A Summary of Experience and a Body of Divinity
A Sermon
(No. 1806)
Delivered on Lord's-Day Morning, October 26th, 1884, by
C. H. SPURGEON,
At the Metropolitan Tabernacle, Newington
For they themselves show of us what manner of entering in we had unto
you, and how ye turned to God from idols to serve the living and true
God; and to wait for his Son from heaven, whom he raised from the dead,
even Jesus, which delivered us from the wrath to come.'1 Thessalonians
1:9-10.
IN Thessalonica the conversions to the faith were remarkable. Paul came
there without prestige, without friends, when he was in the very lowest
condition; for he had just been beaten and imprisoned at Philippi, and
had fled from that city. Yet it mattered not in what condition the
ambassador might be; God, who worketh mighty things by weak
instruments, blessed the word of his servant Paul. No doubt when the
apostle went into the synagogue to address his own countrymen he had
great hopes that, by reasoning with them out of their own scriptures,
he might convince them that Jesus was the Christ. He soon found that
only a few would search the Scriptures and form a judgment on the
point; but the bulk of them refused, for we read of the Jews of Berea,
to whom Paul fled from Thessalonica, These were more noble than those
in Thessalonica, in that they received the word with all readiness of
mind, and searched the scriptures daily, whether those things were so.'
Paul must have felt disappointed with his own countrymen; indeed, he
had often cause to do so. His heart was affectionately warm toward
them, but their hearts were very bitter towards him, reckoning him to
be a pervert and an apostate. But if he seemed to fail with the Jews,
it is evident that he was abundantly successful with the Gentiles.
These turned from their idols to serve the living God, and their
turning was so remarkable that the Jew's charged Paul and Silas with
turning the world upside down.
In those days there was a good deal of practical atheism abroad, and
therefore the wonder was not so much that men left their idols, as that
they turned unto the living God. It became a matter of talk all over
the city, and the Jews in their violence helped to make the matter more
notorious; for the mobs in the street and the attack upon the house of
Jason all stirred the thousand tongues of rumour. Everybody spoke of
the sudden appearance of three poor Jews, of their remarkable teaching
in the synagogue, and of the conversion of a great multitude of devout
Greeks, and of the chief women not a few. It was no small thing that so
many had come straight away from the worship of Jupiter and Mercury to
worship the unknown God, who could not be seen, nor imaged; and to
enter the kingdom of one Jesus who had been crucified. It set all
Macedonia and Achaia wondering; and as with a trumpet blast it aroused
all the dwellers in those regions. Every ship that sailed from
Thessalonica carried the news of the strange ferment which was moving
the City; men were caring for religion and were quitting old beliefs
for a new and better faith. Thessalonica, situated on one of the great
Roman roads, and center of a large trade, thus became a center for the
gospel. Wherever there are true conversions there will be more or less
of this kind of sounding forth of the gospel. It was especially so at
Thessalonica; but it is truly so in every church where the Spirit of
God is uplifting men from the dregs of evil, delivering them from
drunkenness, and dishonesty, and uncleanness, and worldliness, and
making them to become holy and earnest in the cause of the great Lord.
There is sure to be a talk when grace triumphs. This talk is a great
aid to the gospel: it is no small thing that men should have their
attention attracted to it by its effects; for it is both natural and
just that thoughtful men should judge of doctrines by their results;
and if the most beneficial results follow from the preaching of the
word, prejudice is disarmed, and the most violent objectors are
silenced.
