Heaven and hell may dwell in the same home, sit at the same table, sleep
in the same bed, but between them there is a great gulf fixed. Here, for example, is a
home in which one boy goes wrong, bears about with him a guilty secret he may not be able
to tell the rest, and yet he must keep the dreaded company of his guilty, tortured self.
Every time that boy hears the happy laughter of brothers and sisters rejoicing in the joy
of the Lord, the fires of hell are burning in his heart. Every time he receives his
father's blessing or listens to his mother speaking of him in the language of maternal
pride, he knows that between them and him there is a gulf fixed, and over it neither he
nor they can pass. To the sinner abiding in his sin even the language of love is part of
the torture of hell!
Here is another home in which an angry and
unhappy man has power to inflict suffering on those who are weaker than himself. He has
lived for wrong and vicious, devilish ideals all his life, and they have grown stronger as
he has grown older. He has power to oppress and abuse and crush one faithful, beautiful
woman, whose very presence and purity of character are a rebuke to him. The more nobly she
lives, the better for him she cares, the fiercer seems to burn his anger and hostility,
because he knows that he is not worthy of such devotion. He does not repent, but he
suffers remorse, and inward self-hate, and between the two there is a great gulf fixed.
The fires of hell are burning in that man's experience now, for guilt is often made more
devilish by the presence of holiness.
And in our acquaintance with life have we never suspected
that the fires are burning where the world sees not? There are people facing life today
with a smile who are not to be counted heroes, merely because behind the smile is anguish.
Some people can smile in the shadow of the cross, and they do well. They are God's great
ones! But there are others who wear the smile of dreadful joy, the smile of sin's make
believe. Down beneath are the fires of hell, kindled by the pollution and the corruption
and the wickedness on which the soul has fed. We can meet with hell in the palace, in the
halls of Congress, in the business establishment, in the world of entertainment, in the
home, on the street, and salute it and pass it by, and never know, but hell knows, for it
has seen heaven. Naked and open are we to Him with Whom we have to do, and, believe me,
nothing but the tender mercies and the cleansing power of the blood of the Lamb can avail
to save us from what we are in the great day of revelation, whether it come on this side
of the grave or on the other, when delusions are gone, and we find ourselves in our heaven
or our hell. We may eat, drink, and be merry; we may stifle the Voice within us, but some
day it wakens and will be heard, and the wakening shall lead to brokenness and repentance,
praise the name of the Lord! The truth is, nature is a mirror of the unseen world. Every
form of death, all disease, decay, failure, pain, every fruitless seed, each ruined life,
is the shadow of hell, and of the working of that spirit which destroys and mars God's
handiwork, as all beauty, purity, harmony, and enduring love is the reflection of heaven.
THE KEYS
OF DEATH AND HELL
"Fear not; I am the first and the last, and the living One: I was
even dead, but behold, I am living for the ages of the ages: and I have the KEYS OF DEATH
AND HADES" (Rev. 1:17-18, Diaglott).
To John on the isle of Patmos there came One who announced Himself as
"the Alpha and Omega, the First and the Last." At His girdle hung "the keys
of Hades and of death." A h. the enemy ' v usurped control over mankind, ruling with
fear, and bringing creation into bondage to the whole dreadful realm of death. Death was
the adversary's "trump card," his final victory. He beguiled man into sin, and
"sin when it is finished, brings forth death" (James 1: 15). After all the
beguilement, which the enemy has exercised with ruthless working and deception, causing
man to become perverted and corrupt, sinking into the quagmire of fear, sorrow, and
hopelessness, the final result was death with its habitation in Hades.
When Jesus came into the world in the humiliation of the Incarnation, He
started on a route of conquest that took Him through the lonely years prior to His
introduction at the muddy waters of Jordan, when the bony prophetic finger of John the
Baptist was pointed at Him and those significant words were uttered: "Behold, the
Lamb of God, which takes away the sin of the world" (Jn. 1:29). For some thirty-three
and a half years He overcame and lived an impeccable life so that it was said of Him that
"He was tempted in all points like as we, yet without sin" (Heb. 4:15).
Jesus' flawless life was followed bv a decisive death. He went to
Calvary to endure inexplicable and incomparable suffering: suffering of which we can only
have a hint; suffering we can only look at curiously with a sob in our throats; suffering
veiled in the mystery of the bearing of sin; suffering surrounded by torn rocks and a sun
that refused to shine and an earth that writhed in agony. As He hung there alone, God
reached down His giant fist and gathered the accumulated sins of men and placed them upon
Him. In the awful agony of Calvary, Christ made His soul an offering for sin. The sin of
the world was imputed unto Him, and the waves of God's judgment were released upon Him.
When He had become an offering for sin, He gave up the Ghost and came down from the
mystery of His sufferings, having finished that work. What men saw was a man banging limp
- every bone out of joint, a swollen tongue protruding from burning lips that cried out,
"It is finished!"
For centuries now Christians have supposed that when Jesus cried,
"It is finished," that meant that His work of redemption was completed. Many
refer to this as "the finished work of Calvary." But there is too much stopping
at the cross. If we stop at the cross we end with a dead Christ, and a dead Christ can
save no one! Paul wrote, "If Christ be not RAISED, your faith is vain; YOU ARE YET IN
YOUR SINS" (I Cor. 15:17). We must get our thoughts broadened about the redemptive
work of Christ. He died for our sins, but He was also raised again for our justification!
There is no "finished work" at the cross. There is not even a "finished
work" at the resurrection! The redemptive work of Christ was not finished until He
had ASCENDED UP ON HIGH bearing the precious blood of His atonement into the Holiest Place
of the heavenlies, as it is written, "Neither by the blood of goats and calves, but
by His own blood HE ENTERED IN ONCE INTO THE HOLY PLACE, HAVING OBTAINED ETERNAL
REDEMPTION FOR US. For Christ is not entered into the holy places made with hands, which
are the figures of the true; but into HEAVEN ITSELF, NOW TO APPEAR IN THE PRESENCE OF GOD
FOR US" (Heb. 9:12, 24). When the Christ cried, "It is finished," it was
the cup of suffering - the excruciating agony of the cross - that was finished, not the
plan of redemption. When He died He then entered the darkest night of death, and was
ushered through the somber gates and behind the fearful bars of Hades. "You will not
leave My soul in Hades" (Acts 2:31). The Christ not only died He went to hell!
One day, in Satan's realm - the dark domain, Where souls of dead in
chains of death remain, The Prince of darkness, boastful, spoke aloud To his abject,
imprisoned, awestruck crowd: "Hearken, you spirits. Lo, I bring this day Another
victim bound beneath my sway, Jesus, the Nazarene, the Master Fraud - Who proudly claims
Himself the Son of God! I laid the snare, which the Imposter caught, And to the tree of
shame the Boaster brought', And now, between two thieves He helpless hangs, In Death's
dissolving and resistless pangs. You shall behold Him pass through Hades' door, To walk
among the living - nevermore! My power shall hush the Archpretender's breath, And bind Him
hopeless in the realm of death."
Then Hell itself in fear began to quake, And, in alarm, thus to the
Devil spoke, "Jesus! Do you not fear that mighty Name? And is this Jesus - Nazarene -
the same Who once cried, 'Lazarus! Come forth!' and swift the bands of death were loosed,
his fetters rift, And through your gates impassable he broke, So soon as that almighty
word was spoke? Let but that Jesus once invade these halls, And in that hour your boasted
empire falls! What if the victim you do proudly claim Shall as the Victor bring your pride
to shame?
