AMENABILITY TO ADJUSTMENT
[p. 168] AMENABILITY TO ADJUSTMENT
John 2:3-5; John 2:12; Luke 10:38 - 42; Matthew 16:22 - 24
What is in mind in reading these scriptures, speaking as they do of well-known persons, is to show how the work of God is currently operative. There is amenableness to immediate adjustment where will has been at work. Adjustment in divine things is always necessitated by will or ignorance in us. From the divine side there is no need of adjustment. The wonderful economy into which we are brought remains in perfect love as it was when first inaugurated; nor can there be any change. As indeed in the physical universe, things go on; all runs on unalterably according to divine design and purpose.
It is in the moral system that adjustment is needed, but only from our side. From God’s side all is perfect. And so where in any way there is need for regulation spiritually, we may at once and with certainty put it down to the action of our wills. I may remark at this point that the people of God and men generally — but I speak particularly to the saints of God — are too prone to assume that things are optional and that at any time, however long will may have persisted, one may change his mind. That is, it is always regarded as optional with us. In view of the dispensation into which we have come, it is so generally, for God is waiting for any returning prodigal, but with all that, the government of God stands and is interwoven in the dispensation, although we rightly speak of it as one of grace. Grace reigns, but the government of God also subsists. We find, therefore, that He speaks in the Scripture of fixedness, whether for good or for evil, in persons during their lives here; fixedness, of course, lies with those of us who are true believers in Christ.
The Scriptures show unmistakably that fixedness lies with the believer from the standpoint of divine counsel,
[p. 169] but then the idea must be extended to us in regard of our part and place in relation to the tabernacle, or the testimony; and what Scripture makes plain is that in the working of will, God may fix a position, even whilst believers are here in the body. This is one of the most solemn things to be considered. It is one of the most blessed things, one of the most assuring thoughts as to the true believer from the standpoint of his eternal portion, but from the standpoint of his position in relation to the testimony here, it may become a most solemn matter. The abandonment by anyone of his place in that testimony may mean fixedness from the divine side, that is, if you will have it so, God will give you to understand that it is as you wish it.
Take, for instance, in the corrective epistle (1 Corinthians), which treats of the relation of the saints to the testimony, that is to say, whether they are in it or out of it, we have the statement: “But if any be ignorant” (chapter 14:38). Let him be that! But, you might say, that is not in keeping with grace. But God would remind us that, while we may think things are optional on our side, they are not so. Even in regard of repentance, God opens the door for it, grants it, and this makes man’s position extremely solemn, more so than most of us have realised. God fixes things in this sense, not only in regard of the unsaved, but in regard of the saints, and, as I said, it is a most solemn consideration. That things are fixed in regard of the unsaved there can be no question. “But if also our gospel is veiled, it is veiled in those that are lost” (2 Corinthians 4:3). And again, “Let him that does unrighteously do unrighteously still; and let the filthy make himself filthy still ...” (Revelation 22:11). The Spirit says these things. God is fixing the matter in the lifetime of ignorant, unrighteous, and filthy persons. God would have us to understand that we have to do with Him and that He is a consuming fire, and that He has His own way. His government is perfectly compatible with His grace. As His government [p. 170] is disregarded, grace must be futile. The government of God supports His grace, and gives us to understand that God is not mocked.
The corrective epistle I have alluded to speaks of certain saints who partook of the Lord’s supper thus: “On this account many among you are weak and infirm, and a good many are fallen asleep” (1 Corinthians 11:30). They were misbehaving in relation to the Lord’s supper, and God was disciplining them in this extreme way, some of them losing their places in the testimony. The only remedy now was to take them away through death. John says of such cases, “I do not say of that that he should make a request” (1 John 5:16). In the present paralysed condition of the christian profession persons regarded as “lost” cannot be easily identified, but that they exist Scripture makes plain. And God would have us all to make our “calling and election sure” (2 Peter 1:10), that we may not be trifling with Him, assuming that we can take things on or leave them; assuming that, although we have eyes to see, we are justified in not seeing! God would say, Why not have eyes to see? I give them to you! Everyone who is born of God ought to be able to see the things of God. “Except any one be born anew he cannot see ...” (John 3:3), but if he is, he can! The work of God enables us to see things and if we do not, let us not excuse ourselves. Adjustment is always on our side. Do not blame God if things are seen by others and you do not see them. If you continue to say, I do not see, the will is at work. Your position as outside the testimony may become fixed — a most solemn thing.
