I Will Send My Beloved Son, It May Be They Will Reverence Him When They See Him

[Posted by permission. Chippenham Old Baptist Chapel.]

Sermon preached at Old Baptist Chapel, Chippenham by Mr. G. D. Buss on Lord’s Day morning, 22nd April, 2018

“Then said the Lord of the vineyard, What shall I do? I will send My beloved Son: it may be they will reverence Him when they see Him.”—Luke 20:13

The Lord Jesus Christ here, in one of the many parables which He spoke, is, first of all, setting forth a solemn lesson for the generation in which He lived. He is also setting forth what lay before Him in a few weeks time from when He made this precious declaration. But this is also a word for every generation. It is just the same now as it was in the generation in which our Lord lived. “He came unto His own, and His own received Him not.” Friends, this is just as true today. Man has not changed. The nature of man is not more amenable to the Truth now than it was in our Lord’s day, here below. Thus, the question and the inference in our text this morning must be laid to the heart of everyone here: do we reverence Him?

“What think you of Christ? is the test,

To try both your state and your scheme; 

You cannot be right in the rest,

Unless you think rightly of Him.

As Jesus appears in your view,

As He is belovèd or not;

So God is disposèd to you;

And mercy or wrath is your lot.”

J. Newton

Do remember what our Lord said in His early ministry. “If ye believe not that I am He, ye shall die in your sins.” What a word that is for us this Sabbath morning! Not just to believe in our heads, that He is the eternal Son of God (we will come to that in a moment), but to believe in our hearts! To be receiving Him as that only One who can convey us safely to glory through His finished work! Do we, by grace, reverence the dear Son of God?

Well, the Lord tells this parable. First of all it had to do with the Jewish nation: this was the vineyard God had planted from Abraham’s day. God had sent His prophets; men like Elijah, Elisha, Isaiah and Jeremiah, to name but four. There are many others we could name. They were faithful men who warned their generations of their accountability to Almighty God. They were not freelancers; they were answerable to God. They all came with a two-fold message. On the one hand, God is a God who hates sin and cannot look upon it with any degree of allowance. Secondly, a golden thread of divine teaching from Genesis 1 right through to the end of Malachi is found: there is a remedy for sin. That remedy was to be found in the coming of our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ.

The vineyard was planted, and it was let out. But we read of the way in which the prophets were treated. Good Stephen, in his dying sermon, describes how it was. “Ye stiffnecked and uncircumcised in heart and ears, ye do always resist the Holy Ghost: as your fathers did, so do ye. Which of the prophets have not your fathers persecuted? and they have slain them which shewed before of the coming of the Just One; of whom ye have been now the betrayers and murderers: Who have received the law by the disposition of angels and have not kept it. When they heard these things, they were cut to the heart, and they gnashed on him with their teeth. But he, being full of the Holy Ghost, looked up stedfastly into heaven, and saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing on the right hand of God, and said, Behold, I see the heavens opened, and the Son of man standing on the right hand of God. Then they cried out with a loud voice, and stopped their ears, and ran upon him with one accord, and cast him out of the city, and stoned him: and the witnesses laid down their clothes at a young man’s feet, whose name was Saul. And they stoned Stephen, calling upon God, and saying, Lord Jesus, receive my spirit. And he kneeled down, and cried with a loud voice, Lord, lay not this sin to their charge. And when he had said this, he fell asleep.” My dear friends, that spirit of anti-Christ which was in that day is still alive today. The Christian Church is being actively opposed, and in certain parts of this world it is viciously opposed. In our own nation there are those voices beginning to rise that hate the very name of Christ, and want it expunged from our society and from being mentioned in any public way. This is the same spirit that is in the parable of our Lord before us. Eventually, the Lord says: “What shall I do?” ‘I have sent My prophets; I have sent My messengers. They have been wounded, they have been stoned and they have been cast out. I will now send My true, faithful Witness; My only begotten, dearly beloved Son, the Lord Jesus Christ.’ “It may be they will reverence Him when they see Him.”

