LED OUT
E. Palmer
Genesis 15: 1–6; Luke 24: 45–53; Romans 8: 12–15
I want to say a brief and simple word about being led, led out—divine leading with the greatest possible objectives in view. I have referred to these scriptures because in them God leads in regard to Abraham, the Lord leads in regard to His own, and I am free to say, the Spirit leads especially in relation to the personnel of the assembly with that sublime relationship in mind that responds feelingly to God—I refer to sonship. I wondered if we could see that this leading by God, in the way in which He has revealed Himself in the economy, is a leading out which necessarily involves a leading away from the things that detain us here into a great spiritual order of things where God can find His own satisfaction at the present time. To me this is wonderfully blessed and a compensating current answer to the sufferings of Jesus that will surely be filled out in a coming day when the myriads of the redeemed, heavenly in their character, will surround Him to the satisfaction of God Himself.
I suppose everybody here realises that the call of God stands related to these things. Do you know that God has called you? I say that because I would like to embrace everyone here, young and old, in these wonderful realities. You are not too young to come into them, and I will tell you why you are not too young. If you had gone along with Abraham as God, so to speak, took him by the hand and led, him out, and if you had looked up to the heavens, you would have seen those myriads of stars. I was speaking to a man who spent six and a half years in the desert in the war and he said to me, ‘You know, the stars are wonderful here, but in the desert, in the stillness of the desert night, especially when there is no moon, the brilliance of the stars is marvellous, wonderful!’. Do you know what marks the stars? When you look up into the heavens I wonder how often people do that—there are little ones and there are bigger ones and together there is a great galaxy of glory. The Scripture says about the stars that they differ, “For star differs from star in glory”, 1 Corinthians 15: 41. So however young you are, if you are a believer in Jesus, however limited you feel (for who does not feel limited in regard to our appreciation of Him?) you can take your place among the stars to shine as a testimony, a heavenly testimony, to what God is doing and will yet do, and presently will display.
God said to Abraham, “Fear not. Abram; I am thy shield, thy exceeding great reward”. That is, protection on the one hand and a reward. You say, what was the reward for? Abraham had responded to God and he had come out of the situation in which he was. God called him, and he answered. The call to Abraham was a call away not only from the world but from nature.
Not that he had not natural things to look after and attend to, he had, and he did it very well because there were trained servants in his house; but he was called out and God says, ‘I will shield and look after you and protect you and I am your “exceeding great reward”, but I want to show you something that is heavenly, Abram’. So He led him out and I believe, beloved brethren, that the matter of being led by God out of what is circumstantial is the surest way to get a glimpse of the glory of what is heavenly. This is what He did—“He led him out, and said, Look now toward the heavens, and number the stars, if thou be able to number them. And he said to him, So shall thy seed be! And he believed Jehovah; and he reckoned it to him as righteousness”.
That is to say there was something there now in Abraham that corresponded with the God who led him out. “He believed Jehovah; and he reckoned it to him as righteousness”. And what was the result? Why, he was occupied with the heavenly side of what God had in mind in the glory. We would say, the glory of the saints—not only as individuals, although each one has his glory but that glory seen as they are set together, which involves features of what the assembly is. I think there is a pointer to the assembly in this heavenly assemblage, for these stars are all different. A man said to me, ‘It is wonderful that there are millions of stars and they are all moving, but none of them collide’. It is wonderful, is it not? So in the assembly all are to move together, beloved, all in relation to Christ, and in such a way that there is perfect accord, even though the personnel are individuals and their experiences are all different.
I do not linger on this, but turn to the Lord’s leading. He led His own out, “He led them out as far as Bethany”. He led them out. He had opened their understandings, He Himself was in resurrection; the work of redemption had been accomplished, the overthrow of death, the victory over the grave, was a finished and a settled matter. If we were to apply the teaching of the gospel as set out by the Holy Spirit through the apostle Paul to the position that existed in Jesus as out of death, we would say that persons who put their confidence in Him were justified before God. Their offences had been dealt with, He had been raised again for their justification (see Romans 4: 25), they were justified before God—that is free in the presence of God. What does He do? Leave them in that religious setting in which, I suppose, they had grown up? Does He leave them there? No, He does not do that! He leads them out to a location, to a place. That place where there is love for Christ, that is Bethany. He Himself moved out from the city that refused Him and found comfort and rest in Bethany. It is a place where love is. I say to my own heart, Do you know it? I say to yours, Do you know it?—A place where Christ is loved; it is where He led them after His resurrection. Oh, they had had their sins forgiven, they knew what it was to be justified through our Lord Jesus Christ, they knew what it was to be justified on the principle of faith, but He led them out. They had not yet the Spirit, but He led them out to this place and I believe that this place to which Jesus led them out is a starting point into the most blessed assembly privileges and one from which the service of God can proceed in the glory and liberty of sonship. It is a starting point, but He led them out. What we are saying is very simple, but I think it is very important. God led Abraham out to view what was heavenly.
