Another Christmas
Part 1
Our Christmas Card to You
Another Christmas
what a fuss,
We wonder what it holds
for us.
And then, rebuked, we
call to mind
That Christ was born to
save mankind.
He came from bliss
beyond compare;
He stooped so low, our lot
to share;
And there among the
humblest streak,
He came to live and
work and speak.
And not alone was He to
serve,
Christ came to die a
shameful death.
And through the cross
He took our place
And taught us how to
live on earth.
The Cross speaks of pardon
to our souls:
Of love that will not
let us go.
And this is why Christ
came to earth,
That we might have a
second birth.*
The Cross unites us to the Crown.**
It is the royal path to
bliss.
This Christmas we
should all do well,
For Christ must come back here to dwell.***
He cometh, and a thousand
voices
Call out to saints, wretched, blind and dumb;****
Surely He cometh, and the earth rejoices +
Glad in His coming Who
hath sworn, I
come.++
Notes.
*That is, birth from Sheol/Hades in the lower parts of the earth; for
the saints are theBody
of Christ, Eph. 4: 12, 16; Col. 1: 18,
etc. And in that Body each has his/her place, (Psalm 139: 15, 16).
The Israelites,
following the death of the firstborn, possessed spiritual life. Thus, they had to be raised from the
place of death to walk in newness of life something having to do with the spiritual man alone, for
this resurrection has nothing to do with the man of flesh. He is left in the place of death.
This is pictured during the present
dispensation through the act of baptism A person (a Christian), having
experienced the death of the firstborn vicariously (through the blood of the
Paschal Lamb Who died in his stead), is placed down in the waters. He then, within the symbolism involved, finds
himself in the place of death, beneath the waters.
But, because the One providing the
vicarious death conquered death, the Christian can be removed from the waters
and find himself in the position of having been raised with Christ (Col. 2:
12; 3: 1ff).
And this position wrought through supernatural,
resurrection power the Christian is to walk in newness of
life (Rom. 6: 4), with a view to an inheritance in another land, within a
theocracy.
There must be a [future] resurrection
in view.
This is why both (water
and Spirit) are set forth side-by-side in John 3: 5; and this is why the
epistles, drawing from the types, go to such great lengths to call all the
various facets of this matter to a Christians attention. Only through this dual means can a Christian
be successfully led to the goal of his calling. Only through this dual means can a Christian enter
into the
** See Romans 8: 17b; Acts 14: 22;
Revelation 2: 26.
*** See, - Luke 1: 32; Acts 1: 11; Revelation 11: 15b.
**** See, - Revelation 3: 17; 3: 11.
+ See, - Romans 8: 21.
++ See, - Luke 22:
28-30; Revelation 3: 21, 22.
* *
*
Part 2
Three Selected Writings
1. The First Christmas
Gifts
Usually the first thoughts in our minds
associated with Christmas are about gifts what to give, and wondering what will
be given to us. Seldom do individuals
think of the Gift of gifts.
When the wise men from the East came to
There with His mother Mary, they found the
child Jesus and fell down and worshiped Him.
Part of their worship was the presentation of gifts. Of course the Lord Jesus was Gods love Gift
to the world, and in appreciation of this wonderful Gift from the heavenly
Father, they gave gifts to the Christ Child.
Now in a sentence the presentation of the
gifts by the wise men expressed to all creation their belief that this Child was Prophet, Priest, and King
God manifest in the flesh. And
because the Lord had given Himself for us, what better gift can we give Him
than to acknowledge before the whole world that He is our Prophet, Priest, and
coming King? This is done by expressing
a personal faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, and through the power of His Holy
Spirit, living for His honour and glory.
* *
*
2. A Denial of the
Second Advent and Millennial Reign
With the vast majority of regenerate believers
of all groups openly denying the Second Advent and Millennial Reign, our Lords
warnings to His Church become extraordinarily significant, with the drastic
consequences of disobedience.
A study of the elements that make up the
essential attitude of our hearts toward the Lord Jesus and His Return in the New
Testament, actually number twelve. By no
chance could all this admonition and example be a casual matter for there are
scores of references with their contexts to Christs Coming for His faithful ones.
We cite these:-
1. Wait for Hebrews
9: 28, Unto them that wait for Him shall He
appear a second time, apart from sin, unto salvation. 1 Corinthians 1: 7. Waiting
for the revelation of the Lord.
Also Romans 8: 19, 23. 25; Galations 5: 5; Philippians 3: 20; also 1 Thessalonians 1:
10.
2. Give diligence (an overplus word) 2 Timothy 2:
15. Give
diligeance to present thyself
approved unto God. Heb. 4: 11.
