Matthew 21:1 - 5; Mark 11:1 - 8; Luke 19:29 - 44
I desire to refer to this incident of the Lord riding into Jerusalem, in connection with the way that it is presented in these three gospels. It is referred to in John's gospel also, where it is said that the Lord, when He had found the ass, sat thereon (chapter 12: 14). We do not get great detail in that gospel, nor do we get the commission of the two disciples to bring the ass; but the incident is mentioned. It is one of the few incidents that are mentioned in all four gospels, so that evidently a special importance attaches to it; but in the first three gospels we find that the Lord indicates that He had need of the colt. The Lord had need of them in Matthew, and the Lord had need of it in Mark and Luke, and one would desire to impress upon every believer (for there is no doubt that the colt is a picture of the believer) that the Lord has need of every one of His own in connection with the testimony in this world.
One would like to convey the sense that the Lord has need of each one of us, in view of a definite purpose, that we should be wholly at His disposal in connection with the testimony of His name in some particular aspect in this world from which He has been cast out. The Lord was about to ride into Jerusalem with the full knowledge that He would be crucified; the position was well known to the Lord; He had often spoken of it to His disciples, and if we as in the world become increasingly conscious of the
rejection of Christ, as Scripture says, "cast away as worthless" by men (1 Peter 2:7), we may rest assured that the position is well known to the Lord. He has known about it, and taken account of it from the very outset. The Lord has need of me! In the spiritual history of each one of us it was the other way round first -- we had need of the Lord, but there comes a moment when the Lord would impress upon us that He has need of us.
In Matthew's gospel, what is in view, in connection with the Lord having need of His people, is the truth of the assembly (the church of God), for Matthew's gospel presents that; it is the gospel that supports the apostle Paul's ministry in connection with the truth of the assembly, and it is a great thing to get the sense that the Lord has need of us in a living way, in connection with that which He calls "my assembly" (chapter 16: 18). "On this rock", He said to Peter, "I will build my assembly, and hades' gates shall not prevail against it". That is to say, the Lord has, down here, in the presence of the concentrated forces of evil and opposition to the truth, that which He speaks of as "my assembly", that which will prove invulnerable. What a privilege, that every one of us may have a living part in that! The Lord looks down with peculiar and affectionate interest on that which He regards as "my assembly", as a result of the work of God, that which He supports and trusts to stand invulnerable by His grace, against every attack on the truth. For this, at least two are needed, and that is why, in Matthew's gospel, you get an ass,
and a colt the foal of an ass. It contemplates at least two moving together in oneness of mind and oneness of interest.
A feature of these days in which we live is that the Lord has set His people together, though we reach the position through being exercised individually to withdraw from iniquity, and follow righteousness, faith, love, and peace. We do it "with those that call upon the Lord out of a pure heart" (2 Timothy 2:22), and the individual exercise as to with-drawing from what is contrary to God is the way the Lord has used to set His people, as thus exercised, together. But what is to govern them as set together? Surely, the light of the assembly. If saints disregard the light of the assembly they are not following righteousness. Nothing can regulate the saints of God as moving together but the light of the assembly. While in no wise arrogating anything to ourselves, it is the privilege of the saints of God as set, and moving, together to come into the light of the assembly. In spite of all that has come in, the assembly is still here, and hades' gates cannot pre-vail against it; and the Lord has need of you and me, and each one who hears His voice, in order that the truth of the assembly may be maintained in a living way.
With that in view, the Lord introduces teaching in Matthew, for we need teaching. You will remember that in chapter 5 it says that the Lord Jesus went up into a mountain and sat down and His disciples came to Him, and He opened His mouth
and taught them (verses 1, 2). That is to say, the Lord is on high. He withdrew Himself from the plain and went up into a mountain, as if to show He would not be within the reach of those who were unexercised; but that every exercised soul should reach Him. A certain amount of exercise was called for, if they were to receive the teaching He was ready to give, and the teaching had in view the formation of material for the assembly, so that we need, individually, to come under the Lord's teaching, under His subduing influence, if we are to fit effectively into the assembly.
"Having opened his mouth, he taught them, saying, Blessed are the poor in spirit" (verses 2, 3), a remarkable thing with which to start His teaching, as if He would indicate, at the outset, that if we are to be suitable representatives of Him, and to have a part in the assembly, we must be prepared to accept that the assembly is formed of men who are of a different kind of spirit from that which marks us naturally; so the teaching necessitates we should have to do with the Lord. All He said and set before them really proceeded from what He was Himself. He said, "Blessed are the poor in spirit", etc. I cannot go into all the detail of this valuable section (Matthew 5 - 7); I would commend it to each one individually. If we would be formed so as to fit effectively into the assembly here, we must come under the teaching and subduing influence of the Lord Jesus Christ Himself.
You will find the Lord indicates a completely
different line of things. He says, "Ye have heard that it has been said ... but I say unto you" (Matthew 5:43, 44). We must be prepared to let our own thoughts go, to disregard the thoughts of men in the world, and to be formed by that which the Lord has to say to us. What comes into evidence here is that there are two, "an ass tied, and a colt with it", and the Lord has need of both, suggesting old and young believers together, and that both are needed in the assembly. The old are needed with their experience of God, and the young with freshness of life. It is inconceivable that this ass should despise the colt. It is inconceivable that this colt would be insubject to the ass. They were moving together, and the Lord had need of them both.
How good it is to see old and young saints together in a company, rejoicing together that the Lord has need of them all; so that there should be with the old a care for the young, and with the young a respect for the old, the subjection to the old which Scripture enforces, for if these things are not in evidence it will seriously affect the testimony here for God. All this was done that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the prophet, saying, "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". If the King is meek, how essential it is that all of us should be meek! The One who is supreme, who was unique in His dignity, bore this character of meekness, and He intends that that character should be impressed upon His own as
in the assembly. In chapter 11 the Lord invites them to "Come to me ... and learn from me; for I am meek and lowly in heart" (verses 28, 29).
A meek person is one who does not assert his own rights, and that shows that he knows and trusts God, and is leaving his rights with God. It was seen in the Lord pre-eminently. He says, "Come to me", and "learn from me". If there is any assertion of our own wills, or our own rights, in that measure the light as to God is beclouded. The assertion of one man's will or rights against another's in the assembly is a sad blot upon the company.
So the apostle, in writing to the Corinthians (who were far from answering to God's mind as an assembly of God) says, "I myself Paul, entreat you by the meekness and gentleness of the Christ" (2 Corinthians 10:1). I myself, Paul, entreat you by it -- as if to remind them that the meekness and gentleness of Christ was not an abstract idea, but had been exemplified before them in a living man like Paul. If God is to be seen in the assembly, if the enemy is to be powerless to introduce any thing of man there, it is essential that we should be formed after Christ.
Paul in his first epistle says he sends Timotheus "who shall put you in mind of my ways as they are in Christ" (1 Corinthians 4:17). Timotheus answers to the foal of the ass. Paul had laboured in the assemblies, but he had a brother, one formed after himself, and he could send him to Corinth to emphasise that particular feature -- his ways "as they are in Christ" -- in order that they might be reproduced in Corinth.
I pass on to Mark's gospel, and there, what is in view is the ministry, the service, and hence the Lord claims a colt: "ye will find a colt tied". "They departed, and found a colt bound to the door". Here it is a colt, suggesting especially those who are young, for the Lord would put in a claim to us while we are young, though I do not want to exclude anyone who is older. If anyone has grown older without responding to the Lord's claims, by all means let him answer to them now, but it is a colt here, suggesting that the Lord desires to secure us while we are young.
This colt was one "upon which no child of man has ever sat", and it was tied, suggesting very touchingly what is true of many of our young brothers and sisters. In the mercy of God they have been "tied", held available for the Lord -- but perhaps they have never yet recognised, definitely and absolutely that the Lord has need of them in regard of His testimony here. We cannot remain all our days in a neutral position. If we do not recognise the Lord's rights to have us absolutely, we are in danger of being claimed by that which is opposed to Christ, and so He would put in His claim early. "The Lord has need of it".
The question may be raised as to what is in view. Read verses 3 - 6. "And they led the colt to Jesus". The colt does nothing but move in such a way that Christ is brought into evidence; he is entirely at the command of the Lord. What a support for the testimony that would be! How essential that there should
be this living support of the testimony! The gospel must indeed be preached, but let the preaching be supported, let the power of the preaching be seen in that we are marked by that which is different from what would characterise us naturally.
If we refer to Philippians we see that we must be concerned as to this all through our lives. From Rome the apostle tells them that they have had "fellowship with the gospel, from the first day until now" (chapter 1: 5). Here we have an evangelical company in real sympathy with the gospel. "Because to you it has been given, as regards Christ, not only the believing on him but the suffering for him also" (chapter 1: 29, 30) -- it was not simply a matter of preaching with the Philippians. They were wholly committed to the name of the Lord Jesus, and prepared to suffer, if needs be, for His name. In writing to them, the apostle shows how much he himself was developed on the line indicated in this colt. He had been a man active in service, and faithful to the Lord in it above all others, but at the end of his days we find him shut up in prison, and certain brethren outside thinking to add tribulation to his bonds: "Some indeed also for envy and strife ... preach the Christ" (chapter 1: 15), preaching a popular gospel of which Paul would not approve.
How does Paul take it? Is he repining because he is cut off from active service? He shows what was the secret of his life -- "according to my earnest expectation and hope, that in nothing I shall be ashamed, but in all boldness, as always, now also
Christ shall be magnified in my body whether by life or by death" (chapter 1: 20) -- he shows that it had been his motive all the way through, that Christ should be magnified in his body, that his movements should be such as would bring Christ into evidence. What a support for the gospel that one who, in his young days, was known as an insolent overbearing man and a persecutor, should be moving in all kinds of circumstances and in such a way that Christ came into evidence. Who could deny the reality and power of a gospel that could transform such a man so that Christ was magnified in all his movements?
That is what is in view in this colt. (Read Mark 11:7 - 9). All that would appear great in the eyes of man was cast down in order that Christ alone should move in triumph before them. Paul says, he was a "Hebrew of the Hebrews; as to the law, a Pharisee", etc. He goes over all the garments he had worn at one time and says, "what things were gain to me these I counted, on account of Christ, loss" (Philippians 3:5 - 7). So you can see how he cast his garments down. He laid aside everything that would have lent distinction to himself, in order that Christ alone should come into evidence. "But if also I am poured out as a libation on the sacrifice and ministration of your faith, I rejoice, and rejoice in common with you all" (Philippians 2:17), as if to say, 'If it is needful that I should go the whole length of being poured out in death as an offering, I am content'. In that way he was brought into complete correspondence to Christ as one who was wholly yielded up to God, in spite
of what it involved for himself. You see him, not repining that he could no longer serve publicly, but showing that the motive power of his life and service had been that Christ should be brought into evidence, and he would close his days in the glad acceptance of the will of God for him, because, in that spirit, Christ was expressed.
I pass on to Luke's gospel. The account in Luke leads up to that which is priestly in character. Luke's gospel always has what is priestly in view, and so we find, following on this incident in Luke, that the whole multitude of the disciples began to rejoice and praise God with a loud voice. On the other hand, we find the Lord beholding the city and weeping over it. Priestly movements Godward are in evidence and priestly sympathies in regard of the actual condition of things down here.
In regard of priestly movements Godward, the colt was needed by the Lord and was brought to Him. Have we the power to have part in priestly movements for the pleasure of God, in presence of that which does not outwardly suggest the triumph of what is of God? The secret is whether we are with Christ. They brought the colt to Jesus. If we come to the Lord, we shall be in the secret of what God has secured in Christ, though we shall be greatly affected by the increasing evil and corruption around. Here was nothing outwardly to suggest any great power or triumph. There was no outward accompaniment of power, the atmosphere around was murderous, and Jesus Himself was about to be
crucified, and yet in these conditions, "all the multitude of the disciples began, rejoicing, to praise God with a loud voice for all the works of power which they had seen, saying, Blessed the King that comes in the name of the Lord: peace in heaven, and glory in the highest". It suggests an appreciation of Christ at the present time. In view of the conditions around, it is only as we are near the Lord that we can be maintained, and thus have part in priestly service Godward.
This gospel presents the Lord as, "The Christ of God" (chapter 9:20). You remember when He was brought as a child into the temple at Jerusalem, Simeon was there, and it had been revealed to him, by the Spirit, that he should not see death until he had seen the Lord's Christ. It says, "he [Simeon] came in the Spirit into the temple; and as the parents brought in the child Jesus ... he received him into his arms, and blessed God" (chapter 2: 27, 28); but what was it that he took up in his arms? On the one hand it was the Christ of God, and on the other hand it was a Babe, in all the outward circumstances of littleness and weakness, brought up by parents who were so poor that they could not offer the normal sacrifice the law demanded, but had to bring two turtledoves, or two young pigeons.
The Lord was there in circumstances of littleness and weakness, but Simeon was there in the Spirit. Was he affected by the outward conditions of littleness and weakness and poverty? No; being a man in the Spirit, and in the apprehension of the
Christ of God, he saw how, in Him, God would secure for His pleasure all that His heart had purposed from eternity.
What are outward conditions if we are in the light of the One who has gone up far above all heavens that He might fill all things; and the One in whom the holy and blessed purposes of a God of infinite love and wisdom are secured, and which are about to be brought in? What matters it if the conditions outwardly are those of extreme weakness and littleness and poverty? If we are marked by the features of the Spirit, as was Simeon, we shall find our souls will be preserved in the light of all that God has secured in Christ, the Christ of God. Think of God in His own blessedness and greatness conceiving thoughts of love which only the divine mind could conceive, and only divine wisdom and power could bring to pass, and how all these thoughts involved the necessity of the Lord Jesus Christ coming into Manhood. He is the Christ of God, the One whom God has anointed for the bringing in of all His pleasure, and those who are in the Spirit appreciate the Christ of God; so if there is nothing but dishonour here, we can look up to where Christ is.
It is our privilege, as having to do with the Lord, as brought to Him, and as giving place to the Spirit, to have part in the response down here in praising God for all the blessedness that is set before us in Christ -- praising God in the midst of a scene of darkness and barrenness and departure from Him. On the other hand, there are priestly feelings and
sympathies. He wept over the city. The city of Jerusalem was that with which God had outwardly connected His name, but its condition was such as made the Lord Jesus weep. How much are we marked by these priestly feelings that feel the condition of all that which professes the name of Christ? It is a complete denial of the truth of God, as it was in the days of the Lord. He beheld the city and wept over it. If we, like this colt, have been brought to Jesus, we shall not be carried away by what men think, but shall regard things in relation to Christ.
The truth as to Christ is increasingly being given up, so that ultimately there will be no place for Him at all, and it says, "And as he drew near, seeing the city, he wept over it". You may be sure that those feelings of sorrow, in regard of that which God had carefully tended for so many years, were grateful to the heart of God; so will our sorrows be. One feels how small one is, but the Lord would develop in us spiritual sorrows that would take account of the actual condition of that which is so entirely heartless as to God.
The Lord is looking for us to be entirely apart from this world, and all that is connected with it. He has interests that are enough to engage the time and attention of every one of His people. He has interests in the assembly, and in the testimony of the gospel, not simply in word but in life, in order that what is priestly and for the pleasure of God may not lapse, but may be sustained even though the world around, and its religion, are fast sinking into absolute death
and barrenness. We shall be secured for the Lord as we are brought to Him. These things are not gained by reading, or hearing addresses. It is of the utmost importance that each one of us should cultivate personal nearness to the Lord. Whatever difficulties you may have, they will be effectually solved, little by little, as you cultivate nearness to the Lord. The Lord is tender and gracious and He will delight to encourage you more and more.
"The Lord hath need of them", pages 1 - 13.
2 Chronicles 5:7 - 14; 2 Chronicles 7:7; 2 Chronicles 9:1 - 9
In bringing these scriptures before you, my desire is that the glories of the Person who is the Spirit of all the Old Testament may shine upon our hearts. I know it is only as our eyes are anointed with the Spirit's unction that we can discern the glories of that Person, but I trust that each one here has received the anointing which teaches us to abide in Christ and to find everything in Him. He is here presented, in type and figure, as the One who fills the oracle, the altar, and the throne.
For more than a hundred years the oracle had been empty; or perhaps it would be more correct to say that there had been no oracle at all, for when the ark was taken by the Philistines (1 Samuel 4:17), God "forsook the tabernacle at Shiloh, the tent where he had dwelt among men" (Psalm 78:60). There was no
spot upon earth where God could rest -- where His glory could dwell -- and from which He could make Himself known, and communicate His mind. The whole order of things connected with Sinai had come to grief; the [tabernacle] system which was set up in connection with the responsibility of man, and whose blessings depended upon the way in which that responsibility was discharged, had ended in total failure. But God had begun a new order of things in connection with David and Zion, in which the source and spring of everything was grace. The great characteristic of grace is that it brings in what is of God; and everything depends on God, and therefore there is no flaw in it. To be established with grace, is to have the heart brought into a circle of things which is entirely filled with perfection -- that is, with Christ.
Here we get the oracle restored. The glory, which departed when Ichabod was born (1 Samuel 4:21), comes back. But when? When the ark of the covenant was brought into "its place, into the oracle of the house, into the most holy place". When the priests had retired, and the ark alone remained in the holy of holies, the house was filled with the cloud of glory. That glory which greeted the ark to its place in the oracle of the house, was a glory which excluded man in the flesh. The place was found at last concerning which faith could say, "Arise, Jehovah, into thy rest, thou and the ark of thy strength"; and concerning which Jehovah could say, "This is my rest for ever; here will I dwell, for I have
desired it" (Psalm 132:8, 14) -- a place where every perfection of God's nature, and every attribute of His Being, could repose in profound satisfaction, and from whence He could make Himself known, and communicate His mind and pleasure. But what occupied that holy oracle? The ark of the covenant alone. It was the presence of the ark, and the absence of everything else, which made that holy oracle a resting-place for the divine glory. Take away the ark, and you might write Ichabod on Solomon's splendid sanctuary as plainly as it was written on the deserted tent of Shiloh. Introduce any other person, and that glory must necessarily have proved his destruction. The ark alone could fill that holy oracle, and make it the resting-place of the Shekinah.
What does this present to our hearts, my brethren? Does it not remind us of what we surely desire never to forget -- that there has been but one Person on earth in whom the glory of God could find its rest? God created man for His own satisfaction, but from Genesis 3 Ichabod was written on Adam and his race, and there was no place of rest or satisfaction for God in man or in man's world. The oracle was empty; the glory was departed. But God never gives up one of His thoughts, and in due time He brought One into the world who could fill the oracle with perfection, and make a home on earth for the glory of God.
