DIVINE MEASUREMENTS
[p. 411] DIVINE MEASUREMENTS
Romans 12: 3; 2 Corinthians 10: 12 - 18; Ephesians 4: 11 - 13; Revelation 11: 1, 2
My subject, as you will doubtless have divined, is ‘measure’, and I hope in the Lord that it may be used for the profit of all. In 2 Corinthians 10: 13 we have the expression, “the God of measure”. God is said to be the God of things as well as the God of persons — the God of glory, for instance; but here He is said to be the God of measure, and that by one who is said earlier to be “a wise architect”. The idea of the architect brings us back to the creation; for “wisdom” is so regarded in Proverbs 9: 1. The “nursling” of Proverbs 8: 30 possibly alludes to architectural skill. Architecture requires measure. It certainly was employed by God in the creation when the foundations of the earth were laid. The great scheme of the creation was in His mind requiring most accurate measures and weights, so that there should be proportion and balance in this wonderful universe in which we are. Now these first three scriptures would show our true balance. They are significant in the sense that the idea is applied to the great moral system that God is constructing. All is on the principle of measure; and this should enter into the calculations and exercises of every christian, for he is designed to fill a place in the scheme, a measured place which cannot be filled by any other. Every stone in Solomon’s structure was prepared before it was brought, so every believer is fitted for his place in the great divine structure; hence the importance of each taking account of this matter of measure.
Paul corresponds to lesson from this great Moses. We are to take a leader and minister of our [p. 412] dispensation. Moses is said to be a ministering servant, and as such he was faithful in all God’s house. That faithfulness included the principle of measurement. On the mount with God he was occupied with divinely-given measures, which he faithfully carried out. And so the apostle Paul is occupied with measures as the wise architect. In laying the foundation he had in mind the whole structure, and hence the need of measure, which is so prominent a thought in this scripture from his pen.
Now, the first thought, as you will observe in Romans 12, has relation to the individual believer in the initial stages of his history or place in the assembly. Romans hardly deals with the assembly, although the epistle has it in view. As one reads Romans, believing from the heart the form of teaching, one instinctively looks for the assembly; one would be at a loss without it. The apostle assumes its existence. Apart from the existence of the assembly the whole tenor of the epistle would be amiss and lost, but the assembly is in view, and as the believer progresses in it, he looks for the assembly. He is ready for it! And further, if anybody is a christian and not in the apprehension of the assembly or his place in it, these words are for you. You are not intended to be an isolated unit; you are intended to fit into your place in the assembly. So the apostle, having this in view, says, “For I say, through the grace which has been given to me, to every one that is among you”. He is writing to the company of christians in the city of Rome, and he is contemplating them from the mutual side. The word ‘mutual’ is simple, it is much used, and is a very fitting word at this juncture of the epistle. So to every one among you refers to every saint in Rome in mutual relations.
You cannot get this thought of mutuality in modern ecclesiasticism, it belongs to those who understand the gospel, who have received from the heart, and [p. 413] obeyed from the heart the form of teaching. It belongs to them; it is among them — “every one that is among you”. It could not be in the Vatican or in the institutions of the hierarchy. In the very nature of these things mutual relations are excluded; whereas the epistle to the Romans establishes them. Each saint in Rome would understand that he was on equal terms with every other. Like the boards of the tabernacle — he is socketed in silver; he stands up on the ground of redemption, and stands in relation to all the others. But then he was to be reminded that he had a measure given to him of God, and that was the measure of faith — not yet a question exactly of the divine nature, but a measure of faith. God intended that he should be in the structure, and as in it, he would be outside the world. Faith alludes to the power to lay hold of what is not seen, so that the measure of faith I have takes me in my mind out of the range of the world. Nor am I fit for the assembly unless I am outside the world in my affections. I belong to another world as in faith. The time of faith has come. This epistle to the Romans is to ground us in the faith of things. It is a system of things in which I stand in relation to others, all of us together outside of this world in our minds and affections. My measure is not the measure in which I am known by others, it is my own definite measure that God had given me. Each is to think soberly, looking around in the circle in which he is locally, and then generally, and to think soberly so as to be wise, as God has dealt to each a measure of faith. This is initial but it is very practical, especially for young people that they may learn how to take account of things and to think so as to be wise, as God has dealt to each a measure of faith.
Now this analysing review by the believer enables him to find his place, and discern that of any other, so that we are intelligent as set with others in mutual [p. 414] relations, as to the place assigned by God to each. It has a far-reaching effect. It sobers us and tends to dislodge pride, ambition and rivalry. It tends to give God His place amongst us. Every thought of His will and wisdom is to be the determining factor in the assembly. The quicker we learn it the better, otherwise we shall have to learn it by discipline, for God will have His way. We get in Ephesians — the crowning epistle — the “mystery of his will” and the “counsel of his will”, and we see that the will of God must prevail.