And then He arose the conquering Christ! What a marvelous turn of
events! He took control of the situation as with one exultant shout He grasped the keys of
death and hell from him who had the power of death, that is, the devil, stripped away the
power of death, burst asunder the bars of hell, stalked boldly out in eternal triumph over
all the dread powers of that unseen realm, entered back into His body in the garden tomb,
passed through the walls of rock as water passes through a filter, ascended up far above
all heavens, stepped up to the Father's throne, and presented the tokens of His
redemption. The Father said, "Sit down, Son, at My right hand until your enemies are
made your footstool!"
One hundred seventy-five years ago, the world was in chaos because
"The Scourge of the Earth" (we know him as Napoleon Bonaparte) almost conquered
the world. Everything fell before him. The British feared that soon their homeland would
be invaded by the troops of France. In one last effort to stop the tremendous on-rush of
Napoleon's army, they sent their greatest general. General Wellington invaded the
heartland of Europe. The people waited as the forces were joined at Waterloo. Eagerly they
followed the watchman on the tower of Winchester Cathedral as he looked out over the
English Channel in the fog waiting for some sign of a ship to bring them news of the
outcome. The hope of England rested on that report. Finally, as the fog lifted just a
little bit, the watchman saw a ship blinking the signal of what had happened. The letters
were taken down. WELLINGTON DEFEATED. The fog sank and with it all the hope of
England. The people quivered at the thought that soon they would hear the tramp of French
troops upon their land. However, an hour or so later, the fog lifted and again the message
was sent forth: WELLINGTON DEFEATED ENEMY! A wild shout of glee went out all
over England; that feared invasion never came.
There is a great hero whose name is Jesus. On a hill outside the city
wall of Jerusalem, He went forth to take on the combined forces of death, hell, and Satan.
He did this with His hands and feet secured to across, and a lion out of the pit leaped
forth in rage and threw itself upon Jesus. The world waited to see what the outcome of
that life and death struggle would be. Hour after hour His life oozed forth drop by drop.
The people waited, hoping that soon He would respond to their taunts, "Come down if
You be the Son of God and we will believe on You." Jesus never moved. Finally the
great cry - He bowed His head and gave up the Ghost. Word went out in the midst of that
midday blackness, JESUS DEFEATED. A pallor hung over the world. Life went out of the
hearts of His disciples, joy was gone from the earth, all was black, hopeless and
meaningless. But then, on the third day, as the sun began to break over that lonely
sepulchre, a new light came with a dazzling radiance. The huge stone that blocked the door
began to move back as if by some unseen hand. Those Roman troops were startled by the
appearance of the messengers resplendent in white. Then, out of the darkness of that tomb,
out of the very pit of hell itself, there stepped forth One who was dead and could now
say, "I am He that was dead and, behold, I am alive forevermore and have the keys of
death and of hell!" Word went out through all of Jerusalem. At first, just a whisper
- then a voice - then a cry - then a shout - a chime - and a chant sublime:
Jesus has the keys; He proved that He has the keys of both death and hell;
for He unlocked both and arose Victor. Death could not hold its prey! Hell could not hold
its prey! Oh Christ! You Son of the living God! You are the resurrection and the life. You
were alive; You were dead; and, behold, You are alive forevermore and in Your nail-pierced
hand does hold in triumph the keys of hell and death. Oh death, where is your sting? Oh
grave, where is your victory? Oh gates of hell, you shall not prevail, for the Redeemer of
Israel and the Saviour of the world holds in His triumphant hand the key.
Who NOW has the key of death? OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST. Who NOW has the key
to hell? OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST. Praise God, no one passes through the gates of either of
those two, hell or death, except the Lord open or close those gates. And now He proclaims,
"FEAR NOT; I have the keys of death and of hell." And what reason do we have to
not fear? Those reasons are found in the statement of the Christ. He is THE FIRST.
He is THE LAST. He is the LIVING ONE. At one time He was dead, but behold, LOOK! He is
living for the ages of the ages. And this ever living One HAS THE KEYS. We commonly think
of keys being used to lock or unlock doors, but there is another sense in which the word
key is used. Many times when we say we have the key to a thing, we mean that we have the
solution to a problem. Jesus was saying to John and to us all that HE HAS THE SOLUTION TO
THE UNSEEN WORLD. He has all the problems connected with it unraveled and solved. He had
worked out the problem for Himself, overcame in it, and now stands to proclaim to all men
everywhere the GREAT EMANCIPATION. Through His death and resurrection Christ took away
from the enemy his power of death, and from hell its' power of containment; no longer can
negation claim the final victory over any man - CHRIST HAS THE KEY, and shall ultimately
bring every man into the fullness of HIS LIFE. Christ has the power to redeem, and
He has the keys of death and hell.
Praise God! Not only does the firstborn among many brethren
possess the keys of death and hell, but He shares them with His OVERCOMING ONES in whom is
inwrought the triumph of HIS LIFE. Jesus said to Peter, "You are Peter, and upon this
rock I will build My Church; and the GATES OF HELL SHALL NOT PREVAIL AGAINST IT"
(Mat. 16:18). The gates of hell HAVE NOT prevailed against our Lord Jesus Christ, and they
SHALL NOT prevail against His Church. What are the "gates" of hell? Gates are
used either to bar entrance or prevent exit. What does it mean that the gates of hell
shall not prevail against Christ's Church? I used to erroneously imagine the conflict
between the Church and Satan as a game of "Cat and Mouse." Satan was the cat and
the Church was the mouse. Satan was big and powerful - the Church was small and weak,
always on the defensive. But that's not what the verse about the gates of hell means. Far
from it! The picture instead is of a VICTORIOUS CHURCH laying siege to hell and breaking
down its gates to release its prisoners! The Lord Jesus Christ Himself is the example and
prototype.
WHEN
CHRIST PREACHED IN HELL!
A lady wrote to me more than a year ago, expostulating about this
thought of the wicked ever having any opportunity in the next world. She said she did not
see it in the Bible, and craftily raised this question: "There is no need for us to
witness to the lost for they will all be saved someday, someway, somewhere - right?"
I thought her eyes must have been closed, as well as her ears, because the Scriptures are
so meticulously clear on this point. God will never save our loved ones, our friends, our
neighbors, or any other person who has lived or ever shall live without a MEANS, an
INSTRUMENT THROUGH WHICH TO REACH THEM. And WE are that instrument! God declares to His
elect in Isa. 49:6: "I will also GIVE YOU for a light to the Gentiles, that YOU may
BE MY SALVATION unto the ends of the earth." The method by which God causes men to
believe is revealed in Rom. 10:14-15. "How then shall they call on Him in whom
they have not BELIEVED? and how shall they believe in Him of whom they have not
HEARD? and how shall they HEAR without a PREACHER? and how shall they PREACH
except they be SENT?" Does the salvation of all men negate this procedure? By no
means! It only intensifies it! The idea that if God is going to save all men then we need
not preach or witness is an incomprehensible absurdity. It leaves God with a wonderful
objective, but with no MEANS of accomplishing His objective. The simple truth is that God
purposes to save all men. The means by which He shall accomplish this is A PEOPLE, a ROYAL
PRIESTHOOD, the SONS OF GOD, who become one with the PRIESTLY MINISTRY OF JESUS the great
HIGH PRIEST, to intercede, witness, speak, exhort, warn, intreat, proclaim and preach the
will of God and the good news of His glorious salvation until this ministry conquers all
men for God. Most Christians are content to witness and preach the Gospel to a few lost
souls here on earth, but how many would desire to so become ONE with the ministry of Jesus
the Saviour until they would go even to HELL to PREACH? Jesus did!
