-------------------------<BrethrenVoice>------------------------- [which seeks to be guided solely by the NT Biblical pattern, facilitates free flow of Christian info. To God be the glory!] [eMail Moderator: brethrenvoice-owner@...] [<GLEANINGS-FOR-THE-DAY> Archives/Read online: http://associate.com/digests/brethrenvoice/ezmlm.cgi] <GLEANINGS-FOR-THE-DAY> <25 October 2002> Contents: --------- (1) <Exhortational> "Come unto me!" (Pt-1/3) - Charles E. Wigg (2) <Doctrinal> "The complete thing" (Pt-5) - R.E. Harlow (3) <Prophetical> "The Redeemer's Return" (Pt-62)- A.W.Pink <EXHORTATIONAL> "COME UNTO ME!" MAT 11:28-30 (PART-1 OF 3) Charles E. Wigg Dear troubled believer, dear burdened servant of God, this loving invitation is not primarily for burdened and perishing sinners, (though it is for them), it is a personal invitation to you. Though this passage has brought salvation and rest to countless perishing sinners, that were burdened with a great sense of guilt, yet it is addressed to 'labourers'. Labourers that are facing difficulty. Labourers that are tempted to give up. Labourers that are feeling that the burden of service is too heavy. Labourers that are unable to find rest. Dear fellow servant, dear child of God, this invitation is for you! Let the sweet voice of Jesus sound in your ears, He is calling you! "Come unto me". We sometimes try to picture the relief that came to Mary, as she sat sorrowing in that house in Bethany, when some one came with the message; "The Master has come, and calleth for thee". John, 11:28. He knew how Mary felt, He knows how you feel, and He loves you just as much as He loved her. So take courage my weary, disappointed brother or sister, He wants to give you rest. Just look at the context of these verses. The Lord Jesus was truly man, (though very God), and He was tempted in all points like as we are. He had just reproached the cities where most of His works of power had taken place, because they had not repented. They were happy to receive healing, relief and material blessing from the Lord Jesus, but they did not want the Blesser. They were not willing to give up their sin So the Lord Jesus was feeling the bitterness of rejection, the natural disappointment that comes from feeling that His ministry had failed. These feelings are perfectly natural to man, and His feelings are expressed in the words of Isaiah, 49:4. Yet He was not depressed by apparent failure, neither was He elated by apparent success. Though experiencing the bitterness of seeming failure, and the heartbreak of being rejected by those that He loved, yet He did not complain, He did not mourn, but lifted His eyes to His Father's face. Then from His lips poured forth this torrent of praise. "I thank Thee O Father, Lord of Heaven and earth, because Thou hast hidden these things from the wise and prudent; and hast revealed them unto babes. Even so Father, for so it seemed good in thy sight". He then took the opportunity to draw attention to His own inscrutable greatness, as unknowable in His essence and being. He also drew attention to the Father's greatness, and the wonder of the revelation of God, the Father in Christ. It was then my brother and sister that He thought of you and me. Labouring with no evident results. Struggling beneath a burden too heavy for you. Weary with the constant toil of serving Him, and He then uttered these precious words, "Come unto Me". He wants to share with you the wonder of His rest. He wants you to be like Him, in your service for God. He wnts to bring you into His rest. Will you come? [To be concluded] --- [C.E. Wigg (22-10-2002)-Reproduced with permission] _______________________________________________________________________ (2) <DOCTRINAL> THE COMPLETE THING -TWO TERMINATION POINTS (PART-5) R.E. Harlow .... So there are two termination points for the six things in this passage. (See D.B. Long, What the Bible Teaches about the Gift of Tongues, page 27f.) Prophecy, tongues and knowledge will cease. Faith, hope and love abide, but we know that faith and hope abide only until the second coming. Therefore, the other three must cease before the second coming. The logical termination of prophecy, knowledge and tongues is the end of the apostolic age when the complete thing came. Prophecy and the word of knowledge were no longer necessary and the sign gifts were no longer required. The gift of tongues had some of the features of both miracles and prophecy. It was like miracles, a sign for unbelievers, 1 Corinthians 14:22, but, if used with interpretation, it could edify, like prophecy, 1 Corinthians 14:4,5,12,13. On either line, it was temporary. Let us look more closely at verses 11 to 13 to see if the context tends to support our understanding of verse 10. Verse 9 certainly could; it says we know partially (because the Scripture is incomplete). Verse 11 is a contrast between childhood and manhood. These words are never used to contrast this life from the next (unless it be here) but are used to encourage believers to grow to maturity by the Word of God. A new infant needs the milk of the Word, but men can use strong meat, 1 Corinthians 3:1,2; Ephesians 4:13; Hebrews 5:12-14; 1 Peter 2:2. (In 1 Corinthians 3:1, the Spirit used the same word for baby as 13 11; and Ephesians 4:13, the same word for man. The other words mean about the same.) In our verse, Paul looked forward not to eternity but