By JOHN BUNYAN.
“Beginning at Jerusalem,”—Luke xxiv. 47.
THE whole verse runs thus:—“And that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in His name among all nations, beginning at Jerusalem.”
The words were spoken by Christ, after He rose from the dead, and they are here rehearsed after an historical manner, but do contain in them a formal commission, with a special clause therein. The commission is, as you see, for the preaching of the Gospel, and is very distinctly inserted in the holy record, by Matthew and Mark. “Go, teach all nations,” &c. “Go ye into all the world and preach the Gospel unto every creature.” Matt. xxviii. 19; Mark xvi. 15. Only this clause is in special mentioned by Luke, who saith, That as Christ would have the doctrine of repentance and remission of sins preached in His name among all nations, so He would have the people of Jerusalem to have the first proffer thereof. “Preach it (saith Christ) in all nations: but begin at Jerusalem.”
I must touch upon two things, namely:—
I. Show you what Jerusalem now was.
II. Show you what it was to preach the Gospel to them.
I. Jerusalem was the place and seat of God’s worship, but now decayed, degenerated, and apostatized. The word, the rule of worship, was rejected of them, and in its place they had put and set up their own traditions; they had rejected also the most weighty ordinances, and put in the room thereof their own little things. Jerusalem was therefore now greatly backslidden, and become the place where truth and true religion were much defaced. It was also now become the very sink of sin, and seat of hypocrisy, and gulf where true religion was drowned. Here also now reigned presumption, and groundless confidence in God, which is the bane of souls. Amongst its rulers, doctors, and leaders, envy, malice, and blasphemy, vented themselves against the power of godliness, in all places where it was espied; as
also against the promoters of it; yea, their Lord and Maker could not escape them. In a word, Jerusalem was now become the shambles, the very slaughtershop for saints. This was the place wherein the prophets, Christ, and His people were most horribly persecuted and murdered. Yea, so hardened at this time was this Jerusalem in her sins, that she feared not to commit the biggest, and to bind herself by wish under the guilt and damning evil of it; saying, when she had murdered the Son of God, “His blood be upon us and our children.”
This is the city and these are the people; this is their character, and these are their sins. Nor can there be produced their parallel in all this world. Nay, what world? what people? what nation for sin and transgression, could be compared to Jerusalem? Especially if you join to the matter of fact, the light they sinned against, and the patience which they abused. Infinite was the wickedness upon this account which they committed.
- I now come to show you what it was to preach the Gospel to them. It was, saith Luke, to preach to them “repentance and remission of sins in Christ’s name;” or, as Mark has it, to bid them “repent and believe the Gospel,” Mark i. 15. Not that repentance is a cause of remission, but a sign of our hearty reception thereof. Repentance is therefore here put, to intimate that no pretended faith of the Gospel is good, that is not accompanied with it. And this he doth on purpose, because he would not have them deceive themselves; for with what faith can he expect remission of sins in the name of Christ, that is not heartily sorry for them? Or how shall a man be able to give to others a satisfactory account of his unfeigned subjection to the Gospel, that yet abides in his impenitency?
And now we come to this clause, “Beginning at Jerusalem;” that is, that Christ would have Jerusalem have the first offer of the Gospel.
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This cannot be so commanded, because they had now any more right of themselves thereto, than had any of the nations of the world; for their sins had divested them of all self-deservings.
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Nor yet because they stood upon the advance-ground with the worst of sinners of the nations. Nay, rather the sinners of the nations had the advance-ground of them.
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It must therefore follow that this clause, “Begin at Jerusalem,” was put into this commission of mere grace and compassion; even from the overflownings of the bowels of mercy. For indeed they were the worst, and so in the most deplorable condition of any people under the heavens.
From these words, therefore, thus explained, we gain this observation:—
That Jesus Christ would have mercy offered in the first place to the biggest sinner.