It was for this very reason that Jesus Christ, after His death and
resurrection, went to PREACH to the spirits in prison, the spirits of the the men who had
been disobedient in the days of Noah. To them He carried the WORD OF
RECONCILIATION, showing not only that Christ had died for their sins, but that He was
risen for their justification. If perchance our minds are numbed with the glory of such a
thought, let us consider the words from Weymouth translation. "Christ also once for
all died for sins, the innocent One for the guilty many, in order to bring us to God.
He was put to death in the flesh, but made alive in (by) the Spirit, IN (BY) WHICH HE ALSO
WENT AND P-R-E-A-C-H-E-D TO THE SPIRITS THAT WERE IN PRISON, who in former times had been disobedient,
when God's long-suffering patiently waited in the days of Noah during the building of the
ark, in which a few persons - eight in number - were brought safety through the
water" (I Pet. 3:18-20).
Despite the crafty and deceptive efforts of some to twist and explain
away the plain meaning of this passage, it reveals that Jesus, after His death and
resurrection, went and preached, not to men in the flesh, but to SPIRITS in prison; not to
angels, not to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob or any of the other Old Testament saints; but to
those men who had been DISOBEDIENT to the preaching of Noah in the days preceding the
flood. And what did He preach to these long-departed spirits? Well, I Pet. 4:6 certainly
answers this question! This passage is only a few verses further on from the one under
consideration, and as Peter continues speaking of the same subject we are informed,
"For this cause was the Gospel preached also to them that are dead,
that they might be judged according to men in the flesh, but live according to God in
the spirit... " The message is clear - though these were dead, and lived on in
the spirit, but not in the flesh, THE GOSPEL WAS PREACHED unto them that they might be
judged, or dealt with, the same as men who were alive in the flesh. Please notice,
precious friend of mine, it was not doom or gloom or judgment that was preached to these,
but THE GOSPEL, the GOOD NEWS WHICH IS THE POWER OF GOD UNTO SALVATION was PREACHED even
to these spirits in prison, the disobedient ones!
It is written in the plainest of plain language. But there are some
people who will not understand plain speech. They do not believe that the Christ went down
into hell to preach the Gospel to dis-embodied spirits of wicked men; they think He went
down somewhere in the heart of the earth to rescue Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob and all the
righteous people out of a place called Paradise and take them up to heaven. He may have
done that, but there is not one shred of evidence for it anywhere in the pages of God's
wonderful Book. The Bible nowhere says that. He preached to the disobedient and it
was the Gospel that was preached to them, informing them of the death of God's Son,
who was given as a propitiation for them, and that God had faith in the blood of His Son
to deliver them from the bondage of sin and death and hell into the glorious liberty of
the children of God. Shall our unbelief make the faith of God of none effect?
Certainly not! If we believe not, yet He abides faithful. God's plan goes on just the
same, and "God WILL have all men to be saved, and to come to the knowledge of the
truth" (I Tim. 2:4). God will do what HE WILLS to have done whether we believe it or
not.
Ah, does the fact that God purposes to save all men mean that it is
meaningless to witness and preach? A thousand times no! CHRIST WENT TO HELL
AND PREACHED. God has chosen through the foolishness of preaching to save men, so we shall
not preach less, we shall not witness less, for armed with the hope that the
preaching will ultimately bear fruit we must preach more than ever before to
those who are lost, for this is God's MEANS for their salvation! Those who should give up
preaching to the lost and witnessing to their loved ones are those who believe that most
of them will burn for ever in hell anyway! What on earth could be more frustrating,
worthless, unprofitable, vain and disappointing than witnessing and preaching to men when
we actually believe that only a small fraction of them will ever be saved? Why bother? To
what end all the effort? The devil gets most of them in the end anyhow! But, blessed be
God! He has committed unto us the MINISTRY OF RECONCILIATION, for God was in Christ
RECONCILING THE W-O-R-L-D unto Himself (11 Cor. 5:19-20), therefore that is exactly what
must be reconciled - the world!
I would point out to you, dear reader of these lines, that, contrary to
popular teaching, it was not during the three days and three nights while the Christ's
body lay in a Palestinian tomb that He went and preached to the spirits in Hades. Christ
was not in Hades on a preaching mission during the time of His death, there was nothing to
announce at that time, for redemption was not complete until after His resurrection
and ascension. He was not there at that time to proclaim an as yet unrealized victory; He
was there, rather, taking your place and mine as part of the penalty of our sin. He was
there as a willing victim, not a deliverer. How and when then did He preach to the spirits
in prison? Peter explains this. He says that Jesus was "put to death in the flesh,
but QUICKENED (made alive again) BY THE SPIRIT," and then adds "BY WHICH (i. e.
by this quickening in the spirit - the resurrection; ALSO HE WENT AND PREACHED TO THE
SPIRITS IN PRISON." There is nothing in this text to indicate that Jesus went on a
preaching journey during the time He was dead. The use of the expression "by which He
preached" refers to Jesus' resurrection - "quickened by the Spirit." It was
after He was raised from the dead, after He was both "delivered up for our offenses,
AND raised again for our justification" (Rom. 4:25) that He went on this mission.
With the release of the mystery of iniquity into the Adamic race, the
wickedness of man became great in the earth, "every imagination of the thoughts of
his heart was only evil continually" (Gen. 6:5), and God used a restraining work to
bold the upsurge of evil in check, restraining it according to HIS purpose. YET He did
allow it to go a certain course for a certain length of time, knowing full well just how
far HE could allow man to express these evil inclinations, and just where to draw the
line. At the appropriate moment the spirits of these wicked men were put in prison, as
society today puts a criminal in prison; the flood swept them away into hell and hell
restrained the Antediluvians from committing more wrath upon earth.
The Christ, after His painful life on earth, His agony upon the cross,
and His victorious resurrection from the dead, did not at once ascend into heaven to be
seated at the right hand of the Father. He went down to hell. He went down to the deepest
hell, approaching its portals with the cry, "Lift up your heads, O gates, and be
lifted up, O ancient doors, that the King of glory may come in!" Entrance was not to
be gained without some resistance, however, for the keepers of the gates hurled back their
challenge over the ramparts of Hades: "Who is the King of glory?" To which the
hosts of heaven replied, "He is the Lord strong and mighty - the Lord mighty in
battle. He is the One who has just come freshly from the battlefield of Golgotha, where
single-handedly He dealt a deathblow to all of Satan's plans and purposes, bore the sins
of men, cut off the old Adamic order and died a decisive death, meeting the requirements
for man. He is the One who has just grasped the keys of death and hell and strode out of
Satan's domain triumphant. He is the Lord strong and mighty, the Lord mighty in battle.
NOW - will you lift up your heads, O you gates? Lift them up, O ancient doors, that the
King of glory may come in!"
Again, unsatisfied, the challenge rang out, "Who is this King of
glory?" Again the triumphant response came, "He is the Lord of hosts. He is the
King of glory. He is the One who is in charge of all the Celestial Hosts. But not only
that, He is King now of a multitude which no man can number. He is God's delegated
authority. He is the One who is to bring to God the fruit of His purposes. He is the King
of Glory. Now swing back those gates and let the King of Glory come in!" Finally the
gates could prevail against Him no longer. The gates swung back. He entered in, stepped up
before the assembled throng, and began His mission. The Christ was there on business!
Wherever He went He did business for God. He went there to begin His new age deliverance
ministry among a group of spirits that had been imprisoned there for two thousand three
hundred and fifty years. They had been "disobedient in the days of Noah," and
they were so bad that the Scripture says, "their thoughts" and all the
"intents of their hearts" were "only evil continually." They were so
bad that God could not wait for them to die, and another generation to arise, but in order
to re-establish some order on earth He had to sweep all of them off the earth into hell.