I have no doubt you have often lingered over the wondrous scene which is brought before us in Luke 2. The birth of that holy Child who was "called Son
of God" (Luke 1:35) brought perfection into this world for the first time since the fall, and at once we have "the glory of the Lord" greeting Him, and the heavenly host sounding forth the blessed fact that there was "Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good pleasure in men" (chapter 2: 14). It was, in truth, the bringing in of the ark "to its place, into the oracle of the house". The natural eye could see nothing there but a babe whose nativity was en-circled by circumstances of unparalleled lowliness; but the presence of that Babe on earth made a home here for the glory of God. His presence was the pledge that every desire of God's heart as to man should have its perfect answer. For God and for heaven -- and, we may add, for faith -- the true Ark of the covenant was at Bethlehem; there was the oracle, and there appeared the glory-cloud.
Now let us pass for a moment from Bethlehem to Bethany, Luke 3:21, 22. The time had come for that blessed One to take His place amongst men as the Vessel of grace, and God would not suffer Him to enter on His ministry without a further and glorious testimony to His Person. The Ark is again seen in "its place" in "the oracle of the house". The opened heaven, the descending Spirit, the Father's voice, unite to proclaim Him as the Object of God's delight and love, and the place of God's rest. There was perfection in this world in a Man, and the glory of God could find its perfect satisfaction and rest in Him.
Before His service began, His personal perfections were a place of rest for the divine glory.
Notice the words, "There was nothing in the ark save the two tables which Moses put there at Horeb" (2 Chronicles 5:10). At other times there had also been the priestly rod that budded, and the golden pot of manna. These things indicated what Christ is in priestly grace and service, and as food to sustain His people. But here it is not what He is in grace or service for His people, but what He is in His personal perfection for God -- the One who could say, "Behold, I come, in the volume of the book it is written of me -- to do thy good pleasure, my God, is my delight, and thy law is within my heart" (Psalm 40:7, 8).
Then if we move onward to the holy mount (Luke 9:28 - 36) we find Him at the end of that day of service which began at Bethany. The only thing remaining for Him on earth was the decease to be accomplished at Jerusalem, which formed the theme of holy converse on that mount of glory. And here again we find the Ark filling His place in the oracle, and the glory resting there. It may be said, and rightly so, that Moses and Elias appeared in glory as well as Jesus. But how instructive to observe that when Peter would have regarded and retained them all in equal honour, it is expressly told us by the Spirit that he knew not what he said; and immediately thereupon the cloud of "excellent glory" (2 Peter 1:17) appeared -- the same cloud as of old filled the house of Jehovah -- and that glory would own and greet but One. "There was a voice out of the cloud, saying, This is my beloved Son: hear him.
And as the voice was heard Jesus was found alone".
In connection with that word, "hear him", I think we get the thought of the Oracle. The One in whom God can rest is the One who can make known all His mind. God said to Moses concerning the Ark, "there will I meet with thee, and will speak with thee" (Exodus 25:22). "God having spoken in many parts and in many ways formerly to the fathers in the prophets, at the end of these days has spoken to us in the person of the Son" (Hebrews 1:1, 2). God has been perfectly declared in this world, and all His mind expressed there, in and by that blessed One; He has filled the oracle.
One lovely touch must not be passed over. "And the staves were long, so that the ends of the staves were seen outside the ark before the oracle; but they were not seen without" (2 Chronicles 5:9). The staves were that by which the ark was carried, and I think God would remind us thereby that the One who filled the oracle, and in whom all His glory found its perfect satisfaction, was carried along in perfect dependence at every step. If we think of Him at Bethlehem we are reminded of His words by the prophetic Spirit, "thou didst make me trust, upon my mother's breasts. I was cast upon thee from the womb" (Psalm 22:9, 10). If we look at Him at Jordan we find Him praying. If we view Him on the holy mount He is praying there. We see "the ends of the staves", but we must be near Him in the sanctuary to understand this, and to know how perfectly He kept the place of the dependent One -- "they were not
We noticed that the glory which greeted the ark excluded everybody from the sanctuary. If God can rest in the perfections of Christ He must refuse everything that is not Christ. If this be so, a solemn and deeply important question arises at once. It is this: if God has brought in perfection for His own heart in Christ, how can all our imperfection be dealt with and removed according to His glory, so as to leave Him free to bless us according to the perfection of Christ? That question can only be answered -- thank God! it is answered perfectly -- by the altar. If Christ, in His holy life as Man upon the earth, filled the oracle, in His sufferings and death He has also filled the altar.
Before I touch upon what is specially brought before us in 2 Chronicles 7 in connection with the altar, I am constrained to say a few words on what may be called our side of the work of the cross. Perhaps I am speaking to some timid and doubting soul who has never known what it was to have divine peace. It may be you have analysed your feelings and reviewed your experience again and again with the greatest earnestness and sincerity, but you have never been able to find in yourself any evidence or token that would impart the longed-for peace. You have been looking altogether in the wrong direction. The Spirit of God, who has made you anxious, would now turn your eyes away from yourself, and even from His operations in you, to the work of Christ for you. Let me read you some
precious words as to the object and efficacy of that work. "Who himself bore our sins in his body on the tree" (1 Peter 2:24). "Jesus our Lord, who has been delivered for our offences and has been raised for our justification" (Romans 4:24, 25). "Having made by himself the purification of sins, set himself down on the right hand of the greatness on high" (Hebrews 1:3). "But he, having offered one sacrifice for sins, sat down in perpetuity at the right hand of God, waiting from henceforth until his enemies be set for the footstool of his feet. For by one offering he has perfected in perpetuity the sanctified. And the Holy Spirit also bears us witness of it ... their sins and their lawlessnesses I will never remember any more" (Hebrews 10:12 - 17). The sins of all believers were remembered at the cross, and dealt with there in holy judgment according to the divine glory; and God has testified by His Spirit in the Scriptures that He will remember them no more. What a complete expiation. What perfect peace and assurance for the believer.
Then there is another who says, 'But my difficulty is not that. It is not what I have done that troubles me so much as what I am. All my efforts to improve myself have failed; and though I thought I was converted, I find myself as bad as ever, and I am disgusted with myself'. You are finding out what attaches to you as a child of Adam -- what it is to belong to a race that will not do for God; and you are discovering something of what "sin in the flesh" is, and of the nature of the "mind of the flesh"
which is "not subject to the law of God; for neither indeed can it be" (Romans 8:7). For you I will read Romans 8:3 -- "For what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God, having sent his own Son, in likeness of flesh of sin, and for sin, has condemned sin in the flesh". The thing which is, through grace, so trying and hateful to you is not less hateful to God; but it has received its full judgment at the cross. Sin in the flesh has received its just desert at the hand of God -- it has been "condemned". Sin, as well as sins -- the root as well as the fruit -- was brought before God at the cross, and there dealt with in unmitigated judgment. God has been as fully glorified about what you are as He has about what you have done. What a relief and joy to know this!
Ministry by C. A. Coates, Volume 14, pages 77 - 83. [1 of 2].
J. Taylor
Romans 9:23, 24; 2 Corinthians 8:23; Revelation 21:10, 11
I have in mind to speak about the saints as vessels of God's glory, and I have put these three passages together in order, by the Lord's help, to work this out, and first of all as regards the sovereignty of God in forming us.
The chapter in Romans from which I read speaks of God's sovereignty, and among other things Paul brings in this thought, that those whom God has called are vessels formed for glory; "vessels of
mercy ... prepared for glory". Wonderful thought for us! God, having had us in mind at the outset before His works of old, has in time formed us.
There was no clay out of which to form us when He predestined us, as we may say, for we were pre-destined before the world was, indeed, not only pre-destined but chosen in Christ before the world was. God, therefore, had us in His mind, and not only in His mind, but in His heart, for He chose us in love, "in the Beloved" (Ephesians 1:6). He had Christ in His mind, Christ as Man. He had in mind that the Son should become Man, and, as Man, should be known as "an only-begotten with a father" (John 1:14), and He had also in mind that there should be others. As it is said, "chosen us in him before the world's foundation" (Ephesians 1:4). All that was purpose, a word that we do well to receive into our souls. The purpose was there long before the material, of which our natural bodies are formed, existed.
As regards Adam, God took the dust of the ground and out of it formed the man. What handiwork, beloved friends, is seen there! The Potter! Nothing in all the realm of creation could be com-pared with the vessel thus formed. As one well instructed afterwards said, "fearfully, wonderfully made" (Psalm 139:14). The skill shown exceeds that shown in anything else. As we have often remarked, there was a divine consultation; "Let us make man in our image, after our likeness" (Genesis 1:26). We can well understand that divine skill would be called into action in view of the wonderful model, for man was
to be made after the image of God, and in the likeness of God.
The vessel was thus formed, and so, as formed, God "breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became", it says, "a living soul" (Genesis 2:7). He became that. So that in Adam thus formed (the word "formed" is used) and breathed into, we have a vessel divinely fitted. Now he was but a "figure", as we read in Romans 5, "of him to come" (verse 14). That is to say, he was the figure of Him who was to be the Head of a new race of men, and in connection with that I desired to just call attention to a passage in Isaiah, so that you may see how the thought runs in Scripture.
Isaiah speaks about One upon whom should "hang ... all the glory of his father's house" (Isaiah 22:24). That is to say, the house of Israel. One could not predicate that of Adam, for had you hung anything on him, down it would come with him. Indeed many things were hung on him, but he did not sustain them. Now of Christ it is said by the prophet, that upon Him should hang the glory of His Father's house. Indeed, as one might say, every divine thought introduced, involving glory, was hung on Christ. As we have had it today, "he shall bear the glory" (Zechariah 6:13). So that the glory of His Father's house hangs on Christ.
But then, not only that, all small vessels, it says, hang upon Him. However tiny you may be, and there are degrees of size, all vessels are to hang on Christ. You say, I am a tiny vessel, easily filled, but
if you are a vessel at all you must hang on Christ. Now is it so with you? However small you are, small vessels are said to hang on Him. Now is it so with your soul and mine? I refer to the spirit of dependence. If we are to be available as vessels we must be found, as it were, hanging there. I have no doubt that the reference to vessels to honour in 2 Timothy 2:21 involves our hanging on the Lord. In a great house, it says, there are vessels of gold, wood and earth, vessels to honour and dishonour (verse 20), but they are not said to hang on anything. They are in a great house.
A "great house" is a wide idea, but it says, "If therefore one shall have purified himself from these" (vessels to dishonour -- the last mentioned) "... he shall be a vessel to honour, sanctified, serviceable to the Master, prepared for every good work". That is to say, I apprehend, that he has come to discover that he must hang on Christ. He names the name of the Lord Jesus, he calls upon that name. He is dependent on that Man. He draws all his strength from that Man. However small or great, to be available, to be sanctified, to be meet for the Master's use, he must hang on Christ. Naught else affords anything in the way of availability for God save that which is dependent upon Christ. There must be dependence on Christ. We must hang upon Him, so to speak.
Well now, the prophet Isaiah says that all small vessels, and vessels of cups. That is to say, that series of vessels, different sizes no doubt, but all vessels of cups, drinking vessels as one might say,
hang on the nail. One might enlarge on the idea of vessels for drinking purposes; there must, of course, be the water, but the water will be available if the vessel is. And then it says, "all the vessels of flagons", namely, vessels of a larger capacity in which the water is stored, preserved, all such vessels are hung on Christ.
So that Adam being the figure of Him that was to come, Christ is the great Vessel, not indeed created, thank God (I speak reverently of Him)! No, "the Word became flesh". It was an act of His own. "The Word became flesh", says John, "and dwelt among us". That is to say, He dwelt so as to be known. And then he says, "(and we have contemplated his glory, a glory as of an only-begotten with a father), full of grace and truth". What a Person He was!
As He was baptised, having attained His full age, the age of thirty, full manhood, the heavens are opened on Him, and there is heaven's delight announced in this wonderful Person; and so the Holy Spirit comes upon that Person, to bring within the range of man all that God is, the grace of God, for it is said, "grace and truth subsists through Jesus Christ" (John 1:17). All that God is, as available for the need of man here on earth, is found in Him. "Grace and truth subsists" (subsists -- the verb is in the singular) showing it is one idea in the mind of God, perfectly blended in Christ. It subsists through Jesus Christ, so that grace and truth go together, but they are all in that blessed Person. The Word became flesh and dwelt among men, placing
Himself to be reached, as it were. He is there, He is among men. "Who went through all quarters", it is said, "doing good ... because God was with him" (Acts 10:38). He went about. He sought out the need and met it. The glory was there. Every divine thought involving glory was in Christ. Wonderful to contemplate! It is well to have the Lord ever in that way before us, for our souls to feed upon. The Person was so great that He sustained every divine thought. All was, so to speak, hung there.
But not only that, every other vessel that God had, hung upon Him. That is, there should be an increase of the vessels, and so one after another comes to Christ and is formed by Him into a vessel, and then that vessel must learn to hang on Christ. The Lord says, "without me ye can do nothing" (John 15:5). He says, "If ye abide in me, and my words abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall come to pass to you" (verse 7). What a lesson there is for us in that. The expression of His mind ("my words") abiding in your heart, and you abiding in Him, everything comes to pass.
So one might enlarge on that; how in the gospel one vessel after another was formed, and all set up, all hanging on Christ, and in perfect order. For instance in the Acts, in the first chapter and in the second chapter, how perfectly formed they were after the great Pattern. In the absence of Christ (mark you, it is in the absence of Christ that you are put to the test as to how much you are formed), they are left for ten days. After forty days He was
received up into heaven and they are left by themselves in Jerusalem for ten days. That is, the period between His ascension and the descent of the Spirit. Now what are they going to do? Well, I think what they do qualifies them as vessels. They were acquainted with the Scriptures. They knew the scripture that governed the position at the moment. You may be assured that you can find yourself in no position that is not governed by Scripture. It is for you to know that, for you to know the scripture that fits your circumstances. Hence the importance of knowing Scripture. The Lord said to the Jews, "Ye search the scriptures" (John 5:39); and if you search them you will find the scripture that applies to you.
Now Peter and those with him found out that, "let another take his overseership" (Acts 1:20). Judas must be replaced by another, and that other must be indicated by God. Hence they pray, they are dependent. They qualify in that way as vessels, and so the Holy Spirit comes, and what vessels they were as possessed by Him! ... As Paul says later, "we have this treasure in earthen vessels" (2 Corinthians 4:7). Although earthen, the treasure is there. The light of the assembly, of the glory of God in the face of Jesus, was in Paul's heart, in that vessel. And so in Peter, and so in John. And then in the second chapter of Acts the order in which the service is carried out shows how they had qualified. It says, that Peter stood up with the eleven (verse 14). The Lord had ordered how the vessels were to be set and used. There were great and small ones. The eleven and
Peter were twelve. They represented the authority of Christ. It does not say he stood up with the one hundred and twenty. They were there. They were the standers-by, as we speak. They were in sympathy and interested, but Peter and the eleven only stood up. (Compare Zechariah 3:7). That was according to the pattern. The Lord had commissioned them. He had given them a place that was unique, and they accepted it, whereas the others did not assume it.
It is well, dear brethren, for us to find our place in the house, in that sense, as vessels, to know the use the Lord is to make of us, whether we are to be a vessel of the cup series or the flagon series, or whatever it be. Find out from the Lord, and then there you hang, in dependence. In the faith of your soul there you hang until you are needed.
Ministry by J. Taylor, Detroit, Volume 10, pages 145 - 150. [1 of 2] 1919.
Ephesians 1:13, 14
Verse 13 is spoken to us; it is not only both Jews and Gentiles who will partake of this inheritance; but the church is given to know the will of God, by the gift of the Holy Spirit. This it is which distinguishes Christians who, having believed, are sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise. The Holy Spirit becomes a seal. We cannot receive the inheritance before Christ; the Spirit is given to us as earnest, whilst
waiting for it. God sets His seal upon us, and this is a proof that a Gentile has part in the promises made to Abraham (for instance, Cornelius -- Acts 10).
There is a difference between regeneration by the Spirit and the presence of the Spirit as a seal. A person must have believed for God to be able to put His seal on him; the Spirit may act before this, as for instance, in breaking up the heart; but it is not as a seal. Sometimes the power of the Spirit produces fruits in us; at other times it humbles us, making us sensible of good and evil; but this is not joy. The fact is, that this work is even more precious than the joy itself, because there are sometimes things in us which are not judged before God on account of the very joy. When God has given us the enjoyment of the true object which we ought to enjoy, He begins to break up the heart in order that the work may be deeper.
The Spirit makes us sensible of the things which are not according to God, and this knowledge of one's self is necessary, in order that we may know God. I do not say that, if we were to walk exactly as God would have us, this work could not be carried on without the loss of the joy; but it is not generally so with the Christian. It becomes needful for God to turn us toward Himself, and to work inwardly, that we may discover what our carelessness has pre-vented us from seeing. Often this exhilarating joy of a Christian is found in one who has not judged things that ought to be judged in the presence of God. The wants and the desires which the Holy
Spirit produces by regeneration are not the seal of the Spirit, any more than the joy which flows from the affections being occupied with a new and divine object, nor even the fruits which the Holy Spirit may produce when He dwells in us. The seal is the Holy Spirit Himself, given to that faith which is in Him who is our righteousness, and is the answer to all our wants; and then we have peace and joy. It is the Spirit in us who is the seal.
We ought not to be surprised, if we find it is the intention of God to show us ourselves; at such times we do not see God, because He is making us see ourselves. Many persons think that the full and unwavering assurance of our salvation tends to make us careless as to the state of our souls; but this is a mistake. The Holy Spirit has set His throne in our hearts, and if we will judge ourselves, we shall not be judged. It is He who makes us fully enjoy God, and who makes us judge what is not of God in us; who alone sets us in the truth, and gives us the assurance of what is accomplished for us. God in us, by His Spirit, judges the conduct and the heart; but this does not prevent this Spirit being the seal which God has set upon us, the witness of His perfect and unchangeable love towards us, the strength of a life of liberty, the Spirit of adoption. We partake of it with Jesus; God put His seal upon Jesus Himself when He was in this world, after His baptism by John.
The Spirit is the earnest of our inheritance. And here, let is be observed, that the Word, in the New
Testament, always employs the word "us", when it speaks of Christians and of the things which concern them. The prophets saw that the things which were revealed to them were not for them, but for us (see 1 Peter 1:10 - 12); the Holy Spirit always says, "us". The possession is not yet granted: the Spirit is the earnest of it. The possession of the inheritance depends on the redemption of our body. As to our souls, we are united to the Heir even now; this is why we groan, all the while that we have the promises, because of this body, the redemption of which is not yet accomplished; and this redemption will take place at the resurrection.
This is the enigma of the Christian; the Spirit gives him the certainty of his personal redemption, and this Spirit is the earnest of the inheritance. We shall be to the praise of His glory. Whilst waiting, the Spirit makes us sympathise with the groans of the creation; He helps our infirmities; working in us, He takes knowledge of the misery with which we are outwardly bound up, and He intercedes for us. The Spirit becomes the fountain of thoughts, the subjects of which are in heaven; and on the earth, the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts (Romans 5:5). The Spirit searches our hearts and presents our wants before God (Romans 8:26, 27).
