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THE RIGHTS OF THE LORD JESUS IN REDEMPTION

J. Wright

FIVE WOMEN IN THE GOSPEL OF LUKE

D. Robertson

EXTRACTS

J. Wright

Revelation 5: 6–10; Exodus 30: 11–16; 26: 15–30; 27: 9–11; Numbers 10: 1–10

There may be some details in the scriptures we read in the Old Testament which may not be too easily understood, but I want to speak very simply of the rights of the Lord Jesus in redemption. It is a very elementary and yet basic matter. The Lord Jesus is the only One who had a right to redeem or was able to redeem; there was one in the book of Ruth who had the right but was not able to do it. The Lord Jesus has the right of redemption because of who He is, He is the Creator, He is your Creator and mine, and He has rights in creation to every man, woman and child as Creator; He has a right to them, He created them. It says in the scripture that they were created by Him and for Him. Men think that their life is their own, that they can do as they like with it, but every person has been created by Christ, they owe their existence creationally to Him, their very breath is in the hands of the Lord Jesus; but to be our Redeemer He came near to us, He came into manhood. It says of Boaz, the one who typically had the right of redemption, “The man is near of kin to us”, Ruth 2: 20. The Lord Jesus has come near to us to redeem us. As having redeemed us He has an absolute right over us, we belong to Him. Why has He redeemed us? He has redeemed us because we are of value to Him; you are of value to Him. He has redeemed what is of value to Him, and He has paid the full price. What Boaz did was done publicly; the work of redemption was done publicly for all to take account of; but he also did it legally, that is he paid the full price. The Lord Jesus has done that. He has shed His precious blood; it cost Him His life to redeem you, to secure you for Himself.

In this scene in Revelation the glory of the Lord

Jesus as Redeemer is brought forward. Revelation 4 is His glory as Creator, but in chapter 5 it is His glory as Redeemer. There will be a universal response to Him as Redeemer, from every one of the many redeemed, as it says, “and hast redeemed to God, by thy blood, out of every tribe, and tongue, and people, and nation”. A wonderful result of the Lord’s work in redemption! If He has secured you for Himself He has paid the price for you, and you are His for ever. You may even get away from Him, you may forget about Him, forget His rights over you, but you belong to Him, and He does not let that go. In one of Mr Taylor’s preachings (he did not tell many stories in his preachings) he told of a young woman who was converted under a preaching of a bishop in London, and she went on for a while but then got away into bad company. She came one day to where this bishop was preaching and after the preaching she said, I have come to it that I can do without Christ. Well, he said, I am sorry to hear you say that, but the Lord Jesus cannot do without you. That is the fact, dear friend, the Lord Jesus has secured you at a great price and He will not let you go, you belong to Him; He has an absolute right and claim over you. It is the first matter in righteousness to recognise His claims; you will never be right in any other relation or any other field if you do not recognise the rights of the Lord Jesus over you.

But then you see what is brought out in this chapter is that there is a living response to Him from those that love Him. The Spirit would work in the believer so that he not only recognises the Lord’s rights as a matter of righteousness, but the believer loves to accord Him those rights, loves to accord Him the full place because He is worthy of it. That is what these redeemed hosts say, “Thou art worthy”. It says, “And they sing a new song, saying, Thou art worthy to take the book, and to open its seals; because thou hast been slain, and hast redeemed to God, by thy blood, out of every tribe, and tongue, and people, and nation”. The opening of these seals, of

course, would involve the establishment of God’s rights on the earth, and they would involve judgment too. If God’s rights are to be established on the earth judgment must come against lawlessness, and all that is against God. But it is the One who has redeemed us who is opening these seals. What a song! what a response, a living response! What is prominent in this chapter is the four living creatures. The elders are there but the living creatures are mentioned first, that is that there is a living response to Christ because He is the One who is worthy, the One who is taking the chief place here. He is in the midst. This presentation of Christ is intended to appeal to our affections. It says, “and in the midst of the elders, a Lamb standing, as slain”. The note to “a Lamb” is ‘a diminutive’, it is a little Lamb; it is not a mature animal it is a little Lamb. I think it intensifies the thought of the sufferings of the Lord Jesus, the Lamb standing, as slain—the little Lamb. He went that way, the suffering way, and He shed His precious blood that we might be redeemed to God. The Lord would not have to enforce His authority over a person who recognises His rights, a person who loves Him and loves to give Him that place, one who is in life. There will be a living order of things eternally; authority will not be prominent, I am not saying it will not be there, but it will not be prominent. The Lord has to assert His authority when we get away and assert our own will, but He does it in love. Where there is life, a living response to Himself, He does not have to do that.

