THE WILL OF GOD
D. M. Welch
Hebrews 10: 7, 9, 10; Romans 12: 1–5; Ezra 1: 1–3; 4: 4, 24; 5: 1, 2; Zechariah 7: 1–5, 8–11; 8: 3, 16–19
I seek help, beloved brethren, to say a word about the will of God. In Hebrews 10 we see what would affect us and stimulate us, the whole matter of the will of God taken up by the Lord. The will of God has a basis and the will of God has results in mind. The will of God comes from God’s own thoughts. How wonderful it is to see the will of God established perfectly in Christ. Oh, what He had to go through to establish the will of God that you and I might come into it. It is not a theoretical matter at all. What a cost it was to the Lord Jesus. As we had in the last reading, “the Word became flesh”, John 1: 14. I have often thought that is one of the most profound expressions ever. A divine Person has come into manhood, and has committed Himself to manhood. As our brother brought before us, “became flesh” envisages what is permanent. So at the end of Hebrews 10: 5 it says, “thou hast prepared me a body”.
The will of God, in these verses that I have read in Hebrews, requires a vessel, and it requires vessels according to Romans 12 in order to carry it out into results. What a vessel He was who could say, “Lo, I come (in the roll of the book it is written of me) “. I wonder if we can legitimately connect that in our minds to, “In the
beginning was the Word”, John 1: 1. Something was going to come out in expression and it began with God’s thoughts. His counsels; One would come into manhood to fill it all out. I can hardly take it in sometimes considering what we have been brought into at such a great cost. The first order of things sacrificially had no value really, that system and order of things had to be taken away because of God’s counsels concerning this blessed One coming into manhood to express everything in the mind and will of God. The mind and heart of God was carried out into expression as His will. So the basis of the will of God is the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all—that is the basis of God’s will.
It is a wonderful matter too, the results, as we read in verse 10, “by which will we have been sanctified”, there are the results. We are set apart, associated with another order of things, and associated with the great Person who heads it all up, “sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all”. I thought we would begin here in Hebrews and be freshly affected in our souls as we consider in some little measure the scope of these scriptures. In considering the will of God in these few minutes, I am not thinking of the will of God in circumstantial matters, which perhaps sometimes we relate to providence; rather I am speaking of the will of God that has been carried out to completion and established in Christ and now, we might say, has been set into our hands. It was mentioned in the previous reading about anticipating (which we do by the Spirit), and such marks this great dispensation in which we find ourselves, the dispensation of God which is in faith. There will be no greater. Also it was mentioned by our brother in his address that it is the day of His power, although not manifestly, not public. Could there be greater power experienced today, the day of adversity, when God’s power is there to set us up to do the will of God? What a great matter that is, there is nothing theoretical about it. “Lo, I come”, that is where it all begins, it is established in Him. But we are left to
do His will and we anticipate finality, do we not? We are at the end but we anticipate finality, and as Mr. Raven has said. The Holy Spirit has been given that we might anticipate it in reality.
So in Romans 12 it comes down to us. I am not going to make too much of this when it says,
“present your bodies”. It does not say, ‘present your body’, it says, “present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God”. But, beloved brethren, it is in view of something.
For us we have to prove the will of God. In order to prove the will of God there also has to be the basis for taking up the will of God and that is presenting our bodies a living sacrifice. The basis of the will of God was the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all, and for us it is the presenting of our bodies. If you and I intend to take up the will of God there has to be a basis for it, “presenting your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God “. It is in view of results. We prove the will of God and thus are associated with others in it. I think the chapter goes on to teach us that, “one body in Christ”. Not here now one body of Christ, but one body in Christ. So that, we are set apart for holy purposes but associated with one another. We take up things on the basis of presenting our bodies a living sacrifice. There is a priestly touch in all that. It is a serious matter; and it is a serious matter for me to try to handle the word of God here, and it is a serious matter to go on as satisfied with the elements of the recovery. So this is in view of our going on together in a priestly way—one body in Christ—
it is our association down here. We are not to think high thoughts of ourselves. Each one of us has been dealt a measure of faith and not all of us have the same office, but the thing is we are associated together—“one body in Christ”. The brethren will well know, as it has been illustrated in ministry, that this is like perhaps the affairs that go on in this particular building, but our affair, the affairs of the assembly, is what engages us. You might say it links with the fellowship, our association, “one
body in Christ”. How are we going to carry that out according to the will of God? By presenting our bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God. That is how it is carried out because it is a living matter, “a living sacrifice”. Our bodies are held for the Lord, and our bodies are held for this association—“one body in Christ”.
