Eternity and Time 02 From Adam to Christ — David Clifford

I marvel at your grace. Not only do you put up with two or three stuffy Englishmen, but you're putting up with English weather now, and I'm amazed how you're enjoying it. It's nice to get a cool breeze from over the Atlantic or Canada or wherever it's coming from, and it's amazing how as I move around your country, there are lots of ladies who try to scrape acquaintance with the old country, you know.

One lady was saying that they traced her ancestors, she told me, back to King John, the man who lost his jewels in the wash, if you remember that story. She said, how far do you go back? Well, I said, we don't go back all that far in our family.

We lost all our records in the flood, and there seems to be quite a bit of competition about that sort of thing. Anyway, I think it's great grace on your part when you show a little fellowship and friendship with a stuffy old Englishman like me.

Now, you're limited to call me old if you like, but I'm very pleased to have fellowship with you junior citizens of glory. I think that's a fine title. I used to go in each day when I was with the Pells in Grand Rapids to the home there that Grace is running, and I called them the junior citizens of glory, and I got on very well with them.

We had a lovely time together. Now, let's have a lovely time in the Lord's presence tonight and read his word first of all. And we'll read from Daniel, I think, this evening. First of all, chapter 2, verse 31, the prophecy by Daniel.

Daniel's Vision of the Great Image and the Everlasting Kingdom

This is Daniel speaking to the king about his dream and the image that he saw. There, O king, sawest and behold a great image. This great image, whose brightness with excellence stood before thee, and the form thereof was terrible.

This image, this image's head was of fine gold, his breast and his arms of silver, his belly and his thighs of brass or bronze, his legs of iron, his feet part of iron and part of clay. And thou sawest till a stone was cut out without hands, which smote the image upon his feet, that were of iron and clay, and break them in pieces.

Then was the iron, the clay, the brass, the silver, and the gold broken to pieces together, became like the chaff of the summer-threshing floors, and the wind carried them away, that no place was found for them.

And the stone that smote the image became a great mountain, and filled the whole earth. Now, verse 44,. And in the days of these kings shall the God of heaven set up a kingdom, which shall never be destroyed.

Now, chapter 9, verse 1. In the first year of Darius, the son of Ahasuerus, of the seed of the Medes, who was made king over the realm of the Chaldeans, in the first year of his reign, I, Daniel, understood by books the number of the years whereof the word of the Lord came to Jeremiah the prophet, that he would accomplish seventy years in the desolations of Jerusalem.

And I set my faith unto the Lord to seek by prayer and supplications with fasting and sackcloth and ashes. And I prayed unto the Lord my God, and made my confession, and said, O Lord, the great and dreadful God, keeping the covenant and mercy to them that love him, to them that keep his commandments, we have sinned, and have committed iniquity, and have done wickedly, and have rebelled, even by departing from thy precepts and from thy judgments.

Verse 24. Gabriel said to Daniel, Seventy weeks are determined, verse 24, upon thy people, upon thy holy city, to finish the transgression, to make an end of sins, to make reconciliation for iniquity, and to bring in everlasting righteousness, to seal up the vision and prophecy, and to anoint the most holy.

Know therefore and understand that from the going forth of the commandment to restore and to build Jerusalem, unto Messiah the prince shall be seven weeks, and three score and two weeks, the street shall be built again, and the wall, even in troublous times.

And after three score and two weeks shall Messiah be cut off, but not for himself, and the people of the prince shall come and shall destroy the city and the sanctuary, and the end thereof shall be with a flood, and unto the end of the war desolations are determined.

And he shall confirm the covenant with many for one week, and in the midst of the week he shall cause the sacrifice and oblation to cease, and for the overspreading of abominations he shall make it desolate.

He shall make it desolate even until the confirmation, and that determination shall be poured upon the desolate all, that is the men of sin. May the Lord bless to us the reading from his word. When Shackleton was on his way to the South Pole, he made up his mind to return to a certain base, and to leave his men at another one.

But he purposed to join them after a little while. He didn't know how long he would be away. So he put Captain Wilde in charge and said to him, now Wilde when I return I want you and the men to be all ready for us to move straight forward toward the South Pole.

