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THE BLESSEDNESS OF THE TRUE CHRISTIAN
FEW have any conception how close the analogy is between God’s dealings with his people of old, and his conduct towards his Church and people in the present day. In truth, we scarcely know how to admit that God will manifest such condescension to us as he did to them. But it can never be thought that the Christian Church is less privileged than the Jewish; or that God will manifest less grace towards those whom he has redeemed through the blood of his Son, than he did towards those whom he delivered from a mere temporal captivity. True, indeed, his interpositions may be, and in fact are, less visible; but they are not a whit less real than in the days of old. Connect this chapter with the last two verses of the preceding chapter; and you will see how God still magnifies his grace and mercy towards us, when we have reason to expect nothing but his wrathful indignation [Note: Examine the passage in this view; and compare it with ver. 1. which marks distinctly how they came to be “precious in God’s sight.]. So, in like manner, we may behold in the text itself to what an exalted state the true Christian is raised. We cannot but acknowledge the truth of God’s appeal to them in the words which I have just read; and the same expressions are equally applicable to his people in every age and place. If we understand the passage aright, we may clearly see in it the rise and progress of the Christian’s calling.
Let us notice,
I. The rise of the Christian’s calling—
Whence and how were the Jews exalted to their unrivalled eminence?
[Were they selected by God either for their number or their superior goodness? No: they were “the fewest of all people,” and equal to any in depravity. It was altogether an act of sovereign grace when “God chose them, and set his love on them, and made them his peculiar people:” “He loved them, because he would love them [Note: See Deu_7:6-8; Deu_9:4-6.]” — — — Hence he reminds them of their origin, under the image of a child just born into the world of Heathen parents, without any one to administer to its necessities: “Thy father was an Amorite, and thy mother an Hittite. And as for thy nativity, in the day thou wast born thy navel was not cut, neither wast thou washed in water to supple thee: thou wast not salted at all, nor swaddled at all. None eye pitied thee, to do any of these unto thee, to have compassion upon thee; but thou wast cast out in the open field, to the lothing of thy person, in the day that thou wast born. And when I passed by thee, and saw thee polluted in thine own blood, I said unto thee, when thou wast in thy blood, Live; yea, I said unto thee, when thou wast in thy blood, Live [Note: Eze_16:3-6.].” And by Isaiah he reminds them of this saying, “Look to the rock whence ye were hewn, and to the hole of the pit whence ye were digged: remember Abraham your father, and Sarah that bare you; for I called him alone, and blessed him, and increased him [Note: Isa_51:2-3.].” Such was their state when God chose them to himself, “to be a peculiar people to him, above all upon the face of the earth;” and set them apart, as “his peculiar treasure [Note: Exo_19:5-6.],” and “his jewels [Note: Mal_3:17.],” and “his portion and inheritance [Note: Deu_32:9.].” Thus we see clearly whence their greatness arose; and how it came to pass that “they were exalted above all the nations of the earth, in name, and in honour, and in praise [Note: Deu_26:18-19.].”]
And whence is it that any of us are “precious in God’s sight?”
[Is it on account of any superior goodness in us that God has chosen us? Surely there is not a man on earth so presumptuous as to affirm, or so ignorant as to imagine, that God chose him, in preference to others, on account of his own superior worth and excellence. I have said that there is, especially in reference to this matter, a strict analogy between the Jews and us; and St. Peter marks it with peculiar force, quoting the very words which I have before cited, as applied by Moses to the Jewish people, and applying them to Believers under the Christian dispensation: “Ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, an holy nation, a peculiar people [Note: 1Pe_2:9.].” Beyond all doubt we are as much debtors to the sovereign grace of God as ever the Jews were; and it is wonderful that so many well-disposed people should be averse to acknowledge it. We see, readily enough, how predestination and election operated in relation to the Jews; and yet we find it difficult to acknowledge their operation in reference to ourselves. But “God has chosen us in Christ, before the foundation of the world;” and “has predestinated us to the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself [Note: Eph_1:4-5.];” precisely as he chose them, and predestinated them to the enjoyment of their privileges. To the grace of God alone we must trace it, if any of us be “precious in God’s sight [Note: Eph_2:8-9.]:” we must acknowledge the Lord Jesus Christ as “the Author of our faith, no less than the finisher [Note: Heb_12:2.]:” and “when the top-stone shall be brought forth, to complete God’s temple in our hearts,” we, like all the prophets and apostles that have been before us, must cry, “Grace, grace unto it [Note: Zec_4:6-7.]!”]
The rise of the Christian’s calling having been pointed out, let us proceed to trace,
II. The progress of it—
The advancement of God’s people now corresponds exactly with that of his ancient people;
1. In honour—
[Since the Jews had been precious in God’s sight, they were honourable, They were honourable in themselves, as being elevated to a higher character than any other people in the universe. What other people were ever distinguished with such a code of laws as they [Note: Deu_4:7-8.]? or in what other country under heaven did persons attain to an equality with the Patriarchs in righteousness and true holiness? They were honourable also in God’s sight: for they were watched over by him, as if there had not been any other people in the world; and were regarded by him altogether as the “sons and daughters of the Lord Almighty.” In the sight of surrounding nations, also, they were honourable; for they all confessed that “God was with them of a truth; and every Jew could exult over them, saving, Their rock is not as our rock, our enemies themselves being judges [Note: Deu_32:31.].”