The fact that they remained there so long indicates that they were very bad, for I cannot
doubt that the God of mercy was all the time in some way pleading with them to repent.
They were ignorant and rebellious and would not learn of God. The race of Cain was a
filthy, sensual, polygamistic race; they were hateful and violent and they were murderers.
They were boastful and vile in the extreme, and would have nothing to do with the God who
made them. They were the offspring of a murderer who slew his brother. I am sure that
Christ felt a great, divine pity for the offspring of that murderer; and in a loving
spirit, the One who reconciled the world unto God, not imputing their trespasses unto
them, went down to hell.
And what was the result of such a wonderful mission? "Wherefore He
says, When He ascended up on high, He LED CAPTIVITY CAPTIVE ... now He that ascended, what
is it but that He also descended first into the lower parts of the earth? He that
descended is the same also that ascended up far above all heavens, that HE MIGHT FILL ALL
THINGS" (Eph. 4:8-10). Some suppose this leading "captivity captive" refers
to the Lord at His ascension leading the Old Testament saints out of Paradise into the
more immediate presence of God. The phrase is a quotation from the Old Testament, and in
the two places where it occurs, on both occasions it plainly refers to the leading captive
of FOES. In Judges 5:12, in the song of Deborah as she was leading the strains of a
victory song after subduing the armies of Sisera, we read of her prophesying to Barak,
singing, "Arise, Barak, and lead your captivity captive, you son of Abinoam."
What was she speaking of? Barak went out against the armies of Sisera - he captured of the
enemy, taking dominion over them with the sword - and any that were captured alive were
led back captive to his own land, thus he "led that captivity captive," parading
back victoriously. Who were the captives? The armies whom he had conquered!
So also in the passage from which the phrase is quoted in Eph. 4:8-10.
The quotation is from Ps. 68:18 where we read, "You have ascended on high, You have
led captivity captive: You have received gifts for men; yea, FOR THE REBELLIOUS ALSO, THAT
THE LORD GOD MIGHT DWELL AMONG THEM!" There is every suggestion here that the
captives thus led were not the righteous but the unrighteous, for they are described as
"rebellious." And Christ will dwell among the rebellious! What a word! What a
work!
And when did Christ lead captive a host of rebellious ones? "When
He ascended on high." He had preached to those spirits who were damned through their
terrible wickedness in the time of Noah. Thank God, He gave them an opportunity of
salvation, and He opened the Kingdom of Heaven to every son of Adam when He arose from the
dead and ascended on high. He captured those wicked men from the snare of the devil and
made them His subjects in the same way He conquered the proud, rebellious, murderous
spirit of Saul of Tarsus on the road to Damascus. It is quite evident that Saul of Tarsus
was not on his way to a revival meeting when the Lord struck him down on the road. Saul
made no premeditated "decision for Christ" before his conversion. SAUL'S WILL
was set on the destruction of the Church. But the will of God was that he become an
apostle of Jesus Christ! When Saul, smitten, and blind, was led away into the city for his
encounter with Annanias, he was led away as a CAPTIVE, a CONQUERED FOE of the Lord Jesus
Christ! Paul the apostle had total faith in Jesus and was motivated by the love of Christ,
yet he never considered himself a "volunteer" for the Kingdom of God. He
described himself as a "conscript," saying, "Not that I ... am already
perfect, but I press on to lay hold of and make my own, that for which Christ Jesus has
LAID HOLD UPON ME AND MADE ME HIS OWN" (Phil. 3:12, Amplified). He always spoke of
himself as the "servant" or "slave" of Jesus Christ. This is precisely
what our Lord did when He went down into hell and led captivity captive and gave gifts to
the rebellious. The Moffatt translation reads, "When He ascended on high He LED A
HOST CAPTIVE." Weymouth says, "He ascended on high, He LED CAPTIVE A HOST OF
CAPTIVES." Another version renders, "When He ascended on high He CARRIED AWAY
CAPTIVES." Out of the dark abyss of hell He took those prisoners. Now they are in
heaven, forgiven and cleansed, whiter than the lily which sprang out of the dark earth. He
took them from hell.
-
Then in the realm of Death's unbroken shade
Appeared the Conqueror in light arraved.
It was as
tho' in crimson and in gold
The splendor of a thousand suns had rolled
Their mingled glory in one matchless beam,
And lit up Death Shade with the lustrous gleam.
Ineffable that glory; as it shone
Like to the radiance of the Great White Throne,
Whilst through the open gates and broken bars.
Toward realms of light more fadeless than the stars,
The Prince of Life a host of captives led
From out the night and bondage of the dead.
Christ has led captivity captive! The official name for such an event in
the Roman world was called a "Triumph." It was a spectacle well known to every
citizen of Rome. Tens of thousands of spectators would gather. On those occasions, when a
great general would return, the army would gather outside the city and move through the
triumphal arch on their way to the temple. First would come the trumpeters, sounding in
thrilling tones the notes of victory. Behind the trumpeters would come great floats upon
which had been erected the pictures of the cities which had been conquered - towers, wall,
and all. Then would come rumbling by, the wagons filled with the spoils of victory. Then
came seventy white oxen walking philosophically to their death, to be offered in sacrifice
to the gods. Behind the oxen came, in chains, the chieftains and captains of the armies of
the enemy who, like the oxen, would soon meet their end. Then there were the lictors,
harpists, flutists, and those bearing incense. Great roars of victory went up! Then came
the general in a purple toga, with a golden crown upon his head, with the ivory scepter in
his hand, and with the laurel branch, the insignia of victory. Behind his magnificent
white chariot came the rest of the conquered army, chained with their heads down. At last
came the victorious army of Rome, each soldier wearing a crown. In the midst of the cries
of the people, the sounds of the trumpets and the harpists, the fragrance of incense, they
made their way to the Temple of Jupiter.
This was a Roman "Triumph" and Paul is telling us that Jesus
Christ, the Captain of the well-fought fight, the greatest General of all times, has come
and has had a greater victory than any of these. He has come, not only into the opposition
and hostility of this world, but He has gone into the very portals of Hell. There He has
taken on the most violent and the vilest of the underworld, and now He leads into the
metropolis Of the Kingdom of God a great triumphal victory. Behind Him come all the hosts
of heaven, all the saints of Old Testament times, and all those to whom He preached in
Hell and that have trusted in Him. This is the Triumph!
Paul tells us, secondly, that this triumphal march, this
triumphal entry into the Kingdom of God is still going on. The same apostle in II Cor.
2:14 says that God causes us ALWAYS TO BE LED IN TRIUMPH BY JESUS CHRIST. This is a
triumphal march that is going on right now. But it is somewhat different from the
triumphal marches of Rome. You see, in the army of Christ all of the vanquished have
enlisted, and all of those that were once our enemies, such as Paul himself who once
opposed Christ and who now is one of the leaders of that army. So, as we look at the
Triumph of Christ we see that the vanquished and the conquerors merge as one. The apostle
Paul, himself, once went forth to war against Jesus, but he was struck to the ground
outside Damascus, the sword was smitten from his hand, and he was conquered by the Son of
man. But in that conquest Paul was to realize his greatest victory and he, too, was to
become a part of the ongoing triumph of Christ - a triumph which is even now proceeding
into the heavenly city of Zion.
