NOTES OF LECTURES 1895
It is unquestionable that we have different lines of teaching presented to us in the New Testament, in the scriptures which bear more directly on Christians. While every scripture is given by inspiration of God, there are certain scriptures which relate in almost an exclusive way to Christians. And I see increasingly, that the spirit and principle which pervades all such writings is unity; that is, all the teaching tends in that direction. It is a point that it is not at all difficult to demonstrate. Expressions which are common with us out of the writings of Paul sufficiently prove it. The end of Paul's teaching is "one body". I have been struck with this in the Epistle to the Romans. In the first eight chapters of that epistle, though the body is not named, the apostle gives you a sufficient doctrinal basis for the one body, so that in chapter 12 we find the statement, "We, being many, are one body in Christ, and members one of another". If you do not understand the truth of the one body, you are not intelligently in the will of God here. I might make other quotations from Paul; but everybody knows that the fact of the one body is almost the heart of the apostle's teaching, a body composed of Jew and Gentile, formed by the Holy Ghost sent down from heaven, of which Christ is set in the place of Head. God gave Him "head over all things" as head to the church, "which is his body, the fulness [or completeness] of him that fills all in all".
Now I find the same principle pervading the writings of John, namely, that what we are being led on to is the thought of unity. No one can read John 10 without seeing that the end to which the Lord was leading is expressed in this "And other sheep I have" -- speaking of the Gentiles -- "which are not of this fold: them also I must bring, and they shall hear my voice; and there shall be one flock, and one shepherd". I can understand someone saying, But you are confounding the flock with the one body. I reply, No, they are parallel truths; it is a different idea, but there is no difference substantially between the one body and the one flock. There is another point connected with it, namely, that it is impossible for any one of us to enter intelligently into the idea of unity according to the mind of God if we have not first learnt what is true of us individually. That is as certain as anything can be.
Unity is a very important point; but I am not speaking about outward ecclesiastical unity. By unity I mean the unity as of one body, and the one body is the body of Christ. We learn that there is one body; and it is the knowledge of that which separates Christians from all the great religious bodies about us. It is not difficult to show to those who are really Christians the inconsistency of the great sects and systems with the truth of scripture, because it is so manifest. There is one body existing here upon earth; but when that is seen there is another truth to be learnt, which is almost a more important one, that that body is Christ's body. It is the vessel in which Christ is displayed.
It may be as well to stop for a moment to prove this, for I do not care to put out anything which cannot be substantiated from scripture. It is evident that the body is for the display of Christ, for scripture says: "The church, which is his
body, the fulness of him that filleth all in all" -- fulness is that which is adequate for the complete display. As we see in Romans 13, "Love is the fulness of the law". The text reads, "Love is the fulfilling of the law", but the real meaning is "the fulness of the law"; that is, love is that which is alone needful for the complete display of the law. When Paul was going to Damascus on the errand of persecution, there appeared to him a light above the brightness of the sun, and he heard a voice saying, "Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me?" He was persecuting Christ in His body; it was Himself, that in which He was displayed. I only refer to that in connection with the thought of unity.
Now I will, by way of preface, just briefly go over the main points of John's gospel. Down to the end of chapter 6 we get what is individual, namely, the great truth of life brought out in its principles and characteristics, and with it the deliverance of the soul from what is contrary to God. Then chapter 7 introduces a new thought: the change of dispensation, the time of the Spirit; and in connection with this we have the new company, the one flock. That, and the various glories of Christ, is the great subject of the section from chapter 7 to chapter 12, which is one continuous section. Then, from chapter 13 to chapter 17 you get the disciples viewed as the vessel which was to be here in witness for Christ, and the features and character of the vessel. By the vessel I mean the company which was to be here for Christ, and which was to be expanded into one flock, of which Christ was the Shepherd. It was to be here for Him, not for itself, just as the body is for the display of the Head. That is what comes out from chapter 13 to chapter 17. I am dividing the gospel in a human way; but I think if you bear in mind the division, you may be helped in the understanding of what I
want to bring before you. My object is to bring out the character of the new dispensation. I do not go further in this lecture, than to touch on what comes out in chapter 7, at the close of which the new dispensation is introduced. The main feature of it is that the Spirit is here. The Lord refers to it, and John adds: "This spake he of the Spirit, which they that believe on him should receive: for the Holy Ghost was not yet given; because that Jesus was not yet glorified". Jesus had previously said that He was going away; but now we see that His going away would lead to another thing, that He would be glorified and the time of the Holy Ghost would be down here. There would be a new order of things marked by the presence of the Spirit here, and, for want of a better term, I venture to call it the dispensation of light. In the succeeding chapters man is viewed as completely tested by the light of Christ's word and work, both of which he rejects and is thus found wanting; and, consequent upon that, an entirely new and heavenly company is formed, composed of Jew and Gentile, "one flock", of which Christ is the Shepherd. So that you have a new dispensation which is marked by the presence of the Spirit here, and a new company, of which Christ is the Shepherd. And then the section closes up, in chapters 11 and 12, with witness to the varied glories of Christ, as Son of God, Son of David, and Son of man; and He, having been lifted up from the earth, is the point to which all are drawn.
Now, I have called this new dispensation the dispensation of light, and I touch on it for a moment, because of the importance of the thought that light tests. Light in divine things is positive, for light is the revelation of God, and the revelation of God necessarily tests everything. Thus it is the word of Christ which tests the Jew in chapter 8, and His work which tests him in chapter 9, and the Jew
rejects both. At the close of chapter 8 they took up stones to stone Jesus, and in chapter 9 they excommunicated the subject of His work; they will neither have the word of God nor the work of God. But then, consequent upon that, the Lord reveals that He is leading His sheep out of the fold; and in bringing in the Gentile there is the formation of one flock, and there is one Shepherd. But that could not be until the Jew had been completely tested by the presentation to him of the light. Then the Lord brings out His sheep; there is one flock, but not to take the place of Israel. When I go into that, we shall see that the characteristic of the flock now is this, "I know my sheep, and am known of mine, as the Father knows me and I also know the Father".
Now, as I remarked, it is before the mind of the Lord in chapter 7 that He is about to go away. There are four utterances of the Lord in the chapter, but I only touch on the last of them. "Then said Jesus unto them, Yet a little while am I with you, and then I go unto him that sent me. Ye shall seek me, and shall not find me: and where I am, thither ye cannot come" (verse 33, 34); that is, the Lord reveals the truth that He was on the point of going away. Then (verse 37 - 39), "In the last day, that great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried, saying, If any man thirst, let him come unto me, and drink. He that believeth on me, as the scripture hath said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water. But this spake he of the Spirit, which they that believe on him should receive: for the Holy Ghost was not yet given; because that Jesus was not yet glorified". The time of the Holy Ghost could not be until He could bring down the report into this world of the glory of Christ. He has come down as Witness that God has accomplished for Himself all the counsel of His will in a man, and that that man
is at the right hand of God, and everything is delivered into His hand, He is glorified. Reconciliation has been accomplished for God, and everything is headed up now in Christ, all things are put under His feet, He is in glory: and the Holy Ghost has come down to bring the report of it. It is that which characterises the present moment. You may be sure that people are all tending in the direction of one man or of another; in the direction of Christ or of Antichrist. The world in the present day is tending in the direction of Antichrist, for the tendency is to give up Christ. Nobody is stationary, and if you are not going Christ-ward you are tending in the direction of man. I see this coming out in the Epistle to the Hebrews -- the tendency of the Hebrews was to turn back, and if they did not go forward to God, they went back to man.
I must refer for a moment to the occasion on which this truth in John 7 comes out, namely, the feast of tabernacles; for you cannot well understand it apart from seeing the occasion. You will see that the chapter begins a fresh subject. "After these things Jesus walked in Galilee: for he would not walk in Jewry, because the Jews sought to kill him. Now the Jews' feast of tabernacles was at hand. His brethren therefore said unto him, Depart hence, and go into Judaea, that thy disciples also may see the works that thou doest. For there is no man that doeth any thing in secret, and he himself seeketh to be known openly. If thou do these things, shew thyself to the world. For neither did his brethren believe in him". You must take account of the fact that the brethren of the Lord, the Jews, were lost in unbelief. No doubt the passage refers to His natural kindred; but I think it has a wider significance, and refers to the Jew after the flesh. What we find is, that the Lord
will not publicly identify Himself with the feast of tabernacles; but He goes up secretly to teach in the temple, He takes every occasion to carry on the service of His testimony here, though He cannot identify Himself in any public way with the Jewish feast. "My time is not yet come", He says; that is, His time was not yet come to bring in the feast of tabernacles in its true power. Then at the close of the chapter you come to what is remarkable: the Lord, having met all the different thoughts of the Jews in the early part of the chapter, at the close propounds something on the great day of the feast, which, I take it, means the eighth day, "In the last day, that great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried, saying, If any man thirst, let him come unto me, and drink. He that believeth on me, as the scripture hath said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water". This leads me to refer for a moment to the feast of tabernacles. We read in Leviticus 23 that it took place on the fifteenth day of the seventh month. As far as I can understand the teaching of the feasts, everything for Israel was to begin afresh in connection with the seventh month. The previous principal feasts were the feast of unleavened bread and the feast of weeks; and on the first day of the seventh month everything began afresh. On the first day is the blowing of trumpets, on the tenth is the day of atonement, and on the fifteenth day is the feast of tabernacles. The teaching of it is, I suppose, that in connection with the seventh month, the history of Israel is taken up afresh.
In John the Lord ignores everything connected with Israel and the feast of tabernacles, and nothing comes out of His mouth about it till the great day of the feast. Then He stands and cries, "If any man thirst, let him come unto me, and drink"; and we have the interpretation of the Spirit of God,
"This spake he of the Spirit, which they that believe on him should receive: for the Holy Ghost was not yet given; because that Jesus was not yet glorified". The first seven days of the feast indicate the completeness of earthly blessing and joy in Israel; but the eighth day brings in eternal things, that which is in resurrection, in conjunction with the earthly things; it is in that sense the communion of the heavenly and the earthly. Now you can understand how it is that the Lord begins to speak here about the heavenly things, because the feast of tabernacles was not for the time to have place, and what was to come in were the eternal and heavenly things in connection with Jesus being glorified and the Holy Ghost given. To me it simplifies the matter very greatly when we see what was the significance of the great day of the feast.
I will now say a word or two about Jesus glorified and the Holy Ghost given, because the presence of the Holy Ghost was to introduce another day. You can see the great contrast between Jesus being in humiliation here, and His being glorified. It is evident that the glory of Jesus must introduce the light of another day. It is a wonderful truth that Jesus is glorified; He is not yet displayed in glory, but everything is placed under His feet, He has "ascended up far above all heavens, that he might fill all things"; and the church is His body, "the fulness of him that filleth all in all"; He is above all things, and the Holy Ghost is come down here to report His glory. It is a great thing to be in the light of it -- I do not know anything much more blessed. You know that all things are put under Him, and you do not look to man for anything, you look to God for all; and God, at any moment that He sees fit, can change the whole aspect and character of things down here. As the apostle says in Hebrews 2, "We see not yet all things put
under him, but we see Jesus, who was made a little lower than the angels for the suffering of death, crowned with glory and honour". A little period is left to men during which they can carry on their actings down here, but faith knows that God has put all things under the feet of Christ; the word to Him is, "Sit thou at my right hand until I make thy foes thy footstool". He is saluted there as high priest, He is the minister of the holy places, and the Holy Ghost has come down as witness of His glory; it is the time of the Holy Ghost, and He could not be here until Jesus was glorified.
I am loath to leave the point because I think the light of the glory of Christ is the light in which our souls should be. I do not judge that anybody can enter into the great thought of unity until he is in the light of the glory of Christ. I believe it is that which delivers the soul from the influence and power of the world to a very large extent. You see the antagonism to it on the part of the god of this world, "In whom the god of this world hath blinded the minds of them that believe not" -- what against? "lest the light of the glad tidings of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them". The great point in Jesus glorified is that everything that was lost in man has been recovered for God, that all things are put under Christ; they only await the moment of His display, and we shall see all things put under Him. It is not simply that He is exalted to be Judge, but He "has ascended up far above all heavens that he might fill all things" according to God. That is His place, that is true of Him, and the Church is His body, "the fulness of him that filleth all in all".
It is the time of the Holy Ghost now; and perhaps the greatest mercy which God has shown to us in these last days is in giving us the recognition of the presence of the Holy Ghost here. I remember
thirty or forty years ago, we were accustomed to look for the outpouring of the Holy Ghost; Christendom, even Protestantism, had lost all sense of the true character of the dispensation, the abiding presence of the Holy Ghost here. The very point of the moment is that the Spirit is here as witness of the glory of the Bridegroom. The position of the virgins is that they are waiting for the Bridegroom; properly, they know His glory by the report of the Spirit, and they are waiting to go in with Him to the marriage. The idea of the Bridegroom to my mind is that He is One who has rights; and the virgins are waiting, in the faith of His coming, but as knowing His glory. He sits now at the right hand of God, to the infinite satisfaction of God -- it is the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. As has often been said, God is satisfied, and God is glorified, and Jesus is glorified. Everything there is to the perfect satisfaction of God. Stephen looked up steadfastly into heaven and saw the glory of God, and Jesus in glory, and said, "I see the heavens opened, and the Son of man standing on the right hand of God". Stephen was, by the Holy Ghost, under the blessed influence of the glory of Christ. You could not have a more perfect expression of it, for he was full of the Holy Ghost, and what the Holy Ghost made him conscious of was Jesus glorified; it was the fulfilment to his soul of what the Lord looked forward to here, the time when He would be glorified and the Holy Ghost given.
The Lord says, "He that believeth on me, as the scripture hath said" -- it was to be a fulfilment of scripture, and I think you might find the scripture if you search for it -- "out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water". I want by the Lord's help to give you an idea of what that means; and for that purpose I must refer to the previous chapters,
because I do not think that you can talk about rivers of living water flowing out of the belly of the believer if you do not see first how the believer is set in life. In the three previous chapters the question of life is solved. In chapter 4 the great subject matter is the communication by Christ to the believer of the Spirit as "a well of water springing up unto eternal life". The Lord says, "he that drinketh of this water shall thirst again; but whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst; but the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water, springing up unto eternal life". We have not come yet to eternal life, but we have that which springs up unto it. I do not mean that you have to wait till heaven to reach eternal life; but you reach it here in the power of the Spirit, that is, the Spirit in the believer will spring up to eternal life.
In chapter 5 you get the wonderful truth of a man raised up by Christ's word from the bed of legality. It is the revelation of God active in grace which delivers a soul from legality, for one learns that so far from our having to work, God has been working for our blessing; "My Father worketh hitherto, and I work". When once a person learns that his blessing depends -- not upon his working, but the Father's pleasure, then he is delivered from legality. That is what comes out in chapter 5, where the Lord raises up the man at the pool of Bethesda, who had lain on the bed of his weakness for thirty-eight years. God delights to be known as Father in the activities of His love. You were drawn to Christ by the Father; you may say that you were drawn to Him by preaching, but the real truth is that the Father drew you to Christ. And you were drawn to Christ that He might bring you to the Father; that is the way in which grace works. "My Father worketh hitherto, and I work".
No one can come to Christ except the Father draw him; the Father works in drawing to Christ, and then Christ reveals the Father to those that are drawn to Him by the Father. The love of Christ to saints is explained by this, they are individually dear to Christ because they are the Father's gift to Him, and He makes known to them .the Father's name.
In chapter 6 another point comes out, that the believer is completely independent of the world because he has living bread for the food of his soul. The Lord Jesus says, "As the living Father hath sent me, and I live because of the Father". I understand by it that the Lord Jesus down here was in no way dependent upon man or the world, that He lived here completely independent of all that was here, because He lived by the Father. Then it goes on to say, "so he that eateth me" -- that is, that to the one who appropriates Christ (and the affection of the believer is entitled to appropriate Christ in the very fullest way), all that He is, is yours; you cannot make too great demands upon Christ; you are entitled to appropriate Him in that which He is as Man -- "he that eateth me, even he shall live because of me". When I appropriate Christ, He is living bread to my soul; I am independent of all that is here; I do not live because of the world, but I live because of Christ. Therefore I am in communion with His death, I eat His flesh, and drink His blood. Can you conceive anything more wonderful? You have the Holy Ghost in chapter 4, the Father in chapter 5, and Christ in chapter 6: the well of water springing up to eternal life in chapter 4, the Father revealed to you in chapter 5, and Christ as the living bread in chapter 6; and I say that is the portion of the believer's soul. Eternal life is this, "that they might know thee", the Father, "the only true God, and Jesus Christ thy
sent One" -- you have got to life. It is like a bird that has found its wings. Here am I still in this world, but no more dependent on the world; I use my wings; I am unfettered now. I no longer look to the world for promotion or advantages, for the satisfaction of my soul; but I live because of Christ, as He lived because of the Father. Eternal life in the very nature of it must, at the present time, be completely independent of and apart from all that is here, because "the things which are seen are temporal, but the things which are not seen are eternal"; and therefore eternal life must be in unseen things.
But you have not got all quite complete yet; you have everything complete as to you, but now there is what comes out in chapter 7 -- you are to be in the light of Christ's glory. I do not think that a believer would be content even in the enjoyment of the portion which I have spoken of if he were not in the light of the glory of Christ; for what he sees is this, if Christ is all this to me, if I have such a portion, then in the very necessity of things Christ must fill all things, everything must be put under Him, He must be glorified, He must be the Head of everything. The believer feels that he could not realize what is spoken of in the previous chapter without his soul -- if I may so say -- demanding this, he must have the light of the glory of Christ. The Holy Ghost has come down to introduce another day, and to place the soul of the believer in the light of the glory of Christ; and the effect of it is that out of the belly of the believer flow rivers of living water. By that I do not understand preaching or public testimony; but I think it means that the believer has got more than he can contain, and therefore rivers of living water flow out of his belly. And if we were instructed in the blessed truth of the preceding chapters, that is if we really understood how we are
set in life according to the grace of God, and were led by the Spirit of God into the light of the glory of Christ, I believe it would be true of every one of us that we should have more than we could contain, and therefore in that sense, "out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water". The soul is brought into the presence of things that are eternal, where God has His supreme and perfect satisfaction in Christ, and everything is according to God's blessed mind, and Christ fills all things.
You may depend upon it that our lot is cast in a terribly evil day; and I am more and more convinced of the truth of what I said, that in the present day no one can be stationary, everybody gravitates in one direction or another; either you go man-ward or you go God-ward. If you go God-ward, you enter more and more, by the power of the Spirit of God, into the counsel and thought of God. And you can do this by the grace of God; for in principle God has accomplished all His counsel in Christ who is "crowned with glory and honour", everything put under His feet. Do you think anything can touch Christ, or hinder the exercise of His power? I believe the power of Christ is sufficient for everything now -- that there is nothing that can stand before that power here in the world. One single person converted is the proof of it. Christ is invested with all authority in heaven and upon earth, and the Holy Ghost is come down here to report His glory, and to inaugurate a new day, a dispensation of light. It is a time when God is completely revealed according to His nature, and in the blessed counsels of His grace. He has made known all that He purposes to accomplish, and in principle we see everything accomplished in the Person of Christ; He reconciles all things to Himself, and in a sense all is reconciled in Christ. We do not see it all displayed, but in principle all is
effectuated for God in Christ glorified; and the Holy Ghost has come down to report His glory.
I do not intend to go further as to it tonight. The next point which will occupy us is the way in which man has been tested by the light, and the necessary consequences of his not answering to the test. But I think you must first understand the new dispensation which has been introduced by the fact of Jesus being glorified and the Holy Ghost being given. I think you must see how entirely it is in contrast with all that went before, with Jesus in humiliation down here. In the end of the chapter, we see the patient grace in which the Lord met all the contrariety of the Jews, and every question which they could raise. What a contrast to this is Jesus glorified and the Holy Ghost given! That is the day in which we are placed.
My wish is, as I said in the last lecture, to bring before you the nature of the dispensation, as brought out anticipatively in chapters 7 to 12 of John. I indicated then a division of this gospel, that down to chapter 6 you get the solution by the Lord of the great question of life, which was the first and most important question to be solved in regard to man; for it is evident that in the things of God you cannot go one step until the question of life is solved. Then the chapters from the seventh down to the close of the twelfth form one continuous subject, namely, the dispensation which I called the dispensation of light, and unfold that which peculiarly marks the dispensation, namely, the principle of unity. It is brought out in chapter 10: "There shall be one flock, one shepherd".