I want to speak about these scriptures in the Old Testament. It may not be too easy to speak of them, but these references to the silver are testimony to the Lord’s rights in redemption. It is something we need to keep before us. Why has He redeemed us? Why has He purchased us for Himself? We are of value to Him, and each one has cost Him the same, that is what you get in Exodus 30. They were each to give half a shekel after the shekel of the sanctuary; the rich were not to give more, and the poor were not to give less. We have

often been reminded that the smallest person who has been redeemed, cost the Lord Jesus as much as the apostle Paul. You cost the Lord Jesus as much as the apostle Paul, and you are of value to Him. He would not have redeemed you if He did not see there was some value in you. If He has secured you for Himself, it is that you may have part in what is for God’s pleasure. It says in Revelation that He has redeemed us to God, made us kings and priests to God, that we might be for God, that we might be for God’s pleasure; not to go our own way, but to be for God’s pleasure.

The tabernacle system was a very simple affair, nothing outwardly great. There was nothing outwardly great in the pathway of Jesus here, in the lowly, simple conditions in which He was found. You wonder the Lord Jesus should be in such simple, lowly conditions. The tabernacle system was like that, but think of what was there for God’s glory and pleasure. We have part in it as being redeemed. That is the intention that we have all a vital part in it. Each one gave half a shekel which went into the tabernacle system, and it was a memorial for them; each one was to have a living part in it putting something in. It was a ransom for their souls, they had to be ransomed. The Lord Jesus has made atonement for us; He has made atonement through the shedding of His precious blood that every liability upon us might be removed, that every liability might be lifted, that we might be free for God’s service and God’s praise.

When you come to Exodus 26 it speaks of the boards for the tabernacle. This structure which was for God’s pleasure, in which the service of God proceeded, contained the ark, that small piece of furniture which speaks to us of Christ. It speaks to us of the small conditions into which He came, outwardly insignificant, but think of what was there, the glory that was there.

He was the centre, the ark was the centre. In Revelation, the Lord Jesus, the Lamb, was the centre.

You see things proceed rightly for God when He is the centre. When He is the centre for you, things will proceed rightly; they will proceed in your life rightly because He is the centre. He is the centre for God. He is to be the centre for us; He is to be the centre for you. We are such selfish creatures that we love to make ourselves the centre. The hymn says—

‘There Christ, the centre of the throng,

Shall in His glory shine’. (Hymn 178)

He will be the centre eternally. Your happiness and joy depends on making Him the centre.

Do you love to do it? Those that appreciate Him love to make Him the centre.

What supported the tabernacle was these boards, they were “ten cubits the length of the board, and a cubit and a half the breadth of one board”. Ten would, as we have been taught, speak of fulfilled responsibility; they represent persons who were answering to their responsibility, they were fulfilling it. They were made of acacia-wood which was the same material as the ark. There is that in the believer which is in correspondence to Christ Himself.

God has put it there. You and did not put it there. God put it there in His own sovereign work; there is something there that corresponds to Christ, seen inwardly; it may not come much yet into outward expression, but it is there. The person who went through those exercises in Romans 7 discovered that he delighted in the law of God according to the inward man (see Romans 7: 22). That is in correspondence with Christ, the One who said, “To do thy good pleasure, my God, is my delight, and thy law is within my heart”, Psalm 40: 8. How He loved to do it! Christ was here for the will of God, for the pleasure of God. He said, “thou hast prepared me a body ... Lo, I come ... to do, O God, thy will”, Hebrews 10: 5, 7. He was here for God’s will. Well, the believer finds that there is something in himself which corresponds to Christ in that way.

Each of these boards was standing on two sockets

of silver. It is appreciation in the soul of the love of Christ. As Paul says, “I live by faith, the faith of the Son of God, who has loved me and given himself for me”, Galatians 2: 20. That is what you find strength and stability in, the love of Christ. It is the love of Christ expressed in His death, that He gave Himself for you; He shed His precious blood for you. In the two sockets of silver, there is a witness to us of the love of Christ, and the Spirit would witness to us that love so that we have it in our souls, and we find ourselves here committed to the will of God. We find too that we are set in relation to others; the boards were all set in relation to each other. When it speaks of all the boards, it speaks of them being covered with gold. What does that mean? In Romans it speaks of God calling persons, those whom He has called He has justified, and those whom He has justified He has glorified. Think of what God has done for believers in that He has glorified them. How has He done that? He has done that by giving them the Holy Spirit. It is a wonderful thing to find that you have the desire to fulfil God’s’

will, and to find you have the power to do it, and that power is in the Spirit of God. Peter often failed but he had the heart for the Lord; he had not the power when he was here before the Spirit came. Mr Stoney said, We have the power but have we the heart? Have we the heart for Christ, beloved brethren? It does us good to meet persons who have a heart for Christ. They may not be intelligent fully as to God’s thoughts for them, but it is a wonderful thing to have the heart for it. Intelligence will come for it is necessary to be intelligent as to the mind of God, and what God’s mind is for us.

