The Apostle then tells us that the day of the Lord cannot come until the apostasy and the revelation of “the man of sin.” That is perfectly plain. The Lord told Abram, as a reason for not judging the Amorites, that the cup of their iniquity was not yet full. The cup of Sodom and Gomorrah was filled, as we know, but that of the Amorites was not. They were allowed to follow their evil courses until the earth was ready to spue them out, and then the sword of retribution fell upon them at God's command. It is always a principle in God's dealings that the iniquity which He judges must he thoroughly out. The lawlessness of Christendom is not thoroughly open. There is still, in the midst of a great deal that is very sad, a great deal of conversion going on. There is also not a little of devotedness to Christ. The forms and the reality of truth are yet apparent, and it is as yet “the mystery of lawlessness.” It will be a totally different thing in that day.
Thus we come to what I am now to dwell on—that from the coming of the Lord differs the day of the Lord, not only in character but in time. There is an interval between. How long that interval is must be learned from other scriptures, where the times and the seasons are taken up—namely, in the Book of Revelation. Where would you look for prophetic seasons so readily as in that book? What do you find in it, looking at it as a whole? You have the epistles to the seven churches, giving a prophetic view of the church as long as she should be here below; and at the end of the last of the seven churches—the church of Laodicea door is opened in heaven, and the prophet is permitted to look in, and he sees a new company in heaven, never, in fact, seen there before—twenty-four elders round the central throne of God, themselves seated on thrones.
Who are these crowned elders? In my judgment they are symbolical of the Old Testament saints and the New Testament saints—the great company of the heads of the heavenly priesthood. This is the reason why they are said to be four and twenty—which was the number of courses of priests under the Mosaic dispensation. You must not suppose that the twenty-four means twenty-four individuals——there might be thousands, possibly millions of saints. The great idea of the symbol, I take it, is that the twenty-four are the heavenly priesthood—the chief-priests of glory. God is to have other priests and kings besides these. Who are they? Persons who are called to the knowledge of God after the elders are taken to heaven. For, remember, the elders are never added to; you never find twenty-five or twenty-six—still less have you thirty-six or forty-eight. There is no addition. It is a complete body. Now, that is a very important fact. Others will be objects of divine grace, but they are not added to the four-and-twenty elders—they are grouped by themselves. They are a company blessed of God —glorified, no doubt, in due time, but not added to the twenty-four.
We must leave room for the dealings of God. God is sovereign; and if I can believe in the sovereignty of God now in one form, I can believe it in another. The Book of Revelation shows particularly this very principle. Later on in the book, for instance, you have a company seen standing on a sea of glass; and, what is very remarkable, on a sea of glass mingled with fire. In the fourth chapter of Revelation there is a sea of glass, but no fire. In the fifteenth chapter, Where you have this fresh company of conquerors, it is a sea of glass mingled with fire. What does this mean? They have passed through tribulation. The others, you see, have gone up before that terrible tribulation. In their case the symbol of fire would have no meaning.
Perhaps I ought to explain what is meant by this symbol of a sea of glass. Whether in reference to the first company or to the second, the sea would be a natural thought. A sea of water would be for washing us from the defilements we acquire in our passage through this world. The priests, you know, used to be first washed all over; but afterward, whenever they went to do service in the Temple, they washed their hands and their feet. In the heavenly sea there is no longer water but glass. Why? Because it is no longer a question of getting impurity removed. Theirs is all gone. It could never have an entrance to heaven. Therefore, you see, first of all, when the elders are caught up to heaven at the coming of the Lord—nothing else could take them up—there is a sea of glass, but no mingling with fire.