I was seeking to show that in chapter 7 we get the introduction of the dispensation; two leading marks in it being that Jesus was to be glorified and the Holy Ghost given. These give you the principles of the dispensation. Now I think you can understand that the Holy Ghost could not be given until Jesus was glorified; for you could not have man glorified before Jesus was glorified. It may seem strange to speak of man being glorified, but man is glorified in receiving the gift of the Holy Ghost. I do not mean to say that he is glorified as to his bodily condition; but the Spirit of glory is on him. What greater glory could be conferred upon man here than that he should be a vessel for the Holy Ghost. The Holy Ghost could not be here apart from a vessel. That was true even when the Lord Himself was here. Christ was the vessel in that
sense; He was anointed and sealed with the Spirit. Now the one body, the one flock, is the vessel. "There is one body, one Spirit"; one Spirit must make one body.. But my point for the moment is this, that in receiving the gift of the Holy Ghost the saints are glorified: "Whom he justified, them he also glorified". I have no doubt that passage goes further; and that the fact of our bodies being the temple of the Holy Ghost involves their being glorified. But man could not receive the gift of the Holy Ghost until Jesus was glorified. So long as He was here in humiliation, believers could not be glorified. The fact is, if man were to be glorified, he must first be extinguished, and the work of Christ effected that. "We are sanctified by the offering of the body of Jesus Christ"; we are sanctified through our extinction in Christ; we are put out as to all that we were in the flesh. In that way we are sanctified; and you could not get the gift of the Holy Ghost till that was accomplished. But now Jesus is glorified as Man; He is exalted to the right hand of God, and all power and authority given to Him; He is glorified according to the counsel of God, and the Holy Ghost is given. And it is that which marks the present period. The Lord refers to it in connection with "the last day, that great day of the feast". He does nothing except teach for the first seven days of the feast, which were more particularly connected with Israel; but on the last day He speaks about what would take place when the Holy Ghost was given. Think what a wonderful thing it is for man to receive the gift of the Holy Ghost! It has become so doctrinal with us, we have got so accustomed to the sound, that we have lost the sense of the greatness of it.
I am leading on to the great truth on which I hope to dwell on another occasion -- one flock, one Shepherd. But there is first an intermediate
truth of great moment, that Christ is "the light of the world"; and that is what I want now to dwell upon. You cannot reach the truth of the one flock and one Shepherd without first apprehending the nature of the light that has come in, and the effects which it has produced. Of course, if I make such a statement I am bound to substantiate it. The truth is that the necessary consequence of the manifestation of the light was that something completely new, and which had no previous existence, was formed down here; the result being that there was one flock and one Shepherd. There had been a flock here before; God's people Israel was Jehovah's flock. But now there was to be a flock of a totally different character; "Them also I must bring" -- that is, Gentiles -- "and they shall hear my voice". Gentiles were to hear his voice, "and there shall be one flock, one Shepherd": one flock composed of Jew and Gentile, which was inconceivable and impossible when God was owning Israel. Hence it is in the setting aside of Israel you get one flock, one Shepherd, just as you get one body. It brings before us in a sort of parallel line what Paul brings before us in the truth of the mystery. In Paul it is, there is one body composed of Jew and Gentile, of which Christ is Head. In John it is, "There shall be one flock, one shepherd". I do not think the disciples understood it in the least so long as Christ was here. The truth of one body comes out afterwards in the teaching of Paul; and finally John comes in to show how the ministry of the Lord here upon earth indicated in principle what afterwards came out by Paul. The Lord brought out a great deal more in His teaching when here upon earth than was presented in testimony in the first instance in the Acts of the Apostles. The fact is, that the development of God's testimony in the world depended on various things being
accomplished; Israel had to be completely and finally tested, and hence all the truth of which Christ witnessed was not presented at once: it took a considerable time to come out.
Now my first point is one of great moment; Christ is the light of the world (John 8:12): "Then spake Jesus again unto them, saying, I am the light of the world: be that followeth me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life". And again in the next chapter (verse 4, 5): "I must work the works of him that sent me, while it is day: the night cometh, when no man can work. As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world". Now I apprehend that the law was the light of the Jew. And the godly valued it as such. Refer to Psalm 19, and see what the law was to a pious heart, what importance was attached by it to the law of God. "The law of Jehovah is perfect, converting the soul: the testimony of Jehovah is sure, making wise the simple. The statutes of Jehovah are right, rejoicing the heart: the commandment of Jehovah is pure, enlightening the eyes. The fear of Jehovah is clean, enduring for ever: the judgments of Jehovah are true and righteous altogether. More to be desired are they than gold, yea, than much fine gold: sweeter also than honey and the honeycomb". That refers to the law; and those verses give you the impression which a pious person had, by the Spirit, of the law. I think I may say, without fear of contradiction, that the law was the light of Israel: they had light from God undoubtedly; they had Jehovah's testimonies, His statutes and His judgments; and in that sense the law was their light. Hereafter the law will be written in their heart.
In the passage I read Christ says, "I am the light of the world". You can understand that the law was not God; but the very essence of the
truth in connection with Christ was, that, in Christ, God was presented to man in grace; Christ was not simply something given. It says, "The law was given by Moses"; it does not say, grace and truth were given by Jesus Christ, but Grace and truth have come to pass by Jesus Christ. There is all the difference possible between Moses and Christ; Moses was an instrument, and the law was given by him, and the law was light to Israel; but when Christ came it was not a question of God giving, it was a question of God come. It is true the Father gave the Son; I quite admit the gift in that connection, and that the Lord always took the ground of being sent; but I do not think any one here would question the thought that it was God come here in grace. I notice particularly in the Gospel of John that on two occasions the Lord distinctly makes the matter of His presence here a question between Israel and God; He sought to show the Jews that His presence and their conduct towards Him was not simply a question between them and Messiah, but between them and God. "Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up"; He could speak like that as Himself being a divine Person. So, too, afterwards in this chapter He says to them, "Before Abraham was, I am", and they took up stones to stone Him; but they took up stones to stone One who claimed to be "I am", that is, Jehovah.
I lay great stress upon the point, that in the service of Christ here it was not something given like the law, but God come down in grace; "God was in Christ reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them"; there was a blessed vessel here in which God had drawn nigh to man. Therefore the Lord Jesus could say, "Go and tell thy friends what great things God has done for thee"; Christ came to this world to bring
God close to man, that man might see what the heart of God was towards him. Satan had deceived man about God; and it was of the grace of God that man's heart might be enlightened, that he might be undeceived as to God, that what was in the heart of God might be made known to man as light. I think you can very well understand that if that were the case, the bearing of it could not be limited to Israel: the law was limited to Israel; it was the light of Israel; but if it was a question of God come here in grace, that could not be so limited. Therefore the Lord takes this ground here, "I am the light of the world": not the light of Israel (though He was the light to Israel), but the light of the world; because it was God come here. "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God". And then you read afterwards, "the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us, and we have contemplated his glory, a glory as of an only-begotten with a father". It adds afterwards, "No one hath seen God at any time; the only begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the Father, he hath declared him". He came close to man in order that He might declare to man that God loved the world; and the proof of the love of God was the presence of the Son of God here. No one that accepted it, no one to whom the light came, could have doubted for a single instant what the heart of God was towards man, because it was evidenced beyond all question by the presence of the Son of God here. Therefore, as is shown in the early part of the chapter, He did not come to condemn; He says, "Neither do I condemn thee". The Jews could not execute law in the presence of Christ; and Christ had not come down here to judge, but He had come to reveal God according to what the heart of God was, that is, love. It is amazing to man that God is love.
But then there is another point, not only that God is love, but that "God so loved the world". The light of this comes out in chapter 3 of this gospel, where the Lord says, "As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of man be lifted up: that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have eternal life. For God so loved the world" -- there is the truth -- "that he gave his only begotten Son". No one could have declared the love of God except the only begotten Son, because none other was in the communion of that love, but He declared it as being in the communion of it. What a moment it was when Christ was here, and any heart was opened to the truth that God is love, and that God loved man! And it being a question of the nature of God, the love of God could not be limited to the Jew, it must go worldwide; and therefore the word "whosoever" comes in. This was not simply because the Jew rejected Christ; but in the very nature of the thing the love of God must be world-wide, as being the full revelation of the heart of God. God revealed Himself as Almighty to the patriarchs, and as Jehovah to Israel; but all that was partial, it was not the full light of God. When God was here present in the Person of the only begotten Son, then the truth of all that God is came out, it was the full revelation of God, the declaration of God according to all that was in the heart of God, and God was proved to be love, and that He loved the world.
I think one may fairly call the present moment the dispensation of light. It is amazing that we poor feeble things should be in the light of the love of God! But then that light must completely expose everything that is in us. You can understand that divine love must of necessity have its own way. When you speak of love in connection with God it is infinite and almighty; and in the presence of
almighty love everything must give way. The great point for the Christian is that his heart should be filled with the love of God; the Holy Ghost is given to him to that end. "The love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given to us". The practical effect of it is to put me clean out; every bit of pretension, all high thoughts of myself, all have to go, because all is excluded by the light of the love of God; I am brought into the presence of that almighty love of God, and my heart is to be filled with the sense of it.
Now that is the light. The Lord says "I am the light of the world". He had come into the world, and even prophets were no longer the light of the world. It was very little light the Gentiles ever got from the prophets, though there were glimpses; but they were light in Israel. The character scripture gives to prophecy is that of "A light shining in a dark place, until the day dawn and the day-star arise in your hearts". To the Christian the day has dawned and the day-star has arisen in the heart; Christ in the heart is the day-star, the harbinger of the day. But then He is the day-star because He has brought to the Christian the light of the day. I feel how terribly feeble one is in attempting to speak of it; the thing is so inconceivably great.
Now I want to show you what the purpose of the light was. It was no part of the thought of God, if I may use the expression, to set the world again upon its legs. From the very beginning, I see in scripture plainly, when once this world failed God had another world before Him, and in the Epistle to the Hebrews you read of "the world to come". It says He has not put the world to come under angels but under the Son of Man. From the very outset, when sin came into this world, there was another man and another world before God. Faith
looked ever on to it. (See Hebrews 11). God went on patiently, and still goes on patiently, with this world; but the word that has come to it is this, "Now is the judgment of this world". But I want to show you what was the purpose of the light coming in; it came to man where he stood, but it came to lead man out of the world, not to leave him in it. Hence we read, "I am the light of the world"; and what next? "He that followeth me" -- and where do you think it is to follow Christ to? It was not simply a question of following Him in the world, but of following Him out of the world. "My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me". Where do they follow Him to? To where He is, outside the fold; and if He is outside the fold, He is outside the world. "He that followeth me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life". Christ is our life, and where Christ is, life is; but that is not in connection with this world. His life is taken from the earth; and if you want to find Christ you will not find Him in connection with this world, nor its order or religion; He is outside of it all; He took the place of reproach outside the camp. The truth is, Christ is to be found in the holiest of all, and that is where our life is. As the apostle says, "I am crucified with Christ; nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me"; I live where Christ lives. Properly, the life of the Christian is in the holiest; "our life is hid with Christ in God"; that is how scripture speaks of the life of the Christian. It is very important to remember that you can only be in the holiest in the life of Christ; no other life in man will serve for the holiest. It is your qualification for the holiest, for you go in by "a new and living way which he has consecrated for us, through the veil, that is to say, his flesh"; you are in the holiest in the life of Christ; but you have to follow Christ
there. All the bright light of God, of divine love, has been brought to bear upon us where we are in the world, in order that we might be led out of the world. Satan is the god and prince of this world, which has rejected Christ; the judgment of God is pronounced upon it, but the light has come in to lead the believer out of it. I will give you one instance of it in scripture. The light of divine love came to Saul of Tarsus; he heard a voice saying to him, "Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me?" Thus the bright light of God's grace was brought to bear upon him; and what for? To leave him in Judaism, in the world, in that in which he had been a persecutor? Not a bit of it; it came to him to lead him out of it. And so he says afterwards, "Christ died for our sins, that he might deliver us from this present evil world, according to the will of God and our Father". It is for this that the light of God has come, and I thank God it has led me out of the world; and now I can see every moral principle of the world to be in direct antagonism to God. The ruling principles of the world are "the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life"; and lust is the very contrary to love. God is love. The love of God originates everything from God for blessing; the lust of man desires everything for his own personal gratification. I can indeed understand the apostle saying to Timothy, "Flee also youthful lusts: but follow righteousness, faith, love, peace, with them that call on the Lord out of a pure heart".
I want to show you next, what the twofold effect of the light was. "And Jesus said, For judgment I am come into this world, that they which see not might see: and that they which see might be made blind. And some of the Pharisees which were with him heard these words, and said unto him, Are we blind also? Jesus said unto them, If ye were blind, ye should have no sin; but now ye say, We see;
therefore your sin remaineth". I understand the expression "For judgment I am come" to mean that His coming brought everything to an issue; things may go on long, as they did in Old Testament times, and not be brought to an issue; but judgment is that they are brought to an issue, moral or judicial. The end is -- "that they which see not might see" -- that is the first thing -- "and that they which see might be made blind", that is the second. I desire to make plain to you that those are the two consequences of the manifestation of the light.
From the time of Christ and onwards, whenever light came in, it had the effect of blinding people who said they saw. When a man says, "I see", he takes the ground of being competent, and such men are bound to be blinded by the light. I may not be able successfully to prove it to you, but that such is the case I have no doubt. When the Lord was here upon earth the scribes took the ground of being competent to judge in divine things, and the effect of the light upon them was that they were made blind. The Lord brings the light to bear upon them in chapter 8. He reveals to them where they really were, that they were the slaves of sin and the children of the devil, seeking to carry out the lusts of their father, seeking to commit murder, and refusing to receive the truth, because they were liars and the children of the devil. The Lord completely exposes their moral condition; but the brightness of the light only served to blind them. To a man who says, I am perfectly satisfied with the order of things down here upon earth, you may bring as much light as you like, but it will only blind him; he does not want to know the light of God or the love of God; he is well content with himself and things about him; he says, "We see", and he becomes blind in regard to the very light which he had, and in which he boasted. It is very much like
the people that are pictured to us in the address to the church at Laodicea, "Rich, and increased with goods, and have need of nothing", we are competent.
You see the same thing if you pass down to a time nearer to our own, the time of the Reformation. The ecclesiastical people, the Jews of that day, who said "We see", -- and there were plenty of them -- were blinded by the light that came in. I will give you a proof of it. It is remarkable, that in the Council of Trent, which took place after the Reformation, the apocryphal books were made part of the sacred canon. I have no doubt that the very light which the Spirit of God brought in at that time served to blind those who said, "We see". They said, We are competent, we can judge what is the word of God and what is not; and they fastened on to the sacred canon the unworthy books of the Apocrypha.
The same danger besets us. If we take the ground here of ecclesiastical assumption with an idea that we are something, we may be in very great danger of being blinded by the light that has come in to the true position and responsibility of Christendom. The people that are content to take the place of a poor and afflicted people calling upon the name of the Lord, get the benefit of the light, not the people who make great pretensions; they are often blinded by it.
I think you can understand that the great light which came in by Christ eclipsed all else; nothing could stand its ground in the presence of that great light. I do not mean to say for a moment that the light that came in by Christ was contrary to the law and the prophets; but it eclipsed them, like Moses and Elias they disappeared in the light which came in by Christ, and that is the light of the love of God. I have often thought in the study of the scripture that if I were more acquainted with the love of God,
more in the great light which came in by Christ, I should soon understand the law and the prophets. I have for long disbelieved in the man that is a specialist in scripture, in prophecy for instance; it is a settled matter in my mind that that man will never understand prophecy, because he is attempting to take it up by itself. If his soul were full of the light of God he would soon come to understand prophecy. Prophecy is "a light that shineth in a dark place, until the day dawn and the day-star arise in your heart". When the day-star arises in your heart you will understand prophecy, and law too, and every part of scripture. To have the heart full of the light of God's love is the way to understand the law, because everything in scripture was really leading up to that great light which was to come out by Christ. God never intended the law and the prophets to be the light of the world, but they were a light shining in a dark place; Christ was the light of the world.
But there is another class of people, namely, those who do not see; "That they which see not might see". it is beautifully illustrated in the case of the blind man, in John 9. Just consider what the light was; the light was the revelation of the love of God; and therefore in the very nature of things, if that was the light, the eyes of people must be opened to it, for man of himself could not understand the love of God. As the Lord opened the eyes of the blind man, so man's eyes must be opened, "that they which see not might see". It is the work of grace, which is really involved in the character of the revelation. The revelation is such that it demands of necessity the opening of the eyes of those who do not see. Those who say, "We see", are blinded; but on the other hand, those who do not see have their eyes opened to appreciate the revelation. That is what you get
in this chapter; it was a man born blind whose eyes the Lord opened. What was the great end? That he might appreciate the revelation. This comes out at the close of the chapter; Jesus says to him, "Dost thou believe on the Son of God?" He says, "Who is he, Lord, that I might believe on him?" Jesus says, "Thou hast both seen him, and it is he that talketh with thee". What did he get eyesight for? Not to be cast out by the Jews; that was not the object; but that he might be enabled to appreciate the revelation of God in the Person of the Son of God.
And this must be the case, because the revelation never would be appreciated, or enjoyed, if it did not please God in grace to open eyes for it; God does it really by the revelation; it is the testimony of divine love used in the power of the Spirit to open the eyes of those who are blind, those who never saw. You remember the commission to the apostle Paul; he was to go to the Gentiles "to open their eyes". How? He could not of course do it in the sense in which God could do it, but he could do it by his testimony; and the testimony of the love of God was to be, in the hands of the apostle, the instrument for opening the eyes of the Gentiles; their eyes were to be opened, and they were to be turned "from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan unto God, that they might receive forgiveness of sins, and inheritance". To be turned from darkness to light and from the power of Satan to God is a much greater thing than to "receive forgiveness of sins and inheritance"; God is greater than any inheritance. And that is the wonderful thing which is effected; you are turned "from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan to God". Look at this blind man; he had been a miserable blind beggar, but he is turned from darkness to light, and in a certain sense from Satan's
power to God; his eyes are opened that he might apprehend the Son of God who had come here to reveal God. That was the great mission of the Son of God here, to reveal God to man, to make known to man the love of God, that man might be led out of the world; but of necessity man was first exposed. You get in the next chapter that the sheep are led out of the fold, out of the world, that there may be one flock and one shepherd.
I do not purpose going further, because the one flock and one shepherd will form our subject on another occasion; but I think I have made it plain in some degree that you could not go on to that subject if you did not first apprehend the light that has come in to illuminate man where he is, and to lead him out of the world. The Jew was necessarily tested by the brightness of the light, and everything was brought to an issue; those who said, "We see", were made blind, and those who did not see were made to see. I think I can understand the effect of the light upon a man in the darkness of this world, wrapped up in pretension like those poor Jews. They said, "We were never in bondage to any man"; they were the seed of Abraham and the children of God; that is the ground they took in the presence of the Lord, and they had no idea of the slavery of sin, nor the faintest moral resemblance either to Abraham or to God. The light exposed it all, but they did not accept the exposure, they were blinded, and they sought to kill the Lord. They prove it in that they see the work of God in the blind man, and excommunicate him from the synagogue. But they were really only fulfilling what the Lord said. He had come into the world that the heart of man might be completely undeceived as to the terrible cheat of Satan, that the love of God might be made known to man in order to lead him out of the world. Life is not in connection with this
world, there is only death and darkness; you have to leave the world, and all that the world is morally, if you are to get into the light of life, where God is and where Christ is with God. May God give to us to see the greatness of the truth that Christ is the light of the world. If we do not accept the exposure we shall fail of that which the light reveals, and like the Jews be blinded as to the work of God.
John 9:39 - 41; 10
I was remarking last time, that all the scriptures given to instruct us in Christianity lead up to the principle of unity. Of course, all scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable; but there are certain scriptures which especially address themselves to us as Christians. And I think you will find that all such tend to the realisation of unity. I do not think that it is possible to attach too much importance to the thought of unity in connection with Christianity. What is the character of the unity is another matter; it has its own proper character. It is not a unity in the flesh; it is described in scripture as "the unity of the Spirit"; it has that character. Unity is what we are led on to in this gospel; and this is seen in what the Lord says in this chapter, "Other sheep I have, which are not of this fold: them also I must bring, and they shall hear my voice; and there shall be one flock, one shepherd".