I want, with God’s help, to look at our text in three ways. First of all, in the precious relationship between God and His dear Son. Secondly, in the sending of Him. On what mission was He sent? And thirdly, do we reverence Him? For, the Lord said: “All men should honour the Son, even as they honour the Father.” If we are not honouring the Son, we are not honouring the Father. The Father does not take that lightly; I say that most reverently. If you are despising the dear Son of God this Sabbath morning in one way or another, remember, there is a God in heaven who is listening and watching. Yes. May it be your mercy, as it was with Saul of Tarsus. They laid the clothes of Stephen at Saul’s feet. And I do believe that is where the work of grace began with Saul. We talk of the Damascus Road. Yes, there was a mighty work there. But already there were the pricks of conscience. As Saul saw Stephen and as he heard the way he preached and saw the way in which he died, I wonder if something began in Saul of Tarsus’ heart. Bless God, he became a valiant contender for the Truth. If anyone loved the name of Christ, Paul did; once Saul of Tarsus. That One he persecuted and hated became the joy of his heart. Yes, Paul reverenced Him.

Firstly then, let us look at our text. The relationship: “My beloved Son.” The Word of God tells us most clearly that there is one God. Let us be very clear about that. “Hear, O Israel; The Lord our God is one Lord.” Let us not have any other thought than that. There is only one God. He fills time and eternity, leaving room for no other but Himself. ‘Yet,’ you say, ‘there are many false gods.’ So there are, and the Lord God will deal with them one by one. And, if you are a child of God, dear friend, He will deal with your false deities, as well. You say: ‘I have not got any!’ What about self? If you just begin there you will soon find that you are an idolater by nature as much as anyone else is. But, although the Word of God most clearly teaches that there is one God, and as our text infers, there are three Persons in the glorious Trinity. They are one in glory, one in majesty, one in dignity, one in honour, one in power and one in will. In every way they are one. Yet, the benediction that we love and use at the close of our service tells us of three distinct Persons. “The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God,” (there we infer the Father) “and the communion of the Holy Ghost.” Three Persons – all one.

Our text tells us that God the Father has a true, only begotten, well- beloved, dearly beloved Son. We know that the Holy Ghost is the third Person of that glorious Trinity. Remember what is said about Him; friends, do listen! “No man can say that Jesus is the Lord, but by the Holy Ghost.” Remember that. It is not self-wisdom that will show you Christ. It is not by reading books; although books have their place, please do not mistake me. But it is by divine revelation. Just as the Lord took away the veil from the eye and the mind, heart and soul of Saul of Tarsus and then he saw; so we need the same work in our hearts. Take the veil of unbelief, infidelity, opposition and enmity to God and His Christ away, then, and then alone we see this precious Person, God’s dearly beloved Son.

So, God has a Son; one Son, His only begotten Son. One begotten from all eternity, the eternal Son of the eternal Father. God never became a Father, He was always a Father. Some of us became fathers when God kindly gave us a child. But, dear friends, God was eternally the Father and will be until all eternity. So He eternally had a Son. This Son is the One in our text: “My beloved Son.” So, here we have a relationship: a blessed relationship; an eternal relationship.

So, friends, the salvation of the Church of God rests on that relationship, because: “God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life.” What is it to perish? Have you ever thought about that? We often quote that well-known verse, don’t we? But, what do we mean when we say “perish”? Do we mean annihilation? Indeed we don’t! The Word of God does not teach that. To perish, dear friends, is to be cast forever from the presence, mercy, love and favour of God into a place where neither hope nor mercy will ever come. Those that are in the bottomless abyss have no hope whatsoever. In that sense, they have perished. They are beyond the gospel and beyond prayer! Isn’t that solemn? And, those who live and die a God-less – and I add a Christ-less life: that is the end of such. The Word of God says so. Our Lord Jesus Christ said so. How solemn it would be if anyone found in Old Baptist Chapel here this morning, although you have been singing some beautiful hymns and we have read some precious truths, yet, at the end of your days should still perish! How solemn if that should be the case! But we must be very faithful: a God-less life and a Christ-less life will end in just such a solemn condition. That is why it is so important that you and I should understand this relationship between God the Father and His dear Son. And, not only that, we should be praying that we might know Him, whom to know is life eternal. Oh that we might be asking the dear Spirit to come and teach us, as only He can! To reveal this precious Christ to us, personally! To assure us that He is ours and we are His! That is how we should be looking at our text this morning. And, if you have wisdom in your heart, that is how you will be looking at it.