One would have thought, since the Jerusalem sinners were the worst and greatest sinners, and those that not only despised Christ’s person, doctrine, and miracles, but that a little before had had their hands in his heart’s blood, that He should rather have said, Go into all the world, and preach repentance and remission of sins among all nations; and, after that, offer the same to Jerusalem. Yea, it had been infinite grace, if He had said so. But what grace is this? or what name shall we give it, when He commands that this repentance and remission of sins, which is designed to be preached in all nations, should first be offered to Jerusalem—in the first place to the worst of sinners?
Nor was this the first time that the grace which was in the heart of Christ thus showed itself to the world. For while He was yet alive, even while He was yet in Jerusalem, and perceived, even among these Jerusalem sinners, which was the most vile amongst them, He still in His preaching did signify that he had a desire that the worst of these worst should in the first place come unto Him. The which He showeth where He saith to the better sort of them, “The publicans and harlots enter into the kingdom of God before you,” Matt. xxi. 31. Also when He compared Jerusalem with the sinners of the nations, then He commands that the Jerusalem sinners should have the Gospel at present confined to them. “Go not,” saith He, “into the way of the Gentiles, and into any of the cities of the Samaritans
enter ye not: but go rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel,” Matt. x. 5, 6; xxiii. 37. But go rather to them, for they were in the most fearful plight.
These, therefore, must have the cream of the Gospel, namely, the first offer thereof in His lifetime; yea, when He departed out of the world, He left this as part of His last will with His preachers, that they also should offer it first to Jerusalem. He had a mind to privilege the worst of sinners with the first offer of mercy, and to take from among them a people to be the first-fruits unto God and unto the Lamb.
For after Peter and the rest of the apostles had, in their exhortation, persuaded these wretches to believe that they had killed the Prince of life, and after they had fallen under the guilt of their murder, saying, “Men and brethren what shall we do?” He replies by a universal tender to them all in general, considering them as Christ’s killers, that if they were sorry for what they had done, and would be baptized for the remission of their sins in His name, they should receive the gift of the Holy Ghost, Acts ii. 37, 38.
This He said to them all. Yea, He said it without the least stick, or stop, or pause of spirit: “Repent,” saith He, “and be baptized every one of you. I shut out never-a-one of you. For I am commanded by my Lord to deal with you, as it were, one by one, by the word of His salvation.” But why speaks He so particularly? Oh! there was reason for it. The people with whom the apostles were now to deal, as they were murderers of our Lord, and to be charged in the general with His blood, so they had their various and particular acts of villainy in the guilt thereof, now lying upon their consciences. And the guilt of these their various and particular acts of wickedness, could not perhaps be reached to a removal thereof, but by this particular application.
Objection. But I was one of them that plotted to take away His life: may I be saved by Him?—Peter. Every one of you.—
Object. But I was one of them that bare false witness against Him: Is there grace for me?—Peter. For every one of you.—
Object. But I was one of them that cried out, Crucify, crucify Him; and that desired that Barabbas the murderer might live rather than Him: What will become of me, think you?—Peter. I am to preach repentance and remission of sins to every one of you.—Object. But I was one of them that did spit in His face when He stood before His accusers. I also was one that mocked Him, when in anguish He hung bleeding on the tree: Is there room for me?—Peter. For every one of you.—Object. But I was one of them that, in His extremity said, Give Him gall and vinegar to drink; why may not I expect the same when anguish and guilt is upon me?—Peter. Repent of these your wickednesses, here is remission of sins for every one of you.—Object. But I railed on Him, I reviled Him, I hated Him, I rejoiced to see Him mocked at by others: Can there be hopes for me?—Peter. There is for every one of you. “Repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ, for the remission of sins, and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost.” Oh! what a blessed Every one of you is here! How willing was Peter, and the Lord Jesus, by His ministry, to catch these murderers with the word of the Gospel, that they might be made monuments of the grace of God! Yea, what an amazing wonder it is to think, that above all the world, and above every body in it, these should have the first offer of mercy. “Beginning at Jerusalem.”
But what a pitch of grace is this! Christ is minded to amaze the world, and to show that He acteth not like the children of men. This is not the manner of men; men are shorter wined; men are soon moved to take vengeance, and to right themselves in a way of wrath and indignation. But God is full of grace, full of patience, ready to forgive, and one that delights in mercy. The biggest sinners must first be offered mercy. They must, I say, have the cream of the Gospel offered unto them.
