Let Them Alone
Matthew 15:14
Let them alone: they be blind
leaders of the blind. And if the blind lead the blind, both shall fall into the
ditch.
The words of the title were the
words of Christ referring to the religious leaders of His day, the scribes and
Pharisees (Matthew 15:1). The disciples of Christ were concerned that our Lord
Jesus had offended these elders because He said to them: “Ye hypocrites, well
did Esaias (Isaiah) prophesy of you, saying, This people draw nigh unto me with
their mouth, and honoureth me with their lips;
but their heart is far from me. But in vain they do worship me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men.” (Matthew
15:7-9). Our Lord Jesus explained to His disciples: “Every plant, that my
heavenly Father hath not planted, shall be rooted up.” (Matthew 15:13). In
these words our Lord informed His disciples that these scribes and Pharisees
were not: “trees of righteousness, the planting of the LORD,” (Isaiah 61:3)
but, that they were tares, and therefore would, in their time, be rooted up.
(Matthew 13:36-43). The Lord Jesus by this counsel taught His disciples and
every one of His people of all ages the will of God: in that He said, “Let them
alone”: for it is the work of God to search out His sheep; as it is written:
“For thus saith the LORD God; Behold, I, even
I, will both search my sheep, and seek them out. As a shepherd seeketh out
his flock in the day that he is among his sheep that are scattered; so will I seek out my sheep, and will deliver
them out of all places where they
have been scattered in the cloudy and dark day.” (Ezekiel 34:11-12).
These men, the scribes and
Pharisees, were not “children of the covenant” (Act 3:25), they were not
“children of the promise” (Galatians 4:28) for God’s promise, is to the
children of the promise, that is, His elected people, those whom He chose in
Christ before the foundation of the world, (Ephesians 1:4); and predestinated
unto the adoption of children (Ephesians 1:5). Those scribes and Pharisees
demonstrated that they were children of the devil: as it is written: “Ye are of
your father the devil, and the lusts
of your father ye will do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and abode not
in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaketh a lie, he
speaketh of his own: for he is a liar and the father of it. And because I tell you the truth, ye believe me not. (John
8:44-45). The disciples therefore were instructed to “Let them alone” these
religious men were dead in trespasses and in sins (Ephesians 2:1) as all men are
by nature; and they will remain in that condition to all eternity unless the
Spirit of life from God will come unto them and make them alive (Ezekiel 37:5;
John 5:21): for, the Son quickeneth, that is, makes to live, or makes alive,
whom He will.
All and every one of the children
of the covenant of grace will infallibly be found of God the Holy Ghost, and
will be given life; of the life that is in Christ Jesus. For Christ Jesus said
“I give unto them eternal life; and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand. My
Father, which gave them me, is
greater than all; and no man is able
to pluck them out of my Father’s
hand.” (John 10:28-29). Those who hear the gospel and are made able to believe
by the gift of life that is in Christ Jesus entering into them make manifest
their election of God (John 5:24; I John 5:11; Colossians 3:4; Ephesians 1:3).
Those who are never concerned about the gospel, the glory of God, or the life
beyond this perceptible world, show themselves to be the seed of the serpent
(Genesis 3:15). Those who are continually hostile to the things of God and are
given up to our natural aversion of the gospel, have no part in the covenant of
grace, they will not be sought out of the Holy Ghost and be convinced of sin,
of righteousness, and of judgment, (John 16:8-11) for it is His work, it
belongs to His office in the covenant, to arrest and apprehend the children of
the covenant (Philippians 3:12), He will “bring them into the bond of the
covenant” experientially (Ezekiel 20:37) by giving them new life, a new heart
of faith, and a new spirit of delight in the things of God: for, their new life
is in Christ Jesus.
There are a great many today who
are of the spirit of the Pharisees, which is the spirit of antichrist: for they
deny the essentials of the doctrine of Christ (II John 1:9-11). Our Lord Jesus
commanded His disciples: “Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the
Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost: teaching them to observe all
things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world. A-men.”
(Matthew 28:19-20). Baptism is to be administered in the name of the Three
Persons of the Holy Trinity because of the united love and participation of
each Person in the salvation of the elect. Each of the three persons of the
Godhead is active in the salvation of the children of God, the Father chose the
objects of His everlasting love and named them in the covenant of grace before
the foundation of the world in Christ ( Ephesians 1:4; Hebrews 12:23), God the
Son redeemed those the Father had chosen with His own precious blood (I Peter
1:18-19), and God the Holy Ghost calls the chosen and redeemed children of the everlasting covenant
by His infinite power “which effectually worketh also in you that believe.” (I
Thessalonians 2:4-5; 13).
