AN
EASTER
SELECTION
FOR
2014
By way of
INTRODUCTION.
TRUTH has been out of fashion
since man changed his robes
of fadeless light for a garment of faded leaves. It is
natural to compromise conscience and
follow the social and religious fashion for the sake
of gain or pleasure: it
is divine to sacrifice both on the altar of Truth
and Duty.
Men are never
faithful in crowds.
Our nearest and
dearest can and, at times, will fail us.
The people God is looking for today are
Christian men and women, young
and old, who will obey their
convictions
of truth and duty at
the cost
of fortune and friends and life itself.
It is to those
who are
regenerate
that Jesus says, (Matthew 7:
14): “Narrow is the
gate,
and straitened the way, that leadeth unto life,
and few
there be that find it.”
Abel
was
murdered alone. Enoch
watched alone. Noah preached of
a
coming judgment alone. Abraham
offered Isaac alone. Jacob wrestled
with
God alone. Samson
repented alone. David fought
Goliath alone.
Elijah sacrificed on
God’s
people
in the desert praised
Abraham
and persecuted Moses. God’s people
under the Kings praised
Moses and persecuted the prophets.
God’s people
under Caiaphas praised
the
prophets and persecuted Jesus.
God’s people under the Popes, praised
the Saviour and persecuted the saints: and multitudes now, both
in
the Church and in the world,
applaud the
courage and fortitude of the patriarchs and
prophets, the apostles and martyrs,
but
condemn as
stubbornness or foolishness like faithfulness to
truth today!
Nevertheless,
the
faithful
and obedient
servant
of
God is never alone. He never has
to repeat
“Therefore, my beloved brethren, be ye steadfast, unmoveable, always
abounding in the work of the Lord,
forasmuch as ye know that your
labour
is not in vain in the Lord:”
(1
Corinthians 15:
58, A.V.).
-------
SCRIPTURE
“They lead Jesus therefore from
Caiaphas into the Praetorium:
and it was early; and
they
themselves entered not into the Praetorium, that
they might not be defiled,
but might eat the
Passover.
Pilate therefore went out unto them, and
saith, What
accusation bring ye against this man? They
answered and
said unto him, If this man were not an evil-doer, we
should not have delivered him up unto thee. Pilate
therefore
said unto them, Take
him yourselves, and
judge him according to your law. The Jews
said unto
him, It is not lawful
for us to put any man to
death: that the word
of Jesus might be fulfilled,
which he spake,
signifying by
what manner of death he should die.
Pilate therefore entered again into the Praetorium, and called Jesus,
and said unto him, Art thou the King of the Jews?
Jesus answered, Sayest thou
this of thyself, or
did others tell it thee
concerning me?
Pilate answered,
Am I a Jew?
Thine own notion and
the chief priests delivered thee unto me: what hast
thou done?
Jesus answered,
My
kingdom
is not of this world: if my kingdom were of this world, then would my servants fight,
that I should not be delivered to the Jews: but
now is my kingdom not from thence. Pilate
therefore said unto him,
Art thou a king then? Jesus
answered, Thou sayest that I am a king.
To this end have I been born,
and to this end am I come into the world, that I should bear witness unto
the truth.
Every one that is of
the truth heareth my voice. Pilate
said unto him, What
is truth?
And when he had said this, he went out again unto the Jews, and said unto them,
I find no
crime in him.
But ye have a custom,
that I should
release unto you one at the Passover:
will ye
therefore that I release unto you the King of the
Jews?
They cried out
therefore again,
saying, Not this man, but Barabbas. Now
Barabbas was a
robber.” - John
18: 28-40.
-------
PART ONE
DO THE
HOLY SCRIPTURES TEACH
US THAT THERE WILL BE
A MILLENNIAL
KINGDOM ON THIS EARTH FOR GOD’S
MESSIAH?
-------
1
“MY
KINGDOM IS
NOT
OF THIS WORLD.”
By
ROBERT
GOVETT
‘They
led, therefore,
Jesus from Caiaphas to the Praetorium. Now
it was early morning;
and they did not go into the Praetorium, lest they should be defiled, but
that they might eat the
Passover.’ John
18: 28.
They must deliver Jesus over
to the Romans - the Gentiles.
(1) On
their side the reason was, because to put
Him to death would have drawn down on themselves
punishment. (2)
On God’s part the reason was, that Jew
and Gentile were to prove themselves both sinners, the
Jews being deepest in
transgression; that Jesus’ death might avail for both.
The Praetorium was
originally the Palace of Herod the Great.
It had now become the residence of the Roman
Governor, who, though
living at Caesarea, ordinarily dwelt during the feasts
at
‘That
they might eat the Passover.’ Those
unclean could not celebrate the
Passover. And
as this was their chief
feast, they desired not to be shut out therefrom. But this
brings up anew the question – Which
was the true day of the Passover?
Jesus
had already celebrated the Passover on the evening
before with the twelve.
How then should there be any second eating of
it? This
is a vexed question, on which
learned men have not been able to come to any settled
conclusion. Nor
is it necessary to the faith, though it
carries with it not a few perplexities.
The most probable idea, I think, is that there
were two times of celebrating
it among the Jews, arising out of two different modes
of reckoning the time of
new moon: that Jesus and His disciples kept the
Passover on one of these times,
and the other party on another day, according to a
different reckoning.
29-32.
‘Pilate therefore went out to
them, and said -
“What accusation
bring ye against this man?” They
answered and said unto him - “If
He were not a malefactor, we would not have delivered Him
up to thee.” Pilate
said therefore unto them - “Take
ye Him and
judge Him according to your Law.” The Jews
therefore said unto him - “It
is not lawful for us
to slay any man.” In order
that the word of Jesus might be
fulfilled which He spake,
signifying by what
kind of death He was about to die.’
Pilate humours their
religiousness. Since
they would not come
in to him, he would go out to them.
What
was their charge against the prisoner?
They will not tell Him; for they knew well
enough that the charge of
blasphemy in making Himself ‘Son of God,’
which was the ground on which they had condemned Jesus
in their council, was no
offence against Roman law.
They wish,
therefore, Pilate to pass sentence on Christ without
further inquiry, assuming
that so venerable a body would not be guilty of any
injustice, and had declined
all according to their Law.
Hence they
do not even state the ground of their condemnation,
only generally that He was
a ‘malefactor,’ or ‘evil-doer,’ while they had condemned Him
for evil-speaking.
Pilate refuses to be made a
tool of theirs. ‘If
you pronounce sentence,
carry it out in execution according to your Law.’
This
draws out
the confession that their sentence was of death; so
that while they would
gladly execute Jesus, the law of
Now, this hindrance was in
accordance with God’s mind about His Son’s death. For had they
been able to put our Lord to
death on their occasion, and according to Mosaic Law,
He must have been stoned. But the
Scripture and the word of Christ had
decided, that His death was to be in another manner –
by nailing to the
tree. Thus
alone, according to the word
in
[* By stoning, too, most of
the bones would be broken, while of the Passover lamb
it was forbidden.
‘Not a bone of it
shall be broken.’]
33, 34.
‘Pilate entered in therefore
again, into the
Praetorium, and
called Jesus, and
said unto Him - “Thou
art the King of the Jews?” Jesus answered him -
“Of thyself sayest thou this;
or
did others say it to thee about Me?”’
Pilate’s words should be
read as an interrogation put in the form of
affirmation, as when we say -
‘You are going to
We may state it
thus - ‘Dost thou put the
question of thy own
proper motion?’
Then that may
arise (1) from faith, accepting
the Scriptures of the Jews, as foretelling a universal
king of David’s line; or
(2) from Roman and political unbelief; through jealousy of Jesus’ pretensions, as hostile to the Emperor.
The Roman’s reply seems to
be especially directed primarily to negative the first
of these points.
And the second part of the reply removes the
other. Thus
He leaves the Jews as the
sole authors of this accusation.
35,
36. ‘Pilate answered
- “Am I a Jew?
Thine own nation and
the chief priests have delivered Thee up to me:
what
hast Thou done?”
Jesus answered - ‘My
kingdom cometh not
out of this world;
if it were out of this
world, then would My
servants have fought,
in order that I should not be delivered up to the
Jews, but now My
kingdom is not from thence.’
The first part of Pilate’s
reply
is a proud denial of his having any sympathy with
Jewish fables and
superstitions. He
neither knew nor cared
anything about Moses and the prophets.
He was a servant of the fourth great empire of
Daniel, and believed
nought about any greater empire of God, that should
dash to earth that of
He tells Jesus, that the
accusation was put into His mouth by the nation and
rulers of
The
Saviour’s reply
is one which is much quoted by anti-millenarians. To their
eyes it demolishes all ideas of any
reign of Christ in person over
There words refer not only
to the twelve and our Lord’s prohibition of the sword
in the Garden to them;
but also to His refusal to attempt to set up the
How shall we take the
‘now’ in our Lord’s
closing words? 1. Is it a particle of
time? ‘For the present My kingdom of not from the world.’ No!
For
the source of the Lord’s kingdom would always abide
the same; always would its
source be heavenly.
The Father’s will is
to bestow it on the Son, and His
decree
is that it should be established, not by the armies
of men, but
by the host of angels from on high.
(2) The last
clause, ‘not from hence,’ establishes the rendering here given;
and the sense - ‘Heaven, not earth, is the source
of our Lord’s future [millennial] kingdom.’
For the Saviour could not
deny that His kingdom was one day to rule over the
Our Lord does not answer the
question, ‘What He had done?’ till the
next reply. What
is the Saviour’s
kingdom? ‘A kingdom,’ most
reply, ‘in the hearts of
His people.’ Nay, the
[millennial]
kingdom is to be seen when He is beheld coming in
the clouds, with power of His
angels, casting His foes into the furnace of fire,
and rewarding His
well-behaved and faithful servants (Matt.
24. & 25.)
Says Pilate, ‘Thy people,
O king, have
themselves
delivered Thee up to me,
as an offender to be
slain!’ And Jesus,
while owning Himself ‘King of the Jews,’ as the
Prophet had declared, must yet say, that on worldly
grounds His servants would
have fought against the Jews, as against enemies. ‘All
the
foundations are out of course.’ That
‘Jesus is King of
37. ‘Pilate
saith therefore unto
Him, “Thou art a King
then.”
Jesus answered,
“Thou sayest that I am a King.
I was for this
purpose born, and for
this purpose came into the
world, in order that I should bear witness to the
truth.
Every one that is of
the truth heareth My voice.”’
Jesus had thrice spoken of ‘His
kingdom.’ But if so,
He
owned Himself to be a King.
Jesus admits it.
In what sense?
Some pervert His words, as if the following
sentiments of our Lord were descriptive of the nature of His kingdom. As though He
had said, ‘I am King in a
figurative sense. I reign
spiritually in the hearts of My
people.
I am King: but My realm is that
of grace and truth.’
Now if this were the only passage, there might be some appearance of
truth in such a view.
But when we bring
in other passages, it is apparent that this is a
mistake.
The only shelter which the sentiment can find
lies in this, that the present time is the time of the kingdom in
mystery,
and the present day is that of ‘the word of the
kingdom.’
But it must never be forgot,
that both in the other Gospels and in this, Jesus was
asked whether He were ‘the King of the
Jews.’ To
that
question Jesus answered in the affirmative.
Therefore
it
is certain, that Jesus’
kingdom is not
only or
chiefly a figurative one, but a real and literal
one, (1) over the nation of
The nature of the kingdom,
then, is wholly misapprehended by those who make it
something figurative and
present. This
is not truly the time of
the Saviour’s kingdom.
We are to pray
for its coming; not for its extension. The
kingdom, generally, means
the kingdom in
manifestation,
not ‘the word of the kingdom’ only. It
is
to overthrow the kingdoms of the
earth when it comes;
not as
now, while in mystery: its adherents lying passive
in the hands of the kings of
the earth, and refusing
to take
power in, and over, the world.
Jesus was offered all the
kingdoms over
This was ‘the good confession’ before Pilate, which cost our
Lord His life, (1 Tim.
6: 13).
(1) In Daniel
7: 14-27,
‘the Son
of Man’
as ‘Ancient
of Days,’
puts down by force
and justice the fourth empire, and its blaspheming
King; while He gives the kingdom which He has taken away from the Blasphemer,
to His fellow-kings. (2) So in the
parable of the Pounds (Luke
19.) The nobleman is gone to
heaven to obtain His kingdom. He
does not
exercise it while in heaven: it is only at His return, after the
reception
of His kingdom, that He exercises it.
And how does He manifest it?
By exalting His friends and faithful
servants; and by
destroying
His foes. That is, His
kingdom
never means an inward and invisible kingdom in the
hearts of believers.
(3) While the Writer of Hebrews proclaims Jesus as being now the ‘Priest
after the
order of Melchizedek,’
He speaks also of the day when the Kingly
side of that title shall
appear. For
Melchizedek was both
Priest and King, of which the
history of Abraham gives us a typical glimpse.
He brings blessings to Abraham and his sons,
after their Gentile foes
are cut off (Heb.
7: 1).
(4) His kingdom is
to manifest
itself in resurrection, at His
coming with the trumpet of heaven. It is to be
based on the principle of righteousness; in opposition to that of mercy, now
in force. Christ is to
reign, not only spiritually over
friends, but specially in the putting down by power and
righteousness,
all enemies. So
says
Paul, 1
Cor. 15:
24-28 - ‘Then cometh the end, when He
shall deliver up the kingdom to God,
even the
Father; when He shall have put down all rule and all authority and power. For
He must reign
till He hath put all enemies
under His feet. The last
enemy that shall be destroyed is
death. For
He (God) hath
put all things under His (Christ’s)
feet.
But when He saith,
all things are put under Him,
it is manifest that He is excepted, which
did put all things under Him,
then shall the Son also Himself be subject unto Him
that put
all things under Him, that
God may be all in all.’ (5)
The same thing appears in Rev.
11: 15-18,
when the
seventh trumpet sounds; then the kingdoms of earth
become, by
the putting forth of God’s might, and the
recalling of the power lent in Noah’s day to the sons
of men - ‘the kingdoms of the Lord, and
of His Christ.’
At
that time the nations were not converted and
obedient, but are angry with God, and God is angry
with them, even to the
cutting off of their armies by battle (Rev. 19:
11-21; Isa. 34.)
Then appears the other side of the matter -
the kingdom comes, as
the time of the reward for God’s saints of previous dispensations. (6)
Accordingly, the thing is shown in the
Apocalypse in detail by Christ coming
with the armies out of the sky; when, finding the
hosts of earth arrayed
against Him under two leaders of especial wickedness,
He casts the two into the
lake of fire, and slays the rest; his title then
becoming openly ‘King OF KINGS AND LORD OF LORDS’ (Rev. 19:
16). (7)
After
that, and the imprisonment
of Satan, the kingdom is fully manifested.
Christ reigns, and
His martyrs who suffered
for, and served, Him, sit on thrones, and reign with
Christ (20: 4-6). They then
exercise justice:-
not, as now, suffer oppression patiently.
‘The
kingdom,’
therefore is to be taken
in its usual and literal sense.
(1) The future
But to return to our Lord’s
words. Lest
Pilate and others should
imagine that His kingly aspect was the only one
attaching to Him, He proceeds
to assert at greater length that side of His mission,
which John’s Gospel
especially unfolds - His being a witness to
the
truth of God as the Only-begotten Son.
This feature can only belong to His kingdom
during the time of
mystery. The
receivers of the witness of
Christ in this day are preparing to be fellow-kings
(not merely ‘subjects,’
as is generally said) with Christ.
‘They lived
and reigned with the Christ,’ who
suffered with Him in the day of mystery (2
Tim.
2: 12; Rev.
20: 4-6).
Jesus, then, sets Himself
forth in a new light, and that in a way adapted to
lead to the salvation of
Pilate as the man.
Jesus is The Witness.
So Isaiah said He should be (Isa. 55:
4), ‘Behold, I have
given Him for a witness to the people,
a leader and commander to the people.’
This is a
passage taken from the general call of the prophet to
the sons of men, to seek
in the Son of God the satisfaction that can be found
alone in Him. There
also is, first, a reference to the
millennium in the expression ‘the
sure mercies of David’ - that is, the restoration of His kingdom for ever as God
promised. Then
comes the notice of the Lord’s establishing Christ as a witness to the nations (Rev. 1:
5, 6).
Jesus was ‘born’ a king, and with an object
before His own mind, as
well as before His Father’s.
He existed
before He was ‘born.’ He came into
the world, in pursuance of an object given Him of the
Father.
The then present work of our
Lord was that of the peaceful, suffering witness, testifying to
unpopular truth.
This
testimony is carried on still in Christ’s members; by
the [Holy] Spirit given
to testify to salvation now, and to the [millennial] kingdom to come.
This attitude is something quite different from
kingly rule and
power. It is ‘the word
of the kingdom’ now; the power of
it comes only when
Christ
returns (Matt.
13: 19).
Jesus, then, in verse 37 is stating to Pilate, not the aim of His kingdom; but His
coming the first time in the flesh. It will be
another thing by and bye, when He
comes ‘the
second
time’
in His kingdom, of which the Transfiguration was a type (Matt. 16: 13; 17:
9).
‘To bear
witness to the truth.’
Many in
our days profess to be fond of the truth, and
to be seeking
it, but to be
sceptical of finding it.
Jesus came not
to seek
it; but, as having full possession of it before He was
born, He came to dispense
it to others by His testimony.
‘The Truth’
- means that
it is a great body and one system; religious truth
concerning God and man.
Here was the answer to Pilate - ‘What
hast thou done?’
‘Every
one
that is of the truth heareth My voice.’
Here was the appeal to
Pilate that He might be saved.
Jesus’
witness was delivered not to
‘Every one
that is of the truth.’
This takes up the figure
frequently found in John, of the truth being to us as
a father. ‘Begotten
of God.’ The men of
the
world are born ‘flesh
of the flesh’ in
enmity against
God, living in falsehood, and by it turned away from
God and His Son.
‘The truth’ is (1)
a
system of religion not to be discovered by the reason
of fallen man; it must be
brought to him from heaven as a testimony complete. (2) It must be
sent from God through the Son of
God, who is, as well as testifies, ‘the
Truth.’ (3)
For ‘the
truth’
turns on the person, work,
and witness of the Son.
Thus John is
carrying out the proof of Jesus’ first coming as the
Only-begotten Son of God, ‘full of grace and truth;’ in opposition to Moses, the
man of shadows and of
Law.
If any, then, refuse Christ,
it is because they belong to the old error, falsity,
and enmity of fallen Adam.
Hearts of
unbelief cannot know, or by
searching find out God.
The un-renewed
hate of God, and the account of Him which is given by
Christ. Nature
cannot, however deeply studied, reveal
God, as it is necessary for a sinner to know Him. If
any, then, after hearing
Christ and His testimony, refuse it, it is because
they are still in
darkness, and prefer it to the light.
37. ‘Pilate
saith unto Him, “What is truth?”
And having said this, he again went out to the
Jews,
and saith
to them - “I find
no fault in Him.”’
It is evident, that to
Pilate ‘truth’ was only a dream, the
philosopher’s everlasting
wrangle, leading to no serious useful result.
‘He
was a
practical
man that
had to deal with life and its
realities; a man of
action, to preside in power
over a province of the chief of earth’s
kingdoms. These
philosophers who pretend to truth are
all at variance with one another! Nothing
settled, nothing
demonstrated!’ Now, it is true that the
evidence of religious truth is not the same as the
evidence, that - ‘this is a house’ - ‘yonder is a tree.’
Yet to
those willing to learn,
the assurance is as great as the perceptions of
sense.
Truth
as presented to us now is no dream of men, but the revelation of God; it is authoritative, marking out the course
which is to be pursued and that to be avoided, as we
would attain to His kingdom and glory, and avoid
His
displeasure. The
acceptance
of the truth of His testimony now is
the way to His
kingdom of power hereafter. Present
and future happiness are bound up
therewith.
Now, as Pilate possessed
power, but not principle, he went ever dismally
astray; led only by his
instincts and his apparent worldly interests; ignorant of the
God who would call him to account.
Hence he vacillates; staggers to and fro. He will not
accept Christ; he will not deny
Him. Without
principle
firmly held, there can be no firmness of conduct.
To him, therefore, Christ is
a singular spectacle.
‘To be resting on a kingdom
in the clouds, and
talking about that will-o’-the-wisp, “truth,” that no man has ever
seized!
I can now understand how Thou art rejected by
Thine own people!’ And so Pilate
despises Christ, [and His kingly rule upon
this earth]
and despises His haters also.
For him
Christ is too high, and His enemies too low.
Not all will accept a Christ*
offered.
[*
NOTE. The Greek word ‘Christ’
is “the exact equivalent”
of the Hebrew word ‘Messiah’
- “The looked-for
king and deliverer of the Hebrews.” … “The promise
of God to Abraham, that in
him and his descendants all
the world
was to be blessed (Gen. 12:
1-3, 15: 1
f.), created the
expectancy of a
“Psalm
72 is believed by
many to express the
sentiments of the group that supported the
reformations of the young King
Josiah (2 Kings
22: 1-23; 25);
but in due time the psalm was used and cherished, as
it
still is, for its
Messianic significance.”
… “On the other hand, the
section - [‘in the
second half of Zechariah
(chapters
9-14)] - contains
the words quoted at Jesus’ entry into
“And
there was given him”
- (i.e.,‘Messiah’): God,
who cannot lie, often
speaks of an event which He will make
happen throughout this earth in the near future
(Psa. 2:
8, 9), as
though it is established today!
- “dominion,
and glory, and A
KINGDOM, that all the peoples, nations, and languages should
serve him,” (Dan. 7: 13, 14; cf. Rev.
3:
21; 11: 15; 20; 20:
4.).]
To be a Christian, however,
is to have found the truth incarnate in Christ; to
have the Spirit of Truth as
our Teacher, and to read the Word of God as our store
of truth.
‘What is truth?’
A good
question! But
it was uttered to Pilate’s
condemnation, for he did not care to wait for an
answer; deeply, eternally, has
it affected him.
That showed His
unbelief in Jesus, and of religious truth in general. It was just
the attitude of most cultivated
Roman and Greek minds of that day.
They
saw enough to reject the foolish and wicked fables of
their own religion of
idolatry. But
in casting away these,
they had nothing better to supply in their place. The
philosophers of
Wherever this is the case,
the cry goes up - ‘Truth indeed! There is no
such thing!
What one calls truth,
another says is falsehood! Nothing is
certain, but that no
certainty is to be had! It is all
illusion
of the human mind. There is no
stable external reality of truth. Man is the
measure
of all things.’*
[*
‘O God, if
there be a
God, save my soul, if I have a soul,’ was
the final expression of
doubt.]
Such persons can have no
settled principles to control or guide them.
They drift, as did Pilate, with circumstances.
But what says God?
What says the Gospel?
It speaks of truth as being
in its essence lodged in God.
It is
discovered to us here as abiding in two Divine
Persons, and testified by
them. 1. The first of these
is the
Son of God, who came, bringing from above the wondrous
revelation of God and
man, Himself being the Light, who by His life, death,
resurrection, and word,
makes known to us the Father; and, by contrast, man
the fallen (John 1:
14; 14: 6).
2.
The Second Person in this case is ‘THE
[HOLY] SPIRIT OF TRUTH’ (14:
17; 15: 26;
16: 13).
He
searches all the truth of God, and possesses it.
He
testifies to the Son of God, who is ‘The Truth’
embodied. He
turns
men from the
falsehood
of the devil,
and from enmity against
God, into love and light.
3. THE SCRIPTURE is the written truth, put into our hands, specially the New Testament (John 1: 17, 18). In that is treasured the testimony concerning Christ, as our only way to the truth of God, indited by the wisdom of the Spirit of God. These three agree in one. They are the sinner’s way to the truth (1) about himself; his utter loss, his deep-seated evil, his blindness, his condemnation, his constant hatred of God, and eternal suffering of the wrath and justice of God, as being God’s eternal sentence against the everlasting sinner against the Most High.! The Scriptures are the sinner’s way to the truth, (2) concerning God. How alone infinite justice can be reconciled to the unrighteous, how pardon can be dispensed to the guilty, and benefits heaped upon the unworthy, through Christ.
Hereupon Pilate declares to
the Jews, that their accusation was a false one. He had
tested our Lord on the one point on
which alone he had a right to be jealous.
‘Was
He
one, who would by
His seditious principles and
practices as a man on earth give trouble, if He
had the opportunity, to
Caesar’s government?’
Hereupon he was quite satisfied, that Jesus,
if left at liberty, would no more disturb the
government of Rome over Israel
than He had already done.
He had
declared, that the source of the kingdom He expected was not human swords.
Had it been
so, the occasion which brought Him before Pilate would
have been sure to have
manifested His intention to fight.
And
as for any kingdom established by armies from heaven,
Pilate had no fear about that!
Moreover, in the Saviour’s testimony
concerning truth, as the especial subject engaging His
sojourn on earth, he
beheld in Jesus the harmless dreaming enthusiast, who
might safely be left
alone to tread as He pleased the ways of
Thus ‘the Lamb of God,’ who was to bear the sin of
the world, is examined by
the Gentile, as well as the Jew; and both are
constrained to own that it has no
blemish. The
‘I’ is emphatic.
It sets His testimony in designed contrast to
theirs. ‘You accuse Him as
the guilty conspirator against Caesar.
I
find no such fault in Him.’
But neither Pilate’s
witness, nor that of Judas,
checks the men of unbelief.
‘I find in Him no
fault at all!’ Dismiss the
charges against Him then!
Put Him within the castle in safety from His
foes, as did the Governor on Paul’s behalf.
But no! The
man who knows not
what truth
is, has no
certain footing.
He
scourges
the innocent!
*
*
*
2
THE
GOLDEN
AGE
By
D. M. PANTON, B.A.
The
Golden Age of earth - which was never nearer than it
is at this moment since
the fall of Adam - is the key to a lock the
wards of which it exactly
fits. Either
because world-conditions
are now so ripe as to compel a Divine Dictatorship or
else annihilation, or
else because Satan, whose wisdom lies in imitation of
God, is awkwardly
counterfeiting what is coming - never, to a watchful
eye, was our Lord’s Reign
on earth so inevitable as a climax to the present
world crisis, or more perfect
for capping modern conditions. The great world
movements - disarmament,
annihilated war, competent leadership, efficient
government, a restored
Palestine, leagues of nations - are crying aloud, by
their very hopeless and
constant miscarriage, for the Ideal Empire in which,
as photographed
millenniums before these movements began, they are all
summed up and perfectly
solved.
A MAN
The supreme fact of the Kingdom, bulking huge on its
thresholds as its absorbing vision, is the King; and
the coming World Dictator
is a man, for to man alone has God made the earth
subject; and he is of
Israel’s blood, for to Israel alone has been granted
the throne of the
nations. Immediately
after Isaiah has
depicted the forest of the nations as devastated by
divine judgments, he says:-
“And there shall come forth a shoot out of the stock of Jesse,
and a branch out of his roots shall bear fruit”
(Isa. 11:
1).
From
the
prostrate trunk of Jesse, out of its buried roots -
the stump remaining above
the ground when a tree is felled (J. A. Alexander,
D.D.) - a Man ascends
David’s universal Throne.
THE SPIRIT
It is extraordinary what emphasis is now laid on the
attributes and equipment of a perfect Dictator, an
equipment which this Ruler
is unique. “And
the
Spirit of the Lord shall rest upon him,
the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the
spirit of counsel and might,
the spirit of
knowledge and of the fear of the Lord;
and his delight shall be in the fear of the Lord.”
The ‘Seven spirits of God’ which are before the Throne (Rev.
5: 6) - that is,
the Holy Spirit in
sevenfold manifestation and in immeasurable fulness,
transient gifts, but in
permanent attributes - upon Him.
The
Spirit as equipment for practical work is strikingly
revealed in Bezaleel:- “I have
filled him with the Spirit of God in wisdom, and
in understanding, and
in knowledge, and in
all manner of workmanship to
devise
cunning works.” (Exod. 31: 3).
THE EQUIPMENT
The sevenfold equipment is most wonderful. (1) Wisdom - special
sagacity when called as a
ruler to judge difficult, complex cases, the mastery
of principles and abstract
truth before concrete decisions are taken; (2) understanding - keen, quick discernment, to do the right thing, to say the
right word; (3) counsel - the power
to form wise
plans, efficiency of administration, the mature
sovereign and diplomat; (4) might - absolute mastery to enforce decisions when force is right;
(5) knowledge - a limitless mastery of the facts; (6) the
fear of the Lord
- a perfect Vice-consul of Heaven; and (7) delight in the fear of the Lord - constant and joyous
goodness. It
is the wonderful Lord
of Earth that is coming.
THE ADMINISTRATION
So we arrive at the practical administration.
“And he shall not judge after the
sight of his eyes,
neither reprove after the
hearing of his ears.” Statesmen and judges can do
little
more: they hear the evidence, they watch the
witnesses, and their consequent
judgments are not seldom correct; but it is the
Godhead of the Spirit resting
on Christ which, knowing everything,
adjudicates
unerringly. So “with righteousness shall he judge
the poor, and reprove
with equity”
- therefore inflicting punishment with exquisite justice
- “for the meek of the earth.” Class war is a
wrong
solution of a real problem: in the Lord’s [Millennial] Kingdom every man gets his due and bears his due; and every class is met with perfect
compensating justice.
For all is backed
by sinless force. “Force,” says the Nineteenth Century (July, 1934),
“stalks naked through
* The immense status of the inhabitants of the Kingdom - presumably rulers,
though our Lord’s words do not so limit it - He has
amazingly portrayed:- “Among
them that are born of women there hath not arisen a
greater than John the Baptist: yet
he that is
but little in the kingdom of heaven is greater than
he” (Matt 11:
11).
PEACE
No more penetrating revelation could be given of what the
Kingdom means than the passing of savagery from the
animal world. In
what our Lord Himself calls “the
REGENERATION”
-
earth’s second birth - “when the Son of man shall sit on
the throne of his glory”
(Matt.
19: 28), the wild beasts, one of God’s four sore judgments (Ezek. 14:
21)
with which he will yet scourge the
earth (Rev. 6: 8), are not exterminated, but changed; and so perfectly is it
the Kingdom of Peace that the tiger and the snake
shall “lie down”
- no longer crouching to leap - with
the kindly ox and the gentle sheep. “And the wolf shall dwell with
the lamb, and the
leopard shall lie down with
the kid; and the
sucking child shall play on the
hole of the asp, and
the weaned child shall put
his hand on the basilisk’s den.” The Lord is the Last Adam ruling once again in an
un-fallen creation.
The most dangerous
reptiles will submit to the ruling of a little child. The fearful
difficulty at the heart of nature
is gone for ever:-
Who trusted God was love indeed,
And love creation’s final law,
Tho’ nature, red in tooth and claw
With ravine, shriek’d against his creed.
For Paul
has crowded the whole
philosophy of the world’s agony into one prophecy
which the Kingdom alone can fulfil (Rom.
8: 20):- “For we know that the whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now.
For the creation was
subjected to vanity,
not of its own will,
but by reason of him who subjected it,
in hope that the
creation
itself also shall be delivered from the
bondage of corruption into
the liberty of the glory of the children of God.”
KNOWLEDGE
One of the vast prophecies of the Bible - magnificent,
incomprehensible, bewilderingly beautiful - now opens
on our vision. “They shall not hurt nor destroy in
all my holy mountain:
for the earth shall
be full of the knowledge of the Lord,
as the waters cover the sea.” All
violence, injustice,
assassination, cruelty will have passed from the
world: throughout the whole
earth, which is but a slope of the Mount of God, no
one hurts or destroys.
And the reason is given - the boundless
knowledge of God.
In all earlier ages,
regenerating knowledge - “whom to know is eternal life” - was at
most in lakes and inland
seas: vast continents of ignorance, doubt, atheism
blackened the earth: now the
all-changing knowledge of God is a world - covering
ocean - no land is heathen,
no race infidel, no soul ignorant.
With
the transfer to industry or social need of the
Ł1,000,000,000 now spent annually
on armaments, together with the vast capital sums
expended on the repression of
crime; the re-absorption of the ability and power now
invested in gigantic
institutions of national offence and defence; the
abolishing of all traffic and
tariff barriers now holding up commerce; the
elimination of the fearful incubus
of disease and death, with their enormous cost - there
begins to dawn on us
some conception of the coming wealth and wonder of the
world.
AN ENSIGN
The vision closes with a view of all nations. “And
it shall
come to pass in that day,
that the root of Jesse,
which
standeth for an ensign of the peoples,
unto him
shall the nations seek;
and his resting-place
shall be glorious.” The unity of the race is at
last
attained, and Jehovah Nissi - ‘the Lord my banner’- is the rallying ensign of all nations, the source and
centre of the world’s unity.
And for the restoring of Israel, miracle again intervenes: “and the Lord shall utterly
destroy”
- that
is, dry up - “the tongue” - the gulf or bay in which it terminates - “of the
Egyptian Sea”
- the Arabian Gulf; “and shall smite
[the Euphrates] into
seven streams,” so made easily fordable for crossing.
Enormous is the pedestal of the Millennial
Jew. “In those days,
it shall come to pass that ten men,
out of all the languages of the nations, shall take hold
of the skirt of him that is a Jew,
saying, We will go
with you, for we have heard that God is with you”
(Zech.
8: 10-23).
-------
THE SECOND ADVENT
“If it were not for the heavenward
look,”
exclaims Dr.
Alexander Maclaren, “how could we bear the sight of
earth?”
So far from the doctrine of
the Lord’s return cutting the nerve of missionary
effort, or paralyzing
service, it will yet prove the sole solvent of
despair. Dr. Duncan
Main, of Hang-Chow, one of the sagest and ripest
of missionaries,
says:- “We do not know anything which so
certainly sanctifies life
to its highest service in the mission field as this
great truth, steadfastly believed and maintained by God’s servants, while they are
journeying through this heathen land, not toward
darkness but the
sun-rising. When through the cloudy
mystics, moral mists and half-lights
of earth the promise of the [Lord’s]
glorious appearing is discerned, it determines not only the direction of the journey but also its
character. It settles the question of
our real affinities. It
corrects and brightens our outlook on the
things seen. It forbids
pessimism and long-faced Christianity.
It smiles at fear and inspires an
unquestioning and dauntless courage, and puts
stiffening into the
backbone. It reveals every difficulty to
be but an opportunity of new
discovery. It chases all gloom and care
from the heart and all weariness
from the feet. It keeps the first love
alive, and fans the smoking flax
into a flame. It puts a new song into
willing lips and makes all life
tuneful and joyful. It transforms every
curse of mourning into a horn of
anointing oil. It makes even the lame
man leap as a hart, and replaces
the tiredness of exhausted nature with buoyant
energy.”
*
*
*
3
STUDIES
IN THE PSALMS
TRANSLATIONS AND
EXPOSITIONS
OF
PSALMS 1, 2, 72, 97
& 110.
BY
JOSEPH
BRYANT
TRANSLATOR OF “THE
EMPHASISED
BIBLE.”
[*
NOTE. An
English translation from the Septuagint
– (“from the Latin septuaginta,
meaning ‘seventy’ and frequently referred to by the
Roman numerals LXX”)
- a translation from Hebrew
into Greek by seventy (or seventy two) “Jewish
scholars at
Greek version, has also been
included for comparison.]
*
*
*
PART ONE
PSALMS 1. & 2.
AN ENGLISH TRANSLATION FROM THE SEPTUAGINT
“Blessed is the man who has
not walked in the
counsel of the ungodly, and has not stood in the way of
sinners, and has not
sat in the seat of evil [Gk.
‘pestilent’] men.
2 But his pleasure [Gk. ‘will’] is in the law of
the Lord,
and in his law will he
meditate day and night. 3
And he shall be as a tree planted by the
brooks of waters, which shall yield its fruit in its
season,
and its leaf shall not fall
off; and whatsoever
he shall do shall be
prospered.
4
Not so the ungodly;
- not so: but rather as the
chaff [‘dust’
or ‘down’]
which the wind scatters away
from the face of the earth. 5 Therefore the ungodly shall
not rise in judgment, nor
sinners in the counsel of the just.
6 For the Lord knows
the way of the righteous; but the way of the ungodly
shall perish.
2: 1
Wherefore did the heathen rage, and the nations imagine vain things? 2
The kings of the earth stood up,
and the rulers gathered
themselves together,
against the Lord, and
against his Christ; 3
saying,
Let us break
through their bonds,
and cast away their yoke
from us.
4
He that dwells in the heavens shall laugh
them to scorn,
and the Lord shall mock them. 5
Then shall he speak to them in his anger, and trouble them in his fury.
6 But
I have been made king by him
on Sion his holy
mountain, 7 declaring the ordinance of the Lord: the Lord said to me,
Thou art my Son,
to-day have
I begotten thee.
8 Ask of me,
and I will give thee the heathen for
thine
inheritance, and
the ends of the
earth for
thy possession. 9 Thou shalt rule [Gk. tend them as a shepherd, Rev.
2: 27]
them with a rod of iron; thou shalt dash them in pieces
as a potter’s vessel.
10
Now therefore understand, ye kings:
be instructed, all ye that judge the earth.
11 Serve the Lord
with fear, and rejoice in him with
trembling. 12 Accept
correction, lest at any
time the Lord be angry, and ye should perish from
the righteous way: whensoever his wrath shall
be suddenly kindled, blessed are all they that trust
in him.”
-------
TRANSLATIONS AND EXPOSITIONS
BY
J. B. ROTHMAN.
-----
PSALM 1
1:
1 “How
happy*
the man
-
*Note
that the
Psalms open with a word of emotion, “How
Happy.”
Who
hath not walked in the counsel of the
lawless,*
Cp. Isa. 13: 11; 15:
5. The
use of r-sh’ in allusion to Israelites implies
disloyal association with the heathen, the impious
outsiders (Ps. 25: 5.) The
term is opposed to ‘the righteous’
:
Cf.
Exod.
9: 27;
Hab.
1: 4,
13; Prov.
3: 33;
28: 1-4, 12,
28; 29:
2. Thirtle.
And
in the way of sinners hath not stood,
And
in the seat of scoffers hath not sat;
2
But
rather in the law*
of Jehovah is his delight,
*
Or: “instruction.”
Cp. 197: 14;
119 passim.
And
in his law doth he talk with himself* day
and night.
*
Heb. Hagah;
synonymous
with siach,
“soliloquise.” Note
throughout.
3 So
doth he become like a tree
planted*
beside channels of waters,
* So Driver, Perowne,
Delitzsch, Carter, Leeser;
but “transplanted” –
Briggs.
That
yieldeth its fruit in its season,
Whose
leaf also doth not wither,
-
And
whatsoever he doth he causeth to prosper.*
* Ver. Evidently expand in Jer.
17: 8.
4 Not
so the lawless!
But
rather as chaff which the wind driveth
away,
5 For
this cause shall the
lawless not rise in the vindication, *
*
“That is, in the
resurrection which takes place in the
judgment, at the end of the age of the world”
- Briggs. Cp.
Isa. 26: 14, 19;
Lk. 14: 14. [See
also:
Luke 20:
35. cf. Phil.
3: 11; Heb. 11:
35b; Rev.
20:
6. Ed.]
6 For
Jehovah doth acknowledge*
the way of the righteous,
* More
literally:
“know”; but
sometimes, “know with
approval,” “recognise,”
“acknowledge.” Cp. 37:
18; Matt. 7: 23; Rom.
8: 29; 2 Tim. 2:
19.
But
the way of the lawless shall vanish.
*
More literally “perish” … it is “lost,”
-
is no
longer a “way.” Cp. 112: 10.
-------
DESCRIPTIVE
TITLE - The Righteous Man and the Lawless contrasted.
ANALYSIS
- The
Righteous man Described - vers.
1-3: by
what
he Does Not - ver.
1; by what he Does
- ver.
2;
and by what he is Like - ver. 3.
The Lawless man described, as a Contrast, and
by what he is Like - ver. 4;
also by his Doom, negatively expressed
- ver. 5.
Jehovah’s relation to the
-------
EXPOSITION
This Psalm is a commendation
of the godly life.
It opens with an expression of admiration for
the man who lives that life: which it proceeds to
describe in a simple and
engaging manner, by telling us what such a man avoids
- what he delights in -
and what he resembles.
He avoids the
downward course by not beginning it; he delights in Jehovah’s law,
and shows his pleasure in it by diligent study; and
he thereby resembles a tree planted in a spot where it
is well-watered.
Each of these points is enlarged sufficiently
to make it impressive. The man described avoids three
things: he walks not in
the counsel of the lawless -
that is,
he does not take the advice of those who care not how
they live; he stands not
in the way of sinners
- in other words,
he declines bad men as his
companions; and he sits not in the seat of
scoffers -
he refuses to form one of a circle who spend their
time and wit in ridiculing religion.
The
things to be avoided are thus presented in the form of
a double climax: worse
and worse companions, and more and more submission to
their influence.
The unprincipled may prepare you for the
immoral, and the immoral for the contemptuous: you may
take bad advice, then
seek bad company, and at last scoff at all goodness. Happy the
man who
does none of these things!
Thrice happy
he who has not begun
to do them!
But life cannot thrive on
negations. He
that would hate wickedness must love
goodness. Now,
as the law, or instruction, of Jehovah,
the holy and loving God, affords guidance to a good
and holy life, it follows that he who would shun evil
will take so much
pleasure in divine guidance that he will look out for
it, learn it, linger over
it. The
laws of nature he will revere
and observe: the laws of revelation he
will welcome and obey.
If he is so happy as to know Christ, he will
find in him the spirit and sum of all law (1
Cor.
9: 21). Christ
will be the law of his being.
As the
Christ rejoiced that Jehovah’s “law of righteousness was enshrined
in his deepest affections”
(40: 8), so will Christ’s follower
make it his greatest joy to
do his Master’s will.
The newspaper, the
novel, will be less highly
esteemed than the Bible.
He may be
compelled, or find it serviceable, to consult the
first; he may be able to
choose and utilise the second; but it is to the third
that his mind will gravitate,
from the third that he will store his memory, in the
third that he will
discover his songs of immortal hope; and though - not
being an Oriental - he
may not be heard literally soliloquising [i.e., talking to one’ self]
out of the
Holy Scriptures, yet will he count every day lost in
which he does not gain
clearer insight into its wisdom, and will feel every
wakeful night-hour soothed
which lights up any of its great and precious [conditional as well as eternal] promises.
His
best
life thus thrives.
He is like a
well-planted tree -
transplanted that it might be
well-planted. He
comes directly under
the care of the Divine Husbandman, whose well-planned
and well-watched
irrigation keeps him constantly supplied with the waters of life through the channels of
appropriate means conducive to spiritual growth and
fruitfulness. Seasonable
fruit is
the
glory of fruit-bearing trees: learning and liveliness
in youth, steady work
and sturdy endurance in middle life, patience and serene hope in old age as
the better-land draws near
- these
are the fruits to be looked for in the
Not so the lawless:
very much “not so”! Surprise,
therefore, need not be felt that the
Septuagint repeats
the
negative, both for feeling and for filling out the
line: “Not
so the
ungodly, not so”;
even though it
must be confessed that the half line in Hebrew is
still more effective, and
more symmetrically answers to the half-line at the
commencement of the psalm. But
rather as chaff which the wind driveth
away - as of no worth and no
further account.
For this cause shall
the lawless
not rise* in the
vindication; and, from the Old
Testament, scarcely could we learn that they will
rise at all: certainly not in
the vindication, a well-sustained rendering, which
anticipates the distinction
made by our Lord when he spake of “the resurrection of the
righteous”
(Lk.
14:
14). Sinners
shall
not enter the congregation of the righteous: whose way, life, character will NOT
vanish, but continue evermore. For
Jehovah
doth acknowledge - know, approve, perpetuate - the
way of the righteous
but the way of the lawless shall
vanish
- like a track lost in the waste, where no
footsteps can make a
path. “Only the way of the righteous is derek ‘olam’
[“a way age-abiding”] (139:
24) a way that
issues in [both
millennial
and] eternal
life” - Delitzsch.
[* That is, they shall not have attained unto that “resurrection out
from the dead” (Phil. 3: 11),
and
therefore they will not be resurrected at this time
for: “The rest of the dead lived
not until the thousand years should be
finished:” Rev. 20:
5, R.V.:
therefore “the resurrection of
the righteous,” is one of REWARD for ‘righteous’ living: a
reward for one’s personal righteousness: it has nothing whatsoever to do with
the imputed
righteousness of our Lord Jesus Christ.
See also Luke 20:
35;
Rev. 2: 26. cf.
Rev. 3: 15-18.]
This
psalm
and the next are anonymous, and without any
super-scribed or subscribed
lines. They are admirably adapted
for
the purpose they were manifestly intended to serve:
namely, as introductory to
the whole Book of Psalms - the
former
penned from a purely ethical point of view, and the
latter from a national,
Davidic,
and Messianic standpoint. One or both of these
psalms may
have been placed here by Ezra; but each may have been
first brought into use as
introductory to a smaller and earlier collection. Though
probably placed here by Ezra, this
first psalm was almost certainly composed by Hezekiah,
whose spirit it breathes
- as may be seen by a comparison of it with the latter
half of Ps.
19 and
the
whole of Ps.
119, -
a conclusion confirmed by the fact that it was
expanded by Jeremiah (17:
8) and
therefore must have already been in existence.
PSALM 2
1
Wherefore have nations
consented together?*
*
So most
probably from meaning of Heb. stem
and context; ‘rage’ –
A.V., R.V., J.P.S.V.
Or should peoples
keep muttering an empty
thing?
2
The
kings of the earth take
their stand,
Against Jehovah and
against his Anointed One:-
3
“Let
us tear
apart their bands,
And cast away from
us their cords!”*
*
“They are,
therefore, at the time of their rebellion subjects
of Jahve and His Anointed”
– Delitzsch.
