WEALTH

John McKay

Galatians 4: 1-5; Deuteronomy 33: 23 ;

1 Corinthians 12: 12,13; Matthew 25: 14-29

I seek help from the Lord to say a word as to the present dispensation, a dispensation which is marked by fulness. This may be in contrast to what has engaged us in the reading but it in no way contradicts it. Outwardly the circumstances of the testimony are restricted; inwardly the position is a very wealthy one. I would like to attract you freshly today to prove the wealth that is available for you in Christianity. We need to be preserved from reading the Scriptures as simply a statement of doctrine. As we open them they apply to the one who reads them. Paul, writing to these Galatian believers says, "but when the fulness of the time was come". That reference looks to the present moment. It refers immediately to the incoming of Jesus, but it is a time, according to the great apostle, which is marked by fulness. Much that engages men is empty and hollow. In the beginning of Genesis we are told that, through the intrusion of sin into the universe, ''the earth was waste and empty, and darkness was on the face of the deep", chap 1: 2. God has intervened to change all that, and the way He has intervened is to come in Himself in the person of Christ - ''the fulness of the time was come". I believe it means that we are in a dispensation in which from God's side there are no reserves. God has made Himself known fully. He had been known previously, known to Abraham to David and to Joseph of whom we were speaking earlier, but when we come to Christianity He is made known in His fulness. There are no reserves. He is made known according to His own nature, His own rights and His own power in Father, Son and Holy Spirit, the great Name of revelation. We have been baptised to it, dear brethren, and we are here today in the light of the fulness of the revelation of God.

So it says, "but when the fulness of the time was come". Think of God waiting until the time for it arrived! Really the whole period of the Old Testament, some four thousand years, was for God, in a sense, a waiting time. All anticipated and looked forward to the great moment when, emptying Himself, Christ would come, taking manhood's form, here to be the full expression of what God sought and desired from men. But, dear brethren, He was to be more than that; He was in Himself the expression of the fulness of God: "For in him dwells all the fulness of the Godhead bodily", Col 2: 9. How great Christ is! How great the Person whom we know! How great the Man whom we love! "For in him dwells all the fulness of the Godhead bodily". That is what He was as a man in flesh and blood upon the earth. As another has said, Christ as here on earth, the body of a Man was greater than the whole universe. Solomon said to God, ''the heavens and the heaven of heavens cannot contain thee; how much less this house which I have built!", 2 Chron 6: 18. Yet in Jesus we have on the earth the body of a man great enough to be the shrine of Deity. This gives character to the fulness of the time, the Christian dispensation into which we have been brought. God was counting the years. He was also counting the generations. We read at the beginning of Matthew's gospel how He counted three lots of fourteen generations and we see how God had determined the fixed point at which there should be this wonderful intervention of grace, the wonder of the universe, that a divine Person should be manifest here in flesh and blood conditions. So the time was fixed, fixed by God.

But more than that was involved. It is also an indication of a development in the ways of God. It was not only the passage of years. It was that, when Christ came, the fulness of God's thoughts in blessing for men would be disclosed. So it says, "but when the fulness of the time was come, God sent forth his Son, come of woman, come under law, that he might redeem those under law, that we might receive sonship". What we have come to is the time of sonship. What is available to every believer in the present dispensation is sonship. Have you received it? We may plead with persons to accept the forgiveness of sins; that is only the beginning. God's thought is that man should receive sonship; that means that man should be set up in dignity upon the earth in conscious relationship with God, divinely blest, and himself the expression of how God has been made known to him. Now is that like you? Is that like me? How measured we are as we think of the greatness of divine disclosure in the present dispensation!

I want to speak from these other passages of persons who in some measure came practically into the gain of divine blessing. I refer to Naphtali but I want to speak about ourselves because, if we refer to a scripture, it is that the bearing of it upon our own circumstances and experience should be felt. Naphtali is described in Deuteronomy 33 as "satisfied with favour". He was a man, like you perhaps, who was born into a household where there was faith. I trust that all of us value that great privilege. His father was Jacob, a man who knew God and who proved God, and Naphtali had been brought in as a result of exercise. His name, if you refer to Genesis 30, means 'my wrestling'. Somebody had concern that this son was being born into the household of faith. Somebody has had concern about you. The younger brethren here today need to take account of themselves as the result of exercise in the household of faith, not simply in your own family but in the environment in which you have been brought up. 'My wrestling': that is Naphtali. Read what Jacob says about him in Genesis 49: he refers to him as "a hind let loose" (v 21). I think that connects somewhat with what we had earlier. Naphtali knew something about restriction. He had been held back, just like that colt in the gospel tied at the crossway. Someone did that and prevented it straying. That is what happened with Naphtali. The moment came however when he was to be let loose. "He giveth goodly words", Jacob says; he became a contributor. I trust there is concern amongst us that we should become not only recipients of blessing but contributors in the area where the fulness of the Christian dispensation is to be experienced. "He giveth goodly words". Do not always be waiting for somebody else to provide what is needed in the local meeting. God will help in the provision of something that can be extended, "goodly words", not critical words, not words that are negative in their outlook and bearing but "goodly words". It is an indication of a person who is living in the light of Christianity, that he can bring in something that is positive, and that is what is going to help forward others in the pathway of faith.

