Part 2
The next object that attracted the Apostle's eye was the Judge Himself: "And I saw Him that sat on it." No further description of the personal appearance of the Judge is given. John simply says: "I saw Him," whence it follows that He can be seen, and, accordingly, it could not have been the absolute, invisible God, who cannot be seen. Who, then, was it? It was none other than Jesus Christ, of whom we confess in the Second Article that He was born of the Virgin Mary, was crucified, dead and buried, and the third day rose again, and, ascending into heaven, shall come again to judge the quick and the dead. This is the plain teaching of Scripture throughout. Christ Jesus, the Son of Man, wearing the very nature of those whom He judges, will be the Judge. "God hath appointed a day in which He will judge the world in righteousness by that man whom He hath ordained." But not any longer as the gentle, compassionate Savior, as the Lamb of God that taketh away the sin of the world, but as the Lion of the tribe of Judah, as the Judge from whose face the earth and the heavens will flee away, and the unrighteous call out in despair: "Ye mountains, fall upon us, and ye hills, hide us from Him that sitteth on the throne." And think not, we would here add, that we are describing matters of imagination, such as poets and painters may dwell upon. We are describing things that will really happen. John saw these things in vision. You and I shall one day see these things in reality. "Behold, He cometh with clouds, and every eye shall see Him." Where shall be _our_ place, what _our_ portion at that time, in that day?
This we learn from the next point of consideration: Who shall be the judged? "And I saw the dead, small and great, stand before God." By the "dead" here are meant _all mankind_, the entire family of earth, all of woman born, from Adam down to the last offspring of human race,--they must all appear before the judgment-seat of Christ. It is computed that there are more than eighty millions of inhabitants in our land. This is about one-twentieth part of the entire population of the globe, which, at this time, is calculated at one billion five hundred millions. These one billion five hundred millions will be all gathered together into one thronging assemblage, and not they only, but also, in addition, the two hundred generations of men who have preceded us, and those generations--how many we know not, God knoweth--that will still live in the earth between these days and the last general judgment. These all, which no man can number, shall be judged. It says: "The great and small." There will be no distinction of age, size, color, or nation, condition or rank, those of high degree and those of low estate, the rich and the poor, the sovereign and his subjects, the man of silvery hair and the infant of a span long, the distinguished scholar and the untutored savage, husband and wife, pastor and people, apostles and sinners,--all shall stand before God. All the dead, whose bodies were once consigned by loving hands to quiet resting-chambers beneath mother earth, those whose bones lie bleached upon the desert's sands or Alpine mountains, those whose corpse was lowered down into watery depths,--immaterial how, when, or where dead,--these all shall yield up their tents when the trumpet of the archangel sounds to gather the children of men unto judgment. And with the parties thus arrayed at the bar, we proceed to the judgment itself.
"And the books were opened, and another book was opened which is the book of life. And the dead were judged out of those things which were written in the books." Two sets of books are here spoken of: first, two books, and then another book. Other passages in God's Word also speak of books in connection with the Judgment. What the character of these books spoken of is we are not at a loss to determine; the one is the book of God's remembrance, and the other is the book of God's Word. Not as if God in reality employs books to make His entries; the all-knowing King needs no such helps to remind Him of men's actions. His all-capacious mind knows all things and forgets nothing. The idea is: Just as men, in their manifold dealings, do not trust to their memories, but use memoranda and records in order to be able to refer to them as occasion requires, just so, in condescension to our way of thinking, figuratively speaking, God represents Himself as keeping a book in which He has an exact record of what has been done by any creature, past, present, and future. And an exact record it will be, accurate in the minutest detail. Not only man's general character, the sum total of his life, whether (taken altogether) he was, on the whole, a worldly or a pious man, or the like, will be taken into account, but every trifling act, good or bad, of which his entire life was composed. The word is: "God shall bring every work into judgment, with every secret thing, whether it be good, or whether it be evil." Everything. Nothing shall be kept back, nothing will be overlooked. That thought that passed so rapidly through your mind as hardly to be noticed, that word that so hastily escaped your lips, all the deliberate and determined actions which have left their stain upon your life, all these, down to the secret sin that you have been so successful in hiding from the sight of man, all, whether done in childhood, youth, manhood, or old age, all that has been committed or omitted, will be opened out to public view by the all-seeing, all-remembering Judge. This is the first book, the Book of Remembrance.
