Now the Lord, when He was here below, showed clearly what was to befall the world. He says, “The field is the world;” and He has told us what will become of the world, where men would be Christianized—that is, He has shown us clearly what would be the result. Good seed was sown; but there was an enemy who sowed bad seed. Now He does not give us the smallest idea that the bad seed would be ameliorated. He shows us that the servants were zealous enough to remove the bad seed, but He reproves them. He shows that the effort to correct the evil that is in the world, the attempt to use the name of the Lord for reforming the world, always ends in rooting up the good as well as the bad.
We see this habitually in Popery. It is the principle of the reproved servants; but, instead of making the world better, in effect it ends on the contrary in destroying the wheat, not the tares. Babylon, above all there ever were, has killed the saints, and made herself drunk with the blood of the martyrs of Jesus This is a matter of divine revelation to every one, and history verifies it as a fact of Rome, not pagan only but papal yet more. Scripture had said so long ago: he would be bold man who would dare to deny it. Yet, as of old so now, there are men who talk of making the world better! This goes along with another fundamental error which is found in Popery (and far beyond it too), and that is the notion of men getting better themselves. The two delusions go together. The fact is, that Christianity denies both; one's very baptism, indeed denies it, particularly as to man. To be saved one must take the ground of death with Christ, not of improving the first man; and he who sees and knows what man is ought never to be drawn into the delusion of the world's improvement. Further, the Lord Jesus sets aside the latter error when He tells us the nature of the harvest that is coming; and the harvest is the end of the age, this present evil age, not of the world.
When the consummation of the age then comes, there will be a process of discrimination and judgment. The wheat will be removed on high, the tares dealt with here below. Consequently then will be the harvest; but evil will abound up to the end of the age. Never will there be a time in this age when the preaching of the gospel or the zeal of the children of God will root out the evil that has been sown by Satan from the beginning under the Christian name. The new age will be characterized by righteous rule over the earth in power.
In short therefore those who expect the gradual extirpation of evil are in antagonism with the distinct teaching of the Lord Jesus. I am as far as possible from saying this to repress efforts towards winning and edifying souls; and I fear those who yield to such thoughts, or at least to such words, are guilty of slander. It is one thing to work in faith, and another to expect the general blessing of the world as the result. I grant you this will surely come, but it is reserved for the Son of man. Should the bride of the Lamb be jealous? Such a work and result is not for the church, which has been very guilty from early days, dragged down into the snares of the world, into its activity, its honors, its gold and silver, and what not. If Christendom is now suffering the buffets of the world, the world, once eagerly sought by Christians for its own things, is now turning against those who gave the poorest testimony to what a Christian should be. So it will be more and more with the world; ungrateful for whatever of God has been shed around by Christianity, it will turn again and rend her who abused the name of the Lord for her own selfish and earthly interests. Evil was planted under the pretext of Christ's name, and that evil can never be rooted out until the judgment to be executed at the end of the age. It is presumptuous unbelief to expect or attempt it. The angels dealing judicially are quite distinct from and contrasted with the servants who sow and watch (alas! how poorly) the good seed. It is astonishing how men continue to confound the two.
I repeat also that the end of the age is not the end of the world. The phrase “end of the world” is in Matt. 13 an unequivocal error. There is no scholar who ought not to be ashamed of such a blunder. Far from being the end of the world, the very next chapter proves to the contrary. The Lord sends His angels and purges from the field or world what is offensive to Him. The evil is judged, the scandals removed; the bad crops or bad fish destroyed. In short the living wicked are punished, and the righteous shine in the kingdom of their Father. The kingdom of the Son of man is the earthly part of the kingdom of God, the kingdom of the Father is its heavenly part, as will appear to any attentive reader. The heavenly things and the earthly things of the kingdom of God (compare John 3) will be found then in unsullied brightness and harmony. In the Father's kingdom, according to His own counsels, the glorified saints shine to His own praise. The field or world which had been spoiled by Satan's wiles will be cleared of all its corruptions and lawlessness. Thus, far from being the end of the world, the harvest which closes this age will be the beginning of the world's going on ward in blessedness under the displayed kingdom of the Son of man and Son of God, the Head of the church which will then be exalted and reigning with Him.
It is the end of the age, the present age, while Christ does not appear in glory and reign over the earth. There will follow another age, when Christ, instead of being hidden, will be manifested, and will expel Satan, removing all that contaminates men and dishonors God. This connects itself with the Old Testament prophets. They all refer to the times of restitution of all things, the kingdom of Messiah over the earth. The mistake is applying them to the church now. The principle often does apply in the New Testament, as we all see. I do not mean to contest this, but there are limits. The fulfillment is another thing.