THE
PUNISHMENT MUST FIT THE CRIME
If Christ went to hell once, and preached, and led out a host of
captives, I wonder why, on the same errand, He should not go or send to hell twice or even
a thousand times? He considered the dreadfully and unspeakably wicked in the days of Noah
fitting subject for His mercy, and shall He not so consider the poor, wretched creatures
who have gone to hell by the billions from heathen lands and by the millions from our
so-called Christian cities? They never heard the name of Jesus, except as profanely used
or in some empty religious platitude. They know nothing of His word or His power. The
Churches too often cared nothing for them, and care next to nothing for them today. I
speak plainly, because it is necessary. I am not seeking to extenuate the crime of anyone,
and I am urging no plea for the undue mitigation of just punishment. But unlimited mercy
is an attribute of God, as love is His nature, and when endless punishment is taught I
claim the right to enter protest against that horrible dogma. I admit, and declare, and
warn men, that those who sin against light and knowledge will have the heavier penalty.
They invite the just judgment of God. No man who rejects the Christ will go from earth
into the joys and purity of heaven; he will certainly go to hell.
As Charles Pridgeon has stated, "One of the elements that makes
punishment effective is its certainty. If a man thinks that there is a chance for him to
escape the punishment for a wrong doing, he may take that chance. Every one needs to learn
that this law of certainty has no exceptions. There is no chance about it; WHAT YOU SOW,
YOU REAP (Gal. 6:7). Every sin has its certain consequences. This is true even of the
wrongdoer who thinks that he has escaped the working of this law. He is mistaken. The evil
has already wrought damage to his character, and one day its direful consequence will be
manifest, unless divinely dealt with. Every offer of salvation; every presentation of more
or new light; and every opportunity proffered, brings added responsibility. Every
rejection increases guilt and multiplies the consequences. From this law there is no
escape. The normal harvest exceeds by many fold the sowing. This is a wise provision in
reference to punishment. The enjoyment or gain that comes through sin is very small in
proportion to the evil consequences that naturally come to the one who so yields. This is
one of the natural laws of the harvest. God means this law to cause men to halt and to
cease from sin. Sin costs the sinner too dear; it cost God His only begotten Son!"
-end quote.
But, on the other hand, the doctrine that a temporal fault is to be
punished with an eternal punishment is, in the very nature of things, unreasonable,
illogical, and wicked. Such a doctrine could not be divine. As Adam fell, we fall each
one, for Adam lives yet in his progeny. Because Adam had the principle of sin and death
imposed as an actual feature of his biological life, his descendants also have inherited a
life principle which involves a built-in death principle. The moment a child is conceived
the nature of disobedience is in him and the power of death - so that in the same moment
he is conceived he is a sinner by nature and also begins to die; he is dying ere he is
born, and eventually the death principle wins out over the life principle and he does die.
And, fallen in Adam, men prove he is in them, by walking just as he walked. Adam yet
relives old Adam's life in every unregenerated man, as Christ in us yet lives Christ's
life. With all emphasis I must declare that at the very most, the worst offender on earth,
has committed a crime WHICH IS INHERENT IN HIS OWN NATURE, and the eye of the all-seeing
God sees what even we. in most cases, cannot see, that the most wicked sinner on earth IS
SIMPLY DOING THAT OVER WHICH HE REALLY HAS NO CONTROL. People tell me that "man has a
choice," but I declare to you that when I came into this world some 47 years ago ADAM
HAD ALREADY MADE MY CHOICE FOR ME. I wasn't consulted, God didn't ask me whether I would
prefer to be born a sinner or a saint - Adam answered that question for me in the dim and
distant past! WHAT "CHOICE" DO DEAD MEN HAVE? Never in my life did I have a
choice until the blessed day when the Spirit of God came and illumined my mind, convincing
me of sin, of righteousness, and of judgment, and showing me the things of Christ, taking
the glories of Him and unveiling them to my astonished soul; then, and not until then
did I have a choice - and it did not take me long, beloved friend, to make that
choice!
The Psalmist acknowledged that he had been "shapen in iniquity, and
in sin did my mother conceive me" (Ps. 51:5). This was not a confession of some
illicit act on the part of his mother, which resulted in his birth. Perish the thought!
For the following verses bear out the fact that it was the hereditary "mystery of
iniquity" which was passed upon all men, stamped upon the very "genes" of
his makeup, the "seed of Adam" has blueprinted into its genes the propensities
for evil, which he acknowledged, and for which he sought deliverance. "Behold, You
desire truth IN THE INWARD PARTS: and in the hidden part You shall make me to know wisdom.
Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean: wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow.
Create in me a clean heart, O God; renew a right spirit within me" (Ps. 51:6-7, 10).
Men have, in their very blood, been saturated with sin, with
lawlessness, with nervous temperaments and diseases WHICH HAVE BEEN THE DIRECT CAUSE OF
THEIR TRANSGRESSION. God in His great mercy knows this, and thus it is written, "And
the Lord said in His heart, I will not again curse the ground any more for man's sake; for
the imagination of man 's heart is evil from his youth; neither will I again smite any
more every living thing, as I have done" (Gen. 8:21). I do not hesitate to say that
all the multiplied sins upon earth today ARE THE RESULT OF HEREDITARY WEAKNESSES -
inherited from Adam! And if God in His great mercy will not send a flood again, because He
pities man in his weakness, shall He then proceed to commit an even more horrendous act by
torturing men in everlasting hell-fire?
Any penalty which does not take into account the fact that
a poor miserable human creature has been the victim of such an inheritance is an unjust
penalty. The law of man may punish without mercy, but even that law should be merciful to
the ignorant. But even when the extreme penalty of death has been visited upon the
transgressors, the bigot adds to it a penalty far in excess of the crime when he says that
a man who has not been drawn to the Lord will go to a burning, torturing hell and live on
in misery, without hope or mercy, through unending eternity. That is a vile and devilish
doctrine, which has no support in the Word of God. Those who say otherwise are ignorant or
perversely wicked. It is foolish to say that it is necessary to preach an everlasting hell
to keep people from being wicked. I should be wicked if I preached it, and in conflict
with both the love and the justice of God who is the Father of my spirit, and the Creator
of my soul and body. I clearly see that it would be vile and wicked to make punishment so
tremendously exceed the guilt. One should take into account what God remembers in dealing
with humanity. He never forgets that we are "dust," and He remembers just the
kind of muck from which our souls and bodies came. "Oh," you say, "when
people are wholly bad, and their thoughts are evil, and that continually, they must go to
hell!" Yes, that is right! they cannot go to heaven! And they must stay there for
ever and ever!" you erroneously add. Then why did God send His Son to get them out of
hell? Why did the Christ, after He arose from the dead, grab the keys of death and hell
and descend into hell? What was He doing there? WHY does the blessed Redeemer HOLD
THE KEYS? Thank God! hell is not the end of the matter. Banishment and torment do not
spell the ultimate results of God's great plan. The end of all God's dealings is one of
victory, deliverance, and full redemption and restoration.
THE GOOD SHEPHERD
To tell me, as I find in the Westminster Confession of Faith, that God
had, by a predestined plan, so constructed man that he was born, and from all eternity
designed to be wicked, and a vessel of wrath, that God Almighty might show His power by
sending him to everlasting hell that is the most infernal lie that a man's tongue could
utter, or type could print. That my God, the infinitely good and holy God, was the
predestinator, and creator of multitudes of harlots, whoremongers, thieves, murderers,
liars, to let them grow up, and to live and lust and die, and then glorify Himself by
torturing them in eternal hell! Horrible! I tell you that all the divines that ever
hatched a cocatrice egg could never make me swallow that.
Write it between your eyes and never forget it. The Good Shepherd who
came from heaven, and gave His life, will seek, and seek, and seek, and save, and save,
and save, until He has brought all men back to God. This is the work of the Redeemer and
the redeemed. I desire to make this perfectly clear, because it is necessary to do so.
