From the MLJ Archive

Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones: We are still dealing, as most of you will recall, with the great words that are to be found in Paul's Epistle to the Romans, chapter 13, from verse 11 to the end of the chapter. And that knowing the time, that now it is high time to awake out of sleep: for now is our salvation nearer than when we believed. The night is far spent, the day is at hand: let us therefore cast off the works of darkness, and let us put on the armor of light. Let us walk honestly, as in the day; not in rioting and drunkenness, not in chambering and wantonness, not in strife and envying. But put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make not provision for the flesh, to fulfill the lusts thereof.

I trust that nobody misunderstood my announcement just now as meaning that we are finishing this series tonight. I referred to what would happen when we resumed in October merely in connection with that book. We hope to go on next Friday and the following Friday. We go on to the last Friday in this month of May. And we are considering this great statement here at the end of this 13th chapter, where we have seen that the apostle adduces what is in many ways the final and the ultimate argument which we as Christians should apply to ourselves in order to persuade ourselves to live the Christian life as it should be lived. In other words, to pay heed to the exhortation that he has been addressing to us from the beginning of chapter 12.

He has put a number of things before us, and they are all based on the fact that we know certain things. And that knowing, what do we know? Well, we know the time. We understand the time in which we are living. We also understand the nature of life in this world as it is as the result of sin. We also have a clear conception of the future, and we are also aware of the great change that has taken place in us ourselves. There are certain things that we don't do. Let us therefore cast off the works of darkness. Let us put on the armor of light. Let us walk honestly. This is not addressed to anybody except Christians.

That is where they really do deny the gospel and its teaching who address these ethical instructions of the New Testament to the world. That is the basic fallacy of a teaching like that of pacifism. It is based on this assumption. And any other of these ethical teachings, if you apply those to the world, you are failing to make this vital, essential, fundamental distinction which runs through the whole of the New Testament, that there is a difference between the people of God and everybody else. These things apply only to us. Obviously they do, because nobody else understands the time. Nobody else understands life in this world as it is organized apart from God. No one has a clear view of the future except the Christian.

The whole argument depends upon our knowing and grasping and understanding these doctrines. Then because we do know and understand these things, we are able to draw the deductions that we drew together last Friday night. Very well, that is the point at which we have arrived. But now before we go on to what I have described as the second division of this final subsection, there is one point we have got to deal with. I have divided this statement into two sections: the doctrinal and then the application. The doctrinal or, if you like, the practical. But before we can come to the practical, there is a point which we have got to deal with. It is a kind of residual point which comes under the heading of doctrine.

What is that? Well, it is this whole question as to what the apostle's view really was of the nearness of the coming of the Lord. Now you notice certain phrases that he uses. He says our salvation is nearer than when we believed. That is not the difficult one, but it introduces the others. Here are the difficult ones: the night is far spent, the day is at hand. Now we are all familiar with the fact, and I think we have seen this on recent Friday evenings, that this expression "the day" is generally associated with the coming of our Lord—the Day of the Lord, "that day"—all these expressions that are to be found so freely in the New Testament. They refer to the second coming of our Lord. And here on the surface, the apostle seems to be teaching that he thought that this was at hand, very near.

This is the thing that we have got to consider together. Now I am doing this because a great deal has been made of this. And there has been a teaching which has been particularly popular during this present century. It began in the last century, but it has been very popular in this century, which says this: that the apostle Paul at the beginning of his life as an apostle expected the Lord to return almost at any moment, that that was not confined to him, that all the early Christians thought the same thing. Indeed, some of the teachers who hold this view go further and say that our Lord Himself thought that. That was the teaching, for instance, of a man like the late Dr. Albert Schweitzer.

He was able to use that argument to deal with the people who were liberals and who were reconstructing what they called "the Jesus of history." But they left out this apocalyptic element, and Albert Schweitzer was able to show that if you took that out, you really had got very little left, that one of the main emphases of the teaching of our Lord was His coming again to conquer His enemies and to set up His eternal kingdom. Of course, Dr. Albert Schweitzer, not being a Christian, interpreted that to mean that our Lord really was a little bit beside Himself. That was his view of Him. He rejected the liberal Jesus of history, but he also rejected the Christ of the New Testament as the Savior of the world. He just made out that this was some kind of ecstatic condition into which our Lord had got and that as a man, He had got these exaggerated notions of His own importance.

