ABRAHAM'S BOSOM

THE GREAT GULF

Part 7

"Abraham said, SON" (Lk. 16:25). What bitter retrospection of privileges enjoyed, of opportunities neglected, must that first word have called up! And remember, that like all other scripture, that word was written for our learning. "Abraham said, SON." What! A son of Abraham in hell! Can this be possible? And will Abraham himself, to whom the promises were made, acknowledge as his son one of the children of the wicked one? Yes: for no one knew better than did Abraham the distinction between a mere Israelite after the flesh, and the true descendants of that SEED in whom all the nations of the earth were to be blessed.

When the rich man in hell begs for mercy he is reminded that "there is a great gulf fixed" in between the poor man in Abraham's bosom and him in his hell, "so that they which would pass from us unto you cannot, neither can they pass to us that would come from thence." Surely this was to clinch agony with agony and to rivet it with despair. There is certainly a great gulf fixed today between the Jews who have suffered hell during this dispensation of the Church, and the people who are now enjoying the fulfillment of the Abrahamic covenant. The Jews believe that Jesus is an imposter to this very day. They are Christ rejectors, and know nothing whatever of life and reality and blessing and glory in the Spirit; but the body of Christ gathered out of all nations, enjoying the covenant blessing, is the seed of Abraham by faith, inheriting the promises. And between these two there is "a great gulf fixed." For the house of Judah to return to Abraham's bosom today would mean for the Jews to return to the bosom of Jesus Christ and this seems to be far from the present tendencies or aspirations of the Jewish people.

Certainly THIS GREAT GULF explains the mystery of why the Jew is the hardest and most discouraging mission field in the world. Has it never amazed you that many heathen can hear the Gospel once, see it clearly, accept it, and be born again by faith in Him? Prostitutes, drug addicts, the poor, the illiterate - all have gladly received the message of Christ and have been wondrously transformed thereby. They have been awakened! Their eyes see it - their ears hear it - their hearts understand and respond! Yet the Jew is under the grip of the spirit of slumber! A deep sleep from the Lord has fallen upon them, and they simply cannot understand anything that is said or preached about the Lord Jesus Christ. There are thousands of Jews dying right now in total spiritual darkness about the Christ - going out into the spirit world under the spell of a thick darkness. It is not that they will not hear, rather, it is that they CANNOT! What a tragedy - millions of spiritually hungry, searching, seeking Jews; and they cannot find what they are looking for. The Messiah came - He lives today - and they can't see Him! They can't hear Him! They are in the dark about Him! They are in a spiritual coma!

Resigned, at last, to his fate, the rich man begs Abraham to send someone to his father's house, to warn his five brothers "lest they also come into this place of torment." Abraham then says, 'They have Moses and the prophets; let them hear them!" Amazing. It was by means of Moses and the prophets that Jesus opened the eyes of the two men that were with Him on the way to Emmaus, which caused their hearts to burn within them as they listened to Him on the way. It says in Lk. 24:27, "And beginning at Moses and all the prophets, He expounded unto them in all the scriptures the things concerning Himself." And later these two men said one to the other, "Did not our heart burn within us, while He talked with us by the way, and while He opened to us the scriptures?" And when He stood in the midst of the eleven that night, and they were full of doubt and fear concerning His resurrection, even after He had eaten in their presence, and they had had a chance to gaze upon Him for some time and to become convinced that He was actually risen from the dead, yet it seems that the greatest confirmation came from the scriptures to which He referred. In Lk. 24:44-45 we read, "And He said unto them, These are the words which I spoke unto you, while I was yet with you, that all things must be fulfilled, which were written in the law of Moses, and in the prophets, and in the psalms, concerning Me. Then opened He their understanding, that they might understand the scriptures."

We live in an hour when many, including those who embrace the truths of sonship, reconciliation, etc., depreciate the value of the written Word of God. But it is through the power of the scriptures that nations are brought to the obedience of the faith of Christ. "Now to Him that is of power to establish you according to my gospel, and the preaching of Jesus Christ, according to the revelation of the mystery, which was kept secret since the world began, but now is made manifest, and by the scriptures of the prophets, according to the commandment of the everlasting God, made known to all nations for the obedience of the faith" (Rom. 16:25). The prophecies of Moses concerning the Lord Jesus Christ are very clear and convincing. Just before Stephen was stoned, he mentioned one of those predictions made by Moses, which said unto the children of Israel concerning the coming of Jesus Christ, "This is that Moses, which said unto the children of Israel, A prophet shall the Lord your God raise up unto you of your brethren, like unto me; Him shall you hear" (Acts 7:37). Moses looked forward to the coming of Jesus Christ as seeing Him that is invisible and our Lord Jesus used Moses repeatedly to confirm His teachings. He even quoted Moses to the devil at the time of His temptation in the wilderness of Judea. Moses and the prophets were of special significance to the house of Judah and all Israel, and Stephen indicted the Jews for their blindness and unbelief in what was written in the scriptures concerning the Christ. He said, "Of this man's (David's) seed has God according to His promise raised unto Israel a Saviour, Jesus ... and ... they that dwell at Jerusalem, and their rulers, because they knew Him not, nor yet the voices of the prophets which are read every sabbath day, they have fulfilled them in condemning Him. And though they found no cause of death in Him, yet desired they Pilate that He should be slain" (Acts 13:23,27-28).