Now you may wonder why I read all these scriptures in the Old Testament. We have had much to think about in these two days as going over the glories of that blessed Person. Things continue and that blessed Person waits until it is completed, and things continue today as in recovery. I think we should come to this, beloved ones, that the testimony of our Lord is not represented rightly by Christendom at large. A great deal of responsibility is put on anyone who asks, ‘Well then, where and what is the testimony of our Lord?’. Because that means that (if a person asks) such a person has to be prepared to present their bodies a living sacrifice to go on rightly in the fellowship of God’s Son and rightly in the association of the one body in Christ. Every believer has been called into the fellowship of God’s Son, there is no question about that, and every believer has eternal life. But as Mr. Raven said, You have it if you have it. That is, eternal life is objective, it is something that the believer is to enter. It is needed now in the scene of death and is enjoyed in association with others; that is the only way it can be enjoyed in its fulness. We are at the end of the recovery and that becomes an even more solemn matter, quite frankly. Some here remember well beloved Mr. James Taylor Snr; the moral power, the meekness and lowliness of the man. I never knew him, but I can tell by reading his ministry that he was specially raised up for the purpose, I would say, of setting something on that would be in the hands of persons who would do the will of God and carry it through to results. Are we satisfied with it? Are we satisfied with the elements of the recovery?
I read those verses in Ezra because I think the typical instruction in the Old Testament is helpful in our day because those things were written for our learning. Those things found with Israel are types of us. We need to think spiritually and morally, and not historically and chronologically; that is just the point, because in Ezra we see when the recovery began. God in His sovereign workings arranged things publicly for a recovery to begin in Israel, and He used this king, Cyrus, to set it all on. In thinking of the present recovery, it is striking to me how things are put in Ezra. It says, “by the mouth of Jeremiah”. Is it not in Jeremiah where the words appear, “if thou take forth the precious from the vile, thou shalt be as my mouth”, Jeremiah 15: 19? Who was the brother that was exercised by that very verse? It was Mr.
Darby, he was exercised about it. So God uses vessels to carry out His will, and He used king Cyrus here. The recovery began for Israel through this proclamation by Cyrus. But then, soon after there was a breakdown in the recovery. In chapter 4 adversaries came along, and it says,
“the people of the land weakened the hands of the people of Judah”. There was a little delay there. They had built the altar, the foundations were beginning to be laid, yet this opposition comes. So at the end of Ezra 4 it says, “Then ceased the work of the house of God which is at Jerusalem; and it ceased until the second year of the reign of Darius king of Persia”. So in the reign of Artaxerxes there was a time when not much progress was made in recovery. Now again, we do not look at these Old Testament scriptures so much historically or chronologically, but rather morally, and they apply, I believe, to the breakdown of the recovery in the assembly’s history. The whole point in this to me is that God still has a will pertaining to the recovery and He is going to see it through to completion in spite of opposition. Now it takes vessels to carry that through, vessels prepared to present their bodies a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, and be rightly in the association and the fellowship through to the end.
That is what it is going to require because these are not theoretical matters. I am just simply appealing to my own heart about this.
So we read in Ezra 5, “Now the prophets, Haggai the prophet and Zechariah the son of Iddo, prophesied to the Jews that were in Judah and Jerusalem; in the name of the God of Israel did they prophesy to them. Then rose up Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel, and Jeshua the son of Jozadak, and began to build the house of God which is at Jerusalem; and with them were the prophets of God, who helped them”. Would you pardon me if I said, I believe we are uniquely and distinctly in the days of the minor prophets? I have said that to brethren personally, but it has just struck me lately about these minor prophets, especially Haggai and Zechariah, how they are helping in this building. We did not read from Nehemiah but he was one who followed after others on the wall (Nehemiah 12: 38). I think it is like the time of the minor prophets when helping and following are needed. I am not setting limitations on God, and we cannot set limitations on the Lord, but it seems that it is like the day of the minor prophets. I mean that we are the most familiar with the recovery in remnant times, because we are the ones alive right now. We have the benefit of reading the ministry of the recovery, that is the accredited ministry, and asking ourselves as challenging our hearts. Are we satisfied with the elements that have been brought out in the truth of the recovery? Are we satisfied with Mr. Darby’s translation of the Bible? In military terms there is this thing that has been quite successful called ‘guerrilla warfare’. It begins by the introduction of something new, some notion that is appealing, and it comes from somewhere else. In spiritual things it may be something particularly oriented or directed to the minds of younger ones, those of us, perhaps, that are not that well established in the faith. The thing has some appeal to us and is given credibility when there is someone older to promote it. Such notions are used to undermine the truth and divert saints
from the path.