“I will send My beloved Son.” Think what a love the Lord had for the vineyard! I am looking beyond that generation now to the Church of Christ in all ages. Oh, what great love the Lord has to His vineyard, to send none other than His well-beloved Son! Yes. So, my next point is, what did He send Him to do? Well, that would take many, many sermons to describe. Even if we preached a thousand sermons on this subject it would be like taking a bucket down to the seashore and try and empty the ocean. That one bucketful would represent what we have preached and what is left is what is yet to be learned. One of the beauties of eternity, and one of the occupations of eternity will be to begin to understand just what it meant: “I will send My beloved Son.”

Oh, the love behind that declaration! Oh, the determination behind it! Oh, the purpose behind it! That God should have a people at His right hand to adore and praise Father, Son and Holy Ghost to all eternity! “I will send My beloved Son.”

And, what did He come to do? Well, my dear friends, first of all He came on this account. He had a love to God’s law. And I hope you have that, by God’s grace. If you are a child of God, you will have, in a little measure, what our Lord had without measure: that is a love to God’s law and a love to the revelation of God’s will and purpose in the whole Word. If you are born again by the Holy Ghost and have a new nature, that is what makes the difference. Go back to John 1. “He came unto His own, and His own received Him not.” That is the background to our text. “But as many as received Him,” – there is a change – “to them gave He power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on His name: Which were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.” Look at the change: “received Him not,” but then they “received Him.” That is grace. When you and I were born into this world, we did not receive Christ. One of the many reasons for that was because we did not know God as God is: a holy, heart-searching, just God. We did not know our need as sinners. We were quite content with this world, as long as we had our fill of it. Some of us may have cloaked it with a form of religion and thought that would be saving. We “received Him not.” We did not need His righteousness. We did not need His atoning blood. We did not need Him as a Mediator. We did not need His glorious Person, God and Man; at least we thought we didn’t. But, what a mercy, dear friends, if you have been shown differently! Can you come with the good hymnwriter in hymn 737?

“Give me Christ, or else I die.”

W. Hammond

I have thought much this week on a certain point. I was walking down Chippenham High Street, and I pondered on what I saw around me. We are not to judge; do not mistake what I am going to say.

But it seemed to me that so many are living Christ-less lives. I had to look at myself, as well. Is my life one with Christ in it? How sad it is that, for the most part, it seems people are living Christ-less lives. They are happy, or at least they think they are. It searched me out: is my life a life with Christ in it? Is Christ in my heart “the Hope of glory?” How many here are living Christ-less lives? The Lord knows, and, if so, you receive Him not. You do not need Him. Many years ago, there was a man who wanted to distribute Bibles to the Chinese when they arrived at the various ports around our land. He went down to Southampton, or one of the major ports, and there was one of these ships coming in from China. He went up to those Chinese souls and asked them if they would like a Bible. But they had been trained in what they should answer: ‘We do not need your Bible.’ They all said the same thing, they had all been told what to say. ‘We do not need your Bible.’ Friends, that is man by nature. That is what the generation that our Lord was speaking about were like. And it is what you and I are like, left to ourselves. We do not need Christ. How solemn it is not to need Him! You will need Him in the Day of Judgment. You will need Him when He calls His sheep to His right hand. You will need Him when that solemn moment comes and earth will fail. Friend, do you need Him now? Has God wrought that great change? Do you need this precious Person? “My beloved Son”

So, what did He come to do? He came to fulfil the law of God in all its glorious precepts; every jot and tittle of it. He came not just to fulfil the moral law. No one lived a more holy, moral life than our dear Saviour did, I say that most reverently. Oh, the holiness of His spirit, the holiness of His words, the holiness of His actions and the holiness of thoughts! Who can measure it? How differently it compares with our sad, sorry lives! But it was also the ceremonial law that He came to fulfil. Every Jewish altar, where blood had been shed, pointed to the Lamb of God yet to come. Every type and every ceremony within the Temple had a voice in it: each ordinance proclaimed ‘the Saviour is coming’. When the dear Saviour uttered His dying breath on Calvary’s cross and the veil of the temple rent in twain from to top to the bottom, all those ceremonies ended. At that moment, in God’s account, no more was needed. Why? Because Christ had come. “My beloved Son.” He fulfilled all that the law, moral and ceremonial, could ever require. When He cried “It is finished,” there was not one aspect of the holy law of God that had been left untouched by His lovely life or undealt with in His holy purposes. He had fulfilled His Father’s will to the uttermost extent.