Now in the epistle to the Corinthians we are seen in relation to the structure. The apostle regards himself as a wise architect laying the foundation and every one is to build, but “let every man take heed how he buildeth thereupon”. In the second letter he comes to those who are specially in the work, that is, as you may say, to the ministers, and says, ‘I am not among those who compare themselves with themselves, neither am I among those who commend themselves in their service’, but ‘I am one who labours on the principle of measure, and that measure is what is apportioned to me by the God of measure’. Those that measure themselves by themselves are not intelligent, they do not perceive. They are working in the dark — that is the force of the word. They were doing that sort of thing at Corinth. There were parties there — there were coteries with leaders, which the apostle condemns at the very beginning of his first letter. There were those who were rivals of himself, one of them going so far as to say, speaking of the apostle, ‘His letters are weighty, but his bodily presence weak, and his speech contemptible’. Think of one of Paul’s own converts speaking of him in that way! He was comparing himself with Paul, and though he admitted that Paul could write a good letter, he says his bodily presence is weak. Think of saying that about a servant of God whom God was [p. 415] using in a most wonderful way! Think of criticising a servant of God like that! Think of speaking of the apostle Paul like that! Well, that was what was going on at Corinth, though the apostle had not been long away. He had been at Corinth for eighteen months, so they had had abundant opportunity to know what kind of a man he was. They had been comforted through him, and yet as he turns his back to go elsewhere to minister, this is what some at Corinth were capable of. It should search our hearts. How glibly we may criticise a servant of Christ, one who has been used to our soul’s blessing, it may be. The Lord resents it. Not that a servant of the Lord may not be criticised — far otherwise; if he is with God he will throw himself open to examination. But the apostle Paul had said, ‘I am not going to be judged by you or by man’s day. He who judges me is the Lord’. Let us judge nothing before the time. We are often very much ahead of time in judging even persons we have not known. But then I am speaking of the apostle’s own attitude. He was not amongst those who compared themselves with themselves. They do not understand; they are labouring in the dark, to say the very least. In ministry it is a question of the measure which the God of measure apportions, so he says, ‘It was a measure reaching unto you’. Could they deny it? No, they could not deny it. As he says elsewhere, “Examine your own selves if ye be in the faith ... do ye not recognise yourselves, that Jesus Christ is in you?” He was used of God for their conversion; they might have many ministers, ten thousand instructors, but they only had one father, and he was that father. He could put himself forward here as a model for us in our service, that we should not be amongst those who compare themselves with themselves, but be able to serve according to the divinely given measure, and let the results show! How far has one’s measure [p. 416] gone? What is the result of it? Where is the evidence of it? Let that tell the tale, and it will! For normally the saints are judges. In love the saints should measure and calculate, and ministers get their place in the affections of the saints accordingly, that is right! So that we can well afford to leave results, and not be amongst those who compare themselves with themselves. We want a right standard, we are not a standard to each other. This traducer of Paul says, ‘I could not write as good a letter as Paul, but I can speak better than he, and I have a better bodily presence than Paul’. How he would flatter himself We want to be free of such a sentiment. We want to be in the Spirit of Christ — toiling on, and leaving the results with Christ. The point is to see to our measure, the measure of our faith and our works will tell their own tale.
I want to show from Ephesians that the minister has a right standard, and speaks to others that they too might reach it; not that he might reach it before them, so as to boast in their presence. I would speak to everyone, as to myself, that in our meetings, in our ministry, we should never have a thought of excelling another and that we should never stop short of the great standard for all, not as vying with others in our growth, or work, or service, but seeing to it that it is a case of love actuating us, so that everyone is brought up to the same standard, as the apostle said, “that we may present every man perfect in Christ”, Colossians 1: 28.
There was a man in a certain place who had seen the Lord praying. I should love to have seen the Lord praying! His gestures, His movements, His manner in the presence of God! — and this disciple says to the Lord, “Teach us to pray!” Now had he thought of himself only, and his prominence among the other disciples, he would have thought of learning himself so that he would have the advantage. In the [p. 417] next prayer meeting his prayer would take pattern from Christ, and perhaps none of the others would pray so well. But he says, “Teach us to pray”. He wanted them all to pray, and to pray after the pattern of Christ, for it is a question of precedent — how we are to appear at the golden altar before God. One loves to think of the hundreds of meetings for prayer on Monday nights when the saints appear before God at the golden altar! The more priestly power among the saints, the more would my power be; so that it is a question of “Teach us to pray”. Hence the passage in Ephesians says, “with a view to the work of the ministry, with a view to the edifying of the body of Christ; until we all arrive at the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, at the full grown man” — it is till we all come.
And then he goes on to say that we are to be no longer babes. It is not a credit to a christian to be a babe or a dwarf! We should all go on together in growth and service, that we might come into the organism where everyone has a part according to the measure of each one part. We cannot have the organism contemplated in Ephesians 4 apart from measure, for it is “at the measure of the stature of the fulness of the Christ”.