Now I have said all that because it enters into these scriptures. They are most honourable saints that I have read of here. The first is the Lord’s own mother. No doubt each saint has his own experience to a point, but in general there is a similitude in our experiences. No other, however, had Mary’s maternal experiences; no other person could have them. She began with a [p. 171] most admirable attitude as Scripture presents it to us. She says to the angel, “Be it to me according to thy word” (Luke 1:38). She is subject, but what I want to point out is that in spite of her great advantages and undoubted spirituality, at this particular point she allows natural feeling to actuate her, and that immediately and directly in relation to Christ. In His very presence she allowed natural feeling to actuate her. She says, “They have no wine”. Well, you say, there is not much out of the way in that. Indeed, some might say, There should be no wine! But Mary says, “They have no wine”. It was deficient. Did the Lord Jesus not know? Yes, He did. She is calling into question His personal knowledge of the position. He was invited there, and was there with His disciples, evidently happily, not in a perfunctory way. He knew, He was interested in it, too. He was perfectly cognisant of what was, and what was not, there. As I said, some would say, in answer to Mary’s remark, It is well it is deficient. Anyone who says that is entirely out of the mind of the Lord. ‘Prohibition’ as it is advocated in the world is an attack on Him.
But the Lord had something more to deal with than the deficiency of wine at that marriage. And so it is constantly; something more than the absence of the wine of joy has to be dealt with, and that is fleshly insinuation, fleshly assumption on natural grounds — the very things that make the wine deficient in a spiritual sense. Anyone with a sense of superior knowledge to Christ is the person who is making the wine deficient. The Lord deals with that, He puts that right in the most effective way, and what is so beautiful is that Mary is amenable to His correction. Amenability to immediate adjustment is of great importance; for if I continue on in the action of my will, God would say, Let it be that way! Let him be ignorant! Let him be filthy still! How solemn are those words!
[p. 172] Not so with Mary. The Lord says, “What have I to do with thee, woman?” He disregards the natural claim which she put forward, and calls her “woman”. She might have spoken loudly and rebelled, but the power of the work of God in her was immediately ready to subdue all that. Not a whimper, not a complaint, but immediate adjustment. She immediately says to the servants, “Whatever he may say to you, do”. Mary is submissive, and thus adjusted. Some are as ready to lead in error as in truth, more so. Had Mary rebelled, the servants might have done so, too, but there was perfect adjustment, and the wine of joy — the best possible — comes from the hand of Christ. I am speaking now spiritually, “... wine, which cheers God and man” (Judges 9:13), and the occasion intended to be a joyous one, was made that by the Lord. He cannot make it that if there is insubordination: “... selfwill is as iniquity and idolatry” (1 Samuel 15:23). If it continue, God may fix it, as I said.
Now what shows that there was complete adjustment is in verse 12: “After this he descended to Capernaum, he and his mother and his brethren and his disciples; and there they abode not many days”. That is, ‘the meeting’, as it were, goes on; there is no estrangement, there is no undercurrent of feeling; the matter is settled. His mother and He are on good terms and His brethren and His disciples — a combination. It says, “not many days”. Really it is a Jewish picture, but enough to indicate that the matter is settled, and no matter is settled spiritually unless the one involved is happily in the company of Jesus and His disciples and His brethren. How can any difficulty as to me be settled if I am not truly in the fellowship? If I am not in the fellowship, where am I? If I have washed my robes I am entitled to partake of the tree of life and enter by the gates into the city. “After this he descended to Capernaum, he and his mother and his brethren and his disciples; and there they abode not many days”,
[p. 173] but He abode there some days. It brings out the principle; the matter was settled not only between Him and His mother, but she is in the circle, she is in the fellowship. Why should she not be in the fellowship? Had she retained an unruly attitude, she would have been outside, but she is in it. It is open to all those who wash their robes.
I go on to Martha — another notable character, a believer unquestionably. She opens her house to Christ; she calls Him “Lord”, too. She had a house and she opened it to Christ and respected Him outwardly, but these are only initial thoughts — the opening of my house to the Lord in this sense and addressing Him as Lord. Depth of right feeling is often absent in these forms. Doubtless she knew Him before, but in calling Him “Lord” she is attacking Him. Think of the combination that is in us! She has a house and is opening it to the Lord, but she is attacking Him. She says, “Lord, dost thou not care that my sister has left me to serve alone?” You can understand how she was changing her mind about the Lord. You can understand that the flesh was rising and her appreciation of Christ was lowering; her valuation of Christ was diminishing. You can see it. The enemy is at work. She is thinking specially of Mary, of course. She does not perhaps mean to attack the Lord, but she is doing it! We must take account of our whole bearing in any issue; what is the bearing of my attitude in regard of Christ, in regard of the saints, in regard of the fellowship? Is it discrediting the truth, is it discrediting the fellowship, is it discrediting the assembly? I have to thus challenge myself. She was discrediting Christ, although the point of her words was toward Mary. “Lord, dost thou not care that my sister has left me to serve alone?”
The Spirit of God has in Luke one of the most gracious of all writers, and yet he does not indicate that Martha got help at this time. He is concerned about [p. 174] justifying Mary. He leaves us in doubt as regards Martha. Sometimes one inquires of a brother as to a certain one in his locality. If he says, I have not much to say about him, then doubt as to him arises. Here Luke does not give us an inkling as to Martha receiving help — he leaves her. John brings her in. I suppose John would say, Luke did not say a word in Martha’s favour, but time has wrought and I have something good to say about Martha.
