
have you not failed to recognize who it is that has brought this message to you?
I am the angel that stands in God’s own presence-Gabriel, Gabriel who appeared
to Daniel, Gabriel who unfolded the prophecy of the seventy weeks, who told of
the glorious things yet to come.” Now he says, “I am sent to speak unto thee,
and to show thee these glad tidings.” That ought to have been enough. “I have
come direct from the throne as Jehovah’s messenger. You ought to be ready to
accept my word for it, but now you want a sign. I will give you a sign, a sign
perhaps which you will not enjoy, but I will give you a sign since you are not
willing to rest upon the naked Word of God.” “Behold, thou shalt be dumb, and
not able to speak, until the day that these things shall be performed, because
thou believest not my words, which shall be fulfilled in their season” (Luke
1:20).
Unbelief shut Zacharias’ mouth. The last words that came from his lips before
the promise was fulfilled were these: “Whereby shall I know?” The first words
that came from his mouth after the promise was fulfilled were words of praise
and thanksgiving. Unbelief made him dumb: faith opened his lips again.
“The people waited for Zacharias, and marvelled that he tarried so long in the
temple” (Luke 1:21). He was there, you see, at the altar of incense much longer
than a priest ordinarily would be. He should have come out, according to the
regular course of affairs, to bless the people; but he had remained there in the
presence of God, although they did not understand it. So they marvelled that he
tarried so long. “And when he came out, he could not speak unto them: and they
perceived that he had seen a vision in the temple: for he beckoned unto them,
and remained speechless’’ (Luke 1:22). He stood there and just made a sign,
unable to speak. “He beckoned unto them, and remained speechless.” Instinctively
they realized that something amazing had happened, that he had seen a vision.
Then we are told: “It came to pass, that, as soon as the days of his
ministration were accomplished, he departed to his own home” (Luke 1:23).
He had to remain but the two weeks there in Jerusalem, and then he went back to
his home and in due time God began to fulfil His promise. “And after those days
his wife Elisabeth conceived, and hid herself five months, saying, Thus hath the
Lord dealt with me in the days wherein He looked on me, to take away my reproach
among men” (Luke 1:24-25).
One can imagine how full her heart must have been as she realized that after all
these years God was truly answering prayer, and she was to be the mother of this
child who was destined to welcome the Messiah Himself when He came to Israel.
Oh, that you and I might learn the lesson of faith, trust, confidence in God, a
God whose hand is still stretched out, and who challenges us with the question,
“Is anything too hard for the Lord?”
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CHAPTER 89: 06.03. THE ANNUNCIATION -- LUK_1:26-38
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The Annunciation -- Luke 1:26-38
“And in the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent from God unto a city of
Galilee, named Nazareth, to a virgin espoused to a man whose name was Joseph, of
the house of David; and the virgin’s name was Mary. And the angel came in unto
her, and said, Hail, thou that art highly favored, the Lord is with thee:
blessed art thou among women. And when she saw him, she was troubled at his
saying, and cast in her mind what manner of salutation this should be. And the
angel said unto her, Fear not, Mary: for thou hast found favor with God. And,
behold, thou shalt conceive in thy womb, and bring forth a Son, and shalt call
His name JESUS. He shall be great, and shall be called the Son of the Highest;
and the Lord God shall give unto Him the throne of His father David: and He
shall reign over the house of Jacob for ever; and of His kingdom there shall be
no end. Then said Mary unto the angel, How shall this be, seeing I know not a
man? And the angel answered and said unto her, The Holy Ghost shall come upon
thee, and the power of the Highest shall overshadow thee: therefore also that
Holy Thing which shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God. And,
behold, thy cousin Elisabeth, she hath also conceived a son in her old age; and
this is the sixth month with her, who was called barren. For with God nothing
shall be impossible. And Mary said, Behold the handmaid of the Lord; be it unto
me according to thy word. And the angel departed from her”- Luke 1:26-38. Where
in all literature would you find anything more beautiful than this story? a
story which is all the more delightful because it is true. The world had been
waiting for a number of millenniums for the fulfilment of the primeval prophecy
that “the Seed of the woman should bruise the serpent’s head.” The expression
there used is itself remarkable. Every other child born into the world, save our
Lord Jesus Christ, has been distinctly the seed of the man. He alone was the
Seed of the woman. Although truly the Seed of Abraham, through whom all nations
of the world were to be blessed, and the Son of David, destined to rule in Zion
and bring blessing to Israel and the nations, Isaiah predicted that He would be
born of the virgin mother. Thus He was the Seed of the woman in an absolutely
exclusive human sense. He had no human father.
Luke, who is always very particular about dates, tells us that it was in the
sixth month that the angel Gabriel was sent from God into a city of Galilee
named Nazareth, to reveal to a virgin of the house of David, espoused to a man
named Joseph, who was also of David’s line, that she was to be the destined
mother of the Messiah. It was, of course, the sixth month after the announcement
of the forthcoming birth of John the Baptist, which had been made to Zacharias
in the temple. In connection with this annunciation, let us notice four things,
in particular: First of all, the angelic messenger himself. There are only two
elect angels mentioned by name in Holy Scripture, Gabriel and Michael. Michael
is the archangel. Men talk of archangels. Scripture never uses the plural in
this case, but tells us of only one archangel, Michael, the great prince, who
stands for the children of Israel; that is, he seems to be their protecting
guide in large measure. Gabriel appears to be the messenger of the throne. It
was he who revealed the counsels of God, in regard to the coming of Messiah, to
Daniel. He told Zacharias that he was to be the father of John the Baptist. And
here we see him appearing to Mary making known to her the glad message that she
was chosen of God to be the mother of the Saviour. I might say that in the books
known as the Apocrypha-which should never be included in the canon of Scripture-
we do have names given to other angels, as for instance, Raphael and Uriel, but
only the two I have mentioned are spoken of by name in the inspired writings.
Then, in the second place, notice who it was whom God chose to be the mother of
the humanity of His blessed Son. She was a pure virgin of the house of David.
Thus the One born of her would be in very truth great David’s greater Son. It is
very evident that Mary was chosen, not simply because she was a virgin, but
because of her deep spirituality and her subjection to the will of God. When He
chose a young woman for the high honor of becoming the mother of the Saviour, He
did not take some frivolous worldly girl, living in carelessness and enjoying a
butterfly existence. He chose a pious, lovely, young woman, who delighted in
doing the will of God and ever sought to be subject to His Word.
Then note what is written concerning him who was to head up the little household
in Nazareth. This virgin was espoused to a man evidently much older than she,
whose name was Joseph, and he came also of David’s lineage. In fact, according
to Matthew’s Gospel, it is evident that the throne rights were his, and yet he
was living in obscurity, earning his way as a carpenter. Everything was out of
order because Israel had drifted away from God. They were in subjection to the
Roman authority, and the son of David moved about among them unknown and
ignored. He was not himself to become the actual father of Jesus; but he was to
be recognized legally as His father, because he married the virgin before her
wonderful child was born, thus giving her the protection of his name. In the
fourth place, we note the colloquy between Gabriel and the Virgin Mary.
Appearing suddenly before her, evidently in her own home-of which, however, we
know absolutely nothing so far as the Scriptures are concerned, although
tradition has invented a great many stories about that home which are absolutely
unproven and therefore unreliable-the angel greeted her with these striking
words: “Hail, thou that art highly favored, the Lord is with thee: blessed art
thou among women.” We, of course, have our conventional ideas of what an angel
looks like. Scripture does not give us any very definite description of one of
these heavenly messengers. In fact, their general appearance, according to the
Old Testament, was that of men of noble and superior character. Though they do
not actually possess material bodies, they can evidently assume them at will. We
need not suppose that Gabriel appeared to Mary glorious, winged creature. That
is largely artists’ imagination. But whatever form he took, his declaration must
have been an astonishment to the Virgin. We are told that “when she saw him she
was troubled at his saying, and cast in her mind what manner of salutation this
should be.” Apparently stricken dumb for a moment by her amazement, she waited
for further word from her heavenly visitor. Then, we are told, the angel said
unto her: “Fear not, Mary, for thou hast found favor with God.” “Favor” is
“grace.” Let us never forget that Mary, beautiful and lovely as she must have
been, was nevertheless born of a sinful race and needed a Saviour. She
acknowledged this in the Magnificat which she uttered later on, when she said,
“My soul doth rejoice in God my Saviour.” She had found grace with God. In other
words, she was saved by His grace, sustained by His grace, and preserved by that
grace to be the suitable mother for the Son of God in His humanity. The angel
Gabriel continued speaking: “Behold, thou shalt conceive in thy womb, and bring
forth a Son, and shalt call His name Jesus. He shall be great, and shall be
called the Son of the Highest: and the Lord God shall give unto Him the throne
of His father David: and He shall reign over the house of Jacob forever; and of
His kingdom there shall be no end.” This was a full Messianic declaration in
keeping with the many wonderful prophecies that had been uttered concerning the
coming Redeemer centuries before.
It is important to understand that the Lord Jesus actually partook of the
substance of the Virgin. Some have supposed that this could not be without His
participating in sinful human nature. But the Spirit of God took care of that,
as we shall see further on. The important thing to notice here is that there was
an actual conception, and that involved an absolute impregnation. Jesus, whose
name means Jehovah, the Saviour, was to be actually of the Virgin’s substance as
to His humanity, with which His true Deity was to be united in such a way as to
make one Person with two natures-the human and the divine. He was to be called
the Son of the Highest. The Lord Jesus is the Son in several different senses.
As to His Deity He is God the Son, one Person of the Trinity, co-equal with God
the Father and God the Holy Spirit, from eternity. Having linked His Deity with
our humanity in incarnation, He became as man on earth the Son of God or Son of
the Highest, having no human father. Then again, in resurrection He is saluted
as the Son of God, the firstborn from the dead. To Him the Lord God, the Eternal
Father, will give the throne of His father David; that is, David was in this
sense the father of Christ’s humanity, which would not be true if Jesus had not
been an actual partaker of the human nature of the Virgin, who came of David’s
line. As such He is destined to reign over the house of Jacob forever, and to
establish that everlasting kingdom to which all the prophets give witness.
One can well imagine the perplexity and wonder of the blessed Virgin when this
announcement was made. In her beautiful simplicity she asks, “How shall this be,
seeing I know not a man?” It was not lack of faith that led to such a question.
She does not here take her place with Zacharias, who inquired, “Whereby shall I
know this, for I am an old man and my wife well stricken in years?” On his part
it was unbelief that prompted the question. On the part of Mary it was the
desire for enlightenment. The angel made all clear in his answer when he said,
“The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee, and the power of the Highest shall
overshadow thee. Therefore also that Holy Thing (or One) which shall be born of
thee shall be called the Son of God.” Unbelievers have said it is impossible to
accept the Bible teaching of the virgin birth because it involves a biological
miracle. What it really involves is the omnipotent power of God, and the
reverent believer can accept this without hesitation.
Some opponents of the truth of the incarnation have even gone so far as to
declare that the story of the virgin birth is not peculiar to Christianity, but
that in the myths of the heathen gods we have many instances of virgin births.
This, one can unhesitatingly deny. There is no comparison between the sweet,
pure, lovely story that we have here, and the vile, lewd stories of the heathen
mythologies. What some have presumed to call virgin births are the very
opposite. In these stories certain gods are represented as lustful, licentious
beings. They are pictured as falling in love with some earth-born maiden,
assuming a human form in order to seduce her, as a result of which she becomes
the mother of a demigod. Surely there is nothing in these corrupt tales that can
be linked in any proper sense with the story of the virgin birth of our Lord
Jesus Christ. Here we simply have the Holy Spirit of God producing, by divine
power and creative energy, the body of the Lord Jesus Christ in the womb of the
Virgin. When He came into the world He was to be known, therefore, as the Son of
God. He who had been from eternity God the Son, became in grace as Man, the Son
of God, that He might be our Kinsman-Redeemer. In order to confirm the faith of
Mary, Gabriel then gave her the surprising information that her aged cousin
Elisabeth had also conceived a son in her old age-though this was according to
the natural order-and that it was now the sixth month with her, who was called
barren. The explanation of all this is given in verse Luke 1:37, “For with God
nothing shall be impossible.” In charming simplicity and in marvelous devotion
to the will of God, Mary answered, “Behold the handmaid of the Lord; be it unto
me according to thy word.” How much she, as a young virgin, understood of the
shame to which she would be subjected by an unbelieving world, because of the
peculiar circumstances in which she was soon to be found, we do not know, but
she accepted all as from God and bowed in submission to His will. Remember, she
was already engaged to be married. She must have wondered how she could ever
explain what was soon to transpire, to Joseph. We know from Matthew’s Gospel
something of the grief and perplexity that Joseph himself actually went through
when he learned that his affianced bride was already pregnant. Her condition
apparently suggested a sad deviation from chastity, for which, according to the
law, she could have been stoned to death. But Joseph loved her and was studying
how he might hide her away privately until her child was born, in order that she
might not be put to public shame or exposed to danger of death. But the angel
messenger appeared to him in a dream, clearing up the mystery, and he accepted
his responsibility in a wonderful way.
Mary must have foreseen some of these things, but doubtless did not enter fully
into what she would be called upon to pass through. But since God had revealed
His mind, she was ready to accept His will without rebellion or hesitation. In
this she became an example to us all. The only truly happy life is a life lived
in subjection to the will of God. To be able to say from the heart, “Be it unto
me according to Thy word,” means lasting blessing and abiding communion with
God.
Having made known his mission, the angel, we are told, departed from Mary and
left her to await the fulfilment of his words.
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CHAPTER 90: 06.04. THE MAGNIFICAT -- LUK_1:39-56
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The Magnificat -- Luke 1:39-56
“And Mary arose in those days, and went into the hill country with haste, into a
city of Juda; and entered into the house of Zacharias, and saluted Elisabeth.
And it came to pass, that, when Elisabeth heard the salutation of Mary, the babe
leaped in her womb; and Elisabeth was filled with the Holy Ghost: and she spake
out with a loud voice, and said, Blessed art thou among women, and blessed is
the fruit of thy womb. And whence is this to me, that the mother of my Lord
should come to me? For, lo, as soon as the voice of thy salutation sounded in
mine ears, the babe leaped in my womb for joy. And blessed is she that believed:
for there shall be a performance of those things which were told her from the
Lord. And Mary said, My soul doth magnify the Lord, and my spirit hath rejoiced
in God my Saviour. For He hath regarded the low estate of His handmaiden: for,
behold, from henceforth all generations shall call me blessed. For He that is
mighty hath done to me great things; and holy is His name. And His mercy is on
them that fear Him from generation to generation. He hath showed strength with
His arm; He hath scattered the proud in the imagination of their hearts. He hath
put down the mighty from their seats, and exalted them of low degree. He hath
filled the hungry with good things; and the rich He hath sent empty away. He
hath holpen His servant Israel, in remembrance of His mercy; as He spake to our
fathers, to Abraham, and to his seed for ever. And Mary abode with her about
three months, and returned to her own house”- Luke 1:39-56.
We can well understand the emotions that would fill the heart of the blessed
Virgin Mary after this interview with the angel. When she knew within herself
that the angel’s words were in course of fulfilment, she must have been greatly
moved as she meditated on the marvelous mystery which had been revealed to her.
She-an unmarried young woman who had lived a life of perfect physical purity-to
become the mother of a child! How would she ever be able to explain things to
those of her acquaintance who would naturally question the story she had to tell
of the angel’s visit and the message he brought. Perhaps it was such thoughts as
these that led Mary to go up into the hill country with haste, into a city of
Juda, and there visit her cousin Elisabeth; for although Elisabeth’s
circumstances were altogether different from those of Mary, still the
supernatural entered into her condition too; and we can well believe that the
elder woman would have much to say to the younger woman that would be a comfort
and help to her. In fact, Elisabeth’s first words of greeting must have thrilled
the soul of Mary and confirmed the angel’s words, as Elisabeth exclaimed,
“Blessed art thou among women, and blessed is the fruit of thy womb. And whence
is this to me, that the mother of my Lord should come to me?” Here was absolute
faith, not only in the purity of Mary but also in the words of Gabriel, that the
mysterious child to be born would be none other than God manifested in the
flesh. Just imagine how cheered Mary must have been by such a greeting. Then as
Elisabeth went on to express her further approval and to pronounce a blessing
upon her young cousin because she had believed the word of the Lord, there must
have been double assurance, for, apparently, she had not said one word to
Elisabeth concerning her condition before the elder woman exclaimed there should
be a performance of those things which were told her from the Lord. When at last
Mary opened her mouth, it was to praise the Lord in a beautiful psalm which
compares favorably with any of those written by divine inspiration by David, the
sweet Psalmist of Israel. Unquestionably, Mary herself was inspired to utter
these words. They are of great value to us, not only because of their poetic
beauty and their high devotional character, but also because they give us to
know on what Mary, herself, rested for her own salvation. Romanists may declare
that she was born without inbred sin and therefore did not need a Redeemer, but
she herself says, “My soul doth magnify the Lord, and my spirit hath rejoiced in
God my Saviour.” Notice those last three words, God my Saviour!
Mary, then, lovely as she was; beautiful in character, perhaps beyond any other
young woman of her day, yet realized that in herself she was a sinner who needed
a Saviour, and she found that Saviour in God Himself. She took no credit to
herself for any extraordinary righteousness that lifted her above other people,
but she went on to acknowledge, “He hath regarded the low estate of His
handmaiden.” Realizing that everything was of grace, she could rejoice in the
loving-kindness shown her.
It is well that we Protestant Christians should note carefully her next words:
“Behold, from henceforth all generations shall call me blessed.” Because, in the
Roman Church, Mary is given a place far beyond any that is accorded to her in
the Word of God, we are inclined to fear that we might honor her too much if we
speak of her as the “Blessed Virgin.” We have warrant for calling her blessed in
her own words as here given. She was indeed marvelously blessed above all’ other
women and we need not fear to acknowledge it. Since our Lord Himself chose Mary
to be the means whereby He came into the world as a little Babe, why should we
hesitate for a moment to speak of her as the Blessed Virgin?
She attributes everything to the goodness of God as she exclaims, “For He that
is mighty hath done to me great things; and holy is His name.” She shows an
understanding of God Himself far beyond her years or her station in life. It is
evident that she had been divinely taught, and that to a very remarkable degree.
Her last words indicate that she had often meditated on the lowly condition of
her people and the oppression that they were enduring, and she recognized in her
unborn child the promised Messiah who was to deliver Israel from their
afflictions and visit with judgment their Gentile oppressors. Note her words:
“He hath showed strength with His arm; He hath scattered the proud in the
imagination of their hearts. He hath put down the mighty from their seats, and
exalted them of low degree.” Had things been normal in Israel, her home would
have been a palace instead of a peasant’s cottage; Joseph, her betrothed, would
have been recognized as a prince of David’s royal house, and would not have had
to earn his living as a carpenter; but how wonderfully God has exalted the lowly
in bringing them into this blessed and remarkable relationship with Himself. A
divine principle is expressed in Luke 1:53, that runs throughout all Scripture
and characterizes God’s dealings with men in all dispensations, “He hath filled
the hungry with good things; and the rich He hath sent empty away.” The trouble
with men generally is that they do not realize their need; they are not aware of
their lost condition, and so, they do not turn to God for deliverance. They
attempt to feed their souls with the husks of this world, and have not yet
learned how futile is such an effort, and how impossible it is to satisfy a soul
made for eternity with temporal things; and, because of their fancied wealth,
they turn away from eternal riches and continue in their sins. Just as men
recognize their need; as soon as they begin to hunger and thirst after
righteousness; as soon as they recognize their spiritual poverty-as soon as they
realize all this, they find in God One who meets every need. May we not well
cherish in our hearts the blessing that belongs to the poor in spirit: that is,
to those who have no spiritual assets in which to trust, but who come to God as
poverty-stricken sinners to receive of the bounty which He delights to bestow.
Scripture speaks of His riches in four different ways: we read of the riches of
His mercy, the riches of His grace, the riches of His love, and the riches of
His glory. All these are for those who come to Him acknowledging their poverty
and need, and who are ready to receive at His hand the bounty which He delights
to bestow. The spirit of prophecy enables one to speak of the things which are
not as though they are; and in the closing verses of the Magnificat, Mary does
this very thing. She already sees by faith the fulfilment of all God’s promises
in connection with the restoration of Israel, and their further blessing in the
kingdom promised by the prophets. She exclaims, “He hath holpen His servant
Israel, in remembrance of His mercy. And He spake to our fathers, to Abraham,
and to his seed for ever.” There is something beautiful and sublime about the
way in which this lovely young woman lays hold of the promises of God and counts
on Him to fulfil them to the letter. May the same faith and comfort be ours!
