IN ASSEMBLY
"When ye come together in assembly",
1 Corinthians 11: 18
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.
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 the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me" – yet I know that that love is not exclusively mine.
- John wrote of himself as "the disciple whom Jesus loved," yet he did not view himself as the exclusive object of that love, for again he wrote,
- "Having loved his own which were in the world, he loved them unto the end".
- 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 other 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 praise unto thee".
- 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:
"And stayed by joy divine,
As hireling fills his day,
Through scenes of strife and desert life
We tread in peace our way".
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 circum-stances, 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.
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ETERNAL THINGS
"He that overcometh shall inherit these things;
and I will be his God, and he shall be my son",
Revelation 21: 7
In Revelation 2, 3 we see all that connects itself with the name of Christ in this world, as all passes in review under His eye, and about it all we have the declaration of His mind.
- Nearly the whole of it is found contrary to Him, and is threatened with judgment. He would have us feel the intense seriousness of this; we are called to hear what the Spirit says to the churches.
- Then while He bids us hearken to His judgment of things He encourages us to rise in spiritual energy above the moral elements which surround us, and to overcome.
- This He does by presenting various things which are present to His eye, and which He would have steadily kept before the faith of His people.
- These things are not connected with the existing state, which is so hopelessly ruined, but either with His own kingdom, which He will shortly establish in power, or with eternal blessing.
- We can only overcome in the present state of things as our eye is steadily fixed upon that which is future.
- Yet that which is future becomes a present reality and joy to the man whose eye rests on it in faith and whose heart is stirred in affection to reach the Lord.
- In reaching Him we get anticipatively the delight of heavenly and eternal things by the power of the Holy Ghost.
- And as we enter thus into the delight of all that is found with the Lord Himself, we are conscious that we have reached that which can never fail, for it is the fruit of divine love, and is sustained in divine power.
In chapter 4 a heavenly scene is before us. There God's rights as Creator are celebrated.
- Man has refused to own them, but they are owned in the mind and praise of heaven.
- In the following chapter the One is found who is pronounced worthy to open the book which is sealed. It is the Lamb that has been slain.
- In the recognition of all that is suited to God, and in devoted obedience to His will, our Lord Jesus has suffered even to death.
- As the holy Sufferer He has overcome all the moral elements of the world, and has proved Himself the suited One to take up everything and subdue it to God.
- The chapters which follow show how He clears away by judgment all that which is hateful to God, and He eventually takes up the kingdom. The kingdom of our Lord and of His Christ comes to pass.
- It will be a blessed day for the earth when He, whose feet once trod it in holy strangership and suffering, shall rule over it!
- In those days which are past, He fully showed what was the heart of God in compassionate goodness and power to relieve man, whom Satan had led captive; in the day of His rule He will make all this good, establishing in divine power upon earth all that is in God's heart for man.
- "In his days shall the righteous flourish, and abundance of peace as long as the moon endureth".
- In the kingdom of our Lord Jesus Christ everything which has been comitted to man, and in which he has so grievously failed, will be taken up, and God's thought in it all carried out.
- Thus will God be glorified in the very world in which He has been dishonoured, and man will be blest according to all the previous indications of God's mind.
- But when all this shall have come to pass, and when every question which has been raised in the course of time has been divinely solved, God will make all things new, leaving no trace of that which formerly existed.
- A new heaven and earth will be brought in, the first having no place.
- The holy city will be found in perfect suitability to the whole scene, for she is described as New Jerusalem, and is seen in bridal beauty and adornment, the object of Christ's love eternally, and His everlasting glory.
- She is the centre of administration during His reign (for those who suffer with Him shall reign with Him); but she passes into the eternal state as perfectly suited to it.
- Some may not know that Rev, 21: 9 to 22: 5, is a kind of supplement in which the city is desribed minutely, but in its relation to the millenial world.
The blessedness of those who are on the new earth consists in this, God's tabernacle shall be with them, and He will dwell with them, they shall be His people, and He shall be with them their God.
- They are simply spoken of as men, for all the governmental distinctions which God has formed and recognized, even on the millennial earth, shall no longer have place.
