* Let us be glad and exult, and give the glory to him: for the marriage of the Lamb is come, and his wife hath made herself ready." Faith is the first of the preconditions of redemption in Christ Jesus, and it is also the last, there never being a single moment of the Christian pilgrimage when faith is not required. The wisdom of God has appointed the bounds of men's habitation, and determined both the place and time of our living in the world, Acts 17:26. 17:17). cit., p. 232. The judgment of the dead is strictly individual, judgments in this world are not. And it has got to learn how to fly.Now the picture really is of God in developing us in our walk and relationship with Him. Even the worst of governments is better than none. "The trees which thou knowest that they be not trees for meat, thou shalt destroy and cut them down;" but in case of those that furnished food, it was absolutely forbidden. "I am the root and the offspring of David," he says. For I am not aware that any scripture treats of the subject, beyond laying down principles such as we have sought to apply to the case. This passage insists that the coming of Christ is close at hand; it must be the Risen Christ who is speaking. According to the general scope of scripture, then, we may be quite sure that these saints, kept during this universal dissolution of the atmospheric heaven and the earth, will be translated to "the new heavens and new earth wherein dwelleth righteousness," in a condition new and meet for the eternal state into which they are ushered. Nothing can exceed the force and delicacy of this expression. Its very first application, of course, was to the Pharisees and Sadducees of Jesus' time, who pretended such a thorough knowledge of the Scriptures, but who, in the last analysis, knew nothing at all about them. The total race of men from Eden and afterward is a fallen and rebellious race, their fellowship with God having been broken by the fall of humanity; and God's face is set against fallen and unregenerated men. Assuredly this is all the difference possible, and it is just what reigns between the Old and the New Testament, not in the hearts of saints, but as a state of things. When we come to the full application of the prophecy, we must look onward to the latter day. Take notice of this (which confirms the application just now contended for), that when John saw the woman drunken with the blood of the saints, and with the blood of the martyrs of Jesus, he wondered with great wonder. Also, there is the converse of it, namely, that good men seek and desire the truth. (ii) The ancient commentator, Andreas, says that the Risen Christ is saying: "Let each man do what pleases him; I will not force his choice." We may be more familiar with the idea and effect of design in the Gospels, but it is just as true here and everywhere else. For we are so unworthy and undeserving that we should reign forever and ever in His glorious New Kingdom and New World and new age. Most Christians who have spent any time in their Bibles or in church have heard this story and know Jesus's answer. This approach is called the intervention view, based on their belief that God intervenes in the natural order to do the miraculous. For God so loved the world Such a love as that which induced God to give his only begotten son to die for the world could not be described: Jesus Christ does not attempt it.He has put an eternity of meaning in the particle , so, and left a subject for everlasting contemplation, wonder, and praise, to angels and to men. A righteous and equal measure is insisted on. This is clearly of moral importance. Or if he shall ask for an egg, will give him a scorpion? Verse 6. Such an unspeakable reward contrasts with God's wrath (John 3:36), destruction (Matthew 7:13,14), eternal fire (Matthew 18:9), and with judgment or death (John 5:24). And this is done by Christ His Son, and made known by the Holy Ghost sent down from heaven. The tree of life in the Garden of Eden could perpetuate life forever (Genesis 3:22; Genesis 3:24). See below. God will own them, as having his seal and name on their foreheads. As Revelation 17:1-18 was a descriptive digression, so is the portion from Revelation 21:9. But here is a mystery altogether different: "Mystery, Babylon the great, the mother of the harlots and of the abominations of the earth.". It has changed its name, but it is substantially the identical evil against which Jehovah was here warning His earthly people. Jesus' words spoken in this verse appear blunt and harsh, until it is remembered that Luke no doubt omitted much of the conversation leading up to this denunciation, moving quickly to the meat of it. It is in the light of that regular custom that we must read John's words. He is urged to take up the same cry. Consequently there will be an increase in population such as never has been approached since the world was made, yet it afterwards appears, that Satan will not fail to turn the masses of the nations into one vast rebellion against the objects of God's special favour on the earth the saints wherever they may be, and the beloved city of Israel, as we have seen. The credulity of infidels is proverbial, and can alone account for such senseless theories, even if one lays aside for a moment their one point in common opposition to the revealed truth of God. "Oh, he's a spiritual man." He has dealt with His people according to the fiery law in His right hand; but He has not exhausted the resources of His tender mercy; nay, the best wine is kept to the last, to be brought in by Him whom they knew not in His humiliation but will own to theirs, yet in the end with exceeding joy when He returns in glory to change the water of purifying after their manner into that which gladdens the heart of God and man. In the one case we glorify ourselves because we count it wise for reasons we think