I just make this remark in passing, that John never gives us, so far as I know, what Paul does, the great system of profession. Paul gives us two great truths in connection with the church; the one is its identification as Christ's body, and the other its aspect as God's house. God's house, I have always thought, and still think, is founded on profession. It began in a few saints being gathered together by the testimony of the resurrection of Christ, and the Spirit of God came down and dwelt in them and among them. But among the Gentiles, at all events, the house of God has been formed by profession; and Jew and Gentile have been builded together in the Lord for a habitation of God through the Spirit. Now I do not think you will find that John ever gives you the outward system, and I do
not say that he gives you the truth of the body; it is not exactly his line; but he gives you what runs parallel with the truth of the body, and that is, "one flock, one shepherd". The truth of the one body, as I understand it, is given to us in scripture to show us the real power of unity. And so I get a corresponding truth here in John, that there is one flock, one shepherd. I do not think the one flock was in itself to be patent or evident to men any more than the one shepherd; but I think the effect of it was to be patent, that the world was to witness a unity, the spring of which it was impossible for them to understand. But I am anticipating a little, and will come to that presently.
Israel was God's flock, and in a certain sense Jehovah was the shepherd; that, I think, was patent to the nations; it was a flock in that sense, after the flesh. But that was never intended to be the character of the one flock and the one shepherd. None the less the one flock and the one shepherd are a great reality. So with the church: the house of God, the external system of profession is patent to the world, all know it; the world recognises Christianity as a system of profession; but they know nothing about the body, the truth of the body is the mystery. It has often been said that a mystery is something which is known to the initiated; it is made known to saints.
Before we pass on to the features of this chapter, I may just refer to what has been before us on former occasions, which as I judge is introductory. I do not think you can really understand the character of the one flock if you do not take it up in connection with what had been presented in the preceding chapters. What is unfolded in this chapter as to the one flock, is dependent on what is unfolded in the previous chapters. My object has been so far to give you the characteristics of this present time,
this dispensation, if you like to call it so. We have had two things a good deal before us -- Jesus glorified, and the Spirit given. The present time, it has been often noticed, is the time of the Spirit. "The Spirit was not yet", it says; that is, the time was not yet come for the Spirit to be here, "because that Jesus was not yet glorified"; but consequent upon Jesus being glorified the Spirit has been given. I was saying last time what an immensity it is to man that the Spirit should have been given, that man down here upon earth should be the vessel of the Spirit; it is the most wonderful change which could have been brought to pass. But the giving of the Spirit depended upon the great truth of Jesus being personally glorified; and man, in a certain sense, is glorified here in the fact of the Spirit having been given to indwell him. I do not enlarge on it, but there was the Spirit's time coming, consequent upon Jesus being glorified; and another truth connected with it is this, that man is the vessel of the Spirit, for the Spirit does not dwell here apart from a vessel.
Another point necessary to it which came before us last time was the light; the Lord takes that ground in chapters 8 and 9, "I am the light of the world". I tried to show what I judge to be the significance of this, namely, that you need to apprehend the character of the light that has come in. In a sense the law was the light of the Jew; but Christ says, "I am the light of the world", for He came here to declare God. It is true that Christ was a minister of the circumcision, to confirm the promises made to the fathers: He came thus to the Jew, but He was "the light of the world". If God reveal Himself in love, He does so in relation to the world. There were two things Christ came here for, to make known what God was, and to make good the Father's counsels of grace. It has often
been said that you must not confound nature and counsels -- God has His counsels, and they connect themselves with the name of "Father"; but at the same time there is the nature of God -- "God so loved the world": that verse does not convey the idea of His counsels, but of His nature. When it is a question of God's counsels, the name of Father is brought in, "The Father seeketh such to worship him", because it is to accomplish His counsels of grace; "No man can come to me, except the Father which hath sent me draw him": that is, there are counsels of grace in which the Father draws to the Son. But at the same time there is the truth, "God is love"; this is what God is in His nature, and not a question of the counsels of His grace. And Christ came here to make known, in the midst of the world, the nature of God. If you apprehend that, you can well understand the Lord saying, "I am the light of the world; he that followeth me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life".
Now with regard to the concluding verses of chapter 9, I was saying last time that if divine light came into this world in fulness, as it did in Christ, of necessity it brought everything to an issue. That is what the Lord, I judge, means by the expression "For judgment I am come into this world". Two things are connected with it which I dwelt on; "That they which see not might see; and that they which see might be made blind". Bear in mind what I mentioned in the last lecture, that in the very nature of things, if man takes the ground of seeing, he rejects revelation. Until Christ came man took the ground, more or less, of expectation, not of seeing. When Christ came, men took other ground, and began to say, "We see". In the nature of things, if man says "We see", he does not want a revelation from God; he rejects it. And that is
the real reason why the religious, scientific, and literary leaders of the present day largely reject revelation, because they say "We see"; they take the ground of being competent. When Christ was here, the scribes and Pharisees were really infidel at heart; they began to say "We see"; they were competent, and rejected Christ's word. But there is another thing, "That they which see not might see"; the testimony and evidence that Christ brought of the goodness of God were used of God to the opening of the eyes of men, as seen in the case of the blind man in chapter 9. The grace of God has come down to man here in this world, to take account of him in his miserable condition, and of every effect of sin under which he laboured; and the fact of the grace of God having in this way visited this world in the Person of God's Son is used to open the eyes of those who never saw. They accept the exposure and are touched and affected by the grace; it is the very thing they want; the Spirit of God makes everything to them of the wonderful goodness of God in visiting this world in the Person of His blessed Son.
I am now coming to the putting forth of the sheep from the fold, and the formation of the one flock; and I desire to make plain to you, by the grace of God, two or three of the characteristics which mark the sheep. But first we get the thought of Christ entering the fold and leading out the sheep. You will notice that in chapter 10 the ground of the Lord's action is not His rejection by the Jews. The two previous chapters bring out His rejection both as to His word and His work; but His leaving the fold was not exactly a question of His rejection by them, but that when He puts forth His own sheep He goes before them. And the reason is simple; His going before them is by death. The sheep could not leave the fold until Christ left the
fold, and He actually left it in His death. His death is looked at through all this chapter as a necessity; I may quote the Lord's own words; He says, referring to His life, "No man taketh it from me, but I lay it down of myself. I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again. This commandment have I received of my Father". I think this an important point in connection with His leaving the fold. He came into the fold; but if the sheep were to be relieved of the pressure of death which lay upon them as the judgment of God, of necessity Christ must leave the fold. No one takes His life from Him. All through the chapter, when the Lord speaks of laying down His life, He lays it down, I will not say voluntarily, because that is not perfectly right: but He lays it down of Himself, He does it in obedience; "This commandment have I received of my Father". He is the first to leave the fold; no one could leave the fold until He left it. We get a type of it in the previous chapters. In chapter 8 Christ's word, the expression of what He was, had been rejected by the Jews, and the Lord leaves them; and in chapter 9 the man who was the subject of His work is excommunicated from the synagogue. Still the time had not yet come to leave the fold until the shepherd left it; He says so expressly: "When he putteth forth his own sheep, he goeth before them".
Now just a word about the fold, as being a point of importance. I think the fold was the enclosure, the system of ordinances, in which the people of God were kept up to a point -- the apostle Paul says, "the law was our schoolmaster up to Christ"; but the law never justified anybody. It could not; those under it could not be justified as long as they were in the fold; they were to be justified by the faith of Christ. Death being upon man, he could not be justified except by blood. "Without shedding
of blood is no remission". On the day of atonement the blood had to be carried into the holiest of all, because death lay upon man; and God could not approach man, nor could man approach God, without blood; that is, man had to recognise the sentence of death which was upon him. The great force and importance of blood in the Old Testament is that it witnesses the fact of death.
Christ had entered into the fold, and that in a legitimate way; but He did not enter it to abide there, nor to leave the sheep there. There were in God's counsels sheep down here, and Christ came to where the sheep were. The sheep heard His voice; that was the first thing. Think what the voice of Christ was when He was here upon earth, and what was the effect of that voice! What it was to Lazarus, for instance; "Lazarus, come forth". It was the voice of the Son of God, and His voice reached the dead. So, too, I might speak of other things; the Lord cast out devils: how? By His word. But the point here is that the sheep know His voice, they know the character of His voice. It is a wonderful voice that speaks here in this world; I believe the sheep felt it to be the voice of One that had power over all ill, of One that had come here with divine power over man's last enemy -- death: "They know his voice". There was no good for man down here save in the advent of One who could bind man's great enemy in his stronghold, namely, death. That is exactly what Christ could do, and what He proved He could do; and the sheep know His voice, they are conscious that everything has to give way to His voice.
Now, I want you to bear in mind three things, which you can put together, as marking this present moment, and describing the blessings of the sheep: the sheep are relieved of the judgment of death under which they lay: it being now the time of the Spirit,
the Spirit dwells in them: and they are in the light of God revealed in Christ. You cannot understand the privileges of the sheep, if you do not apprehend those three things; they are the marks of the moment. Death is annulled, so that man can be free here of the judgment of God in the very place where he was under that judgment; and the proof of this is that the believer receives the gift of the Spirit, he has the seal of God upon him, and is in the light as God has been pleased to reveal Himself in the Son. The love of God is shed abroad in his heart by the Holy Ghost given to him; that is, his heart is full of divine light by the revelation of God in His blessed Son. The passage in Romans to which I have just referred shows you how God has been pleased to display His love in His Son; and now the Holy Ghost has come to dwell in the believer to make the love of God effective in his heart. Those are the privileges of the sheep; they have left the fold by faith in Christ, they have come away from the system of ordinances in order to be justified by Christ, and are in the fulness of the light which Christ has been pleased to bring, in the presence of the love of God.
What I see in people all around (and in myself too) is how little practical confidence they have in God as to circumstances and their pathway through this world; and I will tell you why -- it is because they do not know Him. I am perfectly confident that if our hearts were in the light of the revelation which God has given of Himself, the practical effect would be that we should be full of confidence. "Perfect love casteth out fear, because fear hath torment". You know as well as I do that people in the circumstances of this life turn to all sorts of human resources and schemes, because of not knowing the love of God; their hearts have not learnt to trust in God. I think I begin to see how great a
thing it is to trust God. If God has brought you into the presence of Himself revealed in perfect love (and He has) your heart can afford to trust in Him. "This is the confidence that we have in him, that if we ask anything according to his will, he heareth us"; our hearts are full of confidence because we are in the presence of God.
The next point I want to dwell upon is in the seventh and following verses: "Then said Jesus to them again, Verily, verily, I say unto you, I am the door of the sheep. All that ever came before me are thieves and robbers: but the sheep did not hear them. I am the door: by me if any man enter in, he shall be saved, and shall go in and out, and find pasture". Now you have got the sheep entering in by the door; I understand it to mean that one enters in by the faith of Christ dead and risen, one is saved. That is, there is the realisation of deliverance from death and Satan's power. The believer goes in and out, that is, he has perfect liberty; and he finds pasture. He gets three things, salvation, liberty and pasture, and that in the presence of divine light, into which he is brought in the grace of God and in the power of the Holy Ghost that dwells in him. The secret of it all is this, that the sheep are no longer dependent on the system of ordinances, but are kept by a power within. It is a total mistake to suppose that the recognition of the power that dwells in the Christian will lead him to self occupation. It will do nothing of the kind, because the Spirit in the Christian corresponds to Christ presented to his faith; the Spirit is "the truth" in the Christian; but Christ is "the truth" as to revelation, and therefore the Spirit always leads to Christ. You cannot understand anything about yourself, or your blessing or privilege, except as you learn it in Christ. He leads us into it by the Spirit. But it is a very important point to recognise
that there is this mighty power in you, and that you are kept by it. I believe it to be a point of great moment for Christians to apprehend that by Christ's work death is no longer upon them as penalty; and the proof of it is that they are indwelt by the Holy Ghost. The effect is that they are in divine light, in the light of God as revealed in Christ, they are saved, they go in and out -- they have liberty, and they find pasture.
But now in the fourteenth verse we get to a further point in regard to the sheep. "I am the good shepherd, and know my sheep, and am known of mine, as the Father knoweth me, and I also know the Father; and I lay down my life for the sheep". I believe this passage indicates that the sheep are formed in the reality of the divine nature. And I am more and more convinced that this is the work of the Spirit in the believer, to form him practically in the divine nature; that just as he has had part in the flesh and in man's ruin, so now, being enlightened and indwelt, he is formed in the divine nature. "He that doeth righteousness is righteous, even as he is righteous"; and he loves according to Christ. Apart from that thought I doubt if you can understand the passage: "I know my sheep and am known of mine" -- that is in the divine nature -- "as the Father knoweth me and I know the Father". The Father knows the Son and the Son knows the Father in the reciprocity of divine affections, if I may use the expression. And so it is in regard to Christ and the sheep; He knows His sheep and He is known of them in the reality of the divine nature in which they have been formed by the Holy Ghost given to them. It is a wonderful work of grace, and I think it is a great step beyond the previous passage. You see the same thought of the divine nature in Paul's doctrine; he speaks of the having put on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness
and holiness of truth; that is, the believer is made partaker by the Spirit's work within him of the divine nature, and it is in that he knows Christ and is known of Christ.
One word more. It is in the divine nature that we become one flock. Now you come to the great truth, "Other sheep I have which are not of this fold" -- that is, I suppose, to be gathered in from the Gentiles -- "them also I must bring, and they shall hear my voice, and there shall be one flock, one shepherd". I believe it to be one flock in the divine nature, not a body, patent and evident in the world; I do not think that is the idea of it; but it is very near akin to Paul's truth of the one body; "We being many are one body in Christ". This is an abstract expression; in Christ we are one body, and members one of another. So here, it is one flock and one shepherd; but the Lord does not bring out the truth of one flock and one shepherd until He had previously brought out the truth of the divine nature which is to characterise the sheep. I believe that the idea of the knowledge which is spoken of is of knowledge between kindred natures, not mere acquaintance. There are plenty of people with whom I am acquainted; but if I want to know a person intimately, there must be the possibility of affections of a kindred nature. And I think it is that into which the believer is brought in connection with Christ, as the Father knows Him and He also knows the Father.
Now we have come to the secret of unity. Unity rests in a sense on other grounds; but unity is accentuated by the consciousness that we are one flock, and that there is one shepherd. The one flock gives as I have said the secret of unity. Just as with the apostle Paul, the mystery of the one body is revealed that we may know the secret of unity, so in John the secret of unity lies for Christians in
the divine nature. You will not have true unity in any other way; unity cannot be in the flesh, it is in the Spirit; and in the very nature of what we are, and what we partake of, we become one. The new man is treated of as one, you "put on the new man", "where there is neither Greek nor Jew, circumcision nor uncircumcision, barbarian, Scythian, bond nor free: but Christ is all, and in all": it is the divine nature; and it is in the divine nature that we are "one body in Christ, and members one of another". While the world was to see the unity, Christians understood it; the world could not understand anything about the one flock and the one shepherd, but they could see the effect in the sheep. We find the Lord praying for it in chapter 17; "That they all may be one; as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be one in us: that the world may believe that thou hast sent me".
I will just say one word in regard to ourselves at the present time. We have to look at all these truths more or less in an abstract way, but as speaking of things existing. Although unity in the assembly is completely broken up (who will dare to say it is not), yet the flock is here; it has not ceased to be. It is just as true now as when this was written; there is the one flock and the one shepherd; but saints have lost the idea of it, and have all gone off into great independent ecclesiastical bodies and the like. And what is it that has brought you and me and perhaps most of us here, out of all these things around? I will tell you we found that scripture laid upon us the obligation to unity, and we saw that all that with which we were identified was inconsistent with the thought of unity. That brought us out of them, and I trust none of us will ever go back to them. Our standing apart from them is so far a protest against them; for in their very nature they deny the principle
which is of all moment as governing the conduct of saints, that is, unity. Now I have sometimes wondered, as being apart from all these things, what authority have I in Scripture as to my course here? I see my warrant to separate, that I am justified in purging myself from "vessels to dishonour", and in getting apart from all that practically denies unity; but what afterwards? I have been really exercised in my mind sometimes as to whether I ought not to stand completely alone; for we have all separated from these things individually, we have not separated in a mass; and what warrant have we in scripture for going on in company with others? Well, I thank God that I get a positive scriptural warrant; but I think it contemplates a fellowship which is based on moral principles, and which is not in character ecclesiastical: that is, you are to "follow righteousness, faith, love, peace, with them that call on the Lord out of a pure heart". I am quite willing to be instructed, but I know of no warrant for our fellowship outside the established order of Christendom except that; and the foundation of that fellowship is as I said moral: "righteousness, faith, love and peace" are certainly moral qualities, which we are to follow "with those who call on the Lord out of a pure heart". When I say moral I mean in contrast to ecclesiastical. I believe we have been greatly hampered by assuming to make an ecclesiastical basis of fellowship instead of seeing that the true basis of fellowship for those who have separated from all these things is moral.
There is one word more. If you come into that fellowship and are thus bound together, the question arises, How are you to be guided as to carrying out practically your fellowship? You are to be guided by the light for this moment, and the only light for the moment is the light that scripture has given to
us in regard to the order of the church of God. It is a fellowship in which there is no pretension, which is founded upon moral principles, and is ordered by the light which God has given us in regard to the church. It is a difficult thing, without setting up any kind of ecclesiastical pretension, to go on simply in such fellowship, and to avoid talking, as I deprecated last time, about being on this ground or that ground. The more simple we are, and the more we appreciate the real basis of our fellowship, the more we shall welcome all the light which God has been pleased to give us by His blessed Spirit as to the true order of the church of God, without assuming anything whatever; for assumption in the present state of Christendom, and of those who have been brought out in the last fifty or sixty years, is totally out of place. I pray God that He may give us to see the great truth of the one flock and the one shepherd, and to see the security of the sheep. They have to fulfil their path down here; but the Lord says, "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". The sheep have to go into the world, and to meet the difficulties and opposition and enmity there; but in the midst of all that, they are kept in the Father's hand. When you come to the one flock and the one shepherd it is another matter, because I think the one flock exists in connection with the one shepherd, in the blessed truth of the divine nature. It is a great thing to recognise that the one flock is here, and that no one can prevail against it; but we do not want to be gathered on the ground of the one flock, but to recognise the truth of the one flock, and to thank God He has given to us a fellowship in which we can enjoy and delight in all the truth of the church of God.
I suppose one might say that the utterance of the Lord at the close of this chapter is one of the most solemn that we have recorded. It is evident that the character of it is pretty much that of a last word in the world. What the Lord sets forth is that He had come a light into the world, and that the light was just on the point of departing, so that the world would be left in darkness; it was, as it were, the sun setting, so far as the world was concerned, and night and darkness coming on. The same apostle, John, takes up the thought in his first epistle, and says, "Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world ... For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world". The passage is in that way of very great importance, as marking the gravity of the moment. All was on the ground that the world was about to be involved in gross darkness because the light of the world was departing from it.
I make that remark by way of preface. I read chapter 12, but I want to show you in a concise way the character of chapters 11 and 12, for they complete what has been before us on previous occasions, in unfolding to us the glory of Christ. The section of the gospel from the seventh to the twelfth chapter gives us what I may call a complete course of instruction, leading us up to that great point of the glory of Christ. It has often been noticed that John in his teaching very generally and naturally takes the opposite order to Paul. I think it arises from the peculiar nature of the apostleship of each.
For instance, we find Paul speaking of the Lord, and then of the Head. In these chapters in John I think you get what is analogous to that, but in opposite order. In chapter 10 it is the Shepherd, and in chapters 11 and 12 it is the Lord; Jesus was about to be glorified, and the two chapters bring before us in a very remarkable way the various elements of the glory of the Lord. Then for the moment the "corn of wheat" has to "fall into the ground and die"; everything is closed up in death, only to be taken up again in resurrection; and Christ, on the ground of having died, becomes the gathering point for all. The great point to which I shall come tonight, with God's help, is the glory of the Lord. I do not think this section of the gospel would be complete if we did not reach that point. And indeed, our fellowship as Christians here depends upon the Lord. Saints were formed in fellowship down here by the testimony of the Lord; and when in that fellowship they were instructed in the truth of the Head and the body, in what the apostle speaks of as the mystery, which gives us the vital unity of saints. But that is not their fellowship; fellowship, as I understand it, is not connected with the thought of the one body, but with saints being gathered to the name of the Lord: "One Lord, one faith, one baptism". That makes me say, therefore, that if we had not the truth of this chapter, there would be a lack as to a gathering point; but I think this lack is supplied in chapters 11 and 12.
