Luke 12:35-5335Let your loins be girded about, and your lights burning; 36And ye yourselves like unto men that wait for their lord, when he will return from the wedding; that when he cometh and knocketh, they may open unto him immediately. 37Blessed are those servants, whom the lord when he cometh shall find watching: verily I say unto you, that he shall gird himself, and make them to sit down to meat, and will come forth and serve them. 38And if he shall come in the second watch, or come in the third watch, and find them so, blessed are those servants. 39And this know, that if the goodman of the house had known what hour the thief would come, he would have watched, and not have suffered his house to be broken through. 40Be ye therefore ready also: for the Son of man cometh at an hour when ye think not. 41Then Peter said unto him, Lord, speakest thou this parable unto us, or even to all? 42And the Lord said, Who then is that faithful and wise steward, whom his lord shall make ruler over his household, to give them their portion of meat in due season? 43Blessed is that servant, whom his lord when he cometh shall find so doing. 44Of a truth I say unto you, that he will make him ruler over all that he hath. 45But and if that servant say in his heart, My lord delayeth his coming; and shall begin to beat the menservants and maidens, and to eat and drink, and to be drunken; 46The lord of that servant will come in a day when he looketh not for him, and at an hour when he is not aware, and will cut him in sunder, and will appoint him his portion with the unbelievers. 47And that servant, which knew his lord's will, and prepared not himself, neither did according to his will, shall be beaten with many stripes. 48But he that knew not, and did commit things worthy of stripes, shall be beaten with few stripes. For unto whomsoever much is given, of him shall be much required: and to whom men have committed much, of him they will ask the more. 49I am come to send fire on the earth; and what will I, if it be already kindled? 50But I have a baptism to be baptized with; and how am I straitened till it be accomplished! 51Suppose ye that I am come to give peace on earth? I tell you, Nay; but rather division: 52For from henceforth there shall be five in one house divided, three against two, and two against three. 53The father shall be divided against the son, and the son against the father; the mother against the daughter, and the daughter against the mother; the mother in law against her daughter in law, and the daughter in law against her mother in law. (Luke 12:35‑53)
THE Lord had been warning the world in what precedes in this chapter. There was the folly of those who sought their comfort and pleasure in it; and He says, " Seek ye the kingdom of God, and all these things shall be added unto you; fear not, little flock, for it is your Father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom."
Now what distinguishes the Christian is this, that by the revelation of that which is not seen, he is borne up out of this world altogether. He has to pass through it; but, as a Christian, he does not belong to it at all. " They are not of this world, even as I am not of this world." Redemption is accomplished, and it gives us a title, like the poor thief, into Paradise, but still we are strangers as in Hebrews, and seek a country. There is nothing settled or established in this world, but its spirit from the very beginning is that of seeking rest where God in judgment has made us strangers.
It was all over with Cain, and God said to him, and he said to himself, " A fugitive and a vagabond shall I be in the earth." He declared he was made a vagabond, and went and built a city in the land of Nod-i.e., vagabond.
Man was driven out from Paradise, and Cain was jealous of Abel, and God's judgment was come upon him; but he went out from the presence of the Lord and built a city and settled himself there, calling it by his son's name. The next element is " cattle "-i. e., wealth, then artificers in brass and iron, and then comes the father of all such as handle the harp and organ. Sin made man a stranger to the Paradise of God, and so man sought to make for himself a rest. That is not quite all. When the blessed Lord came into this world, not only did man see no beauty in Him, but man cast Him out and crucified Him. And so, as to the world now, it is not only a world, the fruit of man driven out of Paradise, but the present state is the consequence of having driven God out of it when He had come into it in grace. This gave an occasion to God for the unfolding of all His ways; but when once the Son of God is rejected, then the moral history of this world is closed.
Yet the Lord could say, “Now is the prince of this world cast out," and He broke the power of Satan, though he is still "the god of this world." “But now once in the end of the world hath he appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself." The world has not come to an end yet, but in the rejection of Christ, the blessed Son of God, man's moral history came to an end, and he is now treated as lost; not lost so that he cannot be saved, but lost as to his moral condition, and he now stands so before God. God has come down to this world and said, not merely you have done this or that, but He has to say—not " Adam, where art thou?”—but, What have you done with My Son? That is what He has to say to the world now, and what can the world say?
Christ came in goodness: even Pilate asked, " Why, what evil hath he done? " but man cast Him out.