3. Working (both ergon
and poieo, Greek) Colossians 4: 11, Fellow-workers
unto the
4. Awake Romans
3: 11-13, That now is the time to awake out of
sleep, and now is our salvation [end time rapture or resurrection of
the dead for reward (Luke 21: 34-36; Revelation 3:
10; Luke 14: 14; Philippians 3: 11; Hebrews 11: 35b)] nearer
the night is far
spent, the day is at hand. - Ephesians 5: 5ff..
5. Watch Luke
21: 36. Watch
ye therefore
(thus) accounted worthy to escape
(in rapture). Mark
13: 35; Matthew 24: 43; Revelation 16: 15. Used 15 times.
6. Pray Luke
21: 36, And pray always
escape. Escape
used 13 times.
7. Look for Titus
2: 13: Looking for that blessed hope. Jude 21, etc. Used 14 times.
8. Hastening unto 2 Peter 3: 12:
Hastening unto the day of God. Three times.
9. Endurance James 1: 12: Blessed is the man that
endureth (hupomeno, Greek) temptation
approved
the crown.
Hebrews 12: 1; Matthew 24: 13; Mark 13: 13. Twelve times, and another
great word (makrothumia, Greek), 2 times,
James 5: 7, 8; Hebrews 6: 12, Be patient therefore unto the coming.
10. Love 2
Timothy 4: 8, Unto them that have loved His
appearing. Contrast Demas (verse 10; James 4: 4). Matthew 24: 12. The overcomers
(Revelation 12: 11) loved not their lives unto death.
The word is hagios, the deeper word for
love. 11.
11. Ready Matt.
24: 44: Therefore, be ye also ready
the Son of man cometh. Luke 12: 40. This word is used fully 10 times re prepardness. All things are now
ready! Are We?
12. Abide 1 John 2: 28:
And now little children, abide in Him; that if He
shall be manifested, we may have boldness, and not be ashamed before Him at His
presence? 1 John 2: 17:
He that doeth the will og God, abideth forever. 1 Corinthians 3:
14: If
any mans work abide
Five times.
Summary
Thus there are 122 references to ones deep,
innate attitude toward our Lords return.
The worldling, the apostate, the agnostic, the cleric minus the
evangelical message (1 Corinthians 15: 1-4),
the all-absorbed world-betterer without the blessed hope, these and multitudes everywhere of
indifferent, self-pleasing pleasing believers will be shortcomers
in that day not overcomers as the foregoing
Scriptures reveal these to be. It is His Standard not ours! Do we love His
appearing?
* *
*
3. Wait for Him
My soul waiteth
for the Lord more than they that watch for the morning.-
Psalm 130: 6.
To wait for His Son from heaven. -
1
Thessalonians 1. 10.
Behold, I
come quickly ... Surely I come quickly;
Amen. Even so, come, Lord Jesus. - Revelation 22: 7, 20.
-------
And ye yourselves like unto men that wait for their Lord
(Luke 12: 36). Such is our Lords description of the
attitude in which His people ought continually to be found. Before His departure He left with His
disciples this comforting assurance: I will come
again, and receive you unto Myself (John
14: 3); and after He had departed, while the astonished disciples gazed
up into heaven, angelic voices reminded them of the same glorious truth, This same Jesus, who is taken up from you into heaven, shall
so come in like manner as ye have seen Him go into heaven (Acts 1: 11).
This
grand fact should be kept distinct from all questions relating to accompanying
events. It is to be regretted that long and
bitter controversies over prophetic topics have tended both to obscure and
discredit the doctrine of the second advent of our Lord. Whatever disagreement may exist as to the
interpretation of certain scriptures bearing upon time, manner, and order of occurrences,
there is a general agreement on the one point that He will come again; and in apostolic days the
hope of His return occupied a prominent place in the minds of teacher and
taught. When the Thessalonians received
the gospel, they turned to God from idols to serve a
living and true God, and to wait for
His Son from heaven
(1 Thessalonians 1: 9, 10). In the brief summary of elementary doctrine
contained in Paul's epistle to Titus, chapter 2,
verse 13, prominence is given to this truth: Looking
for that blessed hope, even the appearing of the glory of our great God and
Saviour Jesus Christ.
Our
Lord has represented Himself as the absent Bridegroom who will come to receive
His bride (Matthew 25: 1-13), and as the
Lord of His servants who will come to take account of their work (Matthew 25: 14-30). To the Jewish Council He declared, Henceforth ye shall see the Son of Man sitting at the right
hand of power, and coming on the clouds of heaven (Matthew 26: 64).
To the Thessalonian Christians, to comfort them under the loss of
friends, Paul presents as a heart-sustaining truth, The
Lord Himself shall 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
(1 Thes. 4: 16).