That is the kind of teaching with which we are dealing. It says, in other words, that these apostles and others were confident that the return of our Lord was imminent. Then they go on to say something else. Having read all the epistles of the apostle, they say that the apostle later on changed his mind, that as the years passed and our Lord didn't return, he began to think again and came to the conclusion that this first view of his was wrong. And so they say in his later epistles you don't get this teaching. You only get this teaching about the imminence of our Lord's return in the early epistles of Paul. In the later epistles, you don't get it. But they are in a bit of trouble over this 13th chapter of Romans because here they say he obviously again is saying that the return of the Lord is at hand.

The night is far spent, the day is at hand. In other words, they say that he became a kind of intellectual backslider at this point and reverted to his own former wrong teaching, just made a slip as it were, because it is the only place he mentions it, they say, in this epistle or in any one of these later epistles of his. Now then, we have got to deal with this. Why do we do so? Well, not only because it has been a popular teaching and strangely enough, I heard this very teaching being uttered on the wireless yesterday afternoon. There was an interview with a famous ecclesiastic who is retiring today, I think it is, and he said this very thing. He paid Paul a great compliment, as he thought. He said that it was Paul who was one of the first to see that this idea that our Lord was coming at once was a mistake, and he was far-sighted enough to see that this was wrong. Therefore he must prepare Christian people and the whole of the Christian Church for a long period of time.

In saying this, he said quite explicitly that of course at first, Paul, like everybody else, had fallen into that error, but that Paul was the first to see the error and to get out of it. This leaves the position exactly in the same place. Now why is this important for us? Well, it is important for this reason. This was one of the ways in which the attack upon the inspiration of the Scriptures came in. You see, if they could establish and prove that the apostle Paul had made a mistake and that what he taught in his early epistles was wrong, well then, you can no longer claim that all the epistles of Paul are divinely inspired. Paul is only a human being after all, and these epistles are not the result of the unique and special inspiration of the Scriptures guiding him infallibly. No, no. You see, it was one of the subtle ways of bringing in an attack upon the infallibility of the Scriptures. It says, well, these men in a sense were inspired as poets can be inspired, but of course they are fallible and they not only can make mistakes, they have made a mistake. And here is one of their big and glaring mistakes.

So in the interests of our belief in not only the reliability but the infallibility of the Scriptures, it is essential that we should deal with this particular argument. Now what is the case that is put forward? Well, this is it in its essence. They look at some of the early epistles, particularly the two epistles to the Thessalonians, and they say there is unmistakable evidence that the apostle believed this. Take for instance 1 Thessalonians 4:13 and 15: "But I would not have you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning them which are asleep, that ye sorrow not, even as others which have no hope. For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so them also which sleep in Jesus will God bring with him. For this we say unto you by the word of the Lord, that we which are alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord shall not prevent," go before, "them which are asleep," which means those that are dead.

Now there they say he says, "we which are alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord." It is proof, they say, that he obviously believed that this was something that was going to happen in his own time. And he virtually says the same thing in the fifth chapter of that first epistle to the Thessalonians. The whole background of that is the belief in the imminence of the Lord's return. And they say you get the same thing in the second epistle to the Thessalonians in the first chapter and verse 7. He is writing to comfort these people who are being persecuted: "Seeing it is a righteous thing with God to recompense tribulation to them that trouble you; and to you who are troubled rest with us, when the Lord Jesus shall be revealed from heaven with his mighty angels."

Then they say you have got similar evidence in the first epistle to the Corinthians in chapter 7 and in verses 29 to 31: "But this I say, brethren, the time is short: it remaineth, that both they that have wives be as though they had none; and they that weep, as though they wept not; and they that rejoice, as though they rejoiced not; and they that buy, as though they possessed not; and they that use this world, as not abusing it: for the fashion of this world passeth away." This, you see, is the evidence. Then you have got 1 Corinthians 15:51, which is always quoted. "Behold," and this is an important one, "behold, I show you a mystery; We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed."