We are told that for three months Mary abode with her cousin Elisabeth, and then
returned to her own home in Nazareth. This was before the birth of John the
Baptist, so she was not with Elisabeth when that event took place. Nazareth was
in the northern part of the land of Palestine, and the prophet Micah had
declared that Jesus was to be born in Bethlehem. It might seem as though there
were little likelihood that this prophecy would be fulfilled, but we shall see
later how God wrought in order to bring it about.
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CHAPTER 91: 06.05. THE PROMISE FULFILLED -- LUK_1:57-80
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The Promise Fulfilled -- Luke 1:57-80
“Now Elisabeth’s full time came that she should be delivered; and she brought
forth a son. And her neighbors and her cousins heard how the Lord had showed
great mercy upon her; and they rejoiced with her. And it came to pass, that on
the eighth day they came to circumcise the child; and they called him Zacharias,
after the name of his father. And his mother answered and said, Not so; but he
shall be called John. And they said unto her, There is none of thy kindred that
is called by this name. And they made signs to his father, how he would have him
called. And he asked for a writing table, and wrote, saying, His name is John.
And they marvelled all. And his mouth was opened immediately, and his tongue
loosed, and he spake, and praised God. And fear came on all that dwelt round
about them: and all these sayings were noised abroad throughout all the hill
country of Judaea. And all they that heard them laid them up in their hearts,
saying, What manner of child shall this be! And the hand of the Lord was with
him. And his father Zacharias was filled with the Holy Ghost, and prophesied,
saying, Blessed be the Lord God of Israel; for He hath visited and redeemed His
people, and hath raised up an horn of salvation for us in the house of His
servant David; as He spake by the mouth of His holy prophets, which have been
since the world began: that we should be saved from our enemies, and from the
hand of all that hate us; to perform the mercy promised to our fathers, and to
remember His holy covenant: the oath which He sware to our father Abraham, that
He would grant unto us, that we being delivered out of the hand of our enemies
might serve Him without fear, in holiness and righteousness before Him, all the
days of our life. And thou, child, shall be called the prophet of the Highest:
for thou shalt go before the face of the Lord to prepare His ways: to give
knowledge of salvation unto His people by the remission of their sins, Through
the tender mercy of our God; whereby the dayspring from on high hath visited us,
to give light to them that sit in darkness and in the shadow of death, to guide
our feet into the way of peace. And the child grew, and waxed strong in spirit,
and was in the deserts till the day of his showing unto Israel” - Luke 1:57-80.
First of all, our attention is directed to the fulfilment of the promise
regarding the birth of John the Baptist. Nine full months before, the angel
Gabriel had appeared to Zacharias when he was ministering in the temple in
Jerusalem, and notified him that he and his aged wife Elisabeth were to be the
parents of a child who was to prepare the way for the promised Messiah. It
seemed almost unbelievable, and Zacharias asked the question, “How can these
things be?” The angel said, “You will be dumb until they are performed.”
Zacharias left the temple that day unable to speak, and during all these waiting
months he had been dumb until God fulfilled the promise. Elisabeth’s full time
came that she should be delivered. She brought forth a son. Her neighbors, her
cousins and others, heard how the Lord had showed great mercy toward her, and
they came together to rejoice with her. God, in a wonderful way, had visited
this family. Now a name was to be chosen for the new-born babe. Some of you
parents remember how you thumbed through the list of names in the back of the
dictionary trying to find one that would be outstanding! With others, it was
already settled for you. You had long ago declared the little one must bear the
name of grandma or grandpa, or some other relative. But often children are born
and live for months before they get a name that is thought suitable. In this
case, they came together to give the name to the child. He was presented for
circumcision and given the name that they thought he would bear, that of his own
father, Zacharias. But the mother said, “He shall be called John.” It happened
that there was no John in that family. They said to her, “There is none of thy
kindred called by that name.” But the angel had told Zacharias before the child
was born that he was to be called John. John means “the grace of the Lord,” and
his birth was a definite evidence of the grace of the Lord to his family. They
turned to the father and they made signs to him, asking him how they should call
the child. He, unable to speak, called for a tablet, and wrote upon it, “His
name is John.” Notice that-not, “He shall be called John,” but “His name is
John.” He had been named already! He was named by the angel long before, and
Zacharias simply kept that in mind. They were amazed. They could not understand
it. The moment that Zacharias thus ratified the word of the angel his mouth was
opened, and his tongue loosed, and he spake and glorified God. Unbelief had
closed his lips; faith opened them. Unbelief made him dumb; faith enabled him to
speak and to praise God. And we are told that fear came on all that dwelt round
about. People felt there was something strange, something mysterious about all
this. Undoubtedly, this was a child who was to have some very remarkable
destiny. All these sayings were noised abroad, throughout all the hill-country
of Judaea, and they that heard them laid them up in their hearts, and they
asked, “What manner of child shall this be?” They could see that the hand of the
Lord was upon him, thus far, in connection with the fulfilment of the promise in
the birth of the child and the name that he was to bear.
Now the rest of our passage has to do with the prophecy of Zacharias. Many years
had gone by since God had spoken through the prophets. But now, in a special way
He opened the lips of Zacharias, the father of this remarkable child, and
enabled him to speak prophetically. Zacharias was filled with the Holy Ghost. To
prophesy is not only to be able to foretell coming events, but to give the mind
of God in relation to the present or future. We see both here. Zacharias did see
things to come, and he realized something of the remarkable place this child of
his was to have. Then, he also spoke of the spiritual benefits to result from
his ministry. “Blessed be the Lord God of Israel,” he exclaims, “for He has
visited and redeemed His people.” It is remarkable how faith enables one to
speak of the things which are not, as thought they are. Zacharias said, “God has
visited and redeemed His people.” They were not yet redeemed; that is, not
actually, but he could speak in faith. He was certain that since the promise had
been fulfilled in regard to the birth of this child that the promise of
redemption for Israel, through the coming Saviour, was just as certain of
fulfilment.
What is redemption? It is deliverance from bondage. It is to buy back that which
has been forfeited. Not only Israel, but the nations of the Gentiles were in
bondage to sin and they needed to be redeemed. They had forfeited all title to
blessing, and they needed to be redeemed, and our blessed Lord Jesus, was coming
to redeem them. He said, “The Son of Man came not to be ministered unto, but to
minister, and to give His life a ransom for many.” Do you know the redeeming
power of the Lord Jesus Christ? He redeems not only from the judgment due to
sin, but He also redeems from the power of sin itself. He sets free from sin’s
bondage those who put their trust in Him. Zacharias looked on in faith to the
time when all this would be true for Israel and the nations. “He hath visited
and redeemed His people, and hath raised up a horn of salvation for us in the
house of His servant David.” God had promised long before that the Messiah was
to come through David’s line, and Mary was a daughter of the house of David.
Through her the child was to be born who was to bring salvation, and Zacharias
could speak of this as though it were already accomplished, because his unbelief
was gone and he had absolute confidence in the word of God. All this, he says,
is, “As He spake by the mouth of the holy prophets, which have been since the
ages began.” The word “world” here is not simply the cosmos-the ordered
world-but the ages of time. From the very beginning God had been speaking of
this coming One. From the Garden of Eden right on, He had been telling of the
coming Saviour, and now He was soon to appear. His forerunner had already
arrived. God had given His word and He sealed His word with an oath; and so He
was about to perform the mercy promised to the fathers, and to remember His holy
covenant, “the oath which He sware to our father Abraham.” We are told in
Genesis that when God made the covenant with Abraham, He said, “In thy Seed
shall all nations of the earth be blessed,” and He confirmed it with an oath,
and because He could sware by no greater He sware by Himself. He is the only one
who has a right thus to sware. This was in connection with the Old Testament,
and now the precious blood of Christ has sealed the New Covenant. We know that
the Almighty will never go back on His covenant; so our Lord Jesus Christ came
as the promised Seed of Abraham, and through Him already blessing untold has
gone out to Jew and Gentile, but the promises are by no means fulfilled in their
entirety. When they are, all Israel, as a nation, shall be saved, and shall turn
to the Lord for redemption; and all the Gentiles shall own His authority, and
righteousness will cover the earth as the waters cover the great deep. Then the
entire universe shall be subjected to the Lord Jesus Christ.
It was to this that Zacharias looked on - “that He would grant unto us, that we,
being delivered from the hand of our enemies, might serve Him without fear, all
the days of our life.” As far as Zacharias was concerned, he expected the
fulfilment of all this. Yet nineteen hundred years have gone by, and we see the
people of Israel today suffering more from their enemies than perhaps they have
ever suffered down throughout the centuries. One might have a tendency to feel
that God’s Word has failed; that its prophetic declarations have not been
fulfilled, and that there is something wrong. There is nothing wrong with the
Word of God. The wrong is here. God sent the Saviour. He came unto His own and
they received Him not. Jew and Gentile are both guilty and united in rejecting
the Saviour that God had promised. The Lord Jesus said, “Think not that I have
come to send peace upon earth. I tell you nay, but rather a sword.” He
predicted, “Nation shall rise against nation and kingdom against kingdom,” and
there will be warfare and destruction through the world until the day of His
return. When He comes back the second time, then these prophecies are going to
be fulfilled. They might have been fulfilled before if men had received him. But
they would not open their hearts to Him. Now He does speak peace to all those
that trust Him; and in the midst of a war-torn world those who have received him
in faith know the meaning of the words, “Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace
whose mind is stayed on Thee, because he trusteth in Thee.” There is no peace
for the world because it has rejected Christ. But there is lasting for those who
trust Him, even in the midst of the most dreadful circumstances. What He
promises in regard to Israel will some day be fulfilled, “That He would grant
unto us that we, being delivered out of the hands of our enemies, might serve
Him without fear, in holiness and righteousness before Him all the days of our
life.” Neither Jew nor Gentile can expect God’s deliverance unless there is a
real heart-turning to Him. That is the trouble with the world today. Men would
like God to intervene for them. They would like Him to come in and show mercy,
but they are not willing to honor Him by bowing before Him in repentance and
seeking to live for His glory. When God shall deliver Israel, it will not only
mean that they will be set free from their enemies and be restored to their own
land, but that they may serve Him without fear and walk before Him in holiness
and righteousness all the days of their lives. Oh, that there might be a great
turning to God today! Oh, that throughout this nation and the other nations of
the world there might be a recognition of the sinfulness of our departure from
God, that we might return to Him, confessing our failure, owning our guilt, and
trusting the Saviour He has provided, and then seeking to walk before Him in
holiness and righteousness. Then we might expect God to come in and give
marvelous deliverance. There will be no lasting peace for the world unless the
nations bow in repentance before God and get right with Him; and so far as we
understand the prophetic Word, that will never be until our Lord Jesus, the
rejected Prince of Peace, returns again in person to this scene. And now, in the
last part of his prophecy, Zacharias turns to the little unconscious babe lying
there, either in his crib or in his mother’s arms, and he says, “And thou,
child, shalt be called the prophet of the Highest.” What a privilege this was to
be! The Lord Jesus said afterward of those that were born of women there was not
a greater than John the Baptist. And so Zacharias recognized that he was to have
the high honor of being the prophet of the Highest. “Thou shalt go before the
face of the Lord to prepare His way.” He was really quoting here from the Old
Testament. There we read that John was to go before the face of Jehovah to
prepare the way. He went before the face of Jesus to prepare the way. The Jesus
of the New Testament is the incarnate Jehovah of the Old Testament. John was to
go before the face of Jehovah to prepare His way, to give knowledge of salvation
unto His own people. It seems to me we sometimes underrate the work of John the
Baptist. We think of him simply as the one who came to prepare the way of the
Lord, and we forget that he also presented a message of grace, a definite
proclamation of the gospel. It was he who said, “Behold the Lamb of God which
taketh away the sin of the world.” Could you get a clearer gospel message than
that anywhere? That is the gospel of the grace of God in all its simplicity. It
was given to John to point the Saviour out, not merely as the King of Israel,
not merely as the One who was to fulfil the promises and reign in righteousness
over all the world, but as the One who was to provide salvation for sinful men.
It is only through Him salvation comes “to give knowledge of salvation unto His
people by the remission of their sins.” When John baptized it was for remission
of sins. His baptism was the recognition on the part of the people that they
were sinners and deserved to die. As they went down into the waters of baptism
they were saying as it were, “We ought to die for our sins.” But John told of
One who was coming to pay the penalty for those sins, and the people believed
the message, and so rejoiced in the knowledge of forgiveness. “To give knowledge
of salvation unto His people for the remission of their sins through the tender
mercy of our God, whereby the dayspring from on high hath visited us.” How
beautiful the language Zacharias uses! He speaks of the grace of God thus being
manifested to sinful men like the rising of the morning sun after the darkness
of the night, “to give light to them that sit in darkness and in the shadow of
death.” That was the condition of the world all about him when Zacharias spoke
these words; and that is the condition of a large part of the world today, and
that is why we are entrusted to send the gospel out to the very ends of the
earth, that men and women everywhere may hear it-that it may give light to those
in darkness, in the very shadow of death. We read, in regard to those that turn
away from God, who live for self and sin, “The way of peace have they not
known;” but John the Baptist was to go before the face of the Lord to proclaim
the testimony God had given, in order to guide the feet of the people into the
way of peace. The servant of God who points men and women to Christ is showing
them the way to peace, for, “Being justified by faith we have peace with God.”
Our minds are naturally curious and there are a great many things of which we
have no record in the Gospels concerning which we would like information. We
would like to know something of the training of this child. We would like to be
permitted to look behind the scenes and see something of the home-life of John
the Baptist as a little child and as a youth growing up. We would like to know
what led him, eventually, into the wilderness, and how God spoke to him. But the
Lord has not been pleased to gratify our curiosity in regard to these things. He
tells us all that is important for us to know, and the rest He leaves. We shall
find them out by-and-by when we get home to heaven. But the story of John the
Baptist’s early life-the whole story-is given in one verse (Luke 1:80): “And the
child grew, and waxed strong in spirit, and was in the deserts till the day of
his showing-unto Israel.” Only a little less than four lines in my Bible, but
they cover, perhaps, some twenty-five or twenty-eight years of life, and they
picture for us very graphically a child growing up before the Lord devoted to
Him, strong in spirit, spurning the evil, choosing the good; and then, when the
divine call came, going apart from the rest of the world, alone out there in the
desert where he might commune with God, where he could better hear His voice and
be instructed by Him, in order that when the appointed time came he might appear
before the people of Israel as the messenger of Jehovah, who had come to prepare
the way of the Lord.
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CHAPTER 92: 06.06. THE BIRTH OF THE SAVIOUR -- LUK_2:1-20
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The Birth Of The Saviour -- Luke 2:1-20
“And it came to pass in those days, that there went out a decree from Caesar
Augustus, that all the world should be taxed. (And this taxing was first made
when Cyrenius was governor of Syria.) And all went to be taxed, every one into
his own city. And Joseph also went up from Galilee, out of the city of Nazareth,
into Judaea, unto the city of David, which is called Bethlehem; (because he was
of die house and lineage of David:) to be taxed with Mary his espoused wife,
being great with child. And so it was, that, while they were there, the days
were accomplished that she should be delivered. And she brought forth her
first-born son, and wrapped him in swaddling-clothes, and laid him in a manger;
because there was no room for them in the inn. And there were in the same
country shepherds abiding in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night.
And, lo, the angel of the Lord came upon them, and the glory of the Lord shone
round about them: and they were sore afraid. And the angel said unto them, Fear
not: for, behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all
people. For unto you is born this day in the city of David, a Saviour, which is
Christ the Lord. And this shall be a sign unto you; Ye shall find the babe
wrapped in swaddling-clothes, lying in a manger. And suddenly there was with the
angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God, and saying, Glory to God in
the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men. And it came to pass as
the angels were gone away from them into heaven, the shepherds said one to
another, Let us now go even unto Bethlehem, and see this thing which is come to
pass, which the Lord hath made known unto us. And they came with haste, and
found Mary, and Joseph, and the Babe lying in a manger. And when they had seen
it, they made known abroad the saying which was told them concerning this Child.
And all they that heard it wondered at those things which were told them by the
shepherds. But Mary kept all these things, and pondered them in her heart. And
the shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all the things that they
had heard and seen, as it was told unto them”- Luke 2:1-20. The incarnation of
our Lord is not merely a doctrinal tenet about which theologians of different
schools may hold various views; it is a glorious reality, a wondrous fact, apart
from which there could be no salvation for sinful men. “When the fulness 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”
(Galatians 4:4-5). The miraculous birth of our Saviour is one of the foundation
stones of our Christian faith. It is the companion truth to that of His
expiatory sacrifice on the cross. Because of this, it will generally be found
that he who denies the one denies the other. Too much importance cannot
therefore be attached to the historic fact that Jesus was born of a virgin
mother and that the “Child… born” was the “Son… given” (Isaiah 9:6). He who
deigned to enter human conditions by the birth in Bethlehem is the One “whose
goings forth have been from of old, from everlasting” (Micah 5:2). To deny this
is to repudiate the truth of the gospel, apart from which there is no hope for a
lost world. This passage connects very definitely with a prophecy which was
given some 700 years before the events took place, which is found in the fifth
chapter of the book of Micah. Micah was contemporary with Isaiah, and both
prophets predicted the coming of the days of the Messiah, our Lord Jesus Christ.
In the fifth chapter of Micah, second verse, we read, “But thou, Bethlehem
Ephratah, though thou be little among the thousands of Judah, yet out of thee
shall come forth unto Me, Him that is to be ruler in Israel; whose goings forth
have been from of old, from everlasting.” It is rather interesting to note the
next verse. You might expect the prophet to declare that immediately all Israel
would recognize as their Messiah and find redemption through, Him; but we read
“Therefore will He give them up, until the time that she which travaileth hath
brought forth: then the remnant of his brethren shall return unto the children
of Israel.”
How little chance there seemed, to almost the very last, of any possibility of
the fulfilment of Micah 5:2. It was given, as I have already said, 700 years
before the Lord Jesus Christ was born. The Holy Spirit definitely indicated the
place where he must be born-Bethlehem, a city of Judaea. It was David’s city. It
was not a very large city, but it is the most beautiful city, to my mind, in all
Palestine. For over a thousand years since the days of the first crusade
Bethlehem has been a Christian city, at least in name. It has not been given
over to Mohammedanism, but has been a recognized Christian community. The
prophet said that the Messiah must be born there, and he declared that this
mysterious Child was to be One “whose goings forth have been from of old, from
everlasting.” The psalmist says, “From everlasting to everlasting, Thou art
God.” This child, then, would be both God and Man-God and Man united in one
Person, never again to be separated. This is the mystery of the incarnation.
Such was Micah’s declaration, but it seemed until a very, very short time before
the actual event took place, that the prophecy could not be literally fulfilled.
Almost up to the very last Mary was dwelling in the city of Nazareth, in the
northern part of the land. In those days when one could only travel on foot, or
on the back of an ass or a camel, it took a long time to get from Nazareth to
Jerusalem. It is very different today. We made the journey from Nazareth to
Jerusalem in about eight hours, and we stopped over at a number of places en
route, but that was by automobile. It was not possible to travel that quickly in
those days. There was Mary at her home in Nazareth, expecting almost daily the
birth of the wonderful Babe, the secret of whose conception she alone thoroughly
understood, and yet the prophecy said, “He must be born in Bethlehem.” I wonder
if Mary ever thought of the words of Micah. I wonder if Joseph was concerned.
