4. “Μ. Α. Β.,” Needham Market. Jesus claimed the elect remnant in Israel as His sheep. “This fold” (John 10:16) evidently refers to His sheep amongst the Jews for whom He laid down His life; and the other sheep, “which are not of this fold” evidently refers to His sheep found amongst the Gentiles. Precious words He says: “them also I must bring, and they shall hear my voice: and there shall be one flock (not fold), and one shepherd.” Surely Jesus is that Shepherd. We do not see how any one can object to sing of Him as the Shepherd. May we have less criticism, and more worship.
5. “P. B.,” Camberwell. The Spirit is not speaking, in Jas. 2:14-26, of the salvation of the soul, but of justification in the sight of men. You will not find one word in this epistle as to redemption by the blood of Christ; it is the question of works proving the reality and genuineness of faith. “Show me thy faith without thy works”—this was impossible; it is not so— “and I will show thee my faith by my works.” Works are thus the evidence to us that a man who professes to have faith is saved. In this sense we are to make our calling and election sure—manifest to others.
6. Holloway. We do not approve of anonymous questions, but require the name and address of writers. Neither do we engage to answer mere profitless criticisms. Scripture fully bears out the sense of the writer of page 330 (December number). “Those who are redeemed are actually translated out of the kingdom of Satan, and into the kingdom of God’s dear Son. Israel were redeemed out of Egypt, and actually brought into another place—Canaan. What Pharaoh was to Egypt, Satan is to this world.” (2 Cor. 4:4; Eph. 2:2; see also Acts 26:18.) Surely this is full deliverance from Satan, as well as translation into the kingdom of God’s dear Son. Various aspects of this great truth are found in the word—very notably 2 Corinthians 5:17, 18. What a translation from the old to the new creation! May we each of us know more of this in our souls. If you have never found in scripture the hiding of God’s face from His beloved Son, then surely you cannot have known how dreadful sin is in His sight—so dreadful, that when Jesus was made sin, and bare our sins, He cried out, “My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?”
7. “F. C.,” Grimsby. In Matt. 11:22, 23, the judgment spoken of is not so much a question of time as of fact. It will be more tolerable for Tire, Sidon, or Sodom, in the day of judgment than for those who heard the gracious words of Christ then, and rejected them. The day of judgment covers both the judgment of the living nations at the coming of Christ before the millennium, and the judgment of the great white throne, after it. The judgment of the land took place when the Romans destroyed it. But the chief point is the intolerable anguish of those who have heard, as those cities did, the very words of Jesus, and those who now hear His words, as written by the very apostles who heard them, and yet refuse the mercy and grace of God. When the inhabitants of Tire, Sidon, or even Sodom, stand before the white throne, dreadful as are their sins, yet they will not have the awful remembrance of such mercy rejected. Thus this scripture, like others, may have a double fulfillment: first, in the destruction by the Romans; and, finally, before the great white throne, at the judgment of the dead.
8. “J. Μ. N.,” Oxford. Scripture does not speak definitely as to length of time elapsing between believing and sealing; but, as to order, it is definite. “In whom also, after that ye believed, ye were sealed with that Holy Spirit of promise.” (Eph. 1:13.)
In one case it would appear to be the moment after they believed. “While Peter yet spake these words, the Holy Ghost fell on all them which heard the word.” (Acts 10:43, 44.) On another occasion, it was some time after they believed that they received the sealing of the Holy Ghost. (Acts 8:12-17.) The great thing to learn, is, that the Holy Ghost is not a seal to His own work in us, or on our devotedness, but to the testimony of a full redemption—the hearing and believing the truth of the Person and work of Christ— “the gospel of your salvation.” The oil was not put on the cleansed flesh of the leper, but upon the blood. (Lev. 16:17.) The Holy Ghost is a witness of the unchanging efficacy of the blood of Christ; and if a quickened soul, through defective teaching, does not know this, he cannot be said to be sealed.
9. “G. W. P.,” Bromley. On the principle of law the Moabite was under the curse, or shut out of the congregation of the Lord. (Deut. 23:3.) But on the principle of free grace, Ruth, the Moabitish damsel, was brought to the place of highest honor in Israel. Very beautifully does her history illustrate the difference of the two principles. If under law, we should be under the curse; but, by the free grace of God, we are made even sons of God.