And I cannot take up Christianity now without saying, the world has rejected Christ, that is the position in which it is: it has rejected Christ, and man is lost. But God has said to Christ, “Sit at my right hand until I make Thy foes Thy footstool." And the Lord Jesus Christ, rejected by man, is sitting at God's right hand, as man, expecting until His enemies are made His footstool. Patient grape is working meanwhile to call sinners to a knowledge of the salvation which He has wrought.
First, He came to put away sin by the sacrifice or Himself, and then, to them that look for Him shall He appear a second time without sin unto salvation. But, then, that will be judgment, surely, for those who have rejected Him. We stand between the first coming and the second coming, the first being that when He accomplished redemption, and the second being the full fruits of it, including also the judgment of the dead. Christianity is characterized by this position between the two comings.
Now the prophets had prophesied beforehand of the sufferings of Christ. Look for a moment at that passage in Peter, 1 Peter 1-10, " Of which salvation the prophets have inquired and searched diligently, who prophesied of the grace that should come unto you, searching what, or what manner of time the Spirit of Christ which was in them did signify, when it testified beforehand the sufferings of Christ, and the glory that should follow, unto whom it was revealed, that not unto themselves, but unto us they did minister the things which are now reported unto you by them that have preached the gospel unto you, with the Holy Ghost sent down from heaven, which things the angels desire to look into. Wherefore gird up the loins of your mind, be sober, and hope to the end for the grace that is to be brought unto you at the revelation of Jesus Christ." I only refer to this as to the order of things. The prophets before the sufferings (and so before the glory, of course) searched their own prophecies to understand them, and it was revealed to them, that they ministered them to us; and they are now reported to us; they are not come; so that Christianity is not the accomplishment of the things themselves; the things are reported by the Holy Ghost come down in the gospel, and, therefore, we are to gird up the loins of our mind, waiting for grace to be brought unto us at the revelation of Jesus Christ. This is simple and clear, they searched their own prophecies and found the grace they spoke of was not for them. But now Christ is personally glorified at the right hand of God, and the Holy Ghost has come, and we are here walking by faith, not by sight. When the Lord was going away He put the disciples into this place, knowing that the effect would be opposition from the world. Peter testified, “Him whom ye have crucified and slain has God exalted to his own right hand." And so the Lord says, “O righteous Father, the world hath not known Thee, but I have known Thee." I have revealed Thee perfectly, but the world would not have the revelation, they rejected it. He had been faithful, and then He goes back through the accomplished redemption to “The glory which he had with the Father before the world was."
We get, then, this great fact, that the Lord Jesus has gone back as man, having accomplished the work of redemption, to sit at the right hand of God. The Man upon whom all had depended, has finished the work, and has gone to sit at the right hand of God accordingly. He had finished it as regards His friends, and has sat down because it is finished. The old priests were ever standing, and offering oftentimes the same sacrifices which could never take away sins, but this Man when He had offered one sacrifice for sins, forever sat down-i.e., sat down in perpetuity-at the right hand of God. But He is sitting upon the Father's throne expecting, until His enemies be made His footstool. And it adds, as regards His friends— i.e., all believers, “For by one offering He hath perfected forever them that are sanctified."
But then, in consequence, the Holy Ghost has come down. He never came until the day of Pentecost, just as the Son of God never came until the incarnation. There was a coming and a going, and so He says, “If I go not away the Comforter will not come unto you." But before the Holy Ghost could come, man must be in the glory of God; and the great fact is that Man, the Blessed Man, the Son of God, had been glorified in the glory of God, before the Holy Ghost came. But He did come on the day of Pentecost to all them that believe. There we get the position. God had prophesied before of it, but God's word is a different thing from the accomplishment of the fact. Looked at as promises, “Jesus Christ was the minister of the circumcision for the truth of God to confirm the promises made unto the fathers." But there is more than that; He was the object of the promises. There was no promise to us that Christ should die for us; it was not promised to us that He should ascend (Psa. 68) up into heaven. But He is sitting at God's right hand. What was testified is, “Thou hash ascended on high." Christ has come down here, and dying and rising, is set down at the right hand of the Majesty on high. All was testified, and now all has been accomplished. The world rejected Him when He came, but God has set Him there in glory. Man saw no beauty in Him, He was wounded for our transgressions; but He glorified God in His death, and is now glorified of God at His right hand.