Did Joseph know that the child must come into the world at Bethlehem? At any
rate, they seemed to make no preparation for it. Then we are told it came to
pass in those days that there went out a decree from Caesar Augustus, that all
the world should be taxed. He was the ruler of the ancient world. He had his
throne in the city of Rome. And here was the prophecy which said that the
Messiah must be born in Bethlehem, and there was Mary waiting in Nazareth. So
God put it in the heart of the emperor, that everybody must go to his own city,
the city where he was born, in order to be enrolled for the taxing. This was
God’s way of bringing Mary and Joseph to Bethlehem on time, in order that His
Word might not fail. We are told this taxing was first made when Cyrenius was
Governor of Syria. The critics, those who try to find fault with the Bible and
question its inspiration, used to point to this second verse and say, “Now you
have positive proof that the Gospel of Luke could not have been divinely
inspired because you have an inaccuracy. Cyrenius ruled over Syria something
like 6 A.D., really ten years after the actual birth of Christ, because He was
born four years before the change of the calendar from B.C. to A.D.” These
objectors said Cyrenius was Governor of Syria, which included Palestine, a
number of years, on from A.D. 6. This taxing could not have taken place in his
time if it took place at the time when Christ was reputed to have been born. God
has been answering the critics in a very wonderful way in our day. The spade of
the archaeologist has been turning up a great many remarkable things that have
demonstrated the truth of the Bible. One of the leading archaeologists of the
day wrote recently, “I am acquainted with practically all the results of
archaeological discovery for the last hundred years, and I have not discovered
any that cast doubt on the Scripture, but hundreds of things have proved its
statements to be absolutely accurate.”
I have jotted down an item which I took from one of the records. “It has been
thought that Luke confused this census with that under Cyrenius, at 6 to 7 A.D.,
when he became Governor the second time. Luke refers to that also in Acts 5:37
as ‘the days of the taxing.’” But we know that Cyrenius had been Governor of
Syria before that, under the reign of Augustus, from B.C. 12 on to B.C. 3. It
was during this period that the census was taken, to which Luke refers here in
his Gospel. Men are too short-sighted and know too little, to find fault with
the Bible. Just give us the opportunity to get more facts, and the Bible will
always prove triumphant in every controversy. God had so ordered things that
this enrollment had to take place, and that meant that Joseph and Mary must go
to Bethlehem.
We read in verse Luke 2:4, “And Joseph also went up from Galilee, out of the
city of Nazareth, into Judaea, unto the city of David, which is called
Bethlehem; (because he was of the house and lineage of David).” So it was that
while there the days were accomplished that she should be delivered. Thus you
will see God had set the whole world in motion-millions of people going to their
own cities to be enrolled for the taxation, in order that one prophecy in the
Old Testament might be fulfilled on time, and that Christ might be born in
Bethlehem of Judaea. They were not looking for Him down there. There was no
welcome. Though Joseph was of the lineage of David and though Mary was a
daughter of the house of David, there was no blare of trumpets when they
arrived. There was no reservation for them in the local inn. We read there was
“no room for them in the inn.” I suppose hundreds of people were crowding into
Bethlehem. The wealthy would make reservations ahead and preempt the good places
to stay. I can imagine Joseph and Mary coming, tired and worn after that long
journey, and saying to the innkeeper, “Have you a comfortable place?” The
innkeeper would say, “You didn’t make any reservations. All the rooms have been
taken.” You can imagine there would not be much attention paid to this poor
carpenter. Yet God had made provision. There was one place, if there was no room
for His Son to be born in the inn, there was a place in a stable among the
cattle. So we read, “She brought forth her first-born Son, and wrapped Him in
swaddling-clothes, and laid Him in a manger; because there was no room for them
in the inn.” Do not think of the stable in which He was born as what we would
call a stable today. It would not be a wooden barn but a cave cut in the
limestone. When they show this place to people in Bethlehem today they say,
“This is the cave in which Christ was born.” We could see where the sheep and
goats and oxen had been kept; and passing through a kind of a catacomb-like
lane, we got into another cave where Jerome spent so many years while he
translated the Bible into the Latin from the Greek. According to his own record,
he said that his cave was right close by the one where Jesus Himself had been
born. They will show you the cave today. It was in some such cave-stable that
our blessed Lord was born. They took the little One and they wrapped Him in
swaddling-clothes, and for a cradle they put Him in a manger from which the
cattle were accustomed to get their food.
Think of God’s blessed Son: become Man for our redemption! Born in a stable! and
cradled in a manger! We find all heaven was stirred. In these early chapters of
Luke you get one song after another. You have the song of Elisabeth, the song of
Zacharias, and the song of Mary, and here you get the song of the angel. I know
we do not actually get the word “song” here. It does not actually say the angel
sang. But I am sure that the ordinary speech of the angels would be sweeter and
more melodious than any song that anybody could sing on earth. All heaven was
moved. We are told, “There were in the same country shepherds abiding in the
field, keeping watch over their flocks by night, and lo, the angel of the Lord
came upon them, and the glory of the Lord shone round about them, and they were
sore afraid.” They had heard of angels appearing in time past. But 400 years had
gone by since the last of the prophets, and there was no authentic record of
angels being seen on earth until Gabriel appeared to Zacharias in the temple.
Now all heaven was illuminated and a majestic being was actually visible to
mortals. They were sore afraid; but the angel said unto them, “Fear not; for,
behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy which shall be to all people.”
What a message-FEAR NOT! Gabriel twice before had used these same words, and
this may have been Gabriel again. “Fear not; for behold, I bring you good
tidings.” That is what the gospel is. The word means “good tidings.” Our English
word “gospel” is just a slightly changed form of the old Anglo-Saxon Gudspel,
which means “good tidings.” So the angel came to preach the gospel, and that
word rings all through the Word of God. The gospel was preached to Abraham, and
to the people of Israel. The gospel was preached all through the time or
ministry of John the Baptist, and the gospel is being proclaimed today in the
power of the Holy Ghost, sent down from Heaven. It is God’s message about His
blessed Son. There is only one gospel. Paul says, “Though we or an angel from
heaven preach any other gospel, let him be accursed.” This was an angel from
heaven. If there be any who preach any other gospel than that which we have
preached, let them be accursed. It is God’s good news about His blessed Son. It
takes on different forms at different times. It was the gospel of the Kingdom,
specifically, when our blessed Lord and the early apostles gave it forth.
Since Christ ascended to heaven, the message has been sent down to earth, that a
Saviour is seated at God’s right hand. This tells of a finished work. It is
called the “glorious gospel,” because it leads to the glory, and the
“everlasting gospel,” for it is the gospel for all ages. The gospel will be the
joy of our hearts for all eternity. It is all summed up in those wonderful words
of John 3:16, “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son,
that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life.”
There are good tidings of great joy for all people, not just for the elect, not
just for a limited number, but for all people. All men everywhere are invited to
put their trust in the Saviour whom God has sent into the world. We have the
definite announcement of the Lord’s birth as given by the angel, “Unto you is
born this day in the city of David a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord… And this
shall be a sign unto you; Ye shall find the babe wrapped in swaddling-clothes,
lying in a manger.”
Then we read that “suddenly there was with the angel, a multitude of the
heavenly host, praising God and saying, ‘Glory to God in the highest, and on
earth peace, good will toward men’.” It seems strange-doesn’t it?-to hear those
words ringing down through the ages, when you think of the awful condition which
prevails in the earth today. Look where you will; there is no peace. Look at the
lands abroad; there is war. Look out over our own land; it is strife between
Capital and Labor-between different groups. There is misery and wretchedness
everywhere-unrest on every hand; and yet the angel said, “Peace, goodwill toward
men.” Ah, but that peace was dependent upon receiving the Saviour whom God had
sent into the world. Alas, men rejected Him. They refused Him, and that is why
the world remains in its unhappy condition.
According to Micah, the Messiah is coming back again, when the rest of Israel
shall return to their God. The shepherds did not stop to question, but we read,
“It came to pass, as the angels were gone away from them into heaven, the
shepherds said one to another, Let us now go even unto Bethlehem, and see this
thing which is come to pass, which the Lord hath made known unto us.” I like the
simplicity of their faith. They did not say, “Let us go and see if this thing
has come to pass.” They said, “Let us go and see this thing which has come to
pass.” They were persuaded even before they saw. They hastened and came and
found Mary and Joseph, and the Babe lying in the manger; and when they had seen
it they made known the saying which was told them concerning this Child. The
first evangelists of the new age were these simple shepherds who went out
saying, “He has come,” and “We have seen Him. He was born in Bethlehem. We saw
Him there lying in a manger.” They went forth proclaiming the advent of our
blessed Lord Jesus Christ, and all they that heard it wondered at those things
which were told them by the shepherds.
Think of the virgin mother-what it must have meant to her! There she lay in the
palace of straw! There-on the floor of the stable-there was the little Babe in
the manger where she could just reach it with her delicately-shaped fingers; and
all the time she was thinking what a wonderful message had come to her some
months before, and now was the fulfilment. What does it all mean? Little could
she see the wonderful results that would be manifested down through the ages,
but she knew that God had come in, in grace, and visited His people. We read
that “Mary kept all these things, and pondered them in her heart, and the
shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all the things that they had
heard and seen, as it was told unto them.”
How our hearts rejoice in this story. We have read it over and over again, but
it is always new; is it not? The sweetest story ever told-the coming to earth of
our Lord Jesus Christ. No room for Him in the inn. Is there room in your heart?
Have you made room for Him? Have you received Him? Have you trusted Him? If you
never made room for Him before, won’t you say now, “Come in, my Lord, come in,
And make my heart Thy home, Come in and cleanse my soul from sin, And dwell with
me alone.”
He wants to come in, and He will come in if you will open the door.
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CHAPTER 93: 06.07. THE PRESENTATION IN THE TEMPLE -- LUK_2:21-38
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The Presentation In The Temple -- Luke 2:21-38
“And when eight days were accomplished for the circumcising of the Child, His
name was called JESUS, which was so named of the angel before He was conceived
in the womb. And when the days of her purification according to the law of Moses
were accomplished, they brought Him to Jerusalem, to present Him to the Lord;
(as it is written in the law of the Lord, Every male that openeth the womb shall
be called holy to the Lord;) and to offer a sacrifice according to that which is
said in the law of the Lord, A pair of turtle doves, or two young pigeons. And,
behold, there was a man in Jerusalem, whose name was Simeon: and the same man
was just and devout, waiting for the consolation of Israel: and the Holy Ghost
was upon him. And it was revealed unto him by the Holy Ghost, that he should not
see death, before he had seen the Lord’s Christ. And he came by the Spirit into
the temple: and when the parents brought in the Child Jesus, to do for Him after
the custom of the law, then took he Him up in his arms, and blessed God, and
said, Lord, now lettest Thou Thy servant depart in peace, according to Thy word:
for mine eyes have seen Thy salvation, which Thou hast prepared before the face
of all people; a light to lighten the Gentiles, and the glory of Thy people
Israel. And Jeseph, and His mother marvelled at those things which were spoken
of Him. And Simeon blessed them and said unto Mary, His mother, Behold, this
Child is set for the fall and rising again of many in Israel; and for a sign
which shall be spoken against: (yea, a sword shall pierce through thy own soul
also;) that the thoughts of many hearts may be revealed. And there was one Anna,
a prophetess, the daughter of Phanuel, of the tribe of Aser: she was of a great
age, and had lived with an husband seven years from her virginity; and she was a
widow of about fourscore and four years, which departed not from the temple, but
served God with fastings and prayers night and day. And she coming in that
instant gave thanks likewise unto die Lord, and spake of Him to all them that
looked for redemption in Jerusalem”- Luke 2:21-38.
There are really five parts in this section. First, we have the actual
presentation of the Lord in the temple, to do for Him according to the law. As a
Jewish child the ordinance of circumcision had been performed upon Him when He
was eight days old. At that time His name was definitely called Jesus, as the
angel declared should be the case before His birth. It is important to remember
that this very name signifies not only His Saviourhood, but also His Deity, for
it actually means “Jehovah the Saviour.” That was the name given to Him before
He was born, and confirmed to Mary before He was presented in the Temple. How
blessed to know Him as that! God Himself came down in grace, linked His Deity
with our humanity, in order to perfect our redemption. We have something that is
rather pathetic and deeply interesting to me, in the offering that Mary and
Joseph brought. According to the law, after a child was born and a certain
number of days had elapsed, a sacrifice was to be brought in recognition of the
Lord’s goodness to the parents, and also in recognition of the fact that even
little children, as sweet and comparatively innocent as they are, come of a
sinful race and need a Saviour. According to the law, that sacrifice might be of
various animals. It might be a lamb out of the flock, or a kid of the goats, or,
the Word says, if they were not able to bring a lamb or a kid, they might bring
two turtledoves or two young pigeons. Here we have a most significant thing.
When Mary and Joseph came to offer this sacrifice in connection with the
presentation of our blessed Lord Jesus, their wonderful adorable Babe, we read
that they brought a pair of turtledoves. They could not bring the higher-priced
offerings. They were numbered among the poor of Israel. That gives us some
conception of the place our Saviour took in grace-He who was higher than the
highest. He who created all things came into this world and took His place in a
family so poor that they were not able to bring a lamb out of the flock, but
they brought the offering of the very needy-two turtledoves.
Next we have the recognition of the Saviour by Simeon and the prophecy
concerning Him. We are told that, “There was a man in Jerusalem whose name was
Simeon, and the same man was just and devout, awaiting the consolation of
Israel.” There were, doubtless, many of the Jews at this time who recognized the
fact that the great time-prophecy of Daniel 9:1-27 had almost run out and that
very soon the promised Messiah, the King and Saviour of Israel, must appear in
accordance with the Word of God; and so they waited for Him. I wonder how many
of us are waiting for His second coming. The years have gone since He went away.
He said, “If I go to prepare a place for you I will come again, and receive you
unto Myself.” The Thessalonian believers “turned to God from idols to serve the
living and true God and to wait for His Son from heaven.” Are we numbered among
those who are waiting for the Lord Jesus-waiting for Him to return again;
waiting for Him to call His Church to be with Himself, and then to be manifested
in glory for the full blessing of Israel and the nations? Just as this little
remnant in Israel was waiting for Him to come the first time, so we should be
waiting for Him to appear the second time, apart from the sin question, unto our
complete and final salvation. This man, Simeon, an aged man, was waiting for the
consolation of the coming of the Messiah, and it was revealed to him by the Holy
Spirit that he should not taste of death until he had seen the Lord’s Christ;
that is, until he had seen the Messiah that Jehovah had promised. As Mary and
Joseph came into the Temple bringing the little child in their arms, Simeon
entered also, and when the parents presented the Child Jesus, Simeon saw Him
immediately and said, “That is the One,” and without a moment’s hesitation he
went to Mary and took the child in his own arms and blessed God and said, “Now,
Lord, let Thy servant depart in peace according to Thy Word, for mine eyes hath
seen Thy salvation.” That for which he was waiting had now actually been
fufilled. The Spirit made it clear to him, and he said, “This is what I have
waited for. This is what I wanted, and I now have that for which I longed, and I
am ready to go home. Let me now depart in peace, for mine eyes have seen Thy
salvation.” Notice the last expression- God’s salvation is bound up in a Person.
When he saw Christ he said, “I have seen Thy salvation.” If you would ever see
God’s salvation you must see the Lord Jesus Christ. If, when you look by faith
upon Him, when you behold Him as the One who was sent by the Father, who came to
this world in grace, and gave Himself a ransom for our souls-when you can see
Him you are beholding God’s salvation. So, if you would know God’s salvation you
must receive Christ.
Then Simeon goes on to prophesy. He says, “Mine eyes have seen Thy salvation,
which Thou hast prepared before the face of all people, a light to lighten the
Gentiles and the glory of Thy people, Israel.” You might have expected Simeon to
reverse that expression, for it was prophesied in the Old Testament that the
Messiah was coming first to bring blessing to Israel and then, through Israel,
to the Gentile world. Simeon realizes and recognizes that there is a break in
God’s way in dealing with men; so he puts the Gentiles first, and then Israel.
The Spirit of God knew that when our Lord Jesus Christ came that first time in
lowly grace, His own people would refuse Him. They would turn away from Him.
They would not receive Him as their Messiah. So their hour of blessing was to be
deferred. But he said, “He shall be a light to lighten the Gentiles,” and that
explains why it is that, though Israel refuses to own our Lord Jesus Christ as
their Saviour, He has been manifested to untold millions of Gentiles who have
recognized and trusted in Him. Has God lost His interest in Israel? No; for the
present time blindness, in part, has happened to Israel until the fulness of the
Gentiles comes in. When the work among the Gentiles is completed, then He is
going to take up Israel again in a marvelous way. So Simeon says, “He is a light
to lighten the Gentiles, and the glory of Thy people, Israel.” What a day it
will be when Israel returns to the Lord, and when they shall recognize in Him
the One whom their fathers rejected-the Saviour that God had promised, whose
finished work on the cross alone redeems!
Then notice in the third place, the special word for Mary, the mother of our
blessed Lord. Simeon said unto her, “Behold, this Child is set for the fall and
rising again of many in Israel; and for a sign which shall be spoken against.”
How this must have confirmed to the blessed mother of our Lord the words spoken
by the angel before His birth. It was all so strange and mysterious, but when
this aged Spirit-controlled servant of God definitely said to her, “This child
is set for the fall and rising again of many in Israel,” it would confirm what
had already been revealed to her. What does he mean by the fall and rising
again? You will remember, Jesus said He was the stone of salvation, but He said,
“Whosoever shall fall upon this stone shall be broken.” Israel stumbled over the
lowly Jesus. He was a stumbling-stone and a rock of offence to both the houses
of Israel; so He was set for the fall of many in Israel; but, on the other hand,
down through the centuries thousands upon thousands have turned to Him, as many
did in the days immediately following His resurrection-three thousand at
Pentecost, thousands more afterward, untold myriads down through the centuries
since. Vast numbers from Israel have turned to God and found in the Lord Jesus
their Saviour, and by-and-by the nation as a whole will be converted. So, this
Child was set for the fall and rising again of many in Israel, and for a sign
that should be spoken against. Oh, the bitter things, the blasphemous things
that have been said concerning the Lord Jesus Christ! When people reject the
Lord Jesus Christ there is no saying to what length they will go to bolster up
their false beliefs.
Then Simeon turned directly to Mary and said to her, “Yea, a sword shall pierce
through thine own soul also, that the thoughts of many hearts may be revealed.”
I wonder if these words did not come back to Mary as she stood by the cross and
saw her blessed Son nailed to the tree, as she looked upon the thorn-crowned
head, as she saw blood spurting from every wound, as she saw the hands that had
been pressed upon her brow so many times nailed upon that cross, and those feet
that had gone about, carrying their blessed Owner on errands of love and mercy,
spiked to that tree. Her sorrows must have been deep indeed, and yet she knew
that all was foreknown of God, and that it was her appointed destiny to bring
into the world the Saviour who was thus to give His life a ransom for all. The
next thing we notice is that in Luke 2:36, God gives further confirmation. This
time an aged woman appears on the scene, a prophetess, named Anna, the daughter
of Phanuel. She had lived with an husband seven years from her virginity, we are
told, and was a widow of about eighty-four years, so she must have been above a
hundred years of age. She was one of the remnant in Israel, waiting for the
coming of the Messiah. She departed not from the Temple, but served God with
fastings and prayer night and day. She, coming in that instant, suddenly
recognized the Babe as the Saviour, and she gave thanks likewise unto the Lord,
and she spake of Him to all them that looked for redemption in Jerusalem. This
aged woman, becomes one of the first evangelists of the new age, saying, “I have
seen the Saviour. He has come-the One who is to bring redemption.” The closing
part of our passage has to do with the Childhood of our blessed Lord. When they
had performed all things according to the law of the Lord they returned into
Galilee, into their own city, Nazareth, and the Child grew and waxed strong in
spirit. It is a lovely picture of this Child growing up in the seclusion of the
home and glorifying God, His Father, in all things. There was nothing abnormal
about Him. He was not doing wonderful and remarkable things. If you want signs
and wonders the “Apocryphal Gospels” will give you all kinds of things
attributed to our blessed Lord. It is told how, when He was a little boy, He
went to school and the teacher started to teach Him the alphabet. The teacher
said, “Say Aleph” and He repeated it. Then the teacher told Him to say Beth. He
replied, “No, I will not say Beth until you tell me what Aleph means.” The
teacher lifted up his hand to strike Him and his hand became paralyzed. That is
the kind of Jesus the Apocryphal Gospels tell us of.
There is nothing like that in God’s Holy Word. This is a beautiful, perfectly
normal Child growing up in a lowly home where God is revered, and feeding upon
the Word of God until the hour when He was to go forth on His great mission to
redeem the world. Those hidden years were the suitable preparation for His
future ministry.