When Jesus came He sought for sinners, wherever Satan had gone. He sent His disciples into
the world to seek even farther for them. He seeks for sinners still. And He shall seek for
them throughout ages yet unborn. The Good Shepherd will seek them until He finds them. If
He didn't, He wouldn't he the Good Shepherd! He will seek them on earth and in hell.
"Where shall I go from Your presence?" the Psalmist asks. That question
is unanswered and unanswerable. It has stood upon the page of Scripture for three thousand
years, and no one yet of all the myriads that have read it has been able to devise a
reply. Heaven says, Not here. Hell says, Nor here. It is not among angels,
or demons, or the lost, or in the vast silent spaces of eternity. There is no creature
anywhere not manifest to His sight. He who made vultures, able from immense heights to
discern the least morsel on the desert floor, has eyes better than they. Then David says,
"If I make my bed in hell, behold, You are there!" (Ps. 139:8). Thanks be
to God that He will seek His lost ones through all the Universe - through all the Earths
and all the Hells until He has found and saved them all. He must seek until He finds.
-
"Where are you going Shepherd?
To find My sheep.
How far will you go?
As far as My sheep.
How far may that be?
To the world's end.
How long will you seek it?
Until I find it.
When you find it,
will it come to you?
No, it will flee from Me.
Where will it go then?
To the rocks and the sand.
When will it stop?
When it can run no more.
What will you do then?
Carry it home.
Friends, you will never get away from Jesus. Jesus will follow you
everywhere and demand your heart's surrender. I am so glad for a Gospel that is
coextensive with, and greater than, the devil's work in spirit soul, and body. I am so
glad for a Gospel that is not limited to this age, but reaches out to all ages! I am so
glad for a Gospel which tells me that God has made a way by which even His banished may
return. I am so glad for a Gospel that is not limited to earth, but reaches into the
depths of death and hell. I am so glad for a Gospel of Everlasting Hope, of Everlasting
expectation, and for the conviction and divine revelation that the miserable and the
wicked shall at last be brought to repent of their sin, and to find their God and Father.
I should not want to be an elder, or pastor, or leader, of a people that would wish me to
preach eternal damnation.
TO HELL AND BACK
Mothers, your boys have sinned. They were dragged into sin and died in
sin, and you have been weeping because they went to hell. Mothers, if the Christ would
guide you down to hell to talk to your son there, would you not go? Would you not go and
plead with your son to come back with you to the Kingdom of God? If I had my choice of any
mission field, I think, if the Lord would send me there, I would like to have a lick at
the devil at his headquarters in hell. I have never been afraid of him on earth, and I
will not be afraid of him in hell. I would like to take the captives out of his hands. I
mean what I have said, that if ever I am permitted in the good grace of God, there is not
a hell in the universe to which I would not ask to be sent as a revelation of the Christ,
that He might fill even that part of the "all things." There is nothing I should
like better than to be sent on an evangelistic tour down to hell, and clean it out.
There is no hell that could be more vile than the hell I see around me
right here in Florida; the hell of sin, sorrow, torment, fear, demon possession, hatred,
murder, strife, drugs, vile rock music, immorality, rebellion, cursing, nervous breakdown,
godlessness and wretchedness. We have a great deal of hell here in Florida, and there are
no hells that could be worse than Miami, San Francisco, New York, Chicago, London, Hong
Kong and Calcutta. "Oh, but there is a hell that is full of murderers!" you say.
Well, these cities today are full of murderers. "But there is a hell that is full of
devils!" you say. Well, these cities today are full of devils. "But there is yet
another hell that is filled with liars, fornicators, and blasphemers!" you say. Well,
these cities today are filled with liars, fornicators, and blasphemers. "Ah, but
there is a hell where the devil himself dwells!" you say. Well, the devil himself is
also right here on this earth, cursed to crawl upon his belly, to eat the dust of the
carnal mind and nature of man. He that is joined to the devil is one satanic spirit. Or is
it that people cannot be that bad? What about Dachau and Buchenwald? Just let a war start
and see what devilish, satanic, vile, brutal, inhuman things men do! Germany is the place
where the Reformation started, it is a place of high education and culture. But it was
Germany also where in the second world war some people made lampshades out of people's
skins. It was a German who said, "We will eliminate the Jews from the face of the
earth," and Germans killed in mass killings and devilish tortures. Remember how the
Church in the dark ages persecuted the saints? You would not believe that a human being
could conceive such evil! What makes them act like that? He that is joined to Satan is one
spirit with him! That is why Cain slew Abel. The devil is a murderer and liar from the
beginning and that murderous spirit entered into Cain.
We have lots of hell beyond us, but our work is to follow Christ, to be
willing, as Sons, not only to ascend the throne, exalted far above all heavens, but to be
poured out as a River of Life INTO THE LOWEST PARTS OF THE EARTH, INTO ALL THE HELLS, and
clean them out by His conquering power and transforming life, until there is no more hell
anywhere. What father would not go to any of the hells of the world, what father would not
trudge through the saloons of the Bowery or the sex-filth of Times Square in the hope that
he might run across his son or his daughter who is captive to the devil there and bring
them back to God and to the Kingdom? This is the Spirit of the Father who "so loved
the world" and it is the Spirit of the Son who "descended into the lower parts
of the earth" and it is the Spirit of every Son of God, born of the incorruptible
seed of a Divine Hope, a Divine Faith and a Divine Love. If you would not walk across the
street to see some poor soul delivered and converted by the redeeming power of Christ,
don't waste your time relating to me how you are one of God's "chosen ones" to
help in the delivering of the whole creation from the bondage of corruption. The Spirit of
Reconciliation must reign within our hearts even now. The Ministry of Reconciliation must
proceed from our lives even now. Rivers of Living Water must, even now, pour forth from
out of our innermost being, bringing hope and victory and life to all who will come and
drink!
While preaching about the harlot who washed the feet of Jesus, J. A.
Dowie related the following story which graphically illustrates the truth of which I
write: "This poor woman who came in from the streets is called 'Hamartolos'; in the
original word, that is to say, a prostitute, a harlot; a poor, wretched, outcast woman.
Oh, is there any being upon God's earth so much to be pitied, so deplorably miserable, as
such an one? Perhaps she had known virtue, and a happy home. She may have been pampered
and petted; perhaps educated and made to think that she was the cynosure of all eyes. Now
she finds herself, by the betrayal of her heart's affection, a poor wretched outcast,
whose only means of sustenance is to prey upon unclean and vicious and foul humanity. I
know nothing so sad as this. In all its naked horror it appeals to no one. I have never
ceased to shrink almost with terror, man of mature years though I now am, whenever I have
been accosted in the street by such an one.
"One night in Melbourne, Australia I had been engaged in writing in
a newspaper office. I had been asked to write something for that paper, and I had written
it for God, and for the people. It was very late. I came downstairs, and stood out in the
cold night air for a moment, with bared head. I was looking up at the stars from the
quiet, silent street. A little way off was a great thoroughfare where the people were
coming out of the theater, and were crowding the street. I was in a quiet part of the
street, standing there thinking what way I should go home; whether I should take a cab or
whether I should walk.
