Matthew 19:27 to end. Christ promises rewards to his faithful followers.
Posted : 15 Aug, 2011 04:25 PM
Had Peter spoken in pride when he said, "We have forsaken all," he would have received rebuke instead of encouragement. He had seen the rich young man go away grieved�he had heard the Lord's declaration respecting the danger of riches�and his mind reverted to the period when he had been called, and had obeyed the call. What occasion was there for gratitude when the disciples thought of the time when they first resolved to give up all, and to follow Jesus! There is no season in life upon which the believer looks back with such joy, as on that season when he first determined to engage in his Redeemer's service. Whether he gave up much or little, he knows that in heart he gave up all. He felt willing to give up all whenever duty required the sacrifice; and he actually gave up what is dearer than possessions�doing his own will, and trusting in his own righteousness.
The Lord's reply to Peter contains two glorious promises. The first was addressed to the apostles only; the second to everyone who had acted as they had done. The apostles had left fishing-boats, and they were promised thrones. Such is the gracious and astonishing manner in which God rewards! When was this promise to be fulfilled? In the regeneration, or the new birth of the world. That time is spoken of in Rev. 21:1, where the apostle John declares, "I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth were passed away." This glorious time is called in Acts 3:21, "'the time of the restitution (or restoring) of all things." It appears that the apostles will then be distinguished by peculiar honors, and that they will be appointed to judge or rule over the tribes of Israel and the saints. But though we speak of these things, we understand them very dimly, because we see "through a glass, darkly."
The second promise that Jesus made is addressed to all who forsake any worldly good for his sake. Multitudes have lost their possessions, and have been separated from their families, because they chose to obey God rather than men. And how has God rewarded them? Has he given them the very things they renounced? No, not always; but he has given them more happiness, even in this life, than earth could have afforded them. They have indeed suffered "persecutions," but their joys have been greater than their sorrows. (Mark 10:30.)
Worldly things are only desired, because it is supposed that they can confer happiness. If any person were convinced that greater happiness could be obtained by any other means, surely he would not lament the loss of worldly comforts. How many saints have witnessed, that in the hour of outward sorrow they have tasted the purest inward joy! Such was the experience of Rutherford, when imprisoned in Aberdeen. In his letters he declared that since he had been in prison, he had discovered a sweetness in Christ that he had never conceived before. Such was the experience of Dr. Payson. When racked with pain in his last illness, he asserted that he felt more satisfaction than he had ever known in health. He said, "God has used a strange method to make me happy. I could not have believed, a little while ago, that in order to render me happy, He would deprive me of the use of my limbs, and fill my body with pain. But he has taken away everything else, that he might give me HIMSELF." And the apostles bore the same testimony when they said, "As the SUFFERINGS of Christ abound in us, so our consolation also abounds by Christ." (2 Cor. 1:5.)
Are there any here who have never yet found happiness? Are you willing to try the experiment, and to see whether God can make you happy? Sin has its pleasures, but they are for a season, and they leave a sting behind. Have you not experienced this? But God bestows on his children a calm, a deep, a settled, an abiding joy, which is called PEACE. It cannot be described, for it is not only unspeakable, but it passes all understanding.
Matthew 19:27 to end. Christ promises rewards to his faithful followers.
Posted : 15 Aug, 2011 04:49 PM
After Peter said we have left everything to follow you what is there for us Jesus replied that his 12 Apostles {Including Paul?} would be given 12 thrones in heaven and 100 times as much as they gave up on earth as per Matthew 19:27-30.
Thus Jesus confirmed in His New Covenant that all the rewards for His saints would be unseen eternal rewards instead of earthly rewards such as were promised in the Old Covenant such as land and houses.
