Milford chronicle., 1896-03-20
Christian Lessons From Jewish Scripture;
or Christ In the Old Testament.

lures 20. IT, we might have hope -
Rom XIV: verse 4.
IAN scripture is given by inspiration
from God" and is highly profitable unit
man; but to obtain this profit it must b.
spiritually discemed. "The natural mar
discerneth not the things of the Spirit o.
God, neither can he know them because
they are spiritually discerned " But q
measure of the Spirit is given to every mar
that he may profit thereby i'm agiH'' bui
it must be, not in self-willed presumption,
but in subsection to God. If any man is
willing to do Gods will he shall know
of the doctrine. God, by his spirit. will
lead every willing soul into the light May
our hearts be bowed down into subsection
before Him
The first lesson from the Old Testament
scriptures that we will look at for mo-
ment is the Garden of Eden This is d
figure to us of what all the earth would
have remained, had not Eve, in her Ueak-
ness yielded to the temptation of Satan and
had not Adam in his vfLfNlaess taken sides
with her, rather than remain alone in ODE
dience. All the earth would have remained
a paradise and men. women and children
would have lived upon it in an eternity of
innocent sensual pleasure and delight.
In view of such truth, how wicked it
is for men to ask why God created the
earth and man upon it with all his misery
and sorrow and woe and death? God did
no such thing. God made man innocent
and clean all over. and the earth para
disc Man turned away from his maker
and turned the paradise that God had given
him over to Satan, who has made it what
it is, to discredit God if such thing were
possible. and to ruin man 1t is now, by
mans own act and deed, Satan's world
and he is its god and prince. But God in
His own unfathomable goodness and wis
dom, has redeemed it out of Satan's hands
and given 1t over to His own son, the Lord
Jesus Christ, who will soon come again TO
this earth, subdue its prince and all other
enemies and reign over it in righteousness
and peace for a thousand years.
All the earth then came from the hands of
God a paradise and so itwould have remain
ed had man been faithful and obedent to his
creator-God. All its woes are of mans
own making But the unbeliever may say
81 had nothing to do with it. and what
Adam and Eve did should net be respon-
sibe for" But you did do it, in your rep,
resentative head. Adam was free man,
innocent and intelgent-speciaIly in
structed of God, and he represented the
whole human race, and what he did you
did morally. What he did you did in him,
and have done it again and again in your
own proper person; and are now doing it
every day-viz, disobeying God. This
was Adams sin and this is our sin, ''for
all have sinned and dishonored God"
Worse and worse still, the high priests,
Pharasees, religious Jews and rulers of the
people, represented the race in the rejection
and murder of Christ Jesus. 1t was the
work of man, the whole race of men.
PLATE and the Roman rulers in this awful
deed only stood for all the Gentle nations
while the Jewish rulers and leaders repre-.
scented all Israel Hence, the disObedlence
of the fall and the vllest deed that ever
blotted the pages of human history was
the work of the whole race of man. Then
let every mouth be stopped and the whole
race of man become in their own con-
sciences, as they are in fact, guilty be-
fore God. Guilty of the fall, and guilty of
the murder of Christ Jesus
But God, in His goodness, love. and
mercy. has oVerruled all this ruin,
brought in by man, so that it shall
rebound to His own honor, and re-
lieve guilty. depraved and ruined
man of all the consequences of his own
folly and disobedience. Instead of a SEN
sualsm In the flesh He has, through re-
demption by Jesus, the Christ, prepared
for the race an eternity of spiritual enjoy.
ment in a new heaven and a new earth
wherein dwelleth righteousness ! This
earth, cursed by the sin of man, never will
be restored to its pristine condition. 1t is
Satan's earth, given over to him by man,
and though redeemed by Christ who will
yet take possession of it and rule over it in
for a thousand years ii mil /
be ultimately burned up and new heavens
and a new earth will be created for the
eternal abode of Cod chosen ones where
in righteousness shall dwell throughout all
eternity. The truth of all this is fully set !
forth in the Old Testament scripture. In
the beginning we have man fallen but the
Lord came into the garden and clothed
Adam and Eve in garments made for them
from the skins of animals which had to
die that man might be clothed. Man clothed
through death In figure man clothed in
righteousness through the death of Jesus.
Next we have A5erS lamb offered up in
sacrifice and ''God testifying to the gift"
'had respect unto to Abel and his offering
Here again is Jesus figured as "The Lamb
of God which takest away the sin of the
world"
But the earth was filled with violence,
and men became so bad that God had to
visit it In judgment with water and so the
flood was sent upon it and every living
thing died out of it. "but Noah found
GRACE in the eyes of the Lord' and he
with all that were his were saved in the
ark. Here already was salvation through
the favor of God, and there never was or
never will be salvation for man but by the
grace of God. Noah and all that were with
him in the ark was a figure of the church
saved in Jesus Christ, of whom the ark
was the figure Saved in Christ, by the
e o. th-o,,rri, f,ith Noah he.