So now, if my sins brought Christ to the cross, the consequence is they are all put away; “He bare our sins in his own body on the tree." I go and acknowledge that my sins brought Him there under the judgment of God, but if so, then they can never bring me there. The whole work is completely finished, finished not merely for lawless people, not merely for law-breaking people as the Jews (and practically people are now under the law), but God has stepped in to settle the whole question of sin: Christ has come, God manifest in the flesh, into this world and died, so that I might be able to trust God in love, that I might say, I can trust Him. I cannot trust man in the world, he is so vile, but I can trust God who sent His Son, and He has wrought such a work that He Himself who did it is at the right hand of God in righteousness. That is the fact; that is not a promise. There are precious promises to help us along the road, surely; but this is a fact. When I come honestly as a sinner to say, my sins brought Him to that cross, and then God carried Him to His right hand, then I know He is not sitting in my sins at the right hand of God; that is no place in which to sit in sins! He glorified God on the earth, He " became obedient unto death, the death of the cross, therefore, God also hath highly exalted him, and given him a name which is above every name." The more we look at the cross of Christ the more we shall see that everything that is in question as to good and evil, is all settled. I get in the cross, man in absolute wickedness—i.e., hating God present in love; He had not come to judge the world, but to save the world. The prince of this world came and stirred up both Jews and Gentiles to get rid of Christ; man is wholly against Him, and the devil is against Him: but Christ was perfect in it all, “That the world may know that I love the Father, and as the Father gave me commandment, even so I do." I have got man here in absolute (it is hard to say perfect) wickedness, with the complete power of Satan over the world, getting rid of the Son of God, and though they hated Him without a cause, yet He goes through all in perfect obedience, showing absolute perfection in Man.
If I turn to God in this scene, I find perfect love to the sinner: there is all that man can be in perfection in the person of Christ, and all that God is in His holy righteous nature against sin, and in perfect love to sinners. So, in the cross every way, God is perfectly glorified, and every question was settled there; it is in God the perfect judgment of sin, and perfect love together. If God had cut off Adam and Eve it would have been all very right, but there would have been no love in that; and if he had passed sin over there would have been no righteousness. But in the cross, and nowhere else, you get all moral questions perfectly settled. It is the absolute bringing out of man and Satan too, and of God; and all is settled. Now God has owned that, and has raised Christ from the dead, and set Him at His own right hand as man in the heavenly pl aces, after He had by Himself purged our sins.
This great truth remains, when everything was morally settled, man is found at the right hand of God; and God, too, has displayed His righteousness in it. Then the Holy Ghost is given upon earth: “and when He is come, He shall convince the world of sin, of righteousness, and of judgment." The Savior came in grace, but the coming of the Holy Ghost testified these two things,—that Christ was gone from earth, having finished His work; but also He was gone that God should set Him at His own right hand. In John He says, " Now is the Son of Man glorified," speaking of the cross, " and God is glorified in Him; if God be glorified in Him, God shall also glorify Him in Himself, and shall straightway glorify Him," Son of Man as well as Son of God. As God has been perfectly glorified in Christ on the cross, so God will perfectly glorify Christ.
Then comes the work of the Holy Ghost given down here: the Spirit of God brings a man's own individual sins to his conscience, but He convinces " the world of sin because they believe not on Christ of righteousness, because I go to the Father of judgment, because the prince of this world is judged." There is the testimony and proof of righteousness, because there is one who is a man, who in the very place of sin, sinless, but “made sin," perfectly glorified God; and God has perfectly glorified Him. That is the whole thing. At His first coming, He died, was raised again, and was glorified in virtue of what He had done; all that was finished first, and then the Holy Ghost came down. Christ, the One who bore my sins, is, as man, at the right hand of God in glory, and the Holy Ghost down here is the witness that He is there. Now that is our place, the Holy Ghost is received, and through the Holy Ghost the knowledge of perfect love in God, that He did not spare His own Son, And what this accomplishes then, is this, it puts me in the place where Christ is, and, therefore, you get, even by John Baptist's father, that it is "to give the knowledge of salvation to his people," and that is whence the knowledge comes: it is by the Holy Ghost that I know Christ is at the right hand of God. But that Christ is the Christ who bore my sins, and if the work had not been complete, finished, accepted, He could not have been there, but God raised Him from the dead. And that is where the Holy Ghost given puts those who believe. It is given only to believers, but it is the portion of those who do believe.
