December, 1933
440
T H E K I N G ' S B U S I N E S S
Object Lesson P atchwork
the old one? (Place the scissors on the cloth, as if you were going to cut the new one. Voices o f protest will probably be heard.) Why should I not do this? “Be cause,” you say, “you would be spoiling the perfect one to patch the old, and when you got it fixed, it would still be imperfect.” Yes, you are right. Did you ever stop to think that this is the way people often treat Christ? The Bible says that our righteousness is as filthy rags. Christ came to earth in order that He might die for us and give us His perfect righteousness. Some people try to keep their righteous ness and patch it with Christ’s. This is a far greater mistake than trying to patch this old handkerchief by cutting up the new one. If. you will ask God to place your sins under the blood of Christ; just as I am placing the stained handkerchief under this red cloth, He will take away your sins, and give you the perfect right eousness of Christ. seen around them, and in the results of that sinfulness as seen in the people. They mourn as the Saviour mourned, not be cause of their own sin, which He was to bear, but because of the sin and distress of others. “ Blessed are the meek.” These are those who have learned o f Him who alone is the meek and lowly One. This meekness may be secured only by the operation of the Holy Spirit within the yielded life (Gal. 5:22; Psa. 37:11; Num. 12:3). “ Blessed are they which hunger and thirst after righteousness.” Not the right eousness o f oneself, but that righteous ness which characterizes the righteous God is here in view. This righteousness may be secured only as the character o f God Himself is ministered to the life (Phil. 3). “ Blessed are the merciful . . . the pure in heart . . . the peacemakers.” It is the mercy that does not consider injury, but passes over all that causes the injury, and looks with merciful and gracious eye upon the person who causes it. Mercy and purity and peacemaking flow from Him who only could show mercy, who only had purity, and who alone came to bring peace to all men. Not the mercy that man might show to man, but that which God shows to man, and which is from everlasting to everlasting, is the mercy to which the Lord Jesus here refers. It is not the purity unto which man might attain, but the purity of God which is im pervious to even the entrance o f impurity. And it is not the peace which might be established between man and man, but the peace which is made between God and man, to which the Lord calls. It will be noticed that these are things to be, not to do. The blessedness is not for those who are trying to be, or who are BLACKBOARD LESSON
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Objects: An old handkerchief full of holes and badly stained, a new white silk handkerchief, a pair of scissors, and a red cloth. Lesson : My handkerchief does not look very well this morning, but I think I will be able to fix it all right. I have another, a new one, and if I take the scissors and cut out the stained parts in the old, and sew in pieces cut out o f the new, I will have one which does not look so bad. I did not realize that it was so badly stained and so full of holes until I tried to get rid o f them. Well do I remember when these stains and holes first appeared 1 Oh, well, my handkerchief will look much better when the new pieces take the places of the stains and holes. Shall I cut a piece out of the center of this beautiful new handkerchief to patch Lesson T ex t : Matt. 5:1-12, 43-48. Golden Text-. “ Blessed are the pure in heart: for they shall see God” (Matt. 5 :8). Outline and Exposition I. T he P roclamation of the K ing (1, 2 ). he so-called Sermon on the Mount, covering chapters 5 to 7 o f Mat thew’s Gospel, is really the King’s inaugural address. No other one has ever offered such exact and exalted rules for the government o f society. The Lord Jesus spoke, not as being in the kingdom as already set up and established, but as announcing its coming. The king dom is the millennial reign of Christ over this earth, and it has not yet been estab lished. He did not deliver this address to the multitudes with whom He had been work ing, but to His chosen disciples who had left all to follow Him. These had been the disciples of John the Baptist and had been baptized by John unto repentance. The purpose o f this address was to give the principles, the laws, and the character of the citizens of the kingdom Christ came to establish. He was not giving a way of salvation; a gospel derived from this por tion o f the Bible must of necessity be a gospel of works, for which the death of Christ is not needed. Nor was He giving a guide for the life and conduct of the church, though the spirit of legalism turns it into such. But legalism is that which denies the full efficacy and power of the death and resurrection of Christ, as well as the place and condition o f believers. All through this address, the Lord knew o f the rejection o f Himself and o f His claims, and with the rejection o f Himself, the rejection also of the kingdom. But this knowledge did not deter Him from the proclamation of the coming kingdom which would ultimately be set up. II. T he C haracter of the C itizens (3-9 ). In a series o f beatitudes, Christ revealed the character of those who are to be citizens in His kingdom. “Blessed are the poor in spirit.” That is something wholly foreign to human nature. The parallel is to be found in Isaiah 66:2, and the contrast may be seen in Revelation 3:17. “Blessed are they that mourn.” The mourning is on account o f the sinfulness
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JANUARY 28, 1934 STANDARDS OF THE KINGDOM M atthew 5:1 -48-
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