Then we come to the court in Exodus 27. The court was more public, things were coming outward from the holy of holies. It is what we are in the public eye. It is not persons who are mixed up in the world, there is a separation between them and the world, but what we are as under the public eye. This follows the section as to the brazen altar. The brazen altar speaks to us of the

sufferings of Christ, what He suffered and what He endured publicly. The cross was a public matter, but then the Lord Jesus endured things before that, at Gethsemane. Think of what He endured there and what He endured too throughout His life, men speaking against Him. But sin was judged at the altar, the sin-offering, the sacrifice was there. Sin has been judged in the cross of Christ. God has judged it there. The burnt-offering was also sacrificed there. The sacrifice of Christ in His sufferings was what was pleasurable to God; He maintained what was pleasurable to God. He glorified God in what He did. Well, in the light of that you have the court with these references to the pillars. There is the twined byssus and there are the twenty pillars, and twenty bases of copper, they are standing on bases of copper. There is the evidence that sin has been judged. We are not going on with sin, we have judged it. Let us not go on in sin. The redemptive work of Christ, as Peter says, “ye have been redeemed, not by corruptible things, as silver or gold ... but by precious blood ... the blood of Christ”, 1 Peter 1: 18, 19. He says later in the epistle, referring to Christ suffering, “arm yourselves with the same mind”, 1 Peter 4: 1. We do not go on in our own will, but we suffer in view of being here for God’s pleasure; sin being judged, I do not go on with it. That is seen here in a public way, it is to be manifest in the eyes of the world, in the eyes of men, that sin is judged by us, and we are here for God’s pleasure.

Then, of these hangings, it says, “and their twenty bases of copper, the hooks of the pillars and their connecting-rods of silver”. The whole thing is connected by these rods of silver, that is a testimony to the redemptive rights of Christ. It is to govern us, not only personally, individually, but in our relations with others who are redeemed. In the type the testimony as to Christ’s redemptive rights extends to the outermost limits of the tabernacle system.

Wherever a believer might be, there is still the testimony as to Christ’s redemptive rights. Are you recognising those rights in

what you are doing? What you are going on with? We cannot go on independently of others; there are obligations to go on with other believers, you get that in 2 Timothy 2. We are to withdraw from iniquity, that is the test to me that sin has been judged, but then we are to go on with others, we are to pursue righteousness, faith, love and peace with those that call upon the Lord out of a pure heart. So that in our relations together, we recognise the redemptive rights of Christ. It precludes any other associations of men. The redemptive rights of Christ preclude that, you cannot be a Freemason or in other things because of the redemptive rights of Christ. In what you do you involve others. All this is seen in the court.

Now I just want to come finally to these silver trumpets which are for movement. You might say, O yes, there have been movements in the testimony, there were in Mr Darby’s time and Mr Raven’s time and Mr Taylor’s time. That is true, but are you and I in movement? Are we making soul progress? Mr Raven said, We are either going forward or we are going back, we are not at a standstill. It is a wonderful thing to be kept in movement, and kept in soul progress. There were movements through the wilderness. It is interesting when you come to chapter 33 of this book, it speaks of their journeyings, not their wanderings, it speaks of their journeyings and their goings out of Egypt; each journey was further away from Egypt, leaving Egypt behind; each journey was a journey nearer the land that God had purposed for them. What is the motive power to keep us in movement? It is a sense in our souls of Christ’s rights and Christ’s love for us; that is what really keeps us in movement, otherwise we soon settle down.

These two trumpets were of silver, of beaten work, and they were to be blown. It means that a sound comes this way, the testimony as to Christ’s rights; it comes through persons who themselves fully recognise

the rights of Christ. We do not carry on service at our own charges, we belong to the Lord, we are His. Then they are of beaten work, discipline has entered into that, God has worked with these persons. It was seen with Paul and Silas in the prison in Philippi, what a sound came from that prison! Were they downcast? No, they were praising God with singing.

People who are redeemed are people who sing. There are no singing people mentioned in Scripture until they were redeemed; the first reference in Scripture to singing people is in Exodus 15, when they had been redeemed in type. Those people that we read of in Revelation sing a new song, it is fresh and living; in their souls there was an appreciation of Christ as the Redeemer, not just the work, but the Person who has done it.

Ministry is to bring testimony as to Christ, to get our souls in movement and not settle down.