And the divine Arbiter opens another book. We have no difficulty in recognizing it at once. It is to us a familiar volume,--"The word that I have spoken, the same shall judge you in the last day," is the language of the Judge Himself. That book, we contend, is the guide and rule of our faith and actions in this life; it is also the statute-book of heaven, the touchstone by which our hearts and lives are to be tried in the life hereafter. Plain enough are the directions that book tells you. "Thou shalt love the Lord, thy God, with all thy heart, with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and thy neighbor as thyself." Plainly does it speak to you and to all of heaven, of judgment, of eternity, of faith, of holiness, and of the new birth and conversion; plainly does it inform you of Him who redeemed us from the curse of the Law, being made a curse for us, that he that believeth in the Son hath eternal life, and he that believeth not the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God abideth on him. In brief, according to that opened Bible man shall be justified or condemned. Here is the standard, the rule.
How important, my beloved, that we should see on what terms we stand with our Bibles now--whether they justify us, or whether they condemn us. Oh, for that oft-neglected divine Book!
But there is a third book to be opened. That is the book of life, and "whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire." It was a custom generally observed at the courts of princes to keep a list of the persons employed in their service, of the officers of their armies, and sometimes even the names of the soldiers; and when it is said in the Bible that a person's name is written in the book of life, it means that he
## particularly belongs to God, is enrolled among His friends and
followers. It is also probable that the early Christian churches, like our churches now, kept lists of their members, and that this term "book of life" was derived from such a custom, it being regarded that any one on the list was also an assured member of heaven. And how may I know whether my name is inscribed in this book of life? "He that believeth in the Son hath eternal life," and "he that believeth not in the Son, shall not see life, but the wrath of God abideth on him." What determines our eternal destiny, our acceptance or rejection by the Judge, is our personal belief and faith in Jesus Christ; on that depends our salvation, our being enrolled or canceled from the book of life. "Jesus, Thy blood and righteousness, my jewels are, my glorious dress; in these before my God I'll stand when summoned to His own right hand." Nothing else will avail but faith in Jesus Christ, the Son of God, our Redeemer. That places our name in the book of life; with that men will stand or fall. "He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved, but he that believeth not shall be damned."
But does not the Record here, verse 12, and the Bible _elsewhere_, emphasize that we will be judged according to our works, according to what we have done? Indeed, but this does not contradict salvation by faith in Christ Jesus; our faith, to prove itself genuine, must work and does work. If there are no works, we may rest assured there is no faith. At the last day our works will be inquired into to ascertain the nature of our faith. If there is no love toward the brethren of Jesus, no manifestation of Christ's Spirit toward Christ's suffering members, we may take it for granted that faith is dead. Our works come into account as fruits of our faith; but faith in Christ Jesus is the principle on which all stand or fall, for--what will the outcome of that final judgment be? "And they shall go away into everlasting punishment, but the righteous into life eternal." The Bible everywhere speaks, in connection with the Day of Judgment, of mankind being separated into two distinct portions. Now the wheat and tares grow together. There is a difference between them, even at the present, which the skilled eye in many instances can detect, but, as yet, they run together, and there is no severance of them into separate fields or pastures. It will not always be so. Infidels and Christians will one day cease to live under the same roof, or believers and unbelievers to be unequally yoked together, or the children of the devil and the children of God to be intermingled in the same families, firms, and societies. When men come to appear before their Judge, the record is: "He shall separate them one from another, and shall set the good as sheep on His right hand, but the goats on the left." In ancient times the left and right hand of a judge meant much. To be placed on the right hand signified acceptance, acquittal; on the left hand, condemnation, rejection. And He shall say to them on His right hand: "Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world." And, addressing Himself to the other, there break from the lips of the Judge the dark, desolating words: "Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels." One shudders to speak them, but here are the words from the lips of the almighty Judge Himself. Who can alter them? On the one side is an inheritance, a realm of divine blessedness, a kingdom which knows no evil, a life which knows no death. On the other side gapes a lake of unquenchable fire, never, indeed, meant or made for men. Punishments are there, and tears that ever fall, and flames that ever burn, and miseries that never exhaust. Exactly what it is I cannot tell, and wish that none may ascertain. I can only rehearse the expressions of God's Word upon the subject,--"blackness of darkness, worm that dieth not, weeping and gnashing of teeth"; and no representation is more awful than the one employed in the text, "a lake of fire," seething, sweltering, weltering fire, that shall never be quenched, everlasting burning.