Then in Philippians 4:5, you have got a statement to this effect which seems to lend weight to this argument: "Let your moderation be known unto all men. Why? The Lord is at hand." Incidentally, that doesn't help them as much as they would like it to, because it is one of the later epistles. However, I will deal with that in a moment. Let me just give you this evidence first. Take Hebrews 10 verse 37, which reads like this: "For yet a little while, and he that shall come will come, and will not tarry." James 5:8 reads like this: "Be ye also patient; stablish your hearts: for the coming of the Lord draweth nigh." James is an early epistle. 1 Peter 4:7: "But the end of all things is at hand: be ye therefore sober, and watch unto prayer." So similar to the verses that we are dealing with at the moment. And then finally, in the Book of Revelation in chapter 22, verses 10 to 12: "And he saith unto me, Seal not the sayings of the prophecy of this book: for the time is at hand. He that is unjust, let him be unjust still: and he which is filthy, let him be filthy still: and he that is righteous, let him be righteous still: and he that is holy, let him be holy still. And, behold, I come quickly; and my reward is with me, to give every man according as his work shall be."

Well now, there is the evidence that is commonly and generally adduced to buttress and support this particular contention. What is the answer? Well, I have already given you what is enough in and of itself, and that is that this attempt to draw this sharp distinction between the early and the later epistles of Paul breaks down completely. For some of the verses I have quoted to you are in later epistles. It was an artificial thing. You have got the case of Philippians and this one in Romans. However, let me give you a fuller treatment of this subject. What is the answer to this? Well, the answer can be put like this. We have first of all got our Lord's own teaching. Our Lord, you know, in many parables talked about that the kingdom of God is likened unto a nobleman going, he says, to a far country, giving the impression of a long absence and how some of the servants noticing that their Lord delayed his coming. That you find in several of our Lord's own parables, and it is a very important bit of evidence that there in this parabolic teaching, he was giving clear indication that there was to be an interval of time before he came back.

But indeed, he said this quite specifically. Listen to this in Matthew 24:14 and the parallel passages: "And this gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world for a witness unto all nations; and then shall the end come." Now if we had got nothing but that, it would be more than sufficient to deal with the case of our Lord Himself. Remember, this was before the crucifixion. This was when his ministry was confined only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel, as he put it to the Syrophoenician woman. But he makes it quite clear: this gospel has got to be preached to all nations throughout the world before the end is going to come. As I say, that in and of itself is quite sufficient. But there is a very interesting kind of footnote at the end of John's Gospel in the very last chapter, 21, verses 21 to 23—or let's start with 20: "Then Peter, turning about, seeth the disciple whom Jesus loved following; which also leaned on his breast at supper, and said, Lord, which is he that betrayeth thee? Peter seeing him saith to Jesus, Lord, and what shall this man do?" In other words, what about this man? "Jesus saith unto him, If I will that he tarry till I come, what is that to thee? Follow thou me. Then went this saying abroad among the brethren, that that disciple should not die: yet Jesus said not unto him, He shall not die; but, If I will that he tarry till I come, what is that to thee?"

Now John was writing, you see, towards the end of that first century. It may have been, at any rate, it is one of the latest writings in the New Testament canon. And he takes up this point. He says people have misunderstood this. They misunderstand what our Lord actually said to John, that he said to John that he was going to live until he came back. He didn't say that, says John. All he said was this: "If I will that he tarry till I come, what is that to thee?" He was simply telling Peter to mind his own business, that that was something outside his province and he shouldn't be concerned about it. Well now, there is the main evidence with regard to our Lord Himself.

What about the apostle Paul? Well, this is particularly interesting. It just shows you the lengths to which the so-called higher critics have to go and how they have to try and twist and force the Scriptures in order to undermine the authority of the Scriptures. Because that chapter which we read at the beginning, the second chapter of Paul's second epistle to the Thessalonians, deals with this thing once and for all. There the apostle warns these people not to listen to those people who were teaching them that the Lord was coming immediately. Listen: "Now we beseech you, brethren, by the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, and by our gathering together unto him, that ye be not soon shaken in mind, or troubled, neither by spirit, nor by word, nor by letter as from us, as that the day of Christ," better, "the day of the Lord is at hand."