Our modern Pharisees deny the
work of the Father for they deny the thing the Father did, they deny His
election of grace. They deny that The Father chose some to everlasting life,
and did not choose others. The Preachers of our day, know the word of election
is in the Bible, they cannot deny that truth, and so they pervert the truth to
say that God knew who would believe and because of that, He chose those persons
to eternal life. But; again this is a perversion of the word of God: “A little
leaven leaveneth the whole lump.” (Galatians 5:9) That is, one false precept
must be supported by another until nothing is left of the truth. Those who the
Father chose to eternal life “MUST be saved” (Acts 4:12; Matthew 1:21; John
6:37) for the covenant is sealed by the precious blood of Christ (Hebrews13:20)
therefore the terms of the covenant must be met (Genesis 6:18; 9:11; 17:7,
19,21; Ezekiel 16:60, 62) and certain it is that it shall be; for “and I will
be to them a God, and they shall be to me a people:”(Hebrews 8:10).
Redemption by the blood of Christ
is also denied by this generation of preachers and parishioners, according to
most modern preachers Christ actually redeemed no one until the sinner makes
his blood effectual to the redemption of his soul by the sinner’s choice. The
truth is that Christ redeemed all the church of all ages by one offering, (Hebrews
10:10, 14; Zechariah 3:9). If Christ died for all men and every man, then all
men must be saved, for Christ died to put away the sin of His people, so that
if He died for all men, then no one has sin that was not put away by the death
of Christ; consequently all men must be saved, which things are contrary to
scripture and to the experience of the rich man who refused Lazarus help (Luke
16:24), and is now in hell. And if Christ died for all men and put away the sin
of all men, then the sin of unbelief can make no one guilty; for by himself he
purged our sins, not us from our sins, but our sins (Hebrews 1:3; Isaiah 1:18),
if in this verse the word our refers to human kind collectively, and not to the
election of grace distinctively, then all men must be saved: which is again,
contrary to the scriptures. Christ Jesus bought the church of God with His own
blood, as said the Apostle Paul: “For ye are bought with a price: therefore
glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God’s.” (I Corinthians
6:20). Christ Jesus bought His church: that is, the whole and entire “remnant
according to the election of grace” (Romans 11:5), and none else, He gave
himself a ransom for the many, as many as the Father has given Him (John 17:2);
and as many as are ordained to eternal life (Acts 13:48). Christ Jesus is the
good shepherd that gave His life for His sheep (John 10:11) and there are many
who are not His sheep (John10:26).
The effectual call of the Holy
Ghost is denied by this generation, for today preachers say that the call may
be overcome, resisted, and not obeyed, preachers of our day deny the effectual
nature of the call to salvation. But the psalmist has said: “As soon as they
hear of me, they shall obey me: the strangers shall submit themselves unto me.”
(Psalm 18:44). And again it is written: “Strangers shall submit themselves unto
me: as soon as they hear, they shall be obedient unto me.” (II Samuel 22:45).
And our Lord Jesus Christ has said: “It is the Spirit that quickeneth; the
flesh profiteth nothing: the words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they
are life.” (John 6:63). To whom the Lord Jesus will, He speaks the word of
life: (Philippians 2:16, see I John 1:1) and so speaking by His Spirit He gives
eternal life (John 10:28). To this may be added the words of the Apostle Paul
to Timothy “Be not thou therefore ashamed of the testimony of our Lord, nor of
me His prisoner: but be thou partaker of the afflictions of the gospel
according to the power of God; who hath saved us, and have called us with a
holy calling, not according to our works, but according to his own purpose and
grace, which was given us in Christ Jesus before the world began,” (II Timothy
1:8-9). Notice reader: It is God who has saved us, and when? Before the
foundation of the world by choosing us in Christ Jesus, the Father gave us to
the Son before the worlds were made, and accepted us in Christ Jesus (Ephesians
1:4, 6). In the purpose of God, and according to His determinate counsel, Christ
Jesus was slain before the foundation of the world and then actually at Calvary
(Acts 2:23; Isaiah 53:10: Revelation 13:8), but why? To justify His people from
all things (Acts 13:39) So that God “might be just, and the justifier of him
which believeth in Jesus.” (Romans 3:26). The work of salvation is a finished
work, and finished by Jesus Christ alone. (John 17:4). Repentance and faith are
characters of the living, those to whom the Lord Jesus has given eternal life:
the spiritually dead cannot exhibit characteristics of life. Therefore “Let
them alone” until such time as the Lord of life and glory may, according to His
will, grant them life, who are heirs according to the everlasting covenant of
grace.
AJ Ison
See the writers blog at www.hebrews915.blogspot.com hear
the true gospel of the free and sovereign grace of God in Christ Jesus preached
at www.13thstbaptist.org webcasting
live at listed service times.