But we will a little proceed. In the third chapter we find, that they who escaped converting by the first sermon, are called upon again, to accept of grace and forgiveness, for their murder
committed upon the Son of God. You have killed; yea, “You have denied the Holy One and the Just, and desired a murderer to be granted unto you: and killed the Prince of life.” Mark, he again falls upon the very men that actually were, as you have it in the chapters following, his very betrayers and murderers, Acts iii. 14, 15, as being loath that they should escape the mercy of forgiveness. And exhorts them again to repent, “that their sins might be blotted out,” ver. 19, 20. Again, in the fourth chapter, he charges them afresh with this murder, ver. 10; but withal tells them, “Salvation is in no other.” Then, like a heavenly decoy, he puts himself also among them, to draw them the better under the net of the Gospel, saying, “There is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved,” ver. 12. In the fifth chapter you find them railing at him, because he continued preaching among them salvation in the name of Jesus. But he tells them, “That that very Jesus whom they had slain and hanged on a tree, him God had raised up, and exalted to be a Prince and a Saviour, to give repentance to Israel, and forgiveness of sins,” ver. 29-31. Still insinuating, that though they had killed him, and to this day rejected him, yet his business was to bestow upon them repentance and forgiveness of sins.
It is true, after they began to kill again, and when nothing but killing would serve their turn; then they that were scattered abroad went every where preaching the word. Yet even some of them so hankered after the conversion of the Jews, that they preached the Gospel only to them. Also the apostles still made their abode at Jerusalem, in hopes that they might yet let down their net for another draught of these Jerusalem sinners. Neither did Paul and Barnabas, who were the ministers of God to the Gentiles, but offer the Gospel, in the first place, to those of them that, for their wickedness, were scattered like vagabonds among the nations. Yea, and when they rendered rebellion and blasphemy, for their service and love; they replied, “It was necessary that the Word of God should first have been spoken to them.” Acts i. 8; xiii. 46, 47.
Nor was this their preaching unsuccessful among these people; but the Lord Jesus so wrought with the word thus spoken, that thousands of them came flocking to him for mercy. Three thousand of them closed with him at the first; and afterwards two thousand more: for now they were in number about five thousand, whereas before sermons were preached to these murderers, the number of the disciples “were not above a hundred and twenty.” Acts i. 15; ii. 41; iv. 4. Also among these people that thus flocked to him for mercy, there was a “great company of priests,” vi. 7. Now the priests were they that were the greatest of these biggest sinners; they were the ringleaders, they were the inventors and ringleaders in the mischief. It was they that set the people against the Lord Jesus, and that was the cause why the uproar increased, until Pilate had given sentence upon Him. “The chief priests and elders (says the text) persuaded (the people) the multitude, that they should ask Barabbas, and destroy Jesus,” Matt. xxvii. 20. And yet behold the priests, yea, a great company of the priests, became obedient to the faith.
Oh the greatness of the grace of Christ! that He should be thus in love with the souls of Jerusalem sinners. That He should be thus delighted with the salvation of the Jerusalem sinners. That He should not only will that His Gospel should be offered to them, but that it should be offered unto them first and before other sinners were admitted to a hearing of it: “Begin at Jerusalem.”
Remembrance Day.
AS the 11th day of November of each year comes round it has become a national custom to remember the gallant dead who laid down their lives for their country. It is now thirteen years since the dreadful carnage of the Great War ceased and there are hearts still bleeding that will feel their sorrows as long as they live. Away in quiet lonely places
and in the crowded towns and cities the day comes as a reminder of those whose places are vacant. The question has been discussed as to whether it shows tenderness to the bereaved that this day should be so universally observed and many have given the answer that it should not but leaving this meantime, there are good sound reasons for objecting to the way in which the day is observed. Memorial services are invariably held at the War Memorials, speeches and addresses by ministers and others are delivered. Some very foolish sentiments are expressed by some of the speakers and it is becoming all too common to regard what happened on the battlefield in cutting short the lives of loved ones as having opened the gates of heaven to them. It is almost incredible that this Mohammedan doctrine should have found a footing in a Christian land but unfortunately there is too much evidence that it has and it is becoming so firmly entrenched that many regard it with as much authority as a truth revealed from heaven.