to the time when the Scripture would be complete. In verse 12, seeing through a glass, and seeing face to face, could mean partial or more complete understanding of God's ways. The word glass is found only once otherwise in the New Testament, James 1:23, where it is a metaphor of Scripture. The word darkly, found only here, is literally enigmas and there were many problems in Scripture until, say, the gospel of John and Revelation were written. In the Old Testament the word means something hard to understand and is translated dark speeches or sayings, proverbs, hard questions, Numbers 12:8; 21:27; Deuteronomy 28:37; 2 Kings 10:1; Proverbs 1:6. The phrase face to face could continue the metaphor of James, seeing oneself in God's mirror face to face. It occurs only here but a similar phrase is in Acts 25:16 and John hoped to speak to the believers "mouth to mouth", 2 John 12; 3 John 14. In the Old Testament, God spoke to Moses and to Israel "face to face", Exodus 33:11; Deuteronomy 5:24; and He knew Moses intimately, Deuteronomy 34:10. Jacob and Gideon said they had seen God or His angel face to face, Genesis 32:30; Judges 8:22. The servants of the Lamb will continue to serve Him and will see His face, Revelation 22:5. This verse is the only New Testament reference which could associate 1 Corinthians 13:10 with the coming of Christ. The last part of verse l2 could mean, as in verse 9, knowing God's ways in part at that time and fully later when the complete thing had come. The future verbs are from a more intensive form of the verb know. This thorough knowledge comes through God's Word, here and now, in this life. See Luke 1:4; Romans 3:20; Ephesians 1:17; 4:13; Philippians 1:9; Colossians 1:6,9,10; 3:10; 1 Timothy 2:4 and 2 Peter 1:2,3,8. When Christ comes, we will have new bodies, 2 Corinthians 5:1; the joy of His presence, 1 Thessalonians 4:17; the adoption, Romans 8:23. We will see His glory and perhaps receive a reward, John 17:24; Revelation 22:12. We should diligently seek a thorough knowledge of Scripture here and now we have the complete thing. God's wonderful Word. [To be concluded] _____________________________________________________________________ (3) <PROPHETICAL> "THE REDEEMER'S RETURN" (PART-62) THE RECOVERY AND REVIVAL OF THE BLESSED HOPE ITSELF Arthur W. Pink .... 6. Because nothing can separate believers from the Love of Christ. To those that believe perhaps the most precious and amazing truth in all God's Word is Christ's Love for His own. Unlike human love, His love knows no change. Unlike human love, nothing can separate us from His love--"Who (or "what") shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? As it is written, For Thy sake we are killed all the day long: we are accounted as sheep for the slaughter. Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him that loved us" (Rom. 8:35-37). The time when our Lord's Love will be fully exhibited and publicly displayed (before all Heaven's inhabitants) is that time when He shall rise up from the Father's Throne where He is now seated. Then it will be that he shall descend from heaven with a "shout." What will occasion this "shout"? What is it that He is descending for? Is it that He may return to the earth and take its government upon His shoulder? Is it that He may be coronated the King of kings? Is it that He may vanquish His blatant enemies? Is it that He may bind that old Serpent the Devil? No; important as these may be, there is something else which must take the precedence; there is something else which lies much nearer to His blessed heart. He descend to receive to Himself His blood-bought people. Why? Because He loves them. He comes for that Church which He loved and for which He gave Himself in order "that He might present it (not a part of it) to Himself a glorious church, not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing: but that it should be holy and without blemish" (Eph. 5:27). Ah! this will be the time when "He shall see of the travail of His soul and be satisfied," and think you He would be "satisfied" by seeing an incomplete Church? To teach then that a part of the Church will be left behind when our Lord comes back again to receive His people unto Himself is to declare that something (unfaithfulness or unworthiness) will separate some of the saints from their Redeemer's Love and thus Rom. 8:35 is repudiated. Moreover, it is to deny the comforting declaration of John 13:1--"Having loved His own which were in the world, He loved them to the end." Therefore, we say, Because nothing shall or can separate any believer from the Love of Christ, not one shall be left behind when He returns to take unto Himself His blood-washed people. As it was declared of Israel of old in connection with their leaving Egypt (type of the world)--"There shall not a hoof be left behind"(Ex. 10:26). [To be concluded] _____________________<BrethrenVoice>_____________________ Subscribe, eMail:<brethrenvoice-subscribe@...> Unsubscribe, eMail:<brethrenvoice-unsubscribe@...> FAQs/Faith Statement, eMail: <brethrenvoice-faq@...> <BrethrenVoice> Home: http://associate.com/digests/brethrenvoice/ <eFellowship> Home: http://groups.msn.com/BrethrenChristiansForum/ "Examine yourselves as to whether you are in the faith." 2 Cor 13:5 "You shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free." 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