When eventually he did return he found everything just as he wanted it, and everybody ready to go. And he was delighted and asked some of the men why it was they were all so ready to go. Well he said, we've been ready ever since you left you know.

It's Captain Wilde you know. Every morning he used to wake us up and say, wake up men roll up your sleeping bags for the skipper may be here today. And when the skipper eventually came, of course, all the sleeping bags were rolled up and they moved forward at once.

Christ as the Subject of Scripture and Prophecy

It is high time for us to awake out of sleep. For now is our salvation, that is the completion of our salvation, the culmination of our salvation, nearer than when we believe. And one of these days the children of day will be summoned away and left the children of night.

We are not of the night, we are of the day. And there are so many beautiful details in 1 Thessalonians chapter 5 that we are going to discuss on another occasion. Now the subject of all scripture is the Lord Jesus Christ and his two comings.

Christ in all the scriptures is the title of Mary Hodgkins book. Little bit of women's ministry I suppose on the shelves of most brethren who are students of the word. That is very helpful too. And the Lord Jesus of course in Luke 24 he expounded to them in all the scriptures the things concerning himself.

Luther did not take the scriptures so literally that he did not expect to find Christ everywhere. He expected to find the Lord Jesus all through the word. And indeed he found him there. Well now if Christ is the subject of all scripture, the subject of all prophecy is God vindicating his son, first of all.

And secondly God glorifying his son. The Lord Jesus Christ since his death and resurrection in the father's will has ascended on high and he has been made very high, given a name which is above every name.

And at the mention of his name the angelic hosts bow and worship. He is now the king of glory and his is the glory in heaven today. But God is yet to vindicate his son in the earth and on the earth at the place where he was rejected by men and crucified and slain.

And where he was crowned with thorns upon the tree, silent in his agony, he is going to be crowned with glory. The horrors shall be filled with his glory as the waters cover the sea. And Jesus shall reign from the river to the ends of the earth.

And all the nations and the presidents and the prime ministers and queens and kings shall bow down before him. The nations of the earth shall bring their glory to Christ. And at the end of that lovely passage in Psalm 72 that I'm quoting or trying to quote to you, the psalmist says this, Amen, Amen, the prayers of David the son of Jesse are ended.

The double Amen of course is significant but it only really means that this is the end of one of the books of Psalm. Because they all end with double Amen. But he says the prayers of David the son of Jesse are ended.

Why? Nothing left to pray for. He's seen in his vision Christ coming and dying and living and coming again and reigning and having the glory in the place where he was rejected. His own in his presence praising him.

Israel converted in a day that is the godly remnant. All the nations of the earth bringing their glory to Christ and his satisfied. Amen, Amen. The prayers of David the son of Jesse are ended. So the subject of all prophecy is the vindication and the glorification of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Not only in heaven which is his now, but throughout the whole earth and the whole universe. And God is going to declare to the whole universe the glory of Christ and his wisdom in the church which is his body.

Now I thought we should go quickly this evening through this first section of our main chart. You see that the main chart here if you have eyes, telescopic vision at the back to see it, is divided into several sections.

This whole chart we call number one and this portion we have here is number two. Then God willing tomorrow we'll be talking about this present age of grace, the church age with a new chart here as our brother Mr Willie promised you a few moments ago.

So the Lord Jesus himself is the subject of all prophecy. He says I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the ending. And of course when he says that he doesn't mean that he had a beginning and that he will have an ending.

He means that he is the beginning and that he is the eternal one in both aspects. Not that he had a beginning. Now when you read Colossians chapter one you will see in verse fifteen the Lord Jesus is called the firstborn of every creature.

Now that is not a title of time. It is a title of dignity. Not that he was born first. Far be the thought. But that he is the firstborn. He is the preeminent one. He is number one. And if you would think that it is a title of time and that he is born first, the next verse contradicts that idea.

For the apostle in verse sixteen goes on to explain that he isn't one of God's creation who was born first. But that he is actually God the creator. For in him, by him and through him are all things created that have been created.

Creation was for him and in him and by him and he is the end of it all. And Christ is the beginning and the ending. Not that he has an end. He is the everlasting father. The apostle John speaks of him as that eternal life.