Then there is the natural tendency of these services to foster the spirit that craves prayer for the dead. In St. Giles we find Dr. Warr unblushingly praying for the dead at one of these services and when protests were made in the public press it is amazing how much vapid sentiment appeared in the correspondence columns expressing approval of the Dean of the Thistle’s prayer. Another incident, recorded in a northern paper, was the cutting short of a prayer when the two minutes silence was announced by the blowing of a steam whistle. We do not suppose there was much lost by the cutting short of the prayer but the incident throws a certain light on these services.
One of the most objectionable features, however, of these services is their transfer to the Lord’s Day. This is taking place in many parts of the country and in some places there were processions headed by pipe-bands, etc., from the place of worship to the War Memorial where a wreath or wreaths were laid. Anything out of the ordinary which will bring a big crowd to the Church is all that some ministers seem to care
for. But if those who spend the Lord’s Day in this way are deluding themselves that they and they only are grateful for the sacrifice made by their countrymen who shall never return they are greatly mistaken. So obsessed have some who attend these functions become with this idea that they have no hesitation in blackballing those, who, for good reasons, do not attend the memorial services as if they were unpatriotic and lacking in sympathy. It is not always the men who make an outward show and march to the beat of the drum who are the most sympathetic and patriotic. These memorial services are like to do a vast deal of mischief to true religion in Scotland. They are exalting sentiment to a place of honour and dethroning true religion, to put it shortly they are putting a shadow in the place of the substance. Love of country, admirable in itself, is not to be exalted to the place which true religion ought to occupy.
An Address to the Young.
By the Rev. JOHN BROWN, HADDINGTON.
MY dear young friends, for whom my heart’s desire and prayer to God is, that ye may be saved; let me beseech you, while you read this, and especially while you read your Bible, or hear the precious truths contained in it preached to you, to hearken and hear for the time, for the eternity, to come. Now, in the most proper season for it, get wisdom as the principal thing; and with all your getting, get understanding of the important, the infinitely important concerns of your salvation.
What! know ye not your own selves? For the Lord’s sake, seriously think, that ye have immortal souls, souls, one of which is inconceivably more worth than ten thousand worlds; souls which are capable of enjoying an infinite God as their everlasting all in all; souls, which must, ere long, enter into an
eternal state of inconceivable misery or happiness. Alas, my young friends, must souls, formed by God Himself, and formed for the immediate service and everlasting enjoyment of God: must souls, which, by the mercy of God, have been solemnly devoted to Him in baptism, upon which parents, masters, or ministers, have bestowed so many prayers and exhortations; souls, upon which God hath bestowed such instruction, warning, alarms, allurements, be lost, for ever lost!
O think, as before God, what state you are in, while ye remain careless and unconverted. “Being children of the devil, your heart is filled with all unrighteousness, pride, debate, deceit, malignity, hatred of God, ignorancence, unbelief, subtilty, and mischief. It is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked. Your carnal mind is enmity against God, and is not subject to His law, neither indeed can be.” It is infected with every defiling, every ruinous and destructive plague: replenished with every sinful lust, in the reigning power of it, and inhabited by legions of devils, ready to tempt you to every thing wicked. And ah! what innumerable, what dreadful curses of Almighty God, are inseparably annexed to all your sinful dispositions, thoughts, words, and actions! Alas! how those render all things, Christ and His Gospel not excepted, the saviour of death unto death! Dreadful thought! Eternal destruction awaits you, and your final doom will be more intolerable than that of Sodom and Gomorrah, because ye believe not in the name of the only begotten Son of God. God is angry with you every day; His wrath abideth on you; a sound of your approaching destruction roars aloud, had you ears to hear it, in every threatening of His word. Why then are you not afraid to shut your eyes, even in necessary sleep, lest you should open them in hell?