In verse 5 of this chapter (Ephesians 1) God gives us a picture of the portion of a Christian. That which is important for us is the description of the person to whom these things belong.
Collected Writings of J. N. Darby, Volume 27, pages 11 - 13
2 Timothy 2:1 - 4; Romans 8:31 - 39; 1 Chronicles 12:33, 34, 37 - 40; Ephesians 6:10 - 13
I wish to speak about good soldiers of Jesus Christ. It is evident at the present time that the enemy of our souls is extremely active on every hand -- apostasy is increasing -- and even some believers who have light as to God's greatest thoughts are watering down the truth by bringing in what is worldly or earthly, not according to the Scriptures, to divert believers from pursuing what is heavenly.
It is very important for a soldier not only to locate the enemy, but also to discern what his objective is, and to know what he is fighting for. What is the conflict that the believer faces all about? It is Satan's attempt to take saints away from the heavenly path, that they might occupy their lives in what is earthly, which destroys the vitality of christian testimony. But we need to see how we, as believers, may receive divine support and may over-come what the enemy is seeking to do. We need to value the Scriptures, the word of God, and to read them more. Men have changed the Scriptures, modernised them, reducing the power and effect of them. This is what the enemy is doing. Behind it all lies his effort to turn believers away from the enjoyment of the great things that God has made known to His saints.
We may little realise the immense treasure that the Lord has committed to saints of this dispensation
through opening their understanding to the truth of God's great thoughts. When John was in exile in "an island called Patmos", and when Paul was in prison in Rome, they stood firm in their enjoyment of the great thoughts of divine purpose. Good soldiers realise that the enemy would try to divert them from their purpose; Satan would try to tempt believers to go in for the things of the world, and not bear a heavenly testimony here. How do you bear a heavenly testimony? Only by maintaining a personal link with the Man in glory: "we more than conquer through him that has loved us" (Romans 8:37). That is the victory. The Holy Spirit would ever help us to maintain a heavenly testimony. We should not set ourselves to attain great things in this world, but make use of the wondrous resource we have in the Holy Spirit, "who has taken his abode in us" (James 4:5), that we may be good soldiers of Jesus Christ.
Paul tells Timothy, a younger man, that he was about to die: "the time of my release is come" (2 Timothy 4:6). But how was the testimony going to be continued? Was Paul marked by a spirit of defeat? No! Read 2 Timothy 4, and see how full Paul is of the spirit of victory. He knew perfectly well that the Lord had given him the knowledge and light of God's great thoughts as to sonship and as to the assembly, and he cherished that. He had suffered for the truth; he was tested in the most extreme ways, but he held firmly to it. Satan would try to bring a mixture of what is earthly and what is heavenly into
our souls. We know this in our own experience, but I would like to encourage each one to cleave to the heavenly line. You say, It is an impossibility with me; I am tied to the earth and I cannot get away from it. Well, you may have responsibilities here to fulfil on earth, and quite rightly so, and the Lord will help you in those, but in the secret of your soul, let your communion with the Lord and with God be real.
Do you ever thank God for taking you up in relation to the great purposes of His love? Do you ever thank Him for having marked you out for sonship before the ages of time? Think of the great-ness of that; what a dignity it puts upon the believer! Another thing that can hinder us is the books we read, and, as another has said, Find out who the author is; is he a believer? The city of the book, Kirjath-sepher, had to be taken in view of taking possession of the territory of Judah (Judges 1:12). It is the same with the believer; he has to beware what he reads. We can set our minds on whatever we like, and the more we set our minds on spiritual things, the more we shall be preserved on the heavenly road; I am quite convinced of that. I believe we make place for the Spirit by an act of mind.
In Numbers 1:3 it says, "all that go forth to military service in Israel" were to be numbered. Are you one of the called of Jesus Christ? Paul tells the believers in Rome that they are among "the called of Jesus Christ" (Romans 1:6). As a believer, you have heard that call in the gospel, and have put your trust
in the Saviour. Did God call you to no purpose at all? No. He called you according to His purpose, a purpose that will abide for eternity, and He will care for you during your time here on earth. You say, I can hardly believe that, because if I confess Christ publicly I may have to experience suffering. Paul knew about suffering; he says that good soldiers take their share in suffering. If you accept responsibility for the maintenance of the testimony in your locality, it may involve personal suffering, but you will experience divine support as you stand for the Lord's rights, and divine blessing too, I am assured, because the testimony has come right down to our day, through the faithfulness of persons who value the great thoughts that are in God's mind.
So Paul, where we read, is very concerned about the truth being passed on. "The things thou hast heard of me in the presence of many witnesses, these entrust to faithful men, such as shall be competent to instruct others also". With Paul, it is quality that counts -- competent witnesses; faithful men; good soldiers -- the quality of persons that can carry the testimony through. That is the calibre of person that is needed at the present time. Paul was taken up sovereignly by the Lord Jesus, and he not only expounded the truth but he exemplified it also. We need help to do that too, and the Spirit would help us.
I read in Romans 8 because in that chapter you have not only the enjoyment the believer has in the gift of the Holy Spirit, but that the Spirit maintains
in the believer a constant sense that God is for him. The extent to which God is for us is evidenced in the gift of His only-begotten Son, and God would speak a word to us at the present time as we seek to keep "the good deposit" -- Paul's ministry -- which has been entrusted to us. Paul's ministry is a test in Christendom at the present moment. Satan tries to obliterate God's greatest thoughts of blessing from the minds of believers; but God's purposes will be valued by saints characteristically for "the Spirit and the bride say, Come" (Revelation 22:17). That is going to take place. I trust we shall all have part in it with all those who appreciate what the assembly means to the heart of Christ.
But on the way, in our pathway down here in the will of God, we need the help of God, and so Paul would give us this assurance: "If God be for us, who against us?" The One who is supreme in the universe is for us! And Paul says that Christ "also intercedes for us"; He would give you support in every difficulty. These things are very real to faith. Older brethren here can tell you how they have proved the help of God in their lives. You may have to wait in patience to see how He comes in for you, but He does come in. Patience is a sign of power; an important matter too.
Paul experienced a great deal of suffering and adversity, and he mentions a number of things that we might think were against us: "For thy sake we are put to death all the day long; we have been reckoned as sheep for slaughter". He continues, "But
in all these things we more than conquer through him that has loved us". Now think of that! Good soldiers of Jesus Christ are not defeatists; they do not have any doubt as to victory, for it is assured: "we more than conquer through him that has loved us". The love of Christ is unchanging in all its power and blessedness. He can sustain every believer, whatever the pressure or circumstances may be. All these are the supplies that are available for the good soldier of Jesus Christ. This chapter 8 of Romans is often described as the victory of the Holy Spirit over the flesh and all that we are. It is a wonderful thing, as you read down this chapter, to see what the Holy Spirit means to the believer.
Then I read in 1 Chronicles 12. Of course, Christianity is not normally just an individual pathway. There is the individual side, but there is the collective side too, in the enjoyment of fellowship. It is a wonderful provision of God for believers in a world where many things are adverse to us. In the fellowship we have great encouragement as we recognise the authority of the Lord Jesus Christ. We need to recognise His lordship, and to keep rank with our brethren. But then we need also to keep "rank without double heart" like the Zebulunites. Some believers plead that they have not much time to read the ministry, nor for spiritual things, and just enough time to go to the meetings. Yet they may have time for a little side-line, or hobby. Believe me, it is much better to give that up, for you will find that you will get something very much better from
the Lord than what you have given up. You will enjoy things in a far greater measure spiritually than you have ever done before. So let us be "keeping rank without double heart". David was very attractive to these men of war from the different tribes. They "came with a perfect heart to Hebron, to make David king over all Israel". They were of one mind, like good soldiers of Jesus Christ, "keeping rank in battle array", and they were invincible -- David never lost a battle.
Hebron was built seven years before Zoan in Egypt (Numbers 13:22). Zoan was a place of great intelligence and wisdom, but God's purposes were long before man exercised his mind and his thoughts. God has made known His mind and His thoughts through "an elect vessel" (Acts 9:15), the beloved apostle Paul. Of course, God made His mind known in the Person of His beloved Son in infinite perfection and fulness, for He was the Word. It is wonderful the way in which Jesus made known divine Persons: He spoke much of the Father, and of the Holy Spirit. How thankful we are for all that the Lord Jesus said about "another Comforter" (John 14:16, etc.) that would be here in the time of His absence.
That is where we are at the present time, and the Spirit who has taken up His abode in us would help us to be delivered from desires after this world. The Spirit gives you desires after the things of God, and you will find if you begin to read spiritual ministry, that you will be affected by it, and you will want to
read more. Whilst your mind is occupied with spiritual things, it is not occupied with earthly or worldly things. We only have a short life to live here; we might as well take the best advantage of it, and apply our minds in the right direction.
So it says of the men of Zebulun that they were "keeping rank without double heart". They were whole-heartedly committed to things. I believe that reality is what counts when there is the spirit of apostasy abroad in Christendom. It is very solemn, for apostasy is developing very, very quickly. Many individuals, real believers, are appalled at what is being done, and allowed, in Christendom at the present time. What are you and I going to do in the midst of it? Let us be real, let us be genuine in our committal to the Lord and to the maintenance of what we know to be the truth. God does not alter His principles. What causes us to miss our way in the testimony is when we disregard them, and, as a result, God is robbed of what is due to Him, and we are robbed of the joys of fellowship also.
Now, not only do we need to know what the enemy is attempting to do against the saints and the truth of God, but we need to know what armour to put on. In Romans 13:12 it is "the armour of light". I read about the armour in Ephesians 6; I suppose that is the greatest armour of all. "Be strong in the Lord": therein lies our strength, dear brethren. It is in the Lord. We have not any strength in ourselves, but we can have strength in One who is almighty, and whose love is almighty and who will enable us to
more than conquer. We are to be strong in that blessed One, to recognise His authority. As we do not yield to our own will, doing what we like, but are concerned to do the things that are pleasing to the Lord, we can look to Him to give us the victory. The great thing is to be a follower of Him and to rely upon Him for strength, exercising faith.
"Be strong in the Lord, and in the might of his strength". Think of the might of the strength of Christ! He is in glory, a blessed living Man. He has broken the power of death, He has come out of it triumphant. He has given His all to secure that precious vessel, the assembly. You and I, as having the Spirit, form part of that wonderful vessel. "The might of his strength" is available, and we can be strong in that blessed One. We may feel as weak as water, and that is quite a good thing if it makes us cling to the Lord, and call upon Him all the more urgently.
All this is vital to Christianity; we must not just be content to go on with a regular form of meetings and an outward correctness. No; there needs to be what is vital in our souls. Paul, having brought out the great truth as to God's purpose, is reminding the saints that the enemy is against it: "Put on the panoply of God, that ye may be able to stand". The armour here is not for fighting; it is to enable you to stand, not to yield an inch of ground. Satan's objective in attacking the saints is to deprive God of worship and praise, and to have saints give up the truth as to the assembly, and not be in the enjoyment
of the blessed relationship of sonship.
As having the light of these things which Paul has brought to us, we are to observe what the enemy is doing, for "our struggle is not against blood and flesh, but against principalities, against authorities, against the universal lords of this darkness". What darkness is settling on Christendom -- the mind of man versus the mind of God. Men think they are so clever. They change the Scriptures; they have their own theological ideas about this and that; they bring it into the schools to try and affect the next generation. We do need to be sympathetic with those that are young. I say to young believers, The Lord Jesus and the Holy Spirit will help you to understand the Scriptures, and ministry bearing upon the Word, that you may realise the greatness of what God has provided for you in His love. He will preserve you from the world; He will give you something much better than the pleasures of the world. God wants you to be fully satisfied. That is what He has in mind, and you will find it so, as you follow up the things of God. Do not miss the meetings unless you cannot possibly help it; get into an environment where Christ is spoken of, and the things of God are spoken of. We receive help on these lines.
This passage in Ephesians 6 shows how we are up against tremendous powers of evil that would divert us from the heavenly road, that we may give up the precious and greatest truths that have been handed down to us. But a good soldier would be like the overcomers in the assemblies (Revelation 2, 3),
persons who are listening to what the Spirit says to the assemblies. May the Lord help us to be good soldiers, for His Name's sake.
Linlithgow, 22 September 2001.
J. Taylor
Romans 9:23, 24; 2 Corinthians 8:23; Revelation 21:10, 11
Well now, I take that passage in 2 Corinthians as illustrative in a marked degree of the idea that I am seeking to propound. The apostle says, "Whether as regards Titus, he is my companion and fellow-labourer in your behalf". That was that vessel. He was content to be subordinate. It is a very important thing to learn to be subordinate in the service, for in the ways of God there must be subordinates. What a thing it is, although serving subordinately, yet to have partnership in this wonderful service, the service that the Lord is carrying on down here now. To have part in that!
There are claims now, of course, no doubt right to put forth, which we have to respond to in the will of God, but let us see to it, dear brethren, that the claims of Christ are acknowledged. Nothing should interfere with that. I retain my responsibility as a vessel under all circumstances, and the Lord is carrying on His service and is graciously disposed to give me part in it, that I should be a partner in it, and I want to be known in that capacity. Paul wished that
Titus should be known in that capacity. He says, "he is my companion and fellow-labourer in your behalf". He served with Paul concerning the Corinthians. That was Titus' employment.
And now he says, "or our brethren, they are deputed messengers of assemblies, Christ's glory". Remarkable passage! These brethren are not named. Their function for the moment was to carry certain money subscribed by the brethren for the benefit of need, or needy ones, elsewhere, and the apostle says, in effect, If anybody inquires about those men, do not say to them that they are simply treasurers or custodians; no, they are 'ministers of the assemblies', and then he adds, "Christ's glory".
It is well to keep that in mind when you contribute to the box. What you put in it is not the point. It is the spirit and motive, beloved brethren. I often recall the Lord's posthumous saying, as it has been called, recorded in Acts 20, "remember the words of the Lord Jesus, that he himself said, It is more blessed to give than to receive" (verse 35). The glory is in the giving, and so as these assemblies gave, the money was entrusted to certain brothers, and so, as the apostle says, the service that they were performing in the capacity of ministers, representatives of the bounty of the saints, was to the glory of Christ. How exalted trivial things become when taken up in this way by the Spirit in relation to God and His service! The material gift of the saints to meet the need of others is regarded in this light, "Christ's". It is the reflection of Christ.
I have often dwelt on the Lord placing Himself over against the treasury (Mark 12:41), as if He would say, I would love to see the reflection of My own giving disposition there. What did He give? This very chapter tells us; "For ye know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that for your sakes he, being rich, became poor, in order that ye by his poverty might be enriched" (2 Corinthians 8:9). What giving was that! What wealth He gave up in order that we might be enriched, and hence, as I was saying before, He gives us the idea of glory. It is in giving or sacrificing. So as the saints gave, they were the glory of Christ. It was the expression of Christ. "It is more blessed to give than to receive".
How it would enlarge our giving if we were conscious that the Lord was standing over against the treasury, and conscious that He was saying, 'I would like to see the reflection of My own giving disposition there'. Now that is what the box is. If you look upon it as that in which the glory of Christ shines, how expanded the giving should be. As it says, "God loves a cheerful giver" (2 Corinthians 9:7). Mark you, He looks at your conscience and looks at your heart as you give. He does not say He loves your gift, but you as giving it. He loves a cheerful giver.
Well now, in turning to the last scripture in Revelation 21:10, I wanted to show how the great idea of the vessel is carried forward. As we are sovereignly formed by the Potter -- "vessels of mercy" (signifying that we are taken up according to
sovereign mercy) "prepared for glory" -- we become in the aggregate a great vessel for the shining out of the glory of God. No one of us could be that, I need not say. Christ only could be regarded as great enough to contain and set forth fully the glory of God. Indeed He is said to be the effulgence of the divine glory (Hebrews 1:3). That is what Christ is; and the assembly, being His body, is seen here "having the glory of God".
The heavenly city, being formed of the saints, is taken account of in this chapter in Revelation, and I just wish to dwell upon it for the remainder of the time. It says in verse 10, which I read, "And he carried me away in the Spirit, and set me on a great and high mountain, and shewed me the holy city, Jerusalem, coming down out of the heaven from God, having the glory of God".
I desire by the Lord's help to keep your interest that you might see how in the aggregate we are to be the vessel of God's glory, as descending from God out of heaven. I have no doubt that the assembly may be viewed, and is viewed, in a retrospective way in this chapter. That is, she is looked upon as the wife; that character has marked her, viewed according to what she was as formed of the Spirit, throughout the long night of the Lord's absence. A wife is to be trusted. You will recall how the false wife described in Proverbs 7:20 says that her husband has gone a long way on a journey, and has taken a bag of money with him, and so she abandons herself to unfaithfulness in his absence. That is the
false one. She was not a true vessel. She is utterly untrustworthy. She is not staunch.
Now in the end of the book of Proverbs you have the true idea of the wife. She is virtuous. It is a most essential feature, we know in a practical way, to be virtuous. I have often endeavoured to define virtue and have put it this way, It is the power in your soul to say no to evil, and to say yes to good, in fidelity to Christ. That is what I think virtue is, briefly. That is, you refuse all that involves unfaithfulness to Christ. You close the door on that. There is to be no admission in thought, or in ways, that involves unfaithfulness to Christ. The wife is, normally, to be trusted. And so the assembly (I am not referring to the great public body) in principle at least, has been confided in by Christ, and now the time of her display has come. She has held to what belonged to Him in the hour of His rejection, and now it says, "the marriage of the Lamb is come, and his wife has made herself ready" (Revelation 19:7). That is, she is preparing now for the public nuptials and display.
You will all remember that there was no marriage ceremony between Isaac and Rebecca. There was nothing of display at all. The union was there, but all was of a private nature. She was a comfort to him. But now the hour of display has come, and so it says "his wife", not the one that is going to be His wife, but the wife, the one that is trusted. It is the one who has known His mind, who has been a comfort to Him. Romans itself teaches us that we are 'married to another' (chapter 7: 4) already,
and Ephesians teaches union with Christ, so that the wife relationship exists now. But I am dwelling for the moment on the point of faithfulness. The wife is to be trusted.
Paul says, "Keep ... the good deposit entrusted" (2 Timothy 1:14). But how keep it? "By the Holy Spirit". You cannot keep it any other way. You might write down, and subscribe to the 'thirty-nine articles', the so-called fundamentals of Christianity, as many did in the Reformation, but that is not keeping by the Holy Spirit the good deposit entrusted. The truth is to be held in our souls in faithfulness. Is there any one who does not love the truth? The absence of love of the truth brings sudden destruction presently (2 Thessalonians 2:7 - 10). There may be certain features of the truth that are not directly applicable today, but everyone who loves it treasures it, and keeps it in the soul by the Holy Spirit. There is no other way to keep it. "Keep, by the Holy Spirit", he says, "the good deposit entrusted". You are faithful to Christ. You use the Spirit, speaking in that way, in order conserve the truth. You are keen in regard to the truth. You must not let one iota of it go.