Then, blessed be His holy name, He then laid down that life, that lovely life. We read: “I am the Good Shepherd: the Good Shepherd giveth His life for the sheep.” Not just His last breath; He laid that down for His sheep, but He laid down every breath, every step, every word, every thought and every aspect of His holy life as an offering on the altar that God the Father had ordained. He offered up that holy life as “a Lamb without blemish and without spot” on behalf of sinners like you and me; wretched, ruined, lost, undone sinners, who, without that one offering would have no hope of heaven this Sabbath morning. Remember that. Oh, the work he came to do! And, what He endured on the cross, none, none can ever begin to explain. The length, the breadth, the depth and the height of it! The sorrows of His holy soul and the agonies of His spirit when His Father, the One in our text, hid His face from Him while He was enduring the curse for His dear people! “Cursed is every one that hangeth on a tree.” And so our Lord endured that curse.

“Endless blessings on the Lamb! 

Broken hearts, repeat the same; 

His dear heart was broken too, 

When He bore the curse for you.”

W. Gadsby

He bore that curse, child of God, poor coming sinner, poor repenting sinner here this Sabbath morning; that you might never endure that curse. It has gone. It has gone forever! It is cast forever beyond God’s back. “There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus.” Those who are viewed by God the Father in His well- beloved Son are those that have fled to the foot of the cross. They have fled to His precious blood. They have fled to His name as Jesus, who shall “save His people from their sins.” They have fled for refuge. They hide under that precious banner: “Jesus Christ, and Him crucified.” They have no hope except that:

“My hope is built on nothing less 

Than Jesus’ blood and righteousness; 

I dare not trust the sweetest frame,

But wholly lean on Jesus’ name. 

On Christ, the solid Rock, I stand; 

All other ground is sinking sand.”

E. Mote

“All other ground” – a God-less, Christ-less life and a God-less, Christ- less religion is sinking sand. Sinking sand is a terrible thing. You can walk on sinking sand and get sucked under in a matter of minutes. It is very sad, but it happens every year, even on our shores. It is a very dangerous thing to walk on sinking sand. You must look at the notices on the seashore to see if it is sinking sand, or not. Even horses have been swallowed up by sinking sand. And friend, that is what a hope without Christ is: sinking sand. “They will reverence Him when they see Him.” Did they? No. And nor did you, and nor did I. And we will not; until that great change, by grace, is come.

Let us then speak for a moment about reverence. We should pause here a moment. Much religion in our day is irreverent. I have always thought (I have told you many times) how reverently our Lord prayed to His Father in John 17. “Holy Father.” “O righteous Father.” May worship within Old Baptist Chapel always have that tenor to it: reverence. “God is greatly to be feared in the assembly of the saints, and to be had in reverence of all them that are about Him.” Remember that. “They will reverence Him when they see Him.”

Well, what is there to be revered in the dear One who was sent? First of all, we must revere Him as God’s only begotten, dearly beloved Son. That is the first thing. This is the great foundation. Was that Babe in Bethlehem’s manger the Son of God manifest in our nature, or not?

Was He who hung on Calvary’s tree an imposter? Or was he truly the Son of God, breathing out His human life unto death for His dear people? Well, if you have been taught of God, you will know the answer. Remember how Simon Peter made that wonderful declaration when he said: “We believe and are sure that Thou art that Christ, the Son of the living God.” What did the Lord say? “Blessed art thou, Simon Barjona: for flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto thee,” – it was not an inherited religion you had, nor your own wisdom: “but My Father,” the Father of this well-beloved Son in our text, “which is in heaven.” Who does He send to reveal His dear Son? His Holy Spirit. And, there is a reverence.

In that great Day when our Lord returns, what a reverence there will be at the feet of Jesus, as He returns as the Son of God! We read at least twice in the Revelation of a rebuke given to John. He fell down at the feet of one of the elders, and, on another occasion, at the feet of one of the angels and worshipped. “See thou do it not.” “Worship God.” But, when the glorious anthem went forth: “Worthy is the Lamb that was slain,” there was no voice of rebuke then. When the dear shepherds went to Bethlehem’s manger and bowed around that dear Babe, they were not rebuked. And nor were the wise men as they presented their gifts a little while later. They were not rebuked. And nor was blind Bartimaeus. Why did Bartimaeus cry out: “Thou Son of David, have mercy on me”? Because, dear friends, he believed Him to be who He is; the Messiah. There was reverence. We reverence Him as the Son of God.