Then, in the central part of the book, you have this great tribulation—the most awful judgments of God upon man's wickedness. The tribulation goes on; and in the fifteenth chapter you have the new company standing upon the sea of glass, with harps of gold in their hands, and singing the song, not of the Lamb merely, but of Moses and the Lamb. The twenty-four elders sing the song of the Lamb merely. We do not sing the song of Moses. It will be all very well by-and-by for the converted Jews to do so, and so they will; but we have learned, by the grace of God, the surpassing glory of the Lord Jesus. On the mount of transfiguration the Apostle asked to be allowed to build three tabernacles—one for Moses, and one for Elias, and one for Christ. No, says God the Father; “This is my beloved Son, hear ye him.” He is the one surpassing and exclusive Object in this new song. Don't let anyone suppose that I mean the smallest disrespect to Moses as a servant of God. Far from that. I hold every word Moses has written to be inspired. The Lord Jesus never was called to write anything, because He was the Word, and it would not have been suitable to His glory that He should have written a line. He was above all that. It is not a question, then, of His writing, but of the Holy Ghost leading others to write about Him. Thus, you see, in the sixth chapter of Revelation, the elders sing merely of God and the Lamb, whereas this new company that come through tremendous tribulation will sing the song of Moses and the Lamb. It is not called a new song at all. It is very important to lay hold of these differences in Scripture.
Now, then, apply this to what we have before us. The Lord will come, and, as the instant effect, will gather all His own to be with Him in heaven. The Spirit of God will begin the work of converting souls by the word, particularly amongst the Jews, but it will not be confined to them. He will work a work both in the Jews and in the Gentiles; only they will not be brought into one body. That remarkable property, that exclusive quality, of the church of God, the obliterating distinction between Jew and Gentile, will no longer characterize the work of God; but the Jews will be converted as Jews, and the Gentiles as Gentiles. In the seventh chapter of Revelation they are seen as two distinct bodies—first, out of all the twelve tribes, and then all the multitude that no man could number.
I am aware that there are learned men who say they are the same; but, really, their mode of interpretation is a matter of constant wonder to me. No simple man could believe they were the same. Sometimes it requires a deal of reasoning to make one receive such a thought as that. When people get completely occupied with a thing, it is astonishing how they can persuade themselves and others to believe it. To my conviction, there will be two companies. I think this lies clearly upon the face of the statements of Scripture—not only for the simplest reader, but for the most profound theologian. There will be a company out of all Israel that are sealed, and an immense company out of the Gentiles. Over these, during the millennium, the Lord will reign when He comes again. But, besides these, there will be a number of persons who are killed. They do not live to be under the Lord's reign; and thus, if the Lord did not work something very blessed for them, they would lose both the heavenly glory of the church, and the earthly joy of those who are to people the earth when He comes to reign in glory. What does He for them? He waits until the very last man has suffered, and then also He brings them risen from the dead into heavenly glory.
I know there are those who manifest a great deal of confusion about that. They fancy that everybody must be raised exactly at the same moment. It is perfectly true that we shall be raised at the same moment; but why all others should be raised along with us seems to me peculiar. I do not see any necessity for it at all, but the reverse. The fourth verse of the twentieth of Revelation bears very distinctly on the importance of distinguishing between the coming of the Lord and the day of the Lord “And I saw thrones, and they sat upon them, and judgment was given unto them; and [I saw] the souls of them that were beheaded for the witness of Jesus and for the word of God; and those who worshipped not the beast, neither his image, neither received his mark on their foreheads or on their hands; and they lived and reigned with Christ a thousand years.”
Who were these? The first were the elders that came out of heaven. These were the persons who had long been in heaven, and consequently in their case, you observe, they had their seats upon the thrones already, and judgment was given unto them—not judgment executed on them. The very reverse. They were to judge the world, to judge the angels, as we are told by the Apostle Paul in 1 Corinthians.