In the future kingdom there will be not only Jews blessed but Gentiles too. Of this the apostle avails himself, pointing to the fact of both enjoying the blessings of grace; and this amply suffices to stop the mouth of the Jew. Thus we find the Old Testament applied in Rom. 15 to “Rejoice ye Gentiles with his people.” How then could the Jew consistently object? Was it just to fly in the face of their own prophets? Did they not affirm God's blessing on both to be contrary to the Bible? For the Gentiles are certainly blessed no less than the Jew by the gospel; and this the proud Jew could not endure. But the apostle never says that the prophecy was therefore accomplished to the letter now. The principle is true under the gospel; the fulfillment of the prophecy awaits another day and a different state of things when Christ appears.
In the prophecies we find intimations not merely of the coming blessedness, but of the Jews treated as a rebellious gainsaying people; and of God calling in those who were not a people. Take the beginning of Isa. 65. The Gentiles are there called as those who knew not the Lord, while His own are treated as disobedient. Compare again Hos. 1 with Rom. 9. Thus the Spirit of God gives here and there hints, dim enough once but now clearly interpreted by Himself, which were to have a special bearing on the present time. But none of these Old Testament Scriptures discloses to us the heavenly glory of Christ at the right hand of God, or of the Christian united with his Head. These things compose “the mystery;” none of them is ever developed by the prophets.
We have the fact of the Lord sitting at the right hand of God in Psa. 110; but the only use the psalm makes of it is to show that He sits there till His enemies are made His footstool. There is not a word about what is done with His friends. The revelation of the counsels and ways of God with the latter now is Christianity. The psalm only speaks of His sitting there till judgment is executed on His enemies. We see what the apostle calls the revelation of the mystery is now verified. It is a secret which the Old Testament never brought out, though giving certain intimations that are accomplished—for instance, in calling the Gentiles. For as Moses told Israel, “The secret things belong unto Jehovah our God; but those things which are revealed belong unto us and to our children forever, that we may do all the works of this law.” But the great central truth of the Apostle Paul is, that the mystery or secret of God concerning Christ and the church is now revealed by His holy apostles, and prophets through the Spirit.
It would be easy to furnish proofs, were this the fitting time. The character of the church supposes that God abolishes at present the difference between the Jew and the Gentile. The grand fact of the future is that the Jew is exalted to the first place, and the Gentile blessed but subordinately.
In the kingdom they will each be recognized and blessed, but in a different position, not as now both are. It is quite evident that the future millennial kingdom supposes the reinstatement of Israel in more than former favor, and the nations will rejoice, but in a place secondary to that of Israel.
In the church of God all this disappears, the church being heavenly, as Christ is, and according to the nature of things in heaven. People are not known by their nationality on high: on earth they are, according to God's providence. But the Christian being essentially called on high, all these earthly distinctions entirely disappear. Hence there was a new state of things, and a fresh testimony, for God has now revealed that which comes in between the first and second advent of Christ.
When the Lord comes again, the Old Testament prophecies resume their course, with the additional confirmation of a small portion of the New Testament which refers to that time, in order to give a harmonious testimony.
One may now see clearly what has been shown already, that the Lord Jesus prepared His disciples from the very first not to expect that the' Christian economy would, as far as the world was concerned, end in joy and light and blessing. On the contrary, evil must take root from early days by: the crafty power of Satan, and never be corrected till the end of this age. This then is the first great lesson that we are taught in the Gospels.
Again, in Luke 21 is a statement to which we may refer as giving a further view of the prospects of the world according to the Scriptures. It is said, “When ye shall see Jerusalem compassed with armies, then know that the desolation thereof is nigh.” This distinctly points to the siege of Jerusalem by Titus, when it was invested with armies more completely than at any point of its most eventful history. But there is not a word here about seeing “the abomination of desolation.” Nor does this chapter say “then shall be great tribulation,” such as never had been, nor shall be: “these,” it only tells us, “be the days of vengeance” —two very different things. Here again we read, “But woe unto them that are with child, and to them that give suck in those days, for there shall be great distress in the land, and wrath upon this people.” This was fulfilled to the veriest tittle in what befell the Jews when Titus took the city, and the Jews passed into captivity for the second time. “And they shall fall by the edge of the sword, and shall be led away captive into all nations, and Jerusalem shall be trodden down of the Gentiles until the times of the Gentiles be fulfilled.” So it was, in fact. Jerusalem was trodden down of the Gentiles. One national power after another was to have possession of the holy city. So it is now; that treading down still goes on, for the times of the Gentiles are not yet fulfilled.