So it says he is "satisfied with favour”. He is not looking outside the divine system for anything. He is "satisfied with favour". "The act of favour of God", Paul says is "eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord", Rom 6: 23. Are we satisfied with the portion that God has conferred upon us? I think it is because we enjoy these things so little that we divert so easily to other things which do not satisfy. Naphtali was "full of the blessing of Jehovah". Persons are filled as they are maintained in conscious touch with Christ Himself. Christ was here the expression of divine fulness. John says, "we have contemplated his glory", but he also says we have received of His grace. He says, ''for of his fulness we all have received, and grace upon grace", John 1: 16. Naphtali was a person who was filled by grace. I think we should be concerned to reflect more the greatness of what has been conferred upon us so that we become filled vessels, filled by grace. Consecration in the Old Testament, if you read in the law of the offerings, was the filling of the hands. That is that God provided something. He says, "none shall appear before me empty", Exod 34: 20. That was a divine requirement. Persons were not to appear before God as not being fully furnished with what was required. God says, I will fill your hands. It is a very interesting verse in Leviticus 6 which I was looking at just before the meeting. It speaks of the consecration of the priest and it says in verse 15: "And he shall take of it his handful of the fine flour of the oblation". "His handful"; that is, you are appropriating what is available in Christ for you. We sang:

'Thy fulness, Lord, is now for me,

All my fresh springs are hid in Thee;

In Thee I live; while I confess

I nothing am, yet all possess' (No.281)

The wealth of what is in Christ is available to the believer: "and he shall take of it his handful of the fine flour of the oblation". I wonder if you have taken your handful, yours, that is, that you appropriate what is available in Christ. It would become formative so that your whole person, as with Naphtali, becomes "full of the blessing of Jehovah”. Even as David said to God at one point: "Let my prayer be set forth before thee as incense, the lifting up of my hands as the evening oblation", Ps 141: 2. That meant that there was something in David that answered to the oblation, that answered to the worth and fulness of the humanity of Christ. This is available for every person who is born into a Christian household, which applies to most of us here. We are not to be as persons impoverished but to be here as wealthy.

We come to 1 Corinthians 12. This epistle is addressed to a local company and everyone here belongs to such a company. God has given us places in which to work out the truth and we are to rise to the level of what has been divinely proposed in our local settings. So if you can put yourself in as a Naphtali, I think you can also put yourself in as one of the Corinthians, a person to whom such an epistle as this can be addressed. Paul says, "For also in the power of one Spirit we have all been baptised into one body, whether Jews or Greeks, whether bondmen or free". As you look around you see many differences between persons. The difference between the Jew and the Greek was an emphasised one. The Jew was a religious man, the Greek an academic. They were poles apart. "Bondmen or free", you can look around in the world and see all these distinctions amongst men, the lower levels of the social strata right through to the upper levels, religious persons, able persons intellectually, persons inclined to commerce, persons inclined to leisure, all these things. All these are differences amongst men. The great fact is that God has found the answer in view of bringing about the elimination of all that is different and setting us together in relation to what is greater. "For also in the power of one Spirit we have all been baptised into one body". God has done that with believers so that all these distinctions that trouble men are removed. Are you not sorry for men, pursuing their own aims, with their fellow-men all having different aims, all struggling for different objectives? What confusion exists! God has the answer to it all in Christianity. It says, "For also in the power of one Spirit we have all been baptised into one body". That is what God has done. Then it says, "and have all been given to drink of one Spirit". That is our side and I would like to encourage us to drink more deeply in this sense: "given to drink of one Spirit". Supreme satisfaction lies in this. I wish I knew more of it, dear brethren, but I can see that supreme satisfaction lies in drinking into one Spirit. It means that we become satisfied. Satisfaction is deliverance from the whole line of things that may have troubled us. One of the dangers is that we get involved in party activity and party thinking. God has the answer to that and it is here, available, in the Spirit. We need to drink into one Spirit. It means that we are all satisfied with the same thing, with divine provision. You could not improve on divine provision. The setting of this passage is the new covenant, the best that God can provide, and yet how often we go off on a tangent, on our own course, disregarding the wealth that is available to us in the local company and in the assembly as indwelt by the Holy Spirit. God's side is that "in the power of one Spirit we have all been baptised into one body": our side is we "have all been given to drink of one Spirit". So that supreme satisfaction should mark persons who are in the light of the assembly. Is it so, dear brethren? I am rebuked sometimes as thinking of my own circumstances and perhaps being a little complaining in them when I hear a brother get on his feet and thank God for the wealth of blessing that has been divinely conferred upon us. How unthankful and how unappreciative we sometimes are of the wealth that belongs to the Christian dispensation! May we drink more deeply, dear brethren! As we come together at the time of the Supper and drink out of one cup, it involves the inward unity and satisfaction that belongs to the spiritual system. Let us not divert from it! Let us not get into an area that is petty, that is according to man relating to the differences which God by His Spirit has removed! The power of the Spirit is the only unity which God recognises. If we believe that, we realise that we cannot be united on any other basis than that of divine provision.