Notice what the rich man's final argument is. "Nay, father Abraham: but if one went unto them from the dead, they will repent." In his vision of the Kingdom of God he hears Abraham finally say, "If they hear not Moses and the prophets, neither will they be persuaded, THOUGH ONE ROSE FROM THE DEAD!" What a shocking truth! For in these very words the Lord Jesus proclaimed to the Pharisees HIS OWN RESURRECTION FROM THE DEAD. For Jesus Christ of Nazareth, did, literally, RISE FROM THE DEAD - and the vast majority of Jews and Israelites scattered throughout the nations still didn't believe, even though the fact was proclaimed to them from the scriptures and by eye witnesses to His majesty. On another occasion the Lord told them, "For had you believed Moses, you would have believed Me: for he wrote of Me. But if you believe not his writings, how shall you believe My words?" (Jn. 5:46-47). So Jesus commissioned His apostles, sent the Holy Spirit, and formed them into the nucleus of His Church. He delivered to that Church the commission to go into all the world and preach the Gospel to every creature, and to disciple A-L-L NATIONS - Lazarus in Abraham's bosom! The rich man went to his hell. And there is a Great Gulf between to this very day!

A dark picture, yes. But wait, we are not through. We have yet a bright picture to present of this selfsame nation. These black clouds of judgment have a bright silver lining. There is a better day coming for the house of Judah, a glorious day. "Oh," you exclaim, "but no one can cross the Great Gulf - how can the Jews be saved?" Let us not be guilty of adding to the divine words. A. Burns wrote, "Here the parable comes to an end. It bears the marks of being an unfinished picture. The revelation Of truth concerning the rich man's future rests, so to speak, while waiting the further unfolding of the divine plan concerning him. That unfolding takes place elsewhere in scriptures. This particular passage does not contain the entire history of this unhappy nation. It is but the darker side of it. "There is a glory beyond the gloom, as Romans nine to eleven makes clear: "What will their taking back be but LIFE FROM THE DEAD?"

The Bible says that Abraham could not cross that abyss, nor could Lazarus. There is no denying that. But this fact must not be warped into the assertion that no one can cross it, or that it can never be crossed, for that would be adding to the Word of God. Let it be carefully noted that if inability to cross the Gulf is taught, as it certainly is, it is man's inability and not God's. The "Great Gulf fixed," which severs those who once were nigh but now are cast out, though utterly impassable for man, is not so for "Him who has the key of David, who opens and no man shuts, and shuts and no man opens, who HAS THE K-E-Y-S OF DEATH AND HELL" (Rev. 1:18; 3:7). Andrew Jukes asked, "Who are we, to say that the gulf, impassable to man, cannot be passed by Christ, or that He cannot bring the last prisoner safely back, even out of the lowest prison? As well might we argue that because 'the Ethiopian cannot change his skin, or the leopard his spots,' - because the evil man can never by his own act make himself good, - therefore God can never change him. The firstfruits are a proof of what God can do."

I declare to you today that THE CHRIST HIMSELF CROSSED THAT ABYSS. There is the difference! You say that Abraham said, "Between us and you there is a great gulf fixed, that they which would pass from hence to you may not be able, and that none may cross over from thence to us." Let me remind you that, although Abraham said that, the Christ did not. That is right, Abraham; you could not bridge it! And even if you could, you did not have the keys to the gates. But the Christ crossed that Gulf, and HIS SALVATION BRIDGED IT. Christ bridged it! The Christ Himself IS THE BRIDGE! It is no use talking nonsense, saying that the Gulf was not bridged. It was not bridged at the time Jesus told that story, but when He arose and grasped the keys of death and of hell, He made a way for His banished to return. Granted, the Gulf still exists in the consciousness of the people, of both the rich man and Lazarus, but from Christ's standpoint it is bridged so that even now "Whosoever will, let him come and take of the water of life freely" (Rev. 22:17).

