The Reformed room Bible study

CCWoody · #41 11th June 2004, 09:42 AM

If anyone wants to be added to the Bible study mail list to receive the Spurgeon sermons, please PM me an email address and I will add you. This is today's sermon.

THE IMMUTABILITY OF CHRIST.

NO. 170

A SERMON DELIVERED ON SABBATH MORNING, JANUARY 3, 1858,

BY THE REV. C. H. SPURGEON,

AT THE MUSIC HALL, ROYAL SURREY GARDENS.

“Jesus Christ the same yesterday, and to-day, and for ever.” — Hebrews 13:8.

T is well that there is one person who is the same. It is well that there is one stable rock amidst the changing billows of this sea of life; for how many and how grievous have been the changes of last year? How many of you who commenced in affluence, have by the panic, which has shaken nations, been reduced almost to poverty? How many of you, who in strong health marched into this place on the first Sabbath of last year, have had to come tottering here, feeling that the breath of man is in his nostrils, and wherein is he to be accounted of? Many of you came to this hall with a numerous family, leaning upon the arm of a choice and much loved friend. Alas! for love, if thou wert all, and nought beside, o earth! For ye have buried those ye loved the best. Some of you have come here childless, or widows, or fatherless, still weeping your recent affliction. Changes have taken place in your estate that have made your heart full of misery. Your cups of sweetness have been dashed with draughts of gall; your golden harvests have had tares cast into the midst of them, and you have had to reap the noxious weed along with the precious grain. Your much fine gold has become dim, and your glory has departed; the sweet frames at the commencement of last year became bitter ones at the end. Your raptures and your ecstacies were turned into depression and forebodings. Alas! for our charges, and hallelujah to him that hath no change.

But greater things have changed than we; for kingdoms have trembled in the balances. We have seen a peninsula deluged with blood, and mutiny raising its bloody war whoop. Nay, the whole world hath changed; earth hath doffed its green, and put on its sombre garment of Autumn, and soon expects to wear its ermine robe of snow. All things have changed. We believe that not only in appearance but in reality, the world is growing old. The sun itself must soon grow dim with age; the folding up of the wornout vesture has commenced; the changing of the heavens and the earth has certainly begun. They shall perish; they all shall wax old as doth a garment; but for ever blessed be him who is the same, and of whose years there is no end. The satisfaction that the mariner feels, when, after having been tossed about for many a day, he puts his foot upon the solid shore, is just the satisfaction of a Christian when, amidst all the changes of this troublous life, he plants the foot of his faith upon such a text as this — “the same yesterday, and to day, and for ever.” The same stability that the anchor gives the ship, when it hath at last got the grip of some immovable rock, that same stability doth our hope give to our spirits, when, like an anchor, it fixes itself in a truth so glorious as this — “Jesus Christ the same yesterday, and to-day, and for ever.”

I shall first try this morning to open the text by a little explanation; then I shall try to answer a few objections which our wicked unbelief will be quite sure to raise against it; and afterwards I shall try to draw a few useful, consoling, and practical lessons from the great truth of the immutability of Jesus Christ.

CCWoody · #42 18th June 2004, 11:08 AM

For those of you who may be curious as to my absence, I have not not abandoned this thread. I am continuing in my devotion of the Lord as I hope those of you reading with me have. However, I have been in the middle of a rather time consuming project at the office (actually 2 large projects and a few smaller ones) which has nearly eliminated my free time. Be patient with me. I am nearing the end.

Such is the life of an engineer.

CCWoody · #43 20th June 2004, 11:52 AM

Another Amil verse for your consideration:

Act 3:21 GB

(21) Whome the heauen must containe vntill the time that all thinges be restored, which God had spoken by the mouth of all his holy Prophets since the world began.

theseed · #44 20th June 2004, 01:44 PM

Originally Posted by CCWoody

Another Amil verse for your consideration:

Act 3:21 GB
(21) Whome the heauen must containe vntill the time that all thinges be restored, which God had spoken by the mouth of all his holy Prophets since the world began.

How is this verse amillennialist? Why can't the restoration be the Mellennial Kingdom? It actually seems pre-millennialist, because if the kingdom was here (post-millennial)., then Christ would have come back.

Acts 3 (NIV)
21He must remain in heaven until the time comes for God to restore everything, as he promised long ago through his holy prophets.

