DAYS OF BLESSING AND DAYS OF JUDGMENT
[p. 426] DAYS OF BLESSING AND DAYS OF JUDGMENT
This section of this gospel arises from certain questions asked, as you will observe, by the Pharisees. The Lord answered them and then went on to speak to His disciples. I mention this so that we may understand the passage. He did not satisfy the curiosity of the Pharisees, but what follows from verse 22 and onwards refers to the disciples, that they should be conversant with the coming of the Son of Man. As most of us here are disciples, this information is peculiarly our property, and, as one of them, I am undertaking, hoping the Lord will help, to speak of the information which was given to the disciples.
First, the enquiry of the Pharisees and the answer which the Lord gave them need special attention. He spoke to them in testimony, not in any way answering their curiosity. It does not say He answered their questions, but that He “answered them”. They wanted to know when the kingdom of God should come. Many such questions are found in the Scriptures which the Lord never answers directly; He answers the questioners. And these questioners here were Pharisees, they were those who were professedly opposed to Christ, but some were ready to listen, even as it is today. There are many who at heart are opposed to Christ, but who, at times, are ready to give an ear, not as having any sense of need, but in a certain patronising kind of way. There may be some of this kind of person here. You would perhaps be more interested if I unfolded prophecy and indicated something of current events. You might be more interested in that than in a gospel address. So it says that the Lord “answered them”, and He put it on them, that in their very midst was the kingdom of God. It was a present thing then and it is a present thing at this time. The coming of the Son of Man is a future thing, and it is that futurity which the Lord explains to His disciples. Those of us who are intelligent disciples have some knowledge of this, but the Lord’s answer to the Pharisees belongs to the gospel, it belongs to the present time. The kingdom of God is a present reality and is not at a distance from us, but is in our midst here in this city. Very few recognise it, but it is one of the greatest of facts that there is such a thing, in this very city at this very minute, and it is here, not as against us, but for us. It belongs indeed to the gospel, for it is part of the gospel testimony.
And so the Lord leaves the Pharisees and turns to the disciples to tell them of future things. I hope to dwell on this, not in any way to gratify any natural curiosity as to prophetic matters, but to speak about the solemn fact that there is a future thing which is very imminent and which is spoken of here as “the days of the Son of Man”. The kingdom of God is a present fact; its presence then depended upon the presence of the Lord Jesus amongst men. It was there because He was in their midst and it is a present thing now because the Spirit of God is here. When the Lord comes in in judgment by and by it will be the days of the Son of Man. He will then be on His Own throne and it will be retribution and judgment; now it is grace, and that is why I read that query of the Pharisees, so that we might all understand what the Lord’s reply really means.
So the Lord says, “The kingdom of God is in the midst of you”. John the baptist says, “In the midst of you stands, whom ye do not know”. John 1:26. The Lord Jesus was among them; not simply that He had become incarnate, but He was among them. “The Word became flesh, and dwelt among us”. John 1:14.
[p. 428] The gospels are full of the facts relative to that presence to which John alludes: “In the midst of you stands, whom ye do not know”. He it is, John says, who “comes after me who takes a place before me”, and he also says “the thong of whose sandal I am not worthy to unloose”. John 1:26,27. Such was He! And such, dear friends, is the position now. Although Jesus is not here as He was then, yet He is here. He has come in in the power of the Spirit and He is here to save, indeed the very preaching is said to be by Him. After He had died and risen again, it says, “Coming, he has preached the glad tidings of peace to you who were afar off, and the glad tidings of peace to those who were nigh”, Ephesians 2:17. The very preaching is by Christ, and so Paul said, “Since ye seek a proof of Christ speaking in me” 2 Corinthians 13:3, and he would so verify this great statement of the Lord that the Spirit says of him as he served at Thessalonica, “He went in among them”, Acts 17:2. He was not like many at the present time who claim to be representative of Christ but who retain religious dignity and maintain it too. The Lord Jesus said, “I am in the midst of you as the one that serves” Luke 22:27, and Paul went in among them at Thessalonica, and “on three sabbaths reasoned with them from the scriptures”. Acts 17:2. Paul not only preached, but he was what he preached, and that is the position now. Many of us here, while we do not pretend to anything much, are believers in Jesus; we are christians; we have accepted “the word of the truth, the glad tidings of your salvation”, Ephesians 1:13. The Holy Spirit too is here, dwelling in us. He is in those who are around you — around anyone who is enquiring; you are thus in the very midst of the kingdom of God!
The Lord’s answer to the Pharisees is thus the first great thought for anyone who is interested in the truth at this time. “The kingdom of God is in the midst of you”.