But much more follows: “There shall be signs in. the sun, and in the moon, and in the stars, and upon the earth distress of nations, with perplexity, the sea and the waves roaring,” &c. Some people have made the mistake that these scenes took place when Titus took Jerusalem. There is no authority for such a supposition: We have had the capture of Jerusalem long ago.; after that Jerusalem is trodden down after the siege, while the times of the Gentiles flow downward; thence we are transported into the final scenes. “Then shall they see the Son of man coming in a cloud, with power and great glory; and when these things begin to come to pass, then look up and lift up your heads, for your redemption draweth nigh.” It is clear that destruction is not intended, but the blessedness that is coming in at the end, when God terminates the time of misery and sorrow and trouble and suffering. The coming of the Son of man is never made to be the annihilation of the world, or the end of it in that sense, but the end of Satan’s misrule, and the shining forth of the kingdom of God. For the world there can be no real permanent general blessing till the Son of man comes in power and glory.
There we find the parable in an enlarged form compared with Matthew: “Behold the fig tree, and all the trees.” As being of Luke, it speaks about the Gentiles explicitly. Therefore “all the trees” are in the scene. When they now shoot forth, ye see and know of your own selves that “summer is nigh.” “The kingdom of God is nigh at hand.” Is it not evident, therefore, that the kingdom: of God is coming in a sense different from what men look for and say? It is true now to faith; but we do not see it. Then it will be manifest, and it will put down all that opposes itself against God. The yoke of evil will be broken then, which it is not now. Satan is the prince of this world. We have to fight against the world-rulers of this darkness, against spiritual wickedness in HEAVENLY PLACES. The term “high places” is an error of the translators, which falsifies the sense. It has led persons to oppose the higher authorities, for instance it led the Roundheads to oppose the government of their day. Such an interpretation is as false as the translation. The rendering and the doctrine are both wrong. The doctrine of the New Testament is that we have to do with the most serious fight that ever can be carried on by man here below; we have to combat Satan, not only to hold our own, but to hold the Lord's own against all the power of the enemy. But in no case is the Christian to wage carnal warfare, only against Satan.
This is what is going on now, but it will not be the case when the kingdom of God comes. Satan, animating the empire in its last uprising, and the nations in general, against the Lamb, will be put down: then the stream will steadily flow on for God's glory. Now we have to swim against the current. Now it is a question of life and faith, where Satan reigns, and only the power of the Spirit sustains. There will be no power of death then against which the saints of God will have, as now, to make good His will in the name of Jesus. There are, no doubt, those who will tell you that the kingdom is gradually winning its way among men; but this is a grievous mistake, a short-sightedness not without danger as to the word of God. It ignores the utter ruin of man and the world, the incurable evil of flesh, the power of Satan, the honor reserved and due to Christ. It overlooks the heavenly calling and the future reward and the present rejection of the Christian. It is manifest that, if this were the fact, a very great part of the New Testament would cease to be applicable directly the power of Satan was broken. The doctrine and exhortations which suppose we have to fight Satan, would be no longer true. There is a plain contrast between the character and circumstances of the millennium and the present.
Rom. 11 will tell us a little more of the world's prospects as God teaches us in the word. We read there that the Gentile, who is now the object of God's calling and of His dealings under the gospel, is warned to take heed from the fate of the Jew: “Because of unbelief they were broken off; and thou standest, by faith. Be not high-minded, but fear; for if God spared not the natural branches, take heed lest He also spare not thee.” It is impossible to apply this to the believer as such. The apostle is speaking of the general professing body. It is the danger of what is commonly called. Christendom, of those baptized to the name of the Trinity, who are warned of excision if they continue not in the goodness of God which He is now displaying. If the Gentiles do not stand by faith, they will be cut off, just as the Jew was before. This has nothing to do with the believer's security. But God deprived the nation of their place of privilege and testimony. He always guarded His own people in Israel as He cares for His own people now. God is always faithful to His saints; how could He do otherwise to those who, renouncing themselves, confide in Him, that is, in His Son? As the Lord Himself told the disciples, they were in His hand and in His Father's hand. He is here speaking, not of individual saints, but of the professing body. As the people which had the law were cut off because of their infidelity, so those who are now unfaithful to the gospel will be cut off because of their infidelity. He is speaking of the olive tree, that is, the line of those who profess the name and testimony of God in the world.