You will notice that in this general talk the converts and the. hers
were greatly mixed up:'For they themselves show of us manner of
entering in we had unto you.' I do not know that it is possible for the
preacher to keep himself distinct from those who profess to be
converted by him. He is gladly one with them in love to, their souls,
bat he would have it remembered that he cannot be responsible for all
their actions. Those who profess to have been converted under any
ministry have it in their power to damage that ministry far more than
any adversaries can do. There!' says the world, when it detects a false
professor, this is what comes of such preaching.' They judge unfairly,
I know; but most men are in a great hurry, and will not examine the
logic of their opponents; while many others are so eager to judge
unfavorably, that a very little truth, or only a bare report, suffices
to condemn both the minister and his doctrine. Every man that lives
unto God with purity of life brings honor to the gospel which converted
him, to the community to which he belongs, and to the preaching by
which he was brought to the knowledge of the truth; but the reverse is
equally true in the case of unworthy adherents. Members of churches,
will you kindly think of this? Your ministers share the blame of your
ill conduct if ever you disgrace yourselves. I feel sure that none of
you wish to bring shame and trouble upon your pastors, however careless
you may be about your own reputations. Oh, that we could be freed from
those of whom Paul says, Many walk, of whom I have told you often, and
now tell you even weeping, that they are the enemies of the cross of
Christ: whose end is destruction, whose God is their belly, and whose
glory is in their shame, who mind earthly things.' When these are in a
church they are its curse. The Thessalonians were not such: they were
such a people that Paul did not blush to have himself implicated in
what they did. He was glad to say that the outsiders show of us what
manner of entering in we had unto you, and how ye turned to God from
idols, to serve the living and true God, and to wait for his Son from
heaven.'
Quitting this line of thought, I would observe that these two verses
struck me as being singularly full. Oceans of teaching are to be found
in them. A father of the church in the first ages was wont to cry, I
adore the infinity of Holy Scripture.' That remark constantly rises
from my lips when I am studying the sacred Word. This book is more than
a book,'it is the mother of books, a mine of truth, a mountain of
meaning. It was an ill-advised opinion which is imputed to the
Mahommedans at the destruction of the Alexandrian Library, when they
argued that everything that was good in it was already in the Koran,
and therefore it might well be destroyed. Yet it is true with regard to
the inspired Word of God, that it contains everything which appertains
to eternal life. It is a revelation of which no man can take the
measure, it compasses heaven and earth, time and eternity. The best
evidence of its being written by an Infinite mind is its own infinity.
Within a few of its words there lie hidden immeasurable meanings, even
as perfume enough to sweeten leagues of space may be condensed into a
few drops of otto of roses.
The first part of my text contains a summary of Christian experience;
and the second part contains a body of divinity. Here is ample room and
verge enough. It is not possible to exhaust such a theme.
I. The first part of the text contains A SUMMARY OF EXPERIENCE; What
manner of entering in we had unto you, and how ye turned to God from
idols to serve the living and true God, and to wait for his Son from
heaven.' Here we have in miniature the biography of a Christian man.
It begins, first, with the entering in of the word,'What manner of
entering in we had unto you.' When we preach the word you listen, and,
so far, the word is received. This is a very hopeful circumstance.
Still, the hearing with the outward ear is comparatively a small
matter; or, at least, only great because of what may follow from it.
The preacher feels even with some who listen with attention that he is
outside the door; he is knocking, and he hopes that he is heard within;
but the truth is not yet received, the door remains shut, an entrance
is not granted, and in no case can he be content to speak with the
person outside the door; he desires an entrance for the Word. All is
fruitless until Christ entereth into the heart. I have seen the
following: the door has been a little opened, and the man inside has
come to look at the messenger, and more distinctly to hear what he may
have to say; but he has taken care to put the door on the chain, or
hold it with his hand, for he is not yet ready to admit the guest who
is so desirous of entertainment. The King's messenger has sometimes
tried to put his foot within when the door has stood a little open, but
he has not always been successful, and has not even escaped from a
painful hurt when the door has been forced back with angry violence. We
have called again and again with our message, but we have been as men
who besieged a walled city, and were driven from the gates; yet we had
our reward, for when the Holy Spirit sweetly moved the hard heart the
city gates have opened of their own accord, and we have been received
joyfully. We have heard the hearty cry, Let the truth come in! Let the
gospel come in! Let Christ come in! Whatever there is in him we are
willing to receive; whatever he demands we are willing to give;
whatever he offers us we are glad to accept. Come and welcome! The
guest-chamber is prepared. Come and abide in our house for ever!'
