“The Master of the House Risen Up, and the Door Shut”
These solemn words of the Lord Jesus were part of His reply to one who said unto Him, “Lord, are there few that be saved?” As was usual with the blessed Lord, He answers the man, not his question. It was just such a question as a man might engage his thoughts with, solemn though it be, without any personal exercise whatever; a question which many a man would gladly discuss, and eagerly argue, without any special reference to himself in the matter. Hence, no doubt, the blessed Lord made it a most personal, searching, individual matter. “Strive to enter in at the strait gate.” He gives three powerful reasons for this word —
1st. The gate, road, or way, is at present open, and it is strait, that is, narrow, the real entrance being faith in Christ, and conversion to God. The striving to enter in does not imply an energy in return for which entrance is granted as a reward, but it is a man’s casting himself upon the grace of God in Christ; a man cannot bring anything of himself in by such a gate; all that belongs to that must be left outside for ever.
2nd. The Lord says, “For many, I say unto you, will seek to enter in, and shall not be able.” This means clearly that many would seek to get in some other way beside the strait gate, either by good works, or ordinances, or something of man which brings dishonour upon Christ and His work. Is it not largely so at the present time? Are there not multitudes who wildly fancy that they can make good a claim upon God? Reader, do you belong to that class? Listen to the solemn word of Christ, “Shall not be able.” Oh, how it bars and shuts up every avenue on that side, closing the door for ever against all that would not only destroy the sinner’s hope, but cast a slur upon the alone sufficiency and work of the Lord Jesus Christ!
3rd. Another and most solemn reason is, that the door which is now open, and for every poor sinner who has a heart for Christ, will not always be open. “When once the master of the house is risen up, and hath, shut to the door,” leaves no question as to that. At the present time Christ is seated and expecting. He is now an exalted Prince and Saviour. “I am the door; by me if any man enter in, he shall be saved.” So long as His present session in the heavens continues, He where He is in the glory of God, and the Holy Ghost on the earth sent forth from Him where He is, bear testimony to the completeness, fulness, and perfection of that redemption which is in Christ Jesus. In virtue of Christ’s death there is salvation, present and eternal, for all who believe. “By him all that believe are justified from all things.” But — and, reader, mark it well — as soon as He leaves His present position, when He rises up as it were, the door is closed for ever. Were such to take place at this moment, where would you be? Do these words describe you? “Ye begin to stand without, and to knock at the door, saying, Lord, Lord, open unto us; and he shall answer and say unto you, I know you not whence ye are: Then shall ye begin to say, We have eaten and drunk in thy presence, and thou hast taught in our streets. But he shall say, I tell you, I know you not whence ye are; depart from me, all ye workers of iniquity.”
Reader, that moment is speeding its way, He who now sits on the right hand of God will soon rise up. If you should be found without at that moment, how solemn, how dreadful, to knock when the door is closed for ever against you, and to carry into an eternity of misery the memory of a slighted Saviour and a despised salvation! W. T. T.
That God is light is a truth more universally recognised, in some sense, than perhaps any other truth of God. We do not mean that it is known, or intelligently confessed, as God’s truth, but we mean that every man’s conscience is aware of it, and every man’s ways evidence the conviction he has within. “God is light, and in him is no darkness at all.” It is because of this that the wicked hate Him, and natural religion seeks to conciliate Him. A natural man cannot think about God without also thinking about his own sins. Of this we are convinced, that though men may speak of, and in measure recognise God in goodness, in power, in mercy, yet this thought must intrude, if even it be not uppermost, that if God be all this, yet sin is in them, and they are sinners. The extent of this sense of sinfulness varies greatly from the careless recognition of the fact, to the deep consciousness of it as wrought in a soul by the Spirit of God. But we repeat, no one in his natural condition, no one apart from Christ, known and trusted in by faith, can think of God calmly and quietly for many moments, without also the thought of sin, or sins, arising in the mind.
