POINTS
TO PONDER
By
A PASTOR
TO HIS PEOPLE
The Scriptures of the Old and
New Testaments, as being inspired by the Holy Spirit, are our one and
sufficient rule. But to obtain from them
the light and blessing they are calculated to furnish, God must he our Teacher
and our eye must be single. The Holy
Spirit has been sent down from above to be our instructor in the things of God.
These Scriptures testify - that
the world is utterly sinful before God, and under the guidance of Satan its
Prince. Its judgments will begin as soon as the present day of Gospel mercy
shall close. God’s Evangelists,
therefore, call on all who are of the world, as sinners to
repent, and turn from their old and sinful ways; and to leave their associations
with the worldly. They are then to join
the assembly of Christ. Those who
believe this witness of God are to be immersed: the token, on the one hand, of
their willingly and entirely coming forth from sin and the sinful; and, on the
other hand, of God’s reception of them as His cleansed ones.
Immersion of the believer is a
testimony to a man’s vast and momentous movement from death in sins to the life
of God, and bears also on its face death and resurrection: and this is God’s
commanded mode of our expressing faith in the Lord Jesus, our Saviour slain and
risen, and of our faith in a resurrection yet to come.
Believers are to assemble
themselves together to edify one another, and to keep the Saviour’s commands,
especially the Lord’s Supper. The right way,
according to the Scripture, is, first to be baptized, and then to join the
fellowship of the Saints. But since some
are not persuaded of this, and we have no power in such case but that of
brethren and fellow-servants of one Master, we are to receive all the children
of God, though on some points they do not agree with Scripture, or with us
(Rom. 14., 15.). The Table is the Lord’s and not ours;
hence we are to receive those whom our God has received.
Our acceptance before God our
Father is through the work of another, not our own. It takes place through the obedience and blood
of the Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God. We are perfectly accepted, as soon as we
believe in Him. His work is perfect; and
standing in the merits and atoning death of the Saviour, God loves us, loves us
as He loves the Lord Jesus. But we shall
have confidence and joyful communion with God only as we are walking obediently
to the principles and commands of Christ. The Holy Spirit is the giver of spiritual life
to God’s elect. He is calling us out
from the flesh and the world, and from the pursuits of time, to an inheritance
in heaven, and to glory to be bestowed by Christ. We are therefore to be looking for the return
of the Son of God from heaven. He will
find most of His people asleep, but will recall them from the tomb. Some will be alive, and will remain to the
hour of His descent into the air. For
that we are to be looking and preparing. Not all believers are thus looking; and not
all will be found by Him in peace; but some will be ashamed before Him in the
Day of Judgment. The Saviour is coming
to judge believers; not as to whether they are friends or foes of God, but concerning
their service to Himself since they became His. While our works will not save us, we shall yet
be judged according to them. Hence the deep importance of obedience to Christ’s commands.
For there will be an accounting of some
worthy by Christ, in which case there will be an entry on the first and blest
resurrection, or the Glory of the Thousand Years. If any be rejected from reward, he will enter
on eternal life only after the day of recompense is over. For we must distinguish with
Paul between the gift of God, which is eternal life, which is surely ours, and ‘the
prize of our calling,’ of which we may be accounted unworthy.
The Saviour’s secret coming to
assemble His watchful ones to His presence may take place at any moment. There
is nothing which must needs be fulfilled before His
descent into the air. But many things
must take place before He appears in the clouds to
The Christian is set by God
under Christ and His commands alone. He is not partly under Moses and law; but
wholly under Christ and grace. His baptism (or immersion) is his death and
burial to Adam and Moses, in order that, as a son of God, come out from law and
its slavery and condemnations and risen from the dead
in Christ, he may obey Christ alone.
This is My Beloved Son, HEAR HIM.
Moses was there when God spake
the word, and Peter would have put Moses beside
Christ. But the Father will have the
sons of God to listen to His Son alone. Moses
sets up the flesh, and bids man by his natural powers obey God. Christ buries the flesh beneath the waters of
death, for it ‘profiteth nothing.’
The
R. GOVETT,
M.A.