In other words, you see, there were people who were teaching this. Some said they had a revelation about it by spirit, others had received it by teaching (word), and indeed, some were even behaving as liars and were saying that the apostle Paul himself, as by letter as from us, were even saying that Paul had been teaching this. Paul says don't believe this. This isn't true. And he goes on, as you remember, to give them the arguments to confute this wrong teaching. Now there were people who were teaching that, but the apostles were not teaching it. This is where the higher critics, you see, have ignored these plain statements. And as you noticed that the apostle in the body of that second chapter of the second epistle to the Thessalonians goes out of his way to point out to them: "Remember ye not," he says, "that, when I was yet with you, I told you these things?"

When he was first with them, the apostle gave them the full gospel. He did everywhere else. You remember at the end of the first chapter of the first epistle to the Thessalonians, the apostle puts it like this: "They themselves show of us what manner of entering in we had unto you," that's to say when he first went there to preach, "and how ye turned to God from idols to serve the living and true God; and to wait for his Son from heaven, whom he raised from the dead, even Jesus, which delivered us from the wrath to come." When the apostle preached, he always preached a full gospel. He didn't just have a message which was always the same, just more or less calling for a decision and saying come to Jesus. Paul evangelized by preaching the whole counsel of God. He often reminds people that he had done that. And here he reminds these that when he was with them—he says how you know that we withheld when I was yet with you, I told you these things.

And he goes on to explain to them what these things were. What are they? Well, this is again a most important bit of evidence. He had pointed out to them—he said, let no man deceive you by any means, for that day shall not come except certain things are going to happen first. What are they? Well, here they are: there shall come a falling away first, and that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition, who opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called God or that is worshipped, and so on. Now whatever your interpretation of that—this man of sin and so on—whatever it is, it doesn't matter for the purposes of this argument. All we need to show is this: that the apostle was concerned to say that the return of our Lord was not imminent. You may regard the man of sin as the Roman Empire. You may say the man of sin is yet to come. It doesn't matter. And then over this question—you know that what withholdeth that he might be revealed in his time. The mystery of iniquity doth already work. Only he who now restraineth will restrain until he be taken out of the world.

People have argued a lot about these things. Some say that's the Holy Spirit, some say no, it's the Roman Empire and that he's visualizing the day when the Roman Empire will no longer be in control. Now for the purposes of our argument tonight, it doesn't matter which it is. For the Roman Empire lasted several centuries after this. So it is plain and clear that the apostle is saying that when he first preached to them, he did preach the second coming of Christ, but he made it equally plain and clear that it wasn't going to happen immediately, that certain things were going to happen first. Now if we had nothing else, that is more than enough. It is agreed by all these men who call themselves scholars that the epistles to the Thessalonians are the earliest of all the epistles, especially the first epistle. But here we've got proof that even before he had written the first epistle, the apostle had taught quite plainly that the return of the Lord was not going to happen at once, and they mustn't listen to these people who claim to have had a vision about it or who said that Paul himself had written about it. He said it's a lie, it's not true. I've always taught, you must bear me witness, that certain things have got to happen first.

That, I say, would be enough in and of itself. But of course, in a very interesting way, in this epistle to the Romans, we've also got another wonderful bit of argumentation to refute completely this charge that is brought against Paul and the apostles. You remember the great argument of chapter 11. You remember that the apostle is saying something like this about the middle there, start of verse 11—he's dealing with the case of the Jews: "I say then, Have they stumbled that they should fall? God forbid: but rather through their fall salvation is come unto the Gentiles, for to provoke them to jealousy. Now if the fall of them be the riches of the world, and the diminishing of them the riches of the Gentiles; how much more their fullness? For I speak to you Gentiles, inasmuch as I am the apostle of the Gentiles, I magnify mine office: if by any means I may provoke to emulation them which are my flesh, and might save some of them. For if the casting away of them be the reconciling of the world, what shall the receiving of them be, but life from the dead?"