You cannot see it if you are occupied with the things of this world. There is a verse we used to sing—
‘Turn your eyes upon Jesus;
Look full in His wonderful face,
And the things of earth will grow strangely dim
In the light of His glory and grace’.
That is right. If you try it you find it out; if you do not try it, you will not find it out.
So Abraham was led out to view what was heavenly. Jesus led them out to Bethany, the place where He was loved, in view of a further move, because He says, “I send the promise of my Father upon you; but do ye remain in the city till ye be clothed with power from on high”. “He led them out”, it says, “as far as Bethany, and having lifted up his hands, he blessed them. And it came to pass as he was blessing them, he was separated from them and was carried up into heaven”. Now, beloved brethren, this is a starting point. Where do you think your destination is? Where else could it be but where Jesus is? The destination is heaven and the Spirit is here with that in view.
In the epistle to the Romans there are people who are led by the Spirit of God. It says, “For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God”. I think they are led in relation to the greatest and the most glorious matters that are given in God’s grace for people like you and me to have part in. Over against the Spirit is: the flesh. “We are debtors, not to the flesh, to live according to flesh; for if ye live according to flesh, ye are about to die; but if, by the Spirit, ye put to death the deeds of the body, ye shall live”. What does it mean practically, “If, by the Spirit, ye put to death the deeds of the body, ye shall live”? Do you know where our trouble lies? In our members, that is where it lies, and if I want to say or do something or go somewhere that I know is only for the satisfaction of the flesh, the Spirit helps me to say, No.
That is what He helps me to do, and in the doing of it the way lies open for me to enjoy the life that properly belongs to the believer. It is that new kind of life which is normal to the believer in Jesus and is suited to be brought into the assembly. There is pureness of affection and right moral conditions and so He leads. Where does the Spirit lead? He leads, I believe, from this place, this spiritual location, where Christ is loved. He leads into the blessedness of the service of God in the assembly because the service of God is taken up by those who are sons of God. Surely He leads in the testimony, too, and He leads in relation to the truth, but He also leads in relation to this matter of sonship so that there is a response from these persons. As, it says, “For ye have not received a spirit of bondage again for fear, but ye have received a spirit of adoption (or sonship), whereby we cry, Abba, Father”. Nobody cries, ‘Abba, Father’ whose affections are not stirred towards that blessed Person.
How are the affections stirred? By the Spirit. Is there consciousness of this? Of course, because “The Spirit itself bears witness with our spirit, that we are children of God”. We are given the consciousness of the relationship in which we are; He gives us, too, the power to respond, but it is on the principle of being led, and if I am a person who is willing to be led I am one whose will is in subjection. O, dear brethren, how blessed just to be subject; subject to the word, subject to Christ, subject to the Spirit, and we shall find how that makes it relatively easy to be subject to one another. I am sure of this, that the positive engagement with what is available as being led out is the surest way to find liberty in what is going in, what goes back, what is led in. That was what was in God’s mind in regard to His people Israel. He led them out, but Moses, spiritual man that he was, with that long-distance look, said, “Thou shalt bring them in, and plant them in the mountain of thine inheritance ... The Sanctuary, Lord, that thy hands have prepared” (Exodus 15: 17), and Miriam took it up, a subjective answer in the saints.
Beloved, I would like to be identified with this experience; would not you? Are you ready to be led out, or do you want to stay back there? There is no place for Christ out there. You bear testimony to Him, and you will soon find that out! There is no place for Him out there. He would lead you out of that order of things into the heavenly order of things—glorious and blessed portion! He would occupy you with the heavenly glories of the saints, and lead you to a place where He is loved so that you might have part, in the liberty of sonship, in response to Him who is God and Father. May we know it and enjoy it, and may God be served in this wonderful light, for Christ’s sake.
Address at Buckhurst Hill
14 June 1975