"I was enjoying, for a moment or two, that cool, fresh air, when I
heard a clear and beautiful voice say to me, 'Good evening, sir.' I turned around and saw
the lovely face of a very beautiful girl. I said, 'Good evening,' but I trembled as I said
it; because I knew at once what kind of woman she was. Yet she did not seem to be deeply
stained with sin. 'Good evening,' she said; and I again said, 'Good evening,' and that was
all. She said, 'Will you go home with me?' And then, having silently prayed, I turned to
her and said, 'Home with you?' 'Yes.' 'Where is your home?' So she told me. 'Oh, no,' I
said, 'that is not your home. Your home is the house of her which is the gate of hell. The
dead are there. If I went home with you I should share the fate of all who enter there,
unless God delivers them. But will you go home with me?' She was trembling violently,
holding on to an iron post with a ring at the top of it, and her fingers were grasping the
ring. 'Home with you?' she said. 'Yes, sir, but where do you live?' I said, 'I live on
earth, but my home is in the heavens. Oh, won't you go home with me to heaven, I will take
you to a lovely woman tonight in Melbourne who will be as kind to you as to her own
daughter.' She then knew that she had spoken to one who was a child of God.
"I am sure that she had not been long in sin. She opened her eyes
wide and held up her hand, and I will never forget her cry - 'It is too late. The waters
have gone over me. It is too late,' and with that she darted away. I went after her, but
she was lost in a moment amidst the great multitude that was surging up and down the
streets. 'Too late! The waters have gone over me.' I went home that night with these words
ringing in my ears: 'Too late! Too late! The waters have gone over me.' I said, 'It is not
so, God; we shall search for that woman in this city until we find her.' And blessed be
God, today that woman is living a holy and happy and virtuous life" -unquote.
-
This is the ministry of the Good Shepherd.
This is the ministry of the Son and the Sons.
Rescue
the perishing, Care for the dying,
Snatch them in pity from sin and the grave;
Weep o'er the erring one, Lift up the fallen,
Tell them of Jesus, the mighty to save.
Down in the human heart, Crushed by the tempter,
Feelings lie buried that grace can restore;
Touched by a loving heart, Awakened by kindness,
Chords that were broken will vibrate once more.
Oh God! Every man of the untold billions of earth is Your creative
offspring. They may have wandered far from You. The mark of Cain may be upon the brow; but
even Cain You would permit no man to kill; and You did send into the abyss Your sinless
Son to bring back those who had sinned when the whole world rejected Your thousands of
years before. Here in this land, and in all lands, there are many spirits in the
prisonhouse of sin and darkness, and damning lust and fear, and vile habits and
wretchedness, and all kinds of devious and guilty ways. God bring them out into the light!
Help us, Oh Father, to BE THE LIGHT and shine, and shine, and shine, till there is no more
darkness anywhere. Help all who read these lines to understand Your great love.
Jude tells us to "convince some, who doubt; save some, by snatching
them out of the fire; on some have mercy with fear, hating even the garment spotted by the
flesh" (Jude 22-23). It is our job to do the snatching. Christ has shed His blood and
poured out the Holy Spirit of power! Our part is to pick up our weapons and go out against
the powers of darkness and drive them off the land. Christ bought us with His own blood -
we belong to Him. And so, by the same token, do all men. John said that Jesus "is the
expiation for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the sins of the WHOLE
WORLD" (I Jn. 2:2). No person is exempt from Christ's work of salvation. What remains
is for us to work with God - to fight the good fight that loosens Satan's bold on lost men
and women and compels them to come into the banquet hall. Do you believe that the weapons
with which God has equipped you are effective? Do you believe that merely speaking the
Word of Reconciliation in faith, in utter dependence upon the Holy Spirit, will cast down
strongholds and bring down every high thing that exalts itself against God? Do you believe
that your weapons can and will bring minds - rebellious minds to obey Christ? They will!
Let us challenge hell's gates. They cannot prevail against God's Church! Let us break them
down in order to bring out the captives that they might serve Christ and know true
freedom.
I do not wonder sometimes that those who only read my writing think that
I am a hard and vindictive man, especially as I warn men of the error and abominable
apostasy of the nominal Church systems. But if you only knew, I am one of the most
peaceable and gentle men in the world. I am a very quiet man (except in the pulpit), and
believe that I am merciful and compassionate toward every sinner. I have only been a
fighter because I had to fight. Was Jesus Christ not a great fighter? Is He not a great
fighter still? And is He not the Prince of Peace? Is He not God's Lion, the Lion of the
tribe of Judah? And is He not the Lamb of God? God's Lion is a Lamb! God's Lamb is a Lion!
I call God to witness and you to witness that when I have had to fight -
for whom have I fought? I fought for God. I fought for Truth. I fought for reality. I
fought against the false shepherds who were taking away the key of knowledge, who entered
not in themselves, and them that were entering in they hindered. I fought those who fought
the right ways of the Lord, deceiving the people and holding them in bondage to slavish
forms of empty religion. Stephen fought the devils in the Jewish system to their very
faces although he knew he would die. He saw his Master in the heavens. Do you see your
Master in the heavens? Do you see Him by your side? Do you know Him within, in the depths
of your spirit? Do you hear His voice? Do you know what He wants you to do? He wants you
to follow in His steps, to BECOME HIS SALVATION unto the ends of the earth. He wants you
to deliver His creation from sin, sorrow, death, hell, and the demonic power which curses
this world. Who follow in His train? Not those whose Christianity consists in a feeble
conformity to a creed, and go through the motions of a Sunday morning ritual. The peace of
God means war with sin. He that is a friend of evil is the enemy of God. This is the kind
of peace Jesus left. He made warriors of men. They went forth to fight the world and the
devil, in Greece and Rome, with thirty thousand gods. They marched up the Acropolis; they
marched upon the Parthenon; they threw down the altars of the boni dei; they threw
down the altars of Venus; they destroyed the altars of Jove; they threw down the altars of
Mercury. They smashed them, by the Spirit's power they trampled upon them; they triumphed,
and they died.
Oh, that is such a sublime verse where Jesus said, "ALL AUTHORITY
is given unto Me in heaven and in earth. Go therefore and teach all
nations..." (Mat. 28:18-19). Do you see that? There is a tremendous power in that
"Therefore," I am with you. I will back you. Every angel in heaven if needful
will come forth and surround you. Fight! What does it matter, the puny governments and
armies and courts of THIS WORLD? All authority is given to the Christ of God, and
we are His body! The hosts of God will troop over all the skies, ten thousand times ten
thousand millions, if need be. "I command ... Go therefore, you poor
fishermen, and tax-gatherers and discredited rabbis, go, I am with you." If only we
realized what power there is behind us!
General Grant marched out because he felt that it was an honest nation
behind him that would lay all its millions of dollars down to carry that thing through,
and can we not march out and take the devil's forts, knowing that we have got all the
omnipotence of heaven with us? Cowards you are, talking about "holding the
fort"! Get out of your forts! What is the use of going inside of fortifications? I
tell you, the army that fights behind entrenchments is whipped every time. God is raising
up a SONSHIP COMPANY that will go for the devil's fortresses, to batter him, shatter him
and break up his kingdom. God is even now, in the end of this age, preparing an army of
OVERCOMING ONES who shall go forth in the fullness of the power of the Spirit to pull down
the strongholds of creed and ritual and religious ignorance and set the captives free; who
will beat down the strongholds of sin and rebellion and let the prisoners go free!
I am not afraid to take the blows from the devil, and I am not afraid to
give blows! I have a shield upon which I can take the fiery darts. I am glad for the
fight. It is the good fight of faith. It is the good fight of love. The thing, however,
that bouys up my heart above everything else is the hope, the hope that springs perennial
in this breast, that I shall see victory; victory for purity and righteousness and peace;
that I shall hear a song of universal joy from the whole earth, and from bell, and from
the farthest reaches of the universe when they sing: "Hallelujah! For the Lord God
omnipotent reigns, and the kingdoms of this world have become the kingdoms of our Lord and
of His Christ." Blessed hope!