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CHAPTER 94: 06.08. THE BOY CHRIST AMONG THE ... -- LUK_2:41-52
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The Boy Christ Among The Doctors -- Luke 2:41-52
“Now His parents went to Jerusalem every year at the feast of the passover. And
when He was twelve years old, they went up to Jerusalem after the custom of the
feast. And when they had fulfilled the days, as they returned, the Child Jesus
tarried behind in Jerusalem; and Joseph and His mother knew not of it. But they,
supposing Him to have been in the company, went a day’s journey; and they sought
Him among their kinsfolk and acquaintance. And when they found Him not, they
turned back again to Jerusalem, seeking Him. And it came to pass, that after
three days they found Him in the temple, sitting in the midst of the doctors,
both hearing them, and asking them questions. And all that heard Him were
astonished at His understanding and answers. And when they saw Him, they were
amazed: and His mother said unto Him, Son, why hast Thou thus dealt with us?
behold, Thy father and I have sought Thee sorrowing. And He said unto them, How
is it that ye sought Me? wist ye not that I must be about My Father’s business?
And they understood not the saying which He spake unto them. And He went down
with them, and came to Nazareth, and was subject unto them: but His mother kept
all these sayings in her heart. And Jesus increased in wisdom and stature, and
in favor with God and man” - Luke 2:41-52.
It has not pleased God to give us very much information in regard to the early
life of His beloved Son, as Man here on earth. Uninspired writers have tried to
fill the gap by producing imaginary stories of the Childhood, and Youth, and
Manhood of Jesus. There are weird myths stating that He went off to India as a
young man and there sat at the feet of Hindu yogis, and learned the art of
healing, and such like rubbish. We may be sure none of these things is true. Our
Lord Jesus lived a normal life as a boy, growing up in a beautiful Jewish home
where the Word of God was adored and loved. As a young man He worked at the
carpenter’s bench with His foster-father, Joseph, and inasmuch as Joseph
disappears from the picture in a little time and never seems to appear again, we
are forced to the conclusion that he must have died while our Lord was quite a
young man. That would bring Him to the place where He would be the head of the
family, and caring for His mother and His younger brothers and sisters, for the
Scriptures speak of His brothers and sisters. God never seeks to gratify mere
curiosity.
We would like to know more of those hidden years at Nazareth. We would like to
know more of the early days of our blessed Lord. We just have enough to let us
know that He was a subject Child, and that His heart was always open to the
voice of God, His Father. Here we get a little light on the habits of the family
that help us to understand just what kind of a group it was. His parents went to
Jerusalem every year at the feast of Passover. Long years before, God had
commanded in the law that His people should go up to the place where He set His
name from year to year, to keep the Passover feast, and it was His thought that
every Passover might be a lesson to the children.
You remember that when the children asked, “What mean ye by these things?” they
were told how their fathers had been slaves in the land of Egypt, and how God
had delivered them and brought them out of the house of bondage. The parents
were to explain the meaning of the Passover lamb, and though, perhaps, they
realized it not, it was a picture of redemption.
One can think of our blessed Lord as a mere child taking the place of a little
Jewish boy in that home, looking up into the eyes of His dear mother and saying,
“What mean ye by these things?” Then as Joseph went on to explain, He would know
far better than Joseph the real meaning of the Passover rites. He knew that He
was the true Passover Lamb. He had come from heaven in order to give His life a
ransom for many. He knew that the blood of the Passover lamb typified His own
precious blood soon to be shed for the world’s redemption, and yet, perhaps all
this knowledge did not come to Him as a child immediately, for we are told that
Jesus increased in wisdom as He increased in stature and in favor with God and
man. The mystery of His incarnation is beyond our keenest comprehension. As the
Eternal Son of God we hear Him saying to the Father, “Lo, I came to do Thy will,
O My God. Yea, Thy law is within My heart.” Voluntarily He left the throne of
glory for the manger of Bethlehem. As God, of course, He knew all things, and
yet as Man He chose to grow in wisdom as He grew in stature. It is a mystery. We
cannot understand how He, who was the Eternal Wisdom, could yet learn from the
Word of God. When we turn back to the prophet Isaiah we hear Him say, “He
wakeneth morning by morning, He wakeneth Mine ear to hear as the learned.” Our
Lord Jesus, as a little child, grew and studied the Word of God. Later He fed on
the Word of God. It was His constant delight and joy. All these different
circumstances must have spoken to His heart as He knew He was the One who had
come to fulfil every one of the types and shadows of the Law.
It is wonderful to contemplate that lovely family on its way to Jerusalem year
after year, and that little Child Jesus toddling along beside, or His mother
cuddling Him in her arms as she rode upon an ass.
Then, when He was twelve years old, the visit to Jerusalem had special
significance for Him. When He was twelve they came up to Jerusalem after the
custom of the feast. It was the rule in Israel, when a child reached the age of
twelve, to bring him to the temple, and there he went through certain ceremonies
something like that of confirmation in some of our churches. From that time on
he was recognized as the son of the Law. A child was not supposed to be on his
own responsibility until he reached the age of twelve. His parents were
responsible for him until that time, but when he became twelve years of age he
accepted his own responsibility, and it was now put up to him that he was to
obey God and keep His Law and seek His favor. So our Lord Jesus at twelve years
of age took His place as the son of the Law. He was a true Israelite and He came
to fulfil everything in the Law of Moses according to the will of God. On this
occasion something occurred that may have a very serious lesson for us. When the
Passover feast was ended and the people were leaving the city and wending their
way back to their various homes, the family to which our blessed Lord belonged
and many of their friends and relatives passed through the gates of the city and
took the road to the north. Joseph and His mother did not inquire whether the
young lad Jesus was with them. They took that for granted. No word was told Him
that they were going, and He was not under responsibility to leave with them.
There was something else upon His heart and mind that God the Father had
revealed definitely to Him. They took the northern route, and went on a whole
day’s journey supposing Him to be in the company. Then, when they undertook to
camp for the night, they sought Him everywhere and He wasn’t there. Our friend,
Gipsy Smith, has often preached a very great sermon on the subject, “The Lost
Christ,” and pointed out how possible it is to take it for granted that Jesus is
in the company, and yet to be without Him. It is never true that the Lord Jesus
Christ leaves those whom He has saved by His grace. It is never true that,
having taken anyone up in His loving-kindness, He later forsakes them, but it is
sadly true that Christians may go on taking it for granted that they are in
fellowship with Him when actually they have drifted away from Him in heart. They
are not enjoying His presence, and they hardly realize their loss. I wonder if
there are not some of us here today who have had that experience. It is so easy
to go on in an outward form of religiousness and not really enjoy the presence
of Christ. It is possible to sit at the table of the Lord and to be conducting
services for the Lord, and yet not have the presence of the Lord with us, and it
is possible to go on, day by day, thinking everything is all right when in
reality things are very, very wrong because we are out of touch with Him. We are
not enjoying communion with Him. So it was with this group, awakened at last to
realize that in some way or other they had missed Him. They took the long road
back to Jerusalem, no doubt inquiring of friends if they had seen Him. When they
got to the city three days went by before, at last, they found Him in the
Temple. One would have thought they would have gone there first. That was His
Father’s house. There He had professed His allegiance to the Lord God, because
the One in whose name it was dedicated was so precious to His youthful heart.
When the parents came they found Him sitting in the midst of the doctors, both
hearing them and asking them questions. Now notice this: There is no evidence of
undue precocity and He is not an impertinent child. He is not sitting in the
midst of the doctors teaching them, nor leaving His place as a child to try to
instruct these older people. He has all the marks of a humble child. He is
listening to them, hearing what the elders have to say, and asking them
questions. They too, evidently, ask Him questions. When they did He answered
modestly and so wonderfully that they were amazed.
We read, “And it came to pass, that after three days they found Him in the
temple, sitting in the midst of the doctors, both hearing them, and asking them
questions. And all that heard Him were astonished at His understanding and
answers.” They did not know that this Child was “over all, God blessed for
ever,” who had taken our humanity in order that He might fulfil all that was
written of Him in the Law. They did not realize that the Messiah for whom they
had long waited was there in their midst. They said, “We have never seen a child
like this before. He seems to know God so intimately. He knows the Scriptures so
well-not merely the letter of the Law, but the spiritual meaning of it.” So they
looked one upon the other in amazement as they heard His questions and listened
to His answers. In this as in all else the Lord Jesus has left young people an
example that they should follow. He left us an example of a Man who went around
doing good. Consequently when He was reviled He reviled not again, and when He
suffered He threatened not. We have an example as a Child, that children who
have been brought to know their God and Father may follow in His steps. Young
folk, let me impress upon you the importance of familiarizing yourselves with
God’s blessed Word. What you learn of this blessed Book in childhood will abide
with you through the years. Some of us have proven that. We took it as the man
of our counsel in our early days when we read it over and over again, and how
much it has meant to us throughout the years. In the desire to get an education
and to become familiar with the events of the day do not so give yourselves to
other books that you neglect the Word of God. Feed upon His Word. See that you
get some of it every day for your own soul. Don’t be content to read a chapter
at a time, but meditate when you read, and ask God to open it up to you by the
Holy Spirit, and as you thus feast upon the Word you, too, will increase in
wisdom, and in stature and in favor with God and man. You will be able, some
day, to astonish those who do not know the secrets of the Lord, by your
calmness, your restfulness of spirit in the midst of all the strife of earth, as
you depend upon the living Word of God.
Mary and Joseph came to the temple and there they found Jesus, the Boy Jesus,
sitting in the midst of the doctors, interested as they discussed together the
things of the Scriptures, and when they saw Him they were amazed, and His mother
said unto him, “Son, why hast Thou thus dealt with us? behold, Thy father and I
have sought Thee sorrowing.” You cannot blame her for the seeming reproach in
her words. She had never known Him to be disobedient. He was perfect in all His
ways. This was the first time perhaps that anything had occurred that had
perplexed her in the bringing up of this Child, this Holy One. Mary speaks of
Joseph as His father because he took a father’s place, but actually God was His
only Father. “And He said unto them, How is it that ye sought Me? wist ye not
that I must be about My Father’s business?” “Did I ever say anything that would
warrant your losing faith in Me? Could you not trust Me? Could you not count
upon My doing the thing that was right?” I wonder if that was not to remind her
of that great mystery of twelve years back, when she, a virgin, had become the
mother of a Child who had no human father. She knew that He was the Son of God.
She knew that His first allegiance was to God the Father. Why did she not
understand? There is just a gentle reprimand here that might seem unkind if we
did not understand who He was. It was He who was both God and Man in one
glorious Person. We read in verse Luke 2:50, “And they understood not the saying
which He spake unto them.” It was something utterly beyond their comprehension.
Then, we have the next part of His life, up to the time of the beginning of His
public ministry, brought before us in just two verses. These two verses are all
that God has been pleased to tell us of the hidden years before He came forth to
proclaim His Messiahship. “And He went down with them, and came to Nazareth, and
was subject unto them.” There again, what an example He sets to Christian young
people of all ages. Oh, how much insubjection there is today. God’s Word has
said, “Children, obey your parents, for this is right.” It is the first
commandment with a promise. Children are to honor their parents although
sometimes the parents are not very deserving of honor, but the children at least
should try to cover the failures of their parents and to give them what honor
they can, but oh, how children today dishonor their parents! How much disrespect
there is! How much disobedience there is! In the old days it was “Children, obey
your parents.” Now it is largely, “Parents, obey your children.” I was in a home
not long ago and the folks were getting ready to go out on a little trip. The
mother was downstairs in the car, and the daughter was calling upstairs to the
father. I think she felt she ought to apologize to me, and she said, “I hope you
won’t misunderstand, but, you know, I have the most awful time training father
to do as he is told.” That is just a picture of the times. Instead of children
doing as they are told, they are seeking to force the parents to obey the
children. But how different the example set here by our blessed Lord, this holy
Youth growing up there in Nazareth. He was subject unto His parents. We are told
His mother kept all these sayings in her heart. She was pondering day by day as
she noticed the development of this wonderful Child, as she thought of the
angel’s message of the miraculous birth and of some things that had transpired
since. She was trying to peer into the future, wondering what was to be the
destiny of this marvelous Being, of this One who was to be in her care. The last
verse gives us the end of what the Scriptures reveal concerning His early years:
“And Jesus increased in wisdom and stature, and in favor with God and man.” In
all this He is an example to us. If we would grow in grace as we grow in years
we need to feed on the Word of God and to spend much time in communion with our
Heavenly Father by prayer and meditation. In Hebrews 5:11-14 the inspired writer
bewails the sad fact that so many of God’s children make such slow progress in
the spiritual life. After years of Christian profession they are still as babes
in Christ, unable to appropriate and to digest the deeper spiritual truths of
the Scriptures, but are such as need to be fed upon the milk of the Word. Paul
speaks in a similar way to the Corinthian believers (1 Corinthians 3:1-2). One
evidence of spiritual babyhood is the tendency to quarrel over trivial
questions, and to follow after human leaders instead of being subject to the
direction of the Holy Spirit. Babies are inclined to be quarrelsome and
self-willed. Some Christians manifest the same childish characteristics. Those
who go on with the Lord and grow in grace and in the knowledge of Christ become
increasingly like their Master. In this, as in all else that pertains to life
and godliness, our blessed Lord as Man on earth was our example. While Jesus was
the Incarnate Son, yet as a youth in the home at Nazareth “He increased in
wisdom” as He grew in stature, and men marveled at the grace that was seen in
His holy ways.
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CHAPTER 95: 06.09. THE BAPTISM OF JESUS -- LUK_3:1-22
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The Baptism Of Jesus -- Luke 3:1-22
“Now in the fifteenth year of the reign of Tiberius Caesar, Pontius Pilate being
governor of Judaea, and Herod being tetrarch of Galilee, and his brother Philip
tetrarch of Ituraea and of the region of Trachonitis, and Lysanias the tetrarch
of Abilene, Annas and Caiaphas being the high priests, the Word of God came unto
John the son of Zacharias in the wilderness. And he came into all the country
about Jordan, preaching the baptism of repentance for the remission of sins; as
it is written in the book of the words of Esaias the prophet, saying, The voice
of one crying in the wilderness, Prepare ye the way of the Lord, make His paths
straight. Every valley shall be filled, and every mountain and hill shall be
brought low; and the crooked shall be made straight, and the rough ways shall be
made smooth; and all flesh shall see the salvation of God. Then said he to the
multitude that came forth to be baptized of him, O generation of vipers, who
hath warned you to flee from the wrath to come? Bring forth therefore fruits
worthy of repentance, and begin not to say within yourselves, We have Abraham to
our father: for I say unto you, That God is able of these stones to raise up
children unto Abraham. And now also the axe is laid unto the root of the trees:
every tree therefore which bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down, and cast
into the fire. And the people asked him, saying, What shall we do then? He
answereth and saith unto them, He that hath two coats, let him impart to him
that hath none; and he that hath meat, let him do likewise. Then came also
publicans to be baptized, and said unto him, Master, what shall we do? And he
said unto them, Exact no more than that which is appointed you. And the soldiers
likewise demanded of him, saying, And what shall we do? And he said unto them,
Do violence to no man, neither accuse any falsely; and be content with your
wages. And as the people were in expectation, and all men mused in their hearts
of John, whether he were the Christ, or not; John answered, saying unto them
all, I indeed baptize you with water; but One mightier than I cometh, the
latchet of whose shoes I am not worthy to unloose: He shall baptize you with the
Holy Ghost and with fire: whose fan is in His hand, and He will thoroughly purge
His floor, and will gather the wheat into His garner; but the chaff He will burn
with fire unquenchable. And many other things in his exhortation preached he
unto the people. But Herod the tetrarch, being reproved by him for Herodias his
brother Philip’s wife, and for all the evils which Herod had done, added yet
this above all, that he shut up John in prison. Now when all the people were
baptized, it came to pass, that Jesus also being baptized, and praying, the
heaven was opened, and the Holy Ghost descended in a bodily shape like a dove
upon Him, and a voice came from heaven, which said, Thou art My beloved Son; in
Thee I am well pleased”- Luke 3:1-22. This passage brings before us the baptism
of John, the baptism to which our blessed Lord Himself submitted.
Perhaps there is no person portrayed by the pen of inspiration less understood
than John the Baptist. Our Lord Jesus said of him that of all those born of
women there had never been a greater than he, but yet he that is the least in
the kingdom of heaven is greater than John the Baptist. He stood at the door
inviting people to enter. He never got in himself. He did not belong to the new
dispensation in its fulness, but he showed the way to others; so in the sense of
privilege, those who are in the kingdom of heaven are greater than he. But Jesus
said that of all the prophets none was greater than John. Abraham was not
greater. Moses was not greater; David was not; neither were Isaiah nor Jeremiah
greater. John the Baptist in some way outshone them all. He was chosen by the
Spirit of God to prepare the way for the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ and to
seek to bring men and women to an attitude of soul where they would be ready to
receive the Saviour when He appeared before them. In telling the story, Luke is
very specific. He writes as a careful historian. He gives us dates that any
readers of his own time would have been able to verify, and that we ourselves to
some extent are able to verify today. He tells us exactly when John the Baptist
began his ministry. It was in the fifteenth year of the reign of Tiberious
Caesar, Pontius Pilate being governor of Judaea, and Herod, tetrarch of Galilee.
This was a grandson of the infamous Herod who was responsible for the slaughter
of the babes in Bethlehem. His brother Philip was tetrarch of Ituraea and of the
region of Trachonitis, and Lysanias was the tetrarch of Abilene. John got into
trouble later on because of the fact that Herod lured away his brother Philip’s
wife, and took her to himself. Then we are told that Annas and Caiaphas were
high-priests in Judaea. We might ask, According to the Old Testament Scriptures
how could there be two high-priests? There was to be only one high-priest at a
time and then he was to be succeeded by his son. But at this time everything was
out of order and the high-priesthood was a political plum bought and sold by the
Roman conquerors who gave the office to the highest bidder. Annas was retired
later on, and his son-in-law, Caiaphas, had the position. But they were both
recognized as high-priests.
It was at this time, when Israel was in dire confusion, that the Word of God
came to John the Baptist. Thirty years or more had gone by since his birth. We
know nothing of his early training. We are not given any particulars as to how
the Lord made Himself known to him, and gave him to realize that he was
appointed to be the herald of the coming of the Saviour. Evidently for sometime
he had been dwelling in the wilderness. Many of God’s servants had graduated
from the university of the wilderness! Moses was given a post-graduate course
there for forty years. Much of David’s training was given him in the wilderness.
Take Elijah the Prophet-what lessons he had to learn out in the desert! And our
blessed Saviour Himself spent forty days in the wilderness of Quarantana.
John the Baptist suddenly appeared in the region around Jordan, and we are told
he was preaching the baptism of repentance for the remission of sins. He was not
telling people that if they would be baptized their sins would be remitted.
There is no such doctrine as that in Scripture. When we read of being baptized
for the remission of sins it means that by baptism one confesses that he
deserves to die. When John the Baptist called upon the people to be baptized
confessing their sins, he was telling them that they were lost, that they
deserved to die, that they could not make atonement for their own sins; but he
told them of One who could. Some people imagine that John knew nothing of the
grace of God. They forget that his real message was this: “Behold the Lamb of
God, which taketh away the sin of the world.” Who said that? John the Baptist.
That is the gospel of the grace of God. Did John the Baptist preach the gospel?
Yes! He told men that only through the Lamb of God, the Lord Jesus, would their
sins be remitted. He stood there in the Jordan valley and he drove home to the
people their sins. We are told that those who believed his words justified God,
and were baptized of him in the Jordan, confessing their sins. Their baptism was
the outward acknowledgment of their lost condition. All this was in accordance
with prophecy. We are referred to Chapter 40 of Isaiah where God says, “Comfort
ye, comfort ye My people, saith your God.” The prophet looks up and asks, “How
will I comfort them?” The voice of God says, “Cry that all flesh is grass and
all the goodliness thereof is as the flower of the field.” If God is going to
comfort men they must first own their utter good-for-nothingness in His sight.
