GOOD THINGS
W.Dickson
Judges 9: 10,11; Ephesians 5: 9; 3 John 11
The testimony which Caleb and Joshua rendered after their mission was that the land was "a very, very good land", Num 14: 7. I think that after our experience these two days we would agree that, to be in an environment which is totally different from what morally exists in the world, is very good. So, as following up what has been much in my mind this week, I want to speak of what is good. It is a great comfort in a world of evil to have a link with a God who is the source of good. Everything that He administers in grace to His people is good. Younger brethren, I exhort you to learn to love what is good. The Holy Spirit which indwells you will develop in you a love for what is good, not only publicly in companionships or in other walks of life, but a love for what is good for its own sake. A feature of a person being near God is that he unvaryingly loves what is good. We are here at this time because we love what is good and hate evil. The Spirit of God has shown us that the evil in this world is on account of the rejection of Christ. So we have a judgment about it and we love what is good as it is known in the circle of God's people.
In this parable of Jotham every part is interesting, but I have chosen that part which deals with the fig because what the fig tree says is "Should I leave my sweetness and my good fruit". In the reference made in the reading to the basket of figs at the time that Jeremiah wrote (see chap 24: 1-10) there is a deep moral lesson. The armies of Nebuchadnezzar, the Babylonish king, encompassed Jerusalem. He had come as the instrument of God's chastisement on account of the idolatry and departure of the people, and the basket of good figs represented those who bowed to the divine government and forsook the city and went into captivity. The bad figs were king Zedekiah and others who chose to remain in the city and defy the armies of Nebuchadnezzar. Now the moral lesson in that is this, that in the sight of God it is good to bow to His government. The position in Germany today is division of government. The worldwide scattering of the saints is governmental and any attempt to overcome these governmental circumstances by breaking down the path of separation and opening the door to open principles is to ignore God's government. The teaching of the Scripture is that if we humbly bow our heads in the light of what has come in we have God's promise that He will restore us again to the land. Jeremiah said "In this place they shall buy fields and land and possessions". So I would say that any attempt to overcome the governmental situation by seeking the fellowship of those not walking in the path of the truth will meet with God's disapproval.
This fig tree said "Should I leave my sweetness and my good fruit... ?". It was fully satisfied. Brethren, are we fully satisfied? I do not mean self-satisfied, but do we find our deep satisfaction in the things of God? If Ahab had been satisfied he would not have wanted Naboth 's vineyard. The gift of the Spirit to the believer means that he is perfectly satisfied in what God has given him in His grace. Are you satisfied in your local meeting? Do you think you would get on better in another place? The fig tree says, Should I leave my sweetness and my good fruit? It was satisfied. O beloved brethren, there is great gain in developing the inheritance in our own place. So we should not leave any situation in which God is manifestly blessing us spiritually. To be blessed materially is in itself no indication of God's favour. The thought of the fig-tree is that you are satisfied spiritually. So a dignified answer is given to the suggestion that he should become a king. Who wants a king's place in this world? The King is coming - the King of Kings. The Lord of Lords is coming and we shall have a part in that kingdom. Who wants to be a king in this locality? Is it not far better to be among the brethren and enjoy your good fruit? Younger brethren, the service of God is greater than any service man-ward. I know that we sometimes measure things by platform service, but seek much grace to realise that sonship before the Father is greater than any place in service. So do not let us leave our good fruit.
In the verse read in Ephesians it says that "the fruit of the light is in all goodness and righteousness and truth". It is remarkable that goodness comes first; that is a reminder to us of the standard of walk that befits believers who have the highest light that the Lord has been pleased to give. This chapter, in verses 11 and 12, speaks of evil things and it also speaks of unfruitful things, but we should manifest the fruit of the light in all goodness. I want to speak of the great value of influence amongst the brethren. It is an expression that is often used - an influence for good. Beloved younger brethren, seek the help of the Lord that you are always an influence for good in every way in which you move in the circle of the saints. It is not that you need to exhort or preach to your companions. Influence is a very subtle thing, and I use the word 'subtle' in a good sense. The effect of a good influence permeates the saints. So the fruit of the light is goodness and involves a standard of conduct that reflects God.