You almost have to read the seventh chapter of Zechariah or parts of it to see something of the value and the positive side of things in the eighth chapter. Now remember that all of this started under Cyrus. It broke down but was revived primarily through help from the prophets.
Zechariah and Haggai in the second year of Darius. You will notice here in the seventh chapter, “And it came to pass in the fourth year of king Darius”. So now a little revival had gone on for a couple of years and here are some sent from Bethel. You might say there seems to be some representation of an outward position. The names here, however, do not seem to be Jewish names, Regem-melech and his men. What do they do? They go “to supplicate Jehovah, and to speak unto the priests that were in the house of Jehovah of hosts, and to the prophets, saying, Should I weep in the fifth month, separating myself, as I have done now so many years?” These are persons who had not gone through the moral exercises of the recovery and are not carrying through the will of God. I speak to my own heart about this, this is a daily challenge as to how much I value these things. Do I value them enough to present my body a living sacrifice so that the will of God can be carried out? Am I livingly, supportively in the truth and loving the truth? These persons certainly had what was outward, seemingly a part of the recovery. But then the word of Jehovah comes saying “did ye really fast unto me, even unto me?” Was this really done for Me? You see the will of God has in view results for God. It does not have in view anything of the flesh however religious; it takes away the first entirely and establishes the second in relation to God, in the order after Jesus Christ (Hebrews 10: 9, 10).
And further down in Zechariah 7, in verse 9. God says, “Execute true judgment”. It is interesting, beloved brethren, to see God’s interest in the brethren; “Execute true judgment, and shew loving-kindness and mercies
one to another, and oppress not the widow and the fatherless, the stranger and the afflicted; and let none of you imagine evil against his brother in your heart”. You see the one body in Christ represents the will of God at the present time as going through in relation to the One who offered His body once for all; it has to do with saints of the assembly. That is the will of God, even in the recovery. What is the dispensation without the assembly? And what is the dispensation if there are not right relations as endeavouring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the uniting bond of peace (Ephesians 4: 3)? It is just theoretical; you can come from Bethel, you can fast, but the Lord is saying, Are you really doing this unto Me now? We have been involved in the recovery, but do our moral exercises correspond with the basis and results of the will of God?
So it is wonderful to see what God has in Zechariah 8. We can elect ourselves out of these things. Is that going to stop God finishing the matter? It says very encouragingly in verse 3,
“Thus saith Jehovah—I am returned unto Zion”. You and I are here, beloved brethren, with all this responsibility and yet, all the resources of God are available as chapter 8 goes on to show. And why are you and I here? Sovereign mercy! Do you care about the recovery? Do I really care about the recovery, that God has returned to Zion? He has laid it upon you and me now. He is asking us to do the will of God, to present our bodies a living sacrifice that His will might be carried through. It says, “I am returned unto Zion, and will dwell in the midst of Jerusalem”. The universality of the fellowship, however small practically, is a wonderful thing. There are brethren here from all over the world. Are we going in for all this? “And Jerusalem shall be called, The city of truth”. Are you looking somewhere else for the truth?
You will not find it. The truth has been set out perfectly in a Man who did the will of God.
Now that is the truth. Recovery is in relation to that Man. That is what recovery is. “And the mountain of Jehovah of hosts,
the holy mountain”. Remember Romans 12, holy, acceptable to God.
I want to say just a word to the young while I am thinking about it; it applies to the older ones too. That verse in Romans 12 goes on to bring in about not being conformed to the world but being transformed by the renewing of the mind. Does that mean you make up a set of rules and go by them? No, it means that you have decided that you are going to present your body a living sacrifice to God. You want to be in the association rightly, valuing everything the fellowship means and the principles of the fellowship. God will help you and your mind will be renewed because you are in the right direction, your mind is in the right direction; “let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus”, Philippians 2: 5. Humility and lowliness becomes us; there is no room for Sihon and Og, there is no room for prominence or any aspect of self. It impresses me that we are in a day like the minor prophets; thankful for every gift, thankful for each measure that a person has and the help that each gives, and we all join in this thing. We want to see the will of God carried through and this is what we do, as it says in verse 16, “These are the things that ye shall do”. Remember, it is the sovereign work and mercy of God now. He has set all this on and He is going to finish it. That is the way I understand this chapter. If we elect ourselves out of it that means we have elected ourselves out of Romans 12 essentially as providing the basis on which the will of God can be carried through to results in the one body in Christ. “These are the things that ye shall do: Speak truth every one with his neighbour”. We had the brother in chapter 7, it is the neighbour here; both aspects are needed in the testimony. The neighbour is one who is close to you; you love your neighbour and you work out the truth with him and you speak truth with him or with her.