The presence of the Holy Ghost gives me the consciousness of the place I am brought into. Here I get infinite love, perfect love, for God gave His Son to be a man, and He died for me that I might be in glory. And He told me when risen, “I go to my Father and your Father; to my God and your God." We “are all the sons of God by faith in Christ Jesus," and that is the force of those words in John, “To them gave he power to become sons of God; “and then, “because ye are sons, God hath sent forth the spirit of his Son into our hearts, whereby we cry, Abba Father." It is my place through Christ's work, and the Holy Ghost has given me the consciousness of it, for God has sent forth the Spirit into my heart. I cannot call a man my father, if I do not know whether I am his child or not. And then I know another thing by the Holy Ghost dwelling in me, and that is, I know that I am in Christ, and that of course is perfect acceptance. John 14, " In that day ye shall know that I am in the Father," when the Comforter is come, they could not know it until then. " And ye in me, and I in you." People say, you cannot know; the Lord says, "ye shall know." Whom am Ito believe? "Ye in me, and I in you." Well, then, I know I am in Christ, and that is perfect acceptance. You must condemn Christ in glory, if you condemn the believer, for he is in Christ. The Spirit is given that we may know Christ is in the Father, " And ye in me, and I in you."
But if Christ be in me, “The body is dead because of sin; and the Spirit is life because of righteousness." I get perfect acceptance, and so with it the character of responsibility; we are the epistle of Christ. It does not say, ye are to be, but, ye are, and the world ought to read Christ in you, as they might read the ten commandments on the two tables of stone. Mark, it is not responsibility as to our acceptance, we are in Christ, but if that is true, the other side is true also. “Walk worthy, therefore, of God, who hath called us to his kingdom and glory." And again in Colossians, where He speaks in the most definite way as to our acceptance, “Giving thanks unto the Father which hath made us meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light, and He prays they " Might walk worthy of the Lord unto all pleasing." He takes the Lord as the One in whom it all is. There is another character of that in Ephesians: “Walk worthy of the vocation wherewith ye are called."
Another thing, "He that dwelleth in love, dwelleth in God." “Whosoever shall confess that Jesus is the Son of God, God dwelleth in him, and he in God." There I get what constitutes the Christian; the foundation is in Christ, His “body is the temple of the Holy Ghost, which we have of God. And after that ye believed ye were sealed with that Holy Spirit of promise, which is the earnest of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession." Having been washed from my sins by the blood of Christ, the Holy Ghost makes my body His temple. That is the Christian position consequent upon redemption, it is the Christian place, and then I have to walk as Christ walked.
Forty days after His resurrection the Lord ascended, and He sent the Holy Ghost down here to dwell in those who believe, " Whom the world cannot receive, because it seeth him not, neither knoweth him, but ye know him, for he dwelleth with you and shall be in you" And we know that He does dwell in us because we say, Abba Father. We look to Christ and know we are in Him, but the presence of the Holy Ghost characterizes the Christian, not in his inconsistencies, of course, but a Christian as such. How can you go and sin if your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost, and you are bought with a price? And so the believer is left here as the epistle of Christ in this world, and the life of Jesus is to be manifested in Him. That is his responsibility. He knows his place, cries Abba, Father; the love of God is shed abroad in his heart, he knows his relationship with God, and in Christ is sitting in heavenly places, while the Holy Ghost dwells in him as His temple. But if we are children, then heirs; heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ.
Through Christ being in me my business is to show out Christ down here, and then it is a privilege to suffer with Him. I cannot go with the Spirit of Christ in me-through a world of degradation, and sin, and misery, and pace through it, without, in a poor measure, but really feeling what I go through, and its opposition as well as its character. But there is where the Christian is, he has received the Holy Ghost, and he passes through this world as being out of it, having his conversation (i.e., living association) in heaven. Christ " gave himself for our sins, that he might deliver us out of this present evil world; " but now He has to go through this world, and supposing Christ had been crucified last night-am I going on with the world that crucified Him, or am I going on with Him?
Again, I must have the Holy Ghost to know that I am accepted. I cannot personally look up and say with joy, "Come quickly," without knowing that my redemption is settled; and then more, Christ is all, and in all, He is everything as an object to us, and He is in all as the power of life and joy. He is everything to my soul then, after He has washed me from my sins in His own blood. I cannot find a thing in Christ the value of which has not been spent upon me.
One thing let me remark here, we know whom we love, even if we don't love Him enough. If a person says, " I love my mother, and I think I love her enough," I say, "You deceive yourself, you do not love her at all." But the child that says, " Oh, I do not half love my mother, all her care, and painstaking and labor for me," I say that child does love its mother. So with the Lord and us, and therefore we long to see Him. And that characterizes the Christian position, the Holy Ghost has come down from heaven, and we know that we are sons. He dwells with us consequent upon accomplished redemption, but Christ has thus become precious to us, and therefore the second thing that characterizes the Christian is, waiting for Christ, and I say this advisedly.
