Deuteronomy 13; Deuteronomy 11:1 - 17
There are two subjects in these two chapters: one is the contrast between the wilderness and Canaan; the other, the contrast between Egypt and Canaan; they are very distinct contrasts, and the teaching of the two scriptures is, how we are to retain what we reach. Many reach who cannot retain, because retaining a thing requires a continuance of the power by which we reached it. Many a person in natural things can reach a height he cannot maintain. A great effort, a fortunate act, may reach a great eminence, but the question is whether you can retain it.
We all admit the fact that God has a place for us hereafter, but Canaan is not a future place; it is heaven on earth at the present time. We belong to another place altogether; we are on earth in a place that we do not belong to. I belong to heaven, but I am on earth, and that is Canaan. I am out of Egypt, and I have to learn the wilderness, and the man who is mostly in Canaan is the man who best understands what it is to be in the wilderness, for the higher you go the better you understand what it is to be dependent.
In the history of Israel they needed the wilderness to get into Canaan, and then they left it. It is not so with us; you often get contrasts in this way in scripture. It is not that we leave the wilderness for Canaan, but that we are in the wilderness as belonging to Canaan. A person may say, You are not in heaven; and I answer, That is true, but I am united to One who is and I am nearer to that One than to any other. I am on the earth, but I am united to One who is in heaven; and the more I know that, the more I am in Canaan. Besides this, I get no support
whatever from this earth that I am on; so it is the wilderness to me. And the more you advance in the knowledge that you are a heavenly man the more novel, the more distressing, the more severe, the more extraordinary, the more unaccountable, will be the trials that you are subjected to in order that you may be dependent, lest being puffed up you should lose your high position through independence or wilfulness.
There are many people who are converted who are not sure that they are saved; and there are many who are saved who do not know that they are heavenly. But all these stand or fall together. As we read, "The land which the Lord thy God giveth thee for an inheritance" (Deuteronomy 15:4); it is a gift. I am as much a heavenly man as a saved man. I may be a very useless British subject, but I am one all the same. It is a great thing to get hold of the calling: "Walk worthy of the calling wherewith ye have been called", (Ephesians 4:1). I lay it down as a settled thing for your soul, that you must say, I am as much a heavenly man as I am a saved man. He has already united me to Himself there, and, when He comes, it is that He may take me to the place where He is. I have not got to heaven yet, but I belong to the One who is there.
Man naturally never rises to this even when he is converted. Take, for example, the thief on the cross. He says, "Lord, remember me when thou comest into thy kingdom" (Luke 23:42). No, says the Lord; today in paradise. He was to have, not the kingdom, but heaven. Take another case, that of Stephen. He looked up and saw "Jesus standing on the right hand of God", and he turns to his murderers and says. You are going to send me out of this place, but it is only to send me to heaven. Take a still further case in Paul. He says, "I knew a man in Christ ... see footnote (whether in the body, I cannot tell; or whether out
of the body, I cannot tell;)" (2 Corinthians 12:2) I have lost all sense of things here. Every person does not get so high as Paul did, but every one is entitled to be where Stephen was.
It is a great thing to be able to walk about and say, I do not belong to this place at all; It is nothing but wickedness. Take an amiable man in nature. As he suffers in seeing all the disorder, misrule, cruelty, that is around him, what a relief to him to be able to say. My citizenship is not here; I am not responsible for it. My citizenship is in heaven. I say it is an immense thing. God says to me it is not my place. When He began with Abram, He called him out and said. This is not to be your country; come out of it to a land that I will show you. And so now God says, I do not give My people a place where My Son is rejected, but a place where He is received. I am a heavenly man, not by attainment, but by the gift of God. I am as much a heavenly man as I am a British subject, whether I am acting well or not.
Some seek to escape the edge of this truth by refusing to be called heavenly; but you are a heavenly man by calling. Heaven is your place: it is the first thing that is brought before you as a saved person.
I turn to these two scriptures to show that no height to which grace elevates us at the present moment ever takes us out of dependence here. Nay, if we lose dependence, as some have done, we bring reproach on the truth we are brought into. What keeps us in the high position is dependence. A man who learns obedience without dependence is legal. What was the great lesson of the wilderness? Not simply to "humble thee", but to "make thee know that man doth not live by bread only, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of the Lord doth man live" (Deuteronomy 8:3). That is, that you are to be dependent on the Word of God; and then you are obedient.
Obedience when you are looking for a rule is legal. Dependence is what I learn in the wilderness, and obedience is what keeps me in Canaan: but it is obedience as the consequence of being a dependent man.
Look at the Lord: the most heavenly Man; "the Son of man who is in heaven". And what is He down here? The most obedient One. He says, I have not got a word from God, so I cannot turn the stone into bread. I have learned to be a dependent Man, and because I am a dependent Man therefore I am an obedient Man. I live "by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God". That is the place of a heavenly man upon earth.
It is then in proportion as you enjoy the land that there will be trials in the wilderness. So much so, that even Peter, who does not get out of the wilderness at all, says: "Beloved, think it not strange concerning the fiery trial which is to try you, as though some strange thing happened unto you" (1 Peter 4:12). I am passing through the wilderness; and the only thing I have to keep my eye on here, as Peter says, is the enemy of God. Peter, as we have seen, never puts you out of the wilderness. John is the first who puts you out of it; and he does not put you in heaven -- only gives you a heavenly life on earth. "Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour". (1 Peter 5:8) I have different enemies - three great ones, at any rate. There is Pharaoh; that is the clutch, the grasp, of the world. There is Amalek; that is the power of Satan to hinder. And there is Balaam; that is the snare of socialism. And these you do not, get in Canaan at all.
The warning of these two chapters in Deuteronomy is, that, if you do not obey, you will lose all. He shows you all the abundance of things, the contrast that there is between Canaan and Egypt; but
will all this go on? Are you sure of it? Not if you are not obedient. If you are not happy there, you are worse off than in Egypt. There was water there, any how when you worked for it with your foot; but here there is none unless it come down from heaven. We get on to heavenly ground, and we rejoice in the fact; but we keep it only by obedience. All we have in the wilderness is the terrific opposition of the enemy of God. We are attacked by the way; but we do not become aggressors ourselves until we get into the land. And what is the result of aggression? It is getting place for Christ. Those who fought the holy wars were seeking material space for Christ; they had not intelligence as to His mind. What we want is to get moral space for Christ.
In 2 Corinthians 12, we get the brightest example of the heavenly man. A man caught up into Paradise, who heard unspeakable words which it was not possible for a man to utter. He was caught up into the place without going there bodily. He is sensibly in the enjoyment of it; so sensibly that, for the moment, he has lost his link with the earth. I do not say that souls do not get a taste of it now-a-days; but, as they do, they get a deeper sense of the wilderness. Paul did: "there was given me a thorn in the flesh, the messenger of Satan to buffet me". For this he cried to the Lord three times; and He said: "My grace is sufficient for thee; for my strength is made perfect in weakness" (2 Corinthians 12:7 - 9). I gave it you lest you should be puffed up-lest you should get out of the place of dependence. And then see how Paul comes round, how beautifully he accepts it; he says: "Therefore I take pleasure in infirmities". Whilst not out of the wilderness, I have entered on the enjoyment of heaven, and I can go back to it; but I am made sensible that I am to be more of a dependent man that I ever was before. What tried Paul. was, that he lost the ability to expound this very thing
that he had received. Never mind, through the grace of Christ 'he will be a better wilderness man'.
There is not time to go into chapter 11, but it opens with showing at what an immense cost they were brought into the land. I believe the great hindrance to every soul getting on is, not that it does 'not know the glory' - every soul has that - but that it does not know the cross. The cross has taken everything away, and left only Christ. It is not the glory that takes things away. Paul says: "God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world is crucified unto me, and I unto the world" (Galatians 6:14). It is the cross that takes all away. Paul is a bright specimen of a heavenly man.
Now I will show you one who lost the heavenly thing, as many do, by not being dependent. In Genesis 33. Jacob has come back to the land. There have been real power and grace shown in restoring him; but like many a one he thinks to rest in what he has attained. He builds a house, buys a field, and erects an altar, calling it El-Elohe-Israel. He does not give up truth, but he makes truth the thing that is before him, instead of God, who has brought him to Himself. He ought to have gone to Bethel. When at last he does get there, he finds quite another order of things. At Shechem he is a heavenly man; but he wants to rest in things here, and not to be dependent.
What is the consequence? He is brought into the most humiliating state. He says: "I shall be destroyed, I and my house" (Genesis 34:30). He has to be subjected to all this in order to make him true to his calling.
The Lord make us see what a wonderful place we are called to. I do not believe a soul ever has really known the presence of Christ if it have not at some time or other, known what it is to have everything lost to it for the moment. But, when after such a moment, you return to this scene, do not be surprised if some new form of trial come upon you,
because you cannot be let rest in the happiness you have reached, instead of in the grace that brought you into it. Many a one can trace failure and defeat to the moment that followed some happy time. God grant that we may seek to enjoy His Son in the unclouded light of His presence. When I come down from it, I am all the more prepared to meet the contrariety, the opposition to God, of the scene in which I am. Thus, while I delight in the One I have learned to know up there, I possess the sweetest thing the heart can know - dependence on God. Down here I have the most consolatory sense that I am dependent upon the One I am delighting in, and so am competent to come down and take my place for Christ, to seek space for Him in this world, whilst I myself do not seek to be sustained by anything in it but by Him who is my life.
It is a great thing to know why a book was written; to be able to see why God sets forth His mind in the way He does in it. So it is well to read a book through before forming a judgement on it; for, from an isolated passage, it is impossible to get at the bearing of it. You may for instance read: "Woe unto them that rise up early", and stop there. The context is therefore the best explanation to what it is in connection with.
The book of Hebrews was written to Jewish converts, to show them how superior Christianity is to Judaism, though Judaism in itself was a good thing - was of God. None of us ought to have needed Hebrews, but, as Christianity has dropped down into Judaism, it is necessary for us to read it; we may be very like the Jews, but we have no right to be. How far above and superior to anything that ever was before it, is the Christian position!
"God, who at sundry times and in divers manners spake in time past unto the fathers by the prophets, hath in these last days spoken unto us by his Son". That is not true of us, but it was of the Jewish converts. "Whom he hath appointed heir of all things, by whom also he made the worlds" (Hebrews 1:1 - 2). This is a matter of faith; we believe that He did so.
Verses 3, 4. He has gone up to the throne. Verses 5, 6. He took the place of a creature, but far above all creature intelligences. Verses 7, 8. It is very interesting, as some one has remarked, that there is no revelation in Hebrews, such as you get in Ephesians
for instance; it is all explanation of scriptures which the Jews already had. Verse 9. He is put in company with others - "fellows". This is the great secret of the book.
I may say that Hebrews is a child's book; it is addressed to a child - to babes. It is a book in which the believer is looked at in his lowest position. There is no union, no being in heaven, though there is going on to heaven; so it is a very simple book. In one sense we are all little children, because we know so little; but it is the simplest book we can take up. It takes the bright side of things here; Peter takes the dark one. He says there are desperate things out there; be sober, be vigilant. And we must have the two; if we have not we shall not get on; we must have the intercession of Christ as well as the sword of the Spirit. The Lord said, I will pray for you; but that did not keep Peter because he did not fight the devil. So that is the side he takes up, that we must fight the devil, for it is what he did not do himself.
Verses 10 - 14. The Creator comes out; He is Christ Himself. The Son has come forth, higher than the angels. And now, at the close of His career, He is called away to sit at God's right hand till He make His enemies His footstool.
It is most important to get hold of the fact that Christ was only called away from earth because of the state of things here, to wait until that state should be altered. Things here were such that He was called to leave them until the time that there should be a change -- till His enemies should be made His footstool. This it the time that we are in. It is like a sentence between brackets. God has called Him away because of the state of things here, and, if I be an honest and a righteous man, I shall own things to be in that state, and look for Him to come back to put an end to it. It is a parallel time to that in the gospels, where it says: "Neither
durst any man from that day forth ask him any more questions" (Matthew 22:46).
"Sit on my right hand". The apostle delights in this passage; here he quotes it to show that Christ is called away from things here by Jehovah; and in chapter 10. to show that He can sit down because the work is finished: "After he had offered one sacrifice for sins for ever, sat down on the right hand of God". (Hebrews 10:12) But the quotation coming in thus in chapter 1 is very important, as it points out the interval with which all our blessings is concerned. I do not belong to the place where my Lord is rejected, but to the place where He is received. If I am not within those brackets I have nothing. His rejection is one bracket. His return the other; we stand between the rejection and the return.
He is greater than creation; not only greater than the angels. All He has created will go to nothing, but He will not; they will all remove, be folded up like a vesture, but He will remain. He does not call the angels to make way, as he does all else in the epistle; they have to minister, that is their calling.
Verses 1 - 6. He next shows that Christ is greater than any man; He is the Man of God's purpose, higher than any other that ever was. Verses 7, 8. This is a quotation from Psalm 8. The Son of man, not the Son of God. As Son of God all things are for Him as Son of man they are all put under Him. -- Verses 9,10. Now he turns aside to see how He gets the "fellows". It is like the high priest going up on the day of atonement. The priests went up with him to a certain point, and there they lost him, but we do not; we go on with Him. There is no such thing in Hebrews as communion; it goes no further than
being of one company; but I belong to Christ; I feel that I belong to Him, and that I am going on with Him. We have a Captain; we are the troop - those who are of His company. It is not 'Perfect by sufferings' as some read, but "Perfect through". It is not the thought of a man being battered into a thing, being moulded by the circumstances; it is showing out His perfection through them, in them. He might say; I can well lead you, for I have gone through all the difficulties of the road Myself.
Verses 11 - 18. Then comes out the way the "fellows" are formed. It is a new company; it is not the Jewish company; it is those of whom the Lord says in John 20, "Go to my brethren". He never had brethren till He rose from the dead; we hear of His mother and His brethren, but that was as man speaks. They are "all of one;" that "one" must be left large enough to take in all which it is; so it is left "one" only. If you limit it to a noun you spoil it; of one glory limits it to glory; of one stock, to stock; but it is simply "of one" that it may be everything that Christ is.
And He "took part of the same", that He might deliver them from all the difficulties that they were in. He is the Man who is to come by-and-by with all power, but, before doing that. He has been down into the lowest place that He might there take our place.
Turn to John 12:24. What is the simple meaning of these words? That Christ was a unique Person; there was never anyone like Him. Where is the man who could say there was never any sin in him? But, says Christ, I want to have a people of My own stamp; and, if I die, I shall rise up, and have a harvest of the same grain as Myself. It is not merely that people are saved, or that grains have been improved, but there are a great many grains like this One. It is "new creation", not "new creature",
as is generally read in 2 Corinthians 5. It is wonderful how much mischief has been made out of this "new creature". A butterfly is a new creature; it is an immense alteration from a caterpillar; it could not be a greater; but it is not a new creation. New creation is a new thing altogether. People talk of conversion - say, 'So-and-so is an altered man;' but you cannot alter new creation; it cannot be better than it is; so John insists on nothing but new creation. He says, "Whosoever is born of God sinneth not; but he that is begotten of God keepeth himself, and that wicked one toucheth him not;" so that we might keep ourselves from sin. I am not saying a word as to being united to Christ; it is merely that you are a new creation, that you are fellows of Christ.
Verse 18. He was tried by Satan, and now He can succour others who are tried; and that not in a temptation to badness, but in the way a godly person would suffer in the presence of a temptation, not a bad one. Satan tempted Him, but there was no response in the Lord to his temptations. But when we are tempted, we are, as the scripture says, drawn away of our own lust and enticed. Suppose a child come into the room and see an apple on the table; it will look round, and if no one be there, it will take it. Now the Lord was never tempted in that way. The fact that a thing was not His own was enough for Him; it would have been pleasant to Him to have the apple, but it would have been no pleasure to Him to take it. Not so with us; to us it is a pleasure to. If he had let in any thought of this kind He could not have made atonement for us. Now I have an evil nature in me just the same as I had before I was converted. I am a tender flower with bad air all round me, and He says, I will put a screen about you to keep it all away; for when I was in flesh and blood I never let any of it in.
The presence of God acts in two ways upon the soul that is in it. It first acts upon me, and then it occupies me with Himself. Some meetings are quite spoiled through getting hold only of the first of these actions and never rising beyond it. People say, "What a delightful meeting! the word cut me right and left". Certainly the disciples going to Emmaus had a grand time of it, but they did not know the One who was acting on them. It is quite right to have the word act on me: I need it. But that is not all. Having put me right it would occupy me with the Person who speaks it - with the Lord Himself. If I come into a lit-up room, I do not want the light to be occupied only with me; I want to be occupied with what is in the room. I remember a person in a picture gallery saying, "At first I had this lighted up so beautifully that when I came in I could look at nothing but the light -- at the glory of it. And I said. This will never do; so I had to have the light reduced until I could look at the pictures".
Verse 1. Now it is "holy brethren", and a "heavenly calling". Our profession is heavenly, and if you do not take heavenly ground you lose heavenly blessings. Between the going away of Christ and the return of Christ there are special blessings that are only given to a heavenly people. You must keep this new company in your mind; He has His troop round Him, all fellows going on together. I believe the book of Hebrews is carried on on the principle of the first of Acts; what they were rebuked for there -- gazing up into heaven -- is what we are called to do here. Your eye is to be upon Him. If it be to run the race, it is by "looking unto Jesus;" if it be going
outside the camp, it is going outside to Him; Christ is set before your heart; you find Him everywhere.
Verses 2 - 6. Now we come to His house -- His own circle. The "house" in Hebrews does not mean the house of God, the house on earth; it simply is that I am part of Christ's family, just as we speak of the house of Tudor, or the house of Brunswick. It does not allow of any one belonging to the house who is not put there by Christ Himself; as such He is the Son over His own house. Christ is gone into heaven for Himself and for His house. He has not gone in for Israel; He will come out for them soon; He has gone in for us; we get Him in the holiest; we do not get ourselves there; but He is there, and we have the right to go in. Many a child is brought to a palace without at all knowing what is going on in the palace. So the apostle takes us to heaven, introduces us into the place and says. Now study the length, breadth, depth, and height of it. I am an indoor servant; I have been in and know all that goes on there, but I cannot tell it to you; I can only open the door and let you in, and now you must find it out for yourselves.
Verses 7 - 11. What was the provocation? What has Christendom done? Christendom has been in the provocation; Christendom has looked down to earth instead of looking up to heaven. Christ has been rejected by earth, and, if my heart be right, I do not look for anything here, I do not seek to set things straight here; to do so would be to turn back to the way of Cain. Christendom has looked down, and that is the provocation. The book of Hebrews is that you are looking only up into heaven, for Jesus is there, and you have a right to go in; and when I go on to the Ephesians, and learn what the heart of God has for me there, I say, I may take it all, for I have a right to go in. The Israelites would not go into the land; it was the day of provocation,
and the way they began was by remembering the fish of Egypt. If ever I hear a man talking of what he might have been, and might have done, I always think, woe betide you! Peter began saying as much to the Lord, and the Lord answered him. You have made a very good bargain; you have gained a hundred-fold more. I am sure there is nothing the Lord feels more than that we should put value on anything but Himself, or allow anything whatever to detain our hearts here. It is the provocation.
The question has been asked, "How can you be in heaven whilst you are on earth?" And that is true; I am not in heaven; but I am united to One who is. Jesus is there; and where is your heart if it have not gone after Him? The Captain of the ship is on shore, and the anchor is let down.
Verses 12 - 19. Just think of God being grieved! They would not enter in. I do not unchristianise every one who has not got heavenly joys, but I do say his carcase falls in the wilderness; it is there that he dies. I have title to enter. But, you say, I might go back. Wait till you get there before talking of going back. It is a very interesting point that there is no such thing as restoration in Hebrews; you must go to some other part of the word if you wish to find that. It is never contemplated for a moment that you will give it up. The only thing put before us is, that if you go back to any of the old clothes, God will burn them off your back, "for our God is a consuming fire". (Hebrews 12:29) He has taken the old rags off, and made you fit for His presence; and do not you talk of going back to them. God would say. You have taken up that which I have put away, and I will not allow it. There is no such thing as provision for return; I have got rid of all the old things for you, and now, if you do not get rid of them too, I will burn them off you. You must drop them. Nine-tenths of those who complain of their dullness and weariness owe it
to the fact that they are cleaving to something they will not give up.
Verse 19. They could not enter in because of not obeying the word, is the meaning of the verse.
The point here is not rest merely, but "His rest", that is, God's rest. The prominent thought of God from the beginning was to have rest. As soon as everything was made and He saw that it was very good. He rested. The sabbath was the sign of it; and in the time that is coming, it is said "He will rest in his love". The great desire of man, too, is rest; it is man's ideal; it is God's reality. The question for each of us is, are we looking for a rest before God's rest? There is rest of conscience for us: "Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest;" but it is not that. Neither is it rest of soul: "Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and, ye shall find rest unto your souls". (Matthew 11:28,29) It is the day when everything will be according to the mind of God; when everything will be in unbroken rest gathered round Himself; His rest. Is that the rest we are looking for?
Israel got discouraged; they would not go on; they saw the cities walled up to heaven. And people now will not go on; they say the thing is impracticable. But as Israel turned back in heart first - they "fell a lusting" -- so it is always. You first begin to think of the things that suit yourself, and then you refuse the things that suit God. Therefore it becomes a testing question to everyone whether it be God's rest he is looking for, or whether it be any rest in time. What is the desire of every man, from the politician in Parliament down to the lowest and the
poorest? He is looking for the day when he can lay down his cares and cease from toil, rest on his laurels, spend a happy old age in the bosom of his family, have a bright sunset in some little spot he has retired to. People look to connect themselves with earth in some way or other. Is that your thought? No! I expect no rest on earth. I have rest for my conscience and rest for my soul, but as for my body, it is only "Come ye ... apart ... and rest awhile;" which is as much as to say, you must be working again presently. I am just going through the six week-days now; and I am going on to God's Sunday. Are you waiting for God's Sunday? Are you looking for no rest till it come? Do you expect nothing but toil on, toil on, now? If I engage a man to work for me six days, and I see him loitering on a Thursday, I say he is not an honest man. There is 'time for meals' as it were; time to rest and work again; but you must not "seem to come short" of God's rest. Work, work, work, is the whole character of the thing. What is before my mind is God's rest; that is the only Sunday for me. It is not works for salvation; it is just anything that I may have to do. A man that is working for salvation is still in Egypt. It is thus I would meet a Wesleyan with his thoughts as to work.