The truth has its own ways of entrance; but in general it first affects
the understanding. The man says, I see it: I see how God is just, and
yet the Justifier of him that believeth in Jesus. I see sin laid on
Christ that it may not be laid on me, and I perceive that if I believe
in Jesus Christ my sins are put away by his atonement.' To many all
that is wanted is that they should understand this fundamental truth;
for their minds are prepared of God to receive it. Only make it plain
and they catch at it as a hungry man at a piece of bread. They discover
in the gospel of our Lord Jesus the very thing for which they have been
looking for years, and so the truth enters by the door of the
understanding.
Then it usually commences to work upon the conscience, conscience being
the understanding exercised upon moral truth. The man sees himself a
sinner, discovering guilt that he was not aware of; and he is thus made
ready to receive Christ's pardoning grace. He sees that to have lived
without thinking of God, without loving God, without serving God was a
great and grievous crime: he feels the offensiveness of this neglect.
He trembles; he consents unto the law that it is good, and he allows
that, if the law condemns him, he is worthy to be condemned.
When it has thus entered into the understanding and affected the
conscience, the word of God usually arouses the emotions. Fear is
awakened, and hope is excited. The man begins to feel as he never felt
before. His whole manhood is brought under the heavenly spell; his very
flesh doth creep in harmony with the amazement of his soul. He wonders
and dreads, weeps and quivers, hopes and doubts; but no, emotion is
asleep; life is in all. When a tear rises to his eye he brushes it
away, but it is soon succeeded by another. Repentance calls forth one
after another of these her sentinels. The proud man is broken down; the
hard man is softened. The love of God in providing a Saviour, the
unsearchable riches of divine grace in passing by transgression,
iniquity, and sin,'these things amaze and overwhelm the penitent. He
finds himself suddenly dissolved, where aforetime he was hard as
adamant for the word is entering into him, and exercising its softening
power.
By-and-by the entrance is complete; for the truth carries the central
castle of Mansoul, and captures his heart. He who once hated the gospel
now loves it. At first he loves it, hoping that it may be his, though
fearing the reverse; yet owning that if it brought no blessing to
himself, yet it was a lovable and desirable thing. By-and-by the man
ventures to grasp it, encouraged by the word that bids him lay hold on
eternal life. One who in digging his land finds a treasure, first looks
about for fear lest some one else should claim it; anon he dares to
examine his prize more carefully, and at length he bears it in his
bosom to his own home. So is it with the gospel; when a man finds it by
the understanding, he soon embraces it with his heart; and, believe me,
if it once gets into the heart, the arch-enemy himself will never get
it out again. Oh, that such an entrance with the gospel might commence
the spiritual life of all here present who are as yet unsaved.
What comes next? Well, the second stage is conversion. They themselves
show of us what manner of entering in we had unto you, and how ye
turned from idols to serve the living and true God.' There came a
turning, a decided turning. The man has come so far in carelessness, so
far in sin and unbelief; but now he pauses, and he deliberately turns
round, and faces in that direction to which hitherto he had turned his
back. Conversion is the turning of a man completely round, to hate what
he loved and to love what he hated. Conversion is to turn to God
decidedly and distinctly by an act and deed of the mind and will. In
some senses we are turned; but in others, like these Thessalonians, we
turn. It is not conversion to think that you will turn, or to promise
that you will turn, or resolve that you will turn, but actually and in
very deed to turn, because the word has had a true entrance into your
heart. You must not be content with a reformation; there must be a
revolution: old thrones must fall, and a new king must reign. Is it so
with you?
These Thessalonians turned from their idols. Do you tell me that you
have no idols? Think again, and you will not be quite so sure. The
streets of London are full of fetich worship, and almost every dwelling
is a joss-house crammed with idols. Why, multitudes of men are
worshipping not calves of gold, but gold in a more portable shape.