I will glance first at what has been already before us. In beginning with chapter 7 I pointed out that the characteristic truth of the present time is the presence of the Spirit, that is, that Jesus being glorified, the Spirit is given. When the Lord spoke on the last day of the feast, as recorded in chapter 7, the Spirit had not yet come -- the Spirit "was not
yet given, because that Jesus was not yet glorified"; and He points on to a time when the Spirit would be given; and shows what would be the effect of the giving of the Spirit, in bringing to pass something of entirely a different character from all that had been before. The Lord says, "He that believeth on me, as the scripture hath said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water": there never had been the like of that before. The effect of Christ's work on earth was to leave a vessel for the Spirit; the Spirit had come upon Him without measure after His baptism, and when He went He left, as the effect of His work, a vessel for the Spirit, a vessel cleared by redemption.
The next point which I dwelt upon was that of Christ as "the light of the world"; and I showed that, by the very fact of His being the light of the world, of necessity everything in regard to the world was tested. A dispensation marked by the presence of the Spirit could not be established until the world had been set aside; the world and the Spirit could not go on together. I dwelt on this in connection with the passage, "For judgment I am come into this world, that they which see not might see, and that they which see might be made blind"; and I must say another word or two about the passage for it is so exceedingly important. The Jews were perfectly conscious that Christ was here in the ministry of grace. He gave them evidence that His mission here was to raise man up from every effect and consequence of sin. The Jew knew that; and I argue from it that he knew that the light that came in by Christ was the light of grace. The Jew had had the light of law and prophets, which was certainly light in darkness, but light only in measure; whereas in Christ the light was full, the light of grace. Law was intended to bring home to man the conviction of where he was as to his condition; but never
raised him up out of it. You find that in chapter 5; law never raised up the man who had been helpless thirty-eight years; Christ raised him up. Thus the Jews knew that Christ was here in the ministry of grace. But although it was the light of grace, yet by the very fact of its being light, it of necessity exposed. In chapter 8 it is shown that in the presence of Christ the Jew felt himself to be exposed; but as he did not care to be exposed, in result he rejects the light; in that sense he puts it out. And I can understand it very well, for on the one hand the Jew had no sense that the judgment of death was upon him, and on the other hand he believed in the competency of man. It is like plenty of people in the present day, they have no sense that the judgment of death is upon them, they attribute death to natural causes and ignore the judgment of God, and they believe in the competency of man's mind, just like the Jew. And therefore in the very nature of things they must reject light. In what follows in chapter 8 the Jew sets up all kinds of pretension; but he is exposed, and the Lord goes on patiently till the exposure is complete. They claimed to be the seed of Abraham and the children of God; but the Lord shows that there was no trace of moral resemblance between Abraham and them, or between God and them. Thus the Jew rejects revelation, that is, the word of Christ. But another thing follows on that, he rejects Christ's work, while declaring his inability to judge of it. If the work of grace is brought into the presence of people who reject revelation, they will account for it by some natural means, they will say the object of it is under some kind of delusion, or has turned religious, and so on, and in that way they refuse or discredit the evidence of Christ's work. But the result is this "For judgment", the Lord says, "I am come into this world, that they which see not might see,
and that they which see might be made blind".
That is the second point. The first is that the time has come which is marked by the presence of the Spirit. The second, that the world has been tested by the light, and has rejected both the word and the work of Christ. Now consequent upon that, the Lord has formed something entirely new. He had come into the sheepfold and He leads the sheep out; they have not to go first, but He leads them out, and when He has led them out He goes before them like a shepherd. But further, He has other sheep which He must bring, and there is to be one flock and one shepherd. One flock living in the life of Christ: the flock lives in the life of the shepherd, that is the idea to me of the flock and the shepherd. I believe it is not fellowship, not a public association, but a vital unity, analogous to Paul's truth of the one body, which is the body of Christ: "We, being many, are one body in Christ, and every one members one of another". That is the privilege and blessing of the saints. Through Jesus, Jew and Gentile both have access by one Spirit unto the Father. If they are alive to their privilege, saints are properly in the Father's presence in the life of Christ. Another phase of it is, "We know that we have passed out of death into life, because we love the brethren"; that is, we are in a company, and conscious of being in a company, that are bound up together in the life of Christ. I should not care about a miniature flock, or a little representation of the flock; I could not accept that for a moment, because the whole flock is here. I do not believe the flock is any more understood by the world than is the shepherd, but the flock and the shepherd are bound together in one life; that is, it is not they that live, but it is Christ who lives in them. So we read, "We, being many, are one body in Christ"; we "are all one in Christ Jesus"; not one publicly,
but one in Christ Jesus. It is privilege, and is esteemed as such where it is apprehended that Christ is the Head.
I have gone over these scriptures because I thought it was needed, in order to lead on to the truth on which fellowship practically hangs, that is, the glory of the Lord: you must be led to the Lord, not only to know that Christ is the good Shepherd and knows His sheep, but that Christ is Lord. And the effect of the apprehension of Christ as Lord is, that it brings you at once into the light of the day; as the apostle says in Ephesians, "Ye were sometime darkness, but now are ye light in the Lord". You cannot connect the Lord with this world; for Christ's title "Lord" belongs to another world, what the apostle speaks of in Hebrews as "the world to come". Darkness has set in upon this world, but in apprehending Christ as Lord, we come into the light of the world to come; and it is to that this chapter brings you. The Lord says, "Now is the judgment of this world: now shall the prince of this world be cast out. And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all to me". The Lord having been lifted up, we are drawn to Him on the ground of redemption; and by the fact of being drawn to the Lord, we are drawn into fellowship one with another, that is the way in which it works.
Now I desire to speak a little about the glory of the Lord. In anticipation of the sufferings of Christ, God permitted witness to be borne to Him in all that He was; to every part of His glory as man. There are three characters in which the Lord is presented to us in John 11 and 12. In chapter 11, He is glorified as Son of God in the raising of Lazarus; Jesus says, "This sickness is not unto death, but for the glory of God, that the Son of God might be glorified thereby". That is, in anticipation of His death, God bore witness to
Him as Son of God. In chapter 12, witness is borne to Him by the crowds, in the entry into Jerusalem, as King of Israel. Then in connection with the desire of the Greeks expressed to Andrew and Philip to see Jesus, the Lord bears witness to its being the moment for the glory of the Son of man; He says, "The hour is come, that the Son of man should be glorified". I think those three aspects constitute the glory of Christ as man. That is what I want to bring before you; and may God enable me to say a word or two as to it, for it is of much moment to us. The apprehension of the glory of the Lord has the practical effect of drawing saints out of the world. And there is another effect it has upon us, it makes us like one another; "We all with unveiled face beholding ... the glory of the Lord are changed into the same image"; it brings us practically into fellowship.
Now, "Son of God" I understand to be the title of Christ incarnate; I should hardly use "Son of God" as referring to His eternal Person, for which "the Son" is usually employed; He is the Son in contra-distinction to the Father. There are three divine Persons, the Father, the Son, and the Spirit. In John 5 we have, "The Son can do nothing of himself, but what he seeth the Father do"; it is one divine Person in relation to another; "What things soever the Father doeth, these also doeth the Son likewise". When He is spoken of as the Son of God, it is according to Psalm 2"Thou art my Son, this day have I begotten thee"; He is begotten in time. As Son of God, He is the last Adam; He is victorious over death, and a life-giving Spirit; that is what "the Son of God" conveys. It was proved very distinctly in the resurrection of Lazarus that He had complete authority over death, that is the first point (as now He says in Revelation 1, "I have the keys of hell
and of death"); and secondly, He raises man up in life. Those are two things which belong properly to the Son of God; and they are not equivalent, because it is one thing to set death aside, and another to raise man up. Death had to be set aside for man as the judgment of God; but then man needs to be raised up in life, like the paralytic at the Pool of Bethesda. But in order that man may be raised up, the sentence of death must first be taken off him, and both things belong to the Son of God; He effects both; it is His office, His place as last Adam. Death came in by the first Adam, death is set aside by the last Adam; and He is a life-giving Spirit. That is what is connected with the Son of God, and is illustrated in the resurrection of Lazarus. How did He put death aside? By Himself dying. "Except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone"; He puts sin away by the sacrifice of Himself, and He goes into death in order that He may annul death, and He has "brought life and incorruptibility to light by the gospel". I do not say He always raises man up in the same way; the Christian is raised up in one way, according to the Lord's word in John 5, "The hour is coming, and now is, when the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God, and they that hear shall live"; and He raises up Israel in another way in the time to come. But whoever is raised up, whether it be the church now, or Israel in the future, is raised up by Christ; the One who has annulled death is the One who raises up in life, The raising up of Lazarus is the figure of it; it was "for the glory of God, that the Son of God might be glorified thereby".
The next thing is the King of Israel. What is connected with that is that He demonstrates to this world the faithfulness of God, and brings in "the sure mercies of David"; for in Isaiah it says, "I will give you the sure mercies of David". If you
read the Psalms, you will find the prominent idea in them is the faithfulness of God; God is faithful to David and to David's seed, and Christ, David's seed, the King of Israel, brings in in His own person the sure mercies of David.
As regards the Son of man, what is connected with that title is that it is of the One under whom the world to come is put. In Hebrews 2 we read that unto angels He has not put in subjection the world to come; the world to come is put under the Son of man. He is the One who has tasted death for everything, and God "has put all things under his feet"; He is called to sit at God's right hand until His foes are made His footstool; and when He comes into the world He does not come for judgment (though He does judge), but judgment is the means to introduce blessing. He puts down every enemy, every opposer; and universal dominion belongs to Him as Son of man, and He uses it to fill the world with blessing.
I trust that you may take in these three thoughts in connection with Christ; He is the Son of God, who, having annulled death, raises up man in life: He is the Son of David, to bring in the sure mercies of David, and to fulfil everything which God has promised: and He is the Son of man, with the world to come put under Him to fill with blessing. Now, all this is comprised in the idea of Lord; and I may add that you do not get Christ presented here as second Man, that is as pattern of a race, but as last Adam, that is as a life-giving Spirit, and as such a gathering point. He says, "I, if I he lifted up from the earth, will draw all unto me". I understand by it that He will draw all to Him in the glory of His person. Witness is given in this way to the glory of Christ as Son of God, King of Israel, and Son of Man; but then for the moment all ends in death; the Lord says, "Except a corn of wheat
fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone"; He must go into death to accomplish redemption, but if the corn of wheat die it brings forth much fruit. And then another thing comes out in connection with this: the world is judged, everything has been brought to an issue in the world. The world would not have the light, it would not bear to he exposed, and for the world all closes in darkness: "Now is the judgment of this world; now shall the prince of this world be cast out". The Lord was not coming into the world to establish His rights, but He was going to be a point of attraction outside of it. That marks this moment; it is Christ known in the glory of His person as Lord, and His glory forming a point of attraction. It is the contrast to His coming out to establish blessing here in the world. In the early days of the church, saints were all gathered by testimony to the Lord. And in our days, our fellowship is that we "follow righteousness, faith, love, peace, with them that call on the Lord out of a pure heart"; "the Lord" is the gathering point.
And there is another thing connected with it; that the apprehension of the glory of the Lord has a great moral effect upon us. I have alluded to one passage, but there are others. "We see Jesus crowned with glory and honour"; we are attracted there; "Beholding the glory of the Lord" we are all "changed into the same image, from glory to glory, even as by the Lord the Spirit". The apprehension of the glory of the Lord must have a great moral effect upon us; for the thought of it fills the word, scripture is lighted up with the glory of the Lord. If you fail to apprehend Christ in the three aspects in which I have spoken of Him, it proves that you have but little light on scripture. But if you apprehend Christ as thus presented, you will find in what a remarkable way all scripture is lighted up to you;
for all these thoughts were ever in the mind of God, the Spirit of God had this before Him when He began to indite scripture. Scripture is full of it; people may not have eyes to see it; but when once your eyes are opened to the glory of the Lord, you will find that you have the key to scripture. "The Lord is the spirit", in contrast to the letter, as we read in 2 Corinthians, He is the spirit of scripture; and the glory of the Lord is the subject of scripture, as the Holy Spirit is the Author of scripture. It is as lifted up on the ground of redemption, and with His glory revealed to the soul, that Christ becomes, as Lord, the attractive gathering point to all here, whether Jew or Gentile.
All this is in connection with the judgment of this world. Thick darkness has come upon the world, consequent upon the rejection of Christ; all the moral principles of the world, "the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life", are to us exposed as being "not of the Father, but of the world". And it is exposed by the revelation of what is the opposite to it. Love is the opposite of lust; and by the very fact of God revealing Himself as love in Christ, all that is contrary to it comes out also. The purpose of love is to gratify its objects; lust ever seeks its own gratification. The world is full of lust and ambition; but "God is love"; that is, God lives, if I may use the expression, in the blessing of others: "In this was manifested the love of God toward us, because that God sent his only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through him". Every activity of God springs from love; and if there is light in the heart of the believer, the light is the revelation of God in love. Of course light exposes everything, just as it did the Jew, who knew that the light was the light of grace, though he did not care to be exposed, because he did not like to come to the humiliating thought
that he was incompetent. There are plenty of people in the present day who are in the same boat. But when it is brought home to a man, by the Spirit of God, that the judgment of death is upon him, he begins to feel himself incompetent. It is a great thing when you know that you are such as Christ has exposed you to be, with an evil will opposed to God; for then you begin to "see", and then it is that you are drawn out of the world to the One who is the good Shepherd.
Now, as I said before, we get in chapter 10 vital unity, and in chapter 12 the glory of the Lord as the true basis of christian fellowship down here; that is, that in the revelation of His glory, we get the point of gathering, the proper basis of our fellowship. As I said before, the general principle of John is to take the opposite order to Paul. Paul would give us first what is connected with the Lord, and then the truth of the body; John gives us first what is essential, the truth of the flock and the shepherd, and then the glory of the Lord as the gathering point for saints down here.
1 John 1:6, 7; 1 John 3:1 - 3; 1 John 4:12 - 14
On previous occasions I have endeavoured to give the scope and bearing of a particular portion of John's Gospel, namely, from chapter 7 to chapter 12; and while all scripture in a sense is practical, yet to open up the scope of scripture is a different thing from giving a word applicable to the particular circumstances and difficulties in which we find ourselves; and this latter is more my object at this time.
The point to which we came last week in connection with chapter 12 of the Gospel of John was that, after witness had been given to the glory of the Lord, He, as lifted up from the earth, becomes a point of gathering. In chapter 7 the truth had come out that Christ was going away; and in connection with it, on the last day of the feast, the Lord refers to what may be called another day, namely, the Spirit's day. I see distinctly two things in connection with the presence of Christ here; one is that He Himself was about to be glorified; and the other that the effect of His presence and work here was to leave behind Him a vessel for the Spirit. You may say the vessel was a small one, and I quite admit it; but still He left a vessel, and the Spirit could not dwell here without a vessel. In chapters 8 and 9 we find the true character in which Christ was here, namely, "the light of the world"; and by the very fact of His being the light of the world, everything here had been brought to an issue. Those who saw, that is those who took the ground of competency, were made blind; and on the other hand those who did
not see, saw, for there was a work of grace down here to open their eyes. When we came to chapter 10 (it is all one line of truth), we find the new position in which Christ is as having left the fold, namely, that of the good Shepherd, and the sheep have followed Him out of the fold. There is now "one flock, one shepherd", but neither flock nor shepherd recognised of the world. An unseen shepherd and in a sense an unseen flock, but all bound together in the divine nature. That is the idea to me of the one flock, and the one shepherd; not a public thing at all, but it is this, "I know my sheep, and am known of mine, as the Father knows me and I also know the Father". But there is still a further point in chapters 11 and 12, that witness is borne to the glory of Christ as Son of God, King of Israel, and Son of man; but for the moment all closes in death, the world is judged, and Christ, as lifted up from the earth, becomes a point of gathering for all; that is, you have got two essential truths in regard to Christ, what He is to the flock, and what He is as a point of gathering. I spoke of the import of the various titles of Christ last week: that as Son of God, as witnessed in the resurrection of Lazarus, He sets aside death, and raises man up in life; that as King of Israel and Son of David He brings in the sure mercies of David; and that as Son of man He has universal dominion in the world to come on the ground of redemption. These are the three ideas, which are carried into and embodied in the thought of Christ as Lord; as Lord He administers the grace of God, all that God is towards man is presented to man in power in the Lord.
I desire now to present three points, practical in their character, as being given to us in an epistle. An epistle is not quite like a gospel, it has a different character; an epistle is written to help Christians, and is presented to their responsibility; but a
gospel is written to present Christ to us. I have observed in regard to the first Epistle of John that the platform is not nearly so large as that of the Gospel. In the epistle we find "that which is true in him and in you" -- that is, in Christ and Christians; but in the gospel, what is true in the Son and the Father, and the gift of the Spirit. I think any one must see that there is a very great deal of difference between these two thoughts.
It is possible that you may not see at a glance what my purpose is in the three scriptures I have read; and I will tell you what has led me to these passages. They contain the three main elements of Christianity, namely, fellowship, privilege, and testimony. Fellowship is the first lesson we all have to learn; the second is privilege, which leads to the truth of the assembly; and the third is testimony, so to say, God presented in us. And until souls understand something of privilege, you may be sure there is not much of testimony in them according to God. For I do not regard testimony simply as preaching, but as that which it was in the thought of God that the christian company, that is, the church, should present collectively to the world. John 17:20, 21, will substantiate that: "Neither pray I for these alone, but for them also which shall believe on me through their word; that they all may be one; as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be one in us: that the world may believe that thou hast sent me". I understand by the passage that the unity of the saints and its character was the testimony presented to the world, though the world did not understand at all what was the secret of that unity; but it was the witness to the world that the Father sent the Son. It is most important to see that there was in the divine thought the idea of collective testimony.
Now I take up these three points, fellowship, privilege, and testimony, as opened out in the first Epistle of John, and I dare say it may be thought that I might treat them more readily from Paul; but I will tell you why I refer to John for them. John does not fill the place of Paul. Paul was the architect, and gives us the structure of the church and the character of the structure. But the structure which Paul was used of God to rear is in ruins, and it is well for us to recognise it; for if we lose sight of the ruin of the church and do not accept the remnant character, we are not of much account in the eye of God. The church is in ruins; and I am sure we ought to be more under the burden of this than we are. I have felt how little sense I have of the defection of the church, of how far the church is from the mind of God in regard to it. I think this ought to press upon us more heavily than it does. The fact is we have had far too much in our thoughts the idea of setting up an expression of the original, and have been pretty much contented with it. That means that we are losing sight of the ruin of the church. But we have to remember that the church is here at the present moment both vitally and responsibly. The body and the house are the two aspects of the church presented in scripture, and I say without any hesitation that the whole body of Christ is here upon earth, just as truly as the Spirit of God is here; and on the other side that the house is here in its responsibility as such, for scripture makes it perfectly clear that Christendom has the responsibility of the house of God. Hence it seems to me that it is entirely out of place for us to entertain the idea of setting up here upon earth a kind of imitation of the church; it means to my mind losing sight of the ruin of the church; and if we are not affected by the ruin of the church, I am sure that we are not in the mind of the Spirit.
The importance of the writings of John is, that though he does not give you the structure of the church, he gives you everything which is essential; for John always goes to what is essential and enduring, both in his gospel and in his epistles. Though the building may be in ruin and decay, John gives us what decay cannot touch, and therefore you can understand the great importance to us of John's writings. John does not give you the church, as such; I think the expression "church" is only used once in his epistles; but he gives you what is essential to the church, that which lies underneath the ruin, and which the ruin cannot affect. When I come to the first epistle I find these things which may in measure subsist even in the midst of the ruin of the church -- fellowship, privilege, and testimony; and it is on those three points I purpose now to enlarge.