God's thought, as I have said, always was to have a rest: first there was the Sabbath, which was broken; then there was the rest offered by Joshua, but which he could not give them; and then David spoke of a rest. But we shall never find our resting place until we get into God's rest; and that rest is not on earth; it is in heaven. If you had asked the apostle Paul how he expected to spend the evening of his days, he would have answered, I expect to be martyred. That is how he speaks in the Philippians.
I leave it to every man's conscience what his work is; it is whatever the Lord would have you do; all
I say is, it is work now and not rest. There must be duty. If it be your duty to go to the stake, go. I dare not dictate to anyone what he ought to do. I am dependent; I am longing for the word to show me what I am to do; and the moment I obey it I am all right. Saul of Tarsus says, "Lord, what wilt thou have me to do?" The greatest thing I deplore in the present day is the aimlessness, uselessness, want of any definite occupation of nearly everyone I meet. I believe everyone has a mission; I cannot tell others what theirs is; I might make a great mistake if I tried to. Still I can say to a woman with a family, there is no doubt about yours; but I add that the banks are not the river though they determine the river. And just as the banks of the river are the greenest, sweetest spots, so it is at home, with those who are nearest to you, that you are to show forth most practically and perfectly your mission. Moses set to work forty years too soon with his mission. His was muscular Christianity. Afterwards he was sent by God to do the work; but he had to beware of his muscularity to the end: it was that which prevented his going into the land.
At the end of the chapter, I get two helps for the way: one the word of God, the other the intercession of Christ.
Suppose you were in a large forest, in the midst of which you saw a hundred roads, one of which only led to heaven; all the others leading off different ways; a road of pleasure, a road of eminence, and so on. You say, I thought I might go up this road of pleasure a little bit. No, you must take only the one road. I am not only protected by the word, but I am also directed by it. This is its double action. It protects me from going in a way in which I might be drawn aside from its direction; and then, being in the road, it directs me. And in the road I get the company of Christ; He says to me: I have
been all along it, and I can give you My sympathy in it. The One who is passed through the heavens, is the One who is sympathizing with me all along the way -- I, a poor weak thing, always wanting to turn up one or another of those ninety-nine roads. And the more alive I am to the enjoyment of things here as a natural man, the more temptation and attraction there is to me. Well then, as I refuse to go up any of these, roads, the more I have Christ's sympathy with me as I tread His path. Christ does not sympathize with a person who is in a wrong path. There are two actions in the word of God: it corrects, and it directs. The Lord corrects Martha and directs Mary. A father would say to his child. If you walk in the mud I cannot walk with you; you must come out of it if you wish to be with me. You may feel your feebleness, your inability to stand all the difficulties of the way; but the Lord says, I will keep you company; I have been through it all before you, and I have never touched sin. If He had ever touched it He could not have lifted me out of it.
If you do not get heaven you lose all the blessings of Christianity; for if you want a priest, where is He? "Passed into the heavens;" through the heavens it really is. The "profession" we are to "hold fast" is this actually going on to heaven. It is that you are a heavenly man. It is a positive declaration; and it has become applicable to us because we have got involved in Judaism. It was creditable to them to be Jewish converts; it has never been a bit creditable to us; but we, having been brought up in it, the thing is for us to get clear of it. If you have not got hold of the heavenly profession, you have not got hold of Christianity at all. Christendom generally is looking for something to meet its condition on earth.
Then he says: "Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace". (Hebrews 4:16) People sometimes say
when wishing to pray, 'Let us come to the throne of grace'. In answer to such an invitation I can only say, I hope we have not left it. I could say, 'Let us come and use the throne of grace'. We can come as poor feeble creatures and use it. The same in chapter 10: "Let us draw near;" we have no right to be out of the position of nearness. And to those who talk of fears of losing it, I answer, first get there before you talk of losing it. Most of those who talk of fearing to lose the holiest have never been there yet.
However, Hebrews does not put us within; it only gives us the right to go in; it is that I have got a title to be there. Just as Jonathan: he was not at the king's table; his place was empty; but it was his place as much as if he had been in it. We have a footing in heaven, and we have not to get it a second time. Have you ever known it? -- ever felt what it was to be in the presence of God without a spot? He says to the Jewish converts, you have lost the old footing, and now you are on a new one, and if you have not got it, you have got nothing at all of christianity.
He proves now that Christ is a Priest. The natural effort of every one who has to do with ministry is to put himself as priest between God and man. "Infirmity" is the point in this passage. The Lord is not presented as the "faithful high priest", as In another place; here it is to offer to God, and as learning obedience. We are shown the dignity of His person, as well as His being appointed Priest. It is interesting to notice that He took the place of a thoroughly dependent man: He "was heard in that he feared". It was not as a priest; but afterwards he
was appointed priest -- "a priest for ever after the order of Melchisedec".
Verses 13, 14. You cannot explain the word "babe" in Hebrews by the same word in the epistles of John In John a "babe" is one who is really on christian ground; but here the babe is a Jewish convert who is not on Christian ground at all, who has not got beyond, the "first principles" of the next chapter. As a rule, every word in Scripture is best interpreted by the book in which it is expressed. Every book in the Bible contains sufficient to explain itself; I am not to go to John or Colossians to interpret Hebrews. I have no doubt the translators of Scripture in the present day will make many mistakes as to this.
The apostle gives us in verse 14 some that are grown up. The "babe" who has got on to Christian ground is "perfect" in Hebrews. It is not a question of progress here, as it is in John.
Verses 1 - 8. This is the "perfection" he means; these are the first principles; it is not Christianity at all. What! you say; not a converted man! No, not at all. None of these things is within the brackets. You might have a man have them all without being born again. We have very much lost a true thought which the churchmen have. The dissenters are all for membership; but it is members of a church, not of Christ's body, with them. A churchman, on the other hand, is all for getting a man to church. If you ask him, "Why cannot you say what you want to him here?" he answers, "Oh, no! I must get him into church". This thought we get in 1 Corinthians 14, which shows us the power of God in the house of God. In that chapter is the only time the word
'layman' is used. The layman there falls down, worships God, and acknowledges that God is "in you" 'clergy', not in himself. Being there, he is in a place of blessing; and if he go out from it there is no other for him; he had better take care not to leave it. Just as Noah might have said in the ark: Now, my son, you are in a safe place; do not leave it, or you will be drowned. It is no question of conversion. Then, you ask, what does he gain? He gets what we have in these verses 4 and 5. There is a wonderful sheltering power in the word; he is made a "fellow" of the Holy Spirit (not partaker); he is in company with Him, though not indwelt by Him. If I go into a house, and sit down in a comfortable chair there, do you mean to say that I have not got some of the privileges of the house, though I do not belong to it? You know that I have. And you know perfectly well the power that is felt sometimes in a meeting; how every soul is hushed; and how the presence of God is felt, whether by converted or unconverted. The man at the feast, he got the feast, but he did not get the garment; he sat all through the wedding supper, and no one found him out until the king came in.
There is no real conversion in these verses. It is the wonderful action that takes place in the house of God short of conversion. We have lost too much the thought of the power of God's presence on the earth; we look at it too much only in connection with souls that are converted. It never says in Corinthians that the man who came in was converted; only that the secrets of his heart were made manifest. The house is the "habitation, of God through the Spirit;" it takes the place that the shechinah glory did in the temple: every one who came in was not a believer, but every one who came in was in contact with the glory. The question in Scripture is whether a man who takes a Christian position be
able to maintain the position he has taken. The man in 1 Corinthians 5 is admitted to be converted, yet he is put outside the assembly; he is not fit to be in it. It is, "Put away from among yourselves that wicked person;" (1 Corinthians 5:13) and that though he be a converted man. But he was brought back again among them very soon afterwards. In this chapter of Hebrews the apostle is showing how a Jew, having taken Christian ground, if he turn away from it, crucifies for himself the Son of God, and from that there is no return; for if this wonderful thing come upon a soul and there be no answer to it, it is like earth drinking in rain from heaven, and bearing only thorns and briars after -- fit for nothing but burning.
Verses 9 - 17. "But", he says, "we are persuaded better things of you". There are real things that accompany salvation. You take an interest in what belongs to God: "We know that we have passed from death unto life, because we love the brethren". (1 John 3:14) We are thrown into a new circle, a new relationship, and the question is whether we like this relationship. We must be relations to them. A man does not love his relations without their being his relations. In the church a man has got out of his own natural circle into one outside nature. "As I have loved you, that ye also love one another. By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another". (John 13:35)
Verses 18 - 20. In chapter 4 we had the rest of God; now we have the hope. In Hebrews you are going on to heaven, and Christ is always the Object before you. Are you in heaven? No; but He is there. Are you on shore? No; but the Captain is: "The forerunner is for us entered". And He is bringing us on to where He is Himself. It is not with us as it was with Israel; Canaan is not the type of our position; there is nothing about Canaan here except in contrast; it is heaven that is brought out here. Canaan
is the heavenly man upon earth; there is nothing at all about that in Hebrews. The wonderful thing in the tabernacle is that it is not a type at all; it is a copy of the original. We are going on to the original of which it is the image. If you say the tabernacle is a type, then you must have an antitype of it to come after it; but it is not; Moses saw it up in the mount and came down and gave the children of Israel the pattern of it. If the tabernacle be only a type, then I must be waiting to come to the antitype of it; whereas, if it be an image, I am only going on to that which was there before the tabernacle ever was.
Abraham rested everything on the heir (verse 14); how much more do we rest everything upon One who is greater than the heir -- upon that Christ who is the fulfilment of and answer to the heir, though I am down here and He in heaven a great way off.
There are three different ways in which we are looked at in connection with heaven. In Hebrews, the lowest of the three, we are seen on earth looking up into heaven; in Joshua we are in Canaan, heavenly men fighting on earth; and in Ephesians we are seated in Christ in heaven, which necessarily includes the two others. But Christendom is nothing more in principle than Jewish converts. They have not occupied the place of heavenly men for centuries; they have made the earth their centre; converting the earth has been their aim. They "say they are Jews, and are not, but do lie;" (Revelation 3:9) they are not Jews; if they were it would be no lie. And this is what makes the camp which you get at the end of the book. There is no Christianity proper if you leave out heaven; earth does not belong to Christianity proper, because Christ has been rejected from earth. We have not only the certainty of getting into heaven at some future time, but it is ours now. People say, I shall get into heaven when I die. And what will you get till you die? Earth. Exactly; and
that is what I object to. The apostle says. Though you are not in heaven yet, still I give you the place, and I set your eye on the One to whom it all belongs, and who is gone in there for you. God could not give us the earth that rejected His Son. My heart is to be occupied with the One who has entered there for me as High Priest; and therefore the apostle beautifully says that He is gone, not either into Canaan or into heaven, but "within the veil". He says, I will not talk to you of either earth or heaven; but is your eye on Christ? Is it turned to the magnet, the loadstone of the heart?
The truth that will deliver souls in the present day is the book of Hebrews, though it be a child's book. Souls do not know that they are saved. They have got hold of the value of the sacrifice on earth; but they will talk of "a fresh application of the blood;" they have not got a Priest in heaven.
Hebrews is uncommonly lovely to the heart, because it always draws it up. It says: It was quite right for you to listen to the prophets; but here is the Son of God for you -- the One who has come down to contend with all your foes, and who has gone back to heaven, having overcome them all for you, and who now makes you His fellows. As already said, it is like the whole congregation of Israel going up with the high priest to a certain point, and then, to use a common expression, they are "at fault" -- they have lost him. But we "see Jesus". If I look up to the highest point, I have Him there; and if I look down to the lowest point -- to my weakest point -- I have Him here.
Verses 1, 2. Christ has not yet come out as King of Righteousness: He is King of Peace already.
Verse 3. That is all they knew about him; no one knew what he was.
Verses 4 - 26. We look after this One gone into the heavens, and we find Him there a Priest after a new order; Christ is now the fulfilment of the Aaronic course in a new way. When He comes out it will be to bless Israel as Melchisedec did Abram. Many Christians have not got hold of the priesthood of Christ at all. If we do not take heavenly ground we cannot know it. When there was an effort made a little time ago to damage the priesthood of Christ, the question was put. What did the Melchisedec priest do? I do not know what he did inside, but I know very well what he does when he comes out, he blesses the people.
I have got in heaven a High Priest who is "holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners ...". I am not separate from sinners, but He is. My ship may move about a little, but it cannot part from its anchor, and that is safe within the veil. It is a wonderful thing, that, as the apostle says, I may have a "supply of the Spirit of Jesus Christ" -- a stream that comes down to me from heaven. I am here in the midst of all that is against me, and He says. This is what I send down to you. I am like a man in a diving bell, with everything most adverse to me; how am I sustained in it all? By a life that is in connection with Him in the holiest, in the full supply of His Spirit; a life that will not coalesce with the surrounding element. It is what we need for our destitute condition - what you call "journeying mercies", if you like. If you are not anchored within the veil, you have no anchor. He knows the circumstances I am in, and He sends down from God the suited grace. If I may say it with all deference. He knows them better than any one; so he is either thinking of you to give you suited grace, or He is thinking of you to no purpose at all. If you have real sympathy with
me, and are thinking of me in the circumstances I am in, you cannot but minister to me if you have the ability. So I believe we never get near Christ individually about any transaction that He does not leave the impress of what His own grace would have been in the circumstance. When the Lord was in the ship He was asleep. The disciples naturally thought he was indifferent about them; if they could have been persuaded He was not forgetful of them, though asleep, they would have been as quiet as He was; but they were not; so they awoke Him. And what did He do? He put them all to sleep: "there was a great calm;" and that is what there ought to have been at the first. Otherwise, it comes to this, that He is thinking about me, but that He has not the suited grace to meet me. But He says, I have all that is suited to you; I am "holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners, and made higher than the heavens". (Hebrews 7:26) That is the High Priest that becomes us.
There is not a word about sin properly in Hebrews: it is "infirmity". I am on the heavenly road; but I feel how weak I am, and how unable to get on. No sooner am I clear from judgment and death than Amalek comes against me. Now, the two things to help me in this are Hebrews and Peter. The Lord says, I pray for you. That is Hebrews. But when Peter was tempted, he ought to have said, I will take the sword and fight him. When he was asked to go in, he ought to have said. No; I will not go into your house; I will not go to your fire. So this is what Peter is strong about. The moment I take my place as a heavenly man, Satan says, I am against you in everything. We never fail that we find we did not resist. Peter's great point is "whom resist;" he does not take you out of the wilderness, but he says, resist the devil in it.
There are two classes of ministry: one to save you
from a snare, the other to save you out of a snare. In the one case you have got in, and you are rescued; in the other you are kept out of it. Happier to be kept out of it; but we get the two.
Bad temper is no infirmity: it is perverseness: The Lord never takes away my weakness; He does my perverseness. You say I am convinced that Christ is worthy of all my love. And how long will you keep to it? Not half an hour!
He says I will take away your thieving; I will not take away your timidity, but I will give you my strength in it. Christ keeps me on the road in spite of my infirmity.
Verses 27, 28. The apostle draws the distinction between the high priest's own sins and the sins of the people. Aaron offered for his own house; Christ for His -- for His family, as we saw in chapter 3. It is not the house as a building; it cannot ever become the "great house". In Ephesians the house is looked at as not interfered with by man, but it could be, as we find it is in 1 Corinthians. But here it cannot be; it is the house of Christ. He offered the bullock for His own house; the two goats are not offered yet; He is gone in within the veil with His own blood, and the two goats are yet to come for Israel.
Verse 19. "Perfect" through the whole epistle is that he has got to the top of the thing: "they without us should not be made perfect", as we get it further on. They have not got to that yet; but it is the top, where no further improvement can be. So the law made nothing perfect, nothing complete.
Verses 1,2. We get the word "heavens" now. It was "the Majesty on high" in the first chapter; now it is "in the heavens". The tabernacle on earth was the image; we are introduced into the reality, into the original.
Verses 3 - 5. This is a very important point; "If he were on earth, he should not be a priest;" therefore He is not on earth. We have to deal with heaven itself; and those who think it is too high to go to heaven may do without a priest. If we do not know Him there, we do without the good of it; it is not that He forgets us; He is always pleading for us; He does not cease, because you do not enter into the value of it, but how can you be in concert with Him if you do not know where He is? You do not get the special blessing connected with it. Formerly the association was earth; they never got into the holiest; the high priest himself only went in once in the year. The first thing God told Moses to make was the thing they never reached till Christ came: the mercy-seat was the first thing in the mind of God, and the mercy-seat was never reached till Christ's death. None of the Jews ever got to it. Whilst the epistle to the Hebrews does not say that we are in heaven, yet we can look in, and Christ is gone in for us. Then, however holy a man might be, however sincere, a time came when he lost his priest: he went in; now the nearer I get the plainer I see. He who has accomplished everything for me is there, and I have a right to go in after Him; my right is established. As to title every Christian is there, but there is a moment when I first get the sense of the enjoyment of my right. Hebrews is individual; each individual has a right to the holiest as the fellow of Christ. We follow Him, not upon earth but into
heaven. It is very necessary to learn that I have a right to go into my Father's house. It is the point that is settled all through the Hebrews.
Verses 6 - 13. It is important here to make one remark about the covenant, which may clear false ideas from people's minds. Among men a covenant is an agreement between two. I propose terms to you, and you correct them until we come to an agreement. A covenant with God is quite another thing; God only has a voice in it: He defines the terms. The children of Israel said they would accept God's terms, but they did not make a single term themselves. Now God says, I am going to bring in a new covenant. We are not under this covenant, though we have to do with the Covenanter. He told them He would propose a thing to them: He would create a nature in them which should be entirely according to His own mind. He says, I will make a people who shall know Me from the least to the greatest, and in whose hearts shall be written my laws. This is the millennial saint; therefore this epistle meets the millennial state, for we must remember it is written to Jews. Verses 11,12 will be the condition of the millennial saints. Is it true of us? I hope so. I hold him to be a very bad Christian who does not go beyond the law. I will beat any Sabbatarian that ever was; for I keep the day not to myself, but to God. Whilst he is a legalist, I am trying to please my Lord the whole day through. He says, I Keep Sunday as the Sabbath. I keep it too, but it is as the Lord's day. But the Lord's day being the Sabbath duration of time, I fall into creational order; only, instead of keeping it as an enactment binding on my conscience, I keep it to please the Lord of the Sabbath.
And so on with all the commandments. As to a thief, he is not only no more to steal, but he is to be a giver. No one could ever get into Canaan by keeping
the law. I must die in Christ and live in Him and so get in. Certainly a Christian will not be in practice below a heathen; but the moment I hear a man say, I am going to judge myself by the law, I say. There is a man who has no proper sense of what Christianity is. Christianity goes far beyond the law. The law says, you are not to call your brother a bad name; but I am to die for my brother. Do you mean to say that I am not higher than a millennial saint even now? I am not in millennial circumstances; but I am in more than millennial favour. Does Christ reign in your heart now? If He be reigning in your heart He will certainly reign in your house. I believe He holds every one of us accountable for behaving as if He were on the throne at the present moment; otherwise, we do not believe in His kingship. It says, "Seek ... thekingdom of God".
Verse 1. "A worldly sanctuary". It does not mean anything of a sinful character; but it was an earthly arrangement.
Verses 2 - 10. We have lost a great many things through being children. The Jewish converts were not up to it, and so the apostle stopped: he says, it is not the time to speak of these things. The great point is, that the way into the holiest was not made manifest whilst the first tabernacle was standing; but now the way is open, and he wants to get them, with a good conscience, into God's presence. So he shows them first that Christ is gone in, and then he opens the way for them. This chapter shows us Christ in, the next shows us ourselves. They have not got a good conscience here yet; the conscience is not yet purged. But they must be in first, before he will explain to them what is inside. It would be
indulging mere curiosity to do so. God says, I cannot tell you anything on your standing; you must come on to Mine. Many think they can get information about the things of God; but, as He did to Moses, He still says, "Draw near;" you must get to My level before I can speak with you. God's thought is to get us where we can learn of Him undisturbedly. Where does He write Christ on our hearts? Anywhere? Not at all! In glory. Many try to get acquaintance with the great things of God, who have never been experimentally through Hebrews, and this does great damage to souls. It is like the prodigal son looking in through the window, instead of going in at the door. We are to walk through the length and breadth of the land; and how am I to walk through unless I am in?
Verses 11 - 14. Now the conscience is purged. Can you say, I have stood before God, and there was not one single thing, one single blemish of any kind, upon me? It is not that He is just to me, but that I am just before Him. God has no more claim on me. Some commentators have said that the prodigal son kept his rags on under the best robe, so that he might look at them sometimes to keep him humble. You may smile at the idea, but, nevertheless, a great many act on it. That is not what God has done. He has entirely moved Adam out of the way; and the soul never gets perfect liberty until it sees every shred of the old clothes gone, and nothing but Christ left. God said, "The end of all flesh is come before me". (Genesis 6:13) For a moment it was fulfilled in the deluge; for a moment everything was either dead or covered; and now, again, God sees no flesh before Him: every one is either covered by the death of Christ, or lost. What would be the most incomparable blessing that could be conferred on us? Would it not be to get rid of the flesh? And God has got rid of it in Christ. There is no sense of deliverance until
you get to Christ in glory; and you never get near Him unless you see His death.