- They shall be one complete, happy company; happy with God's own presence.
- Not as in Eden, when man was innocent and God visited him, but in the full intelligence of all that God is, as it has been demonstrated in His wonderful ways; and thus known and loved He will dwell with them.
- All that has marked the present course of things shall be abolished, death, sorrow, crying, pain, and God Himself shall have wiped away all tears from their eyes.
Now, the overcomer shall inherit these things. God has not only exposed for us all the workings of evil in this world, and shown us their judgment,
- but He has also given us a sight of all that He is about to establish, that, strengthened and deeply stirred in our souls, we may rise superior to all that surrounds us at the present time.
- As these eternal things are before us all man's glory becomes dim, and we grow independent of all man's resources.
- We find all our springs in that blessed God who triumphs over all the power of evil, and who will bring in everlasting blessing and glory.
- He was not ashamed to be called the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, who waited for the city which He has founded, and who were content to be strangers and pilgrims on the earth;
- thus, also, is He the God of the overcomer, who is to Him a son.
Oh, for eyes which look steadily upon the things which are not seen, and hearts that love the things which are eternal!
- One has said, "Our momentary and light affliction works for us in surpassing measure an eternal weight of glory; while we look not at the things that are seen, but at the things that are not seen; for the things that are seen are for a time, but those that are not seen are eternal", 2 Corinthians 4: 17-18.
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John 13:1; Acts 4:23
Ex "The Christian Company", pages 2 - 15
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I want to speak a little, in a very elementary way, on the christian company.
- Some think that the subject of the church is very difficult and intricate. It is true that the full truth of the church is not easily reached, and therefore it is not all at once that the Christian understands it;
- but while this is so, the first elements of it are very simple, and the youngest believer should not be ignorant of them.
The thought of company is a common one to men. From the beginning of history men have gathered themselves together.
- In the earliest age a man built a city, having in view the dwelling of men together. Though it was a bad man that built the first city, God does not ignore the thought.
- In His own judgment it was not good for man to be alone. Sin brought in elements of separation, because it lies in man's self-will, but God does not give up the thought of His people being together.
- It is said of Abraham, that "he waited for the city which has foundations, of which God is the artificer and constructor", Hebrews 11: 10.
- And again it is said, "God is not ashamed of them, to be called their God; for he has prepared for them a city", verse 16.
- Cain's city was built in independence of God, whereas faith waits for God's city; but the thought of men dwelling together is found with both.
God's city has foundations. Cain's city had no moral foundations, therefore it came to nothing.
- He was himself a vagabond by the sentence of God, having shed his brother's blood. An unrighteous man, guilty and under the sentence of God, could not give moral foundations to his city.
- Every city built by man hitherto has come to an end, and the beautiful cities now in existence will also come to an end;
- but God has for His own a city which has foundations, of which He is the Builder and Maker.
In working for the preparation of the christian company, God began with righteousness.
- John the baptist came in the way of righteousness. He came to prepare the way of the Lord, and in so doing urged the people to repentance.
- The place of his testimony was significant. It was not in the glorious city of Jerusalem, nor was he in priestly garb, although of priestly family; he preached in the desert, clad in hairy garments, subsisting on locusts and wild honey.
- So in his preaching he would not have men counting upon their religious standing and privilege; he insisted on their taking true ground with God as those who had utterly failed.
- Having baptised them with the baptism of repentance, he pointed out to them the One to whom it was his delight to testify, the Lamb of God which taketh away the sin of the world.
- He thus brought them to the recognition of their own failure, and to the recognition of the place which Christ has.
It would not be a righteous thing to deny the failure and ruin of man by sin; neither would it be a righteous thing to deny the place which Christ has, as having come forth from God.
- The question was asked, "Why do the disciples of John fast often and make supplications, in like manner these also of the Pharisees, but thine eat and drink?"
- The Lord's answer was, "Can ye make the sons of the bridechamber fast when the bridegroom is with them?", Luke 5: 33-34.