John is the disciple whom Jesus loved, and he makes the most of what is good; still, he is at times faithfully severe. Luke gives a wonderful picture of Mary, the mother of the Lord, but John had to say certain things against her. You know what the Lord on the cross said about His mother. He saw John there and He saw His mother there, and He said, “Woman, behold thy son”, and He said to John, “Behold thy mother” (John 19:26,27). And John took her to his own home. She was in this sense John’s mother; she was in that relation with him. She was his mother, and he her son, by the authoritative appointment of the Lord; and yet John tells us what I have just read about her. He does not hide it, and Luke does not tell us anything about Martha to encourage us. He shows her will at work, but John shows that God was working with her.
In the eleventh and twelfth chapters of John you will note what time does, and how the Lord never withdraws His eye from one of His own. He has watched Martha day and night. We read of the Lord Jesus going out from Jerusalem and spending the night at Bethany. What conversations He may have had with the three at Bethany we cannot say, but the first mention in John is that the Lord Jesus loved them all. He loved those three. I am speaking now of what, under God, time may effect. Time may shut Him out for years, but this did not mark Bethany. It is quite clear that He always had access there, and that is the secret of the result we see in chapter 12. True recovery where [p. 175] needed is in leaving the door open for the Lord to come in. Never close it! John would indicate that a link existed between the Lord and Bethany, and the scene in chapter 12:1 - 3 is the outcome of it. The Lord made Martha, Mary, and Lazarus what they were as seen there. Thus we must be encouraged to leave the door open to Christ.
“Now Jesus loved Martha, and her sister, and Lazarus” (John 11:5). John puts her first. Adjustment by the Lord makes her effectively what she was at the beginning — she was serving. She had been complaining to the Lord about her sister: “Lord, dost thou not care that my sister has left me to serve alone?” But now she is serving alone according to John’s account, and she is not complaining at all. Mary is still sitting at the feet of Jesus and Martha serves. That is to say, what she began with she finishes with, and the Lord makes her to serve without complaint and to serve on a great occasion. To know how to serve in the assembly is a great matter and one of the great ends of the Lord’s teaching. I do not come with a hymn all ready. I wait to see what is needed. To know how to serve on a great occasion is one of the greatest things. The Lord is spoken of as “the shepherd and overseer of your souls” (1 Peter 2:25), and has access to us at all times; and as He does, in time He brings about results so that I am able to serve on a great occasion. Very few of us know how to serve in the assembly. But the Lord teaches us as we make way for Him. We must follow the example He has given. Learn from Me, He says. She had served complainingly, but now happily; she is serving well and on a great occasion. The occasion would not be what it was without her.
Then finally, in regard of Peter, I want to show how will works in the most spiritual people. It is striking that even the most spiritual and honoured servants were not free from failure — Joseph, Moses, Samuel, David, Paul, Peter. Well, you say, that gives me [p. 176] encouragement that I have not been doing so badly. The point is, that however spiritual you may be, you are exposed to this, and amenable to the influence of the devil when the thing is thrust upon you suddenly — when you are confronted with something that has not been presented before. Something happens, and I am not ready for it. I may be a spiritual man — Peter was, but he was not ready for what the Lord said, as recorded in Matthew 16:21. He was evidently ready for the revelation made to him a short time before. When the Lord asked His disciples what people were saying about Him, and what they would say about Him, Peter said, “Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God” (Matthew 16:16); but verse 21 is a different matter, as you will observe. “From that time Jesus began to shew to his disciples that he must go away to Jerusalem, and suffer many things from the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and the third day be raised”. That was new to Peter apparently. He had done well in the previous incident, and the Lord owned him fully — changing his name. No one could be more distinguished in that sense, but this matter, brought suddenly to him, finds him unready, and he falls under the influence of the devil. In fact, the Lord says to him, “Get away behind me, Satan”. Thus, let no one hide himself in a false security, that he is spiritual. Something will come up that you do not expect. No one who is not in constant self-judgment is immune from the devil’s influence. Peter would have caused the Lord to turn aside. He was speaking as a man governed by natural sensibilities. The enemy thus got influence for the moment over this great servant. He was professing great consideration for Christ, but it was just nature. The Lord, turning round, said, “Get away behind me, Satan”. We do well to face this. We are in critical times and Satan is at our doors. I cannot remember a time when Satan was so active, and the brethren exposing themselves to his activities — allowing [p. 177] personal feelings to control them. The Lord says, “Get away behind me, Satan; thou art an offence to me, for thy mind is not on the things that are of God, but on the things that are of men”.
How perfectly adjustment came about with Peter and how he reached the end, the desired end, you all know. When he was old, he stretched forth his hands in perfect submission, and another carried him to the very thing that he was here asking the Lord to save Himself from. He had said to the Lord, “This shall in no wise be unto thee” — that is, that He must not die. But Peter came to it, not only that Christ must die to do the will of God, but himself also.