Thus
throughout the Gospels and Epistles we find our Lord and His apostles in
various ways unfolding this important doctrine, and placing it in a strong
light before the eyes of the church.
And, as if finally to remind our hearts, and to
add emphasis to the teaching, three times in the last chapter of the Bible do
we hear our Lord saying, Behold, I come quickly. Watch, therefore,
for ye know not what hour your Lord doth come.
A practical truth.
Against
this doctrine it is often urged that it is not practical. It is regarded as merely speculative; but
this is a mistake. Rightly understood,
its influence on life and service is most powerful.
The
two parables in Matthew 25 of the Virgins
and the Talents indicate the practical bearing of this subject. The parable of the Virgins is designed to
teach the duty of watchfulness and expectancy.
But the parable of the Talents serves as a complement to it, showing
what the character of that waiting should be: that it should not be an idle gazing up into heaven, but a diligent occupying till
He come.
It is a stimulus to holiness.
Every man that hath this hope set on Him purifieth himself,
even as He is pure (1 John 3). The consideration of the return of the Lord Jesus
Christ is eminently fitted to quicken us in watching against sin and
cultivating purity of life. Our desire
will be to abide in Him, that, if He shall be
manifested, we may have boldness, and not be ashamed from Him at His presence
(1 John 2: 28). The thought that we may speedily be called
into His presence will make us anxious so to conduct ourselves that we may be
ready at any moment to meet Him. There
are many motives to holiness set before us in the Scriptures, but there is
surely not one more powerful than this Behold, I
come quickly.
It is a stimulus in service.
I charge thee, says Paul to Timothy, before God, and the Lord Jesus Christ, who shall judge the
living and the dead, and by His
appearing and His kingdom; preach the word; be instant in season,
out of season (2 Timothy 4: 1, 2). What can be more forcible and significant
than this? Here the fact of the second advent of Christ is made the ground of a
special and solemn appeal to Timothy to be diligent and faithful in service. If this truth holds its right place in our
thoughts, then it cannot fail to awaken a desire to serve Him as we shall wish
to have served Him when all earthly opportunities are over and we stand before
His judgment seat. If we truly love Him,
it will be our ambition to please Him, and to gain the expression of His favour
when we see Him. If we acknowledge His authority, it will be our desire to give practical
proof of it by steady obedience to His commands, so that we may not have to
suffer loss at that day. Our Lord
not only said, Blessed are those servants whom the
Lord when he cometh shall find watching (Luke
12: 37), but also, "Blessed is that
servant, whom his Lord when he cometh shall find so doing (Matt.
24: 46).
Although
the question of the acceptance of our persons was settled when we believed in
Jesus, the acceptance of our works is another matter, and
for this we wait the day of His appearing.
Then every mans work shall be made manifest:
for the day shall declare it, because it shall be revealed in fire; and the
fire shall try every mans work of what sort it is. If any mans work abide
which he hath built thereupon, he shall receive a reward. If any mans work shall be burned, he shall
suffer loss: but he himself shall be saved; yet so as
through fire (1 Corinthians 3. 13- 15).
A stimulus in self-judgment.
Again,
the doctrine of the second coming of Christ, is a stimulus
to self-judgment. If we would judge ourselves, we should not be judged. We may, and ought, to anticipate the tribunal
of Christ. By the discovery and
confession of our sins now, we do not leave them to be dealt with hereafter;
for, if we confess our sins, He is faithful and
righteous to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness
(1 John 1: 9). Remembering what our Lord has said respecting
the suddenness of His appearing, we shall be the more diligent in
self-examination, so that we may have a conscience
void of offence toward God, and may not have to go forward to the
judgment seat with a burden of unconfessed sin.
The Israelites were directed to keep the camp free from every unclean
thing, because the Lord their God walked in the midst of them. Surely the prospect of the sudden appearance
of our Lord, if kept vividly before our minds, would beget in us a like
carefulness for the purity of our hearts and ways, and the exclusion of
everything that would defile.
An encouragement to patience.
The
predicted return of Christ is also an encouragement to patience. When the apostle James would encourage
oppressed believers to patience under their sufferings, he directs them to the
same glorious prospect: Be patient, therefore,
brethren, until the coming of the Lord (chapter
5: 7); Be ye also patient; stablish your
hearts: for the coming of the Lord has drawn near (chapter 5: 8).
So also, Paul, in comforting the Thessalonians under persecutions, says:
To you who are troubled rest with us, when the Lord Jesus
shall be revealed from heaven with His mighty angels (2 Thessalonians 1: 7). All the trials and sufferings of believers
will terminate then. Their cause is in
the hands of a mighty Redeemer, and they may well leave vengeance to His
execution. Vengeance
is Mine: I will recompense, saith the Lord (Romans
12: 19).