Luke 12:33,34: Jesus says, �Sell your possessions and give to the poor. Provide purses for yourselves that will not wear out, a treasure in heaven that will not be exhausted....For where your treasure is there your heart will be also.�
Matthew 20:20-24: �All these {Commandments} I have kept, the young man said. �What do I still lack?� Jesus answered, �If you want to be perfect, go, sell tour possessions and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. **THEN** come, follow Me.� When the young man heard this, he went away sad, because he had great wealth. Then Jesus says, �It is hard for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven. It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than it is for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God.�
Luke 6:20: Jesus says �Blessed are you who are poor, for yours is the kingdom of God.�
2 Corinthians 6:4-10: As servants of God we commend ourselves in every way: in great endurance, in troubles, hardships and distresses, in beatings, imprisonments; in hard work, sleepless nights and hunger; in the Holy Spirit and in sincere love, in truthful speech and in the power of God; genuine, yet regarded as imposters; dying, and yet we live on; beaten and yet not killed; *POOR*, yet making many rich; *HAVING NOTHING*; and yet possessing everything.�
I Timothy 6:5-10: There are men of corrupt mind, who have been robbed of the truth and who think thst godliness is a means to financial gain. But godliness with Contentment is great gain....If we have food and clothing, we will be content with that. People who want to get rich fall into temptation and a trap and into many foolish and harmful desires that plunge them into ruin and destruction. For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil. Some people, eager for money, have wandered from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs.�
I Timothy 2:9,10: �I also want women to dress modestly, with decency and propriety, not with braided hair or gold or pearls or expensive clothes, but with good deeds, appropriate for women who profess to worship God.�
Revelation 22:12: Jesus says, "Behold, I am coming soon! My *REWARD* is *WITH ME*, and I will give to everyone according to what he has done!"
2 Corinthians 5:9,10: "So we make it our goal to please Him..For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, that each one may receive what is due him {Not NOW} for the things done while in the body, whether good or bad!"
Matthew 16:27: Jesus says, For the Son of Man is going to come in His **FATHER'S GLORY WITH HIS ANGELS**{See Matt 24:30-31;25:31-40}, and **THEN** {Not with earthly rewards now} He will *REWARD* each person according to what he has done,"
I Peter 1:13: �Therefore, prepare your minds for *ACTION*, and set your hope *FULLY* on the grace to be given *YOU* when Jesus Christ is *REVEALED*.:applause::angel::peace:
Matthew 19:27 to end. Christ promises rewards to his faithful followers.
Posted : 21 Aug, 2011 03:28 PM
"Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead!"�1 Peter 1:3.
In this very comprehensive and beautiful passage, the apostle Peter, like his brother Paul in the commencement of his epistle to the Ephesians, introduces his subject by bursting abruptly into a hymn of thanksgiving. His heart was full to overflowing of wonder, gratitude and love, and he could not content himself with a mere cold formal statement of the marvelous grace of God. He first ascends to the source of the blessings he was about to enumerate, and finds it only in the abundant mercy of God.
There is no attribute of God on which as sinners, we so much depend as upon mercy; and there is no one attribute therefore, about which so much is said in Scripture as this. Mercy is the spring and fountainhead of the blessings here enumerated, our regeneration and adoption into the family of God; our heavenly inheritance; and our preservation to the vast and eternal possession.
It is the living hope, however, that is the subject of our present remarks. To this we are "begotten," that is, we are first made children, and then, as such, being endowed with an eternal inheritance, we, as children, being entitled to it, through the work of Christ, hope for it. And to this we are begotten "by the resurrection of Christ." In an earlier part of this work I have shown that hope must be preceded by faith, and is founded upon faith. We must first believe that there is a heaven, and that it is obtainable by us, or we cannot hope for it; and if we do believe, we must of necessity hope. Whatever therefore produces faith, and strengthens it�must beget hope as well. The resurrection of Christ is the sum and substance of all the evidence of the divinity of his mission, of the truth of his doctrines, and of course of the gospel of our salvation. It is a cloud of witnesses in itself, and therefore believing this great fact, we are, through the grace of God, brought to hope. But more than this, the resurrection of Christ is the proof and pledge of ours. Believing in his resurrection, we believe our own; for he rose not as a private individual�but as our representative. Thus our faith is confirmed, established, supported by his resurrection, and we are begotten to a living hope.
But I intend now to dwell on this characteristic of our hope, as "a LIVING" one. True personal religion is the opposite of any unregenerate state, which is, a state of spiritual death; the unconverted sinner is "dead in trespasses and sins." Hence true religion is spiritual life. It is a living, moving, active principle in man's soul. He has been quickened from a death of sin to a life of holiness. His religious exercises are not the motions of an automaton�but the self-moved actions of a living being. His soul is alive to God, to Christ, to holiness, to heaven. Now, just as in the tree, each branch, and leaf, and fruit, lives by the principle of vegetable life in the root; and as in the body, the principle of animal life diffuses its influence into each and all the members and organs; as the foot moves, the hand works, the eye sees, and the tongue speaks by the principle of animal life�so, as regards true religion, all its graces act from the spiritual life in the soul. Faith is a living faith, hope is a living hope, love is a living love. The apostle, it is true, speaks of a dead faith�but this indeed is no faith at all; so we may speak of a dead hope, which is none at all. If there be in reality a hope, it must be a living one.