In John's epistle 'beloved' is one of John's favourite designations. It is good to think of and address the brethren affectionately. He says "do not imitate what is evil". The imitation of evil is more readily done than the imitation of good, and anything which detracts from the rights of Christ is not good. If there is a lowering of the standard of the truth, it does not come from God who is the source of good. We are not called upon to imitate what is evil. We must adhere to a standard. In the second epistle of John the question arises as to a person who comes to the house not abiding in the doctrine of the Christ. What do you think John would say if someone were to say to him that it would be good to have that man in the house? Would he say that was good? No, he would say "Do not receive him" (v 10). Love is not incompatible with maintenance of the truth. Is there a brother or a sister with a difference one with the other? Take the opportunity to imitate God. What did he do? He forgave us. What a line to imitate! The pattern of assembly life in the character of our meetings is a good thing. We want to imitate everything that is good in the assembly. Assembly customs, if they are not local customs, are good things and should be imitated. He that does good is of God. There is sometimes a charge laid that we are not very evangelical. Well, there was a little maid in Naaman the Syrian's house and all that she did was good because she learnt through the prophet that God was good. She was evangelical. I do not accept the suggestion that the saints are not evangelical. There is abundant scope for evangelical work in personal contact, in giving out tracts and in the open-air preaching, each of which is good. There are examples that could be quoted from the New Testament, one of which is that Andrew first finds his own brother. That is a fine place to start, first finding your own brother. What influence for good have you in the home, that you can bring your brother to Christ? He that does good is of God. In a corrupt world the saints of God are like the salt of the earth. Salt is good but if the salt has lost its savour wherewith shall it be salted? The trend of the meetings these two days is to alert us to the fact that the salt must not lose its savour. The great preservative of the gospel is the people of God themselves going on with what is good. "He that does evil has not seen God". How do you see God? That is a big question. It is not with physical eyesight. You see God morally in the death of Christ. You see the solution of good and evil on the cross, and if you do evil you ignore God's judgment at the cross. If you do good you bear testimony to the triumph of good over evil. Remember that God is the source of good and let our time be filled out here amongst the brethren and amongst men in the pursuit of what is good. For His Name's sake.
ENDBACH
24 May 1980
PREACHING
C.J.H.Davidson
John 8: 51-59; Philippians 2: 6 -11; Revelation 21: 4-6
The eighth chapter of John is one of the most solemn chapters in the Scriptures, with the most wicked suggestions against the Saviour that man could throw up in His face; at the beginning of it there is that Saviour having mercy on the poor sinful woman, and at the end of it the persons surrounding Him sought to destroy Him. In the course of the chapter they say to Him "We are not born of fornication" (v 41), and again they say, "Say we not well that thou art a Samaritan" (v 48), and then they add "and hast a demon", and still that Saviour, without whom I cannot do - and you too, if you rightly sense the position - went on through it all to the cross. What a story it is! The world has not improved since then; if He was here, walking in lowly gentleness among men, they would say the same kind of things and would seek to destroy Him, and yet think, if you think rightly at all, of who He was. They say to Him "whom makest thou thyself?" What a question to put to the One of whom Paul said, He is "over all, God blessed for ever", Rom 9: 5.
Men are always busy making something of themselves. I am not exempt from that, the same hypocritical character is in me as it is in men in this world. I am not charging you with anything, but I am saying the fact is that from the time we are born our one struggle is to make something of ourselves. This Man, the only man that has ever been like it, made Himself of no reputation. He had good cause to make something of Himself; think of what was announced at His birth! God made something of Him. Of John the baptist his father Zacharias said, "And thou, child, shalt be called the prophet of the Highest", Luke 1: 76. You cannot make anything greater than that, it could not be. Think of John, beloved servant of God (I am looking forward to meeting that man and asking him more of what he thinks of Christ), prophet of the Highest; he said "He must increase, but I must decrease" (John 3: 30); that is the sign of a converted man. "Whom makest thou thyself? " - it was no good saying that to John the baptist; they said to him at the beginning of this gospel, "Who art thou?" chap 1: 19. He was not making himself the Christ. "Art thou Elias?" No. "I am the voice of one crying in the wilderness, Make straight the path of the Lord" (v 23). And here was the One of whom John the baptist preached. "The burning and shining lamp" is what the Lord called His servant John the baptist, burning inwardly with love for Christ, shining outwardly in the most beautiful testimony to the One the Father had marked out to John as being the Son of God, and marked out by John seeing the Holy Spirit descending as a dove upon Him. What folly then to raise such a question in this chapter; "Whom makest thou thyself?". O, if you would only believe, beloved friend, if you would only believe that this is He! There is no-one else. Miss Havergal knew that alright: 'I could not do without Thee' - what lovely words those are! Another of her hymns is a favourite of mine - 'Thou art coming O my Saviour, Thou art coming O my King'. She looked out, as I look out tonight, eastward - the sky is bright. The west - the testimony is not going to peter out, the light of the gospel will go out in one moment. There will be no twilight of the gospel; it will go out at the height that God intends it to be at, as at this moment.
