Expository Thoughts (continued)
Notes on 17:20-25
20. The "kingdom" which our Lord speaks about here evidently includes both his present spiritual kingdom and his future glorious kingdom.
24. "The lightning." Our Lord declares that his second coming, when it does take place, will be so sudden, so clearly marked, and so unmistakable that true believers will immediately recognize it as the coming of their king. It will not be a slow, gradual event. It will come on us in a moment.
25. "Rejected by this generation." I am strongly disposed to think that both here and in Luke 21:32, Mark 13:30, and Matthew 24:34 the word translated generation means the nation or people of the Jews, and not merely the people who were living when our Lord spoke.
LUKE 17:26-37
The subject of these verses is one of peculiar solemnity. It is the second advent of our Lord Jesus Christ. That great event, and the things immediately connected with it, are here described by our Lord's own lips.
We should observe, for one thing, in these verses, what a fearful picture our Lord gives of the state of the professing
Church at His second coming. We are told that as it was in the "days of Noah," and in the "days of Lot," "so shall it be in the day when the Son of man is revealed." The character of those days we are not left to conjecture. We are told distinctly, that men were entirely taken up with eating, drinking, marrying, buying, selling, planting, building—and would attend to nothing else. The flood came at last in Noah's day, and drowned all except those who were in the ark. The fire fell from heaven at last in Lot's day, and destroyed all except Lot, his wife, and his daughters. And our Lord declares most plainly that like things will happen when He comes again at the end of the world.
"When they shall say, Peace and safety; then sudden destruction comes upon them." (1 Thess. 5:3.)
It is hard to imagine a passage of Scripture which more completely overthrows the common notions that prevail among men about Christ's return. The world will not be converted when Jesus comes again. The earth will not be full of the knowledge of the Lord.
The reign of peace will not have been established. The millennium will not have begun. These glorious things will come to pass after the second advent, but not before. If words have any meaning, the verses before us show that the earth will be found full of wickedness and worldliness in the day of Christ's appearing. The unbelievers and the unconverted will be found very many. The believers and the godly, as in the days of Noah and Lot, will be found very few.
Let us take heed to ourselves, and beware of the spirit of the world. It is not enough to do as others, and buy, and sell, and plant, and build, and eat, and drink, and marry, as if we were born for nothing else. Exclusive attention to these things may ruin us as thoroughly as open sin. We must come out from the world and be separate. We must dare to be singular. We must escape for our lives like Lot. We must flee to the ark like Noah. This alone is safety. Then, and then only, we shall be hid in the day of the Lord's anger, and avoid destruction when the Son of man is revealed. (Zeph. 2:3.)
We should observe, for another thing, in these verses, what a solemn warning our Lord gives us against unsound profession. He says to us, in immediate connection with the description of His second advent, "Remember Lot's wife."
Lot's wife went far in religious profession. She was the wife of a "righteous man." She was connected through him with Abraham, the father of the faithful. She fled with her husband from Sodom in the day when he escaped for his life by God's command. But Lot's wife was not really like her husband. Though she fled with him, she had left her heart behind her. She wilfully disobeyed the strict injunction which the angel had laid upon her. She looked back towards Sodom, and was at once struck dead. She was turned into a pillar of salt, and perished in her sins. "Remember" her, says our Lord— "Remember
Lot's wife."
Lot's wife is meant to be a beacon and a warning to all professing
Christians. It may be feared that many will be found like her in the day of Christ's second advent. There are many in the present day who go a certain length in religion. They conform to the outward ways of Christian relatives and friends. They speak the "language of Canaan."
They use all the outward ordinances of religion. But all this time their souls are not right in the sight of God. The world is in their hearts, and their hearts are in the world. And by and bye, in the day of sifting, their unsoundness will be exposed to all the world. Their Christianity will prove rotten at the core. The case of Lot's wife will not stand alone.
Let us remember Lot's wife, and resolve to be real in our religion.
Let us not profess to serve Christ for no higher motive than to please husbands, or wives, or masters, or ministers. A mere formal religion like this will never save our souls. Let us serve Christ for His own sake. Let us never rest until we have the true grace of God in our hearts, and have no desire to look back to the world.
