1944 Bible Studies - page 120

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BIBLE STUDIES.

From Glasgow. --As we look at the Lord Jesus as Physician., we see the attitude of those to whom He spoke.  The scribes and Pharisees thought they were righteous because they kept the law and offered sacrifices.  They felt no need of a physician, and we see from Matthew 9. 6 that they were carrying out the letter of the law, but had not caught the spirit thereof.  For if they had looked into the law more closely they would have learned that. although its demands were rigorous, there were love and mercy enshrined in its precepts.

When we come to John 10. the Lord Jesus is giving an answer to the scribes and Pharisees who were trying to prove He was not a true prophet, but an impostor.

The Lord brings before them the illustration of a sheepfold in an eastern country where a shepherd knows his sheep by name and his sheep know him, and will only follow him. There are those who would like to lead them, but they do not go in by the door, but climb up some other way.  The Lord says they are thieves and robbers and likens them to the scribes and Pharisees who were leaders in Israel, and although they were looking for their Messiah, they did not accept Christ as the x coming One.

The Lord enters the fold by the door, proving that He is the true Shepherd of the sheep, and to Him the porter openeth. We thought the porter was John the Baptist, as we considered his message in John 1. 7.

The Lord Jesus declared Himself to be the Door of the sheep, and those who follow Him are His sheep. He is the Good Shepherd, for when danger cometh He not only protects them, but layeth down His life for them, when those who are hirelings flee.  When we come to verse 16, where the Lord said there were other sheep which were not of this fold, there were different thoughts as to who the other sheep were and when they would become one flock.  [See note in paper from Yeovil. ] We know that in a past day, God had only one flock, for He called Israel " My people, " and we were reminded of Psalm 77. 20 and Psalm 78. 52, 53. So we see with all their failure God could look upon them as His flock, and we know to-day it is God’s desire that His people should be as one flock under the care of under-shepherds who are responsible to the Great Shepherd for the care of the flock, as the Apostle could write to those who had the care of the flock in Acts 20. 28, 29.

We know to-day there are many who profess faith in Christ, but we could not look upon them as one flock in the sense that they are obeying the voice of the Shepherd.

Jas. Gartshore.

Questions and Answers.

Question from Kilmarnock. --Matthew 10. 5, 6. The Apostles were not to go in the way of the Gentiles or Samaritans, but rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. Would the lost sheep be those who received them and their message and who were worthy ?

Answer. --I would judge that all were lost, as Isaiah 53. 6 says, " All we like sheep have gone astray, " not that only such as received the messengers and the message were deemed to be lost. ’All were lost, but alas, not all were saved. --J. M.

Question from Liverpool. --Who are those who are bidden to the marriage supper of the Lamb ? (Revelations 19. 9).

Answer. Believing as I do that the Church which is Christ’s Body is the Lamb’s wife, those that are bidden to the Marriage Supper do not include any of the saints of this present dispensation.  The marriage of the Lamb, I judge, takes place in heaven.  The Greek verbs for " is come " and " hath made ready " are in the aorist tense.  The Englishman’s Greek New Testament says " did make ready herself. " The Marriage Supper, from what is said in Matthew 22. and 25.

takes place on earth, and those who are invited to such a supper are all such as Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, the prophets, the saints, the great and the small, even all who will be counted worthy to attain unto that age (the Millennial age of the reign of Christ).  Those who are bidden are not simply those to whom the invitation came, but such as- accepted it and came. --J. M.