The first thing is the people were to be gathered. Ministry of that kind will gather the saints, and persons who respond to it would be gathered, not scattered. It says in the scripture in Exodus 30 where we read, that there should be no plague. It was a mandatory thing that they should bring that half shekel, yet it is spoken of as a heave-offering, showing that their affections were to be in it, and they were in it, so that there should be no plague among them.

Things that bring in division among the saints are a plague. When persons go on with Christ before them, there would be no division, they go on in the truth. I verily believe our salvation is in going on in the truth, having Christ before us. There is much to be gone in for in the truth. I feel sometimes I have just touched the edge of things. Think of the love of Christ!

Paul speaks of what there is to be known, does he not, in Ephesians, speaking of the love of the Christ which surpasses knowledge (Ephesians 3: 19). You can never exhaust it. I often think of what Mr Raven said, You can never speak of divine things as being the master of them; the more you know the more there is to know. The more you know of the love of Christ, the more there is to know.

These persons were to be gathered and they were to be set in movement; that is what you get in this chapter, the movements of the testimony, and it was out of affection. Things happened here that are not done in the prescribed way; at the end of the chapter the ark went before them to seek out a resting place. The people moved in response to the testimony and Christ, typified in the ark, went before in His love to seek out a resting place. These persons went forward. There were alarms too, in conflict there were warnings. It is that God might come in and preserve and protect His people. If we take heed to the warnings that come in, God has in mind that He will come in for His people and deliver them and preserve them so that they might go on into the land. Then it says, “And in the day of your gladness, and in your set feasts, and in your new moons, ye shall blow with the trumpets over your burnt-offerings and over your sacrifices of peace-offering; and they shall be to you for a memorial before your God—I am Jehovah your God”. It is really the answer there is for God from a redeemed people, from persons who have been redeemed by the precious blood of Christ. May we be encouraged in it for the Lord’s name’s sake.

Address at Rotherham, 5 March 1994

FIVE WOMEN IN THE GOSPEL OF LUKE

D. Robertson

Luke 4: 38, 39; 7: 44–47 (to “for she loved much”); 8: 43–47; 10: 38, 39; 13: 10–13

It will be evident to the brethren that I wish to speak of these five women who had to do with the Lord

Jesus. One had in mind to seek help to bring out in them something of the result that Paul would be looking for in Corinth, “a chaste virgin for Christ” (2 Corinthians 11: 2), involving the formation inwardly of substantial features in us. One is impressed with the need for spiritual substantiality. Our minds are capable of taking in, in varying measures, a great deal of what we might call technical information, and we can engage our time, in our conversations and thoughts, in large measure with that. It does not feed the soul, and in many cases leads to obsessions and stunted growth. We occupy time which would be more profitably spent, beloved brethren, in occupation with Christ and His things.

The first woman here is Simon’s mother-in-law, and she was suffering from a fever. The Lord had a result in mind for her just as He has in mind a result for all of us, for the Lord Jesus is not in any way haphazard in His dealings with us. He is careful and deliberate, and He always, in anything He undertakes with us, has a result in view. And so He enters into this circumstance here. It says, “they asked him for her”, that is a fine feature. In any matter it is always wise to take it to the Lord. So it says, “they asked him for her”. We have in our places meetings for care, and it may be that we need to see that the care that the Lord has in mind is the care of souls. It is not just a handling of monetary matters. That sometimes occupies, I suppose in larger localities at any rate, quite a time, but that is not the main object of care.

The care is the care for souls. Our care should be how one another are getting on. Not only young persons but older persons, all of us should be concerned as to how each other are prospering in our souls, how the work of God is proceeding there, as Paul says, How ye are getting on. In my younger days there were brothers around who when they met you used to say. How are you getting on? And they certainly did not mean just, How are you getting on in circumstantial things? They meant, How are you getting on in your soul? So there are persons here that were concerned for Simon’s

Mother-in-law and they asked the Lord about her. That is a fine thing to take the matter to the Lord, perhaps a young person waning a little in their affections, or an older person losing their grip on the truth; take it first of all to the Lord. Then it says, “And standing over her, he rebuked the fever, and it left her”, that is a fine touch. Think of that woman looking up at the Lord. Zacchaeus went up and he looked down at the Lord. Let us seek grace to look up to the Lord, recognising His dignity, recognising His authority. You will find that Luke in his writings corresponds greatly to Paul in his doctrine. In fact it has been said by one that Luke describes pictorially what Paul sets out doctrinally. So if you want a picture of Paul’s doctrine you go to Luke and you see it there. You think of how Paul presents the Lord in His supreme exaltation above “every ... dominion, and every name named”, Ephesians 1: 21. Paul presents the Lord in that dignified position, and that is the view this woman gets as the Lord deals with her. I trust we may be helped to have this dealing with the Lord and be able to look up to Him and to realise the authority of the Lord. What answers to that in you and me, beloved brethren, is subjection. That is a great needed quality in these days. It is not a quality that is known much in this world neither by man nor woman, but if ever there was a need amongst the saints for subjection it is needed today, and it is brought about by a sense of the supreme authority of the Lord. He stood over her and rebuked the fever, then it says, “and it left her”.