- The Pharisees were bent on maintaining the goodness of man, and to this end were fasting and making prayers. John pressed repentance, and the fasting and prayers of his disciples were the expression of their sense of man's failure.
- But those who had reached Him of whom John testified had got beyond even this, and were rejoicing in all that Christ is.
God works repentance in men, and then sets before them His Son in whom all that God is finds
its expression. The grace of God is perfectly expressed in Him.
- That grace was not, as the Pharisees supposed, contrary to the holiness or the righteous claims of God. He spoke of repentance, as John had done, but it was as the perfect expression of divine grace that He came to call sinners to repentance.
- Thus the vilest might come, as the poor woman in Luke 7, and find at His feet the forgiveness of sins, peace and salvation.
- Then the very sense of grace attracts the heart and binds it to Him. The one who is forgiven much loves much. The deeper the sense of grace, the more the heart is attracted and bound to Him who has brought it.
- The law engages a man with himself, but grace engages us with Him in whom that grace is expressed.
All this is of an individual character. We each have our sins, and find our need of the grace that shines in the Lord; and it is as we are each in the faith of Him that we individually receive forgiveness, peace and salvation.
- Then as the Spirit takes our hearts and knits them to the precious Saviour, we find that others also have been drawn to Him.
When here on earth the Lord accepted the place of centre. Indeed He declared Himself to be such, saying,
- "Come to me, all ye who labour and are burdened", Matthew 11: 28.
- It had not been so with any of the prophets. They could testify the word of the Lord, but they could not take the place of being a centre for men. Neither could John take such a place, nor was it his mind to do so. He testified to the Lord, and directed the gaze of those who were even his own disciples to Him, saying,
- "Behold the Lamb of God".
- The Lord drew men after Himself by the moral power of His own presence, even without speaking a single word, and then as they followed, He confirmed their following by saying,
- He is not now upon the earth, but that does not alter the fact of His being the true Centre for men. In John 12: 32 we have His own words,
- "and I, if I be lifted up out of the earth, will draw all to me".
- Upon the earth, and in flesh, He could not be the Centre in the wide sense in which He is as the lifted-up One out of the earth; it is as such that He becomes the glorious Centre of the whole universe of God.
Such was man's state in the flesh that the sacrifice of Christ was a necessity.
- All man's efforts at union are formed on the basis of being agreeable to each other, and God and His truth have no place at all. Men agree upon certain principles which they judge to be expedient, but if they find these things to be inexpedient all falls to pieces. There is no basis of righteousness, nor any bond of truth.
- If God binds men together He does so on the basis of righteousness, and binds together with truth. His people love each other in the truth. This gives stability.
- Now the righteousness of God demanded the judgment of sin, and the removal of all that which is offensive to God. This has been accomplished in the sacrifice of Christ. Not only did He die for our sins, but also that the history of man in the flesh might be ended before God.
- Thus has been removed, in the sacrifice of Christ, the man that was contrary to righteousness and truth. Now God works in His own to produce that which is according to Himself. This He does by the Holy Spirit who is given to us.
The Lord, while here on earth, was the Centre for His own, and in virtue of all that they found in His company – God having wrought in their souls – they were bound together.
- Then came His death, the immediate effect of which was that they were scattered. The Lord had foretold it, saying,
- "Behold, the hour is coming, and has come, that ye shall be scattered, each to his own, and shall leave me alone", John 16: 32.
- Even this showed, in a striking way, how everything for them depended on His presence. While He was present they were held together; when He was taken away they were scattered.
After His resurrection the Lord appeared to His own, and by Mary Magdalene He sent that wonderful message,
- "go to my brethren and say to them, I ascend to my Father and your Father, and to my God and your God", John 20: 17.
- The effect of this was that they were gathered together again. They found that they had not lost the One who bound them together, but that He had been taken from them for a little season that they might have Him, though in a different way, for ever.
- He had accomplished redemption; all that was offensive to God had been removed in His sacrifice, so that they might be associated with Him beyond fear of separation. He was ascending to His Father as their Father also, and His God was theirs.
- In this way does He show their association with Himself, and that on the ground of righteousness and in resurrection.