Verses 15 - 17. This is the statement of the doctrine. We do not receive property until the testator is dead; so in the case of our Lord: death was not only for the redemption of the saints, but it also opened the way to the inheritance. You see, the moment the wrong end is cleared away, everything is fair with God. That is what He said to Cain: we will be on terms; there is no enmity in Me; if you will clear everything away, there is nothing on My side. It is the same in the thief on the cross: everything that offends against God is taken out of the way, and then all is thrown open. In Exodus the blood was shed, and then, in a moment, they saw "the body of heaven in his clearness". (Exodus 24:10) The saying is, "I can forgive, but I cannot forget". That is not at all God's way; He says: Remove the offending thing out of My way, and everything is open to you. The prodigal son was in favour in a moment, as if he had never done anything wrong. There is no enmity on the part of God. I take a long time to be reconciled to God, and so I cannot believe He can so quickly be to me; therefore it says, "Be ye reconciled to God". (2 Corinthians 5:20) The soul gets clear about the value of the blood long before it gets the thought that it is in perfect favour; it is a long time before you get to in Christ. "Every believer has it" through Christ; but it is "in Christ". You do not get "in Christ" until the sixth chapter of Romans, and then it is "in " for the first time; before that it is "through". Such souls are in Adam still, though I doubt not they are converted. But I say to them, change your ground; for "there is ... no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus". (Romans 8:1) The Galatians are properly Romans who have gone back from the eighth chapter. Romans brings saints out of the law; in Galatians they go back to it. So the apostle
says. Of whom I travail in birth now; for I am not quite sure that Christ is in you. Every man in Christ is a new creation.
The word "eternal" is so often repeated in Hebrews 9, because the first tabernacle was not eternal; this is; it is for ever and ever.
Verses 18 - 22. If I understand Exodus 24, it was not the priest alone who did it all, which makes it still more interesting. We are seen coming up under cover of the blood with Him, everything thrown open to us.
Verses 23 - 27. The way into the holiest was "not yet made manifest;" while the pattern was standing the original was not opened. It was not that the tabernacle itself was defiled, but it was sprinkled to get a defiled people into it. The original is purified to get us in; it is all opened to us, and it cannot, be defiled by our going in. There are no wicked spirits in Hebrews as you find in Ephesians. Hebrews is only our right to go in; the wicked spirits are inside; we must be in before we can, meet them. You can hardly say that it is heaven itself, but the whole creation is defiled, as you often hear people say, feeling how everything is spoiled.
The holy place is the Jewish place. The holiest will not be visible during the millennium. Christ brought us in as His own house, and He brought in also the Jew; He brought in the heavenly company and also the earthly. The heavenly will be entitled to the holiest, and the earthly to the holy place. Christ has opened the way, so that I am as much cleansed for heaven as for earth; indeed, heaven is far the more certain of the two to you; you can "read your title" to heaven far more clearly than to earth. Why? Because the light is clearer there. A very small thing interrupts the soul -- turns it aside. There is nothing we ought to desire more than to be in circumstances, in surroundings, pleasing to
the Lord. It is a poor thing, indeed, if I do not seek to know the Lord in circumstances that are pleasing to Him, in surroundings that suit Him.
I often wonder evangelists do not bring more out the thought that the prominent thing that God had in His mind was never carried out until the death of Christ -- the mercy-seat. God says: The thing I told you to make first, not one of you has ever reached; but My Son has come out, and He is made the way. The thought of God is to have man without a cloud in the brightest spot; and therefore when man was found perfectly incapable. He says: I know what you most want, and what you want most I will give you first. I have no doubt the holiest was thrown open the first day; but, Aaron's sons bringing in strange fire, it was all closed up; after which comes the command to drink no wine. Wine is acting from impulse. Giving out a hymn because it is 'on your heart', for instance, is impulse. I am not an individual when I come into the assembly; I am really a member of the body, under the government of Christ the Head.
Verse 28. There will be no question of sin at all then. Sin is not taken away yet, as we well know. This is future. He has taken away my sins, for how can I have sins if I be in Christ? But sin is in the world. The work is done which will put it away, but the full result is still future.
Verses 1, 2. That is the place we are brought into. There is no more conscience of sins, not sin. I can come into God's presence without a single thing being laid to my charge. It is not whether you continue on, but whether you have ever been on this ground. Many hesitate at making such a statement;
but I believe they hesitate because they have never realised the fact of what the work of Christ has done for the believer. You may have a bad conscience, but I cannot admit that you have a bad one until you have a purged one. You may be merely legal, What do you judge your 'bad' by? Is it by the law or by Christ? Many a man would have a bad conscience, but the question is, what does he judge it by? Many a one shelters himself under 'I am a failing person', Do not tell me of failure or of what you are, until you have got into His presence without a single thing displeasing to Him. 'But I may go back?'. Well, we will answer that afterwards; settle it first that you have got in this once; that you have, like Jonathan got title to a place at the king's table. Psalm 32, which speaks of no imputation of sin with God, is the psalm where there is the deepest distress, because the soul will not confess. The great principle of divine grace is, that where I am most detected, there I am best protected. The Lord says, I will protect you; and "if the Son therefore shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed". (John 8:36)
Verse 3. This is exactly what is done in Christendom; there is reference made to sins every day, because they do not know a Saviour in the holiest. There is a premium for the soul on getting higher; if you were to go up, you would see yourself perfectly clear in the sight of God; you would see not only the sins, but the sin gone. I never yet heard a man talking of his sins when he was out of them. If a man say to me that he is so worldly, I am ready to answer, so you are. Your confessing failure shows that you have a conscience, but do you drop the thing that you fail in? When you first got into the holiest you dropped everything; why not now? You have something in your right hand that you will not give up. If a man be really confessing in private, he will not want to confess in public. I am not
speaking of confession for the assembly, but of a man's own private confessions. I repudiate this flesh of mine in God's presence as a wretched, vile thing; there can be no good conscience if I do not. But many souls are harping on their sins instead of abandoning them; saying, 'I am so weak', and refusing all the time to abandon their weakness. There is never an excuse for weakness: I take pleasure in weakness, for His strength is made perfect in weakness. But in nine cases out of ten it is not weakness at all but perverseness. If a man be really repentant he is praising the Saviour; he has got on to the other side.
Verses 4 - 9. "The first", that is the offerings. Verse 10 is the great point: it is "the offering of the bodyof Jesus Christ". He comes forth and takes a body; and, when He offers that body, all is removed that barred me from the presence of God. God has separated us now to the same standing as Christ. Christ has come down from God and measured my distance, and placed me in the measure of His nearness. Verses 11 - 13. This is actually the period we are in. Verse 14. The professing church in the present day knows nothing whatever of this; it has dropped into ritualism. Verses 15 -18. Supposing a person, say, I have failed now; what will become of me? I answer: Still, you cannot get out of the place; you cannot get out of belonging to Christ's house, out of being one of the family. Wesleyans say you can fall away. They make the new creation less than the old; whereas the new is infinitely, incomparably, beyond the old. Besides which they try to change the old into the new. Verses 19 - 23. Verse 19 ought not to be divided from 20; it is all one sentence; it is not two ways; it is only one. The door is wide open; I look in; I have a right to go in, and, if you once enter, you ought never to go out again; the veil is taken away, and you have boldness, and the more
you realise, the more you have boldness. It is the fullest efficacy of the faith. It does not mean what we commonly call "full assurance". It is the full weight of faith. It is not that you are assured of the faith, but it is what the faith gives you -- what you derive from the faith. And it is not that you are to have your hearts sprinkled, but that they are. We draw near with a true heart: I have not taken this standing without the full verity of it in my soul. I am perfectly suited to the place, and have title to be in it. There is not a speck upon me, not a thing to offend against God; the body is fit for the Lord. You cannot lose your standing, the footing you have got; further on it comes to not giving up your birthright; God chose to quicken your soul; take care you do not give it up. It has not to be done when you come in; all was set right before. It is a difficult thing to explain practically; the blood is on the mercy-seat for every believer, but each one has to have it upon himself also. It is only by the Holy Spirit I can come in. There is only the flesh and the Spirit here, so there is not a word about the oil. You are brought in as priests before God; the blood is not only on. the mercy-seat, but it is on you. The blood is for the weakest believer, but besides that, at the consecration of the priest, it was sprinkled on him: The flesh is over; I am left entirely to the things of the Spirit; entirely in the power of the oil. We are fellows of the Holy Spirit.
Verses 24, 25. How long ago is it since they saw the day approaching? 1800 years ago. We know He is due; that is the thing; We are sure He is coming. We do not judge of the day by events; we know that it is due. When the Revelation was given there was nothing to hinder. It is now just as we say of a train, 'it is due'. So if the Lord were due some time ago, how much more now? The world takes up the question in a contrary way to the professing
church, but both arrive at the same conclusion: the professing church says: "My Lord delayeth his coming;" (Luke 12:45) the world, "Where is the promise" of it?
"Not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together", (Hebrews 10:25) is that we are not to drop out of Christianity; not to fall back to Jewish standing.
Verses 26 - 31. These people with all their talk were never converted at all. They had been sanctified by the blood of the covenant, by the position they had taken as professing Christians. They had taken this place and never answered to it. Baptism has to do with the old man; the Lord's supper, with the new. God has got a house on earth in the midst of all the confusion; and the moment you take your place in that house, you take the position of present administrative forgiveness. And I believe God deals with all who take that place. He treats professing Christians very much as if they were all true believers; he deals with them on the ground that they themselves take. There is no question as to their being in the house of God. Every churchman has an idea that there is something in being within the walls; they take off their hats when they go in; they think everything of the house. On the other hand the dissenters look for membership; they know nothing about the house, and are pitched out somewhere without one, whilst ritualism makes everything of it.
Giving up in that day would have been going back to be a Jew; in the present day, it would be apostasy from Christ. The Holy Spirit was acting in the place they were in, and they refused that place. Scripture does not say there is no hope for such persons, but in the place they have got to there is none.
The church is looked at in two aspects: the house and the body. While the wise woman keeps the house everything is in beautiful order; but you can
easily see, if she be indolent and negligent, to what a state things will come. It is not that she ceases to be the wife, the bride, but that she is not caring for the house. If she had been always true to her place, there would have been no disorder. When Christ comes He takes away the bride, and leaves the house here. Satan has collected it together, so it is called "the synagogue of Satan", and then it becomes the great whore. The pope is not the man of sin: he exalts himselfin all that is called God, not "above all", as we read in Thessalonians.
Verses 32 - 37. There they really suffered for their Christianity. The time was getting long, and the test of patience is whether you can endure. So here we come to another word: we haveboldness to go up, but we havepatience to go along the road. It is very interesting the way the coming of the Lord is brought in here. It is the rest that is for us in chapter 4, whilst we work; here the coming of the Lord is the thing that is for patience.
Verses 38, 39. We get a very important principle here. Every person's progress is in accordance with what it costs him. I find a man who has to walk ten miles to a meeting is ten times as fresh as the man who lives next door. If it cost you anything it brings out the virtue of Christ which enables you to do it. It is a great fact that any person is a leader now, not so much through what he knows as through what he suffers.
These are all men of God, and their lives set forth what they did by faith. There is what I may call a gradation in their histories, a successional virtue brought out in them. First we have justifying faith in Abel. Then Enoch's faith ending with translation
into life. Noah's faith takes him safe through judgment. Abraham has separating faith; and so on, till we culminate at a very interesting point, which proves to me that the apostle Paul was the author of the epistle; it is internal evidence to it, as we say: "Rahab perished not, ... and what shall I more say?" (Hebrews 11:31,32) We have got the gentile into the land, we have got as far as we can go. Paul is the apostle to the gentiles, and the great thing with him is to show that a gentile is there. A worldly person in herself, he says, I have placed her on the same ground as the people of God. It is the only touch of the gentile that he gives in the epistle.
It is not the varieties of the faith that is brought before us; it is that in these specimens we learn that faith is the cure for everything. If you have faith you can do anything; it only wants the thing to call it out. A different need only calls forth a different phase of it. There are four phases of the moon, but every one knows it is the same moon. Abraham is a man of faith, and he dies a stranger in the land; whilst Moses goes there in triumph. And it is a different thing to the gift of faith; the gift of faith has to do with service; but this is common to all. If a gift be not used for God's glory, but for man's service, it loses its character. Gifts of ministry may be misapplied. Gift belongs to the assembly; and not only to the assembly, but Christ's gift is for Christ's benefit in His saints.
In this "cloud of witnesses" it is all earthly associations. If you ask what is faith, I answer, here are specimens of what faith can do. It is not the thing proposed to faith that is the difficulty, but it is, if you count on God you can do the greatest thing just as easily as a small one. You cannot in yourself do a small thing a bit better than a large one. Faith is that I count upon what I do not see; if I can see it, it is not faith. As has been said often,
a thing that you have been praying about will look less likely than at any time just as it is going to be accomplished. As they say, 'the darkest hour is the hour before dawn'.
Eve lost faith the moment she "saw". People say what is the harm of a beautiful view? None, I say, unless it influence you. Look at Paul in the shipwreck: the master says, go on; all the passengers say, go on; but Paul says, I would not. But then there was a third thing: the south wind blew softly; that was Providence. But no, says Paul, I will not look at Providence. If I look for wind, I shall not get it; but if I am going with God, I shall find Providence fall in with me. Sad to say we know so little of faith; that is the reason we are influenced so much by what we see.
Verses 1 - 4. The weight is something outside; the sin that besets is something inside. The weight is not properly a sin; neither is the sin what people call their "besetting sin:" it is the whole principle of sin in you. Some things are much more easily recognised as sins than others are. It is not only Amalek that we have to meet, but Balaam, too. The Israelites got the victory over Amalek, but they were borne down with Balaam. Nothing does so much harm as the social element; so the wise woman says, "Forsake the foolish, and live;" just the opposite to Balaam, who says, Come into our company. Worldly society is intolerable to the true soul; the world cannot do you any good, and it does do you much harm; whereas, the company of the Lord's people should always be agreeable to you; for, though there may be failure in them, yet there is always Christ in them also. The more I walk with
God, the more I draw out what is of Christ in you. Supposing you were all diamonds, and I brought a light into the room, how you would all shine! The difference between a piece of glass and a diamond is, that the glass lets the light through, but the diamond absorbs it. Christians should all be diamonds.
Well, what is a weight? Anything that hinders me; for instance, music. If I find it a snare, I throw it aside, just as I would a cloak that was in my way, if I were running a race. Whatever hinders a man from running, is a weight, for this is the race.
Paul was pressing on to the goal. I believe he saw it at his conversion. He saw the mark then, and he ran on to it ever after. If you say you cannot see your goal, I say, you cannot go to it then; and, what is more, you cannot race until you can worship. Worship is, that I am in spirit in my Father's house; racing is, that I am going home to it.
The race here is, in principle, the same as in 1 Corinthians 9; only there the apostle is talking more of the way he has trained or disciplined himself for the race, rather than of the race itself. The point of that passage is, "Every man that striveth for the mastery is temperate in all things". (1 Corinthians 9:25) You must be a self-denying person. That is laying aside the weight. It is always so: after knowledge comes temperance. For very bit of divine knowledge that I get, I grow more temperate, more self-denying; I want less than I used; I give myself less gratification than I used. One can excuse a person who knows but little in a great many things; but we lay aside everything that we may go on; and the more we get on, the more we have to bear. The cross was the greatest trial, the greatest suffering, that could possibly be brought out. It is not redemption here; it is the martyr side of it only that is looked at. I need not say it is the same cross. But, just as if a horse can go over a six- barred gate it can go over a two, so, if you can bear
the cross, you can bear anything. As to what he says of being a "castaway", it is that he was writing to those who made much of their gifts. He says, if I stood upon mygift, I might be cast away; I do not go upon that ground at all. The believer can be subjected to very severe judicial treatment here; and that comes out in the chapter we are on. God says, I do not see you in the flesh at all; so you come into the holiest; but the flesh is in you, and, if you do not judge it, I must tear it from you; and that is where chastening comes in.
The Lord is always put first in everything; as it says in John, "When he putteth forth his own sheep, he goeth before them". (John 10:4) It was "for the joy that was set before him". (Hebrews 12:2) We can understand something of that joy; the martyrs had it at the stake; Stephen, no doubt, was full of it when he was going to the Lord. And we have not yet died; we have not all been martyrs yet.
Verses 5 - 11. It is extremely interesting how he brings in chastening here; not at all as we think, for we generally think chastening to be something very much out of the way, but the very pelting of the stones on Stephen, was freeing him from the flesh, and setting him for ever in the presence of God. And so persecutions and troubles here, they set us free from the flesh. Chastisement is too often connected in our minds with punishment; it is not so much that as correction. It is martyrdom, if you like; not retiring to have a happy evening to our days. You are to lose the flesh; there must be the cross; so it is "mortify therefore your members which are upon the earth;" (Colossians 3:5) there is something that must be got rid of; the flesh must be torn out of us in one way or another. It may come to special sins, but it is the whole thing that you have to get rid of. Thus we never can say we have got beyond the need of discipline. The chastening in 1 Corinthians 11 is
confined wholly to the body, because the believer has been eating and drinking unworthily. Here in Hebrews it is much wider. It is not simply punishing: He corrects you for something that would hinder you from running the race. Jonah might have said, why should you have let me get into all this trouble and affliction? Well, I gave you full instruction; it was because you would not bow to the word, and therefore you got the blow. If Paul had not had the flesh, he would not have needed the thorn; it was preventive. To Laodicea it is, "As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten". (Revelation 3:19) God always speaks before He chastens. The Father's chastening has to do with everything; "If ye call on the Father ... pass the time of your sojourning here in fear". (1 Peter 1:17).
Chastening may have to come upon you for failure; still, wonderful grace! if you be exercised thereby, you get all the good of it, just as if you had been walking righteously. In three ways my body is dealt with; first, governmentally, that is on account of my forefathers. I may have a sickly body because of the wickedness of my grandfather. In this the Lord gives me His sympathy. Secondly, on account of my own failure. In this I have exercise of heart and conscience. And thirdly "for the work of Christ he was nigh unto death". (Philippians 2:30) That is a distinct honour; a decoration won in the Lord's service. I think the persecution of the present day is the opposition of believers. A man who is faithful will have very few friends. The more exclusively you are set for Christ the fewer friends you will have; every one will be shy of you. The character of the present day is, be good friends with every one.
Verses 12 - 14. Go on steadily and follow peace and holiness, or more properly sanctification. Verses 15 - 17. Esau gave up his place in the inheritance. Verse's 18 - 24. This is what we have come to. All this is what is connected, with man. In chapter 10, we get what
we come to on God's side; here it is what is connected with our own side. It is everything as it now stands at this moment; it is not the future; it is not what you will come to. There are eight things mentioned; the "ands" separate and determine them.
Verses 25 - 29. He is going to shake everything. If we give it up now we shall have manifold more; if we hold to it, when everything is shaken we shall be shaken too.
The last chapter is exhortation, and takes up the visible ground, which is important for the Jew. We are visible, and we are now put into a visible place; we are put outside the camp. The camp is an orderly construction of religious arrangements; it is a settled state of things, with military precision, and sentinels to keep all from going outside it. And those who do, have to pay the penalty of it which is our portion. Where is your address? "Outside the camp". Where are you to be found? "Outside the camp". And what are you doing there? I am praising God and serving man. We are a praising people; praising God. That is what people ought to find us doing. They cannot see us worshipping, but they ought to hear us praising. And is that all? We are serving man too. There must be nothing contrary to the altar about us. The altar is the figure for worship; "we have an altar;" we have gone inside there; we are invisible there; but here we become visible; we are found outside the camp -- outside everything that has regulation. Then have you disorder? I hope not; the Lord keeps order. But the moment you make anything ordered and settled it is in the camp.
When a convert came out of Judaism, he had no place but the church to go to; but the difficulty that
we have to contend with is, that there are a dozen places. But, go where I may, I cannot leave Christendom; I cannot leave the house of God. It may be a very large house; but, as has been often said, let me get into some little clean corner of it; into some attic; some upper room. There may be a house in which dancing is going on in one of the rooms; but I can keep in another.
At the time the epistle was written "the camp". applied to Judaism; but there is the principle of it to this day. Ask people where they get the word "priest"; they must go back to Judaism for it. Wherever I find Judaism, there I find the camp, and wherever I find Judaism, I stand clear of it. I am dependent on God's Spirit alone for arrangement. If I have a case to deal with today, I cannot deal with it by a case that has already been dealt with; I must have God's guidance for that special thing.
The camp and the house are not the same thing. The camp is the peculiar arrangements that are going on in one part of the house. It is a thing that ought never to have been in the house; they brought it in, but it has no right there. However, we are in the house, and we cannot deny our family; we have to bear the shame of it. When the captives returned from Babylon, there was a nice handful of them; but where were all the others? Those who came back had to bear the weakness and the shame of the defection of the rest. And as it was then God's house, though in a state of dilapidation and ruin -- "they break down the carved work thereof at once with axes and hammers. They have cast fire into thysanctuary" (Psalm 74:6) - so it is still His house. Well, and what are you doing? I am keeping things as straight as I can in the clean corner.
The word of God gives a complete answer to all cavilling. Man urges continually that he is in a ruined condition, and knows not how to escape from it. Scripture gives a direct contradiction to this. It says there are two cries on the earth -- two invitations, either of which man accepts; the cry of wisdom and the cry of folly. What is called folly in the sight of God is thought a great gain in the world. God designates her cry as that of "the foolish woman", because it has qualities of natural attraction, and it is subtle in its influence. It is of immense importance which cry we attend to, and are led by; and every honest person knows how often he turns aside from the voice of wisdom and listens to the voice of folly. The cry of the foolish woman is naturally more attractive to us than the cry of wisdom, because of the terms of the latter.
The foolish woman cries to those "who go right on their ways", and to them only. The world is not inviting the world; there is no occasion for it to do so; and the intention of the invitation is to lead the upright astray. On the other hand, wisdom gives her invitation from the very highest places of the city; she sends it out to every one; she longs to give to all that which she has provided; she cries from the highest places as if, being really right, she were the more determined. They say a man who is right is always persistent. The other is persistent too, but she has not got the same thing to offer, and therefore she cannot assume as a high a place as the former.
There is a great distinction in the cries. Folly offers something that will gratify -- something pleasant to look forward to. If that be my thought it is
almost sure to be something wrong. It is not this that wisdom proposes, but something right; what is good is not always right; you may be doing a good thing that is not a right one at all.
I am going to wisdom's feast, and therefore I refuse folly's. I am going to have bread and wine; not the Lord's supper, I need scarcely say, but that which the Lord's goodness provides for me; the present enjoyment of soul in what God has provided for it. "They began to be merry"; (Luke 15:24) it does not say that they had reached the finish of it.