And why, brethren, bring before you these solemn truths? Is it to torment you before the time? No, indeed, but as He Himself in to-day's Gospel declares, "that ye may be accounted worthy to escape all these things that shall come to pass, and to stand before the Son of Man," that you be sincere believers and worshipers here on earth, diligent in good works, and on that day be rated among those who shall inherit their Father's kingdom, and to that end:
King of Majesty, tremendous, Who dost free salvation send us, Fount of pity, then befriend us, With the favored sheep, O place us! Nor amid the goats abase us, To Thine own right hand upraise us!
Amen.
THIRD SUNDAY IN ADVENT.
They are the messengers of the churches.--_2 Cor. 8, 23._
St. Paul the Apostle was laboring in Macedonia. He had there learned that through the famine which then prevailed the pious converts in Judea were in pecuniary straits. He had applied for aid in their behalf to the brethren in Macedonia, and they, considering their poverty, had responded in the most liberal manner to his appeal. He informs the church of Corinth of this large benevolence, and states his conviction that the Corinthian believers, who were so much richer than those of Macedonia, would not allow themselves to be outdone in the extent of their bounty. Not satisfied with having informed them by letter, he also sends to them Titus and other Christian ministers to explain to them fully the wants of their suffering brethren and to raise the necessary supplies. Now, it appeared requisite for the information of those who were not sufficiently acquainted with the men sent that they should carry with them some introduction, some credentials. St. Paul, therefore, accredits them in the words of the text: "Whether any do inquire of Titus or of our brethren, they are the messengers of the churches and the glory of Christ."
It is not my intention, on the present occasion, to dwell upon the circumstances to which our text most immediately refers. My object is to impress upon your minds the solemn character of the ministerial office as explained by the expression: "messengers of the churches." The epistle of this Sunday suggests this, and the fact that it is the ----th anniversary of my ministry among you lends it a personal coloring. Two chief items commend our thoughts: _I. The office of Christ's ministers_, _II. the duty of Christ's people,--what is it?_
The office of Christ's ministers,--what is it? Announces Paul in the text: "They are the messengers of the churches." We all know the office of a messenger. It is to bear a message from one person to another person. This figure is frequently made use of in the Bible to illustrate the intercourse between God and man. Thus it is employed in reference to the Lord Himself. From all eternity He had been in the bosom of the Father, and when the fullness of time was come, He appeared in the form of a man, to make known, to declare, the message of the Father. That message was the unfolding of the everlasting covenant whereby God might be just and yet pardon and save the sinner. Hence, the Prophet Malachi predicts Christ's coming under this very name of Messenger: "The Lord whom ye seek, shall suddenly come to His temple, even the Messenger of the Covenant, whom ye delight in." Our blessed Lord, accordingly, was a messenger.
The angels, also, have often been employed to bring messages from God to man. They, likewise, are spoken of under this title. The Greek word which we translate "angel" means "messenger." The vision which Jacob saw at Bethel, the angels of God ascending and descending upon the ladder, aptly represents the services of those heavenly beings who are continually descending and ascending with tidings respecting the business which is being transacted between heaven and earth. Hence, the angel, or messenger, who appeared to Zacharias and told the purpose of his visit from the courts above: "I am Gabriel," said he, "that stand in the presence of God, and am sent to speak unto thee and to show thee these glad tidings."
But, besides the Lord Jesus and the angels, it has pleased God in His mercy and condescension to make use of _men_ as His messengers to the human race, and so they are described in the Word of God. We read: "Thus spake Haggai, the Lord's messenger," and St. Paul, in writing to the Philippians, respecting their minister, says: "I supposed it necessary to send unto you Epaphroditus, my brother and companion in labor, but your messenger."