We should observe, lastly, in these verses, what a dreadful separation there will be in the professing Church when Christ comes again. Our Lord describes this separation by a very striking picture. He says, "In that night there shall be two people in one bed; the one shall be taken, and the other shall be left. Two women shall be grinding together; the one shall be taken, and the other left."
The meaning of these expressions is clear and plain. The day of Christ's second advent shall be the day when good and evil, converted and unconverted, shall at length be divided into two distinct bodies. The visible Church shall no longer be a mixed body.
The wheat and the tares shall no longer grow side by side. The good fish and the bad shall at length be sorted into two bodies. The angels shall come forth, and gather together the godly, that they may be rewarded; and leave the wicked behind to be punished.
"Converted or unconverted?" will be the only subject of enquiry.
It will matter nothing that people have worked together, and slept together, and lived together for many years. They will be dealt with at last according to their religion. Those members of the family who have loved Christ, will be taken up to heaven; and those who have loved the world, will be cast down to hell. Converted and unconverted shall be separated for evermore when Jesus comes again.
Let us lay to heart these things. He that loves his relatives and friends is specially bound to consider them. If those whom he loves are true servants of Christ, let him know that he must cast in his lot with them, if he would not one day be parted from them forever. If those whom he loves are yet dead in trespasses and sins, let him know that he must work and pray for their conversion, lest he should be separated from them by and bye to all eternity. Life is the only time for such work. Life is fast ebbing away from us all. Partings, and separations, and the breaking up of families are at all times painful things. But all the separations that we see now are nothing compared to those which will ha seen when Christ comes again.
Notes on 17:26-37
26. "As it was in the days of Noah." The whole passage applies exclusively to the second personal coming of Christ, when he will come to set up his glorious kingdom. To apply the conclusion of this chapter, as many do, to the destruction of Jerusalem by the Romans appears to me an unwarrantable and violent straining of Scripture.
31. "On that day no one who is on the roof of his house . . ." Our Lord teaches his disciples that his own second coming in glory will not be a time of ease for everybody, as the Jews thought, but a time of trial of people's religion, a sifting and separation of the visible church. It will be ushered in by a time of such tribulation and suffering that none but those who are sitting loose to the world and are ready to give up everything for Christ's sake will come out of it unscathed.
37. "The vultures will gather." This is a dark and mysterious saying and has greatly perplexed the commentators. That it refers to the well-known power of the vulture to discern carcasses, whether by eye or by smell, is allowed by all. But when we come to the precise application of the saying, we find great variety of opinions. My opinion, looking at the context, is that the eagles are more likely to be signs of the angels who will be used at our Lord's second coming than anything else. Verse 36 speaks about the separation between the just and the unjust which will take place at our Lord's appearing.
In that separation we are specifically told that angels will be used (Matthew 13:49). Is it too much then to conjecture that our Lord's simple meaning is that wherever his body is, his professing church, there the angels will gather together at the last day and separate the wicked from the just in order to give to each his appointed place?
Luke – Chap. 18
LUKE 18:1-8
THE PARABLE OF THE PERSISTENT WIDOW
The object of the parable before us, is explained by Christ
Himself. To use the words of an old divine, "The key hangs at the door." "He spoke a parable to this end; that men ought always to pray, and not to give up." These words, be it remembered, are closely connected with the solemn doctrine of the second advent, with which the preceding chapter concludes. It is prayer without fainting, during the long weary intervals between the first and second advents, which Jesus is urging His disciples to keep up. In that interval we ourselves are standing. The subject therefore is one which ought to possess a special interest in our eyes.
These verses teach us firstly, the great importance of perseverance in prayer. Our Lord conveys this lesson by telling the story of a friendless widow, who obtained justice from a wicked magistrate, by dint of sheer importunity. "Though I fear not God, nor regard man," said the unjust judge, "yet because this widow troubles me, I will see that she gets justice, lest by her continual coming she weary me." Our Lord Himself supplies the application of the parable
— "And will not God bring about justice for his chosen ones, who cry out to him day and night? Will he keep putting them off?" If importunity obtains so much from a wicked man, how much more will it obtain for the children of God from the Righteous Judge, their Father in heaven!