And then you remember at the end of the chapter, verse 28: "As concerning the gospel, they are enemies for your sakes: but as touching the election, they are beloved for the fathers' sakes. For the gifts and calling of God are without repentance." Verse 31: "Even so have these also now not believed, that through your mercy they also may obtain mercy. For God hath concluded them all in unbelief, that he might have mercy upon all." And earlier he has talked about all Israel being saved and so on. "This is my covenant unto them, when I shall take away their sins," and so on. Now we worked that out, you remember, and what we saw was this: that the apostle obviously, explicitly, and plainly teaches that there is going to be a great gathering into the kingdom of God, into the church, of converted Jews.

It's going to happen sometime before the end. The apostle teaches it. How could he then possibly at the time at which he was writing and was alive claim or even think for a moment that the second coming of Christ was imminent? Because what was breaking his heart was that the Jews were increasingly rejecting the gospel and he had had to turn away from them. "Henceforth," he says, "go I unto the Gentiles." He had shaken off the dust from his feet and had become the great apostle to the Gentiles. So you see, we've got this clear teaching not only in Thessalonians but here in Romans itself, showing clearly that the apostle couldn't possibly have meant that the return of the Lord was at hand and imminent when he says the night is far spent, the day is at hand. He would—it would mean not merely that he was becoming an intellectual backslider and reverting to a former teaching; it would even have meant this: that he must have been in a bad condition because he can't even remember at the end of chapter 13 what he's already argued at length in chapter 11. The thing, of course, is just a monstrous suggestion from beginning to end.

And not only that, we've got further evidence. Look at the way in which the apostle views his own life. Take the way in which he faces it all as you get it in the first chapter of the epistle to the Philippians. He's a prisoner in Rome. He doesn't know at what moment he's going to be put to death. But this is how he puts it: "For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain." He thinks in terms of dying. "But if I live in the flesh, this is the fruit of my labor: for I am in a strait betwixt two, having a desire to depart, and to be with Christ; which is far better." That's how he thinks about it. That's his normal way of thinking of it. And in his last epistle of all, the second epistle to Timothy, in the fourth chapter and the sixth verse, the same thing is quite clear in that great statement: "I am now ready to be offered, and the time of my departure is at hand."

He's not thinking in terms of the coming of our Lord so much as his own death and his departure out of this world. And this, of course, is not confined to the apostle Paul. You've got the apostle Peter doing exactly the same thing. Listen to this in the second epistle of Peter, first chapter, verse 12: "Wherefore I will not be negligent to put you always in remembrance of these things, though ye know them, and be established in the present truth. Yea, I think it meet, as long as I am in this tabernacle, to stir you up by putting you in remembrance; knowing that shortly I must put off this my tabernacle, even as our Lord Jesus Christ hath showed me." Same attitude exactly. Not imagining that the return of the Lord would come at any moment or quickly. He speaks in terms of dying. And then, of course, in the third chapter of that same second epistle is this other tremendous argument.

The scoffers had arisen. And he says, "You know, I warned you about these things. This second epistle, beloved, I now write unto you; in both which I stir up your pure minds by way of remembrance: that ye may be mindful of the words which were spoken before by the holy prophets, and of the commandment of us the apostles of the Lord and Savior: knowing this first, that there shall come in the last days scoffers, walking after their own lusts and saying, Where is the promise of his coming?" You see, it is the scoffers who teach that. The apostles had never taught that, but the enemies and the scoffers were always saying this: "Where is the promise of his coming? For since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of the creation." For this they willingly are ignorant of. What is it? Well, he works out the argument.

But this is the key to the whole argument: "The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance. The day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night." Then he describes it, the heavens melting with fervent heat. "Seeing then that all these things," you remember the argument. Now what is he really saying here? Well, this is it. "Beloved, be not ignorant of this one thing, that one day with the Lord is a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day." That's his real answer. He says these people don't know that. They think that God is controlled by time in the way that they are. He said you mustn't think of these things in these material ways, in these calendar fashions. No, no. One day is with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day.