Now the wife, I apprehend, comparing the passage with Proverbs 31, holds to that. She loves the truth. The false one says, "I sit a queen, and I am not a widow; and I shall in no wise see grief" (Revelation 18:7). She cares nothing for the truth. Do you think Rome cares anything for the truth? Nothing! Like Judas, she would sell not only the truth, she
would sell the Lord; indeed, she has done so. We are told to "Buy the truth, and sell it not" (Proverbs 23:23). Judas sold the Lord. The true wife conserves the truth. As I said, she keeps by the Holy Spirit the good deposit entrusted.
"The marriage of the Lamb is come, and his wife has made herself ready. And it was given to her that she should be clothed in fine linen, bright and pure; for the fine linen is the righteousnesses of the saints" (Revelation 19:7, 8). That is, she had been marked by righteousnesses. The word is in the plural, and would include, I suppose, all the practical righteousnesses from Pentecost until the rapture. It is a record of all she had kept. Practical righteousness is a wonderful thing, you know, in the testimony. "If ye know that he is righteous", says John, "know that every one who practises righteousness is begotten of him" (1 John 2:29). Practical righteousness now is, as it were, formed into a robe in which the wife is to be arrayed. It is her marriage trousseau!
"It was given to her". There is the principle of sovereignty in it. "It was given to her that she should be clothed in fine linen, bright and pure; for the fine linen is the righteousnesses of the saints". What I do or you do, as a vessel, as used of the Lord, shall all be seen there, and we will come out in our wedding garments, beloved, suitable for Christ, suitably arrayed to be presented to the Bridegroom, to the Lamb, the suffering One, for it is the suffering One. He is the suffering One now, but He has this wonderful city as His bride. And so the angel takes
the prophet, for John is a prophet here, to a high mountain, as it says: "he carried me away in the Spirit, and set me on a great and high mountain, and shewed me the holy city, Jerusalem, coming down out of the heaven from God, having the glory of God".
Now this is the wife. John has to be taken up higher to see her. One has to be withdrawn from earth to the "high mountain" to see this, the assembly in this light. And so he says, "the holy city, Jerusalem". There have been many great cities, but there is only one holy one. This one is great and holy, so that, beloved brethren, if we look for great-ness let us not look for it apart from holiness. To be great in this world is not to be holy, whereas to be great with God you must be holy. Greatness and holiness must go together. Hence the holy city, Jerusalem, she is described as here, and she is seen as descending out of the heaven from God. How lovely to have before our souls the thought of being taken to God, taken up by the Lord Jesus, who descends, as it is said. He descends and we shall be caught up, as changed, to be together with Him, for ever. He takes us up and then we come out, as John says, He "shewed me the holy city, Jerusalem, coming down out of the heaven from God, having the glory of God".
Well, that is what I have to say. He adds, "Her shining was like a most precious stone, as a crystal-like jasper stone". That is, the assembly is the vessel of the divine glory, coming out in dignity and in
There is only just one word I would add to that, and that is the necessity now for clearness, for transparency. As vessels we are to be transparent. There are in this book of Revelation several references to it. The first is the sea of glass (chapter 15: 2). The victorious are said to stand on the sea of glass; all there is transparent. There is nothing hidden, no secret counsels. All is open. It is a lovely trait amongst us, as brethren, to have that transparency of glass; to be such vessels in that sense, that all that is done is open, no mixed motives, nor hidden ones. All is in simplicity of love. As the apostle says, "by love serve one another" (Galatians 5:13). So that the city's light is clear as crystal. All is perfectly open there.
Well, I hope what I have said may be a help to us, dear brethren, in view of what we have had, that we may see that we are taken up sovereignly, formed by the Potter, so to speak, "vessels of mercy ... prepared for glory". We are prepared; there shall be no disparity between us and the glory. We are fitted for the glory, and while down here in whatever we do there is to be a reflection of the glory of Christ and of God. If we are to be fitted and finally to come out as changed in regard of our bodies, having bodies of glory, as it is said, we shall be in the aggregate a great vessel. The city lieth four-square. She includes all, but she lies four-square, in every way formed after God so as to express Him universally in His nature, as shining out in the light most precious, and
the whole realm of creation shall bask in it.
May God grant blessing to His word, to each of us.
Ministry by J. Taylor, Detroit, Volume 10, pages 150 - 157. [2 of 2] 1919.
2 Chronicles 5:7 - 14; 2 Chronicles 7:7; 2 Chronicles 9:1 - 9
Now, if you look at 2 Chronicles 7:7 you will notice that three things are mentioned there -- (1) The burnt-offerings; (2) the oblations; (3) the fat of the peace-offerings. That is, everything is looked at from God's side. If we begin by learning the perfection of the work of Christ, in bearing our sins and putting away sin, we must not stop there, or limit our apprehension of that wondrous work to the side of it which meets our need. It is an immeasurable loss to us if we do not go on to learn what the work of the cross has been for God. In connection with the burnt-offering we may read Ephesians 5:2 -- "even as the Christ loved us, and delivered himself up for us, an offering and sacrifice to God for a sweet-smelling savour".
The Lord Jesus came here to take up the whole question of sin, and the glory of God in respect of sin. Think of that scene of judgment, when all that God was, and must be, against sin, came out and was expressed as it never can be expressed again throughout eternity. All that sin was in the presence of the holiness, majesty, and glory of God came out
there. But as you think of that scene of darkness and judgment and death, in which the glory of God was maintained and vindicated to its utmost bound as to all that sin was before Him, remember that there was something greater at that cross than the darkness and the judgment and the death -- something greater than the sin in respect of which God was so eternally glorified there.
May God give each of our hearts a deep, adoring apprehension of that greater thing. I refer to the infinitely perfect affections of the heart of that blessed One -- the obedience and love in which He was there -- the devotedness of the holy Victim which made every part of that unspeakable self-sacrifice a sweet-smelling savour to God. Have those words -- almost His last ones -- never thrilled your heart? "That the world may know that I love the Father; and as the Father has commanded me, thus I do. Rise up, let us go hence" (John 14:31). "On this account the Father loves me, because I lay down my life" (John 10:17). Never again can the Son so express His love to the Father as it was expressed at the cross when He gave Himself to maintain the divine glory in respect of sin. Well may He speak of that death as a motive for the Father's love to Him, for never were His perfections of obedience and love so wondrously displayed before.
Then there was the peace-offering. It was due to God that in the very place where man had so dishonoured Him there should be found a Man to honour Him in unfaltering devotedness to His will. I
believe the peace-offering sets forth the Lord Jesus in His personal devotedness to God; as Philippians 2 expresses it, "obedient even unto death" (verse 8). Nothing could move Him from the path which, 'uncheered by earthly smiles, led only to the cross' (Hymn 230). His devotedness was tested in every way -- in private life, in public service, and in that darkness preceding and including the cross. There was at last One found in all the circumstances of man who would take the very lowest place in obedience to God's will, and who would die rather than swerve from the path of devotedness to God. He "resisted unto blood, wrestling against sin" (Hebrews 12:4). He would carry out the will of God at all cost to Himself.
"And the fat". It is blessed to know that there are depths and riches of personal excellence in Christ beyond all that we know or can know. "All the fat shall be Jehovah's" (Leviticus 3:16). All the personal excellence of that blessed One, as only God can know and estimate it, has come out at the cross to the eternal satisfaction and gratification of the heart of God. So that whether as to the glory of God in respect of sin, or as to personal devotedness in Man, or as to the excellence of the holy One who was thus devoted, CHRIST fills with absolute perfection every-thing which the altar demanded. So that the place of sin and judgment and death is the very place above all others in the universe where perfection has been displayed.
In connection with this, notice the words -- so
richly significant -- "the brazen altar which Solomon had made was not able to receive the burnt-offerings, and the oblations, and the fat". I think this serves to show how every type and figure fails to express the greatness of Christ and the cross. The perfections of that Person and work are infinite. There can be no measurement of the glory of God, of the devotedness of the Sufferer, or of His personal excellence. May God enlarge our hearts to apprehend all this a little more fully.
If Christ filled the oracle and the altar He also fills the throne, and this brings us to His present place on high. The thought connected with the throne is administration. "Blessed be Jehovah thy God, who delighted in thee, to set thee on his throne, to be king to Jehovah thy God! Because thy God loved Israel, to establish them for ever, therefore did he make thee king over them, to do judgment and justice" (2 Chronicles 9:8). Solomon was set on Jehovah's throne to administer everything for God to the people. Christ, having filled the oracle and the altar, now fills the throne; He is exalted to administer everything for God.
No other but the One who is the perfect Object of satisfaction and delight to the heart of God could fitly administer all the grace and blessing of that heart to men. What an exalted view, and what a divine measure, does this give of the greatness of Christian blessings! "Because thy God loved Israel, to establish them for ever, therefore did he make thee king over them". The greatness of God's love,
and of His gracious purposes, is expressed in the greatness and glory of the Person who administers it all to us from God. There is not a single christian blessing which is not administered now by and through Christ in glory. All the blessings of divine grace are administered by and through an enthroned and glorified Saviour. The remission of sins (Acts 2:36 - 38), salvation (Acts 4:11, 12), justification (Acts 13:38, 39), peace with God (Romans 5:1), access into favour (Romans 5:2), reconciliation, and joy in God (Romans 5:11), are all administered to us through a risen and glorified Saviour. The ministration of righteousness is from Him (2 Corinthians 3), and in His face shines the light of the knowledge of the glory of God (2 Corinthians 4:6). We get no right estimate of the character and greatness of our blessings until we see them in living connection with Christ in glory.
How much we may learn from this Gentile Queen who "came from the ends of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon" (Luke 11:31). She heard of the fame of the one who was set on Jehovah's throne to administer everything for God to the objects of His love, and nothing would satisfy her heart but coming to that glorious person, that she might see in his presence the reality of that greatness of which she had heard in her own land. My brethren, is there no such journey for our hearts to take today? Indeed there is. For the satisfaction of the heart it is not enough to hear the report; the soul must reach the company of the One of whom it has heard. It is a supremely blessed moment when the
heart is so attracted by the fame and the glory of the true Solomon that it turns away from man and from present things to travel outside the whole sphere of sight and sense into the company of the glorious Person who fills the throne. In His company -- in conscious nearness to Himself -- there is not, there could not be, an unsatisfied desire in the heart.
The reality was beyond the report, and beyond all the greatest expectation of the Queen's heart. Not only was all her need met -- all her enigmas solved -- but she found herself in the circle of Solomon's greatness and glory; and every detail in that circle expressed his wisdom, and the perfections and grace of Jehovah, on whose throne he was set. What a journey for the heart! To leave our own land -- the place of need, and unrest, and unsatisfied longing, where self is the great centre and object -- and to come to One who has a perfect answer for every question of the heart, and who brings us into His own circle, and fills our hearts with His own greatness and glory. May every one of our hearts be so attracted to Himself that we may be prepared to leave in spirit everything that is here, to reach His presence and have His company.
The great object which God has in view is to attach our affections to Christ; and I trust He may use the ministry of His word tonight to this end, so that the blessed Person of Christ, who has filled the oracle and the altar, and who now fills the throne, may truly fill each one of our hearts. Amen.
Ministry by C. A. Coates, Volume 14, pages 83 - 88. [2 of 2].
We have heard it remarked by many, with regard to their soul's history and experiences, that until they took the first step which God had shown them they did not see the second. We believe this is generally the case. Especially is it so in connection with our conduct relating to our position here as forming part of God's house and as members of the body of Christ.
"Cease to do evil, learn to do well" (Isaiah 1:17). The first statement must be complied with, and then the second may be followed.
It is my desire in this paper to draw attention to two phases of christian experience which may be known today, and, we may add, which have ever been possible from the early days of the church's history on earth.
Since the departure, which came in during the days of the apostles, the path of faithfulness has been very individual in character. We have sought to develop this in an earlier paper. Evil men and seducers wax worse and worse, deceiving and being deceived.
"Continue thou" (2 Timothy 3:14, Authorised Version) has been the word to every heart desiring to be true to Christ from the days of Timothy to the present time. And so gracious is the provision the Lord has made, and so explicit are His directions in the Scripture, that any one who desires to go in the right way need not go
"If any one desire to practise his will, he shall know concerning the doctrine" (John 7:17). That is, if we desire to do His will we shall know what it is. Possibly such an one may find himself very much isolated as far as the society of the mass of professed Christians is concerned. His pathway may be described as was the apostle's in his day, "All deserted me", but "the Lord stood with me" (2 Timothy 4:16, 17). But if this suffices him, his pathway will be a happy one indeed.
There is only one right path now as ever before; it lies in doing the will of God. True love is shown thereby. For "Hereby we know that we love the children of God, when we love God, and keep his commandments" (1 John 5:2). If most desert the ranks it is all the more reason why any who desire to be true should not do so.
But this demands a more detailed inquiry. We have said that the path of faithfulness has become very individual; indeed only thus is God's testimony maintained. Have we really grasped what this means? The Lord will not support any attempt to reconstruct any organisation or society to be a corporate testimony -- a kind of model of the whole, other than that incidentally produced by true individual faithfulness in returning to that which is proper to the whole church of God.
The church is still the body of Christ; it continues on earth in each locality where there are believers, whatever they may call themselves. It also
exists on earth as a whole -- everywhere as one, one body. The house of God exists today. Believers are still a habitation of God through the Spirit.
But let us ask: Are believers practically answering to God's mind as to them in these respects? I am sure we must see that failure in practice has marked believers all along the line.
What then is our path? If we have been awakened to see our common failure, what is the next thing to do? Is it to endeavour to start again? To make a model church? Is it to band together a section of believers on the pattern of the whole, to seek to reinstate what has corporately failed? This has been done, I believe, many times, but it has only added to the confusion. We may find many such bodies of believers varying according to their different light and spiritual intelligence. But Scripture gives no directions to follow such a path. Reconstruction will not answer. It is a human endeavour to remedy things. In reality it supposes that the church no longer exists. Because if it still exists there is no need to start anything else.
Scripture is clear. We must cease to do evil. Individually we must be faithful.
I have had occasion to read some literature penned by one of whom better things might have been expected. It was amazing to find that it was therein contended that to "depart from iniquity" (2 Timothy 2:19, Authorised Version) did not mean to depart from it as we might ordinarily understand the expression 'to depart'. It meant, so it was said, to depart from it
only in the spirit of the individual.
It must be clear to any one familiar with Scripture that such an idea is very, very different to the principles laid down in God's word.
To "depart from iniquity" means not only to depart from the spirit of evil in ourselves, but also to depart from the practice of evil everywhere. "Enter not into the path of the wicked, and go not in the way of evil men: avoid it, pass not by it; turn from it, and pass away" (Proverbs 4:14, 15). "Be not thou envious of evil men, neither desire to be with them" (Proverbs 24:1). We need scarcely stay to prove this. But what has come before us recently makes such a remark really necessary. To "depart" from evil means to judge it in ourselves, to disallow it in our ways and to go away from it wherever it may exist. It is to depart from it in the most entire sense.
To limit such an expression is to rob the passage of its force. No doubt this is what Satan wants to do. And any system of teaching which is so characterised can only proceed from this awful source, however ignorant the agents may be that they are doing the enemy's work. We need not marvel (2 Corinthians 11:13 - 15). We cannot be too careful in our ways!
The watchword for every faithful heart in the "last days" is "depart from iniquity". In himself first, most surely. Let each one begin there. Nothing can be right anywhere else otherwise. Let each judge himself. In spirit and in practice each must do so. And then, too, in our associations. How can any one
depart from evil if he remains avowedly in identification with those who allow it? They may not think what they allow is evil; but if I see it to be evil I must depart from it. My conscience will be evil if I do not.
This is the first step. Cease to do evil! The Lord alone can lead us to take it. But if He has shown us so far, He waits for us to answer.
Is it asked, What shall we do then? The Lord will tell us. But if He has told us to do one thing, let us do it. Abraham obeyed, "not knowing where he was going" (Hebrews 11:8). This is faith. Shall we be misunderstood, condemned and blamed by the mass of believers? It may be so. The apostle said, "all deserted me", but "the Lord stood with me". This makes the path very simple but always exercising. It can only be trodden by faith.
We cannot link Christ's holy name with all the evil we find in the professing church. And if His name cannot be linked with evil, our place is to depart from it, for we name His name.
But let us repeat -- this needs faith. As much so as it did for Peter to go out of the ship and walk on the water to go to Jesus. No one can support us in such a path but Christ Himself. "Let every one who names the name of the Lord withdraw from iniquity".
Our space has gone. We must reserve the consideration of the other side of our subject for our next paper.
May the Lord lead us to be individually faithful
amidst all the failure of man.
The Believer's Friend, Volume 9 (1917), pages 187 - 192.
J. Revell
There is for us, as Christians, that which is individual in character, and that which is collective. The one does not interfere with the other. The clearer we become as to our individual portion, and the deeper our enjoyment of it, the better shall we be fitted for that which is collective.
The Corinthians very little understood what pertained to them as individuals, and the assembly was with them all in confusion. Along with this it may be noticed that they did not distinguish, as they should have done, between what belonged to their own circle and that which belonged to the Lord. Though they had houses to eat and to drink in, they made the assembly a place for pursuing their individual ways and concerns, even to the extent of some being hungry and others drunken. The epistle to the Corinthians, while correcting all their disorder, gives to us very valuable instruction as to those things which with them were in such confusion.
That which is individual lies within our present path of responsibility to God; that which is collective, while beginning within that sphere, reaches to that which is beyond, to that which is heavenly and eternal, the things which God in His
great love has purposed and prepared for us.
As men here on earth we have all had our sins, and we still have our sorrows. These are individual, for, although there may be a similarity between the sins and sorrows of all men, those of one are not exactly those of another. In the gospel the forgiveness of sins is preached to us, and we learn that God is Himself our Justifier, His justification of us being set forth in the resurrection of Jesus our Lord from the dead. Thus we have peace with God, and the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Spirit who is given to us. We can therefore glory in tribulation. And, further, the One who has manifested His love in dying for us is now at God's right hand, and there intercedes for us. Nothing can sever us from His love, and even our sorrows may become the opportunity for His assuring our hearts in a deeper way of His love. Thus we become more than conquerors through Him who loves us. All this belongs to our individual path.
Comfort, pages 105 - 107. [1 of 2].
Isaiah 21:11, 12
Happily for us, the scripture answers the question by giving us the heads of all events before us, namely, "The morning cometh, and also the night". Blessed be God, the great and leading subject is the morning, the "morning without clouds" (2 Samuel 23:4); and the harbinger of that great moment is "the bright and morning star" (Revelation 22:16).
The coming of our Lord, when we shall meet Him in the air, is the special hope given to us; and unless this hope forms and defines the end of all our expectation, there will be a defective way of looking at the night. It is, "in thy light shall we see light" (Psalm 36:9); and it is as we have the brightness of His coming before us as our one simple, unmixed hope, that we shall be able, in the light of it, to form a true judgment of what is transpiring in the night.