First as to fellowship. In chapter 1 we read: "If we say that we have fellowship with him, and walk in darkness, we lie, and do not the truth: but if we walk in the light as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin". I might call your attention to two parallel passages in Paul: 1 Corinthians 1:9, "God is faithful, by whom ye were called into the fellowship of his Son Jesus Christ our Lord": and 1 Corinthians 10:16, "The cup of blessing which we bless, is it not the communion" -- it is the same word, "fellowship" -- "of the blood of Christ? The bread which we break, is it not the communion of the body of Christ? For we being many are one bread, one body: for we are all partakers of that one bread". There is no real divergence of thought in these three passages. Being in the light of the Lord, you are in the light as God is in the light. If I were to be asked, How is it that God is in the light? I should say that it is
in the Lord that God is in the light; that is, that there is the most complete revelation of God in His thought toward man in the Lord. No one can know what the thought and attitude of God is towards man, except in the Lord Jesus Christ; for it is in Him that it has pleased God to display Himself, and all the thought of God towards man is made good mediatorially in the Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore in the light of the Lord, I am in the light as God is in the light. We have the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. Now it is the name of the Lord which is our bond of fellowship. And this is perfectly consistent with 1 Corinthians 10, for being in the fellowship of the Lord, of necessity you are in the fellowship of His death; the two things are bound to go together, for you could not be in the fellowship of the Lord and be going on in things to which He has died. He has become a gathering point on the ground of having been lifted up from the earth; and concurrent with that is, "Now is the judgment of this world, now shall the prince of this world be cast out". It is a very great thing for our souls to be in the light of the glory of the Lord; I do not think they are enough there. We should be a different kind of people if we apprehended all that is covered by His blessed name, Son of God, Son of David, Son of man. If our souls were in the light of it we would not care to be in the current of this world, since the soul would be in the light of another world, what scripture speaks of as "the world to come". The apostle says to the Ephesians, "Ye were sometime darkness, but now are ye light in the Lord"; it is in the Lord you are light, and that is where a soul first gets light -- in the knowledge of the glory of the Lord.
Now I do not think we distinguish sufficiently between fellowship and privilege. Fellowship must
always be on simple ground. I do not know whether the term "fellowship" is quite understood. What I understand by fellowship is a bond of association which in its very nature separates those in it from the course and current of things around them. There will not be, I judge, any such bond in the millennium, because the outward state of things will be according to God; there will not be any need for fellowship. But here, in the midst of a world which has rejected Christ and is under judgment, fellowship is essential; there must be a bond of association between Christians which binds them together in one common interest. Now that is distinct from the idea of privilege, and depends really upon the name of the Lord, which is always our bond of fellowship: "I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all to me": God has called us to "the fellowship of his Son Jesus Christ our Lord". There is, on the other side, that which is perfectly consistent with it, the fellowship of His death.
So far I have only spoken of what was the proper fellowship of Christians to begin with. John puts it on this ground: "If we walk in the light, as he is in the light"; that is, if we are really in the truth of Christianity, namely, that God has been pleased to come out in the fullest revelation of Himself, so that there can be no further revelation of Him, that God's thought and grace in regard of man is revealed in the Lord Jesus Christ, then, "We have fellowship one with another". And at the present time, and at every time, there is fellowship, and it is in the true light of Christianity. And the true light of Christianity is displayed in the Lord, you cannot learn it elsewhere. Therefore I can understand the apostle saying to the Philippian gaoler, "Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ"; as much as to say to him, you get into the light of what is displayed in the Lord, and you will be saved and
your house. I think it is very beautiful to know that there is one point where you can fully learn what is in the heart of God toward man, and you see it displayed not in weakness, but in glory, in power. There is no power to equal the power of the Lord Jesus Christ. Talk about power in this world, and what nations and man can do, it is not to be compared to the power of the Lord Jesus! He went to the right hand of God, and received and sent down here the most mighty power that could be, the Holy Ghost. Christ can effect everything, only He effects it spiritually, not yet in the way of display; but He effects everything in the power of the Holy Ghost. Nothing can stand against the power of the Spirit. We may have so little faith that we are unable to use the power; but if we had faith to use the power of the Spirit, I say nothing could stand before it. A servant might be in the presence of the most godless company that ever was brought together: if he knew what it was to be in faith and in the power of the Spirit, some of that company would be brought down before him. I am ashamed to talk about it, because I know so poorly how to use the power of the Spirit. But the Spirit is here, having come down from Christ, and Christ has all power over man for man's good and blessing. All the thought of God towards man is revealed in the Lord Jesus Christ, and in the light of the Lord "we have fellowship one with another".
Now in a day of ruin, I find exactly the same principle, only that another question comes in, that you cannot commit yourself to people simply on their profession, you cannot take people up quite as they did at the beginning of Christianity. Things have lapsed into a condition of ruin, profession has become common and unreal, there are vessels to dishonour, and therefore you have to look for those who call on the Lord out of a pure heart. But the
ground of fellowship remains unchanged, and the ground of fellowship is calling on the Lord. It is very important to rightly apprehend fellowship, because fellowship brings in a different idea to that of the actual meeting. If people become associated with us in fellowship, it does not simply mean that they have the privilege of breaking bread, but we are bound to do all we can for them, they are received into our fellowship. So, too, if they are put out of our fellowship they are put out of it, it is not putting them away from the meeting, but that you have no more to say to them until God comes in in grace to restore them. It appears sometimes to be thought that in cases of discipline persons are put away from the meeting. It is not simply a question of the meeting, our fellowship subsists whether there is a meeting or not: we might not be able to come together to a meeting, but that would not affect the question of our fellowship; we have fellowship one with another, following righteousness, faith, love, peace, with them that call on the Lord out of a pure heart. The name of the Lord is the gathering point, as it always was. We do not have to exact any amount of knowledge or intelligence from people who desire to be in our fellowship, we have never taken that ground, but have resisted and rejected it; but if we have reason to think that such are really Christians, and calling on the Lord out of a pure heart, we make no difficulty about receiving them into our fellowship, although their intelligence may be very small, because the name of the Lord is the bond of fellowship. It is very important to see that our receiving and putting away is to and from our fellowship. So it was in early days, if they had to put a man out of communion they "put away from among themselves that wicked person". If believers are brought into our fellowship, what we hope is that they will learn
their privilege; depend upon it, people do not learn their privilege very much until they learn the true ground of fellowship. I ask, Did any of you learn very much of what belonged to you as Christians until you found yourselves in a true fellowship? I do not think you did; I did not.
That is the first principle that comes out in this epistle, that "If we walk in the light as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another", and there is no imputation, "the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin".
I pass on now to the subject of privilege (1 John 3:1, 2), "Behold, what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called the children of God; therefore the world knoweth us not, because it knew him not. Beloved, now are we the children of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that, when He shall appear, we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is". Now compare that verse with John 17, "That they all may be one, as thou, Father, art in me and I in thee" -- now mark the next clause -- "that they also may be one in us"; that "in us" marks their place, they are to be one in us. Now turn to 1 Thessalonians 1:1 "The assembly of the Thessalonians which is in God the Father and in the Lord Jesus Christ". In all those passages we have the place of privilege of the church. And I might say shortly with reference to these two chapters, 3 and 4 of 1 John, that in chapter 3 saints are seen as in God, and in chapter 4 God is seen in the saints, that is just the distinction between the two. When I speak about our place of privilege, then I say saints are in God; when I speak about testimony, then I say the testimony is that God is in the saints. The place of privilege puts you in the Father and in the Son.
We little estimate the privilege which belongs to
the children of God. It is the same character of things as seen in the sheep; "I know my sheep and am known of mine; as the Father knoweth me and I know the Father". The place of children introduces saints, if I may say so, although I feel I understand it very poorly, into that system of affections which subsists in the Father and in the Son. They lie between the Son and the Father. That, I judge, is the meaning of the passage, "Behold, what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called the children of God". Why does Christ love the saints? Because they are given to Him of the Father. It comes out most beautifully in John 6; the Father drew to the Son in order that the Son might bring us to the Father, "No man can come to me except the Father which hath sent me draw him". The same truth comes out in Matthew 16; Peter confesses Jesus as "the Christ, the Son of the living God": why was that revelation given to Peter? In order that Peter might be drawn to Christ in that light so that Christ might bring him to the Father, and on that rock build His assembly.
If there is to be Christ's assembly, all that compose that assembly must be in the same place with Christ; the place of the assembly is "in God the Father and in the Lord Jesus Christ", the system of affections which is proper to the assembly belongs to that circle, that scene. It all hangs on the fact of Christ having become Man, and being able thus to take this place -- "In the midst of the assembly will I sing praise unto thee"; and it is His having become Man, and our association with Him as risen, which brings us into the Father and the Son. You are not apart from the Son. And if you are with the Son, how can you be apart from the Father? Of necessity you are there; "As thou, Father, art in me and I in thee, that they also may be one in us,
that the world may believe that thou hast sent me"; that is our place of privilege. But mark, although it belongs to us individually, and I quite admit everybody is brought into it individually, yet the very fact of our being in it necessarily constitutes us one band, and therefore the apostle speaks in the plural, "Behold, what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called the children of God".
In the same way we are brought in individually as members of the body, we are all baptised into it in that sense, but the very fact of being members of one body identifies us with the body, you cannot be apart from the body. So it is in regard to children. The moment I wake up to the fact that I am a child of God, that that is the place of privilege to which the Father has called me, at once I want to be identified with the company, that is the way in which it works, for there is no such idea as a single child of God. We are brought into that place by one Spirit; it is one Spirit that "bears witness with our spirit that we are the children of God", we are all one by one Spirit. The very instinct of one who realises that he is a child of God must lead him to the truth of the assembly, because he feels he cannot be alone. It is expressed in the line of a hymn with which we are all familiar --
That is the idea in scripture connected with children, it is "we" and "us", a company, not the idea of the privilege of a single individual. The Spirit that bears witness with our spirit that we are the children of God is the same Spirit in every Christian. I cannot understand a Christian content to be isolated and talking about how much he gets from the Lord at home; I am certain that person enters
little into the privilege of a child, for if he did, the craving of his soul would be to get into the company of the children; because as there is one flock and one shepherd, so the children are all one band. If therefore you want to realise the privilege of the children of God, you must get to the assembly; and it is there that you realise the privilege which is proper to the children of God, they worship the Father.
Now nothing can deny that to us. Just as in the ruin of the church there is the fellowship of "those who call on the Lord out of a pure heart", so whatever may be the decay and ruin of the church, the children cannot be displaced. I may be very sorry that all do not enter into their privilege, and I am sure we ought to mourn over it more than we do; but if we do come together in assembly, then our place as children is realised, for it is the calling, the privilege, which the Father has bestowed upon us. I can understand in a day of ruin that a person might say, Well, I have got a little light, and it has separated me from the confusion around, I cannot go on with the sects and systems because they are a practical denial of the truth of the Lord, I will stand completely alone. But I do not think a person could stand completely alone, because if he entered into the truth of his position, the very Spirit that witnesses that he is a child of God would draw him to other children of God. Though we are brought into the place of children individually, yet you cannot wholly individualise the children, for they are one company, and one Spirit is in them all. The same holds good as to sonship, it is one Spirit of sonship. I am sure we fail to see how that the scriptures which apply to Christians are instinct with unity, all is to bring us to unity; and if you have the Spirit of sonship, the Spirit that witnesses that you are a child of God, there will be a kind of
magnetic attraction towards other children of God, and of other children of God towards you. I believe it is for that reason that John gives us what I should call essential truths when the structure has broken down. The expression "children of God" involves what is vital; the Spirit bears witness, there is the spiritual link, and though you may mourn the fact that you cannot come together in company with the whole band, yet at the same time you cannot lose sight of the privilege which belongs to you in common with other Christians. If the Father has set you in that place of children, the Father's love is upon you, you are "in the Father and in the son".
Now I pass on to the third point, and that is testimony, in that God is in us. In verses 12 to 14 of chapter 4 we come to "us" and "we". And mark what a wonderful testimony that passage presents; "No man hath seen God at any time". That is an expression which is used first in the gospel, where it goes on to say, "The only begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the Father, he hath declared him": here it is, "No man hath seen God at any time, if we love one another, God abides in us, and his love is perfected in us" that is, that the divine nature is made good in Christians, in that they love one another, and the character of the love is such that the love of God is perfected in us. The wonderful thing is that God is displayed, not in one Christian, but in the company of Christians, in their love one toward another. Now mark the next passage: "Hereby know we that we dwell in him and he in us, because he hath given to us of his Spirit; and we have seen" -- now you get another thing -- "we have seen and bear witness that the Father sent the Son to be the Saviour of the world". It is a wonderful thing that there is a band here in the world in whom the love of God is perfected,
and more than that, they have seen and bear witness that the Father sent the Son as Saviour of the world. I doubt if it is an individual bearing witness, but the testimony is maintained in the band; that is the light that comes out in the band. But then the first point is not what they say, it is what they are; "If we love one another", that is what I was speaking about at the beginning in regard to testimony. It answers again to that passage in John 17, "As thou, Father, art in me and I in thee, that they also may be one in us"; that is their place of privilege. But they are to be "one in us", what for? "That the world may believe that thou hast sent me".
Of course, in the thought of God, all these things were to have been witnessed in the entire church. But what is perfectly clear to me from scripture is that even in early days comparatively few Christians entered into the proper privileges of the church: the majority were uncommonly slow to accept their true place and privilege. I argue from it that if comparatively few Christians entered in that day into proper christian privilege, there is no reason why a few Christians should not enter into it in this day. It is one thing to have a privilege belonging to me, and another thing to enter into the truth and reality of it. But I maintain that the privilege belongs to all, that the Father has set His love upon us, that the proper place of every Christian is to be of one band, in the Father and in the Son. It is our place, and in the realisation of our privilege we better understand the true character of the assembly. And it is apart from any necessity of ecclesiastical pretension, the point is to have the reality of it in our souls. Things must come out in the order I have indicated; and if saints do not understand the privilege of the assembly in some measure, there will not be maintained in them a testimony
which is according to God. It is in the assembly that we properly enter into our relationship with the Father and with one another; you may have accepted the light of it, but it is in the assembly you enter into and understand it. Properly we are all set in our place in the assembly, in regard to the Father and to Christ and to one another; and then we go forth from the assembly to be here in the world a vessel in which God is displayed. You must take these things up in the order in which they are unfolded in the epistle, our souls are bound to learn them in that order, first fellowship, then privilege which places us in the Father and in the Son, and then true testimony in which God is displayed in the heavenly band which stands in Christ; that is the divine order. I could show you precisely the same order coming out in Paul. You could not understand Colossians if you did not first understand Corinthians; in Corinthians you get fellowship, and the privilege of the assembly, and in Colossians you get the other side of it, that is, the divine nature coming out in the Christian company.
I do not want to dwell further on it, but I trust it will be a practical word to all of us. I took it up from this epistle as being suitable to the day of ruin in which we are; and I pray God to grant that we may be more prepared in spirit to come under the sense of the ruin, not to attempt to construct something here which is a kind of satisfaction to us. God keep us from setting up any kind of imitation! May we recognise that the church is here both vitally and responsibly, but so far as the thought of God is concerned, it is here in ruin. I take my share in the shame of the ruin; but at the same time I see, and this ought to be a great encouragement to us, that all that is essential abides, and I believe that if we enter into our privilege, though the company may be very restricted, yet at all events there
will be a real witness for God, a real expression of God even in the little company. I feel I am not much of a hand at attempting to give a practical word, but I trust the word may be accepted, and that we may enter more by the grace of God into our proper privilege and into what is the true testimony of saints here in this world.
Lectures delivered in 1895
My thought is to bring before you, as God may enable me, the great moral characteristics of Christianity. I do not intend to speak of the doctrine upon which Christianity is founded, but rather of what Christianity consists in, in the hope that we all may be better instructed as to this. The doctrines may come out, but my object is to show you that which God saw fit to introduce into the darkness of this world, and into which we as Christians are brought. The great pervading evil in Christendom is that divine things have, in men's thoughts, been materialised. A common idea with many is that life is communicated through baptism; there is nothing moral about that, it is a material idea. Again, people speak of the "house of God", and mean by it a material building. Then such things as "harvest thanksgivings" are common, that is worship in connection with material blessings. All is materialised. It is well to get our eyes opened to the terrible departure in all this from what is of the Spirit of God.
Now what I want to show you is the contrast to all this of the divine thought in Christianity; for certainly Christianity is not materialistic, it is all intensely moral. It is not even like the millennium, namely, a condition of manifest blessing, or what one might call, for want of a better expression, a condition of actualities.
When I speak of the features of Christianity, I mean its moral features; and I think they may be put in this order -- first light, for that is the first thing with God, and it is the first with every one of us. What follows light is liberty. Then life; and finally unity and testimony. You see they are all
moral, and they are all characteristic features of Christianity as God intended it to be here.
I think any one can follow the points I have indicated, and their succession. I only intend at present, by God's help, to touch upon the first, for it is a very large field on which I have entered. When one speaks of Christianity in its moral characteristics it is impossible in the course of an hour to traverse the whole extent of it.
The first great idea in Christianity is light. God no longer dwells in the thick darkness as in times gone by; now the first blessing of the gospel is that God has shone out in light, and the practical result in regard to believers is that "we walk in the light as God is in the light". That is where the believer is understood to be. I want to make that point plain, for there are thousands of people professedly in Christianity, who as to their consciousness of things, as to the state of their souls, are not one single bit in the light. I know it as well as possible. I was many a long day professedly a Christian before there was light in my soul, and I do not doubt that most of us would admit the same. We were professedly Christians before a single ray of light from God penetrated into our hearts.
I say that in the divine thought of Christianity the first thing is light. The apostle says in 2 Corinthians 4:6, "God who commanded that out of darkness light should shine, hath shined in our hearts to give the light" -- what light? -- "the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ". You see how the apostle puts it there, referring to Genesis 1. So, too, he had previously said in that same passage, "The god of this world has blinded the minds of those who believe not, lest the light of the glad tidings of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine for them".
Now I dare say you noticed in the passage I read at the beginning, in which Paul gives an account of his conversion, the occurrence of the world "light". The first thing that affected him was light. At mid-day, as he was going on the road to Damascus, there appeared a light brighter than the sun. The greatest natural light was surpassed by the brightness of the light that appeared to him. That was the very first impression that the apostle got. Then afterwards, where he gives an account of his mission, he tells us it was to go to the Gentiles, "to open their eyes" -- that is preliminary -- "to turn them from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan unto God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins and inheritance among them that are sanctified by faith in me". It is evident that light must have had a great place, in the thought of God at all events, in what was connected with the apostle. He was first affected by light, and it was the light of grace.
I will now try to show what I understand by light, and I think I can put it in a way sufficiently simple to be generally understood. Light is God in the revelation of Himself. Light and truth are very intimately connected. By truth I understand that which may be known of God. It may be even by creation. That is how scripture describes truth. Light being the revelation of God makes manifest everything which comes within its range. In 1 John 1 it says, "This is the message that we have heard of him that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all. If we walk in the light as he is in the light". That God has thus shone forth, is the foundation of Christianity. The thought of God in the gospel in regard to man is, that man should be brought into the light, should be enlightened in his soul as to the truth of God, that is, as to what God is. Man's thought would be that he might get forgiveness of sins. He will surely get that, he
cannot have the light of God without it, but God's thought is that He may be known in the heart of man.
I will tell you what is to be dreaded at the present moment -- holding correctness of doctrine without really the doctrine being light in the soul. I believe it is a great danger to which we are exposed, for if doctrine has not the effect of enlightening the soul as to God it has not done its work. You will see how that must be, and how consistent it is with truth. The effect of sin was that man got into darkness. If I put it in other words, man lost the knowledge of God. That was the effect of the fall. God was lost to his soul. Therefore when he was left to himself (as God left the heathen to themselves) man became more and more degraded. They had lost the knowledge of God, they did not choose to retain God in their knowledge, and simply fell lower and lower. Men worshipped things that morally were inferior to man. They made gods of all sorts of things, even of serpents, that in intelligence were inferior to man himself. It only shows you how morally degraded man became when he had lost the knowledge of God. Man proved that he had fallen into utter moral darkness. Now in the gospel God virtually says, I will come in and reveal Myself in the heart of man. I will make myself known in the midst of the darkness of the world, in a way suitable to the state of man. That is the divine idea in the gospel -- a most wonderful thought. To me it is inconceivably blessed to think of God coming into the darkness of this world with the determined purpose, in spite of everything, sin, Satan, the world, and all here, to make Himself known in grace in the heart of man. That is what the commission of the apostle was, "to turn them from darkness to light and from the power of Satan to God". What comes afterwards is what I should
call supplementary, "that they may receive forgiveness of sins and inheritance among them that are sanctified by faith in me". The great point of the passage is the turning from darkness to light and from Satan's power to God, that instead of men remaining in the darkness into which they had got as the effect of the fall, they were to be brought into the light of God revealed in love. The truth of God becomes light in the soul of man, because man gets light by truth. It brings his heart into the light so that he might be in the light as God is in the light.
