In reading from this prophet I have in mind that he, in company with Haggai, ministered in a day of small things. The work of God at Jerusalem, the building of the house, had ceased when this prophet, with Haggai, ministered, bringing in the mind of God and stirring up the people to energy, so that the work was resumed. "The eye of their God was upon ... the Jews" (Ezra 5:5), so that in the face of opposition the work proceeded.
The ministries of these two men introduce Zerubbabel and Joshua prominently; that is to say, Christ in type was kept before the minds of the people. No ministry can be effective save that which keeps Christ prominently before the saints. These were men, I need not say. Their offices shall be ultimately filled by Christ -- but as filled by them, under divine appointment, they are employed in these prophets as figures of Christ.
Haggai speaks more about Zerubbabel and he refers to him as governor. Now it is not a mere incident that he thus refers to Zerubbabel. He is in a position which Christ was to occupy. He did not prefigure Him as the Son of David, as we see in Solomon. As such Christ is King of kings and Lord of lords. He is universal Ruler. Zerubbabel represents Him as ruling under certain limitations, but nevertheless ruling.
There was a very great difference between the sphere of the rule of David and Solomon and that of Zerubbabel. They ruled over a vast empire, in which were many millions of subjects. Zerubbabel ruled over something like fifty thousand, but he was, nevertheless, a governor. We have to understand that the Lord Jesus is now pleased to be Governor to a few. "The government shall be upon his
shoulder" (Isaiah 9:6), we are told. As I said, He will come out of heaven with the name, King of kings and Lord of lords. He shall then be Emperor, but now He is content, in His grace and His consideration for us, to be Governor to the few. A "little flock" indeed He called His disciples, His immediate followers. That little flock extended in Jerusalem to three thousand, to five thousand and again to myriads, as James said, besides those elsewhere, particularly the many among the Gentiles. But we are in "a day of small things", and the Lord is graciously pleased to be Governor to a few, but, nevertheless, Governor. We are to understand this, beloved, and that we are to be subject. For the power by which He will rule over all later is already in His hands, but He is graciously content now with limitations.
In Haggai we have encouragement, for the Governor is to be the divine signet by-and-by. He that is known amongst us in our littleness, in our obscurity and weakness, shall be the divine signet in the future. Everything shall have to bear His stamp. And so if we are to be a testimony to that now there has to be subjection to Christ, so that His stamp is upon us.
Zechariah 4:14 refers to Him, not as a governor, but rather personally. He introduces a symbol, "the two sons of oil". This symbol is particularly introduced in connection with a day of small things. It says, "Who hath despised the day of small things?" (verse 19). We are not to despise what the Lord Jesus is identified with, what is marked by the Spirit. You will always find that where the Holy Spirit is free, Christ is exalted. So Zechariah introduces the sons of oil, who witness to the divine claims. They witness in power; they witness in intelligence; they are sons of oil. Zerubbabel lays the foundation, and having laid the foundation puts on the top-stone saying, "Grace, grace unto it".
We are thus encouraged in a day of small things in view of the end of what has been begun by the Lord Jesus, as He said to Peter, "On this rock I will build my assembly" (Matthew 16:18). There is no other foundation, and those who build on that foundation anything unsuitable shall find it burnt up. He has laid the foundation and He shall set the top-stone on the structure. It is Christ Himself, not simply as a governor, but according to what He is personally. We know Himself by the Spirit. No one can say, Lord Jesus except by the Spirit. We may use the words, but in order to use them aright and according to God we must have the Spirit. So, as I say "Lord Jesus" by the Spirit I have an Object, a Person, who has a place in my affections. I thus understand that He shall complete things. He is doing it. Have we eyes to see this? He is putting on the top-stone of the structure, and it shall be put on in victory. He shall bring forth the headstone with shoutings: "Grace, grace unto it".
The dispensation begins in grace, grace reigns throughout it and grace shall mark the finish. As John says, "full of grace and truth". The more room that is given to the Spirit, the more the Person of Christ is seen. In Zerubbabel, in a day of small things, a note of victory is heard. He shall lay on the top-stone. Whatever obstacle may be in our way, before Zerubbabel it shall become a plain. When the Holy Spirit is free Christ is proclaimed; Christ is dominant and Christ is all, and every obstacle in the way goes down and becomes a plain.
Zechariah 6 introduces the idea of government, firstly in a providential way, and secondly in a direct way. These are two thoughts that have to be apprehended in order that we may understand the present situation. God intends that we shall be intelligent as to everything. Before the Lord introduces the system in Matthew, He lifts up His heart to God and
says, "I praise thee, Father, ... that thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent, and hast revealed them to babes. Yea, Father, for thus has it been well-pleasing in thy sight" (Matthew 11:25).
The Lord took account of the heavens and the earth, and this chapter furnishes us with light as to how the earth is ruled at the present time. The prophet sees four chariots -- not simply horses, but chariots. There are horses attached of course, red horses, black horses, white horses, and grizzled, strong horses. These chariots issue from between two mountains of brass, meaning that God holds in His hand the means of judgment, and although the powers represented in these chariots do not know Him, yet they do His will. They are said to be the spirits of the heavens, for heaven never gives up its right over the earth.
Whatever men may say about the 'voice of the people', heaven never gives up its right over the earth. Even this last power called grizzled, and then bay, or strong, cannot "walk to and fro through the earth" without permission. They essay to do it. The great fourth empire, which has its roots in antiquity and extends to our own time, and is about to re-appear in all its ferocity, is nevertheless subject to heaven. There was a going forth to the south country and then the intent to walk to and fro through the earth, but there could be no walking through the earth without God's permission.
We need to have in our mind the power of God; that He is the sovereign ruler of the heavens and the earth; as the souls under the altar in Revelation say, "How long, O sovereign Ruler, ... dost thou not judge sand avenge our blood on them that dwell upon the earth?" (Revelation 6:10). They understood that He had universal power, and we should understand it too. So He says, "Go, walk to and fro through the earth". Hence you have an empire, the like of which has never previously
appeared, extending from the Atlantic to the Euphrates. Roman roads still existing testify to their means of walking to and fro, but they walked to and fro through the earth by divine permission. The saints may be assured that nothing can happen without divine permission, and if these strong horses walk to and fro on the earth under God, they maintain order; they have come out from between the two brazen mountains. They are called "the spirits of the heavens". They were under divine control and direction. Our Lord Jesus Christ died under them, saying to Pilate that he could have no power against Him except it were given to him from above. They were the spirits of the heavens sent out by the Lord of all the earth.
Then we come to another vision, and this is what I have in mind to dwell on particularly. The prophet is directed to go to certain ones who had been brought back from the captivity. They are mentioned by name, as you will observe. They had come from Babylon. We have all been recovered; our position is that we have been recovered from Babylon. The prophet is directed to take "silver and gold, and make crowns, and set them upon the head of Joshua the son of Jehozadak, the high priest". I wish to show that this is what is going on at the present time.
It is not now chariots and horses who are to be in power, but a man, Joshua, the son of Jehozadak, the high priest, a type of Christ, as I said. Those who return from the captivity are to give, and the prophet is to take from them; they do not come back empty-handed, nor is anyone who has really been brought back from Babylon brought back empty-handed. You have come back through exercise if you have come back rightly. You come back in a spiritual way, with an apprehension of Christ. Yet come back in the spirit of humility, of littleness, and of subjection. You do not assert your will. What you have
is available and it is to be utilised in making crowns.
In this connection a house is mentioned, the house of Josiah the son of Zephaniah. After taking from these men, the prophet was to go the same day into this house. Having arrived at the thought of a house, I wish to comment for a moment on the relation of our houses to our present position. As the question has been raised today as to the place sisters have in the service of God, the suggestion of a house enables one to enlarge on this point. The gospel of Luke prominently introduces women; it introduces them as priests, particularly Elizabeth, Mary and Anna. If any sisters wish to determine before God what their function is, what their service should be, I cannot advise them better than that they should read the Scriptures from the standpoint of the service and testimony of women as seen there. Take the gospel of Luke, as I said. The Lord arrives at Bethany, and a certain woman receives Him into her house. Is that not a service? Think of the honour of receiving Christ into your house! If you are set for that, you would be concerned for your house, for you are to guide it.
And we find that those who witnessed the Lord Jesus go up into heaven in Acts 1, returned to Jerusalem, and they go to an upper room, and it says, Peter, James and John were there ... and certain women. I think that upper room at Jerusalem was a place of general gathering, and what you observe is that certain women were there, amongst them the Lord's mother. These women would not be there listlessly. They would be there with keenest interest. They would follow all that passed. They would carry the burden of the testimony on their hearts. And then Mary the mother of Mark had a prayer meeting in her house. Then you find a girl, who, as the sequel shows, was in advance of them all. Her
name was Rhoda. Is not that a word for young girls amongst us? She recognised Peter's voice. The others had prayed for him. Doubtless she had joined in the prayers, but she knew Peter's voice. They thought she was mad. You may get persecuted, young sister, but if you are true to Christ, the Lord will give you light, and you may shine more than others at times. Her name is given. It is an honour to have your name mentioned by God.
It is a great thing to be firm. If you know a thing is so, stand by it. Then again, you find a woman like Priscilla. What an honourable mention she has in Scripture! In Romans she is mentioned before her husband. This is not an accident, and what you find is that she and her husband had an assembly in their house. Do you not think that Priscilla would know what went on in that assembly? Earlier at Ephesus they had also an assembly in their house.
The prophet is here instructed to go the same day to the house of Josiah the son of Zephaniah. There is nothing said about women in that house, but undoubtedly there was a woman or women there. You see how God connects what is precious spiritually with the house. The most precious things are found in the houses of the saints, and I need not say again, the woman has to do with the house; it was so in connection with Peter. The Lord goes into the house and puts his mother-in-law right. He stands over her. And may I suggest that much that is wrong amongst us is due to the insubjection of women? There is a want of authority in the man. The Lord, it is said, stood over her; Luke 4:39. As she would look up to Christ standing over her, she would be impressed with His authority. He rebuked the fever and it left her. Need any sister feel at a loss for her service? Peter's wife's mother did not have far to go. She arose and served them. And so again with Lydia, as the Lord opened her heart to attend to the
things spoken by Paul, she opened her house to Paul and those that were with him.
Thus the prophet was to take gold and silver and enter into the house and make crowns and set them on the head of Joshua. This is going on now. Christ is honoured, crowns are being made for Him, as it were. And then it says, He shall sit on His throne and rule. What is the value of a throne if the occupant does not rule? Did He not rule in the house of Peter? He did. The fever left the woman at His rebuke. And then it adds that He sits on His throne as Priest. Whilst He rules, He rules as a Priest. There is the tenderest sympathy. So that whatever happens as the outcome of His rule, you will find the tenderest sympathy flowing in it. Whatever happens in connection with His rule, you will find it is mitigated by grace. Then in this state of things you have peace. "The counsel of peace shall be between them both". It is a day of small things, but the most precious features of the testimony are to be seen. Here we have the throne, the rule of Christ on it and the counsel of peace. How much is the counsel of peace amongst us? Between Him and God there is the most perfect peace -- the counsel of peace. This is to be reflected among us, for we are to follow peace together.
The Corinthians wrote to Paul about many things, but they did not write about the differences amongst them; these differences were serious, and so the apostle begins with them; "I exhort you, brethren, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that ye all say the same thing, and that there be not among you divisions; but that ye be perfectly united in the same mind and in the same opinion" (1 Corinthians 1:10). That is what he begins with. They had said nothing about their divisions to him, but he knew they were there. It had been told to him by some of the house of Chloe.
And then you see these crowns are set up in the
temple as a memorial for these men. How encouraging it is in a day of small things that these crowns are hung up in the temple as a memorial to the devotedness of those who provide for the honour of Christ. And then it says, "He shall build the temple". The Lord is doing it, and every person recognises that it is the Lord that is doing it. It speaks also of those that are afar off. If these conditions prevail amongst the saints, we may count upon it that the Lord will extend His operations. "They that are far off shall come and build at the temple of Jehovah: and ye shall know that Jehovah of hosts hath sent me unto you". The chapter closes with the assurance that "this shall come to pass, if ye will diligently hearken to the voice of Jehovah your God".
May this obedience mark us until the Lord comes!
John 18:1 - 9; John 20:19 - 23; Numbers 10:33 - 36
J.T. There is a correspondence in my mind between these chapters in John and the passage in Numbers. What the passage in Numbers speaks about is the ark, which we know is a type of the Lord Jesus as a divine Person, moving out before the people, before Israel as they set out from the mount of the Lord. There is a certain correspondence, too, between the mount of Jehovah and the Lord's supper. I refer to the period in which the Lord instituted the Supper. In chapter 13 the Lord did certain things which would be in keeping with what came out at the mount of the Lord. Much came out at that mount.
Ques. Would it help if you mentioned one or two of these things?
J.T. We get the expression of God's love which gives character to it. The people, it says, pitched before the mount, they took up a definite position before the mount of the Lord; then the Lord began to speak to them, and in speaking to them He opened up what was in His heart. It would be in a certain sense in keeping with what the Lord did as having sat down with His disciples. In addition to that there was the opening up of the heart of God and the mind of God. Then there were all the commandments that accompanied the giving of the ark and the tabernacle. In John 14:31 the Lord says, "Rise up, let us go hence". There is actual movement. Further, "Jesus, having said these things, went out with his disciples beyond the torrent Cedron" (John 18:1); and in going forth He meets the enemy. He says, "If therefore ye seek me, let these go away". Moses said, when the ark went forth, "Rise up, Jehovah, and
let thine enemies be scattered; And let them that hate thee flee before thy face".
Ques. What is the import of the three days?
J.T. I suppose it would be death and resurrection. The Lord was on that way in John 18. You get the enemy in these two chapters. It was a terrible road He took; He took it in love, and He took it in power. Though a perfect Man, and feeling everything as Man, yet He is in supreme control; He went before them. What is immediately before us in Numbers is the wilderness position; and the wilderness is not the destruction of the enemy but the scattering.
Rem. Making room for the movement of the testimony.
Ques. Would it answer to the Lord presenting Himself as the resurrection and the life before He met death?
J.T. Well, I think so. I think the whole gospel brings out certain facts about Him that give Him a place in the heart of the believer as a divine Person. That is one end in view; there are other ends in view. John's gospel establishes in our hearts the Lord as a divine Person.
Rem. A divine Person in manhood.
J.T. Yes. I think it could be easily shown from these chapters that that is so. The gospel is built up on signs, signs indicating certain features of the truth. We reach the family in chapter 12, not yet the heavenly family, but the family at Bethany.
Ques. Are you distinguishing between that and the heavenly family?
J.T. Quite; chapter 20 is the heavenly family.
J.T. Life in a locality. In chapter 20 He did not come to a locality, but to persons. In chapter 12 the locality is mentioned where the persons were, but in chapter 20 He came to the persons without saying
where. You have the idea of locality in 1 Corinthians 1:2, "in every place". John supports that by presenting life in a locality.
Ques. Were you suggesting that 1 Corinthians 1:2, "all that in every place call upon the name of our Lord Jesus Christ", suggests locality, and John would bring life into it?
J.T. That is the way he supports the principle of local responsibility. In chapter 12 there is nothing said about any directions having been given; what it says is what they did, and what they did has a spiritual character. They had come to know Him in a living way. In chapter 12 you have the "sons of light". He came to Bethany six days before the passover -- time and place, which is important as to public order. The strict reading is "where was the dead man Lazarus". He was no longer a politician or a society man, he formed no part of the public community. "Whom Jesus raised from among the dead". So you have life, a man out of death. "Martha served;" it does not say she was told to serve, and Lazarus was one of those who sat at the table with Him, and Mary broke the box of ointment. The Spirit of God is presenting a living scene in a locality. It is the result of previous instruction; "the sons of light" know what to do. The life was the light. The idea of a locality corresponds with the wilderness.
Rem. I suppose John 20 is our affections reaching the Lord outside of things here. As One that ascends.
Ques. Would chapter 12 be the necessary road for us to chapter 20?
J.T. I think so. It indicates directions for the individual. Then the teaching of chapters 13 to 17 comes in. In John 4 the woman leaves her waterpot, she apprehends what the Lord said. Her body was to be used for the Spirit; she was a son of light, as it were. Peter answers for the twelve in John 6:68, 69, saying, "Lord, to whom shall we go? thou hast
words of life eternal; and we have believed and known that thou art the holy one of God". That was one of the twelve, and he spoke for them; he is a son of light in that connection. Chapter 9 gives you a son of light in regard of the Son of God. So chapter 12 brings in sons of light; they act rightly, they know what to do. It is not children of light but sons of light. The Lord says, "While ye have the light, believe in the light, that ye may become sons of light". Sons of light know what to do.
Rem. They have spiritual instincts and affections. "He that follows me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life" (John 8:12).
J.T. There it is, "shall have the light of life". Then there is more to follow, collective instruction, and it is in connection with that you have this wonderful movement of Christ. After He said these things He moved. (See chapters 14: 31; 18: 1).
Ques. Do you suggest that His movements were in view of what you spoke of in chapter 20?
J.T. Yes; the ark moved out to seek a resting-place for them. "If therefore ye seek me, let these go away". Hence it says in Numbers 10:33, "And they set forward from the mountain of Jehovah and went three days' journey; and the ark of the covenant of Jehovah went before them in the three days' journey, to search out a resting-place for them". It was out of the usual order, but the Lord is not restricted to order. In the order of it the ark should have been in the midst. What can we do against the enemy without Christ? They say later, "Here are we, and we will go up to the place of which Jehovah has spoken; for we have sinned" (Numbers 14:40), but the ark did not go up in their midst, (verse 44). Here the ark goes before them, it is the love of Christ taking a front position in love and in power; His power is available to us.
Ques. Is the idea of seeking a resting-place for them rest in conflict?
J.T. The wilderness is a weary land; do not you find that? The Lord provides rest for us.
Rem. Joshua could not give them rest.
J.T. There is nothing more touching than the ark moving out to find a resting-place for the people.
Ques. Do you say we ought to look for that now?
J.T. It is what we ought to look for at the Lord's supper. I think the mount of God includes the Supper. There were wonderful discoveries there; all that God is has come out. We have the love of Christ; the love of God is there. It is presented objectively in the Lord's supper, but it is in our souls by the Spirit. You will observe in Numbers that finality is not reached. In the end of this gospel the Lord is not seen sitting; He comes into the midst, but He is standing. There is more beyond.
Ques. Would you say a little more on the thought of moving out?
J.T. That is the effect the Lord's supper should have on us, it should put us in movement.
Rem. First of all, it leads to this thought of rest.
J.T. That is what you have before you. It may be provisional rest. Numbers is not anything final. We need what is provisional, so you have three days in which the ark went before them to seek out a resting-place. That does not suggest a final resting-place, but there is present rest.
Ques. Would it be connected more with resurrection than the thought of ascension?
J.T. Where can we rest but in what the love of Christ has effected? Colossians dwells on what He has taken out of the way, everything that might cause a disturbance is taken out of the way, everything removed, that you might be according to Christ,
that our hearts might rest in what the Lord is to us, and what we are to Him. It cannot be final while we are in the wilderness, but it is provisional, and it gives us colour in the wilderness.
Ques. Are we looking forward to the Lord's supper all the week?
J.T. We should look for the coming of the Lord, not the Supper.
Ques. Do we not look forward to it?
J.T. We should begin with it. We move out from it, not to it. The Lord's supper is a public thing, but it leads to what is private. We rest in the Lord. The ark moved out before them. It is for you to follow. The whole week takes character from the Supper, so there is freshness. The Lord's death is never two thousand years away from us. There is ever the freshness of it, that is the thing that is essential; it is not a mere historical event, but a thing that is by you.
Rem. It was so with Mary; the disciples went away to their own home, but Mary stood without at the sepulchre weeping.
J.T. It was a reality to her; they could go to their homes. They lose this appearing. It was from that point she moved. He had already passed through death.
J.T. Before we get that, Mary is moving; she went and told the disciples. Many take the Lord's supper and see nothing beyond it. They have come to "the mount of the Lord", which is a wonderful place, but the time came when they moved from that, and then the ark went before. It is a question of movement in our souls, whether we apprehend the Lord in His own sphere, and what He would give us rest in. The assembly is set up in the full light of the Lord's present position.
Ques. With regard to this movement in John 17,
is it your thought that it involves His love passing through death and reaching resurrection, to establish it for us?
Ques. Would you say a little more as to Colossians?
J.T. He has taken out of the way the things that stood out against us. He has spoiled principalities and powers, and made a show of them openly, triumphing over them in it. They stood in the way. He blotted out the handwriting of ordinances, and nailed it to His cross. Thus a way is made for us into the purpose of God's love.
It is a question of what He would bring us to now. The Lord's supper is very precious, and it is the centre of all the Lord is saying to us at the present time; but then there is that to which He would lead us. You have the idea of what is public, but not in John, because He is not dealing with the public side there, but He is dealing with what is spiritual; and what is spiritual has to be discovered in our souls. He goes before. The opening of chapter 20 shows He has gone before. They were up early; He was up earlier than they. The grave was empty, and it was for them to enjoy that fact. Peter and John went home, but Mary kept there, she remained there. She would have Himself. Not indeed that she was intelligent, but there she was; she got the manifestation; she found that He was out of death. The Lord moves in relation to the state of our souls. It is what He does. As we have it in John 2:5 "Whatever he may say to you, do". The Lord knew about the deficient wine. He shuts out the natural. "What have I to do with thee, woman?" He says to His mother. She bows, and says to the servants, "Whatever he may say to you, do". It is a great principle to have in view: what He says, and what He does.
Ques. Why is the ark going before them in Numbers 10 and not in Joshua?
J.T. I think in Joshua it was not to seek out a resting-place for them, but to dispose of death entirely. Numbers 10 is more what Christ is to us in the wilderness, so as to find out a resting-place for us. I think Mary's position here -- He revealed Himself to her -- shows that He takes account of the state of our souls; He did not manifest Himself to Peter and John, He manifested Himself to her. What you get throughout John's gospel is movement. In chapter 1, when He saw the two disciples following, He said, "What seek ye?"
Ques. What has movement in view in John?