But, alas, through the corruption of our common nature, everything human is liable to be perverted. There are many who profess to be the Lord's messengers, who are not such. It is, accordingly, intimated in the Scripture, for the warning of Lord's people, that there are two classes of messengers, the evil and the good. In the history and prophecies of the Old Testament we read of false prophets who were not sent, and yet they ran and taught the people perverse doctrines and led many away from the true service of the living God. In the days of Israel in the wilderness there were Korah, Dathan and Abiram, who, contrary to the spirit of God, taught the people to rebel against Moses and Aaron. The Prophet Jeremiah speaks of a very busy set of false prophets who did not stand in the Lord's counsel and misled His people. And in the New Testament they are not missing,--there were the Pharisees, Judas, Hymenaeus, and Alexander. St. Paul bitterly complains about some who, to gain their own selfish purposes, pretended to be apostles, but who were not. Our Lord admonishes that, at all times of the Christian dispensation, we may expect false prophets wearing the clothing of sheep. Now, how are we to distinguish between the real and pretended messengers of Christ? The Lord Himself has told us: "By their fruits ye shall know them." If, therefore, a minister does not bring forth the proper fruits, say what he will to the contrary, he is not accredited by Christ,--he is not the Lord's messenger. One chief point by which we may judge is the "fruits of the lips." What message does he deliver? Is it the Lord's message, or is it some conceit of his own? The popish priest, who preaches salvation by works, the intercession of the Virgin, the lying delusion of purgatory, delivers not the Lord's message. The Unitarian minister, who talks of the virtues of humanity, who denies the Trinity, the atonement of the Redeemer, the converting and sanctifying operations of the Holy Spirit, he, too, certainly does not deliver the Lord's message. And to come nearer to ourselves, he who professes to be a Lutheran minister, and who yet denies the doctrine of Justification by Faith only, who does not preach the regenerating power of the Holy Sacrament of Baptism, and the real presence of Christ's body and blood in the Lord's Supper, he, likewise, whatever may be his profession to the contrary, does not deliver the Lord's message.
What is the Lord's message? The voice said: "Cry," and the faithful messenger said: "What shall I cry?" "All flesh is grass. The grass withereth, the flower fadeth, but the Word of our God shall stand forever." "The prophet that hath a dream, let him tell a dream; and he that hath _my Word_, let him speak my Word faithfully."
"Preach the Word," was St. Paul's advice to Timothy. "Preach the Word"; "be instant" with that word "in season and out of season"; in the pulpit and out of the pulpit; in the schoolroom and on the platform; in the sick chamber and in the abodes of health; in the highways and in the byways. Only one-half of a minister's duty is done when the services of the sanctuary are over, and the marriages, funerals, and baptisms are performed. "The minister," one has remarked, "is a physician. He has a vast field before him. He has to study a variety of constitutions. He has to furnish himself with the knowledge of the whole system of remedies. He is to be a man of skill and expediency. If one thing fails, he must know how to apply another. He must be able to speak a word in season, to deliver the Lord's message to the saint and to the sinner, to the heavy-laden and to the presumptuous, to the contrite and to the inquirer,--to all, in short, that come." "For the priest's lips," says Malachi, "should keep knowledge, and they should seek the Law at his mouth." For this reason, he will unceasingly be on the lookout for tidings. He will not, indeed, originate new things. He will not speak anything which comes into his own head, but he will diligently study what the Word of the Lord says, and that will he, no matter who may be present in the congregation, boldly and unreservedly deliver. He will deliver the whole counsel of God. He will be zealous for the truth, and neither teach nor tolerate any manner or degree of error; but, above all, he will preach, as the most important part of his message, Christ Jesus. Other preaching may inform the head and please the ear, but it is the setting forth of Christ in all His willingness to pardon, Christ in all His mightiness to save, which alone can storm the outworks and force the citadel of the heart. It is not the flowery language and the rounded period, embellished with sparkling figures and brilliant metaphors, that will of itself win souls to the Lord. No, it is the discriminating, earnest, and affectionate preaching of Christ, whether in the polished language of the scholar or in the ruder accents of a less accomplished zeal,--it is this preaching alone which is worthy of the name. The minister of Christ has a much more important matter in hand than some imagine. As a faithful messenger, he is to deliver, not information about political issues, lectures on morals, literature, and topics of the day, but he is to give hearers a full exhibition of Christ as He is revealed in the Bible and ought to be imprinted on every human heart,--the sinner's Hope, the sinner's Refuge, the sinner's Surety and Substitute, the sinner's High Priest and Advocate, the sinner's All and in all.
This, dear members and hearers, is the message. And oh, what a blessing such a message is! How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of him that bringeth these good tidings; that publisheth peace; that bringeth these good tidings of good; that publisheth salvation. As refreshing rain upon the dry, parched soil, so is such a faithful message to them that hear him.
And this is the character which he who now addresses you is anxious to sustain, as minister of this congregation. For ---- years have I preached this message of redemption among you. Most graciously have you received it at my lips, which leads me to thank God and take courage, asking for the Spirit's influence to make that message effectual. This, then, is the duty of Christ's ministers.
What, to come to the next consideration, is the duty of Christ's people?