Unless the coming of the Lord is before me, I have not the true hope of the church before me, and all my works and services will be characterised by this defect. Without this hope I cannot have a true object for my heart, and if I have not, I cannot prevent other things from taking a place in my heart; so that the coming of the Lord, the Harbinger of the day, must be my only polar star.
What other hope could guide or cheer me but the return of Him who, having loved me and given Himself for me, has left me here during His absence to do His pleasure, in company with His own; and
while pursuing with diligence the service that He has appointed to me, never to lose sight of that moment when I shall see Him and be like Him. Thus the morning Star must be the hope of the true heart, and the way to judge of everything must be in the light of that day.
The brightest moment is the one on which my heart is fixed, whatever intervenes; and because I am thus assured of it, and independent of all present things, I can truly and calmly analyse the nature of them; not to discover anything to divert me from my hope, but to ascertain anything and everything which would contribute to the name of my absent Lord, helping His people according to the grace given me. "The Spirit and the bride say, Come. And let him that hears say, Come. And let him that is athirst come; he that will, let him take the water of life freely" (Revelation 22:17). Here, in view of the bright and morning Star, is summed up the service of the church at the close of the night.
Now in order to carry out any branch of this service, I have to come in contact with the night, with the many obstructions which the prince of darkness raises up to check and suppress the light. To note these various devices, and the energies which mark the night, is incumbent also on the watchman; always bearing in mind that he must not study the current and commotions here in themselves, but as they hinder or attempt to counteract the word of the Lord.
If I am really set in heart and purpose on the
morning, I am in the light and service as one waiting for "his Son from the heavens" (1 Thessalonians 1:10). I discover, by the light of God's Spirit, the wiles of Satan, and thus the particular effect or pressure which the course of things here has on me and on the truth. If I study political or moral things in their own identities, I may discover the measure in which men are affected by them; I ascertain what they are in relation to man. But in order to understand them as they are in the sight of God, I must be in the power of the truth myself; for whatever is not truth or light is error and darkness, and as I know the truth, I discover the intent and place of the opposition to it. I judge and decide on what is bad by my knowledge of what is good, on the principle, "He that is not with me is against me" (Luke 11:23).
Now it is a known fact that more than fifty years ago+ there was a distinct awakening of the church to the coming of the Lord. The cry went forth, "Behold, the bridegroom" (Matthew 25:6). The opposition to this truth by the enemy was first the attempt to weaken it by the startling and, for a time, uncontradicted assertion that no one was ready to meet the Lord, because we had not the Holy Spirit. This was refused and refuted by those who had learned that Christ in heaven was the Head of His body on earth, insisting on the truth that the wise virgins had oil in their vessels; that the right or privilege of every believer is to be sealed by the
+This article was written in 1879 - Ed.
Spirit. Thus the gleam of light which had made a track for itself through the darkness of the night grew stronger and brighter.
These truths as they were received greatly helped souls. The certainty of Christ's finished work placing the believer not only in assurance of safety, but in his acceptance with God, was new and incontrovertible. How could a believer have Christ as his Head in heaven unless he was first accepted in the Beloved; and how could he be here, united to the members of the body of Christ, if he had not received the Holy Spirit, which is the seal of being established in Christ? This truth, the true and only ground for peace, or life, or church position, was opposed in many ways.
The drift of Puseyism was trying in some way to quiet the conscience by bodily exercise. Alas! many were thus turned away from the light. Satan had seen further for evil than his agents; and he had prepared the hood or blind for them before the light reached them. Many were propped up and deceived by devotional exercises as the means of obtaining rest for their consciences, long before the faintest glimmer of the light reached their eyes; so that when it did, they rejected or opposed it. Justification by faith was not opposed, but the certainty of full acceptance with God in Christ was utterly refused at first, because this truth leaves no place for religion in the flesh.
Another form of opposition was the doctrine that Christ by incarnation connected Himself with man, in order to raise and restore the old stock, and not, as
according to Scripture, that He died for all, and that, rising again, every one in Him is a new creation. It was reformation, not transformation. It is evident that this theory, which was openly taught in print, secretly and wickedly sought to divert the souls from the light.
On this followed from within -- that is, from among those who had accepted the light -- a very serious defection from it, and one of great warning. It was taught, and influence was gained by the teaching, that the church will be in the tribulation; thus indirectly, and for a time unsuspectedly, the light was ignored by its professors, which up to this had survived many an opposition, and had penetrated far and wide. If the church be in the judgment, then it is not the body of Christ, bound to Him, the Head, in heaven; it is simply, as many would maintain, a congregation of all believers, from Abel down to the last one -- and then there is no body at all.
As this obtained, there was a return to form, and a practical denial of the Spirit's rule, and of the responsibility of the assembly to decide on matters of discipline; so that the principles which the light had disclosed and inculcated were rejected. Hence there was no option for the upright, for those really in the light, but distinct and absolute separation from this heresy, as it was eventually proved to be by the false doctrine which lay at the base of the system. It is to be noted here that the leaven of independence which sprang up in connection with this opposition to the light has worked in many to this day, so that the very
professors of the light are the great neutralisers of it -- a great success to the power of darkness.
The light, having triumphed over this secret and well-constructed device, grew and increased in vigour and definiteness. Numbers had received it, and there was a marked advance in intelligence, which enjoined and insisted on complete separation from the system of wickedness which had sprung up in their midst.
Now arose a new stratagem of the enemy, new in form and character. The light, as I have said, had greatly extended, and now the device or snare was to popularise it. At first this was hardly noticeable. Many earnest men went forth preaching the gospel, using every means to obtain large audiences, unintentionally and ignorantly departing from the great truth insisted on, when the light was simply held, that there was no power here for Christ but the Holy Spirit. However, the gospel extended, souls were saved, consciences were relieved; and that being gained, many sought no more. Salvation became the all in all, and the church, Christ's interest and glory here in His body, was less noticed and cared for.
This gave rise to a very peculiar state of things. There was a large company of preachers who avowed that they only sought the salvation of souls, and had no clear idea of where they should pasture; like one wearing coloured glasses, they had not the full scope of the light. This weakening of the truth was eventually gigantically headed up in the most public and effective way by those who taught that
separation from the world order was neither incumbent nor necessary for the believer, thus making the gain of the soul the only aim and desire. Concurrently it was taught that holiness by faith could be reached without separation from any of the systems, thus in spirit and in effect invalidating the great moral value of the light, that we are Christ's body on the earth, and that now, with trimmed lamps, we are going forth to meet Him.
I am conscious that I could never even give an outline of the damage done to souls by this daring divorce of what God has joined together, namely, Christ's glory and my blessing; but I would just give a few results of this, the latest contravention of the power and scope of the light.
First, unknowingly and imperceptibly, the mass of those who had received the light and owned that it was of God were leavened with the notion that the salvation of the soul was everything, even while they outwardly conformed to the truth of gathering together to the name of Christ as their true church position. Undivided attention to everything connect-ed with the gospel marked them, and this with a surrender of the manner of life and separation in every line which members of the body of Christ on earth would feel bound to observe. Provided that the conscience was kept quiet and at ease as to the safety of the soul, everything else was secondary; and the formal appearance at the Lord's table was more a corroboration of one's faith in Christ than an expression, in joy of heart, of His body on the earth
now in the fellowship of His death. Thus, with increase of numbers, there was no increase of power. Those who avow the truth as a whole, but really reject it -- except as far as their own immediate gain is concerned -- hinder and deform the teaching and testimony of those consistently holding to the full requirements of the truth.
It is not that there is not an increased number of true witnesses, but their work is thwarted and shaded by many who, while avowedly in company with them, are not in fellowship. A mixed thing is never very striking or impressive; the light is clouded by its associate. Hence, where much sacrifice would be entailed, men cannot see the same vigour and power in the advocates of the truth as in former days, when they were not connected with so mixed a company which neutralised their testimony. But in addition to this, the gospel, as far as ensuring salvation, can be heard outside and apart from separation; so that in a twofold way men in the world are less moved by the truth than they used to be. All this varied opposition to the light has given greater opportunity to the caviller, the infidel. He hears of theories and of assumption, but sees very little of the power of God's Spirit putting a man in a new position here on earth, in open and manifest superiority to his former circumstances, so that all must own that it is supernatural and unprecedented in human society.
In conclusion, one word as to the line of service which would help souls in a day like this, and that which we must avoid. The one simple and
eventually successful line is the maintenance of the truth in its integrity. "Abide in those things which thou hast learned, and of which thou hast been fully persuaded, knowing of whom thou hast learned them" (2 Timothy 3:14). "Thou hast been thoroughly acquainted with my teaching, conduct", etc. (verse 10). No qualifying of the truth, the light which penetrated this dark night! We accepted in the Beloved, He our Head in heaven, and we, His body on earth, waiting for Him, going forth from everything here to meet Him. We must not follow, except with counsel and prayer, those who, even in real devotedness of heart, retire into isolation of any kind. Some are so tried by the lack of a distinct and sound testimony according to their mind, that they exclaim and assert that there is no remedy, and retire into isolation for their own rest and relief. Others, again, fall into the snare of being extreme, forgetting that exaggerated statements do not promote the truth, do not sanctify, but are weapons for the enemy to hinder and obstruct it.
Lastly, we are not to follow those who are so broad that everything is satisfactory to them, and who are thus becoming deadened to the beautiful traits and qualities of the light of life, which should mark the members of Christ on earth.
The Lord give His servants to do the work of an evangelist: "But thou, be sober in all things, bear evils, do the work of an evangelist, fill up the full measure of thy ministry" (2 Timothy 4:5). Like David's mighty men, may they not only slay the enemy, but preserve the food for all Israel. We see something of
what the character of the night is, but, blessed be God, the bright and morning Star is our hope and cheer and guide to the end.
Ministry by J. B. Stoney, Volume 10, pages 331 - 337.
John 17:14 - 17; Ephesians 5:25 - 27; Hebrews 2:11, 12
I seek the Lord's help to say a little about sanctification.
The Lord, in John 17, in speaking to His Father, says, "Holy Father, keep them in thy name which thou hast given me, that they may be one as we" (verse 11). Think of the Lord Jesus desiring that His own should be kept by His God and Father in the time of the Lord's absence. The Lord Jesus was indeed going on high, and that by way of the cross, as we know. Earlier He had said, "Now is my soul troubled, and what shall I say? Father, save me from this hour" (John 12:27), as feeling all that lay before Him, yet, with those thoughts in His mind, He was thinking about His own. It says, "Jesus, knowing that his hour had come that he should depart out of this world to the Father, having loved his own who were in the world, loved them to the end" (John 13:1).
In spite of all that came upon Him, that love remained, and I can say to my brethren here, it still remains. Christ's love is unchanging; it never varies. Our appreciation of it may vary, but His love never varies. "Having loved his own who were in the
world, loved them to the end" -- footnote a to "end" says, '... going through with everything is implied'. Through all the vicissitudes of life, the ups and downs that mark us, yet the Lord's love remains. What a wonderful thing to take account of the unchanging love of Christ! Paul said, "the love of the Christ constrains us" (2 Corinthians 5:14). How con-straining is that love!
But then the Lord says to His Father, "those thou hast given me I have guarded, and not one of them has perished, but the son of perdition, that the scripture might be fulfilled" (John 17:12), and He continues, "They are not of the world, as I am not of the world". What a statement! The Lord knew they were not of the world, and we too are not to be of the world; in it, but not of it. We have to do our daily work, we have to mix with other people; and those of us who are younger have to go to school. We need to remember that we are not of the world. We are heading for another world where Christ is the Sun and Centre, and He wants His own to be kept safely here.
The Lord Jesus says, "They are not of the world, as I am not of the world. Sanctify them by the truth". The truth is to have a sanctifying effect upon us. We are to be separated to God. God has taken us up, He has worked in our souls and He will perfect something in us for His own pleasure and glory. He wants us to be preserved in relation to Himself. The enemy of our souls would seek to turn us aside and so rob the Lord of what is for His pleasure. God
said, in the days of Malachi, "Will a man rob God? But ye rob me. And ye say, Wherein do we rob thee? In tithes and heave-offerings" (Malachi 3:8). God's people were really missing out on what was due to God in His holy service. They did not realise that they were bringing sacrifices that God could not take pleasure in. He says, "And now, ye priests, this commandment is for you" (Malachi 2:1). God was addressing the priesthood in the days of Malachi, a sad time of breakdown in responsibility, and yet God was appealing to them. They were bringing things that were unsuitable, entirely out of accord with His holy nature. "Ye offer polluted bread upon mine altar ... and if ye offer the blind for sacrifice ... and ... the lame and sick, is it not evil?" (chapter 1: 7, 8). God is looking for the best. He is worthy of the best. He has given the best from His side, and the best has been done for us. How wonderful the ways and character of God Himself!
So the Lord says in John 17, in speaking to His Father, "Sanctify them by the truth: thy word is truth". The truth as we know it, as it is in Jesus, is to have a sanctifying effect upon us. We are to be set apart for the divine glory. The Lord was the Sanctifier, but He is asking the Father to do this here. He says, "Sanctify them by the truth". It involves, no doubt, the gift, presence and power of the Holy Spirit so that He can operate in us and with us, that this sanctifying may have effect in us. We need to be affected by the sanctification of the truth, and we need to grow in our love for the truth. How
much do we love the truth? The Lord says, "I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father unless by me" (John 14:6). Think of the wonderful intercourse between divine Persons: the Father and the Son and the Spirit all working to the great end that we, as believers, may be brought into the enjoyment of what it is to be sanctified by the truth. He says, "As thou hast sent me into the world, I also have sent them into the world; and I sanctify myself for them" (verses 18, 19). This involves the Lord's present position in glory. He has been here; He moved here as a lowly Man, in grace; He "went through all quarters doing good, and healing all that were under the power of the devil, because God was with him" (Acts 10:38). What a Man! What a perfect Man! The One upon whom the Father could open the heavens and declare His delight in Him when He was here (Matthew 3:17; Matthew 17:5). It is that One who says, "I sanctify myself for them" (John 17:19). He has set Himself apart on high, may I say, for the benefit and blessing of His own.
What a service He now renders: our great high Priest; our Advocate! John says, "I write to you in order that ye may not sin" (1 John 2:1), but we have an Advocate if we do sin. Then His priestly service too continues for us. How blessed to think of that! He says, "I sanctify myself for them, that they also may be sanctified by truth". That is, the truth would set us apart to be here for the divine pleasure. God has taken us up to that end, that we may be here for His pleasure, and He has secured a vessel, the
assembly, resulting from the divine operations, one that can answer to His own heart.
"Christ also loved the assembly, and has delivered himself up for it" (Ephesians 5:25). Think of what this means. Paul exhorts husbands "to love your own wives". Then the standard is given: "even as the Christ also loved the assembly, and has delivered himself up for it". He has done that "in order that he might sanctify it". This service of sanctifying continues through all the vicissitudes of life. God uses these to test His people. Indeed, Jehovah said to Gideon, in relation to his dealing with Midian, "The people that are with thee are too many for me to give Midian into their hand". Those that were "timid and afraid", twenty-two thousand of them, went back from mount Gilead, and there remained ten thousand. "Still the people are many; bring them down to the water, and I will try them for thee there". God was testing His people, whether they were wholly dependent on things that are here, "bowed down on their knees to drink", or whether they touch things lightly here, "Every one that lappeth with his tongue, as a dog lappeth" (Judges 7:2 - 7). Well, just three hundred passed this test; this was the proof of manhood according to God.
Christ is operating now in view of presenting "the assembly to himself glorious, having no spot, or wrinkle, or any of such things; but that it might be holy and blameless". So the Lord is "purifying it ... by the washing of water by the word". That continues. (continued on page 83)
Humble that start and unique in its lowliness,
"Glory to God in the Highest" is heralded,
Ponder, my soul, o'er this wondrous environment;
'Tis but a pathway of sorrow and suffering
There can we trace in the realms of humanity,
Friend of the needy and help of the destitute,
Hated of men and the song of their revelry,
Prostrate with grief, see Him there in Gethsemane;
Deeper that grief as He stoops down to Calvary,
Shrouded in darkness, those hours inexpressible,
Deeper, still deeper, in love's blest devotedness,
Bowed are our hearts as we look on that sepulchre,
Yet, to beholden of death was impossible;
See, too, the Father's own glory in evidence;
Hear, then, that One with affections reciprocal,
Then to ascend in the might of His majesty,
Up through the heavens, their hosts bowed and worshipping
Soon are there heard through the realms of the universe
Ponder, my soul, then this hour of such ecstasy,
Yet wider still swell the anthems of royalty;
Onward we gaze to the dawn of eternity,
All now secured in accord with God's blessedness,
(continued from page 78) Thank God, we can sit under the power of the word! May the prophetic word be effective with us in view of presentation: "that he may present the assembly to himself glorious". What a thought this is! "Having no spot, or wrinkle, or any of such things". We are brought into the wonderful understanding of the counterpart that the Lord has. He can speak of "my assembly" (Matthew 16:18). He has died to secure this vessel for Himself: "Christ also loved the assembly, and has delivered himself up for it". Think of the Lord's love for the assembly and His service to her, which, though here in this world, is not of it. The work of God will be seen in a collective sense in the assembly in the day to come.
But for this vessel, the assembly, which the Lord has delivered Himself up for, the sanctifying and the purifying is going on even now. How patient the Lord has been for nearly two thousand years. His work has been going on, and we are part of it. Think of what He wants to secure for His own glory, and He will display it in a day yet to come. This work is going on now -- the sanctifying, the purifying, the washing, continuing at the present moment. Think of the way that this love has come into expression, the way we have been delivered from that first order of man, the way He sanctifies us, purifies us through the word and the testings of the way in which we go. God uses them, the Lord uses them. We may not understand the trials that one another may have to go through, the sorrows of the way, the testings of the
way. Even of Joseph it says that "the word of Jehovah tried him" (Psalm 105:19), through certain circumstances that were perhaps hard to understand. Think of a man like Joseph, great type of Christ that he is, yet he had to go through that testing period in view of coming out to take his place of distinction among the Gentiles.
Think of the sufferings of Christ too, and all that He had to go through, but He is now on high, crowned with glory and honour. But, as I said earlier, this work in us is still going on. Let us not in any sense shrink from the understanding of the exercises the Lord puts us through, that we may get the good and gain of the sanctifying effect. The Lord is using it, for He has the great end in view that He is going to "present the assembly to himself glorious, having no spot, or wrinkle, or any of such things". The Lord's service has in view that there may be no blemishes, that the assembly may be "glorious" for Himself, and "that it might be holy and blameless". Think of that being said of a creature vessel!