Now I'm going to say something. I'm not sure that I believe it fully, but I think it's of interest. Someone has pointed out, an old writer pointed out, and it may interest you. Some of you may hold the view that the total history of this world is going to be 6,000 years, corresponding to the six days of creation. There are people who hold that view—6,000 years, the whole history of this universe. Well now, if that is right, and if we are really living in the last days, well then when Paul says "the night is far spent, the day is at hand," what he was really saying was this: two-thirds of the time have already gone. Because you remember there had been some 4,000 years, if you accept that chronology, 4,000 years before our Lord came into this world. There are not quite 2,000 since He came. If that is right, when Paul was writing, two-thirds of the whole of time had already gone. There was only a third left. So that he may have been saying that. The night is far spent, two-thirds of it have gone. There's only a third left. And with the Lord, a thousand years is as one day. Well, there are only two days left.

I'm not saying that I accept it fully, but I put it to you as a possible and an adequate explanation of this matter. But what is really important is, of course, this whole point about a thousand years being as one day. We've got to think in that way. This is our way. So I would sum it up like this. We must always remember when we are dealing with this subject that we are dealing with what we may call prophetic time. And prophetic time is something which is very special and peculiar. We've seen that in terms of defining "this time." What it means is this: that prophetic time always deals with the big things only. It's not so interested in the lesser things. It always concentrates on the big things. What I mean is this: take the prophecies in the Old Testament, for instance. Have you noticed how often they seem to foreshorten history? And they very often merge into one statement the first coming of Christ and his second coming, as if to obliterate the interval between. That's prophetic foreshortening.

Let me give you the one sort of classical example of this. You remember our Lord speaking in the synagogue of his home town. He returned in the power of the Spirit into Galilee, and he went into the synagogue as was his custom in Nazareth on the Sabbath. And they handed to him the Scriptures, and there was delivered unto him the book from the book of the prophet Isaiah. And when he had opened the book, he found the place where it is written: "The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor; he hath sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised, to preach the acceptable year of the Lord." And he closed the book and then began to expound it. But you notice what he did. He's reading there out of the 61st chapter of the book of Isaiah, and as has often been pointed out, he stopped before he'd come to the end of the quotation.

This is what I read in Isaiah 61: "The Spirit of the Lord is upon me; because the Lord hath anointed me to preach good tidings unto the meek; he hath sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to them that are bound; to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord," that's where our Lord stopped, "and the day of vengeance of our God." That's the second coming. That's the final judgment. Isaiah, you see, in his prophecy telescopes the first coming and the second coming. Now our Lord was anxious to show the object and the purpose of his first coming. So when he comes to that statement, he closes the book and expounds it to them. He doesn't mention the further aspect. Now that is a typical illustration of what I call prophetic foreshortening, the telescoping of these great events into one another.

Now let me give you another example, and as it's the Friday before Whit Sunday, it's quite an interesting and appropriate one. Peter standing up to preach in Jerusalem on the Day of Pentecost, when people are asking, "What is this?" He says, "These are not drunken as ye suppose, but this is that which was spoken by the prophet Joel. It shall come to pass in the last days, saith God, I will pour out of my Spirit upon all flesh: and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, and your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams: and on my servants and on my handmaidens I will pour out of my Spirit in those days; and they shall prophesy. And I will show wonders in heaven above, and signs in the earth beneath; blood, and fire, and vapor of smoke: the sun shall be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood, before that great and notable day of the Lord come. And it shall come to pass, that whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord shall be saved." Was the whole of that fulfilled on the Day of Pentecost? Obviously not. A part of it was. But a part of it is referring to the final end.

But the prophet Joel, as Peter in the quotation, merges the two into one. Why? Well, for the reason that we saw a few Friday nights back when we were interpreting the meaning of "this time." From the standpoint of prophecy, this interval between the first and the second comings is as it were nothing, so the two are merged into one. Well now, there is an idea we must always keep in our minds. Another principle that is important is this one: that sometimes in dealing with some of these scriptures, it is almost impossible to tell whether the writer is dealing with our death or with the coming of the Lord. And there is a sense, of course, in which we can easily understand that. For the moment we die and go out of this world, well then we already are entirely in that other realm. And yet the two things are different and we must maintain the difference between them.