Small circular idols of gold and silver are much sought after. They are
very devoutly worshipped by some, and great things are said concerning
their power. I have heard the epithet of almighty' ascribed to an
American form of these idols. Those who do not worship gold may yet
worship rank, name, pleasure, or honour. Most worship self, and I do
not know that there is a more degrading form of worship than for a man
to put himself upon a pedestal and bow down thereto and worship it. You
might just as well adore cats and crocodiles with the ancient Egyptians
as pay your life's homage to yourselves. No wooden image set up by the
most savage tribe can be more ugly or degrading than our idol when we
adore ourselves. Men worship Bacchus still. Do not tell me they do not:
why, there is a temple to him at every street corner. While every other
trade is content with a shop or a warehouse, this fiend has his
palaces, in which plentiful libations are poured forth in his honour.
The gods of unchastity and vice are yet among us. It would be a shame
even to speak of the things which are done of them in secret. The lusts
of the flesh are served even by many who would not like to have it
known. We have gods many and lords many in this land. God grant that we
may see, through the preaching of the gospel, many turning from such
idols. If you love anything better than God you are idolaters: if there
is anything you would not give up for God it is your idol: if there is
anything that you seek with greater fervour that is your idol, and
conversion means a turning from every idol.
But then that is not enough, for some men turn from one idol to
another. If they do not worship Bacchus they become teetotalers, and
possibly they worship the golden calf, and become covetous. When men
quit covetousness they sometimes turn to profligacy. A change of false
gods is not the change that will save: we must turn unto God, to trust,
love, and honor him, and him alone.
After conversion comes service. True conversion causes us to serve the
living and true God.' To serve him means to worship him, to obey him,
to consecrate one's entire being to his honour and glory, and to be his
devoted servant.
We are, dear friends, to serve the living' God. Many men have a dead
God still. They do not feel that he hears their prayers, they do not
feel the power of his Spirit moving upon their hearts and lives. They
never take the Lord into their calculations; he never fills them with
joy, nor even depresses them with fear; God is unreal and inactive to
them. But the true convert turns to the living God, who is everywhere,
and whose presence affects him at every point of his being. This God he
is to worship, obey, and serve.
Then it is added, to serve the true God; and there is no serving a true
God with falsehood. Many evidently serve a false god, for they utter
words of prayer without their hearts, and that is false prayer, unfit
for the true God, who must be worshipped in spirit and in truth. When
men's lives are false and artificial they are not a fit service for the
God of truth. A life is false when it is not the true outcome of the
soul, when it is fashioned by custom, ruled by observation, restrained
by selfish motives, and governed by the love of human approbation. What
a man does against his will is not in truth done by himself at all. If
the will is not changed the man is not converted, and his religious
life is not true. He that serves the true God acceptably does it with
delight; to him sin is misery, and holiness is happiness. This is the
sort of service which we desire our converts to render: we long to see
rebels become sons. Oh the sacred alchemy of the Holy Spirit, who can
turn men from being the slaves of sin to become servants of
righteousness!
Carefully notice the order of life's progress: the entering in of the
word produces conversion, and this produces service. Do not put those
things out of their places. If you are converts without the word
entering into you, you are unconverted; and if professing to receive
the word you are not turned by it, you have not received it. If you
claim to be converted, and yet do not serve God, you are not converted;
and if you boast of serving God without being converted, you are not
serving God. The three things are links which draw on each other.
A fourth matter follows to complete this Christian biography, namely,
waiting'To wait for his Son from heaven.' That conversion which is not
followed up by waiting is a false conversion, and will come to nothing.
We wait, dear brethren, in the holy perseverance of faith; having begun
with Christ Jesus orr Lord we abide in him; we trust, and then we wait.
We do not look upon salvation as a thing which requires a few minutes
of faith, and then all is over; salvation is the business of our lives.
We receive salvation in an instant, but we work it out with fear and
trembling all our days. He that is saved continues to be saved, and
goes on to be saved from day to day, from every sin and from every form
of evil. We must wait upon the Lord, and renew the strength of the life
which he has imparted. As a servant waiteth on her mistress, or a
courtier upon his king, so must we wait upon the Lord.
