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Paul, in 2 Timothy, contemplates “the last days” in their perilous character, and the ruin of the church which we have seen and do see at this day all around us.
Peter, in his second epistle, contemplates “the last days” also, and very fearful unclean abominations among professors, and very daring infidel scorning of divine promises in the world.
Jude also in like manner anticipates “the last time”, and many terrible corruptions, such as “turning the grace of our God into lasciviousness.”
John, in his way, gives us the judgment of the seven churches in Asia, in Revelation 2 and 3.
We notice throughout God's word, that the apostate thing is in peculiar strength and magnificence just at the time when its doom or judgment is at the door, and that Christ's thing is in weakness and brokenness, just as the deliverance He brings with Him is at hand.
Joseph, Moses and David are samples of this also. One was taken from a prison to feed and rule a nation; another was drawn forth from an unnoticed, distant solitude, where he had the care of flocks and herds, to deliver a nation; another was raised up and manifested from under the neglect and contempt of his own kindred, to sustain by his own single hand a whole people and kingdom. And what may really amaze us in the midst of such things is this, that some of these were in the place of degradation and loss, through their own sin, and the judgment of God. Thus, it was with both Moses and David. Joseph was a martyr, I grant, and went from the sorrows of righteousness to the greatness of the rewards of grace. So was David in the day of Saul, when David at last reached the kingdom. But David in later times was not a martyr, but a penitent. He had brought on himself all the loss and sorrow and degradation of the rebellion of Absalom; and the sin that produced it all had this heavier judgment of righteousness resting upon it: "The sword shall never depart from thine house.''
Nor did it. And thus, he was under judgment; he was in the ruins which his own iniquity had brought on him; he was the witness of God's visitation in holiness, when suddenly his house, in the person of Solomon, broke forth in full lustre and strength.
And so, Moses before him. Moses was a martyr, I grant, in his earlier days, in Midian, and comes forth from the place where his faith had cast him, into the honour and joy of being Israel's deliverer. But, like David, in later days Moses was under judgment - judgment of God for his unbelief and sin. He trespassed, as we know, at the water of Meribah, and so trespassed as at once to forfeit all title to enter the land of promise. And nothing to the end could ever change that divine purpose. In that sense the sword never departed from Moses' house, as it did not from David's. He besought the Lord again and again, but it was in vain. He never entered the land; and thus, he was judged, and still under the judgment, when grace abounds; for he is (in principle) translated, borne to the top of the hill, and not to the fields of Canaan; to the heights of Pisgah, and not to the plains of Jericho and Jordan.
These things were so. But it is better to be judged of the Lord than to be condemned with the world, for the poor, weak, and judged thing is drawn forth in the light and redemption of God, while the proud and the strong bow under Him.
So, I say, there is no New Testament promise that the church shall recover her consistency and beauty ere her translation comes. She passes from her ruins to her glory, while the world goes from its magnificence to its judgment - ruins too, I add, which witness the judgment of God. The sword has never departed from the house.
May the heart of the humbled, broken saint be comforted in Him! JND