We must have it! We shall fight it out to the end, and we
will win. Sin shall be abolished. Disease, death, pain, and hell shall pass away. Then, O
Christ, and then alone, will You see the travail of Your soul and be satisfied. Then, O
Christ, and then alone, can we be satisfied; when the last rebel has bowed at Your feet,
and there is no more fight; for there is no more rebellion anywhere. Hallelujah! God shall
reign forever! It is a living hope; this hope that, at last, every poor sinner will have
heard the glad sound, and that at last every poor spirit in earth and heaven and hell will
bow before the Christ, and will own His sway, and there shall be harmony and peace and
unity everywhere, for God shall be All in All. That is my hope.
THE GREAT GULF
"Oh," you reply, "the story of Lazarus, and the rich man
who in Hades lifted up his eyes, being in torments, teaches us that there is no
bridge between heaven and hell, no way to escape the tormenting fire." I shall speak
very plainly about that. In the first place the story of the rich man and Lazarus is
usually considered without any reference to its setting. Near the close of Jesus' ministry
He had eaten dinner with a Pharisee, at which time He not only healed a man with dropsy,
but gave some pointed instructions about how to give a dinner party. When He left the
house, great throngs followed Him (Lk. 14:25).
Many of this crowd were publicans and sinners. In Lk. 15:1-2 we read,
"Then drew near unto Him all the publicans and sinners to hear Him, and the Pharisees
and scribes murmured, saying, This man receives sinners, and eats with them." It is
against this background of criticism from the scribes and Pharisees that the teaching of
Lk. 15 and 16 are given. That whole discourse is called a parable. "And He spoke this
parable unto them, saying" (Lk. 15:3). The Greek is very definite in making the word
for parable clearly a singular noun. It is "the parable this." Five seemingly
separate stories enter into His teaching to carry the truth of "THIS PARABLE."
His usual method of teaching all but the inner circle of His disciples was by a parable.
"All these things spoke Jesus IN PARABLES unto the multitudes; and without a parable
spoke He nothing unto them" (Mat. 13:34). "But privately to His disciples
He expounded all things" (Mk. 4:34).
Now, it is not my purpose to explain the meaning of the parable in this
writing, for that is another story altogether. I would be remiss if I did not point out,
however, that while the story itself IS A PARABLE, in all parables there must be a
correspondence between the type and the antitype or they fail to have validity as
parables. Let me illustrate. Jesus spoke a parable, saying, "Behold, a sower went
forth to sow." He then explained how the seed fell upon various kinds of soil, and
the result from each. Now, since this is a parable, it is obvious that Jesus is not just
relating a series of facts; He is not talking about a certain literal farmer sowing actual
seed such as wheat or corn. Each part of the story is a symbol, a metaphor, an
illustration of something else, and we know, of course, that the sower is the Christ, the
seed is the Word of the Kingdom and the soils are different kinds of hearts. But - if
there were no such thing as seed, and no such activity as sowing, and no
actual soil in existence, then the parable would have no base, no strength, no meaning
- it would not be a parable at all, but merely a fantastic, unrealistic, imaginary fairy
tale! It is the FACT of seed, sowers, and soils that gives the parable its strength.
So, in the parable of Lazarus and the rich man, if there is no such
thing as Hades, and if there is no sense of suffering of punishment in Hades, then the
application of the parable fails. There must be some reality to these things or the
parable is not a parable at all! But in the parable Lazarus is said to be in
"Abraham's bosom." The phrase "Abraham's bosom" was a well-known one,
current among the people of Judea to express the state of the faithful Israelite who had
died and been "gathered unto his fathers." Abraham's bosom typifies a position
of acceptance and favor in the Kingdom of God, for, "If you be Christ's, then you are
Abraham 's seed, and heirs according to the promise" (Gal. 3:29), and
"many shall come from the east and west, and shall sit down with Abraham in
the Kingdom of Heaven" (Mat. 8:11).
The rich man wanted Lazarus to come and cool his tongue. He had been a
very bad man, and so was tormented in the hell he had created for himself. But when he
asked that Lazarus should cross, Abraham said, "Between us and you there is a great
gulf fixed; no one can cross it." Abraham could not cross that gulf. It was a fixed
gulf to him. Ah, no, Abraham could not get across to him! I know Abraham could not pass
over it, and I do not wonder at Abraham's not being able to pass over it. I am not a great
admirer of Abraham. A man that will hide behind his wife and say she is his sister in
order to save his own skin, is not to be greatly admired! That is just what Abraham did.
Abraham got behind Sarah's robes, saying to her in effect as follows: "Now, when
Abimelech comes along, you say to him that you are my sister, and not my wife; you are so
beautiful that if he knows you are my wife he will kill me. But it won't matter, even
though you are carried off to his harem, you will know Abraham's skin is alright." I
think that was a very pitiful kind of a man, if his name was Abraham. I do not wonder that
he could not cross the gulf.
(ed. note: For a more in-depth study of Lazarus and the Rich Man read
ABRAHAM'S
BOSOM.)
I do not wonder that Isaac could not cross. He was just the same kind of
fellow, and did exactly the same thing. I do not wonder that Jacob could not cross. He was
one of the cutest scamps that ever lived. He persuaded his brother to sell him his whole
inheritance, his entire birthright, for a mess of portage, and then deceived his poor old
blind father and brazenly lied and stole his brother's blessing. A very mean man was
Jacob. "But these are Patriarchs!" you say. I know that, that shows what a poor
lot the best of them were. Wonderful that God Almighty could make so much out of them! And
we are a poor lot, too, and it is wonderful what God can make out of us.
The Bible says that Abraham could not cross that abyss, nor could
Lazarus. There is no denying that, BUT THE CHRIST CROSSED THAT ABYSS. There is the
difference! You say that Abraham said, "Between us and you there is a great gulf
fixed, that they which would pass from hence to you may not be able, and that none may
cross over from thence to us." Let me remind you that, although Abraham said that,
the Christ did not. That is right, Abraham, you could not bridge it! And even if you
could, you did not have the keys to the gates. But the Christ crossed that gulf,
and HIS SALVATION BRIDGED IT. Christ bridged it! The Christ Himself IS THE BRIDGE! It is
no use talking nonsense, saying that the gulf was not bridged. It was not bridged at the
time Jesus told that story, but when He arose and grasped the keys of death and of hell,
He made a way for His banished to return.
It was bridged by Jesus Christ, and there is not any gulf that He cannot
bridge. I believe it! If there is, then He is not God, because there is no gulf that God
and His love cannot bridge. Jesus Christ has bridged the gulf between God and man, between
Israelite and Gentile, between bond and free, between male and female, between rich and
poor, and between heaven and hell. He has bridged all the gulfs, blessed be His name, and
so "There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free, there is neither
male nor female: for you are all one in Christ Jesus" (Gal. 3:28). Thank God! a
greater than Abraham is here. He bridges the gulf between heaven and earth and between
earth and hell, for it is written, "That at the name of Jesus every knee should bow,
of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth; and
that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the
Father" (Phil. 2:10-11). Weymouth translates, "That in the name of Jesus every
knee should bow, of beings in the highest heavens, of those on the earth, and of
THOSE IN THE UNDERWORLD, and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is
Lord, to the glory of God the Father." The hymn writer captured the wonderful truth
of this when he penned these immortal words:
-
Oh, the love that drew salvation's plan!
Oh, the grace that brought it down to man!
Oh, the mighty GULF THAT GOD DID SPAN at Calvary!