To bolster men up in their own self-righteousness by trying to make them believe
they have ability in themselves whereby they may save their own souls, is simply
misleading men, and those who so preach will be responsible for soul-murder. The
true servant of God is to put before men their lost condition in order that they
may see their need of a Saviour. So Isaiah tells us that one was coming into the
world with a message like this: “Every valley shall be filled, and every
mountain and hill shall be brought low; and the crooked shall be made straight,
and the rough ways shall be made smooth; and all flesh shall see the salvation
of God.” There is beautiful poetry in the Bible. He means that God’s messenger
was to go forth before the face of the coming Messiah as a leveler, to bring all
men to one common plane, the recognition of their sinnership: “All have sinned,
and come short of the glory of God.” John was to bring this to the hearts and
consciences of Israel in order that they might realize how badly they needed the
Saviour who was about to come.
“Then said he to the multitude that came forth to be baptized of him, O
generation of vipers, who hath warned you to flee from the wrath to come?” In
the great audience he saw many who were really unreal. They were there
sight-seeing. They had heard of the strange, weird, desert-preacher, and they
wanted to find out what he was doing. So John turned to them and said, “All of
you who have never been born of God, who are not honest with God, and do not
want to be honest with God, who warned you to flee from the wrath to come?” John
says, “If you profess to be the people of God evidence this in your lives. Bring
forth fruits worthy of repentance.” Do not misunderstand me. He was not saying
they could be saved by anything they might do. They were in the place of
covenant relationship with God. They professed to be the seed of Abraham, and
yet their lives were bringing disrepute upon the very name they bore. Whatever
you profess to be, evidence it in your lives. Repent. What is repentance? It is
self-judgment. It is a complete change of mind and attitude. If you have
repented, if you have faced your sins before God, if you know deliverance from
them as shown by new lives, you are a truly repentant people. Do not fall back
on natural relationship. It would be a small thing for God to raise up children
from the stones unto Abraham. The mere fact that you are Israelites does not
mean that you are children of God. It is just another way of saying what Jesus
said to Nicodemus later on, “You must be born again.”
Then John adds, “And now also the axe is laid unto the root of the trees: every
tree therefore which bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down, and cast into
the fire.” In many places today you will hear beautiful, eloquent sermons that
really would amount to this: “The axe is laid to the fruit of the tree.” In
other words, men are told, “Give up your bad ways. Give up your evil behavior.
Everything will be all right and you will be saved by reformation. You will be
saved by ethical culture. You will be saved by character. That’s all you need.”
Imagine an orchardist trying to make a bad tree produce good fruit by cutting
off all the imperfect fruit! The next crop will be just more bad fruit. The more
you keep cutting it off the more bad fruit there will be. It won’t change the
nature of the tree at all. The apple-tree isn’t an apple-tree because it bears
eatable apples. It bears good apples because it is a good apple-tree. A
crab-apple tree isn’t bad because it bears crab-apples. It bears crab-apples
because it is a crab-apple tree. A man isn’t a sinner because he sins. He sins
because he is a sinner. That’s the trouble with him. That’s why he needs to be
born again. That’s why John the Baptist came saying, “Cut it down completely.
Let there be a new thing altogether.” The axe is laid to the root of the trees;
every tree therefore that beareth not good fruit shall be hewn down, and cast
into the fire.” Nothing you can do as a natural man will enable you to bring
forth fruit to God. The apostle Paul preached the same doctrine that John the
Baptist preached. He told the Ephesian elders that throughout his ministry. He
preached “repentance toward God and faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.” Repentance
means that the natural man takes God’s side against himself. God says, “All have
sinned.” Man says, “I’m not a sinner.” The penitent confesses he is a sinner. He
acknowledges his sin. He confesses his guilt. There is a Saviour for sinners.
That’s the gospel. “This is a faithful saying and worthy of all acceptation,
that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners.” But it is only the
repentant one who cares anything about his Saviour. When men do not realize
their lost condition, they do not care. But when the Holy Spirit of God awakens
a man to see his need, he is ready for Christ. When John the Baptist’s ministry
takes effect, and when men realize the axe is laid to the root of the tree, and
they come down before God and take sides with God, they say, “Tell me about the
Saviour,” and then the further message of John the Baptist fits in, “Behold the
Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world.” When John saw the people
were repentant he baptized them and they confessed their sins. He expected them,
however, to give some evidence of their sincerity. “If you have two coats look
around for a fellow who doesn’t have one, and if you have more food than you
need, divide with somebody else.” There are many professing Christians who could
not stand that test. One evidence that a man is truly repentant toward God is
that he has real concern for his fellow-men who are in worse circumstances than
he is himself. So John says, “Show yourself by your concern for others. To the
publicans, that is, the tax-collectors, who inquired, “What shall we do?” He
said, “You be careful now. Don’t you gouge the people. Don’t you take any more
than you should-exact no more than is appointed you.” That would be the evidence
of a repentant tax-collector. Even Roman soldiers came to John asking, “What
shall we do?” He replied, “Don’t swagger so much, and don’t act as if you are so
important. Don’t trample on the rights of any man! Do violence to no man! Serve
your country, and try and let it go at that. Don’t lord it over other folks.”
Understand, not as a means of salvation, but as an evidence of repentance. This
would show that they were genuine. The people were greatly interested and they
wondered whether John himself might be the promised Messiah, but he said, “No, I
am not He. I indeed baptize you with water; but One mightier than I cometh, the
latchet of whose shoes I am not worthy to unloose: He shall baptize you with the
Holy Ghost,” or, He is going to baptize you with fire. Do not make the mistake
that some people do-as though the baptism of fire and of the Holy Ghost are the
same thing. The baptism of the Holy Ghost is something which every believer
enters into, but the baptism of fire is the baptism of judgment which all men
must know who reject the salvation that God has provided. See what he says about
that: “He will truly purge His floor. He will gather the wheat into His
garner”-that is the redeemed- “but He will burn up the chaff with unquenchable
fire”-those are the unreal.
Herod heard about this. He wanted to see the strange desert-preacher. We are
told he sent for him and he liked to hear John talk. There was something about
that earnest man that appealed to the poor, wretched, godless Herod, and he was
stirred. But when John spoke out plainly concerning Herod’s adulterous relation
with his brother’s wife, Herod was angry. John said, “It is not lawful for thee
to have her.” Herod said, “I didn’t ask you to come and tell me how to live. I
don’t believe in preachers interfering in personal affairs. Keep out of this.”
But John refused to keep out of it. Herod said, “Off to jail with you,” and that
was the end of John the Baptist, so far as his ministry was concerned. Herod
liked to hear him preach as long as he did not touch the sin of Herod’s own
life. There are many people like that. They can enjoy fervent, earnest preaching
as long as it is directed to somebody else, but when it comes home to them it is
too personal. They don’t like it.
Before John was put into prison something very important happened. When all the
people were baptized it came to pass that Jesus also was baptized. He came to
John, and He stepped down to the waters of Jordan. John drew back as he
recognized Him, and said, as it were, “I cannot baptize you in repentance. You
have nothing to repent of. I have need to be baptized by you.” But Jesus
replied, in effect, “John, you baptize Me. I know that I am not a sinner, but I
see these sinners being baptized, and I am going to take My place with them. I
am here today to pledge Myself to fulfil every righteous demand of the throne of
God on their behalf.” It was His pledge to go to the cross and die for sinners.
So John baptized Him. When I see my Lord going down into Jordan I say, “There He
is promising to go to the cross and die for me.” He came forth from the waters,
and the Spirit descended like a dove upon Him, and a voice was heard saying,
“Thou art My beloved Son; in Thee I am well pleased.” At the very time when He
had pledged Himself to fulfil all righteousness on behalf of sinners which
involved His being made sin for them God the Father signified His delight in Him
and declared Him to be the Holy One who glorified Him in all His ways.
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CHAPTER 96: 06.10. THE GENEALOGY OF JESUS -- LUK_3:23-38
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The Genealogy Of Jesus -- Luke 3:23-38
“And Jesus Himself began to be about thirty years of age, being (as was
supposed) the son of Joseph, which was the son of Heli, which was the son of
Matthat, which was the son of Levi, which was the son of Melchi, which was the
son of Janna, which was the son of Joseph, which was the son of Mattathias,
which was the son of Amos, which was the son of Naum, which was the son of Esli,
which was the son of Nagge, which was the son of Maath, which was the son of
Mattathias, which was the son of Semei, which was the son of Joseph, which was
the son of Juda, which was the son of Joanna, which was the son of Rhesa, which
was son of Zorobabel, which was the son of Salathiel, which was the son of Neri,
which was the son of Melchi, which was the son of Addi, which was the son of
Cosam, which was the son of Elmodam, which was the son of Er, which was the son
of Jose, which was the son of Eliezer, which was the son of Jorim, which was the
son of Matthat, which was the son of Levi, which was the son of Simeon, which
was the son of Juda, which was the son of Joseph, which was the son of Jonan,
which was the son’of Eliakim, which was the son of Melea, which was the son of
Menan, which was the son of Mattatha, which was the son of Nathan, which was the
son of David, which was the son of Jesse, which was the son of Obed, which was
the son of Booz, which was the son of Salmon, which was the son of Naasson,
which was the son of Aminadab, which was the son of Aram, which was the son of
Esrom, which was the son of Phares, which was the son of Juda, which was the son
of Jacob, which was the son of Isaac, which was the son of Abraham, which was
the son of Thara, which was the son of Nachor, which was the son of Saruch,
which was the son of Ragau, which was the son of Phalec, which was the son of
Heber, which was the son of Sala, which was the son of Cainan, which was the son
of Arphaxad, which was the son of Sem, which was the son of Noe, which was the
son of Lamech, which was the son of Mathusala, which was the son of Enoch, which
was the son of Jared, which was the son of Maleleel, which was the son of
Cainan, which was the son of Enos, which was the son of Seth, which was the son
of Adam, which was the son of God”- Luke 3:23-38.
We come now to consider the genealogy of our Lord Jesus Christ. Those who read
their Bibles with any degree of care have often noticed the two genealogies of
the Saviour- the one given in Matthew 1:1-25, introducing the New Testament
record, and the other given here in Luke 3:1-38. In the Old Testament we have a
great many genealogical tables. In the Book of Genesis we have ten of them, and
in other Old Testament books, notably First Chronicles, we have a great many.
God had a purpose in preserving these lists. They may not seem very interesting
to us. Oftentimes those of us who read our Bibles through regularly year by
year, are tempted to pass them over as of no real spiritual value, and yet every
little while we find some bright jewel flashing out in the midst of a chapter of
the utmost unpronounceable names for some of us. We may be sure there was a very
special purpose for preserving them, and it was this: God had said, “The sceptre
shall not depart from Judah, nor a lawgiver from between his feet, until Shiloh
come; and unto Him shall the gathering of the peoples be.” Shiloh is a name for
our Lord, Jesus Christ, Israel’s Messiah, the Prince of Peace, for Shiloh means
“peace.” And God saw to it that the genealogical tables were preserved from Adam
right on down through Abraham and on to David, and then from David to the coming
into the world of our Lord Jesus Christ, in order that His title to the throne
of David might be definitely-proven.
Now there are those who reject the Saviour as the Messiah, as many for instance
in Israel do, who are still looking for a Messiah, and expect that sometime,
perhaps very soon, perhaps in the more distant future, the Old Testament
prophecies concerning the coming of Jehovah’s Anointed into the world will have
their fulfilment. If Jesus is not the Messiah there are no records left whereby
it would be possible for them to trace out the genealogy of any one who might
come in the future professing to be the true Son of David, who was destined to
fulfil the promises made to the people of Israel and to rule over the Gentile
world. There is no way now by which they could prove that any future Messiah was
really the promised Saviour. The genealogies have all been lost. We have nothing
beyond that which is given us here in the Bible. After the coming of the Lord
Jesus Christ no other records were preserved that would enable anyone to trace
out the genealogy of a future Son of David, if He were yet to arise. So God had
a special reason for preserving the genealogical lists until His Son should
actually be born into the world of a virgin, as predicted. After that there was
no special reason to keep the records, so they were lost. When you turn back to
Matthew’s Gospel you find that Joseph is the son of a man named Jacob, not Heli;
and from Heli back to David you have an altogether different line from what you
get in Matthew. Surely here is a contradiction in the Bible! Surely this proves
that, after all, the Bible cannot really be inspired of God, that it only
consists of mere human records and it is not trustworthy! That’s the way men
have reasoned. When we look into it carefully I think the mystery is cleared up.
It is remarkable that God has preserved the key to the mystery in the last book
on earth in which we might have expected to find it.
After the fall of Jerusalem, the Jews, in order to keep before their people the
great teachings of the past, combined many things in a series of volumes called
“The Talmud,” and today the orthodox Jews give far more attention to the study
of the Talmud than they do to the Holy Scriptures themselves, though I was very
glad to see in a Jewish magazine that some of the leading rabbis of this country
are urging the Jewish soldiers to familiarize themselves with the Old Testament,
to read it carefully. We rejoice in this because we know that if people read the
Old Testament carefully and thoughtfully, many of them will be brought to the
Light of the New Testament. The Old Testament points people to the Christ
revealed in the New Testament. In the Jewish Talmud, written just a few years
after the death of our Lord Jesus Christ, we are told that Jesus was the
illegitimate son of Mary of Bethlehem, the daughter of Heli. That clears the
mystery for us here.
Women’s names are dropped out of this genealogy, but here we are told that
Joseph was the son of Heli. This genealogy then is clearly the genealogy of
Mary. Heli was the father of Mary, and Joseph by marrying Mary became the son of
Heli. Married folks have two sets of fathers and mothers, do they not? You
husbands speak of the bride’s parents as father and mother, and the bride speaks
of the husband’s parents as father and mother. So it was in the old days in
Israel. When a man married a maiden of a certain family, her father and mother
were recognized as his father and mother. So Joseph was actually the son of
Jacob, but through marriage to Mary he was the son of Heli, and Mary herself was
the daughter of the house of David. The reason for giving us the two genealogies
seems to be this: In the first chapter of Matthew we have the genealogy of the
King. Matthew deals particularly with the Messiahship of Jesus. It was written
to prove that He was the promised King of Israel. Joseph, who married Mary
before the actual birth of Jesus and took her under his protecting care, was
himself lineally descended from David, through King Solomon; and had conditions
been right in Israel, Joseph possibly would have sat upon David’s throne.
Instead of being Joseph, the carpenter, he would have been Joseph, the King of
the Jews, but on account of the failure and sin that had come in, David’s family
had been set to one side and, we find, were in very poor circumstances.
Nevertheless, the royal line ran on as God saw it, and Joseph was the last of
the royal line of David, and by marrying Mary, her son Jesus, being born after
she entered into wedlock, became the legal heir to the throne of David. That’s
why we have this genealogy in the Gospel of Matthew-to prove that Jesus is the
legal heir to the throne of David. The blood of Joseph did not run in the veins
of Jesus, and according to the prophets, the Messiah Himself is to actually come
through David’s line. He is to be the Son of the house of David. He is called
David’s Son. Luke shows that this too was fulfilled, for we find as we go down
through this genealogy that Heli, the father of Mary, came from a Davidic line,
but the line through which she came was that of another son of David. Heli was a
lineal descendant of David’s son, Nathan. So the blood of David flowed in Mary’s
veins. Therefore, when our Lord Jesus Christ was conceived by the Holy Ghost in
the womb of the blessed Virgin Mary and born of her, he was actually a son of
David. Do I say a son of David? He was the Son of David, the One who transcended
every other, the One who is to confirm the sure mercies of David, and bring in
everlasting blessing for the world- “Great David’s greater Son!” So God has been
very careful here to give us these two genealogical lists, to show us that the
Lord Jesus is the rightful King. Through Joseph He is entitled to the throne,
and then through Mary He is an actual Son of David. There are no mistakes in
God’s books. We may often come across things in the Bible that we find difficult
to understand, but we can be very sure of this: If we only had a little added
information, if we only had fuller knowledge, God’s Word would always be shown
to be right. There are no mistakes here. “All Scripture is given by inspiration
of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for
instruction in righteousness: that the man of God may be perfect, throughly
furnished unto all good works” (2 Timothy 3:16-17).
You remember, back in the Book of Psalms, the Lord speaks of one particular
Person that would be before Him, He said, “It shall be said, This and that man
was born in her, but the Lord shall count, when He writeth up the people, that
this Man was born there,” and this Man is God’s Messiah, the Saviour of Israel
and of the world. When we come to look at these two genealogical lists as given
in Matthew and Luke we are at once struck by their differences, and many have
supposed that the one is contradictory of the other. In Matthew’s Gospel we have
a list beginning with Abraham and culminating in Joseph, the foster-father of
Jesus. We read, in the very opening of Matthew’s Gospel of the generations of
Jesus Christ, the Son of David, the Son of Abraham. Now, Matthew is the Jewish
Gospel. Do not misunderstand me when I say that. I do not mean that it has no
word of authority for the Gentiles, but I mean that it was written specifically
for the Jewish people in order to prove to them that Jesus of Nazareth was the
Messiah promised in the Old Testament. The Messiah was to be the Seed of
Abraham, through whom all nations of the earth should be blessed, and He was to
come in the direct line of David. So in this first chapter we have the
generations of Jesus Christ, Son of David, Son of Abraham, and beginning with
Abraham we go right on to Joseph. In verse Luke 3:16 we read: “And Jacob (that
is, Joseph’s father,) begat Joseph the husband of Mary, of whom was born Jesus,
who is called Christ.” Then the Scriptures carefully show us that Mary was
already with child by the Holy Spirit before Joseph gave her the protection of
his name and took her to be his wife. This table in Matthew’s Gospel is
definitely the genealogy of Joseph. It gives us the line from Abraham to Joseph.
It is divided into three parts of fourteen generations each. Actually, when you
go back to the Old Testament you find that there were quite a number of other
names that came in along the way, but for certain reasons God dropped out
various ones. He dropped out three kings of Judah because they came of the race
of that vile woman Jezebel. For other reasons He dropped different ones out of
the list, and He focuses our attention on three groups of fourteen each. In the
last instance, however, we seem at first sight to have only thirteen names. We
read in verse Luke 3:17 : “So all the generations from Abraham to David are
fourteen generations; and from David until the carrying away into Babylon are
fourteen generations, and from the carrying away into Babylon unto Christ are
fourteen generations.” Notice again in Luke 3:16 : “Jacob begat Joseph.” That’s
the twelfth generation. “The husband of Mary, of whom was born Jesus”-that’s the
thirteenth generation. “Who is called Christ”-that’s the fourteenth generation,
for when He comes the second time He will be recognized as the Christ, the
Messiah of Israel. In this list given by Matthew we have four women referred to
beside Mary herself. Ordinarily it was not customary for the Jews to include any
reference to women in their genealogies, and the four women mentioned in this
list are the very four which one who was jealous of the purity of the Hebrew
strain would have left out. There was Tamar, whose history was one of the most
wretched stories in the Bible. There was Rahab, the harlot of Jericho. There was
Ruth, a Moabitess, outside the covenant of promise altogether. There was
Bathsheba who had been the wife of Uriah, with whom David sinned so grievously.
Why are these four women’s names listed here? Surely to show us that “where sin
abounded grace did much more abound!” All of these women, three of whom were
great sinners, are found in the line from which our Saviour came. The other one
was an outcast and a stranger of Moab, of whom the Lord had said, “The Moabite
shall not enter the congregation of the Lord unto the tenth generation.” This
outcast is brought in to tell us that Jesus is not only the Messiah of Israel,
but He is the Saviour of all sinners, of all nations who will put their trust in
Him.
Now, when we turn over to the Gospel of Luke and we look at the genealogy there,
we find it is quite different. “Jesus began to be about thirty years of age.” A
Levite was thirty years of age when he began to serve. With our Lord Jesus it
presents a new dispensation. He has now reached the age when He is about to
enter upon His public ministry, “being as was supposed, the son of Jeseph.”
Notice that Luke has been very careful in the previous chapters to show us that
the Lord Jesus was not the son of Joseph, that He had no human father. On the
other hand, he recognizes that people supposed that He was the son of Joseph. So
he mentions that here. Joseph, he says, was the son of Heli.
I said earlier that Matthew wrote especially for the Jews; therefore the
genealogy tracing Christ from Abraham down-from Abraham and Solomon to Joseph.