J.T. What I referred to in chapter 1, they wished to know Him where He dwelt: "Rabbi ... where abidest thou?" That is a very fine question. He turned, saw them following, and said, "What seek ye?" They answer, "Rabbi ... where abidest thou?" That is the principle in John -- movement. "Come and see", He says.
Ques. Can we touch that sphere today?
J.T. That is the thing. John's ministry is to set our souls in movement. Paul gives us the external. In John there is wonderful freshness and vigour for God. Take Lazarus as an example, "Loose him and let him go". In Luke when the young man was raised up, the Lord delivered him to his mother, but He does not deliver Lazarus to any one. A principle in John is: "He that has been begotten of God keeps himself, and the wicked one does not touch him" (1 John 5:18). It is what we are as being made to live. Lazarus could be trusted -- let go.
Ques. In connection with the Lord's supper, passing on to a fresh thing, as you spoke of, you would not have conflict in your mind?
J.T. It is well to recognise enemies, but the Lord scatters them. If you want to move, the whole
power of the enemy is against you; he is in the air. In Luke the Lord is the priest: patient, suffering, and allows things to happen in that way. In John He has supreme control. It is an immense thing to get that thought of Christ, because on that line there is rest for your spirit. The Lord is looking for freshness, and Christianity supplies it; hence you have so much about water-springs. In chapters 13 to 17 the Lord is opening up divine things to them, and having said these things He moves. It is not now what He says, but what He is doing. He is moving. We need to be instructed, but we need spiritual instincts to follow Him. We should never have anything less before us than what is heavenly. We touch it provisionally now. The hymn puts it in a beautiful way:
When we get there it is no longer a question of time or place, or even order. The apostle says he did not know whether he was in the body or out of the body; God knew, it is His sphere. In 2 Corinthians 5:14 - 17 he has judged "that one died for all, then all have died; and he died for all, that they who live" -- that is the basis -- "should no longer live to themselves, but to him who died for them, and has been raised ...". "So if any one be in Christ, there is a new creation". Reconciliation is not the result of new creation, reconciliation helps a soul into it. Reconciliation is by the death of Christ.
Rem. You made a suggestion that in chapter 18 it is a question of where He was moving to.
J.T. In the language of the type, He was going to seek out a resting-place for them. He thinks of them. What is final rests with God: it is what pleases Him. What Scripture enlarges upon is the present, therefore we are brought to that favoured hour now.
Joshua 14:6 - 15; Joshua 17:3 - 6; Joshua 18:1 - 10
J.T. I was thinking of the distinction that has to be made between the purpose of God for us, and the birthright. Judah represents the purpose of God, and Joseph the birthright; 1 Chronicles 5:1, 2. These passages in Joshua 14 and 17 show that Judah (in Caleb) laid hold of the thought of what God intended to set up in him, and Joseph (in the daughters of Zelophehad) laid hold of the divine thought in regard of him. Taken together, they represent the energy of faith in the saints, first, as to the purpose of God, and then as to the birthright. Chapter 18 shows that God reserves the right to determine positions, and makes known His mind in the house.
Ques. What answers to the birthright in Christianity?
J.T. What has been secured for us in Christ. There is the purpose of God which precedes the thought of parentage. The birthright necessarily involves parentage, but the purpose of God has to do with His own pleasure.
Ques. Is that why the thought of Judah comes before Joseph?
J.T. "Judah prevailed among his brethren, and of him was the prince, but the birthright was Josephs" (1 Chronicles 5:2). Although Joseph had the birthright, God reserved the disclosure of His sovereign purpose, and Judah represents that. In the disposition of the tribes in the wilderness, Judah's place represents the purpose of God (Numbers 2:2). In Psalm 114:2 we get that when Israel came out of Egypt, "Judah was his sanctuary". That was the purpose of God. Although it might appear that Levi
was the sanctuary, as the record of the wilderness shows, yet Judah was in the divine mind, and Caleb represents the energy of faith and intelligence that laid hold of that.
Ques. Will you make clear the distinction between purpose and birthright?
J.T. Well, I think we can take in that the purpose of God ante-dated everything. Hebron represented that which was before the world. We have to get that thought. It was built seven years before Zoan in Egypt. There was the hidden wisdom of God which was prepared before the world, and then there is that which comes in on the line of parentage; that is the birthright. These things run together and then there is the house of God, in which God makes known His mind to us, as to our varied positions in the light of these things. Chapter 18 brings in the thought of the house in the setting up of the tabernacle at Shiloh; and the seven tribes that had not as yet obtained their inheritance got their inheritance there. The mind of God was disclosed there, whereas Judah and Joseph obtained theirs before.
Ques. Does that indicate that they apprehended the purpose of God?
J.T. I think Caleb represents that side, and the daughters of Zelophehad represent the apprehension of the birthright, but then there are the remaining seven tribes. What one observes is that there is very little apprehension of the purpose of God or of the birthright or inheritance; but besides these we have also to apprehend that the house is where our positions are determined or disclosed -- where we learn the mind of God respecting us.
Rem. You mean our particular positions in connection with the purpose of God or the house.
J.T. I mean our position in connection with these two great principles; that is, the purpose of God and the birthright; these enter into the principle of the
house. But we have to learn in the house the mind of God respecting us.
Ques. Are there three stages in our history then?
J.T. I think that is how the truth stands from God's side.
Ques. When do we apprehend parentage? Is that connected with new birth?
J.T. It involves the family relation and what goes with parentage.
Ques. Is it on the line of the apostle John, "Now are we children of God?"
J.T. The first thing is the purpose of God, and that purpose was before the world, and then the family thought comes in. Joseph got a peculiar place in the family, that is, he represents Christ. The birthright came to Joseph. All that God had disclosed, all that wealth of blessing and privilege that God had disclosed has come to Joseph, has come to Christ; and that has come to us, but then the house of God is that in which God has determined our lot or positions in relation to it all.
Ques. Is it your thought that for learning this on our side the house is necessary?
J.T. Yes; it is necessary to come into the light of the house, that is where God disposes of us. The positions of Judah and Joseph were fixed; the two great features -- the purpose of God and the birthright -- are fixed. But there were seven tribes who as yet had not received their inheritance. Take the early history of the testimony as we have it. Pentecost disclosed much, but not yet the house. The house was there, but not then as God intended it to be established. It remained for Paul to come on the scene to bring out that in which the mind of God should be disclosed for the whole period. What was set up at Pentecost was not interfered with, but there were seven tribes whose lots were not yet given. Joshua 18 indicates how matters stand since Paul set
up the house. All dispositions now are in the house. What preceded that, what came out at Pentecost, stands. In Joshua 18 there was the setting up of the tabernacle and the whole territory is surveyed and written in a book. We have to find out the book which contains the account of all the lots, of all the territory. Then we have to determine what place we are to have in that; we have to wait on the lot; that is, the disposition of each of us is now in the hands of God, and that is to come out in the house of God. That is how matters stand since Paul; what is going on now is in accordance with that. The movement of a hundred years ago brought out these features; they did not come out at the Reformation. The truth of the family developed with the truth of the house. In the house God determines positions; He discloses His mind about everything, whatever any of us may assume to be. The tribes were to get their inheritance in Shiloh; whatever place one may assume to have does not settle the matter; you have to wait on the lot.
Ques. Do you think that the recognition of the two principles stated -- the purpose of God and the family conditions -- brings the house into evidence?
J.T. The position of the seven tribes that have not got their inheritance can be declared from the house. The great mass of the saints are not apprehending the house. The purpose of God brought out what Judah represents. It is remarkable how the two thoughts converge in the house. It is said, "Judah is his sanctuary". In the revival from which we are now benefiting, the purpose of God came to light in Christ. He purposed to head up all things in Christ, and He has given Him to be Head over all things to the assembly, which is His body. That truth coming to light upset all previous arrangements in Christendom, for it is built on entirely different lines. It involved the counsel of His will, and that
has to go through, whatever man says or does. At the same time there was the development of the family thought, and the knowledge of God as the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. He names the families, but then there is one family now. The Lord said, "To my Father and your Father; and to my God and your God" (John 20:17). That involves the birthright. It comes to us from parentage; and both these things converge in the house. The purpose of God in the house upsets all human arrangements. While we may enjoy the thoughts of the purpose of God and the inheritance, there is that in which God reveals His mind and we have to wait on Him in the house. I think that is what is going on now; the dispositions of God are being disclosed in regard to one and another. The whole land is indicated -- there is nothing more; it is written in a book, but then we have to wait on the lot, the disclosing of the mind of God in regard to each of us. This sets aside the working of our wills, whether locally, in districts, or generally. The house of God is a universal conception and He disposes of things accordingly.
Rem. It is said of the lot, that the whole disposing thereof is of the Lord.
J.T. When we come to the final details, we find Benjamin is first, and he has Jerusalem in his territory. That seems remarkable because it seems to interfere with subsequent thoughts.
Ques. I should like a thought as to why the seven tribes only come in in connection with the house. The other five evidently go with the first thoughts you named.
J.T. The two and a half tribes got their inheritance under Moses. They remind us of the dear brethren in the Reformation; they did not go beyond Romans, and they were captured early. Judah and Joseph (half Manasseh) laid hold of the full purpose of God on the one hand, and the birthright on the other.
That is the thing to get hold of, they came in for all theirs. The two and a half tribes did not have anything beyond Romans in the antitype. There are many such today.
Rem. Leah brought in Judah, and Rachel Joseph and Benjamin, and the father determined their places.
J.T. The Lord would help us to lay hold of the thing that is valuable. Caleb sought that, and his daughter too; it was a family matter. He sought to get hold of the full purpose of God, and God blessed him. Achsah, his daughter, in the next chapter asks for springs of water; that has reference typically to the Spirit, who enables us to lay hold of, and to enjoy, it. These five women, the daughter of Zelophehad, wanted the birthright. They desired to have it among their brethren. It was a family matter. Then the house of God comes in and the seven tribes which had not received their inheritance. The position is thus set up, covering the whole period, so that the recognition of this enters into our personal service, and our local and other relations, whether district or general. Because Benjamin got Jerusalem there was a potential issue; subsequently Judah got Jerusalem, because it was the purpose of God; but we hear of no friction between Judah and Benjamin in regard to Jerusalem. It passed into the hands of Judah and came in the divine choice according to Psalm 78:68, "But chose the tribe of Judah, the mount Zion which he loved". But there was no friction; that is the point. In the dispositions of the house we are all tested; how are we standing the test?
Ques. Do you mean we may have to give up a place?
J.T. Yes, I do; the test lies in the acceptance of sovereignty without friction. It had passed into better hands. God said at the same time of Benjamin that He would dwell between his shoulders; yet the
dwelling-place passed into the hands of Judah and there were no complaints.
Ques. Does the purpose of God come to light in David?
J.T. I think so. That explains David's great exercise as to the house. The psalm which says, Judah was his sanctuary, shows it was for the good of all. Benjamin allowed Jerusalem to pass into the hands of him whom God had chosen.
Rem. The local company in its setting has to do with the house of God universally.
J.T. Yes; it is a question of God's will and sets aside our wills. Benjamin and Judah were locally connected in their territories, they were interlocked; then the next tribe was Simeon and this was the greatest test of all, because Simeon's territory was taken out of Judah; a remarkable test for a brother who had a big territory! Sometimes a brother's influence is greater than he is equal to, and when one's influence exceeds one's spirituality the result is very damaging. Simeon gets his territory from Judah and there was no word of complaint from Judah. There is a wonderful tribute to the relations between Judah and Simeon in the book of Judges -- you may say one of the brightest spots in Judges. "Judah said to Simeon his brother, Come up with me into my lot, and let us fight" (Judges 1:3). They were brethren. And then to follow up that, we get groups in the division of the cities of the Levites, and one group of cities is given out of these three tribes -- Judah, Benjamin and Simeon. They are brought together by the Spirit. The cities taken out of their territory were given to the Kohathites, the children of Aaron (Joshua 21:4). Then the forty-eight cities, the divisions of the Levites, would link all up together in one spiritual whole in the service of testimony. The principles of the house of God are worked out in a locality, but it is never spoken of in Scripture as in
a locality. There is the universal thing -- one spiritual whole. The ten tribes are linked up in connection with the Levites.
Rem. By the Spirit all pervading; in the actual working out of things this would bring about adjustment, and it would necessitate grace.
J.T. Yes; our wills have to give way. It is very beautiful to see how Benjamin, Judah and Simeon stood the test, there was no complaint.
Rem. Peter handed the saints over to Paul.
J.T. Yes; so did Barnabas, who had a standing among the saints before Paul, but he brought him to Jerusalem. Barnabas was a good man and full of the Holy Spirit. Friction arises sometimes among the people of God when gift develops, as it interferes with those already in prominence. Saul must have been a test to all at Jerusalem. It was much like Simeon being brought in and set down in the midst of Judah. But the apostles gave Saul the right hand of fellowship. What is so terrible in the house of God is the exercise of our wills. For dispositions as to the land, we must wait on God. It is right to desire to serve and influence the saints, but we have to wait on God for that. If another is brought in in the sovereignty of God, that tests us. God has His thoughts, and they do not always appear at first; He has reserves. I have to take God's movements to heart; He is constantly moving.
Ques. Is the thought of the house of God that every tribe should have a place?
J.T. Yes; there is room for all -- seven portions. The book does not say who got them, the lot did. We know there are things to do, but we have to wait on God as to who shall do them. If we were in the house of God intelligently, not merely acquainted with the terms of it, and recognised the Son over it, there would not be any murmuring. There would not have been room for Simeon in Judah's territory
if the spirit of Diotrephes had been present as in John's third epistle.
Rem. God seems to support those who are set on the purpose of God.
J.T. There are very few of us who know just what the Lord would have us to do, or what our place really is. But in admitting that, we should turn to God; and then you take note of persons who are already in the service of God and you do not go before them, you see what they are doing. This interlocking of territories (jutting into each other) occasions irritation, unless we are in the grace of Christ. "With all lowliness and meekness ... using diligence to keep the unity of the Spirit" (Ephesians 4:2, 3). I understand that to refer to the free action of the Spirit in its universal character. You do not want to interfere with what the Spirit is doing.
Ques. How about defining which is the nearest meeting?
J.T. Deuteronomy 21 and other passages give guiding principles, but much depends on the wisdom of the saints and the grace that should be in our hearts towards one another. "Understanding of the times, to know what Israel ought to do" (1 Chronicles 12:32). If grace is at work, there will be a mutuality which will bring in spiritual power. The daughters of Zelophehad desired to enjoy things among their brethren; there was a general desire to live together.
Ques. How is that going to help us in the distribution?
J.T. Levi represents the heavenly element among the saints; that is, no land is given to him, it is carefully noted that he was not among the tribes in the division, neither among the two and a half, nor the two, nor the seven. His place is taken up by Manasseh; Joshua 14:3. It is a new thought, a heavenly thought. The house of God is one spiritual whole; and it is administered by this wonderful
family, the assembly of the firstborn ones, whose names are registered in heaven. The heavenly thing enters into the whole spiritual system. I think it would greatly help us in the acceptance of the divine dispositions if we were exercised to receive them and carry them out in heavenly grace.
Ques. Why was it that Joshua is mentioned in chapters 14 and 18, but Eleazar the priest is mentioned in chapter 17 in connection with the claim of the daughters of Zelophehad?
J.T. I suppose that would be the priestly element to maintain right relations in the family.
Ques. Do we apprehend the purpose of God last?
J.T. I think the truth stands here as presented from the divine side. How I come into it is another matter. It is a great thing to get the thing as it stands in the mind of God, that is, an outline, and to have that in your soul always. We are brought into what is one spiritual whole; there is local responsibility, but there is one spiritual whole administered by the Levites, who are spread all over the territory. They are maintaining things in the uniting bond of peace; that means that I recognise what the Spirit is doing anywhere and everywhere; if He moves powerfully in one place, He may move at another time in another place. The recognition of this saves us from metropolitan feeling. If there is a large number of God's people in a locality it may be a snare, for the flesh may pride itself in this fact. If I keep in mind the maintenance of one spiritual whole, I shall not attach undue importance to any locality. The Levites represent the heavenly element, and that is to permeate every part of the house.
Ques. Would you say that the inheritance is any sphere where the saints can exercise influence?
J.T. We are brought into a wonderful place, and it is well to have it in view as set forth in the Scriptures.
There is that which is local, but I must recognise the universal thought; I must not attach too much importance to any one district; the house of God is one whole.
Luke 5:1 - 11; Luke 7:1 - 10; Luke 19:1 - 10
I wish to speak so as to present the word of Christ, a subject that will be interesting to you, for His word must govern; we must come under His authority and move at His direction if we are to profit by the service which the Lord is ready to render us. I would remark of Luke that he is the most evangelical of all the writers about our Lord's service, for he presents the Lord as serving in the synagogue. Others do too, but Luke emphasises that the Lord, as led by the Spirit, was driven into the wilderness and tempted by the devil and that He returned in the power of the Spirit into Galilee and that He was teaching in their synagogue. That is to say, Luke disarms all religionists of any prejudice against Christ.
Whatever your choice of a religion may be, the Lord will not at the first raise that question with you, but He is set on your salvation. And so in view of the Jew being saved, Luke points out that the Lord shows them the greatest consideration at the outset of His service. Luke tells us that it was His custom to enter into the synagogue -- instead of avoiding it. Luke tells us how He deported Himself in the synagogue in His own town of Nazareth. He entered into it as usual and "stood up to read". There was handed to Him the roll of the prophet Isaiah, and He turned it over and found the scripture and He read it. I am speaking of His manner in the synagogue and how He would not move against religious prejudice.
He is after your soul. The time will come by-and-by when He will speak to you about your religions associations, but for the moment He wants you. He has come to seek and to save the lost, wherever they are, whether in the synagogue, or elsewhere, whether
it be the king on his throne, or the prisoner in his dungeon. They are all lost and He has come to seek and to save the lost.
And so it was that He read the scripture to them and sat down. The Holy Spirit dwells on what He did in that synagogue and He says, "To-day this scripture is fulfilled in your ears". What a moment for those in that synagogue. There is nothing said of any one being saved on that day. The facts rather show that the spirit of opposition was aroused, so that they led Him out to the brow of the hill on which their city was built so as to cast Him down headlong, but He went on His way.
He goes into another synagogue; he casts out a demon in it, and then He leaves the synagogue and goes into the house, as if to say, They will let Me do a little more, perchance, in the house. He enters Simon's house, a wonderful day for Simon. But there is no evidence that Simon got any blessing through the visit. His mother-in-law got help, and I have no doubt Simon regarded that as a blessing, but I only wish to call attention to the sphere of the Lord's activities, that now He is moving out from the synagogue into the house. He is seeking. If He found you in the synagogue He will save you there, if He finds you in your house He will certainly save you there.
But there are two sides to salvation. Whilst He saves, there has also to be submission to His word. There is nothing said as to any remark by Simon in the house. Jesus heals his mother-in-law. He stood over her. She will never forget that. She would be conscious as that glorious Person stood over her that here was One to be listened to; there was power there, and she proved it. She rose up when the fever had left her and served them.
But I am thinking also of Simon, and the Lord's way of following up the lost, and so He goes down by
the seaside. The synagogue had had its day and the house its opportunity, and now He goes down by the sea and there were two boats there. He is now following men up in their business relations. Maybe He will get you there. You see the Lord is most persistent in seeking he lost. And He enters into one of the boats with Simon, and He says, "Draw out into the deep water". He asks them to do it. It is not a question of His authority, for when you enter into a man's house, or into his business, if you are to help him you must not order him. It is not the time to order people to do things, but to beg them to do it. The Lord would descend to that, beloved, in His grace. He would go any length to reach you, He begged them -- asked them to push the boat out, and He sits down and He teaches the people the word of God.
These were wonderful times; the word of God was being spoken and the Lord sat down, as if He loved it, and He spoke to the people out of the boat, for the Lord knew how to reach them, He knew when to stand and when to sit. He finished speaking to the people, but He had His eye on Peter, and now when the speaking was finished He directs them. Notice the word. It is no longer a request, the time has now come when the Lord asserts His right. He has got rights. Had you listened to Him in the boat you would have had to admit that there is a Man with a certain moral right, not only to be heard, but a right to command. And so He says, "Draw out into the deep water".
I want to show you that Peter's salvation depended upon the recognition of the Lord's word. It is a critical time, and it may be so in some of your souls at this moment, for God brings a crisis in men's and women's lives when things hang in the balance -- a time of decision.
Well, the Lord says, "Draw out into the deep water ...
for a haul". It was certainly worth the experiment, even from the standpoint of a fisherman, but Peter had no confidence whatever in any results. He says, "Master, having laboured through the whole night we have taken nothing, but ..". Now I want you to notice that in spite of his unbelief as to the results he was submissive, and that submission was the beginning of his spiritual history.
I want you to pay attention to the Lord's word, whatever He says. You remember what His mother said to the servants at Cana, "Whatever he may say to you, do". Whatever He says, whatever you may think of the results, be subject to the Lord. It is your salvation. Peter wisely said, though it was contrary to his experience, "But at thy word I will let down the net". He will do it, and he did it.
Now you see the Lord is in His own sphere in this position. In the synagogue He was in the religious sphere. He does not command there. In Simon's house He was in Simon's sphere, but in the sea He was in what belonged to Him. The sea is His and He made it. Think of the rule the Lord had there. He is now in His own sphere. If you want salvation, then I present this passage to you, "But at thy word I will let down the net". You see the Lord says, "Let down your nets". There is that which you have to do, it is a question of submission. And the net was full of fishes, so that it broke. The fish are of small importance, for the Lord was after Peter.
He was after more, He had a partnership in His mind too. Peter was to be a fisher of men. He was to be taken out of that business relation and act in something greater. It is the Son of man speaking, beloved friends. He is the Creator of the sea and the fishes that were in it. He could command them. He is no less than Jehovah; He made the fishes great and small. The light entered into Peter's soul. How
many of us have experienced light entering into our souls? -- those wonderful moments, never to be forgotten! As Paul said, "God who spoke that out of darkness light should shine who has shone in our hearts" (2 Corinthians 4:6). It shone into Peter's heart. He fell down -- you see the work is going on. Millions of people are affected superficially by the light of the gospel, but how many fall down.