Many speak of God's love as having done its most for us: but that is not all; it has done its best. Love has done its most; Christ has died for me; you could not get anything greater than that; but that does not satisfy love; it must do its best; it says to my soul: Come up here; eat of my bread and drink of my wine. Many souls possess the most who have never got the best; they have never yet seen the good things that God has prepared for them. We read in Corinthians, "Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him". (1 Corinthians 2:9) It is a quotation from Isaiah, and the apostle quotes it to prove that Isaiah did not know the great supper. There is something great there, he says, but I do not see it; it is to me like folding doors, and I cannot see inside them. Paul can say, But we do; we are not inside, but the doors are opened, and we see in. That is the great supper; that is wisdom's entertainment. Love has gone down to the lowest point to reach me there, and now it would take me up to be with Christ where He is.
The house is a divine organisation, an abode; the seven pillars give us the completeness of it; all is in perfect order, the most perfect arrangement, for Christ is the wisdom of God; He is the spring, the fountain, everything to the soul; all is connected
with Him, all springs from Him, and therefore it entirely ravishes my heart; it gives me a sense of perfect delight; it is to me instant refreshing, as bread and wine typify; as the apostle says. To God I am beside myself. It is not only that I am saved but that I have a great feast. "Many waters cannot quench love". (Song of Songs 8:7) I am at the feast; the work is crowned: it is the festival of accomplished grace; and therefore it is, "In thy presence is fulness of joy; at thy right hand there are pleasures for evermore". (Psalm 16:11) To so great a height does love take me!
But many saints know nothing of wisdom's feast, and so they are not satisfied; they are always seeking some pleasure, by the way, to supply the lack they feel; they want something here, to be like little flowers in a hedge of thorns. But separation means that I have no right to such things. What right have I to pleasure here? what right have I to anything! It is only Christ who can give me real pleasure, and that is at God's right hand; it is not here; it is something beyond what the human mind can reach to.
We ought to weigh the fact that there is only one spot that can satisfy the heart of God for us, and that spot too is the only one that can fully satisfy our hearts. You may thank Him day and night for the love He has shown you, but you have never got to the crown of it if you have not got there. It is all ready; it is accomplished; and it is the labour of the Spirit of God to bring you there. God has revealed it by the Spirit, and it is the sure mark of a faithful servant, that he labours to lead the soul to the things that God has prepared for it.
The world presents something that is pleasant, something that can be seen; there is no faith where you can see. Wisdom says. There is nothing to see in what I offer you; if you want it, you must "forsake the foolish, and live". (Proverbs 9:6) And so it always is in Scripture; it is always the evening before the morning:
Abraham goes up to mount Moriah before he gets the blessing. In a world where God is unknown it must be so; it is a standing principle that "They that sow in tears shall reap in joy". (Psalm 126:5) You never took a step in your life that you did not find sorrow either with it or before it. But if I trust God in it, it will all open out like a bud. The question is not whether what is before me is in itself pleasant. Never is anything presented to you but that your first thought is. What will there be pleasant for me in it? You must not make this your object, but only seek that which will be according to God's mind for you in a world of evil, and it must therefore be a path of separation; but "She shall bring thee to honour, when thou dost embrace her". (Proverbs 4:8) "If any man serve me, him will my Father honour". (John 12:26).
The foolish woman attracts; she seeks to turn aside those who are going right; that is her object. The world knows how to address itself to each one of us; we each, in a certain sense, have got a world of our own -- some sphere that affects us. The foolish woman always ensnares or draws aside from the path of rectitude; she always runs in the opposite direction to wisdom. It is self-gratification that she offers, and that is always the bait when the flesh acts. I have no doubt that the better and the more comely the thing presented in connection with self-gratification, the more dangerous; and things are getting more this character every day. The lack is not that people are not going on nicely and rightly, but do they know the things that are in the heart of God for them? He is ever crying to His own, but another voice tries to rival His, and it is a great thing to be aware of it and to be armed against it. The worst of it is, that many think they have made such a good start, got such a long way on their road, that they are quite safe from such invitations, whereas they have never yet got out of the harbour at all. The
thing is, not to think you have got out of sight of land, but to pull away every day. There is nothing like getting clear of the shore at once; but even when you are quite clear of it, yet as long as land can be seen, that is as long as you are on the earth, you are not out of danger.
I would press the thought that there is nothing God so delights in as making us perfectly happy, even in such a scene of ruin as this; as the psalmist expresses it: "This also shall please the Lord better than an ox or bullock that hath horns and hoofs". (Psalm 69:31). What shall please Him? Some tell me obedience; others something else; but what does the scripture say? It is praising God: "I will praise the name of God with a song, and will magnify him with thanksgiving. This also shall please the Lord better than an ox or bullock that hath horns and hoofs". (Psalm 69:30,31). No amount of sacrifice can be of the same value to God as the enjoyment of the place He has set us in. Could anything be more disheartening to a loving parent than his children being dissatisfied with his care for them? Does ever a cloud cross my heart in the thought that there is not perfect love for me up there? If I had not an atom of His favour to show it me, I am satisfied with what I have in His heart. Nothing has done such damage practically to souls as judging of God's heart by His favours. I give the favours a colour by the love: I do not judge of the love by the favours, but, knowing the love, I appreciate the favours.
He brings me into a scene of perfect happiness. Here it is wisdom that is said to do it; wisdom is set forth as to its action. Most hearts dwell upon love, and I do not object to their doing so, but wisdom only can complete love. When Abraham made a feast for Isaac he set forth the expression of his love. God says: 'Where shall love have its plenitude, Its full demonstration? When I gather you
round My Son'. Then it will have its plenitude. We are to have the sense of the delight of God in us in this scene. As Caleb says: "If the Lord delight in us, then he will bring us into this land". (Numbers 14:8). But I cannot use such words for I say. He has delighted in us, and He has brought us in. Abraham loved Isaac before, but now he wanted to give some distinct expression of this love to the whole household; the festival is an expression, a demonstration, of the love when it had got to its height; so that which fully expounds the satisfaction of God's love is not when it reaches you in your ruin, but when it brings you into His own presence. This is the culminating point.
In 1 Corinthians 2, the apostle speaks of wisdom doctrinally; and in Colossians 2, his conflict is that the saints should understand the wonderful position into which they are called. Is this future? No, it is not future; that is the very point: "God hath revealed them unto us". (1 Corinthians 2:10) It is what qualifies me for the contrariety, the difficulty, of the scene down here. When was it Moses said, "Show me thy glory?" It was when he was filled with the ruin of everything here, when all here was at an end. Israel had failed, idolatry had come in, all was gone; and then he says: If I could but taste of the scene of divine brightness, if I could but see God's glory, I could face it. When was Isaiah qualified? When he saw the King, the Lord of hosts; Habakkuk the same; and in the New Testament, Stephen looks up, sees the glory of God, and now he can meet everything.
It is an immense lack to souls not having a high moral elevation. If you have not a high sense of what you are brought to, your walk will be in keeping with your thought. How can a man be in keeping with a great thing if he have never seen it? I know nothing that saints are more deficient in than this; they cannot retire into solitude and say: I have
a scene of perfect unbounded joy that my Father has given me outside of all the difficulties here. You are not fit to serve if you cannot say this: I see Him up there, and I am to walk according to what I see down here. If I had not seen Him up there I should be powerless down here, but if I have, I see what a practical thing it is to walk according to His life here. You may eat of the bread and drink of the wine that is mingled; there is wondrous joy to be had while in such a world as this. I never could face things here unless I could say. That which keeps me steady is the fact that I have a scene of light and joy outside all that attracts me on the one side and that oppresses me on the other. Wisdom is the aggregation of everything that delights the heart. When the queen of Sheba heard the words of Solomon "there was no more spirit in her". (2 Chronicles 9:4) People talk of trying to get out of the world, but I say, get but one sight of Solomon and you will be out.
But, says someone, I have not got it. Are you looking for it? "As the hart panteth after the water-brooks, so panteth my soul after thee, O God". (Psalm 42:1) I would set you looking for it; I would have you seek "To see thy power and thy glory, so as I have seen thee in the sanctuary". (Psalm 63:2) I would have you say, I will cry tonight for it; I will cry for weeks, and if I do not get it in weeks, I will cry for months, but get it I will. A sinner must believe to get heaven, but a saint must cry for it to enjoy it. He has given you a taste for it, and He will satisfy it: "He that seeketh findeth".
I want your soul to be awakened to the fact that there is the cry of wisdom; I want you to listen to it, and to enter into all the favour and love of God so that it may produce in you a practical result, and that practical result, separation. Who is safe from the enticing words of man's wisdom, and all the subtle ways in which it is propounded? No one who
has not heard the voice of God's wisdom; only he is proof against it who knows Christ "the power of God, and the wisdom of God:" (1 Corinthians 1:24) "This I say, lest any man should beguile you". (Colossians 2:4) Souls need Christ in a deeper way. If. He have come down into this scene and delivered you from the things that surround you here, you can afford to take a new path and follow Him in faith.
If I contrast the two cries, I see that one demands moral separation; the other, offers pleasure. And all day and every day the two are inviting me; and, whenever I cannot tell which is the one to attend to, the words "Forsake the foolish, and live" (Proverbs 9:6) will guide me. A really wise man looks to be rejected; but on the other hand I get into the place where love is created by the service of love: "Rebuke a wise man, and he will love thee". (Proverbs 9:8)
And after all you have a better time of it here: "By me thy days shall be multiplied, and the years of thy life shall be increased". (Proverbs 9:11) You are a man superior to the things here, but, besides that, you derive more from everything in this scene because of what Christ is to you in it. On the contrary, when you come to the foolish woman, it all ends in sorrow of some sort: "The dead are there".
The Lord lead us into it, beloved friends. It is not merely in my walk and personal blessing that I gain, but I am led into the deeper sense of what God has prepared for them that love Him. There is a spot of unclouded light, a sphere where He has gathered everything round His Son, who will gird Himself and come forth and lead you into the light where He is.
Psalm 32; Luke 10:29 - 35
We could hardly get a simpler scripture to set forth what God has done for every believer on this earth. It is not that every believer enjoys it, but that God has done it. "Himself hath done it", and it is very important to us what God has done. He asked man to do something for Him before He did anything for man; and man having utterly failed in doing it, God has now done everything for man.
I take up, then, the simplest passage I can find, in order to bring out what the grace of God makes of a man on earth, not in heaven, what the grace of God makes of a poor sinner who believes in Christ on earth. What has He done for such a man? This is what I would simply bring before you.
The first statement you get in this psalm is quoted by the apostle Paul in the epistle to the Romans: "Blessed are they whose iniquities are forgiven, and whose sins are covered: blessed is the man to whom the Lord will not impute sin". (Romans 4:7) This declares to us what God is: it is God coming out. It is God's glory and happiness to say. Poor, wretched sinner, I can clear you entirely. It is a great matter to get this simple thing impressed on the soul -- the delight that God has in clearing us. See how the Lord speaks to His disciples about the woman of Samaria. No, He says, I cannot eat. They wonder and are surprised that He should do such an uncourteous thing as to refuse the meat that they had brought Him. But He had come "to finish His work", and that was His meat. Many a time I thought it was her work.
Has it ever entered into your heart the delight
that it is to God to clear you? .The thing that has come out, which is so insisted on in Hebrews, and which God announced in the flood, is, "The end of all flesh is come before me". (Genesis 6:13) For one moment it was so: all was either covered or drowned; a figure of what grace is. All is now gone judicially in the cross; and "He hath perfected for ever them that are sanctified;" (Hebrews 10:14) He does not impute sin to them "The worshippers once purged having no longer any conscience of sins". (Hebrews 10:2) This is a very important verse to get correctly in the soul. God has no claim for sin; sin once gone in the cross of Christ, God never imputes it again. Do you mean I never do it? No; nor does God say the end of all flesh is come before you. If I say it is come before my own eye, I know it is not; but, if God is the one I have offended, am I solicitous that the one l have offended should be satisfied as to my offence? If I have offended an affectionate father, I want to know how he feels about my conduct; If he says, I have removed it all myself, I am at perfect ease in his presence.
I put it to every soul here, Are you really resting in heart on this, that God can never impute a sin to you again? And a much greater thing than that too, He has liberated His own heart. Do not talk about committing sin, but get the sense that you have a purged conscience. A purged conscience is that God does not impute sin to me.
But I often find people saying, I feel that I am not as I used to be; I feel that there is something wrong. Well, what have you been doing? Oh, I have been drawn away by politics, by painting, or the like. But have you stopped It? No. Then you are still entertaining the thing that revived the flesh.
What I insist upon is, that you must get hold of what God has said; "To whom the Lord will not impute sin". It is the main point of everything. He "died for our sins". What for? to satisfy my conscience?
Not merely; but to satisfy God. Nothing can be simpler! "Our old man has been crucified with him, that the body of sin might be destroyed". (Romans 6:6) The moment you get the cross it is judicial; He has fulfilled in the death of the Lord Jesus Christ that which was foreshadowed in the deluge; the end of all flesh has come before Him. It is a wonderful moment: I have got into the holiest of all; the clothes of the old country are gone; the prodigal is in the Father's house.
But is not the great thing the gospel of theglory? I answer, everything comes from the glory, and from nowhere else. But what do you get in Saul of Tarsus? That the cross is what brings in the glory. Everyone that is saved has the light of the glory, but it is not everyone who sees it. It took Saul three days to learn the effect of the cross, before he could rest in the glory.
What I want to leave distinctly on every heart is, the relief that there is to the heart of God when He can say, I do not see a spot on you. But how can I get on such ground as that? I come in "by a new and living way", not merely by the blood; it is "through the veil, that is to say, his flesh", (Hebrews 10:20) and having done that, I have got rid of Adam. What will heaven be? Why, not a bit of flesh left and that is what heaven is now; that is the residence for a soul now. What puts me into the bliss of heaven is Gilgal -- cutting off the flesh. I have got in and I reside there. What is the character of the place? No admittance to the flesh. You have not to combat the flesh here, but to speak of what God is.
God has brought in the perfect liberation of His own heart. His Son said, "I have a baptism to be baptised with; and how am I straitened till it be accomplished!". (Luke 12:50) But now God has liberated Himself, He is free to go out to poor sinners. I am perfectly at a loss for words to convey the magnificence
of the love of God, that could come down to such a world as this, to rid me of all that stood between me and Him. And how did He do It? by a stroke of His hand? That would have been like a king, to pass by a transgression; but He did it in righteousness. He brought in the end of flesh by the cross of His own Son. Do you think God will ever let flesh go? No, never! He will even "deliver ... to Satan for destruction of the flesh". (1 Corinthians 5:5) A child of God may be in a house where wickedness is going on, and, if that house fall, the first one to be stricken down in it will most likely be His own child.
God, then, has seated me at His own board. At the King's table: "While the king sitteth at his table, my spikenard sendeth forth the smell thereof;" (Song of Songs 1:12) I am in the enjoyment of the wonderful position He has set me in. This is the first point, and it is a great thing to get hold of it, because it is grace.
God forgives, and never imputes. He forgives what you have done, and He does not impute what you are. Real repentance is, that I put my flesh as far from the eye of God as He has put it from Himself. I do not really sorrow unto repentance if I do not.
In the New Testament we see this figuratively brought out in the parable of the man who fell among the thieves. Here we find the state of the soul of a wretched sinner. What is a state for grace? A state of grace, we often hear of. Now, there are two things that form a state for grace: one is, that you do not resist the grace; and the other is, that you do not conceal your need of it. The man who had fallen among the thieves was in this wretched condition, and he did not resist any offer of kindness, neither did he conceal his need of it. Many a man who does not resist God's offers of forgiveness, yet conceals the extent of his need. This is the third verse of our psalm: "When I kept silence, my bones waxed old through my roaring all the day long;" (Psalm 32:3)
but then he comes to saying, "I acknowledged, my sin unto thee, and mine iniquity have I not hid. I said, I will confess my transgressions unto the Lord; and thou forgavest the iniquity of my sin". (Psalm 32:5) This is the great evidence of having no concealment. If everything be cleared away there is nothing to cover. You may say what you like to me, I have settled it all with God. That is the proof of a man really forgiven; but what brings about this state of no guile is, that there is full confession; if you have the title to forgiveness and you are not quite happy, it is that you have not thoroughly confessed all. The man in Luke does not say, I had six wounds, and I covered up three, and let the other three be healed, and I am well of those but not of the others, for I can see them still.
What is the use of grace if you do not want it? Suppose I were to say to a man deeply in debt, that I would pay all that he owed; and he were to bring his account books to go through with me, and set to work turning over three or four pages at a time so that I might not see the contents, and, upon my remonstrating with him, I received for answer that, They are gambling debts and the like, and I do not want you to see them. This is just what many do as to their sins. Says the psalmist, "When I kept silence, my bones waxed old through my roaring". (Psalm 32:3) "If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness". (1 John 1:9) Many a one goes wrong in this way; many a one has Never made a clean breast with God, and so is walking with an appearance of ease that he does not possess in His presence. Just as a bird will go hovering about over any part of the field but where its nest is, to draw away the dogs from it, so many a soul tries to conceal one thing or another from God's eye.
Now God has not a claim on me for sin, but He
has a claim on me for holiness; He will have holiness and truth in His people. "For this shall every one that is godly pray unto thee in a time when thou mayest be found; surely in the floods of great waters they shall not come nigh unto him", Psalm 32:6. That is, he shall be preserved in the midst of all that is contrary to, him here. It is the actual state of a person placed in this world; as we get it in our parable, He "set him on his own beast". This opens up a wonderful field as to where the forgiven soul is set upon the earth. But, I add, if there be partial ignorance as to the first point, there is also ignorance as to the second -- the position in which the forgiven soul is placed.
God's Son not only came down by Himself to clear away everything from me that could offend the eye of a holy God; but when He was exalted to God's right hand, as Peter says, "He hath shed forth this, which ye now see and hear:" (Acts 2:33) He has sent the Holy Spirit to be the power in His saints. It is given in striking figure in Luke: He "set him on his own beast".
Without a spot upon me, liberated in my conscience, but in the very scene of my suffering, in the very place that tells of my shame and my degradation, I am in divine power. It was not that he walked a few steps, and then went a few steps on the horse. No "we aremore than conquerors". And I believe that it is not a question whether we are up to it, but whether we know it. I like a child who gets on the table and says, "I am as high as my father". He, anyhow, knows the height he is aiming at.
A man who is walking in divine order in daily life, is a man of power. Many do the right thing in the wrong way; that is not being a man of power. Doing everything in the right way at the right time, that is power. It is not simply doing a good thing
that is necessarily power. The old prophet brought back the young one very kindly, but, there was no power on either side. Paul says, "I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me;". (Philippians 4:13) that is power.
We have wonderfully lost hold of the fact that the Holy Spirit has come down to be power in the believer - power for action. "All things, whatsoever ye shall ask in prayer, believing, ye shall receive". (Matthew 21:22) "Be careful for nothing; but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God. And the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus". (Philippians 4:7) Do you believe you are in favour when you are praying?
If I may make the distinction, there are two ways in which I get to God in prayer; one is, that I tell Him my need; the other, that He hears me. It says, "Let your moderation be known unto all men". (Philippians 4:5) The word "known" there, means that I do not publish it, neither do I keep it secret. But in the next verse, "Let your requests be made known", means that I do declare it; that I go to God several times about it, until I can say, I know that I have made it known. I may not know what I am to do about it, but this I do know, that I have got His ear, and I come back into the midst of all my troubles, at perfect peace. Is it that there is any change in them? None at all; but I have made them known to Him, and I have got His peace about them. I am like a mountain, the sun gone, and the winds and storms around me, but I am looking up to God through all, and I have got power.
But do you never have temptations? If I do, I have that which is a well of water springing up into eternal life, and which causes that I shall never thirst. I pass by a shop window, and I see a book
that I would like, but do I go down the street disconsolate because I have not got it? Not a bit! I have the Spirit of God; I have inexhaustible resources; the temptation has only this effect on me, that I say to myself, The Spirit of God does not want that, and I am just as happy without it. When Abraham returned from the battle, having refused the goods of the king of Sodom, Melchisedec met him and blessed him; and I believe there is no man who suffers, ever so little for Christ, but a special messenger is sent to him to minister blessing to him. "Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies". (Psalm 23:5) Do you think the Lord had not a halo round Him wherever He was on this earth? Then outwardly? He "anointest my head with oil;" in a scene of sadness I have the oil of gladness. And inside? "My cup runneth over. Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life: and I will dwell in the house of the Lord for ever". (Psalm 23:6)
In saying this I am not talking of serving at all. No one can serve until he enjoys. When a man can tell me what a passage has done for him -- when he can say, This is what this passage can do; then I say, he can help me with it. I can only take you as far as I have gone myself.
Thus, in the very place in which I am forgiven, God has sent down to me the new wine, and set me up in power; I often ask myself, "Is the Holy Spirit dwelling in you?" l look up to God, and thank Him with my whole heart for setting me on the earth in this most wonderful position. The great work in the present day is not to be refuting infidelity, but to be taking up your bed and walking - showing power in the place where you had none. The man who was healed carried his bed, not to prove that he was forgiven to himself, but to the bystanders. Let me see in any place one faithful man
walking with divine power, and I know there will be a wonderful effect from it in that place.
Now I turn to the third and last point: He "brought him to an inn". "Thou art my hiding place; thou shalt preserve me from trouble; thou shalt compass me about with songs of deliverance". (Psalm 32:7) I will say here what may surprise you a good deal, namely, that no one has the third, who has not the second; very few people know that the Lord cares for them; they have not got to the inn yet. And it will not do to go there on foot. Paul says, "Everywhere and in all things I am instructed both to be full and to be hungry;" (Philippians 4:12) I am perfectly happy in the care of the Lord. He "brought him to an inn". That is a place for travellers, it is not heaven. What can be more interesting than the knowledge that I am altogether in the care of the Lord here on earth? So many saints are disturbed, so many are restless, because they are not living in the knowledge that they are under the care of the Lord; and then there is no power to walk. Why have you no power in walk or in service? It is because you are not clear that the Lord is caring for you, that He is in all watchfulness over you, that He has let down the strong quills of His protecting care till they sweep the ground around you, and, if you are wise, you will creep up close under His wing, into the very down.