I refer to Hebrews 2 where we have another aspect of sanctification. "He that sanctifies and those sanctified are all of one". The Lord Jesus is the Sanctifier and we are among the sanctified. It says, they are "all of one". He has secured such a company that can be united to Himself, as "all of one", from one stock. We are of Him, and we are to be like Him, and we are to be for Him. "For which cause he is not ashamed to call them brethren,
saying, I will declare thy name to my brethren; in the midst of the assembly will I sing thy praises". He has now secured a company in which He can declare the Father's name, in which He can sing the Father's praises. It is wonderful to contemplate these things, and to understand the greatness and glory of these divine thoughts, that Christ loved the assembly and gave Himself for it.
Now this vessel is used in His holy service Godward. He has made the Father known, He has declared His name, but then He has this vessel, the assembly, in which He is able to sing the Father's praise. May we experience something more of these blessed things -- the One who sanctifies and we who are sanctified, being all of one, and "he is not ashamed to call them brethren". May we enter into the joy and privilege of these things, particularly when, by the Spirit on the first day of the week, the Lord Jesus leads His own into the presence of His God and Father, to be there in the holy liberty and joy of sonship for His pleasure. May it be so, for His Name's sake.
It appears to me that in the issue of a new serial -- Food for the Faithful (1898) -- it is important to make plain that the object in so doing is the maintenance and setting forth of that which is true in
doctrine, not the promulgation of that which is new.
That there has been in the present century a remarkable revival of the truth of the Church, no intelligent Christian can, I think, gainsay; and the effect of this has been felt, far and wide, beyond the immediate circle which has been formed by the truth thus revived in God's goodness.
In later years the question has arisen as to how the great truths involved in the Church, such as the calling of God, eternal life, new creation and union are to be maintained. The effort to secure them by the use of fixed statements and conventional terms, devoid of elasticity, has proved entirely inefficacious; as has also the mode of attaching every-thing to the believer as a possession, the good of which is experienced in the power of the Spirit. Souls trained in this school must necessarily stop short of any apprehension of new creation.
It is now largely admitted that a Christian's apprehension of God's calling cannot be anything beyond the measure of God's work in him. He may claim standing and privilege, have prophecy, understand all mysteries and all knowledge intellectually, have faith to remove mountains, and, without love, be nothing. A Christian's measure for God and for the assembly is love, and love is evidently the work of God in him.
Now this brings me to the conclusion that the real and only way to secure truths which have been revived is in our being the expression of those truths; holding the truth in love; and at the same time
watchful that, while having the full light of God's will in Christ, we do not arrogate to ourselves anything beyond what we are as the effect and fruit of God's work in us; for it is evident that we cannot have the conscious sense of any truth, save as we are in the state which corresponds to that truth (1 Corinthians 1:30); and it is, I think, unsafe to talk much of things of which we have not the consciousness.
While speaking thus of consciousness, I do not mean to put it in the place of faith. The first light of God in the soul is by faith. We are justified by faith, saved by faith, sons of God by faith, risen together with Christ by faith, and Christ is to dwell in our hearts by faith. So that in the christian course the scope of faith is more and more enlarged.
At the same time it is certain that a large part of the New Testament is occupied with bringing before us the work of the Spirit of God in the believer, which forms him for approach to God in the consciousness of his soul; and consciousness in this sense must be in the new man. The old man has nothing to say to it.
As a proof and illustration of what I have said, I would draw attention to the epistle to the Hebrews. In the first ten chapters we have but little unfolded as to the state of the Christian (save a state of unbelief and danger of apostasy). What is brought to light is the new order of things which is the necessary moral consequence of the sacrifice and priesthood of Christ, not only in the setting aside of what previously existed, but in the introduction of
that which is perfect as both expressing and answering to God's mind.
In Hebrews 11 to 13, however, we get the question of christian state elucidated, and learn how it is formed. The first great principle of it is faith, which is, for this moment, the principle of living. This is not peculiar to Christianity, for it was announced as a principle to the prophet Habakkuk in view of the coming of the Lord. What I understand by this is that the soul is in the light of God's testimony, not in the moral darkness which is around. This testimony is for us of the glory of God and Jesus at the right hand of God.
This principle of faith puts us in the line of the witnesses. It involves that the soul is in the light of God's pleasure and perfect satisfaction. But in chapter 12, we have not, so far as I know (after the opening), any allusion to faith, but in a sense what is greater than faith, namely, the chastening of God, and its voice and meaning to those who are the subjects of His discipline; together with the purpose to which the chastening is directed. The chapter necessitates a distinction between mere professors and those who are really of God. In His discipline God does not occupy Himself with bastards; they are not genuinely of Him, though they may be in the place of profession; and hence they are not disciplined. Those who come under discipline are the objects of love -- they are of God, and thus sons; and if even they have not accepted the assurance of this by the Spirit, they may learn by discipline that
they are loved of God. Though they may not bear themselves towards God as sons, He bears Himself towards them as Father. Thus the soul is practically led into the reality of the relationship, which is the most essential step in the question of christian state.
Then, concurrent with this, we have the object of chastening, namely, that we may be morally according to God, as partaking of His holiness, and yielding peaceable fruits of righteousness. Thus we have in principle the having put on the new man, which is created after God in righteousness and holiness of truth. In the new man the believer is holy and without blame before God in love. In the putting on of the new man there is of necessity the having put off the old (Ephesians 4:22 - 24).
Thus we have light as to the formative principles of christian state, and the means by which it is effected in us. As the result of this there is the ability to apprehend the breadth and length and depth and height, the whole range and extent of things before God, the fruit of His sovereign will; and to distinguish between that which is for God, and that which is for man. In the case of the children of Israel, in coming to mount Sinai where God addressed them, they came to that which could and did affect man as man. It was not a scene of judgment; but it had a good deal of that character. There was that which was tangible and terrible to the senses, and calculated to inspire man with awe, and to forbid his approach to God, or even the hearing of His voice.
But Christians have come to another order of
objects, none of which could affect or be appreciated by the natural man (1 Corinthians 2), and they can be appreciated by the Christian only in the measure in which he has been formed of God according to His nature. Then it is that he can discern the difference between the things which are for God, and those that are for man. At the same time he apprehends that his own true blessing and position are bound up with the things which are for God.
Thus the mount Zion, the city of the living God, and the Church of the firstborn ones which are written in heaven, are evidently for God (Hebrews 12:22 - 24); that is, for His glory and pleasure, and for the display of Himself, of His long-suffering mercy, His government and His grace. With these our calling as "in Christ" is identified; and in the soul's apprehension of these objects we reach the point where God, and He only, is "judge" -- all is under His eye. Then it is that we have the consciousness of all that which is for man: the perfecting of "just men" through redemption, the new covenant in its Mediator, and the blood of sprinkling speaking of the removal of death in righteousness, instead of an answering call for vengeance. In this way our souls are in the brightest light as the fruit of God's work in us; and in the apprehension of the greatest things which are for God, we have not only the faith but the consciousness of all that is of God's grace for man. Truly we can then say that we have been brought out of darkness into God's marvellous light (1 Peter 2:9).
Ministry by F. E. Raven, Volume 11, pages 437 - 440.
J. Ralph
John 14:1 - 11, 20; Philippians 3:7 - 10
The more we are livingly acquainted with the Person of Christ, the Son of God, the more liberty there will be in regard to our approach to God. In order to be for the divine pleasure it is necessary to draw near to God, not only in connection with our needs, but in the apprehension of the Person of Christ in connection with what He is for God. We can only appreciate Him thus as we are taught by the Holy Spirit, who dwells in us, through grace. How marvellous that the saints of God are indwelt by the Holy Spirit -- a divine Person!
The Holy Spirit is doing today what He commenced to do immediately He descended from the glory, that is, to engage the saints with Christ in glory: He has come from that scene, and it is His delight to engage our hearts with the One who has accomplished redemption in divine love and has gone back to glory.
In studying John's gospel we need to see that the Son is revealing the Father and is doing works in connection with the Father's pleasure and glory which are eternal in character. Here He speaks of the future, and He would console His own in connection with their being left here. He commences this chapter with those well-known words, "Let not your heart be troubled ..." The Lord Jesus felt things perfectly; He would comfort them, and He says, "ye believe on God" -- they had believed on God -- but
now He adds, "believe also on me". That was something new to them.
Then He speaks of the scene into which He is going -- powerful words which would attract their hearts, as He would attract our hearts to Himself and lead us to the scene into which He has gone. "In my Father's house there are many abodes" -- that is future, and it is remarkable that He should touch upon what we may speak of now, through grace, as our eternal home. What pleasure He has in speaking to His own thus! We learn what is in the heart of the Lord Jesus Christ for His own; we need to get over to that side more than we do. The enemy would engage us with anything else; he would occupy us with our weakness, our poverty in connection with the apprehension of divine things, to rob us of the blessedness of what the Lord Jesus would bring us into. The way of deliverance is in the knowledge of this Person as brought before us here by the Spirit; the knowledge of the Lord Jesus Himself will set us at liberty.
So He says, "In my Father's house there are many abodes", for there are to be many families in the universe of bliss. In Solomon's temple the highest chamber was the largest, reminding us of the large place that the saints of the present dispensation have in the mind and heart of God and our Lord Jesus Christ. "In my Father's house are many abodes; were it not so, I had told you" -- as much as to say, Would I have led you thus far if this were not true? "I go to prepare you a place". Jesus is there
now, for He has gone to the Father. The presence of Jesus there, as having accomplished redemption, has prepared the place, and when we go there we shall find everything prepared by divine love. It is very sweet to go into a home or house that has been prepared by love. The Lord Jesus has prepared the home.
"And if I go and shall prepare you a place, I am coming again and shall receive you to myself, that where I am ye also may be". It is very beautiful that the fact of His coming again should be spoken of first by the Lord Himself, while the manner of His coming is unfolded in the epistles. It is quite possible to have the truth of the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ as a doctrine and yet not to be waiting and watching for Him, but the knowledge of the Person as outlined in this remarkable gospel will awaken our affections and keep them centred on our Lord Jesus Christ, so that His coming will be our daily hope.
Then He says, "And ye know where I go, and ye know the way". This statement of the Lord Jesus awakens an inquiry on the part of Thomas: "Lord, we know not where thou goest, and how can we know the way?" Then we have that wonderful answer, "I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father unless by me". The Lord Jesus opens out here the great possibility of knowing the Father now before we are taken into His house, for He would engage us with what is present. The Lord would have us to know it as a journey in the
history of the soul -- to go to the Father now. It is the service of the Lord Jesus now to lead us in Spirit to the Father collectively, but there is the need to know this individually in soul history, as He says, "No one comes to the Father unless by me".
The truth is learned only in the blessed Person of Christ. Some of us wish we could get on quicker and make more progress, and the Lord appreciates every such desire in those who love Him. We need to bear in mind that a Person is the way to the Father, a Person presents the truth about the Father, and life is in a Person, as He says, "I am the way, and the truth, and the life". If we have the Person of the Lord Jesus before us by the Spirit of God, the journey so necessary to the knowledge of the Father will be a simple matter. The Lord Jesus Himself will lead us to the Father.
The work of God as outlined in this gospel is very interesting. The first nine chapters are intensely individual. The woman in chapter 4 and the man in chapter 9 are remarkable cases of soul history, and I world refer to the way the Lord Jesus manifested Himself to them, for I firmly believe that it is necessary for us to know Him individually as they knew Him. In the case of the woman there came a moment in that wonderful conversation when the Lord disclosed Himself to her as the Christ -- "I who speak to thee am he" (John 4:26). To the man in chapter 9 the Lord made Himself known as the Son of God. "Thou hast both seen him, and he that speaks with thee is he. And he said, I believe, Lord:
and he did him homage" (chapter 9: 37, 38). He is won by this glorious Person.
These are the persons who compose the assembly. We do not get the word 'assembly' in John's gospel, but such persons would have their part in it and contribute to it in a wonderful way. What power there would be with such as they move about in their local assemblies! Such persons would get the gain of what is unfolded in chapters 10 to 17.
Philip raises a question: "Lord, shew us the Father, and it suffices us". Now comes another disclosure, partly a rebuke, "Am I so long a time with you, and thou hast not known me, Philip? He that has seen me has seen the Father". The Father is to be seen in the Son. That glorious Person we have begun to know as Jesus, the One to whom we came in connection with our need, is the One who delights to make the Father known, and it is God's thought that each one of us should see the Father in the Son.
Before we are taken by the Son into the Father's house, the Father is to be seen in the Son. I need hardly say that it is by the Spirit of God that this is reached. The Lord says in connection with the coming of the Holy Spirit, the Comforter, "In that day ye shall know that I am in my Father ..." The Lord Jesus does not bring impossibilities before us; they are things that can be reached by those who know and love Him. If we desire to know the place we have in the heart of the Son, let us listen to Him speaking to the Father about His own as recorded in chapter 17.
I refer now to the energy that marked the apostle Paul in connection with the knowledge of Christ. He is drawing to the end of his life; he is in prison; he is speaking, not as an apostle here, but as a believer; as he could say to the Galatian Christians, "in that I now live in flesh, I live by faith, the faith of the Son of God, who has loved me and given himself for me" (Galatians 2:20). In this passage in the epistle to the Philippians we see the energy that marked him at the close of his life to know Him more intimately. "To know him, and the power of his resurrection, and the fellowship of his sufferings, being conformed to his death".
May we all know the Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God, more intimately!
Lewisham, London, 8 December 1934.
J. Taylor
Revelation 3:7 - 13; 1 Thessalonians 4:13 - 18
It would be admitted by all who are familiar with Scripture, that the truth of translation comes out first in connection with Enoch, "By faith Enoch was translated that he should not see death; and was not found, because God had translated him; for before his translation he has the testimony that he had pleased God" (Hebrews 11:5). In his prophecy he does not speak of translation, but of the coming of the Lord, "Behold, the Lord has come amidst his holy myriads" (Jude 14); but the truth of translation is first introduced with him. I think, too, it is a principle in Scripture, that in the first introduction of a thought you get the main features connected with it, and these mark it right through Scripture. So here one of the main features connected with translation is that God translates what pleases Him. Enoch had the "testimony that he had pleased God". I suggested reading these scriptures that our attention might be called to this thought, that pleasing God precedes translation.
So in Thessalonians the saints are spoken of as those who walked so as to please God; but the apostle exhorts them that they should do this "more and more" (1 Thessalonians 4:1, Authorised Version). The element of pleasing God is introduced at the beginning of the chapter, before he goes on to the thought of translation; and what is before one's mind is the desire that the Lord would bring about in the people
of God what is for His pleasure, before He is about to translate the assembly.
If we look at the address to Philadelphia (Revelation 3), we find the principle of being kept there. The Lord says, "I also will keep thee out of the hour of trial". The hour of tribulation is coming on those that dwell upon the earth, on the earth-dwellers, but the Lord says, "I will keep thee" from it. Through our exercise and the power of God working in us, and as having to do with God, we are kept now. Translation is the power of the Lord working in the future, but we are being kept now. He says the hour of tribulation is coming, but "I will keep thee" out of it. So that we need not fear that the next dispensation will come upon us with all its tribulation. We are kept out of the moral elements of the tribulation now. It is not said I will take you out of it, but I will "keep thee" out of it. He keeps us from the moral elements of evil which call for the tribulation.
The moral elements are present now; they are taking form now. In the reconstruction of the world, the principle of covenant or agreement will pre-dominate. Men see the great advantage to be gained from agreement, and that it should hold and not be broken at will, and they seek to reconstruct the world on that principle. Now God will meet that condition of things. He will see that His people are brought into an agreement, that they have a fellow-ship. The book of Revelation shows how the world's fellowship will work out under the beast; the principle of boycott will mark all, but we are fortified
against that by what we are committed to in our baptism, and then by fellowship. There are things which we cannot do because of the terms of our fellowship. By the terms of our fellowship we are committed to God. That is right; certain things are laid down; God has His highways, as the psalmist says, "they, in whose heart are the highways" (Psalm 84:5). We have the highways in our hearts; we cannot turn aside to byways. In that way the fellowship commits us to God, and then, too, we are committed to the fellowship of His Son and the fellowship of His death. That is our fortification against this phase of things .
The title of the Holy and the True under which the Lord presents Himself to Philadelphia shows what He was as committed to God. They are features in which He is known to us now. He is the Holy and the True; these things involve what is due to God; if we are committed to God it must be in holiness, it is what becomes His house. So, too, with what is true. Then as to power He has the "key of David"; that is a wonderful light in which to see Christ -- as the One who opens and no one shuts.
Endurance is walking so as to please God. In other words, it is abiding true to the terms of God's relations with us. The Lord says, "Because thou hast kept the word of my patience" (footnote i, 'endurance'), "I also will keep thee". It is what Christ is to the assembly. In speaking to Philadelphia the Lord says, "thee"; He is addressing the whole assembly; He includes in that expression all the
saints, but it is the assembly in the abstract. The features He marks out in Philadelphia are seen in some, and He accredits it to the whole. He mentions the "little power" and keeping the word of His patience and not denying His name, that are seen in some; and in that way He clothes the whole with what is seen.
A Philadelphian takes account of things in the light of this book; he sees that there are earth-dwellers, those whose hearts and hopes are on the earth. Paul speaks of some of those and adds, "of whom I ... now tell you even weeping, that they are the enemies of the cross of Christ" (Philippians 3:18). In contrast to that, the Philadelphian is with the Lord in his spirit; he is recovered to normal assembly relations and takes account of how things affect Christ and God. He endured; the Lord endured whatever came; He endured for God; He could say "The reproaches of them that reproach thee have fallen upon me" (Romans 15:3). So, too, the Philadelphian endures for God; the patience that marks him is according to Christ, there is correspondence to Christ in the endurance. It is in this way that being for God's pleasure is arrived at practically, and as I said, this precedes translation. To be kept is in accord with the dispensation, we are "kept ... by the power of God" (1 Peter 1:5).
What God is looking for today is that we should please Him. Christ is the pattern of everything with God. He has set forth His mind in Christ, and now He is looking for an answer to that in us. The revival
is to that end. 1 Thessalonians emphasises the need of increase; they were to abound yet more and more; the thing was to come to full fruition. There is to be brought to pass in the saints what is pleasurable to God in view of translation. The Lord speaks of incompleteness to Sardis. That was not pleasing to Him. They came short of what was set forth at the beginning. Christianity does not come short, it is full measure. Paul writing to the Corinthians, spoke of his measure reaching to them (2 Corinthians 10:13); he did not come short; he fulfilled his ministry. Christianity is full measure. There is no Yea and Amen in the Old Testament; you could not get that till you come to Christ, but in Him is Yea (2 Corinthians 1:19); there is the perfect answer to the mind of God. Now if He has undertaken things for God, all must surely come to pass. So revival brings us back to what was true at the beginning, not indeed in any outward or public way, but in that God secures an answer to Christ under His eye.
The Lord does not say, 'I will take thee out of the hour of trial', but "I also will keep thee"; that is the principle of the dispensation; "kept ... by the power of God", and there is correspondence to Christ in it. Enoch, before his translation had the witness that he pleased God, but it does not say when he got it. He tells us about the Lord; his testimony is as to the Lord coming, but in the secret of his soul he had the witness that he pleased God.