And that eternal life embodied in the person of God's son is eternal from the past eternity to the future eternity if we can talk about eternity that way. Actually it isn't quite correct to do that. But we must say something to try to explain ourselves.

But not only is the Lord Jesus the Alpha and the Omega, the inference is that he is from eternity to eternity. He is the fullness of all eternity and all time. He is from the beginning and the end and is the fullness in the middle as well.

And the Lord Jesus Christ is the one all the way through. Now Dr. Way in his translation of that verse in Colossians 1 puts it like this. Not that it pleased the father that in him should all fullness dwell because the words the father are not in the original text.

But Dr. Way puts it this way. All fullness with a capital F was pleased to dwell in him. He was the fullness, the pleroma is the word, the fullness, the completeness, that to which nothing can be added.

He is the fullness of the Godhead bodily from eternity to eternity and all in between. And you are the fullness in him. For as he is so are you. And you are of course accepted by God in him. Everything now, everything from the beginning, everything in the future is centered in God's Son, the Alpha and the Omega.

All God's purposes are centered in him. All man's blessings are centered in him. All the church's hope is centered in the Lord Jesus Christ. Now God called Abraham from the Ur of the Chaldeans to create through him a new and distinct nation.

God's Covenant Promises to Abraham and Israel

The flood had come about. Sin had been eradicated. Nor and his family, Shem, Ham and Japheth were given a new start in life. But before long God found there was no nation for him to choose, no family for him to choose.

So he chose Abraham, called him from Ur, to make through him a distinct nation for his own special possession. Now he didn't choose Israel because of something special in them. But as Deuteronomy says, I think it's chapter 7 and verse 7, he loved them because he loved them.

He set his love upon them. They were sinners, but he was love. And he loved them in spite of their sin. However he called Abraham. And he made to Abraham special pledges and promises and covenants. He told him what he was going to do through him and through his offspring.

He spoke to them of present and future blessing. He made a covenant with Abraham and his descendants in ten different places in the scripture. You'll find the complete details of these promises and covenants.

The pledge was that God would make through him a very great nation. And a very big nation, numerically great. That God would give to him and his descendants the land in the Middle East. From the river of Egypt, that's the Nile, to the river Euphrates.

And that God was going to give them his blessing in spite of themselves. Because he set his love upon them. So Israel's blindness is only, in these days, Israel's blindness now is only until the fullness of the Gentiles transpires.

Till the end of the times of the Gentiles. And it is pretty evident that Israel is going to come into the blessings that they haven't come into yet, which God has promised for them. The land and the greatness and the blessing.

In Romans chapter 11 verse 25 it plainly states that the promises of God, the callings of God, the gifts of God are without repentance. He will not go back upon his word even if they or we become unfaithful.

God remains faithful and must fulfill that which he has promised. You see after the exodus from Egypt, which we all know about, and after God giving to them the law, which came by Moses, then they had God as their ruler.

There was a theocracy and they soon got tired of that. And they longed for a king like the nations around them. And God gave them Saul to be their king. And still he loved them. And David of course was a man after God's own heart who should fulfill all his will.

And God renewed his covenant to his people by giving a special pledge to David, similar to what he had given to Abraham. Before long corruption set in and of course they were unfaithful to God their saviour and became unfaithful to their king.

And then there was the captivity. First of all the ten tribes went into captivity, as you know into Assyria. And then later on the two tribes went into Babylon in captivity when Jerusalem was besieged.

Israel's Rejection, Judgment, and Future Restoration

At this stage I want to point out the four, the players, the four parties, the four groups who are the players on the stage of the world. Israel we have been mentioning first of all. They were chosen by God and loved by God.

But then they were blinded by Satan and they were set aside. And they are still set aside today. They rejected Christ their king and messiah. And although God has not repented of his promise to them, he is postponing the fulfillment of it until a later day.

You see Jerusalem was taken and the people were scattered. And by the way Hosea is a very, portrays for us the book of Hosea, a very interesting picture and type of Israel in this way. Hosea was called upon to marry an adulterous woman because God wanted him to enter into his feelings about his erring unfaithful people.

God often leaves his servants in difficult ways so that they might learn something of his mind and will and of his heart of love. And the three children that Hosea had by this woman were called Jezreel, scattered by God.