Saul of Tarsus fell down, struck by the light which shone upon him -- very like his great fellow-apostle, Peter. They both had beginnings similar in that instincts sense, only Peter fell at Jesus' knees. What instincts were at work in him, truly spiritual instincts, so that whilst his words convey that he was unfit for the Lord, instinct -- fruit of the Spirit's work -- compelled him, and he fell down at His knees.
You say, What about His knees? In Luke they speak volumes. Luke presents Christ as a praying Man. Had He not prayed for Peter? You may depend that He had. He says later on, "I have prayed for thee". Can we doubt for a moment that Peter understood, the Lord had whispered in his ear at some time and said, Peter, I prayed for you, I was after you. I was in your house, and nothing happened. I spoke in the boat and nothing happened. I was after you and I commanded those fishes, I brought them all up so as to get you. That is what the Lord can do; what things He can do to get one soul!
Maybe I am speaking to somebody who has no affection. The Lord has been doing a lot of things in your circumstances to get you. Have you been resisting? I do not pursue that subject, it is a question of coming under the word of Christ; that is the point I want to make.
Now I come to Zacchaeus. Zacchaeus has a story. He is evidently a converted man. The Lord had passed through Jericho. You can think of the Lord -- I can -- as He passed through; what memories were
in His blessed heart as He passed through those streets. He would think of Rahab, and much that followed as He passed through. It was the place of the curse, you know. But here is a rich man, Zacchaeus, who wants to see the Lord, who He was. I am speaking now to people who are already converted and who are interested in Christ. You would not allow anyone to say anything against Christ, but are you controlled by Christ? Have you taken your own way to get a view of Christ, have you run on before?
He was a rich man, we are told, but he was little in stature. Rich people are not the people that grow great spiritually. Riches will never help you to grow spiritually though you may be a Christian. As I say, this man was wealthy. The Holy Spirit says he was rich, but he was small. But he was one of those whom the Lord expressly states He had come to seek and to save. He says He came to save the rich, to seek the rich and the poor, and Zacchaeus wanted to know and see who this was. He was not content simply with reading about Jesus. He may have read the Old Testament, and he may have been told who Jesus was, but he could not have seen Him. Luke makes much of what you see. Have you seen Jesus, who He is? You say, He is my Saviour. Yes, thank God, He is mine, but I see more than that. I have seen something of who He is.
Then you see Zacchaeus took up a position of his own, he went ahead. He ran ahead and climbed up into a sycamore tree, where everybody could see him, but there can be no doubt he was accustomed to make a show. He had no compunction about being stared at. Rich men are prone to that, they like to take the leading place, so that I have no doubt that Zacchaeus was not in the least disconcerted by the crowds looking up at him, and yet I have no doubt he was sincere, for he wanted to look at Jesus. But
he was not regulated by the Lord's word. Had Zacchaeus remained up in the tree till the Lord had passed by, would he have seen what he saw now?
Moses sought to see the glory, but he would have died had he done so. He saw the back parts, and certainly Zacchaeus is not going to be more favoured that he should see it. If you would see the glory of Christ, and who He is, you must be regulated by the word of the Lord. Are you? And so you see He says, "Zacchaeus ... come down". The Lord looked up. I do not think it disturbed him one bit when the Lord looked up. He would show himself. But then the Lord says, "Zacchaeus ... come down". Think of it. The Lord knew his name, and He says, "To-day I must remain in thy house". What grace! Does he hesitate? Are you hesitating to get out of that false position you are in? Do not hesitate, He has got great things for you. He has got Himself for you. You shall have Me in your house if you want to see Me. He says, You can have Me in your house. Zacchaeus made haste. Are you going to do it, to allow the word of Christ to regulate you?
And now the Lord is in his house. You bring the Lord into the house and then He is prepared to control you in it and He is going to do great things for you. Listen to this man speaking. He says "Lord". He does not address the crowd. True enough you have got to hear what they say about you. Zacchaeus heard them, and so he said, "Lord". He has got redemption, he is learning to say, Lord. And what does he say? He wants to give the Lord an account of his riches. He was a rich man, and these people had said he was sinful, but he gives the Lord an account of his riches. Do we all do that, beloved? We have to reckon with the Lord in regard to what we have got, and so he says, "Lord, the half of my goods I give to the poor, and if I have taken anything from any man by false accusation,
I restore him fourfold". Now that is the way to reckon. You may say he has come under the Lord's word, he is a regulated man and he is giving an account to the Lord of his wealth. He is a righteous man. This man, as the Lord says, is a son of Abraham. He belongs to the noble family of faith. Let them say what they will, that is what you are brought into. And so He says, "To-day salvation is come to this house".
Now I will finish briefly. I want to show you how the word is appreciated on its own account so that you can speak of it to others. The centurion is a very remarkable man. He is one of the finest characters in Luke's gospel, and there are many characters in Luke. He is a Roman officer. Different from Zacchaeus, who was a tax-gatherer; different from Simon, who was evidently a fisherman. Each has his own significance, but now we are in the presence of a Roman officer who is resident officially in the town of Capernaum. He is on good terms with the Jews, for Luke writes from that point of view. This Roman officer, who ruled in Judaea, was on the very best terms with the Jews. He built a synagogue for them, he loved them, and they were ready to come to Christ on his behalf.
And so he sends them to the Lord. He had never met the Lord before, but he had heard of Him. Evidently he was on the very best of terms with his servant. He loved his servant, but his servant was ill and he would appeal to the Lord. He sends to the Lord to come and heal him. It appears that he had some exercise. He might say, Now I have sent the Jews, I will wait till He comes, but no, he has some exercise, he sends other servants. He says, The message I sent Him is not suitable. How fine that is. How respectful he is. He sends servants to the Lord, and says, Lord do not come to my house, for the truth came home to him that this was a great personage.
He thought of his own position as having authority, and so he says to himself, Why, if that were so, He does not need to come any more than Caesar would need to come here to have his word carried out, or that I should go down to speak to my soldiers, all I have to do is to send, "I say to this one, Go, and he goes; and to another, Come, and he comes; and to my bondman, Do this, and he does it".
Now do you apprehend the Lord in this light? It would make you very respectful you see. You would apprehend Jesus in heaven, that He is meant to be there, set in authority, and that His word prevails everywhere, in Japan, in India, in America. Do you apprehend Him in that light? If you do you pray, and you may accomplish more for souls than by preaching. If you apprehend the Lord in heaven having all authority and His word prevails everywhere, you pray. You pray for souls. You say, Lord, all you have got to do is to say the word and this one or that one shall be healed. Now this is a very fine principle of the truth, and it would greatly enlarge you in that regard, greatly increase your confidence in the Lord, for we know that He can do everything.
He sends a message to the Lord, a very fine expression of his own humility, befitting surely his position. He says, Lord, I am not worthy that thou shouldest come under my roof; but say the word. May He say that in regard to some of you; "Say by a word and my servant shall be healed". And the Lord turned round to those who followed and said, "Not even in Israel have I found so great faith". And they returned to the house and the servant is healed. It was a question of the word of Christ.
Mark 11:11 - 18, 27; Mark 12:41 - 44; Mark 14:1 - 3
This gospel presents the Lord as the Servant. It had been announced, "Behold my servant whom I uphold, mine elect in whom my soul delighteth!" (Isaiah 42:1). This service of God was not an afterthought; it was not an emergency movement arising out of local conditions; it was a service long designed. The One to whom it referred, who should take it up here, is found in relation to many things in connection with the service, so that the gospel of Mark becomes a book of special importance to all those who would serve the Lord. All of us are called upon to serve, for, as you will remember, the Levites were taken account of from infancy, held for service from a month old and upward, so that no believer is immune. "But to each one of us has been given grace according to the measure of the gift of Christ" (Ephesians 4:7).
But there are those to whom special commissions are given, and the Lord would have such pay special attention to this remarkable record of His service, written by one who himself was called into the service and went back from the work, but was restored, and who in his recovery was much more wealthy spiritually than he was before his declension. And so the Spirit of God has in Mark a vessel who had great appreciation not only of service but of service rightly performed. It was one of the marks of the assembly at Sardis that its works were not complete; whereas the Lord finishes His work, as He says elsewhere, "My food is that I should do the will of him that has sent me, and that I should finish his work" (John 4:34).
What I want to point out is that this perfect Servant is presented at the end as carrying on His service in the midst of an apostate state of things. He was not exposed to the same opposition in Galilee.
Opposition indeed there was everywhere, but in Jerusalem it was concentrated. Satan had long watched that city. It was the city of the great King from the time that David took it; it was the chief centre of God upon the earth, and Satan had watched it throughout the entire period and had succeeded in establishing his opposition to the truth -- his opposition to God -- in that city as in no other spot on the earth. Terrible consideration! And now the King Himself is there. He has entered, and on His entry He is accorded, by the Father's appointment, a greeting that was due to Him.
While on the way a blind man had struck a note that was due to His Person, which note was taken up later at Olivet and Bethany, but the reception accorded to Him there in no way indicated an underlying condition of sympathy in the city. It was far otherwise, for, as I said, Satan had for a long time established opposition there against God, against His anointed, against the truth, and against the saints, that could be found nowhere else, and so what we have to consider is not the power vested in Christ, although it was there, but the perfection of His service in such conditions. You will understand that in saying these things I have in view that our service is to be carried on under like conditions. The enemy has succeeded in establishing an opposition, exceeding all that ever preceded it, in those who were nominally subject to Christ, but whose hearts, alas! were far away, and so eve may with interest take account of His wonderful way during the few days that remained to Him for the completion of the service committed to Him.
What I would impress is that special devotedness and special affection are called for. In the narratives we have read you get individual devotedness; that is, persons acting apart from others. The Holy Spirit is operating and He is sure to produce, in spite of the
most inveterate opposition, individual attachment to Christ. That is the point I would endeavour, with the Lord's help, to dwell upon. In an apostate state of things what counts particularly is individual attachment to Christ and devotedness to Christ. It is incumbent on me to befriend Him; He has befriended me, as the apostle says, He "has loved me". I do not know anything that speaks so loudly to the believer: He "has loved me and given himself for me" (Galatians 2:20). I was in His mind then; that is what the apostle would emphasise in speaking in the past tense. Wonderful fact! I was in His heart when He died. Think of that! Is He in my heart? The occasion calls for individual attachment and devotedness (whatever others do) to Christ and His interests. The apostle indeed had such a sense of the lovableness of Christ (if you will understand the word, for He is, in language well known to us, "Altogether lovely") that he says, "If any one love not the Lord Jesus Christ, let him be Anathema Maranatha" (1 Corinthians 16:22), as if a non-lover of Christ deserved nothing less. Such a sense had he of what was due to Christ from the hearts of His people that any one who was a non-lover should be accursed.
Now there are in the Old Testament remarkable examples for us. I speak for the moment of the need of lovers of Christ, and as lovers of Christ of those who devote themselves to His interests whatever others do; not that we shall ever be alone as lovers of Him, but I must love Christ. We have in Hiram, king of Tyre, one who was "ever a lover of David", but then, of necessity, he was a lover at a distance, for he did not live with David, but the Spirit of God records for us that there was one man, although not related to him, who was ever a lover of David. He was a lover of David, I apprehend, in the way of admiration; he admired David. Now one would value such a love as that, but the Lord looks for
nearness. He looks for those who think of Him and His house. In one like Mephibosheth you have a lover of David as under reproach. It is one thing to love a royal personage, but it is another thing to love him when he is rejected and under reproach and when to love him brings reproach upon oneself. I do not suppose there was a man in the whole of Jerusalem less understood than Mephibosheth. The more ardently you love Christ, the less you will be understood; I am as certain of that as anything.
The apostle in writing to the Corinthians plainly intimates that they did not understand him; they assumed he was a prevaricator, and yet he says, "If even in abundantly loving you I should be less loved" (2 Corinthians 12:15). He was an ardent lover of Christ, notwithstanding he was in reproach, and he was an ardent lover of the Corinthians. We have to be prepared for that, but love we must.
I take it that Mephibosheth was the least understood man in the whole realm of David; the king himself misunderstood him, and in that David was in no way a type of Christ, for he said to Mephibosheth, "Why speakest thou any more of thy matters?" (2 Samuel 19:29). What matters? David was far below his great antitype in that remark. But Mephibosheth answers, "Let him even take all, since my lord the king is come again in peace to his own house" (verse 30). There was a lover; a lame man, a man of little account to anybody, but there was a treasure in his heart and it is that treasure the Lord values. It may be seen in one unable to move from a bed or to take up public service, but yet a lover of Christ.
Now in this section we find two remarkable cases. The one a widow, whose name is not given, and the other a poor woman, and what she did is to be mentioned while the gospel days last. The Lord, it says, "sat over against the treasury", and this leads me to refer to the two passages in chapter 11, that is to
say, we are in an apostate state of things, and the Lord is carrying on His service; He does not give up; the service goes on, and these passages show us how He serves in spite of the awful pressure of opposition. Let us not ignore the pressure, but in recognising it let us not lower the standard; let us be on our guard against going to the Philistines. The gospel of Mark would save us from any such movement. The service, and the way of it, are important to God. He could send angels down here to serve Him, but He takes up failing men and women and He works in them His perfect way. Service is not only to be rendered, but it is to be rendered well.
And now He goes to the temple. It is not here the shrine, but the general structure in which God was known and approached, and He looks round. Now, beloved, let us note this: "He looked round about upon all things". It is not only all persons but all things. There is not a thing in Christendom that He does not take account of. The things are doubtless attached to persons. Some of the things are of ancient origin. The lives of persons are comparatively short, but the existence of things may be very long. There are things that in themselves are positively wicked, but yet men are held by them and venerate them because of their antiquity; they are of the authority of darkness. Is the Lord indifferent to them? He beholds them. He looked round on all things. From the time of their leaving first love in Ephesus until the establishment of idolatry in Thyatira, the Lord has taken account of everything; not only of the persons who are responsible but of the things. There were those who taught the doctrine and then there was the doctrine itself; there were the idol sacrifices; there were "the depths of Satan". All these things come under his eye. "He looked round on all things". I would call special attention to this, because there is not a thing, ancient or modern, that is contrary to
the truth, that the Lord is not taking account of. The modern things are dreadful. The Lord knows how to fix the responsibility, but we are responsible for pursuing things that others have inaugurated. What Jeroboam set up in Israel was taken up by others. The Lord knew how to deal with Jeroboam, but those who followed him were also responsible. The accumulation of things that men have inaugurated in the name of Christ is appalling; they are the means by which Satan holds men in darkness. The Lord is taking account of it all, and He has the means of dealing with these things.
On His next visit to the temple the following morning (these visits have a spiritual meaning) He deals in authority with these things and the persons responsible, and hence how serious it is for a believer to be found in the recognition of any of the things with which the Lord is dealing, or will deal with, in His power. Where shall I be then? We read here that merchandise and dove sellers were in the temple, and that packages were being brought through, but he "suffered not that any one should carry any package through the temple" (verse 16).
Now is there any one of us who is associated with things that are positively contrary to Scripture, contrary to the Spirit and contrary to the truth? The Lord will effectually deal with all these things, as He says here, "My house shall be called a house of prayer for all the nations, but ye have made it a den of robbers". He is yet dealing with the house (thank God for that); the house exists, but what about the things that are tolerated? I do urgently appeal to any who are in any way revering or recognising the things God will have to deal with, and is dealing with, in judgment.
On His third visit to the temple (verse 27) you will see that He has effectively cleared the house, so that now He is walking in the temple -- "They come again
to Jerusalem. And as he walked about in the temple". That is what the believer wants. We wish conditions to be such that the Lord will walk in the midst of us, and in walking there He is now prepared to answer questions; although asked by opponents yet He is prepared to answer them. A remarkable situation for the people of God; He has effectually cleared the way for it. He is serving in the midst of an apostate condition of things; but He has cleared the way, so that He can walk and answer questions. What a wonderful result of the service of God!
In the second epistle to the Corinthians the apostle brings forward the truth of the temple. In the first epistle He spoke of them as God's temple, but in the second epistle he says, "Ye are the living God's temple" (2 Corinthians 6:16). What does that mean? It means that God will have a living state of things. If He is the living God, He will have a living state of things in His temple, as it is written, "I will dwell among them and walk among them". God dwells, beloved, in a living state of things. His praise is from those who live, as -Hezekiah says, and He walks in the midst of a living people. I apprehend that He dwells among us as we are assembled together and made to live of Christ, quickened together with Christ; brought to God in living affection. "He that abides in love abides in God, and God in him" (1 John 4:16). God finds His joy in a living people.
But there is not only the dwelling, there is also the walking, and I know of nothing in a way that is more searching than the divine walking. God walked in the garden, as you will remember, in the cool of the day, having regard to Adam (the heat would not have affected God, but it would Adam). But Adam was hiding. God walks amongst us. He would seek us out in our houses and in our businesses; the principle of life necessarily enters into every phase of the believer's walk down here, for everything is on
the principle of faith; where faith is spiritual life is. Hence, if God "walks" into my business He looks for it to be carried out on the principle of faith, not on the principles of this world; and if He walks into my house He looks for principles different from Midianitish principles. The Midianites were a social people, they had goodly houses. God looks for principles that govern His house in our houses.
He came to Abraham; three men came to Abraham; (Genesis 18:2). It was a wonderful honour; they are not called angels there; those that went to Sodom were called angels. God drew near to Abraham as he sat in his tent, and He was actually detained by Abraham. He accepted an invitation, for Abraham, it says, talked with them and put food before them. God is walking amongst us; He sees not only what I am on the first day of the week, but what I am on Monday; how does God find me then?
On the third visit of the Lord He walks in the temple and answers questions. I suppose we might rightly say that He could not answer questions with the din of the dove sellers, package carriers and money changers. He would drive out all these persons and things so that He might walk and answer questions. It is a wonderful thing that the questions can be answered whoever may ask them; He is ready to answer questions. I think we have proved that. God has shown us something about His house and what becomes it, so that we may find the Lord walking there and answering questions. Wonderful answers came, and there is no question you may have that He cannot answer. You will remember how the queen of Sheba had questions. There are questions pressed upon us all, and He is prepared to answer them.
I wish to go back for a moment to individual love for Christ in this state of things. It is of enormous import. The Lord sat over against the treasury;
the treasury of God is to be noted. The book of Chronicles speaks much of things that were dedicated; there were treasures. Now here we find the Lord Himself looking on to see what is to be dedicated. What have I cast into the treasury of God? What have I contributed? These are questions, beloved brethren, which should come to us. Here is one bereft of her husband -- she is a widow -- she has a poor living, but the Lord sees her cast it all in. Is He not worthy? Is the treasury of God not worthy of our all? God looks for contributions, and really what is most important to God is the person. The Lord took note of what had been cast in. He was sitting over against the treasury to take note of what was being dedicated.
Then He is in a house in chapter 14, two days before He died (before the passover) -- not six days, as in John -- and the atmosphere around Him is that of murder, and this woman comes forward with a box of ointment. I only refer to it for a moment so that we might see the setting of individual devotedness to Christ. The end of every dispensation brings out the power of evil against what is set forth in it, and here it was set forth in Himself; He was the Vessel of it, and that is what the anointing means, I apprehend, in this gospel. In Luke and John it is His feet that are anointed. The one sees Christ coming in (that is Luke), carrying the grace of God, but in John the woman sees Him going out in the right of His own Person; His feet are carrying Him out; no one could take His life from Him, but He is going to die.
In Matthew and Mark He is the Vessel of the testimony, and love ever thinks of that, so that the woman anoints His head, and He says, She has come to anoint My body in view of My burial. In each of these instances there is spiritual intelligence; if she anoints His head she anoints His body. It is as if
she said, I am with you in sympathy in all that you represent. Every thought of God was there in that blessed Man; the law was in His heart; everything that God had ever cherished was there, and she pours the ointment upon His head. He is worthy of it; He is the Christ, the One who was everything for God, and so this remarkable lover, this devoted woman, is to be remembered wherever the gospel is preached. What wonderful dignity and honour that she should be thus remembered.
Well, dear brethren, we are in a very serious time we are at the end, and the Lord would call for special devotedness from us, whatever others may do. We are obligated to pursue the way as lovers, as the two persons we have been considering specially suggest to us. May the Lord grant it!
Luke 24:50 - 53; Acts 1:9 - 14
In reading these two scriptures, I had in view the idea of elevation. Luke, the writer of both, emphasises the idea of elevation. He, as you will remember, speaks of "the Highest" in recording the communications of the angel to Mary: the "power of the Highest", he says, shall "overshadow thee" (Luke 1:35). And again, in communicating the sayings of the multitude of the heavenly host at the birth of Christ, he speaks of "Glory to God in the highest" (Luke 2:14). Also, in recording the report of the seventy, as having been sent out by the Lord in service, he mentions that the Lord said to them, "Yet in this rejoice not, that the spirits are subjected to you, but rejoice that your names are written in heaven" (Luke 10:20). And further, in recording the praises that greeted the Lord as He entered Jerusalem for the last time, he records that they said, "Peace in heaven, and glory in the highest" (Luke 19:38).
In keeping with all these references, as he writes his second letter to Theophilus, he tells him in the second chapter that from heaven came the sound "As of a violent impetuous blowing" (Acts 2:2). He is now occupied with what is coming out of heaven, as in the gospel he referred to what is in heaven, or going into heaven. So in the ninth chapter, he speaks about a light from heaven -- again something coming out of heaven; and in the tenth chapter he speaks of a sheet, knit at the four corners, containing all manner of four-footed beasts, descending out of heaven. So that whilst in the gospel he occupies us with the elevation of heaven, and what is there, in the Acts he speaks of what comes out of it. He speaks thus in view of what is here, in the provisional period, in the way of testimony. What is here is of that kind
or it is not according to the mind of God. It comes out of heaven. We may say, 'morally', to use a well-known word, yet nevertheless really. The Spirit came out as the sound as of a violent impetuous blowing, involving something irresistible here, and then the light, exceeding all that was known here, "Above the brightness of the sun" (Acts 26:13), and thence the voice of a Man, and that Man -- Jesus, then the vessel suggestive of the house of God.