This waiting also takes the shape of living in the future. A man who,
waits is not living on the wages of today, but on the recompenses of a
time which is yet to come; and this is the mark of the Christian, that
his life is spent in eternity rather than in time, and his citizenship
is not of earth but of heaven. He has received a believing expectancy
which makes him both watch and wait. He expects that the Lord Jesus
will come a second time, and that speedily. He has read of his going
up. into heaven, and he believes it; and he knows that he will so come
in like manner as he went up into heaven. For the second advent he
looks with calm hope: he does not know when it may be, but he keeps.
himself on the watch as a servant who waits his lord's return. He hopes
it may be today, he would not wonder if it were tomorrow, for he is
always looking for and hasting unto the coming of the Son of God. The
coming of the Lord is his expected reward. He does not expect to be
rewarded by men, or even to be rewarded of God with temporal things in
this life, for he has set his affection upon things yet to be revealed,
things eternal and infinite. In the day when the Christ shall come, and
the heavens which have received him shall restore him to our earth, he
shall judge the world in righteousness, and his people with his truth,
and then shall our day break and our shadows flee away. The true
believer lives in this near future; his hopes are with Jesus on his
throne, with Jesus crowned before an assembled universe.
The convert has come to this condition, he is assured of his salvation.
See how he has been rising from the time when he first held the door
ajar! He is assured of his salvation; for Paul describes him as one who
is delivered from the wrath to come; and therefore he looks with holy
delight to the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ. Once he was afraid of
this, for he feared that he would come to condemn him; but now he knows
that when the Lord appears his justification will be made plain to the
eyes of all men. Then shall the righteous shine forth as the sun, in
the kingdom of their Father.' And so he cries, Even so, come.Lord
Jesus!' He would hasten rather than delay the appearing of the Lord. He
groans in sympathy with travailing creation for the manifestation of
the sons of God. He cries with all the redeemed host for the day of
the. Saviour's glory. He could not do this were he not abundantly
assured that the day would not seal his destruction, but reveal his
full salvation.
Here, then, you have the story of the Christian man briefly summed up,
and I think you will not find a passage of merely human writing which
contains so much in so small a compass. It has unspeakable wealth
packed away into a narrow casket. Do you understand it? Is this the
outline of your life? If it is not, the Lord grant that his word may
have an entrance into you this morning, that you may now believe in
Jesus Christ and then wait for his glorious appearing.
II. I shall want you to be patient with me while I very briefly unfold
the second half of this great roll. Here even to a greater degree we
have mullum in parvo, much in little; A BODY OF DIVINITY packed away in
a nutshell. To wait for his Son from heaven, whom he raised from the
dead, even Jesus, which delivered us from the wrath to come.'
To begin my body of divinity, I see here, first, the Deity of Christ.
To wait for his Son.' His Son.' God has but one Son in the highest
sense. The Lord Jesus Christ has given to all believers power to become
the sons of God, but not in the sense in which he, and he alone, is the
Son of God.' Unto which of the angels said he at any time, Thou art my
Son, this day have I begotten thee?' When he bringeth in the
First-begotten into the world he saith, Let all the angels of God
worship him.' The Eternal Filiation is a mystery into which it is
better for us never to pry. Believe it; but how it is, or how it could
be, certainly it is not for you or for me to attempt to explain. There
is one Son of the Highest,' who is God, of the substance of the Father,
begotten before all worlds,' whom we with all our souls adore, and own
to be most truly God; doing so especially every time in the benediction
we associate him with the Father and with the Holy Spirit as the one
God of blessing.
Side by side with this in this text of mine is his humanity. His son,
whom he raised from the dead.' It is for man to die. God absolutely
considered dieth not; he therefore took upon himself our mortal frame,
and was made in fashion as a man; then willingly for our sakes he
underwent the pangs of death, and being crucified, was dead, and so was
buried, even as the rest of the dead. He was truly man, of a reasonable
soul, and human flesh subsisting': of that we are confident. There has
been no discussion upon that point in these modern times, but there was
much questioning thereon in years long gone; for what is there so clear
that men will not doubt it or mystify it? With us there is no question
either as to his Deity, which fills us with reverence; or his manhood,
which inspires us with joy. He is the Son of God and the Son of Mary.