It is sorrowful to see that the assembly and the outward profession of Christianity have largely
taken up a place on the earth today. It has been the tendency of things from very early days. We see it in the two going to Emmaus (Luke 24); there was the tendency to earth-dwelling even there. In Mark we see it was the direction of their walk, "they walked, going into the country" (chapter 16: 12). Luke tells us they were going to their own home. It shows the tendency of our hearts. The overcomer is not promised anything on the earth; he is not an earth-dweller; the promises have to do with the things which he cherishes. The rewards are just what he would desire, and the Lord knows it. People who live on the earth do not want these things.
There may be recovery. In the end of Luke we read of a man coming up out of the country, and the world puts the cross on that man (chapter 23: 26). And such a man gets a posterity; in Mark he is referred to as the father of Alexander and Rufus (chapter 15: 21). That is very suggestive. The crisis today is between what is earthly and what is heavenly. We have to ask ourselves whether we prefer what is heavenly to earthly. If we desire what is heavenly, we shall surely get it and we shall be taken to heaven. Of course, we go to heaven because it is the purpose of God to have us there, but His power is exercised to bring about suitability for the place His purpose has given us. He brings in circumstances and certain things which will fortify us against the forces of evil.
Another thing seen in Enoch is endurance, continuance. He walked with God for three hundred years and he pleased God. In Genesis 5 you have a
lifeline; chapter 4 is collateral, but it is Cain's line; it begins in a murderer even though his life is preserved. It typifies the Jew, whose life is preserved, but he is a murderer. But chapter 5 is the line of Seth, and we see that on that line men live long lives before they die, and one of that line is even translated that he should not die at all. So now, immunity from death, and translation, is the testimony of the moment.
We are able to take account of God's saints as pleasing to Him; Enoch speaks of the holy myriads and that the Lord is among them. It is a serious matter to accuse the saints. The points given in 1 Thessalonians 4 are, first, your vessel is holy, and you do not despise any man, and you love the brethren, and we are to abound in the things we have; you do it more and more; you increase in love. It is the substance of Christianity, the character of it. In Romans you have the expression "much more" (chapter 5 and 11, Authorised Version) and in the gospels the Lord says, "to every one that has shall be given" (Luke 19:26). There is to be increase. Enoch moved in the region of family life, and it is in that connection that he walked and pleased God. When he begat Methuselah he began to walk with God, and he continued that walk three hundred years. We sometimes sing, "In spirit there already" (Hymn 56). When the Lord went up to heaven, the hearts of His own went up with Him; their place henceforward was heaven. In Colossians we read that we are "reconciled in the body of his flesh through death" (chapter 1: 22); and then
in Ephesians, that He has reconciled both Jew and Gentile "in one body" (chapter 2: 16); it is the body that is translated. That involves unity. It is delightful to the heart of God to see His people together in unity; He keeps that company.
The very name "Philadelphia" involves brotherly love; reconciliation understood brings about unity in affection. Then they have a little power, and an opened door is set before them, for they are pleasing to Christ. I think we see the state of Ephesus in the elders weeping on Paul's neck: they loved him (Acts 20:37). Those were beautiful tears, and God took account of them; He put them into His bottle; they were lovely to Him. "First love" is rather the love of a wife for a husband, but here it is a question of brotherly love, "we are taught of God to love one another" (1 Thessalonians 4:9). The love at the end is the same in quality, though it is not the same in quantity. There is a remnant who are brought back to first love, and to such He says, "I have set before thee an opened door". We are not to be occupied with ourselves, but we can only acknowledge that God has wrought wonderfully. He has proposed great things for us, and He would bring us to see the wonderful things He has proposed to us in Christ, by the terms of the fellowship we enjoy.
Baptism and the Lord's supper become the means by which He "keeps" us. If we look at the way Scripture presents baptism, it does not speak of the person who baptises us, but of the person baptised, and the deduction is that such an one is
committed to Christ and to Christ's death; he yields his members to God; he is God's bondman.
In the Lord's supper you come on to the marital relation; we are become dead to the law by the body of Christ, that we may be to Another, in order to bring forth fruit to God (Romans 7:4). Partaking of the Lord's supper is my answer to that. I express my love to Christ. It is a very serious matter to take the Supper in any other way than as loving Christ. Paul says, "If any one love not the Lord Jesus Christ let him be Anathema Maranatha" (1 Corinthians 16:22). I express in partaking of the Supper my love to God and to Christ. In baptism, though another commits me to Christ's death, yet all the consequences fall on me. The Lord's supper is my committal to the terms of the gospel. We are baptised to the full revelation of God, to the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit (Matthew 28:19). The teaching of 1 Corinthians 10 brings in the question of our consistency with all that.
I think we can all testify that, from the time we committed ourselves to the Lord's supper, we became more definite in our testimony to the death of Christ; we desired to be true to the terms of it; our consciences demanded it, and in that way we become fortified by the Supper. Primarily the Supper is a question of reciprocated affections; we drink into the love of Christ, and we express our love to Him, and it fortifies us against what is in the world.
When we first took the Supper, we were very sensitive as to what we committed ourselves to
outside. So God looks for committal on our part to what He has called us to by the gospel; and in the bread we are committed to one another also, for we all eat of it. But it is the answer of affection to the Lord. No doubt the preservative power of it is of great moment to us at the present time. If the Lord is going to take us to Himself, He would have every wrong link broken. As the apostle says, "ye cannot drink the Lord's cup, and the cup of demons" (1 Corinthians 10:21).
Ministry by J. Taylor, Portsmouth, Volume 10, pages 266 - 273. 29 January 1919.
Genesis 28:10 - 19; Genesis 35:1 - 3, 6, 7, 9 - 15; Psalm 132:1 - 8; 1 Corinthians 11:23 - 26; Acts 20:25 - 27
I have read these scriptures having in mind how God intends a soul should progress in the knowledge of His purposes. I want particularly to speak of response to light presented. If divine light enters into our souls, then God intends that there should be spiritual movement according to that light, that the light should grow with us. The Lord Jesus, when He was here, could say to His own, "Walk while ye have the light", and, "While ye have the light, believe in the light, that ye may become sons of light" (John 12:35, 36). That is not sonship according to adoption, but sonship characteristically. By believing in the light, we are to be formed by it, and arrive at God's thoughts for us.
It has ever been God's thought to present light to men in order to produce spiritual movement. If He reveals Himself as a creator God, then the instructed believer would bow his head in thanksgiving for food and raiment, and all that we have from a God who provides all things for our good. If He makes Himself known as a Saviour God, then He has in mind that persons should avail themselves of the Saviour that He has provided, and come into the wonderful blessings that He has in mind for them.
Divine light is a wonderful thing. It has been said that the light of God may be refracted through the dense medium, but it can never be destroyed. If that light enters into your soul or mine, God has a purpose for it, and we are reminded in the Scriptures that if God begins a good work in us then He will complete it "unto Jesus Christ's day" (Philippians 1:6). We have in mind, in these occasions when we come together, that God will further His work in our souls so that we might know Him better and serve Him better in the little time that remains to us here. Think of the light that reached the apostle Paul. First of all, it is spoken of as "a light out of heaven" (Acts 9:3), then as "a great light" (chapter 22: 6), and then as "a light above the brightness of the sun" (chapter 26: 13). Light is streaming from heaven even at this present time, heavenly light that makes all things bright. God intends that we should be affected by the light in which He has made Himself known.
I read of Jacob, a very remarkable person. It says of him in the prophet Hosea, "He took his brother by
the heel in the womb" (chapter 12: 3). Think of the right instincts that he had; he was truly a supplanter, an overcomer, and he "wrestled, with God, and with men, and hast prevailed" (Genesis 32:28). It is beautiful the way that God speaks of him in His word. Think of how Jacob arrived at God's thoughts after a long, eventful history -- he, like some of us perhaps, took a long time to arrive at God's thoughts for him. It is said, as the hands are before the feet on ascending a ladder, so the apprehension of the truth is a good way from the practice of it. Yet we are not to be discouraged by that, because, if God begins a work in our souls, He will complete it. At the end of his life, Jacob put Ephraim before Manasseh, and Joseph was displeased; but Jacob said "I know, my son, I know" (Genesis 48:19). That was the voice of experience with God. Jacob had truly arrived at God's thoughts and he became a worshipper. Well, that is what God has in mind for us too.
In the passage we read in Genesis 28, Jacob is a lonely pilgrim, travelling in order to secure a wife. It says a very significant thing of him just before where we read: "Jacob had obeyed his father and his mother" (verse 7). That is a good word for the young. We are to be obedient to our father and mother, because God has set them over us to care for us. "And he lighted on a certain place, and lodged there ... and he took one of the stones of the place, and made it his pillow, and lay down in that place". Despite his wanderings, there was divine interest in him. "He dreamed", it says, "and behold, a ladder
was set up on the earth, and the top of it reached to the heavens. And behold, angels of God ascended and descended upon it". Then it says, "And behold, Jehovah stood above it". That would convey to our hearts that God had stationed Himself there in relation to Jacob's blessing. God has in view our blessing also, and He would have us exercised to make progress in relation to His thoughts.
God had in mind that Jacob should arrive at Bethel, which speaks of the house of God. But what a history he had before he reached it! Nevertheless he did reach it with God, though many times he had strayed. It is remarkable the assurance that God gives him: "behold, I am with thee, and will keep thee in all places to which thou goest, and will bring thee again unto this land". What a remarkable promise in the grace of God. Jacob had got away from Bethel, and had wandered, but God was still interested in him. Jacob said of Bethel, "How dreadful is this place!" Well, he was not in keeping with Bethel, and yet he could say, "this is none other but the house of God, and this is the gate of heaven". It is a wonderful thing when we get an impression early in our soul history, that God is set upon our blessing, and upon bringing us into His house, there to have part in His praise and worship. That is a great end to arrive at. Jacob had spent many years in Padan-Aram. Then, in chapter 33, it says that "he journeyed to Succoth, and built himself a house" and "came safely to the city Shechem ... and encamped before the city ... and there he set up an altar"
(verses 17 - 20) and settled down there. Well, God would not have us to settle down short of His purpose for us. That is what Jacob did here: he built an altar, and then he centred it round himself: he "called it El-Elohe-Israel". He had not yet reached the thought of the altar of God; it was an altar related to Israel. God is gracious with him, as He is with us too. He would assure us that, as we are exercised to be with Him, He would bring us, as He brought Jacob, to the point, as we read in chapter 35, that God spoke to him and told him to "Arise, go up to Bethel".
Jacob had been a long time away from Bethel. Nevertheless, God would have him arrive there, and He would appeal to our hearts not to stop short of His purpose, but to apprehend the place where God is dwelling, in His house. What a place it is! But there have to be conditions suited to it, and that is what God had to remind Jacob of here. He says, "go up to Bethel ... unto the God that appeared unto thee", and Jacob spoke to his household and said, "Put away the strange gods that are among you, and cleanse yourselves, and change your garments": our associations are to be in keeping with God and with His house. If we are to receive the blessing, we must be in accord with God's thoughts. Previously Jacob had vowed that, if God took care of him and "I come again to my father's house in peace ... I will ... give the tenth to thee" (chapter 28: 20 - 22). Well, God will value that, of course, but He wants full committal from us. Now, in chapter 35, Jacob commits himself to God and to His house: "I will make there", that is,
at Bethel, "an altar to the God that answered me in the day of my distress". God would have us to return and be with Him.
So Jacob had to put away those idols, all that was inconsistent with God's house, before they journeyed. Then he built his altar and called the place El-beth-el, that is, 'God of the house of God'. He now has God before him, not himself. Then God appeared and blessed him. God would give us a blessing as we move in the pathway of faith and in accordance with His mind and will. He says, "thy name shall not henceforth be called Jacob, but Israel". Think of the dignity that was to mark Jacob! He had wrestled with God, and he had had to do with Esau too. All these matters were behind him, and he was preparing to come back to God's thoughts concerning His house. It is remarkable how God repeats His promise: "the land that I gave Abraham and Isaac, to thee will I give it, and to thy seed after thee will I give the land". Blessed assurance! God would encourage us to commit our-selves to Him in our pathway here. We are to be here for His will and pleasure. Jacob "set up ... a pillar in the place where he had talked with him ... and poured on it a drink offering, and poured oil on it", and then he called the name of the place where God had talked with him "Beth-el". God would have us to be in holy converse with Himself, as it were, in His house, where all is according to His will. Well, that was what Jacob was brought to. He had many sorrows, but he finished as a worshipper. Such were
In Psalm 132, a Song of degrees, we have the exercises of David. "Remember for David all his afflictions". David was truly afflicted, but it yielded something for God. He said, "in my affliction I have prepared for the house of Jehovah ..." (1 Chronicles 22:14); and "in my affection for the house of my God I have given of my own property ..." (1 Chronicles 29:3). His exercise from his early years was to enrich the house of God. So we see in this beautiful psalm that "he swore unto Jehovah" that he would not give himself rest. He was not thinking of his own comforts, but of what was due to God. He says, "Until I find out a place for Jehovah, habitations for the Mighty One of Jacob". These were the exercises of David. Where did he learn these things? David says, "we heard of it at Ephratah": he must have heard it in the household.
I trust the young brethren will get an impression of these things in their youth. We hear of these matters as we read the Scriptures in the household, and I trust that we are all affected by the word that comes to us from God. God is telling us what is for His pleasure. Then David says, "we found it". It is one thing to hear about it, but it is another thing to find it. Would that we might all find this true place, the place where God dwells. Later, Jehovah says, "This is my rest for ever; here will I dwell, for I have desired it" (verse 14). How important it is to be in accord with God's desires. David says, "Let us go into his habitations, let us worship at his footstool".
What a beautiful thought that is! David was not thinking only of himself; there is a collective thought here: he says, "let us". The Spirit of God would stir up our affections for Christ and for God's house so that we may be found here thinking of what is due to God in His house. It is a wonderful thing to arrive at the rest of God. We will enter that eternal rest, but God would have us to touch it in our spirits now, as we are brought into the joy and blessedness of what characterises His house.
Psalm 120 to Psalm 134 are the Songs of degrees. In Psalm 134, it speaks of those "who stand by night in the house of Jehovah" (verse 1). "By night" would suggest the difficult circumstances of reproach and shame that attach to the testimony today, yet we are to be enabled by the Spirit's power to stand in loyalty to Christ and in devotedness to God. I am sure that is the way of blessing. We have in these psalms how God would have persons to enjoy what is in His house.
Where we read in 1 Corinthians 11, Paul brings in fresh light, heavenly light, concerning the Lord's supper. "I received from the Lord, that which I also delivered to you, that the Lord Jesus, in the night in which he was delivered up, took bread ..." Paul received it from the Lord in glory and he delivered it to the Corinthians. Every time we gather for the Supper, we are to be freshly affected by it. It is still morally the night in which He was delivered up; what darkness and disloyalty to Christ there is in Christendom. How precious, therefore, is the
response to Him from those who love Him, who have been secured by His grace.
So Paul brings this remarkable occasion, the Supper, before the saints. It is an occasion that should never fail to touch our affections, because it speaks of the Lord Jesus as the One who has loved us and given Himself for us. It says, "having given thanks broke it and said, This is my body". This would remind us that the Lord Jesus was here in devotedness to God. In every step of His pathway He was in communion with His God and Father. His was a pathway of delight to God: He took a body, and in that body He fulfilled God's will.
He says of the cup, "This cup is the new covenant in my blood", reminding us of how we have been purchased by precious blood. These things are to touch our hearts. The Lord's supper is one of the most touching occasions that the believer has part in, and it is the entrance into the service of God; but it begins in this simple way as we gather together in love with one another to remember the Lord Jesus as He as asked us to do. Paul says, "For as often as ye shall eat this bread, and drink the cup, ye announce the death of the Lord, until he come". What a precious matter this is, beloved, for each one of us. May we all take advantage of it and celebrate the Lord's supper. It is "until he come". It is remarkable that, in the midst of such conditions as existed in Corinth, Paul introduces this wonderful occasion.
In Acts 20 I was thinking of the importance of
listening to Paul. He says to Timothy, "Think of what I say, for the Lord will give thee understanding in all things" (2 Timothy 2:7) -- "in all things", not just in some things. If we listen to Paul, then we will be instructed in the truth. Acts 20 has often been spoken of as a love chapter: it begins with love, and it is love all through, and it is love at the end. Think of what Paul says, "I have not shrunk from announcing to you all the counsel of God". The fullest and most precious and eternal things have been delivered to us by Paul. To the Ephesian saints he had also "gone about preaching the kingdom of God", suggesting the need for subjection. The Spirit, I believe, would give us some impression of what "the counsel of God" is. God's thought was that His heart should be fully known, His love fully responded to.
Well, we should be helped by paying attention to Paul's ministry. The truth as to Christ and the assembly is wonderful, eternal and abiding, and we have been brought into it through wondrous grace. May we be stimulated to have our part in these things, and to see that all this precious truth is not only for our blessing, but in view of response to God. May God bless the word, for His Name's sake.
Luke 2:25 - 32
I have read these verses with the thought of bringing them, by the Lord's grace, into present application, for, as we know, Luke writes with method, and ever has before him moral and spiritual instruction, and not merely what is historical.
It seems to me that we have in Simeon the thought of one who was at the very centre of divine things: "there was a man in Jerusalem whose name was Simeon". God would have us, beloved brethren, to cherish the thought of being at the centre of divine interests. Alas! our hearts are too ready to be content to be at a distance, but why should we be found at Dan or Beer-sheba if it is possible to be in Jerusalem? After the return from captivity "the people cast lots to bring one of ten to dwell in Jerusalem, the holy city" (Nehemiah 11:1). Nine out of every ten were content to dwell in their cities away from the divine centre, and yet they recognised that Jerusalem was the favoured spot, for they blessed those "that willingly offered themselves to dwell in Jerusalem" (verse 2). This shows that even in times of recovery there is danger of missing the greatest privilege of the moment.
I would press on my own heart, and on the hearts of others, that we should really live at the centre of things in a spiritual sense. It cannot be denied that at the present time the assembly, and the great reality of the presence of the Holy Spirit, are the very centre
of all that has divine importance, and yet how many believers live practically at a distance from that centre. It is sorrowful to think how much they miss.
This "man in Jerusalem" was marked by the fact that "the Holy Spirit was upon him". Even in Old Testament times God called attention to certain individuals who were said to have the Spirit, or to have the Spirit upon them. This must have suggested to every pious Israelite the possibility of such a thing. It was clearly in God's mind that His Spirit should be upon men. Thinking of those favoured men, every pious Israelite must have been ready to say, Would that it had been me! But such a favour was not within the reach of all then. It was not until Jesus was glorified that the Holy Spirit became available for all who believe on Him. And this, indeed, in a much more blessed way than any Old Testament saint, or even Simeon himself, could know (see John 14:16, 17). But the very fact that it is so is intended to raise exercise.