There is a reality in these things. My heart delights in the extent of what God has done for a poor soul when he puts one in power on the earth. I have not said a word about heaven; I am simply dwelling upon that which I want very distinctly to bring out, what God's grace has done for a believer on the earth. I say, he is cured, he is carried, and he is cared for.
The Lord grant that this little word may not be without its value to our souls. He says the cross of
My Son has cleared away everything from My eye that was against you, and now down here I leave you to walk through this scene in the power of Him who died for you. Thus I walk through an unreconciled scene, a reconciled person. May each of us have a more correct sense of the magnificence of the state in which God sets us on this earth for His name's sake. Amen.
Luke 11:19 - 36
The first thing we notice in this scripture is, that the Lord accepts, or foresees. His rejection by the Jews, and speaks of those among the gentiles, who should rise up and condemn the nation. The queen of the south should rise up in the judgment with the men of this generation and condemn them; so the men of Nineveh; because the one came from the utmost parts of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon, and the other repented at the preaching of Jonas; but a greater than either was here -- the Lord Jesus Christ. Here were two marks of the light now shining in the darkness: suffering and glory; suffering from man for the glory of God. Jonas was the one who suffered; Solomon represents the glory; I am not going to dwell upon it, but simply state the facts.
The Lord is now in the place of rejection. I suppose no one would be bold enough to say the Lord was not rejected. Still, whether you do or not, you must admit the simple fact that He is not here on the earth. He is gone to heaven, and we look for Him to come again. The scripture is very definite about His being rejected. The Roman soldiers put Him to death, after the Jews had handed Him over to them, saying, "By our law he ought to die". These brought the law, which God had given them, to bear upon Him, and the Roman soldiers the sword, which they also had received from God. The Jews and the gentile Romans combined to put Him to death. True, Pilate, the viceroy under the emperor, washed his hands to clear himself from the crime, but He was nevertheless clearly rejected, both
by Jews and gentiles. I cannot understand a person who refuses to believe in His rejection; I have heard it done. But what saith the scripture? "The kings of the earth stood up, and the rulers were gathered together against the Lord, and against his Christ. For of a truth against thy holy child Jesus, whom thou hast anointed, both Herod, and Pontius Pilate, with the Gentiles, and the people of Israel, were gathered together, for to do whatsoever thy hand and thy counsel determined before to be done. And now. Lord, - behold their threatenings: and grant unto thy servants, that with all boldness they may speak thy word, by stretching forth thine hand to heal; and that signs and wonders may be done by the name of Thy holy child Jesus". (Acts 4:26 - 30) True, it was what had already been determined; nevertheless, it was they who said, "This is the heir, come, let us kill him, and the inheritance shall be ours". (Mark 12:7) I want no other proof of it; and, to a mind subject to Scripture, nothing can be clearer than the fact that Jesus Christ, the Son of God, has been rejected from this earth.
Man at first refused God in the garden of Eden, and doubted His goodness; thus sin came in; and secondly, he refused the One God sent to take that sin away; that was the double sin. Every believer admits the first sin, the sin in the garden of Eden, but there is another sin: Man has rejected the One who came to take the sin away, who came to bless; nor will the world tolerate Him now.
Nothing struck me more when a young man, than when I once ventured to speak to a young acquaintance who was sitting near me about Christ. The man seemed perfectly amazed at the mention of the Name, and said, if I remember rightly, that it was not a fit subject for company. It completely shocked me. But so it is, there is no real acceptance of Christ by the world. They might not be so bad as to put
Him to death, but people do not want to be interrupted by words about Him. But, be that as it may, I insist upon it, and I must take it as a settled thing in scripture, that this is the second sin of man. The first was the questioning of the goodness of God in the midst of everything to tell of that goodness in the garden of Eden, and man became a sinner. This, every person with a conscience admits. The second is, man refused and rejected the Son of God; wherefore I take the ground now that He has been rejected; and that will lead to my subject this evening. What is to be done in the place where He has been rejected? It is a solemn question! Do you say, Christ died for me, and by Christ's death I am saved and can go to heaven? I quite admit it; I go further, I say the moment you believe you are fit for heaven. But I have another question to put to you: Are you fit, according to God, for earth?
There is not a believer on the whole globe tonight but is fit for heaven. As a believer he is made meet for "the inheritance of the saints in light". The prodigal son was made meet immediately he returned to his father. We see three things in his case: he is kissed, he is clothed, he is feasted. But that is the heavenly side of it; the question I have to ask is: Are you fit for earth? You are fit for heaven the moment you are converted. The thief was the moment he believed. But the question is, Are you walking here according to God in everything? Are you walking wholly for Christ here where Christ is rejected? It is a solemn question: What is to be here on earth where Christ is rejected? Merely a people to be saved and go to heaven, and not a vestige of Christ to be seen on the earth? Is that your thought? Is that the way you look at the grace of Christ? Not a vestige of Christ left on earth? That is what Satan wanted, no doubt. But what Christ says here is. On the contrary, that when He,
who is the light should go away, His own people should be lights upon the earth during His absence -- a conjunction of lights -- which light He was Himself when here. Of course, they would not be the origin of the light; He is the origin of it; but they would be the light here instead of Himself. Hence, He says in this passage: "No man, when he hath lighted a candle, putteth it in a secret place, neither under a bushel, but on a candlestick, that they which come in may see the light". (Luke 11:33) He is the light Himself.
This, then, is the time of His rejection. He is gone away, and what will follow? Will the candle upon earth be extinguished? "The lamp of the body is thine eye: when thine eye is simple, thy whole body also is light". (Luke 11:34) Not full of light, but light. But where is the light? That is the question. Let us see what scripture says.
First, let me say, there are three things you must always do in reading scripture. First, accept the truth; next admire it -- get the taste of it, say. That is beautiful! Lastly, adopt it. If you do not do the second, you will not do the third. First, I say, I accept it; I say, That is the word of God. Then, the next thing, I like it; I say, It is beautiful! Then, there is hope for you if you say that. I believe in a person who admires the word of God; he is safe; he has not adopted it, perhaps, but he is safe. There is accepting, admiring, adopting. Now, what have we to learn in this passage before us?
If I wanted an illustration of it, I should say we have it in the children of the captivity, who would not eat of the king's meat, nor drink of the king's wine; that was separation; and yet their faces were fairer and fatter than those of all the children who did. Their appearance was better. Then they were enabled to bear the fire. They first refused the wine, and then they endured the fire. That is the order. The light that is in you shines out.
But now another thing. It is the body itself that is light. It is what is called sanctification, but not sanctification simply as belonging to God. There are two sanctifications. One is the sanctification by the Spirit; the other is progressive sanctification, which is simply this: you are more separate unto God. Practically, you get it in these children of the captivity. The principle is the same; it is the body of light. It is not the body full of light, as that tumbler is full of water. There is only one word used to express it in the original. It is like a glow-worm. We get the same idea in Scripture in another place. "Who gave himself for us",- firstly, "that he might redeem us from all iniquity", and secondly, "that he might ... purify unto himself a peculiar people". (Titus 2:14) The word "peculiar" means something out of the common. The saint ought to be in this world as something novel. People may not admire, but they must observe him, as we read of Herod concerning John. It is said he observed him, and I think this is quite possible I believe the rich man observed Lazarus though he does not seem to have given him anything; yet when in hell, he says, "Send Lazarus". He knew something of him. Why did he not take notice of him? Because the one was for the world, and the other was not; but now he was obliged to confess his virtue. It is an illustration of that passage, "That ... they may by your good works, which they shall behold, glorify God in the day of visitation". (1 Peter 2:12) Many a person might pass you by now, and take no notice of you, nor how you walk like Christ. But, by-and-by, they will say, I used to see that person on earth, and I remember how he walked like Christ. "That ... they may by your good works, which they shall behold, glorify God", (1 Peter 2:12) not now, but "In the day of visitation". In the day when He comes.
Look at that lamp; see the halo round the flame.
It is a circle properly. You see it in the distance like a circle of light. I might compare it to a Christian: in the midst of the darkness, he would be like an apparition. I cannot get an illustration to give the right idea. It is not that people would really like it, not that they might be attracted by it, they might be astonished at it, might dislike it; but there is something peculiar there, it is a body of light, and they cannot but see it.
Having settled this point, I hope with clearness -- Christ being rejected -- I ask this question. Can anything more strikingly set forth the wisdom of God than that, when Satan had succeeded in tempting men to drive God's Son bodily out of the earth and afterward to refuse Him in glory. He should now come out with this wonderful secret that there should be thousands of bodies upon earth all bearing the light of that very Christ whom they had refused! Would we could see it more! But this is what the Lord sets forth to the disciples when He says, "If therefore thine eye be single" -- if you are entirely set upon this -- then "thy whole body shall be full of light". "The light of the body is the eye". (Luke 11:34) What is your eye upon? Upon getting property? That will not give you a body full of light. Is it amusement? That will not do. The eye must be right, to get the body full of light. Is it upon the One who is not here? Then the eye is single, and the whole body is light.
The apostle speaking on this subject in Philippians 3, has three things before him. First, Christ is his study; he counts all things loss for Christ. Secondly,- where He is, is his mark. Thirdly, what He is; he covets a glorious body like His. He says, I am going to Him. He is my study, my mark, my hope. There is a man who has got a single eye. He is my study. Like a painter taking a sketch: he looks at a landscape until the picture is so impressed upon
his eye, that he can transfer it to canvas. I have a study, an object, and that object is Christ: "that I may win Christ". I say. Where are you going? To that Christ in glory. What is your hope? I am hoping He will come, and I shall have a glorious body like His own. That is a single eye. A body full of light. Paul therefore, can say, though in prison, "So now also Christ shall be magnified in my body" -- what an expression that is! "Christ shall be magnified in my body, whether it be by life, or by death". (Philippians 1:20) Paul would so walk here that he would be the expression of the light in the scene where his Lord was not. We should be so separate, so apart from everything here, so bearing out what He was, that we should be setters forth of the very light He was when here, but now absent.
The moon is a beautiful illustration of this. She has no light of her own, but borrows it from the absent sun. And we are to be here, setting forth the light of the absent Christ, until He returns. That is where this subject closes: "Let your loins be girded about, and your lights burning: and ye yourselves like unto men that wait for their lord". (Luke 12:35 - 36) Like the moon going through this dark night, shedding forth the light of Christ, looking for nothing at all from the earth, but bearing about the light of the absent One, in the very scene where He has been rejected; bearing light from Him who is absent, in the place where He is not. This is the wonderful position we occupy!
Now for the question. How is this to be attained? How is it to be brought about? You say, I bow to the truth -- I accept the truth. I trust many of you say, I admire it; it is really beautiful to be in such a position; I see the picture; tell me how it may be brought about; let me see in Scripture the course one should pursue in order that this may be effected.
Take the case of Stephen. Looking at his face they
saw it as "the face of an angel". That is figurative of what I mean. A person so distinctly separate, such a peculiar course, something so marvellous, something so morally beautiful!
You find this in John 17 where the thought is even a higher thing than service. Not that I make little of service, but to represent Christ on the earth is better than any service. He says in the tenth verse, "I am glorified in them". Like a briar grafted with a beautiful rose, so Christ is glorified in a man. What is he by nature? A briar. But I look at him there, and I see a thing that is really fragrant to God, and fragrant to man; he is a beautiful rose, and there is Christ glorified. It is not, I will take them to glory, but "I am glorified in them". Therefore, He says, "I pray not that thou shouldest take them out of the world, but that thou shouldest keep them from the evil". (John 17:15)
How is this to be brought about? The first thing is -- and it is the great lesson for souls -- and it divides my subject: first, how this is produced; and secondly, what the effects are. First. It is not simply that Christ is in you; He is in every believer; but the question is, has Christ got -- I will not say dominion over you -- but has He got the throne of your heart? I do not ask, has He got some rule? Like a king who may own a conquered country, with a few soldiers here and there to keep it for him; that is not the throne; but as the little hymn expresses it:
That is the way it is brought about. Christ having the throne of the heart.
It was just the difference between Himself and the Pharisee, as we see a little lower down. The Pharisee came, and invited Him to dine with him, and he
marvelled that the Lord had not washed before dinner; and the Lord takes the opportunity to teach him a solemn lesson. The Pharisee worked on the outside, but Christ on the inside. The Pharisee doubtless thought the Lord and he were agreed, but he soon found out his mistake. No, the Lord says, you work on the outside, but I work from within. When the light works it is from within, and shines outwards.
Every believer has a love for Christ in the bottom of his heart. It must be so. It is the first commandment, and it must be in the heart; but it is not every believer who can say. He has the complete control of me. Can you say so? I say He has the fight. There is a time when the heart of the believer does acknowledge His right to rule. "My son, give me thy heart", (Proverbs 23:26) is the command in Proverbs. Now, it is not that the Lord takes the heart; the Lord really looks to you to give Him up the reins. Did you ever give up the reins of your heart to Him? He says. There are the reins; give them up to Me; "Son, give me thy heart". The Lord will receive anything we give Him; He does not take anything.
Like Hannah, Samuel's mother, she says, "I will give him unto the Lord", (1 Samuel 1:11) and she brought him up to the temple, and put him in the house of the Lord. He was not a priest, he was not converted, but she says, "I will give him unto the Lord", and the Lord says, I will take him. This is where we parents fail too often. We say we give our children to the Lord but there is a little reserve for the world. The Lord will take anything we give Him. That is the great principle.
Now, let me show you how it comes about. Turn to a passage, Galatians 4; where we get, first, the doctrine of this. In the end of this chapter we read: "But as then he that was born after the flesh persecuted him that was born after the Spirit, even so it
is now. Nevertheless what saith the scripture? Cast out the bondwoman and her son: for the son of the bondwoman shall not be heir with the son of the freewoman. So then, brethren, we are not children of the bondwoman, but of the free". (Galatians 4:29 - 31) The doctrine there is that, that which the law could act upon was to be cast out. That was not to have rule there. The force of the passage is, that, Christ is to have no rival in the heart. There was not to be a bit of flesh there. The practical way of it we get from the Old Testament, Genesis 21, where Isaac, the child of promise, was weaned.
Every believer has Christ in him, but the question is, Has Christ, really got the reins? Has Christ got the throne of the heart? Is He the acknowledged sovereign? Has it come to this point -- this blessed point in your soul? Do you say there is no rival to exist here? Christ is to reign. If I go into my business, Christ is to reign there. In my home, Christ is to reign there. Am l a worse husband, a worse father, a worse business man because Christ reigns in my heart? Not at all.
Isaac was in the house before he was weaned, and Ishmael was there fourteen years before he was turned out. It is well for us if we can say. We have turned out Ishmael. There is a moment known to the soul when it says, I do not tolerate the flesh. No toleration to the flesh. Why not? Because you have got something better: Christ.
When Isaac was weaned Abraham made a great feast in his house, and the consequence of this festival was that every person in the house acknowledged the right of this little child. Weaning means that he was put on his own account. Every one in the house is doing him honour.
Is that the acknowledged feeling of your heart with respect to the rights of Christ? It is a blessed moment! It is the heart keeping festival in, the
acknowledgment of the right of Christ to occupy the throne; it is the coronation day.
It was a wonderful day in the house of Abraham when Isaac was weaned, when the three hundred and eighteen servants of Abraham all acknowledged the right and title of that child to his place! Was there anyone who did not acknowledge it? There was one: Ishmael. "he that was born after the flesh persecuted him that was born after the Spirit". (Galatians 4:29) And now, Sarah says, let him be cast out. The thing was very grievous to Abraham, but God commanded him to hearken to her voice, and do it. A moment comes when Christ must be supreme in your heart; when you acknowledge that He has the right to dictate to you in every circumstance and relation in life. He has the right to my heart, to every heart; He has the right to be sovereign.
Have you reached that moment? I hear people say, This is quite true, but I find the flesh comes back again. I find Ishmael still haunts the corners of the house. Yes, that is true; nevertheless, I have reached a point where I do not tolerate it. Practically you have reached the point described in the language of a poet, when
I do not tolerate it now. Why? Because I have got something better. I have Christ, the One who has the right.
That established. What is the effect now that He is sovereign? What will He do?
I come to Ephesians 5. and I see what He does. There we read, "Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the church, and gave himself for it; that he might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word". (Ephesians 5:25 - 26) There are two things in the latter part of this verse. The first, is the effect
of what we get in verse 2, "Christ also hath loved us, and hath given himself for us". I need not dwell upon that. But I ask this question, What is He occupied with now? I ask you, and I ask myself, and the Lord grant us all a deeper feeling of it. What has He been occupied within regard to you this very day? He has been occupied in sanctifying you. Do you ask me what the Sovereign of the throne of my heart is engaged in? l answer "that he might sanctify and cleanse it by the washing of water by the word, that he might present it to himself a glorious church, not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing; but that it should be holy and without blemish". (Ephesians 5:27)
That is the measure of what I am coming to. Let me first get what this Sovereign is occupied with. "That He might sanctify ... it with the washing of water by the word".
This brings out two things: one, sanctification, and the other, washing. One is positive, and the other negative.
Turn to John 13, where, we get the Lord. Washing the disciples' feet. There is the negative, and there is the positive. Everything in Christianity must go on this ground. There must be negation, because the thing is bad. There must be a positive, to acquire the thing that is good.
Now, mark one thing in connection with these scriptures. Paul always puts John's statements in inverse order. The cause is this: John is setting forth the Son of God on earth, and Paul is connecting the saints with Christ in heaven. The washing of chapter 13, is to get rid of the bad; it is for the restoration of communion. You have lost communion with the Lord; you looked into some shop window, perhaps, and your heart has got away from Christ; then He come? with His word, and turns you away from it, and thus communion is restored.
In John 17, you get the sanctification.
There are two characteristics of those who represent Christ on earth. Alas! beloved friends; we have lost the first, almost never to be recovered. That is, that we all should be one, with the same mind, the same judgment.
There is an erroneous notion abroad that one form suits one, and a different one another; that is, that one man is an oak, another an ash, another an alder, another a birch; that we are all to be trees in the forest, and therefore we should agree to differ: It is untrue, we should be one; we ought to be all oaks; little, big, or middle-sized oaks. That is the meaning of John 17; as the Father and the Son are one. There is no such thing in Scripture as that you and I should have different opinions about any one thing. There may be little and great lights, but they all agree. There might be a thousand lights in this room, but they would all blend. There might be five thousand, or five million candles in this room, but not one starts for himself. They all blend. There is union: "perfectly joined together in the same mind". That is the first characteristic. The other is, you should be separate from the world. In point of fact, if I had none of the world in me, I should have nothing but the heavenly mind in me. When I differ from you, and you differ from me, there is some of the world in one or both of us. We could not but agree if it were not so.
As to sanctification, the Lord says: "I pray not that thou shouldest take them out of the world, but that thou shouldest keep them from the evil". (John 17:15) We are here to represent Christ, and to be separate from the world. Then He adds, "They are not of the world, even as I am not of the world". (John 17:16) It is a wonderful thing to say, I am not of the world. "Sanctify them through thy truth: thy word is truth. As thou hast sent me into the world, even so have I also sent them into the world". (John 17:17 - 18) The truth here is the
truth of the Father: That is, I have lost the world, but I have the Father.
Suppose a person offends me in the streets, I will not give him in charge of a policeman. Why? Because I have a Father in heaven who will take note of it. He tells me, "No weapon that is formed against thee shall prosper". (Isaiah 54:17) I have lost the world; I have overcome through Christ; in place of the world, l have the Father. "If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him". (1 John 2:15) "Sanctify them through thy truth: thy word is truth". (John 17:17) That is. Depend now upon Me. I have a greater sense of what Christ is in Himself, and this is its effect; I am more separate from the world. Thus I become a light. I take a new course, a novel one, because I have got something instead of the world: a Father in heaven. I have a Father in heaven in lieu of the world. That makes me a distinct person, and I have not only a new nature in Christ, but I am kept here in such childlike dependence on my Father in heaven, that I am separate from the world. This is sanctification.
A person may say. Are you better than you were, with all this separation from the world? Not a bit. But I will tell you what is the difference by an illustration.
In my garden I plant a laurustinus. I plant nothing else; but the laurustinus grows till it covers the whole space. You say, I see no weeds there, nothing but laurustinus. That is just it. That is sanctification: so pre-occupied by Christ, that you see nothing but Christ. No weeds, only Christ to be seen. As the apostle .says, "So now also Christ shall be magnified in my body", (Philippians 1:20) not in my heart. Christ so monopolizing me that there's no room for anything else. It is not that I am better, but that Christ only is there.
Now let me say a word as to the measure of sanctification
Every believer admits that he must be separate from something. He used to go to certain places of amusement, but he does not go to them now. He admits that christianity demands separation: and there is a certain measure of separation in his walk. Another says, That is not enough; I must do this, and do the other; I must keep a more separate path than he does. Now what is the measure of sanctification? "For their sakes I sanctify myself, that they also might be sanctified through the truth". (John 17:19)
Beloved friends. We mast bow to it. I cannot go behind scripture. A man may tell me he is sanctified, but I say, Are you as far out of the world as Christ on the throne of God? That is the measure of your sanctification. "For their sakes I sanctify myself;" for their sakes, I go out of it. If I stay in it, they might have something to connect their hearts with here; but if I go out, there will be nothing for them in it. I go outside the world that they may be sanctified through the truth -- that they may be coloured with the truth, Just as the worm gets coloured by the leaf it feeds on. That is the measure of sanctification.
You say, I never shall be that. I am not saying whether you will be or not; but I say. Do not assert that you are sanctified until then. I only repeat what a person said lately: 'Whatever God asks us to do must be impossible to a man -- must be entirely beyond him'. The measure of sanctification is Christ in heaven.
If you have only given up going to places of amusement, natural pleasures, and the like, I say that is only a little bit of the road. We are to learn practically what the Lord meant when He said, "Sanctify them through thy truth". (John 17:17) The only thing I have got instead of the world is the Father Himself. Blessed for the heart to know it!
If I want to get the measure it is clearly settled. I must separate from the habits and customs of the world, from worldly ways and principles and practices, from things here, I must be as separate in principle and spirit as that blessed One on high.
