Question: Please explain 1 John 1:10; 2:4; 3:6; 5:18. J. H. K.
Answer: In 1 John 1:10 God says “All have sinned.” To say we have not sinned, proves that we make God a liar, and that His own Word is not in us.
1 John 2:4 tests a man’s character. If there is no obedience, as in verse 3, then he is a liar and the truth is not in him.
1 John 3:6 is again telling us the difference, the old nature does nothing but sin; the new divine life doth not practice sin.
1 John 5:18 tells us how the one begotten of God is not a slave of sin, though sin, the nature, be in him. He has a life that hates sin.
Question: Please explain Romans 10:14, 15. J. H. K.
Answer: Romans 10:14, 15 tells us that God not only provided a Savior for men, but He also sent His preachers to tell them the Glad News, which if a person believes, by it he is saved (verses 8, 9). “Shall be saved.”
Question: What does 1 Corinthians 9:27 mean? A. S.
Answer: We see in this chapter, Paul, Barnabas, Cephas and others mentioned as preachers of the gospel. We find in other portions, (as Acts 20:29; 2 Cor. 11:13-15; 2 Tim. 4:3, 4; Rev. 2:2, 20), and in the gospels, wicked servants. And in the days in which we live, many more who (unless brought to God in grace) will be castaways, lost forever, though they bear the name of Christian.
The Lord will say to them, “I never knew you” (Matt. 7:22, 23). Such men could not keep their body under, for they are not born of God, and have not the Spirit of God dwelling in them. Paul refers to such, and as illustrating in himself the truth, says.
“I therefore so run, not as uncertainly; so fight I, not as one that beateth the air: but I keep my body under, and bring it into subjection: lest by any means, when I have preached to others, I myself should be a castaway.”
In Romans 6:6, he taught believers that their old man was crucified with Christ, that the body of sin was thus destroyed, that henceforth they should not serve sin.
“Likewise reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord” (Verse 11).
That is how the Christian can keep his body under. It is applying the death of Christ to ourselves; we cannot bear fruit unto God otherwise.
The unconverted priest or preacher is the castaway. The true Christian can never be a castaway. He is saved, and is in Christ Jesus where condemnation can never come.
God will not blot out any name He has written in His book, but He will blot out the names of those who have put themselves in as false professors. It is not any ones’ service that is cast away here, it is the person himself.
Question: What do the ten virgins represent in Matthew 25? N. S. C.
Answer: The Kingdom of heaven, now since Christ was rejected and crucified, is not the Kingdom in power with the King present reigning over it, but it is the Kingdom in its mysterious form, the King being absent, sitting not on His own throne, but on the Father’s throne. It answers therefore to the present time, and in it we see the profession of the name of Christ, both in reality, and in name only.
It is a mistake to think that in Matthew 13:44 the treasure is Israel, and the net (verses 47, 48) is the nations in the Millennium as some have taught, and that the virgins are Jewish. The Kingdom of heaven in all these parables represent the present period in different ways from Pentecost till the Lord comes. It is presented as committed to men, “Men slept,” and the enemy sowed the tares. So we see the terrible mixture that has come. Matthew 13:24-28 is its collective responsibility. And the virgins show us the division between the false and the true, between the wise and the foolish, the wise going in when the bridegroom came, and the foolish left out as not going in when the bridegroom came, and as not known to the bridegroom. The oil is in their vessels, not in their lamps, but in their vessels with their lamps would illustrate for us the Holy Spirit that dwells, in the ones who are brought to know that their sins are cleansed away by the blood of Christ.
What we know as the whole profession of the church on earth is seen here, as it will be separated when the Lord comes. The saved ones will be with the Lord; the others shall go away into judgment as in 2 Thessalonians 1:7-9; 2:9-12.
Question: Who are the “brethren who are in the world” in 1 Peter 5, the saved or the unsaved?
Answer: Read 1 Peter 5:9 as follows, “Whom resist steadfast in the faith, knowing that the same afflictions are accomplished in your brethren that are (accomplished) in the world.” The brethren are Christians; the world is the unsaved, but both suffer in the same way.
“DEBTS ALL PAID—I AM COMING”
Some time ago I heard of an incident which struck me as an apt illustration of two wonderful facts in which every human being in this world is deeply interested: the first, that the Son of God has been here, and has paid that great debt which no sinner could pay; the second, that He is coming back, how soon, we know not.
The incident was this—A young man was engaged to be married. Just before his marriage was to take place his father died, owing large sums of money, and such was the son’s sense of honor that he postponed his marriage, resolving first to remove this stain from his father’s memory. So he left his native land and went abroad, where he worked hard to accumulate sufficient money to discharge his father’s liabilities.
In the course of time to the great delight of his home circle, and of her who had patiently waited for him, one day a telegram was received containing the words with which this paper is headed:
“Debts all paid—I am coming.”
You can imagine the joy of those who loved him as they read this short message, telling them everything was completely settled, and that the one who had accomplished all this at such cost, was coming back, and would soon be in their midst.
But to the writer these words bore a deeper meaning, for they reminded him of the mighty debt which he had once owed—a debt which he could not pay—and unless one could have been found to stand in his place, the awful penalty due to his sins would fall on him, and he must bear eternal loss.
Thank God such a one has been found—none less than the spotless Son of God, the Lord Jesus Christ, for speaking of Him we read, “Who His own self bare our sins in His own body on the tree” 1 Peter 2:24, and “For He (God) hath made Him to be sin for us, He who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him.” (2 Cor. 5:21).
This truth is further brought out in the parable of the two debtors:
“And when they had nothing to pay, He frankly forgave them both.” (Luke 7:42).
Then, dear reader, take this place of being a bankrupt sinner, look to Him who died on the cross for sinners, and you will be eternally saved.
But, this is not all: the One who has done this wonderful work for God’s eternal glory and for your eternal blessing, has been away from this world, and seated at God’s right hand for more than eighteen hundred years; but He is coming back, we know not when, it may be tonight—for almost the last words of His which are recorded in the last book of the Bible are, “Surely I come quickly.”
It gives great joy to the Christian to know that soon, very soon, he may see that One whom not having seen he loves, and responding to his Lord’s words can add, “Even so, come, Lord Jesus.”