Well, I pass on to the fourth scripture. I want to dwell on the power to measure discriminately. Discrimination is a great matter amongst us. It is worked out in the types in connection with feeding and the kinds of food we are to eat; that contemplates discrimination. It runs right through Scripture the exercise of our senses as in Hebrews “to discern” or to discriminate “between good and evil”. Now this is a matter which is very practical and in which I desire to appeal to every one of us as to whether we are discriminating in our measurements of public religious organisations. Each one has to decide and challenge himself as to where he is ecclesiastically.
[p. 418] I am not using the word as in the ordinary current use, but in the sense of the church, the assembly, as taken from the original word. Each of us is to determine before the Lord as to where he is ecclesiastically; that is, where he is in regard of the assembly, where he is in regard of Christ as Lord in this present corrupt Christianity in which we find ourselves publicly. For we cannot leave Christendom, except to apostatise! It is a great house, and every Christian is called upon to discriminate as to this great house. In John 14 the Lord speaks of manifesting Himself to the person who keeps His word — “He that has my commandments and keeps them ...”. One says, “Lord, how is it that thou wilt manifest thyself to us and not to the world?” and the Lord answers, “If any one love me, he will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our abode with him”, John 14: 21 - 23. I apprehend that that means that the Lord comes to one where one is ecclesiastically; for the keeping of the commandment of Christ has separated him from the public corrupt body. “Let every one who names the name of the Lord withdraw from iniquity”. The words kept bring me into the tabernacle condition, that is the condition in which God may dwell. How great is that thought! And yet what He may be to one person! — it is to a person who by the keeping of the words of Christ is in tabernacle condition; he is in the structure; he has come to apprehend the structure, the dwelling place of God, what is suitable for the Father and the Son. How great that is! — “We will come to him and make our abode with him”.
I speak of that because it enters into the passage in Revelation 11. The apostle John (the prophet John, as I should call him in Revelation) is seen in the previous chapter, and he is handed a little book. It is what God is doing for us today; He is reducing us outwardly. Inflation is very detrimental to us and [p. 419] God therefore reduces us, in His love. And so, the prophet John is told to take the little book and eat it. The little book contains something! It was not a blank book; it was small, but there was writing in it! The thoughts of God were in it for the moment, the thoughts governing the then position were in it. John took it and ate it, and it was sweet in his mouth, but bitter in his belly. That is to say, beloved, taking in and assimilating the thoughts of God governing the moment, the position we may be in, assimilating and feeling the thing in bitterness inwardly. The Spirit of God says, “Thou must prophesy again”. The man that does that will be used again. He is going to measure the temple, the altar and the worshippers, and the porch is to be left out. We have here the idea of measurement by discrimination. If we learn how to do this measuring, how to take account, by experience with God, of the temple of God, what does it mean today? It means the saints who recognise the Spirit of God. “Do ye not know that ye are the temple of God”, says the apostle, “and that the Spirit of God dwells in you”. Have I come to take account of the people of God in that way? Those to whom God speaks directly, who by the Spirit get into the mind of God — what a thing to be able to measure those: not simply to recognise that they exist, but to measure them and take full account of them! And what else is there for you but to be amongst them, having part in their good things, in the communications of God which He so freely gives by the Spirit? And the temple and the altar are to be measured. Is there no sacrifice today? Thank God, there is! There may be very little, but it is for us to measure what there is and get into accord with it and have our part in it; to take account of it is what the prophet John is required to do. And then the worshippers! The word ‘worship’ is one to be well thought out! God is looking for [p. 420] them now, for worshippers! The Lord spoke to the woman of Samaria about it. “The Father seeks ... worshippers”, but He will have them on His own terms. “They who worship him must worship him in spirit and truth”, John 4: 24. The great profession where worship is assumed to exist does not measure that; that is not to be taken account of; it is simply ruled out. If we have eyes to see we shall see that which they had, they have no more; as the Lord says, “Whosoever has, to him shall be given, and whosoever has not, even what he seems to have shall be taken from him”. That is what is going on. The whole professing system is a mere shell with nothing in it for God. The Lord says to Laodicea, “I am about to spue thee out of my mouth”.
In the meantime we are called upon to measure the temple of God, and the altar, and the worshippers. The worshippers are to be noted. The Father is seeking these. They are to worship Him in spirit and in truth. That is what God is seeking at the present time. I do not say there is very much; there is a good deal of public order, but then there must be spirit and truth. The Father seeks persons to worship Him in spirit and in truth. The apostle says, “I will sing with the spirit, and I will sing with the understanding also”. Persons like that can have part there. Our Lord Jesus rejoiced in spirit and said, “I praise thee, Father, Lord of the heaven and of the earth, that thou hast hid these things from wise and prudent, and hast revealed them to babes; yea, Father, for thus has it been well-pleasing in thy sight”.
I would specially press this matter of discriminating and measuring things, so that we may know what is of God at the present time and have part in it, and know what is not of God and reject it.