The subject of PRAYER ought always to be interesting to Christians. Prayer is the very life-breath of true Christianity. Here it is that religion begins. Here it flourishes. Here it decays. Prayer is one of the first evidences of conversion. (Acts 9:11.) Neglect of prayer is the sure road to a fall. (Matt. 26:40, 41.) Whatever throws light on the subject of prayer is for our soul's health.
Let it then be engraved deeply in our minds, that it is far more easy to begin a habit of prayer than it is to keep it up. The fear of death—some temporary piercings of conscience—some excited feelings, may make a man begin praying, after a fashion. But to go on praying requires faith. We are apt to become weary, and to give way to the suggestion of Satan, that "it is of no use." And then comes the time when the parable before us ought to be carefully remembered.
We must recollect that our Lord expressly told us "always to pray and not to faint."
Do we ever feel a secret inclination to hurry our prayers, or shorten our prayers, or become careless about our prayers, or omit our prayers altogether? Let us be sure, when we do, that it is a direct temptation from the devil. He is trying to sap and undermine the very citadel of our souls, and to cast us down to hell. Let as resist the temptation, and cast it behind our backs. Let us resolve to pray on steadily, patiently, perseveringly, and let us never doubt that it does us good. However long the answer may be in coming, still let us pray on. Whatever sacrifice and self-denial it may cost us, still let us pray on, "pray always"— "pray without ceasing"—and "continue in prayer." (1 Thess. 5:17. Coloss. 4:2.) Let us arm our minds with this parable, and while we live, whatever we make time for, let us make time for prayer.
These verses teach us, secondly, that God has an elect people upon earth, who are under His special care. The Lord Jesus declares that God will "avenge His own elect, who cry day and night unto Him." "I tell you," He says, "that He will avenge them speedily."
Election is one of the deepest truths of Scripture. It is clearly and beautifully stated in the seventeenth Article of the Church of England. It is "the everlasting purpose of God, whereby, before the foundations of the world were laid, He has decreed by His counsel, secret to us, to deliver from curse and damnation, those whom He has chosen in Christ out of mankind, and to bring them by Christ to everlasting salvation." This testimony is true. This is "sound speech which cannot be condemned." (Titus 2:8.)
Election is a truth which should call forth praise and thanksgiving from all true Christians. Except God had chosen and called them, they would never have chosen and called on Him. Except He had chosen them of His own good pleasure, without respect to any goodness of theirs, there would never have been anything in them to make them worthy of His choice. The worldly and the carnal-minded may rail at the doctrine of election. The false professor may abuse it, and turn the "grace of God into lasciviousness." (Jude 4.) But the believer who knows his own heart will ever bless God for election. He will confess that without election there would be no salvation.
But what are the marks of election? By what tokens shall a man know whether he is one of God's elect? These marks are clearly laid down in Scripture. Election is inseparably connected with faith in Christ, and conformity to His image. (Rom. 8:29, 30.) It was when Paul saw the working "faith," and patient "hope," and laboring "love" of the Thessalonians, that he knew their "election of God." (1 Thess.
1:3, 4.) Above all, we have a plain mark, described by our Lord, in the passage before us. God's elect are a people who "cry unto Him night and day." They are essentially a praying people. No doubt there are many people whose prayers are formal and hypocritical. But one thing is very clear—a prayerless man must never be called one of God's elect. Let that never be forgotten.
These verses teach us, lastly, thattrue faith will be found very scarce at the end of the world. The Lord Jesus shows this, by asking a very solemn question, "When the Son of Man comes, shall He find faith on the earth?"
The question before us is a very humbling one. It shows the uselessness of expecting that all the world will be converted before Christ comes again. It shows the foolishness of supposing that all people are "good," and that though differing in outward matters, they are all right at heart, and all going to heaven. Such notions find no countenance in the text before us.
Where is the use, after all, of ignoring facts under our own eyes, facts in the world—facts in the churches—facts in the congregations we belong to—facts by our own doors and firesides? Where is faith to