That was supposed to be a picture of Israel because of their sin being scattered by God as they are today. The second child was Lo-Ammi, which means no compassion. In the present case Israel is left by God.

They are seeing something of the results of their own sin. This often happens of course during a war. People will say, they said to me, now if God is love why does he allow such a thing to happen? Why does he allow such destruction and bloodshed and slaughter?

Well God often will allow men to follow in the course of their own wretchedness and see the consequences of their own sin. And the second child was called Lo-Ammi, which means no compassion. God was telling his people his love was turning from them because of their sin.

And the third one was called Lo-Ruhamah, which means no people of mine. And God now was turning his people aside until a later day. Now Israel's failure in the world, because they were God's representatives they were meant to be, they had the oracles of God, the law was given to them, and they were to be God's witnesses in the world, but they failed.

Now there's a lesson we can learn here. You know with God failure is not final. With God's ancient people failure is not final. With God's people today and Park of the Palms people failure is not final.

And who hasn't failed in the Christian life and in the service of God anyway, in some way or other? Thank God if we confess our sin he is faithful and just to forgive us our sin and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

And a day is coming when Israel is going to make her confession following the destruction of Jerusalem, which is to be. And the sifting and persecution and judgment of Israel. There will be a fountain open for sin and for uncleanness and God will cleanse the remnant that remain and they will be forgiven and saved in a day according to Romans.

But this failure of Israel in the past has given an opportunity for others to come into the blessing of God for the time being and indeed for all eternity. So the next party shall I say in the stage, on the stage of the world, the next is the church from Pentecost onwards.

The Church, Christendom, and the Gentile Nations

I believe that Pentecost was the beginning of the church. The church is the habitation of God by the Spirit. The Spirit came at Pentecost. There was no church therefore before Pentecost. And the church is today as in those early days dependent upon the residence of the Holy Spirit.

There is a day coming when the Spirit will be taken away, but not before the church is taken away. Now before Pentecost there were Jews and Gentiles only, but since Pentecost it is Jew, Gentile and the church of God.

And the church is the fullness of him who filleth all in all. The Lord Jesus I was trying to explain is the fullness from eternity to eternity and all in between. And his church is the fullness in him who filleth all in all.

The next party is Christendom on the stage of the world. This is the unified religious system which is abroad in the world today. It began with Babel and the confusion there and it will continue until the tribulation and the coming and destruction of the Antichrist.

And Noah's sons were Shem and Ham and Japheth. And of course Noah begat Ham as I said and Ham begat Cush and Cush begat Nimrod. And it was Nimrod and his crowd who belonged to the Ussites who said come now and let us make a name for ourselves.

Let us make for us a name. And it was a kind of religious system which was leaving God in the background. And I think this is developing today. There is a trend to a unification of a godless system really although they name the name of God.

In the cult Baha 'ism you can belong to the Baha 'i faith if you are a Hottentot or a Zulu or a Roman Catholic or a Protestant or a Jew or anything else. You can belong to the reverend moon of Korea's organisation of religious system if you are any kind of a religious person.

And so you can belong to the world council of churches. And these ideas including also the church of Rome I'm quite sure will eventually unify themselves into a Christendom culminating in the Antichrist and his doom.

And then of course there are the Gentile nations. The times of the Gentiles is the scriptural phase. From the time of Nebuchadnezzar when the Jews were taken captive to his land and all of Daniel's 70 weeks plus the church age I'm quite sure is the age of the times of the Gentiles.

And God from among the Gentile nations in particular not exclusively is calling out today a people for his name. And God has a very special purpose for the church. You see at the beginning of the gospels the emphasis was on the kingdom.

And you will find that half way through the emphasis shifts and the saviour is speaking of the church. The command was go only to the house of Israel. At the beginning and then at the end was going to all the world and preach the gospel to every creature.

Now Israel's failure led to their bondage in Egypt. Led to the dividing of the ten tribes. And led to their captivity. It led to their dividing the ten northern tribes from the two southern tribes you know.

But thank God in a coming day there is to be a restoration of the twelve tribes or the remnant that is left of both parties. According to Ezekiel 37 and many other scriptures show that there will be a restoration of the present lost ten tribes.