[p. 429] The question is, Has it affected you? I am referring to the presence of the Spirit here, for He is as really here as Christ was in the days of His flesh; He is here tonight in this gospel preaching, ready to strive with anyone who has come here with need in his soul. The Holy Spirit would make you more interested; He is here to strive or plead. That is one of His great services in relation to the gospel at the present time. God says, “My spirit shall not always plead with Man”, Genesis 6:3. He shall not always do it, but He is doing it now, and that is the wonderful fact about this meeting, that the Spirit is here in the sense of pleading or striving, urging you not to be so unwise, so foolish may I say, so mad, as to go on your way ignoring such an opportunity as this, an opportunity which may end at any moment. We read of God speaking through an ass, “The dumb ass speaking with man’s voice forbad the folly of the prophet”, 2 Peter 2:16. And so it is now, dear friends, in my little way, God would forbid the folly of some young person here who is disregarding his eternal welfare. Regarding his present welfare, it may be, but really disregarding both his present and eternal welfare. God would forbid that in your soul; He would say, ‘Call a halt!’ You may read the Scripture in your own home, but it will not have the same force when read there. The Holy Spirit is here purposely in relation to the gospel; He has been sent down in order that the gospel should be preached in His power; hence the point in preaching is to bring in conviction. The Spirit is present in the form of the kingdom to urge men and women and children to call a halt and to repent. It is not only the power of the words, but the Spirit urging you at the present time. It is the moral persuasion in it. God is urging, pleading with men by His Spirit not to continue in their madness, but to turn to Him and have to say to Him, and settle now, once for all, this matter [p. 430] The time is very short, for the Spirit will not always plead, but He is here tonight in the character of the kingdom of God, which is said to be “in the midst of you”. Peter said of the Lord Jesus, “Who went through all quarters doing good, and healing all that were under the power of the devil, because God was with him”, Acts 10:38. And again Paul says, “How that God was in Christ, reconciling the world to himself, not reckoning to them their offences”, 2 Corinthians 5:19.
Well, that is what enters into that statement, and I urge it on you, that God is here to meet you. In the types in the book of Leviticus we have the blood on the mercy-seat and the faces of the cherubim were turned toward the mercy-seat (Exodus 25:20), but in the book of Chronicles the faces of the cherubim were toward the house; that is, God, satisfied with the death of Jesus, looks out (2 Chronicles 3:13). He is looking for returning prodigals, but He is looking out kingdom-wise. He is not only inside, in the holiest, looking out, but coming out kingdom-wise on the lines of striving, God Himself coming out to effect a change of heart and mind in order that we might turn.
And so the Lord, having said, “The kingdom of God is in the midst of you”, turns to His disciples, and says, “Days are coming, when ye shall desire to see one of the days of the Son of man, and shall not see it”. It is not that there will not be that eventually but there will be deceivers; do not heed them. “But first”, the Lord says, “he must suffer many things and be rejected of this generation”. That is instruction for us, and I am endeavouring to bring it out. He suffered many things of that generation; He suffered from man, but the gospel requires that I should tell you that He suffered from the hand of God. That is instruction for the disciples, and we have come to some little knowledge of the preciousness of the [p. 431] death of Jesus. It belongs to our treasuries and we are to bring it forth. We love these opportunities when we can bring out the knowledge we have acquired of the atoning sufferings of Jesus. It is teaching which is required now; no one can preach rightly without bringing out that part of the private instruction which the Lord has given to him. We bring it forth, and it is in this sense that the preaching goes on. We bring forth what we have learnt in secret with God as to the atoning work of Jesus. The Scriptures abound in it; every time we get the death of Christ set out in the types, all pointed to this one thing. The Lord is constantly bringing this before us so that we should be able to bring it out that others might come into the benefit of it: that He suffered and died on the cross, and that He cried twice with a loud voice: first, to signify that He suffered at the hand of God, exhausting the judgment of God against sin; secondly to indicate that He had ended the man who had brought in the whole condition of sin.
All this is instruction which the Lord is furnishing us with constantly, and it is to be imparted to others so that the consciences of unconverted people may be affected. “Jesus our Lord, who has been delivered for our offences and has been raised for our justification”, Romans 4:24,25 as if nothing else entered into it! How God condenses the truth of the death of Christ, so that the sinner might take it in! “Delivered for our offences and has been raised again for our justification ... Therefore having been justified on the principle of faith, we have peace towards God through our Lord Jesus Christ”. Romans 5:1. That is what disciples can tell you. Any one of us, perhaps all, may be able to tell you and help you, but the preaching of it is the thing. It is accompanied by peculiar power, by the power of the kingdom; that is, of persuasion, that you should turn round and have this matter settled.