When the Lord does something it is done right.

We need to realise, beloved brethren, there are certain things that only the Lord can do. If you try to do it, or if I try to do it, we will make a mess of it. There are certain things which only the Lord can do, and He did it here, He rebuked the fever, and it left her. And the result, I presume, that the Lord has in mind, and has in mind not only with this woman but has in mind with each one of us, is that we might have the ability to serve. It does not say that she served Him, it says that

she served them. We might have said, Well should she not have served the Lord first of all?—I have no doubt she did serve the Lord but she served them, and the word says, “by love serve one another”, Galatians 5: 1–3. It is a time for service. The Lord has been pleased to take two valued men, men who laid down their lives in service. Does that mean the service has to stop? Certainly not! It means that there is to be exercise that we might be liberated from every encumbrance, even a fever, or anything else that—would hinder us, so that we might serve, that the principle might be taken up by us that we might be servants of Christ. I am not speaking of persons functioning as I am doing now, I am speaking of the general principle of service, that we may take it on and serve one another. It says that “she served them”. I think it would be love’s service. I have no doubt at all about it, she was a saint and she is freed from the encumbrance, she is freed from the agitation and she is freed for service.

May we bear the word and may we learn to serve one another. It is better than criticising one another. The Lord would serve us. He would stand over us as it were in His authority that we might be liberated to serve, as the word says, “in spirit fervent; serving the Lord” (Romans 12: 11), and not only serving the Lord but serving one another. I am sure you will see the need for it, that we might take this on as a principle. It is one of the great principles of Christianity that we are secured, not to be persons who are at a loose end, living our lives aimlessly, but persons who are secured to serve; and that we might learn to serve one another as affected ourselves by the Lord’s grace.

When we come to Luke 7 we have another woman. How wonderfully the Lord had dealt with her too. Time would fail to go into the details of the verses from 36 on but one great feature that is developed in this woman is love. It says that “she loved much”, a woman who moved in a very comely way. It says that she took her place behind the Lord. She was not parading herself, it is not a time for that. The time for parade will be in the world to come, and God will set it on Himself, a time for display; but it is a time for humility now and this woman was marked by it. It says she took her place behind Him, she was not showing herself off to the Lord, she just took her place behind Him. How comely her movements are. Think of the inward feelings that came to light, she washed His feet with her tears. Could I ask you, beloved brother and sister, What are your intimate moments with the Lord? Are you able to express inward feeling to Him? Is the adoration of your heart brought out, feelings of affection? You young ones, I would suggest to you that you learn to pray to the Lord Jesus and express your affection for Him personally in those quiet moments. It is a great need. The ability to speak is one thing, I mean publicly to each other, but what a thing it is to be able to speak to the Lord Jesus; it is a wonderful matter. Here is a woman whose inwards were in expression, and what wonderful expression. It says that she washed His feet with her tears. How refreshing it must have been to the Lord Jesus. He was in the cold atmosphere of the Pharisee’s house, and that is the position publicly. There is no response in this world to the Lord, just the opposite. He is the Man of sorrows and acquainted with grief, that is what He is as far as this world is concerned. There is no beauty that they should desire Him. What a comfort, what refreshment for the heart of the Lord Jesus, when there is the expression of these deep inward feelings. Then it says that she wiped His feet with the hair of her head. The woman’s glory is in that. This woman was not using her glory to promote herself, she was using her glory for the comfort of the Lord Jesus. Let me appeal to the brethren that we might learn, and learn in an increasing way to think for the Lord Jesus, to consider for Him, and to provide for Him.

I wanted to speak of what we have in verse 44 where it says, “And turning to the woman”, as much as if He would say, There is something here in this woman that attracts Me. Think of being able to attract Him.