How
often the people of God have been perplexed by the seeming contradictions of
Divine providence! The ungodly prosper,
and increase in riches, while the godly are poor and afflicted. Oppressors are allowed to march in triumph,
and the feeble flock of God is trampled under their feet. The appearing of Christ will rectify that
which now, to our limited gaze, appears so wrong. The Sun of
Righteousness will arise with healing in His wings; and then we shall
be able to discern between the righteous and the
wicked, between him that serveth God and him that serveth Him not (Malachi
3: 18). Then the last mark of
reproach shall be completely rolled away, and Christ and His church be eternally
vindicated before the whole universe.
Salutary discipline.
The
waiting which the delay of Christs return involves constitutes a salutary
discipline. There is
scarcely anything more difficult to do than to wait. Patience is not a common virtue. It does not require much acquaintance with
life, either our own or others, to bring us to this conclusion. It is easier to do than to suffer, to act
than to be still.
King
Saul was tried by this test, and failed.
His standing orders for critical times were, to wait for Samuels
appearance for the space of seven days.
The history shows how on one memorable occasion he waited, but not long
enough; then he acted upon his own responsibility, and disobeyed. Although we would not dare to put it into
words, and indeed, would shrink with horror from an attempt to formulate such
an idea, yet does there not now and then start into our minds the dim shadow of
a suspicion that there must be some flaw in the Divine arrangements? and are we not tempted, like Saul, to anticipate Him, and
put our hand out to expedite the result?
Let us be on our guard against this snare. Impatience will hurry us into mistakes,
dishonouring to God, distressing to ourselves; while faith and patience will
keep us calm and steady till the fulfilment of the promise. Though it tarry,
wait for it; because it will surely come, it will not tarry (Habakkuk 2: 3).
While we wait for Him every virtue is called
into exercise.
We walk by faith, not by sight. Hereafter, faith will cease, and it will be
easy to serve God in the presence and enjoyment of all the glory and happiness
of the future state. But to serve Him now - amid scorn,
reproach, unbelief, perplexities, weakness, and opposition - to maintain faith
in the presence of infidelity, meekness under injury, patience under
persecution, hope in spite of discouragement, faithfulness amid general
unrighteousness, - these are the things that glorify God, exalt His name, and
develop Christian character.
We shall not wait in vain.
They shall not be ashamed that wait for Me
(Isaiah 49. 23). These are the words of Jehovah of
hosts. His honour is at stake. Did any ever turn their eyes in vain
to the cast as morning approached, and fail to see the streaks of dawn announcing
the advance of day? Did any, after the
long reign of winter, look in vain for the signs of returning spring and
summer? Never have these ordinances of
Nature failed, but, true to His ancient covenant, the great and beneficent
Creator has caused the seasons punctually to appear.
It
is upon the word of that same God that we rely.
I wait for the Lord, my soul doth wait, and in
His word do I hope. My soul waiteth for
the Lord more than they that watch for the morning; I say more than they that watch
for the morning (Psalm 130: 5, 6). The Lord is not
slack concerning His promise, as some count slackness; but is long suffering to
youward (2 Peter 3: 9). With Him Slow circling ages are as transient days.
As
certainly as the periods of day and night, and the circle of the seasons run
their course, so with equal faithfulness will it be found that the larger
prophetic circles fulfil their round. Vast they are, and baffle our limited
comprehension; but they are accurately measured by Him who meted out heaven with a span, and are even now
running on towards their close. These times and seasons the Father hath set within
His own authority; and though we may not know the day
and hour, we may discern the gathering signs, and look up and lift up
our heads with joy, knowing that our redemption draweth nigh. And it shall be said
in that day, Lo, this is our God; we have waited for
Him, and He will save us: this is Jehovah; we have waited for Him, we will be
glad and rejoice in His salvation. (Isaiah
25: 9).
* *
*
Our
queens late father said the following in one of his Christmas Address in the
1940s
I said to the man who stood at the gate of the year, give me
a light that I may tread safely into the unknown, and he replied: Go out into the
darkness and put your hand into the hand of God. That shall be to you better than light and
safer than a known way.
Christ is indeed the Light urgently
needed for the Christians walk. His
light will show His disciples the way to enter into the inheritance in the
* *
*
Picture Above:- n:vision, Issue 27 / Christmas 2011
Christmas Text
Uphold me according to thy word, and quicken me; and make me not ashamed of my expectation. Help me and I shall be saved;* and I will meditate in
thine ordinances continually: (Psalm 119:
116. 117, Septuagint).
* Note.
This future salvation,
is what Peter calls: The end of the faith [the] salvation of souls: (1 Perter 1: 10, Lit
Greek).
-------