“[p. 432] Repent and believe in the glad tidings”, Mark 1:15. That is quite an order, you know! It is not simply believe the feeble words which I speak, but to believe the whole matter. Read the book of Romans and other such books, and digest them.
Now having said all that about the gospel itself, I must proceed to speak of “the days of the Son of Man”. It is a future thing, and the Lord credits the disciples with desires to see it, but it is not to be seen yet. The seeing of it is when the thing arrives, but it has not arrived yet. I am about to use these verses to persuade further uncertain people to decide to take sides with Christ. There may be some who have not decided to leave the world, and I know how it pulls, both the business and social sides. The social side is a terrible weapon of Satan’s. There may be some who would assent to what I say, but it is remarkable how difficult it is to get young persons to answer a straight question, and why is that? It is because they have reserves. You stand like a statue without a tongue, and you will not answer a straight question as to your soul! Why? You have the social and business world in your mind. The Lord says, “As it took place in the days of Noe, thus also shall it be in the days of the Son of man: they ate, they drank, they married, they were given in marriage, until the day that Noe entered into the ark, and the flood came and destroyed all of them”. That is the first thing the Lord brings forth. Do not be at all deceived as to “the days of the Son of man”; it is going to be a great public affair. Some people talk about death being the end of everything, and of going to be with the Lord as if it were the end, but it is not. The coming of the Lord is going to be a great public affair, so we are not to be deceived as regards the Son of Man, it is a public occasion, and we who love Jesus are all looking for it, we are waiting for it, but then, the question is, Am I ready? That is the [p. 433] point. Why should the Lord bring in this matter about Noah? There is not a word here about the building of the ark; He does not refer to that, He refers to what was going on before that. What were they doing? It is a question of the social world. He says, “They ate, they drank, they married, they were given in marriage, until the day that Noe entered into the ark”. Maybe some young man or young woman here is thinking of getting married; that is quite right in its place, but perhaps he is not ready yet to commit himself to Christ. He is not infidel about it, but he is putting it off; his own affairs are more important!
In Lot’s case it is building and planting; it is the commercial and industrial world. It says, “They ate, they drank, they bought, they sold, they planted, they builded”. That is what marked Lot’s world. The Lord would not have said this as a mere matter of instructing the disciples, but that they should use it, and I am using it while the kingdom of God has a present existence, that you might take advantage of it. The Lord is saying that you may be allowing the social world or the commercial world. Monday is the great day for Lot’s world, but Saturday for Noah’s world. I often think of Saturday as the great day on the social side. In Noah’s day they were given up to social affairs. The Lord does not call attention to their unbelief and the seriousness of it, but to the social entertainments. What times they had! Think of all the children of Methuselah! He lived nine hundred and sixty-nine years, and think of all the children and the grandchildren and the great-grandchildren, and think of the social affairs they must have had! They would know each other, no doubt, but the flood came and took them all away. How solemn that is! The days of the Son of Man are about to appear. On Saturday young people hike off, or go to the football or the cricket match. You will say, ‘All that is legitimate’. But you are leaving God out of the matter! He does not say anything in detail against them. Marriage is quite legitimate, but what about God? What about the ark which Noah is building? That would have been a great subject to laugh about on the tennis court or at the tea table! ‘What does he mean’, they might say, ‘this man building the ark? There is no rain!’ The Lord says, “The flood came and destroyed all of them”. How solemn! There would be some very nice, good sort of people, we might say, those able to take the lead in the sports, but the flood came, and that is the solemn thing. Are you going to take a risk as to that, preferring your pleasures and social affairs till the Son of Man comes?
Then there is the other side; the Lord says, as to those in Lot’s days, “They ate, they drank, they bought, they sold, they planted, they builded”. The building trade was apparently good, agriculture too was good. They went to the markets, they made good bargains and sales and good profits; it was all quite legitimate, and no policeman would interfere with that; but then the Lord says, “On the day that Lot went out from Sodom, it rained fire and sulphur from heaven, and destroyed all of them”. It seems to me that the Lord is speaking to someone here tonight, who is putting off this eternal matter and disregarding the rights of Christ over his soul. He may have the social or the commercial or professional side in view, and that he is going to shine in that, but some day Lot will go out of Sodom. The Lord will take His people, and what then? Judgment. Is it worth while? I need not answer that question. The Lord means these remarks to have their voice. He wants you to throw over all the social side and all the commercial side and have to do with God about your soul. Settle that matter now and join us christians in the knowledge and enjoyment of what we [p. 435] have in the power of the Spirit here! We invite you to join us.