“God is light;” but this great and solemn fact, which makes the sinner’s heart and conscience quail, is the foundation of the deepest blessing to the believer’s heart and mind.
But light manifests, for “whatsoever doth make manifest is light.” As in natural, so in spiritual things, in the dark nothing is rightly discerned. In a dark room there is no difference between a chair and a table, between a black man and a white. The difference exists, but it is not seen. So in the spiritual darkness of nature, “the natural man knoweth not the things of the Spirit of God.” Good and evil, the things of God and the things of the world, all are blended and confused. The evil is there, but apart from the grace of God it is not judged. Bring the light of the sun into the dark room, and everything is discovered. Bring the light of God’s truth into the soul, and everything is spiritually discerned, for God is light.
It is a terrible moment when the light of God first shines into a sinner’s heart, and shows him what he is, and upon the sinner’s ways, and shows him what they truly are in God’s sight. “In him is no darkness at all.” In His light all is light, and darkness is reproved. Man himself is seen and known through and through — not as he has been accustomed to regard himself in self-complacency, or as his fellows may have regarded him, in ignorance, it may be, of the workings of his wicked heart, even as of their own.
And who could abide that light, its intense, all-searching power, but for the provision which grace has made in the blood? The blood of Christ is God’s provision for, and it is also the peace and the plea of the sinner’s conscience when brought into the light of God. Blessed and perfect, because divine provision, through faith, in which the sinner is justified, and the conscience is at rest.
The light manifests the sin, the darkness of the sinner. The blood puts away the sin, and sets the sinner at peace in the light.
The light even of God Himself can manifest nothing which the precious blood cannot put away, for the “blood of Jesus Christ, God’s Son, cleanseth from all sin.” “The life is in the blood,” and “it is the blood that maketh atonement for the soul.”
How perfect the harmony thus existing in all the provisions of divine grace! “God is light,” and would have men to be in the light in communion with Himself.
It was not God who hid Himself from Adam, but Adam from God. So now He hides not Himself from sinners, but poor sinful man, fearful of the light, and ignorant of the blood, withdraws himself from God.
Beloved reader, if the light has not yet shined in your heart, “to give you the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ, we beseech you in Christ’s stead, be reconciled to God.” For “God hath made Christ to be sin for us, [he] who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness of God in him.” Shrink not from the light; let its beams pour into your heart and conscience, for that word of light which tells you of God’s holiness, and of your own sin, tells you also of the blood of the Lamb without blemish and without spot — the blood of that blessed Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, and Son of man, which was shed for you and for me, to save us from sin and the world now, and from the wrath to come, and to fit us for that place in glory where the same Lord Jesus Christ now dwells, “having abolished death, and brought life and immortality to light through the gospel,” from whence also He will soon descend to take His believing people to Himself, that where He is, there they may be also. “For as Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many, unto them that look for him shall he appear the second time without sin unto salvation.”
When first I heard of Jesus’ name,
I only then for refuge came:
I heard that He for sinners died —
And from His pierced and wounded side
Had flow’d the water and the blood —
To bring the sinner near to God.
I found Him meet my every need,
That He a Saviour was indeed;
By Him my every want supplied,
Whene’er I have to Him applied.
Of grace, the storehouse full and free,
All fulness dwells in Him for me.
But, oh! I have such glories viewed
In Him who as my surety stood;
Such beauties, human and divine,
In all His words and actions shine,
That now I sing, with rapturous heart,
“Thou altogether lovely art.”
And all He is, He is for me!
So meek in all His majesty,
So tender in Almightiness,
So sympathising in distress,
So liberal — all He has He gave,
Yea, e’en Himself, my soul to save!
It is not terror makes me flee,
Saviour of sinners, Lord, to Thee;
Thy excellencies me constrain
To seek Thee as my greater gain;
Thy presence, my eternal home,
Come, blessed Lord, oh quickly come!
Amen.
Down to Earth But Heavenly Minded 
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