Nearly all the people in Christian lands profess to have hope�but in multitudes of cases it is a dead one; it breathes not, moves not, speaks not; it neither makes them holy nor happy; it neither animates to duty, restrains from sin, nor supports under suffering. It is a mere profession. Is it not much to be feared that this is all that many professors of religion, many members of our churches, have in this day? I would not be uncharitable�but I must express my apprehensions, fearful as they are, that large numbers in this day of 'easy profession', have nothing but a dead faith and a dead hope. Their profession, instead of being the coat of a spiritually living man, is the shroud of a dead one. Judging from their conduct, we must conclude that they have neither desire nor expectation of eternal life.
Christian professor, let me ask you�what does your hope do for you? Consider that true hope is not a desire fixed on a trifle, which must be a trifling desire, exciting no emotion, producing no action, awakening no concern. True hope is desire of salvation, of eternal life, of immortal glory. Can such an expectation, if it really exist, lie dormant in the soul, an ineffective, inoperative thing, producing no joy, no concern, no activity? Impossible! Let every one, therefore, solemnly ask himself this simple question�What does my anticipation of heaven do for me? Is it alive in me? Does it move? Does it act? Does it stimulate me to duty, restrain me from sin, comfort me in trouble? Are my character and conduct in any degree those of a man who has fixed his eye, his heart, his expectation on eternal life? If not, my hope is a dead one�a name and a delusion.
In opposition to this, the hope of a really converted man is a living one. The word signifies a vigorous, active, spirit-stirring principle�as opposed to the cold, faint belief of Heathenism. It is an earnest desire and confident expectation of everlasting life. This desire and expectation is such as employs the thoughts and kindles the affections. It acts on the soul, as regards spiritual and eternal objects�just as earthly desires and expectations do towards their objects. If a man is looking forward with confident expectation of some great earthly good, some cherished object which is to influence all his future life�it is uppermost in his mind, it engages his heart, it employs his tongue, it stimulates his activity. If he receives some lesser good, "Oh," he says, "but I have something far greater to come!" If he has sustained a loss, he replies, "I shall soon have ample compensation for this!" If he is in trouble, he cheers his mind with the anticipation of the expected good. If solicited to engage in any project which would divert his mind from this, he exclaims, "No! I cannot allow anything to interfere with my one great object!" This is a living hope. And so is it with the man who has really set his heart upon salvation and eternal life.
I am ready to admit that it is with spiritual life as it is with natural�it may exist in various degrees. There may be vitality where there is not vivacity. There may be life so feeble as scarcely to be perceived or felt�and there may be vitality in such vigor as to give rise to the expression, "He is full of life!" In reference to the two terms, "living" and "lively," a hope may, in a very modified sense, be a living one, yet not a lively one; and on that account I am almost ready to prefer the adverb of our translators to the proposed substitute. The original comprehends both.
There are many who are spiritually alive�but not very lively. They have desires�but how lukewarm. They have hope�but how uncertain and fluttering. They do not give up the idea of their being Christians, and reaching heaven at last�but amid what doubts and fears these expectations are indulged. In duty, how backward; in spirit, how worldly; in trouble, how disconsolate. How deficient in spirituality and heavenly-mindedness. O, you half-hearted, worldly-minded, lukewarm professors, I call upon you "to strengthen the things which remain, and are ready to die!" You have only that measure of life which is next akin to death, and is in peril of becoming such!
Believers, be contented with nothing short of a lively�as well as living expectation�which shall be an unfailing source of both consolation and holiness; which lifts up your head and keeps it up, when passing through the rivers of affliction; which remains, when everything else is gone; which opens a fountain amid broken cisterns; which lives in death, and exhibits heaven to the eye in the dark valley; and which judgment and eternity do not destroy�but only consummate. Let the full tide of spiritual life be poured into this�as one of the many channels through which its holy stream is to flow!
