'When He is come, He will tell us all things'
John 4:25
You must have noticed some great and memorable sayings in the New Testament which were spoken unwittingly.
'This man receiveth sinners' (Luke 15:2); 'It is expedient that one man should die for the people' (John 11:50); 'He saved others, Himself He cannot save' (Matt. 27:42); 'This is the King of the Jews' (Luke 23:38).
So here we have a saying of a Samaritan woman, and a very important saying. They expected a Prophet (Deut. 18:5); for they did not acknowledge these passages in Isaiah, etc., where Messiah is depicted as suffering and dying.
We this day have been thinking of His office as Priest, and of His Sacrifice, and often we think of Him as King and Giver of gifts. But let us at present think of Him as Prophet, and take up the woman's true saying,—only let us apply it to His Second Coming to-day, and let us see how Christ will then 'execute His office as Prophet.'
He will come in glory; we shall be with Him in His Kingdom. New Jerusalem is described as at once a City and a Paradise. We shall have many walks with Him, for He 'shall dwell among them;' and then it is we shall find John 13:7 and 11:40 fully fulfilled. He will open out the meaning of providences that seemed dark, personal, and public. 'He will tell us all things about Himself.' It will be as when on the Transfiguration hill they 'talked with Him,' and as Moses when up in the Mount for forty days and forty nights.
Christ is the Prophet who 'by His Word and Spirit' reveals God's will. In that day we shall know the Word in all its meaning. He will open out to us its darkest places. He will explain to us Ezekiel's Temple, the genealogies of 1 Chron. etc., and show us the divine purpose in all. He will show us 'the mystery of God finished,' and as, in 2 Pet. 1:19, the 'Word of prophecy' was to be 'till the Daystar rise,' so now He Himself shall be our Bible.
O then, even because of this hope, hasten on to that day! He will clear up all difficulties about texts, doctrines, trying providences in our lot, and we shall say like Job (42:3), 'I have opened my mouth without knowledge. I have uttered . . . . things too wonderful for me.'
Hasten on, for even this Feast we keep to-day with elements of bread and wine only till the better come, namely Himself. So we study the Word and Ordinances and are changed thereby (2 Cor. 3:18) only till He Himself come, when at once (1 John 3:2) 'we shall be like Him.'
On that day shall Isa.29:18 be accomplished: 'The deaf shall hear the words of the book, and the eyes of the blind shall see out of obscurity,' for the fulness of the Holy Ghost shall be in us from Him.
Hasten on, for then will (Rev. 7:17) these 'fountains of living waters' be ours; discoveries of God's name and heart; verses like John 3:16 shall be opened up to us. There is much in Rev. 3:12 to excite expectation.
Hasten on. The day is near. Keep in mind the signs of the times: the ending of the twelve hundred and sixty days at hand, 'distress of nations with perplexity,' the three unclean spirits, the running to and fro of many, knowledge increased, the Gospel preached to all nations. The time of the end is near.
O workers,—elders, teachers, missionaries,—He will tell you the fruit of your labours then, though now you often say, 'I have laboured in vain.'
O sinner, quickly come to Him, whose death we have shown to-day. There is 'no salvation' otherwise. He will receive you, and your soul will be enlarged and taught by our Prophet in the 'ages to come.' If you do not, you will be degraded in the scale of being when your former friends are above angels; all because you would not take the key that opens the door, Christ Himself. 'If our Gospel be hid, it is hid to them that are lost.'
Satan's great aim is to blind you to this till it is too late.
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Andrew Bonar (1810 - 1892)
He was a well-known pastor in Scotland with the Free Church. His brother Horatius was another well-known minister who was contemporary with Robert Murray Mchyene and others in those days. They saw a move of revival in their churches where the Spirit brought many immediate conversations in a short period of time.He is best known for his work on compiling the life of the prophet of Dundee: Robert Murray Mchyene: "Memoir and Remains of Robert Murray McCheyne." One cannot read this volume and feel the sobriety of eternity and the fear of the Lord. He also wrote a wonderful volume on Leviticus.
Andrew Alexander Bonar was a minister of the Free Church of Scotland, and the youngest brother of Horatius Bonar.
He studied at Edinburgh; was minister at Collace, Perthshire, 1838 - 1856 (both in the Church of Scotland and the Free Church); and of Finnieston Free Church, Glasgow, 1856 till his death.
He was identified with evangelical and revival movements and adhered to the doctrine of premillennialism. With Robert Murray McCheyne he visited Palestine in 1839 to inquire into the condition of the Jews there. During the visit of Dwight L. Moody to Britain in 1874 and 1875, Moody was warmly welcomed by Bonar, despite the latter receiving considerable criticism from other Calvinist ministers in the Free Church.
Andrew Bonar preached from the whole Bible, the Word of God from Genesis to Revelation. When one of his friends remarked on his originality in finding subjects for preaching, and wondered where he got all his texts, he just lifted up his Bible. He did not ignore any part of it, but explained it all. He did not shy away from any passages that might be seen as unpopular or unpleasant. Even the first chapters of Chronicles became 'God calling the roll of mankind.' He made it come alive as a history of men and women, living in their time, as we live in ours, accountable to God.
Christ and Him crucified was at the centre of all his preaching, in all parts of the Bible. He declared 'the whole counsel of God', and was deeply aware of his responsibility as a man of God. He spent hours every day in prayer and meditation of the Scriptures, and asking for the Holy Spirit to show the truth to him, so that he might pass it on to his flock. He wrote in a letter: "Persevering prayerfulness is harder for the flesh than preaching."
Above all, he was aware that his personal holiness would be of crucial importance to his preaching, as his remark shows: "Sins of teachers are teachers of sins."