Look at a believer, in a known Christian place, it is not the knowledge merely that he has got hold of that characterizes him, but it is that he is waiting for Christ to come back. The Thessalonians were converted to serve the living and true God, and to wait for His Son from heaven. Nothing can be simpler or plainer. All the various thoughts and feelings of Christians are connected with His coming again. Take the end of each chapter in 1 Thessalonians: the first connects His return with conversion, the next with Paul's ministry, the next with holiness which will be manifested at His coming, then with the death of the Christian; the Lord shall come and the dead be raised first, and we who are alive shall be caught up with them; and the apostle says, " Comfort one another with these words," but if you go and say that to many a Christian now, he will think you out of your mind.
I cannot go into all these points, but take one, “To wait tor his Son from heaven." It is not merely true that I shall be happy in heaven, but the Lord says, I will come again, and receive you unto myself, that where I am, there ye may be also." It is a striking thing, how it changes all a person's feelings, whether, as they say, you are going to heaven, or Christ is coming for you. But going to heaven, as people use it, is never spoken of in Scripture. The nearest approach to it is to the thief, “With me in Paradise." But going to Christ is what you do get. “Absent from the body, present with the Lord," it is true, but that is not the same thought. Not that it is not true, but that it strikes Christ's coming, out. If I die, then I go to be with Him, but if I do not die then He comes and takes me to be with Him. And, therefore, the calling of the Church, the hope, the object, the thing before us—and that is what a man lives by—is the Lord's return, for what characterizes a man is what he is going after. What was the calling of the ten virgins? To go out to meet the bridegroom. But what about the dear good men who lived many years ago? They all fell asleep like the virgins, and what awoke them? At midnight the cry came, and they all arose and trimmed their lamps. The cry woke them all up. And this will be a test of a man's state, am I ready to meet the Lord, supposing He should come to-night? I do not know when He will come. It says, “In such an hour as ye think not." But are your hearts, and thoughts, and affections in good order? Are your lights burning? Are you confessing Him before men? Are you like men that wait for their Lord? For such He comes and knocks, and opens to them immediately. But that is the character they are to have.
Talking about prophecy is all very interesting in its place, but when a soul has got salvation, then there are two subjects in Scripture-the government of this world, and the sovereignty of grace which takes poor sinners, and sets them in Christ. Prophecy refers to the government of this world, and the Jews are the center of that; but with the Christian I get this, he is predestinated to be conformed to the image of God's Son, that He might be the firstborn among many brethren. Now when will that be? If I die first, I shall go to be with Christ, and blessed that is; but it is not all, it is not what Scripture calls conformity to His image. When will that be? “We know "—a word that Scripture is fond of, for the Holy Ghost is come—" we know that when he shall app ear, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is." That is when I shall be conformed to His image. And I am going to be really like Him. Meanwhile, we are to be like Him in spirit, and for that we get, " Our conversation is in heaven." We have, then, this blessed truth, " I am coming again to take you up to be with myself; and the Lord himself is coming to catch me up that where He is I may be also." Then again, I find that when the disciples are looking up into heaven, as the Lord was caught up, they were told, “This same Jesus which is taken from you into heaven, shall so come in like manner, as ye have seen Him go into heaven." Time will not allow me to multiply passages, but I get the calling of the Christian as such, which is to be waiting for Christ to come, “Ye as men that wait for their Lord." And I only ask you, if you were waiting for Christ, would you heap up money to meet Christ with?
A word or two on the details about it here. He speaks of it in a double way to show how fully he would develop it. Those are blessed who wait for Christ to come. We belong to heaven now, and to what is eternal, but I do not know when Christ will come and take me there. Are our hearts so taken out of this world as a place from which He has redeemed us, as that we are watching for Him to come? It is called the word of His patience, because He is expecting, and if He is, of course we are. The Lord is not slack concerning His promise as some men count slackness; the world is willingly ignorant, but the Lord is not willing that any should perish. And then, second, I find, “Blessed are those who are found watching." What characterizes the blessed one, does also those who wait for Him, watching to open for Him instantly as He comes.
