Press On Into The Everlasting Kingdom...

"So an entrance shall be ministered unto you abundantly, into the everlasting kingdom of our LORD and SAVIOUR JESUS CHRIST." -II Peter 1:11 [KJV]

Our last meditation was gloom and sadness. Here, the Sun of comfort arises, and sheds splendour, glory, and joy upon us. O that we may this night enter by faith into the joy of our Lord! Come, Christian! it seems you and I must tarry a little longer on earth, absent from our Lord. How shall we employ ourselves? In studying the word of His grace: in being diligent in the use of means: in exercising ourselves unto godliness. What then? O blessed assurance! “So an entrance shall be ministered unto us abundantly.” When? both in life and in death. 

(1st.) In life. We shall find a free and open door into the kingdom of Christ’s grace, love, and peace, even now. We shall have the joy in the Holy Ghost, and the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, in our hearts. Thus, with the full sail of assurance, and the rapid tide of heavenly consolation, we shall sweetly and swiftly sail the voyage of life. All is enjoyed in being diligent in the ways of Christ. Diligence! working! labouring! etc. Why, (say some) all these are the very dregs of legality. Ay, so it would, if we had not the faith of Christ in our hearts, love to Christ in our souls, and the glory of Christ, Who has fully justified and eternally saved us, in our view. 

Soul, thus press on. Mind not the Satanic grin, nor licentious sneer, of carnal professors, nor of legal gospellers. Legal! to live and labour in the kingdom of love? O, fool! say, did you ever expect to enter your Lord’s kingdom any other way, than by Christ, Who is the door? Do you expect to enjoy the comforts of His love, and the assurance of His favour, in a walk and way contrary to His word and will? Are we not to walk in Christ, abounding in the work of faith, the patience of hope, and the labour of love? Diligence of soul to enjoy His presence, and to be conformed to His image, is our delight below. To have every holy temper and heavenly disposition from Christ, puts the soul into a right frame to enjoy Him. This is to have a constant and an abundant entrance ministered to us, into the kingdom of Christ. So living and abiding in His kingdom of grace and love, our souls grow dead to the kingdom of this world. 

We rejoice to think, (2d.) of an entrance into Christ’s kingdom being abundantly ministered to us at death. Fellowship with Christ, and diligence in His ways, makes us think of death with pleasure, and familiarizes it to our mind with joy. By faith we see heaven open to admit us; God our Father, with open arms to embrace us; Christ to welcome us, and the Spirit to enable us to sing victory in death. 

 

O! may I join the raptur’d lays, 

And, with the blissful throng, 

Resound salvation, pow’r, and praise 

In everlasting song!

 

-preacher Wm. Mason (1724-1797 A.D.)

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