4
One enthroned in the heavens
will laugh,
My Sovereign Lord
will mock at them;
5
Then will he speak to them in
his anger,
And in his wrath
will dismay them:-
6
“Yet I have installed my king
On
*
“
** “What is meant is the rising of
the ground of the City of
7
“Jehovah said to me:-
‘My
Son art thou,
I to-day have
begotten thee:
8
Ask of me, and
let me give -
Nations as thine
inheritance,
And as thy
possession the ends of the earth:
9 Thou
shalt shepherd*
them with a sceptre of iron,**
*So it should be. “Rule as
a shepherd king over them, is more suited to the
context of the sceptre even if
it be of iron”.
So 78: 71, 72.
cf. 28: 9;
49: 14; 80: 1; 2 S. 5: 9; 7: 7; Jer.
3: 15; Mi. 5: 4;
Eze. 37: 24; Na. 3: 18.
**
Cp. Rev.
12: 5; 19: 15.
As a
potter’s-vessel shalt thou dash them in
pieces.’”
10 Now, therefore
ye kings, show your
prudence,
Be admonished, ye judges of the earth:
11 Serve
ye Jehovah with reverence,
And exult with
trembling:
12
Kiss the Son,* lest
he be angry,
* So Delitzsch w. strong defence. Others: “worship
sincerely” more literally.
And ye perish on
the way;
For soon might be
kindled his anger.
How happy are all
who take refuge in Him!
-------
DESCRIPTIVE TITLE. - The
Messiah’s Reign in
ANALYSIS.
- Verses
1-3, A
Conspiracy
against Jehovah and his Anointed foretold.
Verses 4-6,
Jehovah’s Counter Proclamation.
Verses 7-9. The
Messiah’s Claim to the Throne.
Verses 10-12,
Counsels of Peace.
This
psalm is
obviously and confessedly Messianic. The word messiah
of course
means “anointed” -
whether applied to David,
Hezekiah,
or Jesus of Nazareth. On
what
level this psalm is Messianic, ether on the lower or
the higher level, remains
to be seen; but Messianic it is, on its surface and
down into its deepest
depths. To ascertain its scope it must be carefully and correctly interpreted; and this at once
raises the whole question of the
Interpretation
of Prophecy in general, and the exegesis of
Messianic Prophecy
in particular.
It
is
here assumed that much Scripture prophecy is typical, and therefore indirect;
that is to
say, that it
first points
to a type
as foreshadowing
some person or thing greater
than itself. But it is not
here assumed
that there is no such thing as direct
prediction, going straight to its mark without the intervention of a
type: we do not know that and must not
take it for granted.
To
apply
these principles to this first Messianic psalm: let us
by all means give
preference to the supposition that this psalm is typically prophetic;
and
see whether that
hypothesis* carry
us satisfactorily through the whole
psalm, doing justice to all its leading statements:
statements in any case
poetical, but not necessarily extravagant, - save, it
may be, apparently so, when
intended to go beyond the type to the antitype.
[* That
is, the suggestion of a possible explanation put
forward to account for certain Scriptural
truths and facts;
and to see whether they can be proved or disproved
from the psalm.]
Now
the
most striking thing in this psalm is the concerted
opposition of certain
enemies to Jehovah
and
his Anointed one;
and, next to that,
the unique way in which that opposition is overthrown
- by counter Divine
Proclamation. Who is Jehovah’s Anointed
One? Is
it David, or Hezekiah, or Jesus
of Nazareth? Whoever
he is, Divine
Sonship as well as Messiahship is attributed to him.
Whoever he
is, his destiny includes the dominion of the world.
Doubtless,
David
in his time and degree was Jehovah’s Anointed One; but
will the language
of the psalm, as a whole, apply to him and find
reasonable satisfaction in
him? Or,
if not in him,
then in Hezekiah, or in both combined?
But if the two combined - with any other scion
[i.e., descendant] of the royal
house added to them - still fail to satisfy the
outlook of the psalm, - then on
what principle are we to be
restrained from
applying to Jesus of
Nazareth the whole psalm, provided we can
fairly show that it has been, or
is now being, or
will certainly yet be
exhaustively fulfilled in him?
In point of fact, these two
famous Hebrew monarchs do
fit the terms of the psalm remarkably well - up to a
point; and then completely
fail to satisfy them.
Both David and
Hezekiah were triumphantly enthroned in
But,
with
all this frankly admitted, it must be maintained that
these and other
incidents in the Davidic House are simply beggared by
the language of the
psalm. It
is questionable whether the
opening scene of the psalm
found
more than a partial
realisation in either of the lives we have so far
been considering;
but, in any case, neither
David nor Hezekiah asked and received universal dominion - which, however, is writ large on the psalm,
and cannot be erased by any legitimate plea of
poetic licence.
Besides, we shall probably do well to
guard against bulking out and hardening
the type in order to make it as large as the
language, fairly interpreted,
appears to indicate: in other words we must
beware of assuming that the [Holy] Spirit of Prophecy could not easily carry away the psalmist’s mind far beyond any type
that was within range of his vision.
Let us use types as helps and not as
hindrances. We
need have no craving to add
to
the letters
of the typical alphabet; but the free Spirit
of
God may well be expected sometimes to combine those
letters in unprecedented
forms, and so spell out revelations which have never
before been divulged.
If
these
things are so, then we
must beware of inferring that
because a clearly foretold event did not
happen in the type, therefore
it will not be fulfilled in the antitype;
or that, seeing it is
attenuated to mere shadow in the type,
therefore it has no
further significance.
For
example, the appearance of the semblance of a New
Birth which we have detected
in the life of David, and the still more striking
resemblance of a New Birth
easily seen in the sickness and recovery of Hezekiah,
should not blind us to
the comparative feebleness of the fulfilment on either
of these lines. David
himself was not
declared Jehovah’s Son by Nathan the prophet: neither did David, that we know of, ever say to
Jehovah, in the gushing tide of the spirit of
adoption, “Abba! Father!”
It
was, indeed, foretold that he should so address the
Most High (89: 26); but we
have no record that he ever actually did so.
In like manner, there are circumstances which
obviously enfeeble the
fulfilment of the psalm in Hezekiah,
who, for example, was
Jehovah’s
king in Zion for years before
he passed under the shadow of death and - [along with David himself,
awaiting the time of his*] resurrection; and who greatly as he
loved Jehovah, - as he had much reason to love him, -
yet never ventured to call him his Father, so far as the records show.
[* See
Psa.
16:
10; Acts 2:
31, 34.
cf. Luke
16: 23; Rev. 6:
9-11; Matt.
12: 40,
etc,.]
To
go
back from the centre of the psalm to its beginning,
and remarking that it
opens with the unmasking of a conspiracy between kings
and nations against
Jehovah and his Anointed, - why should we close our
eyes to the plain fact,
that the Assyrian invasion was not such a conspiracy,
but merely one of the
ordinary doings of an Oriental despot?
Then, turning in the other direction from the
centre of the psalm, and
glancing forward to the iron sceptre
that was to dash enemies to pieces like
potters’
vessels, - ought we not to be quite sure of our
ground before -
even under guise of high-flown poetry - we
conclude such absoluteness
of rule to have been here encouraged in
either David or Hezekiah?
On all hands, then, we see abounding
indications that a
Greater than
either David or Hezekiah is here.
And therefore we point with confidence to that
Greater One
as the Hero of this psalm. The
conspiracy of the Nations - though it may have been
often attempted - has
not yet been brought to a head;
and, although the
Heir to the Throne has
appeared, and been saluted as Divine Son on the day
of his literal Resurrection
(Acts 13: 30, 32), yet has he not at present been
[bodily, in a body of ‘flesh
and bones’ (Lk.
24:
39]
installed on
Jehovah’s holy mount of Zion.
When he is brought forth from his hiding-place
in heaven (Col.
3: 3; Acts 3:
21) then the kings
and
judges of the earth
will
need show all their prudence; for, assuredly,
the iron sceptre that
will appear in his
hand will be no meaningless symbol, but will stand
for what it naturally means,
- absolute, resistless physical force, which is far
more fittingly entrusted to
immortal hands than to mortal.
Yes!
this psalm is Messianic; but on
the
higher level.
The astounding pledge
already given by the literal resurrection of the
Messiah [out] from
the
dead, assures us that in
due time
the entire psalm, in all its length and breadth,
will be amply fulfilled, not
as mere grandiloquent speech, but in commensurate
and therefore amazing facts.
We are indebted to Delitzsch for calling attention to the obvious but much overlooked
circumstance, that those kings and counsellors who are
discovered in rebellion
when the psalm opens, have already come under
obligation to Jehovah and to his Anointed
One. They
are already under the
restraints of duty to Jehovah and to his Christ; since
it is under those
restraints that they turn restive, against those
restraints that they rebel.
There is food for thought
here. Indeed,
we are so impressed with the
possibility of framing out of this element in the
psalm an eirenicon which may
be welcomed by expositors who
have differed among themselves as to the character and
incidence of the
Messiah’s predicted kingdom,
that we
pause here just long enough to remind ourselves that,
although Prophecy (if it
have any definiteness in its inception) cannot need to
await fulfilment before
it takes on a reliable meaning, yet may most naturally
and legitimately assume
a clearer and yet clearer intention as fulfilment
advances.
To
apply
this thought: It follows that, if Jesus of Nazareth is
the Anointed One
of this psalm; and if the day of his resurrection was
the day of his being
begotten to the Heirship of the Davidic dynasty; then
it may be reasonably
anticipated that, whether fulfilment has lingered or
has greatly advanced since
Jesus rose from the dead, - at least we ought to begin
to see our way more and
more clearly as to how to interpret the Messianic
Prophecies as a class.
It
is
just at this point that Delitzsch’s
simple and obvious reminder flashes like a
beacon-light across the troubled
waters of Messianic Interpretation.
The
movements of our labouring oar are facilitated by the
following encouraging
considerations:- Since this psalm was written (a) other similar ones have been penned, such as – notably - that
strictly cognate psalm, the 110th, which may be expected to
throw light on this; (b)
a part fulfilment of this psalm has
confessedly been witnessed in the Messiah’s
Resurrection, and in the broad facts
consequent on that outstanding event, such as his
ascension to the right hand
of God. (c) The
notorious negative fact arrests
our attention, that no one imagines
that the Risen Messiah is now in any
special sense reigning in
and from
(a)
The
very first helpful suggestion actually comes from Ps.
110.
There we discover a link missing from this
second psalm - that is, if we have but opened our eyes
to miss it here.
Clear as a sunbeam, it is written in Ps. 2
that
Jehovah’s derision of the rebels there revealed simply
consists in the
announcement of an accomplished fact; which
accomplished fact constitutes such a counter-movement to the conspiracy as to reduce it to ridicule* - that, in a word,
is how Jehovah in heaven
laughs at this conspiracy: he has
already taken a step which nullifies
all the counsels of the grave men, all the stand of
kings, all the gathering of
the nations; he has already installed his King on Zion
his holy mountain!
The implication is: That
[* Anti-millennialists take note!]
Quite
easily
- taking Ps. 110 as our guide.
It will be seen from our Exposition of that
psalm, that we conclude its
natural meaning to be, that the elevation of the
Messiah to Jehovah’s right hand
in heaven out of the midst of his enemies, and his
session above, run
on until he descends to his centre of subduing
activity on Mount Zion [in
Jerusalem].
That
explains everything; inasmuch as
the seat of honour at Jehovah’s right hand is not a
mere seat of honour, but a
heavenly enthronement; David’s lord
is seated at Jehovah’s right hand as jointly regnant
with him. He
is, as he himself expresses it (Rev.
3: 21), sitting during
all this waiting interval
(Heb. 10:
13)
on his Father’s
throne. That fact unlocks the
difficulty which just now appeared in the 2nd
psalm.
It is during
the joint session of
the Son with the Father in heaven that these [conspirators,]
kings, senators and nations were brought under
those obligations to Jehovah and his Anointed One from which they ultimately desire to break loose.
All
of
which presents the current proclamation of the Gospel
in a light which, if
not new, is more widely illuminative than it has been
deemed heretofore.
It thus appears that the appointed current
proclamation of “the
Gospel of the
Kingdom”
of which we read in Mt. 24:
14, not
only serves as
a testimony that earth’s
rightful King is coming, but by its intrinsic
force, as news of salvation* to
men, binds kings, senators and nations with “bonds”
and “cords” from which
they can by no means
escape. Men
may hear the Gospel or they
may forbear; but they can never be quite the same as
if they had not heard
it. These
kings and nations must have
heard the Gospel; they
must have heard the story
of Crucified Love and of Death-Vanquishing Power;
and been admonished to amend
their ways, and their laws
- to reign in
righteousness - to undo heavy burdens - to educate
their subjects for the
Immortal Life. As
the
result of Antichrist’s seductions, however, they
grow tired of these
restraints, and they rebel.
The
conspiracy into which they enter comes to a head before the Divine Installation of a King in
[* That is, a future
“salvation of your
souls,” which “is to be brought unto you at
the revelation of Jesus Christ”
(1 Pet.
9, 13,
R.V.]
The
discerning
will not fail to perceive how essential a part is
played in the
above interpretation by the assumption that, in the
Psalms, Zion means Zion - the earthly Zion, a part of and frequently synonymous with the historical city Jerusalem. It is on the
strength of this assumption
that, in the
second psalm, it could be
supposed that the same rebels as were aware
of the Messiah’s heavenly
reign on the throne of the Father, and so had come
under allegiance to Jehovah
and his Anointed, - in that sense and to that
degree, - were at the same time
and up to that moment unaware that Jehovah had now
recently installed his
Christ on his holy hill of Zion.
It is
the absolute difference between the two
enthronements which renders it possible
for men to have been rendering nominal homage to the
one, and yet be in
absolute ignorance of the other.
It is
the sudden announcement of the earthly enthronement,
which renders their
conspiracy an object of Divine derision.
Accustomed
to do as they pleased
in governing or
mis-governing
their subjects, fearless of [millennial and] eternal issues to be tried before an invisible
throne, they are suddenly confronted by a counter
Divine movement, evidently
and utterly subversive of their rebellious schemes,
with the prospect of their
being called
to
account
by this newly
installed monarch who wields an iron sceptre and
holds a commission where
necessary to dash his enemies in pieces like a
potter’s vessel.
In like manner, the same assumption - that
Under
these
circumstances, it is manifestly desirable that each
reader should
confront this question, for himself, and if possible
once for all settle it: - Is the
It
will
conduce, to perfect fairness of exegesis, and at the
same time lead on to
a becoming conclusion to our present study, to call
attention to an attractive
hortatory element in this psalm which it would be a
misfortune to
overlook. There
is a gracious, subduing
light which falls back on the earlier portions of the
psalm from the closing
strophe, in which the poet is led to fill the part of
a kindly monitor.
In the opening verses the mutterings of
enemies are heard; then comes Jehovah’s
counter-proclamation in tones of
thunder, alarming in the last degree; the terror
naturally caused by such a
warning of wrath is seen to be abundantly justified
when the Son rehearses his
commission, which includes stern rule, in some cases
at least issuing in utter
destruction. Now, although it would be a very hasty
exegesis to infer that none
of the Son’s enemies will relent, or relenting and
suing for mercy will
notwithstanding be destroyed; yet it is most
acceptable to perceive in the
poet’s mind a yearning for the salvation of those who have
been seen in imminent danger of rushing on to
ruin.
For that is clearly the spirit at work in the
entire conclusion of the psalm; and when the peculiar
perils of kings and
senators are remembered - with few or none above them
to represent and enforce
Divine claims - it is especially grateful to us to
recognise the wooing note
which is directly addressed to them, entreating
them to show prudence
and accept of admonition.
It
reminds us of our own Scripture which assures us that
God willeth all men to be
saved - even though they are such as are “in
eminent station,” wielding authority over us. But
the
Divine Father is, as our own Scriptures assure us,
jealous of any
withholding of worshipful honour from the Son of his
Love; and we are therefore
predisposed to value at its highest rendering the
pointed appeal of Jehovah
that such honour be accorded; and, moreover, to
interpret the wrath looming
against such as withhold it as the Father’s wrath; and
the refuge into which
they are pronounced happy who flee as the refuge
which, according to the whole
tenor of the Psalms, Jehovah is ready to become to all
who seek refuge in Him.
-------
PART
TWO
TRANSLATION
FROM
THE SEPTUAGINT
(LXX)
PSALM 72
1 O
God, give thy
judgment to the king, and
thy righteousness to the king’s son; 2 that
he
may judge the people with righteousness, and thy poor with
judgment.
3 Let the mountains
and the hills raise peace
to thy people: 4 he shall judge the
poor of the people in
righteousness,
and save the children of the needy;
and shall
bring low the false accuser. 5
And he
shall continue as long as the
sun, and before the moon forever.
6 He shall come down
as rain upon a fleece;
and as drops falling upon
the earth.
7 In his days shall the righteous spring up; and abundance of peace
till the moon be removed.
8 And he
shall have dominion from sea
to sea, and from the river to the ends
of the earth. 9 The Ethiopians
shall fall down before him; and his enemies shall
lick the dust. 10
The kings of Tharsis, and the isles,
shall bring presents:
the
kings of the Arabians and
17 Let his name be
blessed for ever: his name shall
endure longer than the sun:
and all the tribes of the earth shall be blessed
in him: all
nations shall call him blessed.
18 Blessed is the
Lord God of
-------
TRANSLATION AND EXPOSITION
BY J. B. ROTHMAN.
Psalm 72
1
O God! thy justice* to
the King do thou give,
* “So Septuagint and
Jerome in accordance with the parallel ‘righteous’”
– Briggs. Massoretic
Hebrew Text. (For “Massorites”
see Introduction, Chapter 1
And thy
righteousness, unto the son of a king;
2
May he judge thy people with
righteousness,
And thy humbled
ones with justice:
3 May the mountains bear*
tidings
of welfare to the people,
* “The mountains are personified
for the messengers who come
over them, proclaiming from all parts the
prevalence of peace and righteousness.”
Briggs.
Otherwise,
if the verb be rendered “bear”
= “bring forth”:
“may peace or well-being be
the fruit that ripens upon
all mountains and hills” – Delitzsch.
And the hills in
righteousness:
4
May he vindicate the humbled
of the people,
Bring salvation to
the sons of the needy;
And crush the
oppressor.
5
May he continue*
as
long as the sun,
* So Septuagint, (sunparamenei).
And in presence of
the moon, -
To generation of
generations.
6
May he come down as rain on meadows to be mown,
As myriad drops
replenishing the earth.
7
May there be a springing
forth, in his days,
of righteousness,*
*
So
in some
Codex = written copys. (With
Septuagint, Syriac, Vulgate) –
Ginsburg’s notes in his Messoretico-Critical
Hebrew
Bible.
and an abundance of
welfare, until there be no moon.
8
And may he have dominion from
sea to sea,
And from the River
to the ends of the earth.
9
Before him may adversaries* kneel
*
“So most
moderns” –
And as for his foes
the dust may they lick!
10 The
kings of Tarshish and the Coastlands a
gift may they render,
The kings of
11
And may there bow down to him
all kings,
All nations do
service to him.
12
Because he rescueth the needy
from the mighty,*
*
So it should be (with Septuagint,
Syriac,
Vulgate (Latin). [ Ginsburg’s notes in his Massoretico-Critical
Hebrew
Bible : “Him that crieth out.”
And the humbled, when
there is no help for
him:
13
Hath pity on the weak and the
needy,
And the lives*
of the needy saveth:
*
Usually: “their
souls.”
14 From
oppression and violence redeemeth their
life,*
*
Usually: “ their
soul.”
And precious is
their blood in his sight:
15
“Let him live, then! And
let there be given to him the gold of
So will he pray for
him continually,
All the day invoke
on him blessing!*
*“The
poor
man is he who revives and is endowed, who intercedes
and blesses; while
the king is the beneficent giver.
It is left for the reader to supply in
thought the right subjects to the separate verbs.”
– Delitzsch.
16 May
there be an expanse of corn in the earth,
unto the top of the
mountains,
And the fruit
thereof rustle like
And they of the
city bloom like fresh shoots
of the earth.
17 Be
his name to the ages,
In presence of the
sun fruitful*
be his name!
*
More literally: “propagate,”
or “be propagated.” Some Codex
= written copies. (with Aramean,
Septuagint, Vulgate =[Latin] –
“Be established” –
Ginsburg's notes in his Messoretico-Critical
Hebrew Bible.)
May all the
families of the ground’
bless themselves in him
All nations
pronounce him happy.
18
Blessed be Jehovah, God of Israel,*
*
Massoretic Hebrew Text: “Jehovah
God, God of
Who doeth wondrous
things by himself alone;
19
And blessed be his glorious name to the ages,
And filled with his
glory be all the earth:
Amen and amen!
20
Ended are the prayers of
David son of Jesse.
-------
DESCRIPTIVE
TITLE.
- A
People’s Prayer for a Perfect
King.
ANALYSIS.
– Verses
1-4,
Prayer for King of Royal Descent, that the
Divine Attributes of Justice and Righteousness may be
Given Him, and that he
may exercise them with Fruitfulness and Efficiency. Verses
5-8,
Unlimited Continuance, Penetrating Gentleness,
Abounding Fruitfulness, and Universal Extension,
desired for his reign.
Verses
9-11,
The Submission to Him of All
Enemies and Rivals, is besought.
Verses 12-15,
these Petitions are based upon the King’s Effective
Interpretation of the Needy
and Helpless. Verses 16-17,
Material Prosperity and the Brightening of City
Life, entreated; as Rebounding
to the Personal Praise of the King, and as Realizing
Ancient Covenant Blessing.
Benediction: Closing this Second Book of
Psalms, and therewith associating the God of Israel
and his wonderous doings
with all the Earth, which is thus filled with his
glory.
-------
EXPOSITION
If we assume that behind this
psalm lay many prayers
of David, taking effect in the mind of Solomon his son
by fostering a worthy
ideal of what a good king might do for his people and
a determination to fulfil
that ideal; and that the youthful heir to the throne
himself embodied that
ideal and that determination in a prayer to be used by
his people on his
accession to the throne, - we shall probably form a
correct conception of the
origin of the psalm.
The deep and wide
desire here expressed is worthy of David; the form it
assumes is Solomonic to a
marked degree; and if, beyond this, there are
conceptions going far beyond any
which we should have thought it likely that Solomon
would entertain, - these we
may attribute in part to the educative influence which
we have elsewhere seen
cause to attribute to the Davidic Kingly covenant
communicated through Nathan
the prophet, and partly to the free action of the
inspiring [Holy] Spirit on the
psalmist’s mind.
There is certainly one
element in the psalm, which might have seemed at first
sight better suited to a
later reign, such as that of Hezekiah - following the
declension of King Ahaz’s
days, or even of Josiah
- succeeding to the corruptions of the reigns
of Manasseh and Amon; namely, a background of existing
oppression and wrong,
loudly calling for relief, and which we can with
difficulty imagine David to
have bequeathed to his son Solomon.
If,
notwithstanding this, we feel, as well we may, that at
no later period than
that immediately succeeding David’s day, could there
have been, in the
atmosphere, such a constellation of bright hopes,
ready for recognition in
psalmody, as here bursts upon our view, then we must needs see,
once more, the Antitype breaking loose from the
Type, and going beyond it.
And
this is, in all probability, what we are here called upon to recognise;
for, if, with the Targum, we hold that this Ideal
King is ultimately the
Messiah, and if we look for Messiah’s manifested [millennial]
reign to
follow upon the evil domination of Antichrist, it is easy to see what a throng of wicked deeds of oppression [and
unbelief],
the world over, will be waiting for relief and
redress when the Messiah himself
ascends the Throne of David.
Not
only
in respect of manifold oppressions needing royal
interposition in order to
their removal, do we here perceive an element carrying
us beyond Solomon, but
in other ways besides; for example, in
the universality of his
dominion, in the peerless glory of his name, and
in the realisation through the
Ideal King of the
worldwide
blessing promised to Abraham.
Leaving the
thoughtful reader to conceive, as best he may, how
mighty the Messianic impulse
of the psalm thus appears, it may serve a useful
purpose to emphasise one or
two of the more obvious characteristics of the Ideal
King as here portrayed.
[* See the following document
relative to ‘God’s promises to Abraham.’]
The
central
position and causal efficacy of Strophe iv. are
remarkable. This
strophe is introduced by the only Because
of the
psalm. And
here let us note what it is
that leads up to this stronghold of the logical sense
- that it is nothing less than the Imperial Supremacy which is desired for the
Ideal King. Let
his
adversaries kneel before him; let his foes lick the dust; let distant
kings come to render him homage with their rich
gifts; in short, let all kings
bow down to him and all nations do him service;
BECAUSE he
deserves it - because he deserves it in
a peculiar way, with a worth proved by deeds,
deeds of pity and love and
matchless generosity; for note how the
verbs are accumulated in
support of this one strong because: “because” he rescueth, hath pity,
saveth, redeemeth, and,
finally, if Delitzsch
is correct in
the striking climax to which he brings this strophe, endoweth,
out of his own royal treasury, the lives that he
spareth:- THEREFORE let all
kings and nations do him willing homage and
service, gladly acknowledging that
never such a king bare rule before.
Not
by doings of power, but by deeds of love, is
universal dominion here desired.
And yet there is power behind and along with the love:
power wielded by love, power giving effect to love
- no pity for the perverters of justice, to the
extent of sparing them to be
perverters again.
No! the
implied
threats to those who wrong their poor neighbours,
are strong as iron,
fitted to strike terror into cruel hearts. In order that he may vindicate the
humbled and bring salvation to
the needy,
let him - so it is expressly desired
-
let him crush the oppressor!
May his
foes lick the dust.
Language like this ought to stand
high and clear above the
possibility of mistake.
Nevertheless,
this Ideal King
knows how to be gentle.
It is desired that his beneficent influence
be like rain coming down on a mowing, bringing the
crop to perfection before it
is cut. How
much that beautiful phrase,
coming down, suggests - of efficacious gentleness,
descending into all the
nooks and crannies and crevices of actual lowly life. Nor does the
psalmist shrink from pointing to
actual temporal benefits, anticipated to result from
this gentle yet strong
king’s dominion.
In language which
it would be a sin to spiritualise, he
prays, that, instead
of uncultivated wastes, agriculture
may carry her triumphs, terrace above terrace, to
the summits of the mountains;
and then, while the breezes of Lebanon are still upon
his cheeks, he thinks of
the pale-faced city-dwellers, and desires that they may bloom like the fresh shoots of the earth.
Such
is
the picture. It is Messianic. But it
is unfulfilled. It
does not correspond with the spiritual
and invisible reign of the Messiah in heaven. It is a
mockery of the down-trodden of earth,
to treat this psalm as if it were now in
course of fulfilment.
It is valid, but it is in reserve.
It has never yet been fulfilled;
but
it will be fulfilled in the letter and in the
spirit. Why
its accomplishment has been so long
delayed, must be sought elsewhere.
Meantime, a comprehensive study of all the
psalms which have a direct
bearing on the [Millennial]
-------
PSALMS 97
TRANSLATION
FROM
THE SEPTUAGINT
(LXX)
1 Sing
to the Lord a new song;
for the Lord was wrought
wonderful works, his
right hand, and his
holy arm, have
wrought
salvation for him.
2 The
Lord has made known his salvation,
he
has revealed his
righteousness in the sight of the nations. 3
He has remembered his mercy to
Jacob, and his truth
to the house of
4
Shout to God, all
the earth; sing, and
exult,
and sing psalms.
5 Sing
to the Lord with a harp, with
a
harp, and the voice
of a psalm.
6
With trumpets of metal,
and
the sound of a trumpet of horn make a joyful noise
to the Lord before the king.
7
Let the sea be moved, and
the fullness of it; the
world, and they that
dwell in it.
8
The rivers shall clap their
hands together; the
mountains shall exult. 9
For he is come to judge the earth;
he
shall judge the world in righteousness, and the
nations in uprightness.
-------
TRANSLATION AND EXPOSITION BY
J.
B.
ROTHERHAM
Psalm 97
1
Jehovah hath become king* - let
the earth exault,
*
As in 93:
1; 96:
10; 99:1.
let the multitude
of coastlands rejoice,
2
Clouds and darkness are round
about him’
Righteousness and
justice*
are the foundation of his
throne:
*
Or: “judgment.”
3
Fire before him proceedeth,
And setteth ablaze
round about his
adversaries.
4
His lightings illumined the
world,
The earth saw and
was in the birth-throes:*
*
Cp. 96: 9.
5
The mountains like wax melted
at the presence of Jehovah,
At the presence of
the Lord*
of the whole earth:
*
Hebrew adon.
6
The heavens declared his
righteousness,
And all the peoples
saw his glory.
7
Put to shame are all they who
were serving in image,
Who were boasting
themselves in nothings:*
*“Nothingnesses”
– Driver.
All messengers
divine*
bow ye down to him.
*
Or: “gods.” Hebrew elohim. But see 8:
5; 96:
4.
8
And the daughters
of
Because of thy
righteous decisions,* O
Jehovah.
*
Or: “thy
judgments.”
9
For thou, Jehovah
art Most High over all the earth,
Greatly hast thou
exalted thyself above all
messengers divine.*
* Or: “gods.” Elohim. See
8:
5; 96:
4.
10 Ye
lovers of Jehovah!
hate Ye wrong.
He preserveth the
lives*
of his men of kindness,
*
Or: “persons”
; Hebrew naphsoth; Usually:
“souls.”
From the hand of
lawless ones he rescueth
them.
11 Light
hath arisen* for the righteous one,
*
So in some MSS. (with Aramean,
Septuagint, Syriac, Vulgate (Latin).
Cp. 112:
14 – Ginsburg’s
notes in his Massoretico-Critical
Hebrew Bible.
And for such as are
upright of heart
gladness.
12
Be glad O ye righteous,
in Jehovah,
And give thanks
unto his Holy Memorial.
--------
EXPOSITION
It
will
be observed that here is but one original headline to
Psalms 92 to 97;
and therefore it will be no great strain on our
credulity if, from this
circumstance, we assume that these psalms, thus
undivided from each other in
the Hebrew text, at a very early period in their
history formed one continuous
Service of Song for a Sabbath
Day. That
the series was composed of several
distinct psalms, probably written by two or three
psalmists, is clear from
internal evidence.
Psalm 92 is intensely personal: as witness
the phrases hast
made me glad - I will ring out my joy
(ver. 4) - my
horn
- I am anointed - mine eye - my lurking foes - my
wicked assailants - mine ears
(vers. 10,
11). It
is at the same time thoroughly experimental: which is
evident, not only from the
above expressions, but also from the writer’s thankfulness (ver. 1), and from his
persuasion that he has been
blessed with some insight into Jehovah’s works
and plans
(ver. 5),
as well as from that sense of nearness to God which
leads him to designate him My
Rock (ver.
15).
The writer of the psalm is probably a king in the line
of David: which accounts
for his expectation that his horn will be exalted, in
spite of his unscrupulous
foes (verses 10, 11).
He is not only a king, but an enthusiastic musician: understanding
what it is to sweep the
strings (ver. 1), and appreciating
differences in musical
instruments, as his selection of the deep-toned lyre
to accompany his poetic
soliloquy in his royal chambers sufficiently
indicates. Out
of these observations emerges the natural
conclusion, that its writer was King
Hezekiah.
Psalm 93 forms a striking contrast. It
is
by no means personal; but public, lofty, grand.
It propounds a thesis worthy of the most
far-seeing prophetic gift: for it tells of nothing
less than an especial
assumption of sovereignty by Jehovah
himself, who on the basis of his ancient rule
and being makes a new Divine
advance to manifested kingship over the earth.
The psalm is but brief, calling sea-streams
to witness to the Divine Majesty, and claiming that
the Divine Testimonies
and Temple-worship are confirmed by Jehovah’s Royal Proclamation.
The two most remarkable things about this
short psalm are: first, that it gives the key-note of the series; in which, be
it noted, Jehovah is proclaimed King three times,
which key-note is carried
over to the abbreviated Sabbath Service of Song which
we may assume to be
formed by Psalms 98,
99; so that four times in the
double series is this Proclamation made; second,
another remarkable thing is
that King Hezekiah - himself a king in the royal,
covenant line of David -
should have given so much prominence to such a theme,
if he prepared this
Service of Song, a theme to give currency to which
looks greatly like an act of
self-effacement on his part, as though neither
he nor any of his descendants could
be regarded as The Coming King.
Not only, then, does this psalm demand a
lofty prophetic gift for its production, but it
requires a prophet of
unquestionable standing and commanding weight to
secure its insertion in this
Service of Song. These conditions are remarkably well
fulfilled in ISAIAH;
especially if we may safely
come back
- as it would appear we
may - to the old-fashioned custom of regarding him as the author of the whole of the book which goes under his
name. For,
in that case, we have not
only the vision of Isaiah,
chapter 6, to give
a commanding place to the conception of Jehovah’s becoming King of all the earth,
but we have patterned by Isaiah himself - of course
under Divine guidance - in 52: 7 almost
the exact formula for proclaiming Divine Kingship
which stands out so
prominently in these psalms.
Isaiah is
the man who has had the vision, and who is possessed
by the conception which
the vision conveys.
And he has the age,
the standing, and the unquestionable spiritual
authority to secure Hezekiah’s
ready acceptance of Jehovah’s own Royal proclamation
of Himself as suitable for
a large place in this Sabbath Service of Song.
From this point of view, the bringing together
of the two men - Isaiah and
Hezekiah - under the dominancy of a great expectation,
throws an unexpected but
most welcome sidelight on that strange wail of
disappointment issuing from
Hezekiah’s sick-room (Isaiah
38) that now -
if he must at once die - he will “not
see Yah in the
land of the living,” as under Isaiah’s
tuition he had conceived that he
might. So
that any imagined unlikelihood
that Hezekiah would make such a theme so prominent in
his Sabbath Service of
Song, is completely overborne by the evidence which
shews how naturally he
might have done this very thing.
Psalm 94 differs from both
the preceding: from 92
by not being mainly
joyous, and from 93
by rather lamenting that
Jehovah has not become King, than by proclaiming that
he has ascended his
earthly Royal Seat. This psalm, again, has a rather
strong personal note, and
may very well have been written by Hezekiah himself or
at his dictation.
If so, however, its totally different
tone would drive us to conclude that
it must have been written at another and probably an
earlier time, evidently a
time of sore national trouble.
Indeed,
so predominant is the note of lamentation throughout
this psalm, that some
critics have concluded it to be wholly out of its
place where it now
stands. Perhaps
they have been hasty in
their judgment. But
let us glance
through the psalm.
Three strophes (verses
1-7)
suffice to make it clear that
Psalm 95 is
remarkable for the facility with which, after a
4-line invitation to worship, it resolves itself into
two 10-line strophes, the
former joyous, and the latter admonitory.
As to the fitness of the latter to find place
here, - with such waverers
in view as the previous psalm reveals (94:
8-11)
it cannot be said that the solemn warning of
this psalm (95: 7-11)
is in any wise out of place.
It
is, further, something to
remember - that this Sabbath-day’s Service of Song
points onwards to a Divine
Sabbath of Sabbaths, which undoubtedly will be
inaugurated by the Coming Divine
King.
Psalm 96
enriches
us with fresh thoughts: by bringing us into sight of a new
manifestation of Divine
Kingship, calling for a
song that is new;
that it
commissions a particular land
to herald the glad-tidings of the
Coming Divine Reign to the other
nations
of the earth (verses
2, 3, 10); that,
while there are Divine representatives
(Elohim) who are
real beings (verse 4),
there are other
so-called Elohim (“gods”)
who have no existence
(verse 5); that
even in the Coming Divine
Reign, there will be a sanctuary
(verse 6)
into which the families of the peoples (verse 7) can
enter with their presents (verse
8) and there worship (verse 9); and that such
a changed state of things will amount to a New
Birth
for or a Readjustment
of the
world (verses 9,
10) whereat all Nature - including the heavens, the earth, the sea, the plain, the forest - may
well
go into ecstasies; for the good reason that Jehovah
is coming to
reign over all the
peoples of the world in righteousness and faithfulness (verses
10, 13).
Psalm 97, the last of this
longer Sabbath-day series, is notable in that,
whatever cause for fear and
trembling any of the individuals and nations of the
world may have, in prospect
of this new and immediate Divine Rule, the great event
itself is mainly an
occasion for joy: Let
the earth exult.
Probably not without peculiar interest to
Europeans (and it may be Americans also) the West -
under the significant
Biblical name of Coastlands
- is particularly
called upon
to rejoice: - a glimpse
into the future which was, as
we know, vouchsafed to Isaiah, independently of this
psalm (Isaiah 24:
15; 41:
1; 42:
4; 49:
1; 59:
18; 60:
2; 66:
19).
Other things observable in this closing
psalm
of the first series are: that the promised Divine
Advent is to be, in some way,
open and palpable to the
whole earth; conveying
its testimony of Divine righteousness
to
all men’s minds (verses
4-6);
that it will be sufficiently sudden to put
some boastful
idolaters to
shame (verse
7); sufficiently demonstrative to cause all true messengers divine
to
prostrate themselves before the world’s Divine King
(verse
7); and yet sufficiently local in some
phases of its manifestation to
give occasion to carry the joyful tidings thereof to
Zion and the daughters of
Judah (verse 8). Real divine
messengers,
such as kings and judges, will be permitted to
govern longer,
only on condition of being manifestly in subjection to
Jehovah as Most High over
all the earth (verse
9). No
wonder that such good news as this should
be finally employed by way of admonition:
Ye
lovers of Jehovah! hate ye
wrong (verse 10). They who
persist in wrong will be punished.
The wronged - the imperilled - are to be preserved,
to be rescued
(verse 10).
Truly we may say, light
has arisen
for the righteous king Hezekiah (verse 11),
and
for myriads besides
who will open their eyes.
And, ye
righteous, who
are made glad
in Jehovah, forget not to give
thanks to his Holy Memorial;
with
the understanding that “his
Holy Memorial” is “his
Holy Name,” Jehovah
(Exod.
3: 15;
Ps. 135:
1-3);
that is, Yahweh;
that is, the Becoming One; and that here, in this beautiful Sabbath Service
of Song, He hath prophetically BECOME
the
King of all the earth, as unveiled to your
believing and rejoicing
eyes.
For further “General
Reflections,” see at the close of Psalm
99.
-------
TRANSLATION
FROM
THE SEPTUAGINT
(LXX)
PSALM 110
1 The
Lord
said to my Lord, Sit thou on my right hand, until
I make thine enemies thy footstool. 2
The Lord shall send out a
rod of power for thee out of Sion: rule
thou in the
midst of thine enemies.
3 With
thee is dominion in the day
of thy power,
in the splendours
of thy saints; I have
begotten thee from the womb before the morning.
4 The Lord sware, and
will not repent, Thou
art a priest for ever,
after the order of Melchisedec. 5 The Lord at thy
right hand has dashed in pieces kings in the day of his wrath.
He
shall judge among the nations, he
shall fill up the
number of corpses,
he
shall crush the heads of many
on the earth. He shall
drink of the brook in the way;
therefore shall he lift up the
head.”
-------
TRANSLATION AND EXPOSITION BY
J.
B.
ROTHERHAM
Psalm 110
[
1. David
records a Revelation concerning
his lord.]
1 The
revelation* of Jehovah to my lord**:-
*
“Utterance, declaration,
revelation”
“Sit
thou at my right
hand
until I make thy foes
a stool for
thy feet.”
[
2. Foretells
that a Commission will be
given to his lord.]
2 Thy
sceptre of strength* will Jehovah stretch forth out of
* =
“Thy strong sceptre:”
cp. Psa. 2: 9.
“Rule
thou in the
midst of thy foes.”
[
3.
Describes the Appearance of the Army of his lord.]
3 Thy
people are most willing* in
thy day of warfare:**
* Heb.
pl.
abstract of intensification: “willingnesses.”
** “Of thy power.
Or, of
thy host; in either case
the meaning being, on the day when thy forces
muster for battle” –
Driver.
“Of thy host”
– Briggs. “In
the day that thou warest”
– Perowne.
“In the day of thy
warfare” – Delitzsch.
In holy adorning,*
out of the womb of the dawn
* More
literally:
“In stateliness of holiness.”
To thee cometh forth
the dew of thy
young men.
[
4.
Proclaims an Oath addressed by Jehovah to his lord.]
4 Sworn
hath Jehovah, and
will
not regret:
“Thou
art a priest to
the ages
After the order of
Melchizedek.”
[
5. Portaays the
Overthrow of the Forces of his lord, and his
lord’s consequent Exaltation.]
5 The Sovereign Lord* at thy right hand
* Heb.
(Massoretic
Hebrew Text): ‘adinai’.
In some Codex (i.e., written copies) “Jehovah” –
Ginsburg’s notes in his Massoretico-Critical
Bible.
Hath crushed,*
in the day of his anger, kings,
* Or
“shattered.”
He judgeth* among
the nations - full of dead bodies!
* Or
“will judge.”
Hath crushed the head
over a wide
land:
An inheritance, on
the way he maketh it,*
* So
Briggs (with very slight emendations).
Therefore he exalteth
the*
Head.
* Or
“a.”
-------
DESCRIPTIVE
TITLE. – A
Revelation, THROUGH
David TO his “lord,” the Messiah
ANALYSIS. - 1. David records a
Revelation concerning his
lord. 2.
Foretells that a Commission
will be given to his lord.
3. Describes
the Appearance of the Army of his lord.
4. Proclaims an Oath addressed by Jehovah to
his lord. 5.
Portrays the Overthrow of the Foes of his
lord, and his lord’s consequent Exaltation.
-------
EXPOSITION
This
psalm
being ascribed to
David, we
have a prescriptive
right to endeavour to
interpret it accordingly; and the measure of our
success may be regarded as
confirming or discrediting this superscription.
Verse 1. The
Revelation of
Jehovah to my lord.
-
As
a
revelation,
the psalm as a whole
and its leading announcement in particular may be
expected to make a disclosure
unknown before. We
already know of the
choice of David in preference to Saul; of his
anointing and ascension to the
thrown of Israel; of his prophetic gifts; of the
covenant made with him,
through Nathan the prophet, touching his sons as
destined heirs to his
kingship: which covenant, therefore, must have made
him aware of the
continuance of his kingdom under other rulers than
himself. It
was not to be his privilege to carry the
Representative Kingship with which he was invested to
its climax, by bearing it
for ever, or by himself bringing all nations into
perfect obedience to Jehovah.
He would have to bequeath his throne to his
sons, some of whom, Nathan suggested to him, would
probably prove unworthy of
that honour. He
himself, in any case,
was not the Messiah.
So much we knew
from previous Divine communications to David.
But we did not know - however naturally we
might have conjectured it -
that David’s royal line would at length be consummated
in the person of one of
his race to whom he himself would own allegiance and
whom he would willingly
call his “lord.”
But this is implied in the first line of the
psalm. David
shall have such an heir - an heir whom
he can call his “lord”;
and inasmuch as a living
son can exercise no lordship over a dead father, -
even as, on the other hand,
a dead father cannot give allegiance to an as yet
unborn son, - we are
irresistibly carried forward to Resurrection days;
unless, indeed, David is not
to die until this his Greater Son appears.
We find ourselves, therefore, to say the least,
well within the scope of
a revelation - a disclosure - a discovery.
But
this
discovery, though made through David,
directly concerns
David’s lord - his Messianic, Son.
This,
precisely, is what David here tells us.
He does not say: The
revelation
of Jehovah UNTO
ME, but The
Revelation of Jehovah to MY LORD;
that is, to my SON,
THE MESSIAH. In
short, then, we have here a revelation
to the Messiah; and being a revelation written down
and preserved until the
Messiah’s days, will it not, in the event of his
reading it, become at once a
revelation for him and a revelation to him?
Jesus of Nazareth believes himself to be
David’s Messianic Son: his
nation are about to reject him: meantime this
revelation comes to him - to his
notice, to his reflection, to his need.
All who truly believe in the kenosis
- the self-emptying - of
which the Apostle Paul (Phil.
2) speaks,
cannot fail to become aware that already the
atmosphere of the psalm has become
charged with intense spiritual emotion.
No wonder that, on receiving this revelation,
Jesus is so profoundly
moved that, to the Pharisees, he can only put
questions!
So
far
we are assured that a revelation to the Messiah is
coming, but are not told
what it is. Of
this the next words
inform us: Sit
thou at my
right hand until I make thy foes a stool for thy feet. This
informs us that the Messiah [when
He returns]
will have
foes; but that, instead of at
once contending with them and overcoming
them, he is to be taken out of their midst; to be so
taken, by being invited to
a post of highest honour; in short, to be exalted to
the right hand of Jehovah
in heaven. We
say, advisedly, “in heaven,” - first, because we know that heaven
is the place of Jehovah’s fixed abode (1
K. 8: 30, etc.);
and, secondly, because it is not easy to see how a
mere elevation to the right
hand of the sacred ark in Jerusalem could have the effect of removing the
Messiah from the midst of his enemies.
Here, again, it is not without emotion that we
conceive of Jesus of
Nazareth receiving such an invitation from Jehovah. For him [Christ / Messiah] to take in
its purport [i.e.,
in
its meaning,
or signification],
could fall
nothing short of his discovering
[in
the “age”
yet
to come] something of “the
joy set before him,”
fitted
to
embolden him “to endure the cross,
its
shame despising.”
But
this
elevation is not to be for ever: it is for a definite
object and,
therefore, for such time as the accomplishment of that
object shall
require: Until I make thy
foes a stool for thy feet.
It
is JEHOVAH
who undertakes to reduce
Messiah’s foes to such a humiliating condition.
The foes are spoken of collectively and as a
complete class. And
the subjugation is to be thorough.
Jehovah promises that he will bring down the
Messiah’s enemies to abject
submission
to his, the Messiah’s, will.
They shall be publicly humiliated - totally
crushed. They
shall be able to rise in
rebellion no more.
Their being made a stool for the Messiah’s feet cannot mean less than this.
Verse 2. Thy
sceptre of strength will
Jehovah stretch forth out of Zion.
It is Jehovah who will place
the Messiah’s enemies
under his feet; but, not necessarily and to the end of
the process, without the
Messiah’s participation.
Thy
sceptre of strength is, naturally,
the Messiah’s sceptre; although, still, it is Jehovah
who stretches it forth
out of
Verse
3.