We think of Him as the Object of our attraction, and so He is. How precious it is to have Him before us as the Object, but then you see a woman like this becomes an object for the Lord Jesus. He is attracted to her. His heart is absorbed with her, features are coming to light that are delightful to Him. This is how the features of the bride come to light. We see them in these women, I think, and they are drawing out the interest of Christ, they are attracting His heart. Think of that happening in your secret history with Him, that there is something being inwardly formed in those affections of yours that would turn Him towards you, and He would say, There is a feature of My bride. How beautiful the thought is. He commends all this service that she goes on with, “thou gavest me not water on my feet, but she has washed my feet with tears, and wiped them with her hair. Thou gavest me not a kiss, but she from the time I came in has not ceased kissing my feet. My head with oil thou didst not anoint, but she has anointed my feet with myrrh”, and then He says here, “for she loved much”. That is the feature of the bride, “she loved much”. We are at the end of the dispensation and I believe the Lord Jesus is looking for hearts that are burning with love for Himself. The profession as a whole has cast Him off, the love of the most has grown cold. Are there hearts in this room burning for Him? Is there true love for Him? Is there the development of these inward affections which are able to satisfy His heart? So that, as it says here, He can turn to us in the recognition of something that is attractive to His own heart.

Now the woman in chapter 8 also had a wonderful transaction with Christ. She had tried much, she had spent all her living on physicians and could not be cured by any one, but it says, “coming up behind, touched the hem of his garment, and immediately her flux of blood stopped. And Jesus said, Who has touched me?” This woman represents, I think, substantial assembly formation. Something had gone out from the Lord and entered into her. That is how assembly formation takes

place. Assembly formation does not take place by surrounding yourself with books and concordances and helps. Not that I am in any way demeaning the thought of reading, I like to read myself, but assembly formation takes place as we derive from Christ, and that is what happened here in this woman. She is a person who derived something from Christ. Jesus said,

“Some one has touched me, for I have known that power has gone out from me”. It says of her that she “touched the hem of his garment”, that is a fine thought. You may say, Well it was not the Lord Himself. That is true, it was not the Lord Himself, she touched the hem of His garment. I think it refers to the company of the saints. If you look at the figure in Psalm 133, the “oil ... that ran down to the hem of his garments”. It is the Lord’s circumstances, involving the saints, and when you touch something vitally in the circle of the saints, you really touch Christ in His character, and that is what we should aim at. In our comings together we should aim at touching Christ in one another characteristically. I suppose what she touched was the border of blue, what was heavenly in character, and that is what we are beloved brethren, we are heavenly in character, as the word says, “such as the heavenly one, such also the heavenly ones”, 1 Corinthians 15: 48. The saints are a heavenly people and when we touch that vitally, we are touching in character Christ in the saints. It is the second Man out of heaven, that is Luke’s gospel. He is never said to be the last man, He is the last Adam. The Lord Jesus is the second Man out of heaven, that is, He is the pattern Man. There are others to be like Him, and the saints are like Him, they take their character from Christ. I commend this thought to you, that as we touch vitality in the meetings, as we touch the hem of Christ’s garment in this way, it is how assembly formation takes place, we derive from Christ. This woman, I think, is really descriptive of what we read of in Colossians where it says, “he is the head of the body, the assembly” (Colossians 1: 18). She really shows how the body is brought about, she is of the body, and as we derive from Christ

we derive features in spiritual formation that, help us to understand our place in the body, and fit us to fill it.

Now we have a further matter as it says, “seeing that she was not hid, came trembling, and falling down before him declared before all the people for what cause she had touched him, and how she was immediately healed”. She had to learn, as we have, all to learn, that if we want to get the gain of this transaction with Christ, we have to be transparent in all our dealings. She comes to transparency. She thought she was hidden, she thought no one had seen her, but the Lord knew. Perhaps no one else saw it, but He knew because power had gone out from Him, and she is brought to this feature of transparency, a great principle in Christianity. May our links, and our motives and our hearts and our thoughts be transparent, so that our words might express our thoughts, as the psalmist says, “my thought goeth not beyond my word”, Psalm 17: 3. May it be so, beloved brethren. These are needed things in these days, so that we are marked by these moral features of Christianity, subjection, obedience, transparency. This woman is transparent, she is of the body, she is a person who represents what can express Christ. She touched the character of Christ vitally as she touched the hem of the garment. She had sought help from many others but she touched another order of Man. That is what you do in the assembly vitally, you touch another order of Man. You do not find Him in the world, you find Him amongst the saints. It is really the second Man out of heaven.

Now one goes on to Mary in Luke 10, “who also, having sat down at the feet of Jesus was listening to his word”. What a fine thing it is to sit at the feet of Jesus! The little hymn says—

‘Lo, at Thy feet. Lord Jesus,

This is the place for me;

There I have learned deep lessons,

Truths that have set me free’.