Transparency is a great matter but it is also a great test. There is no room for the first (that has been taken away by the offering of the body of Jesus Christ), and if we are on the line of the first we will not be transparent. So we need to speak truth every one with his neighbour and execute truth. You see the truth is not theoretical, it is to be executed. We are to go in for it, and we can get help from one another in doing so. “Execute truth and the judgment of peace in your gates”; then you can count on the Lord’s support.
In Matthew’s gospel, the kingly line, the Lord is not saying He is going back into heaven. He says, “I am with you all the days”, Matthew 28: 20. And so in Matthew 18 He says, “where two or three are gathered together unto my name, there am I in the midst of them” (Matthew 18: 20). Those are special persons, those are assembly-minded persons. Remember the testimony of our Lord has to do with the assembly. His authority is involved in it. Washing the robes was mentioned, that one might have a right to enter into the city through the gates.
Sometimes our care meetings may become a little routine, but here is the end of this in doing the will of God, “execute truth and judgment of peace in your gates; and let none of you imagine evil in your hearts against his neighbour”. Remember in Zechariah 7 it was imagining evil against your brother; in Zechariah 8 it says, “love no false oath”. Dogmatism shuts out the Spirit, especially as murmuring goes on and the working up of something against your neighbour whom you are to love, to whom you are to be close.
Then Zechariah 8: 18 says, “And the word of Jehovah of hosts came unto me, saying, Thus saith Jehovah of hosts: The fast of the fourth month and the fast of the fifth, and the fast of the seventh, and the fast of the tenth, shall be to the house of Judah joy and gladness”. Are you not glad to be here? These are the greatest things on earth that we have had before us in these two days; there is nothing greater. Joy and gladness is to be our portion in our gatherings. We have things to do, it tells us what these things are here in chapter 8, and that is to go on in the recovery. Are we satisfied with the
elements of the recovery? Are we going on with them in a neighbourly and brotherly way?
Love underlies all of this, it underlies the will of God. The development and working out of the divine nature is coming through here, it is what God desires, it is His will. We are associated with one another, let us not elect ourselves out of it but stay in it livingly and speak together in it. Let us try to understand one another. Let us work through these things.
Let us not have the truth become simply theoretical. It has happened before. Perhaps some of the difficulties that we see in these scriptures in the recovery with Israel, where the people of the land weakened their hands, has something to do with that, with the truth being only held in terms. People might settle down to a form, or like those coming from Bethel in Zechariah 7, just some kind of a position. No, these things are so living and real because, “He takes away the first that he may establish the second”; this is what we are involved with, beloved.
The will of God has been set out and established perfectly in Christ; “by which will we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all”. We have been set apart to be in association with Him and with His order. Now He would say, ‘Here it is even for today and I have returned to Zion’. I do not have anything else to say, it is a matter of exercise and challenge to our hearts as to our commitment to and enjoyment of all these things which are the will of God for us. Tomorrow it is a great day of privilege, to be together again, if the Lord will. We sit down together in wilderness conditions but it is in anticipation of the heavenly. Because we have the Spirit we can anticipate and enter into the greatest things. The service of praise Godward is the greatest thing one has ever experienced and many beloved saints are missing this and are not in the current of the will of God for today.
While that is sad, we can go on and the Lord would encourage us in doing so. Let it not just be a form either, but let us look for some real assembly
experience in it. May it be so for His name’s sake.
Address at New York, 1 November 1997
EXTRACT
There was reality in his pursuit of heaven—he would tolerate nothing that opposed it.
Preaching to others was not all. He might do that, and it might be, as regards himself, labour in vain; he might lose everything—be rejected afterwards himself, if not personally a Christian. He was a Christian first of all, then a preacher, and a good preacher, because he was a Christian first. Thus, also (for the beginning of 1 Corinthians 10 connects itself with the close of chapter 9), others might make a profession, partake of the initiatory and other ordinances, as he might be a preacher, and after all not be owned of God. This warning is a testimony to the condition to which, in part at least, the assembly of God was already reduced—a warning always useful, but which supposes that those who bear the name of Christian, and have partaken of the ordinances of the church, no longer inspire that confidence which would receive them without question as the true sheep of Christ. The passage distinguishes between participation in Christian ordinances and the possession of salvation—a distinction always true, but which it is not necessary to make when Christian life is bright in those who have part in the outward privileges of the assembly.
J. N. Darby (Synopsis Vol. 4 (1 Cor. 9), p.172)
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