good; in the other case we are subject to God because it is His own will in His word. Our business is to believe and obey Him; and there is the way in which He cares for the least of us. It is not now lightnings and thunders and voices. You should be making fresh discoveries about Jesus Christ which you had never known before--Is your experience ankle deep--or, "a river to swim in? "It was a very powerful sermon, one of the most classic sermons in the history of the church, I guess. The end of this age will not see united hearts among the Jews, but a people severed and broken a people with the widest possible breaches among them: some whose hearts are truly touched by grace, as we have seen, who are destined to the place of the firstborn on the earth; most, on the other hand, who will fight to the last against God, and reject to their own perdition His testimony. (Matthew 16:24). In the kingdom of God no one ever stumbled onto a cross. I prefer the "Sons of Israel" reading.] "And of Levi he said, Thy Thummim and thy Urim are for thy holy [i.e. * Then the heathen take advantage of God's indignation against His people, till He at last in mercy: to Israel will rise up to deal with their enemies. Although Nicodemus spoke up on behalf of Jesus before the Sanhedrin (John 7:45-52), it is not recorded that he did so when that body condemned Jesus to death, hence, the inference that he was not present at that trial. "And the ten horns which thou sawest upon the beast." Taking the phrase with the first sentence seems to give the better picture. It is not only that the angel corrects the act by asserting that he is a fellow-servant of him and of his brethren who have the testimony of Jesus. Here then is the full confession that God's hand had accomplished what His mouth had promised. It would indeed be a light upon the stand. It can govern and bless but not convert man. But it is for the last time, not of the age only but of the various dispensations of God. "Let him that heareth," then, be encouraged to "say, Come." There was no logical way for the Pharisees to view exorcism by their own followers as being of God and at the same time allege that the exorcisms by Jesus were by the power of Satan. Not only would the ancient policy of Israel in rejecting God and raising up a king of their own choice finally reach its climax in that generation; but added to that disaster was the inveterate wickedness of that generation themselves in rejecting the Messiah, bringing a deserved judgment of punishment upon them. And of which of you that is a father shall his son ask a loaf, and he give him a stone? It is interesting.God is going to have a tree that has twelve different kinds of fruit and every month a fruit will be ripe. Before leaving this prayer, it should be observed that it is no more unreasonable that Christ should have given the Lord's prayer twice than that the Father should have given the Decalogue twice. And it ever flows from age to age. Several commentators take the reference to the "tree" (singular) as generic. He cannot worship God fully unless he have in his soul the certainty of his nearness to God through Christ and His work as the ground of his relationship. Death of Henry Ballantine, missionary to India, who helped translate the Bible into Marathi. John returns to his vision that in the city of God there can never be any darkness nor need of any other light, for the presence of God is there. But John is overwhelmed again; he is just wiped out, overwhelmed that the guy tells him that, so he falls down at his feet again to worship him. The basic nature of a sign is that it points people to God. Nicodemus is mentioned three times in this Gospel: (1) He came to Christ (John 3:2); (2) He spoke for Christ (John 7:45-52); and (3) He honored Christ (John 19:39,40); and in each instance the circumstance of his coming to Jesus by night is mentioned. "[44] Jesus' strong rebuke of the Pharisees, just delivered, had not specifically mentioned the lawyers; but, as many of the lawyers were also Pharisees, the one who spoke up here felt that his class also had been insulted. And the men of Nineveh shall stand up in the judgment with this generation, and shall condemn it: for they repented at the preaching of Jonah; and behold, a greater than Jonah is here. There is no admission here by Jesus that the pretended exorcisms of the Pharisees' disciples were in fact genuine. No part of the law lacks the wisdom of God; but, Christ not being yet revealed, He did not as a fact go beyond man as he then was. Oh, that they did know; only if they would look ahead and see what the end result of what that lifestyle is. "A fountain," says Joel, "shall come forth from the house of the Lord" ( Joel 3:18). He wants what will be in heaven, and not merely in the field or in the city. Jehovah will smite thee with the botch of Egypt, and with the emerods, and with the scab, and with the itch, whereof thou canst not be healed. Then, strangely enough, he delivers exactly the same warning against angel worship as in Revelation 19:10. We. Eusebius (The Ecclesiastical History 5.20.2) quotes the way in which Irenaeus, the great second century Christian scholar, ends one of his books: "I adjure thee who mayest copy this book, by our Lord Jesus Christ, and by his glorious advent, when he comes to judge the quick and the dead, to compare what thou shalt write, and correct it carefully by this manuscript, and also to write this adjuration, and to place it on your copy.". Death and hades, which had so long been executioners in a world where sin reigned, and were still doing their occasional office where righteousness is to reign, themselves disappear where all traces of sin are consigned for ever. What constitutes adultery is not plainly defined in this passage of the Bible, and has been the subject of debate within Judaism and Christianity.