Luke wrote for the Gentile world, and he is concerned not simply in proving that
Jesus is the Son of David, nor yet that He is the Seed of Abraham, with all that
implies, but He also undertakes to show that He has become, in grace, one with
the entire human race. He is the Son of Man, and so the genealogy is traced back
not to David or Abraham, but to Adam himself, and from Adam to God. The
Scriptures speak of the first man-Adam. There have been those who have suggested
that there might have been some pre-Adamic race in this world, but God’s Word
says, “The first man, Adam, was made a living soul.” Adam was not born into the
world. He was created. God fashioned his body of the dust of the earth. Do you
really believe that? I believe it, and in any case-if it was not in the Bible-I
would believe it because of the fact that when the body dies it goes back to
dust again. God took from the dust of the earth and formed the body of a man,
and then God breathed into that man the breath of the spirit of life, and man
became a living soul. So Adam could be called, in this sense, the son of God.
God is the Father of spirits, “the God of the spirits of all flesh.” There is a
sense in which it is perfectly right to speak of the Fatherhood of God and the
brotherhood of man. There is another sense in which it is wrong. As created
originally, Adam was the son of God. God was his Father by creation, but sin
came in and man became alienated from God. All men are now born in sin. There is
a universal brotherhood of man, but it is a brotherhood of sinners. “All have
sinned and come short of the glory of God.” When people are born again, when
they are regenerated, then they enter into a new relationship. They are in a new
sense the children of God. God is their Father, and they that believe are all
brethren in Christ. The heathen had the conception of man coming originally from
God. They said, you remember, in the poem that Paul quoted, on Mars’ hill-“We
are also His offspring.” But oh, how man has dishonored God. How far away we
have gotten from Him! Therefore the need of regeneration.
It is not for us today to pride ourselves on being children of God by natural
birth and to claim God as our Father simply by creation. We are alienated from
the life of God through the ignorance that is in us. In order now to be able to
look up to heaven and call God our Father and in order to enter the new
brotherhood that has been established by grace, we must be born again. How does
that new birth take place? We are told of our Lord Jesus, “He came unto His own,
and His own received Him not; but as many as received Him to them gave He the
power to become the children of God, even to them that believe on His name,
which were born not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of
man, but of God.” It is when we receive Christ, when we trust Him as our
Saviour, that we become children of God. This does not mean that we are put back
to the place that Adam was in before his fall-created in righteousness, created
in innocence he fell into sin. In the old creation he was put to the test, and
when he went down the whole creation went down with him. But now Christ, the
last Adam, has met all the claims that God had against sinful men by His
sacrifice on Calvary. He has been raised in triumph from the dead, and He has
become the head of a new race, a new creation. Those who put their trust in Him
are not put on trial as Adam was before he sinned, but they are now raised up
together and seated together in Christ, in heavenly places. This is our glorious
calling, and so for us there is no interest except an academic one in the
matters of genealogy.
We are told in 1 Timothy 1:4 : “Neither give heed to… genealogies.” We do not
base anything on our earthly genealogy. We rest everything on the fact that we
have been regenerated by the Word and Spirit of God. God has preserved the
genealogies of His Son in order that we may have a clear and faithful record,
and see His identification with David and Abraham, and with Adam as the Son of
Man who has “come to seek and to save that which was lost;” as the Seed of
Abraham, through whom all nations of the earth shall be blessed; as the Son of
David, who shall yet sit upon the throne of His father David and reign in
righteousness over all this universe when it has been turned back to God. How we
can thank Him for the perfection of His Holy Word!
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CHAPTER 97: 06.11. THE TEMPTATION OF JESUS -- LUK_4:1-13
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The Temptation Of Jesus -- Luke 4:1-13
“And Jesus being full of the Holy Ghost returned from Jordan, and was led by the
Spirit into the wilderness, being forty days tempted of the devil. And in those
days He did not eat anything: and when they were ended, He afterward hungered.
And the devil said unto Him, If Thou be the Son of God, command this stone that
it be made bread. And Jesus answered him, saying, It is written, that man shall
not live by bread alone, but by every word of God. And the devil, taking Him up
into an high mountain, showed unto Him all the kingdoms of the world in a moment
of time. And the devil said unto Him, All this power will I give Thee, and the
glory of them: for that is delivered unto me; and to whomsoever I will give it.
If Thou therefore wilt worship me, all shall be Thine. And Jesus answered and
said unto him, Get thee behind Me, Satan; for it is written, Thou shalt worship
the Lord thy God and Him only shalt thou serve. And he brought Him to Jerusalem,
and set Him on a pinnacle of the temple, and said unto Him, If Thou be the Son
of God, cast Thyself down from hence: for it is written, He shall give His
angels charge over Thee, to keep Thee: and in their hands they shall bear Thee
up, lest at any time Thou dash Thy foot against a stone. And Jesus answering
said unto him, It is said, Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God. And when the
devil had ended all the temptation, he departed from Him for a season”- Luke
4:1-13.
We have two separate accounts of the temptation of our Lord Jesus in the New
Testament, Matthew and Luke both relating His experiences at that time. It has
often been noticed that the order of the tests is not the same in each of these
Gospels. This does not, however, imply any contradiction, but simply that in the
one Gospel, Luke, we evidently have the moral order of the temptations, and in
Matthew the historical. We are told that our blessed Lord was “tempted in all
points like as we are, apart from sin.” Actually there are only three points on
which anyone can be tempted. All temptation appeals either to the lust of the
flesh, the lust of the eye, or the pride of life. That is, there is the fleshly,
the aesthetic, and the spiritual or intellectual temptation. It was in this way
that Eve was tempted in the garden of Eden, and she capitulated on all points.
She saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food; that was an appeal to the
flesh: that it was pleasant to the eye; that was an aesthetic appeal: then that
it was to be desired to make one wise; this, of course, was an appeal to
spiritual pride. Our Lord resisted on every point and so demonstrated the fact
that He was the sinless One.
He was born into the world as the holy One, and holiness repels evil. In Adam
unfallen, we see humanity innocent; when fallen, humanity sinful. In our Lord
Jesus Christ we have humanity holy. The question is often asked, “Could our Lord
have sinned? If not, why the temptation, and what was the virtue in His
standing?” The answer is clearly this: He was not tempted to find out if He
could sin, but to prove that He was the sinless One. It was like the acid test
for the gold, which demonstrates the purity of the metal. We need to remember
that the Lord Jesus was God and Man in one Person. He was not two persons in one
body. It is unthinkable that he could sin so far as Deity is concerned. God
cannot be tempted with sin. Had He been only a man He might have been put on
trial like Adam and failed. But because He was God and Man in one Person He
could not sin. There was, of course, in Him no evil nature, but there was none
in Adam before he yielded. If our Lord had inherited fallen human nature, if
there had been in Him any tendency to sin, He would have needed a Saviour
Himself. Because He was the absolutely sinless One He could offer Himself a
ransom for our souls and so bring fallen humanity back to God.
We are told in the Epistle to the Hebrews that He suffered being tempted. On the
other hand, Peter tells us, “He that hath suffered in the flesh hath ceased from
sin.” These two passages bring out most vividly the difference between Christ
and us. We suffer by resisting temptation and so are enabled to cease from sin,
but temptation caused Him the keenest suffering. As the holy One He could not
endure this contact with Satanic suggestion without suffering inward distress.
We are told that “Jesus, being full of the Holy Spirit, returned from Jordan;
and was led by the Spirit into the wilderness.” This in itself is most
suggestive. Acknowledged by the Father as His beloved Son in whom He had found
all His delight, sealed by the Holy Spirit and thus marked out as the Messiah,
the Anointed of Jehovah, He was led by the Spirit into the wilderness of
Quarantana, according to accepted tradition, in order that, through the
temptation, it might be demonstrated that He was in very truth the holy One, who
was thus suited to offer Himself a sacrifice on behalf of those who are unholy.
Standing in the ruins of the recently uncovered city of Jericho and looking up
upon the bare, desolate mount of Quarantana, in the wilderness of Judaea, my own
heart was deeply stirred some years ago, as I thought of my blessed Lord
spending forty days there with the wild beasts of the wilderness and without
food. What a contrast to Adam the First, who was placed in a garden of delight,
with every creature subject to his will and provided with everything needful to
sustain and strengthen him physically! Jesus stood every test, fasting in a
wilderness among the wild beasts because He, the Last Adam, the Second Man, was
God’s blessed, Eternal Son become flesh for our redemption.
We are told definitely that He was forty days tempted of the devil. Let me
emphasize that. There are those today who deny the personality of the devil.
They say that all the devil there is, is the evil of a man’s own heart, his own
wicked desires, his own evil thoughts. In one great religious system, which has
been taken up by multitudes, the teaching is current that if you just cut the
letter “D” out of the word “Devil” you will find what that word really
represents. The devil is simply the personification of evil. Actually, they tell
us, there is no personal devil. Have you ever thought what that implies? First
of all, it implies this: all the wickedness, all the vile iniquity, all the
abominable filth and the dreadful corruption that have characterized the most
vicious men and women during the millenniums of history have come from their own
hearts without any tempting spirit to incite to these excesses. That is the
worst indictment of the human race that anyone ever dreamed of bringing against
mankind: It implies that man’s heart, in itself, is so utterly evil that it
needs no outside incentive to produce the unbelievable vileness which has
polluted the pages of human history. Surely, no stern, hyper-Calvinist of
Reformation days ever brought as strong an indictment against humanity as that!
And yet, because error is never consistent, the very people who teach this tell
us that all men are children of God by natural birth, and deny the necessity of
redemption and of regeneration! But then there is more than this to be
considered. The denial of the personality of the devil is positive blasphemy
against our Lord Jesus Christ. Here we are told that He was led into the
wilderness to be tempted of the devil. Dare we say that this means He was to be
tempted by His own evil thoughts, by the wickedness of His own heart? We have
already seen that there was no wickedness there. He was the pure and sinless
One. Yet He was tempted of the devil. He Himself tells us elsewhere that the
devil abode not in the truth, that he is a liar from the beginning, a murderer,
and that there is no truth in him. Note these personal pronouns. Our Lord Jesus
recognized in Satan a sinister personality, the foe of God and man. The question
may be asked, “Why, then, did God create such an evil being? Why did He ever
bring a devil into existence?” He did not create him as an evil spirit but as a
pure and innocent angel. He abode not in the truth. Like all the other angels,
he was created in innocence, but temptation came, the temptation to exalt
himself, and so he fell and became the enemy of God and man. His judgment has
already been declared, but before it is carried out God has chosen to permit him
a certain measure of power and liberty in order that men may be tested to find
out whether they prefer Satan’s service or whether to live in loving devotion to
the God who created them. You may take your choice, but if you choose Satan as
your master here you must share his doom for eternity, for hell was prepared for
the devil and his angels, that is, his messengers.
Now notice the order of the temptations as here given. Satan came to Jesus when
He was hungry, when physically He was weakest. This was the opportunity to
present to Him the appeal to the lust of the flesh, if there had been anything
in Him contrary to the holiness of the Godhead. So the devil said to Him, “If
Thou be the Son of God, command this stone that it be made bread.” To have
yielded would have been to accept a suggestion from Satan and thus to take
Himself out of the hand of God. There was not the slightest tendency to do this.
Jesus met the tempter with Scripture, saying, “Man doth not live by bread only,
but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God doth man live.” There
is something more important than bread to sustain the body, and that is the Word
that sustains the spirit. So the Lord Jesus repudiated the suggestion of the
devil. He had no word from the Father commanding Him to change stones into
bread. He would not put forth such power in obedience to Satan.
Alas, how often have we who profess His name failed in similar circumstances. We
have reached the place of grave extremity in some experience of life. Satan
presents an opportunity to prosper through doing something that is a little bit
off-color and that is not quite in keeping with the full Christian profession.
How many a child of God has failed right there and has allowed himself to take
up with something which even the world recognizes as shady or crooked, in order
that he might procure more of the bread that perishes, only to find out at last
that he breaks his teeth upon the very stones which he attempted thus to change
into food. That is not God’s way. He does not call upon His people to make bread
out of stones. He feeds us both naturally and spiritually as we labor day by day
for that which is for our blessing. There is something more important than
bread, and that is to do the will of God. The second temptation was the
attempted appeal to the lust of the eye. From a great and high mountain in
marvelous vision Jesus looks over the whole world. Satan shows Him all the
kingdoms of the earth in a moment of time. He declares that all this belongs to
him; he is the god of the world; he is its prince; men have surrendered it to
him, and he says, “To whomsoever I will give it. If Thou wilt therefore worship
me all shall be Thine.” It was the offer of the kingdom without the cross; but
there was no inward response on the part of the Saviour. He had come into the
world not only to rule as King, but first to give His life a ransom for many,
and Satan’s suggestion make no impression upon Him whatever. He replies, “Get
thee behind Me, Satan, for it is written, Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God,
and Him only shalt thou serve.” He recognizes at once who the tempter is, calls
him by name, spurns his suggestion and again triumphs through the Word. The day
will yet come when the kingdoms of this world shall become the kingdom of our
God and His Christ. In that day Satan himself will have to acknowledge that
“Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father.” All created
intelligencies will prostrate themselves before Him, even though many of them
will do it with weeping and gnashing of teeth because of the rebellion of their
hearts. The third test was an endeavor to appeal to the pride of the natural
heart, something of which our blessed Lord knew nothing. He could ever say, “I
am meek and lowly in heart.” We are told that Satan brought Him to Jerusalem and
set Him on a pinnacle of the temple and said unto Him, “If Thou be the Son of
God cast Thyself down from hence.” Impudently he quoted Scripture, a portion of
Psalms 91:1-16, as an assurance that if our blessed Lord did this He would be
held up by angel hands and would not suffer death. Cunningly he omitted the most
important part of the passage.
Try to imagine just what was here suggested. Think of a great throng of people
gathered in the temple courts, and our Lord looking down upon that worshipping
multitude from one of the highest heights of that noble building. Remember He
has come to present Himself as the Messiah of Israel. Now Satan pretends to
co-operate with Him and suggests: “Here is your opportunity to prove to the
people that you are really the Son of God and their promised Messiah. Leap off
the pinnacle of the temple: let them see you being sustained in midair by
angelic hands. Then they will know that you are what you profess to be.” It did
indeed seem from a natural standpoint to offer a remarkable occasion for the
Lord to demonstrate His Messiah-ship. Notice exactly how Satan misquoted
Scripture to back up his suggestion. He said, “It is written, He shall give His
angels charge over Thee, to keep Thee, and in their hands they shall bear Thee
up lest Thou dash Thy foot against a stone.” Our Saviour recognized the
misquotation at once and saw through the Satanic suggestion as an appeal to
spiritual pride. The devil said, as it were, “I am only asking you to do what
Scripture warrants: leap from the pinnacle of the temple and count upon God to
fulfil His own Word and to protect you from harm.” But if we turn back to Psalms
91:1-16 we will find the passage actually says, “He shall give His angels charge
over Thee to keep Thee in all Thy ways.” These last four words Satan cunningly
omitted. It could never be part of the holy ways of the Son of God to try to put
His Father to the test in such a manner as that suggested by Satan. Jesus,
however, did not argue the question with the devil. He just met him with another
saying of God. He answered, “It is said, Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God.”
That is, it is never right to do anything just in order to see whether God will
keep His Word or not. It is never necessary to do that. He can always be
depended on to do as He has said. Had it been part of the ways of the Son of God
as planned by the Father that He should leap from the pinnacle of the temple and
be supported by angelic hands, Jesus would not have needed to get instruction
from Satan. He came to do the Father’s will, and in doing that will He could
always depend on the Father’s sustaining power. As an illustration of tempting
God, let me refer to some strange things that have taken place recently in our
Southern Mountains. There is a sect of fanatical people down there who have
sought to test God on a promise given by the Lord to His apostles that they
should be able to tread upon serpents, and that the bite of a serpent would not
harm them. So in weird meetings conducted by these ignorant people, many of whom
could not read or write, the teaching was given out that if one was really a
Christian the bite of a rattlesnake could not hurt him, as God had promised
protection. A number of instances have occurred wherein live rattlesnakes were
brought into the meetings and certain leaders actually permitted these writhing
reptiles to bite them, and hoped thereby to demonstrate their invulnerability to
serpent poison. Several died because of it, others suffered terribly, but were
eventually freed of the poison through proper treatment. The Government had to
interfere because of the folly of this sect. It was all a matter of trying to
put God to a test, and, of course, God would not respond to anything of the
kind. But now contrast with this that which happened to the apostle Paul on the
island of Melita. As the shipwrecked sailors were warming themselves around a
fire, there came out a viper and fastened itself upon Paul’s arm. The people
expected him to fall down dead, but he threw the reptile off into the fire and
was himself unharmed. God kept His Word, but Paul did not attempt to put Him to
a test. And so in our Lord’s temptation in the wilderness, Satan endeavored to
trap Him on every point, but He proved Himself to be the holy One in whom was no
inward desire to yield to any other direction than that given Him by the Father.
Satan failed to make any impression whatever on the Son of God, and then we
read, “He departed from Him for a season.” He returned again from time to time
and sought through enraged and fanatical unbelievers to put Him to death before
the cross, and in Gethsemane, and again when our Saviour was actually nailed to
the cross, Satan sought once more to thwart the purpose of God, only to be
defeated each time. The great lesson for us is that our Lord Jesus, who was
tempted in all points like as we are, apart from sin, lives in the glory today
and is able to exert His mighty power on our behalf and to succor us when we are
tempted. Whatever the trial or test we may have to face, let us remember that He
stands ready to come to our relief, to give to us strength through the power of
the Holy Spirit, that we may resist temptation and not dishonor our God and
Father through our failures.
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CHAPTER 98: 06.12. "THE ACCEPTABLE YEAR OF ..." -- LUK_4:14-30
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"The Acceptable Year Of The Lord" -- Luke 4:14-30
“And Jesus returned in the power of the Spirit into Galilee: and there went out
a fame of Him through all the region round about. And He taught in their
synagogues, being glorified of all. And He came to Nazareth, where He had been
brought up: and as His custom was, He went into the synagogue on the sabbath
day, and stood up for to read. And there was delivered unto Him the book of the
prophet Esaias. And when He had opened the book, He found the place where it was
written, The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me, because He hath anointed Me to
preach the gospel to the poor; He hath sent Me to heal the brokenhearted, to
preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set
at liberty them that are bruised, to preach the acceptable year of the Lord. And
He closed the book, and He gave it again to the minister, and sat down. And the
eyes of all them that were in the synagogue were fastened on Him. And He began
to say unto them, This day is this scripture fulfilled in your ears. And all
bare Him witness, and wondered at the gracious words which proceeded out of His
mouth. And they said, Is not this Joseph’s son? And He said unto them. Ye will
surely say unto Me this proverb, Physician, heal Thyself: whatsoever we have
heard done in Capernaum, do also here in Thy country. And He said, Verily I say
unto you, No prophet is accepted in his own country. But I tell you of a truth,
many widows were in Israel in the days of Elias, when the heaven was shut up
three years and six months, when the great famine was throughout all the land;
but unto none of them was Elias sent, save unto Sarepta, a city of Sidon, unto a
woman that was a widow. And many lepers were in Israel in the time of Eliseus
the prophet; and none of them was cleansed, saving Naaman the Syrian. And all
they in the synogogue, when they heard these things, were filled with wrath, and
rose up, and thrust Him out of the city, and led Him unto the brow of the hill
whereon their city was built, that they might cast Him down headlong. But He
passing through the midst of them went His way”- Luke 4:14-30. In this portion
of Scripture we have the account of the Lord’s return visit to the city of
Nazareth after He laid aside His carpenter’s apron and His artisan’s tools, and
went forth, first to be baptized by John in the Jordan, to be sealed by the Holy
Spirit for His specific work, and then to go through His temptation in the
wilderness. After a short stay in Jerusalem, He returned to His own hometown.
The people had heard a great deal about Him. They had heard of marvelous signs
and wonders following His ministry in other places, and they were in great
expectation, hoping to see something remarkable done by Him when He appeared
among them. We are told that He entered into the synagogue, as His custom was.
There is something about that which might speak to everyone of us. The Lord
Jesus grew up in that city of Nazareth. When He dwelt there, as a young man, it
was His custom to attend the services in the place where the Word of God was
read and expounded, and where the people gathered together for prayer. I fancy
there must have been many things about the synagogue service which often
offended His spirit. Many of those who participated must have greatly
misunderstood the real meaning of the Word of God. But to Him the synagogue
represented the authority of God in that city. So it was His custom to wend His
way there from sabbath to sabbath.
I think some christian people need to have their consciences exercised more than
they are, in regard to gathering together with God’s people, where the Word of
God is appreciated and where they come together to sing His praises and to pray.