Secondly, we reverence him in His holy humanity; His holy manhood. There never was a life like His. There never was a death like His, either. Oh, with what reverence we should handle this precious truth! That holy Man: the holy and the just One. Yes. But look how they treated Him. They spat at Him, they crowned him with thorns and they scourged Him. ‘Oh!’ you say, ‘I would not do that!’ My dear friends, had you been there, you would have done if grace was not in exercise. The heart of man is at enmity to God and Godliness. You would have been moved just as all that vast multitude were, crying: “Crucify Him, crucify Him.” And it is the same today; there is just the same spirit around today.

Now, dear friends, do we reverence this dear Man? Do we thank God that He is not just God, but Man also? By becoming Man, He came under the law that you and I have transgressed. By taking man’s nature, He came to fulfil, in that nature what the law required of poor sinners. How thankful we should be! How reverently did Mary Magdalene, Salome, Johanna, Joseph of Arimathaea, and Nicodemus carry that lifeless body to the tomb! With what holy reverence did they lay it there in that sacred place, awaiting His resurrection three days later! Reverence! We should reverence Him as the Son of Man.

Thirdly, we should reverence His Word.

“The written and the incarnate Word 

In all things are the same.”

J. Hart

The way you handle this blessed Book is an indication of whether you reverence the Lord Jesus Christ, or not. There are certain pages in it of which you might say, ‘Well, I do not like that page. I do not like that command there; I would rather not have anything to do with it.’ Do you think, dear friend, that the Holy Spirit, in inspiring the Word has made a mistake? And, are you not doing despite to the incarnate Word when you say that certain verses do not refer to you? Look at the precepts. Look at how the apostles, through the Holy Ghost, in the Epistles of the New Testament set before us the manner in which we should live; how we should behave and how we should dress. All those things are there, not because of legal duty, but for love’s sake; for love to Christ. Be careful how you handle this Word, dear friends. All of us are guilty, I know. May we lay it to heart. “O how love I Thy law!” That is another name for the Word of God. “It is my meditation all the day.” Reverence.

But, dear friends, we should especially reverence Him for this reason: has He ever put forth His loving hand and touched you through His Word? If ever He has laid in your heart, by the Holy Ghost, a word from His lovely lips, there will be something in that word that not only gives you joy, but also a holy reverence to Him. It will indeed. “It may be they will reverence Him when they see Him.” Well, if grace has touched your heart, you will prize the “exceeding great and precious promises.” You will prize those sweet invitations. You will prize any part of God’s Holy Word that shows to you what you perhaps never saw before of a precious Christ. That is how the two on the road to Emmaus had such joy. Their tears were turned to joy as Christ showed Himself through the lattice of the Old Testament. Scripture after Scripture all pointing to Him! “Ought not Christ to have suffered these things, and to enter into His glory?” “It may be they will reverence Him when they see Him.”

Well, dear friends, you will reverence Him if you have seen Him by faith. It will change your very life. You may hear the name of Christ being spoken of disparagingly, or even hear His name taken in blasphemy. You should not be silent when you hear someone speaking like that. Let not the fear of man stop your mouth. Many years ago, when I was teaching in the City of Coventry, I was in the Maths department. The head of that department was a very Godless man – I have to say it. Sadly, he was used to swearing quite readily. But, one morning, he used the name of Christ in such a terrible way that I had to say something. I told him that to some of us, that Name is precious. He did apologise – I give him his due. Friends, is it so precious to you that you will defend it? Would you defend it? Or does the fear of man shut your mouth? Are you ashamed of Jesus? “For whosoever shall be ashamed of Me and of My words, of him shall the Son of Man be ashamed, when He shall come in His own glory, and in His Father’s, and of the holy angels.” He says that Himself. This comes very close, doesn’t it? “It may be they will reverence Him when they see Him.”

But then, blessed be His holy name, there are two other ways to look at our text in a positive way. What a wonderful thing it will be for a child of God to get home to glory! What adoration there will be when they see Him face to face!

“That will be glory, be glory for me

When by His grace I His beauties shall see.”