But the Messiah, now seated in
They are most willing: they
are volunteers in the
service of
[* That
is, “His angels,”
who
will accompany Him at that time: “He
shall send
forth his angels
… and they
shall gather together his elect
… from one end of
heaven to the other” (Matt.
24: 31,
R.V.)]
Their
appearance
is next described: that is, if we follow the
Massoretic text - they
appear in holy
adorning, as it were
in priestly robes.
If, however, with some
able critics we prefer the various reading which
(substituting an “r”
for a “d,” the
difference in Hebrew being very small) yields the very
dissimilar clause On
the holy mountains instead of “In
holy adorning,” then we find in this phrase a
notification of the place
where these
volunteers gather: they gather on the holy mountains - about Jerusalem, naturally - for we know of
no other “holy mountains”; and this seems strikingly
agreeable with the
circumstance that the Messiah
has
now fixed his headquarters in Jerusalem, since it is from
thence
that
his strong
rule is to be “extended.” Still, it is
not certain that this various reading is to be
preferred, for a reason to be
given in a few moments.
Hence, for the
present, we leave that an open question, by saying: If
the word is harre, then
the rendering must be - On
the holy
mountains; but if hadre, then the proper English is - In
holy adorning. We wish to
find out precisely - if we may -
who these “people,”
these Messianic “volunteers,”
are: does this clause say they are a priestly people;
or does it indicate the
place of their gathering?
Let us follow
on with the text, in the hope of coming near to an
answer.
Out
of
the womb of the dawn, Thou hast (or to thee cometh forth) the dew of thy young men. Sudden
and
striking, bright and beautiful, and wholly unexpected,
as a revelation of
innumerable dew-drops in the morning when the sun
rises, is the
appearance of this army of
volunteers. They
are born out of the
foregoing night.*
They suddenly start forth
as the
Messiah’s allies “on the day of his warfare,”
when his “strong
sceptre”
is about to be “stretched forth out of
[*
NOTE.
Undoubtedly, born at the time of the “First Resurrection” from “Hades”
the place of the dead, the earth’s “womb” where the
“souls” of all
the dead are presently waiting
for their
individual Resurrection.
“But the saints, who are to form
that body, are being
gathered in the lower parts of the earth; and Hades is the womb from which they
will be born at the resurrection.
Understood thus, the passage
presents no difficulty. It is Christ who
speaks – ‘My
substance was not hid from thee, when I was made in
secret,
and curiously wrought in the lower parts of the earth. Thine eyes did see my substance, yet being imperfect; and in
thy book were
all my members written,
which in
continuance were fashioned, when
as yet there
was none of them,” Psalm
cxxxix.
15, 16 (139:
15, 16)’.
Now, there was a
time when the saints existed as the elect in God’s purpose alone – ‘as yet there was none of them.’
Yet they were made members of Christ, and so are now
‘in continuance being fashioned,’ as time, and the
purposes of God, bring each to
their
natural and supernatural birth.” - R. Govett. (Italics mine; quotation from R. Govett’s “Hades”
- Ed.).]
But
just
here comes in a remarkable text from the prophet Micah
(5: 7)
which
looks as if it might have been written as a commentary
on this verse of our
psalm. The
reference is to “the Shepherd of Israel.”
That this
Shepherd should appear as a deliverer from ASSYRIA,
will not hinder students of prophecy from
associating him with the final
deliverance of
Thus,
then,
we appear to be absolved from any need to push further
our quest after
the Messiah’s volunteering people as referred to in
the third verse of our
psalm. They
are the “remnant of Jacob
among the nations,” “in the midst of many peoples,”
sustaining the well-known
characteristics of “dew” - “that
tarrieth not for man,” and of “lions” from whose down-treading and
tearing prowess the
sheep cannot escape.
If the provision of
such a people for the crisis is not a stretching forth
of Messiah’s strong
sceptre out of
Verse 4.
Sworn hath Jehovah, and
will not
regret:
THOU art a priest to the
ages
After the manner of
Melchizedek.
Note
that
this statement is not made in terms which describe a
proceeding now to
take place, but in terms which express accomplishment
already completed.
The words are not - “Jehovah.
sweareth,” or “now
proceedeth to swear”;
but Jehovah hath sworn.
The constituting mandate (or oath),
making the Messiah priest, has
already been uttered; and, having regard to the place
occupied by this report
of that mandate, we may reasonably conclude that the
priestly instalment took
place in heaven, when the Messiah sat down at
Jehovah’s right hand.
Of this instalment, however, no details are
given. They are left
over for a Christian Writer to
supply; and right worthily has the Writer of the
Epistle to the Hebrews
supplied all necessary details; as to the grounds on
which this honour was
conferred on the Messiah - how he who now is made
priest had previously offered
himself as a sacrifice, - and as to the abolishing
effect of this decree on the
Levitical priesthood.
No such details,
be it well observed, are here given.
The
installing announcement alone is here, made, in
briefest terms, and as of an
event already accomplished.
This last
point is the matter to be emphasised here.
The new King has come to
Verses 5-7. The
climax of the whole psalm comes at last.
The
climax
is a crisis. The
crisis is a
battle which decides the fate of the world by subduing
it to the final reign on
earth of its Priestly King.
The whole
psalm leads up to this terrible crisis.
The first verse characterises it as the time of
bringing Messiah’s
enemies beneath his feet, until which the invitation
extends to sit down at
Jehovah’s right hand in heaven.
The
second verse centralises the crisis in
We
have
characterised this as a “terrible”
crisis,
and so it is. But,
unless words are to
be tortured, it is THE
CRISIS OF THE
PSALM: moreover, it
is the crisis of the Bible -
of other psalms, as the second with its dashing in
pieces, the forty-fifth with
its sharp arrows in the heart of the king’s
enemies whereby peoples fall under
him, the seventy-second where the king’s enemies
are made to lick the dust; and
of the prophecies generally, such as Isaiah
Second, Twenty-fourth, Sixty-third,
Sixty-sixth, and others too numerous to be
mentioned; of several
significant places in the Gospels and the
Epistles, reappearing with an
accession of heavenly terror in the Apocalypse. It is a “terrible”
crisis, but no daring criticism can root it out of the
Bible. And,
though “terrible,”
it seems to be a needful
crisis. For,
truly, the witness of nineteen centuries seems to
declare that it may be
absolutely needful that Jehovah’s PHYSICAL
FORCE through means of Messiah’s iron
sceptre
should maintain and enforce the moral suasion of
many foregoing
centuries. And, once more, though “terrible,”
thank
God it will be final and efficacious.
For, thereby, the Messiah will “speak peace to the nations” in terms which will compel
war to cease and clear the
way for gentler forms to operate to the ages.
Verse 5. Before
noticing, in a little detail, the three strokes of
displeasure with which the
foes of the Messiah are actually made his footstool,
it is desirable to assure
ourselves that those three strokes are here attributed
to JEHOVAH HIMSELF rather than to the Messiah.
Whether this is the case, turns upon the nice
and rather critical question - Who is intended by “The Lord at
thy right hand”
of verse
5?
Is it Messiah on Jehovah’s right hand, or is it
Jehovah on the Messiah’s
right hand? And,
as involved in this
broader question, is the narrower one - Who is the
person whose right
hand is here spoken of?
In other words, to whom is this line (with the following lines) addressed?
If Jehovah is addressed, then “the Lord at his right hand” will be the Messiah - “The Messiah hath crushed kings,” &c.; whereas, if the
Messiah is addressed, then
it will be Jehovah who crasheth
kings, &c. Now,
notwithstanding the plausibility of the
contention that the word A-D-N-I should be pronounced
adhoni (“my
lord”),
and so be regarded as a repetition of the word
standing at the end of the first
line of the psalm, yet as this would probably
necessitate another change, which
neither the Hebrew text nor the ancient versions
sustain, “My lord at HIS
right
hand”; we shall do well to pause and look
well to the context, before we
decide this nice point.
Now the opinion
is here submitted, that the better conclusion is: That
the Messiah is here
directly addressed, and therefore that “the Lord at Messiah’s right hand”
is Jehovah. And,
though this may be said to involve a
change of their relative position - so that, in verse 1, Messiah is
seen on Jehovah’s right hand; and, in verse 5, Jehovah is
discovered on the Messiah’s right hand, - yet there
can be no valid objection
to this. The
scene has changed, and with
it the relative positions; and there is nothing
whatever incongruous, but
rather everything befitting, that in heaven the
Messiah should be on Jehovah’s
right hand, and on earth Jehovah should be on the
Messiah’s right hand;
especially as this very representation has already and
so lately been made as
in verses 30,
31 of
the
next preceding psalm: “I will thank Jehovah ... because
he taketh his stand at the right hand of the needy.”
There is
therefore plainly nothing incongruous, if in this
place, the representation is,
that Jehovah, here, on earth, on “the
day of
Messiah’s warfare,”
takes his
stand at the Messiah’s right hand to direct
and aid him in overthrowing his foes, and letting the
world and all future
generations see that it was JEHOVAH’S
hand
that did it. And
as, on the one hand,
there is nothing incongruous to be alleged against
this conclusion, so on the
other, there are these reasons to be urged in its
favour: (1) that the vowel -
pointing of the Massoretic text can stand – Adonai -
Sovereign
Lord, equivalent
to Jehovah; (2) that
those codices which actually have Jehovah (see Gn. under text) will be substantially correct; (3) that no change
further on in the line, from “thy”
to “his”
will be required;
and (4) - most weighty reason of all
- that continued prominence will thereby be given to
the feature made prominent
at the beginning of the psalm, That it is emphatically
JEHOVAH who places the Messiah’s enemies beneath his feet.
He does this, because he it is who provides the Messiah with his
wonderful army of volunteers, he it is who crashes
kings, judges nations,
crashes the head over a wide land.
This
then may be regarded as provisionally settled, that
the fifth verse opens by
declaring that Jehovah, on the Messiah’s right hand,
does the things that
follow, to each of which we may now devote a moment’s
attention.
Jehovah,
at the Messiah’s right hand, crushes Kings
- literally hath
crushed, the
well-known perfect tense of prophetic certainty. Then there are
“kings” in the final opposition
raised against the Messiah’s
wielding his strong sceptre out of
Jehovah, at the Messiah’s
right hand, judgeth
(proceedeth to judge, will judge)
among the nations, - the
tense
being here changed to the
so-called “imperfect,”
more exactly, the initiative, incipient
or incomplete, precisely suited to indicate a further
and perhaps prolonged
process. No
details, saving one, are
here supplied as to the nature of this judging among
the nations. The
one which is supplied is sufficiently
startling: throughout the nations which are being
judged, or on the battlefield
to which the nations gather, there is a filling of the
places of conflict (or
the one battlefield) with the slain - the dead bodies
- the corpses - the g'wioth. Let
him who dares, attempt to
spiritualise and thereby evaporise
this! Beware
how you minimise the Divine
wielding of Messiah’s “iron
sceptre”!
This is the
second stroke. The
third follows.
Jehovah,
at the Messiah’s right hand, hath
crushed (again the perfect of certainty) the head over a wide land. The rebellious kings have a “head”: the infatuated
nations have a head.
That “head”
has become “head”
- “over
a wide land,”
or has gone up to do battle, “over a wide country.”
The student of
prophecy does not need to inquire who that head is. Even the
thoughtful reader who has got no
further than this psalm may surmise that here at last
is the key that unlocks
the secret of that “throne of iniquity” which so
unaccountably started out into
prominence in Ps.
94: “Can
the throne of engulfing ruin be allied to thee,
which
frameth mischief by statute?”
It
would not be surprising if the instructed Bible
student were to exclaim without more delay: “Yes!
I see: this other head that is to be crushed is
none else than Antichrist or the Man of
Sin or the Lawless
One whom ‘the
Lord Jesus is to destroy by the breath of his lips
and to
paralyse with the brightness of his coming.’”
Nor would he
be wrong. Nevertheless,
it may be a
useful throwing of ourselves upon Old Testament
testimony, if we simply confirm
our apprehension by yet another reference to it as set
forth by the prophet Isaiah
(30:
29-33): -
“A
song shall ye have, As in the night of hallowing a
festival, And gladness of heart as when one goeth
with the flute To enter the
mountain of Jehovah Unto the Rock of Israel.”
Language,
this, which appears as if expressly framed to suit
those “Volunteers,” coming forth “out
of the womb of
the dawn,” “robed
in holy adorning”
of which we read in the third verse of this
psalm. “Then will Jehovah cause to be heard the
resounding of his voice,
And
the bringing down of his arm shall be seen, In a
rage of anger, And
with the flame of a devouring
fire, A burst,
and downpour and a hailstone! And at the
voice of Jehovah shall Assyria be
crushed, With his
rod will he smite, And
it shall come to pass that every stroke of the staff
of
doom which Jehovah shall lay upon him shall be with
timbrels
and with lyres, when
with battles of brandished
weapons he hath fought against them. For there
hath been set in order beforehand a
Tophet, yea the same
for the king hath been
prepared, He hath
made it deep, made it
large, - The
circumference thereof is for fire and wood in
abundance, The breath
of Jehovah like a torrent of brimstone is ready
to kindle it.” Assyria
first -
Verse 7. After the
battle, the restoration of
the inheritance!
And
so,
by the help of Dr. Briggs, we read from a critically
emended text: An
inheritance on the way he maketh it, Therefore
he (Jehovah still, as all along so far in these concluding verses) exalteth the Head - the true Head, the Messiah, the rightful Head of a ransomed and delivered [sin-cursed] world.
Of course, if
anyone choose to abide still by the Massoretic Hebrew
text, - down to the last
verse and to the minutest letter, including the
editorially supplied vowel
points, he can do so with very little disturbance to
the general effect; and,
bringing the Messiah to the front
as
an exhausted warrior, snatching a refreshing drink of
the brook by the way, and
then lifting up his head to pursue the flying foe and
so completing his
conquest - to which he will naturally give a fitting
explanation. But
probably a goodly contingent even of
conservative critics will prefer the more dignified
and commensurate ending
suggested above, especially when they discover the
minuteness of the changes
involved, probably imperilling not more than a single
consonant in the original
text, in the process of copying which such an error
might easily be made.
An excellent, dignified, and adequate
conclusion to the psalm, will certainly be realised if
we thus read and expound
the seventh verse.
An
inheritance on
the way (at once) he (Jehovah) maketh it,
(namely) the wide land rescued
from Antichrist, or even the whole earth
occupied by the nations
previously mentioned as having to pass through
Jehovah’s refining judgment;
handing it over to him, the Messiah,
in pursuance of the offer of
the Second Psalm - “Ask of me, and I will give nations
as thine inheritance, and the uttermost
parts of the earth as thy possession.”
Thus will
Jehovah make good the very last line of the psalm
also: Therefore (and thus) he
(Jehovah) exalteth
the (rightful and
all worldly) Head
(of the world
redeemed by him, even
the Messiah, David’s long-looked-for lord: to whom and for whom this sublime and
significant revelation was made by the Holy Spirit
speaking by David).
The
references
to this psalm in the N. T. demand a brief notice. “No
psalm is more
frequently quoted and alluded to in the N. T.
It was, as we have seen, quoted by our Lord
(Mat. 22: 44; Mk. 12: 36; Lk.
20: 42, 43);
and His use of its language as recorded in
26: 64 (=Mk. 14: 62;
Lk.
22: 69)
clearly involved (since its Messianic
significance was
acknowledged) an assertion of His Messiahship in
answer to the High-priest’s
adjuration.
Verse
1 is applied by
St.
Peter to the exaltation of Christ in his
Resurrection and Ascension (Acts
2: 34, 35) and is
quoted in Heb.
1:
13 to illustrate
the superiority of the Son to Angels.
Cp. also Mk.
16:
19;
Acts 5: 31; 7: 55,
56;
Rom.
8: 34; 1 Cor.
15: 24ff; Eph. 1: 29; Col. 3: 1; Heb. 1: 3; 8: 1; 10: 12, 13; 12: 2; 1 Peter 3: 22; Rev. 3: 21. Verse
4 serves as the
basis of the argument in
Heb. 5: 5ff; 6: 20; 7: 17ff concerning
the
superiority of Christ’s priesthood to the
Levitical priesthood” - Kirkpatrick
in “Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges.” In
accordance with the lofty outlook of some
of these references, it would not have been improper
to render the second line
of this psalm - “Sit
thou enthroned at my right hand,” only
that such a prominence given to heavenly kingship
would have been a little
beyond the scope of the psalm, and was by no means
demanded by the Hebrew word
employed. Carefully
followed, the
context suggests no more than honour, rest, and
waiting; in exact accordance
with Heb.
10: 13 (“waiting henceforth”).
In point of
fact, the Son of David is also the Son of God; and the
heavenly honour, rest,
and waiting secured by his session at the right hand
of God, are coincident
with heavenly activity, in other capacities and for
other ends than those
brought into view by the psalm.
In like
manner, it would probably have been premature, had we,
in seeking for the “volunteers” of
verse
3, referred to
the army seen in heaven in
Rev. 19.
The
coincidence is indeed striking, especially as between
the “holy
adorning”
seen by the psalmist and the “fine linen, white
and pure”
described by the seer in
*
*
*
PART TWO
WHO
WILL RULE WITH MESSIAH
DURING “THE THOUSAND YEARS”?
1.
GOD’S PROMISE TO ABRAHAM
HAS NOT
YET
BEEN FULFILLED
-------
AN INTRODUCTION
The Word of God teaches us that
man is a tri-unity.
He consists of a material part called the body,
and immaterial parts called spirit and soul.
With the
spirit man has God consciousness.
By death is meant the separation of these component parts.
In
the
Word of God life is always union, and death is
always separation. In death the spirit and soul are separated from the body.
We know where the body goes.
It is placed in the ground awaiting the
resurrection.
Where
do the
spirit and soul go?
In the Old Testament
we are told the spirit returns to God, and the soul
descends into Sheol.
This word is used sixty-five times. It is
translated [in the A.V.] “hell”
thirty-one
times, the “grave”
thirty-one times, and the “pit”
three times.
In the New Testament the soul goes to Hades,
which is the same place as
Sheol. Hades
is used eleven times and is
translated “hell” ten
times and “grave” once. Proper
nouns should never be
translated in going from one language to another. So
in the American Revised Version you will
find Sheol sixty-five times in the Old Testament
and Hades eleven times in the
New Testament.
Seventy-six times we are
told where disembodied souls go at death.
They go to Sheol or Hades, the place of
disembodied souls.
But
where is Sheol
or Hades? Death
and Sheol are linked
together thirty-three times.
Decomposition gets the body.
Sheol or Hades gets the soul. But
where is Sheol or Hades? “But
those that seek my soul to destroy it shall
go
into the lower parts of the earth” (Psalm
63:
9). Here
we
are told that Sheol or Hades is in the lower parts of
the earth. We
know where the earth is, for we are living
on it. When
folks died in Old
Testament times, they did not go up;
they went down.
In the Old Testament we are told
twenty-two times that when folks died they went down
into Sheol. Psalm 55: 1.
“Let death seize upon them and let
them go down
quick into Sheol.”
Now we
want to know - do the godly and ungodly mingle with
each other in Sheol as they
mingle on earth?
Jesus answers this
question when He unveils the unseen for us in Luke
16: 19-31.
This is not a parable. It is an unveiling.
A rich man dies and goes to Sheol.
A poor man, Lazarus by name, dies and also
goes to Sheol, but Jesus tells us that Lazarus was in
a place called Abraham’s
bosom and that he was in conscious
bliss. The
rich man was in torment.
Between Abraham’s bosom where Lazarus was and
the place of torments where the rich man was, a gulf
was fixed. The
Greek calls this gulf a chasm.
Two
ungodly men
were crucified with Jesus.
The one
became penitent and prayed the Lord to remember him
when he came into his
kingdom. Jesus replied, “Today
shalt thou be with
me in paradise.” Now we have
two names for the compartment in
Sheol where Lazarus was, Abraham’s
bosom and the
Old Testament paradise. When Jesus
and the penitent thief died, where
did they go? They
went down to Sheol, to
Abraham’s bosom, to the Old Testament paradise; Jesus
was there three days.
-------
A true view of the dead will materially affect our
comprehension of the
Saviour’s reply to the Sadducees. Jesus argues from the expression
used by
Jehovah, “I am the God of Abraham, of Isaac,
and Jacob,” that the dead were
to be RAISED.
In what condition, then, did Jesus assume these
patriarchs to be?
Dead?
or alive? Christians ordinarily
suppose that He assumes
them to be alive. So says Wesley, “Therefore
Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, are not dead, but
living. Therefore the soul
does not die with the body.”
So says Barnes.
“God spake, then, as being
their God,” “They
must, therefore, be still somewhere living.”
“He is the God only of
those who have an existence.”
But then there is in that passage no proof of resurrection;
but only the
separate existence of the soul, after the body is laid
aside. Now resurrection
never means ‘the immortality
of the soul,’
never means ‘a future state.’
Then, too,
Jesus’ reply does not refute the Sadducees.
Their alleged difficulty did
not relate to the intermediate state, but to the
coming forth of the dead from
their tombs, and the restoration of their BODIES. To whom the
woman was as wife to belong, was
a question applying only
to the day
when the BODY will be reunited to the SOUL.
Neither
Pharisee nor Sadducee believed in marriage among
spirits.
This answer, then, makes Jesus evade the question, and prove
the separate
existence of the soul, instead of the resurrection of the body. It is, in
fact, a wrong way of stating the
matter. The
patriarchs were not alive,
but dead. The
dead, as we have shown,
are those human beings whose spirit, body and soul are
severed. Then
Jesus
admits to the Sadducees, that Abraham is dead, as
much as the woman and her seven husbands. Abraham is
dead, for his body is still in the
It is, indeed, quite true that this passage proves the
separate
existence of the souls of the patriarchs in
Hades/Sheol. But
THAT
WAS NOT THE POINT. Jesus
does not cite it to prove that, but Abraham’s return to his BODY. The separate
existence of Abraham’s body and soul
is a proof of his being then and NOW among the dead in Hades / Sheol.
He
will not be alive
till his body and soul are reunited.
In the same state in which Abraham was when God
spoke to Moses at the
bush, Abraham is still.
Barnes
and others call him “dead”
then. He
is, then, dead NOW. Jesus
therefore is referring, not to time
present, but to the
future
time of
resurrection, of which the Sadducees were speaking.
Abraham is dead. Jehovah is his God.
But Jehovah is NOT
GOD
OF THE DEAD.
Therefore
God is not now showing Himself the God of
Abraham, FOR
THE RESURRECTION
to immortality is not yet come. That the
resurrection was to be at a future
day,
the Pharisees
held; and on that, allowed as a
basis, the Sadducees
plead. God,
then, by these words, engages to restore
by His almighty power Abraham to become Abraham again
in resurrection. Abraham
when
the Lord promised him possession of
Till spirit, soul and body come together, Abraham is not
alive, and God
is not showing Himself the God of Abraham. There
is no visible difference between
Abraham and Saul now; but the Almighty means to show
His power put forth in
goodness in rescuing Abraham wholly from the grasp of death.
He has as yet done nothing answering the
greatness of His promises for the patriarchs.
But He is a God of truth. Therefore what
He has not done in the
past, HE
MUST, HE WILL
DO IN THE FUTURE.
And God is
in covenant relation with Abraham, even as regards his
body.
That was marked by God.
How can
God reject it, or cast it away as naught? Mark,
too, the terms, “My
covenant shall
be IN YOUR FLESH
for an
EVERLASTING
COVENANT:” Gen. 17:
13. Then
the
flesh must be as everlasting
as the covenant.
And so it is in
the only One to whom it has been fulfilled.
It is true in
the One Heir,
the Singular Seed of Abraham risen
out
from the dead, who said, “A spirit hath not FLESH
and BONES,
as ye see me have.” For this
resurrection of reward the patriarchs
wait.
A new and better AGE
is coming, in
which they neither die nor marry, nor are given in
marriage. As
long, then, as marriage and death last
among redeemed believers, so long have we clear proof
that the better age and
the select
resurrection
out from the dead are not come.
But if ‘Death be Resurrection,’
and the
spirit-state be the eternal one, Abraham had already
risen ages before, and was
either then enjoying the land of promise, or God’s
pledged word was broken.
Then, too, the Sadducees should have said, “Whose wife in the resurrection shall
she be?”
For already in the spirit-state she was
the wife of one or more of them.
If they
were wrong in their supposition about this, Jesus
would have corrected their
error. But while
He affirms the reality
of Resurrection, which they falsely denied, He confirms them in regard to the futurity of the
Resurrection.
“But when they shall rise from the dead,
they neither marry nor are given in marriage:”
Mark 12: 25.. “They
which SHALL BE ACCOUNTED
WORTHY TO
ATTAIN THAT AGE,
and the
resurrection from among the
dead, neither marry nor are given in
marriage:” (Greek) Luke
20:
34,
35.
The First Resurrection, then, admits into the millennial
reign. Therefore Jesus having foretold the exit of His people from the ‘gates of Hades,’ then speaks of entry into the ‘Age’ yet
to come
and the kingdom of heaven: Matt. 16: 18,
19. And that kingdom is to be the kingdom of
glory at the
Saviour’s
advent, of which a specimen was given on the
Mount of Transfiguration: 16: 28; “Verily
I say unto you, There
be some standing here,
which shall not taste of
death, till
they
see the Son of Man coming in his kingdom. And after six days Jesus
taketh Peter, James and John his
brother, and
bringeth them up into a high
mountain apart.”
But Jehovah has never yet fulfilled that
covenant to
Abraham. He promised him the
“Men, brethren, and fathers,
hearken; the God of
Glory appeared unto our father Abraham, when he was in Mesopotamia,
before he dwelt in Charran, And said unto him,
Get thee
out of thy country,
and from thy kindred,
and come into the land which I shall shew thee.
Then
came he out of
the land of the Chaldaeans,
and dwelt in Charran;
and from thence,
when his father was dead, he removed him into this land, wherein ye now dwell.
And he gave him none
inheritance
in it, no, not so much as to set
his foot on:
yet he promised that he would give it to him
for a possession, and to
his seed after him, when as yet he had no child.”
So says the Writer of Hebrews: Heb. 11:
8, 13.
“By faith Abraham when he was
called to go
out into the place which
he
should after receive for an inheritance, obeyed;
and he went out not
knowing whither he went.” “These all died in faith, NOT HAVING RECEIVED THE PROMISE, but having
seen them afar off, and were
persuaded of them and embraced them, and
confessed that they were strangers and
pilgrims on the earth.”
But it may be said - ‘Did not
Abraham receive
the fulfilment, if not in his own person, yet in his
seed as represented by
And we answer - No, in no wise!
1.
2. Never in their palmiest days, did they possess the land
in its extent
as given by the covenant, - from Nile to
3. But the
chief reply is - That
it is not said, that Abraham should
inherit
the land in his seed; but that he AND
his
seed should possess it. “All the land
which
thou seest, to THEE will I give it, and
to thy seed
for ever:”* Gen. 13:
15. Besides,
if so, the Scriptures could not
assert, that Abraham had never received the land. On that
supposition, he has
received it in the persons of his representatives;
which was all that was
promised.
* That is, for as long as this
earth remains.
The covenant of Gen.
15,
moreover, confirms
the land to CHRIST
as
Abraham’s individual Heir; and
no
subsequent engagement of God can make void: Gal.
3: 17.
But Christ has never possessed the
land.
The promises of the
Thus, then, Jesus shows Himself Prince of commentators. He
discovers to us, in those simple
words - “I
am the God of Abraham,”
the promise of a future resurrection. In that bud
lay
concealed the flower and fruit of HIS glory to
come. There
it lay concealed, till the microscope
of the Great
Teacher drew them forth
to Light.
We see, then, a new and better AGE is before us. It is to come in by resurrection - the ‘better resurrection’. The manifest of God’s favour will be on those who partake of this kingdom of the ‘thousand years’. As yet it is God the patient, waiting for the filling up of the world’s iniquity. As yet it is His people suffering at the hands of the wicked. As yet Christ is seated at the right hand of God, waiting till His enemies are made His footstool. He is already in heaven, crowned - because of His suffering of death - with glory and honour. But we see not yet the promise fulfilled, that all things shall be set under His feet. That is nigh at hand. And to us it is set forth as our hope - that we may be ‘accounted worthy’ to enter into that joy of our Lord. The Father and the Son have been working hitherto, since the Fall introduced trouble into God’s creation-rest. But all is moving on to the rest of God in His better Sabbath of redemption. Into this ‘Sabbath-rest’ of the seventh thousand year - shall enter those who have worked with God and His Christ, and suffered for them. Let us seek this rest! Let us labour to enter it! Let us desire to strive for the prize, which the Righteous Judge shall give in that day! Let us keep from unrighteousness! Into the resurrection of the righteous, and the kingdom of saints, the unrighteous shall not enter: 1 Cor. 6: 9-11. We are sons of God by grace, let us seek to do the works of our Father! Let us labour today in His vineyard! He is not the God of grace alone; He becomes also the Rewarder of those who diligently seek Him: Heb. 11: 6.
Nor let any discourage you by saying – that ‘To
seek
reward is to make yourselves mercenary in spirit!’ For this
reward is to be given by
the Heavenly Father to His OBEDIENT
children:
Matt. 6:
1-18. And
Jesus sought this: Heb.
12: 2.
We are sons of God by faith, accepted before Him in Christ,
born of the
Holy Spirit. I
would ask my reader, Have
you been born of water also?
God calls those who are in His ark to pass
through the waters: 1
Pet. 3. But even to those born of the
Spirit, and born out of water, there is yet lacking a third birth, ere they can enter
the full repose of God.
And what is
that? THE BIRTH OUT OF DEATH AND THE TOMB:
Acts
13: 32-34.
Of those so born into the kingdom of glory it
shall be true, that the least of them shall be greater
than the greatest of
those born of women: Matt. 11: 11. Let us,
then, flee iniquity!
Let us not settle down like Demas, content
with this present evil age!
But let us
seek the better one, the
age
after the resurrection, the day of glory, and of
the reign of
Messiah/Christ!
To those who faithfully
serve Him NOW shall Jesus throw open the kingdom
of glory, with His words of
power – “Well done,
thou good and
faithful servant, enter thou
INTO THE JOY OF THY LORD!”
- Edited from writings by Robert Govett.
*
*
*
2
“…the ‘narrow gate’ into
the kingdom,
answers to the ‘needle’s
eye’* of Matthew.”
BY WAY OF INTRODUCTION:
EIGHT SELECTED QUOTATIONS
1.
“Hearken,
by beloved
brethren; did not God
choose them that are poor as to the world to be
rich in faith, and
heirs
of the
kingdom which he promised to them that love him:”
James 2: 5,
R.V.
2.
“Howbeit that which ye have, hold fast till I come.
And he
that overcometh, and he that keepeth my works unto the end,
to him will I give
authority over the nations: and he
shall rule them with a rod of iron,
as the
vessels of the potter are broken to shivers:”
Rev.
2: 25-27, R.V.
3.
“As many as I love, I
reprove and chasten:
be zealous therefore,
and repent. Behold,
I stand
at the door and knock:
if any man hear my voice
and open the door, I
will come into him, and
will sup with him,
and he
with me.
He that overcometh,
I will give to him to
sit down with me in my throne,
as I also overcame,
and sat down with my Father
in his throne:” Rev.
3: 19-21, R.V.
4. “Blessed is the man that endureth
temptation:
for when he hath
been approved, he shall receive the crown
of life,* which the
Lord promised to them that love him:” James
1: 12,
R.V.
*
NOTE. In the above text the words: “He
shall
receive the crown of life” - where ‘life’ refers to a
future
reward for those who will be ‘approved’
(for enduring
‘temptation’) - it
is perfectly clear that eternal
life, as ‘the
free
gift
of God’ (Rom.
6: 23),
is not the issue.
Again, by comparing Scripture with Scripture,
the words: ‘Hold
fast that
which thou hast, that no man take thy crown’ (Rev.
3: 20); the
Holy
Spirit is illustrating the correct
interpretation by referring us to future
reward in the millennial reign of Christ Jesus.
5. “And he lifted up his eyes on his disciples, and said,
Blessed are ye poor:
for yours is the
6. Paul and Barnabas returned to the churches. ‘Confirming
the souls of the disciples, and
that
we
must, through
much tribulation, enter
the
7 “For the time will come when they will not
endure sound doctrine;
but, having itching
ears, will
heap to themselves teachers after their own lusts; and will turn away their ears
from the truth, and
turn aside unto fables. But be
thou sober in all things,
suffer
hardship, do
the work of an evangelist,
fulfil thy ministry. For I
am already being offered, and the time of my departure is
come.
I
have fought a
good fight,
I have finished
the course, I have kept the faith: henceforth there is laid up for
me the crown of
righteousness, which
the Lord, the
righteous judge, shall
give
me at that DAY;
and not only
to me, but also to
all them that have loved his
appearing:” (2
Tim. 4: 3-8,
R.V.).
8. “‘If thou
wishest to enter into life:’ where ‘life’
means the
state of reward, and the award
made to works.
So again in a succeeding passage, ‘What shall we have therefore?’
From which it is clear, that apostles understood the
meaning to be that of a
time of reward.
And our Lord’s reply completely proves
their
idea to be correct.”
-------
Riches
and the Kingdom
The
Saviour’s
interview with the rich young man is by the Holy
Spirit esteemed to
be of such deep importance to right views of the [regenerate]
believer’s position, that He
has caused it to be thrice
recorded.
Let us then regard it
principally as it is related by Matthew, who gives the
fullest account of
it. He
alone adds the parable of the
Labourers in the Vineyard, which sprang out of it.
16. “And
behold one came up and said unto Him, ‘Good Teacher what good thing shall I do
that I may have eternal** life?’”*
17. “But
He said unto him, Why
callest thou Me good? none
is good but One, that
is God.”
* Some
critical
authorities adopt a different reading here, but I have
adhered to the received
text. Either
will not interfere with the
purpose of this tract.
[**NOTE.
The
Greek word ‘aionios,’
translated ‘eternal’
above in our
English text is misleading. Regenerate
believers already
possess ‘eternal life’: and it was not acquired through our obedience to
Christ,
as the above text would suggest!
Hence the false interpretation circulating
throughout our churches
today! “Eternal
life” is obtained by ‘grace’
through ‘faith’
in our Lord
Jesus Christ, (Eph. 2:
8, 9. cf.
John 3:
16).
“This word though should be
understood about thirty of these
seventy-one times in
the sense of ‘age-lasting’ rather than ‘eternal’;
and the occurrence in Heb.
5: 9 forms a case
in point.
Several
good
examples of other places where aionios
should be translated and understood as “age-lasting”
are
Gal. 6: 8;
1Tim. 6: 12; Titus
1: 2;
3: 7.
These passages
have to do with running the present race of
the faith in view of
one day realizing an inheritance in the
kingdom, which is the hope
set before Christians.
“On the other hand, aionios
can be understood in the sense of “eternal” if the
text so indicates. Several good examples of
places where aionios
should be translated and
understood are John
3:
15, 16, 36. These
passages have
to do with the life derived through faith in Christ
because of His finished
work at
“Textual considerations must
always be taken into account
when properly translating and understanding aionios,
for this is a word which can be used to imply either ‘age-lasting’ or ‘eternal’; and it is used both ways numerous times in the
New Testament.
Textual considerations
in Heb. 5: 9
leave
no room to question exactly how aionios
should be understood and translated in this
verse. Life
during the coming age,
occupying a position as co-heir with Christ in
that coming day…”
- A.
L.
Chitwood.]
The
word
“Master” takes a different sense in
our day from that which it
sustained in the days of our translators except where
it is joined with some
word which determines it to its old signification, as
‘drawing-master,’
‘fencing-master.’
I have therefore
substituted the word ‘teacher’
as more
clearly expressing the meaning of the evangelist.
The
young
man addressed our Lord as an instructor, capable of
giving him light upon
the momentous subject of his inquiry.
But he also addresses Him as the “good.”
“Good,” in our common usage, when
applied to men, means “pious.” But in
this sense it could not apply to God, of whom our Lord
uses it in His
reply. It
means then, in this and other
passages in the New and Old Testament, ‘kind,
benevolent,
bountiful.’
Thus, at
the conclusion of the parable with which the Saviour
closes the subject, the
householder says to the envious labourer who murmured
against his kindness, “Is thine eye evil because I
am good?”
And in the
inquiry, “What good
thing shall I do,”
the word
bears the same sense. “What acts of benevolence or bounty
shall I perform?”
This
title
Jesus seemingly refuses. “Why
callest thou Me
good?”
And some have stumbled at it; but without
sufficient reason. The young man appears to have
used it as a compliment,
suitably addressed to a religious teacher: or
peculiarly so, as applied to one,
of whose many disinterested cures he had heard. But
Jesus loved not empty
compliments: He would have him give it in its full
force, and with its deepest
significance; or not at all.
The young
ruler seems also to have entertained too lax views of
human nature. He did not
accept the doctrine of its entire depravity.
Therefore Jesus meets him
with the strong declaration, “None is good but One, that is,
God.”
Man
by nature is the reverse of good. Far from being
bounteous, he is cold,
covetous, selfish, unjust. Thus the Saviour
states the matter when He
contrasts the nature of man with that of God. “If
ye then being evil
know how to give good gifts unto your children, how much more shall your Father
who is in heaven give good
things to them that ask Him?” Matt. 7:
11.*
* In
this verse “good,” as
spoken of things, does not, of course take
the signification of bountiful, which can only
strictly apply to persons.
God
alone
is good. He is the fountain of all bounty.
All generosity in the
hearts of His creatures, springs from Himself.
The various capacities and
enjoyments of His creatures, bespeak His goodness who
grants them. Only
in a derived and subordinate sense, is any creature “good.”
If
then
the title really belonged to Christ - if He were
prepared to give it to
Him in its fullest sense, he must admit him to be more than man or angel.
The
goodness
of God is taken up in the parable which follows, and
is displayed in
that mirror of His future dealings. But, beside
this, the demand which
the Saviour makes upon the youthful inquirer, is an
exhibition of His own
goodness. He was indeed the Teacher of a bounty
and grace hitherto
unknown among men.
“But if thou wishest to enter into
life, keep the
commandments. 18.
He saith unto Him ‘Of
what kind?’ But
Jesus said, ‘Thou
that shalt not murder; thou
shalt
not commit adultery; thou
shalt not steal;
thou shalt not bear false
witness: 19.
Honour thy father and
mother: and thou
shalt love thy neighbour as
thyself.’ 20.
The young man saith unto Him,
‘All these things I have kept from my youth, what lack I yet?’”
Benevolence
is
not the only attribute of God. He is also just.
And
hence, he who would win
and earn eternal*
life, must pay
its price. The young man had put himself
upon that ground. “What good thing shall I
do, that I may have eternal life?” The
Lord
Jesus therefore sets before him the terms of law
and justice,
as declared of old by Moses. The
commandments must be kept in their
perfection: one breach of them drawing down the
penalty, “Cursed is he.” “He is guilty of all.” The ruler had not read aright the law, nor the message of God by
John the Baptist. “By
the law is the knowledge
of sin.” And the
cry of John to all
[* See Note on “eternal”
above.]
But,
as
the law of Moses consisted of several classes of
commandments - moral,
ceremonial, and judicial - the inquirer asks, which of
these classes was in the
mind of his instructor? The Saviour replies, by
referring him to the
second table of the Decalogue. Instead of the
tenth commandment, He gives
the general principle, “Thou shalt love thy neighbour as
thyself.”
To these Mark adds, “Defraud not,”
which probably was intended to sum up the precepts
contained in Lev.
19: 11, 13.
“Ye
shall not steal,
neither deal
falsely,
neither lie
one to another.” “Thou
shalt not defraud thy neighbour, neither
rob him;
the wages of him
that is
hired shall not abide with thee all night until the
morning.”
But
why
was there no reference to the first table? Why
was he not set upon
trying himself by the demands of God upon his heart?
Methinks we may
obtain an answer from the question of the young man. He desired
to know what acts of goodness
would win him eternal life?
Now our
goodness extends not to God; and therefore our Lord
offers to his notice only
his neighbour’s claims upon him.
Jesus
can
but own the law in its place; though He was the
Teacher of the kingdom, and
came to ordain its better rule.
If any
would earn eternal life, they must ever be referred to
the law: and the great
pillars of it are the Ten Commandments. As just,
Jesus
teaches the law and eternal life as its
reward: as good, he instructs
concerning grace, and the
kingdom.
To
the
Capernaites who put to Him
a similar question, He
in His wisdom gave a very different response. “What
shall we do,”
said they, “that
we might work
the works of God? Jesus
answered
and said unto them,
This is the work of God,
that ye believe on Him
whom He sent.”
John
6:
29, 30.
Each
answer
was perfect in its place.
The one
now engaging our attention brings out truths, which
that in John would not
display. But the inquirer, like Paul, “alive
without the law once,”
asserts that he had always kept these commands from
his earliest youth. He has won then, in his own
estimation, eternal life
as the reward of his obedience.
Yet his
assertion was not so bold, as not to ask for
confirmation from the “Good Teacher.”
“What lack I yet?”
21. “Jesus
said unto him, ‘If
thou
wishest to be perfect, go,
sell thy possessions, and give
to the poor; and
thou shalt have treasure in
heaven, and come,
follow, Me.’ But
when the young man heard it, he
went away sorrowful; for
he
was possessed of great property.”
Hitherto
the
present exposition has agreed with the ideas generally
entertained.
But what is the bearing of the Lord’s answer to
the young man’s inquiry?
At this point I am compelled to turn off from
the usual path. I
differ in my sentiments (1) concerning Jesus’ design
in the demand of the young
man; and (2) in the bearing of the words uttered on
his refusal.
It
is
commonly asserted that Jesus intends to convict the
inquirer of disobedience
to the law by proving him to be avaricious. Thus
Barnes - “Jesus commanded him to do this
therefore to test his character, and to show him
that he had not kept the law
as he pretended; and thus to show him that he needed
a better righteousness
than his own.” Such would be our own
ordinary proceeding in a
similar instance; and it is not wonderful, therefore,
if it is thought that our
Lord adopts the same plan. Such a procedure too
would quite fall in with
Paul’s argument in the Romans.
I. But the attempt to
prove that this was our
Lord’s drift, fails. Disobedience to a command
which never formed any
part of the law of Moses, can never convict any of
trespass against it.
But the command that the rich should give up
money, house, and lands to the poor, never was framed
by Moses. What
the Lord by Moses did require was:
1.
That
the produce of the seventh year should not be gathered
in; but be left to
the poor, whether of
2.
The
corners of the field and the gleanings were to be left
for the same
classes: as also the remnant of the olive-yard and
vineyard. Lev. 19:
9, 10.
3.
The
poor brother, though a stranger or a sojourner was to
be relieved. Lev. 25:
35.
4.
Loans
were to be granted to the poor. Deut.
15: 7-11.
5. The Hebrew, who had been
sold as a slave to an
Israelite, on his leaving at the seventh year, was to
be furnished liberally
out of the floor, the flock, and the winepress. Deut.
15: 12-15.
But
to
give up all
was
to love our neighbour, not only as ourselves, but
beyond ourselves.
II. Again was the
non-fulfilment of the Saviour’s
command, a proof of avarice?
Are
those proved to be grasping after more who refuse to
give up all they
have? Or
does it prove them unjust, in
keeping back what is due from them?
If
either of these charges be true, then
the
command of the Saviour extends to every rich
believer sti1l or he is an
avaricious man!
III.
But
that is a conclusion from which all
commentators dissent.
‘No! it was only
a solitary case.
To refuse to part with our whole property
now, is no proof of avarice; but when Christ Himself
specially enjoined it,
then it was.’
But this
supposition overthrows the previous argument. If
the precept was a special
one, binding on this man alone, and not before
Christ spoke it, then it was
no demand of the law of Moses. And therefore the
non-compliance of the
young ruler was no proof of disobedience to the law.
If Moses made the demand,
it was binding on all the rich of
IV. But not only is the first
demand not of the law, but
the condition, the promise, and the succeeding
command, are all of the gospel.
“If
thou wishest to be perfect.”
But Jesus teaches this lesson to His disciples. “Be ye
therefore perfect,
even as your father which
is in heaven is perfect.”
“The law made nothing
perfect.”
The
promise
too, whereby the Lord would cheer the young man on to
the sacrifice,
was a gospel promise, not a legal one. “Thou shalt have treasure in heaven.” Treasure
on
earth, in the basket and store,
was the promise of the
law.
And
lastly,
the closing command, “Come, follow me,”
to which Mark adds, “taking up the cross,” is manifestly not of
the law, but of the
Gospel. The law fixed each on his own estate.
The law promised
ease, enjoyment, honour, to him who kept its precepts.
Deut.
28: 1. The
cross, and the following a
rejected Messiah, belong to the
The
truth
is, that Jesus now drops the question with which the
young man began; and
sets before him the new conduct,
and the new
reward,
to which He
came to call men. That indeed was the direction
in which the young man’s
question leaned. “Can
you add any new
requirement to those of the law?” “What
lack I yet?” The
Lord
then does give him a higher rule, the reward of
which is, the kingdom of
glory.
The righteousness of the law simply, will not
admit into the
kingdom. “I
say unto you, that except your righteousness shall exceed
the righteousness of the Scribes and Pharisees,
ye shall in no
case enter into the kingdom of heaven.” But
the young man’s
[standard of
personal] righteousness was only that of the
Scribe and Pharisee.
Jesus,
we
suppose, might have justly challenged the assertion of
the young ruler as
incorrect. But it is rather our Lord’s manner to
press His opponents on
their own ground. And answerably, in the parable
which follows, the
steward does not call any class of the labourers in
question, as not having
fulfilled their work; not even the boastful murmurers.
Thus both portions
correspond; for the young ruler was one of the first
order of labourers; as we
shall see. But having considered what is not the
bearing of our Lord’s
words, let us attend to their real force.
“If thou wishest to be perfect.” The law could not make
him so. It was
mainly an exhibition of God, as the God of justice.
Jesus would set
before him a higher rule, and a higher reward than the
eternal life to be
attained by keeping the law. ‘But
how can there
be any reward beyond eternal life?’
There is the thousand-years’
“And come follow Me.”