It was bridged by Jesus Christ, and there is not any gulf that He cannot bridge. I believe it! If there is, then He is not God, because there is no gulf that God and His love cannot bridge. Jesus Christ has bridged the gulf between God and man, between Israelite and Gentile, between bond and free, between male and female, between rich and poor, and between heaven and hell. He has bridged all the gulfs, blessed be His name, and so "There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free, there is neither male nor female: for you are all one in Christ Jesus" (Gal. 3:28). Thank God! a greater than Abraham is here! He bridges the gulf between heaven and earth and between earth and hell, for it is written, "That at the name of Jesus every knee shall bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth; and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father" (Phil. 2:10-11). Weymouth translates, "That in the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of beings in the highest heavens, of those on the earth, and of THOSE IN THE UNDERWORLD, and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father." Every knee, every tongue, every being certainly includes the rich man and Lazarus! The hymn writer captured the wonderful truth when he penned these immortal words:

Oh, the love that drew salvation's plan!

Oh, the grace that brought it down to man!

Oh, the mighty GULF THAT GOD DID SPAN - at Calvary!

The Jewish nation has passed through a time of great darkness. They have had deep sorrow. But if we are sure that God's Word has been fulfilled in scattering them among the nations, and blinding their hearts to the glory of Christ, the Messiah, we should have no hesitation in believing that at the conclusion of this age God will gather them, and lift the dark veil from off their minds, for the promise of the Almighty unto them is sure: "And it shall come to pass, when all these things are come upon you, the blessing and the curse, which I have set before you, and you shall call them to mind among all the nations, whither the Lord your God has driven you, and you shall return unto the Lord your God, and shall obey His voice ... you and your children, with all your heart, and with all your soul; then the Lord your God will return your captivity, and have compassion upon you, and will return and gather you from all the nations ... and He will do you good, and the Lord your God will CIRCUMCISE YOUR HEART, AND THE HEART OF YOUR SEED, to love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, that you may live" (Deut. 30:1-6).

The dark covering that has been cast over the minds and hearts of the people of Judah for lo! two thousand years will be completely destroyed when the sons of God reign in the Kingdom of their Father. We have not yet witnessed the magnitude of ministry that shall be revealed through the manifested sons of God. God is preparing His perfected and matured body, anointed with the fullness of the seven-fold Spirit of God, and this en Christed company shall appear on the cosmic stage of history in these last days with ten thousand times more power than a Moses, a Joshua, a Samuel, a David, an Elijah, a Peter, a Paul, a St. Patrick, a Wesley, a Whitfield, a Finney, or any of the mighty ministries of this century. God has moved deeply upon my heart in these days to prophesy to God's elect that there is coming a great and glorious MANIFESTATION OF CHRIST before the face of all nations and the whole earth. There will be a fresh and universal and dispensational revelation of our Lord Jesus Christ. It's going to come in the midst of a people who truly "love His appearing," and I see and hear signs that already He is beginning to come. We are standing on the threshold of a new and fresh and transcendental manifestation of the Lord. These things are burning like a furnace inside of me. I am being quickened by these things. I know God is on the move, and my deepest desire is to be a participator in this outflow of HIS LIFE that will usher in a new day for this sin-cursed planet. The Lord wants to reveal Himself in our midst in a new way, and through us to creation. I am asking God to unveil and manifest Himself to me in these days in a fuller way. Oh God! do a new thing!

To the same Jews in whose hearing Jesus gave the parable of the rich man and Lazarus He also said, "YOU shall not SEE ME henceforth, till you say, Blessed is He that comes in the name of the Lord" (Mat. 23:39). "Until" recalls the words of divine grace. He will not hide His face forever. He left their house unto them desolate, He dispersed them into the flame of hell, and hid His face, His presence, His favor, His glory - from them, "till" - not for ever, but "till you say, Blessed is He that comes in the name of the Lord!" Again, "And they shall SEE the Son of man coming in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory" (Mat. 24:30). "Behold, He comes with clouds; and every eye shall SEE Him" (Rev. 1:7). Every one who is a scholar knows that the words "see" and "know" are identical in their spiritual meaning. When I tell a brother something he did not see before, and I am trying to get him to see it, all at once there passes over his face the illumination which indicates intelligence. He says, "Brother Preston, I see it!" What does he mean? He does not mean that he sees anything with the eye of flesh. He means that he "knows" it. I talk to a blind man who has no eyes to see at all. I explain something to him and presently he says, "Brother, I SEE it!" Does he see anything? No! But he KNOWS it. How many times in the day do you say, "I see it." Jesus said, "Blessed are the pure in heart: for they shall SEE GOD," yet no man has seen God at any time, the scripture affirms. Suppose I give you the meaning of this passage: "Blessed are the pure in heart: for they shall KNOW God." It is better to know God than even to see Him by the eyes of sense. There are many who saw Jesus who did not know Him. They saw the Christ, but they knew not that He was the Christ. They saw His miracles, but they did not know Him. They even rejected Him and hated Him, many of them. It took the illumination that comes only by the effectual influence of the Holy Spirit to say with the Roman centurion, "Truly this was the Son of God." You could see Jesus Himself in bodily form today, but unless you had purity of heart you could not know Him to be the Christ. It is only purity of heart which gives purity of sight.

