Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit · Sermon No. 506
“But strong meat belongs to them that are of full age, even those who by reason of use have their senses exercised to discern both good and evil.’” Hebrews 5:14.
IN most large houses we shall find humanity in all its stages. We shall see the infant in its cradle, children laughing in their play, young men working with vigor, and the old man resting in peace in such a mansion. If a careful Martha is in charge, provisions will be made for all the different ages. There will be milk provided for the babes, and the pantry will not be without solid meat for the full grown men.
Now in our Father’s great house, His family is always so large that you will always find Believers in all stages of growth. Perhaps there is never a moment in the year in which there is not a new birth unto God by the Holy Spirit. The sighing of repentance, and the crying of simple faith are always in our heavenly Father’s ears, giving Him delight. He has men, babes, and for these He has abundance of nourishing food. But we bless His name that they are not all babes in the house. Some are young men, who are strong, and have overcome the Wicked One. And there are a few fathers who have known Him, that is, from the beginning.
For the young men and for the hoary sires there is as plentiful and as fitting a provision as for the infants. He opens His hands, and supplies the want of every living thing. This is true, not only of the temporals which He gives to man and beast alike, but also of the spirituals which He dispenses liberally to all the new creatures in Christ Jesus. Now it were unfitting to give milk to the man of full age, and equally improper to present the strong meat to those who are but infants. Our Lord has, therefore, been pleased to dictate directions as to the persons for whom the various provisions of His table are intended.
Our text talks of strong and solid meat, and it describes the persons who are to feed thereon. The context gives a mild rebuke to those who, by reason of indolence and sloth, have not attained to years of discernment, and cannot, therefore, feed on substantial diet.
I. Let us, first of all, BRING FORTH SOME OF THIS STRONG MEAT AND SET IT UPON THE TABLE BEFORE YOU.
A careful examination of the context will inform you that one form of strong meat which is only fit for full grown Christians is the allegorical exposition of Scriptural history. You will mark that the Apostle was about to allegorize upon Melchizedek. He had intended to set forth that that venerable and priestly king was, so far as Scriptural information goes, without father, without mother, without descent—having neither beginning of years nor end of life—and that he was superior to Levi seeing that Levi’s progenitor paid tithes to him, and received his blessing.
The Apostle was about to show that Melchizedek was a type of Jesus, who, as a Priest, is without father, without mother, without descent, having neither beginning of days, nor end of years, but is a Priest forever according to the power of an endless life. But the Apostle paused, for he felt that this allegory of Melchizedek was too strong a meat for those who were not full grown men. Beyond a doubt, the historical parts of Scriptures are intended to be instructive allegories, setting forth heavenly mysteries. See how the Apostle Paul used several of them. There is the case of Hagar and Sarah.
Since the promise was not performed to Sarah, and no offspring had been born to Abraham, Sarah suggests that Abraham should take to himself a concubinary wife, Hagar. He does so, and she brings forth according to the flesh, and by the power of the flesh, Ishmael. Now the Apostle goes on to show that Ishmael was not the seed which God had promised and that, consequently, in after years, Isaac was born—not according to the power of the flesh—since his father and mother were past age—but according to the promise fulfilled by the power of God alone.
He then goes on to show that this is an allegory. That the children of the flesh, that is, those who are the seed of Abraham, by natural birth, like Ishmael, are not the true seed. But that those who, like Isaac, are the fruit of God’s promise, and having been once as dead, are given to Abraham, as Isaac was on the mountain in a figure—that these are the true seed, concerning whom the Covenant was made. And as Sarah said concerning Hagar—“Cast out the bondwoman and her son, for the son of the bondwoman shall not be heir with my son, even with Isaac.” So the Gospel says— “Cast out the Law, for the children of the Law, those who hope to be saved by legal works, shall not be heirs with My sons, even with those who are saved by the promise of Grace.”
Now this allegory is meat for instructed Believers. Jacob and Esau—born of the same parents, at the same birth, and yet separated in destiny by that memorable sentence, “Jacob have I loved and Esau have I hated”—were a type of the election of Divine Grace. And with many other instances, these go to prove that Holy Scripture is to be received not only as a literal description of facts which really did occur, but as a picture in which souls taught be Divine Grace, illuminated by the Holy Spirit, may see, portrayed in express characters, the great Gospel of the living God.