Here
is
a new dispensation, a new law-giver. Moses was
sent to lead
[* NOTE.
The “rest” in
this context is not that “rest”
we presently
have in Christ Jesus for our eternal salvation
in a “new heaven and a new
earth (Rev.
21: 1),”
after
the Kingdom-Age has ended.
Scripture
speaks to all who are regenerate of more than one “rest”!
See
Heb.
4: 1, 6-9,
11. cf.
Psa. 95:
11.]
The
parting
with all was but a momentary act; but the following
Christ was to be
his abiding attitude. This was necessary, no less than
the other, in order to an entrance
into the
kingdom.* There were
religionists, in the days of early Christianity, who
made such sacrifices as
are here called for by the Saviour, but in obedience
to other lords and
teachers. For such there would be no reward in
the kingdom of God.* As
Paul observes, though their athletic exhibitions were
as great as those of the
candidates for the kingdom of God, yet, inasmuch as
they regarded not the laws
of the combat, they would not be crowned. “But if any even wrestle,
he is not crowned except he wrestle according to the
laws (of the games.”)
2
Tim.
2: 5.
And as these philosophic wrestlers acted only at
the promptings of vanity,
and with disregard to the authority of the Lord Jesus,
or with denial of the
essential foundations of the gospel, they could not be
accepted by God.
[* NOTE. There
are those who believe all
the regenerate will have an ‘entrance into the kingdom’ on the
basis of bare
faith alone!
But, the Holy Spirit taught believer, will
see this is not
the case! There
is an undisclosed standard of a
disciple’s personal
righteousness required: and a select
resurrection out
from amongst
the dead, (Matt.
5: 20; Luke
20: 35. cf
Phil.
3: 11;
Luke 14: 14;
Heb.
11: 35b
and Rev. 20:
4-6.]
* This class will soon arise
again, and shame the
luxurious Christians of the present day. But
they will be thistles only,
not bearers of grapes.
Does
not
a consequence, most important to us, flow from our
Lord’s words? The
young man supposed himself in possession of eternal
life, as having the
righteousness required by the law. Even to one
in such a position the
Lord asserts, that there was a higher
rule
than the
law, and a further
reward.
This
is true then even at the present day, and addresses
itself to every [regenerate] believer.
He really has already eternal life by faith in
Jesus Christ the Son of
God. John
5:
24.
He has a perfect righteousness in the imputed
merits of Jesus. What then does he need more?
He is to seek to be “perfect,
even as His
Father who is in heaven is perfect.” He is to endeavour to
attain the active
righteousness
which admits into the [millennial]
Thus
did
Jesus manifest Himself as the Good, the Benevolent
Teacher. But the
young man, though he seems to have valued himself on
his benevolence, found
this a height to which he could not climb. Not
that he was the insincere,
avaricious hypocrite which some would depict him.
There is every
guarantee for his sincerity. He came running to
our Lord and kneeled
before Him, as Mark informs us. This bespeaks
his eagerness. He
asked no captious question, as the Saviour’s enemies
did; but one of the most
solemn and important that can be uttered by human
lips. He was teachable.
“What
lack
I yet?”
For anything we
know, he might be a converted person. Even after
he had made his bold
assertion of having kept the law, we are told that “Jesus
looked upon him
and loved him.”
And
even when he turned away from the precept of the
Great Instructor whom he had sought, he did so with a
mien that manifested his
sincerity. “He went away sorrowful.”
Not so the covetous Pharisees. When Jesus
was asserting only the
general truth of the
impossibility of
uniting the chase after riches, with the service of
God, these
unscrupulous opponents
“derided him.”
Luke
16:14.
Nor
is
there any evidence of his being covetous. The
reason assigned by the
three evangelists is the same; and it is not that he
was covetous,
but that he
was rich.
“He had great possessions,”
say Matthew and Mark. “He was very sorrowful,” writes Luke, “for he was very rich.”
23. “But
Jesus said unto his disciples, Verily
I say unto you, that
scarcely shall a rich (man) enter
into the
kingdom of heaven.”
24. But
again I say unto you, it
is
easier that a camel should go through the eye of a
needle, than that a rich (man)
should enter into the
How
did
Jesus know that the young stranger was rich? How
was He aware, that
his sorrowful turning away arose from his
unwillingness
to part with his riches? By his supernatural acquaintance, as the Son of God, with the
condition and heart of all.
The
young
man now leaves the scene, but the disciples abide and
to them as
disciples, not merely to apostles,
he
addresses the solemn lesson before us. It is
then, I suppose, instruction
given to believers concerning believers.
A rich
person, even though converted shall
scarcely enter the
kingdom.
Jesus
regards
the young ruler as a specimen of the lesson
delivered. He had
propounded to him the terms of entrance into the
kingdom; and the discouraged
inquirer had turned away. It does not follow
from the Saviour’s words,
that the young man was lost, for ever. There is
great difference between
losing the kingdom and losing eternal life.
But
the
contrary is always assumed. “Though
reluctant
to give up hopes of eternal life,” says
the Tract Society’s Commentary,
“he would not at that time
part with his riches for
the sake of it.” “What
then would
the sorrow be afterward, when his possessions would
be gone, and all hopes of eternal life gone also?” But Jesus had
not called in question his
claim to
eternal
life.
Even now, He pleads only,
that the offer which He made of treasure in heaven,
was rejected.
The
Lord’s
comment then on this his action proves, that our view
of his former
words was not a mistaken one. Had He been
pressing on the inquirer the
claims of the law, and non-suiting his hopes of
eternal life, He would
naturally have remarked to His disciples the blindness
of the unconverted heart
to its own state, or the presumption of men in
supposing themselves better than
they are. Or, he might have noticed, how hardly
the avaricious give up
their love of wealth, and seek eternal life. But
neither the words nor
ideas appear. He leaves the law
and eternal
life, to speak of riches
and the [coming
Messianic]
Kingdom.
Are these things equivalent? It had been no
wonder to the disciples, that
the avaricious should be excluded. “He blesseth
the covetous, whom
the Lord abhorreth,” saith
the Psalm
10: 3.
I Next, it is commonly
supposed, that by “the kingdom of heaven,” the Lord Jesus means, the
church on earth. And
as there is no difficulty in the rich entering the
church on earth in our days,
the advocates of the opinion confine it to those
times. “Dr. Maltby maintains, that the expressions
of the text only
apply to the circumstances of the Gospel then,
and that no
conclusion can be drawn from them unfavourable to
any order of men in the
present day.”
But
this
view of the matter is so unsatisfactory, as to lead
others, who have the
same idea of the expression, to expound it as
signifying, “That it is very
difficult indeed for a rich man to be
converted.” “He
saith, that the conversion
and salvation of a rich
man is so extremely difficult,
that it is easier for a camel to go through the eye
of a needle.”
Against
such
a view, we may remark;
1.
That
entrance into the kingdom of heaven never has the sense of conversion.
2.
Conversion,
far from being the entrance, is a previous condition, necessary in
order to entrance into the kingdom of heaven. “Except a man be born
of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the
kingdom of heaven.”
John 3:
5. “Except ye be
converted and become as little
children, ye
shall not enter into the
kingdom of heaven.”
Matt.
18: 3. But very many, without
these spiritual requirements, have joined churches of
Christ therefore, the
kingdom from which the unconverted are excluded, is the future kingdom
of glory.
3.
No
such question was raised by the former conversation
with the young
man. He was not challenged at all on his duty
towards God. The supposition that he had eternal life was not called
in question before his face; nor was it likely to
be, behind his back.
But whatever our thoughts may be regarding the
sentiments likely to be
expressed by Jesus, certain it is, that his actual
words convey no such sense.
4.
The
Saviour’s reflection has reference to the ruler’s
refusal to give up his
wealth. Now is it a prerequisite to conversion
to do so? or is it
necessary to eternal life after conversion?
The
surrender of all was the difficulty from which the
young man turned away; and
unless this self-stripping be necessary to conversion
the demand could have no
bearing on the case. But it is confessed, that
the giving up of riches is
not necessary in order to conversion; nor to eternal
life after
conversion. This then is an argument that the
bearing of the Saviour’s
words has been misunderstood.
II Again, there is another
erroneous assumption at
the basis of the usual ideas on the subject. It
is taken for granted,
that “the
kingdom of heaven” and
“eternal
life” mean the same thing.
But has this ever been proved? That they are not the
same, will appear from the following considerations -
1. Jesus does not
contradict the young man’s
thoughts of possessing claims to eternal life.
The requirement which our
Lord afterwards puts forth is no condition of eternal
life; but
it is, to this day, an all but necessary condition of
the entrance of a
converted rich man into the future kingdom
as will
presently appear.
2. Eternal life and the
kingdom differ, in
point of duration. The
kingdom of heaven and of Christ [upon
this earth] is
a temporary thing; eternal life as the words import,
is endless duration.
That the kingdom of heaven is but for a time, is
proved by such passages as the
following:-
1.
It
is called an “age,” “the
age to come:” a “day,”
“The day of judgment,”
“The day
of redemption.” Eph. 4:
30; Phil.
1: 6; 2 Tim.
4: 8; Jude 6.
“The children of this age
marry and are given in
marriage; but they which shall
be accounted worthy to attain that age and the resurrection [out
from] from the dead,
neither marry nor are given
in marriage, neither
can they die any more;
for they are equal unto the angels,
and are the children of God,
being the children of the resurrection.” Luke
20: 35,
36.
2.
As
its scene of display is on the present earth,
and the earth
itself is, at the close of the thousand years, to be
burned up, it can but be
temporary. Thus it is said, that – “The
Son of
Man shall send forth His angels, and they shall
gather out of His kingdom (the
earth, whereon the tares grow) all
stumbling-blocks, and them which do iniquity.”
Matt.
13: 41.
3.
“This ye know, that no
whoremonger nor unclean person,
nor covetous man, who is an idolater, hath any
inheritance in the kingdom
of the Christ and God.”* Eph.
5: 5; 1 Cor. 6:
9, 10.
But the kingdom of the Christ, and the
reign of the apostles and martyrs with Him, is but for
a thousand years.
“They lived and reigned
with the Christ a
thousand years.”
Rev. 20: 4,
6.
The same truth appears, from its being the throne of
David which Jesus then
takes. Luke 1:
32.
* A very remarkable
expression.
The
kingdom
is to be given to
* ‘But
are
there not other passages, which speak of the kingdom
of the Lord Jesus as
eternal? Luke
1: 33; 2
Peter 1: 11.’
Yes: but they speak of
another kingdom, which He takes in another character.
3.
The
mode of entrance also on our part into the kingdom of
heaven, is quite
different from that of obtaining eternal life. “The
gift of God is eternal
life through
Jesus Christ our Lord.” Rom.
6: 23.
But
entrance
into the kingdom is
according to works, to those
adjudged worthy of it. “They
that shall be accounted
worthy to attain that age, and the resurrection
from the dead,”
“Which is a token of
the righteous judgment
of God, that ye may
be counted worthy of
the
4.
Where
eternal life is in question as being the gift of God
to faith in His Son,
there the differences of condition among men are not
noticed as affecting the
issue. And hence, so long as Jesus is speaking
to the young man on the
conditions of eternal life, his riches come not
into notice.
But as soon as the Kingdom of heaven
is the topic,
then they are the subject of the Saviour’s
lesson. Hence John’s gospel
does not mention them as a hindrance; for he treats
almost exclusively of Jesus
as the Son, and of eternal life, with scarcely a word
concerning the
kingdom. But the three other gospels, which are
chiefly engaged
concerning the kingdom, more than once touch upon
riches, as a condition of
life highly unfavourable to the participation in the
kingdom.
5.
After eternal life is
possessed, the [Messianic]
kingdom is
still a further
object to be sought.
He who obtains the
*
It is observable, that this and the passage now under
consideration are the
only two places in which “eternal
life” is named
by Matthew, while it is a continual subject with John.
6.
Eternal
life was the reward attached to observance of the
Mosaic law. But
the kingdom [in the “age”
yet to come] was a
reward first preached by
Jesus, after Moses and the prophets as dispensations
had passed. Luke 16: 16.
The parable proves it not unjust in God to give the
Gentiles the kingdom, as a
further reward beyond eternal life.
To
this
young man, the kingdom of heaven is set forth as a
further object, and a
higher rule as the way to it. The scribe who
admired our Lord’s reply to
the Pharisees and Sadducees, and who answered well His
question, receives from
Him the commendation, “Thou art not far from the
Jesus,
to
the young man states the way into the kingdom
positively. But when he
refuses, He points out the hindrance which existed in
his case as a general
one. At first He says, “Thou shall have treasure in heaven.” Afterwards, “A rich
man shall hardly
enter.”
And to illustrate
the whole we have the advantage of two opposite cases
realized in fact before
him. On the negative side, was the young ruler
and his refusal, whereupon
Jesus speaks of loss of the kingdom: on the other, is
the obedience of
Apostles, and their consequent enjoyment of that [coming] day of
Messiah’s glory.
The
whole
phrase of entering into the kingdom will take one or
other of two senses,
according as we interpret the expression, “kingdom
of heaven”
to import the present dispensation, and its product -
the church; or the future
kingdom of millennial glory.
1. Now it is evident from
facts and Scripture,
that there is no hindrance on the Church’s part
against admitting rich men into
the assembly of the saints. James is obliged to
speak against the
partialities that leaned toward the rich. And
many rich persons are found
amidst the churches.
2. But take the
expression to signify the Saviours
adjudication of entrance on a time of reward,
and all is clear
and harmonious. This is evidently the meaning of
the phrase in other
passages. “Not
every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord,
shall enter into the kingdom of
heaven,
but he that doeth
the will of
my Father which is in heaven.” Matt. 7:
21.
The two succeeding verses prove, that the
entrance is granted or refused, after the death of the
petitioners, and on a
certain fixed and foretold day. Again, Paul and
Barnabas returned to the
churches. “Confirming
the souls of the disciples, and
that we must, through
much tribulation, enter
the
Such
is
the meaning of the expression in the immediate
context. “If thou
wishest to enter into life:” v, 17,
where “life” means the state of
reward, and the award made to [His
disciple’s] works.
So
again in a succeeding passage, “What shall we have therefore?” From which it is
clear, that apostles
understood the meaning to be that of a
time of reward. And our Lord’s reply
completely proves their idea
to be correct.
The
kingdom
is for the “perfect,”
in the
sense given in the Sermon on the Mount, and
here. Had the young ruler
been willing
to follow the
Saviour’s precept, he would have been “perfect”
in the
sense supposed; and possessed of treasure in
heaven. But this treasure
laid up under the keeping of God in heaven, is to be
brought forth
to the depositors in the kingdom of heaven,
or the millennial reign.
But
that
he refused: and it
is on the basis
of his refusal that the Saviour grounds his
declaration, - that the rich
shall scarcely enter the kingdom.
Now the difficulty of their entrance turns upon
the just judgment of
God. It is scarcely possible to admit a rich
believer into the kingdom, consistently
with the principles which the Father has
laid down.
The
rich believer’s very position,
as rich,
distinct
from all question of the misuse of riches, lies against his obtaining permission to enter. That this is
the evident force of the Lord’s words, will, I feel
convinced, be seen by all
who will duly reflect on them. I will presently
proceed to explain some
of those principles which militate so strongly against
the rich Christian’s
reception.
Let
us
first however, notice the repetition of this weighty
sentiment, which the
Saviour gives under the form of a comparison. “And
again I say unto you,
it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a
needle, than for a
rich man to enter into the
The
eye
of a needle is the smallest of the holes made by human
art, with the design
of passing something through them. The camel*
is the
tallest and largest of the beasts common in the
Saviour’s country. His
tall body and long neck render such a creature a
thousand times too large to
pass through so narrow an aperture.
* Some
have
proposed that we should read, “It
easier for a cable
to pass through a needle’s eye.” But
the reading is only
conjectural. Its meaning of “cable”
does
not rest on good authority. And the Saviour’s
comparison of the rich
man’s entrance to an animal’s voluntarily
passing through,
is far more spirited, and accordant with the context,
than the involuntary
transmission of a dead substance by force from
without.
But
the
entrance to the kingdom answers to the minute needle’s
eye. God has
made the opening so narrow of set purpose. It is
rigid too, like steel,
admitting of no enlargement by elasticity.
The
rich
man answers to the camel. He is too great
every
way; even if he be not tall in pride, and bulky
in self indulgence.
The
gate
of entrance to the kingdom being then so small, and so
rigid in its
material, the only way of traversing it must be by the
diminution of the
animal. It is to this point that our Lord’s
words tend. By
stripping himself of his greatness, the young man
would have so diminished
himself, as to be capable of entering at the narrow
gate.* And
had he followed Jesus as the way, he would hereafter
have entered the kingdom
and obtained the riches of it beside. Thus
Jesus’ command proceeded
really from his goodness towards himself, as well as
towards the poor whom the
ruler’s riches would benefit. It was the
benevolent counsel of a friend;
not the judicial process of a judge desiring to
convict him of sin.
*
To the same
effect Jesus in the
Sermon on the Mount, speaks of the smallness of the
gate and the narrowness of
the way. But there the Saviour describes the
gate as the entrance into “life.”
Does not it therefore apply only to the
entrance into eternal life? I think not.
The one
great subject of the Sermon on the Mount is “the
kingdom,” or the Millennial reign. And
“life”
is an expression used of the kingdom also. Mark
9: 43, 48.
In verses 43 and 45
that is predicated of “life,”
which in verse 47
is spoken of the “
The
force
of the Saviour’s observation upon his turning away is
– “This young man will
[willing
to] retain
his
riches. But the entrance into the kingdom is
too small for such. It
is for the poor*
[and obedient] that
the kingdom is provided.” The young man
was stopped by the gate, and did not [want to] follow
the Saviour in the way of
obedience].**
[* See James
2: 5.
**It is my personal
belief,- (from having
experienced a similar test
of my faith) - that if the ‘young
man’
had been willing to obey Christ’s
command to surrender his
riches, he may well not have had
to do so!
When Abraham was called by God to place Isaac on the
altar, he obeyed:
and it was immediately afterwards - (after he passed
God’s testing of his
faith) - that he received God’s oath
relative to a future earthly blessing, (Gen. 22: 11-18; Heb.
11: 19.
cf.
Gen.
13: 14, 15; Acts
7: 5.)]
Let
us
now consider the principles of exclusion, which in the
Just judgment of God would
apply to the case of the rich believer.
1. The kingdom is the
time of “consolation;”
of compensation
for
annoyances, sufferings, losses, sustained for
Christ’s sake.
Hence the Saviour lifts up a woe to the rich, as
excluded by the operation of
this rule. Addressing disciples, He says: “Blessed
be ye poor, for
yours is the
2. To
retain
riches is a hindrance, as the young man found, to
present following of
Christ. Attention to his property would keep his
feet and heart
elsewhere. And he who would preserve his wealth
now, must more or less
take the attitude of justice and of law, rather than
of goodness and of the
Gospel. “Where your treasure
is, there
will your heart be also.”
Hence, with the treasure upon earth, the heart will tend
towards it.
3. The kingdom is for the self-denying: riches tend strongly to self
indulgence. They
can
gratify the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eye,
and the pride of life.
And seldom is temptation, so perpetually alluring the
heart, steadily
resisted. Hence, the expenditure of wealth [on self] will,
in most cases, shut out of the kingdom.
4. It
tends
to foster pride, and the desire to be ministered
unto by others:
whereas the way into the kingdom is by lowliness and
patient service.
5. Wealth is an enemy to
faith in God. The Saviour
(in the parallel place in Mark), teaches, that having riches, and trusting in them, are almost always found in
union. “The
rich man’s wealth is his strong city;
and as an
high wall in his own conceit.” Prov. 18:
11.
6. Riches are noted as a great
means of preventing the
spiritual effects of the good news of the kingdom. “The
care of this world and the
deceitfulness of riches choke the word and he
becometh unfruitful”
Matt.
13: 22.
The
mere
possession of riches, then, is a strong and all but
insuperable barrier to
entrance into the millennial glory. And
it is quite a perverting
of our Lord’s words, and destruction of their
practical bearing, to make them
turn upon a positively sinful state of heart in the
possessor of them. He
who can enter into the kingdom only with greater
difficulty than the camel
shall thread the needle’s eye, is simply the rich
person.
Hence Barnes’s comment is
unfounded. He says – “A
rich man.* This
means rather one who loves his
riches,
and makes an idol of them, or
one who supremely
desires to be rich.” No; the
difficulty stated by the Saviour
attaches to the simple possession [and
unwillingness to the surrender] of
riches. As rich and not covetous,
the entrance was difficult, as covetous,
whether rich
or not, it was impossible.
There
is
then a choice of two paths proposed to the rich
believer, who desires to
obtain the [millennial]
1. He may give up all;
distributing to the poor:
as is here recommended, or commanded.
2. He may retain all;
determining to make the best
of his way through the difficulty. This, as the
Saviour knew, would be
the ordinary choice; even where the difficulty which
riches raise against the
future entrance into millennial glory is
perceived. The less hazardous
path would indeed be to surrender wealth, and to
receive instead the
promised treasure in heaven. Thus glory would be
brought to Christ, and
faith’s testimony to the men of the world be the
strongest.
But
ordinarily,
as the Lord knew, this would not be done.
Therefore, to meet
the common case of the believer’s retaining his
riches, the Spirit by Paul
gives the following directions. “Charge them that are rich in this
age, that they be not
high-minded,
nor trust in the uncertainty of riches, but in
the living God, who affordeth
us all things richly to
enjoy:* that
they do good, that
they be rich in good works,
ready to distribute,
willing
to communicate,
treasuring up for themselves a
good foundation for the future,
that
they may lay hold of that
which is really life.”** 1 Tim.
6: 17.
Here five different expressions are used, to
express the readiness which the rich believer should
exhibit, in giving away of
his abundance. If he will not give away the
principal, he should give
away his income liberally.
* I
suppose this
to mean, that the things of the world are given to be
used, in opposition to
the Gnostic sentiment, combated in this epistle, that
some creatures were evil,
and not to be touched by the intelligent and holy. 1
Tim. 4: 1.
** [See
Greek
…] So read the
critical editions.
We
have,
thus, to a considerable extent, forestalled the
question - Whether this
precept of our Lord was designed to apply to the young
ruler only, or to all
the rich saints of Gospel times? The answer, as
a merely intellectual
question, is easy enough. But as running counter
to the passions of the
heart, it presents most formidable difficulties.
The unbeliever, who
cared not about the decision of the question, as
disregarding the authority of
the Son of God, would often give a truer answer than
the professed
Christian. But let us look at the bearings of
the case.
1. The narrative is given
by the Holy Spirit in
the first three Gospels. This proves, that it
was deemed by Him to convey
important general lessons. And those lessons are
for the conduct of disciples.
For it is to them that Jesus turns, when making
His observations upon the
case.
2. We may ask then. -
Will rich believers continue
to the end of the dispensation? Will riches
continue to be of the
same nature as in the Lord’s time? Will the
principles that fix the
entrance to the [millennial] kingdom continue
unchanged, till the coming of the
Lord Jesus? If so the same counsel
applies still. Manente
ratione monet
etiam lex
says the Roman maxim. As long as the
difficulty applies, so long does
the remedy. As long as there shall be rich
believers, desirous of
entering the kingdom, so long will the Saviour’s
counsel be in force, that they
should leave the ranks of the rich. Riches in
themselves
are an abiding obstacle. But they who at
Christ’s word sacrifice
them, not only get rid of an impediment to their
entrance, but turn uncertain
riches into real wealth; and except they forfeit the
blessing by after sin,
will obtain certain admission into millennial
glory. “They
cannot recompense thee, but thou
shalt be recompensed at the
resurrection of the just.”
3. So thought the
Christians of the apostolic age:
and hence we find a general sale of landed and house
property among them. Faith
in the kingdom at hand overpowered that love of
wealth, which is supposed to be
peculiarly strong in the Jew.
4. If this be the way to
obtain “treasure
in heaven,”
it is but a carrying out of the Sermon on the Mount,
which
code is confessed to be of general application.
The same command is
addressed to disciples in general. Luke 12:
32-34.
5. Had the apostles been
mistaken in their
supposition that the command to the young man was
general, doubtless the
Saviour’s reply would have shown it. When Peter
said – “What
shall we have therefore?” he assumed the general
application of the
words. The Saviour then would have given them to
understand, that the
command was a
special test
intended for
the young ruler alone. But His
words
establish the general application, expanding their
reach far beyond the
apostles. They
apply to
the rich as a class, both as regards the difficulty
of the achievement now, and
the glory hereafter.
25. “But
when His disciples heard it,
they were exceedingly amazed,
saying, - Who then
can be saved?”
The
Saviour’s
first requirement at the hands of the young man was
new. But
His after explanation of His reason for so doing was
wholly unexpected and
extraordinary. It was as if He had said – ‘My
design in asking this ruler to give up his wealth,
is a general one: it is
founded on the all but insuperable obstacle which
riches interpose against
admission to My kingdom of millennial glory.’
Riches are not
evil. It is wonderful then, that any condition
of life not involving evil
should set up such a barrier. We do not wonder
at the covetous, or the
abuser of riches being excluded. But that the
possession of wealth, which
was to be the very blessing attendant on the
fulfilment of the law (Deut. 28:
8, 11, 12), should exclude
from Messiah’s Kingdom, was
wonderful! It is as marvellous now, as
then. Why do not we
wonder? Is it not, only because we never hear
the doctrine
asserted? If stated, would it not be accounted
as strange as then?
And where reverence did not withhold from free
utterance of thought, would it
not be derided as extravagant and absurd? It is
one proof of the sameness
of a doctrine, if in all ages it draw forth the same
feelings of men and of
disciples.
The
comparison
that followed it intimated, that the difficulty was
insuperable. There is a physical impossibility
that a camel should pass
through a needle’s eye. It is on this that the
disciples found their
objection. “Who then” - as the
consequence of your words - “can
be saved?”
The
stress
of the disciples’ objection falls on the impossibility
of the entrance -
“Who then can
be saved?”
This is manifest from the Saviour’s answer, in which
the matter of possibility
alone is met. And their question, I believe,
turns alone upon the case of
the rich: for of that only was the impossibility
asserted. It does not
appear, that this assertion concerning the rich
involved to their minds any a
fortiori consequence, as regards the poor.
Their meaning then is - “As no
camel can thread the needle’s eye,
who of the rich can enter the kingdom?”
Thus
the fathers understood it; Clemens Alexandrinus,
and others, wrote treatises taking the title: ‘What
rich
man shall be saved?’
But
a
difficulty arises against this view. It may be
said, ‘You distinguish
between “eternal life” and
the “kingdom of heaven.” The
disciples do not; they
understand by entrance into the kingdom nothing more
than salvation; as their
words prove. - “Who then can be saved?”
’
To
which
I would reply - That it may be admitted, that the
disciples did not then
see the difference, without any prejudice to the
distinction laid down.
This, it may be, was one of the points on which the
Holy Spirit’s enlightening
was needed.
But,
it
may be objected further, that the Saviour does not, as
we might have
anticipated, correct the error in which they lay, if
it be an error. To
which I would answer that it does not appear, that the
Scriptures or the Jews
confine the word “salvation” to the sense in
which we of modern times apply it. “Salvation”
in Scripture means, not
only eternal life, but temporary deliverance
also. “Stand still,”
says Moses, “and see the salvation
of the Lord,
which He will show you today:”
(Exodus
14: 13) where the word is used of
the deliverance at the
26.
“But Jesus looking upon them
said unto them, With
man this is impossible;
but with God all things are possible.”
The
Saviour’s
eye rested upon His disciples, it would appear, with a
look of
compassionate surprise, as marvelling that they should
disregard the
consideration which with Himself always stood
first. They had omitted to
look at the subject, as beheld in the light of the
power of God. True it
was, that the young man who thought too much of man’s
powers, and too little of
God’s, had turned away: true, that the difficulty was
insuperable to the unaided
inclinations of men. But what difficulty,
physical or moral, exists with
God? Thus the Saviour twice gives the glory to
His Father, when men
diverted it. When the young man overlooks the goodness
of
God, He claims it wholly for the Father. And
now, when the disciples
forget His power, He strongly
reminds them of it.
How many questions may be settled, by the simple plan
of looking at them
through the power of God!
He
had
first spoken of the entrance of the rich into
the kingdom as
difficult. “How hardly.” He had
gone on to state it as more difficult than a physical
difficulty. He now
admits – “With
men this is impossible.” It was shown to be so,
by the actual case before them - by their own
perceptions of the
difficulty of such a course - and by the words of our
Lord. Yet He
intimates, that this difficulty would be met and
overcome by the grace of
God. Some would make that surrender of wealth,
which they had seen
resisted. But this would be effected, not by
mere unaided human power; but
by the grace of God. Here then, a second
time, the goodness of God
comes in. The parable exhibits this feature at
the close.
27.
“Then Peter answered
and said unto Him,
Behold, we have forsaken all
and followed thee; what
then shall we have?”
The
apostle,
naturally, though perhaps too complacently, reflects
on the difference
between the young man and the twelve: he had received
a like call with them;
but they had given up all, and had followed Christ:
both which commands the
young ruler had declined. The Saviour had
promised him treasure in
heaven. His words implied, that they too should
have something as their
reward: what then was it to be?
We
may
observe both in the young inquirer and the apostles,
too strong an idea of
human power and merit. “What shall
I do, that I
may have eternal life?” “We have
forsaken all, and
followed Thee.” A sense of God’s grace
as
all-efficacious and all-sufficient, would
prevent
us alike from being elevated by thoughts of our own
goodness and
ability; and from being depressed by a sense of inability,
when duties
of much difficulty are laid upon us.
The
question
– “What
then
shall we have”
- as well as
the answer of Jesus, are peculiar to Matthew;
Mark and Luke mention the
apostles’ sacrifices, but only that part of the Lord’s
answer, which refers to
disciples generally.
Peter
speaks
in the name of a class, not of himself alone. “We
have left all;
... what shall we have?” And even
thus, the parable which follows treats of classes not
of individuals.
“What shall we have”
in the way of reward? Thus then the
entrance into the kingdom was
understood by them as the participation in the
kingdom of glory,
and not of a time of trial, like that
in which the church is now
placed. The Saviour’s words, which follow, prove
that they understood Him
aright.
28. “But
Jesus said unto them,
Verily I say unto you,
that ye who have
followed Me, in the regeneration, when the Son of Man shall sit on the throne
of His glory,
ye also shall sit on
twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of
“Ye which have followed Me.” In the general
application of the principle to
the disciples, contained in the next verse, no mention
is directly made of following
Christ, as here no mention is made of their forsaking
any
thing for Him. The promise is knit to their
attendance on Him; as he
makes mention also in another place of their having “continued
with Him in His
temptations.”
Their
following of Christ was as peculiar, as their reward,
in consequence, should
be. No promise was given to them at their first
call. They had trusted
Him, and not in vain.
They
had
treasure in heaven: and it was to be brought forth to
their joy in “the kingdom of heaven.” If now the
kingdom mean, as we suppose,
the millennial kingdom, we might hope for a
confirmation of it
here. Accordingly we get as bright a glimpse
of it in this place, as
can be pointed out in the New Testament.
The
Saviour
defines the time of their recompense,
as being “in the regeneration,
when the Son of Man shall sit on the throne of His
glory.”
The
generation of the heavens,
earth, and man, was at the
creation.* Then to the first man was
granted dominion over earth
and its animated orders. But sin crept in, and
His empire was
blasted. The worm was made conqueror of the
lord of earth.
But now, the second man, the new Adam, “the Son of Man,”
has come in the power of a law obeyed, and of an
endless life, to regenerate
earth and man. He is coming with resurrection
to
overcome death for His departed saints; and with the
Holy Spirit’s might to
turn the living, whether Jews or Gentiles, to the
knowledge of God; while regenerated
nature shall bloom anew; and the animals, losing
their fierceness, shall return
to the innocence of Eden. The Jew also is to
be the centre of the nations
of earth, while the apostles are to be promoted to
reign over them.
* The book which describes the
creation is called Genesis;
the regeneration is called Palin-genesia.
Some
would
connect “in
the regeneration,”
with the
preceding words, “Ye who have followed Me in the regeneration.”
But most see, that this yields a sense not to
be accepted. It would follow then, that Christ
had preceded them in
regeneration. But they were regenerate, only as
sinners begotten again of
the Holy Spirit. This then is to put Christ on a
level with
sinners. The regeneration, therefore, spoken of
is physical, belonging
to a future dispensation. For the only “regeneration”
going on now, is that of the soul of the individual
believer, by the power of the Holy Spirit. Tit.
3: 5. But the regeneration
here spoken of, is
that of the earth, as well as of man.
For of this Peter
afterwards, by inspiration, speaks. “Repent ye therefore and turn,
that
your sins may be blotted out that* the
times of refreshing
may come from the
presence of the Lord.
And He may send Jesus Christ who before was preached** unto you,
whom the
heaven must
receive until the times of the
restitution of all
things,
which God
spoke of by the mouth of His
holy prophets since the world began.” Acts 3: 19-21. The restoration
of all things in
that day, answers to the regeneration
spoken of here.
And both are but another expression for the
*
See Greek. Never
“when.”
** The
corrected
editions read – “before
prepared” for you.
But the difference is not important to the point in
hand.
In that day, “the Son of Man shall
sit on the throne of His
glory.”
This
connects the promise with Daniel’s prophecy of the Son
of Man’s coming in the
clouds of heaven, and taking His kingdom, which is to
supersede that of the
previous four empires. Dan.
7: 13, 14.
Surely these words are decisive, as regards
the personality of the reign of Jesus. He is to
be present as “the Son of Man,” in His human nature: not
figuratively by His
Spirit. He is to sit on the throne of His
glory. “Glory,”
in the Scriptures means visible brightness. “The
sight of the glory
of the Lord was like devouring fire on
the top of the mount
in the eyes of the children of
The
other
passages, quoted above, assert also the personal
reign. The heaven
must receive Jesus till the Jews repent; then God
shall send Him, who now is
only preached to them. This supposes the
Saviour’s return in
person. If His coming then be
only the Spirit’s presence,
that is already true. He is already by His
Spirit on earth, during the
time of
The
kingdom
supposed is only temporary; for it is the kingdom of
the Son of Man.
Now Paul tells us, that after all enemies are
subdued, the Son is to
deliver up the kingdom, that God may be all in all. 1 Cor.
15: 24.
Thus this period stands distinguished from the
endless ages, which
constitute eternal life.
When
Messiah’s
kingdom should have come, and the throne of the Son of
Man be set, the
twelve too should take their thrones, each ruling a
tribe of
Let any one consult the commentaries of anti-millennarians
on this passage, and he will see how
unsatisfactory they are: how they set themselves to
break down the force of the
words. Barnes, for instance, affirms that Jesus’ throne of glory is not
to be taken literally, nor those of the Apostles
either. “To sit on a throne
denotes power and honour, and means here
that they should be distinguished above
others, and be more highly
honoured and rewarded.”
Their judging denotes “not
so much an actual exercise of the power of passing
judgment, as of the honour attached
to the office.”
The twelve tribes of
But
the
Apostles are not only to sit on thrones and judge, but
to eat
and drink at Christ’s table
in
His kingdom. What room is there for such
employment in the judgment of
the dead?
But
some
would make the words to signify the glory of
the apostolic office in
the church, during the present dispensation.
To which
idea, one who is not at all in favour of millennial
views, makes answer, that
it does not “appear how
the
apostolic office, conjoined with its innumerable
troubles, labours, and
dangers, could be said to compensate them for the
evils which they had borne
for Christ’s sake.”
Beside
this,
the expression “the twelve tribes of
Thus
Jesus
has gone on expanding our views of the time of
reward! (1) He
promised first to the young man “treasures in heaven.” (2) He then speaks of the time of reward as the entrance into
the kingdom of heaven and the
29. “And
every one that hath forsaken houses,
or brethren, or
sisters, or father, or mother,
or wife, or children,
or lands,
for My name’s sake,
shall receive an hundredfold,
and shall inherit
eternal [‘age-lasting’] life.”
We
have
had first pointed out the apostles’ special place, as
having obeyed
the call given to the young man.
They assume that the precept
given to him is general, and Jesus Himself, we now
see, allows it, and states
how it will apply during the rest of the dispensation,
in similar cases.
This proves, then, beyond reasonable question, that
the precept given to him is
designed as a general one.
Our
Lord
taught, that the dispensation was to be one of self
denial, and of the
surrender of earthly goods and advantages. He
therefore constructs His
words so as to apply to all. The kingdom is
still to be obtained,
obstructions to the entering abide still as before,
and the rewards of
self-conquest are still held forth. So therefore
does the call of our
Saviour to the rich continue in force. But not
to the rich alone. All who
will follow Christ truly, must give up
something. And, therefore, while “houses”
and “lands” begin and
close the catalogue of what might require to be
forsaken,
intermediately we find persons, and
the dearest relatives
mentioned. The very poorest may have to
surrender these for Christ’s
sake, and such would be embraced by the promise.
But
where,
in this general statement, have we the command which
was given to the
young man and to apostles – “Follow Me?”
Since
the Redeemer was about to leave the earth, it would be
no longer possible
to follow Him in the sense in which apostles
did. But it would be
possible to make this surrender, in obedience to His
word. And therefore,
I suppose, that the words – “For My name’s sake”
‑ answer to the previous command – “Follow Me;”
and
are designed
to keep up the same
principles, under altered circumstances.
For the mere
giving up of wealth, except in
obedience to, and faith in, Christ Jesus, would be
no real ground of reward.
In
regard
to these words, however, there are remarkable
differences between the
evangelists. Their respective reports are as
follows:-
‘Whosoever shall forsake aught’
–
Matthew (1) – “For
my
name’s sake.”
Mark
(2) – “For
my
sake and the Gospel’s.”
Luke
(3) – “For
the
The
difference
is interesting, and very confirmatory of the views
above
taken. Jesus, it is evident from these
narratives, mentioned two motives
as producing the abandonment of earthly goods.
Of these Matthew has
mentioned only the first; Luke only the last, and Mark
both.
The “for My
sake”
of Mark, answers, of course,
to the “For
My
name’s sake”
of Matthew. “For the Gospel’s sake” of Mark, answers to “for the
The
love
of Jesus, then, and the desire of partaking in His
kingdom of glory, are
harmonious motives, which may alone, or unitedly,
produce this result!
This
forsaking
of house or relatives, “for the
Again,
as
the act is recognized as lawful and right, so it is
implied, the reward will
be in the [millennial]
kingdom, for which the surrender is made. This
is made certain, in the
case of apostles, by the Saviour’s explicit
statement. It is implied,
then, by valid consequence, with regard to those who
have acted similarly; the
differences in forsaking and following, being only of
form and degree.
But
a
difficulty arises. How is it that Matthew does
not at all mention
millennial glory, as the portion of those making such
sacrifices in later
days? He says only, that they “shall
receive an
hundredfold, and inherit
eternal
life.”* And, when we turn to
Mark and Luke, the
hundredfold is most explicitly asserted to be granted
in the present life.
[* Note. We cannot inherit
(by our works), what we, through faith alone, receive as a ‘free
gift’ by the ‘grace’
of God on the basis of Another’s works:
but the inheritance
which we, as disciples of Christ
can lose,
will be explained later in this exposition. The
adjective ‘eternal’
(when it has reference to ‘life’
as an inheritance and a reward
for a believer’s good works, must be
understood as referring to ‘life,’
to be enjoyed in the coming “age”.
That is, ‘life’
after resurrection, at the time when
Jesus will return to raise
the souls of the worthy dead
from Hades, and
establish His millennial kingdom
throughout this
earth (1 Thess. 4:
16; Matt. 16:
18, 27).
Compare
Eph. 2: 8, 9
with Eph.
5: 5.]
Mark
says,
“He
shall
receive an hundredfold now in this present
time,
houses and
brethren and
sisters, and mothers
and children and lands,
with persecutions.”
And
Luke
says, “He
shall
receive manifold more in this present time.”
This
is
a difficulty well worthy of consideration. I
will give the answer,
which is to my own mind sufficient. First, let
us weigh the statements of
Mark and Luke. They assert that a hundredfold
shall be given now in this
present time. And, as Mark alone tells us, that
the Saviour bid the young
man take up the cross in following Him, so, He alone
adds, that “persecutions”
should be the accompaniment of all present
recompense. This of course confines our Lord’s
words to the present
dispensation and present life. Neither of these
evangelists gives
Matthew’s strong outline of the millennium, as “the regeneration,
when the Son of Man shall sit on the throne of His
glory.”
But then there is a marked compensation
in both of them, for this omission.
For, as we have seen,
Mark adds to “for
My sake,”
(which in Matthew stands
alone) the clause – “and the Gospel’s,”
which as we have seen, means the good news of the
millennial day. And
Luke gives what is equivalent – “for the
If
then
those who have made such sacrifices are to be
presented with eternal life,
which is to begin in the coming age,
they will be
partakers of millennial glory, as well as of the
hundredfold of present reward.
‘But this’, it may be said,
‘does
not wholly remove the difficulty from the statements
of Matthew.’ True;
but its weight is much diminished. And the
suggestion now to be offered,
will, I think, remove it altogether. I
understand, then, that we are to
take verses 28 and
29
as parts of one sentence; or, at least, as both
qualified by the same preceding
condition of time stated in the former of the two
verses. Then our Lord’s
teaching will run thus:-
“As for you My apostles - in
the regeneration -
you shall sit on twelve
thrones. And, as regards all others who imitate
you - in the
regeneration - they
shall receive an
hundredfold, and
obtain eternal life.”
The
latter
promise of inheriting eternal life must evidently
apply as well to
apostles as to believers. All who obtain the [millennial]
kingdom, in
resurrection, obtain also eternal life; though not all
who receive eternal life
inherit the [millennial] kingdom. I suppose
that the word “inherit” is emphatic; that it marks
out its being received by
those who obtain an entrance into the [millennial]
kingdom,
in
the way of gift.
They
obtain eternal
life, not
as the due of their works; but as a gift granted to
their new birth, as sons of
God.
30. “But
many shall be first last, and
last
first.”
In
what
sense are the words “first”
and “last” to be taken in this
designedly obscure
sentiment? Some would regard it as intending,
that those first in privileges,
would, on account of their abused responsibility,
be inferior in position
at last to some possessed of inferior advantages, who
make a better use of
them. (2) Others, that those first in dignity
in the
church would be degraded from a like cause. But
the parable which follows
proves, that “first”
and “last” are words
of order; and that they refer to the call of God, and
the times of reward.
The
“but” with which the sentence
begins, stands as a
limitation of the “every one”
that
had preceded it in the former verse. ‘Every
one that forsakes for My sake shall
be richly rewarded, but
many among God’s anciently-recognized people
will not accept the terms I
bring; and many, not recognized now as his people,
will accept them, and be
first in reward.’ The terms are open to
all; but few of those that
boast themselves as God’s servants already, will enter
into the [millennial] kingdom.
The sentiment then is parallel with another, to
which the Lord Jesus gave
utterance, on the occasion of the Roman centurion’s
plea for his servant.
“But
I say
unto you, that many
shall come from the east and
west, and shall sit
down with Abraham and Isaac
and Jacob in the
“Many”
of the
first-called, that is, of the
Jews, will have no place in the kingdom. Not
that all of
them will be excluded. Abraham, Isaac, and
Jacob, and [all] the prophets
are twice mentioned, as destined to obtain it.
Nor will all
the last-called, or the Gentiles enter; for many
of them will be found
workers of iniquity. But many of the last called
will be first in reward;
enjoying
eternal life a
thousand years before the others.*
Thus
though last in regard to the call, they are first in
regard of reward; as many
Jews, though first called, shall be last in receiving
eternal life, only
entering thereupon, after the millennial reign is
over.
[* This is why so much attention
is placed on attaining
the “First
Resurrection”.
Those who are presently in the underworld of
Hades/Sheol. (See Phil.
3: 11; Rev. 20: 4-6;
Heb. 11: 35b;
Luke 14:
14;
Rev. 6: 9-11; 20: 35,
etc.): will be judged before that time!
“It is appointed unto
men once to die, and after this”
– (that is,
after the time of Death; and not after
the
time of Resurrection as many suppose)
– “the judgment:”
(Heb.
9: 27,
R.V.).]
II. “And
he went out about the third hour,
and saw others standing idle in the market place, and said unto them, ‘Go ye
also into the vineyard,
and whatsoever is just,
I will give you.’
But they went their way.
III. “Again
he went out about the sixth and ninth hour, and did likewise.
IV. “But
about the eleventh hour he went out,
and found others standing idle,
and saith unto them, ‘Why
stand
ye here all the day idle?’
They say
unto him, ‘Because no
one hath hired us.’
He saith unto them, ‘Go
ye
also into the vineyard,
and whatsoever is
just shall ye receive.’
V. “Now
when evening was come,
the
lord of the vineyard saith unto his steward,
‘Call
the labourers, and
pay them their hire beginning
from the last unto the first.’
And when
they came that were hired about the eleventh hour,
they received every one a denarius.* But when the first came, they supposed that they shall receive more, and they likewise received every one a denarius. But when they had received
it, they murmured
against the householder saying, ‘These
last have wrought but one hour,
and thou hast made them equal unto us,
who have borne the burden of the day,
and the heat.’
* One
of the
fathers suggests, that perhaps the one-hour labourers
were paid a denarius,
because they in that hour wrought as much as the
first workmen in a day. But this is exactly to
invert the intent of that
portion of the parable. The Saviour wishes us to
see, that their payment
turns, not upon their desert, but the householder’s
good pleasure. And it
is on that ground that he puts it. “May
I not do
what I choose with mine own?” He must
have set it on very
different grounds, had he maintained the desert of
those of the eleventh hour.
VI. “But
he answered and said
unto one of them, ‘Comrade, I do thee no wrong;
didst
thou not agree with me for a denarius?
Take up that which is
thine, and go. I choose to
give to this last even as unto thee.
May I
not do as I choose with mine own?
Is thine
eye evil, because I
am good?’
VII. “So
the last shall be first,
and the first last; for
many
are called, but few
chosen.”
Into
the
parable it is not my purpose to enter minutely.