Luke has in view the house of God here in the assembly -- the residence of God, in His attitude of grace towards men. God has that in which He can reside here, and in which He sets out, in grace, the vessel having come out of heaven. It contains what God has cleansed. That suffices, whatever men may think. The sheet, knit at the four corners, let down from heaven thrice, Peter says, "It came even to me" (Acts 11:6). It contained what God had cleansed. It comes down thrice and is received back into heaven -- a wonderful sign of the dispensation. It is a wonderful dispensation. One of the greatest features of the moment is that God has maintained amongst His people some estimate of it, and hence my desire and exercise to call your attention to this feature of elevation, that we might not be found on the level of current religion. There is nothing elevating about that. Nominal Christianity has got to the level of the ancient religions of the world, long since proved spurious and worthless; long since declared to be without moral value; the very best of them having grown old so as to be discarded of God as a worn out garment, good for nothing.
So that, the Lord would recall His people to "That which is from the beginning;" even in this respect that the house of God, amongst other features, expresses what is elevating. As having come out of heaven, it must do so. God proposed to Ahaz, of old, to ask for a sign. He says: "Ask for it in
the deep, or in the height above" (Isaiah 7:6). Poor Ahaz, not having faith, like many modern religionists, asks for it in neither place. Literally, it was as though God said to him, 'Even if you soar up' we cannot go too high for God, for Jesus is beyond. Jesus, personally, is beyond our very highest conception, passed far above the heavens. It was the privilege of Ahaz to ask for a sign in the height above. There was no limit put upon him. And, I think, that Luke, in his gospel, answers to the divine proposal made to Ahaz; he presents to us the very highest spot. Who can measure the elevation for He is gone, as it is said, "Far above all heavens", thence He has sent down forgiveness. We are not left down here in ignorance as to His mind there. Ephesians gives us a sign in the "depth;" for the elevation is in keeping with the wonderful descent of Christ. Man has gone up. "He that descended is the same who has also ascended" (Ephesians 4:10), and He went into the lower parts of the earth. Who can fathom this? Job speaks of those who search the crust of the earth in quest of minerals. But what about wisdom? It went farther. In Job 28: 20 - 22 it says: "Whence then cometh wisdom? and where is the place of understanding? For it is hidden from the eyes of all living, and concealed from the fowl of the heavens. Destruction and death say, We have heard its report with our ears". Far beneath the region explored by the miner did wisdom act, even down to the lower parts of the earth, we are told. We do well to dwell upon that. And, as God proposed to Ahaz to soar upwards, as we follow the descent to its marvellous depths, as the Lord Jesus went down, how wonderful it is! He went down. He says: "The waters encompassed me, to the soul: The deep was round about me, The weeds were wrapped about my head. I went down to the bottoms of the mountains; The bars of the earth closed upon me for ever"
(Jonah 2:5, 6). Such is the language of the spirit of Christ; and all the waves of God's judgment rolled over Him. And then the ascent: how love follows that shining way, as Luke presents it; and as God proposed to Ahaz, soars upward!
Let us do that! We are invited to do so. The Head has gone up. The Head of the race, I mean; as Peter says: "God, who has raised him from the dead and given him glory, that your faith and hope should be in God" (1 Peter 1:21. He further says, "who is at the right hand of God, gone into heaven, angels and authorities and powers being subjected to him" (1 Peter 3:22). What thoughts these are! The Lord Jesus has gone on high, and the testimony here is according to that. It is not to be on the level of current, accredited, worldly religion. Such, alas, Christianity has become publicly. The Lord would direct us to the sign above, in the heights. What is that sign today, and indeed, during the whole period of the dispensation? It is, Jesus sitting at the right hand of God. Stephen saw Him standing, and that is in keeping with the end of Luke. Stephen is finishing the chapter of grace to Israel in his testimony. Elisha may be taken to represent what I am speaking of. He was to take Elijah's place in testimony. God retains His right to testify, and, in the exercise of His right, He would have vessels in keeping with Himself. Hence, Elijah says to Elisha, "Ask;" as if the service is to be of such importance that you need to ask. You cannot undertake it in your own strength. Many have, and have brought discredit on the testimony. Many young men have taken up service in their own strength, but it is important for young men to bear in mind, in taking up the testimony, to "pour water on the hands" of those older and more honoured in service. Elisha "poured water on the hands of Elijah". He did not enter the list as Elijah's rival. He took account of
how Elijah had laboured in the service, and he would refresh his hands. So Elijah says, "Ask". If we are to be of service in the testimony we have to learn to ask. We have nothing of our own. As Paul says "What hast thou which thou hast not received?" (1 Corinthians 4:7). If you have not received it, you have not anything whatever; your studying, your efforts, and the like, will not avail you much, if you have not received things from Christ above.
In the service of God things must come down from heaven -- from the very highest place, too, as we learn in Ephesians 4:10, 11. And so Elisha asked, he did not ask amiss. He did not ask for something in order that he might shine for man's approbation here. He says, virtually, to Elijah: I do love the way you have wrought: I do appreciate your spirit. How beautiful as you follow the footsteps of Jesus in the gospels! What a wonderful spirit! What a wonderful way He had! And so Elisha said, virtually, I want that, and I want plenty of it: I want a double portion of it.
You know that we have a wonderful place (would that we understood it!) the place of the firstborn. Joseph received it, although he was not the first born. The birthright was his: he had a double portion -- "One tract of land above thy brethren" (Genesis 48:22). And so Elisha had a double portion; but his mind had to be trained, you see. The Lord would train us in looking upwards. The temple (the porch) was one hundred and twenty cubits high, i.e., roughly one hundred and eighty feet. Added to the height of the mount you come to some conception of material elevation. What an imposing spectacle it must have been, as one approached it! "Beautiful in elevation, the joy of the whole earth, is mount Zion, on the sides of the north, the city of the great King" (Psalm 48:2). The temple porch gave a most remarkable suggestion of elevation. God would train His people to
the principle of elevation, and so would enjoin us to set our minds on things above. "Our minds", not exactly our affections. And so Elisha was to be trained. Elijah says, "If thou see me when I am taken from thee" (2 Kings 2:10). The mind has to be trained to the upward look, as the blessed Lord Himself "Lifted up his eyes to heaven" (John 17:1). And so, Elisha, as you can understand, being intent on obtaining what he desired, looked up -- he kept his eye on Elijah. It is very similar to Luke; the end of the path was upward. Elisha saw Elijah go up, and he obtained his desire. He returned: he rent in twain, we are told, his own garment, thus discarding what he might have relied upon naturally. Let us learn something from that! What we have been trusting in, let us learn to discard it wholly to make room for the new, for there is plenty of it. God gives not His Spirit by measure. The Holy Spirit is here Himself; a wonderful fact! What resources are ours!
So that Elisha obtained his desire. He crossed the Jordan; taking up the mantle of Elijah and smiting the waters, he crossed over. One is reminded to refer to that word: "How wilt thou then do in the swelling of the Jordan" (Jeremiah 12:5) -- not what Christ did. What Christ did is a lesson-book for the universe. When shall we fathom it? It is fathomless! What He did in the swelling of Jordan, when Jordan was driven back! "What ailed thee, thou sea, that thou fleddest? thou Jordan, that thou turnedst back?" (Psalm 114:5). Think of the power of Christ! And then, I delight to think of Stephen -- a man like ourselves, in the swelling of Jordan! How exhilarating, as you dwell upon Stephen there -- how he stood! And I say that if we are to be in service, we have to learn how to do in the swelling of Jordan. Death has to be faced experimentally, otherwise you carry your own feelings,
natural aspirations, pride, intelligence, or the like it may be, into God's service, which must ever prove disastrous. You are exposed to the enemy every step, unless you go through the Jordan experimentally. But Elisha went through it. He took the mantle of Elijah and rent his own in twain. Wonderful is the God of Elijah! What glory He has given to Christ. As Peter says: "Who by him do believe in God, who has raised him from among the dead and given him glory" (1 Peter 1:21). So we may also say: "Raised with him through faith of the working of God who raised him from among the dead" (Colossians 2:12). So that Elisha comes back through the Jordan, possessed with the spirit of Elijah, to take up his service in the midst of the people of God. And so, the company, in the end of Luke, is like Elisha; they see the Lord go up, and, in going up, He lifts His hands and blesses them, -- the principle of power for witness. And they returned to Jerusalem not disconsolate, but "They, having done him homage, returned to Jerusalem with great joy, and were continually in the temple praising and blessing God" (Luke 24:53). That is the Lord's contribution, in the way of testimony, to Israel -- an adequate witness come down from heaven, as it were, in the temple, every day praising and blessing God. As the Lord said, "For a testimony unto them". They had received blessing from His hands, and had witnessed to it. They had seen Him go up.
Now, in Acts 1 you have not the temple but the material for the house. We are looking assembly-wise, in the Acts -- in another direction. In the gospel, the look is toward the city, with the expression of divine grace instead of judgment. There was a wonderful witness in the temple. The disciples were like Simeon, full of the spirit of Christ, praising God, whereas in the Acts, we are looking assembly-wise; and, so, they see Him go up, and two men stand by
them in white garments. The women at the grave of Jesus, saw two men in shining garments -- suggestive of what is heavenly. The heavenly Man is the divine thought. In taking up the actual service and witness of the assembly here we have purity -- what is white -- one of the most essential features of our position. The two men say: "Why do ye stand looking up into heaven?" The point is testimony. And they returned to Jerusalem from Olivet. It was a sabbath day's journey; and they went, not to the temple, but to the upper room. There are many today, of God's dear people, who decline the upper room; they prefer the cathedral, because it ministers to the flesh. It may be, there is someone here who prefers the cathedral to the upper room. The cathedral represents those religions which God has rejected. Let us take sides with God! There is nothing in them for God, but much in them for the pride of the flesh. So that these men, having been spoken to by men in white garments, go to the upper room. White garments and the upper room go together.
The overcomer in Sardis is to walk with Christ in white. He stands out as a testimony against modern, accredited religion. To walk with Jesus in white, is to go to the upper room now -- the place of reproach. There is no choir, no ecclesiastical position or the like, but purity: "The simplicity of the Christ". Here is the assembly -- the heavenly vessel -- the vessel in which the mind of heaven is expressed on earth. And therefore they find men dwelling who represent the authority of Christ. The Archbishop does not represent it; but "where were staying both Peter and John" and all the apostles, the authority of the Lord is owned. They were the representatives of the authority of the Lord. We must have that. Unless there is the authority of the Lord really owned, there is no room for the Spirit; but where the authority of the Lord is owned, the Spirit is free.
The number of those in the upper room was one hundred and twenty. "The crowd of names;" each one had a name -- something to mark him off spiritually. That is what counts in the assembly -- spiritual stature, the energy of life, giving you a character, and that character is embodied in your name. The Acts has the assembly in view -- the material for it; the initial idea of the assembly is that the men went to the upper room. Let us learn to go to the upper room, where abode Peter and the others! Mary was there, and the brethren of Christ were there. That is where they are for us. You get the Lord's relations there. It is wonderful to be where they are.
In the light of the Lord's present position on high, we are here in testimony. Our thoughts are not to be on the level of men of the world; our ways are not to be like their ways. They are to be according to the elevation of the position; they are to be heavenly ways upon earth. Nothing less will do. We may say, See what is being effected by human methods! Yes, but obedience is better than sacrifice. God does not change His mind. If the assembly began, as it did, in the upper room, it is to finish there and her garments are not to be corrupted by the religions of this world. God has not changed His mind. These things are to mark the saints at the end; however obscure the white garments and the upper room, where the authority of Christ is owned, and where are the brethren of Christ; these things are to mark the saints at the close. The Lamb's wife is to make herself ready and she is to be clothed in fine linen bright and pure -- the righteousnesses of the saints; (Revelation 19:8).
Job 32:6, 17 - 22; Job 33:1 - 7; Job 37:1 - 24
I have selected passages from the book of Job in order, among other things, to call attention to the testimony of God which this book contemplates, namely, that which nature or creation affords, having in view that, while no divinely authenticated records are appealed to, the testimony corresponds strikingly with what we have in the divinely accredited records in our possession, namely, the Holy Scriptures. Indeed, the witness which creation affords is but an index to the great testimony that has come out in our Lord Jesus Christ. Further, the men contemplated in the book of Job are men such as ourselves, and in the person of Elihu, who, as he says, is made out of clay, we see one who was the expression of the testimony then available. He tells us of his righteous anger because of the self-vindication which marked the speeches of Job, and of the condemnation that marked the speeches of his three friends, and yet they were unable to convict Job.
In speaking to you, friend, one would seek to be in the spiritual animation of Elihu, for one cannot avoid being righteously indignant as one, contemplates the character of the ministry which is abroad at the present time, and which fails to represent the mind of God, and which consequently fails to convict the sinner. Plenty of condemnation there is indeed, but little or no conviction before God; and the ministry that condemns without convicting the sinner is not a ministry of God. It is such as stands in the way of the ministry which God designed in the gospel, for the gospel is designed to convey the mind of God in regard to men, and in regard to Christ in such wise as to bring conviction.
The great thought of the gospel is not condemnation,
but conviction, in order that by conviction man may repent and turn to God and be saved, and the absence of the convicting authority of God in the speeches of Job's three friends was what aroused the anger of Elihu. On the other hand, the folly of Job in endeavouring to justify himself also aroused the anger of Elihu. It was righteous anger, and, beloved friend, in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, one would express such righteous anger, an anger according to God in respect of the character of what pretends to be the ministry of God, but which fails to convict whilst condemning the sinner.
On the other hand, if you are one of those who justify themselves rather than God, love, divine love, in the preacher, would be righteously angry, for you are your own greatest enemy. You are thwarting the overtures of God if you are in any way endeavouring to justify yourself in the presence of God. God would convict you. He has brought into this world, beloved friend, in the Person of the Holy Spirit, a convicting power.
The Holy Spirit has various missions to fulfil, and not the least is His mission to convict, as the Lord says, "Having come, he will bring demonstration to the world, of sin" (John 16:8). Conviction is the function of the Spirit, and so it is the function of the preacher; hence the ministry of Elihu represents that which brings in conviction. I speak of him particularly because of his remarkable correspondence with the Lord Jesus Christ, and consequently his correspondence with every minister of Christ that is patterned after his Master. And so Elihu not only was angry, righteously angry, but he calls attention to the fact that he was young, that he knew how to wait, and, furthermore, that he was full of matter, that he was, as it were, a bottle containing new wine ready to burst, and he had to speak to relieve himself. Can a man like Elihu fail to be impressive? No, he is sure to be impressive. He is
full of matter, he says, and so he speaks. How it reminds us of the Lord Jesus Christ as come into this world. He is presented in the gospel by Luke as the vessel of divine grace, and he is full of it. As John, in his beautiful confirmation of Luke in this respect, says: "We have contemplated his glory, a glory as of an only-begotten with a father, full of grace and truth" (John 1:14). So that as He opens His mouth there come forth words of grace. They were but the beginning of that wonderful ministry, the expression of that wonderful reservoir of grace which He contained. But whilst there was the grace, beloved friends, there was the truth, and so the Lord brought conviction.
My thought is to convict by the Lord's help, and so I have referred to Elihu in the book of Job as corresponding with our Lord Jesus Christ. And, furthermore, what encourages me about him is that God could follow after him. What one hopes is that in every gospel preaching for which one is responsible God may take up the work. If God does not follow the preacher there can be no permanent work accomplished, and so what you find in Job 38 is that after Elihu had finished, for he made several speeches, God takes up the work. See the interest that God has in one man. Elihu, an interpreter, one among a thousand, speaks to him out of a full heart. He speaks to him in order to convict him, and now God takes up the work, and the work is done. My hope is that what I am suggesting to you may open the way for God to take up the work. My work can only be initial; it can only be suggestive. God's work is final. Oh! beloved friend, there is a final touch as God undertakes the work. As of old, in the first chapter of the book of Genesis, everything is finished. When God takes up the work, the work is done. As Paul, the apostle, said: "It is God who works in you" (Philippians 2:13), and if I can, by what I have to say, call such attention to Christ and to God as to open your
heart and mind, God will speak to you. He will follow you up, follow you to your room, will follow you throughout the week, and will pursue you in love until He gets you, and obtaining you through faith, will perfect His work in you. The work will be completed, as it was with Job. I refer particularly to Elihu, as one whose work God can take up and complete.
Now, I proceed to chapter 37, which is the last one in the ministry of Elihu, and you will see how he labours to bring home the testimony of God as it then was to the conscience and mind of Job. He first speaks of God's voice: "Hear attentively the roar of his voice". He had heard it, and he says, "my heart trembleth at this also". Sometimes the thought comes into one's mind in preaching; Do you believe what you are saying? It is a challenge to one. In Elihu, beloved friend, there was a profound effect produced. He says, "My heart trembleth". Why should it not tremble if God speaks? It is God, as it were, speaking angrily. You may say, 'Is that the gospel?' It is the gospel, beloved friend. If you are hastening on to a point of danger in your folly, is it not love to speak angrily to you, and call attention to your folly? Is it not love in God to command you to repent? You may say, it is harsh, but God is simply using His authority to save you from your folly.
Elihu refers to the lightning and thunder of God. Are these things nothing? Are they mere accidents? Are they the mere result of certain motions in the firmament? No, beloved friend, they are there for a testimony from God. They contain a voice, and Elihu says, "My heart trembleth". Does yours? He says, "My heart trembleth at this also, and leapeth up out of its place". I look at that angel that sat on the tombstone of Christ's grave. "His countenance was like lightning". What is behind that lightning?
What is behind that countenance of an angel like lightning? God would speak to men as to His authority and His power. He would warn you as to the power He has by Him to deal with sinners and with sin. It is love in the lightning and in the thunder of His power, to arouse men, to remind them of what they have to face in rejecting His overtures of mercy. And so, it says, "He sendeth it forth under the whole heaven, and his lightning unto the ends of the earth".
It is no mere local testimony. God speaks to the whole race of men in His lightning and thunder, and so it goes on. "After it a voice roareth; he thundereth with the voice of his excellency, and holdeth not back the flashes when his voice is heard. God thundereth marvellously with his voice, doing great things which we do not comprehend". I would ask you who have been rejecting the Lord Jesus Christ, Are you prepared to accept the consequences? Think of the power that God has by to deal with sin and with sinners! "He is slow to anger", but He can be angry. Judgment is His strange work, but it is His work.
Think -of Him who will sit on that great white throne of which Scripture speaks, "from whose face the earth and the heaven fled" (Revelation 20:11). What a face it must be! We read of the angel whose countenance was like lightning; we hear nothing of the heavens and the earth fleeing from that. Think of what the face of Jesus could be like, as He sits on that great white throne, from whose face, mark you, the earth and the heaven fled away. I look at His face today; it is my privilege, as it is of every Christian, to look at the face of Jesus. But oh, what a face! It is attractive, it speaks of mercy, of forgiveness, of the heart of God toward us. According to the light of that countenance reflecting the faithfulness of God, our sins and our iniquities, as believers, are remembered
no more. That is what I read in the face of Jesus at the present time, and it will be terrible for you if you fail to read His face now, for there is a day coming when you must look at it, as it is said, "I saw the dead, great and small, standing before the throne". Who can number them? Who can number the untold millions of the antediluvian world, of the world that followed, and of the present world? "The dead, great and small, standing before the throne", and there is power in Him to deal with all, for it is said that "death and hades were cast into the lake of fire;" it is an act of power. You may say, 'You are thundering'. I hope I am, because God is thundering. God thunders now in His love, in order to arouse you, to your folly as to what is ahead of you.
Now, I come to another side. He causes the snow to be on the earth. If the thunder of God convicts you to repentance, what is the standard of the repentance? The snow. "He saith to the snow, Fall on the earth". That is where you and I are. Where men were in their guilt God brought down beside them a witness of His purity. In whom was that witness presented? In the Lord Jesus Christ -- holy, harmless, and undefiled, separate from sinners. The purity expressed in the snow was there as a witness to man. You come to God in your guilt and present yourself, and He says, 'There is the snow, that is My ideal'. You cannot come to that by any effort, beloved friend. There is a whiteness which no fuller on earth can produce, and that is the whiteness of Jesus. He was transfigured before His disciples. "His garments became shining, exceeding white", whiter, as Mark tells us, "such as fuller on earth could not whiten them" (Mark 9:3). God brought down to man on the earth a witness to His standard for men, and that is in Jesus. "For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God" (Romans 3:23). The glory of God is in Jesus. He would say to you, 'Look at My Son, He
reflects My ideal, and I intend to bring you to that by the gospel. If you cannot be brought to that, you cannot be brought to Me'. Do not foist yourself on Him in your guilt, in your rags; you must be before Him as Jesus is. That is the divine proposal. God Himself has brought in Jesus as His ideal. He lives before Him, and He proposes to bring man to Jesus, to correspond with Jesus. He has the means to do it, but before doing it He brings in the testimony in the snow.
Now I come on to another point. It says, "And to the pouring rain, even the pouring rains of his might", and again in the verses 9 and 10, "From ... the south cometh the whirlwind; and cold from the winds of the north. By the breath of God ice is given; and the breadth of the waters is straitened". You see, beloved friends, if God has brought in a standard in Christ, and if His presence among men only brings out all the more the utter hideousness of man, the utter unsuitability of man for the divine presence, what is to be done? The rain of God's power comes in immediately. What does that mean? It means a deluge. The deluge was the rain of His power. God must, as it were, wash the earth of its filth, and He did it once. What a testimony, as those poor antediluvians rejected the testimony of Christ in the preaching of Noah. As hill after hill became submerged, as those thousands and millions of creatures who had rejected the gospel sought, doubtless, to escape the rising tide of divine vengeance and power, as they sought to climb the summits of the mountains, what terror would strike their hearts as the tide rose and rose until the tops of the mountains were covered -- there was no escape! But whilst there is that testimony from God, what you find is, beloved friend, instead there is the ice. As it says, "By the breath of God ice is given, and the breadth of the waters is straitened". We hear nothing of the
power of the cold on the waters of the deluge. That was reserved for the appearing of the Lord Jesus Christ to take up this great sin question. The waters were to go over His soul instead of over the millions of human creatures. It was not only to go over His soul, but the water was frozen.