But there is another way of sanctification. One is by the word, already dwelt on; another is by chastening. The Father lays a man sick on his bed, and you go in and visit him, and you find him rejoicing in the Lord. He says, perhaps, "Before I was afflicted I went astray: but now" -- what is the rest of that verse? -- "have I kept thy word", (Psalm 119:67) he is sanctified. So that the very chastening brings about his sanctification. He is brought under the ministry of the great Sanctifier, Christ Himself. There is one mode of sanctification by the word, and another by circumstances.
Let us turn to a passage to bring this out -- Hebrews 12:10 "For they verily for a few days chastened us after their own pleasure; but he for our profit, that we might be partakers of his holiness". This brings out the measure again. How separate are you? As separate as God is? You know you are not: then do not talk of holiness until you are. "That we might be partakers of his holiness". God is using things here with this object in view. I find it so; I do not want anyone to tell me my besetting sin, for I know it from the word of Christ, and from the chastening of the Father. The word shows what is wrong in you, and a blow comes to correct you in the very thing in which you are failing. God shakes you out of it. You are going on with the Lord, but there is something in the way, and He says, I will remove this, for you would get on better without it. The Lord will take the heart out of the earth, and to do this. He may give you a fit of illness. He says, I see your heart is drawn to the earth; and in the fit of illness, you lose your joy in everything here.
You were full of these earthly things, but now you say, I do not care about any of them. Sometimes it is the case with a rich man; he gets ill, and he says, I am so languid, so pulled down with this disease, I really do not care about anything, I cannot enjoy anything. It was thus with Job; he first loses all he could enjoy and then he gets sick, and loses the power to enjoy.
Christ first presents us in the perfection of Himself before the Father; and now. He says, I will present you as Myself before the world. That is our true place.
I think you cannot find it difficult now to see that Christ is really to be the Sovereign of your heart; that what He is bringing about is this separation from the world unto God -- separating you for this distinct and peculiar thing: your eye upon Christ, yourself a body of light going through this world.
If you want to know what Christ's ministry really is, go and read a chapter, and you will find, if you want to know what is the matter with you, that the part of the chapter that speaks to you is the very thing you need. There was a vacancy for that brick, and the Builder says, Bring it, up for this vacancy here. The Lord knows all about it. When a preacher says, I will apply the word, he is out of his place. How does he know what is in the heart? All the preacher can do is to bring out the word; he cannot apply it. The Lord applies it.
Now let us connect this part of the subject with Luke 2. The great principle is, that we are here upon the earth a body of light; a luminous body, like the glow-worm, like the moon, like the rose, in the beauty of Christ.
One word more as to what sanctification is. People say. We have bodily power, and mental talents, and such like; and Christ sanctifies them for His use. A
standard rose shall be my illustration. Go and examine one. Look at the joint between the rose and briar. From the moment you join the rose with the briar, the rose refuses to take any colour or mark whatever of the skin, or any likeness whatever of the briar. It says: I will appropriate every bit of strength in you -- I will appropriate every bit of you as to power, but I will not bear your name, nor be like you. Thus Christ takes all the believer's strength, mental and bodily, not for credit to himself, but He appropriates it all as in the rose. And what is the briar? Nothing but a poor briar still, though it has grown a most beautiful rose. It is in itself as poor a briar as when it grew in the hedge. But the fact of allowing it to partake of the nature of the rose is very wonderful. It is absorbed by the rose.
The subject closes with these words: "Let your loins be girded about, and your lights (or candles) burning; and ye yourselves like unto men that wait for their lord" (Luke 12:35 - 36) -- doing it all for Him. I am the moon going through this dark night. Waiting for the promise, the coming of Christ.
What must be the character of the Christian thus set in the most glorious position that ever a saint can occupy in this world! I can contribute to the earth, but I need not look for a single thing from it! We are not as the Jews; receivers from the earth. "He that believeth on me", said the Lord Jesus, "out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water", (John 7:38) to this poor world. We are to be contributors to the earth, not receivers from it. That is the wonderful position we occupy! Now, see that your body is light.
There are two characteristics of this practical light in this chapter. One is that I do not fear them that kill the body; I am as bold as a lion. Stephen is an example of this. He could say, I am not afraid
of them that kill the body. The other is, "I say unto you, take no thought for your life, what ye shall eat; neither for the body, what ye shall put on". (Luke 12:22) There is no fear without, and no care within. What would people say of such an one? There is a body, a light -- there is a peculiar man coming down the street! He has no fear, and no care! He is here in this scene, looking for nothing from it, and he is afraid of nothing in it! A man that has no care can occupy himself with the things of God. "Seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you". (Matthew 6:33) We have not a thing to think of -- only the kingdom of God.
The Lord lead our hearts to see what a solemn and yet happy thing it is -- the greatest inducement we can have to stay upon this earth. The Lord knew all that would happen to us here, and yet He says, "I pray not that thou shouldest take them out of the world, but that thou shouldest keep them from the evil". (John 17:15) I am to be a representation of Christ on the earth.
The Lord lead us to see what a blessed thing it is to be in the scene where He is not, thus shining as lights in the world.
The great occupation of the One sitting on the throne of God is to sanctify me. I look at the Father's dealings with me, chastening me, and one thing and another as I require. Jacob may go down into Syria for twenty years, but God says, I will bring you up again.
Talk of 'exclusivism!' I believe we do not know what it is divinely. Do you know the holiness of God? What sort of exclusiveness should we have if we knew the holiness of God? We do not understand what the holiness of God is. We do not understand what the holiness is that becomes His house. "Thou art holy, O thou that inhabitest the praises of Israel".
The chief thing presented to us in the 14th chapter of Luke, is the supper; and it becomes a great thing for us to know what this supper is. You see it is at the end of the day -- it is the celebration of an accomplished work, -- it is a festival, wisdom's feast. It is often used, I have no doubt, for preaching the gospel, but though it includes that, there is a great deal more -- it is the climax, the completion of the thing. In chapter 15, we read of a feast, and it is at the end of the blessing, not at the beginning of it. We have not got to heaven yet, but we taste of the joy of it, that is the supper. The supper is in the Father's house.
It will help us if we note that there are three places in which the prodigal is found. First he was lost: grace came and he got enlightened. He came to himself, he arose, and while he was yet a great way off the father saw him, and he gets the kiss. Last of all we read of the feast, "They began to be merry". The three parables are fulfilled in every believer. We get the shepherd going after the lost sheep, that is, Christ on the cross; then the woman lighting her candle, and sweeping diligently. You get light working in the soul. "And he arose, and came to his father". Well, what next; "His father saw him, and ran, and fell on his neck, and kissed him". (Luke 15:20) The sinner gets the sense in his soul 'there is love in the heart of God for me'. That is the first thing that gives real comfort. It is not a question of love in me, but in Him. How do you know that love? He kissed me. You see it was God's act: the kiss is the expression of the one who gives it. There is love in the
heart of God for you. I do not ask, Are you a better man? but Do you know this love of God?
The true evidence of a converted, man is, that he prays, as it was said to Ananias of Saul; "Behold he prayeth;" that is, he counts on God. Like the Syrophenician woman, she did not get the blessing when she took the place of Israel, but when she took that of a dog (deserving nothing), looking to Him, He gave her what she sought. There is nothing a parent values more than confidence. Confidence is when I count on you; presumption is when I count on myself. Suppose I go to a friend's house, and walk in, and he says, 'I am delighted to see you'. 'Well', I say, 'I counted on you'. But if l go to a stranger's door and do so that is presumption, I am counting upon myself. Man turned from God at the garden of Eden, and to bring himself back, that is presumption. Then how do I get confidence? I see Christ given for me, that is how I get it. "God commendeth his love towards us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us". (Romans 5:8) We are not up to grace. Look at the thief; "Lord, remember me when thou comest into thy kingdom". The Lord says, "To-day shalt thou be with me in paradise". (Luke 23:42 - 43) Grace was beyond him. When the son got the kiss, he was still a great way off. What then? "Bring forth the best robe;" what then? He is, in another place. "And bring hither (it does not say, "Bring forth") the fatted calf ... and let us eat, and be merry". (Luke 15:22 - 23) That is the feast. I trust I am addressing those who have got the kiss. You have got the sense in your soul 'there is love in the heart of God for me'. Is that all? It is not, it is only the beginning. Well, what now? (Romans 5.) You get the new clothes, for we are, made "meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light". (Colossians 1:12) That is the divine nature; that fits me for that other place; for what I insist upon is that there is another place -- a place with the Father.
I ask the evangelist, Where do you leave your converts? With the kiss, or at the feast? Many never bring them to the feast at all. The feast is in the Father's house. "They began to be merry". The soul must be brought to the sense of this -- I am in the scene that suits God. There is the feast.
It is the same grace that kisses me afar way off that delights to have me in the Father's house. But, you say, it is a great thing to have had the kiss. I admit it. If you have not had the kiss, you have nothing. But l am talking about the feast, because I want you to see it is the same love that gives me the kiss that will not be satisfied till I am at the feast.
It is not that I am not satisfied; but He is not satisfied. No greater appeal can be made than that. If you wish to gratify the Father's heart, go in and partake of the feast. I remember hearing of a mother whose heart was broken by the bad conduct of a favourite son-, it brought her to death's door. At length he returned, and someone told her he was come. What do you think was the message she sent out to him? 'Tell him to come upstairs'. Suppose he were to say. 'No'. Well, I would say you were bad enough before, but now you are shameful. That is what I say to you. Have you ever gratified the heart of God? What do you mean? Have you ever come to the feast? Have you ever enjoyed the fatted calf? It is a figurative expression, but every one who has lived in the country knows what the fatted calf is: one kept under a crib till some great guest arrives, then it is brought forth. Beloved friends, the things set forth here is the love of the Father, He was so glad to have the prodigal back. Now, He says, we have the right guest. Who is the guest? A sinner saved by grace. And that is what the elder brother could not understand at all. God's heart was delighted to have a poor sinner. Now, He says, for the feast, "Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard" that
is, the feast; "Neither have entered into the heart of man". "But" now says the apostle, we go beyond that -- "God hath revealed them unto us by his Spirit". (1 Corinthians 2:9 - 10)
We have the feast, (verse 15). One said, "Blessed is he that shall eat bread in the kingdom of God". (Luke 14:15) Oh! says the Lord, You are looking forward to the millennium; but there is something before that. Just as with the thief, "Lord, remember me when thou comest into thy kingdom". (Luke 23:42) This man was looking for the kingdom, not what the Lord brings before us in the supper. Now we find one thing very clear, that the feast or "great Supper", is not an earthly feast (the kingdom was that), and if earthly blessing is occupying you, you turn away from the supper, and therefore the Lord looks out for those who are poor and wretched, for the others are pre-occupied and will not come.
It is the festive moment when the soul is brought into the sense of divine enjoyment -- festivity with God. I am at home with God. Did you ever hear of a father that did not like to share the joy of his house with his children? I ask you; have you entered into the feast of the Father's house? What was the apostle's anxiety about the saints? That they should be converted? No, they were converted. That they should walk as respectable citizens down here? Of course he wanted that, but that was not what they were converted for. "For I would that ye knew what great conflict I have for you, and for them at Laodicea; ... that their hearts might be comforted, being knit together in love, and unto all riches of the full assurance of understanding, to the acknowledgement of the mystery of God, and of the Father, and of Christ; in whom are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge". (Colossians 2:1 - 3) It is a wonderful thing for a person to say, True, I have a poor place down here, but I have a wonderful home. You see the poor
labouring man, toiling on from day to day, but he says, "I have a home". You never met a man in the world going on regularly and steadily, who had not a home. And the Christian who has not a home is very shaky and uncertain. In one sense I have not a home; I am a pilgrim and a stranger. A stranger is one without a home; a pilgrim is one going home; but how can you be going home, if you do not know you have a home? I shall always be walking down here in the sorrows of this world, if I do not know I have a home, and taste of the enjoyment of it, and walk in the power of it.
Now turn to 1 Kings 10, because people ask, 'But how do you get this?' The Lord said of Himself (Luke 11) that He was greater than Jonah, and greater than Solomon. It is not only that Christ suffered here and bore the judgment of sin which answers to Jonah, but He is greater than Solomon. The apostle says, "If ye then be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above". (Colossians 3:1). Beloved friends, are you seeking the things above? Now do not say that is all very fine if I could only get to it. It is not a question of getting it; but are you seeking it?
Look at the queen of Sheba; you get an example there of seeking. We might say of Christendom, The queen of Sheba shall rise up and condemn it. She was the queen of the south, a gentile - just what we are. Well, you say, I wish I could get it. Then you are like the queen of Sheba. She said, I must have it. It was at an immense cost she had to come from Abyssinia, across the desert; a toilsome journey. No matter; look at what was in her heart. I am set upon having it, at whatever cost. Oh, that this were in every saint's heart! I am set upon having the enjoyment of Christ.
I remember when I wanted to get that enjoyment in Christ. What did I find? That things I never thought I could get rid of dropped off like autumn
leaves. Why? They lost their power. Why? Because they were cast into the shade. What was Paul's argument? "I saw ... a light above the brightness of the sun". (Acts 26:13) What I have to learn, and what I have learned, in some feeble measure, is that Christ is the brightest thing, not only in the dark day, but the brightest thing in the bright day. In the brightest circumstances possible. He is the brightest - far "above the brightness of the sun". That is what will put out the farm, the oxen, and every earthly blessing. Will you go to trouble to get it? Paul counted "all things but loss" -- not for salvation; he had got that -- "for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus, my Lord", that he might know Him. How long had he been at it? Thirty years. "I have suffered the loss of all things;" (Philippians 3:8) He counted them rubbish. The moment I hear a man saying, I lost so-and-so following the Lord, I say, Oh, do not talk about what you lost. If you lost a farthing in picking up a sovereign, you would not be talking of what you had lost. If you counted Christ as a treasure you would be talking of what you found in Him.
This great queen had great treasures; gold and silver, and precious stones, and camels. Can you not imagine her counsellors of state addressing her: 'Madam, this is a most extraordinary journey to take; think of the time, the fatigue, the cost, and on a mere report'. 'Ah' she said, 'I'll go; I do not care what it cost; all I want is to talk with Solomon'. Beloved friends, is that what is in your, heart, I want to talk with Him? That is not all she goes to Jerusalem for. Many souls stop on the way; many have the kiss, and stop there. I may be speaking to some who have never been in the Fathers house. People make a wonderful thing of it if they walk seven or eight miles to a meeting, and talk of what they lost -- perhaps a day's work. It is not what you have lost, but what you gained. We ought to be set on this
"Until we all arrive at ... the knowledge of the Son of God". (Ephesians 4:13) That is the highest knowledge you can ever come to. The queen came to Jerusalem with a very great train. People say, 'if only I had everything in this world, I would be all right'. Well, she was not all right. The world is divided into two things -- pleasures and afflictions; I am more afraid of the pleasures than the afflictions. In affliction you turn to the Lord. The danger is of being carried away by the very favours God has given to man.
What is the next point? She communed with him of all that was in her heart. Have you given the Lord the key of your heart? I asked that of a believer, and he turned honestly round, and said, 'No, I won't'. I will not say he was an unsaved person; but he was not happy. The moment you confide in a person, that person is your master; he has hold of you. m "There was not anything hid from the king". She told him all.
Now comes occupation with Himself. Not only with what Christ is doing; but what He is. "He shall take of mine, and shall show it unto you". (John 16:15) What is the consequence? "There was no more spirit in her;" (1 Kings 10:5) all things here faded away. She was lost; gone, dead to them all. Her gold and silver were there just the same; but she had seen a brighter thing. She was entranced. Paul was beside himself, and no wonder, in such a scene. It would be a wonderful difference to us if we were entranced. You will never be proof against the beautiful things of this world (for it is not so much the bad things, but the good things, of this world that do us harm) till you have seen something better. I am not saying anything against the world's good things; but I have seen something better. Did you ever take a pair of scissors out of a child's hand? How can you do it? Show him a glass marble, or something bright, and they will drop. It is not that I say. Drop the world; but I ask you to see
Christ in glory. The moment I see a person occupied with things down here I say, You have not seen Solomon. I do not say you have not seen Jonah -- that Christ died for you; but you have not seen the King in His glory. Now I am identified with Christ's death, I do not dwell on that. I have Christ's life first, and therefore life is before death, and death is an advance on it. Death works in us; life in you. "We who live are always delivered unto death on account of Jesus". (2 Corinthians 4:11)
Now I ask, is there one of us who has not tasted of the joy of the Father's house? Paul says, "I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling". (Philippians 3:14) And can we be steady in our course till we have the "mark?" and what is this? -- it is seeing Solomon. It is not simply seeing Christ in humiliation; but Christ in glory. We see Christ as the One who has suffered; then His present interest in us; what He does, and the things He is in. Do we all know what this is? Does every heart go out to what is presented in the feast with the father in Luke 15? Is there one heart saying, 'I don't care for it'. I trust those who know it, like the apostle, are longing to know more of it. The Lord grant everyone may know the wonderful blessing; and portion of light and joy we are brought into, instead of going through the world trying to overcome this and that, and laying, 'I must give up this thing and the other'. It is not a question of giving up at all; but I have something better, greater, brighter, and I let it drop.
"Yea doubtless; and I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord; for whom I, have suffered the loss of all things, and do count them but dung, that I may win Christ". (Philippians 3:8)
We get in John 3, the distinction between the earthly and the heavenly things. Every believer has tasted of the earthly thing, but the question is whether each has enjoyed the heavenly things. The earthly thing is conversion; but there is more than that. The Old Testament: saints were born again: but the heavenly things had not come. "No man hath ascended up to heaven, but he that came down from heaven, even the Son of man which is in heaven". (John 3:13) We never had heaven on earth till Christ came; there were good men but not heavenly men. Moses and Joshua were types; Abraham got into Canaan but he saw a famine and left it. Suppose you are converted; well, what you want to see is that there was a heavenly Man on earth, and if I can get the life of that Man I am all right. But they never possessed and never could enjoy the heavenly life till Christ came. Go to a nest and see the young birds in it without their feathers -- perhaps you could not tell what sort of birds they were. But come after a while, and you say they are gold finches; they had life before, but not that character of life. So the apostle says, "the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God". (Galatians 2:20) We are not only converted, but we have another life and in another Man -- "The Second man".
We have an excellent government: it is a great thing; and we get good laws through it. Are you in the government? No, you say, but we have a great many good things through it. That is the way people speak of Christ; they have got a great good through Him. But there is another step -- In Christ; that is eternal life; this the heavenly thing. The soul will
never get clear, till it sees there are two men -- Christ and Adam.
"As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of man be lifted up". (John 3:14) He says I have been to that side of death and you cannot get lower than death, -- "that. Whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have eternal life". (John 3:16) Now for the wings: you are brought into "the power of an endless life". It is not what people call final perseverance; eternal life is a new kind of life altogether. David says, "Oh that I had wings". The believer does not say this; he has them. But many believers never seem to use them. In the Old Testament they had not come to that kind of life, therefore, they say, "Oh that I had wings". (Psalm 55:6) Every believer now has "eternal life", though all do not know it. They had the same life then but not expanded.
There are three things a true bird can do -- feed, sing, and fly; but no bird in the nest can do one or the other. It cannot feed, sing or fly. I do not believe any bird can sing till it can fly; It can chirp, but not sing: Until they get full deliverance people cannot sing; they may try, but it is premature. Sometimes when people sing they are not up to it. "As he that taketh away a garment in cold weather ... so is he that singeth songs to a heavy heart". (Proverbs 25:20) That is why people like the psalms best, because it is their match just as they read biographies and say 'Oh, that was a good man, but he had his doubts'. A pity he told them then! That is not flying! This life is not a transformation of the old life, but a new thing, a capacity to enjoy God, and the more you use it, the more you can use it. I had the life of Adam and was under judgment because of that life; but Christ was judged for us; brings that life to an end, and redeems us in order that He may give us His life. The Son of man was lifted up to give eternal life. Adam. Even in his innocent days, did not know what it was to
enjoy God as a Christian does; he never could say, 'Abba, Father', so we see that every believer is immensely above Adam in innocence. The Adam-life may go to pieces, may be delivered even to Satan for the destruction of the flesh. "The spirit shall return unto God who gave it", (Ecclesiastes 12:7) God breathed into Adam the breath of life. His body died, but his soul left it. "The soul that sinneth, it shall die". (Ezekiel 18:4) What is it, the soul? No such thing? It means the life, the judgment is upon the body. Now the body is the Lord's. It is either under the power of judgment, or redeemed by Christ; the garden where all the weeds of Satan grow, or the garden where all the flowers of Christ grow and scent the air.
In John 4:14 we get an entirely new thing for the believer: "never thirst". The believer ought to be able to say, I am in possession of something. It is not merely that I believe something; but I have gotten something, a thing I never had at all before, a power that enables me never to want anything. It is like a lake where the river runs through it, or the gulf stream. They say this country would be bleak and barren but for it, for it brings fertility and warmth. I compare it to a man living in a cottage by the sea-shore, easily knocked to pieces by the wind. That is the old thing; the other is a fine mansion where there is everything. Which do you live in? Very often in the cottage, and complaining heavily. A pity you do not go to the mansion: there is no want there. Suppose you see a nice book, or a beautiful dress, and you think within yourself, 'Oh, I would like that;' but ask the Spirit of God 'Would You like it?' 'No!' 'Then I will do without it'.
I go to visit a friend staying at the sea-side; I say to him, 'You put up with very small accommodation here'. 'Oh', he says, 'I have a fine house in the country' "Whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall
give him shall never thirst". (John 4:14) This poor woman had tried it often enough. She had had five husbands, but she had found nothing. But He says, I have something that will make you perfectly happy -- not once a week, or once a day, or once an hour, but always. "As sorrowful, yet always rejoicing". (2 Corinthians 6:10) I think you cannot go to any who will not tell you of their trials. 'But have you no mercies?' 'Oh, yes', they say, but back they go to temporal things. I remember talking to a poor woman, trying to educate her in the twenty-third psalm -- "The Lord is my shepherd". 'Oh, that's beautiful'. "I shall not want". Then I went on; "He maketh me to lie down in green pastures". (Psalm 23:1 - 2) Oh, she did not want that; she was contented with the first, that was enough for her. If a man brings me into his parlour, I am not afraid of being denied the benefit of his kitchen. When God brings me up to the top, there is no fear for the rest.