I would just sketch what
appear to be its principal points of connection with
the foregoing
conversation. For some principles are involved
in that, which our Lord, I
believe, designed to elucidate and settle hereby.
The parable is given by
Matthew alone; because he was the fittest person to
settle questions connected
with the Jews rights. For his Gospel specially
addresses the
circumcision.
The
interview
with the young ruler awoke the two questions
concerning God’s justice
and His goodness; and the parable settles the
respective spheres of these.-
The
justice
of the householder appears, in his paying to the first
labourers the denarius
agreed on. His sovereignty, in His giving as
many calls as he would, and appointing the order and
extent of recompense to
each of the other classes. Under this story
then, an important question
concerning the character of God, which was virtually
mooted by the previous
interview, is decided.
Our
Lord
first regards the youth as a rich man simply,
and
deduces the suited lessons therefrom. But he was
also a Jew; a Jew who
believed himself to have kept the law, and to have
earned its wages - eternal
life. He then is paralleled in the parable, by
the first order of
labourers, by whom are meant the men of
The
denarius then means
eternal life.* This is
proved by the following considerations.
*
Having changed my
idea of the meaning of the denarius,
and being very doubtful whether the parable be
prophetic, I have withdrawn from circulation the
former explanation of the
parable of the Labourers.
1.
It
was that which the young man, who stands in the moral
position of the
first order of labourers, supposed that he had won by
his works. It is
that also which the Saviour asserts to be the result
of the fulfilment of the
law.
2.
In
the parable, both the first and the last receive a denarius;
and the Lord promises, in the previous conversation,
eternal life both to the
fulfillers of the law, and to the forsakers
of aught
for His name’s sake. “What shall I do that I may have eternal
life?”
“They shall
receive an hundredfold,
and shall inherit eternal life.”
3.
The
young man, it is supposed, for his non-compliance with
our Lord’s
terms, is excluded from the kingdom.
That, therefore,
is not the reward which is common to the first and the
last.
But,
if
the previous interpretation be right, the millennium
would also appear in
the parable; for apostles and others were to partake
of that as
well as of eternal life. And so indeed it does.
It is seen, as
the difference in point of time, at which the last
begin to be paid.
The millennium is but the first-fruits of
eternal life; and, long as it
were to wait a thousand years for eternal life, when
others were already in
enjoyment of it, it still is but a short space
compared with eternity.
The day of labour spoken of in the parable
answers to this present evil
age. The evening and its cessation from labour
with the hire paid to the
last answer to the “rest”
that
remains for the people of God, or the
There
are
two kinds of terms made by the householder.
Those first hired
conclude their exactly-defined bargain with the owner
of the vineyard. The
others enter it, leaving much to his decision.
He would give them what
was just; and they were content to trust him.
But so also, in the
previous conversation, it was shown that two classes
of terms are put forth;
those of the law, and those of the kingdom. The
former terms were known
to the Jew, and referred to as such. The latter
were new, and unknown
even to the twelve; as Peter’s question discovers.
They were new,
in regard to the nature of the reward.
They were
new also in regard of the class
of persons to be
rewarded. The law was given
to the nation of the Jews
alone. These terms are universal to “every
one that hath forsaken”
aught for Christ.
The
whole
parable turns on the assumption, that the terms put
forth by Jesus were
new. If the Lord’s demand of the young man were
only the old condition,
and the kingdom were only another word for eternal
life, what ground in the
previous interview was there for the objection taken
up by the parable?
Further, in order to carry out the principles of the
conversation, the steward
should have denied, as has been already observed, that
the murmuring labourer
had done his day’s work.
As
the
conversation recognizes God, both as just and as good,
so the parable
displays how the two attributes may appear together in
the millennial
dispensation without clashing. The plea for
God’s justice comes first.
The stipulators had not been wronged. They
had got what they agreed
for; let them go! So the disciple of Moses
should have as much as the Law
awarded him, if he fulfilled its demands. But if
there be none who can be
justified by the law, the plea of injustice to the Jew
is still more entirely
proved groundless. At that point however the
Redeemer does not attack it
here.
But
a
difficulty appears in the lesson with which the Great
Teacher concludes the
parable. “So
the last shall be first, and the first last, for
many are called, but
few chosen.”
When the like sentiment was uttered before, it
was with restriction.
“Many first
shall be last, and
last first.”
Here the article proves that the terms are
taken universally. The solution of the
difficulty lies in this, that on
the first occasion, our Lord regards the called;
in the
last, the elect, or rewarded ones.
Of
these latter, who possess the full characteristics of
their respective classes,
it will be universally true, that the last, or the
obedient Gentiles will be
first in reward, or partakers of the kingdom; while
those who cling to Moses
will not enter it.
The
call
of God constitutes each class; the rewarded are the “Jew” or the elect of each class.
The words, “many
are called,” apply to each class, whether those of the
law or of the gospel.
God’s equity is seen in the general and public
terms thrown open to all.
“Every
one”
that
forsakes aught for Christ shall be rewarded to
the extent specified.
But
not
all those to whom the public terms are proposed will
obtain the prize.
The open door, owing to the unwillingness of
man, avails not. The
call is made to “many,”
but the obtainers of the recompense are “few.” To both the apostles
and the young ruler the
same word, “Follow
Me,”
was uttered; but the ruler
turned away.
“Few are chosen.”
Here is the secret acting of God’s sovereignty.
That the
call is effectual in any case, is
due to that divine grace which leads the un-willing
to comply. It
enabled those who are rewarded to fulfil the terms to
which the recompense is
attached. So that, while in public, and before
the presence of Christ as
the Righteous Judge, they will be esteemed worthy of
reward, they will still,
in secret, be indebted to the
grace of
God, which bent their wills to obey, and to
persevere in obedience. This
was therefore an opportune lesson to Peter and the
other apostles, that they
should not be self-complacent in contemplating the
difference between
themselves and the young man, but should
attribute
the difference to the goodness of God and to His
grace, the outflow
of His goodness. And this election
regards even the “last.”
All those who obtain only eternal life, having
lived under the law, will receive it as being
graciously elevated above the
mass of the Jewish nation, who were perpetually
rebelling against God.
‘Then,’ it may be said, ‘there
is sovereignty, even with regard to entrance unto
the kingdom:
and yet you make it to depend on good works.’
This is true.
Both principles have place.
Only those judged worthy,
according to their works, shall enter
the kingdom: but grace
enables any to perform the works to
which the reward is attached. But with
regard to eternal
life, election is absolute, and attached to faith only, not to works.
The
law
will have its elect partakers of eternal life, even
though they should not
be partakers of the kingdom. But I would
suggest, whether those may not be
reckoned of the first class, who, as justified by
faith, obtain eternal life,
while, nevertheless, they take the law of Moses as
their rule of life, and
refuse to obey that higher standard of conduct which
the Lord Jesus gives in
the Sermon on the Mount and elsewhere. Have we
not also something akin to
this in the Epistle to the Galatians? There,
those who were of the Gospel
are found turning back to the law. The issue of
such conduct, as the
apostle warns them, would be the loss of the
inheritance proper to their
previous position. The law itself decided, that
the two sons of the
different mothers should not inherit together. Gal. 4: 28-31.
To
the
eye of many, the parable is intended to teach, that
all will be equal in
reward, whatever their labour in the cause of God.
But this is wholly a
mistake. The denarius
which all the labourers
partake is indeed eternal life: but there is a
difference in regard of reward
between the last and the first. And above all,
most clearly is the
inequality of recompense established by the previous
conversation. There
are some who shall hardly enter the kingdom, some to
whom it shall be richly
ministered. There are those who enter eternal
life only, and those who
enjoy its first-fruits in the Day of the Lord.
There are apostles, whose
thrones shall be conspicuous in the kingdom; and
disciples who are to be
rewarded in proportion to their sacrifices for Christ,
whether of houses and
lands, or of the ties of nature. Now these
sacrifices being unequal, the
recompense must be so too. But the parable does
not treat of the
recompense of individuals, but
only adjusts the claims of classes.
“These
last have wrought but one hour, and
thou hast made them equal unto us who have borne the
burden and heat of the day.”
Thus in regard to masses and the
common reception of eternal life, there
will be equality;
in regard to individuals, and
the kingdom of heaven,
the utmost inequality.
There
is
yet one passage which so strongly corroborates some of
the points here
asserted, that the present remarks would be incomplete
without it.
“Now one said unto
Him, ‘Lord, are the saved few?’
But
He said unto him, ‘Strive
to enter in through
the narrow gate,*
for many I say unto you
will seek to enter in,
and will not prevail.
When once the
householder is risen up and hath
shut to (or ‘locked’) the door,
and ye begin to
stand without, and to
knock at the door,
saying, ‘Lord, Lord,
open unto us;’ and he
shall answer and say unto you, ‘I
know you not whence ye are;’
then, shall ye begin
to say, ‘We ate,
before thee and drank,
and thou didst teach in our
streets.’ And He
shall say, ‘I tell
you
I know you not whence ye are,
depart from me, all
ye workers of injustice.’
Weeping shall be there and gnashing of teeth, when ye shall see Abraham,
Isaac, and Jacob in
the
* Some
critics
read “door,” (…)
instead of “gate” (…).
The
points
of agreement with the preceding observations furnished
by the passage
before us, are briefly these:
1. First and last are the
Jews and Gentiles as in
the previous case.
“There are first
which shall be last,”
is just the limitation found in Matthew
19: 30. “Many first
shall be last.” Some of the Jews are specified as being ultimately found in the
kingdom. “Abraham,
Isaac, and Jacob, and all the
prophets.”
The Gentile elect are implied in the words, “Men
shall come from east and
west.”
And so in Matthew
8: 11, 12.
2. The inquirer
asks concerning “the saved.” But
Jesus’
answer respects those that attain “the
3. “The
4. Lastly, the “narrow
gate”
into the kingdom, answers to the
“needle’s eye” of
Matthew. Only, in the passage from Luke, the
workers of iniquity are
addressed, and not disciples, as in the former case.
To
conclude;
the passage from Matthew divides itself naturally into
three parts;
in the first, or the Lord’s conversation with the
young man, we have the terms
of the law; and its recompense - eternal life.
In the second, or the
Saviour’s discourse with the disciples, founded on the
young ruler’s refusal,
we have the terms of the Gospel, and its reward - the
kingdom of heaven.
In the parable, we have the adjustment of the
two terms, and of the two
recompenses. The young man’s circumstances as
rich, and the circumstances
of apostles and disciples in general, come into view,
only when the kingdom of
heaven is in question. When eternal life is the
subject, the young ruler
is regarded only as a Jew, conversant with the terms
originally set forth to the
fathers.
If
these
views be true, how
solemnly do
they rebuke the ordinary pursuit of many believers?
How fitted are they
to destroy the worldliness and trade-spirit, which
are so desolating the
churches of Christ! Let no one take
this doctrine as his belief,
on the assertion of the writer; but let him weigh well
whether this is not the
teaching of our Lord, upheld by many places of the New
Testament! If
any one is assured of the truth of it, may
he seek grace to carry out its principles!
For this is no speculation,
but deeply practical. And of the foundation of
our practice we cannot be
too well assured.
Let
each
also guard against flinging the truth aside, because
so contradictory to
his natural feelings. Let each ask for the
single eye; for to that alone
is abundance of light given.
-------
3
THE FIRST LAST AND THE LAST
FIRST
By D. M.
PANTON.
A
momentous principle
uttered by no one but our Lord – “there are last that shall be
first, and there are first that
shall be last” (Luke
13: 29) - is
embodied for ever in Esau and Jacob, the two
patriarchs who are set and studied
incarnation of interchange of destiny. For God
had foretold the
interchange ninety years before their birth (Gen. 25: 23);
they
were born twins and, in the very act of birth Jacob
sought to supplant [i.e.,
displace and take the place of]
Esau by a grip on the heel; the interplay of their
later life fills a large part of the Old Testament
drama; the birthright - a
Throne: “let nations bow down to thee”
(Gen. 27:
29) -
was the
shifting prize; and Esau, to
whom it belonged, lost it, and Jacob, whose it was
not, gains it. This is
the concrete example for all time of a dramatic
interchange of position - the
first last, and the last first - possible,
and
perhaps frequent, among the children of God [today];
and what reinforces our Lord’s words with tremendous
emphasis is that the
Holy
Spirit applies the type, and on its dark and
dangerous side, to Christian
believers. “Look
carefully,”
He says, “lest there be anyone
[among you] that falleth
short of the grace of God;
lest there be any fornicator or profane person, as
Esau, who
for one mess of meat sold his own birthright”
(Heb.
11: 15).
All down the ages, and in every camp of the saints,
Esau and Jacob reappear,
and will to the end of time.
Now
we have the
Holy Spirit’s own analysis of Esau: “a profane
person,
as Esau.”
Bluff, generous,
impulsive, daring; an athlete, living in the open; a
man of quick emotions and
strong passions: Esau had a large and loveable
character; and, as the eldest
son of the sole God-chosen family on earth, what a
primacy was his! But
the Holy Spirit says he was profane - unhallowed,
unsanctified, defiled,
polluted, common. In the crisis of his life his
inferiority, his
un-sanctity, sprang to light. “For one mess of meat he sold his
own birthright.”
With tremendous irony and perfect truthfulness
all earth’s transient passions are catalogued under a
mess of meat. It
is the bartering, for present
passion, of future glory: it is mortgaging the [millennial]
Kingdom for worldly gain: it is counting God’s
conditional promises cheap – “Esau despised
his birthright” (Gen. 25:
34) -
and present advantage dear. Esau disobeyed his
wisest descendant’s law: “Buy the truth, and
sell it not” (Prov.
23: 23).
Both
Esau and
Jacob awake at last; but Esau
wakes only after
the Prize is irrevocably
forfeited.
“Esau cried with an exceeding
great and bitter cry,
Bless me, even me
also, O my father”
(Gen.
27:
34).
It
was the bitter cry of Mirabeau:
- “If I had not degraded my
life by sensuality, and my youth by
evil passion, I might have saved
Now
therefore the
Lord’s principle, namely, the first slipping back last
- comes into
operation. The moment comes when an oath of God
makes the forfeiture
irrevocable. Millions
of Christians have
sung, every Sunday for centuries, the actual
warning
words which the Spirit applies (Heb. 3:
11) to the
Now
we turn to the
other twin in the great race. All down the years
Jacob - the word means ‘supplanter’
- has seen visions,
but never lived
them: the most defective of all
Bible saints, he is the man whose unsanctified
subtlety amounts to craft: now, in
the last lap, when ninety-seven years of age, we find him the only character in the
Bible a suddenly complete victor in
his
sunset. For Jacob had
originally bought what Esau sold:
that is, all his life, faultful and stumbling though it was, he coveted
God’s highest, he acted
on the prophecies, and never
lost
the heavenly vision: exactly
reversing the action of
Esau, he barters earthly passion for coming royalty,
and sacrifices the body to
the spirit, the present to the future, time to
eternity.
Jacob
is the
embodiment of all the wrestlers who through the
midnight of this dark Age reach
the dawn, and supremely of racers who started
badly. Through the midnight
at Peniel he wrestles until the dawn, “with tears”
(Hos.
12:
4), a soul
suddenly and forever awake.
The
literal in a type is the spiritual in the antitype:
the clenched fist, the
taut muscle, the ceaseless vigilance, the unyielding
grip - it is not only
strength, but concentration; not only concentration,
but intensity; not only
intensity, but endurance. [Eternal] Salvation is received by
resting, not wrestling: the
Prize is won by wrestling, not resting.
It is holy tenacity (obstinacy, resolution,
retentiveness) of purpose,
dogged refusal to be beaten, quick recovery when
knocked out. God’s
tremendous earnestness - the wrestling Angel - must be
matched by an
earnestness as tremendous by all who would be Godlike
and God-crowned.
Parobolically
we
are next shown what invariably follows the great
awakening and the complete
consecration. “And
when the angel saw that he prevailed not against him”
- that no block,
no barrier, not even the guillotine or wild beasts in
the Colosseum, could
throw the wrestler - “he
touched the hollow of his
thigh” - he shrivelled the sciatic nerve: and
“Jacob
halted upon his thigh” - carried for ever the
withering touch. God
asks of His victors not medals or ribbons, but
scars. “I bear in my
body,” says Paul, Christ’s stigmata, the
weal’s of the floggings. Exactly as Esau's sin
pampers the body, so
Jacob's devotion withers it. As rocks are
scarred and grooved with the
convulsions of long ago, so the saint carries the
wounds of a lifetime of
holiness: “it is better,”
says the Saviour, “to enter
into life halt,” like Jacob, “rather
than having two feet to be cast into Gehenna”
(Mark 9:
45).
Both Esau
and Jacob had seen the vision:
the one, clutching
at earthly pride and
power, sells his glory; the other, wrestling
through
the midnight, reaches the Dawn, (Gen. 32:
31).
So
now the Jehovah
Angel sets His seal on the victorious wrestler.
“And
he
said, Thy name shall be called no more Jacob” - ‘supplanter,’
layer of snares; for the old unsanctity has died in
the midnight wrestle - “but
All
down the ages
it is an ever repeated story. The Cardinal of
Lorraine, Charles
de Guise, First Peer of France,
and Pierre Ramas,
a fellow-student whom he loved, so exchanged
destinies. “Among all
the favours you have heaped upon me,” Ramus writes to the Cardinal,
telling his ‘fidele
et devoue protecteur’
that he must cast in his lot with the
Huguenots, “there is one I
shall ever remember, and
that is your saying at Poissy
that of the fifteen
centuries since Christ the first was truly the age
of gold, while the others
became poorer and more worthless in proportion as
they receded. When the
time came for me to make my choice, I chose the
golden age.”
The first orator of his age, with princely gifts to
use of God or to sacrifice
for Christ, the Cardinal goes to
*
*
*
PART 3
MISSING OUT ON THE
INHERITANCE
IN THE “AGE”
TO COME
1
BY
R. E. Neighbour
-------
What would I do
If Christ should come, ere comes the
morrow?
Would I pass to
The realms of light, all
decked and bright,
Beyond the strife of mortal
life,
And stand before my judge
in sorrow,
Mid heavens blue!
How would I feel
If I should
meet my judge, my Saviour?
Would I there kneel
Before His face, in sad disgrace,
My life all spent, on pleasure bent,
And all my shameful past behaviour
Beyond repeal?
“The
coming of the Lord
draweth nigh!”
The
Signs
of the Times are unmistakable.
The
way
is paved throughout the whole world for the advent of the Antichrist.
The
last
days with their immoralities and vice are
here.
The
The
political
world is ripe for the rising of the ten-horned federated empire.
The
sweep
of modern inventions proclaims that the harvest of the
earth is ripe.
Over
all,
and to the writer, above all, the cry is being made, “Behold
the Bridegroom cometh,”
while God’s book of prophecy, scaled unto the end of
times, is now being opened.
With
these
signs of Christ’s return to the earth so rapidly and
assuredly unfolding,
we know that the rapture of the saints, with their
skyward march, is doubly
near.
[Page 64]
How soon we do not know;
It is far better so;
And yet, the hour is late -
Expectantly we wait.
Be it at
morn or noon,
His coming must be soon;
In gloom the
world doth grope,
While ardently we hope.
He told us
he would come,
And upward take us home;
We sing an even song.
As yearningly we long.
As,
for
the moment, we pause to ponder the glorious fact of
Christ’s imminent
coming, we are held captive by the words of the
seventh angel in
Revelation 11: 15-18.
His words
stand out before us in bold review.
“And the seventh angel sounded; and
there were great voices in
heaven, saying, The
kingdoms of this world are become the kingdoms of
our
Lord, and of his
Christ; and he shall
reign for ever and ever. And the four
and
twenty elders which sat before God on their seats, fell upon their faces, and
worshipped God, Saying, We give thee thanks, 0 Lord
God Almighty, which
art, and wast,
and art to come;
because thon hast taken to thee thy great power, and hast reigned. And the
nations were angry, and
thy wrath is come,
and the
time of the dead, that
they should be
judged, and
that thou shouldest give reward
unto thy servants thy prophets, and to the saints,
and them that fear thy name,
small and great; and shouldest destroy the earth.”
The
angel
foresaw and announced that “the kingdoms of this world have become,
the kingdoms of our Lord and of his
Christ.”
Then the angel gave an epitomized review of the
events which immediately
usher in that glorious consummation.
He
said:
“The nations were angry.”
“Thy wrath is come.”
“And
the time of the
dead, that they should be judged.” (is come).
“And
(the time) that
thou shouldest give rewards unto thy servants the prophets, and to the
saints, and them that fear thy name, small and great.”
“And shouldest destroy them which
destroy the earth.”
Stop
and
consider! “God
is not unrighteous to forget,
your work and labour of love.” He comes and His
reward is with Him to give to every one as his
work shall be.
What we would impress
concerning our Lord’s return is
all summed up for us in a startling statement in the
hook of James:
“THE
JUDGE STANDETH
AT THE DOOR”
First of all, God comforts persecuted
and
impoverished saints with
the
fact of Christ’s soon coming:
“Be patient therefore, brethren,
unto the coming of the
Lord,
Behold, the
husbandman waiteth for the
precious fruit of the earth, and hath long patience for it,
until he receive the
early and latter rain.
Be ye also patient; stablish your hearts: for
the coming of the Lord draweth nigh”
(Jas. 5:
7-8).
Afterward,
God
warns grudging saints with
the words:
“Grudge
not one against
another, brethren, lest ye be condemned” (Jas.
5: 9).
Then
God
says:
“BEHOLD, THE JUDGE STANDETH AT
THE DOOR.”
In these last days we need an
enlarged and scriptural
conception of Christ
as JUDGE,
at His Coming.
Saints should live more
cautiously and consistently if
they grasped the fuller meanings of “The Judge at the Door.”
1.
Christ at His
Coming will judge
the saints at His
Bema in the air (2
Corinthians 5: 10).*
2.
Christ will judge
the inhabited earth for its
wickedness, during the Great Tribulation (Revelation
11: 18).
3.
Christ will judge
living
4.
Christ, after He
steps on Olivet, will judge
the nations
for their treatment of the Jews (Matthew
25:
31-46).
5.
Christ will judge
the world during His reign on
David’s throne: (Isaiah 9:
6; Acts
17: 31).
Thus
we
see, undoubtedly, the
judge-ship
of Christ.
However,
in our present study we must narrow ourselves
down to one consideration: The
Bema
Judgment, or the judgment of all believers at
Christ’s Coming.
His judgment
Seat will be set, neither on
the earth nor in heaven, but in the air.
Thither all in Christ both the dead and the living,
will be raptured at Christ’s coming for His saints.
We
now propose, by God’s aid, to dwell more
especially upon that phase of Christ’s
Judgment Seat which has to do with His
unprofitable servants.
The
songs of
those
who received rewards for having done good, is the more
pleasant theme. The sorrows
of those who
have done bad, is the more needed theme.
Think
for
a moment! Are
the majority of
saints, the spiritual or the carnal? the
good or the
bad? the serving or the
slackers?
It
is
good to cheer on the faithful, it is likewise
necessary to warn the
weak. This
latter we will seek to do.
“But why dost thou judge thy
brother? or
why dost thou set at nought thy brother? for
we shall
all stand before the judgment seat of Christ.
For it is written,
As I live, saith the Lord, every
knee
shall bow to me, and
every tongue shall confess
to God.
So then every one
of us shall give account
of himself to God.
Let us not therefore judge one another any more: but judge this
rather,
that no
man put a stumbling-block or an occasion to fall in
his brother’s way.”
Three
statements
are forcefully set forth:
1.
We shall all stand before
the judgment seat of Christ.
Not one can escape.
We may absent ourselves from
the assembling of saints
down here, but we must stand before Christ up there.
2.
We shall bow the knee,
and confess with the mouth to
God.
There is nothing covered that
shall not he revealed;
or hid, that shall not be made known. The whole story
of our lives, as Christians,
must be laid bare.
3.
We shall every one, give
in HIS OWN
ACCOUNT.
Our
records
must be spread before Him.
The
statement of our Stewardship must be rendered.
It
is
easy to display another’s
evil deeds. At
the Bema we will be held to our own deeds,
and ours
only.
In
view
of these three divine “SHALL’S”
as set
forth above, the [Holy] Spirit
does
two things:
1. He asks, “Why dost
thou judge thy brother?”
or, “Why dost thou set at naught thy
brother?”
If
we
lived in the light of the coming judgment seat of
Christ where we must pass
in our own record, we would do more sweeping at our
own doorstep, and less at
our brother’s.
CONCERNING THIS PHASE OF THE BEMA
JUDGMENT CHRIST GAVE US SOME STARTLING REVELATIONS.
2.
He admonishes,
“Let
us not therefore
judge one another any more.”
And
why
should we? Wherein
we judge another,
we, alas, too often condemn ourselves, for we do the
same thing.
1.
Christ established a
basis of judgment relative to
offences.
“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.
And why beholdest thou the mote that is in
thy brother’s eye,
but considerest not the beam
that is in thine own eye? Or how
wilt thou say to thy brother, Let
me pull out the mote out of thine eye;
and, behold a beam is
in
thine own eye?
Thou hypocrite,
first cast out the beam
out of thine own eye;
and then shalt thou see clearly
to cast out the mote out of thy brother’s eye.”
(Matthew 7: 13).
This
scripture
needs no comment.
It means
what it says: Our Lord will judge us, after the manner
in which we judge
others.
2.
Christ set forth a condition of divine forgiveness.
“For if
ye forgive
men their trespasses,
your heavenly Father will
also forgive you: But
if ye forgive not men their trespass, neither will your Fattier forgive your trespasses.” (Matt.
6: 14-15).
A
wayfaring man, cannot mistake the meaning of this
quotation. It
is this: If we do not forgive, we will not
be forgiven. If we are
not forgiven, then what?
Simply
this, we must pay the price.
3.
Christ fully revealed the
results of an unforgiving
spirit.
(a)
He gave orders as to our
attitude toward a brother who
trespassed against us.
“Moreover 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.” (Matthew
18: 15-16).
Observe
that
our dealings with an offending brother must first be
between “him and thee alone.”
We dare not
publish another’s sin to the winds.
(b)
He gave us a criterion on forgiving our
brother who trespasses against us.
“Then came Peter to him, and
said, Lord, how
oft
shall my brother sin against me,
and I
forgive him? till
seven
times? Jesus
saith unto him, I say
not unto thee, Until seven times: but, Until
seventy times seven.” (Matthew
18: 21-22).
We
who
seek forgiveness may do well to remember this “seventy
times seven”
as God’s standard, transmitted to us for our
obedience.
(c)
He gave a parable setting
forth the method in which
God punishes the unforgiving saint.
This
was
given in answer to Peter’s query – “How oft shall my brother sin against me and I forgive him?” Here is the
parable:
“Therefore is the kingdom of heaven
likened unto a certain
king, which would
take account of his servants. And when
he had begun
to reckon, one was
brought unto him,
which owed him ten thousand talents. But
forasmuch
as he had not to pay,
his lord
commanded him to be sold,
and his wife,
and children,
and all that he had,
and payment to be
made. The
servant therefore fell down,
and worshipped him,
saying, Lord, have patience with me,
and I will pay thee all.
Then the lord of that servant
was
moved with compassion, and
loosed him, and forgave him
the
debt.”
“But the same servant went out,
and found one of his fellow-servants, which owed him an
hundred pence: and he
laid hands on him, and took him by the throat, saying,
Pay me that thou owest.” (Matthew
18: 23-28).
That
was
a poor way for one who had just been forgiven, to
talk. “Pay me!”
“And his fellow-servant fell down
at his feet, and
besought him, saying, Have patience with me, and I
will pay thee all. And
he
would not: but went and cast him in prison,
till he should pay
his debt.
So when his fellow-servants saw what was done, they were very sorry, and
came and told their lord all that was done.
Then his lord, after that he had called him,
said unto him, thou
wicked servant, I forgave thee all
that debt, because
thou desiredst me:
Shouldest not thou also have had compassion on thy
fellow-servant, even
as I had pity on thee? And his
lord was
wroth, and delivered
him to the tormentors,
till he should pay all that was due him.
So
likewise shall my heavenly Father do also unto you,
if ye from your
hearts forgive not every one his brother their
trespasses.” (Matthew
18: 29-35).
People
who become angry at others, often boast about it, and
pat themselves on the
back, saying, “It is a way I
have.” They
think it is funny,
Do you justify yourself when you fly into a rage and
harbour a bitter heart,
and an angry spirit toward your brother?
Your
Lord
forgave you so great a debt.
You
never could have paid Him what you owed.
He went to the Cross, and died for you.
Having taken the punishment due you, and having
borne your stripes, He
freely forgave you. He opened the prison bars and set
you free. Will
you in turn, seize your brother who owes
you so little, and cast him into prison?
The
servant
in the parable, who cast his own servant into prison
till he should pay
all that was due, was
in turn cast into prison.
Hear Christ’s conclusion: “So likewise shall your Heavenly
Father do unto, you.”
Think you, that you can be
unforgiving, and escape
God’s condemnation?
Remember,
grace
is no license to licentiousness.
Grace never gives any man a leeway for hatred
against his brother.
How oft shalt thou forgive
thy brother?
That depends:
How often has thy Lord
forgiven thee?
Thy
debt was
great; it could not greater be,
And yet,
thou art forgiven and set free!
Wilt thou not then forgive
thy brother
Who offends?
Or, wilt thou thrust him in
the darksome jail,
And cause him at thy ignominy
to quail
Until he pays thee all thou
dost entail?
If thou wilt not forgive thy
brother,
What impends?
As thou hast done, thy Lord
will do to you:
He’ll punish thee till thou
hast paid His due;
In all His dealings God is
righteous, true.
There
is
a vital connection between the final warning
of
Christ in Matthew
18: 34-35,
and the
words in Romans
fourteen.
Mark the last
verse of the parable:
“And his lord was wroth, and
delivered him to his tormentors,
till he should pay all that was due unto him.”
(Matthew
18: 34).
Then,
you
remember, there followed these shocking and solemn
words:
“So likewise shall my heavenly
Father do also unto you,
if ye from your hearts
forgive not every one his brother their trespasses.”
(Matthew 18: 35).
Evidently
the
Lord severely punishes the unforgiving saint - but
when and where?
In
this
life, beyond a doubt - for it is written:
“And ye have forgotten the
exhortation which speaketh unto you
as unto children, My son, despise not thou the chastening
of the Lord, nor faint when thou are
rebuked of him:
For whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom he
receiveth.
If ye endure chastening, God dealeth with you as
with sons; for
what son is he whom the father chasteneth not?”
(Hebrews 12:
5-7).
However,
suppose
the Lord’s child does not profit by his Father’s rod? Suppose he
does not “profit”
by his Father’s correction, nor afterward yield the
peaceable fruit of righteousness - then what?
Suppose he continues in his evil way?
It
is
just here that Romans
fourteen takes
up the warning: Let us
read again verse ten,
“But why dost thou judge thy
brother? or
why dost thou set at naught thy
brother? for
we shall
all stand before the judgment seat of Christ.”
(Romans
14: 10).
We
are
first questioned about judging our brother in view of
the fact that we must
answer for our own deeds: then in
verse 13,
we are urged not to judge one another any more.
On
the
other hand in Romans 15: 7 we are admonished:
“Wherefore receive ye one another,
as Christ also received us
to the glory of God.”
Forgive? I’ll go my foe one
better:
If he hungers, him I’ll feed.
If he thirsts, I’ll meet his
need,
I’ll forgive, as God to me
Didst
forgive iniquity.
Forgive?
He
owes me but a little:
How can I God’s love forget,
And refuse to pay my debt?
Help me Lord, Thy love to
know,
Unto all
Thy mercies show.
2. THE JUDGMENT SEAT OF CHRIST AS SEEN
IN 1 COR. 3: 8-15.
“Now
he
that planteth and he
that watereth are one:
and every man shall receive his own reward according
to his
own labour.
For we are labourers together with God:
Ye are God’s husbandry, ye
are God’s building.
According
to the
grace of God which is given unto me,
as a wise
master-builder, I
have laid the foundation,
and another buildeth thereon. But let
every man take heed how he buildeth
thereupon. For
other foundation can no man lay than that
is laid, which is
Jesus Christ.
Now if any man build
upon this foundation gold,
silver, precious
stones, wood,
hay,
stubble; Every man’s
work shall be made manifest, for
the day shall declare it,
because it shall be revealed by fire; and the
fire shall try every man’s work of what sort it is.
If
any man’s work abide
which he hath built thereupon,
he shall receive a reward.
If any man’s work shall be burned, he
shall suffer loss: but
he himself shall be saved; yet, so as by fire.”
“The day shall
declare it,” (1
Corinthians 3: 13) evidently looks on to the
Judgment Seat of
Christ. It
is there that we shall give
our account. It
is there that “every one shall receive his own
reward according to his own labour.”
In
the
scripture before us:
1. The
saved
are labourers together with God.
We
are labourers not for
God, so
much as with God.
We are labourers
building upon Jesus Christ, the divinely laid
foundation.
As
labourers
we should “take heed
how we build.”
2.
There are two classes of
material set
forth, the
one is “gold, silver, precious
stones;”
the other is “wood,
hay, stubble.”
The
first
class stands for “spiritualities,”
as set
over against “carnalities.” The one is
the service of saints who “live after the spirit,” and “sow to the spirit;”
the other is saints who “live after the flesh,” and “sow
to the flesh.”
3.
There are two results in
building.
The
one
who builds gold, silver, precious stones, “receives a reward;”
the one who builds wood, hay, stubble, “suffers loss.”
Let
us
follow the sad estate of the latter, the one who
suffers loss.
(a) His
judgment is
a judgment of fire.
“The fire shall try every man’s work of what sort it is.”
The
fire
does not destroy the gold, silver, nor
the
precious stones.
The
fire
utterly consumes the wood, hay, and stubble.
Carnal
Christians
stand before the Lord empty handed, “saved, so as by
fire.” They have no
trophies to lay
at their Master’s feet.
(b) The
one whose
works are burned suffers loss.
Paul
ill
his early life suffered
the
loss of all things that he might win Christ.
His sufferings because of his worldly loss, were intense; his joys
will, by and by, be entrancing.
The
carnal
believer saves his life from suffering for Christ; he
shuns the cross,
while he pampers the flesh: thus he
loses his
life in its possibility of rewards. At the
coming of Christ he suffers
loss.
His suffering, in the
realm of lost rewards, will be just as real and intense as was Paul’s suffering loss, in the realm of
earthly gains.
Once
more
let us turn aside to two of our Lord’s messages on the
faithful and
unfaithful servants; even as a moment ago we turned
back to examine our Lord’s
message concerning the unforgiving servant.
A. We will
consider Christ’s parable of the
talents. This
is found in Matthew.
“And unto one he gave five talents,
to another two,
and to another
one; to every man according to
his several ability;
and
straightway took his journey. Then he
that had received the five talents
went and traded with the same,
and made them
other five talents. And
likewise he that had received two,
he also gained other two. But he that
had received one went and digged
in the earth, and hid
his lord’s money. After a long
time the
lord of those servants cometh and reckoneth with
them” (Matt.
25: 15-19).
We
have
read a simple and yet sublime parable of the present
day occupation of
saints.
Christ
has
gone to heaven for an indefinite period.
When He comes again He will call His servants
for reckoning. We
have time only to consider the slothful
servant who went and hid his talent in the earth. He
was wicked
and slothful, nevertheless, a
servant.
To
each
man, the pounds were allotted according to his
ability. The
Master went away, and returned “after so long a time.”
It was then
that the servants were called for their reckoning.
It
is
easy to say that this evil servant in the parable
represents those in the
church who are not saved, instead of the saved; the
professor instead of the
possessor.
The
simple
facts are these: First of all our
Lord does not place His
talents in the hand of the unregenerate; secondly,
there
are many among the truly saved who are hiding their talents* in the earth.
[* NOTE.
What is meant by ‘hiding
their talents in the earth’?
ANSWER.
Refusing to disclose scriptural truths to others, what the Holy Spirit
has disclosed to them!]
Besides,
this
judgment of works takes place at Christ’s return when
only the saved are
judged for their works.
The judgment of the works of the unregenerate [and
regenerate] wicked,* take place at
the Great White Throne one thousand years later.
[* See
Psa. 1:
5. cp.
2 Pet.
3:
17;
Num. 16: 26;
Matt. 18: 32;
1 Cor.
5: 13.]
What
then
was the lot of the wicked and slothful servant?
In 1 Corinthians 3:
15 he suffers loss.
In
Matthew
25: 28 he loses his talent first of all, and then, in verse 30, he is said to be cast
into outer darkness, where
there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth.
Beyond doubt so serious a
sentence as “outer darkness” and “weeping and gashing of teeth” startles us.
We
therefore
immediately ask several things:
(a)
Will
Christians at
Christ’s coming be judged according to their
works? They
certainly will be so judged,
according to many scriptures.
(b)
Will negligent Christians
suffer loss?
Certainly, yes.
B. Christ’s
parable
of the pounds. This
is
found in Luke.
It
was
given because the people thought “that the
Here
is
the parable:
“He said therefore,
A certain nobleman went
into a far country to
receive for himself a kingdom,
and to return.
And he called his ten servants, and delivered them ten pounds,
and said unto them, Occupy
till I come. But
his citizens hated him,
and sent a message after him,
saying, We
will not
have this man to reign over us. And it
came to pass, that when he was
returned, having received the kingdom,
then he commanded these
servants to be called unto him,
to whom he had given the money, that
he might know how much every man had gained by
trading.
Then came the first,
saying, Lord,
thy pound hath gained ten
pounds.
And he said unto him,
Well done, thou
good
servant: because
thou hast been faithful in
a very little,
have thou authority over
ten cities.
And
the
second came, saying, Lord, thy
pound hath gained
five pounds.
And he said likewise to him,
Be thou also over
five
cities. And another
came, saying, Lord, behold, here
is thy pound, which I
have kept laid up in a
napkin: For I
feared thee, because
thou
art in austere man: thou
takest up that thou
layedst not down, and
reapest that thou didst
not sow.
And he saith unto him,
Out of thine own
mouth will I judge thee, thou
wicked servant. Thou knewest
that I was an austere man,
taking up that I laid not down, and reaping that I
did not sow.
Wherefore
then gavest not thou my money into
the bank, that at my
coming I might have
required mine own with usury? And he
said unto them that stood by. Take from him the pound, and
give it to him that
hath ten pounds.
(And they said unto
him, Lord,
he hath ten pounds).
For I say unto you,
that unto every one which hath shall be given; and from him that hath
not,
even that he hath shall be taken away from him. But those mine enemies, which
would not that I should reign over them, bring
hither, and slay
them before me,” (Luke
19: 12-27)
The
nobleman
who goes to the far country is Christ.
The servants are the saints who “occupy”
between
the interim of Christ’s going to be with the Father,
and His return to receive
His own unto Himself.
At
His
coming the Lord will seek to know “how much every man has gained by
trading.”
The
rewards
have to do with and centre in the reign of Christ
about to be
inaugurated. They will he
given out according to each man’s
gain.
The
wicked
servant who laid up his pound in a napkin is reproved
for his
slothfulness, and his pound is taken from him.
We
may well dread the day of His coming, if we have
failed to use our “pound.”
Remember,
the
wicked servant of this parable is not accused of but
one thing - a failure to occupy, to trade, to do business for God.
It
is
no small matter that so many
[regenerate] believers
waste their time.
They sit around as though they had nothing to
do, forgetting that God hath said: “And to every man his work.”
We
are
“labourers
together
with Christ Jesus.” How then can
we sit idly by while the fields are white unto the
harvest?
Nothing
to
do! There
is everything to do.
Millions have never heard of Christ
[or of His rule upon this
earth, when “the creation
itself also shall be delivered from the bondage
of corruption into the liberty of the glory of the
children of God” (Rom.
8: 21).].
Every city
and village and community, even in our own land has
its un-reached and even
un-solicited populace.
God
pity
those Christians who are mere seat-warmers, with their
pounds wrapped up
in napkins.
The
“do nothing” servant
had [will
have] no easy lot, in the day of
the king’s return.
Sin hastens.
Let
me haste,
I have no time to waste;
“Up”
let my motto be,
And “on” across the sea
Until salvation’s word,
By ev’ry
soul is heard:
May I no duty shirk,
Lord, may
I truly work.
Oh, Saviour let me be
From loitering set free;
Be this my faithful vow,
To do Thy bidding now;
To go where Thou dost say,
To follow in the way,
And then God’s praise to
share
In His
great overthere.
3.
THE
JUDGMENT SEAT OF CHRIST AS SEEN IN 2
COR. 5: 9-11.
“Wherefore we labour,
that
whether present or absent,
we may be accepted of
him, For we must all
appear before the judgment
seat of Christ; that
every one may receive the
things done in his body according to that he hath
done, whether it is
good or bad.
Knowing therefore the terror of the Lord, we persuade men;
but we are
made manifest unto God;
and I trust also are
made manifest in your consciences.” (2
Corinthians 5: 9-11).
We
have
considered the Bema Judgment in its relation, first,
to the unforgiving
servant;
second, in its relation to service.
We
now consider it, in its
relation to conduct – “according to that he hath done, whether it be good
or bad.”
Solemn
things
lie before us. Christian
people the country over, have an
idea that the saved can live as they like, and that it
will not matter when they
stand at the Bema.
1.
God’s call is to holy
living.
Grace
is
full and free in [eternal] salvation. However,
according to Titus
2: 11-12
– “The grace of God that bringeth salvation ... teaches
us
that, denying
ungodliness and worldly lusts,
we should live soberly,
righteously,
and godly, in this present world.”
Christians
may
walk after divers lusts,
but they should “crucify the flesh with the
affections and lusts thereof.”
Christians
may
sin, however, God has written, “Little children,
I write unto
you that ye sin not.”
Christians
may
stumble and
falter by the way,
however, God has said “Now unto him who is able to keep
you from falling (stumbling).”
Lord, may I live what I
profess;
The
faith I hold,
may I possess
In life, and words, and
holiness:
Lord, keep me true.
To
doctrine I would give due heed,
Yet, may
my life adorn my creed,
Thus
meeting
all my brother’s need
In what I say, and do.
2.
Paul’s ambition was to be
accepted when he stood at
the Judgment Seat of Christ.
He
said:
“Wherefore we labour,
that, whether present
or absent, we
may be accepted.” (2
Corinthians 5: 9).
Do
we
labour to
stand approved?
In
First
Corinthians 9: 24-27
Paul, in
speaking of so running that
he might receive the incorruptible prize, said:
“But I
keep under my
body, and
bring
it into subjection:
lest that by any
means, when I have
preached to others, I myself should
he a castaway.” (1
Corinthians 9:
27).
Do
we
purposefully and determinately so run?
To
labour that we may stand approved of Christ at the Bema,
is a hallowed ambition.
Peter
spoke
in the Spirit, of “giving all diligence” to adding spiritualities, “For,”
said he:
“So an entrance shall be ministered
unto you abundantly
into
the everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Saviour
Jesus Christ” (2
Peter 1: 11).
Let me so
fight that I may stand confessed,
All robed
in white, among Thy very best:
May I a
crown of radiant glory wear,
And enter in with Thee Thy
joy to share.
Let me so
run that I may stand approved,
By all the
foes which battle never moved;
And then
may I a victor’s laurel wear,
A wreath
both incorruptible and fair.
3. At
the
Judgment Seat of Christ we will receive according
to that we have done in the
body, whether good or bad.
May
we
quote again a part of our scripture:
“For we must all appear before the
judgment seat of Christ;
that every one may receive the
things done in his body,
according to that he hath done,
whether it be good or bad.” (2
Cor.
5: 10).
(a) We
shall receive
for the GOOD we have done.
No
one
will hesitate to say a hearty “Amen!” Yea, all
will even add an enthusiastic, “Hallelujah!”
We
all
believe in, and we all rejoice in rewards for our
good.
(b) We
shall
receive for the BAD we have done.
Now
we
hesitate. I
hear no “Amens!”
Instead, many
begin to tremble.
What think you - shall
saints at the judgment in the air receive for the bad
they have done? According to our scripture
- yes.
You
ask
at once - what will they receive?
Certainly not crowns, and kingdom glories.
Any
child,
properly reared, will tell you what he receives for
bad behaviour ... He
will say, “a spanking.”
Still
you
hesitate. You
thought there could be
no sorrow at the Judgment Seat of Christ.
You thought there could be nothing by way of
chastisement, and certainly
nothing like weeping and gnashing of teeth.
Then
what
did the Holy Spirit mean when Paul, after saying, that
“every
one shall receive
according to that he hath done,
whether it be
.... bad,” added, “knowing the terror of the Lord we
persuade men.”
What
does
1
Corinthians 9: 27
mean when it says?
“But 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!”
To
stand
“disapproved,”
a “castaway”
at the
judgment seat of Christ, could give no one a thrill of
joy, but it could easily
give weeping and wailing.
What
does
1
John 2:
28 mean
when it says?
“And
now, little
children, abide
in
him; that,
when he shall appear,
we may have confidence,
and not be ashamed before him at his coming.”
Will
there
be songs and shouts of joy, or will there be sorrow and
sighs among saints who
are ashamed before Him, when He comes?
Do
you
still hesitate to accept the [Holy] Spirit’s words in 2 Corinthians 5:
9,
about
appearing at the Bema to receive for the bad
you
have done?
The
sum
of God’s Word assures the truth of any one statement
of that Word. Let
us then turn to Col. 3: 24-25.
“Knowing that of the Lord ye shall
receive the reward of the
inheritance: for ye
serve the Lord Christ. But he
that doeth
wrong shall
receive for the wrong which
he hath done: and
there is no respect
of persons.”
Could
any
scripture be more plain? “He
that doeth wrong shall receive for the wrong he hath
done.”
Do
you
argue that our sins were placed under the blood when
we were saved, and
they are gone forever?
That is
gloriously true.
But what about the bad
we have
done since we were saved?
Do
you
urge, that “If
we confess our sins,
he is faithful and just to
forgive us our sins, and
to cleanse us from all
unrighteousness?” We reply, “Certainly.”
But what about unconfessed
sins?
First Corinthians 11: 31
says, “For if we would judge ourselves we
should not be judged.”