Acts 3 (NASB)
21He must remain in heaven until the time comes for God to restore everything, as he promised long ago through his holy prophets.

Acts 3 (KJV)
21 Whom the heaven must receive until the times of restitution of all things, which God hath spoken by the mouth of all his holy prophets since the world began.

CCWoody · #45 21st June 2004, 07:50 PM

Originally Posted by theseed

How is this verse amillennialist? Why can't the restoration be the Mellennial Kingdom? It actually seems pre-millennialist, because if the kingdom was here (post-millennial)., then Christ would have come back.

Acts 3 (NIV)
21He must remain in heaven until the time comes for God to restore everything, as he promised long ago through his holy prophets.

Acts 3 (NASB)
21He must remain in heaven until the time comes for God to restore everything, as he promised long ago through his holy prophets.

Acts 3 (KJV)
21 Whom the heaven must receive until the times of restitution of all things, which God hath spoken by the mouth of all his holy prophets since the world began.

You need to remember that in an eschatological discussion you can't read your expectations about the Millennium into someone else's. This is what you have done here when you presume that I would view the Millennium as having Christ physically present. As a Partial Preterist Amillennialist, I don't view the Millennium as requiring Christ to be physically present for him to be reigning over the kingdom of God.

Now, as to this verse, you are also reading your presumption into the verse when you state that the "restoration of ALL things" to be the institution of the Millennial reign of Christ.

When I read that Heaven must contain Christ until the restoration of ALL things, I presume that all things must be all things unless there is a compelling Scriptural reason to presume that Christ is only going to return after the restoration of some things, or all kinds of things, but not all things.

Plainly stated, you need to read your presumption into the verse. I don't. This is why I present this as an Amil verse. All I have to do is read the verse and make a mental note that the Lord will return when all things are restored.

Do you understand my position here?

theseed · #46 21st June 2004, 08:53 PM

Do you understand my position here?

I understand that you presume the millennial kingdom not to be literal.

Premillennialist have no problems with thier millenial interpretations because they interpret those passages literally.

And we must define what "all things" or "everything" means. Because it can't literally mean everthing either.

Can it mean that Satan will once again sit under God? No, he won't be restored.

CCWoody · #47 22nd June 2004, 10:50 PM

Originally Posted by theseed

I understand that you presume the millennial kingdom not to be literal.

Premillennialist have no problems with thier millenial interpretations because they interpret those passages literally.

And we must define what "all things" or "everything" means. Because it can't literally mean everthing either.

Can it mean that Satan will once again sit under God? No, he won't be restored.

Verse 23 makes it clear that the restoration of all things means the utter destruction of every soul that will not hear Christ. So, in the immediate context of the verse, we learn that the Return of Christ which will not happen until the restoration of all things which includes the utter destruction of everyone who will not hear Christ.

Premillennialism denies this by the belief that the utter destruction of these people will not occur until 1000 years after the return of the Lord.

IOW, this verse teaches that the Return of the Lord is tied to the Judgment of the Reprobates. Therefore our eschatology must include this belief, not be in contradiction to it.

theseed · #48 22nd June 2004, 11:26 PM

This much I have learned--Acts 3:21 is a premill. "pet" verse.

ksen · #49 23rd June 2004, 10:24 AM

Originally Posted by CCWoody

Another Amil verse for your consideration:

Act 3:21 GB
(21) Whome the heauen must containe vntill the time that all thinges be restored, which God had spoken by the mouth of all his holy Prophets since the world began.

If the Heaven must contain Christ until the Restoration, then how can He be reigning now?

theseed · #50 23rd June 2004, 11:05 AM

Excellent point. And although I don't understand the passage here, only premill. makes sense in light of Acts 1.6-7.

Acts 1 (NIV)

6So when they met together, they asked him, "Lord, are you at this time going to restore the kingdom to Israel?"
7He said to them: "It is not for you to know the times or dates the Father has set by his own authority.

Acts 1 (NASB)
6 So when they had come together, they were asking Him, saying, "Lord, (1) is it at this time You are restoring the kingdom to Israel?"
7 He said to them, "It is not for you to know times or epochs which (2) the Father has fixed by His own authority;

Acts 1 (KjV)
6 When they therefore were come together, they asked of him, saying, Lord, wilt thou at this time restore again the kingdom to Israel?
7 And he said unto them, It is not for you to know the times or the seasons, which the Father hath put in his own power.