- When gathered together He took His place in their midst, showing that He was still their Centre, and as thus in their midst, He spoke peace to them, and filled their hearts with joy. This is the unalterable portion of His own.
Then, in the beginning of the Acts, we read of the Holy Spirit sent down from Him. The Spirit came to dwell with the disciples, and to be in them.
- He, as another Comforter, took charge of the company which the Lord had formed here on earth. Thus were they bound together, even more effectively than before, by the presence of a divine Person, for He dwelt in them, and formed them spiritually.
- It was then that that became true, which was afterwards written in 1 Corinthians 12: 13,
- "For also in the power of one Spirit we have all been baptised into one body, whether Jews or Greeks, whether bondmen or free, and have all been given to drink of one Spirit".
- Yet the Spirit … maintains us in the faith of Christ, who has gone up to heaven, and thus He, who was the Centre for His people upon the earth, continues to be such to them.
- The Spirit ministers to us of Him, and forms affections in our hearts for Him, and consequently towards one another, and so He binds us together.
In Acts 4:21 - 23, the disciples had been examined and threatened, and being let go, they went to their own company. They were not isolated as solitary individuals, they had their own company, and they knew it.
- Their company was not of the world. There was the plainest distinction between them and the world. The world had crucified the One who was so dear to them, and they themselves were suffering from the same world. And this, too, was the religious section of the world.
- So they were very conscious of their separation from it, but they found their company with those who were attached, as they themselves were, to the Lord Jesus Christ. This was the company formed and controlled by the Holy Spirit, and in it they found their happy place.
- It was a refuge for them from the cold persecuting world, which had crucified their Lord.
Now when a man is converted he should know his own company.
- That company is not found in the world. If he turn to the world for company he shows that the gospel has not yet done its full work in his soul.
- Where the gospel has done its work, not only is the forgiveness of sins known, and the grace which is manifested in this, but also, like the woman of Luke 7, the One in whom that grace has reached us becomes unspeakably precious to us.
- When this is the case, we cannot find our company with the world with whom the Lord has no place, but we must seek it with those who have been similarly drawn to Him.
- God does not intend that we should be isolated, nor that we should content ourselves with individual blessing, but He would have us in the company of His own.
But it will be said: There are now so many companies of Christians that we cannot tell which is the right one.
- The fact that there are so many companies only tends to show what a small place the Lord has in the hearts of His people. The simpler and the stronger the affection for Christ, the more unbearable everything becomes which is not of Him.
I know only of one test for discovering the right company, and that is the place which Christ has with them, and consequently the intolerance with which everything is viewed which is not of Him.
- If all Christians were in simple love to Christ, and in the exclusion of everything which is not of Him, they would all be together. It is the entrance of the will of man and confidence in the qualities of the flesh, that has divided Christians.
In 2 Timothy 2 we are told to purge ourselves from vessels to dishonour, and to follow righteousness, faith, love, peace, with those who call on the Lord out of a pure heart.
- Such are not of necessity advanced Christians. To call on the Lord is a sign of absolute dependence on Him. Samuel was characterised by this; he was among those who call on His name, as Psalm 99: 6 says.
- When he began his ministry, the priesthood was corrupt and was the means of corrupting the people, and yet was held with the greatest pretension by the sons of Eli. God judged all this; He gave His glory into the hand of the enemy. It was a terrible step to take, and showed in what a terrible state His people were.
- Samuel gathered all the people to Mizpah and there he prayed, with fasting and pouring water out on the ground, in token of their undone condition; and he offered there a sucking lamb. 1 Samuel 7: 5-11. It showed, in figure, that no confidence was to be placed in man, but only in that which Christ is to God. Their comprehension of this might be small, as the offering was, but it spoke of Christ.
- In a similar way to this, we should be marked by absence of all pretension, and be found cleaving to Christ alone, with true affection for Him.
- "Out of a pure heart", 2 Timothy 2: 22
- shows that there is no hypocrisy, and this is made manifest by what a man pursues. There will be with such a man, as this portion of Scripture says, the pursuit of righteousness, faith, love and peace.