He, as God, is immortal, invisible'; and yet for our sakes he was seen
of men and angels, and in mortal agony yielded up the ghost. He
suffered for our salvation, died upon the cross, and was buried in the
tomb of Joseph of Arimathaea, being verily and truly man.
Notice a third doctrine which is here, and that is the unity of the
Divine Person of our Lord; for while the apostle speaks of Christ as
God's Son from heaven, and as one who had died, he adds, even Jesus':
that is to say, one known, undivided Person. Although he be God and
man, yet he is not two, but one Christ. There is but one Person of our
blessed and adorable Lord: one altogether; not by confusion of
substance, but by unity of Person.' He is God, he is man; perfect God
and perfect man; and, as such, Jesus Christ, the one Mediator between
God and man. There have been mistakes about this also made in the
church, though I trust not by any one of us here present. We worship
the Lord Jesus Christ in the unity of his divine Person as the one
Saviour of men.
Furthermore, in our text we perceive a doctrine about ourselves very
plainly implied, namely, that men by nature are guilty, for otherwise
they would not have needed Jesus, a Saviour. They were lost, and so he
who came from heaven to earth bore the name of Jesus, for he shall save
his people from their sins.' It is clear, my brethren, that we were
under the divine wrath, otherwise it could not be said, He hath
delivered us from the wrath to come.' We who are now delivered were
once children of wrath, even as others.' And when we are delivered it
is a meet song to sing, O Lord, I will praise thee: though thou wast
angry with me, thine anger is turned away, and thou comfortedst me.' We
were guilty, else we had not needed a propitiation by the Saviour's
death: we were lost, else we had not needed one who should seek and
save that which is lost; and we were hopelessly lost, otherwise God
himself would not have shared our nature to work the mighty work of our
redemption. That truth is in the text, and a great deal more than I can
mention just now.
But the next doctrine, which is one of the fundamentals of the gospel,
is that the Lord Jesus Christ died for these fallen men. He could not
have been raised from the dead if he had not died. That death was
painful, and ignominious; and it was also substitutionary: for the
transgression of my people was he stricken.' In the death of Christ lay
the essence of our redemption. I would not have you dissociate his life
from his death, it comes into his death as an integral part of it; for
as the moment we begin to live we, in a sense, begin to die, so the Man
of Sorrows lived a dying life, which was all preparatory to his
passion. He lived to die, panting for the baptism wherewith he was to
be baptized, and reaching forward to it. But it was especially, though
not only, by his death upon the cross that Jesus put away our sin.
Without shedding of blood there is no remission of sin. Not even the
tears of Christ, nor the labours of Christ could have redeemed us if he
had not given himself for us an offering and a sacrifice. Die he, or
justice must,' or man must die. It was his bowing the head and giving
up of the ghost which finished the whole work. It is finished' could
not have been uttered except by a bleeding, dying Christ. His death is
our life. Let us always dwell upon that central truth, and when we are
preaching Christ risen, Christ reigning, or Christ coming, let us never
so preach any of them as to overshadow Christ crucified. We preach
Christ crucified.' Some have put up as their ensign, We preach Christ
glorified'; and we also preach the same; but yet to us it seems that
the first and foremost view of Jesus by the sinner is as the Lamb of
God which taketh away the sin of the world. Therefore do we preach
first Christ crucified, while at the same time we do not forget that
blessed hope of the child of God,'namely, Christ in glory soon to
descend from heaven.
The next doctrine I see in my text is the acceptance of the death of
Christ by the Father. Where is that?' say you. Look! Whom he raised
from the dead.' Not only did Jesus rise from the dead, but the Father
had a distinct hand therein. God as God gave the token of his
acceptance of Christ's sacrifice by raising him from the dead. It is
true, as we sometimes sing,
If Jesus had not paid the debt,
He ne'er had been at freedom set.'