I add a little more in detail of the grace of God in that respect, for it is a great thing to be established in the first principles of truth. It is very important for every one of us to get hold of the divine thought in the gospel. And the first principle of the gospel is that it is God's approach to man. I do not believe that the gospel in itself speaks about man's approach to God. It is the announcement to men of God's glad tidings concerning His Son.
There are four ministries spoken of by the apostle Paul in scripture, and I believe they are distinct. There is the ministry of the gospel, the ministry of the new covenant, the ministry of reconciliation, and the ministry of the mystery. You must not confound them, for the last three at all events are ministries to believers; but the ministry of the gospel is of God's glad tidings not to believers but to men. "The kindness and love of God our Saviour toward man appeared". That is, God has been pleased to reveal Himself in the gospel to man, in order that man's heart may be enlightened with the knowledge of His grace.
Now before I speak of how we come into it, I must refer for a moment to the way which God has taken to reveal Himself. If God reveal Himself to man it must be in a way suited to the state of man. It would have been impossible for God to reveal
Himself simply as a Judge. It would not have been suitable. There would have been no grace about it. Man was sinful and a sinner before God, and therefore the very first principle of the revelation of God must of necessity be grace. Hence as the first step in this direction God provided a sacrifice, which should clear sin completely from before Him. If I look at the work of Christ in its first and most important aspect it is for God, and that is where a mistake is often made. People do not see what I should call the God-ward aspect of the work of Christ. In the Old Testament figure you get in the day of atonement the blood sprinkled on and before the mercy-seat; that is what I should call the divine aspect of the work of Christ, and the gospel is based upon it. If you want one word for it, common amongst us, it is propitiation. God in infinite grace has been pleased, before ever there was any approach on His part to man in the gospel, to provide a sacrifice which has cleared sin from before Himself. This is the witness of the grace of God, and is the first thing I see in Christ. He is the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. The Victim provided of God, He who was to clear sin from before God, came out from God, and that is the witness which God has given of His grace.
There was the personal ministry of Jesus on earth before this work; but the coming of Christ here in that sense really anticipated His death, and the truth of the glad tidings could not come out fully until after His resurrection. Then, when sin has been cleared from before God, and the blood has been sprinkled on and before the mercy-seat, the witness that sin has been cleared, then God comes out to reveal Himself in the glad tidings to the heart of man. God can point to Christ and say, Can you have any doubt about My grace? I have Myself provided the sacrifice which has cleared sin from
before Me, in order that I might reveal Myself in grace to the heart of man. It was the divine way. Man had not a word to say to it. God did it entirely on His own account. It came entirely from the divine motion. Jesus says, "I come to do thy will, O God". It is not the common idea of a substitute which is presented here. Sin was cleared, not by a substitute for man, but by a divine Person. There is the truth that Christ was delivered for our offences, but the great point is that God cleared sin for Himself, by One who came forth from Himself -- a divinely appointed, divinely provided Victim. And when we speak of the grace of God, we do not speak of any particular Person of the Godhead. It is very important that, while we distinguish the Persons of the Godhead, we should maintain in our souls the truth of God, in the unity and counsel of the Godhead. It was the Son who became Man that He might be a Victim, and by His own sacrifice remove sin completely from before God: He appeared once in the end of the world, to put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself. I have told you the divine object in this already, and I want you to ponder it. It is, that God might be revealed in man's heart. Do not miss this, because if you fail of the divine object, you will not get into a living Christianity. You will get into the sort of Christianity in which plenty of people are, but you will not get into the Christianity of God, to be in the light as God is in the light. Therefore, when I point to Jesus, I say, Do you doubt the grace of God? "God has set him forth to be a mercy-seat through faith in his blood".
The mercy-seat is, I judge, where God speaks to man. The mercy-seat in Israel was where God put Himself in communication with Moses to give him a charge for the children of Israel, viewed as a redeemed people. Now, in the gospel Jesus is the
mercy-seat. Why? Because in Him God speaks volumes. In Jesus is revealed to you the grace which provided the Victim which has completely cleared sin from before God. Jesus speaks to every heart now. The very name -- Jesus is "Jehovah saving".
Now another point. Jesus speaks not only of grace but of righteousness. God has set Him forth as a mercy-seat for the declaration of His righteousness, but you cannot touch righteousness until you have touched grace. The principle of the gospel is, that grace reigns through righteousness unto eternal life; but you must begin with grace, because the first thing which God provided was that which cleared sin from before Him, and that was a question of pure grace on the part of God, which took account of the state and necessity of man, and, in order that He might be made known to the heart of man, provided the sacrifice to remove sin. Now, sin having been removed and God glorified in its removal, the righteousness of God is in man's favour. The power of God has acted in righteousness, to release man from the penalty of death; and not only so, but to set man in the place of supreme honour and glory to carry into effect every result of the removal of sin. Righteousness is declared. It is not declared simply in terms, it is declared in Jesus. I do not know how better to express it -- Jesus speaks volumes, and God declares in Jesus His righteousness. Sin brought death into the world. Death came in as God's penalty on sin. "In the day thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die". When sin had been removed by Christ being made sin, and bearing its judgment on the cross, Christ went into death, because the penalty of death lay upon man, that in death He might glorify God, that everything might be accomplished. "Without shedding of blood is no remission". He went into death, but
as having first perfectly removed sin. He goes into death for the glory of God, and God is glorified in His death, and what then? The power of God raises Him again from the dead, and He is the witness of the righteousness of God -- righteousness in which God can act in power in raising man from the penalty of death. He must be the first to rise from the dead, but then the truth does not stop there. Christ is exalted to be the minister of everything that He has secured. He is Lord. He is raised again that He may have dominion both over the dead and the living. He is a quickening Spirit, set above all that He may fill all things. I do not believe that God has now a single thing to say to man apart from Christ. If I wanted to tell a man the way of salvation, what should I say? "Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shall be saved". And why should I say that? In my own mind the thought would be, that, in the Lord Jesus Christ, God is completely revealed to man. I can well understand the apostle saying to the Philippian jailer, "Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved, and thy house". I have sometimes said (although I do not want to be misunderstood) that man is saved by light. We often talk about man being saved by faith; but there is no substantive value in faith, and man is saved by light. He is saved by God being revealed to his soul. God could not be revealed to his soul if grace had not blotted sin out; but Christ removed sin in order that God might be revealed to the heart of man in grace, and that is God's way of salvation for man, and is the reason why I say that man is really saved by light. He is brought into salvation by light. "If thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God has raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved". What is the meaning of that? Well, that you have got
divine light, the revelation of God in your heart; for you confess with your mouth, "Lord Jesus", the One in whom God has been pleased to reveal Himself, and whom God has raised from the dead. All that shines in the face of Jesus. It is the shining forth of the effulgence of God. There is the light of God seen in the way in which God is to be known in the soul of man, and that is the proper result of the presentation of God's glad tidings; God is revealed in the heart of man which, apart from that, was in utter darkness. The gospel went out to people who were in the darkness of heathenism to turn them from darkness to light, that they might receive forgiveness of sins and inheritance. They do receive these things, for you cannot possibly turn to God revealed in grace, without getting forgiveness of sins and inheritance; but the point of it is that you are turned from darkness to light, and from Satan's power to God. I wonder if every soul here has a true sense of the Lord Jesus Christ as being the blessed revelation of God, who has come out of His own place to be known by man.
Now a word or two in regard to apprehension, because I have spoken of the truth on the divine side. If we look at things from our own point of view, we regard the gospel as it affects us, and the gain which we get through it; but I think it is very important to see the divine object in it, and I cannot doubt the truth of what I have said, that the light of God was to come into the heart of man, His glory was to be known there as seen in the face of Jesus, it was to be a revelation to him of God, suited to his state and condition. Now the first thing in the commission to Saul was "to open their eyes". The eyes of the Gentiles were to be opened, and that is what new birth properly effects. This opening of eyes was put in a certain sense into the hands of the apostle in his ministry, but the real
opening of the eyes is the work of God's Spirit. But though a man's eyes may be opened, he has not got light, but he craves light. When first the work of God begins in a man, you may depend upon it that man will not rest until he gets light. If you want an illustration I take Nicodemus. What he wanted was light as to God. Take any man where the work of God has begun, that man wants light. He has got his eyes opened like the man in John 9, he begins to see the falseness and unreality of everything here, but whatever he may crave, he has not got light as to God, God is not yet revealed to him.
Now the next point is, "To turn them from darkness to light". Darkness really is the degradation in which man was in heathenism. What was light? The revelation of God in grace in Christ. That was part of the apostle's mission, though first man's eyes were to be opened. Then he was to be turned from darkness to light, to the blessed revelation of God in the face of Jesus, and from Satan's power to God -- the latter went with the turning from darkness to light. When there was real turning to God, what then? Well, they turned to a God who had been revealed to them in the gospel, they were not to turn to an unknown God, or a God with whom there was any uncertainty -- that would not have been light; but to God as He had revealed Himself to them in the gospel. The gospel came to them first on the part of God to reveal what God was, then they turned to God as He had revealed Himself in grace and in righteousness.
"That they may receive forgiveness of sins, and inheritance among them which are sanctified by faith in me" -- two things that are commonly connected in scripture. But to me they are accompaniments of the gospel; the vital point to my mind is the turning from darkness to light, and from
Satan's power to God, so that God is apprehended in the soul as He has been pleased to reveal Himself. Now the light of God has taken possession of the soul of the believer, and thus it is we come to be in the light as God is in the light, that is in the full light of the revelation of God. That is the very first principle of Christianity, you cannot touch anything else until your soul is brought into the light of the revelation of God. You cannot talk about deliverance or life or testimony until you are brought out of darkness into God's marvellous light, into the blessed light in which God has been pleased to reveal Himself in the gospel. I do not think it has been sufficiently seen that the first aspect of the work of Christ was God-ward, in order that God might reveal Himself to man in grace. It began with God bringing Himself in Christ close to men in a Man; and now in the gospel God has revealed Himself fully to man in His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, suitably to the state and condition in which man is -- that is, in grace and, in ability to justify. The full expression of it is, Christ Himself raised from the dead and set far above all heavens, in order that He might fill all things. That is what God has done for the display of Himself. Man is now the vessel of that display. What a wonderful thing it is to have turned to God in that way! So that now it is not simply that God is in the light, but we are in the light. That is the first principle of Christianity, and the effect of it is this, that you get your heart established in grace. I have greatly enjoyed lately the thought that I am in the light in which God has been pleased to reveal Himself. I can understand the expression, "Rejoice in the Lord". Why? Because in the Lord, God is revealed in all His thought to man. God has thus come out in blessed grace; and the benefit that we get is forgiveness of sins, and not only that, but the
Spirit given to us to indwell our bodies, so that the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given to us.
May God give us really to know the great light in which God has shone out, that we may better see the first great principle of Christianity as God has been pleased to establish it here. Amen.
John 8:28 - 36
I desire to carry out the purpose which I mentioned last time, viz., to bring before you the leading features of Christianity in its true power -- I do not mean doctrinally, though of course you could not have it without doctrine, but morally. It is a very great thing to ascertain the true nature of Christianity, what the great moral characteristics of it are. I referred last week to the first thing, which is light, and explained that light was the revelation of God. Light makes everything manifest, but that is a consequence of light; you do not get things made manifest until you get the light, and the light, as I said, is the revelation of God; that is, the revelation of God makes everything manifest. "Whatsoever doth make manifest is light". That is the first great feature of Christianity.
The second, on which I purpose dwelling tonight, is liberty. "Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty". In the passage I have read, most of you will remember two expressions; the Lord first says, "You shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free", and then afterwards He says, "If the Son therefore shall make you free, ye shall be truly tree". The servant is brought forward in contrast to the son; "the servant", the slave, for that is the real meaning of the word, "does not continue in the house for ever", he has no title to permanence, "but the son continues ever" -- He has a proper title to a permanent place in the house. The first point is the power of deliverance from sin, the second is the liberty and privilege of the house. The last is a common idea even in human things;
we talk about a man having the liberty of a city. Here it is the liberty of the house.
Before I speak on this question of liberty, I refer shortly to what came before us last week. I said that God's purpose in the gospel was that He might be known in the heart of man. Therefore when the great truth of the gospel has come home to me, that God is love, and I know His love, then I am in light; I am no longer in darkness, I was once darkness, but now I am light in the Lord, my heart is really in the light as God is in the light. That, and nothing short of it, is the proper state of the Christian. Every Christian walks in the light as God is in the light; but the point is that his heart should be full of light, because otherwise he has not got the full enjoyment of what God is as He has revealed Himself. The first great characteristic of Christianity, is light for the heart of man; man's heart was by the fall in darkness, and in ignorance of God, and God having revealed Himself it was His pleasure to be known in the heart of man. You cannot conceive anything more gracious on the part of God.
One point to which I alluded last time was not, I think, generally understood, and that was as to the groundwork of all, namely, the putting away of sin. I was laying stress on the importance of propitiation. Many people, in their thoughts of the sacrifice of Christ, begin at substitution. But substitution is not the first aspect of the offering of Christ; the first aspect of it is that which was God-ward, namely propitiation. The great point in the offering of Christ was that sin should be removed from under the eye of God, so that God might be free to accomplish His will. "Once in the end of the world hath he [Christ] appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself". I understand by "sacrifice" in that passage that Christ gave Himself up wholly to it; that cost what it might, whatever it might mean to
Him in the way of suffering, He would remove sin from before God; that is what He came to effect, and to effect it for God.
Sin stood in the way of the accomplishment of God's purposes of grace. Those purposes had to be carried into effect; but it was impossible for God to come out to man till sin had been removed, and Christ came to this end for God's will. But that is not substitution, or Christ suffering in the place of others; it was a question of propitiation, of removing sin from under the eye of God. It was the exigency of God's will. I do not think any one will find any difficulty so far; but the point of difficulty was in this, which I suppose I failed to make clear, that when Christ died, sin was no longer under the eye of God. All that was due in regard of it had been borne. Christ was on the cross made sin, and it was thus completely removed. He, by divine appointment, represented sin on the cross in the presence of the holiness of God; but in the act of death the eye of God rested only upon absolute obedience and righteousness, and in the sufferer God was completely glorified; sin was removed in order that God might be glorified in man in death. Death was upon man, it was the governmental penalty, to which we are all subject, which God has attached to sin in connection with man's life in this world; Christ really died, but His death, instead of being the mark and fruit of disobedience, was in perfect obedience, entirely to the glory of God. Thus what came under the eye of God in Christ's death was perfect obedience and righteousness when sin had been removed. Of course all was effected upon the cross; it is only there that we find the Lord Jesus addressing God otherwise than as Father. He says, "My God, my God". But at the moment of His death it is, "Father, into thy hands I commend my spirit". And the blessed
answer to it comes out in resurrection, even that death was annulled, and man placed, in the Person of Christ, at God's right hand in the heavenly places.
I only refer to this subject again on account of the importance of the truth of propitiation, since in virtue of it God can address Himself to man; He has set forth Jesus to be a mercy-seat through faith in His blood. I quite admit that without shedding of blood there is no remission of sins, but I warn all that death is not the final dealing with sin: "It is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment"; it is the lake of fire which is the final dealing with sin. And if Christ removed sin from before God, you may depend upon it He suffered at the hand of God what sin demanded from the holiness of God.
I pass on now to the great and important question of liberty. Many a person has light that has not got yet into the enjoyment of liberty. But it is not according to God that you should be in bondage; that would not suit the grace of God at all. I would not like my children to be in bondage; it would be a painful thought to a parent. If God makes known His love to our hearts, He does not want us to be in bondage, it is not of him. But it very often takes people a long time to get practically into liberty, because, if you are going to be delivered from the power of a thing, you must first judge the thing from which you are to be delivered. And this is the practical difficulty with every one of us, to learn what we have to be delivered from. But it is no pleasure to God that a man should be in bondage. From habit of soul, and experience, it may take us a long time to come into liberty; but the word is, "You shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free".
I will speak of liberty in respect of three things (you can follow them up at your leisure), which are
brought out successively in the Gospel of John, and thereby the question of liberty is made more intelligible to us. The first is sin (what the Lord speaks of here), the second is legality, and the third is the world. They are three things which hamper every one of us grievously, and it is a long time before we break free from them. I can speak feelingly in that way, for I think that I know the power of all three. But it is a blessed thing to see that the grace of God is such that He would have a Christian here in this world to be free of all; and his soul to be in the enjoyment of liberty from all that to which he is naturally in bondage. I will take up the three points in detail in connection with John 4, 5 and 6. I cannot speak beyond myself, for no man can help others beyond where he is himself; it is not God's way that he should, for it would not be honest, but I think I can give you the thought that comes out in those chapters as to the liberty that God would have the Christian to enjoy.
The first point is sin. In Romans 6 we get, "How shall we that have died to sin live any longer therein?" The question is raised immediately grace is known, "Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound?" Sin, I understand to be insubjection to God; it is will without goodness, for God alone is good. Man's will is sin, and "sin is lawlessness", that is, defiance of restraint, a man will do his own will; that is the principle of sin. It may come out in a variety of detail, but I only deal with the principle. Immediately a person comes into the light, to know the grace of God, and has received the Holy Ghost, the question comes up, "Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound?" Then in Romans 6 the apostle takes up the principle of deliverance from sin. The same thing is seen in principle in John 4, in which the woman of Samaria represents a soul under the power of sin. It has
been said that if we had had the writing of John 3 and 4, or the dealing with the persons spoken of, we should have reversed the teaching -- what the Lord said to the woman of Samaria we should have said to Nicodemus, and what the Lord said to Nicodemus we should have said to the woman of Samaria. There is no doubt truth in this, but it only shows how much greater God is than our thoughts. The Lord spoke to Nicodemus the very thing that Nicodemus needed, for I do not doubt there was a work of God in him which drew him by night to Christ; and describes, it may be, what had taken place in him. But in chapter 4 the Lord has before Him a woman under the control of sin (the same was true in a certain sense of Nicodemus, but not in the same manifest way); and He brings before her in the chapter that His grace would communicate to such a person as herself a gift that would be in her the power of complete deliverance from sin. "Whosoever drinketh of this water" -- that is, the springs and streams of earth, for I think the Lord spoke morally, and referred really to that which was connected with this world -- "shall thirst again, but whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst, but the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water, springing up unto eternal life" -- that is, springing up to emancipate the soul from the law of sin and death, which is so natural to it.
All the "water" of this world is sin; excitement, and that with which people seek to satisfy themselves in this world, is all sin; it is men doing their own will. A man thinks himself perfectly entitled to do his own will in this world, but it is "lawlessness"; man virtually makes a god of himself, he will not have the control of God, but says, I am entitled to take my own course. The pride of man practically says, and says continually, "There is no
one greater than myself, I do not want control, I want liberty for my own will, and I do not care to be thwarted or opposed". The woman of Samaria had done her own will, she had lived in sin, and the Lord reveals to her what it came to. "He that drinketh of this water shall thirst again", man is never content. Take a proud man, he is never satisfied, his pride is his bane, and it always exposes him to suffering, for he never can be certain that his pride will not be wounded; the pride of the greatest person in the country is liable to be wounded. Content does not belong to this world. Now the Lord adds, "The water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water, springing up unto eternal life". The great end to which it springs up is eternal life; but in the meantime its effect is that it delivers a man from the bondage of sin, "Ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free". Jesus says here, "Whosoever practises sin is the servant of sin", because a man's practice proves to what he is in bondage. If a man practises righteousness, it proves that he is the servant of righteousness. If a man practises sin, he is in bondage to the principle of sin. But the Spirit in the believer, which Christ gives, sets a man free from the law of sin and death. The first great thing which God would do for a believer, is to deliver his soul from bondage to sin. Not that I have not sin still in me, but I am no longer the servant of sin. I have sometimes contended against the idea of two natures in the Christian on the ground that I do not allow that one person can be characterised by two natures. A Christian is characterised by one nature, and an unbeliever is characterised by another nature; an unbeliever is characterised by sin, and a believer is characterised by righteousness. The thought of God in grace is to set man's soul free from the dominion of sin, and it is that which is effected by the
Spirit of life in the believer. How is it effected? I believe it is by the revelation to him of what is true in Christ; the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus introduces the soul of the believer into the presence of another scene where Christ is. "The law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus" refers evidently to life in another scene; Christ lives unto God, and the soul is attracted to Christ, is held, as it were, to Christ by the Spirit of Christ, and in that way the believer is emancipated by the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death.