- Thus do we find those with whom we should have our place. If we have regard to the Lord alone we seek the company of those who pursue these things. We want to be with those who are free of all pretension, but who, in absolute dependence on the Lord, seek those things which are approved of Him.
My reason for reading the first verse of John 13 is that I identify "their own company" in Acts 4 with the expression "his own". The company becomes our own, because it is the Lord's own.p>
- Whatever they may be, in obscurity or poverty, if He loves them, we may well love them too.
- It must be recognised, however, that this is not at the expense of truth or holiness. The expression is striking which is found in the two short epistles of John:
- "whom I love in the truth", 2 John 1 and 3 John 1.
- It contemplates the flow of divine affections in the saints, as formed and controlled by the whole truth of God. Thus all that is contrary to the truth is excluded.
In the second epistle the apostle directs that the door be closed against those who bring not the doctrine of Christ, verse 10.
- Such a proceeding may be viewed by men as narrow and uncharitable, but the claims of Christ demand it, and those who love the Lord will not be slow to respond to those claims.
- In the third epistle the door is opened to all who have gone forth for the sake of the Name.
- No matter how amiable and plausible a man may be, if he bring not the doctrine of Christ, we must close the door; but the one who comes in all the value of the name of Him whom we love, must find an open door.
- In love in the truth, Christ, and not our own feelings or wishes, is the test.
The company which the Lord recognises as His own is the object of His unchanging love even at the present time.
- And in speaking thus I do not exclude from my thought one Christian upon the face of the earth; all come under His love.
- When He rose from the dead the only thing that claimed His attention upon the earth was the company of His own. Now that He is in heavenly glory, His love is unchanged; He loves His own to the end. How many things may come in before the end! Yet it is to the end that He loves.
- "Having loved his own which were in the world, loved them to the end".
- If we look at the church today in its outward aspect, as it is before the eyes of the world, there is nothing but grief for us; but as we look at it under the gracious and unchanging love of Christ we can rejoice.
While the whole church is under the love of Christ, if we would know the joy of His presence and the enjoyment of His love, there must be the maintenance of righteousness and holiness.
- If there be not that which is suitable to Him, He cannot give the sense of His presence with us.
- In John 13 He speaks of our having "part with me", and it is to this end that He washes the feet of His disciples;
- "Unless I wash thee, thou hast not part with me", verse 8.
- He delights in the company of His own, but they must be in a suited state, and with this in view He carries on this patient service of love, freeing us from all the defilement which we may contract in going through this world. Then in chapter 14 He says:
- "I will not leave you orphans, I am coming to you", verse 18.
- Not only does He long after the company of His own, but He counts on the same longing being found with them so that they value His presence, and to those who value it He gives it.
- Now I desire that we should not only have outward identification with the company which the Lord approves, but that also we may reach the consciousness of His presence in the midst of His own.
- It is this which constitutes the full privilege of the assembly; for in the consciousness of His presence we are led into all the joy of the Father's love. The One who has declared the Father's name gives us to know all the blessedness which lies in that name as we are consciously in His company; and in the midst of His own He sings praise to the Father.
In view of His absence the Lord instituted the Supper of which we partake in remembrance of Him.
- He counted upon His own coming together during the time of His absence, and He knew that in thus coming together they would feel His absence, and on this account He gave them the Supper to keep. The apostle speaks of it again in 1 Corinthians 11.
- We partake of the Supper, in coming together, for the purpose of calling to mind the One who has loved us even to death; so that, though He be actually absent, He may become present to our minds and hearts' affections. We recall Him in all the greatness and devotedness of His love.
- As He becomes present thus to us, we enter into all the joy of His presence, and taste all the blessed portion into which He brings us, according to the will of God. The truth of all this is unfolded for us in Paul's epistles.
I trust that you may see the great importance of the christian company. I trust that you will not stop short at seeing, in a general way, that the church is under the love of Christ,
- but that you may know the place where principles are maintained which are according to the Lord, and where consequently He is free to come, fulfilling His own word,
- and that in that place you may know all the joy of His realised presence; the consciousness of His own love, delighting in the company of His own, and leading them into the enjoyment of the Father's love.