A man said to me once, “If I could find a perfect Church I would attend there.”
I replied; “My dear friend, don’t. If you find a perfect Church don’t join it,
because if you did it would be imperfect the moment you got into it.” There is
no such thing as a perfect Church, but we can thank God for the places where
people meet to hear the Word of God, and to join in praise and prayer. We need
to remember the words, “Not forsaking the assembling of yourselves together, as
the manner of some is, but exhorting one another.” We need to do this “so much
the more as we see the day approaching!”
Jesus could always be depended upon, as a Boy and as a Youth, to be in His place
in the synagogue, as divine service was being carried on. So the people knew
that He would be there on this given sabbath day, and they gathered to hear Him.
He was evidently accustomed to participate publicly in the service. As soon as
He entered, we read, “There was delivered unto Him the book of the prophet
Esaias. And when He had opened the book, He found the place where it was
written, The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me.” It would seem as though it was an
ordinary thing for Him, when He attended the synagogue service, to take the
sacred scroll, and to turn from one passage to another and expound them to the
people. So now, as He entered on this particular sabbath-day, the one who had
charge of the scrolls turned to Him and inquired what portion of the Scriptures
He would like to read. He asked for the Book of the prophet Esaias, and He
turned to this particular section and He read, “For the Spirit of the Lord is
upon Me, because He hath anointed Me to preach the gospel to the poor; He hath
sent Me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and
recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised, to
preach the acceptable year of the Lord,” and He closed the Book. There might not
be any special significance in that. He reads His text, He rolls up the scroll,
and He is now about to expound it. But the remarkable fact is this: He broke off
His reading in the middle of a sentence. He stopped at a comma. If you will turn
to this passage in Isaiah 61:1-2, you will find that it reads as follows: “To
preach the acceptable year of the Lord, and the day of vengeance of our God.”
The Lord Jesus did not read those last words. Why? Because He had not come to
proclaim the day of vengeance of our God. He had come to do all that is written
of Him in the other part of the passage.
He had come to preach the gospel to the poor. Oh, I like that! It is a striking
fact that in every land where the gospel has gone it has been largely the poor
who have rejoiced in its message. You remember, it is written, “He hath filled
the hungry with good things, and the rich He hath sent empty away.” “How hardly
shall they that have riches enter into the kingdom of God!” The trouble is that
when men have an abundance of this world’s goods they are so taken up with them
that they are not concerned about spiritual riches. But it is the poor, the
needy, the struggling, who love to hear the gospel message. When Jesus was here,
the common people “heard Him gladly.” It was the rulers, the self-righteous
leaders, who had no sense of their sinfulness, and no realization of their need,
and who could not appreciate Jesus. They had no concern about His message. But
the poor-they loved to listen to Him. Thank God, though nineteen centuries have
gone by since He left this scene, the gospel still is preached to the poor. If
the time ever comes when we are not interested in the poor, and do not care for
the poor, and draw away from the needy, “The Glory is Departed” will be written
over the doors of the church.
We read of the poor in this world rich in faith. Those who do not have earthly
wealth are rich often in spiritual things in a way that others who are in better
circumstances are not. You remember that little poem:
“In the heart of London city ’Midst the dwelling of the poor, These bright
golden words were uttered, ‘I have Christ, what want I more?’
He who heard them ran to fetch her Something from the world’s great store.
‘It was needless,’ died she saying, ‘I have Christ, what want I more?’”
Christ is a substitute for everything, but nothing is a substitute for Christ.
Jesus was always interested in the poor, and He is interested in the poor today.
He came to preach the gospel to the poor, and He says, “The Lord has sent Me to
heal the broken-hearted.” In that He expresses His Deity, for it is God only who
can heal broken hearts. No man can do it. The best man you ever knew couldn’t
heal a broken heart. It would not be of any use to send your broken-hearted
friends to the most spiritual ministers of Christ, and saying, “These men will
be able to make you whole again.” We have no ability to heal broken hearts, but
we can point people to One who can. How many broken-hearted men there are! Dr.
Joseph Parker, one-time minister of the London City Temple, was once addressing
young preachers, and he said to them, “Young gentlemen, always preach to broken
hearts, and you will never lack for an audience.” There are so many of them
everywhere. Hearts are bleeding and broken all around us. Jesus came to heal the
brokenhearted, and if you who read these words are broken-hearted people, let me
say to you, you wrong your own souls if you do not bring your burdens to the
feet of Jesus. An old chorus says, “You’ve carried your burden, You’ve carried
it long!
Oh, bring it to Jesus- He’s loving and strong He’ll take it away And your
sorrows shall cease, He’ll send you rejoicing, With His heavenly peace.”
Then He came to preach deliverance to the captives, not exactly to open all
prison doors and let people out of jails and penitentiaries, but to deliver men
from the captivity of sin and free those who are bound in chains of habit which
they could not break. He is doing that today. He is freeing men from the power
of sensuality, from unclean living, from evil tempers and vile dispositions,
that bind folks as chains bind men in prison-cells. And He came to give the
recovery of sight to the blind. When He was here on earth He touched the blind
and His glory shone through their darkened lids, and lighted them forever.
Though we may not see Him now by the natural eye, and He is not perhaps working
the same kind of miracles which He did when He was here on earth, those who are
blind spiritually, those who have had the understanding darkened, and have not
been able to comprehend spiritual realities, when they come to Him the scales
fall from their eyes, and He gives them light, and they are able to say with
that delivered man of old, “There are many things I do not know or understand,
but one thing I know, that whereas I was blind, now I see.” Oh, what a wonderful
thing it is when Jesus touches blind eyes!
Then “He came to set at liberty those that are bruised.” We have been bruised by
Satan. The very humanity in which we live has been bruised by the fall, but He
came to set at liberty them that are bruised, to enable the lame to walk, and
the dead to live and to rejoice in His saving grace.
He closed with the words, “To preach the acceptable year of the Lord.” The
acceptable year of the Lord-what is that? It is the time when God is looking in
grace upon poor sinners. It is the time when the gospel is going out to lost men
and women. He says, “Now is the acceptable time. Now is the day of salvation.”
Does some one say in his heart, “Oh I would like to be a Christian, I would like
to know the healing power of Jesus, but I’m afraid the time has not come yet. I
do not feel the proper moving of the Spirit. I am not certain that I would be
welcome. I must await God’s time?” That is an illusion of the enemy. God’s time
is now. It is He Himself who says it. “Now is the accepted time.” “Come now, and
let us reason together…though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as
snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool.” “Today if you
will hear His voice, harden not your hearts.” There is no reason why any anxious
soul should go on in sin for another hour, because God is waiting to be
gracious. This is the acceptable year since Jesus came to reveal the Father’s
heart, since He came to die on the cross for our sins. God sent the message out
to the world that all may come and find peace in Him. This is still the
acceptable time. It will not last forever. It has lasted now for nearly two
thousand years, since Jesus came and read this Scripture. He said He came to
preach the acceptable year of the Lord. He did not read, “And the day of
vengeance of our God.” Jesus did not read that because the time had not come for
the vengeance of our God to begin, and it has not come yet. But listen to me! It
may come soon! It may not be long now ere the Lord Jesus will descend from
heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel and with the trump of God;
and the dead in Christ shall rise first: then we which are alive and remain
shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the
air.” Then the day of vengeance of our Lord will begin for this poor world. Then
the book of doom will be opened, the trumpets of judgment will be sounded, and
then the vials of wrath will be poured out upon this guilty world. This whole
dispensation of the grace of God in which we live, the Lord Jesus puts into a
comma. That is why He did not read on to “the day of vengeance of our God.” I
plead with you to avail yourselves of the grace of God before He arises in
judgment to shake terribly this world and shut the door. Today the door is wide
open, and He says, “Whosoever will may come.” Our Lord Jesus read this scripture
and then He closed the Book. He rolled up the Scroll and gave it again to the
minister, and He sat down. He rose up to read the Word and sat down to teach it.
And He began to say unto them, “This day is the scripture fulfilled.” That is,
He applied the scripture to Himself. “The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me”- upon
Jesus. It was He who had come in actual fulfilment of this Old Testament
prophecy. In the Old Testament, in the Book of the prophet Isaiah we have this
wonderful prediction of the Messiah who is coming. The Lord Jesus Christ took
these same words and read them, and He applied them to Himself, to the amazement
of His hearers. To apply them to Himself is one thing and to prove it quite
another, but He proved it by what He did. He did the very thing that these words
said He would do, and He has been doing it all through the centuries since.
Millions have tested Him for themselves. They have come to Him. They have come
with their sins. They have come to be delivered from their chains of evil
habits, and they have put their trust in Him, and they have found He is able to
do what He said He would do. As He declared, “This day is this scripture
fulfilled in your ears.” We are told that all bare Him witness, and wondered at
the gracious words which proceeded out of His mouth. And they said, “Is not this
Joseph’s son?” They had never heard anything like this before. None of the
Scribes ever said anything like this. None of them ever dared to apply such a
prophecy to themselves. He was actually the son of the blessed Virgin Mary, but
so far as they knew He was the son of Joseph, who had taken His mother under his
protective care. So they said, “Is not this Joseph’s son?” He knew what they
were thinking. And He said unto them, “Ye will surely say unto Me this proverb,
“Physician, heal Thyself; whatsoever we have heard done in Capernaum, do also
here in Thy country.” But He added, “No prophet is accepted in his own country.”
He knew the unbelief that controlled their hearts, so that they had no desire to
turn to God in repentance. So He used two illustrations saying, “I tell you of a
truth, many widows were in Israel in the days of Elias, when the heaven was shut
up three years and six months, when great famine was throughout all the land;
but unto none of them was Elias sent, save unto Sarepta, a city of Sidon, unto a
woman that was a widow. And many lepers were in Israel in the time of Eliseus
the prophet; and none of them was cleansed, saving Naaman the Syrian.” Naaman
the Syrian was a Gentile, and that stirred them. They did not like His speaking
in this way. As though God was just as much interested in needy Gentiles as in
Jews! Yes, He is just as much interested in all the needy, for “all have sinned,
and come short of the glory of God.” He is the same Lord over all. When Jesus
presented these two instances of God’s grace going out to the needy Gentiles
they were filled with wrath and they rose up and they thrust Him out of their
city. A few years ago I went along the path they took, and I could visualize the
synagogue and the crowd rushing around Jesus and saying, “We do not care
anything about what You say. Out You go!” They crowded Him out unto the cliff at
the edge of the city, and their object was to cast Him down headlong! “But He,
passing through the midst of them, went His way.” How did He escape? Was it a
miracle? I think it was. He simply passed through and they could not see where
He had gone, so they were unable to cast Him over the cliff. His hour had not
come. He had come into this world to die on Calvary’s cross, and no power of men
or of the devil could put Him to death until that hour when He was to yield
Himself a ransom for sinners, upon the tree. Till then all their power was in
vain.
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CHAPTER 99: 06.13. JESUS AT CAPERNAUM -- LUK_4:30-44
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Jesus At Capernaum -- Luke 4:30-44
“But He passing through the midst of them went His way, and came down to
Capernaum, a city of Galilee, and taught them on the sabbath days. And they were
astonished at His doctrine: for His word was with power. And in the synagogue
there was a man, which had a spirit of an unclean devil (demon), and cried out
with a loud voice, saying, Let us alone; what have we to do with Thee, Thou
Jesus of Nazareth? Art Thou come to destroy us? I know Thee who Thou art; the
Holy One of God. And Jesus rebuked him, saying, Hold thy peace and come out of
him. And when the devil had thrown him in the midst, he came out of him, and
hurt him not. And they were all amazed, and spake among themselves, saying, What
a Word is this! for with authority and power He commandeth the unclean spirits,
and they come out. And the fame of Him went out into every place of the country
round about. And He arose out of the synagogue, and entered into Simon’s house.
And Simon’s wife’s mother was taken with a great fever; and they besought Him
for her. And He stood over her, and rebuked the fever; and it left her: and
immediately she arose and ministered unto them. Now when the sun was setting,
all they that had any sick with divers diseases brought them unto Him; and He
laid His hands on every one of them, and healed them. And devils (demons) also
came out of many, crying out, and saying, Thou are Christ the Son of God. And He
rebuking them suffered them not to speak: for they knew that He was Christ, And
when it was day, He departed and went into a desert place: and the people sought
Him, and came unto Him, and stayed Him, that He should not depart from them. And
He said unto them, I must preach the kingdom of God to other cities also: for
therefore am I sent. And He preached in the synagogues of Galilee”- Luke
4:30-44. The greater portion of this section consists of one day’s work on the
part of our blessed Lord Jesus Christ, in the city of Capernaum, at the northern
edge of the Sea of Galilee. It is called elsewhere “His own city.” After He gave
up His work in the carpenter shop and went out on His great mission to proclaim
the gospel of the kingdom to a waiting people, a people who had been expecting
that kingdom for so long, He removed from Nazareth to Capernaum, and made that
the center from which He traveled back and forth to the various parts of the
land. So on this occasion He returned to Capernaum, and He taught them, we are
told, on the Sabbath days. By the term “Sabbath-day,” we are not to understand
our Sunday, but the Jewish Sabbath, the seventh day. That was the day on which
the people laid aside their usual employment and gathered together in their
synagogues to hear the Word of God and to offer prayer. Our Lord took advantage
of that day and joined with them. It had been His custom always to do this, and
there in the synagogue on the Sabbath-days He ministered the Word of God. We are
told that the people were astonished at His doctrine, for His word was with
power. There was a divine energy about Him that appealed to them. They had never
heard another like Him. You remember sometime afterward when officers were sent
to arrest Him, they returned without Him and were asked, “Why have you not
brought Him?” Their answer was, “Never man spake like this Man.” There was
something so compelling about the message of the Lord Jesus Christ, that it
moved the hearts even of His enemies. His word was with power.
It was not only the power of His Deity, but it was also the power of the Holy
Spirit, for our Lord Jesus chose, as Man on earth, not to act according to His
own Deity, but to be led, and guided, and controlled by the Holy Spirit.
Therefore, in the power of the Holy Spirit He preached the gospel of the
kingdom. On one particular occasion we read that in the synagogue there was a
man who had a spirit of an unclean demon, and cried out with a loud voice. We
should change the word devil in the Authorized Version to demon, because of the
well-recognized fact that according to Scripture there is only one devil, Satan,
who is called “that old serpent, the devil”; but there are a great many demons.
These demons, evidently, were spirits led by Satan in his great rebellion, and
he is called “the prince of the power of the air.” So we gather that these
demons are not yet confined in hell, but with their master, Satan, they have
access to men, and on certain occasions they can actually indwell and dominate
men, or even where they do not indwell them, are able to impress them for evil,
and lead them into ways contrary to the will of God. Here was a case of a man
who was actually possessed with a demon. Just as in our dispensation of grace
Christians are indwelt by the Holy Spirit of God, and so act under His control
as they yield obedience to Him, so it was possible for men to be indwelt by one
of these evil spirits and act as under that control. When this man, in whom the
evil spirit was, saw the Lord Jesus Christ there in the synagogue he cried out,
“Let us alone. What have we to do with Thee, Thou Jesus of Nazareth. Art Thou
come to destroy us? I know Thee who Thou art-the Holy One of God.”
There is something very striking here. Men, ordinarily speaking, did not know
Him. “He came unto His own, and His own received Him not.” Those who should have
known Him, those who should have recognized Him as having been sent by the
Father, failed to understand who He was. The demon knew because Jesus has
absolute authority over the unseen world. This is the only world in which anyone
dares to flaunt His will, or deny His Deity. Everybody does His will in heaven.
Everyone knows Him there, and all the lost have to be subject to Him in the
under-world. Even demons have to recognize His authority. So this evil spirit
called out, “I know who Thou art-the Holy One of God.” But Jesus did not desire
a testimony of that kind; so He rebuked him, saying, “Hold thy peace, and come
out of him,” and immediately in response to the word of the Lord Jesus the evil
spirit, dominating the man, threw him in convulsions on the ground, and then
came out of him and no longer hurt him.
All this took place in the synagogue at Capernaum. When I was visiting Palestine
some years ago, I think the greatest thrill I had, next to visiting “the place
called Calvary,” and the garden tomb just outside the Damascus gate of
Jerusalem, was when standing on that very platform of the synagogue in Capernaum
where this event and other events recorded in the Gospel took place. It was at
Capernaum, we are told, that a Roman centurion built the Jews a synagogue, and
for many, many centuries Capernaum had been entirely hidden from view.
Archaelogists were unable to identify its site, until some years before the
First World War a group of German monks built a monastery on a hill north of the
Sea of Galilee, and when the World War broke out they were interned within the
monastery grounds and were not permitted to leave until the war was over. While
interned, in order that they might keep physically fit, they began to dig about
on the hill where their monastery stood, and soon they began uncovering great
blocks of limestone. The work went on with great interest, and by-and-by they
uncovered an ancient synagogue. There was the entire floor, the great stones of
the side walls, and the platform and pillars that had once upheld the roof. Now
they have restored a great part of that synagogue, set up those pillars in place
again, and though, of course, the roof is not on, you can enter the building,
can look out over the vast floor capable of seating several hundred people, and
you can stand on the platform back of the stone reading-desk. As I stood there
with one of the monks by my side and my wife and daughter on the other side, how
sacred a spot it seemed! I knew that my feet were standing on the very place
where my blessed Lord had stood so long ago. They were able to identify it as
the synagogue of Capernaum by this: They found on the great stones of the
foundation all kinds of Hebrew signs. For instance, you can see cut in the stone
Aaron’s rod, and the golden bowl that was placed in the ark, the five-pointed
star of Solomon and the six-pointed star of David, the olive, the fig, and
vine-leaves which are used as symbols of Israel, and a great many other signs
that were distinctly Jewish, and yet the synagogue itself is definitely Roman in
architecture. But there is only one Roman sign to be seen. That is the great
eagle. Evidently some Jew who revolted at this had chiseled off most of the
eagle. The Jew did not like the sign of the eagle on a synagogue devoted to
Jehovah. There is little question but that it is the synagogue built by the
Roman centurion, that the Jews might have a suitable place of worship. There it
is, bearing silent testimony to the Word of God. As I stood there at the
reading-desk, I could look down, and I said to the monk, “Somewhere near there
was that man with the unclean spirit. I can almost imagine I see him rising to
his feet, and hear him screaming, ‘Let us alone, what have we to do with Thee,
Jesus of Nazareth? Art Thou come to destroy us?’” The monk said, “And Jesus
rebuked him.” I said, “Yes.” So we went on, mentioning one thing after another
that had taken place in that synagogue.
It is a very real thing when you read the Bible in the light of what you can
see, even in present-day Palestine. You realize how wonderfully accurate
everything is. When this man, then, was delivered from the power of the evil
spirit, the people assembled there were stirred greatly. They were all amazed
and spake among themselves, saying, “What a word is this! for with authority and
power He commandeth the unclean spirits, and they come out. And the fame of him
went out into every place of the country round about.” Notice one thing about
the miracles of our Lord. He never wrought a miracle for self-aggrandizement. He
never exercised His marvelous power merely in order to draw attention to
Himself. In other words, He was not like the so-called magicians among the
heathen who do all sorts of wonders to amaze and dazzle people. Jesus never
wrought a miracle of any kind except for the benefit of others.
It was so in delivering this man from the power of the unclean spirit. It was so
great a miracle that the audience was stirred and they began to spread His fame
abroad. But He went out of the synagogue on the same day and went down into the
city. He entered into the house of Simon Peter, the fisherman, who lived there
also. Simon’s wife’s mother was taken with a great fever, and they besought Him
for her. Some people have forgotten that Simon Peter ever had a wife. He was not
a celibate clergyman! His mother-in-law lived with them. He was doubtless deeply
concerned because she had taken ill, and they called to Jesus, and they besought
Him for her. Oh, how often in these records we find people going to the Lord
Jesus about others. And He invites us to do the same, and to bring to Him those
who are sick, and those who are needy, and those who are distressed. He loves to
answer prayer today as He did so long ago. They pleaded with Him to do something
for Simon’s wife’s mother, and He went into the sick room. He stood over her and
rebuked the fever and it left her. There is an added word in one of the other
Gospels I like so much. It says, “He touched her hand, and the fever left her.”