That is the place for every true Christian, at the feet of

Jesus. Mary represents a person who is in the gain of the divine light of the moment. It has been said that the assembly lives by the latest communication from heaven. You may say, Well we have the ministries of Mr Taylor, Mr Raven, Mr Stoney, and Mr Darby. Thank God for them. They constitute a great cumulative ministry of the recovery that is indispensable; we cannot do without it. God has provided it, it is a divine provision. But we need the Lord’s present touch, we need light for the moment, and this woman, I suggest, was in the gain of the divine light for the moment. If you go back to chapter 9 there is the Father’s voice saying,

“This is my beloved Son—hear him” (John 9: 35). That was the distinctive light for the moment, and here she is, she is hearing Him. It says, “having sat down at the feet of Jesus was listening to his word”. Think of those disclosures that the Lord Jesus would make to us, make to the assembly, make to persons who have assembly character, disclosures that would keep us in life, we would live by them. If we do not have these disclosures we shall die. If we are not kept in fresh communication with Christ where He is we shall die spiritually, but she was listening to His word.

I think it is a Colossian touch, it says, “Let the word of the Christ dwell in you richly”

(Colossians 3: 16). It is enriching the being, keeping us in the divine current, keeping us in the movements of the testimony livingly, keeping us in the power of response to Himself and to God. That can only be so as we are listening to His word. If it is something that is merely kept in the memory or formulated by the mind, you can rest assured there is no life in it. That is like Sardis, “thou hast a name that thou livest, and art dead”, Revelation 3: 1. If you come to Philadelphia you will find a living state of things because Philadelphia is composed of persons who are in touch with the Head of the assembly, and they know what it is to listen to His word. I feel measured by what I am saying and I feel quite inadequate in it, but I am convinced of this, that what I am saying is important. It

is vital for life and continuance and reality, and Mary here suggests a person who knows what it is to be enjoying the divine light for the moment. You may say, Well what about this problem, and what about that problem, and what about this matter that is looming up? Let us not be diverted from seeking the divine light for the moment. What is the divine light for the moment? I will tell you what it is, it is Christ and the assembly, that is the divine light for the moment. Paul says, “I speak as to Christ, and as to the assembly”, Ephesians 5: 32. The divine light for the moment is contained in Paul’s ministry, and as one has said, Lose Paul, lose all. That is easily enough remembered, if you lose Paul you lose all. May we be preserved in the significance and in the distinctiveness of the light for the moment. It is Paul’s light, it is our light. It is not Israel’s light, it is our light, and what is the light? It is the light that outshines every other light, it is the light of Christ and the assembly.

I come finally to the woman in Luke 13, “And he was teaching in one of the synagogues on the sabbath. And lo, there was a woman having a spirit of infirmity eighteen years, and she was bent together and wholly unable to lift her head up”. Quite remarkable, it does not say anything in this section about sinfulness, it is infirmity. My own impression at the moment is that God intends us to feel weakness, to feel infirmity. I am not speaking now in a moral sense but just to feel our weakness. God has seen fit to reduce us. We have not the large companies we used to have, we feel our weakness, and Satan would use that. The Lord says in verse 16, “whom Satan has bound, lo, these eighteen years”. She had no power to lift herself up and look up to God. That really is what the enemy is at. The enemy is at the disruption of the service of God, seeking to bring in a spirit of infirmity, a spirit of inability to fulfil the obligation we have to maintain the service of God. I believe the greatest obligation that lies on the local assembly is to maintain conditions first of all for

the Supper, and secondly for the celebration of the service of God. If the enemy can sow a spirit of infirmity amongst us, he will do it so that the service of God suffers as a result. Let us see what the enemy is at. He has been at it for a long time and he is at it again, to bring in this spirit of infirmity, to wear the saints down. It speaks about wearing out the saints of the most high places (Daniel 7: 25), wearing them down. It is not exactly knocking them down or crushing them, but just wearing them down by constant activity, and stirring up constant agitation. Let us see his work, beloved brethren. One appeals to the brethren, let us see that what he is at is that we might become infirm and unable to glorify God, unable to serve God.

That is what suffers, the service of God suffers. The first thing here is that, seeing her, He called to her. How the Lord Jesus would call to us. As it were He would interrupt us, it may be in our course He would call to us. He said to her, “Woman, thou art loosed from thine infirmity”. How He would serve us in His priestly greatness to free us from the sense of infirmity and give us a sense of spiritual adequacy, so that it says, “he laid his hands upon her”. It is not just one hand, it is complete identification. The Lord is not writing any one of us off. He would completely identify Himself with the condition of felt weakness so that we might be strengthened and that we might be made straight. It says, “And he laid his hands upon her; and immediately she was made straight”. I would judge that would possibly relate to the great matter of righteousness, that we might be strengthened in righteousness. That would be involved in being made straight, and then the great result is she glorified God. What a result that is. As I said, the Lord Jesus, in His dealings with us, has always a result in mind, and in this case it was that she might glorify God. That is what He has in mind in all our local assemblies that there might be power to glorify God, that there might be power to serve God in dignity and uprightness and holiness, in these conditions that belong to true assembly persons. May it be found with us and may the

Lord bless the word.