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| THE GLORY OF THE CHILDREN OF GOD |
Romans 5; Romans 8
Words of Encouragement, June 1899 |
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We read in Romans 5 of the glory of God in the hope of which the believer boasts, verse 2; in Romans 8 we read of the manifestation of the sons of God, verse 19, and the glory of the children of God, verse 21.
- God has become glorious in the eye of faith, and He will eventually display that glory before the face of all; in our Lord Jesus Christ man has become glorious, and into that glory it is God's purpose to bring His loved ones.
- Man, in his estrangement from God, has sought glory, and in his own way he has gained it, for the scripture speaks of the glory of man; but it speaks of it to show how vain and shortlived it is, comparing it to the flower of the grass which falleth away, 1 Peter 1: 24.
- This must be so, seeing that death rests upon man as God's judgment. Man may gain great renown among his fellows, and clothe himself with honour, but he passes away and his glory fades.
- The One to whom God has given glory has passed through death, and has been raised from the dead, the token of God's having been glorified in His death respecting sin, and also of the breaking forever of the power of evil.
- The renown which He has, therefore, is deathless, and can never fade away. It is through Him that God carries out all His purpose of love, and His end is to have us in association with Christ, as the many sons whom He brings to glory.
The expression of God's purpose concerning us is seen in Christ glorified, and what corresponds to this with us on earth is the gift of the Spirit.
- The Spirit was not given until Jesus was glorified, John 7: 39, and He has come to us as the Spirit of that glorified Man; He is to us the Spirit of glory.
- But if so, He must set aside in us all that is morally of the flesh, He must deliver us from all its activity, for only thus can we be enabled to enter into all the precious thoughts of the love of God.
- In Romans 8 the Spirit is thus first presented to us as freeing us from the mind and activity of the flesh. Then the thoughts of God's love are touched upon. As led of the Spirit we are sons of God, having received a spirit of sonship.
- A slave may be emancipated and yet retain a slave's spirit. God displaces the spirit of slavery by a spirit of sonship. The Holy Spirit who is given to us, chapter 5: 5, so sheds abroad the love of God in our hearts that we become formed in reciprocal affection and cry to God with holy delight,
- The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit that we are children of God. Our glory as children of God is not yet made known to the world. Another apostle says,
- "For this reason the world knows us not, because it knew him not", 1 John 3: 1.
- The Spirit maintains it in the intelligence of our spirits as the present secret of the love of God.
Heirship is attached to it; "If children, heirs also: heirs of God, and Christ's joint heirs" chapter 8: 17.
- The love of God is known as a present reality, and in the knowledge of that love we know that with Christ He will freely give us all things; we are to be sharers in all the range of the inheritance.
- But our glory is hidden, even as was His in whose steps we are called to follow. We are children and heirs; we have the love of God, and the inheritance as that which is His pleasure for us; but the world knows us not.
- Consequently we are called to suffering. All this present period is marked by the sufferings of Christ. He was here a lonely Sufferer among men, and now the sufferings have to be taken up by His own.
Suffering is not peculiar to those who believe; the whole creation groans and travails in pain together.
- What is peculiar to the Christian is that he is instructed in the mind of God concerning it all, and through the Spirit he becomes the vessel of holy feelings and intelligent desires which are according to the mind of God.
- The groan of creation tells of a world brought into vanity and under the bondage of corruption through the sin of man who was placed over it all.
- The Son of God upon earth groaned and wept in the presence of sorrow and death, although He carried in His bosom the secret of divine love, and was Himself the resurrection and the life, the One by whom God would fulfil all His purpose of love, bringing life out of death and setting all in incorruption.
- We groan within ourselves, having in our hearts the secret of divine love through the Spirit, and waiting the actual fulfilment of divine purpose when we shall reach the place of sonship for which we are destined, with the redemption of the body.
The creation also awaits this blessed moment. The earnest expectation of the creature waiteth for the manifestation of the sons of God.
- When man sinned, the shadow of his sin fell upon the whole creation; when the sons of God shall be revealed, the light of their glory will be the deliverance and blessing of creation.
