Continuing on from our last study. Note the title they are given. ‘Ye blessed of my Father.’ Heaven is the result of the Father’s eternal blessing. The child of God has been blessed of the father in that He chose them in eternity, Ephesians 1:3-4. He has called them by the gospel, Romans 1:7.
Now we consider two more blessings.
Cared for. 1 Peter 1:3-5. “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, which according to his abundant mercy hath begotten us again unto a lively hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance incorruptible, and undefiled, and that fadeth not away, reserved in heaven for you, who are kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.”
Carried home. Luke 16:22. See Luke 24:51. Two words have common root.
We will be taken to Heaven in the same manner as Christ.
This is but part of the blessings of the father which are ours!
There is nothing more contradictory than to speak of harmless sin. Yet such a description is often used of those actions that are decidedly contrary to God’s word. (James 1:15. Euthanasia)
Our text shows a man about to act in accordance with the best counsel that his heart can provide. It was to kill himself. He felt himself in danger of the death penalty for allowing prisoners to escape {Acts 12:19} so felt that he would escape that penalty by killing himself. Wise logic indeed! Such a death is called the last remedy by Seneca the philosopher.
I. ALL UNCONVERTED MEN ARE ENGAGED IN HARMING THEMSELVES
The word harm means ‘wicked’ ‘evil’, Matt 21:41, 24:48. No matter how benign the actions may appear, they are evilly conceived and will produce evil.
1. Man’s heart can produce nothing but harm. “ . . . every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually,” Gen 6:5. No matter what the objective behind a decision, the end is always evil. “There is a way that seemeth right unto a man, but the end thereof are the ways of death,” Proverbs 16:25. “The way of a fool is right in his own eyes,” Proverbs 12:15. None may harm man but himself. God wishes him no harm (Eze 18:23, 32, 33:11, 1 Tim 2:4) and the devil is not permitted to harm him except through temptation in which man must first yield agreement to whatever happens to him.
2. The greatest harm has sprung from decisions for good. Eve’s sin is the chief example, Gen 3:6. Uzzah is another example, II Sam 6:6-7. Even Calvary sprang from such a decision, John 11:48-51. Again, Judas thought it good to betray Christ in order to enrich himself by 30 pieces of silver.
3. That man’s life is not swiftly ended is of God’s mercy alone. God must preserve men from the dire consequences of their decisions for good or else they would come to a swift end. Man has greatly damaged the fabric of the earth by his folly and greed. It is but a picture of the harmful course that he adopts. Even Penicillin has produced evil, enabling men to escape the earthly wages of their sins.
“When the Son of man shall come in his glory, and all the holy angels with him, then shall he sit upon the throne of his glory: and before him shall be gathered all nations: and he shall separate them one from another, as a shepherd divideth his sheep from the goats: and he shall set the sheep on his right hand, but the goats on the left,” 31-33.
You will recall that when we studied the parable of the Tares and the Wheat, we noted how the Saviour said: “He said unto them, An enemy hath done this. The servants said unto him, Wilt thou then that we go and gather them up? But he said, Nay; lest while ye gather up the tares, ye root up also the wheat with them. Let both grow together until the harvest: and in the time of harvest I will say to the reapers, Gather ye together first the tares, and bind them in bundles to burn them: but gather the wheat into my barn,” Matt 13:28-30.
Here then is the harvest of the ‘field’ and the separating of the ‘tares’ from the ‘wheat’.
“Then shall the King say unto them on his right hand, Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world,” verse 34.
Christ speaks first to His sheep.
Note the invitation. ‘Come’. Those who have rejected the invitation of the gospel will never hear this invitation!
Note the title they are given. ‘Ye blessed of my Father.’ Heaven is the result of the Father’s eternal blessing. Chosen by Him. Ephs 1:3-4. Called by Him. Romans 1:7.