Then follow the accounts of the blessedness of those who are so watching. When the Lord cometh, “Verily, I say unto you that he shall gird himself and make them to sit down to meat, and will come forth and serve them." He spreads the table in heaven for them, and then sets them down at it there. He spreads it with the best things of heaven, and not only that, but He will come Himself, and minister to them too. But now, He says, until I come, you must have your loins girded and your lights burning; presently, when I shall have it all my own way, I will have you sit down to meat, and I will serve you myself! What a thought it is of the love of Christ! Of course, it is a figure, but He will never give up ministering to His own the fullest blessedness.
Now, the Father has given all things into His hands, He takes a towel and girds Himself, and comes, and washes His disciples' feet, saying as it were, "I want to have you with me, and even while you are here on your way, you must be clean enough for where I am going." Again you find, “If any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ, the righteous."... When they are watching for Christ with their hearts on Him, He will make them all sit down in blessedness, and Himself minister to them. Here is, indeed, the reward of labor, and a wonderful place it is that we shall have in the kingdom, heirs of God, and joint heirs with Christ. When He takes the power and reigns, we shall reign with Him. But as to our intrinsic blessedness, the Lord girds Himself, and makes us sit down to meat, and comes forth Himself and serves us.
But when the Lord speaks of watching and waiting for Him, He appeals to the affections of the heart that we may wait, and then when He comes, He will make us enjoy the blessedness of heaven. He is not going to rule over the works of His hands alone; but we are made joint heirs with Christ, He is the firstborn among many brethren.
Then comes one word of warning, which I must not enlarge upon: " But and if that servant say in his heart, my Lord delayeth his coming." This is the position of the professing Church; not that men say, “He will not come," they do not say this, but they do not look for Him as a present thing. " And shall begin to beat the menservants and maidens, and to eat and drink, and to be drunken," i.e., to go on ruling and governing and enjoying the world—" The Lord of that servant will come in a day when he looketh not for him, and at an hour when he is not aware, and will cut him in sunder, and will appoint him his portion with the unbelievers." He is in the place of a servant, but he says, “My Lord delays," and his Lord comes when he does not expect Him. It is the judgment of the professing Church. I get the broad fact, that when the Lord's coming is deliberately put off in the heart, such an one has his portion appointed with the unbelievers. But in watching for Christ the heart's affections are drawn out to Him, that is the one great thing, and the other is, He sets us down, and comes forth to serve us.
Meanwhile, there is service for us here; but still His heart's delight is to serve us; and Christ will never be satisfied, until He has us in the same glory with Himself. He is now sitting on His Father's throne waiting, but He will come and receive us to Himself, this is all true believers, that where He is, we may be also.
They were converted to wait for God's Son from heaven, and when they went to sleep, and lost the expectation, the thing that woke them up was the cry, “Behold the Bridegroom! "And then comes the question, are we waiting and watching for Christ? I do not believe this has any relation to time at all. The government of this world is interesting in its place, but it has nothing to do with this. There is no event to be waited for between me and Christ's coming. Plenty of events, but they all belong to this world, and we do not. How far are our hearts up to this is the practical question. The world has rejected Christ, but He will return, and we shall come with Him when He comes again, and the proper portion of the Christian is, that Christ takes him to Himself. We do not half believe the interest Christ takes in us. It is true of every one of us who through grace believe, that we do not trust half in His personal interest in us.
The Lord only give us to be as men that wait fox their Lord, " Blessed are those servants whom the Lord, when He cometh, shall find watching." We have to go through this world, but can we say that we are watching for Christ? Do our hearts answer to the love that Christ has to us now? And are we answering to that love, by waiting and watching for Him, because He is going to have us in the glory with Himself?
How can self be denied, difficulties met, the flesh kept under? Only by the Cross. We must learn to say of everything that is evil, “I can have nothing to do with that, because my Lord was crucified on account of it." Ah! We shall go into heaven with faces radiant with glory, able to look right up, because of that Cross. God forbid that we should ever find anything in this world worth glorying in, any standard on which our souls can rest, save that cross!
I HAVE fought a good fight Henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will give me at that day; and not to me only, but unto all them also that love his appearing. 2 Tim. 4:7, 87I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith: 8Henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, shall give me at that day: and not to me only, but unto all them also that love his appearing. (2 Timothy 4:7‑8).
This crown is not given for being a Christian, but for a faithful walk. Poor Lot will not have it, nor Demas. All will be in glory on the ground of free grace, but Christ watches to see if we run well, and will bestow a reward if there has been faithfulness, and a crown of righteousness to those who love His appearing.