The Surety would have been held in prison to this day if he had not
discharged his suretyship engagements, and wiped out all the
liabilities of his people Therefore it is written, He was delivered for
our offences, and was raised again for our justification.' In his
glorious uprising from the dead lies the assurance that we are
accepted, accepted in the Beloved: the Beloved being himself certainly
accepted because God brought him again from the dead.
Further on, we have another doctrine, among many more. We have here the
doctrine of our Lord's resurrection, of which we spake when we
mentioned the acceptance of his offering. Christ is risen from the
dead. I pray you, do not think of the Lord Jesus Christ as though he
were now dead. It is well to dwell upon Gethsemane, Golgotha, and
Gabbatha; but pray remember the empty tomb, Emmaus, Galilee, and
Olivet. It is not well to think of Jesus as for ever on the cross or in
the tomb. He is not here, but he is risen.' Ye may come and see the
place where the Lord lay,' but he lies there no longer he hath burst
the bands of death by which he could not be holden: for it was not
possible that God's holy One could see corruption. The rising of Jesus
from the dead is that fact of facts which establishes Christianity upon
an historical basis, and at the same time guarantees to all believers
their own resurrection from the dead. He is the firstfruits and we are
the harvest.
Further, there is here the doctrine of his ascension: to wait for his
Son from heaven.' It is clear that Jesus is in heaven, or he could not
come from it. He has gone before us as our Forerunner. He has gone to
his rest and reward; a cloud received him out of sight; he has entered
into his glory.
I doubt not our poet is right when he says of the angels'
They brought his chariot from on high,
To bear him to his throne;
Clapped their triumphant wings and cried,
The glorious work is done!'
That ascension of his brought us the Holy Spirit. He led captivity
captive, and received gifts for men,' and he gave the Holy Ghost as the
largess of his joyous entry to his Father's courts, that man on earth
might share in the joy of the Conqueror returning from the battle. Lift
up your heads, ye gates; and be ye lift up, ye everlasting doors; and
the King of glory shall come in,' was the song of that bright day.
But the text tells us more: not only that he has gone into heaven, but
that he remains there; for these Thessalonians were expecting him to
come from heaven,' and therefore he was there. What is he doing? I go
to prepare a place for you.' What is he doing? He is interceding with
authority before the throne. What is he doing? He is from yonder
hill-top looking upon his church, which is as a ship upon the sea
.buffeted by many a storm. In the middle watch ye shall see him walking
on the waters; for he perceives the straining of the oars, the leakage
of the timbers, the rending of the sails, the dismay of the pilot, the
trembling of the crew; and he will come unto us, and save us. He is
sending heavenly succours to his weary ones; he is ruling all things
for the salvation of his elect, and the accomplishment of his purposes.
Glory be to his blessed name!
Jesus is in heaven with saving power, too, and that also is in the
text: His Son from heaven, even Jesus, which delivereth us from the
wrath to come.' I alter the translation, for it is a present participle
in the case of each verb, and should run, Even Jesus, delivering us
from the wrath coming.' He is at this moment delivering. Wherefore also
he is able to save them to the uttermost that come unto God by him,
seeing he ever liveth to make intercession for them.' He is away in
heaven, but he is not divided from us; he is working here the better
because he is there. He has not separated himself from the service and
the conflict here below; but he has taken the post from which he can
best observe and aid. Like some great commander who in the day of
battle commands a view of the field, and continues watching, directing,
and so winning the fight, so is Jesus in the best place for helping us.
Jesus is the master of legions, bidding his angels fly hither and
thither, where. their spiritual help is needed. My faith sees him
securing victory in the midst of the earth. My God, my King, thou art
working all things gloriously from thy vantage ground, and ere long the
groans and strifes of battle shall end in Hallelujahs unto the Lord God
Omnipotent! Christ's residence in the heavens is clearly in the text.
Here is conspicuously set forth the second coming, a subject which
might well have occupied all our time,' To wait for his Son from
heaven.' Every chapter of this epistle closes with the Second Advent.