Think of what Jesus endured in His holy soul. The waters were made fast. He went down into death. Think of all that meant, as He alone with God knew! The deluge was only an indication of the awfulness of death. The waters of death for the Lord Jesus were straitened by the power of the cold -- the wrath of the Almighty. By the breath of God is the ice. Think of Jesus in Gethsemane as He spoke to His Father; the perfection of His manhood shone out there, as in three prayers of His manhood He told His Father how He felt about the cup, and asked that if it were possible, it should pass from Him, "nevertheless, not my will, but thine be done". Perfect, holy submission to the will of God was there. He entered into the waters and the waters became frozen; they were made fast. Think of the awfulness of the forsaking of God; as the Sin-bearer Jesus was totally abandoned. In saying that, one feels how little one takes in the total abandonment of Jesus; the waters were made fast; by the breath of God was the ice, and the waters were straitened. It was brought to bear on the holy soul of Jesus. The pangs of death had to be loosed. How really He entered into it as He said, "My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?" He was there in it, in all its power. The breath of God straitened it, made it fast, so that He was held in death. But He could not be holden of its power, we are told. Hence His divine glory is evident. He was the Prince of life, but, nevertheless, as an obedient Man, He went into death. Not only did the waters enter into His soul, overflow His soul, the iron entered into His soul.
His feet, in type, were made fast by fetters. He went down to the bottom of the mountains, the earth with her bars was round about Him. How little we enter into the atoning sufferings of Christ! They are, indeed, infinite, for He had to do with the holy God in regard to sin, and it was dealt with perfectly. He came up out of death, as it is said, by the exceeding greatness of divine power. He was raised from the dead, said the apostle, triumphantly, by the glory of the Father. He has come out of the ice. And now it is all favour.
You will observe, that whilst the south is the favourable aspect, denoting the favour of God, when the waters were frozen there was no favour. The divine countenance was turned away from Jesus. The whirlwind comes out of the south and the cold from the north. The cold from the north and the whirlwind from the south met at Calvary in all their force, but Jesus has come out, and now, instead of the cold, the bitter blast of divine wrath from the north, what comes out, as the verse lower down says, is gold, or the golden light. There is gold from the north. God is preaching to you in the gospel, and presenting His righteousness. Now that Jesus has been into death, the righteousness of God is preached, which is by faith in Jesus Christ, witnessed to by the law and the prophets. It is for you today, it is for everyone that is of the faith of Jesus; gold is for you, it comes out of the north. Where the judgment came from, the righteousness comes from; it comes from God. It is the righteousness of God; unto all, and upon all those that believe. I am referring to Job 37:22. "From the north cometh gold". It brings precious light to you, to tell you that God is favourable to you. It is the righteousness of God, which is by faith in Jesus Christ unto all and upon all them that believe.
Now I want to go on to another point. It says in verse 7, "He sealeth up the hand of every man; that all men may know his work". It is as if God were to say to you, 'I have completed the work of salvation. My Son has been down into the depths of death, the plan of salvation is complete, I want to bind your hands, you can do nothing'. "He sealeth up the hand of every man". He shuts every man's mouth in order "that all men may know his work". Salvation is the work of God; He has accomplished it in the death of Christ, and He offers it to you.
Well, now, there is another thing. It says that "the wild beast goeth into its lair, and they remain in their dens". You see, God binds up your hands and He limits the power of Satan, so that you might become the subject of His work. He wants to save you; He keeps Satan away for the moment. He causes him to go into his den, as it were, and to remain there, for by the death of Christ he is annulled. You know how the Lord Jesus refers to Satan; as "the strong man armed keeps his own house, his goods in peace; but when the stronger than he coming upon him overcomes him, he takes away his panoply in which he trusted, and he will divide the spoil" (Luke 11:21, 22). It is what the Lord is doing. He has limited the power of Satan, and is spoiling his goods. Satan is limited and Jesus has taken over every believer as His spoil, and has spoiled us for this world, thank God!
We now come on to another point before I close. In verse 11 it says: "Also with plentiful moisture he loadeth the thick clouds". We are now in the favour of God; as Elihu goes on to say, "thy garments become warm when he quieteth the earth by the south wind". It is not a whirlwind now, it is a south, or warm wind. We are in the day of salvation now; we are in the acceptable year of the Lord.
The very Gentile world is in reconciliation, for Christ has come in "a light to lighten the Gentiles;" to unveil the Gentiles, really. We are in the favour of God. Our very clothes are warm, as I speak. Look at the passage in the verse 17, "How thy garments become warm when he quieteth the earth by the south wind?" The earth has been quieted by this wind these 1900 years. The gospel goes on in spite of the tides of human wickedness that rise up; they are quieted by the south wind, and the gospel goes on. Man's variance cannot interfere with heaven. What can they do with heaven? What can they do with the sun? What can they do with the wind? Nothing. The south wind blows, it blows on wicked as on righteous men; it blows on you. It is the favour of God in the gospel, and it is intended to make your clothes warm, but, you need more than your clothes warm; you need your heart warm. The south wind of God is warm enough, as it were, to warm the clothes of the wickedest men, but that does not save them. The fact that the Gentiles are in reconciliation does not save them, but it is a wonderful opportunity for them; and the present is a wonderful time of opportunity for you, as you listen to the word of God, as you feel the warmth of divine affection in the people of God, your clothes become warmed. You go away from this meeting and yet how easily you may forget the influence, and so I would urge you now, whilst your clothes are warm, to turn to Jesus. It is a great opportunity. It is much easier to do it now than when the north wind comes upon you. The chill of this world tends to turn you away, but the Christian affection the south wind of the gospel, is intended to encourage you to believe. Trust yourself to Jesus it is a favourable time, as the scripture says, "Now is the well-accepted time; behold now the day of salvation" (2 Corinthians 6:2).
We are now in the region of favour, and everything
is for us; even the thick cloud instead of judgment is full of moisture, and there is light in it. And then, again, there is the balancing of them, as it says in verse 12, "they are turned every way by his guidance, that they may do whatsoever he commandeth them upon the face of the circuit of the earth". In other words, every circumstance in that way in the favour of God is in our favour -- everything. He balances the clouds, He disposes of them, as it says here, "they are turned every way by his guidance, that they may do whatsoever he commandeth them upon the face of the circuit of the earth". And so it goes on to say, "Whether he cause it to come as a rod, or for his land, or in mercy". I say that to Christians, we who are come into the favour of God, and know it as believing in the Lord Jesus Christ. Every circumstance of ours is at the divine disposal. He disposes of the clouds according to His purpose, whether it be for His land or for mercy, for the promotion of His interests, everything is for us. "If God be for us, who against us?" (Romans 8:31). "All things work together for good to those who love God" (verse 28). In Romans 5:3 - 5 we have the workers mentioned individually, "tribulation works endurance; and endurance experience", but chapter 8 we have them combined, "work together for good to those who love God".
It is what comes out you see in this passage; God disposes of the clouds and He balances them. You say, they are very heavy. Never mind, God is balancing them. He will not allow you to be tempted above what you are able to bear. He will bring with the temptation a way of escape. The physical universe could not stand except by the principle of balance, and how much more so the spiritual and the moral systems. Everything is poised and balanced by divine scale; even with the feeblest believer, everything is balanced. May God bless the word to us.
Daniel 5:5; 1 Kings 18:44, 45.
These passages present the idea of a man's hand; firstly, in the way of judgment, and, secondly, in the way of blessing. A man's hand represents his power for the accomplishment of things. In the fingers of the hand coming into evidence, when that which is to be accomplished is judgment, we are confronted with the suggestion of detail. All judgment is committed into the hands of Christ, because He is the Son of man. He purposes to go into the occasion or cause for the judgment in the minutest detail.
God is infinitely just and fair, and, so, in undertaking the solemn matter of judgment, which, indeed, is His strange work, He would give us to understand that He does so on the ground of the most careful examination and inquiry. And this examination and inquiry involves each man and woman on the face of the earth; not only those who are now on the face of the earth, but all who have been upon it from the very outset of the history of the race. No one can undertake to say what the total number may be, what the population of the antediluvian world may have been, or what the subsequent populations may have been, but if God enters into judgment with men, He will take them up one by one. Such an undertaking may seem impossible to us finite creatures, for the trial of one criminal oft-times takes a long period in the courts of law. But when God undertakes to judge, He works in His own way, and He does so in righteousness, and, hence, He reminds us of the fingers. We all know how our fingers come into use, as we have to look into books, and, as God takes up
the question of judgment, He will have recourse to books, and those fingers of a man's hand will be employed, whether directly or indirectly, to bring into evidence the doings, not only the name or names of all in the race, but their doings, so that you read of the books being opened.
I suppose that, as each one is born into this world, his name is recorded, and the book is closed until another entry has to be made, and so as one enters on the period of responsibility, account is taken of his conduct, and the most minute records are made. But, again, the books are closed, for we are not living in days of judgment; we are living in the most auspicious period in the history of our race.
We are living in a day when God is not imputing trespasses. It does not say that He is not recording trespasses, for He is. The books are all there, and records are being made constantly. It does not say, as I said, that He is not recording trespasses, but it does say that He is not imputing trespasses, so that we are living in a wonderful time. God is presented to us in the gospel as righteous, as just, and the Justifier of him that believeth in Jesus. He is presented to us in the Lord's own language, in which He says, speaking of a creditor and two debtors: "as they had nothing to pay, he forgave both of them" (Luke 7:42). It is a wonderful time; the time in which God is not imputing, but, on the contrary, is proposing forgiveness for all. "That repentance and remission of sins should be preached ... to all the nations" (Luke 24:47), says the Lord. That is this moment in which we live. It is like the time of the south wind, a favourable period, in which men are held in reconciliation. 'What!' you say, 'reconciliation?' Yes, dear friends, through the fall of the Jews the world is in reconciliation, so that it is the time of closed books, but these books shall not remain closed.
The time is fast approaching when the Lord Jesus,
who is now presented to you in the gospel, in whose name salvation is announced, in whose name forgiveness is announced, in whose name peace is announced, the time is fast approaching when He shall become the Judge. As the prophet says "I saw the dead, great and small, standing before the throne" (Revelation 20:12). Think of standing before God in your sins. Some young ones may be afraid to stand before their parents in their sins, but think of having to stand before God in your sins. "I saw the dead", he says, "great and small, standing before the throne". You see, that is the end of the course of those who "neglect so great salvation" as is presented to us now, in Christ, and so, it says, "and books were opened". They are not open now. We are not yet arrived at the time of opened books. The books exist, as I have said, how many I cannot say, but enough to contain all the records of the race. All the untold millions and billions of people are taken account of, and not only the persons are there, but their deeds are in the books. These records are all kept with divine accuracy. They are kept, not for present reference, but for future reference, but kept securely, so that, as the time arrives for opening books of judgment, the books are there.
Think of it, friend, as I present Christ to you, a Saviour, whose hand is stretched out to you. Think of that hand opening those books and those fingers. Think of them by way of contrast as He stood there in the synagogue of Nazareth, and they handed Him the Book, the Bible, as it was then, how He turned over roll after roll. He found the place where His ministry of grace was recorded. Those blessed fingers of Christ turned over those leaves until He found the place where it was written: "The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to preach glad tidings to the poor" (Luke 4:18). He read down the scripture, until He arrived at the place where judgment is spoken of, and then He closed the book. He found the
place where the gospel was found, where the prophet announces Him as the Anointed Preacher, and He says: "To-day this scripture is fulfilled in your ears". What a wonderful opportunity for those ears as is your case today. This day is this scripture, the one He read, the one He had carefully found, this scripture, the announcement of the gospel, fulfilled in your ears.
The gospel is being fulfilled in your ears at this moment, but it is one thing to have it fulfilled in your ears, and another thing to give it a place in your heart; to be effective it has to go down into the heart. We see in the instance at Nazareth, that it was only in their ears. For when He spoke to them about God going outside and blessing the Gentile, they all rose up, we are told (it was a general, spontaneous movement), and they thrust Him out of the synagogue, and led Him to the brow of the hill on which their city was built, to cast Him down therefrom. So you see, you may have the gospel fulfilled in your ears, and your heart be untouched. Hence, the Lord appeals to the heart. He says: "Son, give me thine heart". Unless the word enters the heart nothing is accomplished.
As I said, He closed the book, and the book of judgment remains closed. But that does not mean, as I have already said, that records, that entries are not made in them. I dwell on this, because we have arrived at a time in which men are rejecting the idea of divine wrath and judgment. The apostle is most explicit when he says: "the books were opened", and every one of the dead were judged according to their works. So that God, as I said, is fair. No one shall be consigned to eternal punishment without being convicted. If you remain unconvicted now, you shall be convicted then. There shall be such a mass, an ordered mass, of evidence against you, that your conscience will have to assent to the righteousness
of the divine verdict, so that as we are told; "death and hades were cast into the lake of fire, ... And if any one was not found written in the book of life, he was cast into the lake of fire".
You will see the import of this remarkable scripture in the book of Daniel. It deals with conditions such as we find ourselves in at the present time. The world, having been favoured by the gospel all these centuries, has turned away from it, even as Belshazzar did, who had the advantage of an enlightened, yea, of a converted father. Daniel says 'You knew;' and so I say to you young people 'You know'. You fathers have believed in Christ, your mothers have believed in Christ, and you are without excuse, if you are rejectors of Christ. If you turn aside into the world, and partake of its follies, and worship its gods, there is no excuse for you. As Daniel said to Belshazzar: "Thou knewest all this". He knew that Nebuchadnezzar had been converted. It was one of the most remarkable conversions of which we have any record. It was not done in a corner, it was a matter of public history, and Belshazzar, of all others, knew what God had done for his father, Nebuchadnezzar, but he had neglected his opportunities, and had turned away from them. He had turned to his gods of silver, of gold, and of iron, and of stone. He had turned to wine, to worldly pursuits, and there he is, like thousands of young people who have been born into the light. Daniel says: "Thou knewest all this".
So I say to you young people here, How are you going to face those fingers? How are you going to stand up before them in that day? Your mouth shall be stopped then. You shall have ceased to criticise the people of God. You shall have nothing to say. You shall be convicted. The evidence against you will be overwhelming, and you shall go into perdition, into the lake of fire, prepared for the devil,
and his angels. So I beg of you to face this matter. Those blessed fingers of Jesus would turn over the Scriptures for you, and show you the way of salvation from them now.
Well, now, I speak of Elijah for a moment, so that you may see how the man's hand appears there. Elijah represents the ministry that asserts the rights of God. That is what Elijah represents. He appears suddenly in Israel, and he asserts that there shall be no rain except at his word. He was a man of great authority, and, as the epistle of James tells us, he was a man of prayer. He represents the Lord Jesus Christ in his great solicitude for the welfare of man, and his ministry results in the recognition by all that "Jehovah, he is God". It is not now a question of judgment, dear friend. His assertion of the rights of God at the present time does not mean judgment. It means salvation. I thank God constantly that He asserted His sovereign right over me, and so can hundreds of Christians who are living today. You say: 'What does it mean to assert the rights of God?' Well, He has a right, as I said, to cast you into perdition, but that is not the assertion of the rights of God at the present time. God asserts His right over you in commanding you to repent. He commands all men everywhere to repent. It is not that He asks you to do so, but commands you to do so. Are you prepared to recognise His rights? That command belongs to the rights of God in mercy. That is a matter of the greatest importance to every sinner. If God has a right to judge, He has also a right to show mercy, and He does.
Elijah represents the assertion of the rights of God, and in asserting His rights, he brings God into evidence. But how, dear friends, is He brought into evidence? In a sacrifice! Who is the sacrifice? Why, the Son of God is the sacrifice. God asserts His right to give His Son for you and for me. Are you prepared to
quarrel with such rights as these? Think of what it means for us that God should assert His rights, even if He shuts up the heavens for three years and six months, to save you. As we read, Elijah prayed, and the heavens were shut up for three years and six months. It was a preparatory measure. There is not a Christian that would have been a Christian, were it not for the preparatory measures of God. Think of how He watches us from our very beginnings. He has ordered things for our blessing. Each of us has to say, "He hath hedged me about", as He did to Israel. Why? That we might turn to Him!
So, as I said, in the assertion of His rights God shows that He is God. "Jehovah", it says, "He is God". How has God come out to us, dear friend? In the gift of Christ. "God so loved the world, that he gave his only-begotten Son" (John 3:16). How majestically He asserts Himself in the gift of His Son, so that we are made to say: "He is God". Elijah builds an altar, and in doing that He had in His mind everyone of God's people. The twelve tribes were all in it, but when we come to our altar, when we come to Christ, dear friend, not only did He die for that nation, but that the children of God that were scattered abroad might be gathered into one, yea, more than that; "He gave himself a ransom for ALL" (1 Timothy 2:6). So that everyone in the human race is in view on the altar on which Christ laid down His life. "He gave himself a ransom for all". Can anyone emphasise that too much? Every member of the race was in view when the Son of man, as it says, the Man Christ Jesus, gave Himself a ransom for all. It is one of the greatest statements that can be made in the gospel. Every member of the race, I repeat, was in view in that offering, and it brought out the greatness of God, not only the rights of God in mercy, but the rights of God in love. He has brought out the righteousness of God, the love of God, and
the power of God, and all these are available in the Mediator, for every member of the race of man. Is it not marvellous?
As I said, Elijah brought out, in asserting the rights of God in Israel that: "Jehovah, he is God". It is part of the gospel to make clear how that God has asserted Himself, and how that He stands out before men as a God that justifies. He justifies the ungodly. It is possible to justify the ungodly. He can do so. He has been glorified in the offering of Christ. As we see in type in Elijah's burnt offering, the fire, we are told, came down and consumed the offering and the water. Heaven accepted the offering.
One feels, in seeking to announce the gospel, how little one knows of it, for I know of nothing greater to present than to present God in His assertion of Himself according to His nature, in the death of Christ. No one can lift up a voice against Him. "Jehovah, he is God". How majestically it stands out in that hour of Israel's apostasy. God stands out in mercy in the sacrifice, and so Elijah says: "There is a sound of abundance of rain". Oh! there is, friend, not a sound of judgment, now, but of abundance of rain. The prophets of Baal were judged, and it was right, but God shows, in the assertion of Himself, that He means to bless, and so there is a sound of rain. All of us who have been through a drought understand it a little, but then it had lasted for three years and six months! Think of what that meant to man. I do not suppose any one of us has had any such experience as that. Think of a drought of three years and six months! The heavens shut up, no rain, and then think of the sound of rain?
Oh, I say, if your soul is thirsty, the sound of rain is sweet in your ears. But the sound of it is not enough. We need more than the sound of it, and, hence, the great agony of Elijah brings before us the great solicitude of Christ for the welfare of our souls.
Think of what a Head we have, we men, in the Son of man. He is on our side. He yearns for the race. He has given Himself for it. I think of that instance in which Peter cut off the ear of the servant of the high priest. You may say it served him right. Oh, beloved friend, that servant of the high priest was a man, he belonged to the race, he belonged to the race for which Christ died. You say, but he was Christ's enemy. Yes, my friend, so have you been, and so have I, but He died for us, nevertheless. He died for the wickedest, and so He puts forth His hand, you see, His hand is for the race. It is for the most wicked of the race. You are His opponent; you are His murderer; but He puts forth His hand, and touches your ear, and heals it. He will not give up His rights as the Head of the race. He will see to it that the race comes in for what He died to secure for it. That is the gospel.
Look at Elijah's great exercise here, as he puts his face between his knees. If you are indifferent about the welfare of your soul, the Lord Jesus is not indifferent about it. He is yearning for you, and so are others. It is most pathetic to see young people, and old ones, too, indifferent about their eternal welfare, while others are putting their faces between their knees for them. What a spectacle! It is the solicitude of Christ for you. He died for you, and He wants you. Elijah's servant says, as he looks at the heavens: "There is nothing". We do not give you up because there is no sign. The very prolongation of the day of grace means that God is not giving you up. Notwithstanding the absence of signs, God knows, and the prayer goes on, and the gospel goes on, and the solicitude goes on, for we want you, as Christ wants you. As Paul says "I seek not yours, but you", and so Elijah prayed, and as the messenger goes out to look the seventh time, he sees a little cloud rising out of the sea, "small as a man's hand".
What news! It may be that it is just coming into your soul now, but presently it will fill your whole being. As we see in Luke's gospel, the Babe, how small outwardly, but, nevertheless, Simeon, as he takes Him in his arms, says: "A light for the revelation of the Gentiles" (Luke 2:32). The whole Gentile world should be unveiled by that Person.
So the heavens were covered with clouds. They were not clouds of judgment. The book of Job speaks of God loading the thick clouds with plentiful moisture; Job 37:11. Universal blessing has come down from heaven through the death of Christ, and is announced in the gospel. James says that Elijah prayed again and the heavens gave forth their rain, and the earth yielded its fruit. That is a beautiful touch in the book of James that we do not get here. One can understand it, for Christianity is the fruit of the Old Testament. The fruit is appearing now, dear friend, and I appeal to you: Is it going to appear in you? The earth brought forth its fruit. It is a solemn thing that the rain should be descending on you day after day and there should be no fruit. Hebrews 6:8 tells us of the end of those in whom there is no fruit from the rain. How is it going to be with you? You have been to hear the gospel, and you have been brought up under it. God has lavished His rain, so to speak, upon you. What about the fruit?
Let me entreat you now, as you look up, as it were, and see that man's hand. It is the hand of Jesus. By His hand the rain has come down, for He received from the Father the promise of the Spirit, and He shed it forth. Have you confessed the Lord? The confession of Christ means that He will give you the Spirit. The most wonderful thing conceivable is given to us. The Son of God has been given for us, the Spirit given to us, and God proposes now that you will submit yourself to Christ. The
Holy Spirit, it says, is given to all those that obey Him. Will you not join with us now? There are those who have obeyed Christ, who have received the Spirit, and, by the Spirit, have borne fruit for God, and they intend, by the grace of God, to continue to do so.
Let us entreat you to come. You see the rain is in abundance for you. Let it enter your soul. Let thoughts of Christ, thoughts of heaven, enter your soul.