So what a chapter it is. You may say it is a black chapter, but think of what follows! In chapter 9 a man gets his eyes opened to see beauty in Christ. Could anything be lovelier than that? "Dost thou believe on the Son of God?" (v 35). "And who is he, Lord, that I may believe on him?" Do you use language like that? Do you want to believe tonight? That man did; the dark chapter 8 gives way to the full light of the Son of God shining before a man who did homage to Him. That man did not say "whom makest thou thyself?" He said "I believe, Lord". If you want a result from the preaching tonight in this place, those words are sufficient - "I believe, Lord" and he did Him homage.
Then that there should be something for the young people here, in chapter 10 it is a Man who is the good Shepherd of the sheep. You know what He does with lambs - He leads sheep but He carries lambs in His bosom. I have been carried like that, I have wandered many times, but He has brought me back. I was carried like that as a tiny child; I remember that time. The gospel preaching is a wonderful time; Mr Coates said the saints need the gospel for by it they renew their own youth, and I can go back to a time when Mr Catterall preached on the scripture as to David and the committal of David's men to himself when they said "Thine are we, David, And with thee, thou son of Jesse", 1 Chron 12: 18. Mr Catterall said - and I took it in at nine years old - that we should say, 'Thine are we, Lord Jesus, and on Thy side, Thou Son of God'; and I found that the lambs were carried in the arms of the Shepherd. So chapter 10 is beautiful; how much there is in this area that Paul would go over! He had contact with John. John's writings are the last of Scripture, but Paul had contact with this man and loved him, loved him because Christ loved him.
Paul fills this out in that passage in Philippians 2 - O the blessed lowliness of Jesus! He could truly say "Before Abraham was, I am". Paul said, "by God's grace I am what I am" (1 Cor 15: 10) - what I am; he could never say, as God can say, "I AM THAT I AM", Exod 3: 14. Paul could pick up the beauty of the lowly graciousness of Jesus in the second chapter to the Philippians - He made Himself of no reputation. Mr Darby has a lovely bit that is buried within me: 'a lowly Christ humbling Himself from Godheadform down to death, is the spring of lowly graciousness; an exalted One sought in glory, the spring of energy which counts all to be dross and dung to win Him' (see in Synopsis on Philippians 3). These are beautiful words, exemplified in that beloved servant - why? only because he was like Christ. No servant is worth speaking of unless you couple what comes out in him with what is seen in full perfection in Jesus. So think of it in a world which is as they say 'on the make'; that is what they say in this world, and some people are caught up with that. "Who makest thou thyself?" They want to make a name for themselves; they did at Babel and they have been doing it ever since. Mr Darby says that the spring of lowly graciousness is in the knowledge of that Man who humbled Himself.