Do not deceive yourselves, oh ye ungodly men who think little of Jesus
of Nazareth! The day will come when you will change your minds about
him. As surely as he died, he lives, and as surely as he lives he will
come to this earth again! With an innumerable company of angels, with
blast of trumpet that shall strike dismay into the heart of all his
enemies, Jesus comes! And when he cometh there shall be a time of
judgment, and the rising again of the dead, and Every eye shall see
him, and they also which pierced him: and all the kindreds of the earth
shall wail because of him.' He may come tomorrow! We know not the times
and the seasons; these things are in the Father's keeping; but that he
comes is certain, and that he will come as a thief in the night to the
ungodly is certain too. Lay no flattering unction to your souls as
though when he was crucified there was an end of him; it is but the
beginning of his dealings with you, though you reject him. Kiss the
Son, lest he be angry, and ye perish from the way, when his wrath is
kindled but a little. Blessed are all they that put their trust in
him.'
A further doctrine in the text is that Christ is a deliverer'Jesus
delivering us from the wrath coming,.' What a blessed name is this!
Deliverer! Press the cheering title to your breast. He delivereth by
himself bearing the punishment of sin. He has delivered, he is
delivering, he always will deliver them that put their trust in him.
But there was something to be delivered from, and that is, the coming
wrath, which is mentioned here. Oh,' saith one, that is a long, way
off, that wrath to come!' If it were a long way off it were wise for
you to prepare for it. He is unsafe who will be destroyed most
certainly, however distant that destruction may be. A wise man should
not be content with looking as an ox doth, as far as his eye can carry
him, for there is so much beyond, as sure as that which is seen. But it
is not far-off wrath which is here mentioned; the text saith, who
delivereth us from the wrath coming'; that is, the wrath which is now
coming; for wrath is even now upon the unbelieving. As for those Jews
who had rejected Christ. the apostle says of them in the sixteenth
verse of the next chapter, Forbidding us to speak to the Gentiles that
they might be saved, to fill up their sins alway: for the wrath is come
upon them to the uttermost.' The siege of Jerusalem, and the blindness
of Israel, are a terrible comment upon these words. Indignation and
wrath, tribulation and anguish, upon every soul of man that doeth evil,
of the Jew first, and also of the Gentile.' It is said of every one
that believeth not in Christ Jesus, that the wrath of God abideth on
him.' God is angry with the wicked every day.' This wrath abideth upon
some of you. It is the joy of believers that they are delivered from
this wrath which is daily coming upon unbelievers, and would come upon
themselves if they had not been delivered from it by the atoning
sacrifice.
There is evidently in the text the doctrine of a great division between
men and men. He hath delivered us.' All men have not faith, and
therefore all men are not delivered from wrath. Today there is such a
division; the condemned-already' and the justified' are living side by
side; but ere long the separation shall be more apparent. While some
will go away into everlasting punishment, the people of God will be
found pardoned and absolved, and so will be glorified for ever.
Lastly, there is here the doctrine of assurance. Some say, How are you
to know that you are saved?' It can be known; it ought to be known.
Surely,' cries one, it is presumption to say that you are sure.' It is
presumption to live without knowing that you are delivered from wrath.
Here the apostle speaks of it as a thing well known, that Jesus
delivers us from the wrath coming.' He does not say if,' or perhaps,'
but he writes that it is so, and therefore he knew it, and we may know
it. My brother, you may know that you are saved. That would make me
inexpressibly happy,' cries one. Just so, and that is one of the
reasons why we would have you know it this day. God saith, He that
believeth in him hath everlasting life,' and therefore the believer may
be sure that he has it. Our message is, He that believeth and is
baptized shall be saved; but he that believeth not shall be damned.'
God make you to escape that dreadful doom! May you be delivered from
the wrath which is coming for Jesus' sake. Amen.
PORTIONS OF SCRIPTURE READ BEFORE SERMON'Acts 17:1-10; 1 Thessalonians
1.
HYMNS FROM OUR OWN HYMN BOOK'485, 483, 484.