"But the water that I shall give him shall be in him". (John 4:14) A person says, Have we never a temptation? Plenty in the cottage; I have none in the mansion for I cannot get to the end of it as I cannot get to the end of the green pastures. I cannot take it all in. If I were to say to a boy. There is a room full of apples, go and take them, and I meet him half-an-hour after, and I say. Did you take them all? I could not: 'I .look a dozen'. Well, he cannot say there was not plenty. There is a great deal more than I can take in: 'never thirst!'
I heard a person say. That could not apply to this world. Do you think Christ wanted anything? You say He wanted food; He did: but then He retired out of the temporal thing. There is no such thing as hunger or pain with the Spirit of God. You can be made superior to these things, (see Matthew 4:2. Also Moses and Elijah.)
A person says, I am not up to it. But I ask; Are
you looking for it? We have seen a child jump up on the table and say, I would like to be as tall as my father. I would like to be as Christ. It is not a question of experience, you get that when you look down here and see there's a slate off, a pane out; that is the cottage, but I have everything in the mansion. This is the contrast to the second chapter, where the wine was out. The Lord says, However happy you are you will have to come to Me in the long run; and He says I will give you something better than wine that will never run out -- "a well of water springing up into everlasting life". (John 4:14) Things down here -worldly things -- cannot satisfy. As one has said, -'Man into whom God has breathed the breath of life, cannot be satisfied short of God'.
A man in the world, a natural man, if he has not got ambition is not worth anything. See a young man trying to better his condition, quite right. But, thank God, I don't want now to better my condition for I cannot be better. I cannot improve myself, for I cannot thirst, but I can enjoy it more -- I have never got over half the mansion. I have never got to enjoy all that Christ is -- never got Christ's thoughts or circumstances fully. What a wonderful thing to be walking about with Christ's thoughts! The very troubles in the cottage ought to drive me to the mansion. It is not that I am unnatural: there are trying circumstances in the cottage; the cottage is want, trial, hunger; but if I look to the provision of the Spirit of God I will not be hungry. Look at Stephen, as they knocked him to pieces, the stones never made him swerve. I believe he fulfilled that word "Greater works than these shall he do; because I go unto my Father". (John 14:12) Take this life away, there is a new current in me, and that current will take me away to Christ, and leave this old thing behind. Now, it is not deliverance from the trial, but superiority to it which Christ gives us. The old way
was to put people in the furnace and they were not burnt; they were put into the lions' den and they never touched them; but now they go into the furnace and are burnt to a cinder, the lions eat them up, and they never give in; for it is not power for them now, but power in them. Romans is power for us. I come to a fence and I say I would like to have a gap here. The Lord says, if I were for you I would make one, but I am in you and you must go over the fence: that is power in you, and you are able to get over the fence. That power is the Holy Spirit who dwells in you. When sorrow, or trial, or weakness comes, the thing is to look for grace to be above it. Look at Paul and Silas in the prison: God was in them and they were superior to circumstances, and they were singing away there as if at their own fireside, and the prisoners heard them. Peter was sleeping in his prison. If trial is impending, you had better be quiet.
A man once said to me, I thought God was to take us out of our trials; but this is a new era now, and it is very important we should understand it. The moment Christ was rejected He introduced a new thing: to walk on the water He left the ship that was made for the water (that God had made for the water) and walked above the water. He has gone to heaven above it all and I have to walk above it all in Him.
John 20:19 - 21, "Peace be unto you". None of the Old Testament saints had peace. How could they? the battle was not fought. They might be expecting it, verse 22, "He breathed on them". Did they get the Holy Spirit then? I believe it was confirmed when the Holy Spirit came, but they had the sense of it: it was the intelligence of it. He connects life with the Holy Spirit, chapter 4: 14. Water rises to its level.
Adam's life was in the blood; Christ's life was in
the Holy Spirit. It is "Christ liveth in me" but I am sustained in the enjoyment of it by the Holy Spirit.
Romans 7 supposes life, but there is not the power of the Spirit of God. Life is not power; the divine nature is not power. There must be the "new bottles" and the "new wine" in the "new bottles". We don't get the new wine till the bottle is ready. I may have the Spirit in me, but not in power unless I am walking in communion with Christ. It is like a husband saying to his wife. 'I will give you what you want, but you must come to me for every article'. It is not a question of union but of communion; you must come to me for everything, that I may have the pleasure of your coming to me for everything. If I lost this, what must I do? Turn back and see the thing by which you lost it. Sometimes it is high up, for it is only when you begin to act that you find you have lost ground, therefore it is by our acts we shall be judged. Where did you lose it? I began to talk to that man about politics, but that was ten hours ago; but that is where you lost ground. It is like a child who will have its own way, and leaves its father and gets into the mud. He does not cease to be your child, but you leave him to flounder in the mud until he calls out, 'I am in the mud'. Then you go and give him a hand; but he must come out of the mud.
Stephen and the thief on the cross are pattern men. In the latter, I get the pattern illustration of grace to a sinner; in the former, God's pattern specimen of a saint on earth linked to Christ in heaven.
Stephen is the pattern of a man that was not only going to God, but one who was for God on the earth; he not only knew what it was to belong to Christ in glory, but he was for Christ on earth. We have here the account of how he finished his course for God on the earth.
He died; that showed he was faithful unto death. But some one says to me. Can you point to an example that continued? Yes I can, Paul, he continued; he was sent back here after being in the third heaven. In Stephen, I get an example of what heaven is to a saint going to die. In Paul, of what heaven is to a saint going to live.
We are not all called as Stephen to martyrdom, but we have all the same grace, and Stephen is set before us as a pattern man, just as I should say to an unbeliever that the thief on the cross is the pattern man of grace. Stephen is the first one set before us actually as a heavenly man; he is the first man upon whom heaven opened. Enoch was translated, and Elijah went up to heaven in a chariot of fire, but that is not heaven being opened on man; heaven did open on the Lord Jesus Christ, but He was more than a man.
The heavens open here on Stephen, and he sees his Saviour up there, and so he is for his Saviour down here. There are two marks that belong to a believer now. One is, that by the Holy Spirit you are associated
with Christ where Christ is; and the other, that you have the power of Christ where Christ is not. I trust you will remember these two. They are for each one of us; not only for a Stephen in giving up his life, but for everyone of us in whatever difficulties we have to pass through, be it a mother of a large family with all around to disturb and distract, or anything else, whatever it be, I say to you that these are the two marks of what grace can do for you. I have association with my Saviour where my Saviour is, and I have the power of my Saviour where my Saviour is not. When Paul came down from the third heaven, what was it for? That the power of Christ might rest upon him.
If you want to be powerful, to have practical power while walking down here, it must be by looking above, by association with Christ where Christ is.
Let me say here, that when your heart gets liberty, or rather deliverance, when it gets clear of judgment, the first, the chief thing that shows you are clear of judgment is that you want your Saviour. First you seek relief from your sin, from the burden, then you seek the One who relieved you. Like a man who is drowning, first he wants some one to save him, but when he has recovered a little, he says, I should like to see that man who, at the risk of his life, saved me. He looked first for deliverance, and next for his deliverer. Take another example. Jonathan did not look for David until Goliath was slain. When David struck at Goliath, Jonathan was not thinking of David, but when he saw the head of Goliath in David's hand, what then? The soul of Jonathan was knit with the soul of David. That is the way it always comes. A person may be converted, and may be very genuine, and still not be looking for Christ where Christ is. He may, like Jonathan, see Goliath on the ground, but not be quite happy;
but when be sees the head in David's hand, what now? He says, as it were, l am going to give up all my thoughts to David. And that is what we get in John's gospel (chapter 1). When those two disciples followed our Lord, When they followed Him as the Lamb of God, their first question was, "Where dwellest thou?" Beloved friends, have you ever put that question to Him? Where dwellest thou? Do you remember the answer of the Lord, -- "Come and see";? And do you not think He would say that to you if you asked him?
That is what Stephen did. He, "being full of the Holy Spirit ... fixed his eyes on heaven". (Acts 7:55) He saw Jesus there in the glory of God.
See what Colossians 3, says, "Set your affection, on things above". Where? Where Christ is -- above, "where Christ sitteth at the right hand of God", (Colossians 3:1 - 2)
Now that is what the Holy Spirit sets before us in the case of Stephen. The heavens are opened, and he "saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing on, the right hand of God". (Acts 7:55) How was he able to look up to that glory? There was no check. The Spirit could not say, you must not look in here; on the contrary, the Spirit of God showed him what was there: "Being full of the Holy Spirit".
This is the introduction; and, as I have said, Stephen was a pattern, not merely as a great martyr, but he sets forth what a heavenly man is.
Well now, let me turn to a verse or two (Ezekiel 1:26) Here the prophet sees the glory of God on the earth. God connected Himself with the earth, as we see in the tabernacle, in the glory cloud by day, and in the pillar of fire by night. In chapter 1, the glory was going away, leaving the earth, because Israel was so wicked. God could not connect Himself any longer with them .He is retiring. But now what is the wonderful thing? As the prophet sees the glory retiring, what is there? There is the figure of a man
in the retiring glory, and from the brightest spot in it, from the midst. Where was the colour of amber. In the brightest spot there was the figure of a man. "Where sin abounded grace did much more abound". (Romans 5:20) Man's wickedness has caused Him to retire from the scene, but it was that there should be a Man in the glory of God.
Now if you turn to Luke 2:9, we read, "And, lo, the angel of the Lord came upon them, and the glory of the Lord shone round about them".
The glory never came back to the earth from the time it had gone away in Ezekiel till now. Now it had come back to announce this, "And the angel said unto them. Fear not? for, behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people. For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord". (Luke 2:10 - 11) There the glory has come down to announce the birth of the Saviour, that there might be a Man in the glory of God for us. Here we have, in the Babe that is born, the Man -- God manifest in flesh.
Now turn to chapter 9, of this gospel, verse 29. "And as he prayed, the fashion of his countenance was altered, and his raiment was white and glistering. And, behold, there talked with him two men, which were Moses and Elias: who appeared in glory, and spake of His decease which he should accomplish at Jerusalem. But Peter and they that were with him were heavy with sleep: and when they were awake, they saw his glory". (Luke 9:29 - 32) Now mark, beloved friends, from that time (Luke 2), when from the glory it is announced that He is come, He spends thirty years in retirement. It is sometimes said that Christ went from the cradle to the grave, but that is not a correct way of expressing it. He was thirty years in retirement. At the end of it heaven opened upon Him, and announced its fullest delight. A voice proclaiming the Father's good pleasure in
Him, "This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased". (Matthew 3:17) Then he goes into the wilderness, and from there into public service, as the Obedient, dependent One, whose meat is to do the will of His Father, and to finish His work; He always does those things which please the Father, delights to do His will, manifests God in every act and word, glorifies God in public life, as before He had done in private life. And here is the close of His public life, public ministry rather. Now at the close, glory salutes Him. God again announces, "This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased". (Matthew 3:17) He could have gone to heaven, then and there; glory claims Him, but the astonishing thing is that Moses and Elias speak with Him of death, not of glory; they spake of His decease, which He should accomplish at Jerusalem. Like the Hebrew servant He might have gone out free, but, instead of that He descends from the mount to die. He comes down from that point of His exaltation. He had done all the will of God, magnified the law and made it honourable: the one perfectly righteous One. Now with a title to everything as Man, He says, "No, I love my master, my wife, and my children; I will not go out free". (Exodus 21:5) Now turn to John's gospel "Verily, verily, I say unto you. Except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone: but if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit". (John 12:24) He must die, unless He would abide alone, and He comes down to die, to obtain the glory for us, Hence if you look at the next chapter you find, "Therefore, when he" (Judas) "was gone out, Jesus said. Now is the Son of man glorified, and God is glorified in him". (John 13:31) Here is the glorious One, the One who pleased God in everything, with a title to everything. He comes down from that point. Now He says, I will die for the man who never pleased God in anything. As an individual in Himself, glory saluted Him; but now
He bears the judgment due to us. "If God be glorified in him, God shall also glorify him in himself, and shall straightway glorify him". (John 13:32) Glory claims Him. Why? Because He so perfectly glorified God, so maintained it under all the weight and judgment due to sin. He was so perfectly holy. He so met all the mind of God in His whole path as an individual; and then from that point He came down to bear the judgment due to us. He was raised from the dead by the glory of God, and now He is set down at the right hand of God. Now it is there Stephen saw Him, "being full of the Holy Spirit, having fixed his eyes on heaven, he saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing at the right hand of God". (Acts 7:55)
Mark, beloved friends, when Adam was turned out of the garden, there was the cherubim with flaming sword that turned every way to keep the way of the tree of life. But now, if I look up to that glory, I see my Saviour is there. The place that naturally I should fear the most is the place where I have the least fear. Why? Because my Saviour is there. What place would you fear where your Saviour was. You remember about the prophet Isaiah (Isaiah 6). He saw the glory of God in a vision. Then he says, "Woe is me! for I am undone; because I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips: for mine eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts". (Isaiah 6:5) Then what was done? "Then flew one of the seraphims unto me, having a live coal in his hand"(not a dead one), "which he had taken with the tongs from off the altar: and he laid it upon my mouth". (Isaiah 6:6 - 7) He does not abate the holiness of God one bit; but He says, while I utterly refuse your state, I can show grace to you. "Thine iniquity is taken away". (Isaiah 6:7) From the point we most feared relief has come. Well if you get relief there, you do not fear it in any other place. As we read in another place: "Perfect love casts out fear". (1 John 4:18) Well, Stephen's
fear was so cast out that we find him here looking up steadfastly into heaven, and seeing the glory of God and Jesus. This the apostle shows us in another place. Where he sets forth the contrast between law and grace (2 Corinthians 3). From the glory there came the demand of righteousness, but there was none to be had. "There is none righteous, no, not one". (Romans 3:10) But now if I look up to the glory, there is the ministration of it. There never was such a moral revolution. The law came from the glory claiming righteousness, but there was none. Then God sent His Son, the perfectly righteous One to bear the judgment due to me. Now I look up, I see not the seraphim, but the Saviour. Instead of the glory being a thing to terrify me, it is the very opposite. Under the law it would terrify me, because I could not meet the demand, but now it is God's gift. I do not know how to illustrate it. You cannot find such a thing in this world. But suppose a number of tenants, and their landlord calls them all up and demands from them his rent, but they have nothing to pay: now what is to be done? Well, he says, I will pay it myself, and he pays for them all round. So God was demanding righteousness, but now He has paid the demand, and there is none. He ministers righteousness, the very opposite: to demanding it; and now to the place I most feared l can look up without a fear. People say. But I am not up to it. Well, all I can say is, you will be up to it one day and a pity you should not be enjoying it now.
I had a very interesting instance of this in a dying sailor whom I visited. He said, I have faith in Christ, but I sometimes have a cloud. I said, well Stephen had no cloud. Now, beloved friends, though we are not all called to the same, place of suffering and martyrdom, we have all the same grace -- that poor dying sailor in common with all believers. I said to him, Stephen had not a cloud. He was very weak,
and I did not say much more. After I had gone, he turned round to his mother, an old believer, and said 'Mother, you never told me I had a Saviour in the glory, I have not a cloud now'. He could not have a cloud when he looked up. But many people have not found that they have a Saviour in the glory of God.
Stephen, being full of the Holy Spirit, looked up steadfastly into heaven, and saw the glory of God.
Heaven opened upon him, and it has never closed since. But I cannot get up to heaven without the Spirit of God. It is like Jacob's ladder, it came down to earth, and the angels of God ascending and descending upon it. Now the Holy Spirit has come down, and enables us to look up to heaven and see the glory of God.
We get an illustration of this in the new invention called the telephone, by which you may speak to a person at a distance, and in five minutes near your friend's voice answering you. Man has found out by his experiment a thing which may be known to every believer. I speak to Christ up there, and He hears me, and answers me, not by thunder and lightning, but by the Spirit of God.
You say. Oh, but none of us can be like Stephen. You may not be up to his measure, but a child may enjoy the comforts of the father's house as well as the grown-up person. The clothes, the ring, and the shoes, were all provided for the prodigal, and put on him before he was brought into the father's house. The grace that was for Stephen is for you.
Well, that is the first thing; now turn to the second. The second is the power of Christ where Christ is not, and you always find the two connected.
Every person's power and sense of grace is in proportion, or according to where he sees Christ. I ask you, where do you see Christ? You may reply, I see Him going unto death. Well, that is very blessed,
and you maybe a genuine man, but that will not give you power. I remember an officer in the army telling me his experience. He said he was speaking to a lady, and telling her that thrice every day he went down on his. knees and prayed to the Lord Jesus on the cross. The lady said (it shows how one person may help another), "Why, He is not there". "And do you know", he said, "it had the most wonderful effect on me". What was the effect? He had got a new sense of power. He saw Christ not only dying for him, but that He was out of death and judgment. Well, I say, if you look up, you see Him on the right hand of God. That is what you get in Exodus 15, "The Lord ... hath triumphed gloriously". (Exodus 15:21) Many a believer has seen Him in the battle, and feels truly that was the most wonderful thing to his soul, to see the Lord taking his place; going into those depths, surrounded by those crystal walls, the waves and billows going over Him; that was a marvellous moment for his soul. I admit it, but that is not all. He has not only gone unto death for you, but He is triumphant out of death; and you will never get occupied with the Lord Jesus Christ till you learn that He has so perfectly cleared the ground for you, that now you can turn round and delight yourself in Him.
Now, the second point: I have the power of Christ where Christ is not. A great many people are trying to get power. Now if you do not see Christ, you have no power. Elijah gave the secret to Elisha when the latter said, I want a double portion of your Spirit. I am willing to stay down here but I want a double portion of your spirit. Now if we were asked tonight what is the thing we would like most, how many of us would say, the thing I want most is a double portion of the Spirit of Christ? Well, Elijah says you shall have it on one condition, if you see me taken. That confirms what I have said,
that wherever you see Christ, that is the measure of your power.
Now turn to Matthew 14:10. John was beheaded. That was an intimation that Christ should be rejected. Well, in verse 13, you find Him in a desert place apart. "And Jesus went forth, and saw a great multitude, and was moved with compassion towards them". (Matthew 14:14) And then He feeds the multitude. The Lord was to be rejected from this earth. What does He do then? He feeds the poor of the flock who sought Him in the desert. I know this is a favourite text to prove there should be ministry; and so there is ministry, and we can thank God for it. I remember once being at a reading, and a clergyman read that chapter, down to where the Lord took the loaves and blessed and gave to His disciples to give to the multitude, to prove that there should be an ordained ministry. I said to him, let us read the rest of the chapter and we shall see another thing. Now, I said, there are two things in that chapter; one is, Christ feeds the poor of the flock, during all the time they are with Him in the desert; but there is something else also, there is the man of faith and power that leaves the ship to walk on the waters to Jesus. Peter says, "Lord, if it be thou, bid me come unto thee on the water", and "he walked on the water, to go to Jesus". (Matthew 14:28 - 29) That is the second thing. Faith leaves the thing that was made for the water, to walk on the water. All that were in the ship saw it. They could not but see it.
Before, when the Lord was in the ship. He was asleep. His head was on a pillow, but things were changed: a new thing comes out in light -- Christ was to be rejected. He says, I will feed the poor of the flock in spite of all the wilderness of this world (and this Book is His word, the witness of it), but that is not all; the one who has faith leaves the thing made for the water, at the word of the Lord.
and goes on the water. Why? Because Jesus Himself is on the water. Christ is in power over everything here, and I, looking at Him in faith, become superior to all here. As Peter says "Who is gone into heaven, and is on the right hand of God; angels and authorities and powers being made subject unto him". (1 Peter 3:22)
But what I want to press on you is this -- the character of this new order. Now I am set here on earth in a place of trial. It is not made easy for me; but in this place of trial, this place where the flesh cannot stand (how could the flesh stand on the water for a minute? it must go down), here in this very place, I am to be superior to it. Whatever be the trial, if I look up to the Saviour in glory, I can be superior to it. The difference between the old and the new order is, the old was to change your circumstances, and to give you ease and relief. Look at the children of the captivity; they were cast into the furnace, and there was not a hair of their head hurt. Daniel is cast into the lions' den, and their mouths are shut. The new order is this: "As the sufferings of Christ abound", (2 Corinthians 1:5) so also the consolations of Christ abound. As the sufferings increase, so also does the capability to suffer increase. You are not taken out of the trial, but you are made superior to it. Do not look for a change in your circumstances, but keep your eye so on Christ there, that while by the power of the Holy Spirit you have association with Him where He is, you will have His power where He is not.
There are two ways of getting a fortune in this world. One man makes his fortune, another gets his fortune. Now the fortune of a saint is the gift of God. If he does not know of it, that is another thing. I may say to a man, your father left you all that land. He says, I did not know it was mine. I say, what foolish man. Well, Christ has given you all this; but
you say, I have not made it mine. Why do you not? A man may have a beautiful estate, and yet not be able to enjoy it, because he has bad health. That is how it is with many saints; they have not spiritual health to enjoy their possessions.
Now turn to John 14, verse 2. The Lord says, "I go to prepare a place for you". (John 14:2) It is a place in heaven then, not a place here. Verse 12. He makes this very remarkable statement, "He that believeth on me, the works that I do shall he do also; and greater works than these shall he do; because I go unto my Father". (John 14:12.) When the Lord was here. He raised a dead man to life. But what does the Holy Spirit do now? He makes a man superior to himself. That is the wonderful thing that comes out in Stephen. You may not have the same enemies Stephen had, you may not be in the same position, but you have the same grace that he had in that position. Stephen was put into the most trying position conceivable to man; in order to show that there is nothing too trying or too difficult for us to be made superior to through grace, and in the power of the Holy Spirit. What really hinders souls is this: they are looking for easy circumstances, looking to God to take away the difficulties, instead of looking to God for grace to be superior to them.