John 4 is a great study. The Lord comes out in the chapter as the Christ; He came here to accomplish all God's will in suffering, and being raised again He communicates the Spirit. I think He anticipates in John 4 the gift which He would give, since He gives the Spirit because He has accomplished all the will of God down here; He has glorified God on the earth, and finished the work which the Father gave Him to do, and now He communicates the Spirit, to be in the believer a well of water, springing up unto eternal life. The first element of liberty for the Christian is, that down here in the world where once he was the complete slave of sin, like the woman of Samaria, his soul is set free from the dominion of sin; he no longer practises sin, although sin is in him, because he is no longer the servant of sin. He is here for the will of God; as the apostle says in Romans 12"I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service. And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect will of God". The Christian says, 'I have been long enough here for my own will, and to please myself; now I am going to be here for God's
will, that is God's pleasure'. The will of God is "good, and acceptable, and perfect" to the believer, as it was to Christ. The will of God has been set in presence here by Christ, and the believer says, That is what I am here for.
Now I come to the next point, and that is legality. I think many people are set free, in a way, from sin, who yet are not set free from legality. We think we are going to make ourselves acceptable to God; many a one is hampered and hindered in that way. I have had that kind of thought passing through my own mind that I was going to make myself in some way acceptable to God, that I was going to be something super-spiritual. Now I want to show you that the work is all on God's side; it is not for man to work. If you remember, in John 5 the Jews accused the Lord of breaking the sabbath. The answer of the Lord to them was, "My Father worketh hitherto, and I work". Legality is that man works. What the Lord reveals in the chapter is that God works, "My Father worketh hitherto, and I work". And to what end? To deliver man from the condition in which sin had placed him. What for? That he might pass out of death into life; that is where the Father reveals himself. When scripture says that "God is love", that is God's nature; but when it says, "My Father worketh hitherto", that is not simply that God is love, but that God is active in love. There is a deal of difference between God's nature and His activity. I quite admit that what God is goes forth in activity; but the moment that God is in activity then it is the Father, and that is what the Lord brings out in John 5, "My Father worketh hitherto, and I work".
Then He gives you the character of the work, "As the Father raises up the dead and quickens them". What does He do that for? His blessed name is revealed as Father in the sending of the
Son, and He raises up the dead and quickens, in order that those who are quickened may enter into relation with the Father, that they may not only know that God is love, but may know the activity of God in love -- that is what we as Christians have all tasted.
There is one verse in this chapter which is very often quoted; the Lord says, "He that heareth my word" -- what do you think that word was? It was His testimony revealing the Father. The next clause is, "and believeth on him that sent me"; the first thing is that you hear the word of the Son revealing the Father, and then you believe on Him that sent the Son. Then what follows is, "has eternal life, and shall not come into judgment", the Lord assures that, for all judgment is committed to Him, "but is passed out of death into life". How? In that the activity of the Father has been revealed to him, and now he stands in relation to the Father, he is brought into sonship; the Father raises up the dead and quickens, in order that the one who is quickened may know God, not simply in His nature, but relatively, because "Father" is a relative term, there is no meaning in the term "Father" except in connection with relation. The great truth in John 5 is the Father and the Son; the Father reveals Himself in the sending of the Son.
Now that is the end of legality, because what I apprehend is that it has been the Father's pleasure to reveal Himself to me actively in grace, to take me out of the condition in which I was, in order that I may enter into relationship with Himself, that I may know Him as Father, that I may know His love resting upon me as it rests upon His Son, as the Lord prays in the last verse of John 17, "that the love wherewith thou hast loved me may be in them, and I in them". Where this wonderful chapter, John 5, is entered into, it means complete
deliverance of mind and soul from legality. You will never get deliverance from legality until you know what it is to rest in the Father's love. The Father's love resting upon us as it rests upon Christ forbids the very idea of legality. I cannot improve myself for Him, and His great point is that I may be for His pleasure, He has made me for His pleasure, quickened me out of the state of death in which I was, that I may be for His pleasure. I fully believe the truth of what I say, that it is the knowledge of the Father in our souls as Christ has made Him known to us, God active in grace, which is the complete end of legality. It is not only that you have eternal life and will not come into judgment, but you know that the love of the Father rests upon you as it rests upon Christ. And what is the outcome of it? You love the brethren; that is what we read in the first Epistle of John, "We know that we have passed from death unto life, because we love the brethren". And why do we love the brethren? Because we know the love with which the Father loves us, "Behold what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called the children of God"; we know the Father's love, and we pass out of death into life in the knowledge of the Father's love; but "we know that we have passed out of death into life, because we love the brethren"; we come into the christian circle, and the christian circle is everything to us.
There is the third point, which I think you get in John 6, namely, deliverance from the world. I have tried to show you the secret of deliverance from sin and from legality; now I will try to show you the secret of deliverance from the world (John 6:53 - 58): "Then Jesus said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Except ye eat the flesh of the Son of man, and drink his blood, ye have no life in you. Whoso eateth my flesh, and drinketh
my blood, hath eternal life; and I will raise him up at the last day. For my flesh is meat indeed, and my blood is drink indeed. He that eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood, dwelleth in me, and I in him. As the living Father hath sent me, and I live by the Father: so he that eateth me, even he shall live by me. This is the bread which came down from heaven: not as your fathers did eat manna, and are dead: he that eateth of this bread shall live for ever".
There is one thing that must be true to all of us -- you must be in the communion of the death of Christ. You cannot shut your eyes to the great fact that Christ has died. You cannot allow that Christ has died to the world, and we are to live in the world; and therefore of necessity you must appropriate His death. If there had been anything here for God, Christ would not have died, and it was because in all that is here, "the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life", there is nothing for God, that Christ has died to it; and therefore you cannot live in it. You cannot righteously shut your eyes to the death of Christ. It is the great sin of Christendom that they ignore the death of Christ, that Christ has died to the whole course of things here. I quite admit that He died for us; but the great fact remains that He died to sin, He died to the whole course of things here, and it is not right on the part of the Christian to ignore the death of Christ. The Lord's table has this character, "The cup of blessing which we bless, is it not the communion of the blood of Christ? the bread which we break, is it not the communion of the body of Christ?" And you get the same in principle here -- you eat the flesh of the Son of man, and drink His blood, you are in the communion of His death. Christendom is all built up as though Christ were living in relation to the world, as if the present time
were a kind of millennium. And therefore I refuse the thought that the sects and systems in Christendom know anything about the Lord's table, they are not in the communion of the death of Christ. But the Christian who really knows what the death of Christ means, "Now is the judgment of this world" -- that the whole system is judged, that Christ has died to the whole course of things here, because there was nothing here for God -- is in communion with that death. But that is not in itself deliverance. This is realised in having an object outside of it. The Lord said, "As the living Father hath sent me, and I live because of the Father". When the Lord Jesus was down here upon earth as a Man, He wanted no object here, and He had none. I quite admit that the saints, the excellent of the earth, were His delight; but they were not His objects, He did not live because of the world. A man of the world lives because of the world, and if you shut such a man up out of the world, it is to him a living death. Man cannot live without an object, and man's object naturally is the world. Christ lived because of the Father, He was perfectly independent of every object here in the world, He found His entire portion in the Father: "I live because of the Father". Now mark the rest of the sentence, "So he that eateth me" -- appropriates Him as the necessity of our souls -- for that is what it is to eat Him, to appropriate Him, the One who came down from heaven, the blessed One who became incarnate, to come within the reach of our appropriation -- "He that eateth me, even he shall live because of me".
What a thing to be able to say, I am no longer dependent on the world for joy, and the sorrows of the world do not in a sense affect me, though I feel them; I am independent of the world, it does not minister to me, I do not live because of it,
but I eat Christ, the living bread which came down from heaven, and live because of Him. Just as He, a Man down here upon earth, lived because of the Father, so I live because of the living bread that came down from heaven to bring my soul into the knowledge of all the good of heaven.
I think these three chapters bring to us in a remarkable way the completeness of the liberty into which the believer is brought, not left down here in bondage, but brought now into the most blessed liberty; the power of the Spirit of life emancipating his soul from the control of sin; the revelation of the Father's name liberating him from legality; and his satisfying portion found in the living bread which came down from heaven. As the Lord says, "If the Son shall set you free, ye shall be free indeed". He gives you the knowledge of the Father, the privilege of the house, revealing the Father to you. But when you get into the house, and have got the liberty of the house, do you suppose you are going to lose sight of the Son? The Son is the living bread, and that is what you get in John 6. It could not be, if the Father has been made known to us and we have the consciousness of the Father's love, that we should lose sight of the Son. He is the light of our souls, and a portion to us, as bread is; He lives unto God and we live with Him; we are as independent, in that sense, of the world as Christ was when He was here, living because of the Father.
May God give to us to know something about the reality of these things, not only that He has come out as light to make Himself known to us according to the truth of His own blessed nature, but in the divine thought that in the very place where we have been under complete bondage we should be in complete liberty in the power of the Holy Ghost who dwells in us, liberty from sin, liberty from legality,
and liberty, too, from the world. If you study those chapters attentively, you will see how the whole thing is worked out, what wonderful chapters they are, and what liberty they reveal for the Christian to be brought into in the very place where he was once in bondage.
Philippians 2:1 - 16
I have stated on previous occasions my purpose in these addresses, namely, to bring under your attention the great characteristics of Christianity. I have tried to take them up in a sort of moral sequence, and have already spoken of light and liberty. If the state of the world and man is darkness, alienation from God, and ignorance, then the first thing that must come into the world is light from God, God must needs reveal Himself in some way suited to man's condition. But then, when God reveals Himself, there is this to be said, that man cannot go back to the knowledge of God which he had in the garden of Eden, that would not suit the case. What Adam might have known of God would not suit man now. He knew God as a beneficent Creator; but Adam was an innocent man, he had no knowledge of evil, and knew nothing about the grace or love of God; and the knowledge of God which was open to Adam would not suit man now as fallen and a sinner. For the fact that I have been in darkness and in ignorance of God, necessitates that if I am to be put in touch with God, I must know Him in the grace suited to my condition. The gospel is the glad tidings of the grace of God, God making Himself known in a way suited to man in the condition in which man is; God comes out in the light of what He is, in the light of His love. It is plain that the first principle and characteristic of Christianity must be light; "God, who commanded that out of darkness light should shine", the apostle says, "has shone into our hearts, for the shining forth of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ".
What I spoke of last time was liberty. And the
reason of that, too, is evident, for man is by nature in bondage to principles in this world which are contrary to God; and therefore, if he is to enter into blessing and into the enjoyment of God, of necessity he must be set free. The bondage in which man is held is dreadful: the Lord describes the condition of man, "Whosoever committeth sin is the servant of sin". Man, though he commits sin, thinks that his heart may be good. The Lord does not estimate it in that way at all. Again, man is under Satan's power, as the god of this world; and when he is awakened he comes under law, here again he is in bondage. And I repeat that, if man is to be in the enjoyment of God's revelation of Himself, and to enter into relationship with God, deliverance from this condition of bondage is indispensable. Not only does he need to know that in the grace of God he is justified, but he needs to be delivered from the terrible condition of bondage in which he is. You get a simple illustration of it in scripture in the case of the children of Israel. They could not worship God in Egypt. To worship God they must be brought out of Egyptian bondage, and come into the wilderness. The call of God to Pharaoh was to let the people of God go that they might offer Him sacrifices in the wilderness; while they were in the bondage of Egypt they were not in a condition to worship God; they were in a condition to groan, and they did groan by reason of their taskmasters. But when God had delivered them from bondage, then it was they could worship God.
So in the present day, to come into the enjoyment of the light of God you must get deliverance from sin, legality, and the world; and the way in which deliverance from these things is reached, I think you find, as I pointed out in my last address, in John 4, 5 and 6. We learn there how a believer is set free from bondage that he may enter into the blessed
revelation which God has been pleased to give of Himself, in other words that he may enter upon life -- that is the first great point in the gospel of John. It is not simply a question of entering upon the knowledge of forgiveness, and enjoying the grace of God in that sense. It is perfectly true that a Christian is entitled to enjoy the knowledge of forgiveness, but that is not the end of God's purpose concerning him. The purpose of God is that he may pass out of death into life, into what is for him wholly new, as stated in John 3. "God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have eternal life". The thought of God does not stop short of eternal life. It is a wonderful thing to come into life while down here.
I purpose tonight to speak a little about life as revealed in Christianity, what the divine idea of life is. I can understand, to a certain extent, what life will be with God's people in the millennium, since the whole condition of things here will be changed. When Christ comes in glory it must alter everything here; He will come first to execute judgment, to put down opposition and oppression; Satan will be bound, and the power of death set aside. And as regards the people of God, they come under the power and influence of the Spirit, and the law is, in a sense, their life, because it is written in their hearts; they do not get life by doing, they get life by Christ; but the condition of their life is this, that having deliverance and the enjoyment of temporal blessings, they love God with all their heart, and their neighbour as themselves. They will be relieved of the judgment of death, and will all know God as the God of grace, and will be thus brought into the blessings of the new covenant. That is what will be brought to them at the coming of the Lord. But that is not the character of things
in Christianity. I have already used one expression which at once marks the difference, we pass out of death into life: we not only have eternal life, and do not come into judgment, but are passed out of death into life; if I may use the expression, we come on to a completely new platform where we never were before. That is not exactly the case with Israel. They come into the promises given to the fathers, but they do not reach an entirely different platform from that on which they were before. But in Christianity you do; you pass out of death into life -- that is what I want now to make plain.
If you ask me what life is, I reply that, in my judgment, life is power to live. Life in a natural sense is the power to live as a distinct being. When I speak of it in a moral sense in the Christian, life is the power to live in the position in which it has pleased God in His grace to place me. That is the idea of it in scripture, it stands in that relation. Hence you must first accept in faith the position which it has pleased God to give you, and it is quite useless to talk about life until you know the position in which you are to live. God put man in a certain position according to His own pleasure at the beginning, He "breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and man became a living soul", and what for? To enjoy the position which God had designed for him. So, too, it is with the Christian. God in grace places the believer in a certain position before Himself, which is light to the soul, and life is the power to enjoy that position. I think that is perfectly simple. There may be a great deal which takes place in a man antecedent to that, the result of the work of God, but that is not the relation in which life stands in scripture. Life is dependent on the position. I will give you an illustration of it. In John 20 the first thing the Lord revealed was the
position. He said, "I ascend unto my Father, and your Father; and to my God, and your God". Then He breathes on the disciples, and says, "Receive ye the Holy Ghost"; that is, He communicated to them the power to form them to enjoy the position in which it had pleased Him in grace to place them. Every family in heaven and on earth is named of God, in relation to our Lord Jesus Christ; He gives place and position to every family. If it pleases Him to put us in the position of children, he gives us the power of life suited to it. And you must remember this -- the position is one in which man never was before. I could not say exactly the same thing of an earthly people, because I think they have previously had something of the same position. But in the case of a heavenly people, as the church, the position is a totally new one according to the will of God. God has been pleased to reveal His name in connection with the new calling, or, to put it in the language of Hebrews 2, God is bringing many sons unto glory. It is a fresh revelation of God's will, a totally new calling and position, outside a man's position here upon the earth as God's creature. I am left here for a short time, it may be, to fill out the remains of my life in flesh. But the calling of God is apart from that; this is according to God's eternal purpose; man never was in it before, it is that which God has been pleased to give to us in His grace.
Then comes in the question of life. But to enter into life we must be in the enjoyment of deliverance, because we who are to enter into this new position were naturally in complete bondage to what is contrary to God, to sin, the world, and Satan; and therefore we need to be delivered from the bondage in which we were held. Liberty is essential; as the Lord says, "Ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free".
In speaking of the liberty of the house, I must refer first to the new position in which the grace of God has placed us, and then speak of the power in the case of the Christian to enjoy that position. I would first notice two things in the passage I have read in Philippians. The first is in verse 12, you are to "work out your own salvation with fear and trembling". And then in verse 13, "It is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure"; that is, we are to be here, as I understand it, for God's good pleasure, He works in -us to that end. Then it goes on, "Do all things without murmurings and disputings: that ye may be blameless and harmless" -- now mark the position -- "the children of God" -- it is a totally new position -- "the children of God, without rebuke, in the midst of a crooked and perverse nation, among whom ye shine as lights in the world; holding forth the word of life" -- that is our testimony, it is the way in which we shine as lights in the world. But the first great point to seize hold of is the position, namely, "children of God" -- I have changed the word "sons" to "children", because "children" is the right word there. It is the verification of what is spoken of in John 5:25, you are "passed out of death into life", as we see in 1 John 3:14, "by this we know that we have passed from death into life, because we love the brethren"; "you work out your own salvation with fear and trembling". What I understand by this is the deliverance of the soul from the influence and power of all that is contrary to God, so that we may come out in the force of a new character; God works in us for His good pleasure, and we are here in a totally new position, the fulfilment of what we get in John 1, where, referring to the Lord Jesus, it says, "But as many as received him, to them gave he title to take the place of the children of God", to take a
completely new place in which they never were before.
Now I want to say one word as to the way in which it is reached in the soul. The first part of the chapter refers to the Lord personally, and you find there the path by which Christ has reached His present position in glory. It was through obedience unto death; He "became obedient unto death", in order that He might enter upon life according to the purpose of God in man. He was in life here: "in him was life": I do not speak of that at this moment, but of Him as He was down here, in the place of humiliation. This was not the setting forth of man according to the purpose of God; although it was man perfectly for God's glory in the place He was in, it was not man according to His purpose. As has often been said, in humiliation Christ came into the place of the responsible man that He might glorify God there, but then through death He enters upon an entirely new order of things; "He asked life" -- you get that expression in Psalm 20 -- and it was given to Him, "even length of days for ever and ever". His glory is great in God's salvation. That is what comes out here. Obedience unto death was the way for Him to enter into life, as man, according to the glorious purpose of God.
Now see how it comes out: "Being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, and became obedient unto death". If He had not been in life He could not have become obedient unto death, that is plain enough. He takes death in obedience, He becomes "obedient unto death, even the death of the cross; wherefore God also hath highly exalted him, and given Him a name which is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth, and that every
tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father". He enters by resurrection into the place of glory which God had purposed for man, and "God hath highly exalted him", set Him far above all heavens that He might fill all things; it is obedience unto death leading into the scene of life according to the glory of God.
When we come to the following verse, we have the same principle coming out in the Christian. It says, "Wherefore, my beloved, as ye have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure". I will tell you how you "work out your own salvation with fear and trembling", as I understand it. I think it is in the acceptance of death, that is, that in Christ God has in grace brought death in upon the man that offended, and reconciliation to God is in the acceptance of that great truth. We must not revive the offender, and I think it is in that way we work out our own salvation with fear and trembling; the offender has to be kept practically in the place of death, because God has, by the work of the cross, condemned the offender in the One who stood in his place. You know who the offender was; I scarcely need to tell you that it was the man to whom God entrusted much, and who lost everything entrusted to him. But I say that in the cross of Christ the offender has been removed for the glory of God. Now you have to accept that; you have to accept what has often been spoken of, the end in death of the first man. If you mean to work out your salvation with fear and trembling, you have got to take good care that under no pretext whatever is the offender to be revived; because as sure as possible, if he revive, he will bring you into bondage. People do revive the offender under various pretexts,
and a very common one is prudence; they allow themselves to be influenced by the ways of the world, what the world would call prudence, but which is very near akin to covetousness. The flesh is always ready to bring us into bondage, if it be allowed, under all sorts of pleas and pretexts. But we have to walk in the truth that God has removed the offender to His own glory, that we might be a new creation in Christ; in other words, in order that He might introduce the new man.
Now in the application to us of the truth, the flesh has been condemned that we might live in the Spirit in connection with the new position in which it has pleased God to place us through redemption. It is the grace of God which has given us this position; the place of children is ours by Christ's gift and the Father's love, and that is the place we have before God. Now the point is this, the offender can only hinder you there; nothing will serve you but the Spirit of God; you could not possibly be in that relationship to God except as supported by the Spirit of God. Israel will not have the Spirit in that way. They will have the Spirit upon them, but they do not enter into our relationship with God. They are God's people here upon the earth, but they do not become a heavenly people, the children of God in that sense. If the grace of God puts us in that place, then nothing will support us there except the Spirit of God; "the Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are the children of God".
