March, 1940
THE K I N G ’ S B U S I N E S S
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hold the King on the great white charger, even now champing at its bits. The prophet Joel beheld that stupen dous scene. He beheld in vision the fu ture mobilization of the nations; they came at the call and challenge of God Himself: “Assemble yourselves, and come, all ye heathen [R. V., ‘nations’] ” (3:11). He beheld them: “Multitudes, multitudes in the valley of decision” (v. 14). Beholding all of the (forces of hell assembled to challenge the right of Christ, the Jew, to rule the earth in righteousness, the prophet could not re strain himself. He turned his eyes unto the heavens and cried: “Thither cause thy mighty ones to come down, O Lord.” In answer to that cry, with his pro-
phetic gaze he beheld “the Lion of the tribe of Juda” leap from the opened heavens and become “the hope of his people, and the strength of the children of Israel” (Joel 3:16). And when that stupendous battle was over, the seventh trumpet sounded, and “the kingdoms of this world” became “the kingdoms of our Lord, and of his Christ” (Rev. 11:15-17). Such was the vision. Fulfilled it must be! Then, and not before, the nations “shall beat their swords into plowshares” (Micah 4:3)! Then, and not before, righteousness shall cover the earth as the waters cover the sea! Then, and not before,- sorrow and crying will flee away! O King of Kings, mount and ride!
The Awful Cost of Postponement Meditate! If only Israel “had known” on that day “the things which belong” unto her “peace,” she would have ac cepted her King; and the ships of state would not have ploughed, these nineteen centuries past, through seas of blood. The great Lover of Israel looked down across the centuries and saw it all. Our Lord saw Caesar, their chosen king, Only twenty years ahead, butchering 30,000 of His earthly brethren in one day on those very streets. Little wonder that His great heart broke! Looking ahead just forty years, He saw Titus hurling his engines of war against those city walls; and He saw men weep and die in agonies that beg gar description. The soldiers of Caesar ceased from the awful butchery only be cause they were physically weary. One million men were slain, while the hand somest young men and women were Carried away captive to Rome. Only a century after that momentous day, a Caesar again devastated Israel’s land and put 580,000 of them to the sword, ran a plowshare through their city, and left not one stone upon an other, fulfilling to the last tittle the prophecy: “Thine enemies . . . shall lay thee even with the ground, and thy chil dren within thee; and they shall not leave in thee one stone upon another” (Lk. 19: 43, 44). Why? “Because thou khewest not the time of thy visitation” (v. 44). The Jewish blood that is spurt ing today in Germany, in Poland, in Russia, in the Balkans, yea, all over the world, is due to their failure on that day! Future Fulfillment But let there be no mistake! The entire Scripture must be fulfilled! “Re joice greatly, O daughter of Zion; shout, O daughter of Jerusalem: behold, thy King cometh unto thee . . . riding upon an ass”—that has been fulfilled. Now no king, coming to make war, would come riding upon an ass. Imagine, if you can, a Caesar, or a Napoleon, or a Mussolini, riding into battle upon an ass! A king who rides an ass comes in peace. But the world rejected the King who rode the ass. Therefore the vision: “Behold, a white horse, and he that sat thereon called Faithful and True; and in righteousness he doth judge and make war . . . And out of his mouth proceed e d a sharp sword, that with it he should smite the nations: and he shall rule them with a rod of iron: and he treadeth the winepress of the fierceness of the wrath of God, . the Almighty. And he hath on his garment and on his thigh a name written, KING OF KINGS, AND LORD OF LORDS” (Rev. 19:11, 15, 16, R. V.). The world of. men that rejected the King who rede .the ass, must soon be
S ton e s Tha t H inder* By HERBERT LOCKYER Liverpool, England
“Take ye away the stone” (John 11:39). D ID you ever ask yourself the question: Why did not the Lord Jesus himself roll the stone away from Lazarus’ tomb? Surely if He had power to raise the dead, with a word He could have caus ed the stone to be removed. Later, the stone at the entrance of His own tomb was dislodged without man’s aid (cf. Matt. 28:2). But on this occasion Jesus said to his disciples: “Take ye away the stone.” In this simple command, there are several important lessons for us to learn—that is, if we are to have any share in the work of the Lord. The first lesson is this: There is a wonderful economy of divine strength. The Lord Jesus Christ never uses His power wastefully. For instance, when Herod, that evil-minded monarch, looked on our Lord as a kind of magician and desired Him to perform a miracle so that his own curiosity might be satis fied, the Lord Jesus did not oblige that gentleman and accede to his request (Lk. 23:8, 9). Christ never squandered His power. The next thought emerging from the text is that the Lord Jesus will not do for us what we are able to do for our selves. It was the work of the disciples to roll away the stone; the Lord left that part of the service to them. It was His work to raise the dead—an operation they could not accomplish. We are slow to learn this lesson in connec tion with Christian life and growth. The Lord Jesus Christ requires us to do what we can do; but there is a blessed
cooperation in this service to which we have been called. We are “workers to gether with him” (2 Cor. 6:1). That day, the disciples had a share in the miracle that the Lord Jesus performed.^ It was His work to raise the dead, but, in the wonder of the divine plan and grace, He could not accomplish His task until the disciples had fulfilled theirs. In this sense, we, too, have the' privilege of coming “to the help of the Lord.” Round about us there are men and women who are buried, spiritually, in graves of sin. Only Christ can free them. But before the Lord will pronounce the all-commanding word and bring these “Lazaruses” to life, we—His people— must obey His command. We have a work to do in relation to their deliver ance. There must be the removal of all hindrances, if the Lord Jesus is to manifest Himself as the Resurrection and the Life. Let us consider, then, some of the hindrances to revival in the church. What are some of the “stones” that we must take away ere the Lord can move in our midst in the greatness of His strength? Jesus said: “Take ye away the stone.” I. There Is the Stone of Prayer- lessness. How can the Lord work through a church, or through a Christian, if that one fails to grasp the deep significance of intercession? The church was born in a prayer meeting, and her life can be sustained only as she lives in that atmosphere. Ceasing to pray, she ceases to function effectively for her Lord. We are in danger of forgetting the em phasis that was placed on prayer by the early church. Those saints of old de clared that they would give themselves “to prayer and to the ministry of the
*An address delivered at the Torrey Memorial Bible Conference, 1940 ,
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