Address at Dundee, 12 February 1994

EXTRACTS

God would say, I have those people. Now I want to be among those whom He so regards, those He can speak of to the great ones of earth. “Touch not mine anointed ones”, He says, and do my prophets no harm”. What a comfort this is when storms rage and waves rise!

Abimelech was doing harm to Abraham. God could have sent an angel and rescued Sarah, but no!—He goes Himself, He goes in a vision. He could get there by this means more quickly and more easily than by an army; He says to Abimelech, You are doing harm to what is Mine. What a comfort that is! It renders us independent of human power: that God can approach a man in authority, and speak to him of “my prophets”; and that is not all. He intimates that Abraham can serve Abimelech, and will do so. He will pray for you, He says.

How great a matter this is! And God can so regard any of us, for it applies in principle to all the saints. Here is a man the monarch was damaging, and God says, Release his wife, and he will pray for you. And we today have to do with the whole course of things nationally, socially, commercially, and militarily, but we are not concerned save on account of what belongs to God, that it should not be damaged, so we pray for kings and others, as the word says, “that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and honesty”; also that a way may be made for the testimony, so that there is no interruption, by war, epidemics, or what not, to what God is doing.

J. Taylor (Vol. 45, p.120)

G.G.

How does it apply to us today—being filled “with the Holy Spirit”?

J.T.

Just the same as then. The question is whether we make room for Him. It is a remarkable feature in Acts and in Luke, the thought of being filled by the Spirit, and the allusion is to the fact that there was room made. The way to it, doctrinally, is found in Romans 7, where the analysis is made as to what is in each of us; we are enabled to name the things there and see how God has dealt with them; then they are not allowed a place in us.

God has judicially dealt with them, so we righteously disallow them, and in proportion as that is done, the Spirit has place in the Christian. His presence ceases to be mere theory, and becomes real power in the soul. “These are not full of wine, as ye suppose”, Acts 2: 15. They were rejoicing in the power of the Holy Spirit.

J. Taylor (Vol. 41, p.235)

Ques.

Do you think there will be a judicial message to the gentiles in the closing days of the assembly’s history, somewhat akin to the message of Stephen to the Jews?

J.T.

I think it is going on now. The ministry has taken on that character, the judicial character. If you read the Collected Writings, the prophetic side of matters, it will be seen how strongly the judicial side is in mind. We have, “God has judged your judgment upon her”, Revelation 18: 20. That is the judicial side, and no one is equal to the present position of the assembly who does not have that. In separating from evil, you judge what you leave; it is a judicial action. God says, You are judging it, but I will deal with it in time; your judgment will be executed. The judicial side is most important in every respect, because it clarifies the whole position and then we can go on with what is positive.

J. Taylor (Vol. 45, p.364)

So the lesson is the Lord coming into the circumstances of a Saul, and stressing the fact of His saints. If there is one here who thinks he can get along without them, it is a mistake, the Lord indicates that you cannot. Even when you go up to heaven you will go with them; we are to be all raised up together. So this convert is with the disciples; the Lord sent Ananias to him, and Ananias set him at rest, calling him brother. It may be there is someone here, lonely in his soul, isolated; you are assuming perhaps that you must go on by yourself, there are none you can go on with. The Lord would say to you, “go into the city, and it shall be told thee what thou must do”. Not only will those to whom you are sent tell you what to do, but they will love you and make you at home. One of the finest types in the Old Testament, I think, is the feast of tabernacles; it refers to the households of God’s people, the families, where love is, not in an abstract way, as we speak of it sometimes in our addresses and reading meetings, but love shown, that is the idea of the feast of tabernacles. The Lord said to His disciples, “By this shall all know that ye are disciples of mine, if ye have love amongst yourselves”, John 13: 35. The feast of tabernacles recognises that; it is the saints together in outwardly small circumstances near to one another, so that love can have free course; and if there is anyone here at all isolated in his spirit, cold, and thinking, it may be, that nobody loves him, the Lord would say to you, not only that He loves you, but there are those here that love you too—go into the city, as it were, and you will find them.

J. Taylor (Vol. 46, pp.52, 53)

Edited and Published by J. Strachan, 59 Frederick Street, Dundee, DD3 9DE, Scotland Printed by Crystal Stationery, 22 Western Road, Billericay, Essex CM12 9DZ, (T) (0277) 650661

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