I have spoken thus far of the position and the power by which you can be in that position. Now I want to refer to the office of the Spirit in the believer, to the Spirit as life in the believer. Scripture says, "If Christ be in you, the body is dead because of sin, but the Spirit is life because of righteousness". Life in the believer means that Christ lives in him. The apostle says, "I through law have died to law
to live to God", "I am crucified with Christ; nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me". Allow me to say to every Christian here tonight, You live to God exactly in the measure in which Christ lives in you, for that is the only thing which God recognises now as life in the believer, Christ in the Spirit. The apostle says in the passage I quoted, "The Spirit is life because of righteousness". I understand by this that the believer's soul is now completely identified with the Spirit, and the Spirit with the believer; it does not say the Spirit is the power of life, for that would not be identification, and the identification is complete between the believer and the Spirit. You get the Spirit as the Spirit of sonship, but it does not speak of the Spirit as the Spirit of life in the believer. It speaks of the Spirit as "the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus", but that is I judge, an objective thought; but when the subjective side is spoken of, that is, as to what is in the believer, "the Spirit is life". As the apostle says to the Galatians, "if we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit". I urge this point, while I fully maintain the personality of the Spirit, but the Spirit is life in the believer. And the reason is "because of righteousness". As I understand it, the first principle of righteousness is this -- you do not allow sin. "The body is dead because of sin", it is held there because of sin, "but the Spirit is life because of righteousness". Properly speaking, there is no room for the flesh where the Spirit is; you have no title to revive the offender; that is the idea. But "the flesh lusts against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh, and these are contrary the one to the other, so that you should not do the things to which you are inclined". The Spirit sets Himself against the flesh, so that the flesh should receive no quarter in the Christian, you are not to tamper with it, nor allow it in any
form or shape. It is a terrible thing on the field of battle where no quarter is given or asked, but that is the case between the flesh and the Spirit. The refusal of the flesh is the very first principle of righteousness. How could it be righteous for the Christian to save what God has condemned? Yet how often we do it! how often we give licence to the flesh! It cannot be urged too strongly that in reconciliation God has removed the offender for His own glory. We ought to be very much ashamed indeed where any quarter is given to the flesh -- it is not righteousness.
Now I come to another principle in righteousness, which is the recognition of obligation. You would not think of a man in the world as a righteous man if he did not recognise obligation. If I failed to recognise the obligation under which I am placed in regard to my wife and children, I should not be a righteous man. In common things in everyday life, if a man does not recognise his obligation to his fellow men he cannot be regarded as righteous. Righteousness under the law was this, "Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy strength, and with all thy mind, and thy neighbour as thyself". It was the recognition of obligation (which righteousness always is) to God and to a neighbour. Now how is righteousness carried out in the Christian? Simply in the Spirit. The Spirit brings the soul of the believer under the influence of the love of God: "The love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given to us", and in that way the Spirit maintains the believer in the sense of obligation. Every Christian is under the deepest obligation to God; and it is of the Spirit to keep your soul in the recognition of that obligation. It is a cardinal principle of righteousness in the Christian; and righteous conduct in the Christian is this, that I act
toward others as I have been acted to; what God is toward me I am to be toward others, I am to love as God has loved me. And even in regard to God Himself, "We love him because he first loved us". It is not the obligation to abstain from what a man as fallen is prone to, as was the case under the law. The Christian is taught by the Spirit the love of God, and every obligation of the Christian flows from the love of God towards him. You will not get on much farther if you are not there. We can make no headway except in proportion as our hearts are kept under the influence of God's love, the blessed spring of everything in Christianity. Therefore, when you come to what is practical in Romans 12 the first thing is love, "Let love be unfeigned; abhorring that which is evil, cleaving to that which is good". It is the essence, the very first principle of practical Christianity, that the soul is under the influence of the love of God. By the Spirit I recognise the obligation under which the love of God has placed me, and in that sense the Christian is righteous even as Christ is righteous. If I might speak with reverence of the Lord Jesus as a Man down here, law was not the measure of His walk. He was, as a Man down here, the perfect object of the love of God, and in this was the spring of His conduct as man. The Lord says, "As the living Father hath sent me, and I live because of the Father". He lived because of the Father. And so, in John 17, He prays, as to His disciples, "That the love wherewith thou hast loved me may be in them, and I in them". He says, "I have kept my Father's commandments, and continue in his love". The love of the Father to Him was the mainspring of all He was as a Man down here.
Now I come to another point, that is, by the Spirit we cry, "Abba, Father", that not only is the Spirit life because of righteousness, but it is by
the Spirit, and by the Spirit only, that we enter upon and live in the relationship in which it has pleased God to place us. Christ was the first to say "Abba, Father"; and there is not a soul here tonight which can cry "Abba, Father" except in the power of the Spirit of Christ, the Spirit of sonship. It has been very often said that the sure sign of a person having received the Spirit is that he cries, "Abba, Father"; because no one can cry, "Abba, Father" without the Spirit. "Because ye are sons, God hath sent forth the Spirit of his Son into your hearts, crying, Abba, Father"; that is, the believer has now passed out of death into life, he has come on to a completely new platform, into a new place which the grace of God has given him according to eternal counsels. I was dwelling on the fact last time in connection with John 5 that you get the Father's name revealed as a name of relationship to the believer, so that the Lord could say in John 20, "I ascend unto my Father and your Father, and to my God and your God".
I think you will see that the question of righteousness is a first principle with the Christian, because we have been under the power of sin, and it is righteousness that the offender should not be revived, and that we recognise the obligation under which we have been placed by the love of God. We cannot go on a bit without righteousness, and righteousness is the recognition of obligation. It must be so with the Christian; it is different, of course, with God; everything is different with God. He acts in the sovereignty of love. But with the Christian the love of God is the mainspring of conduct. He can do nothing right apart from it; he cannot originate love, no creature can; but he loves exactly in proportion as he knows that he is loved; that is righteousness, and characterises his condition, for "the Spirit is life because of righteousness"
Then equally, the Spirit is the Spirit of sonship. Here in Philippians you are to "work out your own salvation with fear and trembling", which is, as I have said, the acceptance of death in obedience; you become identified with Christ's death by which you are reconciled to God. Scripture lays stress upon that; "you now hath he reconciled in the body of his flesh through death". But what comes out next? "It is God that works in you to will and to do of his good pleasure". Now you come on to a new platform, children of God "in the midst of a crooked and perverse nation", they do not understand you at all. None the less you are "children of God, in the midst of a crooked and perverse nation, among whom you shine as lights in the world, holding forth the word of life"; you are out of the wreck and ruin around, you are really out of death and have entered upon the platform of life, and you hold forth the word of life; it is the blessed collective testimony of Christians. "By this we know that we have passed out of death into life because we love the brethren" -- there is the testimony of life in the christian circle.
May God give us to understand it. I do not see any difficulty about it; but where I do see practical difficulty is in the soul entering into the deliverance that is there for it. It is the acceptance of death upon the offender which is the practical difficulty. If you get over that difficulty, the rest is plain sailing, for the simple reason that the Spirit is life, and the Spirit too, as the Spirit of sonship, bears witness with our spirit that we are the children of God. May He give to us to see the great truth that life is revealed, and that we pass out of death into life, that there is a new platform on which we can stand; though we still have to remain here in the world, and "live in flesh", as the scripture puts it, "by the faith of the Son of God" -- though that is not our
life to God, for there Christ lives in us. It is a wonderful thing to be down here in this world in the knowledge of the Father's name revealed to us as a name of relationship, so that we can stand in peace in the Father's presence, knowing that we are the objects of His love, and supported in it by the Spirit of God. May He give us understanding and lead us on by the steps which I have tried to place before you. First the light of the gospel, God revealing Himself there; then the liberty which properly belongs to the Christian from sin, legality, and the world; and then the privilege of being children of God, in which we are maintained by the power of God in us, though still living here in flesh.
Romans 12:1 - 8
I have endeavoured to keep before me the thought that I had from the outset in connection with these opportunities of addressing you. My object was to present the great moral features of Christianity. I have taken them up successively, and come tonight to the close, namely, the subject of testimony in unity. I will, in a few words, go over the ground again for the sake of maintaining the connection, for the more you study scripture, the more you will find how every one truth involves another truth. Truths are not all so many distinct items. There are different truths, and in ministry we may take them up as distinct truths; but you will find that every truth is interwoven with other truths, and that every successive truth you take up involves other truths. In other words, the greatest item of truth which you can take up depends upon some previous truth. I am perfectly satisfied that that is the character of what is presented to us in the New Testament. It was the same in measure in the Old Testament. We are told that no prophecy carries its own interpretation; every book of prophecy is interwoven in the general scheme and framework of prophecy, and you cannot rightly understand any particular prophecy apart from apprehending the place which it has in the whole scheme of prophecy. There is a foundation to all truths, and I judge the gospel to be that foundation; but after that, every truth hangs on some preceding truth.
The subjects which we had before us on previous occasions were light, liberty, and life; and now I want to speak, as I have said, if God enable me, of testimony in unity, involving a great truth which has
had much prominence amongst us, the truth of the one body; that is, I want to bring it before you in its moral aspect as testimony. Most of you will remember the prayer of the Lord Jesus in John 17, "That they all may be one, as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be one in us" -- what for? -- "that the world may believe that thou hast sent me". The unity of saints was to be the testimony to the world that the Father sent the Son. You will see, therefore, the intimate connection between unity and testimony. One point more which I will just refer to for a moment, and speak of later on, is this -- one great truth which is insisted on through many of the epistles is that of the one body; but the one body does not present the idea of union, it presents to us the thought of unity: that is, that where there had been two bodies, Jew and Gentile, now there is one body. Just as you get here, "We being many are one body in Christ, and every one members one of another". That is my subject tonight -- unity, and in connection with unity, testimony. It is a very interesting subject, because, as I said just now, there is no truth which has been more operative amongst us than the truth of the one body. It has brought most of us out of the different associations in which we once were; we felt that the different things in which we had been brought up were inconsistent with unity. I shall also, by the grace of God, try to show you that if we fail to answer morally to the mind of God in the one body, we become the worst sect that ever was formed. That is a strong statement, but I have not a doubt about the truth of it.
Now I will just retrace a little what has been before us, and you will, I think, see how one truth, leads up to another. The first great truth is the gospel, and the gospel is light, because in it God is revealed, the revelation of God is light. I do not
speak now about the effect of light, which is to make manifest, although it is light which does make manifest. To get things made manifest, you must first have the light. Therefore the point is, What is light? and light is the revelation of God in the gospel -- in other words, in the gospel God has been pleased to reveal Himself. It is the glory of God in that sense that He has seen fit to reveal Himself, the great object of it being that He may be known according to what He is, that is, love, in the heart of man.
The next characteristic I spoke of was liberty. I took it up in connection with John 4, 5, 6; and sought to show that the great point in chapter 4 is liberty from sin by the Holy Ghost in the believer; in chapter 5, it is deliverance from legality by the revelation of the Father; and in chapter 6 it is deliverance from the world by finding a portion in the Son, as living bread come down from heaven.
My next point was life, which follows on liberty; and what I sought to bring out last week was the new position, and the power to live in that position. Christ having accomplished redemption has put us in an entirely new place before God, "To as many as received him, to them gave he title to take the place of children of God". The power has come in by which we can live in that place -- that is the meaning of John 20. The Lord first says, "Go, tell my brethren, I ascend unto my Father and your Father", and then afterwards He breathes on them, and says, "Receive ye the Holy Ghost". I touch on these things because life is essential for the Christian in relation to the new position which Christ has given us the title to take according to the will of the Father. Therefore when it speaks of the place of children in John's epistle, it says, "Behold what manner of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called the children of God". It is the
Father's gift; Christ gives us title to take that place, and the Spirit bears witness with our spirit that we are the children of God; you have come into life. But it is life in relation to a position which you never previously occupied before God, a totally new position which never previously belonged to man, which no one ever had till Christ gave it to him according to the Father's will.
Now I come to another point tonight, and that is the one body, which connects itself very intimately with what I have just been saying. You have to remember that the full height of the thought of God concerning believers is that they should be brought into sonship; in other words, that they should be brought to perfection, to glory, to be fitting companions of Christ. That is not precisely the same thought as that of children, because children is the position which we occupy down here; sonship is identification with Christ in glory, He is "the firstborn among many brethren". I quite admit that there may be but a shade of difference between the idea of children and that of sons; but there is that shade of difference, although the connection between the two things is very intimate. The full height of the divine counsel in regard to believers is that they should occupy the place of sons: "He has chosen us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love, having predestinated us to sonship through Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the good pleasure of his will"; we are predestinated "to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren". So, too, the same thought is revealed in Hebrews 2, that God is "bringing many sons unto glory". Now I say the truth of the one body hangs on that, and that is what I want to bring before you tonight, by the grace of God. The connection may not be
clearly seen, but I am perfectly assured of its truth. What has rather led me to see it is this -- that the truth of one body is introduced in Romans 12, and yet in the previous part of Romans then is no allusion in terms to it that I am aware of. Everything in the first eight chapters of Romans, which is the doctrinal part of the epistle, is in its immediate application individual, and yet one body appears in chapter 12. I argue from this that there must be a sufficient foundation of doctrine in the first eight chapters for the body, else it would hardly be possible for it to be referred to in connection with practice in chapter 12. And as we shall see presently, the body is the thought of God in regard to believers here at this moment. It is not that I get any instruction in Romans as to what the thought of God is in the body; but I get the recognition that believers are one body in Christ, and therefore I look to find in the previous part of the epistle a sufficient basis of doctrine for the body.
I will just refer for a moment to the truth of sonship. It is a curious thing that in scripture sonship is not presented exactly in connection with eternal life viewed as a present blessing; what comes in in that connection is the place of children. Sonship comes in much more in Paul's doctrine, in connection with the truth of the one body. The way in which we are brought into sonship is faith, "Ye are all the sons of God by faith in Christ Jesus". The effect of faith is always to bring light into the soul; and thus when the truth of God's Son is apprehended, light has come into the soul as to God's thought in man: you have thus the light of it. What makes sonship effective to us is the Spirit of sonship. As scripture puts it, "Because ye are sons, God hath sent forth the Spirit of His Son into your hearts, crying, Abba, Father". That is how you get into the good of it. It means in a moral
sense that the heart is by the Spirit of God in the enjoyment of God's love, and not only in the enjoyment of God's love, but able to respond to it in the cry, "Abba, Father". It is the Spirit of God's Son in the believer's heart which cries, Abba, Father. The Spirit makes us conscious thus, that the grace of God has associated us with Christ in glory; God has "predestinated us to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren", and before I get to glory, I am enabled, by the Spirit of sonship to cry, "Abba, Father". In that sense, the Spirit discharges two functions in the heart of the believer; He sheds abroad the love of God in the heart, and on the other side He enables the believer to cry, "Abba, Father", because He is the Spirit of God's Son in our hearts.
Now there is only one Spirit of sonship, just as God's Son is one. I think no one will have the least difficulty in either the one or the other of those statements. The apostle, in Galatians I says, "When it pleased God, who separated me from my mother's womb, and called me by his grace, to reveal his Son in me" -- God's Son is one. And what follows on that is equally true, the Spirit of God's Son is one, there is but one Spirit. Now every believer participates in the Spirit of God's Son, it is only one Spirit in all believers, no one here has a different Spirit from another; we all partake of one Spirit, and that Spirit is the Spirit of God's Son; it is not our spirit, "the Spirit bears witness with our spirit", -- that is another matter. It is the Spirit of God's Son who cries, "Abba, Father", in the heart of the believer. This is a very important point, for the truth of the one body really hangs on it. "By one Spirit are we all baptised into one body ... and have been all made to drink into one Spirit". It is one body down here, composed of
all those "many sons" whom God is bringing to glory, those who believe in God's Son, and who have received the Spirit of sonship. By receiving the Spirit believers are constituted one body, as the apostle puts it here, "one body in Christ". And that is what makes me say that while you have not revealed in Romans the doctrine of the one body, you have the basis of it, for in chapter 8 the thought of the Spirit of sonship is introduced; as the apostle says there, "Ye have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear, but ye have received the spirit of sonship, whereby we cry, Abba, Father". I quite admit we are all individually sons of God, by faith in Christ Jesus; but when I come to the Spirit of sonship, by which we cry, "Abba, Father", what I maintain is that it is the Spirit of God's Son, and by receiving the Spirit of sonship, we are bound of necessity into one body: it is a heavenly band in Christ, united together in one Spirit, so that we constitute one body. That is what I believe to be the basis of the truth of the one body, and the apostle comes to it here, he says, "We being many are one body in Christ, and members one of another".
I desire now to say a word about unity in connection with the body. I need not go over the passages, but a great many scriptures will, I think, occur to everybody here. You will find the truth of unity is commonly pressed in scripture in connection with the body. For instance, in this passage in Romans 12, "As the body is one". You get the same thing in Corinthians, "By one Spirit are we all baptised into one body". The same truth is taught in Ephesians, "There is one body and one Spirit, even as ye are called in one hope of your calling" -- that is unity. So also in the early part of Ephesians, "That he might reconcile both unto God in one body". So, too, in Colossians, "Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which also ye
are called in one body". One body is pressed as a great cardinal truth of Christianity, in the sense that in a place where there had been two, Jew and Gentile, now there was one body in Christ. It is "the mystery", something which cannot be manifest in the public ways of God, but which is made known to faith. In the public ways of God Jew and Gentile cannot be one. How then are they one? What I have brought before you solves the mystery -- by receiving the Spirit believers are constituted one body in Christ and members one of another, and thus the obligation to unity is enforced. When Christ comes, Jew and Gentile will not form one body. Both the Jew and the Gentile will be blessed, but the position of the Gentiles will be rather to eat of the crumbs that fall from the Master's table; they will be blessed subordinately to Israel. Christ will take the place of the Head and Husband of His people, but He will take the place, too, of the Head of the Gentiles. Most of you will remember the very beautiful expressions of Simeon when he took the Child Jesus up in his arms; he said, "Lord, now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace, according to thy word: for mine eyes have seen thy salvation, which thou hast prepared before the face of all people; a light for the revelation of the Gentiles, and the glory of thy people Israel". That is the position in which Christ properly stands relatively to Gentile and to Jew. But in Christianity, while Christ is hid from Israel, He is made known to faith as Son of God; He is hid, but the Spirit of sonship is given, and the many sons whom God is bringing to glory are constituted one body, because they have received one Spirit. Thus the principle of unity is enforced by the body. Where the thought of union comes in, it is in connection with the place of the church as the bride. What I understand to be taught by union is, that the bride
shares the honours of the bridegroom, that all that is given to the bridegroom is shared by the bride. And that is what the church comes into; the exaltation and honour that belong to Christ as Man are shared by the bride. He is raised up and exalted, and so, too, the church is quickened together with Him, and raised up and made to sit in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus. That is not quite the idea of the body: it is the saints being in Christ there, sharing His honour and exaltation -- that is, union. Unity comes out in connection with the body, and the body in scripture is commonly spoken of as here, though I do not doubt that the body has its place in the glory, as "the fulness of him that filleth all in all".
Now I come to the testimony. I think everybody will accept the great truth that the body is one; but when I come to the testimony, that leads me to another thought, which is this -- the one body is a practical truth, not a mystical idea. The generality of Christians in sects and systems would admit the existence of the church as one body, but they take it up as a mystical idea, not a practical one. With the exception of the Church of Rome, which in a certain sense does hold to the truth of one body, to the Christians in sects and systems the one body is not a practical truth. They justify the existence of different bodies, and hold that there may be Christians in all of them, as doubtless there are. But that is not the truth of the one body in scripture; one body in scripture is a practical truth, "By one Spirit are we all baptised into one body". The unity of saints was the testimony to the world that the Father sent the Son. How could you, apart from one body, get the fulfilment of what the Lord prays for in John 17, "That they all may be one; as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be one in us: that the world mayTHE WORLD TESTED BY THE LIGHT
ONE FLOCK, ONE SHEPHERD
THE LORD THE GATHERING POINT FOR ALL
FELLOWSHIP, PRIVILEGE, AND TESTIMONY
"In him we stand, a heavenly band,
Where He Himself is gone". (Hymn 12)CHRISTIANITY IN ITS MORAL CHARACTERISTICS
LIGHT
LIBERTY
LIFE
TESTIMONY IN UNITY