Together with those that are saved from the two tribes in a day which is to come. Now the release from captivity in Babylon was the start of Daniel's seventy weeks as we were reading of them in our scripture portion this evening.

These seventy weeks that Gabriel told Daniel about were really concerning Daniel's own people. And this is where this image comes in you see. It would have been helpful had we time to go into some of these details about Babylon and the law and the tabernacle.

The Tabernacle, the Mercy Seat, and Access to God

But time forbids, but I think perhaps I ought to say that God's presence of old was known among his people. In the holy of holies in the tabernacle that was set up in their wilderness journeyings toward the promised land.

And then eventually at Shiloh in Canaan before the temple itself was built by Solomon. But of course there was a veil between the holy place and the holy of holies. And in the holy of holies there was a little box.

They carried with them two boxes in their wilderness journeyings. One was a box of bones and the other was the ark of the covenant. And on top of the ark of the covenant was some gold, a gold plate. This was the mercy seat.

But over the mercy seat joined to the box were two cherubim standing antithetically placed looking toward one another and downwards. Inside the box was God's law. And the children of Israel had broken God's law.

And the cherubim always speak of justice and judgment. A cherubim steward, or the cherubim steward, with sword in hand to keep the way of the tree of life. But there is no sword in the hand of these cherubim.

By the way, let me get it grammatically, grammatically correct. Cherubim is the plural for cherub as you all know. But there is no sword here over the ark of the covenant and in the most holy place. Because, you see, on the gold the blood of victims newly slain was to be sprinkled.

And there is no sword when the blood is on the gold. And there is no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus. But you see, it was only the high priest who went into the holy place, into the presence of God, the place where God made his presence known of old, once a year and not without the blood of victims newly slain, which he took in for himself and for the people who had sinned.

In between, by the way, only the sons of Aaron could get here. And the sons of Levi here and so on. Outside here was a sort of imaginary line, the middle wall of petition. And of course Jews would be inside and Gentiles outside.

And if we Gentiles had been around in those days we wouldn't have had a chance of getting anywhere near the presence of God. As a matter of fact on the veil between the holy place and the most holy place were two cherubim woven.

And their wings were outspread and they touched each side and joined wings in the middle too. The whole width of the veil. And they always speak of justice and judgment of the holy God. And virtually what God was saying was this, keep out, keep out, keep out.

But when the Lord Jesus died and shed his precious blood, that was enough forever. Once and for all was his sacrifice made. So God tore the curtain, the veil, from top to bottom. And instead of saying keep out he said come inside.

And so now we're all by one spirit have access unto the Father. What a great privilege and blessing is ours. I was just tempted to give you that little bit on the way through. But I wanted us to mention just for a moment or two Nebuchadnezzar's dream of this image which Daniel reminded him of and gave the interpretation of to him.

The Four Gentile Empires in Daniel's Image

And as we all know God was telling the king through Daniel and incidentally telling us too that as far as the Gentile powers were concerned there would be one, two, three, four world empires, world rulers.

The head was of gold and Daniel said to Nebuchadnezzar thou art this head of gold. And he being the head of the Babylonian world empire. Then of course there was the breast and arms of silver which represented that which should come, the world empire of the Medes and Persians.

And Cyrus was the one specially chosen by God revealing the sovereignty of God to bring judgment to God's people and to set up this kingdom at that time. And of course the next one was the thighs were of brass or bronze and this was speaking of Alexander the Great's empire, the Grecian empire.

And then the fourth was the Roman represented by the legs of iron. And the toes were ten of course, they were iron and clay. And many of us feel that as far as we are concerned we are just about there now waiting for a confederacy in the world, in western Europe in particular.

A revival somewhat of the old Roman empire, geographically roughly speaking, of a ten kingdom confederacy. And then of course Daniel spoke about the stone which the king saw being cut out of the mountains and coming and forming upon these ten toes and upon the image and breaking it in pieces.

Now this stone which overcame and broke in pieces the ten toes shall we say, the ten kingdom confederacy of nations eventually fills the whole earth. And when Christ comes, because this is a picture of him undoubtedly, when Christ comes in power and great glory he will conduct the judgment of the nations and his glory in person will fill the whole earth.