The Lord further says, “Remember the wife of Lot”. There is no evidence that she was an insubject wife in the ordinary sense of the word; she went out of Sodom with Lot, but she looked back. She did not want to go. She was under the influence of a godly man and she and two daughters went out. The sons-in-law did not go out, but Lot’s wife did, yet she looked back. It is a word for wives, and, indeed, for all who are hankering after the world. Perhaps we are not content with the divine provision for us, but think of the Lord marking that action and bringing it in here in these words, “Remember the wife of Lot”. The compression of the Lord’s discourse is wonderful; it shows how much can be said in a few words. Much more could be said about her and what she became, for she became a pillar of salt. She looked back; she did not go back, she looked back; it is a question of the state of her heart. It was something which God abhors, and that is unreality. Wives under the influence of their husbands, and yet their hearts in the world! It is a solemn word, “Remember the wife of Lot”. Then so that there should be no mistake, the Lord says, “Whosoever shall seek to save his life shall lose it, and whosoever shall lose it shall preserve it”. The Lord here is warning us against making the most of our lives here, and the danger of not being satisfied with what is necessary. Perhaps we want to make a show. That is, our lives are in this matter; we are making the most of the things of the world by the use of external things here. The Lord says that a man’s life does not consist in the things which he possesses, and so He warns us here, “Whosoever shall seek to save his life shall lose it, and whosoever shall lose it shall preserve it”. That is christianity. That is the Lord’s way of pointing out a true disciple; he gives all that [p. 436] up, whatever he may be, because of what he possesses. Christ is his life, and he loses his dignity and show here because of that. That man will go into eternity in full sail, as it were. It is as Peter says, “Thus shall the entrance into the everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ be richly furnished unto you”, 2 Peter 1:11.
Then the Lord goes on here to call attention to two men in one bed. The State has nothing against these two men, the neighbours have nothing against them, but one shall be seized and the other let go! And this seizing is for judgment; the letting go here, in this scripture, contemplates the coming of the Son of Man, and it is letting go for blessing. In other words, one is a christian and the other is not. They may use the same bed, but some morning, one of them is gone! Then again the Lord says, “Two women shall be grinding together”; they are doing what is very good work, hard, but good work. Who can complain about that? No ordinary man. But, one is seized and the other let go! Well, there it is. Am I going to be in a case like that? Yet the Lord is going on to the end of His discourse, and He is bringing it home to every person. So He says, “Two men shall be in the field”. It is quite right to be there, for Scripture tells us that “The king himself is dependent upon the field” Ecclesiastes 5:9, but one is seized! You say, What is all this about? It is a question of secret history, and the end will bring out what you are. In the field one appears as good as another, but it is a question of secret history with God. What is the one seized for? Judgment! Now I say that because the disciples say to the Lord, “Where, Lord?” but the Lord knew what they meant, and He says, “Where the body is, there the eagles will be gathered together”. It is a most humiliating thought, a carcase of an unbeliever. It is said of some that their “carcases fell in the wilderness”, Hebrews 3:17.
[p. 437] It is not here the lake of fire; it is a question of what a man is, and here his carcase is exposed. The apostle says, “If indeed being also clothed we shall not be found naked”, 2 Corinthians 5:3. Think of being found naked! I may have been in fellowship, I may even have preached, but the Lord points to the carcase. The matter is found out, and “where the body is, there the eagles will be gathered together”. They are unerring in their discovery, and the whole thing is exposed. As Moses said, “Be sure your sin will find you out”, Numbers 32:23. Often we are affected by what is said but we do nothing about it. Ahab sought to conceal himself in his army, but the eagles found him out in spite of his concealment; the bow drawn at a venture found him. And so it is; what the eagles will find is a carcase, that is what the Lord indicates. The whole of this discourse is most solemn at the present time, so that we may close in and settle matters with God and be clear in the matter. If you are a believer the eagles will never find you; your body will be carefully preserved. It will be “in the cave of Machpelah”, Genesis 23:9. That means that the Lord looks after the bodies of true believers. It says in Jude that Michael the archangel contended with the devil about the body of Moses. Satan would have had that body, but you will recall that the Lord buried Moses. All His own are in His care, in “the cave of Machpelah”. But here the Lord says, “Where the body is, there the eagles will be gathered together”. It is an exposed carcase.
May God help us, because it is a matter of the disciples’ knowledge being used to help others to get light and to join with us in the enjoyment of the blessings of the gospel.
[p. 438] Pages 438 - 471 Two contributions hitherto unpublished.