But sometimes the two things seem to be merged together. And he is appearing to be thinking about his dying and also about that because what is death? Well, it's just a kind of rehearsal or anticipation of that which is going to happen in its full perfection at the time of the second coming of our Lord. In spirit, it's all happened, but then the body still has to be raised. But the two things so belong together that sometimes it appears to be one and sometimes appears to be the other. So I finally sum it up like this. As we've already seen, the Christian is already living in the day. He already knows of the glories of eternity that are awaiting him. The result of this should be that his whole view of life in this world should be controlled entirely by that thinking.

And the effect that it has upon his thinking is this. A man who really knows that he belongs to the day and who knows something about the glories that are awaiting him, he is a man who views his life in this world in these terms. For what is your life? What is your life? It is even a vapor, that appeareth for a little time, and then vanisheth away. That's the Christian view of life in this world, our life in time. To the non-Christian, oh, it's a long stretch and it goes on and on. But to the man who belongs already to the day and who knows something about the glory that is awaiting him, everything that happens before that is a vapor. It's nothing but a vapor. That was James. But listen to Paul putting that. Here he is in the flesh surrounded by trials and troubles and tribulations. But this is how he describes it: "Our light affliction, which is but for a moment." A moment, that's all.

All that happens to us in this world, says Paul, is but a moment. "Our light affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory; while we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen: for the things which are seen are temporal," but for a moment, "but the things which are not seen are eternal." Now that is typical Christian thinking. That's how the Christian thinks of his life in this world. It's all a moment. It's but a vapor. Now how does he do this? Well, you see, he isn't being unrealistic. What happens is that when he does contemplate that which is awaiting him, this appears to be nothing. It's only relatively short. It is the thought of that that makes everything else appear to be passing, evanescent, but for a moment. Or as Paul puts it in writing to Titus, the Christian is a man who waits for and who looks for the glorious appearing of our great Lord and Savior, great God and Savior Jesus Christ.

Or as Peter puts it, not only do you wait for it but you're hastening it and hastening unto it. Peter had already said that in his sermon preached in Jerusalem in connection with the healing of the man at the Beautiful Gate of the temple. So you see, to the Christian, this is his whole view of time. Of course our salvation is nearer than when we believed. And in a sense, it is very near indeed. If all these things are but for a moment, well, it's at hand. He begins to understand what is meant by a thousand years being but as one day. You don't think in terms of kings and princes and births, marriages and deaths, and wars and elections and things like that. No, no. You think of these great events: first, second, everything else is as it were nothing, but a part of a vapor, just a vapor. Everything seems at hand.

And that is why you will find this teaching running right through the New Testament. We are called upon always to be ready, to be always waiting, always have our loins girt about, not because we think he's going to come at any moment—we know certain things have got to happen—and yet taking this view of time, this prophetic view of time, we know that it's at hand. It has been at hand for Christians in all generations from the very beginning, and it is still at hand for us. Well now, there is the answer, it seems to me, that is given by the Scripture itself to this modern attempt to undermine or to cast doubt upon the authority and the infallibility of the apostles and of the Scriptures which they have written for us. There was no change in the opinion of the apostle. He was not in error at one time. The teaching is a whole, and it is consistent, and it is always the same.

What is of importance for us is this: are we able with him to look out upon life as it is at the present time and whatever may be happening to us and to say, "our light affliction"? What makes it light? Not because of the thing itself. It only becomes light when you put it side-by-side with the glory that awaits you. If you see that clearly, anything that happens to you here is a light matter. Light affliction. And it's only for a moment. The everlasting and eternal glory awaits for us and it's working for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory. God grant that we may so know these things that that is our view of time and of life in this world.

O Lord our God, we do again thank Thee for this light and knowledge and instruction that we find in Thy Word and in Thy Word alone. O God, write it in our minds and in our hearts by Thy most blessed Spirit and enable us all to live in the light of these things. We know that then we shall be more than conquerors over everything that is set against us. And now, may the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the fellowship and the communion of the Holy Spirit abide and continue with us now, this night, throughout the remainder of this our short, uncertain earthly life and pilgrimage, and until we shall see Him and be with Him forever. Amen.