Those steps down in Philippians 2 are very affecting: "emptied himself" - the great ministries have indicated that He emptied Himself, or made Himself of no reputation, by these downward steps. He took a bondman's form. "Man acquired me", the prophet says, "as bondman from my youth", Zech 13: 5. Never was that better exemplified than in Christ Himself - a Man that was available to a sinful woman in John 8, a Man that was available to a blind man in John 9, a Man that is available to all the sheep and the lambs in John 10. So we have a bondman for Saviour. He could have glorified Himself but He counted on His Father to do that, and the universe will yet see that Man. Miss Havergal says in that hymn I referred to, 'Oh, the joy to see Thee reigning, Thee my own beloved Lord! ... Vindicated and enthroned'. What a time it will be! The Father is delighting in the near approach of that time. How near we do not know, but we see all the signs of it around, and the Lord said in His teaching in Matthew's gospel, "when ye see all these things, know that it is near, at the doors", chap 24: 33. Ah, the doors of heaven are going to be open soon, and that Saviour is coming forth, the trumpet of God, the assembling shout of Christ. We shall enter in, the doors will open to the King of glory a second time, and He will come out of heaven with the hosts that He has redeemed following Him. What a sight for this world it will be! This is the one of whom Paul says, "taking his place in the likeness of men; and having been found in figure as a man, humbled himself, becoming obedient even unto death, and that the death of the cross". Have you ever thought that Christ never needed to be humbled at all? I have needed it scores of times - shame that it should be so! - but the innate pride of man's heart is with me as it is with you, alas. But to see One in the likeness of a bondman, and yet One who could say in the language, of Psalm 50: "If I were hungry, I would not tell thee" (v 12). Think of the all-sufficient God humbling Himself to observe the things on the earth! He is so great, yet that One, Jesus, looking down even on a company like this, looking down on the children here and loving them and wanting their committal to Himself and to hear them say "I believe, Lord". But down here in manhood He humbled Himself, becoming obedient even unto death, and then Paul adds those words "and that the death of the cross". Paul did not suffer martyrdom by crucifixion, Peter did, but Paul, as a Roman citizen, had the right under Roman law to be beheaded, and so he went obediently to his martyrdom at Rome, but when he thinks of his Saviour he says "and that the death of the cross". It is not only, friend, the agonising character physically of that death, but Paul is thinking of what was demanded because of his sins, coming down in wrath on the head of his substitute. How marvellous that all my sins, past and (let it not be, but it might be), future, were known by God and laid upon the head, the suffering head, of that Man who had become obedient even unto death!
And so that blessed story of God's grace goes on. How thrilling the result is when you think of nearly 2000 years of the preaching of Christ and the revenue from it for God! He has put the sickle in many times; it will not be the sickle in the end. He loves to take His own work into its true garner when it is completed - the blade, the ear, the full corn in the ear and then the sickle - but when He puts the sickle in, the soul that is taken never sees death. Somebody has said that there is no water in Jordan, and another I heard say as I stood by his death bed, I can see Him visibly coming down, I can see Him. Not death: think of the grace of it that the Saviour who has saved you will manifest Himself to you when the sickle is put in, but it will not be the sickle at the rapture. In an instant, in the twinkling of an eye, we shall be changed. That is what we look for beloved, the sky, eastward as I said, is bright and His coming is about to dawn. The sky, not the grave is our goal. O how lovely the gospel is in its result now through the forgiveness of sins, the· gift of the Holy Spirit, and the future before the Christian, of which, as Mr Darby said on his own deathbed, There is no future for the Christian but glory.
The Man that made Himself of no reputation is the Man that is going to make all things new. That verse that I started at in Revelation always thrills me, for you cannot wipe away tears without a hand, and it will be the hand of Christ that will do it, the same hand that He showed to Thomas, doubting Thomas, who wanted to see the mark of the nails. It is God who will wipe away all tears, but it is the hand of a Man that will do it. That God will do so comes three times in the Scriptures, so emphatic is He that we should understand the character of His simile, the character of His heart - once in Isaiah, twice in Revelation, and the last time is here. And it is the last time that we are in, the last opportunity to take the water of life freely. He is soon going to say, "It is done". There will be no more appeal then, no choice will remain. I can say, as Joshua of old did, "choose you this day whom ye will serve", Josh 24: 15. Even the children can say, as loving Jesus, that they want to be here for Him. In that day when he says "It is done" it will be done and no evil power in the universe will give Him any cause for de lay. There will be no trade union power to come against government in that day because the government will be upon His shoulder. So that is the Man that is presented by the Holy Spirit in the glad tidings. Is He great enough for you? He was great enough for Paul, He is great enough for so many here, let Him be great enough for you, so that you say truly 'I cannot do without Thee, O Saviour of the lost'. May that be your portion -'with Him - O, with Jesus! ' - for His Name's sake.
STREATHAM LONDON
24 February 1980