Next, “And [I saw] the souls of them that were beheaded for the witness of Jesus and for the word of God.” I saw the souls—not the bodies. There, clearly, you have a company of people that had suffered after the elders had been taken to heaven, and they were still in the separate state. He saw the separate spirits or souls of those that were beheaded. Do not be carried away with the idea that souls sometimes means persons. Of course we know that; but it is easy to discriminate whether separated souls or living persons are meant. “Seventy souls went down into Egypt.” That is very intelligible. They were not separated souls, but persons; but if I said seventy souls of the people went down into Egypt, this would be another thing. In short, a different form of phraseology would have been used. Scripture is always most precise. I entirely deny what unbelievers say, that things are loosely expressed there. Had it been— “I saw seventy souls that had been beheaded,” it is evident that it would be so many persons that were meant.
Lastly, “And which had not,” etc. There is here a slight but unfortunate mistranslation. It should be, “and those who (or, such as) had not worshipped the beast” —a third class of persons. This is now generally conceded. I do not think that any scholar has any doubt about it. Dean Alford, who was a good scholar, takes it as here—a third class. The late Mr. Elliott does the same. I mention them, because they do not agree with me in many respects; but I agree with them and they with me in this, that there are three classes. The first is those already glorified, and not a word, therefore, about their souls; whereas, in the second and third classes, we find the souls—first, the souls of persons that had been beheaded for the word of God, and then those that would not accept the mark of the beast, in the last part.
If you want to find confirmation of this, you will find it in the sixth chapter of Revelation, where the souls were seen underneath the altar-in a separate state, of course—and they were told that they were to wait till the number of their brethren that were to be slain as they were should be fulfilled. There is the second class. There were to be two bodies of sufferers—the first body in the beginning of Revelation, and the second body in the fifteenth; and now both classes are here before us. But before we hear of these two in their separate state, we have the elders in their glorified state. (1) “I saw thrones, and they sat upon them... and (2) I saw the souls of them that were beheaded for the witness of Jesus... and (3) those that had not worshipped the beast... and they lived and reigned with Christ a thousand years.” Why is it said that the two last classes lived? Because till now they were in the separate state. It is not said of those who sat upon the thrones, as being needless; but it was necessary to tell us that those were to live who had been martyred in the Apocalyptic crisis.
When did all this beheading take place, and this sealing of those that would not accept the mark of the beast? During the time of the great tribulation. So you have those who had to pass not merely a sea of glass, but a sea of glass mingled with fire. The coming of the Lord involves the translation of those now waiting for Him. Then comes an interval of tremendous trial, through which souls are to be born to God, many of whom will have to suffer; but they will have their sufferings made up to them by being raised up when the Lord appears in glory, and they will all reign together—they that had been already caught up, and those that now rise; while they that are still alive are the blessed people of the millennium, who will form the nucleus of that great scene of blessing which will fill the whole earth; for surely Jehovah Jesus will reign in that day.
I have now presented to you as clear a sketch of this important subject as I could in a single lecture. But the great point I press is the essential difference between the exercise of grace in the coming of the Lord to take His own to be with Him, and the exercise of judgment when it is the day of the Lord. That is the distinction you have to bear in mind—the Christian characterized by a grace that takes him up to heaven; the Jew characterized by the Lord's appearing to exercise judgment, which will leave him unimpeded by his enemies here below. Our blessing does not depend upon the execution of judgment. Our blessing is of pure sovereign grace. We had no claims, no deserts, not even pleas in support of our case; and when the Lord comes to receive us, there will be no execution of judgment on the earth whatever. But it will be different when He appears to save the poor Jews. They must go through a retributive time of tribulation; and then the Lord, at the last moment, when they seem about to be swept away, comes down on their enemies and delivers the godly remnant.
In this you have, I believe, an outline, and it is for you to make the truth your own. Search the word, and you will find abundant proofs crowding upon you as you read with faith; but you never will so read, and never get full profit, unless your souls are thoroughly clear as to your own redemption. This is the indispensable condition of growing in the knowledge of Christ, and of real intelligence in the word of God. If you are not clear about the gospel, where is the good of talking much about the second advent? And, therefore, I press upon you to take care your souls have shared in the blessing of the first. Amen.
(Concluded)