In Matthew's gospel, we have the parable which speaks of the man going out of the country and delivering to his bondmen of his substance. I want you to put yourself into this passage too, because in these days, Christ having left the country, our Master being absent, all of us are bondmen and in some way are called into the great matter of service. The Lord is absent but He has left certain things behind. This passage makes clear that what He has left behind is His substance. Is that not wonderful? His substance! The ownership of this substance never changes throughout the whole period of the Lord's absence. It is His and He is leaving it with the bondmen. His sovereignty and His perfect knowledge of the bondmen come into view because He does not give them all the same, He gives "to each according to his particular ability". The Lord understands each of us but He gives. Let that register with us all and with the younger ones here. The Lord gives, and what He gives is of His own substance. Now another thing that is very striking is that He gives only a little. None of these bondmen are given a great deal. It says, "And to one he gave five talents, to another two, and to another one". He did not give a great deal, but He gave of His own substance. You might look around and say, Brother So-and-so has far more than I have. He has a little; it came from Christ. You have a little; it came from Christ. I am challenged by this, dear brethren, and I take this opportunity to bring that challenge among the brethren as to what we are doing with what He has entrusted to us.

What is very clear in this passage is that the Lord is giving no directions. You may say, I thought service was all on the principle of direction, and, of course, the fact that we have a Master means that we have to defer to Him in everything. But these men are left and the master is away. What is to be done? They had substance and what comes out is that the persons who know the Master act in a way that is wise and that results in prosperity and gain in their Lord's absence. Is this not a tribute to God's work in the saints? The increase that results is very wonderful. The sequel here is "And he that had received the five talents went and trafficked with them, and made five other talents. In like manner also he that had received the two, he also gained two others. But he that had received the one went and dug in the earth, and hid the money of his lord. And after a long time the lord of those bondmen comes and reckons with them". The length of the time is what brings out the condition of each of the bondmen. How well do I know my Master? What would my Master do in these circumstances? I have something and, however small it is, it belongs not to me, it belongs to Him. Those who have the courage through knowledge of Himself to traffic with what they have produce gain, and the gain belongs not to them, but is available to the master on his return. I would encourage the brethren. Our measure is small and, as we said earlier in the meetings today, God works on the principle of limitation. You may be asked to serve in a meeting and you feel that what you have is so small. Only the Lord is able to make it adequate, and yet you find that among the brethren there is increase. This man who has five talents gains five others so that when the Lord comes back, what he says to him is, "Well, good and faithful bondman". Is that not fine? It was not the result of his knowledge or of his particular ability. It was the result of his faithfulness that brought the increase. Now, dear brethren, let us be encouraged to be faithful to Christ. How true He has been to us and at what cost. Let us be faithful to the Master in order that when He returns we may have such a word as this: ''thou wast faithful over a few things". Look after a few things, dear brethren, in your local meeting, look after things that came from Him. They belong not to you but to the One who gave them. "Thou wast faithful over a few things, I will set thee over many things".

Then to refer to that verse at the end: ''for to every one that has shall be given, and he shall be in abundance". The bondman now becomes a reflection of the wealth of the Christian dispensation: "He shall be in abundance". How much have you, dear brother, dear sister? Do you sometimes feel empty? I must confess that I do. We should not do so because we are in the light of the wealth of the divine system. God has made Himself known without reserve in Christ. The fulness of God has been manifested in the glorious person of the Lord Jesus and we have received of His substance. We should be as satisfied as Naphtali, drinking into one Spirit, finding satisfaction in the area of the assembly. Then as bondmen we should be proving in faithfulness, in the absence of the Master, that we become wealthy so that when He comes back there will be something for Him. "But when the Son of man comes, shall he indeed find faith on the earth?", Luke 18: 8. Let it be that what He has entrusted to us may be preserved! Let us expend our energy in ways that are profitable, working with the substance He has given, and finding that gain comes on that line! May it be so for His Name's sake!

BIRMINGHAM

13 March 1993