If
we
do not judge ourselves, then, “Behold, the judge standeth
before the door.”
Think
you
that a just judge will ignore our un-confessed evil conduct?
Shall pity, or justice, rule at the Judgment Seat
of Christ?
“Shall; not the
judge of all the earth do right?”
Would it be right to reward the righteous, and to
leave the unrighteous unrequited?
Shall
Abraham
and
Shall
Paul
and Detmas alike
receive incorruptible crowns?
Shall
the
believer who has borne the heat of the battle, stand
on the same plane of
victory with the slacker who came not to the help of
the Lord, to the help of
the Lord against the mighty?
Will
the
deserter inherit with the overcomer?
Will
the
one who left the faith, reign with the one who
contended for the faith?
Will
the
one who lived for earthly riches, and glory, be
alike at the Bema with the
one who counted the world as loss and pressed his
way toward the prize of the upcalling?
Nay, - the bad will receive for the bad he hath done.
Nay, - the evil servant shall weep and wail with gnashing of teeth as he sees
the overcoming saints going into the kingdom, and
he, himself, shut out.*
[* See
Matt. 5:
20; 7:
21.]
Saved? Yes, the bad servants will
be
saved - saved by grace.
They will have
eternal life by grace and be forever with the Lord;
yet, they will be saved “so
as through the fire.”
Saved? yes, saved, but saved with the
loss of those matchless rewards
which might have been theirs.
Saved, - but with no
place in the kingdom reign.
Saved, - but with no
rulership over the cities of the kingdom.
Saved, - but with no
crown.
Before
we
close we must give yon, as we did in sections 1, and
2, Christ’s own words
about the evil servant who began to eat and to
drink with the drunken.
This
is
found in Matthew
24:
42-51.
“Watch therefore: for
ye know
not what hour your Lord doth come. But know this,
that if the good man of the house
had known
in what watch the thief would come,
he would
have watched, and
would not have suffered his
house to be broken up. Therefore be ye also
ready: for in such
an hour as ye think not the
Son of man cometh. Who then
is a faithful and wise servant, whom
his lord hath made ruler over his household, to
give them meat in due season? Blessed is
that servant, whom
his lord when he cometh shall find so doing.
Verily I say unto you,
That he shall make him
ruler over
all his goods.
But if that evil servant shall say in his heart, My lord delayeth
his
coming; And shall
begin to smite his
fellow-servants,
and to eat and drink with the
drunken; The lord
of that servant shall come in
a day when he looketh not for him,
and in an
hour that he is not aware of. And
shall cut him
asunder, and appoint him his portion with the
hypocrites: there
shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth.”
1. The
evil servant of Christ’s message cannot represent
the unsaved inasmuch as the
evil servant said, “My
Lord, delayeth his
coming.”
He
called Christ, “Lord.” Then
Christ spake of himself as “the
LORD of that servant.”
2.
The sin of
the evil servant was bad
conduct, occasioned by his loss of the “hope of
Christ’s imminent coming.”
Unto
this
day the loss of “the hope”
leads to
worldly entanglements.
A
post-millennial church, becomes, a world-centered
church.
3.
The judgment of the evil
servant gives an insight as
to what those who have done bad
will receive at the
Judgment Seat of Christ.
(a)
He
was cut asunder. He had no part
or lot with the wise servant.
(b) He
found his portion with the hypocrites - he, at least, was not
alone, in his condemnation.
(c) He
had weeping and gnashing of teeth.
This
is only one out of seven similar statements, by our Lord.
To
explain
these things, we cannot.
We,
however, certainly
accept the Word of
our Lord, as authoritative and final.
We
accept
that “the
Lord
will judge his people.”
We
accept
Paul’s warning: “Knowing,
therefore, the terror of the
Lord we persuade men.”
[Page 82]
We
believe
“It
is a
fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living
God;”
fearful even to HIS
PEOPLE; fearful both
in this life and at the
Bema.
For
our
part we will seek to stand approved and not
disapproved in His presence.
You
who
would urge the impossibility of unfaithful believers
experiencing sorrow or
suffering for their wrong at the judgment Scat of
Christ, should consider
carefully and open-mindedly these words from God’s own
heart:
“If we
suffer,
we shall also reign with him: if
we deny him, he
also will deny us”
(2 Timothy 2: 12).
Some
saints
suffer with Him [for the TRUTH of His
word]
now,
they shall reign with Him then;
some saints (the
same “we”)
deny Him [and
the TRUTH
of His word] now,
they shall be
denied at the Bema, they
shall be refused the [entrance and] reign
[then].
Will
there
not be a ratio of equality in God’s judgment toward
the righteous and
evil servants?
For
instance:
we read, “Love your enemies, and your reward
shall be GREAT.” Therefore,
if we hate our enemies, and we forgive them not; shall
our sorrow not be equally as GREAT?
In
conclusion
we appeal to our readers that they press their way
toward God’s best
in rewards.
Our
Lord,
“for the
joy which was set before Him endured the
cross, despising the shame.” Let
this
mind be also in us.
Moses
accepted
the reproaches of Christ, forsaking the treasures and
the pleasures of
Let the
Christian now choose,
Lest his
crown he should lose,
Lest he
fail of obtaining the prize;
He must
suffer the loss,
Count the
world as but dross,
If
he seeks for reward in the skies.
Out the
ramp he must go
Bear the shame and the woe
That befalleth the faithful
and true;
He must run well his race,
And not slacken his pace,
Bidding all that may hinder,
“Adieu.”
If he
suffers the shame,
And the
stigma and blame,
He will reign with his Lord
by and by;
But if Christ he denies,
And the suffering defies,
Then the Lord will deny him
on high.
-------
My heart did not aspire
For kingdom joys: I cast that
HOPE away,
And lived for self, for time,
for vain display;
And now, alas, my wrong I
must repay –
Just
saved, “so as by fire.”
I knew it would be so -
I knew that those who suffer,
bear His pain,
Would in His earthly kingdom,
with Him reign;
The faithful only would the
kingdom gain -
Where
joys for aye o’er flow.
How doth my spirit groan -
As now I see the crowned go
marching in,
I know that in their group I
might have been,
Crowned with the
victor-saints, mid cherubim -
Instead, I weep and moan.
’Tis
now too late I ween -
Christ has gone in to sit on
David’s throne,
Around Him gather all His
worthy own;
While I excluded stand
without a crown -
Yet, once it might have been.
-------
2
BY
R.
E.
Neighbour
-------
The
message of the Epistle to the Hebrews is peculiarly
a message of the Kingdom.
We
believe
that Christ, as our Great High Priest, holds a
conspicuous place in the
epistle, and yet even the major message of His
priesthood is not after the
Aaronic, but the Melchisedec pattern.
This
Melchisedec was a king-priest,
and a type of Christ as King-Priest
when He reigns on David’s throne.
We
believe
again that Hebrews carries a vital message on Christ’s
superiority to
angels, and to Moses; however, in each case His
superiority relates to His
coming earth heirship and ministry.
Once
more
we grant that Hebrews carries a definite message about
the blood of
Christ, as God’s great and covenant sacrifice. Yet, in
relation to this
hallowed offering once and for all, and in relation to
His present entrance
into heaven itself, where He appears before God for
us, is given this definite
statement:
“So Christ was once offered to bear
the sins of many; and
unto
them that look for him
shall he appear the second time without sin unto
salvation”
(Hebrew 9:
28).
We
believe
that Hebrews is pre-eminently an epistle on the
Kingdom, and on the
Kingdom from a distinct and unique standpoint.
Hebrews,
in
its Kingdom-testimony presents and enlarges upon one
tremendous warning,
and one great plea. The warning, is lest we fall by the
way, and fail
to enter into our kingdom-heirship.
The plea is for us to go with Christ
outside the camp, so that
we may enter with Him into, His reign.
We
ask
our readers to follow with us, keeping an open mind,
as we enlarge upon this
theme so vital to the Christian’s present day living
and to his future rewards.
1
A
NEW VISION
OF HEBREWS
We
sat,
one day, asking God for a testimony which we might
deliver to our
people. Our
mind was running over the
matchless message of Hebrews eleven.
As
we
sat in our study we slowly read the first verse.
“Now faith is the substance of
things hoped for the evidence
of things not seen” (Hebrews
11: 1).
As
we
paused and considered - suddenly a new light dawned
upon us. Quickly
we said - this definition of “faith”
is not that of the faith which looks back
to Calvary, the faith whereby we are justified,
but it is that of the faith
which looks on [into the future] to the things unseen.
Then
we
inwardly wondered if the heroes of the faith mentioned
by name in this
marvellous chapter were each, in turn, an example of
this definition of
faith? That
is, did Abel, and Enoch and
Noah, and Abraham, and the rest, each have
a
faith which gave substance to things hoped for, and
evidence of things not
seen?
The
result
of our search was a demonstration that God’s
star-cluster of heroes in
Hebrews eleven, did, undoubtedly, outline the whole of
prophetic story.
A
poem we wrote at that time will reveal to the reader
the conclusions of our
discovery.
Faith looks
afar
and substance gives
To
things
hoped for: it always lives
With strong convictions;
firmly clings;
Gives evidence to unseen
things:
The faith of Abel saw the
Blood,
Far down the years, a crimson
flood;
And Abel’s sacrifice replete
Came up
to God, an odour sweet.
The faith of Enoch saw the
hour
When Christ would come in
mighty power,
Translating all who know the
Lord,
Who walk with Him, obey His
word:
Thus, God translated Enoch,
too,
A type, a picture ever true,
Of those caught up to Christ
on high.
Of living saints who never
die.
The faith of Noah saw the
flood
Foretold by God’s unerring
Word;
An ark faith built, a shelter
sure
That would his household keep
secure;
But, Noah’s faith saw down
the years
Another day, a time of tears,
When God shall set the world
afire
With
famine, sword, and judgments dire.
The faith of Abraham
portrayed
A far-flung vision, He
obeyed,
And left his fatherland, to
view
Another country, for he knew
That in the distant years,
his seed
From bondage and from Gentile
freed,
Forgiven and restored, would
stand,
Inheriting the promised
land.
The faith of Sara saw a seed
Born unto one as good as
dead;
Her faith gave strength to
her to bear,
And bring to birth this seed,
this heir
Of promises foretold.
In him
She saw a multitude of men,
In numbers as the stars of
sky,
And as
the sands of seashore, nigh.
The faith of Abraham did see
His son raised
up, from death
set free.
This man of faith looked down
the years
And saw death robbed of all
its fears,
Saw Christ raised up;
believers, too,
All*
raised, translated, made anew
With bodies changed and
glorified,
With
Christ forever to abide.
The faith
of Abram’s sons saw well
How
In
her own
land, forever blest,
Their
sufferings and wrongs redressed;
How
And dwell
together with one King;
How she
would rest for aye, secure
As long as
sun and moon endure.
The faith of Moses gladly
shared
The poverty of saints, nor
cared
For
Earth’s pleasures for the
blest reward
Which he foresaw the Lord
would bring
When he came back to earth as
King;
Thus Moses heard the Spirit’s
call,
And faith chose Christ as
all-in-all.
The faith of many saints
looked down
Through many ages, saw their
crown;
They knew that Christ would
come again,
That they with Him would live
and reign;
In faith they lived, in faith
they died,
The promises, not verified,
Disturbed them not, because
faith knew
The Word was sure, and God
was true.
The faith of all the saints,
who live
Today upon the earth, should
give
To God a faith as strong, as
true
As saints of old were used to
do;
God’s galaxy of heroes still
Is open unto all who will,
By deeds of faith write in
their name,
And thus attain a lasting
fame.
As
we
sat that day, alone, with our open Bible, once again,
and quite as suddenly,
a second query came to our mind.
It was
this: Does the whole book of Hebrews centre in the “things
to come?” We began
anew
the perusal of Hebrews - a perusal from a different
angle. The
result of that study (a study which still
goes on) is the message of this booklet.
2
SOME
DIFFICULT
SCRIPTURES
IN
HEBREWS
During the early years of our
ministry the warnings of Hebrews
3, and 4, were a source of
great concern. Then,
again, Hebrews
6: 1-12 (especially 4-6), staggered us.
We
had
been brought up in the lap of Calvinism.
We believed tenaciously in the security of the
believer. We
were established in this - a saved soul
can not be lost.
What
then,
meant these strange and startling warnings from the
pen of God, found in
the epistle to the Hebrews?
We
soon
learned how to
explain
them away to
the
satisfaction of the majority.
We used
the “professor and possessor”
method, a method still
commonly employed.
Relative
to
that oft disputed scripture Hebrews
6: 4-6,
we taught
that the words referred to an unbeliever who was
almost, but not wholly
saved. We
taught that the unbeliever in
question, was enlightened, but yet loved darkness
rather than light; that he
had tasted the heavenly gift, but did not swallow;
that he was led along by the
Holy Ghost, but balked by the way, etc.
No
matter
how we helped others, we ourselves, were not fully
satisfied.
Our
interpretation
had by no means conquered us; it had its still “guessing.”
The great
scripture bulwarks on “security”
were
too strong to permit us to believe that the saved
could be lost, and yet, what
did these scriptures in Hebrews
6:
4-6
mean?
As
the
new vision of God’s message in Hebrews dawned upon us;
in a flash all of
these difficult passages in our Epistle fell into
their God-sent message, and
our heart rejoiced.
We
saw that we could not lose eternal life, but
we could - [through
disobedience
and unbelief] -
lose a place in the [millennial] kingdom. All of this
will be made plain as we proceed.
3
KEY
VERSES
God
places
the “key” which unlocks His books in a
handy place.
There are two keys - a major and a minor
- to the book of
Hebrews. With
these keys placed in their
locks, the Epistle opens readily, and the contents of
the book lie before us in
full display.
Key
No. 1 is found in the first chapter, verse two. Here
it is:
“His
Son,
whom he hath appointed heir of all things.”
Christ
is
heir of all things.
In Colossians
1: 16-17 we read:
“For by
him
were all things created, that are in heaven, and that are in earth,
visible and
invisible, whether they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers: all things were created
by him, and for him:
“And he is before all things,
and by him all things consist.”
Into
Christ’s
“all
things”
an enemy entered and laid
claim. The
result is scripturally set
forth: “The
whole
world lieth in wickedness.”
(the wicked one). (1
John 5: 19).
On
the
mountain, Satan showed to Christ “all the kingdoms of the world, and
the glory of them,”
and said unto him: “All these things will I give thee,
if thou wilt fall
down
and worship me.”
Christ
did
not deny Satan’s claims, He did
emphatically refuse his
request.
God
says
to the Son, “Ask
of
me, and I shall give thee the heathen,
for thine
inheritance, and the uttermost parts of the
earth for thy
possession”
(Psalms 2:
8).
When
will
this be accomplished?
Even when God sets His
king
upon the holy hill of Zion.*
[* NOTE.
“
“…
That sceptre is to be stretched forth out
of
“ ‘
Hebrews 1:
6 tells
us
when Christ will enter into His heirship, and be
worshipped of angels.
“And again, when
he bringeth in
the first begotten into the world, he saith,
And let all the angels of God worship
him” (Hebrews 1:
6).
When
the
time draws near for Christ to enter upon His
heirship, Satan will he
chained and cast into the pit of the abyss.
Even
now we can
catch the echoes of
heaven’s magnificat [declaration]:
“The kingdoms of
this world
are become the kingdoms of our Lord and of his Christ”
(Revelation 11:
15).
The
promise
through Isaiah must shortly come to pass.
“For unto us a child is born,
unto
us a son is given: and
the
government
shall be upon his shoulder: and his
name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor,
The mighty God, The
everlasting Father, The
Prince of Peace.” (Isaiah
9: 6).
The
promise
of Gabriel to Mary is sure and certain.
“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 forever; and of his kingdom there
shall be no end.” (Luke
1: 31-33.)
This
is
the heirship of Jesus Christ our Lord.
Arise, 0 Lord, the night is
far o’er spent,
The harvest of the earth is
ripe in sin;
The wicked hold the reigns;
the woes begin;
The world on evil sets its
heart intent.
The nations gather, and the
night grows on:
They set themselves together,
Christ to rout;
They cast His cords away,
break loose and shout
Against the Lord, and His
anointed One:
The Jews now languish, as
they plead for Thee,
Their hearts grow weary;
hark, flow deep their sigh:
“Come
down, 0 Lord, our foes
against its cry;
Come down to reign - the throne belongs to Thee,
Burst forth and
shine, 0 Sun of
righteousness,
Come down Thy
chosen people to redress.”
Key
No. 2 is found safely hidden away in Hebrews
1:14.
The
key
verse reads:
“Are they not all ministering
spirits, sent forth to minister
for
them who shall be heirs of salvation?”
(Hebrews
1: 14).
In
Key
No. 1 - Christ is heir.
In
Key
No. 2 - [worthy]
Saints
are
heirs.
We
wonder
if this is a joint-heirship. In
Romans 8:
17, we
read: “And
joint-heirs
with
Christ; if so be that we suffer with him, that we may be also glorified together.”
Let
us
then examine our Key No. 2, with concern.
Christ
is
an heir to the kingdoms of this
world.
Saints
are
[to be] heirs of salvation.
If the heirship, therefore,
of Hebrews
1: 2 (Key No. 1), and of Hebrews 1: 14 (Key No. 2) is
a joint heirship, then the [future] salvation
of
Hebrews
1:
14 must
have to do with our reigning
with
Christ in
His [‘thousand-year’]
Kingdom. This
brings
us to our next consideration.
4
SALVATION
IN THE BOOK OF HEBREWS
In
the
popular conception, the word “salvation”
refers to something which came to us when we were
saved. It
carries with it our redemption from sin,
and our justification by faith through the blood of
Christ. It
is therefore a conception of something
which happened and was concluded when we first came to
Christ.
Salvation,
however,
at the cross, had
but its beginning
so far as
its deeper and fuller fruition is concerned.
1. BEFORE WE LOOK AT “SALVATION,” AS HEBREWS PRESENTS IT;
LET US READ A FEW OTHER
SCRIPTURES TO PREPARE
THE WAY.
1. There
is a
statement in 2
Timothy 2: 10
that
will
help:
“Therefore I endure all things for
the elect’s sakes,
that they
may also
obtain the salvation which is in Christ Jesus with
eternal glory.”
We
see
in this scripture a salvation in Christ Jesus, with
eternal glory.
We
further
see that it is yet to be obtained by the elect.
Finally
we
see that Paul endured all things for the elect, that is the saved, that
they might obtain this
future
salvation.
Perhaps
verse twelve will
elucidate verse ten:
“If we suffer, we shall also reign with him: if we deny him, he
also will deny us.”
In
other
words salvation, in verse
ten is
synonymous with “reigning”
with Christ, in verse twelve.
2.
There is a
statement found in Romans
13: 11:
“And that,
knowing the time,
that now is it high time to awake out of sleep: for now is
our salvation nearer than
when we believed.”
When
we
are saved from sin at the cross, then we start our
march toward a further and
future salvation.
That
salvation
daily draws nearer.
The
context shows that it points to Christ’s return,
because verse twelve
says: “The
night
is far
spent, and the day
is at
hand.”
This
present
evil age is “night”
Christ’
second
coming is “day.”
3.
There is a third scripture: you will find it in
Peter’s first epistle, chapter
one, verse five.
“Who are kept by the power of God
through faith unto
salvation ready
to be revealed in the last time!”
Verse four, of
the
same chapter, tells of our inheritance
reserved
in heaven for us.
Verse five, calls
the inheritance
of verse
4, “salvation,
ready to, be
revealed
in the last time.”
Verses 6
and 7
tell how the coming salvation is
a source
of joy - “wherein
ye greatly rejoice,”
and then
speaks of the “appearing
of
Jesus Christ.”
Thus
in
three scriptures (2 Tim. 2: 10, Rom. 13:
11,
and 1 Pet.
1: 5) we
have found particulars of a coming
salvation.
2. WE ARE NOW READY TO RETURN
TO HEBREWS, AND CATCH
THE DEEPER
MEANING OF HEBREWS
1:14,
WHERE SAINTS ARE CALLED
“HEIRS
OF SALVATION.”
1.
Let
us take the verses of Hebrews
2: 1-3
which develop the word begun in Hebrews
1: 14. The second chapter opens with
“Therefore,” and is, accordingly, linked
to what precedes in the
last verse of the first chapter.
“Therefore we ought to
give the more earnest heed to the things which we
have heard, lest at
any time we
should let (them) slip.
“For if the word spoken by angels
was stedfast, and
every transgression and disobedience received a just
recompence
of reward;
“How shall we escape, if we
neglect so great salvation; which
at the first began
to be spoken by the Lord,
and was confirmed unto
us by them that heard him.”
(Heb.
2: 1-3).
May
we
tabulate some things found in these three verses:
(1).
We
are invoked to give heed - earnest heed - the more
earnest heed to
“the
things we have heard.”
(2). We are urged not to “let slip” (the
word
“them” is not in the
original).
(3).
We, not
the unsaved,
are warned that we
shall not escape “if we neglect
so great salvation.”
The
“great
salvation”
of Hebrews
2:
3, is
undoubtedly, the same “salvation”
as that of Hebrews 1:
14, to
which we are “heirs.”
The
[Holy] Spirit
explains to
what He refers by the “salvation” of
which we are
heirs; and the salvation which we must not neglect, when He
tells us in Hebrews
2: 5
that
He is speaking of “the
habitable world
to come.” That
world is the age which is now about to
dawn, even the
age when
the kingdoms of this world shall become the Kingdoms
of our Lord and His Christ.
2. Let
us weigh deeply a verse found in Heb. 9:
28.
“So Christ was once offered to bear
the sins of many; and unto
them that look for him shall he
appear the second time without sin unto
salvation.”
This
passage
gives God’s own definition of “salvation”
as used in the
book of Hebrews.
It
tells us that Christ shall
“appear the second time
apart from sin unto salvation.”
Let
its now sum up what we have said:
1. The
three scriptures from other epistles:
(1) “That they
(the
elect) may obtain salvation.”
2 Tim.
2:
10.
(2) “Now
is our
salvation nearer
than when
we believed.” Rom. 13:
11.
(3) “Kept
by
the power of God
... unto salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.”
1 Peter 1: 8.
2. The three scriptures from
Hebrews:
(1)
“Heirs
of
salvation.” Heb. 1: 14.
(2)
“So
great a
salvation.” “The
habitable world to come,”
“whereof we speak.” Heb. 2:
3, 5.
(3)
“He
... shall appear the
second time unto salvation.”
Heb. 9:
28.
3. IN LINE WITH “SALVATION” AS USED IN
CONNECTION WITH CHRIST’S
COMING AND OUR REIGNING WITH HIM.
LET US
STUDY CHRTST’S
MESSAGE
ON SAVING AND LOSING ONE’S LIFE [soul].
“For
whosoever will
save his life shall lose it: and
whosoever
will lose his life for
my sake shall find it.
For what is a man profited, if he shall gain the whole
world, and lose
his
own soul?
or
what shall a man give in exchange for his soul?
For the Son of man shall come
in the glory of his Father with his angels; and then
he shill reward every man
according to his work.”
(Matthew
16: 25-27).
In
considering
this scripture, we
do not think of
salvation from hell,*
but of the saving of the life, by the
obtainment of the rewards which Christ will bring with
Him at His coming.
[*
NOTE. Always keep in mind: “Hell,”
as translated in the A.V., is not synonymous
with “the lake of fire”
- the eternal place and state
of the lost after the time of their Resurrection,
(Rev.
20: 13):
it is the place of the dead; from the time of
Death until that of Resurrection: and, it is the “soul”
of man - the man himself without
a glorified and immortal
body of “flesh
and bones,”
(Luke 24:
24: 39) -
which descends into “Hades,”
“in the heart of the
earth,” (Matt. 12: 40).
cf.
Matt.
16: 18; Acts 2:
27.
Hence
“the salvation of souls”
(1 Pet. 1: 9), is
the “hope” of those who have
“purified”
their souls in “obedience to the truth” (ver.
22): and this future “salvation
of souls,” will take place “at
the revelation of Jesus Christ” (ver. 13).
See
first mention principle in Gen.
37: 35: “I will go down
to Sheol” =
“Hades” Gk., LXX. cf. Psa. 16:
10: “For thou wilt not leave my soul in
Sheol…” Again, in Acts
2: 27, -
relative to the resurrection of Messiah Jesus, - “Thou
wilt not leave my soul in Hades, Neither wilt thou
give thy
Holy
One to see corruption.”
“For David ascended not
into the heavens”
(ver. 34)!
These
truths
are the thrust of Peter’s sermon at Pentecost - 50 days after the Crucifixion of our Lord, and 10 days after His Ascension and post-resurrection ministry!
There are no un-resurrected human
phantoms in Heaven today! nor
will there ever
be any at any time in the future!
The
Dead must wait for the proper clothing; and that cannot take place before
our Lord’s return or the establishment of
His “Kingdom”
here! 1 Thess.
4: 16. cf. John
3: 13; 14:
3; Luke 16: 23;
Heb. 11: 39; Rev.
6: 9-11.]
The
“life” is that period
of time, with its
opportunities of fidelity to Christ in doctrine, in
walk, and in service, which
lies between our regeneration (when the life in Christ
is begotten) and our
departure from this earth, by death or rapture.
If we lose our life now,
in suffering
and service, we will save it
in the day
of Christ’s coming. If we save
it now, that is, spare
ourselves from suffering and service,
we will lose it at His coming, being “saved
so as by
fire.” All of
this is indissolubly linked to the “‘salvation’ at his coming
and
our heirship.”
Lord help me so to live,
My life to others give,
That it may yet LIVE ON,
When I am
gone.
May I redeem my time,
My life make so sublime,
That it may yet LIVE ON,
When earth
is done.
May all I say and do,
Count for that life, anew,
The life that yet LIVES
ON,
Beyond
the sun.
5
THE
REST THAT
REMAINETH
We
are
now ready to ponder a vital part of our study.
It is this:
1.
The
REST
of Hebrews 4,
is builded around the Old
Testament Story of
In
Joshua
21: 22 we read:
“AND
THE LORD GAVE THEM REST.”
In Deuteronomy 12: 9,
the REST was still future
and was a promised inheritance.
“For ye are not
as yet come to the rest and
to the inheritance, which the
Lord your God giveth you.”
In
Deuteronomy
12:
10, the
REST
is said to lie over
“But when ye go over
In
Joshua
22: 4, the REST
was realized, and God’s promise fulfilled.
“And now the Lord your God hath,
given rest unto
your
brethren, as he
promised them: therefore now
return ye,
and get you
into your tents, and
unto the land of your
possession, which
Moses the servant of the Lord
gave you on the other side Jordan.”
2. The REST of
Hebrews 4,
is our Millennial, kingdom rest.
In
Hebrews
4: 1, we are given a [divine]
promise of [a
future] REST.
“A promise being
left
us of entering into his REST.”
In
Hebrews
4:
9, we
are told of a
REST that remaineth.
“There
remaineth therefore
a rest to the people of God!”
What do we have before us?
There
were
a people of old, journeying toward a promised rest
who failed to enter
into their rest, then there is a present-hour
people [of
God]
journeying toward a [future] rest.
The
former
anticipates the
latter.
The
former
is a type of
the latter.
WHAT THEN IS OUR REST? OUR
It
cannot be heaven, because
heaven
is not now possessed by seven nations whose iniquity
is full.
It
cannot
he heaven, because heaven
holds no giants, the
sons of the Anakinis.
It
cannot
be heaven, because heaven is not straitly shut up against our entering.
It
cannot
be heaven because heaven has no walled cities and
closed gates which nitist
be surrounded and fall by faith.
OUR REST IS THE MILLENNIAL
KINGDOM.
1.
Because
the earth is now possessed by Satan and his adherents,
and they shall
soon be cast out.
2.
Because
the harvest of the earth is, ripe, as
3.
Because
the earth is filled with mighty men who defy the
living Son of
God. Spirits
of demons fill the
land. They
shall soon be overthrown.
4.
Because
the earth is straitly shut up against Christ, while
its rulers will
soon say, “Let us
break their bands asunder, and cast away their cords
from us;”
these Christ will overwhelm at His coming.
[Page 97]
5.
Because
in Christ’s coming judgment, the cities of the nations
shall crumble,
as His saints come marching in.
If
the
Canaan Rest typically stands for heaven,
then those
who preach eternal security must take down
their banners inasmuch as the
majority of the fathers
who came out of
Why
do
saints think of heaven, as they sing?
“On
And cast a wistful
eye
To
Where
my possessions lie.”
Are
saints
singing of heaven when they swell the chorus?
“I
am bound for the promised
land,
I
am
bound for the promised land
0 who will come
and go with me?
I am bound for the
promised land.”
No,
our
Our Canaan is our rest,
and our rest is Christ’s
In
His
Kingdom we shall have rest from all our enemies.
In
His
Kingdom sin and unrighteousness will succumb, while
truth and righteousness
kiss one another.
In
His
Kingdom the physical earth will be filled with His
glory, as the
pomegranates, the grapes of Esehol,
the milk and the
honey, the wine and the oil, abound.
Watching
I turn my
eyes
Unto the
east,
God’s
great sunrise;
A grand new era
dawns,
I see
The thousand years of Jubilee:
Spread is
the feast!
Behold
earth’s shadow flee,
No bitter wail
Comes now
to me;
Instead, a
blooming
Doth now,
o’er all the earth arise,
To thee all
hail!
6
THE
SOLEMN
WARNING
Hebrews,
chapter
three
and
four,
are filled with
solemnizing and startling
warnings to the people of God. These
are
such that we dare not side-step them, nor cast them
lightly away.
Let
us
enter and search into their warnings by a short
preparatory study of 1 Corinthians
10:
1-11.
Ponder every sentence of these remarkable
verses of scripture.
“Moreover,
brethren, 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.
But with many of them God was not pleased; for they were overthrown in the
wilderness.
Now these things were
our examples, to the intent we should not lust after evil things,
as they also lusted.
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.
Neither let us commit fornication, as some of them committed, and fell in one day three and
twenty thousand.
Neither let us tempt Christ, as some of them also tempted, and
were destroyed of
serpents.
Neither murmur ye,
as some of them also murmured, and were destroyed of the destroyer.
Now all these things happened unto them for ensamples:
and they
are written for our
admonition upon whom the ends of the world are
come.
The
Holy
Spirit in First Corinthians, nine, had just concluded
a statement of Paul’s
ambition to run a successful Christian race, and to
fight a victorious fight, “lest,”
said he, “that by any means,
when I have preached unto others,
I myself should be a castaway.”
Immediately,
the
[Holy] Spirit
relates
to us, as seen in the verses just quoted, how the “fathers,” who had been saved out of
Then
the
[Holy] Spirit next reminds us that
they “were
all
baptized unto Moses in the cloud and in the sea.”
The
[Holy] Spirit still continues: and
they “did
all drink
the same Spiritual drink: for
they
drank of that Spiritual Rock that followed them: and that Rock was Christ.”
The
typology
is perfect thus far, setting forth our own salvation
by blood, our [believer’s]
baptism, and
our partaking of the bread and wine at the Lord’s
table.
Next,
however,
the [Holy] Spirit
gives
His warning:
“But with many
(the greater part) of
them God
was not well pleased: for they
were overthrown in the
wilderness.”
Does the typology cease?
By no means. The
[Holy] Spirit Himself forcefully
says: “Now
these
things were our examples.” The
Greek is “tupoc,”
“types.”.
The
[Holy] Spirit
even
gives the divine objective in recording these types: “To the intent that we should not
lust after evil things as they lusted. Neither be
idolaters as were some of them
... neither
... commit fornication as some of them committed; ... neither
... tempt
Christ, as some of
them also tempted; neither murmur, as some of them murmured.”
The
[Holy] Spirit also tells us of how
there “fell
in one day three and
twenty thousand;”
of how they were
“destroyed
of
serpents,”
of how they were “destroyed of the destroyer.”
Then the [Holy] Spirit,
having told us [who are regenerate]
of all these
things, yet once more urges: “Now all these things
happened unto them for types,
and they are
written for
our admonition
upon whom the ends of the world (ages) are come.”
With
what
startling forcefulness does the Holy Spirit add this
significant warning:
“Therefore Let Him That
Thinketh He Standeth,
Take
Heed Lest He Fall.”
It
is
this same warning to saints, upon which the [Holy] Spirit
enlarges in Hebrews [chapters] three and four, to which we
now give our thought.
7
THE
WARNINGS
OF HEBREWS THREE AND
FOUR
ELUCIDATED
As
we
study, may God “stir
us up by
way
of remembrance,”
and may past
events in [redeemed]
FIRST: Moses and his house contrasted to Christ and His
house - “Whose house are we.”
Moses
was
faithful as God’s household servant.
Christ
was
faithful as God’s household Son.
Christ
as
a Son over His house is greater than Moses as a
servant, over his house.
Christ
who
builded the house, was greater than Moses who served
it.
Moses
and
his house carry “a testimony”
relative to “those things which should be
spoken after” concerning Christ and His house.
Mark with all
concern these words:
“And Moses verily was faithful in
all his house, as a
servant, for a
testimony
of those things which were to be spoken after;
But Christ as a Son over his
own house; whose
house are we, if we hold fast the confidence and the
rejoicing of the hope firm unto the end.”
(Hebrews 3:
5-6).
The
two
verses above carry the key to everything that follows
in chapters two and
three, and to much that
follows later in the epistle.
The
words,
“a
testimony to those
things to be spoken
after”
is sufficient proof
that Moses and his house speak
with a definite testimony
concerning the future house or kingdom of our
Lord.
Now
read
again the words in verse
six, upon
which the whole warning of the
epistle is builded.
“BUT
CHRIST, AS A SON OVER
HIS OWN HOUSE; WHOSE HOUSE ARE WE,
IF WE HOLD FAST THE [Page 101] CONFIDENCE AND THE REJOICING OF THE HOPE
FIRM UNTO THE END.”
(Hebrews 3: 6.)
“IF.”
“IF
WE.”
“IF
WE
HOLD FAST.”
“IF
WE HOLD FAST THE
CONFIDENCE OF THE HOPE.”
“IF
WE
HOLD FAST THE CONFIDENCE, AND THE
REJOICING OF THE HOPE.”
“IF
WE
HOLD FAST ... FIRM UNTO THE
END.”
THEN
WE ARE HIS
HOUSE
If
we
do not hold fast the confidence (that is, the
boldness), and the rejoicing
of the HOPE firm unto the end –
THEN, WE ARE NOT HIS HOUSE.
It
is
useless to argue back at God. His Word is true.
However,
we
may well stop and consider the meaning of the words -
HIS HOUSE.
His
house
is not the church - that is His body.
His
house
is not heaven - that is HIS
FATHER’S house. (John
14: 1, 2,
3).
THE HOUSE IS HIS KINGDOM.
It
is
His house, because He is its Master.
It
is
written: “When
once the Master-of-the-House is risen
up
and shut to the door.”
His house is His
All
of
this will take certain shape as we proceed.
Let
us
now read some statements spoken expressly by the Holy
Spirit:
“Wherefore
(as the Holy Ghost saith, Today
if ye will hear his voice).
Harden not your
heart; as
in the provocation,
in the
day of temptation in the wilderness:
When your fathers
tempted me, proved
me, and saw my works forty years.
Wherefore I was
grieved with that generation,
and said, They
do always err in their heart, and
they have not
known my ways.
So I sware in my
wrath, They
shall not enter into my rest”
(Hebrews 3: 7-11).
There
are
in this scripture, several definite things to
consider. Having
told us that we are Christ’s house IF we “hold fast,” etc., the [Holy]
Spirit continues
with a “wherefore,” and quotes in full the very words He spoke as
recorded
in Psalm 95: 7
-
11.
The
same
call - and plea which the [Holy] s[S]pirit made through David to
the
The
“fathers” of
We
all
know the story of those sad days.
Of
some 600,000 men (the fathers) who left
Hear
what
the [Holy]
Spirit says
to us concerning this:
“Take heed, brethren, lest there be in any of you an
evil heart of unbelief,
in departing from the living God.
But exhort one another daily,
while it is called Today;
lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin” (Hebrews
3:
12-13).
Nothing
could
he plainer.
We,
the
brethren should beware LEST
we fall after the same
example of unbelief.
We,
the
brethren, the saints of these last days, who are
told in Hebrews
10:
25 to
exhort one another as they see the day (His
coming) approaching; are in this scripture told to “exhort one another daily,”
lest
we be hardened
by
the deceitfulness of sin.
After
this
was spoken the [Holy] Spirit gave us the fuller
meaning of His warning.
“For we are made
partakers
of Christ, if we hold
the beginning of our confidence stedfast unto
the end; While it is
said, Today if ye
will hear his voice,
harden not your hearts,
as in
the provocation.
For some, when
they had heard, did
provoke: howbeit not
all
that came out of
Does the [Holy]
Spirit mean we will have Eternal
LIFE
IF?
Never!
“He that believeth on the Son HATH
everlasting
life, and shall not come into condemnation.”
The
[Holy] Spirit does mean: We are members of Christ’s HOUSE IF.
The
[Holy] Spirit does mean, we will be
partakers of
Christ in His Kingdom reign, IF.
Observe
that
in Hebrews
3:
6, we
are members of His house IF WE hold fast
the
confidence and the rejoicing of the HOPE firm unto the end; while in
Hebrews
3: 14, we are partakers of Christ IF we hold the BEGINNING
of our
confidence stedfast unto the end.
The
HOPE of Hebrews 3 is the same as that Blessed
Hope, of
Titus
2:13: “Looking for that blessed
hope and the glorious appearing of
the great God and our Saviour Jesus
Christ.”
The
HOPE of Hebrews
3 is the same as
the HOPE of the gospel
in Colossians 1: 23 from which
we are exhorted to be
not moved
away.
The HOPE
of
Hebrews
3 is the same as
the HOPE of 1 Peter
1:
13,
where we are told to “hope to the end for
the grace that is to be brought unto you at
the revelation of Jesus Christ.”
The
[Holy] Spirit now makes His warning
even more definite, as
He speaks of that which saints may lose. Follow His
words:
“But with whom
was he grieved forty
years? was
it not with
them that had sinned,
whose carcases fell in the
wilderness?
And to whom sware
he that they should not
enter into his rest,
but to them that believed
not?
So we see that they
could
not enter in because of unbelief. Let us
therefore fear,
lest a promise being left us of entering into his rest, any of you
should seem to come short of it”
(Hebrews 3:
17-19, 4:
1).
As
we
see the carcasses of the “fathers”
falling in
the wilderness; as we see the ones who
might have entered
[Page 104]
Canaan,
failing to enter in, we are warned lest
we also fail of entering
into the
Thus
with
LET
US, THEREFORE, FEAR.
LET
US ... FEAR, LEST.
How
the
words burn their way into our very consciousness.
We
marvel
that so few saints ever experience this FEAR.
We
marvel
that so few preachers ever preach to saints and exhort
them to
FEAR
“lest
a promise being left us
of entering into HIS
REST, any of
you should seem to come short of it.”
8
WHAT IS HIS REST?
His
rest
is certainly HIS HOUSE in Hebrews
3:
6.
His rest
is certainly being made “partaker of Christ”
in Hebrews
3: 14.
His
rest is our HOPE,
which we are to hold firm to the
end.
The
Rest, which the
“fathers” missed, was
Our
Rest, is that which
Now
let
us hasten through the fourth of Hebrews and we will
discover, to a
certainty, what their “rest”
was, and
what our “rest” is.
In
Hebrews, 3: 19 “They
could not enter
in” to
their REST.
In
Hebrews
4: 3,
“We which
have believed do enter into
REST.”
In
Hebrews 4:
4,
“God did REST
on the seventh day.”
In
Hebrews
4:
5, “If they shall
enter into My
REST.”
In
Hebrews
4:
8, “If Jesus (Old
Testament, Joshua) had
given
them REST, he would
not afterward have spoken of
another day.”
In
Hebrews
4: 9,
“There remaineth therefore a REST (a keeping of the
sabbath) to
the people of God.”
In
Hebrews
4: 10 a
comparison is given between God’s seventh day REST,
and our REST.
In
HEBREWS 4:
11,
the renewed warning [to
‘US’] is stressed “LET
US labour (give
diligence) to
enter
into that REST,
lest we fall
after the
same example of unbelief.”
Let
us
sum up our conclusions:
a.
b.
Heaven does not fit in with this
c. Canaan
cannot mean the deeper
Christian life, although the deeper
Christian life does give a Rest
of Faith, which may anticipate the climactic Rest that remaineth, and is our blessed Goal - God’s “another day.”
God’s
seventh
day rest in creation, forecasts another Sabbatical
rest, of one
thousand years, the seventh thousand, following
after the six thousand years
which have now almost passed.
9
SAINTS
MAY
FAIL TO REIGN WITH CHRIST
Let
us
discover if the fact of the possible failure of saints
to reign with Christ
is corroborated by other scriptures than those in Hebrews 3 and 4.
Romans 8: 17 says, “And joint heirs with Christ; if so be that we suffer with him,
that we may be glorified together.”
2 Timothy 2: 12 says, “If we suffer,
we shall also reign with him: if we deny him, he also will deny
us.”
Why
does
Peter in 2
Peter 1:
6, 9-15,
in his philippic on the Lord’s return urge the
saints to give
all
diligence to
add to
their faith, virtue, etc.; and to give all diligence to make their calling and
election sure, if all
saints shall enter into the
Kingdom reign?
Why
does
Paul speak of being a possible castaway
at the Bema, and
of
pressing on to attain the out-resurrection group,
and the prize
of the up-calling,
if all saints
will reign with Christ?
Why
did
Christ so frequently and constantly refer to those who
would be shut
out of the
Kingdom,
if all
are to enter in?
What
is
“the
recompense
of the inheritance” in Colossians
3: 24?
What
is
“the
recompense of the reward”
in Hebrews
11:
26?
What
is
“the
incorruptible
prize”
of 1
Corinthians 9:
24?
When and where will the first be
last, and the last be first, as in Mark 10:
43.
When and where will the saints
enter upon the rewards
which the Lord brings with Him in Revelation 22:12?
When and where will the Lord
reckon with His servants, as in Matthew 25: 19?
What
did
Paul mean when he said, “Yea,
and I wish that ye did reign, that we
also might reign with you”? (See 1 Corinthians 4: 8).
What
did
Christ mean by “Thou shalt be recompensed at the resurrection of the just”?
(See Luke
14:
14).
Why
did
Paul say, “We
are ambitious
(R. V.)
to be well pleasing
unto him.
For we must all appear
before
the judgment seat of Christ”?
(See 2
Corinthians 5:
9-10).
Why
should
saints “buffet
their
bodies”, “lay aside
every weight”,
“So run”, “So
fight”,
“Mortify their members”,
“Hold fast that they have”?
Deny the possibility of losing
crowns
and then explain
2 Timothy 2:
5,
“He is NOT
CROWNED except he strive lawfully.”
Of whom, and of what did
Christ speak when
said, “He that saveth his life shall lose it”?
The parables of Christ plainly teach
that the “unprofitable”
and “wicked” and “slothful” servant,
shall
have
no place in the Kingdom.
Our
faithful
“serving,” our
undimmed “watching,”
and our holy “living,”
will,
decide our [entrance and our] Kingdom
rewards.
“He that overcometh, and
keepeth my words unto the end,
TO HIM will I give authority over the nations, and he
shall rule them with a rod of iron.” (Revelation
2:
26-27).
Thus
it
is that the realm of rewards, of crowns, and of recompense, must
meet their complement in the [Millennial]
Kingdom of our
Lord Jesus Christ.
WHAT THEN? If Kingdom
honours are rewards to those who win them - “LET US FEAR LEST.”
“Ye see that they could
not enter in.”
(Hebrews 3:
19).
“Lest
... any
of you should
seem to
have come short of
it.”
(Hebrews 4: 1).
Remember
Christ
said, “Not
every one that
saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the Kingdom of heaven.” (Matthew
7: 21).
In
Revelation
20:
6, it
was those who “worshipped not the beast,
neither his image,
neither had received his mark
upon their foreheads,
or in their hands” who
LIVED and REIGNED with Christ
a thousand
years.
I saw a
Christian as the day broke gray,
He took his burden, starting
on his way,
He
never faltered
till a west’ring sun
Proclaimed the message that
his day was done;
I saw him
enter heaven’s wide-flung door,
I saw him crowned with glory
evermore,
Both tried and true, he now
shone forth as gold;
A great reward was his, an
hundredfold.
I saw
another start at break of day,
But soon he tired, and
fainted by the way;
He turned
aside to spend a pleasant hour,
And basked beneath the
world’s entrancing bower;
I saw
him later stand before the throne,
Saved by God’s grace, and yet
without a crown;
His face was sad,
he held no
harp, no lyre,
His works were burned, and he
was saved “by fire.”
10
THE GREAT “IF”
OF
HEBREWS SIX
There
has
been much of controversy centering around
Hebrews
6: 4-6.
For our part
we are sure that the foregoing paragraphs of this treatise,
should make all of Hebrews
6:
1-11, easily
understood. In
fact this passage of
scripture is the climactic conclusion of the [Holy]
Spirit’s
warning of the possible
MISSING THE PROMISED REST -
THE [MILLENNIAL]
Let
us
consider these scriptures somewhat analytically.
1. In Hebrews 5: 12-13, the [Holy] Spirit
speaks of Christians who are in need of milk and
not of strong meat.
They are but babes,
although by reason of time they should have been full
grown.
2.
In Hebrews 6:
1-2,
the [Holy]
Spirit
gives the call to these baby saints to lay aside “the word of the beginning”
and press on to “full growth.”
3. In Hebrews 6: 3,
the saints
are saying, “And
this
(going on to full growth) we
will do if God permit.”
The fact is therefore, that
there are some whom God will not permit
to go on.
4. In Hebrews 6:
4-6, the
[Holy] Spirit declares why
some saints cannot “go
on.” We quote the
words in full.
“For it is impossible for
those who were once
enlightened,
and have tasted of
the heavenly gift, and were made partakers of
the Holy Ghost, and have tasted
the good word of God, and the powers of the world
to come, if they shall fall
away,
to renew them again unto repentance;
seeing they crucify to themselves the Son of
God afresh, and put him to an open shame.”
