Milford chronicle., 1895-08-23

In the lesson before US Cod is leading His
people Israel through Jordan into the prom
ised land, the land flowing with milk aud
honey" The self-willed unbelievers have
all been cut off in their forty years journey
through the wilderness, and few except the
wilderness born children, the little ones, the
helpless ones are now at the banks Of Jor-
dau ready to cross over. How significant
this IS I The helpless ones are the only ones
to enter the land The power Of man is Of
no avail in christian things. It is all Of God.
Except We be converted aud become as lit
tie children ye shall not enter into the king
dom of heaven" Matt xviii-5 Man must
see the end Of himself aud own it to God,
before he can enter into the christian posi-
ton; done with SELF, and given to God.
Moses even, could not enter the land, nor
either could Aaron. Both those great lead
ers Of the people through the wilderness,
were cut of too, at or near the end Of the
journey. God, so to speak, was done with
them and could not permit them TO enter
the land because they together were type
OF the Lord Jesus down here III the world
Misunderstanding His faithful ones up to
the cross ofcalvary where heHimself crossed
tile Jordan Of death into His own heavenly
land AT this point too, He took both Moses
and Aaron into the true promised land Of
heaven, which was far better than that Of the
earthly land into WHICH God had appointed
that Joshua should lead His people. Joshua
lin Hebrew the same as Jesus in the Greek
was type of the Lord jesus Christ lead
ing believers in this dispensation into the
true christian position which is beyond Jor-
dan "He that is dead is freed from sin, F."
Rom viz.
The whole lesson before US is the type Of
which the sixth, seventh aud eighth of Ro-
mans is the antique, or fulfilling. Jordan is
the figure OF symbol of death. It empties
into the Dead Sea, which has no outlet, aud
is figure of judgment The wilderness be-
hind them is the world, out of which the
christian is led aud the promised land is the
heavenly place into which christians are
brought by the Lord Jesus Christ The ark
is the Lord in death for us. We are made
to cross Jordan dry shod. To faith, we are
already in the heavenly places "in Him. "
We are no longer in Adam but "iu Christ.
Not in the old creation of which Adam is
head but in the new creation of which Christ
is head. He went through death for us, as
our substitute, and we died with Him. He
also arose out Of death, aud assembled to
heaven and we are there in Hin. All this
to faith now and will be made real when He
comes and raises the dead saints and changes
the living ones and all are caught up to-
gether to meet the Lord in the air
The twelve stones taken up out of the bed
of Jordan, one stone for each Of the tribes of
Israel, was a reminder to them that they
came miraculously through the river into
the land To us, christians, it is to teach us
that we entered our promised land-the heaY-
emily places in Christ Jesus, by the way of
death, of which Jordan is the figure The
twelve stones taken up by Joshua out of the
land aud deposited in the bed of Jordan,
which he had not been commanded to do, |
but did of his own accord, teaches US that as I
Joshua did, we should apprehend the fact
that, as christians, we have already passed |
through death, in the death ofthe Lord Jesus, |
and that it is only thus that we enter into /
the true christian position, the heavenly /
places in Him. The professed christian
teachers of this day keep their followers in a
semi Jewish position all their lives long.
They are struggling to be saved at least
They have no knowledge of a present and
eternal salvation in Christ They know moth
ing of the heavenly places into which they
are brought by Christ, of deliverauce from
the world, the flesh and the whole Adam
life aud nature or the new creation into
which they are brought through the finished
work of Christ on the cross. They are like
he Jew under the law, trying to do for sal
'ation and trusting that they will be finally
iaved if they believe in Christ aud do the
'est they can. They know little or nothing
If the true liberty into which they have been
brought and in which they are expected to
tand fast and rejoice with joy uuspeakable
md full of glory, IF the blind lead the '
hind shall not both fall into the ditch p {
The whole spiritual significance of the les
on is that christians, to faith, are dead, risen
I'd seated in the heavenlies in Christ {
Thus in the sixth OF Romans we have "Our a
Id man is crucifed with Christ that the body t
f sin might be destroyed, that henceforth S
re should not serve sin-the sin nature /
hitch we have in Adam-for he that is dead /
freed from SIN. Verses and Z.
Then IN the seventh chapter we have de-
verance from the law, as follows: But Aol0 T
re we deii1ered from the lac, that being
cad wherein we were held-the old nature,
lie hesh-that we should serve in newness b
spirit and not in the oldness ofthe letter" o.
erse 9. Then in the first verse Of the eighth al
iapter we have "zhere is therefore Hoag N
. condemnation to them zoFo arefN Christ h
snst This is full deliverance through the SC
.ath OF the cross, aud this is the true chris al
an position. 1t is across Jordan and in the st
nd which the Lord our God giveth us. 6'
Yours for the Truth. P.
]. S. PRETrYMAN. By
Milford, Del, August 10, 1895. NJ