May God grant this! One yearns for the young ones. It is not a question of property now, it is a question of persons, and the gospel is for persons, and the Lord is craving for persons.
(Substance of a Reading)
Matthew 26:6 - 13; 1 Samuel 16:1 - 13
I thought we might consider these scriptures with a view to seeing how love is begotten in us. It will, I am sure, be of help to us to see how this result is reached. The woman in Matthew, who anointed the Lord in the leper's house, may be taken to represent the subjective result of a presentation of Christ in manhood: that is, of the King. The portion in Samuel furnishes us with a type of how God had in mind that there should be such a product in the hearts of men. It was not accidental nor incidental; it was designed. Jehovah instructed Samuel to take a heifer for the sacrifice, meaning that there should be a subjective result. The gospel as the mind of God is presented abroad generally, is revered and defended, but the subjective feminine result of God's design is very little known.
The spurious thing is seen in the first book of Samuel in the proposals of Saul, that David should have his elder and then his younger daughter for wife. They were not of the kind to yield affection befitting David. This was not the product of God's design, and hence was of no value. They find their answer in the false church, nominally espoused to Christ. She is of no value to Him. Saul was really making the proposal as a diversion. The truth was that the soul of Jonathan was knit to the soul of David, that the women of Israel were singing his praises, and that all Israel and Judah loved David. Saul proposed to divert the people from that.
It will help us to see how we are brought to love Christ so as to be of the character of the true bride, the wife. In Revelation we see the false thing destroyed before the wife comes out. She had really
been with Him all the time, she had made herself ready, and now comes out for the marriage. We see that God had the real bride in mind in the suggestion of the heifer, carrying the thought of a feminine result, and the woman in Simon's house answers to the presentation. She anoints the Lord on the head. The false thing exposes itself; Michal, representing it in type, despised David in her heart when he danced before the ark. If we live for Christ we shall be despised. Even the disciples had indignation with the woman as she poured the precious ointment on His head. Opposition appears wherever there is true devotion to Christ. "All indeed who desire to live piously in Christ Jesus will be persecuted" (2 Timothy 3:12).
Matthew presents the Lord as a royal Personage, he presents the features of the King. We must first get an idea of the King. It is not simply that God chose David to rule, but, as it is said of him, "I have provided me a king". A king is a royal personage even if he is not ruling. So we see that the books of Samuel are rightly preceded by the book of Ruth, which brings in the king in his royal lineage: he is spiritually there before we get to Samuel. The thought of a king suggests power; Solomon says that a king scattereth away evil with his eyes Proverbs 20:8. In 1 Samuel 7, the Spirit of God brings to light the state of the people, one of utter weakness, as water poured upon the ground. He brings a sucking lamb as a burnt offering, suggestive of Christ in His intrinsic preciousness, yet in extreme outward weakness. This was not a presentation of the king, it was a ministry to bring in self-judgment. Then Saul comes in, answering to man's idea of a king, not God's. He was head and shoulders above the people, having very many commendable natural features, but he was not God's king. Finally David comes into view, with all his qualities pleasing to God.
Now Matthew fits in here in connection with the
opening up of the royal line. It is not simply that there is One ruling, but that such a One is King. The gospel commences with "Book of the generation of Jesus Christ, Son of David", of David the king. The Spirit emphasises that. There was the presentation of a royal Person. Then the wise men enquire for the King, the King of the Jews. May the Lord impress us with the idea of the King! It is slipping away from men's minds. He is about to appear, King of kings and Lord of lords. You will see there is a distinction between kingship and lordship. Lordship gives the thought of rule, kingship that of royalty. The personage underlies the authority. What comes out in Samuel is that David himself is loveable. David had personal attractiveness. He was "ruddy, and besides of a lovely countenance, and beautiful appearance". As seeing this beauty in Christ the saints begin to love Him. It is moral beauty, the natural man cannot see it. Isaiah says, "Thine eyes shall see the King in his beauty" (Isaiah 33:17). Matthew presents Him thus. In this gospel we find the Lord serving in houses more than in any other, and it is here where His beauty shines. The wise men see Him in the house. It requires anointed eyes to see the beauty of the King. The house of Simon the leper is the last house but one mentioned in the gospel, the last being the house in which the Supper was partaken of. Here we have the house of a leper, a man of no religious status. We find the Lord and the woman in that house; outside and also inside was the spirit of murder. There was opposition to her because she made much of Christ. Service in the houses in Matthew is a very interesting subject.
We find the women of Israel singing of both David and Saul. Our singing is often very mixed. There is a lot about Saul in the hymn books of Christendom: they are full of human sentiments. Our hymn book becomes smaller as we progress in appreciation of
Christ. The woman in Matthew was entirely clear of Saul. Samuel, on the other hand, although the most spiritual man of his time, was not clear of Saul. And if that was so it was little wonder that the women sang his praises. We might just as well sing of him as "mourn" for him. And we see that Samuel is again deceived when Eliab comes in, saying, "Surely Jehovah's anointed is before him". These are warnings for us. Even the most spiritual are liable to be turned aside by great natural ability and attractiveness. The Lord rebuked Samuel. He was not to look on the outward appearance as man looketh, but upon the heart, for "Jehovah looketh upon the heart". The woman in Matthew 26 represents assembly affections, finding all in Christ. There is no answer to Christ unless we are born of God. God loves to call attention to Christ.
Now when Samuel passes off the scene, Abigail comes in; 1 Samuel 25. No one mourns for Saul now. Abigail is a woman of good understanding and of a fair countenance, she answers to David. The features of the King are seen in the bride. In Psalm 45:1 we have the King. The writer says, "My heart is welling forth with a good matter: I say what I have composed touching the king". He then gives an appreciation of His excellence: "Thou art fairer than the sons of men; grace is poured into thy lips". Then he says He is God Himself: "Thy throne, O God, is for ever and ever". And then we get the subjective answer, for we have the queen in gold of Ophir standing on His right hand. In the introduction of the queen it is shown how every believer comes in so as to be of the bride, the wife. The king's daughter must first forsake what is natural, forgetting her own people and her father's house; so shall the King greatly desire her beauty. How often the affections of the saints are mixed! We admire what is natural and what is spiritual together. She shall
then be brought to the King in raiment of embroidery, the subjective work of the Spirit. And moreover she is of the royal line, a royal person herself; there is no lineal disparity. The question of lineage is of the utmost importance.
Michal, being a type, is utterly oblivious to the beauty of Christ, and thus has no sense of widowhood. She refers to the false system; she belongs to the house of Saul, the man after the flesh. But of the assembly it says, "His wife has made herself ready" (Revelation 19:7). She corresponds with Christ. She has been in secret with Him all the time. Abigail says, speaking to David of Saul, "A man is risen up to pursue thee" (1 Samuel 25:29). That was her idea of Saul. She never regarded him as king. But Nabal says it is David who has risen up. He says to David's young men, "There are many servants now-a-days that break away every man from his master" (verse 10). The natural is always opposed to the spiritual. Those who seek to correspond to Christ are regarded as lawless by the leading ecclesiastics. They are called upstarts. Abigail had great intelligence: she answers to the assembly at the present time. In her the Lord has a response to Himself. She sees Him according to His royal lineage, as the Root and Offspring of David. "And the Spirit and the bride say, Come".
In connection with the anointing, Luke and John speak of the feet, while Matthew and Mark refer to the head. The latter deal more with what is official. In them Christ is seen as the Victim: the King is put to death. Luke contemplates Him as carrying things, the grace of God, with His feet: "How beautiful the feet of them that announce glad tidings of peace" (Romans 10:15). And he presents Him as the offering Priest, He offers Himself. John shows the same feet carrying Him to the grave. He is seen as acting Himself in John, He had power to lay down His life.
The woman of Matthew 26 dominates the dispensation. A memorial is to be made of her, which is maintained by the Spirit throughout the dispensation. Wherever the gospel is preached mention is to be made of her. We will never recognise ecclesiastical dignitaries if we remember what she did. She forbids all clericalism because she anoints Christ, the true Levite (Mark), the true Ruler (Matthew). Do you ever mention the woman when preaching the gospel? If so, you will save converts from hierarchical principles. The woman anointed the head of the Man who rules in the house of God; not the Pope or any other great religious dignitary, but Christ. For her, Christ governed everything. The subject is vitally connected with the gospel: converts are preserved by it. We need the spirit of it in our preaching. The preacher should provide for the converts, he should look after his children. Luke speaks in chapter 7 of the Lord delivering the young man, whom He raised up from the dead, to his mother, and also of the man in chapter 10 being taken to the inn for care. There are a good many converts today, thank God. He is working, although perhaps we do not see much of it. We might well pray the prayer of Moses, "Let thy work appear unto thy servants" (Psalm 90:16). One would like to see more: but we know that many are being converted. It may be our own fault that we do not see it. A good deal depends on our vision. And then we might also continue to pray, "establish thou the work of our hands upon us". This corresponds with 1 Corinthians 15:58, "knowing that your toil is not in vain in the Lord". The little you may be doing is not in vain.
Luke 7:35 - 38; 2 Samuel 14:1 - 3; 2 Samuel 20:16 - 22
The thought of "wisdom" has been very much on my mind in view of this meeting. It is a very extensive and comprehensive subject, as you will readily understand in that the name "Wisdom" may be applied to the Lord Jesus Christ. In approaching the subject our minds are at once directed back to the beginning of things. No one who takes account, even in the most superficial way, of the phenomena in the physical system before our eyes every day, can fail to admit that wisdom has been behind its creation. But I do not wish to dwell upon this aspect of wisdom tonight, but to speak of it as it applies at the present time in a spiritual way.
We read in Romans 1 that the invisible things of God from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made; and wisdom must be regarded as one of these invisible things. The apostle Paul so regarded it, speaking of the "hidden wisdom". Evidently this wisdom was not employed in the creation of the universe. It is the "hidden wisdom which God had predetermined before the ages for our glory: which none of the princes of this age knew, (for had they known, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory)" (1 Corinthians 2:7, 8). God had hidden this wisdom, but in due course has brought it forth and caused it to be seen in the working out of Wisdom's plan in the assembly; the "all-various wisdom" of God has come into display (Ephesians 3). It is now a manifested thing, it has been disclosed. It is seen here on earth now in the assembly by principalities and powers in the heavenly places. It is of this wisdom that I wish to speak, while feeling what a great undertaking it is.
James, in order to clear our minds, delineates its
features -- "The wisdom from above first is pure, then peaceful, gentle, yielding, full of mercy and good fruits, unquestioning, unfeigned" (James 3:17). All these are the elements of the hidden wisdom, and wherever wisdom is found these features will be in evidence.
Now I wish to begin with the woman in Luke 7. She shows how wisdom begins to take form in her children. Christians are wisdom's children. The Lord says, "Wisdom has been justified of all her children" (Luke 7:35). Those who know James' delineation can readily discern them. It is very wonderful to belong to this family, found on earth. Its wisdom surpasses that of all the scientists of this world, as Daniel's wisdom exceeded that of all the magicians of Babylon. The Spirit pays a remarkable tribute to Daniel. When speaking to the prince of Tyre, in Ezekiel 28:3, Jehovah says, "Thou art wiser than Daniel!" God takes account of wisdom, of wisdom's children. The wisdom found in the assembly today excels all the wisdom of the world's sages. By it is apprehended more of the physical universe than is known by the greatest astronomer. This is only to be understood by faith; no one can comprehend it by means of a telescope. We read in Hebrews 11:3, "By faith we apprehend that the worlds were framed by the word of God". The mind of God is apprehended by faith.
So I wish to draw attention to this woman, so well known to all of us as a type of the needy sinner coming to Christ. But she is more; she is one of wisdom's children. Luke always put things in moral order. Thus, after having made the statement as to wisdom's children, he brings in an illustration. Scripture not only says things are so, but also shows them. The Lord says, "Seest thou this woman?" He calls attention to her. What an exercise would it create if the Lord were to call attention to you or me! He calls attention to her in connection with the
marks of wisdom seen in her. She had heard that He was in Simon's house. Light had been brought to her; she came there through a report. And she was prepared to brook the chilly atmosphere because Jesus was there. Wisdom detected the greatness of the Person. The One whose feet had carried grace into this poor world was in the Pharisee's house, and she approached Him there, washing those feet with her tears. Wisdom's children have feelings, sympathies, affections, spiritual emotions, which are touched and stirred by Christ. If in the beginning, when God laid the foundations of the earth, the morning stars sang together and all the sons of God shouted for joy, how much more would wisdom's child be touched when the Creator Himself was found in the Pharisee's house! He had brought there everything needed by man. There was nothing lacking in the Saviour when He came into manhood. His feet carried it all in the pathway, and wisdom's child washed those feet with her tears. How many such tears have you shed? God has a bottle for such tears. How many of our tears go into it? They represent holy emotions, drawn out into expression by the presence of Christ. In this woman we get the initial idea of wisdom's children. They are affected by Christ. Christ is supreme with them. The Lord is able to draw attention to the woman as a model. Such a one as this woman is the saviour, under God, of any company. So the apostle says to the Corinthians, "There is not a wise person among you" (1 Corinthians 6:5). How important in a company is the presence of a wise man or woman! Such will be marked by these initial features. They are always preserved, and used to preserve others.
Love is the greatest thing, and wisdom is the handmaid of love. This woman loved much. Love underlies all edification, all true building in the assembly. Proverbs 14:1 tells us that "The wisdom of
women buildeth their house; but folly plucketh it down with her hands". We want to be like the wise, not like the foolish. The building is very easily damaged by the foolish woman. Love is always true to itself. Love edifies. And wisdom is love's handmaid. We might call it the next great thing in the moral system.
Now in 2 Samuel 14 we have a woman called wise, but employed by another. Saints should be on their guard lest they become the tools of scheming persons. The church's history has been marked all the way down by the presence of scheming persons. The public body of the church has been the sphere for the development of every form of human ambition. So we find Joab here, a scheming, ambitious man. He held his position by violence and craft, and, in order to ingratiate himself with the king, schemes to bring back Absalom and employs this woman whom Scripture calls wise. The worldly wise will use wisdom's children if wisdom's children are not on the alert. We read he said unto her, "I pray thee, feign thyself to be a mourner, and put on mourning garments ... and come to the king, and speak after this manner to him". It was all a sham: it must be so. The words he put into her mouth were good words, gospel words, but she used them for subversive ends, for Joab had in mind to reinstate a murderer. Did he care for Absalom? Not a bit. All he cared for was himself, his own ambition. This wise woman was simply acting as a parrot. The assembly is no place for parrots, however intelligent. There are thousands of such abroad preaching. Their words are from their mouths only, not from their hearts. It is out of the abundance of the heart that wisdom's children speak. They speak of Christ. They love Christ. But this woman spoke beautiful things to a wrong end, and the result was that a murderer was reinstated: not merely a man after the flesh, but a murderer.
It can be easily shown that this exactly covers the present position in Christendom. The preaching is by those who have the words put into their mouths, and so open enemies of Christ are brought back. Such preaching is not by the Spirit; such labour at their own charges. When Absalom returned, what did he do, in order that he might see the king's face? He burned up the barley field. The barley field speaks of Christ. What a picture we have here of the natural heart hating Christ and getting rid of Him to serve its own ends! These men try with all their power to get rid of every vestige of Christ, and to reinstate man after the flesh. Absalom was beautiful according to the flesh, and stole the hearts of the men of Israel. But let us not be drawn after him, let us not be deceived by his kisses.
Now pass on to chapter 20. By this time Absalom is dead, but the enemy is quick in filling his place by another. This time it is a man of Belial, Sheba by name. He was of Benjamin, the tribe of Saul. He was not a lover of David, but the counterpart of Absalom. It says he blew a trumpet. The blowing of a trumpet is the calling attention to something in a very definite way. Here it is typically a banner raised against Christ. He said, "We have no portion in David". Many today throw over Christianity entirely. "Neither have we inheritance in the son of Jesse: every man to his tents, Israel". It is the trumpet of sedition and rebellion to draw the saints away from Christ. This is the avowed object of the trumpet. Thank God this man is hunted down. He is found in the city of Abel, and the city is besieged. The city of Abel was part of the inheritance, and the problem now is how to save the inheritance and yet deal with the offender. What wisdom does this problem demand! We see Joab battering down the wall, pushing the siege, regardless of life and property in the city. Sheba only is before his
mind. But there is the city, and a wise woman in the city, a mother in Israel, and are they to be destroyed?
In the assembly how essential it is to be wise so as to be able to get at the offender without causing destruction to the inheritance of God. Wisdom teaches us to enquire, to discern. In connection with the sin of Achan, how careful and thorough a search was made until the offender was finally discovered! This is wisdom's way. Now note what the wise woman says, how wisely she speaks. What God is doing is working locally. "There is not a wise person among you". In Ecclesiastes 9:15 we find that "a poor wise man" delivers the city. The thing is to have wisdom. The Spirit says this woman was wise. And she was not employed by anyone: she acts from herself, moved by the urgency of the situation. The whole city is exposed to destruction, and by her wisdom she delivers the city.
Note how she refers to the ancient way, to what happened of olden time. "They were wont to speak in old time saying, Just inquire in Abel; and so they ended". Here we come to experience. Experience is one of the greatest things in the house of God. The elder must be a man of experience. The Lord as presented in the Revelation has hair "white, like white wool, as snow". Grey hairs found in the way of righteousness -- that constitutes eldership. One of the greatest things to be cherished at the present time is what was at the beginning. The apostle John opens this up in his writings. There is no idea of change in connection with the truth of God. God, Christianity, and divine principles remain ever unchanged. All change is the result of man's will and sin. God will not modify His principles to conform to man's changes. What was at the outset stands, and there the matter ends: no innovation can be brought in. Scripture is
the test of everything, and there is the end of the matter. There is no appeal from that.
This woman, having faced Joab, then turns to the men of the city. She goes to them in her wisdom. She uses her wisdom, not her natural intelligence or influence, nor her family connections. She goes in her wisdom. And presently the head of Sheba goes over the wall. Wisdom is from above. If we lack it, let us ask of God who will give it liberally. Sheba must be located, his head must be thrown over the wall, but the city must be saved. God's inheritance must not be destroyed. Think of a great general pressing hard the siege, and yet one woman ending the matter!
Finally Joab returns to Jerusalem, and David's regime is set up in peace. The authority of Christ is secured, the order of His house set up. The greatness of wisdom is seen in that by it the brethren are preserved, yet the guilty is discerned and dealt with. Wisdom is a very great subject. We see it shine in these characters, and so are able to speak of it.
John 20:17, 18; Genesis 13:8, 9; Genesis 14:13 - 16; Genesis 45:14, 15; Exodus 2:11 - 15; Judges 1:3 - 7, 17; Judges 8:18, 19
What I have before me is to seek to convey the divine idea of "brethren". This term has become very familiar to us. It has ever been so among men. Abel was the first to be called "brother", and therefore the term early entered into the language of our race and I suppose now occurs in connection with every branch of the human family. But in modern times it has become familiar in a peculiar way in that it has been made the designation of a certain class of Christians. And as thus used it has been reduced from the high level of John 20 to the level of an ordinary religious designation in Christendom. As thus reduced it is like "as a gold ring in a swine's snout", as is said in Proverbs 11:22. My exercise tonight is to seek to lift it in our minds out of that setting into its own proper place according to God. The Lord Jesus Christ has given it a place, for He puts precious things in their own right setting. I hope that tonight, by the Lord's help, we may see a little of the setting of this precious stone, as I may so speak of it.
It is seen in the John 20 in its most exalted character. A few men known as very ordinary in this world, fishermen and the like, had been drawn to Jesus and had been His companions. On several occasions He had referred to them as His brethren, especially as His mother and brethren after the flesh sought to assert their right to His attention. The Lord was accustomed to speak to small, as to large, companies, and Matthew and Mark tell us that on one such occasion His mother and brethren stood without asking to see Him. It was reported to Him, but instead of relinquishing His
holy spiritual service in speaking of His Father and His Father's things, He continued speaking, and looking around on His disciples said, "Behold my mother and my brethren: for whosoever shall do the will of God, he is my brother, and sister and mother" (Mark 3:34). He thus introduced a great moral barrier between the spiritual and the natural. He lifted the term out of the natural into its spiritual setting. So as risen from the dead He sent a message to His disciples by Mary, saying, "Go to my brethren and say to them, I ascend to my Father and your Father, and to my God and your God". He needed not to give Mary a list of the names and addresses, for she well knew where to find them. She knew whom He had in mind. She came to the disciples and told them that "she had seen the Lord, and that he had said these things to her". Thus we have the circle delineated, and the term "brethren" placed in its most exalted setting.
Now I want to show from the Old Testament some of the traits of brethren. By these traits we may come to know our brethren and to scorn the applying of the term to a mere religious body. There are thousands of our brethren whom we do not know. It may be their fault, or ours, but they exist nevertheless. It is for us to lay hold of the term and what it applies to, and seek out our relations. Divine love in us would lead to this search for our brethren, to our clinging to them when found, and to the laying down of our lives for them if need be. I believe we should use the Old Testament for the detail it gives us. In the New we get divine directions and statements of doctrine; in the Old we have the definitions. Things are shown there, they are exemplified. Christianity is not simply a system of doctrines, it is also a system of principles and examples. The Lord Himself takes the lead in this, saying, "Come to me, all ye who labour and are burdened, and I will give you rest.
Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me" (Matthew 11:28, 29). He is the Model for us. The Old Testament furnishes us with designed, not accidental, illustrations given with divine care and precision.
Let us begin with Abram. The first feature of a brother seen in him is that he refuses to quarrel, he is not contentious. It is said in 1 Corinthians 11:16, "If any one think to be contentious, we have no such custom, nor the assemblies of God". The man was ruled out. Now there was a strife between the herdmen of Abram's cattle and the herdmen of Lot's cattle. Abram says, "I pray thee let there be no contention between me and the ... for we are brethren". He refuses to contend. Of course you will understand that I am not here speaking of questions affecting the truth. In such cases the brother would be like the lion, and not turn away from any. If it be a question of Christ or the truth, the brother will take a stand at all costs. But when it is a matter of land or other personal interests, or feelings, he refuses to contend. Like Mephibosheth he says, "Let him even take all, since my lord the king is come again in peace to his own house" (2 Samuel 19:30). Here Abram says, in effect, 'If you choose the right I will turn to the left, or if you choose the lift, I will go to the right: under no circumstances let us quarrel'.