5.
In
Hebrews 6: 7-8 these
saints,
who could not go on, are described as those whose works
are of the wood, hay and [Page
109] stubble class, under the figure
of the earth bringing forth thorns and thistles.
Here is the
scripture:
“For the
earth which drinketh in the rain that cometh oft
upon it, and
bringeth forth herbs meet for them by whom it is
dressed, receiveth
blessing from God,
But that which beareth thorns and briers is rejected, and is nigh unto cursing;
whose end is to be burned.”
6. In Hebrews 6: 9-10
the [Holy] Spirit
speaks
of another class of saints, filled with a work and
labour of love, of whom He
expects “better things,
even the things
that accompany
salvation.” In this
connection read once more our words
herein, concerning, “Salvation
in the book of Hebrews.”
“But, beloved,
we are persuaded better things
of you, and things
that accompany salvation,
though we thus speak,
For God
is not unrighteous to forget your work and labour of
love, which ye have
showed toward his name,
in that ye have ministered to the saints, and do minister.”
7. In
Hebrews 6:
11,
the
[Holy] Spirit warns the saints
described in Hebrews
6: 9-10, that they must show the
same diligence to the full assurance of hope, “firm
unto the end.” Then He
warns
them lest they fall by the way (as those in 6:
4-6 fell), by becoming slothful.
Here is the reading of this scripture.
“And we desire that every one of
you do shew the same
diligence to the full assurance of hope unto the end.”
Let
us
now offer a few deductions on the whole matter.
1. The “those,” and the “they”
and the “them”
of Hebrews
6:
4-6, and the “you,”
and the “ye” of Hebrews 6: 9-10, are
two
distinctive groups of [regenerate]
believers;
and not the almost saved unbelievers, in contrast to
the fully saved,
believers.
2. There are abundant scriptures which teach that the saved
who have been once enlightened, and have tasted of
the heavenly gift, etc., may
fall away and lose their place in the [Millennial]
Kingdom, and its rewards; there is no scripture
that teaches that unbelievers (the unregenerate) can
crucify to themselves the
Son of God afresh.
3. Saints who harvest wood, hay, and stubble, will suffer
loss, by the fire which shall try every man’s work;
while other
saints will receive a full reward because their works
were gold, silver, and
precious stones which cannot be burned.
4. Those who teach that Hebrews 6: 4-6
speaks merely of the unregenerate, who were almost
saved, fail to explain the significance of the following
statements which are to be found in the divinely
written context.
(a). The significance of babes,
in 5:
12-13.
[If] They
are not the “you”
and the “ye”
of Heb. 6: 9-10;
then who
are they?
(b). The significance of going on to full
growth,
if God will permit in 6:
3
(They do not explain why God
will not permit this “going on,”
although 6: 4-6
explains why).
(c). The significance of the warning to the
victorious [and obedient] saints
of
Heb.
6: 9-10, to
press on to the full assurance of hope to the end -
this they invariably
omit. (This
full assurance of hope
is in harmony with Hebrews
3: 6; 3:14;
and 10:
35-39).
5.
They utterly
fail to grasp the
[Millennial]
Kingdom
warnings
which pervade the whole book
of Hebrews and therefore snatch away the text, Hebrews 6:
4-6; from the context, Hebrews 6:
1-13, 24.
As
we
close, we earnestly ask our readers who may be tempted
to cast aside what is
written herein, to answer with all sincerity the
following questions:
Ques. 1.
What is meant
in Hebrews
10:
30-31,
when the [Holy]
Spirit says,
“The Lord shall judge his people,” and, “It
is a fearful thing to
fall
into the hands of the living God”? (Compare with 2
Corinthians 5: 11).
Ques. 2. What is meant in Hebrews 10: 35-39, by the “Saving of the soul?”
In the same
verse who are those who draw back to perdition [destruction]?
And what did they lose? (If
you answer,
“the saving of the soul
stands for eternal
life,”
then we ask what does Hebrews
10:
35-36
mean when it
says?:-
“Cast not away therefore your
confidence which hath great recompence of reward,
For ye have need
of patience [perseverance],
that after ye
have done
the will of God, ye might
receive the promise.”
Ques. 3. To whom does
the [Holy]
Spirit in Hebrews 12: 16-17 refer, when He uses Esau as
a solemn warning [against
the possible loss of the
birthright belonging to the firstborn]? And
why?
Ques. 4. Why the great call of Hebrews 13:
13 - “Let
us, therefore, go out unto him,
without the camp”?
Surely,
not
“eternal life”
which is the gift of God,
is discussed in any of these scriptures.
The
[regenerate] child of God is saved eternally, and is
eternally safe.
It
must
be
MISSING THE [MILLENNIAL] KINGDOM.
11
IN
CONCLUSION
Permit us, finally, to sound one
loud call to [regenerate] believers everywhere to set
themselves to lay hold
upon those things, by which they have been laid hold
upon by Christ.
Let us live looking for that blessed hope.
Let
us
learn to love His appearing.
Let
us
henceforth watch and wait and long for Him to come.
Let us beware
lest
we say, “Our Lord
delayeth His coming.”
Let
us
beware lest, like Esau, we sell
our [first-born]
inheritance
for a mess of pottage.
Let
us
beware lest a promise being life us of entering into
His rest, we should seem to come short of it.
We
must
he robed and
ready, with lamps trimmed and burning until He comes.
We
must
be occupying. We
must be keeping the faith, fighting
the good fight, and stretching forth to the prize
which lies before us.
We
must
go outside the camp with Him, bearing His reproach.
Remember
that
when David came into his kingdom he gave places of
honour and authority to
the men who had suffered
with him in the
days of his rejection by Saul - even
so will Christ do at His
coming.
For
All our toil for the Master
will not be in vain.
We will
meet all our labour in heaven again..
That is
If our service is His;
If we toil
for the lucre that men hold as dear,
If we
labour for honour that comes to us here,
Ah, then,
Not again
Shall we have His reward in
the joy of His reign.
In the Lord we must labour,
if praise we would win,
Let us
then, at this moment, true service
begin;
’Tis
thus
His
blessing He’ll grant unto us;
If we do
and we dare in the things He commands,
If we go
and we come whensoe’er
He demands,
’Tis
then,
That again
We shall have His rewards for
a work genuine.
*
*
*
GOD’S GREAT “IF”
We are adding to the address on Missing
the
Kingdom, some excerpts from
a
stenographically reported sermon preached
by Dr. Neighbour.
This will give added emphasis to the
preceding message.
AN EXPOSITION OF HEBREWS 6: 1-6.
Hebrews 6:
4-6 contains a message that is
greatly needed among saints.
The more illumined we are the more the
message is needed, for to whom much is given, much is
required.
[Page 113]
Let
us
read together the 6th
chapter of Hebrews,
beginning at verse 1:
“Therefore leaving
the principles of the
doctrine of Christ, let us go on unto perfection;
not laying again the foundation of repentance from
dead works, and of
faith toward God.
Of the doctrine of baptisms, and of laying
on of hands, and of
resurrection of the dead,
and of eternal judgment.
And this will we do,
if God permit.
For it is impossible for
those who were once
enlightened,
and have tasted of the
heavenly gift, and were made partakers
of the Holy Ghost,
And have tasted the good word of God, and the powers of the world to
come,
If they shall fall away, to renew them again unto
repentance;
seeing they crucify to
themselves the Son of God afresh,
and put him to
an open shame.
For the earth which drinketh in the rain that cometh oft upon it, and
bringeth forth herbs
meet for them by whom it is dressed, receiveth
blessing
from God;
But that which beareth thorns and briers is rejected,
and is nigh unto cursing;
whose end is to be burned.
But, beloved,
we are persuaded better things
of you, and things
that accompany salvation, though
we thus speak.”
ARE SAINTS OR SINNERS IN
VIEW?
The
question
which you wish answered first of all, and scripturally
answered, is
this: Do these verses in Hebrews
6 refer to
a believer or to an unbeliever; to the saved, or to
the lost; to the saint or
to the sinner?
We
believe
in the security of the believer; we believe if you are
born again, you
can never he unborn, we believe that none of God’s
children will be found in
the lake of fire; that none of them will be ultimately
lost; we believe that
the children of God have eternal life; that when they
believed, they were
sealed by the Holy Ghost unto the day of the
redemption of their bodies, unto
the day of their entrance into eternal life; we
believe that God’s sheep can
never Perish.
However, the
eternal security of a believer
does not secure his rewards. Salvation is
by
grace, apart from works, that is, salvation is
altogether an unmerited
favour. [Eternal]
Salvation
is the finished work of the Lord Jesus Christ.
He saves you because of what
He
did, and not because of what you do.
[Eternal] Salvation
is,
therefore, of grace, to the exclusion of works. You can do
nothing to become a
Christian. You
cannot even lift a finger
to help yourself.
All a sinner can do is to receive a finished and a completed
work. When
he receives Christ, God gives
unto him eternal life and he can never be lost.
There
has
been, however, on
the part of many who
so believe a grave error. They have
turned away from many solemn
warnings, which are plainly and positively written
[to
them]
in the Word of God.
THE TEXT AND THE CONTEXT
We
are
coming to a very solemn passage this afternoon.
It is easily understood, I think, when we
have the whole concept of the Book of Hebrews in our
mind. The
reason we have not caught God’s warning in
Hebrews 6:
4-6, is
because we have isolated it, picked it up
out of the chapter, carried it off and examined it
apart from its
environment. When
we look at this
scripture, out of its setting, we are staggered. When we
remember that “the sum of thy
word is truth,” and that it is
altogether wrong to prise any scripture outside of its
context, and contrary to
its setting, we will be greatly blessed.
The Book of Hebrews begins with the
annunciation of the heirship of
Jesus Christ; the Book of Hebrews concludes with the
vision of Jesus Christ’s
Second Coming and His throne, in the 12th
chapter.
Chapter
13 is a final word of advice and wisdom.
The 12th chapter tells of the
removing of everything that can
be shaken, while the things which cannot be shaken,
remain. The
conclusion is: “Wherefore receiving a kingdom
which cannot be moved, let us worship God with fear.” The Book of
Hebrews, thus, beginning with the heirship of Christ,
and closing with the
kingdom that cannot be moved has, lying
between these statements,
a continuously presented call to saints to
lay hold of that [earthly
and
heavenly]*
heirship, and to enter into that [millennial]
reign.
[* If we are to be “equal
unto the angels … being
sons
of resurrection” (Lk.
20:
36), then
both
earthly
and heavenly
spheres
of Messiah’s coming Kingdom will be accessible.]
In
discussing
Hebrews 6, we will,
of necessity,
refer to some passages in Hebrews which we have
developed in other recent
sermons.
WHOSE HOUSE WE
ARE IF WE HOLD FAST
First
of
all, in the 3rd chapter of Hebrews it
speaks of the fact that
Moses was faithful as the servant of his house; then
it says that Jesus Christ,
who is greater than Moses, was faithful as the son of
His own house. Moses led
the Children of Israel out of
These
words
are in accord with those in Hebrews 2:
1-3 “How shall we escape IF we
neglect so great salvation?”
If we had not always used that 2nd chapter
and verses 2
and 3, as an
evangelistic text, to be
applied to [unregenerate] sinners, we would not have had trouble when we
came into the 6th chapter of Hebrews,
“How shall we escape if we neglect so great salvation?”
The WE
of this scripture refers
definitely, distinctively, and
incontrovertibly to
the [regenerate] belirver. “How
shall WE escape
it WE neglect so great salvation?” The salvation
of this verse and the salvation in Hebrews 6: 9 are the same [future] salvation.
Let
us
return to chapter
3: “Christ
as a son of his own
house, whose house we
are, IF.” In chapters
3 and 4,
you find the story of how the Children of Israel were
saved out of
Hebrews
uses
all of this as a warning to saints [today] who
start out, putting their
hands to the plough, and then fall after the
same example of unbelief.
Time and again the words ring out: “Take
heed lest ye also fall,
after
the same example of unbelief.” God asks us [His redeemed people]
to remember
the days of the provocation in the wilderness, when [the accountable
generation of His redeemed people]
The
sins
of the Children of Israel, as they journeyed through
the wilderness, are
summed up for its in the 10th
chapter of 1
Corinthians, under a
six-fold statement: They lusted after evil things;
they were idolaters; they
committed fornication; they tempted Christ; they
turned back, and they
murmured. Therefore,
they failed to
enter
In
our
former sermon we emphasized that the
GOD’S GREAT IF
“For it is impossible for those
who were once enlightened.”
We
do
not believe, for one moment, that the ‘THOSE’ of this
scripture can possibly refer to an
unbeliever. Let
us now mark carefully
the reading: “It
is impossible
for those who,”
firstly, “were once enlightened;” secondly, who “have
tasted of the heavenly gift;”
thirdly, who “were made partakers of (were led along by) the
Holy
Ghost;”
fourthly, who “have tasted the good word of
God,”
and, fifthly, who “have tasted the powers of the
world to come.” Can these
words refer to the unsaved
(Israelite or Gentile)?
No. They refer
to [regenerate] believers, even
to advanced
believers -
to
believers who were
enlightened; to
believers who
have tasted of the
Heavenly Gift; to believers who have tasted of
the good
Word of
God and
of the powers
of the
age to come.
How
were
they enlightened?
By the Holy Spirit of God.
Of what gift did they partake?
Of the gift of eternal
life?
Yes. But, to my mind more
particularly of the gift of the [Holy]
Spirit - [and
His
teachings and interpretations of
the Holy Scriptures]. What is the
greatest gift that God ever gave
to saints? “Repent
and be baptized, every
one of you, and
ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost, for the promise is unto you and your children.”
How
were they led along by the [Holy]
Spirit? He
instructed them, and guided them into the
things of Christ.
How had they TASTED
of the good Word of God?
You know I like that word, “tasted.” David
said, “Thy
word is sweeter than the honey and the honey-comb.” It is
good to the taste.
Have you ever tasted
it, tasted the good things that are written in the
Word? There
hath not failed one GOOD
THING that was spoken.
The “good word of God”
in Hebrews, is the message of Christ’s
[millennial as well as His eternal] heirship
- the good things to come.
How had they tasted of the powers (the word
is miracles), of the age to come?
They had known
[and fully understood] the
Gospel of the Kingdom, they had entered into the
marvels of the millennium.
They
had tasted all of these
things. Now,
what does God say of these
favoured believers?
“It is impossible for them IF
THEY
shall fall away”
- [i.e., apostatise from “the
faith,” by standing away from millennial
truths
which they had previously fully understood and
believed.] - to renew them again unto repentance, seeing that they crucify unto
themselves the Son of God afresh and put him to an
open shame.”
CRUCIFYING THE SON OF GOD
AFRESH
Before
we
examine the words, “If they shall fall away,” let us consider the words “seeing
that they crucify unto
themselves the Son of God afresh,
and put him to
an open shame.” Christians
sing:
“In
the cross of Christ I
glory,
Tow’ring o’er the wrecks
of time,
All
the light of sacred story,
Gathers
round its head sublime.”
We
love
to sing, “At the Cross, at
the Cross, Where I
first saw the light.”
What is the
Cross to a believer?
It is the emblem of
his redemption. “Just as I am, without one plea, but that Thy Blood was shed for me.” What else
does the Cross of Christ mean to the
Christian? In
Galatians
1:
4 it
says, He died that He might save us
from this present evil age.
What is the message of the Cross?
Let us go back to the story of the Children of
Israel. The
blood was sprinkled on the two side
posts, and on the upper door post.
God
said, “When I see the blood, I will pass over you.” After the
angel had passed over at midnight,
and the firstborn in the homes of the Egyptians had
been slain, then God said
to Moses, “Up,
get you out.” Why this
hurry? Because that blood stands
for
separation.
I
love that other passage in Galatians: “God forbid that I should glory,
save in the cross of our Lord
Jesus Christ, by the which I am crucified unto the world and the world unto me.” Oh,
beloved, if the Cross of the Lord Jesus Christ means
anything to you, it means
separation. It
means that you are a
purchased people, bought with the precious Blood of
Christ. Listen!
Have you been enlightened?
Have
you received the Ileavenly
Gift? Have
you been led along by the Holy
Spirit? Have
you tasted of the powers of
the age to come?
Then, have you fallen
away? If so, you have
crucified afresh to yourselves the Son of God, and
you have put Him to an open
shame. Ah,
Thou
Son of God, how many saints there are today who
are crucifying Thee
afresh. They
make Thy Cross of no avail,
they spoil its deeper meaning.
They trample its call beneath their feet,
they spurn its message.
Saints
should glory in the Cross where they
die, not alone in the Cross where He
died.
IF THEY SHALL FALL AWAY
Now,
we
are ready to discuss the words: “If they fall away”
- and also the words, “It is impossible to renew them
again to repentance.”
Shall
we
leave the first principles, the
beginnings of
the doctrine of Christ?
And press on to full growth? Yes, “this
we will do if God
permit.” God
will not always permit, for with some it is
impossible to press on.
Let
us find the 1st
chapter of Deuteronomy.
There we will discover the meaning of Hebrews 6:
4-6.
HOW
“There
are eleven days’ journey
from
Horeb by the way of
“The
Lord our God spake unto us in Horeb, saying,
Ye have dwelt long enough in this
mount.” (verse 6.)
God
is
talking to many Christians in this audience saying, “You have been living where you are living, long enough.”
Whereas you ought to be teachers, you have
need that someone teach
you again the beginnings of
Christ. You
have dwelt in this mount
long enough.
“Behold,
I have set the land
before you; go in and
possess the land.”
(verse 8.)
“The Lord, your
God, hath multiplied
you, and, behold,
ye are this day as
the stars of heaven for multitude.
(The Lord God of your
fathers make you a
thousand times so many more as ye are, and bless
you, as he hath promised)”
(verse 10.)
“And when we departed from Horeb, we went through all
the great and
terrible wilderness which ye saw by the way of the
mountain of the Amorites,
as the Lord our God commanded us;
and we came to Kadesh-barnea.”
(verse 19.)
“I said unto you,
Ye are come unto the
mountain of the Amorites,
which the Lord our God doth give unto us.
Behold, the
Lord thy God hath set the land before thee; go up and possess it, as the
Lord, God of thy
fathers hath said unto thee;
fear not, neither be
discouraged.
And ye came near unto me every one of you,
and said, We
will send men before us, and
they shall search
us out the land, and
bring us word again by what
way we must go up.” (verses
20-22.)
“And they turned and went tip into
the mountain, and
came into the
“And
they took of the fruit of
the land in their hands and brought it down unto us, and brought us word again,
and said, It
is a good
land which the Lord our God doth give us.”
“Notwithstanding YE
WOULD NOT GO UP,
but rebelled against the commandment of the Lord
your God; and ye
murmured in your tents, and said, Because the Lord hated us, he hath brought us forth out of
the land of Egypt.” (verses
24-27)
“Yet in this
thing ye did not believe
the Lord your God,
who went in the way before
you, to search you
out a place to pitch your
tents in, in fire by night,
to shew you
by what way ye should go,
and in a cloud by day. And the
Lord heard the
voice of your words,
and was wroth, and
sware, saying, Surely
there shall not one of these men of this evil generation see that good land.” (verses
30-35.)
I
am using this experience of the Children of Israel as
an illustration of Hebrews
6: 4-6.
“And the Lord heard the voice of
your words, and was
wroth, and sware
saying, Surely
there shall not one of these
men of this evil generation see that
good land which I sware to
give unto your fathers, save Caleb the son of Jephunneh;
… Also
the
Lord was angry with me for your sakes,
saying, Thou also
shalt not go in thither:
encourage
him: for he shall cause Israel to inherit it.
Moreover your little
ones, which ye said
should be a prey, and
your children, which
in
that day had no knowledge between good and evil,
they shall go in thither, and unto them will I give it,
and they shall possess it.
But as for you,
turn you,” (Oh,
Christians, hear it)
“Turn you and take your
journey into the wilderness. Then ye
answered and
said unto me, We have
sinned against the Lord, we
will go up and fight,
according to all that the Lord our God commanded us.
And when ye had girded
on every man his weapons of war,
ye were ready
to go up into the hill. And the
Lord said unto me,
Say unto them, Go
not up, neither
fight; for I am not among you;
lest ye be smitten before your enemies.
So I spake unto you;
and ye
would not hear,
but rebelled against the commandment of the Lord, and went presumptuously up into the hill. And the
Amorites, which dwelt
in that mountain,
came out against you,
and chased you, as
bees do, and
destroyed you
in Seir, even unto
Hormah. And ye
returned and wept before the Lord;
but
the Lord would not
hearken to your voice,
nor give ear unto you. So ye
abode in Kadesh many days.” (verses
34-46.)
BACK INTO THE WILDERNESS
“Then we turned and took our
journey into the wilderness.”
(Deut. 2: 1.) Oh, men and women, God has brought you up to your Kadesh-Barnea.
He has shown you the vision of the Heavenly
things; the blessings of rewards; the joys of the millennial
kingdom.
Have you tasted the
good Word of God concerning the inheritance which is your
birthright? Have
you
turned back?
God said to
THE EARTH THAT BEARS THORNS
AND BRIERS
Now,
let
us go a little deeper into Hebrews
6:
“It is impossible …
if they shall fall away,
to renew them again unto repentance; seeing they crucify to themselves the Son of
God afresh, and
put him to an open shame.”
The
Holy
Spirit goes on to give us an illustration of His holy
dealings and just
judgments: here are His words:
“For
the earth which drinketh
in the rain that cometh oft upon it, and
bringeth
forth herbs meet for them by whom it is dressed,
receiveth blessing from God;
but
that which beareth thorns and briers is rejected, and is nigh unto cursing; whose end is to be burned.”
It
is
the same earth, bearing two kinds of things: 1. herbs;
2. thorns.
What
a
picture! It is the 15th
chapter of John over again: “Herein is my Father glorified,
that ye bear much fruit.” If a man abide
not in the vine, “he is cast forth as a branch and
is withered, and
men gather them and cast them into the fire and
they are
burned.” Go back, if
you
will, to the 5th
chapter of Isaiah; to the 80th
Psalm; go to the
song that He sang about His vineyard.
He brought a vine out of
Listen
again:
John the Baptist, came
preaching, and he said, “The kingdom of heaven is at hand.” In Matthew
4: 17 we read, “From that time Jesus began to preach, and to say,
Repent: for the
kingdom of
heaven is at hand.”
It was
not very long until, (see the 19th
of
Luke), they put
Christ on an as, and He rode
into the city of
This
did
not mean that the children that should yet be born
unto them, should not
enter into the Kingdom, any more than the rejection of
the fathers at
Kadesh-Barnea under Moses, meant that their children,
under Joshua, could not
enter into
All
of
this is in striking analogy to the words of Hebrews 6:
4-6:
“For it is impossible for those who
were once enlightened,
and have partaken of the heavenly gift, and have been led along by the
Holy Ghost, and have
tasted of the good word of God and the powers of the age to come, if they fall away, to renew them again
unto repentance.”
It
is
impossible. Even
now I can hear those
doleful words: “Behold,
your house is left unto you desolate.” “You
shall not see me henceforth, TILL.” You can not
enter in, but your children can
and will. “Instead of the fathers will be the children.”
As the
children of
The
Apostle
Paul used to go back over his trips, visiting the
Churches where he had
been, that he might encourage the saints to continue
in the “confidence
of the HOPE,
firm unto the end.”
Paul was not
afraid that the saved would be [eternally] lost, but He
wanted to present them full-grown
in the Day of Christ.
ENCOURAGEMENT FOR SAINTS
Let
us
continue in Hebrews
6, reading verse 9 and on.
“But,
beloved, we are
persuaded better things of you,
and things that accompany salvation,
though we thus speak.”
Here is why the [Holy]
Spirit expected
better things:
“For God is not unrighteous to
forget your work and labour of
love, which
ye have shewed toward his name,
in that ye have ministered
to
the saints, and do minister.
And we desire,
(now
listen)
that every one of you do shew the same
diligence to the full assurance of hope unto the end.
That
ye be not slothful,
but followers of them who
through
faith and patience
[perseverance]
inherit
the promises. For when God made promise to
Abraham, because he
could swear by no greater, he
sware by himself,
saying, Surely
blessing I will bless thee,
and multiplying I will multiply thee. And so, after
he had patiently endured, he
obtained the promise. For men
verily swear by the greater: and
an oath for conformation is to them an end of all strife. Wherein
God,
willing more abundantly to show unto the heirs
of promise the
immutability of his counsel,
confirmed it by an
oath; that by two
immutable things, in
which it was impossible for God to lie, we might
have a strong consolation,
who have fled for refuge TO LAY HOLD UPON THE HOPE
set before us; which
hope
we have as an
anchor of the soul, both
sure and steadfast,
and which entereth into that within the veil;
whither the forerunner is for
us entered, even
Jesus, made an high
priest for ever after the order of Melchisedec.”
The
Holy
Spirit penned these words for the encouragement of
saints. None
need fall by the way.
In 1 Corinthians 10, is a
similar assurance, an assurance given after a similar
warring:
“There hath no temptation taken you
but such as is common to
man: but God is
faithful, who, will not suffer you to he tempted above that
you are able; but will with the temptation
prepare a way to escape it,
that ye may he able to bear it.”
If
any man fall away, it is
his own fault. God has made
every provision to carry everyone of us through in
victory, into His promised
land, and, blessed be God, I am set for it.
IF WE SIN WILFULLY
Now,
I
close, by reading from the 10th
chapter, verse
23. These
words include each of us.
“Let us hold fast the profession of
our faith!” (This should
read, “the
confession of our
hope.”[R.V.])
“without
wavering;
for he is faithful that
promised; and let us
consider one another to
provoke unto love,
and to good works:
not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as the manner of some is, but exhorting
one
another; and
so much the more, as
ye see the day approaching. For IF WE
sin wilfully after that we have received (this is similar to Hebrews 6) the knowledge of
the truth, (that is,
after we have once been enlightened) there remaineth no more sacrifice for sins.”
You
say,
“That is awful.” Yes, it is a
solemn, but faithful
warning. In
the Old Testament offerings there
was absolutely no sacrifice offered for rebellion. For sins of
ignorance, for trespasses, they
had blood to offer, but there
was no blood for wilful
sinning. When
a
child of God today comes up to the light, and he
wilfully turns his face
against it, there is no more sacrifice for sins. “It
is impossible to renew them again to repentance.” You say, “Then
such an
one is
going to hell.” Oh, not at
all. What
does happen? There
is
“A
certain fearful looking for
of judgment and fiery indignation,
which shall
devour the adversaries. He that despised Moses’
law
died without mercy, under two or three witnesses;
of how much sorer punishment,
suppose ye,
shall he be thought worthy,
who hath trodden under foot
the Son of God, and
hath counted the blood of the covenant, wherewith he was sanctified,
an unholy thing, and
hath done despite unto the
Spirit of grace.”
Listen
to
the next verse:
“For we know him that
hath said, Vengeance
belongeth
unto
me.”
I
would like to turn over to the 34th
chapter of Deuteronomy
and read these
very words:
“To me belongeth vengeance,
and recompence,”
saith the Lord.
And
again,
(continuing Heb. 10),
“The Lord shall
judge
his people.”
Thus,
He
is not talking of sinners, but of saints. “The Lord shall judge his people.” It is a fearful thing to
fall into the hands of the
living God. What
is the urgent
conclusion?
Verse 35:
“Cast not away therefore your
confidence, which
hath great
recompence of reward.
For
ye have need of patience, that,
after ye have done
the will of God, ye
might receive the
promise. For [Page 126] yet a little while, and he that shall come will come, and will not tarry.”
(Turn
back
and read Heb. 3: 6, 14)
ESAU’S REJECTION
Now,
last of all, listen to
Hebrews most solemn warning: Chapter
12: 15-16-17:
“Looking diligently lest any man
fail of the grace of God;
lest any root of bitterness
springing up trouble you
and thereby many be defiled;
lest there he any
fornicator, or
profane person, (this
is God’s own illustration)
as Esau,
who for one morsel of meat sold his birthright.
For ye know how that
afterward, when he
would have inherited the blessing,
he was rejected: for he found
no place of repentance,*
though he sought
it
carefully with tears.”
[* That is, he could not
persuade his father to change
his mind relative to the blessing
of the
firstborn which he had lost!]
These
words
are analogous to Hebrew
6:
4-6 -
“For it is impossible for those who
were once enlightened,
if they shall fall away,
to renew them again unto repentance;
seeing they
crucify to themselves the Son of God afresh, and
put him to an open shame.”
Esau
sold
to his brother, Jacob, his birthright.
That birthright included the very thing of
which I am now preaching, the
coming Seed, the inheritance of the land, and
all. Esau
sold it for a mess of pottage,
and when he wanted to reconsider, he found no place of
repentance, though he
sought it with tears.
[Christian]
Men and
women, I plead with you in the name of a Risen Christ. He has
placed before you marvellous rewards
for service; He has, placed before you His
Coming and His [Millennial]
Reign. Perhaps you
have come now to your Kadesh-Barnea.
I
plead with you, refuse not
to go on in the firm
confidence of your hope.
Let not scoffers, or persecution, turn you back.
Let us go out together unto Him, without the
camp, bearing His reproach.
Do you know
what God will do with you, if you turn bark?
He will do exactly what He did for that million
and a half, who came out
of
[* That is, after
Christ’s Millennium; when Hades is emptied;
and names are found “in the
book of life” after “Hades
gave up the dead.” See Rev.
20: 13-15.
cf.
1 Cor.
15:
22-25.]
Note: We are well
aware that Hebrews
6: 1-6 and Hebrews 10: 26-31 have a special message to
Hebrew saints. However, we must
not forget that we are told in Hebrews
10:
22-25 that
these admonitions are particularly applicable as we
see the day approaching and
that we are commanded as
saints living in these last
days to exhort one another relative to these very
things.
To
isolate the message of this book to the Jews of a
former age is altogether
faulty. -
R. E. N.
*
*
*
CHRISTIANS! SEEK THE REST OF GOD IN HIS MILLENNIAL
KINGDOM.
By
ROBERT GOVETT
-------
HEBREWS chapters 3
and 4
In the beginning of chapter
three of the Epistle to the
Hebrews, Paul addresses Christians as “Holy brethren,
partakers of the
heavenly calling.” Now
the
Gospel recognizes no holy brethren, but those who are
sanctified by the belief
of the truth: 5:
10; 13: 24.
Nor are any accounted to be receivers of God’s
holy call, but such as believe: Rom.
1: 6; 8: 28; 1 Cor. 1:
2-24, 26;
Eph. 1: 18.
As
men of faith the Hebrew Christians are called to
consider Jesus as “the apostle and high priest.” Jesus then was
confessed by these as their
atoning high priest, and that in the face of enemies
and blasphemers, who
caused them trouble and loss. Hence he names
their faith a “confession.”
As
this
point is being doubted or denied by many, I enter into
it more fully in
this note. The
[Book of]
Hebrews is addressed to
[regenerate] believers only; as is apparent from both negative and positive
proofs. (1)
It is proved negatively, because there
is not in the Epistle the
call to entire repentance and faith, which
characterize apostolic addresses to
unbelievers: Acts
2:
38-40; 3: 19; 13: 38, 39;
Matt. 3: 2;
4: 17.
(2) It is proved positively,
because they are described as believers. “For we
believers are entering into the rest:” 4:
3.
“We
are ... of them that believe to
the saving of
the soul:” 10: 39.
“We might have strong
consolation, who
have fled for refuge
to lay hold on
the hope set before
us;”
6: 18.
Here Paul associates them with
himself. They
had forgiveness of
sins. “When He had by himself purged our sins:”1: 3.
Contrast this with the position of
They
are
exhorted to duties proper to believers only: to be
diligent, watchful,
bearers of good fruit; patient to the end, (4:
14; 6: 9-20,) and
to exhort one another: 3:
13;
10: 25; 13:
22. They are bid run the
race
they had begun, imitating Christ, and laying aside all
weights: 12:
1. The writer
covets their prayers for himself: 13:
18. For some more instances in which the inspired writer of
the Epistle associates those to whom he was writing as
standing on the same
ground of faith with himself, see 2: 3; 6: 20; 7:
14; 11: 40;
13: 20.
The typical position he gives them is not that
of
They
had accepted “the heavenly calling,” and hereby were placed in
contrast to
But
now
God is calling His people, by His Son who has
ascended, and speaks from heaven:
4:
14; 12: 25.
He calls them to be strangers and pilgrims
here; burying
them to earth in
baptism,
but giving them also
therein (in figure) a
new hope in [the
first] resurrection.
Their
country, city, name, and substance are heavenly: 11:
16; 10: 34;
22: 23. They
are Abraham’s heavenly seed like the stars; and the
gifts of power which
signalized the profession of old were heavenly: 6: 4. God
invites us to His [millennial] Kingdom and
glory;
and Paul calls the first resurrection “the
hope
of our
calling:” 1Thess. 2:
12; Rev. 20:
4, 6; Phil.
3: 14; Eph.
1: 18.
The
apostle
notices, in the second verse of the chapter before us,
that ‘Jesus, the apostle of our calling,’ answers to Moses, and “is”* faithful
to him that appointed him,
as Moses also was in all his
house.”
The house of God in Moses’ day was
* Our
translators in
rendering it “was”
have darkened the sense. Jesus is our high
priest in resurrection:
8: 4. He became our apostle in
resurrection also.
Not till then did He call us from heaven.
But
Jesus is far
superior to Moses in His Person: as the Creator of all
things. Moses was
but a servant in God’s house: Christ stands as a Son
over it.
“Whose house are we, if
we hold fast the
confidence and the rejoicing
of the hope firm unto the end.”
The
apostle is
here comparing the conduct of
What
is our hope,
“the
hope of our calling”? It is but one; though called, in the wisdom of God, by not a
few names: Eph.
4: 4. It
is sometimes described as ‘the rest’
of
God, sometimes as ‘the kingdom of God,’ sometimes as ‘the
future age,’ ‘the
first
resurrection,’ ‘the
resurrection of the just,’
‘the return of Christ,’
‘the glory of God,’ ‘the prize of our high
calling from above:” Eph. 1:
9, 10, 18;
Heb. 2: 5; 1: 6, 8, 13;
10: 25, 37; 2: 6,
8; Psa. 8;
Psa.
110; Rom. 5: 2;
1 John 3: 1-3;
1 Pet. 1: 13; Luke
20: 35, 36;
14: 14.
To
THIS rest
and
glory Jesus, our Lord risen
from the dead, calls us. “He
that overcometh and keepeth my works unto the end, to him will I give power
over the nations:
and he shall rule them with a rod of iron: as the vessels of a potter shall
they be broken to shivers;
even as I received of my
Father:” Rev. 2:
26, 27.
Here is the
saint’s association with Jesus in His
Millennial Kingdom, under
condition,
as in Hebrews. “To Him that overcometh will I
grant to sit with me on my
throne, even
as I overcame, and am
set down with my Father on His throne:” Rev. 3: 21.
At
first the confidence
of this blessed hope, and its bold assertion before
men was strong in the
Christians among the Hebrews. They sold houses
and lands, expecting the
Lord’s speedy advent. But time sped on, and the
Lord came not;
persecutions long and heavy befell them; and hope
flagged and waned. The
confidence of it before God, the confession of it
before men, diminished.
Some were almost ready to surrender it
altogether. In this they were like
Now this is our warning. The disciples of the
The
apostle
proceeds to quote from the 95 th Psalm,
as giving to believers in our day Christ’s call to
partake in
His kingdom and glory.
“Wherefore (as
the Holy Ghost saith,)
‘To-day, if ye will hear his
voice, harden not
your hearts, as in
the provocation in the day of temptation in the
wilderness; when your
fathers tempted me,
proved me, and saw my
works
forty years.
Wherefore was I grieved with
that generation, and
said, They
do always err in their heart:
and they have not known my ways.
So I sware in my wrath,
they shall not enter into
my
rest.’
Take heed, brethren, lest there be in any of you an
evil heart of unbelief in departing from the living
God;” verse 7-12.
The
opening words of
the quotation have much force.
“The Holy Ghost saith” - We should have expected
the past tense. - ‘The Holy
Spirit by David said.’ But no!
This is the very point the apostle designs to
let us know, that the passage he is citing applies fully to Christians of this dispensation [of ‘to-day’].
It is the Holy Ghost addressing the men of “To-day,” - calling them to be obedient
while the day lasts.
The
[Holy] Spirit is
speaking to God’s people who are under the conduct of
Jesus - His
house. For there
are two great divisions of God’s people; those of
the Old Testament, and those
of the New.
Now, as in
their blessings, their responsibilities, their
tendencies, and reward, they
resemble one another, they can both be addressed in
similar language by the Most
High. Is not the [Holy] Spirit speaking to God’s
people? What
says the previous part of this verse of
the 95th.
Psalm? “For
he is our God;
and we are the people
of his pasture, and the sheep of his hand.”
Who
is it that
teaches them? The Holy Ghost! An idea
seems to have entered many minds,
that the descent of the Holy Spirit has set
Christians free from the teaching of Jesus; as if that
were merely
elementary! Now it is true that the Holy Spirit
was to teach many things
to the disciples, which, before our Lord’s departure
from the earth they could
not bear. The discovery of the [Gentiles brought into the]
Church as the
body of Christ was new. But the teaching of the
[Holy]
Spirit in
reference to the coming [Messianic] kingdom has not altered, so
far as I can perceive,
the previous instructions of Jesus to his heavenly
people. The witness of
the [Holy] Spirit here runs precisely
along the same line as our
Lord’s in the Gospels. Matt.
6: 33; Luke 12:
31, 46-48.
“To-day,
IF YE
WILL HEAR HIS VOICE.”
To
whose voice are
we to listen?
The
context
clearly shows. This passage is adduced, to teach us our duty in reference to Jesus,
as the Great Leader of the people of God, who is
conducting them onward to His
[‘Sabbath’ (Heb.
4: 9)] REST. As the voice of Moses was to be listened to by those who wished
to enter the earthly [
[* I see no reason to make a
distinction between Old and
New Testament saints: they are all
the Lord’s redeemed
people.]
One
of the
spiritual dangers of our time is the setting aside of
Jesus’ teaching in the
Gospels, as if unsuited to believers of ‘the
Church.’ This is a
fatal idea, which will lead on to
increasing evil, even to the denying the Lordship of
Jesus, and His right to
command His people.
On this point, then,
I propose, - as the danger is imminent, - to state
pretty fully the testimony
of Scripture.
What
says the
Gospel of Matthew? That, as soon as Jesus
submitted to baptism, in token
of His accepting the call to the kingdom which was
given by John Baptist, the
heavens were opened, the [Holy]
Spirit
descended on Him as a dove, and the voice of
the Father proclaimed Him His well-beloved Son, in
whim He was well
pleased. Here the whole Trinity is seen together
in its harmony of
testimony. Speedily afterward the Saviour
delivers the Sermon on the Mount,
and discovers at some length who [from amongst those] of His
disciples shall partake of the millennial
kingdom. He sets aside the
standard of Moses, introducing a far higher one: Matt.
5: 20-48.
He proclaims Himself the Judge of those who shall enter
the kingdom in the day to come.
He
assures us, that those who neglect or disobey these
instructions of his
are disobeying also “the will of his Father
who is in heaven:”
7:
24, 21.
But
some will
reply, - ‘We are not to seek the
kingdom: we are in the kingdom already. What says Col. 1:
12, 13?’
Are
you now, then,
I ask, sitting down with Abraham Isaac and Jacob, and
all the prophets in the
After
Jesus’
resurrection, when He tells of the message to be borne
to all the
Gentiles, and of the holy name of Father, Son, and [Holy]
Spirit, into which
the receivers of the truth were to
be immersed, He describes the doctrines to be
inculcated upon His disciples
thus – “Teaching them
to observe whatsoever
I
command you:”
28:
19, 20. “Why
call ye me Lord,
Lord, and
do not the things which
I say?”
Luke 6:
46.
Has
the [Holy] Spirit’s descent done away
with Jesus’ Lordship?
Does
the Gospel of
John
set the matter on any different foundation?
By
no
means.
Jesus, both to the
multitudes and to the disciples affirms, that all His
words were taught by the
Father, as well as the works which were done by Him:
12:
49; 14: 10.
Assembled with the apostles, after Judas had
gone out, He as their recognized “Lord and Teacher,”
instructs them as to their future course, and hopes: 13:
13, 14. He then utters His
new command, that they
should love one another, 13:
34; 15: 12.
If they loved Him, they were to give the proof
of it by
obeying His commands:
14: 15, 21-24.
“Ye
are my friends,
if ye do whatsoever I command you:”
15:
14.
Is
not this decisive? Has the descent of the
Holy Ghost loosed the bonds of
friendship with Jesus? It is the characteristic of
His sheep that they
listen to His voice, and own no other: 10: 3, 4, 27.
Was this spoken to Jewish sheep alone? The Holy
Ghost’s testimony meets
this also. Jesus
says, of the other
sheep whom the Saviour
would bring, that “they
shall hear His voice:” 16.
“Every one that
is of the truth hears (Christ’s) voice:” 18:
37.
The
promised [Holy]
Spirit of
truth sent from the Father through Christ’s word, was
at His coming to bring “all
things to
(their)
remembrance, whatsoever I have said:” 14: 26;
17: 8.
At
Pentecost the
Spirit of the Father and of the Son descends in power;
and the apostles speak
as inspired by Him. What then says Peter, after
the Church has
begun? That Jesus was the prophet like Moses,
foretold in the book of
God. “Him shall ye hear
IN ALL
THINGS, whatsoever he shall say unto you:”
Acts 3:
22.* [Christian]
Baptism was the
token of burial to Moses,
that they might be free to listen, in new life, to
Jesus.
*
The words “unto
the fathers,” after
“Moses said,” are probably not genuine.
What
says Peter to
Gentiles?
That Jesus
is the appointed judge of the living and the
dead. He
commands them too, in the
name of Jesus, to
be baptized: Acts 10. Thus
He
sanctions the application to them of all
Jesus’ other commands.
What
says Paul?
He is arrested by the risen Jesus speaking from on
high; from Him he receives
command and commission. By Him Ananias is sent
to the troubled penitent,
and baptism
is
commanded :
Acts
9. Paul preaching afterwards at
Finally,
the
Saviour presents to John, as His most precious gift,
the Apocalypse. He
addresses seven of
His churches.
He speaks to them all as their Lord and Master, (3: 8, 10,)
whose
praise it is to observe His teaching. Moreover
the burden of each of His
addresses is directed by the
Spirit
to every one who has an ear:
2:
7,
etc.*
*
I give some more texts for
those who would study the matter
further. Rom.
6: 16; 2 Cor. 13:
3; Col. 3:
16; Eph. 4:
20, 21; 5:
1, 23; Gal. 6: 2;
1 Tim. 6: 3; 2
Peter 3: 2; 2:
19-21; 1 John 2:
3-8, 14;
3: 22-24;
4: 21; 5:
2, 3; 2 John 5:
6; Heb. 1:
2, 4; 3:
7, 15, 16;
4: 2, 7;
5: 9; 12:
22-24.]
The
passage above
quoted from the 95th
Psalm recites
the grounds on which the
Lord at length sware against His ransomed ones, that
they should not enter the
land. They provoked Him ten times; till at
length, His sentence, never to
be recalled, went forth. But this applies, - as
the Holy Spirit says, - in
its full force to US.
Suppose
a doctor
to undertake a cure of a difficult and dangerous case
of disease. He sees
the sick man, carefully examines him, lays down strict
rules for diet, confines
him to his chamber, save
at a stated hour in the
middle of the day; sends him medicine, and as he is
poor, continually supplies
him from his own table with necessaries. But the
patient is refractory:
dislikes the bitter draughts, finds the restraint
irksome, takes the things he
is forbidden, eats unripe fruit, sits up late at
night, and drinks occasionally
of spirits and water, which are specially
forbidden. In place of being
thankful, he complains, as if his doctor were only
doing what he does on
purpose to annoy him. When his kind physician at
length bids him go out
for a long walk, because of his great improvement, he
flatly refuses. ‘He
should catch his death of cold; the doctor only
ordered
it with a view to kill him!’ Would you
wonder if the kind
physician said at length - ‘I
wash my hands of the
case: he will die, and that soon!’
Like
this
was the case of Hebrew Christians; and of many [regenerate]
believers
now. God was calling them out from old and
earthly blessings, lest they
should obtain their portion here and now. He was leading
them through trials here to a desire for the
kingdom to come, and a fitness for
it. He called them to follow in
the footsteps of His Son; to
part for His sake with their good names, their lands
and houses, their temple
and festivals, and their earthly
The
Lord grant us not to
resemble
12. “Take
heed, brethren, lest there be in any of you
an evil heart of unbelief in departing from the
living God.”
From
the words “brethren,”
and “take
heed lest there be in any of you”
unbelief, it is
clear, that Christians are intended. Could
there be any doubt, whether there was unbelief
universally in
But
how is it
possible that [regenerate] believers
should be in danger of “an
evil heart
of
unbelief”?
This
is the outlet
of escape, by which [multitudes
of]
Christians have hitherto avoided the forceful thrusts
of the word of God.
But the shield is easily pierced. The example
which the apostle has
cited, supplies the answer.
The
answer then is
– ‘With
general
faith there may be, there oft
is, SPECIAL
unbelief.’
It will not be doubted, that the eleven
apostles were men of faith: men of faith to the saving
of the soul. And
yet they are rebuked for unbelief and
hardness of heart
by Jesus! “They, when they
had heard that he was alive,
and had been seen
[after His
resurrection] by her [Mary Magdalene] believed not.”
“After he
had appeared in another form unto two of them as
they walked and went into the
country.
And they went and told it
unto the residue;
neither believed they
them. Afterward He appeared unto the
eleven as they sat at meat,
and upbraided them with
their unbelief and
hardness of heart,
because they
believed not
them which had seen Him
after He was risen:”
Mark 16: 11-14. THAT is God’s
preface to the message of the
Gospel, sent to the world by the eleven! (See verses 15-18.)