The Jews were the beginning of the olive bee. As being founded on the promises given to Abraham, it does not take account of persons before God's dealings with him. The olive tree begins with the first soul called out as a public witness for God in the world; the Jews followed as a nation; and Christendom is now the public witness for God. But, as the Jew had been false to his calling, so Christendom has been faithless to theirs. The fact is certain, not so much from our own thoughts or from history, but from the unerring word of God.
They are told, if they do not abide in the faith, they must be cut off; also, if they (the Jews) do not abide in unbelief, God will graft them in again. The tree was Jewish; then some branches not all, but some, are brought in under the name of the Lord. Meanwhile the Gentile was Christianized; but when they become unfaithful, the Jews will be grafted in again. This will be when the kingdom of God comes upon the earth.
It is exactly what the Christian is become. They dream that things are always to get better and better. Is not this one way of becoming “wise in their own conceits?” He says again, “So blindness in part has happened unto Israel, till the fullness of the Gentiles shall be come in. And so all Israel shall be saved, as it is written, There shall come out of Zion the deliverer, and shall turn away ungodliness from Jacob,” &c. You err if you suppose that Christ will be always at the right hand of God. When He returns to the earth, when He espouses Zion, there will be a place given to Israel, the old promised place, on the ground of divine mercy. “For this is my covenant unto them when I shall take away their sins.”
What is going on now? The Jews are the enemies of the gospel. This is one great cause of their enmity. They first rejected Jesus Himself; then they became furious when redemption through the blood of Jesus was preached to the Gentiles; they could not bear such grace to the world; they were the adversaries who dogged the steps of the apostles wherever they went to preach to the nations; they tried to get hold of the chief women and men, and stir them up against the apostles. So they have been ever since. Men wonder what is going on in the infidelity of the day. The Jews are mainly at the bottom of this wickedness. Satan has set up their famous men as objectors to the truth; Spinoza was one of them. But latterly this opposition has taken a new and more apostate shape. It is the old error with a fresh burnish, but aggravated guilt, given to it. The unbelieving Jews, I am grieved to say, are the mainspring of the world's opposition to the truth of God. They have lost the earth, and they gnash their teeth at heaven. They cannot bear that the Christian should get a blessing which they do not want themselves. The same thing was found wherever the heralds of the divine mercy of God went forth with the message; and so it is now, with the sorrowful addition that the Gentiles were to be as unfaithful. What an awful thing it is that those who bear the Christian name, shepherds in chief perhaps, are pioneers of the most abominable infidelity! This is the case not merely in Protestant countries, but equally so in Catholic countries. The Protestants are more open and plain-spoken; the others pay their priests if they do not go to mass, or are priests themselves, believing as little as they like. A little hush-money suffices to keep up the delusion.
There is infidelity everywhere in Christendom, and not less but more, I believe, in the lands of Popery, than even in Germany and Holland. Nor do the priests care much about it; so long as men or even women only keep up outward forms, it is all right, and they are “the faithful.”
In Protestant countries, as we know, the Bible is too much read and known for such a vain show. People too are more honest about God and His word; if they do not believe, they say so. Some, it is true have been learning a novel lesson at Oxford lately: it is to profess the truth, but to insinuate, preach, and print the contrary. This is almost the lowest form of infidelity that has been seen yet. In former days infidelity went outside; it had at least an appearance of low and rude integrity about it. If a clergyman became an infidel, he gave up his profession; but the characteristic of modern free-thinking is that you find men of amiable habits and character who adhere to forms of Christianity which they do not accept as divine and ultimate truths, but only as a step in human progress; and thus they try to destroy the faith of the truth. The influence of this immoral, easy-going skepticism extends, as does the equally unbelieving system of Ritualism; and what will be the result? There will be an uprising of public indignation against Babylon; there will be a revolution in religious things as well as political. This I shall show by the word of God.
The general truth; however, we have seen before coming to details, is that the Gentiles are warned that they must be cut off, as Israel will be brought in again. The prophets, and yet more, the apostles, are clear enough about it. We go farther, however; and in the Scripture which we have read to-night the statement of the Spirit of God is most explicit. He encourages the saints by their hope of the return of the Lord Jesus, who will instantly gather them up to heaven, not to be troubled with the false rumor that the day of the earth's judgment was already come. I must particularly call your attention to this, though it has been often done of late. It should be, “The day of the Lord is present.” There is an error in the common English version, as also in the vulgarly received text. This is conceded by almost all competent scholars and intelligent Christians.
[W.K.}
(Continued from page 208)
(To be continued)