Yes, the hour is wonderfully near at hand when the words of Christ shall be finally fulfilled, "You shall not see Me henceforth, till you shall say, Blessed is HE that comes in the name of the Lord." The time is nigh when the Jewish nation shall behold with astonishment the matchless wonder of the Christ coming again to be "glorified IN HIS SAINTS, and to be admired IN all them that believe in that day" (II Thes. 1:10). The history of Jewish persecution at the hands of so-called Christians forms a significant part of the backdrop against which Jews have tended to perceive both Christ and Christians. The Christians they have known have, for the most part, been citizens and ambassadors of Mystery Babylon. They have not seen THE CHRIST. They have not beheld the love, wisdom or glory of God in His saints. Can we not see by this that when Jesus said, "You shall not see Me henceforth, till you shall say, Blessed is He that COMES IN THE NAME OF THE LORD," He spoke of the arising of a people into the name or nature of the Lord to so become the revelation of HIMSELF to the house of Judah that they shall cry, "BLESSED IS HE THAT COMES IN THE NAME OF THE LORD!"  IN scripture "name" means "nature." Ah, methinks that the Jew has not for two thousand years SEEN THE NATURE OF THE LORD in His people! All creation, including the Jew, stands on tiptoe to see the wonderful sight of God's sons coming into their own, a people fashioned into His image and likeness, showing forth the virtues and excellencies of our God. When at last they behold this their hearts shall be ravished with the revelation of HIS LOVE, God shall anoint their eyes with heavenly eye salve, the divine harmony of truth shall sound upon their hearts until their spirits are caught away to the mount of the Lord, and in that vision of the sons of God standing with the Lamb on mount Zion they shall say, "Blessed is HE that COMES IN THE NAME OF THE LORD!" Blessed is that many-membered Christ that comes in the nature of the Lord. Blessed is He, the Christ, Head and body, the revelation of the likeness of the God of Israel.

Judah is being re-gathered in unbelief. They know not the Christ. No fruit has grown on the fig tree of their nation for a whole age. But now the hour is at hand for the curse to be lifted and Judah will accept the Christ and the whole nation and people will be born again in this day by the power of the Holy Spirit. The next great event of earth-shaking importance, following the manifestation of the sons of God, will be the national conversion of the Jews. Jesus Christ will soon reveal Himself to the Israeli people in and through the sons of God. The veil shall be lifted from their eyes and they shall SEE HIM IN HIS BODY and shall cry, "Blessed is HE that comes in the name (nature) of the Lord!" The hour is wonderfully nigh at hand when the word of the Lord by the prophet Zechariah is to be fulfilled, "And I will pour upon the house of David (Judah), and upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the spirit of grace and supplications: and they shall look upon Me whom they have pierced, and they shall mourn for Him, as one mourns for his only son, and shall be in bitterness for Him, as one that is in bitterness for his firstborn. In that day there shall be a fountain opened to the house of David and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem for sin and uncleanness" (Zech. 12:10; 13:1).

The first step in this wondrous process here described is the descent of the Spirit upon them nationally, and first He comes upon them as a "spirit of grace," to which they are "twice dead" - devoid of it by nature, but over and above this judicially graceless because of the curse of their awful sin in rejecting their Messiah and Saviour. But along with this He shall come as a "spirit of supplications," leading them out of the depths to cry mightily unto God for mercy and light. Thank God! the long night is almost over. He who has the KEYS OF HELL is none other than the blessed Saviour. The age of curse and judgment is even now swiftly drawing to a close. And now, at last, "A-L-L Israel shall be saved" (Rom. 11:26). He who sent the rich man to hell, and put in place that ominous Gulf of separation from Abraham's bosom, is the very same One of whom it is written, "For God has concluded them all in unbelief, that He might have mercy upon ALL" (Rom. 11:32).

And now, my friend, you know the real TRUTH about the parable of the rich man and Lazarus!