The
nation of
But
when they
had reached the land at Kadesh-Barnea, and were
bidden by God to go in, they
refused through unbelief. So
Moses declares. Their
faith failed on
this point. “Then
I said unto you -
‘Dread not, nor
be
afraid of them.’
(the Canaanites
and giants.) Yet, in
this
thing
ye did not believe
the Lord your God:” Deut.
1: 29, 32.
In
John the
Baptist we see a real faith shaken, but restored by
the Saviour’s exhortation: Matt.
11: 1-15.
This
special
unbelief has eaten into the hearts of multitudes of true Christians.
They
believe for [eternal] salvation. But
they will not believe
the testimony concerning Christ’s
Who
is “the living God” from whom we are warned not
to swerve in heart?
Christ!
It
was to prepare us for this, that the apostle had
declared of Jesus, that as the
Builder of all things He was superior to Moses, being
indeed Almighty God: verse
4. Jesus proclaimed himself to be “Resurrection
and Life:” John
11. “Ye killed,” says Peter, “the
Prince of
Life.”
The Son of
God is He to whose voice we are to listen. Turning away from
His words is turning from the Lord of life: 1: 1. He it is, by whom the recompense, whether to obedience or disobedience,
is to be rendered.
“For
we know who said -
‘Vengeance belongeth to me, I will recompense, saith the Lord.’ And again, ‘The
Lord shall judge His people.’
It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the
living
God:” 10:
30, 31.
Now the
Father hath committed all
judgment to the Son: John 5.
The
same
conclusion follows from the general range of the
chapter. Jesus is
our Apostle
and Leader, as Moses
was apostle
and leader of God’s
ancient people.
“Go
and gather the elders of
But
there was
another occasion, still more critical, on which the
eye of the inspired writer
is here fixed. At
Kadesh the people believe the
unfaithful spies’ report,
that the land was too
difficult to be won.
They weep in
unbelief. They murmur against
Moses and Aaron. ‘Why had
they brought them out?’ They blaspheme Jehovah himself. All
His
previous mercies were only a trick, to lead them into
battle with the
Canaanites, in order to destroy them! “Were
it not better for us to return into
Now
Jesus is not
only a man, but the living God; He answers both to
Moses and Jehovah. To
disbelieve His
voice is to depart in heart from
the living God.
13. “But
exhort one another daily,
while it is called ‘To-day;’ lest any of you
be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin.”
Hence
arises another proof, that
[regenerate] believers are
addressed in this epistle. Exhortation, as
far as owned of God, can
only spring from faith: 2
Cor. 4:
13.
How can one persuade me to seek that in which
he himself has no faith? Exhortation is a
something that demands
spiritual life in the exhorter, and supposes the
person to be a believer:
Exhortation
in
God’s appointed remedy against the danger spoken of in
the preceding
verse. To exhortation belong two parts: the cheering onward by a view of the
glory exhibited, an appeal to keep up hope, a setting
forth of the aide
afforded to attain it, and of its nearness: and the
warning, by a
presentation of the sad results of the
loss of the prize
proposed.
This
is manifested
to us in the example to which the apostle is
referring.* As soon as the ten spies have given a statement of the
difficulties to be overcome in entering the land,
Caleb stills the people
before Moses, and says, “Let
us go up at
once and possess it;
for we are well able to
overcome it:” 13: 30.
Again,
when the people in their unbelief are murmuring
against Moses and
against God, “Joshua
the son of Nun, and
Caleb the son of Jephunneh, which were of
them that searched the land,
rent their clothes.
And they spake unto all the company of the children
of
* We see the ruinous results of
the exhortation given by
unbelief to turn from faith’s hope, in Num.
14: 3, 4.
Now the same danger threatens US. There is great peril
of hardening the heart, by
refusing any word of God. The Lord appeals to us
believers by invitations
to His [Millennial] Kingdom and glory, and by
descriptions of its
blessedness. But we
may
shut up our heart by despising that period of reward, just as
Before
the
threatenings of God the soul of the believer ought to
soften. But you may
hear upon occasion even a believer say - ‘I
care not! Don’t think to frighten me with your
threats!’
This is to harden
the heart.
Against
the
promises and threats of the living God sin interposes
its deceits - ‘These threats don’t apply to you; they are Jewish: they are for
mere
professors.’ ‘There are so
many who are walking in the
same way with you; fear not! So many
cannot be
smitten!’ ‘How can you be responsible, if you
have not grace enough given
you?’ And so on. Very many
believers accept these teachings, to
their present and future loss.
Against
all these
the Holy Ghost lifts up His word of exhortation to believers – “Be
NOT DECEIVED;
God
cannot be mocked; for
whatsoever a man soweth, that
shall he also reap:” Gal. 6:
7. “Know ye not that
unrighteous
persons [and
some of you
are unrighteous, for ye do wrong and
defraud, and that your brethren,]
SHALL NOT
INHERIT THE KINGDOM OF GOD, BE
NOT DECEIVED:” 1
Cor.
6: 8-11;
Rev. 2: 10,
25-27; 3:
4, 5, 11;
2 John 8; Matt. 6:
33.
How
long is this
weapon of exhortation to be plied? Day by day,
as long as this present [evil] age
lasts. “While
it is called to-day,”
Satan is the
Tempter at large; the world and the flesh are strong
against the
truth.
14. “For
we have become associates of the Christ,* if
we hold fast the beginning of
our confidence firm to the end.”
[*See
Greek]
The
received
rendering, “We
are made partakers of Christ,”
darkens the sense. The apostle is referring back
to a previous occurrence
of the word in this Epistle. “Unto the Son he saith, - Thy
throne, O God, is
for ever and ever: a
sceptre of righteousness is
the sceptre of thy kingdom.
Thou lovedst
righteousness, and
hatedst iniquity:
wherefore, O God, thy God hath anointed thee with
the oil of gladness above
thy fellows.”
Here
is the same word. While Jesus as God has no
fellow or associate, as the
Son of Man and the Christ He has. In the Psalm
from which this citation
is taken, we have a view of Him coming to earth as
King of glory. He
rides on the white horse; His enemies are destroyed
under His arrows of
wrath. As the King He sets up
righteousness. The queen is presented
to Him: the hour of glory and power is come. But
He comes not alone; He
rides among His “fellows,” in
the glory. Here we see another view of Rev.
19: 11. The Word of God comes
forth from heaven as King
of kings: He is attended by armies of His friends; the
chosen, called, and
faithful. Then comes
the slaughter of His foes;
and the setting up of His Millennial Kingdom: Rev.
19: 20.
What
the apostle
then is teaching is this - ‘We
are the riders
attendant on the triumphant King seen in Psalm 45
- under
condition
of our retaining to the end our special
faith in the Saviour as the Lord of the age to
come. We shall partake of the glory laid up for
“the Christ,” if we fail not.’ For the
Fail
not to
notice, believer, how potent an aid is given to this
truth, by perceiving that
Jesus Himself takes this kingdom on
the
ground of faithfulness, obedience, and suffering. “Thou lovedst [during
thy life as man]
righteousness,
and hatedst iniquity,
THEREFORE
O God, thy God hath anointed thee with the oil of
gladness above thy fellows.”
Is it any wonder, therefore, if
the same principle be brought to bear upon His
associates in the glory? What says Phil.
3: 5-11? “Let
this mind
be in you, which was
also in Christ Jesus:
who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God:
but made
himself of no reputation,
and took upon him the form of a servant, and was
made in the likeness of men:
and being found in fashion as a man, He humbled
Himself, and became obedient
unto death, even the death of the cross. WHEREFORE God
also hath highly exalted Him,
and given Him a
name which is above every name: that at the name of
Jesus every knee should bow,
of those in heaven,
and those
in earth, and those
under the earth; and
that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ
is
Lord, to the glory
of God the Father.”
Here
again the
Scripture testifies, that Jesus
takes
His kingdom as the result of obedient humility and
suffering.
In the next chapter too, we have Paul stating how
earnest was the wish of his
heart, that by treading the same road with the Christ
he
might attain to a part in
that first resurrection of glory.
“We became associates of the Christ.”
When? When we believed.
“IF WE hold
fast.” Many
refuse to confess the conditional
promises set before believers, though they are not
few. Believer,
harden not your heart, by denying them!*
* The writer has published a
paper containing thirty-eight ‘ifs’ of the New Testament
appertaining to regenerate believers.
“For IF we became
fellow-plants in the likeness of His
death, why, we shall
also be of the [first] resurrection:”
This
“if” then supposes
possible loss of the
association in the glory with Jesus in His
Paul
desires to
keep up to their early height of faith, hope, and
love, those whom he now
addresses. If they would
but hold steadfast to the end “the beginning of their
confidence.”
They would
assuredly be fellows of Messiah in His
Kingdom of glory. How bright was their faith at
first! House and
land weighed against the hopes of the coming kingdom
were nought.
They sold them, brought the money to apostles; gave it
away. See also
Heb.
6: 9-12.
Do
we not see the
same thing in the history which the Holy Ghost has set
as the mirror to reflect
the matter to us?
15. “While
it is said, ‘To-day
if
ye shall hear his voice,
harden not your hearts,
as
in the
provocation.’”
This
takes up the
question which is stated naturally by the previous
verse. - ‘You say, we are to
be steadfast to the end.
When is the end?’ We answer, when ‘this day’ is concluded. When God no longer calls our
time ‘to-day.’
For
there are two great days named in God’s word - ‘this day,’ and ‘that day.’
As
long as this day of temptation, toil, and war
continues, we must be on our
guard. ‘That
day’
alters all: and Christ is coming [back to this earth] to introduce it.
It
is now the time
during which the door into millennial glory is open;
the time also, when there
is danger of hardening the heart, of provoking God,
and being excluded the kingdom. As long as ‘to-day’ lasts, our duty is to listen to Christ the speaker from heaven: Heb.
12: 19-25. ‘Look
to Christ,’
is one excellent
direction. But “look to yourselves,” is another of similar excellency:
2
John 8;
Rev. 3: 11.
16. “For
who when
they
heard, did
provoke?
Why,
was
it
not all that came out of
* The reading this verse as a
question, as well as the two
following ones, has the sanction of almost all
critics, both of ancient and
modern times. The
present rendering
clogs the apostle’s argument.
“But with
whom was He grieved
forty years?
Was it not with
them
that sinned, whose carcasses fell in the
wilderness?
And to whom sware He that they
should not enter into His rest?
But to
the disobedient?
So we see they could not enter
in because
of unbelief.”
In
the answer to
these questions lies the whole force of the appeal. ‘Who
provoked Jehovah?’
Was it the Egyptians? Was it the Amorites?
‘Who grieved
Him? Against whom
did He sware?’
Against
His own
ransomed ones!
Those it
was, who provoked and grieved Him! The whole congregation
of those whom in His
grace and power He led out of
It
was not the
ignorant heathen. It was those who had heard His
voice speaking in
terrible majesty out of the fire and cloud of Sinai: Deut.
4: 33; 5:
23.
This the Lord notices in His sentence of
exclusion. “Because all those men which have seen
my glory and my
miracles [ or ‘signs’],
which
I did in
Egypt and in the wilderness,
and have
tempted me now these ten times, and have not
harkened to my voice, surely they
shall
not see the land which I sware [to give] unto
their fathers;
neither shall any
of them that provoked
me see it, but
my servant Caleb, because he had
another spirit*
with him, and hath followed
me fully, him
will I bring into the land
whither he went; and his seed shall possess it:”
Num.
14: 22-24.
[* Here is what I believe is
the meaning of the salvation of the spirit, which Paul refers to in his
first epistle to the Corinthians: “Deliver
such a one
unto Satan for the destruction of the flesh, that the spirit may be
saved
in
the
day of the Lord Jesus:” (1
Cor. 5:
5). This
text does not teach that “the
wicked man” (verse
13),
(who was regenerate ‘brother’
within
the
These
are God’s
words sworn by Himself.
Thus there are two
oaths, seemingly contrary, yet both upheld by God.
There
is
the oath of entrance
for the obedient and the young of
To
leave
*
Our translators have omitted
the article; - “the many.”
It
was a provoking
thing to Jehovah, that
Our
responsibility
to Christ turns upon our
hearing His
words: then He looks for our doing
them. “Whoever
heareth these
sayings of mine and doeth them” - shall be, in the day to come, accounted wise. But he
that heareth and doeth not,
shall be esteemed foolish.
For,
“Not
every one that saith unto me Lord,
Lord, shall
enter into
the kingdom of heaven,
but he that doeth* the
will of my Father in heaven:” Matt. 7:
21.
He who would enter the [coming]
glory
must listen
to the commands of the Guide to it.
[*
NOTE.
The
good works of regenerate believers, demanded by Christ
for entrance into ‘the kingdom
of the heavens,’ prove to us (in this
context) that the kingdom here cannot be
eternal: it is an “age-lasting”
kingdom upon this earth, attained
only
be
those whom Christ will deem to be “considered
worthy
of taking part in” (Luke
20: 35). See
also Matt.
5: 20 for
the standard of personal righteousness
required for entrance: and 2
Tim. 6: 12, where
the Greek word translated “eternal,”
should be
translated “age-lasting.” We don’t “fight the
good fight of the faith” or “take
hold”
of something which we already have received by the
grace of God as a “free
gift”! (Rom.
6: 23,
R.V.) That
is, eternal
life (with God) in
an
everlasting
In
verse
18, the oath of God goes forth against the disobedient.
In verse
19, the apostle
derives for us the lesson, that unbelief
was the cause of
their exclusion.
What do we learn thence? That unbelief in the heart is
the
cause of disobedience in
the conduct.
God regards both: but it was only when the evil
appeared in action that He passed sentence. Entire unbelief
excludes from eternal life: Acts
13: 46. Partial unbelief
[in
God’s redeemed people], with
its
accompanying disobedience, excludes from the
[millennial] kingdom of reward: Psa.
106: 12, 24, 26.
4:
1.
“Let
us
therefore fear, lest a
promise being left us of entering into
his rest, any of you should think
he has come too late for it.”
Observe
the
peculiarity of the sentence, “Let US fear,
lest
a promise being left US of entering
into His rest, any
of YOU should think.”
What does the
change of pronouns teach? That Paul*
was
in no danger of believing that the rest of God was
finished. But there was
danger even to Paul and the believers of
[*
The author
believes the Apostle Paul to have been the
writer of this epistle; but the Writer is unnamed! Of course we
know Who
the Writer was – the Holy
Spirit
through the hand of the anonymous person whom He used.]
The
reader will observe, that
I have here given a different rendering from
that of the Authorized Version. My reasons are,
that the usual translation stands in the way of the
apostle’s argument.
Is the danger to the Christians only that of seeming
to lose the rest?*
Nay,
the example of warning
shows, that, as
the
loss was actual on
* If any will retain the
Authorized Version’s rendering then
the danger will be, the being left behind at the
rapture of the ready
Christian, and the passing through the Great
Tribulation.
With
the sanction
of many critics, then, I render it – “lest any of you should think* that he has come too late
for it.”
Here every word retains its force; and is most
suitable to the context. The second verb
signifies to come short of a
thing - which may be either in regard of time or place.
Here it is taken as coming short in respect of time: as
in Heb.
2: 3, (LXX,)
and Matt.
25: 11.
To this it may be added, that the subsequent context
proves this to the
meaning, as we shall see. Also the fact, that
the verb is in the perfect
tense: the force of which is lost in our translation.
* For
this sense of the
Greek word …
see Heb.
10:
29; Phil. 3: 4; James 4:
5.]
Greatly
did Paul [the ‘Writer
of this epistle’ is better] value the glory of the kingdom.
For it as the prize of his heavenly
calling he earnestly sought. Jesus commends
those who with zeal were
seeking it: bids us to do so. But he knew full
well, that this hope of
our calling might soon drop out of view; and would be
easily set aside in the
minds of some, by the very first objection which
suggested itself. Now, the
readiest of these, and the
most forcible, was the one which the Holy Ghost
singles out for refutation. - ‘O
Paul, how can
you attach any force to such an argument as that?’
‘God’s
rest was
over ages ago!’ It is this deceit of the Enemy, then, which he [the
Holy Spirit] sets himself to expose. That this was the
choice weapon of the Old Adversary against the
doctrine of the Millennium, so
forcible as that in its effects upon the [regenerate] believers, is proved for us again in
2 Tim. 2.
After
Paul has stated the terms of entrance into the future
kingdom, and their sure
subsistence and execution in the day to come, in spite
of man’s unbelief, (8-13) he adds, that two leaders of false
doctrine had affirmed, that the (first) resurrection
was already
past.* Thus the faith of
some in the Christian’s
great hope was lost. But with God its reality
abode, unchangeable as
before: 17, 18.
[*
And this same false teaching is what is happening
today amongst regenerate
believers who do not believe in the intermediate state
and place of the souls
of the dead in Hades – the waiting-place of the dead
before their resurrection,
(Matt.
16:
18;
Rev. 6: 9-11).
Multitudes of regenerate believers teach and
believe that they ascend
into heaven at the time of death! If
that
is true, then there would be no need for a resurrection of the dead! If the time
of Death is the time of
Resurrection, then, who would be in the least
concerned about any “better
resurrection” of reward?
Heb. 11:
35; Luke 14: 14;
20: 35; Phil.
3: 11; Rev.
20: 4-6.
Is the
animating ‘spirit’,
which returns to God at the
time of death, the man?
No it is not!
It is what gives life to body and soul, (Luke 8:
55; Job 34: 14,
15; James 2: 26.)
Is
the ‘body,’ that
decomposes at the time of death,
the man? No!
it
is not, for the bodies of believers were eaten by wild
beasts in the Roman
amphitheatres; and Jacob believed Joseph’s body had
been ‘devoured’ by a
wild beast (Gen. 37:
32). Is
the ‘soul’
the man? Yes! The soul is the
man for this
is what the Word of God teaches:
“thou wilt not leave my soul
in Hades:” (Psa.
16: 10; Acts 2:
27, 31). Is
this intermediate place of the dead in Heaven?
No! it is not;
those in Hades need to wait
for ‘the
resurrection of the dead’
before they can ascend into heaven: and Resurrection
reunites everything that
Death has separated.
As Death separates
spirit, body and soul; Resurrection will reunite them. Therefore,
all who teach contrary to what the
Word of God teaches us concerning Resurrection: “Have
erred, saying that the resurrection is past already
and overthrow the faith of some:”
(2
Tim. 18,
R.V.) If
this fundamental doctrine of Scripture was
fully understood by the people of God today, then
there would be a realisation
of how important it is to attain unto
that select resurrection ‘out
of the dead,’ which Paul speaks of in his
letter “to all
the saints in Christ Jesus …
at Philippi” (Phil. 1:1;
3: 10-14.).]
In
consequence of
his fear for the Hebrew Christians therefore, lest
this sheet-anchor of the
vessels of faith amidst the storms of life should be
stolen, he proceeds to
prove, that God’s rest is not past; and
therefore that we
do well to seek it.
“The promise is left us.” Its force is not exhausted:
the day of seeking for a
part in it is still running on. Let none, then,
be seduced from pursuit
of this glorious object by this wile of the
enemy. The
4:
2.
“For to us has the good news
been brought, as well
as to them; but the
word of the report*
did not profit them,
not being mixed with faith in them that heard it.” [*
See Greek.]
The
‘Gospel’ here spoken of is not
the tidings of [eternal] salvation by
the blood of the Son of God; but the good news of God’s rest; or (as it is called in
Matthew), “the
gospel of
the kingdom,”
which is indeed the basis of that evangelist’s
history: 4:
28; 9: 35; 5:
7. But
lest any should think that this
The
Holy Ghost
here supposes, that the rest proclaimed of old is the same that is now
offered to us. But this many
Christians have
contradicted. They hold that the rest supposed
in the Psalms was only the
enjoyment of the earthly Canaan under Moses; and
therefore, that Paul, in
applying the word to Christians, is either mistaken,
or else using
allegory. This idea however would destroy the
argument. We must
then insist upon what is necessary to uphold the
inspired argumentation.
Thence it will follow, that the rest of God is His future millennial kingdom of glory; of which
both the worthies of the Old Testament and those
of Christ’s heavenly people
will alike partake. Hence
“The word of the report
did not profit them.”
This
is
a reference back to
Here
we see
Satan’s two pleas against the rest of God; which have
so constantly been
successful in the souls of most. (1) ‘There
is no
such kingdom of millennial glory as you
talk about. ‘Tis
all your imagination!’
That is deceit the
first. (2) ‘There is
indeed, we allow, but it is
so beset by obstacles within and
without; it demands such
strictness of life, it sets up so lofty a standard,
that
we cannot enter.
We have
given up all hope of it! Perhaps a favoured
few of the heroes and martyrs
of the Christian faith may enter; but it is useless
for us to
attempt it!’
These
two forms of
unbelief in God’s testimony we see in the history
which is given us to exhibit
it. At Kadesh the rebellion of
4: 3 “For
we believers are
entering into the rest,* as he said - ‘So
I sware in my
wrath, if they shall
enter into my rest:’
although the works from the foundation of the world
were
finished.”
* See Greek.
The
differences of
rendering in this verse are important. Our
translators, who were no millenarians,
saw only in this argument of the apostle’s, the proof
of the present rest
of all believers
in
the work
of Christ: and hence
they have missed the sense; and obscured by their
translation a passage difficult enough in itself.
They
render the word
– “Do
enter.
[A.V.]”
This is one form of
the present, which we may call the customary
present. They
have
also omitted
the
article before ‘rest.’* But the word here is
really a ‘prospective present;’ as in the
Saviour’s words - ‘I am going to
prepare a place for you.’ “Theirs
is
the kingdom of heaven.”
[* “The
definite
article, the, is in the Greek permitted where the English refuses
it. Thus
the Greek says Abraham begat the
Isaac. But
the rendering Abraham begat
Isaac, is not a true account of the matter, since
the very next word, Isaac
begat the Jacob, has not the article.
It
is fair neither to Author nor to reader, not to
apprize the reader that of the
two Isaacs side by side one has the article, and the
other has not.
Unfair to the Author, since Matthew (not to
say the Holy Spirit Himself), like any serious
writer, may be presumed to
have had a reason for such marked distinction.
Unfair
to the reader, since he
has a right to know that in the original a bell as it were is rung to attract his attention. Here,
forsooth, GIVE HEED, READER,
Article here, no
article there: a distinction, and it
is for thee to find wherein it is.”]
The
course of the
argument requires this. Paul is proving that ‘the
rest’
of which the
Psalm speaks is yet future; and that we
are not come too late to
partake of it. Unbelievers
are excluded. Unbelief was the
principle of loss on their
part. But we are believers; we have long been
so. (Aorist
participle.) We
then have in us the principle
needed to gain the rest in question.
Believers are on their
way to this rest of God’s promising: and
none but they. Faith is an
indispensable condition to its
attainment. Only those who have come out of
To
show what is ‘the
rest’
of which
he is speaking, that rest towards which believers in
Jesus as our Leader are
tending, he quotes again the words of the Psalm [95] – “So I sware in my wrath, if
they shall enter into my rest.” Then He adds – “Although
the works from the foundation of the world had been
finished.”
This is the order
of the Greek, and it is the best. It gives us a
clear view of the course
of the inspired argument. It is as if the
apostle said - ‘I grant you,
that God’s work of the six days of creation is
over, and also the rest of the seventh day.
That rest, I own, is past.
But the Psalm speaks of new “works”
of God, and of
a new “rest.” “They saw my works.” “They
shall not enter
into my rest.”
Here then is
God even now at work;
for His rest is not yet come. But we are invited to
it. God’s
future
rest
supposes His present
work.
But His creation-work and creation-rest of the
seventh day are past. This then is another work
of another character: it
is redemption-work, tending on to redemption-rest. It
is needed; because God’s old rest in creation was
broken by Satan’s and man’s
sin. And there can be no true rest in sin.
The redeemed by Christ,
the better Conductor, are being led onward to a
redemption-rest in
resurrection. Out of God’s new and better work is to spring
(when it is accomplished) a new and better rest. A
rest, better in its nature; longer in its duration.
Thus
God’s present
work is fashioned after the pattern of the former. It is clear
then, - as the adversative
conjunction ‘although’
proves, - that the apostle is not speaking of a past rest
of God, or of a present
rest enjoyed by believers, but of
God’s present work, and of the future repose to which He is inviting us [today]. Paul is battling
against that deceit which nullifies the promise - ‘Do not disquiet
yourself in vain: that rest was over long, long ago!’
4:
4 “For he spake in
a
certain place of the seventh day on this wise -
‘And God did rest the seventh day from all his works.’” 5.
“And in this place again -
‘If
they shall enter into my rest.’”
The
first time
that the rest of God is spoken of is, after His six
days work of creation was
finished. We are, I own, long too late to
participate in that!
Nor is the rest the observance of the Sabbath, as was
given to
(1)
But the future
rest is arranged after the pattern of God’s earlier
one, as to time.
God wrought six days; rested the seventh. Since
that time God’s redemption-work has been going on; and
now, each of God’s working days consists of
a
thousand
years. The rest is to be a “great” day
of
a
thousand years: 2 Pet.
3.
This is the Millennium, or the seventh thousand of years.
It
was to this distribution of time that the many sevens
of the Law looked
onward: the seventh day, the seventh month, the seventh year,
and the seven
times
seventh
year. (2)
The
past rest of the creation-sabbath was God’s rest. From the
similarity of expression between
Genesis
2
and
the Psalm, we conclude, that there
will be a real likeness in
the things described by God in nearly the same
words. He ceased to
create, after the six days were complete. So God
shall cease to redeem,
after His six great days are over.*
[*
If God will not
redeem
any during the Millennium; what then would be the
purpose of the Jews
evangelizing the other nations during that time? It would
be better to have written:-
‘God shall cease to redeem, after His seven
great days are over.’ This would then take us
to eight day -the time of
the resurrection
of all the
remaining dead, the Great White Throne Judgment, and
‘a new heavens and a
new earth’.]
(3)
The
creation-sabbath was God’s rest, in relation to His
feelings.
He enjoyed
the rest of
satisfaction in His works, as
He contemplated them all, and beheld them very good.
The
future rest
also is to be God’s rest, and His satisfaction in
redemption-work
complete. Creation as at first made could offer
no resistance to His
will. But out of His moral creation strife and trouble
have arisen, which His
redemption-work only partially undoes at present.
Christ can rest in His
redeemed people only in so far as they are obedient
to His words: as
long as they
rest in Him. Will Christ be satisfied
with
all His people when He returns, and brings them into
judgment? By no
means! Many walk, not by faith, but by
sight. This was the danger
of old. “Now the
just by faith shall live;
but if he
draw back, my soul hath no
pleasure in him:”* Heb. 10:
38.
* This is the order of the Greek.
There is no ‘any man’ in the original.]
With
Jesus, God
was ever well pleased; and He thrice expressed His
admiration: Matt.
3: 17; 12:
18; 17: 15.
But
with the majority of Israel God was not well pleased:
the proof being,
their destruction in the desert: 1
Cor. 10:
5.
The apostle therefore directs us how to please God:
Heb.
13: 16; Col.
3: 20; Phil.
4: 18.
He teaches us, by his own example, to seek to please
Christ: 2
Cor. 5: 9.
And
in this epistle to the Hebrews, he encourages us by
the example of Enoch,
who as diligently serving God was rewarded; by a sudden rapture
escaping death.
The
4th and
5th
verses, then of
the chapter before us exhibit side by side
the past and
the future rests.
“God
did rest”
on the one. “If they shall enter
into my rest,”
bespeaks the other as yet to come.
None of mankind enjoyed with God the
creation-sabbath. But many shall enjoy with God
the future sabbath;
although, as presented in the Psalm, we find only
the negative view. We are called on to be
fellow-workers with
God in His redemption-work, that we may be
fellow-resters with
Him in redemption-rest: 2 Cor.
6: 1; Rom.
16: 3, 9,
21; 1 Cor. 3: 9; John 4:
36.
None
will partake of God’s
millennial rest, but those on whom He can look
with complacency, as obedient. Great
will be the glory and joy of those permitted to
enter. Great the sorrow of
those [regenerate
believers]
being excluded, as
disobedient and unbelieving. “His rest shall be glory:” Isa.
11: 10. (Heb.)
The body redeemed, no less
than the soul! Death
swallowed up in victory! The Lord we serve the
manifested King of
kings!
6,
7.
“Seeing therefore, it remaineth
that some must enter therein,
and they to whom
the good news was first brought entered not in because of disobedience, He again
defines a certain day,
saying in David, -
‘To-day,’ -
after so
long a time, as it
has been before said,*
‘To-day, if
ye will hear his
voice, harden
not your
hearts.’”
*Critt. Edd.
The
apostle is
still engaged in proving, that the invitation into
God’s future rest is still
by God’s authority proclaimed. The promise has
never been
exhausted. The ‘remaineth’
of
this verse takes up the word “a promise being left us” of verse 1; and “there remaineth a rest” of verse 9. The
passage
cited from the 95th
Psalm tells only
of the rejecting of some
from entering that rest. But God’s
designs cannot be frustrated:
and
on the accomplishment of His promises, He must enjoy
the rest of
satisfaction. This
passage is greatly illustrated
by our Lord’s parable of the Wedding Garment.
Those first bidden refuse to
assemble to enjoy the king’s royal
supper. Thereupon the monarch issues a second
invitation, in order that
the hall may be furnished with guests. The
refusal of those first invited
shall not bring to nought the royal banquet.
Others
shall enter, if the first refuse it. The oath of
threat excludes
some; but it proves the feast is not yet come.
Hence the call to listen
to God’s voice, to obey, and not provoke Him, still
holds good: for the banquet
has not yet taken place. It is only as yet the
invitation to the guests,
their robing, and assembling. The feast cannot
begin, till all the guests
are seated.
We
are instructed
in the reason of this rejection of
Whether
we are to
regard verses seven and eight
as a
parenthesis or not, depends on the sense we give to “Again.”
(1)
Is it a
detached word? Does it notify the introduction
of a new branch of the
argument? If so, we must regard these two verses
as parenthetic.
(2)
Or
does it qualify the word ‘limiteth’?
“He a second time
defines,”
(or limits.)
This
is, I believe, the true meaning. It falls in
best with the previous
words – “those to
first proclaimed;”
and “He
would not
afterward have spoken of another day.”
There
are then two
days contemplated by God in this connection. The first
was that under Moses - which
he calls “the day
of temptation in
the wilderness”: 3: 8.
It was the forty years’ duration, after which
Joshua led the people into the land. But now
long after Joshua’s day, and
so late as David’s, God
speaks of “another day.”
Is it the period of patience to last for
them? No! God is defining
another day. It embraces the present season: for it is called ‘To-day.’
Of
what character
is the day thus defined?
Is
it the day of labour? Or is it the day of rest?
It
is the day of labour,
of the listening to God’s voice, of the invitation to
the rest, of fear and
carefulness against provoking God.
In
proof of this, the apostle cites again the words of
the Psalm - ‘To-day if ye will hear
his voice, harden
not your hearts.’
In the day which is to follow - the blessed day
of rest - there will be an end to the toils, and the
cares and dangers of the
wilderness. But now God is still working, and
calls on His people - ‘Son, work
to-day in my vineyard.’
Those
who thus work with Him
will rest with Him, when the limits of
this day of toil and conflict
are past, and the day of repose and of victory is
come.
Thus
also our Lord
in His closing words to each of the churches uses the
present tense – “He that hath an ear let him
hear what the Spirit is saying to the churches.”*
*
Here behold a
proof of the error of supposing that these churches
belong to the terrible future
day of wrath.
8. “For
if Joshua (marg.) had given them rest, then
would he not have spoken of
another day after these things.”
These
words answer
an objection which would naturally occur to the mind
of a Jew - ‘It is true, that
the generation of the disobedient was cut
off in the desert; but it is certain also, that
their descendants were introduced
into the land by Joshua the son of Nun. And
the Scripture expressly says,
that Joshua gave them rest’.
“And
the Lord
gave them rest round about, according
to all that He sware unto
their fathers:” Josh. 21:
44.
Joshua also owns it. “Now the Lord hath given rest
unto your brethren as He promised them:”
22:
4.
And
again – “And
the land had rest from war:” 24:
15. Moreover God
gave to David and to Solomon his
son the rest He had promised. Of David it is
said – “The
Lord had given him
rest round about from all
his enemies:”
2 Sam.
7: 1.
Solomon could say, “Now the Lord my God hath given me
rest on every
side, there is
neither adversary nor evil occurrent:”
1 Kings 5:
4. And
again – “Blessed
be the Lord that hath given rest unto His
people
How
are we to
reply hereto?
Thus:
If the rest
of God were
As then the day of labour and trial precedes the
day of rest, and as David by inspiration
proclaimed it in his time to be still
the day of trial, it is clear, that, neither
Joshua’s day, his own day, or that
of Solomon his son, introduced the promised repose.
God
speaks of the rest in David’s day as yet future. “If
they shall
enter into my
rest.”
When
once the rest is come, there will be no warning of
danger, no invitation to
seek to enter. After God’s repose in redemption
is come, there will be no
further day of trial and suffering to encounter.
The Millennial Day of
repose runs into the eternal rest. “He
would not have spoken of another day after
these
things”*
- the labour, and the rest.
*Better so rendered, than more
indefinitely – “afterward.”
Joshua
(Greek
‘Jesus’) the son of Nun
led God’s ancient people
into the place of earthly repose; and after some years
of conflict, the land
had rest from war. But
Jesus
the Son of
God has to lead the heavenly people into the rest of
the heavenly country, and
the loftier department of God’s kingdom in
resurrection. All through this
‘evil
day’ it
is a time of conflict for the heavenly people of
God. While Satan is at large in heavenly places,
our warfare cannot
cease; nor our need of vigilance, and of the armour of
God: Eph.
6.
9. “There
remaineth
therefore a sabbath-rest
for the people
of God.”
This
is the
conclusion from the previous argument. Paul had
stated in the first verse
the danger of losing the rest, from supposing it had
long been fulfilled.
He set himself therefore to prove, that it was not the
seventh-day rest of
creation which was in question; nor the peaceful
enjoyment of
God’s
limiting the
call to carefulness and attention during this day,
tells us, that the rest is
to come tomorrow. This day is the day of labour:
“that day” the day of recompence.
“I
am persuaded
that he is able to keep that which I have committed
unto him against that
day.” “There
is laid up for
me a crown of righteousness,
which
the Lord the righteous judge shall
give me at that
day:” 2
Tim. 2: 12;
4: 8.
But
the apostle
suddenly changes the term he has hitherto used.
If we must trust critics,
the apostle coined it to suit the occasion. He
desired to connect the
coming rest of God with his past rest. His past
rest was the rest of the
first sabbath, or seventh
day of the world. He
wrought six days; He rested the seventh. The
rest of God’s people is
likewise the world’s great sabbath day, the day of the
seventh thousand of years. The new rest is to be
after the pattern of the
old, in regard of time.
It was with
this view that God signalized so oft the seventh
period under the law.
The seventh year was to be peculiarly one of rest.
“And six years thou shalt sow thy
land, and shalt
gather in the fruits thereof: but the seventh year
thou shalt let it rest and lie still;
that the
poor of thy people may eat:
and what they leave
the beasts of the field shall eat.
In like
manner thou shalt deal with thy vineyard, and
with thy oliveyard:”
Ex.
23: 10, 11. “And
the Lord spake unto
Moses in Mount Sinai,
saying, Speak unto
the
children of
The
seven times
seventh year was the year of jubilee, the year of restoration
of all heritages to their former condition. And
God promised,
that if obedient,
The
sabbath to come will
introduce rest in all its forms.
(1) The wilderness was to
“Already ye are full,
ye are
rich, ye have reigned as kings without us; and I would to God ye did reign, that we also might reign
with you.
For I think that God hath set forth us the apostles
last, as it were
appointed to death;
for we are made a spectacle unto the world, and to angels,
and to men. We
are fools for Christ’s sake,
but ye are wise in Christ;
we
are weak, but ye are
strong; ye are honorable,
but we are despised.
Even
unto this present hour we both hunger, and thirst, and are
naked, and are
buffeted, and
have no certain dwelling place,
And labour,
working with our
own hands: being
reviled, we bless; being persecuted, we suffer it;
being defamed, we
intreat:
we are
made the filth of the world,
and are the
offscouring of all things unto this day:” 1 Cor. 4:
8-13.
Until
God rests
from redemption-work His redeemed will not be able to
rest; and to seek it here
below is evil. This was the Jew’s stumbling
block. When Jesus had
healed the impotent man on the Jew’s day of rest, and
was accused of a breach
of the sabbath, the Saviour replied in effect, that He
as the Son of God could
not rest in them, or their sabbath of law; that his
Father had been working
ever since the Fall to bring in a new rest; and He, as
the Son of God
sympathizing with His Father’s plans, could but work
too. This made
matters much worse in their view; for they saw dimly,
that their Jewish rest,
enforced of law, was rejected. Their sabbath
left the palsied man powerless still; and left them
condemned and under the
curse. The Father and the Son therefore are
together working in grace, to
bring in a better rest than law can bestow.
This
sabbath-rest
is for the “people
of God.”
Who are they?
“This is the covenant I will make
with the house of
Abraham’s
seed is
twofold; the seed of his flesh, and the children of
his faith. Hence the
Lord several times promises him two posterities; one
of the earth, the other,
to people the heaven. “I will multiply thy seed as the
stars of the heaven, and
as the sand which is upon the sea shore:” Gen.
22: 17.
Those in the flesh shall inherit the promised land of
earth; those risen from
the dead shall inhabit the heaven, as the stars
fixed there in brightness.
These
two
people of God will both
enjoy the millennial rest, or the kingdom of the
Christ. It
is necessary to the completeness of the rest, that
there be a perfect king;
as the scripture notes, that
the absence of such a ruler was the occasion of the
rise and progress of a
variety of evils. And the
[*
The “us” refers to the
regenerate of “today”,
and the “they”
refers to Israel of old; and the “better
thing”
is the kingdom with the curse lifted off the land
after both are “made perfect.” That
is, after the worthies of old, together with the
worthies of “today” are
resurrected or rapt at the Second Advent of
Christ Jesus. 1 Thess.
4:
17; Rev. 3: 21, 22.]
This
verse seems
to be a justification of the employment of the term ‘sabbatism’ in the previous one.
In this verse we return to
the previous word used for ‘rest.’
The
future rest will be the enterers a rest like God’s.
But
the principle
is generally stated, and is applicable to both
rests,
- the present rest, and the future one. It is
singularly expressed in two
points. Though the apostle had affirmed, that
the future sabbath-rest was
designed for a multitude, - "the
people of God,"
- yet he puts the entrance in the singular – “He that entered.” He uses
the Greek indefinite tenses in expressing both the
entrance and the rest.
“He
that entered
rested,”
instead of “They
who enter will
rest,”
as might naturally have been expected.
Why
is this?
I
think, because
the apostle wished to express the principle in such a
general way, as to allow
it to receive a threefold application: to (1) Christ,
(2) to His people now,
and (3) to the people of God, when possessing the
kingdom hereafter.
1.
The
primary reference, If I
mistake not, is to the
Lord Jesus. Moses went up the Mount of God,
hoping to effect atonement
with Jehovah for the sin of the calf:
Ex.
32: 30. But the attempt is
refused: all he can obtain
is the deferring of the vengeance due to it.
Moreover, when Moses at last ascends the mount,
it is with his obedience
rejected, to die. Not so with our Lord.
His great work of obedience
and of atonement is completely wrought; and the Father
in it fully satisfied,
has called His Son to rest at the top of the
Mount. The great foundations
of redemption are laid in that work accepted. “When
He had Himself purged
our sins, he
sat
down on the right hand of the Majesty on high.” The priests of Aaron’s
race had again and again
to stand and offer the same imperfect sacrifices,
incapable of taking away
sins. But Jesus, after His one sacrifice, has
for a continuance sat down,
till His enemies become His footstool: 10:
11-14;
8: 1, 2. Jesus, the living God, after
completing this
redemption-work, has for ever ceased from it, as He
did from
creation-work. In this work the Father rests in
full complacency.
2.
In this
Christ’s work of perfection the Christian also
rests. In this work he is
justified and accepted, and finds peace within, and
peace with God. Those
under law are seeking justification, and have no
peace: for the curse is upon
their disobedience, for which they can make no
atonement: Rom.
9: 30; 10: 4. Hence
the apostle warns all at the close, against falling
back to Moses and law; for
that is perdition. “For
our God is consuming fire;”
as He showed by the glory which encircled
Our
hope of
entering the future rest turns on our entering into
present rest in Christ’s
past work of salvation.
The
same principle
applies also to the millennial rest. God is now
enjoying present rest in
His Son’s work. But He is about to provide a
future rest; a rest both
external and internal, in redemption completed.
As God is at work in
redemption still, we too [who
are
regenerate] are to be co-workers with Him. To
rest now
from the work assigned us
would be wrong.
“Occupy till I come.” To rest in the present evil world, or in the state of the Church, would
be a mistake. Paul
rebukes
Corinthian Christians for attempting to rule and rest
now: 1
Cor.
4.
But
the day is
coming when God will rest in redemption accomplished,
and cease from its
labour. Then too the Christian will cease from
labour, and enjoy the work
of God fulfilled, and will have (in measure) joy in
his own work accepted by
Christ: 2 Tim. 4; Matt.
25.
Further,
after
this season of trial and labour are over, no such
period of strife and danger
will again occur. At the close of the thousand
years all is wound up, and
fixed in its perfection.
Thus
the Christian
is a paradox. He rests, for God is resting: he labours,
for God is labouring. He finds joy in
redemption thus far complete: he
sighs for “the adoption, to wit the
redemption of the body.”
It was like this with the
typical people of old. They in one view enjoyed
rest. There was no
more lashes to suffer; no more rigorous toil of
brick-making: Psa.
81: 6; Deut. 4: 20.
But they had not yet come to the rest and the
inheritance which God had provided for them. He
who enters into God’s
present rest is admitted into the kingdom in mystery.
But only
the partakers of the resurrection will enter the
kingdom in manifestation
of glory.
11.
“let us labour (be diligent) therefore to enter into that
rest, lest
any
fall after the same example of disobedience.”*
*See Greek.
Here
is the general
conclusion. We are to use our diligence to
obtain an entrance into the
rest. Therefore it is not ours already by
faith. “Let us labour.” It is something common
to Paul with every
believer. Our diligence may be shown in two
ways: negatively, by removing what would hinder: positively, by using what would promote so glorious an end.
Opposite dangers fence
the way: you may lose it through the
presumption which imagines you cannot lose it;
or through the despair which
says - ‘I will
not seek: ‘tis hopeless!’
Let
us labour to
enter “that
rest.”
One rest is
already attained [received]
in Christ
by faith: Matt.
11: 28.
But there is another, a rest whose futurity the
apostle has proved. God
bids you be diligent to win [attain –‘gain
by effort’] that
distant one. Work
with God, that
with Him you may rest. [Regenerate] BELIEVERS
are to work towards this. They
alone
can attain it. Jesus
has
shown the way open to this glory, both by example
and precept: Heb. 1: 9; Luke 14: 10;
Let
us “seek to enter.” By these words it is
connected with ‘the kingdom of God,’ or ‘the
kingdom
of heaven,’ in which Jesus directly and
indirectly teaches us to
seek a portion: Matt. 5: 20; 6: 33; 7: 21; 18: 3; 19: 23; Mk. 10: 15; John 3: 5.
This
word – “Let
us seek to enter,”
stands linked with “let us fear,” “Let
us labour ... lest any fall.”
If
any sin like the tribes in
the desert, they will experience like
treatment from the Most High. It was
disobedience which drew forth the
excluding oath of God. It is the disobedience of
partial unbelief which
may exclude the [regenerate] believer still. The
exit out of
May
we turn aside
this appeal with a - ‘That’s
Jewish’? Nay! This same call of
God, this same warning, is found both in the Gospels, Epistles, and Revelation.
1.
Jesus
calls us to ‘seek first the
2.
The same
teaching is given from another point of view in Rom.
2: 4-16, where the Christian is instructed to
seek for glory by patient
continuance in well doing.
3.
The same call
is given in various ways in 1
Corinthians. Now it is set
forth as ‘the prize’:
now we are deterred from evil by fear of the loss of
this rest: 3:
6.
In chapters
nine and ten the seeking of God’s rest, backed by the same example of the exclusion
of
4.
In Philippians,
third
chapter, Paul tells us of his earnest
desire and effort to
obtain a part in the select
resurrection
from among the dead. Also by the
[Holy] Spirit he
calls on all who are perfect [mature] to follow him in this object
of pursuit. He points
out also to us Jesus as having previously passed this
way, and the glory
bestowed on Him in consequence: Phil. 2.
5.
In Paul’s last
epistle the same subject is presented from another
point of view. The
reign of Christ is conditional on suffering
with HIM. While
some were pushing aside the first resurrection, which
is really the Christian’s
hope, believers were not to be discouraged; for God’s
foundation in election,
and His superstructure in the call for holiness,
remain firm: 2 Tim. 2:
10-21.
1.
If then the
reader be a believer yet un-baptised, I would beg him
to obey at once that
command, as his first step of obedience. Let him fear the threat that stands against God’s disobedient children:
John
3:
5;
12. “For
the Word of God is living and powerful and sharper
than
any two-edged sword,
piercing even to the
dividing asunder of soul and spirit,
and of the
joints and marrow,
and is a discerner of the
thoughts and intents of the heart.
13.
Neither
is there any creature that is not manifest in his
sight: but all things
are naked and open unto the eye of him with
whom we have to do, (or, ‘to
whom
is our account.’)”
The
apostle would
elevate our thoughts about the Scripture. Many
suppose it is a ‘dead letter,’
past, and done with,
without
application to us!
Out
of this low
view of the Word of God springs the disobedience to it
against which we are
here warned. The Word is Christ’s voice, the
call of the Captain [Commander
– in - Chief] who
would lead us to this [future] rest. The Word is
not a ‘dead letter;’
‘tis a ‘living’
Word. It searches the heart, the motives, the
intentions. It should prepare us for the day of
judgment before Christ; for to
Him
is our account.
The
day is at
hand! The Lord grant
the writer and reader to
meet in the rest that remaineth for the people of
God!
THE END