The same elevation is vouchsafed to God’s people, also, at the present day. In themselves, they are “made partakers of a divine nature [Note: 2Pe_1:4.],” and are “changed into the Divine image [Note: Eph_4:24.],” and “shine as lights in a dark world [Note: Php_2:15.].” In God’s estimation, they are “his dear children,” the very spouse of his only-begotten Son, “heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ,” preserved by him here “as the apple of his eye,” and reserved for thrones and kingdoms in a better world. And in the eyes of an ungodly world, too, are they honourable. For though the world may treat them as “the filth of the world, and the off-scouring of all things,” fit only to be swept away in the most ignominious manner from the face of the earth, and even to be sacrificed to devils, yet do they reverence them in their hearts; even as “Herod feared John, because he was a holy and just man [Note: Mar_6:20.].” An ungodly man feels restraint in the presence of a true Christian, and cannot give loose to his wicked propenpensities as he would do in his absence. However an ungodly man may hate and revile a true Christian, he has a secret wish in his heart that be could exchange conditions with him, especially in the eternal world. However averse a man may be to live the life of the righteous, there is no one who would not be glad to “die his death, and to have his last end like his.” Say, then, whether this be not to be truly “honourable?” Verily, not a king upon his throne is so truly honourable as the man who is brought into vital union with the Lord Jesus Christ, and sanctified in his soul by the Spirit of the Living God.]
2. In happiness—
[“Happy art thou, O Israel: who is like unto thee, O people saved by the Lord, the shield of thy help, and the sword of thine excellency [Note: Deu_33:29.]!” If this was spoken of the Jews because of the love which God bare to them, what must be said of us, whom “he has loved, even as he loves his only-begotten Son [Note: Joh_17:23; Joh_17:26.]?” Who can tell what it is to be favoured with “the spirit of adoption?” or what to “have the witness of the Spirit witnessing with our spirit that we are the children of God?” Who can tell what it is to “have the love of God shed abroad in the heart,” and to “be filled with the Spirit?” Verily, these things constitute “that white stone, on which is that new name written, which no man knoweth, saving he that hath received it [Note: Rev_2:17.].” It is, in fact, an earnest and foretaste of heaven itself [Note: Eph_1:13-14.]. See how the love of God to his ancient people was displayed: how “God gave Egypt for their ransom, yea, and Ethiopia and Seba too [Note: Ver. 3.]!” Whole nations were of no more account with God than the dust of the summer threshing-floor, if they stood in the way of their welfare [Note: Isa_41:11-16.]. And so shall it be again, when they shall be restored to their own land: “the nation and kingdom that will not serve them shall perish; yea, those nations shall be utterly wasted [Note: Isa_60:12.].” And let it not be thought that God will do less for his Church and people at this day. No, truly: “the gates of hell shall never prevail against them:” “no weapon formed against them shall ever prosper:” but every enemy, and “Satan himself at the head of them, shall be put under their feet shortly:” and so attentive will God be to their welfare, that every dispensation, whether of his providence or grace, shall be ordered with a view to it, and “all things, however unfavourable their aspect, be overruled to promote it [Note: Rom_8:28.].]
Two things, then, I ask of you, my beloved Brethren:
1. Endeavour to form a just estimate of your high calling—
[St. Paul calls this “a holy calling [Note: 2Ti_1:9.],” a heavenly calling [Note: Heb_3:1.],” yea, “the high calling of God in Christ Jesus [Note: Php_3:14.]:” and the least reflection on what has been already spoken must convince you, that “the riches of it” are inestimable, incomprehensible, “unsearchable [Note: Eph_1:18; Eph_3:8.].” Christians live far below their privileges. They are too exclusively occupied (I do not say too intensely), in viewing their remaining imperfections, and the greatness of the work that still remains to be wrought in them. They do not soar in contemplating the wonders which God has already wrought for them, and those which he has pledged himself yet further to accomplish. Hence they are kept in a low state of bondage, instead of being “brought into the full liberty of the children of God.” But read the Epistles of St. Paul, my Brethren: read, especially, his prayers, and see how he soars in his contemplation of God’s unbounded mercies, and of the Christian’s exalted privileges [Note: Eph_1:3-14.]. It is by such meditations that we shall rise above all our spiritual enemies, and by such views we shall “be filled with all the fulness of God [Note: Eph_3:18-19.].” O, Brethren, know your privileges as believers in Christ; and live in the sweet enjoyment of them: for there are no bounds to the honour and the happiness which God will confer on those who are “precious in his sight” as his redeemed people.]
2. Endeavour, also, to walk worthy of it—
[This was Paul’s earnest entreaty to the Ephesian and Philippian Churches, when he was a prisoner at Home. He did not desire their interposition to get him liberated: all he had to request of them was, that “their conversation should be such as became the Gospel of Christ [Note: Ephesians 4 :l, Php_1:27.].” And indeed this was the great object of his ministry at all times: “Ye know,” says he to the Thessalonian Church, “how we exhorted, and comforted, and charged every one of you, as a father doth his children, that ye would walk worthy of God, who hath called you unto his kingdom and glory [Note: 1Th_2:11-12.].” In the same manner would I now entreat you; yea, as a father with his children, would I charge you, that ye “walk worthy of the Lord unto all pleasing, being fruitful in every good work [Note: Col_1:10.],” and “adorning the doctrine of God your Saviour in all things [Note: Tit_2:10.].” Only reflect on your high privileges; and then say, “what manner of persons ye ought to be in all holy conversation and godliness [Note: 2Pe_3:11.].” I conclude with that inspired admonition, “As he who hath called you is holy, so be ye holy in all manner of conversation; because it is written, Be ye holy; for I am holy [Note: 1Pe_1:15-16.].”]