- The creature itself also shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the liberty of the glory of the children of God. That which is now the precious secret of our souls, the love of God, will then come into open display, and will pervade the universe of bliss.
- The world will then know that the Father sent the Son, and that His own, who have believed on Him, have been loved as He has been loved. This will give its character to the whole creation which will participate in the liberty of the glory of the children of God.
In Revelation 21 the church is seen in its relation to the earth, under the figure of a city, the centre of administration.
- It descends from God out of heaven, invested with the glory of God. It is the figurative setting forth of those who are children of God, now unknown of the world, partakers of the divine nature, brought into display, and inheriting with Christ.
- Light shines from the holy city for the nations upon earth, and healing and blessing flow from thence.
What a separating effect must all this have upon him who through grace enters into it!
- The eye penetrates below the surface of man's glory and sees the corruption to which the whole creation has become subject, and into the ear enters the groan which can never be hushed until Christ reigns.
- But in the midst of it we know the love of God, and in the enjoyment of that love we not only trace our own blessing of superlative degree, but we also know the peace and bliss which shall shortly fill the earth.
- Thus we can quietly wait, giving ourselves to prayer, in which we are aided by the Spirit, who makes intercession for saints according to God.
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Matthew 22: 1-13; Luke 15: 18-24
Words of Truth, Volume 15, 1947
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In considering our relations with God, Christ is everything for us, both as regards title and fitness.
- Whatever blessing God has for man, there is no title to it but Christ, and He is our only fitness for the presence of God, where we find our home, and have the everlasting enjoyment which His presence affords.
- The former is indicated in the wedding garment of Matthew 22, and the latter in the best robe of Luke 15.
1. The parable of the wedding feast in Matthew is one of a group of three. The first is in chapter 21: 28-32, the significant words of which are,
- It sets forth man's responsibility to God. In the application of it to the Jews the Lord gives prominence to the ministry of John the Baptist, who came in the way of righteousness. Those who were conscious of failure repented at his preaching.
2. The second parable is that of the vineyard which was let to husbandmen, who were to render to the owner the fruits in due season, verses 33-41.
- In this parable the Lord speaks of His own coming as the Son, who is Heir. In His coming there was the consummation of all earthly privilege.
- Those who, according to the previous parable, had failed in responsibility and had John's ministry, joined to cast out the Heir that they might seize the inheritance.
- In the death of Christ we see the slaying of the Heir; when Antichrist reigns it will be fully seen that the inheritance has been seized.
3. The third parable, which opens chapter 22, is a setting forth of pure grace in connection with the Son.
- It is no longer responsibility, or earthly privilege, but the King acting for the honour and joy of His Son. This is typical of the present period. The figure is that of a marriage feast for the satisfaction of the One who provides it.
The introduction of Christ, as seen in the beginning of the gospel of Matthew, entirely alters the state of things which had previously existed.
- In Genesis 6: 6 we read that God repented that He had made man, and it grieved Him in His heart.
- In Matthew 3, there is a blessed contrast. The heavens are opened, and it is said,
- "This is my beloved Son, in whom I have found my delight", verse 17.
- Here is a Man of a totally different order, and who is as fully to the pleasure of God as the other man was to His grief. Now Christianity is the expression of God's pleasure in this Man. Hence it has a festive character.
Both in this chapter and also in Luke 14 and 15 we have the idea of a feast.
- From the beginning God had more in view than merely meeting the need of man. We catch a glimpse of this in Old Testament times in the feasts of Jehovah.
- God, then, showed that He had delight in gathering His people festively around Himself. He would make even their fasts to become occasions of
- "joy and gladness, and cheerful gatherings", Zechariah 8: 19.
- In them His own joy must be greatest, but He desired others to share in it. This is wonderful!
The question of title is raised in Matthew 22: 11.
- The end of the man who had not on a wedding garment shows that he had no title to the feast, and so came under the displeasure of the One who had made it. There is no alternative.