And his kingdom according to Daniel chapter 2 and verse 44 will stand forever and ever. We have a little picture of a temple here if it was anything like that. There were three temples as you know. The one which Solomon built which was most glorious.

The one which Zerubbabel rebuilt on the same site. And you read of that in the book of Ezra. And the one that Herod built, he started to build it in B .C. 20. It was still being built when our Lord came to this earth.

And it was completed in A .D. 60, only a few years before it was completely destroyed again in A .D. 70. When the invasion came from the north and the city was besieged, the walls broken down, the temple burned with fire and thousands and thousands of Jews were slain and the city flowed with blood.

The Cross as the Center of History and Redemption

Just a word or two before I close about the cross, which is central to the whole idea. The cross divides the world. The cross divides history. What a purpose God has in the crosswork of his dear son. When we talk about the cross we are not referring to a piece of wood, but the crosswork of Christ.

There is a lovely hymn you sing sometimes, I cling to the old rugged cross. The line like the new one which says, let others who will praise the cross of the Christ, but the Christ of the cross is my theme.

For though we must cherish the old rugged cross, tis none but the Christ can redeem. And of course the cross appears all the way through the Old Testament scriptures. All this is looking forward to the coming of Christ and his death.

And all that is looking backward to the cross and what Christ did for the salvation of the world. The cross appears in Genesis 3. The seed of the woman shall bruise Satan's head. That's his crosswork.

The cross is foreshadowed in Abel's Lamb, the accepted sacrifice. The cross is typified in the judgment of the flood and the ark and those that survived in it. And the cross is seen in the picture of Abraham and Isaac at Mount Moriah, you will recall.

The cross is seen in Egypt, in the Lamb that was chosen without blemish for the salvation of the people from judgment. And the cross is pictured in the crossing of the Red Sea. It is pictured in the tree at Marah.

The children of Israel in their wanderings came to Marah and the waters of Marah were bitter. But Moses found a tree which God showed to him and he put it in the water and the waters were made sweet and the people were saved.

And God showed Christ a tree, the cross of Calvary. Thank God for the salvation which is yours and mine through what he did there at the cross of Calvary. The cross is pictured in the smithen rock and the life-giving water that was produced for Moses and the people then.

And the cross is foreshadowed in the Levitical offerings as we see them in the book of Leviticus. And the cross is foreshadowed in the brazen serpent that Moses erected for the salvation of the people who were bitten by serpents.

And the cross is called for by Job's plea for a dazed man to stand between him and his God. There is one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus who on the cross gave himself a ransom for us.

The cross is portrayed in Psalm 2. The rulers have taken counsel together against the Lord and against his anointed. And the cross is portrayed in Psalm 22. My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me but thou art holy.

The cross is prophesied in Isaiah 53. The Lord Jehovah hath laid on him the iniquity of us all. And the cross is prophesied in Zechariah chapter 13 and verse 6. A Waco sword against my shepherd, against the man that is my fellow, saith the Lord of hosts, smite the shepherd.

You say that wasn't Christ and his cross work, that was the prophet or some other person. Impossible! There is only one person in the universe who is the fellow of the Lord of hosts. And that is our Lord Jesus Christ himself.

And that was his cross work when Jehovah bade his sword awake, O Christ at the cross. It fell on thee, it smote thee. And the cross is inevitable as seen in John the Baptist's message, the forerunner of the Saviour, behold the Lamb of God who taketh away the sin of the world.

The cross is central. The cross divides all history. The cross divides the world. And as a matter of fact, it is quite possible it divides us here tonight. On the one side of the cross of Christ there was a man dying for his sin.

And the scripture says the wages of sin is death. On the other side there was a man who was turning to Christ and trusting him. And the word says the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.

The cross is central. O mystery of mysteries, of life and death, the tree, centre of two eternities which look with rapt adoring eyes onward and back to thee. O cross of Christ, where all his pain and death is our eternal gain.

He hath appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself. He hath appeared, what a person to appear. The word, the eternal word was made flesh. He hath appeared, what a day when he appeared. He hath appeared to put away sin, what a purpose for his appearing.