Then Lot is captured, and Abram goes to rescue him. Lot had no claim upon Abram. In choosing the well-watered plain of Jordan he had treated him in a most unbrotherly way. Like Demas he had loved this present evil world. But Abram dwelt by the oaks of Mamre. He was not in the world, he settled by stable things, things that abide. And he was Abram the Hebrew, the separate man. As sure as we put on the initial idea of the brother we shall be found dwelling by stable things. We "receiving a kingdom not to be shaken" (Hebrews 12:28).
Abram lived in relation to that, and had three hundred and eighteen trained servants born in his house at his command. What headway, what progress, he made! As we take up the exercises connected with the brother, God will see to it that we go on to greater things. But as for Lot, he could not even influence his sons-in-law, who mocked him. He had absolutely no influence. So Abram takes his life in his hands and pursues the enemy and rescues his brother. Lot did not deserve this, and hence we see here the second great feature of the brother -- he altogether sinks personal feelings. His brother is value to him, of more value than flocks and herds, though he be a worldly Christian. Abram pursues the enemy a long way, even to Hobah, on the left hand of Damascus. It was a very long way, a great undertaking for the sake of one brother. But Abram was equal to it. How easily we sometimes let our brethren slip through out fingers! "A brother offended is harder to be won than a strong city" (Proverbs 18:19). Let us then see to it that our brethren do not get offended. Abram must have his brother even if he has to lay down his life for him, which indeed he did in principle.
Joseph is the next, representative of the brother "born for adversity;" not his own adversity, but the adversity of others. He gathers up all that had preceded him and exemplifies the idea of the brother in a more complete way than is seen in any save the Lord Himself. Joseph is a most striking type. He knew love. That is the next great thing. He was loved by his father. When a lad of seventeen his father had made him a coat of many colours; he came in for a peculiar expression of his affection, he was distinguished as a loved one. There are such who stand out among the saints in this way. The apostle John was one of them: he was the "disciple whom Jesus loved". It is a delightful thing to get into the
company of one who knows love and can convey love. This the privilege of the brother. So we find Joseph, having had keen experience of suffering at the hands of his brethren, now meets them under the most extraordinary circumstances. He is lord of all Egypt, and his brethren come to him to buy corn. He knew them, but they did not know him. How many of our brethren around us we do not know. We are all typically "one man's sons", but are of many mothers. Joseph's brethren typify the Lord's people as found among the systems of this world. We have one common Father, but who is our mother? The mother has much to do with the upbringing of the family. Jacob's family had four mothers.
Now we find that Joseph's brethren have to confess that they were twelve brethren (Genesis 42:13). They do not pretend to say, We are. They say, We "were twelve brethren ... the youngest is this day with our father, and one is not". What feelings must have arisen in their hearts as they said, "one is not". The ten are lined up before their brother as guilty of murder. What will the brother do under such circumstances? You will say, 'The case is hopeless'. But no; let us see what he will do. He was but an Egyptian to them, but in his heart was a deep pent-up reservoir of love towards them. He was so powerfully affected that he wept over them. Here we have another point, love never fails. And in this most extraordinary situation it avails to bring the brethren to repentance. This is one of the greatest of its feats. Love can do it, it never fails. How does Joseph act? He first puts them in prison. 'A hard man', you say. But he could weep in doing it. This is love's way, the way of wisdom. He also had the silver cup put in Benjamin's sack. By these means he brought his brethren to repentance. Judah now says; "We have an aged father, and a child born to him in his old age, yet young; and his brother is dead, and he alone is
left of his mother, and his father loves him". Ah, the bold, hard, remorseless feelings are giving way to soft and tender sympathies! He says we have a father and we have a brother. This is the result of coming into the presence of Joseph. He can serve them as none other can. And now he can make himself known to them. "He fell on his brother Benjamin's neck, and wept; and Benjamin wept upon his neck". Benjamin gets the first embrace, the two brothers are brought together in the deepest affection and sympathies. "And he kissed all his brethren, and wept upon them". Now we have the twelve brethren set up together in the holy bonds of affection. How much this spirit is needed today -- the moral power, constancy and faithfulness to serve all the brethren in holy love!
Next let us turn to Moses. How he loved his brethren and understood what was comely amongst them. Stephen, in Acts 7:26, quotes him saying to those who strove together, "Ye are brethren, why do ye wrong one another?" We find him, though learned in all the wisdom of the Egyptians, mighty in words and in deeds, the great prince of Pharaoh's house, coming down to look upon the burdens of his brethren, the oppressed Hebrews. He sees an Egyptian smiting one brother. We cannot say what his status was, he may have been just an insignificant slave or brickmaker. But he was a brother. His hands may have been hard and smeared by toiling at the brick-kiln. But he was a brother. We read that Moses "turned this way and that way, and when he saw that there was no man, he smote the Egyptian and hid him in the sand". That was one day's work. Stephen tells us that he thought they would understand that God by his hand would deliver them, but they did not. Our brethren do not always understand, we have need of patience in serving them. On the next day he sees two of his
brethren quarrelling. Of course, one was in the wrong. Moses says, "Why art thou smiting thy neighbour?" He that did his neighbour wrong thrust him away, saying, "Who made thee ruler and a judge over us?" You see he had a rebuff for his love. So he has to flee the face of Pharaoh and is exiled forty years in the land of Midian on account of love for his brethren. He laid down his life for them as did Abram. He sacrificed all for them.
Now in connection with Judah and Simeon, we find very beautiful brotherly relations existing. They portray brethren dwelling together in unity. Judah was the big influential brother, the leading tribe. He says to his brother Simeon, "Come up with me into my lot, and let us fight against the Canaanites, and I likewise will go with thee into thy lot". So Simeon went with him. How this spirit is to be coveted in our warfare with the Canaanites, the spiritual powers of wickedness in heavenly places! If unity comes in the most potent power will be broken. They slay ten thousand of the enemy and find a powerful man, Adoni-bezek. They cut off his thumbs and his great toes, but they do not kill him. Why not? Because it is a question of a moral victory. He is brought to repent and realise that he as to do with God, and not merely with the brethren. There is the power of limitation among the people of God. Unity is imperative. If it is not present Satan will find an opening in the ranks, of which he, the shrewd enemy, will not fail to take advantage. Judah and Simeon fought side by side, and God was with them. No doubt Adoni-bezek is typical of a person exercising an undue influence over the people of God. He says, "Seventy kings, with their thumbs and great toes cut off, gleaned under my table: as I have done, so God has requited me". His power of initiative is taken away, and he has to own that God's hand is upon him.
Then he is brought to Jerusalem and he dies. He will never trouble the saints again. This was a great exploit, a great moral victory.
Finally, in Judges 8 we have what links up with John 20. Gideon is a type of Christ. He says to Zebah and Zalmunna, "What sort of men were they?" They say, "As thou art, so were they". They were his brethren not merely in name, but also in likeness. They were typically like Christ -- "each one resembled the sons of a king". Royalty marked them. Gideon says, "they were my brethren, the sons of my mother". They did not have many mothers like Joseph's brethren. They were all typically Christians walking in the light of the assembly. As the light of the assembly stamps us it gives us heavenly character. In human organisations there may be many true Christians; all have the same Father, but not the same mother. They take character from the human organisations to which they belong. The assembly is "our mother", Jerusalem above, which is free; Galatians 4:26. She gives to the saints a heavenly dignity and liberty. It is the maternal side imparting heavenly character like Christ. If I think of God as Father, that is the link I have with every brother. But many are also the product of human, not heavenly, systems.
So this connects with what we had at the commencement. How blessed to be greeted of the Lord in the terms of the message sent by Mary! We should look with scorn on the name "brethren" as a mere sectarian designation. Heaven abhors it. It is reducing a heavenly thing to the level of the flesh. The Lord help us to maintain it in its setting by the Spirit's power
Matthew 8:28 - 33; Matthew 20:30 - 34; Matthew 21:1 - 7; Matthew 18:19, 20
I selected these four passages from Matthew because they present a scriptural feature of the use of numerals. The- Lord in Matthew deals with twos. You will find that these same incidents as recorded in the other evangelists contain only one of each of the couples spoken of. Matthew has in view that the world-system has proven itself reprobate and opposed to God and therefore must be broken up morally. It is not yet broken up by external power. That will come in its own time: "At the revelation of the Lord Jesus from heaven, with the angels of his power, in flaming fire, taking vengeance on those who know not God, and those who do not obey the glad tidings" (2 Thessalonians 1:7, 8).
We who believe understand that the Lord has the power to come out and take vengeance on those who know not God. It is appalling as we take into account how little God is known, but ignorance of God and disobedience of the glad tidings are culpable, and the Lord Jesus will come out, as we are told, in flaming fire, with the angels of His power, to take vengeance on all who know not God and who obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ. But, as already remarked, Matthew has not only this in view, but the break-up of the world-system for believers at the present time; hence we have in this incident of the demoniacs an illustration of this very thing. There were two of them, which suggests collective power, and they come out of the tombs, not out of the city, as in Luke, but from the area of the dead, so to say; and they were exceeding dangerous, so that no one could pass by that way.
What is to be noted here is Satan's power in a combination which interferes with the right of legitimate
journeying. Satan would thus challenge the rights of God. God had sent His servants who were ill-treated and slain, and finally He sent His Son, and Him the husbandmen killed. This terrible deed was committed at Jerusalem. When on His way to that city a Samaritan village refused Him. It is said, "They did not receive him" (Luke 9:53), but that is not a question of danger: it may denote hatred, but a non-reception is not in itself an attitude of violence. The violence was at Jerusalem; Satan had power there and so it had slain the prophets and finally it slew the Lord Jesus. Paul says of them "who have both slain the Lord Jesus and the prophets, and have driven us out by persecution" (1 Thessalonians 2:15). Now that is what God deals with, according to Matthew. He will not brook the interference of satanic power in His right of way. He must have that right of way, and so the Lord breaks up this power. Wherever there is such a combination as this, whether in the world or in the assembly, there is material for satanic interference with the divine right of way. We have, therefore, to be on our guard against combinations, against twos and threes possessed by a common feeling and interest, as influenced by some current of feeling other than what is of Christ, for this interferes with the divine right of way.
It is a serious thing for any to be dangerous to those who are on legitimate journeys, as occupied in the Lord's service. The demons recognise the Lord, but not as Lord. Satan never recognises or owns Him as such. They address Him as the Son of God, but He gave them no quarters in these two men; He cast them out. In doing so, He allows them to enter into the swine: "And lo, the whole herd of swine rushed down", it says, "the steep slope into the sea, and died in the waters". The danger is thus disposed of at its source, as showing the Lord's power to effectually deal with evil. As I was saying,
the Lord suffered in the place of danger; where also the prophets were slain, and Paul himself was seized. So that you see there was a danger spot, the outcome of a combination in which Satan had his part.
I mention all this so that we might take to heart any disposition to partisanship, however far removed from being intentional it may be. Wherever it exists, in whatever degree or form, it makes room for Satan and interferes with the rights of God. As already stated, He sent apostles, He sent prophets; He sends evangelists, pastors and teachers, and in doing so commands the right of way, and He will have it. Any partisanship active amongst the saints becomes a dangerous spot, so that servants of God are interfered with in their service and in the carrying out of the principles of the assembly. You cannot have such service under partisan conditions, so that Matthew in recording these things brings in twos, and as the ecclesiastical evangelist, he shows how the Lord deals with evil in a collective sense.
Well, now, in Matthew 20 you have two blind men. They are not demoniacally possessed, but are blind. If the combination be broken up, the next thing needed is light. The question is, What am I to do? I have been supporting a brother in a partisan way and have come to see that this is wrong; I have been acting blindly and have exposed myself to the enemy. What am I to do now? It is not a question of demons now, far otherwise, but rather of exercise coming into the soul which brings the sense into it that you have been influenced adversely, and now you want to know what to do. Well, evidently you must have light and direction, and what you find first of all is, that these two men have a sense of the Lord's dignity. You may be sure that as you are released from the danger area, whatever form that may have taken, you begin to respect the authority of the Lord; and so what you find here is that the
two of them say, "Have mercy on us". Notice what follows, they say, "Lord, Son of David". The men in chapter 8 did not thus address Him, for Satan will never, of himself, recognise the lordship of Christ. He may say much about Christ as the Holy One, or the Son of God, but he never recognises Him as Lord so that these men are not in the least degree influenced by the demons. They had respect for the Lord, which is the secret of deliverance from everything. It is as subject to Him that we get the Spirit, for Peter lays down as a great dispensational principle, that God gives the Holy Spirit to those who obey Christ; Acts 5:32.
Think what it means to receive the Holy Spirit! Everything is bound up with it: eyesight and all else is involved in the reception of the Holy Spirit. These men have respect for the authority of Christ, who is the Lord, Son of David. They cry, "Have mercy on us;" and although rebuked by the crowd that they might be silent, they cried out the more, using the same words; upon which the Lord stops. Wherever there is a cry like that, whatever the need, whether collective or individual (and I am speaking now from the collective side), the Lord will stop. He was on a journey; but was at no danger spot. He had passed that in the sense of which I am speaking. If there is thus a cry of need, you may be certain of it that He will stop on His way. It is a matter of deep importance to Him, so it says, "Jesus having stopped". The Lord was on a definite journey, blessed be His name! He was going to Jerusalem to die, but there was a cry, a collective cry, mark you, a cry as it were, from a meeting, and He stood still.
In seeking to care for the saints, I believe we often let things drift too long. There was much to deter these two men from crying out to the Lord. The multitude would have stopped them. We know this should not have been done, and how much there
is to hinder today! What is needed is courage. The need exists and is felt. "Have mercy on us, Lord, Son of David", they cried, and He stood still. He virtually says, I am deeply interested in this cry of need. So now, He would adjust the differences of the little companies of His people. Indeed, He has charged Himself with that service. He says, "Where two or three are gathered together unto my name, there am I in the midst of them". For what purpose is He there? To help them. In chapter 18 it is not so much a question of privilege but rather of support; and it comes out as the result of the cry of two. "If two of you shall agree on earth concerning any matter, whatsoever it may be that they shall ask, it shall come to them from my Father who is in the heavens". You see, it is the cry of two, as representative. They know the need that exists, they ask collectively and the Lord will stand still.
Divine interest manifests itself where a genuine cry of need is uttered collectively -- "Have mercy on us;" and then they tell Him what is needed. Could you tell just what is needed in your locality, if the Lord were to appear there and ask you to make a request? You see, they are constrained to do it here: "Jesus ... called them and said, What will ye that I shall do to you?" The question is addressed to them collectively. They do not ask each other what answer to give for they know the need. There are those who know, and such are with God. They are conscious of the need, and as soon as it is expressed, the need is met. They say, "Lord [it is a question of His authority and the power that He has to relieve], that our eyes may be opened".
Applying this to complicated local conditions, exercised saints would say, We want to know what to do in these matters; we need direction, we are like blind men. Where there is exercise, the Lord will give light. In Mark 8:22 - 26 we have an illustration of
this. He first spat upon the blind man's eyes, having led him out of the town of Bethsaida, and asked him if he saw ought. He says, "I behold men, for I see them, as trees, walking". It describes a state in which men who are prominent are before us. It is right that you should respect those that labour: "Know those who labour among you, and take the lead among you in the Lord, and admonish you, and regard them exceedingly in love on account of their work" (1 Thessalonians 5:12, 13); but do not regard them unduly. The Lord laid His hands on the man's eyes the second time and he saw all things clearly. That is to say, the landscape becomes perfectly clear. You see the trees, the hills, and every object in its true proportion. So it is as regards any particular difficulty: You see its different features clearly, as the result of the second touch, which involves the reception and recognition of the Spirit. It is this which enables you to see everything in its right relation.
I now go on to Matthew 21. As we see all things clearly, there is that which the Lord can now use. A dark and divided state of things He cannot use, whatever the outward appearance may be. He wants unity of action, and so we find the ass and the colt. As previously remarked, the two are peculiar to this gospel. The suggestion is that there are the old brothers and the young brothers; they should be a source of strength mutually. In millennial days there shall be old men and old women sitting in the streets of Jerusalem. Think of the experience that these old persons will have! And then the streets of the city shall be full of boys and girls playing in the streets thereof. What an evidence of life in the old and the young. How delightful! There will be no danger on the streets then. No need of a traffic squad in that day! The boys and the girls shall be perfectly immune from danger as they play in the streets of the city. The old men and the old women,
as stated, are there: Each one with his staff in his hand for multitude of days. I can understand a boy going up to an old man in those days and asking him what happened at the beginning of that wonderful time. Oh, he would say, it was a glorious moment when the Lord Jesus came out of heaven, right down to the earth! Many boys and girls would not see that, but how glad they would be to hear the older ones tell them of it! They will gain by the older ones, for they shall have what the young ones could not have, i.e., experience. They will have seen things that the younger generation never saw, and the younger ones will, in turn, be interested to hear details about those things. See Zechariah 8:3 - 8.
Today, the old brothers have experience, and in having this, they have what the young ones as such, cannot have. It is well to revert to old times and thus be reminded of the work of God; of how He did things then; it is the same God that works now, and it is one work. Take, for example, Ephesians 2:5, 6: there it is said that He has quickened us, raised us up and made us sit down together in the heavenlies in Christ Jesus. It is all one work, though taking hundreds of years to accomplish it, and that one work is going on today. It was going on when the old brothers and sisters of today were young men and young women. They saw it in the feature that marked it then, and can tell you of it, for divine operations take on peculiar features according to the necessity of the moment.
The disciples then find the ass tied and the colt with it. We are not told who tied the ass. I would say, in the light in which I am speaking, that the ass and the colt illustrate how we are bound by divine principles, and are held by divine restrictions. Thank God, even if no more can be said of any of us than this: They have obeyed the commandments of the Lord; and if so, the Lord has respect for us. There
was the ass tied, and the colt with her. They are together, and the message was, "The Lord has need of them". A while ago the blind men had need of Him, and He answered to their cry. Now we may say, He needs those men, for, in principle, they are identical. The two delivered from demoniacal power and the two whose eyes were opened, are in principle the same two who are found here, bound, as I may say, by divine principles. And, beloved friends, a most remarkable thing is that He sat upon both of them. How He did it physically, I am not prepared to say, but I do know how He does it spiritually. With the old brother and the young brother as subject, you have a beautiful combination; and as subject to Christ, they are available to Him as a unit.
It would be extremely difficult for any man to ride on an ass and a colt at the same time, but the Lord sat upon them, to control them for His pleasure. He will not sit on the young ones separately, but will use the old and the young together. If the young brethren in a meeting are apart in spirit from their older brethren, the Lord will not use them separately. The assembly is composed of both, and the Lord will use them, or sit on them, so to say. Here He rides triumphantly into Jerusalem, answering to the scripture, "Say to the daughter of Zion, Behold, thy king cometh to thee, meek, and mounted upon an ass, and upon a colt the foal of an ass". Is it not worth while to surrender all our wills, so as to be in unity and thus available to Christ; that He may ride triumphantly upon us into His capital? That is what He is doing at the present time: He is availing Himself of His people, as united, and using them to proclaim His rights as Lord.
Well, now, I want to add a little word as to chapter 18: "If two of you:" not two demoniacs, not two blind men, nor two asses, but two of the assembly -- two of you. The truth of the assembly had
been introduced in chapter 16 as you remember, so that we can understand what two of it are like. In answering Peter, the Lord had said, "Thou art Peter". He was Peter, which meant that he was part of the Rock. Christ is the Rock "On this rock I will build my assembly". Peter was of it, and that thought runs through. As a stone, he was durable, and it is a question now of endurance. Peter stands the test; and so you find in this eighteenth chapter, which treats of trespass, that the assembly is the final court of appeal.
In the passage read, the Lord says, "Again I say to you", meaning that the condition might arise in which the assembly as such should not be available, but you may have two of it. Not two believers simply, but "two of you;" and they are agreed. What are they agreed about? You reply, Some party movement. Not at all, they belong to the assembly. They would say in the language of the Psalm: "If I forget thee, Jerusalem, let my right hand forget its skill" (Psalm 137:5). Her very dust was precious in the eyes of the remnant, and so it is with two of the assembly. As you look abroad on the desolation of the church, you weep over it. It is in 2 Timothy we have tears, and Paul remembered them. When you look at the desolation that exists, you weep, but nevertheless you are of the assembly, whatever its condition, and you are thinking of the rights of God in it, and so you agree concerning a matter, and you ask. Two of you may do this, any two of the assembly, and, He says, "it shall come to them". Think of the possibility of prayer! "It shall come to them from my Father". God will thus honour you, and will show that you have asked for it. The whole assembly on earth may get the blessing, but He will show that you have asked for it, "it shall come to them;" that is, those two have got their answer, and it is known that they have got it: "it shall come to
them from my Father who is in the heavens".
Then the Lord adds, "For where two or three". The circle becomes enlarged after prayer. You are confident; you take in another. You are now getting your answer from heaven; you needed power on earth, and have got it. One can speak experimentally of this. The Lord says: "Where two or three are gathered together unto my name, there am I in the midst of them". He is there to support them in their deliberations. The gates of hades are not to prevail against the assembly. It is a question of taking counsel, and the Lord is there to support us, so that the enemy is frustrated. What we ask for we get, but the answer will come on earth in the way of increase. It will be realised in two or three gathered together in Christ's name here. The power is experienced as He is known in the midst. The presence of the Lord Jesus is no mere theory; it is a known thing, and thus nothing can overcome those who are truly gathered to His name. The way is made for them, and the purposes of God are accomplished. Two or three thus gathered are signalised by the known presence of the Lord Jesus.
That is all I have to say: The object before me was to show from these few passages how Matthew prepares for the working out of church principles, and these may be found in two or three, so we should be more concerned about the principles and the quality of the persons than about their number. The quality is determined by the word "Peter". You must look for that quality which is akin to Christ. It must be what is of Christ. As remarked, it is more important to see that right qualities and divine principles are present than mere numbers. One would not despise the numbers, but the great thing is the quality of the persons and the principles by which they are governed. When these are according to God we are invulnerable, for the Lord Himself is with us.