He stood over her and rebuked the fever, and He put His hand upon that hot
fevered hand of the patient, and immediately there came a calmness, a sense of
quietness and coolness. In the same wonderful way the Lord Jesus loves to
minister to our fevered, restless hearts today. Oh, how many of us, in a certain
sense, are like this poor woman. We are all distracted and upset and disturbed
by existing conditions. What a blessed thing it is when Jesus comes to the
bedside, when Jesus draws near, and when He rebukes the fever, when He touches
the hand, and the fever dies away.
We are told that immediately she arose and ministered unto them. This is quite
natural when one has experienced the delivering power of our Lord Jesus Christ.
How the heart delights then to do something for Him and for others. This good
woman no sooner is healed, no sooner realizes that she is well, than she says,
“Now, I want to serve Him who has done this thing for me, and I want to serve
those who are dear to Him and to me.” So she ministered unto them. Have you felt
a touch of His healing hand? Has His voice rebuked the fever of sin that once
raged in your very being? Is it your delight now to serve Him? Are you among
those who are glad not only to avail themselves of His delivering power, but are
now concerned about giving Him the service of a grateful heart? Are you putting
yourself out for the blessing of other people? This is the test of real
conversion. You can tell a person who has experienced the saving power of the
Lord Jesus Christ by the manifestation of a desire to please Him, a desire to do
His will, to glorify Him, to make Him known to others, and to bring them into
contact with Him.
Every time the Lord wrought a work of power like this upon the body of some dear
needy soul, the word of it went abroad to encourage others to come to Him. It is
the same today. When the Lord Jesus works in great grace, saving one from the
life of sin, bringing him to know God and giving him the power to live a new
life to His glory, how it appeals to other people! I do not think there is
anything that has such a tendency to draw folks to any place where the Word of
God is preached as the word going forth that people are being saved, that men
and women are being delivered from their sins, that God is working miracles
among them. Oh, that we might see more of that here-the saving power of our Lord
Jesus thus manifested! In this instance we are told that as the sun was setting,
and the day drew to a close, a day in which He had been so busily engaged in
alleviating woes, that multitudes were brought to Him, and He laid His hands on
them and healed them. Nobody ever came to Him in the days of His flesh, seeking
deliverance from any ailment, but He met them in grace and delivered them.
Somebody might say, “Well, how is it that now sometimes when we are sick, we
come to Him, and we do not receive that for which we ask?” We need to remember
that those mighty signs and wonders that He wrought when He was here on earth
were the witnesses given to Israel to His Messiahship. He did them not only to
help those who came to Him, but also to bear testimony to those who saw and
heard, that He was indeed the promised Saviour. You will remember that the
prophet of old declared that in His day the tongue of the dumb should be made to
sing; the lame should leap as a hart; the eyes of the blind should be opened;
the ears of the deaf unstopped, and that sorrow and sickness should flee before
Him. These were the outward evidences that He was what He professed to be, the
Messiah of Israel. Now that He has gone back to glory He has not given the
definite promise that He will heal diseased bodies, but He has promised that He
will always deliver sin-sick people that will come to Him. He says, “Him that
cometh to Me, I will in no wise cast out.”
Every miracle that He wrought was in someway a picture of what sin does to men
and women and how they are delivered. Take, for instance, the man who was
possessed with a demon. He is just a picture of people all about us controlled
and dominated by Satanic power, driven by habits and passions from which they
cannot deliver themselves. This woman, with a fever raging in her veins, is a
picture of the feverishness of sin, from which the Lord gives complete freedom.
They came to Him from all quarters and He healed them. We are told that demons
also came out of many, crying out and saying, “Thou art Christ the Son of God.”
They knew Him. They recognized Him. They understood who He was. Men might deny
Him, but the demons could not. He rebuked them because He did not want their
testimony. “And He rebuking them suffered them not to speak: for they knew that
He was Christ.” Then we are told that when it was day He departed. When the
morning dawned, He left Capernaum and went out into a desert place, and people
sought Him there, and came to Him and begged Him not to depart from them. It is
beautiful to see this. At this time, at least, He was appreciated, and the
people wanted Him to remain. There may have been some selfishness in that. But
they recognized His power and they desired Him to stay in their city. He said,
“I cannot confine Myself to one place. I must preach the kingdom of God to other
cities also.” He went on from place to place, and preached in the synagogues of
Galilee. Thus He was being accredited to the people of Israel as the promised
One for whom they had waited so long. Oh, what a joy it is to realize that
although now He is hidden from the eyes of men, yet His power is just the same!
If I am addressing any who are in trouble, or sorrow, or distress, who are bound
by chains of sin, or controlled by the power of habit; if you will only come to
Jesus, though He is now in heaven and seated at the right hand of the Father,
you can reach out the hand of faith and feel the touch of His hand of healing.
He will give deliverance to all who call upon Him in faith.
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CHAPTER 100: 06.14. FISHERS OF MEN -- LUK_5:1-11
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Fishers Of Men -- Luke 5:1-11
“And it came to pass, that, as the people pressed upon Him to hear the Word of
God, He stood by the lake of Gennesaret, and saw two ships standing by the lake:
but the fishermen were gone out of them, and were washing their nets. And He
entered into one of the ships, which was Simon’s, and prayed him that he would
thrust out a little from the land. And He sat down, and taught the people out of
the ship. Now when He had left speaking, He said unto Simon, Launch out into the
deep, and let down your nets for a draught. And Simon answering said unto Him,
Master, we have toiled all the night, and have taken nothing: nevertheless at
Thy word I will let down the net. And when they had this done, they inclosed a
great multitude of fishes: and their net brake. And they beckoned unto their
partners which were in the other ship, that they should come and help them. And
they came, and filled both the ships, so that they began to sink. When Simon
Peter saw it, he fell down at Jesus’ knees, saying, Depart from me; for I am a
sinful man, O Lord. For he was astonished, and all that were with him, at the
draught of the fishes which they had taken: and so was also James, and John, the
sons of Zebedee, which were partners with Simon. And Jesus said unto Simon, Fear
not; from henceforth thou shalt catch men. And when they had brought their ships
to land, they forsook all, and followed him”- Luke 5:1-11.
Fishers of men! We hear a great deal about that nowadays. This is the first
occasion on which our Lord Jesus Christ called men to that high calling. I want
you to notice it particularly. We read, “And it came to pass, that, as the
people pressed upon Him to hear the Word of God, He stood by the lake of
Gennesaret.” The lake of Gennesaret is the same as the Sea of Galilee, or the
Sea of Tiberias. It is a fresh-water lake, not very large, but very beautiful.
One who has seen it can readily visualize what this first verse brings before
us. In many places the hills seem to roll gently down to the lake itself, and
there is just a very narrow beach so that one standing there would find himself
crowded back to the water as people thronged toward him. On the other hand, the
people could stand or sit up along the hillside and listen very readily as one
spoke to them, either from the shore itself, or as our Lord did, from a boat.
Everything about the Sea of Galilee fits in perfectly with the picture that we
have in the New Testament. There is one thing that is indisputable: The New
Testament was clearly never written by men who simply imagined the stories that
they tell. They knew what they were talking about. Every detail of the picture
is exact. Luke, himself, perhaps was not among those who had heard the Lord
Jesus preach, but he said he had accurate knowledge of all things from the
first, and he must have visited the Sea of Galilee. He must have looked over all
the country round about, or he could not have given such accurate descriptions
of the various places that he mentions in his Gospel. He is recognized, even by
unbelievers, as one of the most careful geographers as well as one of the most
accurate historians extant.
It is a great moment in one’s life when he hears the call to a life of service,
in devotion to the Lord Jesus Christ and for the blessing of a lost world. To
respond to that call in loving obedience is to enter upon an altogether new and
blessed experience, where one lives and moves on a higher plane than ever
before. This is something more than conversion or even than consecration. For
all who are saved have been born from above and all such are consecrated by God
Himself to glorify Him and to do His will in this scene. But to some there comes
a higher calling-a summons to leave all in the way of occupation with temporal
things and to go forth at His bidding to represent Him as His ambassadors. His
anointed ministers, to whom is committed in a special way the great task of
“taking men alive” and then leading them on in the knowledge of Christ. That
many imagine they are “called to the ministry” who are unfitted in every way for
such high and holy service is very true, and often more evident to others than
to those who are thus self-deluded. But when the Lord truly calls one to go
after Him in full-time service, He fits that one for the work which He intends
him to do. Possibly, there were never four men who gave less promise of marked
ability as preachers of the Word than the fisherman quartet here; yet each of
these was chosen by Jesus to fill a special place, and two of them were destined
to become known as among the greatest missionary-preachers and teachers of all
time. We know very little of Andrew, and James was martyred very early (Acts
12:1-2), but Peter and John were granted many years of devoted service and their
written ministry has edified untold millions. The Lord Jesus was standing upon
the shore. The people were thronging down to hear Him, crowding Him back toward
the blue waters of the Sea of Galilee or the Lake of Gennesaret, as here called.
Then Jesus turned about and He saw two fishermen’s boats in the lake, close to
the shore, but the fishermen were gone out of them and were washing their nets.
Jesus knew the owners of these boats, and He felt perfectly free to ask for the
use of one of them. He entered into one belonging to Simon Peter and asked him
to thrust out a little from the land. This was not the first time the Lord had
contacted Simon Peter, neither was it the second nor third. We read of the first
definite instance in John, chapter one, where two of the disciples of John the
Baptist heard their master say, “Behold the Lamb of God,” and they left John and
followed Jesus. They spent all the rest of the day with Him, listening to the
wonderful words that fell from His holy lips, and then immediately became
exercised about bringing others to Him. We read that one of the two who heard
John speak was Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother-“And he first find-eth his own
brother Simon, and brought him to Jesus.” There is something about the actual
arrangement of the Greek text there that has led scholars to believe that it
really means this: He was the first of the two to find his brother, implying
that John himself found his brother James on that occasion and brought him to
Jesus also, but John modestly hides himself and speaks only of that which his
friend Andrew did. Andrew found his brother Simon and brought him to Jesus. The
Lord Jesus welcomed him and gave him that new name “Peter.” From this time on
Peter was numbered among those who are recognized as disciples of the Lord
Jesus, but the disciples of Christ were not necessarily separated from their
secular employment. Many delighted to listen to His messages and were taught by
Him, and it was later that He separated a little group of twelve, and another
group of seventy to go out preaching. So Peter at first continued in his daily
work as a fisherman. He was engaged in this occupation when the Lord Jesus asked
for the use of his boat. He entered into Simon’s boat and when He had done so,
Jesus sat down in the boat and taught the people.
It is easy to visualize that scene. There were the crowds of people on the
hillside. Here is the Lord Jesus sitting in the boat and as He addresses the
throng, His voice carries in the clear air to the last one on the hill. He
instructs them concerning the kingdom of God, and I can fancy Simon Peter
sitting there with all the sense of ownership, thinking, “This is my boat, and
Jesus is here talking to these people. I am so glad to see them listening to
Him.” The Lord said some pretty serious things. Peter would be looking around
and thinking like so many folks today, “I am glad to see so-and-so here; I hope
he is taking this in, and I hope so-and-so is getting what she needs.” But
apparently Peter was not taking in anything. He was just allowing it all to go
to the rest of the folks. The Lord Jesus recognized his true state, and his need
for something to probe his conscience. So He said unto Simon, “Launch out into
the deep, and let down your nets for a draught.” Simon was bewildered and
surprised. Jesus was not a fisherman. He was a carpenter, and He had not lived
in a town on the lakeside. He lived in Nazareth, some miles away from the lake,
and He could not be expected, if He were only a man, to know the right time or
the right conditions for fishing. So Peter explains in the next verse that they
had been out all night long fishing, and had gotten nothing. So he was amazed
when Jesus said to him in broad daylight, probably with the sun shining brightly
down, “Launch out into the deep, and let down your nets.” You can imagine an
experience like this for Peter, and he, saying to himself, “If the fish were not
there in the night, certainly they will not be in the sunshine. There is no use
expecting to take any fish at this time of day. I know the conditions here too
well for that.” Of course, our modernistic ministers and preachers have tried to
explain the situation like this: they tell us that Jesus happened to look about
and saw a school of fish, and instead of saying to Peter, “Look, there is a
school of fish,” He thought it was a good opportunity to make Peter think He was
working a miracle and so He said, “Let down your nets for a draught.” This is an
endeavor to make our blessed Lord appear a mere charlatan. But the Lord Jesus
wanted to reach the conscience of Peter, so He did something that would make him
realize he was in the presence of God Himself.
“Let down your nets for a draught.” Simon Peter says, “Master, we have toiled
all the night, and have taken nothing.” It had been a most disappointing night.
But then, instead of saying it is useless to let down the nets today, he says,
“Nevertheless at Thy word I will let down the net.” Jesus did not say, “Let down
the net.” Jesus said, “Let down the nets,” to prepare for a great draught. Peter
said, “Well, Lord, we will let down one net anyway.” Of course, he felt it was a
poor time to fish and he did not expect to get anything, but since Jesus said
so, he let down a net. When they had done this they caught a great multitude of
fishes, and their net brake. Maybe, if they had let down the nets, that which
was used would not have broken so easily. One was not sufficient to hold the
great draught of fishes rushing into it, and when they realized that they would
not be able to handle this great catch themselves they beckoned unto their
partners who were in another ship. I suppose that would be James and John, for
they seemed to be working together. They beckoned unto their partners that they
should come and help them, and they came and they filled both the ships so they
began to I saw a number of ship-loads-boat-loads- come in to Tiberias from the
Sea of Galilee, but I never saw such a catch as this threatening to sink the
boat. I remember, as they were bringing in a great lot of fish, I was quite
surprised, and I said to one of the fishermen, “What do you call these fish?”
and he said, “Poisson St. Pierre”-St. Peter’s fish. 1 said, “Are these some of
the fish that Peter caught?” He said, “No; but these are some of the children of
the fish he didn’t catch!” His name, though, is linked with them to this day.
They got such a multitude of fish that the boats were almost sinking as they
drew them to land. Simon Peter was so stirred by what had taken place that he
recognized the fact that no one but the Creator of the fish could ever have
commanded the treasures of the deep to come into his net that way. He realized
in a moment that he was in the presence, not only of the greatest prophet that
had ever risen in Israel; not only of the greatest teacher that had ever come to
mankind; not only of the most remarkable miracle-worker that the Jews had ever
seen-he was in the presence of God! He fell down at the feet of Jesus, saying,
“Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord.” When one is brought consciously
into the presence of God, it always has the effect of making him realize his own
unworthiness and sinfulness. When Job came into the presence of God he said, “I
have heard of Thee by the hearing of the ear, but now mine eye seeth Thee.
Wherefore I abhor myself, and repent in dust and ashes.” Yet he was the best man
living in his day, a man whose outward life was perfect and upright, and a man
who feared God; but in the presence of the Lord, with the infinite holiness of
God revealed to him, he felt he was but a poor sinner. Isaiah had the same
experience. He was one of the most noble and eloquent of all the prophets, a man
used of God to preach to others. Yet when he was in the temple one day and God
was manifested to him, he cried out, “I am undone; because I am a man of unclean
lips.” He heard the seraphim surrounding the throne of God, singing, “Holy,
Holy, Holy, is the Lord of hosts; the whole earth is full of His glory!” He
recognized in a moment that there was a holiness of which he knew nothing and to
which he, in himself, could never attain; but when he confessed his sinfulness
and said, “I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of people of
unclean lips,” one of the seraphs took a coal from off the altar and touched his
lips, saying, “Thine iniquity is taken away, and thy sin purged.” And now, Simon
Peter here, active, energetic, and who had been with the Lord on a number of
occasions; who had listened to His teaching and seen His miracles, now,
apparently for the first time, recognized Him as God manifest in the flesh; and
the result was a complete breakdown on his own part, and he cried, “I am a
sinful man, O Lord!” I wonder if we have all broken down like that before God?
The thing that is most natural to the heart of man and most hateful to God, is
pride. “Most men,” we are told, “will declare to every one his own goodness, but
a faithful man who can find?” Speak to the average man about his hope of heaven
and he will tell you, “Yes, I do expect some day to arrive there.” He does trust
that eventually he will find his home in that city of the saints; and you ask,
“On what ground do you expect to be there?” Almost invariably he talks to you
about his efforts to do good; his attempt to obey the Golden Rule and to love
God with all his heart, and to love his neighbor as himself, and that he has
never been guilty of any serious offenses. He bases his hope on his own merits.
But God’s Word says, “By the deeds of the law there shall no flesh be justified
in His sight.” Whenever you find men or women talking about their own
righteousness, bolstering themselves up by the records of their own good works
you may be sure they have never actually been in the presence of God. Simon
Peter exclaims, “I am a sinful man; depart from me,” as much as to say, “I
recognize I am not fit to associate with a Holy One such as Thou art.” Yet he
clings to Him and says, as it were, “You will have to send me away, if You do
not want me with You.” And our Lord never sends any sinner away. If you come,
recognizing your guilt and confessing your sin, you may be sure He will receive
you. The Lord Jesus, instead of driving Peter away, said unto him, “Fear not;
from henceforth thou shalt catch men.” In other words, “The very fact, Simon,
that you have recognized that in yourself you are a poor sinful man makes you
fit to go forth and become a blessing to others. You are going to have a higher
calling, Peter. You are not going to spend the rest of your life on the Sea of
Galilee fishing, but you are going out at My command to win souls, to bring
others to a saving knowledge of the God of all grace; from henceforth thou shalt
catch men.” Or, as He puts it in another Gospel, “Follow Me, and I will make you
fishers of men.”
Now do not misunderstand. I do not suppose that the Lord Jesus says exactly
those words to everybody. He does not call everybody to give up their temporal
employment, and go forth in the ministry of the gospel, or to go out as
missionaries to distant lands. But He does call everybody to be devoted to
Himself and if devoted to Him, whatever your calling in life, whatever your
station, however you may be occupied, you will be enabled to glorify Him, and
though it may not be for you to do the work of an evangelist, though it may not
be for you to go out as an apostle as Peter did, you will be able to influence
others by your life, a life lived for God, which is the best testimony any one
can give to the saving grace of God. Fear not. It is true you are a sinner in
yourself, but if your trust is in Christ and you are resting in Him who died to
save you, in Him who shed His blood to put away your guilt, you can go forth in
confidence to serve. “From henceforth thou shalt catch men.”
God could have sent angels into this world to carry the gospel of His grace to
lost men, and I am sure there is not an angel in heaven who would not gladly
leave the glory and come down into this world and go up and down among the
nations to tell the wondrous story of Christ, who died and rose again. But
Christ did not commit to them this precious ministry. He has entrusted it to
saved sinners-to you and to me, who, through His grace, know Him as our
Redeemer. God give us to be faithful in making known the message to those round
about us. We may have to do it in a very quiet way. It may be just a little word
here and there. It may be just a short gospel message; it may be a brief
testimony that will tell of the saving grace of Christ. All of these may be used
as the hooks wherewith we catch men and bring them to know the Lord Jesus Christ
for themselves. This was a crisis in the life of the Apostle Peter, or I should
say, the fisherman Peter. It marked the break between his life as a fisherman
and that which was to prepare him for the apostleship, for we read, “When they
had brought their ships to land, they forsook all, and followed Him.” Never
again was Peter to be engaged in the fishing-business for a living. There was
one time, you remember, after the resurrection, when he was still in a somewhat
bewildered state, following his denial, that he went down to the Sea of Galilee,
and was fishing; and again the Saviour appeared and again a great multitude of
fish came into his net, but from that time on we never read of Peter taking up a
net again. He devoted his life entirely to carrying the gospel message to a lost
world. “They forsook all, and followed Him.” I take it that “they” here
included, at least, the four men-Peter, Andrew, James, and John. This was really
their induction into the apostolate. They gave up their temporal employment and
from this time on they were associated with Jesus as He went from place to
place, preaching the gospel of the kingdom. So, after three-and-a-half years of
association with Him they were prepared, when the Holy Spirit came at Pentecost,
to go forth declaring the gospel of His grace in power; so that multitudes, both
of Jews and Gentiles, were saved. In this way they proved the truth of the
Lord’s words, “From henceforth thou shalt catch men.” I cannot conceive of any
higher calling on earth than that of being used of God to bring precious souls
to Himself. Who would shrink from such service when commissioned by so wondrous
a Master! To be a fisher of men is one of the greatest privileges one can enjoy.
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Source: https://sermonindex.net/books/writings-of-harry-a-ironside-volume-1/
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