My dear young friends, O think with deep concern, think, how criminal and heinous before the Lord are the sins of your youth, which ye look upon as mere trifles, as mere gaiety and sport. They are the accursed fruit of your inward enmity against God. They are also a most treacherous rebellion against
His law, which is holy, just, and good. They strongly entice others around you to sin, or harden them in it. They cast reproach upon God, as if His laws, promises, threatenings, warnings, counsels, mercies, and judgments, were unworthy of your early regard. They draw down reproach on yourselves, which ye must bear, either in deep convictions, or in everlasting punishments. They deprive you of the most pleasant and profitable fellowship with God. They forfeit for you the precious promises of long life and prosperity. They expose you to fearful judgments in this life, and to the damnation of hell in the next. Are these light matters? Will you reckon them such in the agonies of death, at the tribunal of Christ, amidst the flames of hell?
Alas! why do ye, by your unconcern, take such early pains to fit yourselves to be fuel for that everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels! If God grant you repentance, how will it sting you to recollect, what earnest offers, what eminent opportunities of receiving His grace, ye have contemned, neglected, and abused; what infinite kindness, condescension, and love, ye have trampled under your feet; what delightful feasting of His goodness, and what enriching reception of His fulness, you have rejected for the sake of the meanest or filthiest pleasure or profit on earth.
My dear young friends, know ye the God of your fathers; the God who preserved, who guided, who blessed, who saved many of your fathers; the God to whom your fathers dedicated you, and whom they have recommended to you; the God who, in your fathers, took you into covenant with Himself; the God “whom to know is life eternal, and this life is in His Son.” We tell you, our posterity, that “this God is our God for ever, and He will be our guide even unto death.” We never found Him a barren wilderness, nor a land of drought. We have found infinitely more satisfaction in this God as our God, given by Himself to us in His word, than could balance all the pleasure, all the wealth, all the honour of ten thousand worlds. These words, thy God, and my God, have been found by us, and we
have eaten them, and they have been to us the joy and rejoicing of our heart. There is none like the God of Jeshurun, who pardoneth iniquity, transgression, and sin, and who delighteth in mercy. O how our hearts are ravished, when we think, how this God, this fountain of living waters, shall be our eternal all in all, the strength of our heart and portion for ever. If, even on this sinful earth, wisdom’s ways be such ways of pleasantness, what must it be for ever to enter into the joy of our Lord. “We shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is. O come, taste and see that our God is good, and that they who trust in Him are blessed.” O! consider the apostle and high priest of our profession, Christ Jesus. Consider Him, in His unparalleled person, as the only begotten Son of God in our nature; in His saving offices, His endearing relations, His incomparable excellencies, services, sufferings, and glories; His unbounded fulness of grace and truth, and every good thing proper to be bestowed on us in time and eternity; and then tell us, what ye think of our Christ.
Alas! my dear friends, do you believe that there is a God, who gave you a law for your heart and life, and who will quickly call you to account of every thought, word, and deed, and never think of, never tremble at the view of your appearance before His tribunal, or of your lying for ever under His infinite wrath? Have ye not heard, what He hath done for the eternal salvation of sinful men? And will ye render Him contempt and hatred for all His bounty and love! Will you readily believe every thing, but the gracious words of a God who cannot lie? “His faithful saying, worthy of all acceptance, that Jesus Christ came into the world to save sinners, even the chief?” His record, that in His Son, there is eternal life prepared for, and given to you? Will you earnestly desire every thing but Jesus, the pearl of great price, the unspeakable gift of God, and His great and everlasting salvation? Will you comply with every thing, but the offers of the glorious gospel, and covenant of grace, well ordered in all things and sure? Will you thankfully receive every thing but God Himself, the true
bread of life, which the Lord your God giveth you from heaven?
Why fond of every form of comeliness, but that of gracious
conformity to God? Why fond of every pleasure, every joy,
but that rejoicing in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, which
is joy unspeakable and full of glory?
(To be continued.)