I turn to Psalm 22, to show how Stephen in his measure was made practically superior to even what Christ had to encounter: There I get the sufferings of the Lord and all that was against Him. There are seven distinct things that He had to encounter. "My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?" (Psalm 22:1) In that Christ was alone. Stephen, or no one, could follow Him there. He was the solitary one in bearing sin. He was made sin for us, that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him; and if I have that, I can look up to heaven without a cloud between. When I come to Jordan, not a drop of water is to be
seen; death is abolished, there is not a thing between me and the throne. Simeon says, I am ready to go, for mine eyes have seen thy salvation. Stephen says, I am happy to go, I have a Saviour in the glory. Paul says, I am longing to go.
Then we come to the second thing, verse 6; "a reproach of men, and despised of the people". (Psalm 22:6) Stephen knew what that is, but he is unmoved, he does not give way.
Then there is the third, "Many bulls have compassed me". (Psalm 22:12) The bulls would represent the high priest, what is called the ecclesiastical thing in our day. How does he bear up against that? Unmoved. What a wonderful thing to walk on the water. It is an old saying, 'It is a fine thing to see a man struggling'. I say it is a wonderful thing to see a man, utterly weak in himself, superior to all through the power of Christ; that is Christianity. That is what Paul has "I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me". (Philippians 4:13) "I have learned, in whatsoever state I am, therewith to be content". (Philippians 4:11) I look upward, see my Saviour there, and I can encounter all down here.
Now we come to the fourth thing, weakness of body, verse 14; "I am poured out like water, and all my bones are out of joint: my heart is like wax; it is melted in the midst of my bowels. My strength is dried up like a potsherd; and my tongue cleaveth to my jaws; and thou hast brought me into the dust of death". (Psalm 22:14 - 15) This only fully appears in the Lord, but Stephen knew it in his measure; when they were battering him with stones he stood on, how thoroughly bodily weak, we cannot imagine. We all know how bodily weakness overcomes us. A man who is bodily weak is like one who has a number of servants, and he finds they have all left him -- eyes, hands, feet -- he does not know what to do. Then I have the power of Christ, not to make me strong in
body, but to make me superior to the weakness, that is what I want.
Fifth, "dogs have compassed me" (Psalm 22:16) -- Man's power. Then the lion -- Satan's power, verse 21. Then, seventh, "the horns of the unicorns" (Psalm 22:21) -- death itself. He kneels down and prays, and says, "Lord, lay not this sin to their charge". (Acts 7:60) He says, as it were, I'll spend my last breath in their service. He never swerved from his post. That brings out the power of Christ to sustain a man when the greatest power on earth is brought to bear upon him. He can sing that hymn 'We triumph in Thy triumphs, Lord'. Christ has overcome all enemies, now He is out of it, and as I have my eye on Him I have His power. I have set the Lord always before me. When we are in difficulty and want power, we have just to look up. If you say. What is the use of looking up, it will not alter things. I reply, just try it and see. It connects you with Him. And He says, "Without me ye can do nothing". (John 15:5) That is not a question simply of being united to Christ. It is dependence on Him. It is like a wife whose husband says, I will give you everything you want, but you must come to me for it; for every single thing: I won't give you ten things at once. So with Christ. He says, I won't give you power for two things at once, "Without me ye can do nothing". (John 15:5) You have a trial; you get through it very well one day, but the next day you are perhaps so elated with your past victory that you forget your need of dependence and you fail most miserably. Look at Paul when he came down from the third heaven. The enjoyment he had up there would not keep him; he needed the thorn, but the Lord says, "My grace is sufficient for thee". (2 Corinthians 12:9)
The Lord grant us not only to look at this as a picture, but to have the reality. The Lord give us not only to see these two marks so blessedly set before us in Stephen, but to know his Christ as ours. It may
not be in Stephen's place; but in whatever place you are. Take a slave for instance, what does the apostle say to him? -- "Adorn the doctrine of God our Saviour in all things". (Titus 2:10) But he may reply, I have a hard master. Well, adorn the doctrine in all things. You must walk on the water. "Greater works than these shall he do; because I go unto my Father". (John 14:12) In the old order, the Lord came in to deliver His people, and showed He was for them. Now He shows, not only that He is for us, but what He is to us. Mark in Romans 8:31 the change, "If God be for us, who can be against us?" (Romans 8:31) Then read further down, "Who is he that condemneth? It is Christ that died, yea rather, that is risen again, who is even at the right hand of God, who also maketh intercession for us". (Romans 8:34) That is God for me. Then, "As it is written, For thy sake we are killed all the day long", (Romans 8:36) that is for Christ's sake. Yet we are not overcome, "Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us". (Romans 8:37)
The Lord grant that each of us, in the place in which we are called, may have these two marks: by the Holy Spirit I have association with my Saviour where He is, and then power to be for my Saviour where He is not.
Exodus 15, 16 and 17.
I may not always see myself triumphant, but there is never a moment when I look up that I do not see Christ triumphant, "The Lord ..hath triumphed gloriously" (Exodus 15:1) it does not say we; very often we are not triumphant. Well, you say He is, and see what effect it will have. Is He triumphant? To be sure He is; then what more do you want: you belong to Him. Christ never had a battle to fight for Himself, every battle was for the believer.
The song goes on to Canaan. I do not know what they end with, and no doubt there's many a cry in the wilderness, but they begin with a song. The same day that I begin rightly in the wilderness, I begin in Canaan.
The wilderness is where I have nothing but God -- no resources, no protection -- nothing but God. But have you not good government and laws and a fine police? No. They are there and I can thank God for them, but they are nothing to me. But if a person offends against the law, where is he? In Egypt. But suppose I am selling apples in the market, and a wicked man comes and knocks down my stall, what must I do? Call for the police? If you were in Egypt you might. But if I am in the wilderness, what must l do? Pray to my Father. I do not know what He will do, perhaps make my tree bear twice as many apples; perhaps make me contented. The Lord says, "I have overcome the world", (John 16:33) what then have I to fear? In the wilderness I have to do with man; with human things; when I am in Canaan I have to do with divine things.
In John 14 the Lord says, "Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you". (John 14:27) In John 20 there
is a second peace, -- "Then said Jesus to them again, Peace be unto you: as my Father hath sent me, even so send I you". (John 20:21) This is not peace for the conscience it is His own peace, the peace He had as a Man down here; this is peace for the wilderness. The peace of Philippians 4, is much the same thing, only this is more general. I may have trouble, but I go and tell it all out in His ear. It is not that I say my prayers; every one does that, but I know I have told it to Him, I have not got a promise, but I have His peace about it. It is like getting a colour from a thing from going so close to it. Now you will find (and this often astonishes people) that it is far easier to be in Canaan than in the wilderness. Many a person has peace with God that has not peace in his circumstances. Here were the children of Israel beginning with one universal shout of praise, and when they come to the wilderness, they begin to murmur. It is very easy in one's own room. Often a man has to say to himself, I am sorry I left my room, I was very happy there, but the moment I came out and had to go into business, I got ruffled. I cannot walk without a trouble, I may without a ruffle. Everything is against me down here, but there is nothing to ruffle you in the presence of God. What I want is His peace, that I may go through this world and never be ruffled; 'calm amidst tumultuous motion'. In nine cases out of ten, people are not quietly happy before God. But here were people perfectly happy with one universal song of praise, and they come into the wilderness and find they cannot drink of the water. It is death. There is nothing favourable to the man of God in the world. As I take down the shutters in the morning or pull up my blind, I must begin with that feeling -- there is nothing for me down here. Expect everything to come from heaven. Where did Israel get the manna? It came from heaven; it certainly did not grow here.
But they cannot drink of the water; it was that left from the sea, and very bitter; they were very glad for their enemies to die in it but not pleased that they should die in it. It is death practically, I am to bear about in my body the dying of Jesus. It was the Lord who led them down to this bitter water that He might teach them this great lesson.
The first great enemy you have in the wilderness is yourself. If we had no selfishness, we would get on very well in the wilderness.
There are three things we must remember, three steps for us to take. The first is that the cross has cleared away everything from me in the sight of God. He does not see a single speck on me, and will never see me in the flesh again. The second is that I am united to the one who has done it; that is power. Third, I am to bear about in myself the cross of the Lord Jesus, so that everything the cross has removed in the sight of God is to be practically removed from me. You may try to get the third step without getting the second; the Corinthians got the second without getting the third, they saw they were united to Christ in glory but they did not go on to the third; that is why the apostle had to bring in the cross. You must begin with God. I hear people saying, I am going to God; it would be better if you were comingfrom Him. Oh, but we must go to Him first. Ah, that I quite agree with. A person said, I hear you talk about looking up. Why do you not go up and look down? That is the practical thing.
Why does the Lord bring them down to Marah? Because I must get into the wilderness to find I have got God only for me -- no resources but in Him. Where is my Saviour? I must get to where my Saviour is, to be able to do anything.
If I look above, that is Canaan; but in fact you find that many souls do not get through the Red
Sea until they come to die, much less through Jordan. It is Christ's work in either case.
Well the question is now, is everything gone in you that is gone in the Red Sea? But you see I cannot bring death to myself, that is what the monk is trying to do by his penance. Many a conscientious legal man is trying to beat it out, trying to kill himself, but that man has not power, he is doing the thing from effort; there is no effort in power.
The moment I say, Christ suffered for that; that sour, bitter, rancorous feeling; that lust, that pride, that selfishness, Christ died for it; then I will not have it, it all becomes sweet, and there is no trouble in drinking sweet water. Instead of complaining of circumstances, I see that the cross of Christ brought me into them, then it is all right. Sometimes you hear people saying after trial. Oh, I would not have had it otherwise, though perhaps like Job, they were complaining very much in it. The word in Scripture is not the trial but the trying of your faith. Trial is a poor horse lying in the road, that cannot get up; trying, he is springing over the fence. Just as you may hear a man say, 'I will try him, and see what he is up to'. Well, if you press him beyond his ability that is trial, if not, it is trying. The trying of your faith worketh patience. Do you count it all joy then? That is what scripture says. If we could see all as coming from God, if we had no self we would be able to say it is all right; the water would be sweet, and if God is bringing me into these circumstances to cut away self, it is that I may find my resources in Him alone. It is wonderful how one can be cheerful in circumstances the most trying. The scripture says, "A cheerful heart is a continual feast". (Proverbs 15:15) There is to be no complaining in our streets. What are you complaining about? Did not you say there was nothing but God in the wilderness? lf you are complaining, you are not giving thanks, and that
is what we have to do in everything. Oh a man says, but I cannot give thanks for everything, I cannot understand that. Why? Because you are selfish. But if my crops are damaged, am I not to complain? No, my Father does it, and He knows best. And I believe several things apparently most untoward, have turned out to be most signal interventions of God.
Look at the messenger of Satan, the thorn in the flesh to Paul; he wanted to get rid of it, not for himself but for the Lord's service. No, said the Lord, I am not going to take it from you. Well, he said, it is very bitter, but he brought the cross into it, and he says, I take pleasure in it, that the power of Christ may rest upon me.
But suppose a person, in communion, does not behave well to me, would it not be right to complain? I do not say you will not feel it, but if you find a person is not loving you, your business is to give him the more love, for he needs it. In the two passages which speak of charity in Scripture, one is taking something from you that has come in between your soul and Christ, and hindered your communion, and to remove it. The other, 1 Corinthians 13, is taking something from myself; taking off this and that. Now you are fit for a servant -- not "easily provoked", &c. Charity is not always giving something. In both these cases, it is taking something away. I believe the most charitable man in the world is one that puts an extinguisher on himself. If I meet a proud man, how am I to cure him? Not by telling him so, most likely he knows it far better than I do, but by being humble.
I believe more than half the trouble in the world comes from disappointment; people expect something and do not get it; lie awake at night building castles in the air that never come to anything. I should not expect anything, I am not entitled to it.
What is a dog entitled to? Nothing. Christ will not cast me out; no doubt He will give me a crumb, but I am not entitled to it. But is a person not entitled to the love of the saints? He is entitled to show love: he ought to do it, but he must expect nothing. As a brother has said, "I have got ten times more love from the saints than I expected, and ten thousand times more than I deserved".
Christ came up to the fig tree seeking fruit, for He was hungry. He found none; He was neglected; but did He feel it so? No; He will make it an occasion for service, and uses it for an illustration of what He wished to teach His disciples. And I believe if we were only simple and walking with the Lord, many things which we call disappointments would turn out opportunities for service.
It is very trying when saints are hindering the work of the Lord; that is the only thing we can complain of. "Alexander the coppersmith did me much evil: the Lord reward him according to his works: of whom be thou ware also; for he hath greatly withstood our words". (2 Timothy 4:14 - 15) That is the severest thing I know.
But the next point is. What is to be my support in the wilderness? lf I have got rid of self, what have I to live? To live Christ, that is the proper food of the wilderness. It is not Christ in heaven, but Christ as He was down here. Everywhere He was well pleasing to God, publicly or privately; working at a table (for I have no doubt He did such work) or taking up the little children in His arms He was well-pleasing, He was the perfect man on earth. A man says to me, How should I do this? The way Christ did it, that is all the answer I can give you. l have no standard but Christ. The law is not my standard. I could beat a man with the law altogether -- even as to the Sabbath, for he would keep it as a duty, I would keep it as a favour I would beat him in all points.
Take a thief, for example: the law says; "Thou shalt not steal". is that all? No: I would say, "But rather let him labour, working with his hands the thing which is good, that he may have to give to him that needeth". (Ephesians 4:28) Instead of being a stealer you are to be a giver. You say you have turned me round altogether. Yes, I have turned you round to Christ. The law was given for slaves, but a great man speaks very differently to. his son from what he does to his servant. Christ is to be my standard. Oh, you say, I can never get up to that. That is not the point, but is that the thing before you? Is that your standard? Did you write that letter as Christ would? Well, I did not. Then you had better write another. When Peter walked on the water he did not walk in all the splendour of Christ, but he walked as Christ.
There are three things connected with the manna: the first is, get it before you require it; the second, get as much as you require before you require it; the third, get it before the sun is up. I do not say anything against morning prayer -- it is a very good habit, but many a person, says his prayers in the morning who does not get the manna. The manna is the soul having got the sense of the supply of what is in Christ so that, he can say I have got what will keep me through this day. I do not say you will not have to go to Him again. But it is like having bread in the cupboard, not like having to run out to the baker's shop when in need. I can then say I began this day With the Lord; there may be pleasant things or disagreeable but all I know is that I began with the assured sense that it was with Christ. Not that I believe the day is twenty-four hours, l believe it means every single event. But what I must get is the assured sense that Christ is for me, and though I be forty years in this business He will see me safe through; that is what I call having bread in the cupboard.
I have no other supply whatever, but I have confidence that the Lord is adequate; I must get it fresh, get it constantly (some of them left it till the morning.) It shows that though I may get manna for this sick person that will not do for the one next door. I have got on very well with this chapter, that does not say I will get on well with the next.
Then it must be gathered before the sun is up, it must be a secret thing between your own soul and the Lord. If you want to get strength from Christ, do not let the influence of the world come on you or you have lost it. If a person is going to do anything unto the Lord he had better not tell his family about it. Chapter 17 is the Spirit. The rock that followed them was Christ. This is the Spirit of God bringing it out freshly with power.
Anything that carries me outside of self is always the Spirit; when carried to do a bad thing it is the devil. A man says I went beyond my intention, you were made an instrument in his hands. Look at Judas, he wanted money; he did not want to kill Christ, but he was carried beyond his intention. The Spirit of God carries me on in freshness. A man in the Spirit is often a surprise to himself. But then as often as you get the energy of the Spirit you get the energy of Satan to resist. Therefore you find Amalek. There are enemies all along the way. First there was Pharaoh; the enemy tries to keep them in Egypt. He says, I will not give them any straw. I will engross them with business and I will knock religion out of their heads, and he succeeded. They said to Moses, We wish we had never seen your face: times are so bad.
But God brings them into the wilderness. Then comes Amalek, who says, I Will not let you go any further, I will hinder you in some way. Amalek is not the flesh, it is Satan acting on you in some special form by some direct pressure it is not general.
When they leave the wilderness they have the nations; that is what we have in the present day -- infidelity. The difference between them and Amalek is that I go and attack them; here Amalek comes and attacks me. We get it in Peter "Satan hath desired to have you, that he might sift you as wheat: but I have prayed for thee, that thy faith fail not". (Luke 22:31 - 32) I get over it by two things; one is by Christ's intercession, as in Moses; the other, the Spirit of Christ as in Joshua. I go to fight and resist him; that is what Peter did not do. He should not have gone to the high priest's house; and when he found a friend to take him in, he should have said, I will not go. Full of self-confidence he would see it out; he did not see Satan in it. It seemed very providential; here was a friend to take him in and moreover a fire of coals to sit by; and sitting there, he is taken in the snare when he is not ready for it. The grand thing is to resist. Resist the devil and he will flee from you. The Lord said "Get thee behind me, Satan:" (Mark 8:33)
There are three marks of one who is a triumphant Christian, of one who has learned the triumphant Christ. It is not Christ fighting the battle, or part of the battle, that makes me triumphant. It is a victorious Christ. When you see Him, you see what God has done. When man had ruined himself, God says, "In me is thine help". (Hosea 13:9)
But before I go on let me say one word on the questioning of the infidel and the caviller, who says that he does not believe the gospel. I say to him, have you anything to put in its place? Have you anything else to give man, for he is ruined? Death stares him In the face, and all the science of man cannot get him out of the fatal snare. Have you anything to put in the place of this which. God proposes to do for the believer in Jesus? -- that is, the gospel.
An infidel said to me the other day that he did not believe it. 'Well', I said, 'have you anything to put in its place? Have you any other remedy?' 'No', he said, 'I have no remedy'. 'You have no remedy', I said, 'and yet you do not believe the only remedy that has been provided!' The gospel is the only remedy; that is the great thing to arrive at. People may split up Christianity into different sects; but there is no other thing offered by men to meet man's ruin, but the gospel. It has no rival.
I said to him, 'I have another question: supposing for a moment it were true, would it suit you to have a triumphant Saviour out of all the ruin and misery into which man has fallen?' 'Admirably', he replied, 'admirably'. 'Well', I said, 'see where you are! You have no rival scheme in place of this one,
and it is one, you admit yourself, which would suit you admirably; but you meet my appeal by saying you do not believe it! I have a third question to put to you -- Did you ever try it? If you heard of a certain cure for a headache, or a toothache do you think it would be a wise thing for you to say, 'I do not believe in it,' if you had not some other cure, or if you had never tried it?' You see man treats the proposal God has made -- the most wonderful thing that ever came into the world -- in a way that shows you what a set of people cavillers are, and how true Scripture is when it says, "The fool hath said in his heart, There is no God". (Psalm 14:1) Man would not treat a common remedy for a common pain in the way he treats the gospel, that relates to his immortal soul. If he said, 'I did try the cure, but it was no good', or if he said, 'I have got a better one', it would be something; but here he does not say, 'I have got a better', but 'I have not one at all. It would suit me admirably if it were true'. Did you ever try it? 'Never'. How dare you, then, say you do not believe it? If you had tried it and found it would not do, then you might say something about not believing in it; but until then, you have no right to say you do not believe it.
Take the case of the children of Israel when bitten of the fiery serpents. There they were suffering, and an evangelist of the day goes up to one of his friends or neighbours who had been struck down, and he says to him, 'Do you see that serpent up there?' 'Yes'. 'Well, God says if you look at that you will be cured'. The man says, 'I do not see any sense in that; it is unreasonable'. The evangelist replies, 'I have two reasons why you should try it. The one is that God says it; and the other is that I have looked at it, and I have proved the benefit of it'. That is what makes an evangelist. He has always two reasons: the word - God says so -- that is the first
witness; the second is, I know it experimentally. Here is a man in the agony of the serpent's bite; he turns a look up at the brazen serpent, and he is well in a minute! Would all the world convince that man that looking at the serpent had not cured him? Would the man not go to his neighbour and say, 'Now, neighbour, there is a cure for you. I have got two reasons why you should try it, and 'In the mouth of two or three witnesses every word may be established': God has said it! and I have tried it myself, and I am well'. It was a most instantaneous cure. He that looked lived.
Now, having said so much upon this wonderful thing that God proposes, I come to the subject of a triumphant Christ; and the three characteristics of one who has got the triumphant Christ. The Lord has triumphed. I do not say you have triumphed, but I say, "The Lord ... hath triumphed gloriously". (Exodus 15:1) I put it to any one here, if a dog attacked you, and a friend came to your relief, would you not rather see the man triumphant over the dog, than merely fighting it for you? Would you not like to see him perfectly triumphant? And therefore the Scripture insists upon it, not merely that Christ began the battle, not merely that He went through it, but that He is triumphant. It is a triumphant Christ that is presented to the soul. What did Paul say to the jailer, the poor pagan, when he cried "What must I do to be saved?" Did he tell him Christ began your battle, Christ will go on with your battle, and I hope; Christ will finish it? No he said, "Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved". (Acts 16:30 - 31) No doubt Paul told him more afterwards, but still the thing he first put before him was the object of his faith -- that is, the Christ of God.
God has laid help upon one that is mighty. You are ruined -- you art bound; and He says, 'I will restore, I am going to get you out of the house ofREADINGS ON THE EPISTLE TO THE HEBREWS
CHAPTER 1
CHAPTER 2
CHAPTER 3
CHAPTER 4
CHAPTER 5
CHAPTER 6
CHAPTER 7
"No infant's changing pleasure
Is like my wandering mind". (Hymn 51)CHAPTER 8
CHAPTER 9
CHAPTER 10
CHAPTER 11
CHAPTER 12
CHAPTER 13
THE TWO CRIES
THE NATURE OF THE CHANGE EFFECTED BY GRACE
THE CHRISTIAN A LIGHT-BEARER FOR CHRIST
"Oh for a heart submissive, meek,
My dear redeemer's throne,
Where Christ is only heard to speak,
Where Jesus reigns alone"."He who knows thee well,
Will quit thee with disgust
Degraded mass of animated dust".WISDOM'S FEAST
HEAVENLY THINGS
STEPHEN, A PATTERN OF WHAT IT IS TO BE FOR CHRIST ON EARTH
THE PROVING OF FAITH
CHRIST TRIUMPHANT