C. H. Gabriel

We will cast our crowns at His dear feet. We will look on those once wounded hands, and we will hear Him say: ‘All this was done for you.’ What expressions of joy there will be, if I can use that term! It is difficult to put into human terms what there will be within the veil. Oh, the joy that awaits God’s dear people! To gaze on that dear King! To hear His lovely voice! To feel His presence! To adore the Father who sent Him, the Son who came and the Holy Ghost who revealed Him! At school I used to sing a hymn which ended like this: ‘Eternity is not too long to praise Him.’ There will not be an end to eternity. But even that will not suffice to give all the praise due to this precious One.

Again. When He returns they will reverence Him. We read a very solemn word: “Every eye shall see Him, and they also which pierced Him.” What a day it will be when this great Son of God does return! The Just One, the Judge of all the earth, appointed by the Father to be that, in that solemn auspicious moment! At that moment, every knee from Adam’s day until the end of time, will bow before Him in that vast, vast accumulated company. There will be those who bow in adoration, admiration, love and joy. “This is my Beloved.” ‘This is my Saviour. This is my Friend. This is the One to whom I owe so much.’

But, dear friends, there will be those who will call on the mountains to fall on them and rocks to cover them, but all to no avail. All their unbelief will not serve them in that solemn day. They will have to acknowledge “that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.” It will be so. How solemn if that should be to our eternal shame! That One whom we did not reverence; that One under whose Word we did not humble ourselves. That One to whom we never fled for refuge; that One whom we never desired to know! We were content to be without Him. We may have clothed ourselves with a form of religion thinking that that would do. But, to know a precious Christ savingly was something we never wanted to know. We thought we could do without Him. Oh, my dear friends! Take this word to heart this morning hour. What reverence is due to this dear Saviour! He is worthy of it. May you be taught to reverence Him, to obey Him and, above all, to flee for refuge to Him, to hide yourself in the cleft of the Rock; that riven side of which good Augustus Toplady wrote:

“Rock of Ages, cleft for me;

Let me hide myself in Thee;

Let the water and the blood,

From Thy riven side which flowed, 

Be of sin the double cure,

Cleanse me from its guilt and power.

A. M. Toplady

“Then said the Lord of the vineyard, What shall I do? I will send My beloved Son: it may be they will reverence Him when they see Him.” There is one other principle we must remember. God the Father has such a love for His well-beloved Son that whoever does despite to Him, He feels with His dear Son. He does not look on that lightly. Even godly Moses had to learn that lesson, didn’t he? He was told to speak to the rock in the Book of Numbers. He had already smitten the rock in the book of Exodus. But he lost his temper: “Hear now, ye rebels; must we fetch you water out of this rock?” He smote the rock twice. Yes, the water came out. But the Lord told Moses that he had acted wrongly. Why was the Lord so angry with Moses? When the Lord Jesus Christ came, eventually, as the Rock of Ages, it was only once He was to die. Only once He was to be smitten. Only once was the cleft of the rock to be opened for sinners’ sakes. It did not need to be repeated. And Moses, by smiting, rather than speaking to the rock, was doing despite to the glory of God’s dear Son. And God the Father noticed it and reproved Moses solemnly for it. He did not shut him out of glory. No; blessed be God for that. I am sure the dear man saw His mistake. But, if a man like Moses can err, friends, how much more can you and I? Just look back over this past week. Have you reverenced His Son? Have you reverenced His Word? Have you reverenced His house? Have you reverenced His people in that sense: “Thy people shall be my people, and thy God my God.”? What do you think of God’s people? Jesus loves them. Do you love them?

Well, this is a searching point, isn’t it? “It may be they will reverence Him when they see Him.” Oh, that you might be on the right side of this word, dear friends. May the Holy Ghost put into your heart that sweet love for Jesus: “Let us go forth therefore unto Him without the camp, bearing His reproach. For here have we no continuing city, but we seek one to come.” There is “one to come.” This life is only a vapour. It is very soon over. Even during this past week some have been launched into eternity totally unexpectedly. None of us know how short our life is. We do not know how soon we will have to stand before the throne of this very One. Will it be with reverence and godly fear? Will we come to Him as the One to whom we have already come, by God’s grace alone, as the Saviour of the lost? Or will we stand in awesome terror without an Advocate or without a High Priest? Oh, dear friends, such will be in an eternally lost state. Lay these things to heart. “Then said the Lord of the vineyard, What shall I do? I will send My beloved Son: it may be they will reverence Him when they see Him.”

May God add His blessing.

Amen.