- Though a man be perfectly irreproachable in his character and conduct, he has no title thereby to the feast. The festivity all centres in the King's Son, and no one can have part in it on the ground of anything that he is in himself.
- The wedding garment is the sign that one is there, in honour of Him.
If anyone had natural title to the feast the Jew had, for to him pertained earthly privilege, but the previous chapter has shown that this is all forfeited, and therefore even the Jew can only come in on the ground of grace and of what Christ is.-
This is the ground Paul takes against Peter in Galatians 2: 11-14. He withstood Peter because he was afresh taking Jewish ground.
- In his reply Paul shows that they had abandoned works of law that they might be justified by the faith of Christ. They had entirely changed their ground, and were justified in Christ. In Him they were entirely cleared of the first man, his responsibility, his privilege and his judgment.
There are two men brought before us in Scripture: the man that grieved God in His heart, in whom we have all had our part;
- and Christ the One who is for God's pleasure.
- We all naturally are more or less self-confident and think much of ourselves. The work of the Spirit of God is to break down confidence in ourselves and to lead us to confidence in that blessed One.
- What may be called the moral ground of faith is, that we abandon all thought and hope of ourselves as those who are thoroughly corrupt, and we take the ground of what Christ is (for God's whole delight is in Him) and this constitutes our title to the feast.
In Galatians 2: 16 the apostle tells us that no flesh can be justified by works of law.
- The law is the divine standard of man's responsibility to God, but no one can be justified on that principle.
- We can only be justified on the principle of faith in Christ. Justification in its full sense goes beyond clearance from guilt and judgment; we are cleared in God's account of all participation in Adam's fallen race, and this can only be in Christ. We are justified in Christ.
Now in the same chapter, Galatians 2: 19, we come to the second point. The apostle says,
- "I, through law, have died to law, that I may live to God".
- The closing expression of this verse is similar to that used of the Lord Jesus in Romans 6: 10:
- "in that he has died, he has died to sin once for all; but in that he lives, he lives to God".
- Looking at the expression in regard to Him we appreciate its sweetness. There was One who had to do with men here on earth, though morally separate from them; He endured the contradiction of sinners against Himself, and in the end gave up His life in sacrifice to God.
- The Scripture speaks of His dying to sin. He had only to do with it in conflict against it, sacrificially, but even so He has died to it, and has no more to say to it. Now He lives to God.
There is therefore a Man in the presence of God whose life has respect wholly to Him, and who is there to His perfect satisfaction;
- not only morally so, as when on earth, but in the glorious condition of manhood that God purposed from eternity.
- Even if He were alone, we see God's thought set forth in Him and can rejoice that God has a Man before Him to His entire and eternal satisfaction.
Now Paul takes it up in regard to himself, and speaks of living to God.
- How can this be? One cannot now live to God in flesh, for since Christ has died, flesh has no place with God. There is the recognition of this with Paul when he goes on to say,
- "I am crucified with Christ", Galatians 2: 20.
- Crucifixion was by sentence of condemnation, and therefore it might be said, if it were possible to revive the crucified, it would not be lawful, for a sentence stands recorded against him.
- Peter was attempting revival. Paul would not have it;
- "I am crucified with Christ".
- There was the determined recognition of the end of all that the flesh is in the cross of Christ.
He then continues, "Christ lives in me".
It is only in virtue of Christ living in us that we live to God. Nothing but Christ can be for God's satisfaction. The anxiety of the apostle for the Galatians was that Christ might be formed in them.
In Luke 15, we see that the welcomed one is held as cleared by the Father when He runs forth to greet him, but in order to join the festivity of the house there must be fitness, and this is found in the best robe.
- No doubt it sets forth Christ, but it is Christ as forming the state and character of His people. It is only as we are thus formed that we can enjoy the feast, however certain our title to it may be. Whatever the flesh may be, it has no relish for God's feast.
The Spirit who has been given to us not only assures us that we are perfectly cleared in God's account from all that the flesh is, so that all the blessing of God can be bestowed upon us,
- but He also forms Christ in us, so that we live no longer, but Christ lives in us, and it is thus we live to God, and have all the enjoyment of the feast which has been spread.
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