2 Samuel 5:6 - 9; Romans 5:5; Colossians 2:1 - 3; Ephesians 3:14 - 17
I wish to speak this evening about Zion, desiring to show that it has relation to the hearts of God's people, that is, the people of God taken up in relation to God's sovereign ways, and to be employed in these ways. Zion represents also an abstract principle, but abstract principles are of little value to us unless we can see them worked out concretely; then they become practical and intelligible to us.
Zion, as spoken of in the passage read, is in connection with David, who is a type of Christ as personally attractive. In order to get possession of hearts, there must be personal attractiveness. Zion did not appear in connection with Moses. It is true that Moses spoke of the mountain of Jehovah's inheritance and of the place that He would build for Himself to dwell in, but a place that God loved remained for David to secure. It was mount Zion that He loved. And so, as I said, David appears as an attractive person. He is introduced to us in this way. He was an obscure person in the family -- little taken account of, but as appearing in the midst of his brethren, he was ruddy and of a beautiful countenance. It is he who slays the giant, and he becomes the centre of those who loved him. So that he gained hearts. Jonathan was drawn to him, the maids of Israel sang about him, and all Israel loved him. He was loveable. I say all this, because I have in mind, that, Zion in a practical way, refers to the hearts of God's people as secured by Christ. This, as we shall see, leads us to the greatest elevation, for Zion includes heavenly relationships and places.
No doubt in taking us up and winning our hearts, the Lord intends to link us up with heaven, so that
the full thought of Zion should come to light in a concrete way as the heavenly city comes out of heaven. It is the gates of Zion which God loves more than all the dwellings of Jacob. The heavenly city comes down from God out of heaven. It is, as it were, God's great masterpiece, the great predominating feature of a world under the supremacy of Christ. That is what it is. "Of him, and through him, and for him are all things" (Romans 11:36). The assembly is of Him. It comes down out of heaven from God, and glory shall be to Him, as it says, in the assembly in Christ Jesus through all generations of the ages of ages. You see this is what God has in His mind in taking up and gaining our hearts -- for that is the organ out of which are the issues of life. God is the living God, and whilst other organs are employed by the Spirit, the heart is that out of which are the issues of life -- morally the highest of organs. So that in Ephesians it is the eyes of the heart that are to be opened. Out of the heart are the issues of life and these issues become in their turn controlled by the Spirit of wisdom and revelation, and we know things. We know the hope of His calling and we know the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints, and we know the exceeding greatness of His power as shown in Christ.
Now David, as anointed by Israel, went to Jerusalem. You will remember that he is seen in three separate positions as the centre of gathering in the book of Chronicles; he is not seen as such in Jerusalem. In 1 Chronicles 12 he is seen at Ziklag, in the stronghold of the wilderness, and at Hebron. He is not seen at Jerusalem, as I have said, because Jerusalem refers to heavenly places. We do not gather there, we are quickened and raised up by divine power and set down there together. It is not a question of our gathering, but of God's power. I wish just for a moment to touch on Hebron because it
enters so much into what I have in mind. All the tribes came there. I want to say what an exercising point Hebron is. It was a tentative position. David had reigned in it seven years and six months. Things were in the balance during all these years. Seven is the usual period of complete exercise. It went six months beyond. Things were in the balance. Mighty forces were working to prevent the divine thought. It was a tentative period -- a testing time -- hence, necessarily, with a man like David who had learned to pray, it was a time of prayer.
It is to be noted that the myriads who came to David at Hebron are all counted by tribes, but no person is signalised there save two. The one was the prince of the Aaronites -- a man who had acquired fame amongst the priests; and then a young man called Zadok -- a valiant young man. It is as if in this time of testing, and waiting, and anxiety, prayer predominated. They were having to say to God, the matter was serious. And so it is that in the corresponding position in the New Testament, namely Colossians, the matter was serious. We have hardly anything like it, for it is not simply prayer with the apostle in regard to things, but combat. The matter was in the balance. He could say much of the Colossians and it was no small matter that Hebron had been reached, but Hebron is not Jerusalem, nor is Colossians Ephesians. Things were in the balance and so there was great combat, because of the opposition. As usual, Abner and Saul's servants were against David, even as mighty powers were operating to prevent the Colossian saints reaching the point that God had purposed for them. The apostle prays, "that their hearts may be encouraged". It is a collective idea -- "being united together in love".
You see there is no possible chance of a company of God's people reaching the purpose of God aside from encouraged hearts and the unity of love. He
goes on to say that all was "unto all riches of the full assurance of understanding, to the full knowledge of the mystery of God; in which are hid all the treasures of wisdom and of knowledge". He said this lest any man should deceive them. Then we find, besides the great apostle who, I suppose, may be regarded as the prince of the Aaronites -- a man who combated in prayer, there was another praying man, who was one of them. He was a valiant young man who was greatly concerned about his local brethren that they should stand perfect and complete in all the will of God. I mention all that because it is so important at the present time. Things are always in the balance in meetings. At the entrance of the wilderness, as the people typically received the Holy Spirit, Amalek attacked, and Joshua was taken up to defend the people of God. Satan was attacking through the flesh. The conflict depended on intercession, on the uplifted hands of Moses, supported by Aaron and Hur. Things were in the balance, all depending on intercession, as it is with young people after they have received the Spirit. It is an up and down experience when things are trembling in the balance. Will they go on in the full recognition of the Spirit, or come under the power of Satan? These are conditions that test us. At the outset of our journey, shall we recognise the Spirit fully, or retire in the flesh; shall Christ acquire the supreme place in our hearts? That is the point. And so you find in Romans God coming out to secure our hearts.
In the passage read in Romans 5 it is the love of God shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Spirit. That is the preliminary movement. It is, as it were, God seizing certain positions of advantage; much more is to follow, but God is seizing Zion, and He approaches it by the Spirit sent from heaven, who brings in the love of God; but that implies that the
heart is purified. If I look at the Lord's word in Mark 7:20 - 23, I shall learn what a terrible set of occupants there are in man's heart. The natural man's heart is occupied as a citadel by a legion of vicious tenants, but the gospel comes in to change the state of things there. It is the presentation of Christ. It is no gospel if it does not -present a Person. Paul says, that God revealed His Son in Him. The first thing is obedience, and so the gospel comes in with authority whilst presenting the Person of Christ in His attractiveness. It is Jesus Christ our Lord. The preacher is subject to that Lord; his heart is full of Him as the Son of God, He is his Lord, and he is manifestly subject to Christ, in preaching. Then he preaches the Son, and the hearer is obedient as he receives the gospel -- it is "God's glad tidings ... concerning His Son ... Jesus Christ our Lord" (Romans 1:1 - 4). He is presented as such for the heart. The most attractive object in the universe of God, is God's Son. He is the One that is preached, but He is our Lord, and so as one believes the gospel, even as Paul, he becomes subject. There is no hope without subjection. God can do nothing unless we are subject.
Subjection is the first great principle, and so the apostle says to the Romans, "Ye ... have obeyed from the heart the form of teaching" (Romans 6:17). There was authoritative teaching. The Romans had obeyed from their hearts, and the basis was laid in these hearts for God's operations. The Lord gives the Holy Spirit to those who obey. The Holy Spirit comes in consequent upon obedience, and then He sheds abroad the love of God. He brings in a holy power, as shedding abroad the love of God in our hearts; the legitimate result of that is, that we love God. And so all things work together for good to those who love God. As you begin to love God you say "Abba, Father", by the Spirit. The spirit of adoption comes into your heart whereby you cry "Abba Father". You are expressing
your love to God and God takes account of you in relation to His purpose. You are now ready to enter into Zion, so to speak. So that, as we love God, everything is in our favour, nothing can stand in the way. Everything that may have appeared to be against you is for you. And then it goes on to speak of those who are called. We are taken up on the line of purpose and brought into the place of purpose, that is, we are glorified. Colossians brings in another thing, and that is the opposition that sets in as you are heading in the right direction. Romans 8 shows us that we may fear nothing, but Colossians shows the exercises that belong to Hebron. It is the assembly militant in Colossians and Ephesians, and there is combat, so that we may not be deceived and led away as a prey by anyone.
Now you see that David had all these exercises for seven years and six months until all the tribes of Israel come and anoint him. When they come to do this, he and his men go to Jerusalem. I want to dwell on that, for I think it is a most interesting passage. It is particularly interesting to us because the first and second books of Samuel have to do with the present time and so you have a personal picture of David. Chronicles has to do with the purpose of God looking on to the future. In Chronicles we have Joab taking Zion and repairing the rest of the city, whereas the Spirit of God here limits Himself to David's action; and we would have it so, beloved. We would have all the work done by the Lord. It is His own work. The more we love Christ the more we delight in what He is doing. It is what Christ has wrought in me. The more we know the Lord the more we love Him -- the more we attribute everything to Him. So that David himself goes up and takes the citadel of Zion. I wonder if it is so with every one of us. He has taken possession of our hearts. It is not your yielding it up to Him. He takes it, and then it is
called the city of David. It was no mere name given, it was His own city; as is every true Christian who loves Christ. The Lord has taken possession, He dwells in our hearts by faith. But then certain ignominious things come to light. The inhabitants of the land put forth the blind and the lame. They not only inhabit Jerusalem, they are terrible beings -- audacious and impudent. Where do the blind and lame come from save from the universal lords of this darkness. Satan, the god of this world, has blinded the eyes of the unbelieving. They may think themselves stalwart men, but they are blind, and of what value are they? What can they do in the presence of Christ? He has annulled the power of Satan. Satan knows it. He cannot face Christ.
In Romans we have the armour of light -- it refers to what we know, but the armour of light is not enough to meet the Jebusites with, we need the armour of God. And so these blind and lame are descriptive of the universal lords of this darkness, whether they be moralists or fundamentalists. If it be a question of mere power or human culture it is only blindness, "But if blind lead blind, both will fall into a ditch" (Matthew 15:14). What can an army of blind and lame men do against the great military leader who has never lost a battle? What can they do? He hated them, and so does the Lord hate current sceptical opposition -- blindness and lameness -- and they have no place in the house of God. The Colossians were in danger of bringing them into the house; of admitting human ability, sheer blindness and lameness. They have no place in the house. They are hated of David's soul.
David took the city and he built round about the rampart and inward. There is nothing said about the outer city; that, I suppose, refers to the future, what shall be done by and by when the Lord Jesus takes up His position on the earth; but the building
now is inward. That, dear brethren, is what I want to dwell on for a moment. The Lord takes the hearts of His people and then He operates there. The love of God is already there, for the Lord will never have an entrance save as the love of God comes in first. In Ephesians the great thing in the first chapter is the eyes of the heart, that everything may be clearly seen that relates to God. The whole domain from God's point of view should be seen. Then in chapter 3, that there should be power within being strengthened by His Spirit in the inner man. That is to say, the operations are inward. They are not yet outward. Much is said about transactions in the East, but God is not operating there. It is only a waste of time to be occupied with it. What is going on now is the work of David and it is inward work, not outward.
What is the sphere of divine operation at the present time? We must get our bearings in that relation. God is operating in the hearts of men in relation to His eternal purpose and that is the idea of Zion. He is taking us up in relation to His eternal purpose. The outward thing shall be brought in by and by. It is His inward work that we should have our eyes on. It is a private matter. We must be content with privacy, and not with publicity. I am not disregarding the testimony in connection with reproach, but there is no reproach in the heavenly city. It conforms to divine measurements in every way and it meets human need, and human blessing is provided for when it comes out publicly. As the Lord sat up in the mount of Olives His disciples came to Him privately. Joab built the outer city according to Chronicles. David built the inner city, and this refers to the present time when Christ garrisons our hearts in order that there should be liberty for Him to dwell there; not only come there, but dwell there. This necessitates full military protection. The use of military and naval power is
to secure living conditions in a country. Primarily there should be no thought of going to war save to secure certain living conditions for the people, so that men may enjoy their property without violence. And so David is seen here securing things by building the citadel. The heart is secured. "The peace of God ... shall guard your hearts and your thoughts by Christ Jesus" (Philippians 4:7). An undisturbed heart garrisoned by divine power is the place where divine operations go on undisturbed. It is now the period of faith, so that this chapter in 2 Samuel has to do with the present time. The future is in Chronicles and will come, but David is operating in our hearts inwardly in order that He may have a dwelling place here. Later, when the ark was brought into Zion, David ministered "to every one of Israel, both man and woman, to every one a loaf of bread and a measure of wine and a raisin cake" (1 Chronicles 16:3). The idea in that is the expression of the dispensation, and that would, I understand, be the gates of Zion which God loves. He loves the people secured for His own purpose of love.
May the Lord help us on this line. I hope you will follow the thought that Zion, while it is an abstract principle conveying the sovereignty of God, for He has chosen mount Zion and He loved it, yet it is to be seen in the saints now, and its principles expressed now. "God loves a cheerful giver" (2 Corinthians 9:7). That is a concrete example of what it means.
Hebrews 4:12; 1 Peter 1:23; Luke 8:19
In considering what might be particularly helpful at this time the subject of the word of God came forcibly into my mind. It is, of course, much wider in its bearing than can be treated of in one short address, for we are told that it was in action as the worlds were formed. It is said that "By faith we apprehend that the worlds were framed by the word of God" (Hebrews 11:3). According to another scripture, "He spoke, and it was done; he commanded, and it stood fast" (Psalm 33:9). That speaking would convey all the wisdom needed for the framing or building of this great universe which is before our eyes. What God spoke at that time conveyed the wisdom needed, not yet indeed "the all-various wisdom", but nevertheless the wisdom that was needed. And the more we look at the worlds as they appear to us the more marvellous they become as the outcome of that wisdom, of that "knowledge, too wonderful" for us, by which they were brought into their present being.
It is said indeed in Proverbs that wisdom itself was there. No doubt this looked on to Christ, for it is said, By whom also He made the worlds. Indeed they were made by Christ, as it is further said, By Him all things were made and not one thing that was made was made without Him; John 1:3. So that the word of God was then active; as I said, He spoke and it was done. I do not suppose there was any opposition, but He spoke and it was done, and then what was done by the speaking was held fast by the commandment. He commanded and it stood fast. So that all that we see, beloved friends, the marvellous phenomena before our eyes, is the outcome of the divine word and the divine fiat by which it is held, and by which it continues for the will of God.
Every part of it is for the will of God and is to express in so far as it may, what He is; for, it is said, that the invisible things of Him are clearly seen in the things that are made, even His eternal power and divinity. Thus the testimony of the eternal power and divinity of God stood before men's eyes from the outset. And not only that, but He never left Himself, it says, without a witness, so that His goodness appeared in that part of the universe which was man's immediate environment, for He gave in that environment rain from heaven and fruitful seasons filling men's hearts with food and gladness. The word of God enters into all that. It is indeed presently operative in that very connection, for it is said that He upholds all things by the word of His power, and that is how matters stand. People speak of nature, and what nature accomplishes. There is such a thing as nature, of course, but man substitutes the word 'nature' for God, which God resents. What we see, beloved friends, before our eyes is God. The creation was not, as it were, something thrown out to work itself out. God is behind it in every detail. Even in the growth of the blade of corn, of the seed put in the ground, it says, "God gives it a body;" God is in everything. As the apostle Paul says, He is not far from everyone of us, for in Him we all live and move and have our being. How real it is, beloved friends, even this physical system with which we have to do, how real it is that it is God's, that it is upheld by God, and that the energy of life in it is directed from God! So that we have, as I said, our hearts filled with food and gladness.
But then, I want to speak on the word as it applies to us. It is one thing to have it applicable to inanimate things, and another to have it operative in animate things or persons, and not only animate but intelligent, for God made man thus. As the apostle says again, speaking of the Athenians,
"As also some of the poets amongst you have said, For we are also his offspring ... we ought not to think that which is divine to be like gold or silver or stone, the graven form of man's art and imagination" (Acts 17:28, 29). The wonderful fact comes out that man, as he is, was made in the image and likeness of God, and although Satan has succeeded in belying God in men's minds, and misrepresenting Him so that they have been turned away and have eliminated Him from their knowledge, God has not given them up. He has come in, beloved friends, in grace. Christ is designated the Word. "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God" (John 1:1). Let no man deny it. And then it says, "The Word became flesh, and dwelt among us" (verse 14) The Word! He came in here amongst us. He dwelt amongst us. So that God came in in One who could convey his mind to men. Even as to those who shall be on the earth in a later day -- the millennial days -- He will write his laws in their hearts and in their minds, so that no one shall say, Know the Lord, for all shall know Him from the least to the greatest. He intends to be known.
And so the Word, beloved friends, became flesh. That is to say, we have a divine Person incarnate here and dwelling among men, as it says, He "dwelt among us". Marvellous fact to take into account. It is said that He dwelt literally in Capernaum. Were you to live next door to that blessed One and you met Him casually what would He say to you? He would bring in God, beloved friends. He would speak about God. Alas, a deaf ear was turned to Him, for He says, "No one receives our witness", nevertheless, He spoke that He knew and testified to what He had seen. "If I have said the earthly things to you, and ye believe not, how, if I say the heavenly things to you, will ye believe? And no one has gone up into heaven, save he who came down from heaven, the Son of man who is in heaven" (John 3:12, 13).
He was perfectly competent as here amongst men to speak of God. As He says, We speak that we do know, and we testify what we have seen. He came in here as the Word.
I want now to show, a little from the passage in Hebrews the character of the word of God. The passage runs on from one that is very solemn, where it is said that we should not do as the Israelites did, many of them falling in the wilderness from "not hearkening to the word". We have had the word presented to us and God holds us accountable for what we have heard. And so He urges the danger of a heart hardened by unbelief. And what is the nature of the unbelief? Not hearkening to the word. It is a most serious thing, beloved friends, to have the word of God brought to us and we have not hearkened to it. What God looks for is "an honest and good heart". If I find people sceptical and questioning and without intelligence in the things of God I know the secret of that. I know there is a want of honesty; you may rely on it. They may appear to be sincere, ever learning but never coming to a knowledge of the truth. An honest and a good heart. What marks that here? It hears the word of God. It understands the word of God, and it brings forth fruit, as the Lord says in Mark, thirty, sixty and an hundredfold. That is what it does.
The writer of this epistle points out that the Hebrew Christians had a wonderful ministry -- they had the ministry of the twelve and others, but they were drawing back -- they were in danger of falling in the wilderness like their forefathers because of unbelief, and that unbelief lay in not hearkening to the word of God. And so he proceeds to tell us what the word of God is. He says it "is living and operative". It is a living word. Hebrews is one of the passages marked by the use of this word -- living. We have the living God, and the living word, the
living way, etc. All is living and operative. The word operates. It is not quiescent. And then he goes on to say, It penetrates to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit.
It is well, beloved friends, that we should face this matter. If we examine our exercises and thoughts we shall find it extremely difficult to discern which is from the soul and which is from the spirit. The word of God determines for you what actuates you. Actions lie before us, and as those who have heard the word of God we are bound to face it in regard to what is before us, and we want to be sure whence the motives proceed when they actuate us in what we are to do. Am I governed by my soul, or am I governed by my spirit? If I am governed by my soul merely in what I am doing I am sure to go wrong, and hence the great importance of determining as before God, whence the motives spring that are actuating me. Do they spring from my soul, the seat of my lower affections, or from my spirit? If I consult my spirit I have a higher intelligence. I am on a higher level. My spirit is that which connects me directly with God, for God gave me that. Every one of us has received his spirit from God. It is not a mere matter of nature. It is a matter from God. God has given it to us. God is the Father of spirits. He has given us that whereby we are in direct relation with Himself, and the word of God enables me to determine whence my motives spring. It penetrates to the dividing asunder between soul and spirit. And then it says, "both of joints and marrow". Here I come to the body. If I think of my joints it is a question of my movements. If I think of the marrow it is that which inwardly is the source of power. The word of God thus enables us to distinguish and be perfectly intelligent in what we are doing.
Then the passage goes on to say, "And there is not
a creature unapparent before him". Now we come to God Himself, for the word of God is no less than Himself. We are having to do with God in it. So it goes on to say, "But all things are naked and laid bare to his eyes, with whom we have to do". We may as well face things now, as later, beloved friends; face them we shall have to. It is a question of God, and He has given us this wonderful weapon so that we may use it and be perfectly sure in His presence as to what we are doing, and as to where we are going. And as we are thus manifest consciously before Him by the word, the judgment seat is already anticipated, for this is no less than that we are having to do with God and every motive is laid bare. The judgment seat of God before which we all have to stand is thus anticipated.
I want to go on to Peter to show you how this affects us. I mean the result. Peter speaks of being born, not exactly of God, although, of course, it is of God; not exactly by the Spirit as in John 3, but by the word of God. I want to dwell for a moment just on that. I want to lead on to the family. Peter speaks of the believer as being born again not of corruptible seed but of the incorruptible seed of the living and abiding word of God. I want you beloved brethren, to take this in. I want to convey to you if I can, how that our new birth involves intelligence, not simply by way of education but as that which is inherent in our nature. I take it that in John 3, born anew by the Spirit implies instincts. A child newly born has instincts, not yet intelligence exactly. The instincts are there as the result of the initial operation of God in us. Nicodemus, the enquiring man, said to the Lord, How can these things be? And the Lord says, "Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except any one be born anew he cannot see the kingdom of God" (John 3:3). And then again, he says, "Verily, verily, I say unto thee, except any one be born of water
and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God" (verse 5).PRESENT REST FOR THE SAINTS
And see! the Spirit's power
Has ope'd the heavenly door,
Has brought us to that favoured hour
When toil shall all be o'er. (Hymn 74)THE PURPOSE OF GOD AND THE BIRTHRIGHT
THE WORD OF CHRIST
MY SERVANT
SPIRITUAL ELEVATION
ELIHU'S SERMON
A MAN'S HAND
LOVE BEGOTTEN IN US
WISDOM'S CHILDREN
BROTHERLY TRAITS
TWO OF YOU
ZION
THE WORD OF GOD