We are told of the five prudent virgins that they "took oil in their vessels with their torches" (Matthew 25:4). It was their exercise to be thus furnished. The Holy Spirit is available on the divine side; there is no restriction, no limitation, on that side. Indeed, the Old Testament promise, quoted by Peter on the day of Pentecost, that the Spirit would be "poured out" on all flesh (Acts 2:18), showed how extensive was the thought of God. But on our side the Lord has suggested that we should "take oil" in our vessels. The Holy Spirit is the gift of God, but a gift is to be
received, and many scriptures speak of the reception of the Spirit, and I do not think it is ever supposed that this takes place unconsciously. What God does sovereignly is His matter; I dare say He often gives the Spirit to believers on the Lord Jesus who have had little exercise about the Spirit, but normally He would give souls exercise about this great gift, so that it is not a matter in which they have part without their being aware of it. God would have His gift valued. The Lord suggested to the woman at the well the wonderful character of God's giving, and His own giving, but He brought in a condition on her part. "Thou wouldest have asked ... and he would have given" (John 4:10). The gift of the Spirit, as announced in the glad tidings, becomes the subject of faith; that is, we come to it in the faith of our hearts that it is in the mind and love of God to give us His Spirit. So we are encouraged to put in our claim with confidence; if we have received Christ as the gift of God, we are entitled also to receive the Spirit as His gift.
But we cannot contemplate the gift of the Spirit without realising that it necessitates moral suitability on the part of the recipient. The Spirit could be upon Simeon without any incongruity; he was "just and pious, awaiting the consolation of Israel"; there was nothing about him to jar on the sensitiveness of the Spirit. If there are dark corners where unrighteousness is hidden, or if there is a lack of piety, the Spirit cannot be restful. It can hardly be said of such that their hearts are purified by faith. It must be
remembered that the gift of the Spirit is the divine witness to a certain condition of heart. Peter said, "the heart-knowing God bore them witness, giving them the Holy Spirit ... having purified their hearts by faith" (Acts 15:8, 9). Believers are said to be "according to Spirit", and to mind the things of the Spirit (Romans 8:4, 5). If we are not in moral suitability to the Spirit we may miss practically the gain of this wondrous gift.
Then Simeon's outlook was such that the Spirit could identify Himself with it; he was "awaiting the consolation of Israel", he was looking for "the Lord's Christ". The saints today are marked off from those in the world by their different outlook. Those in the world have no outlook that the Spirit could identify Himself with, but the saints have a divine outlook, they are looking for the coming of the Lord. That has been God's great objective ever since sin and death came in; it will bring all that is of God into the world. In Simeon's case he was, of course, awaiting the first coming of Christ; it is ours now to await His coming the second time. None are in harmony with the Spirit who are not awaiting the coming of Christ. To be out of harmony with the Spirit is to disregard His presence.
Then the Holy Spirit made communications to Simeon; He made known to him, "that he should not see death before he should see the Lord's Christ". We are living in a wondrous time, for the Spirit is even now making communications to the saints. In John 14 - 16 the Lord enlarged upon the way in which
the Spirit would make divine communications. Clearly this was, in the first place, to those who had been with the Lord in the days of His flesh, but they were of our company, and what they got was for us. The Comforter brought to their remembrance all the things which Jesus had said to them. There must have been much more in that than has been recorded in the Scriptures.
Overcomers today are marked by having an ear to hear what the Spirit is saying to the assemblies. I wonder if we are habituated to hearing what He is saying. We may be quite sure that He will never say anything contrary to the Scriptures, or that cannot be substantiated from the Scriptures, but He can bring out the mind of God in a way that never would have been gathered from the Scriptures alone apart from His speaking. The Spirit has always something to say to the assemblies. Speaking is characteristic of each Person of the Trinity, and this is in a special way the time of the Spirit's speaking.
I think it possible that, when the time comes for the assembly to be translated, the Spirit may communicate to many that they will not see death. One would covet to be amongst those thus favoured of God, but whether we have this privilege or it is reserved for others, let us see to it that we do get the communications which the Spirit is making. Let us consider the possibility of having communications from the Holy Spirit who is dwelling here, and who is acquainted with everything that is in the mind of God. There is no part of the will of God, or of divine
counsel, that is not perfectly known to the Holy Spirit, and He is here that it may be made known to us.
But if we are to have the gain of this we must not be "scattered abroad" (John 11:52). We must be at the centre of things. Simeon was there, and because he was there he missed nothing that was possible at the moment. He was where divine communications were not missed. A well-known servant of the Lord said that he always got things first by the Spirit, and then he had to search them out in the Scriptures. I say this, that we may be encouraged to give a very real place to the Holy Spirit, and to expect to get spiritual things from the Spirit.
Then we see that Simeon moved in a practical way under the control of the Spirit. If he had been half an hour earlier in coming into the temple, or half an hour later, he might have missed a most blessed opportunity. If we move with the Spirit and in the Spirit we shall not miss divinely given opportunities.
Simeon saw the whole salvation of God -- all that the Scriptures had spoken of for thousands of years -- substantiated in a little Child. It was no longer promises or statements of Scripture, but all that was of God was there substantiated in a Babe six weeks old! And he received Him into his arms. There have been moments, I dare say, when we have thought how blessed it would have been to embrace that holy Babe. But, beloved, it is our portion to do so -- to embrace Him in our affections.
What appeared to be small was really infinitely great. Its outward smallness tended to hide its greatness, but it was not hidden from Simeon. He saw that all peoples were before God in relation to that Babe; the Gentiles were to come to light for blessing, and He would be the glory of His people Israel. The man at the centre could take in the circumference of divine thoughts.
We may be sure that those who are at the centre think much of Christ, and they think much of what is of Christ, that is, of the assembly which is His body. Christ is not now here personally, but He is here substantially in His body. The Spirit would lead us to see what is here now -- His body, deriving from Him. The Lord said to Saul of Tarsus of His suffering saints, They are "me" (Acts 9:4). If we truly embrace Christ in our affections, we cannot fail to take account of His body here. He is here substantially in His body. We look at every believer as of the body potentially, and we want him to be of it substantially as formed in the features and moral qualities of Christ. We do not want merely to think of the statements of Scripture in an abstract way, but to have them brought into concrete expression in ourselves and in all saints. We can see that Simeon received very real substance into his arms, and God would have us to regard the assembly, the body of Christ, as a substantial thing, composed of persons who have very definitely derived from Him so as to be in their measure expressive of Him.
We do not wonder that Simeon "blessed God",
and we may well bless Him for all that He has brought within our range. It is of all importance that we should be at the centre of what is of God. Christ and the assembly are at the centre; the assembly is the body, the fulness, the completeness of Christ. If we are really in mind and affection at the centre, the Spirit will have His way with us; we shall get communications such as no worldly or carnal believer could know anything about.
The whole moral universe comes within the scope of the communications of the Spirit, and it is the privilege of the saints of the assembly to dwell, as it were, at the very centre. Hence the apostle prayed that we might be "strengthened with power by his Spirit in the inner man; that the Christ may dwell, through faith, in your hearts, being rooted and founded in love, in order that ye may be fully able to apprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and depth and height" (Ephesians 3:16 - 18). If Christ personally dwells in our hearts, what is of Him in His members -- His body down here -- will have a very great place with us. We shall then look at the saints according to what they are potentially, and we shall desire that what they are potentially as called ones they may be substantially as formed by the Spirit in the features of Christ. It is evidently of immense importance that Christ should come out in His body in a substantial way; that is, as morally and spiritually formed in His members here. May the Lord help us in regard to these things!
Ministry by C. A. Coates, Volume 17, pages 53 - 57.
J. Revell
In assembly we enter upon that which is common to all saints. If we are not clear of our sins and our sorrows, which are individual, we can scarcely be at liberty to enter upon that which is common to us all. Set at liberty from these things, the more fully we know the God who is for us (as seen in our justification) and the more deeply we drink into the love of Christ, the better are we fitted to enjoy all that belongs to the company. For, though I may enter with intensity into Christ's personal interest in me, as an individual (as Paul said, "I live by faith, the faith of the Son of God, who has loved me and given himself for me", Galatians 2:20), yet I know that that love is not exclusively mine. John wrote of himself as the "disciple whom Jesus loved" (John 21:7), yet he did not view himself as the exclusive object of that love, for again he wrote, "having loved his own who were in the world, loved them to the end" (John 13:1). The more deeply conscious I am of His love to me, the more do I delight to see the whole band of His own, loved by Him with the same deep unchanging affection.
Now His love desires the company of its objects; not one alone, nor two, nor a few, but the whole company, as He will have them in the end when He gathers them home to Himself. If we enter into this there will be with us a great desire to be together in assembly. It is perfectly true that we cannot gather
together the whole band, but that makes no difference to the principle; we shall be pleased to be with those who are endeavouring to maintain moral principles which are according to the Lord, and in whose midst He is free to take His place. And in so gathering together there will be the recognition of the fact that we are called to leave that which is purely individual, to be engaged with that which belongs to the whole band. Our houses, which we have to eat and to drink in, are left behind, and with them our individual concerns, to have before us the love of Christ to His own, with all that belongs to us in that love.
Clearly, according to our chapter, that which first engages us is the eating of the Lord's supper (verse 20). The apostle denied that the Corinthians ate the Lord's supper, for in its place each took before others his own supper, and one was hungry and another was drunken. But the denial of the apostle shows that properly what first engages us is the Lord's supper. Thus also in Acts 20:7, the sacred historian speaks of those who came together for the breaking of bread. That agrees with what we have here.
The meaning of the Supper explains this; it is for the calling to mind of the Lord. When He was here in flesh He called His disciples around Himself and took charge of the whole company. Now we come together in His absence, and the more deeply we love Him the more we must feel His absence; but, in eating the Supper, we call Him to mind in that which
was the perfect expression of the devotedness of His love to His own; we recall Him as the One who has died. Thus, while absent as to bodily presence, He becomes present to our mind and the affections of our hearts. Love is quick to catch the manifestation of His presence, and our love is stimulated in the remembrance of His own love to us. Merely believing that He is present (according to Matthew 18:20) avails us little if we have not the consciousness of it; love can be content with nothing short of the manifestation of His presence, and this is that which the Lord desires to give to His own.
If He be thus called to mind, in the consciousness of His presence, we enter upon the sense of our companionship with Him. For the time, we are outside the things which are in the world, and we come to the enjoyment of all that in which He lives before God. He has made known to us the Father's name, and as we are with Him He brings us to enjoy all the love of the Father's heart. Then, as our hearts fill with the joy of this, He leads their fulness to the Father; "in the midst of the assembly will I sing thy praises" (Hebrews 2:12). What can equal this! He brings us to share His own joy in the Father's love, and to join the praise which He sings to the Father.
Oh! that we may know better what belongs to our being together in assembly. The individual is robbed of nothing by our knowledge of what is collective; on the contrary, the realised joy of the assembly will make us more effective in our individual path. We shall the more intelligently be
enabled to say:
Whatever may be said of the importance of that which belongs to the individual, as such, and it may be fully granted, yet there is clearly that which belongs to the company, and which can only be entered on in the assembly. The Lord may graciously be with us, giving us a sense of His sympathy and support in our trying circumstances, and no one can afford to lessen the necessity for this, or the sweetness of it; yet it is a different thing when He draws us on to His own ground, and gives us to taste the joy in which He lives before the Father. This is ours in the assembly.
Comfort, pages 107 - 111. [2 of 2].
We see in Nehemiah himself a heart touched with the affliction of his people, a precious token of the grace of God; and He who had produced this feeling disposed the king's heart to grant Nehemiah all he desired for the good of the people and of Jerusalem. We see also in Nehemiah a heart that habitually turned to God, that sought its strength in Him, and thus surmounted the greatest obstacles.
The time in which Nehemiah laboured for the good of his people was not one of those brilliant phases which, if faith be there, awaken even the energy of man, imparting to it its own lustre. It was a period which required the perseverance that springs from a deep interest in the people of God, because they are His people; a perseverance which, for this very reason, pursues its object in spite of the contempt excited by the work, apparently so insignificant, but which is not the less the work of God; and which pursues it in spite of the hatred and opposition of enemies, and the faintheartedness of fellow-labourers (chapter 4: 8, 10, 11); a perseverance which, giving itself up entirely to the work, baffles all the intrigues of the enemy, and avoids every snare, God taking care of those who trust in Him ...
Let us remark, that in times of difficulty faith does not show itself in the magnificence of the result, but in love for God's work, however little it may be, and in the perseverance with which it is carried on through all the difficulties belonging to this state of weakness; for that with which faith is occupied, is the city of God and the work of God, and these things have always the same value, whatever may be the circumstances in which they are found.
Synopsis of the Books of the Bible, Volume 2, pages 12, 13.
Psalm 1:1 - 3; Luke 2:25 - 35; 2 Corinthians 12:1 - 5
I have in mind, dear brethren, to say a word as to manhood in a spiritual sense, including, of course, both brothers and sisters; first, in relation to piety, and then in relation to spirituality, and then the great elevation which Scripture presents as open to a "man in Christ".
It is clear that God takes pleasure in men, and that itself gives cause for thanksgiving on our part, but He desires full growth, He desires manhood. Of course, when we are first brought to the Lord and receive the glad tidings, we commence as babes in Christ, and that is normal at that point, but it ought not to remain so for long. God has nothing less in mind than that we should develop into men, men in Christ.
You remember that the apostle in writing to the Corinthians, spoke to them reproachfully and said he had to write to them as "babes in Christ" (1 Corinthians 3:1). That was a serious matter, for he had laboured among them and exemplified the truth among them for eighteen months, and yet when he wrote to them some little time after, he had to say that they were babes in Christ. He says, "For when one says, I am of Paul, and another, I of Apollos, are ye not men?" (verse 4), that is, men according to what the world around thinks of manhood. But to be men according to that standard is a reproach to a Christian, and so, along with that, as taking on the characteristics of
the world around, and being men in that sense, that involves that as to what we really are we are only babes in Christ.
Well now, as I say, God has in mind that we should grow and develop in manhood. Many of us have had before us in Ephesians 4 that what is in mind in the ministry which the Lord gives from heaven, in the power of the Holy Spirit operating in the gifts, is that we should arrive "at the full-grown man, at the measure of the stature of the fulness of the Christ" (Ephesians 4:13). God has nothing less in mind than that, and if He comes out with His thoughts of blessing towards men, He has ability in the Holy Spirit to bring about a perfect answer to those thoughts in manhood.
So we are to apprehend in Christ the great standard of manhood according to God. We are to come to "the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God" (verse 13). The Son of God is to stand out before our hearts as the great ideal of manhood, speaking reverently, that God has before Him, perfectly responding to Himself and to all that He desires; and the contrary character of the scene in which we are for the moment in God's ways, is all intended in His wisdom to develop us in features of manhood. But the secret of the development is that God Himself is before us, and is brought in in a practical way in our consciences and exercises into the circumstances of our life here.
You may remember that in the history of Jacob, as Laban and Jacob were about to part, never againTHE ORACLE, THE ALTAR AND THE THRONE
VESSELS OF MERCY, PREPARED FOR GLORY
THE SPIRIT, AND THE WORK OF THE SPIRIT
GOOD SOLDIERS OF JESUS CHRIST
VESSELS OF MERCY, PREPARED FOR GLORY
THE ORACLE, THE ALTAR AND THE THRONE
SHORT PAPERS ON THE CHURCH NO. 11 -- DAYS OF DEPARTURE -- INDIVIDUAL FAITHFULNESS.
IN ASSEMBLY
"WATCHMAN, WHAT OF THE NIGHT?"
SANCTIFICATION
THE ANSWERING GLORY
Forth from the regions of light unapproachable;
Leaving the heights that no mortal can ken;
Emptying Himself for the pathway of service;
Jesus is found in the likeness of men.
Bethlehem's manger its nature displays;
God over all, yet in such limitations
Calls forth an outburst of heavenly praise.
"Peace upon earth" is announced at His birth;
This but a foretaste of God's blessed portion,
Pleasure in men now secured on the earth.
Dwell on these movements so outwardly small,
See them expanding the glories of Jesus,
Reaching their climax with God all in all.
Here upon earth in man's lowly estate;
Scorned and despised, unknown and rejected,
He for an answer in glory would wait.
Movements of grace that so perfectly shine;
Words of compassion and depths of devotion
Radiant with splendour and glory divine!
Touching the lepers and healing the blind;
See, there, the love that would weep with the sorrowing,
Loosing the captives that Satan would bind.
Broken His heart with the load of reproach;
Olivet's mount tells the power of sustainment,
Nights of communion where none could encroach.
Hark to that voice and its soul-stirring theme.
Found there in conflict, He prays more intently,
Taking the cup in devotion supreme.
Humbling Himself to the death of the cross;
Yielding all rights in the hour of His suffering,
Bearing the grief and sustaining the loss.
Standing alone in the annals of time;
Witness the measure of God's holy nature,
Fully secured! yea with glory sublime!
Stooping to enter the portals of death;
Crying "'Tis finished" -- those words so triumphant,
Bowing His head and resigning His breath.
Gaze on the scene with its absence of strife;
Oh! wondrous fact that defies understanding,
Lying in death is the Author of life.
Loos'd were its pains as He rises again;
Witnessing thus by His own resurrection
Power that had triumphed in Satan's domain.
Now He had waited to honour such worth!
Now, in the fulness of love intervening,
God claims His Son from the heart of the earth.
Telling the Father's full thought for His own;
E'er He ascends to that place of pre-eminence,
Glories of sonship now free to make known.
Bearer of glory no creature can scan;
Yet, blessed truth, which bespeaks our deep blessing,
Ever retaining the form of a man.
Enters the One who had stooped down to die!
Throne of the Father! His place of ascension
On the right hand of the greatness on high.
Voice of Archangel and trump of our God;
Gathering upwards the fruits of redemption --
Myriads of saints now surrounding their Lord!
Though thou be lost in the fulness of joy!
Thousands, ay millions their Saviour are greeting,
Him, who shall ever their praises employ.
All must acclaim now His glorious worth;
There see Him reign o'er the whole scene triumphant,
Waking His praise from the ends of the earth.
Moved are our souls as we think of the Son,
Taking that place of eternal subjection,
Glorious proof that His work is now done.
Glory divine fills those regions above;
Now, in the fulness of all He had purposed
God, all in all, rests supreme in His Love.THE MAINTENANCE OF THE TRUTH
ACQUAINTANCE WITH THE SON OF GOD
KEPT FOR TRANSLATION
RESPONSE TO LIGHT PRESENTED
SIMEON IN THE TEMPLE
IN ASSEMBLY
'And stayed by joy divine,
As hireling fills his day,
Through scenes of strife and desert life
We tread in peace our way' (Hymn 12:5). NEHEMIAH
SPIRITUAL MANHOOD