ADDED TO THE LORD (1)
[p. 244] ADDED TO THE LORD (1)
JT In the portion of scripture which has been read it says that after the death of Ananias and Sapphira believers were added to the Lord. We read the same also of Antioch after Barnabas was come there, “a large crowd of people were added to the Lord” (Acts 11:24). In Acts 2:41 it simply says “there were added in that day about three thousand souls”. It is not said to whom they were added or who added them. A little further on it says then “the Lord added [to the assembly] daily those that were to be saved” (Acts 2:47), but for the first time we read in chapter 5:14, after Ananias and Sapphira had lied to God, “believers were more than ever added to the Lord, multitudes both of men and women”. It says that the severe punishment which was meted out to Ananias and Sapphira produced fear, “great fear came upon all the assembly, and upon all who heard these things”, but the great fear did not hold any believers back from them, because it was a fear brought about by God, a holy reverence before the Lord which drew them nearer to Him. Multitudes of believers were now added to the Lord, which means that in the fear of the Lord they took up an attitude of refusing sin and looseness. The dreadful sin of Ananias and Sapphira brought the terrible judgment of God with it. If we do not refuse sin, then like Ananias and Sapphira we are a source of sorrow and vexation to the believers. If we are only numerically added, we but cause trouble and grief. Often the largest meetings are also the weakest spiritually, but if we are added to the Lord we are under His authority and we recognise His supremacy, for He does not receive any, as added to Him, who has not also been made subject to Him. “Added to the Lord”, means that we have entered into the kingdom of God. We recognise that it is necessary to be obedient and subject to the Lord and we put away all lawlessness and all human and loose principles.
Ques Do you think that we can be in fellowship without having the Holy Spirit active in us, making us subject to the Lord Jesus (1 Corinthians 12:3)?
JT Yes, that is very important. We feel perhaps drawn to certain christians but do not recognise the rights which the Lord has over us.
Ques Does not the baptism of the Holy Spirit into one body (1 Corinthians 12:13) bring with it the recognition of death upon ourselves?
JT Quite so. It also involves that we feel happy amongst the brethren. We are not truly happy amongst the brethren until we confess Jesus as our Lord, in the power of the Holy Spirit. When some of the children of Benjamin and Judah came to David to subject themselves to him, he asked them if they were come peaceably. It says in 1 Chronicles 12:16 - 18, “And there came of the children of Benjamin and Judah to the stronghold to David. And David went out to meet them, and answered and said to them, If ye come peaceably to me to help me, my heart shall be knit unto you; but if to betray me to mine enemies, seeing there is no wrong in my hands, the God of our fathers see it and rebuke it. And the Spirit came upon Amasai, the chief of the captains, and he said, Thine are we, David, And with thee, thou son of Jesse: Peace, peace be to thee! And peace be to thy helpers! For thy God helps thee. And David received them, and made them chiefs of bands”.
This passage shows that persons are to be exercised about the Lord if they wish to be added.
[p. 246] Otherwise, they can perhaps betray the Lord, as David said, “to betray me to mine enemies”. The Lord is very jealous, He carefully scrutinises those who want to be added, in order that there may be no treachery to Him and His interests. That is specially important when open sins occur as with Ananias. This has now become a general matter, the whole of christendom is turned away from the Lord. In 2 Timothy 2:19 it says, “Let every one who names the name of the Lord withdraw from iniquity”. Then it says further that those who have separated themselves are to follow righteousness, faith, love and peace with those that call upon the Lord out of a pure heart. It is very noteworthy that “out of a pure heart” is added. In 1 Corinthians 1:2, it says “with all that ... call on the name of our Lord Jesus Christ”, but now it is a matter of calling on the name of the Lord out of a pure heart; that is very noteworthy. As Jehu said to Jehonadab, “Is thy heart right, as my heart is with thy heart?” (2 Kings 10:15). It is a question now of our motives. The great multitude which was added in Acts 5 had a sense of the terrible things which had happened. Each individual said, ‘Through the grace of the Lord I do not want such a dishonour to the Lord to happen again’.
Rem It makes us sad when we see the judgment which God exercised.
JT It was very grievous for the Lord, but it was necessary. Peter first says in verse 3, “Why has Satan filled thy heart that thou shouldest lie to the Holy Spirit ... ?”, and in verse 4 he says, “Thou hast not lied to men, but to God”, and then in verse 9, Ye have tempted “the Spirit of the Lord”. You can thus see that this sin was immediately directed against all three Persons of the Godhead. It was something very [p. 247] serious.
Ques Was that a sin unto death?
JT Quite so. John says, “There is a sin to death” (1 John 5:16). He could say that truly, for he had seen it here; he could testify to it.
Rem The maintenance of a good conscience before God and the exercise of judgment always go together.
JT It was so with Phinehas (Numbers 25:7 - 9). He glorified God in exercising judgment against sin. It was also the same with the three thousand who were slain when Israel had made the golden calf (Exodus 32:28). When sin comes in, and the power is lacking to take action against it, then we can only separate from it. It says that everyone who names the name of the Lord is to withdraw from iniquity (2 Timothy 2:19), but in withdrawing from it, he does not merely take up an attitude of condemning it, he does not continue in this separation and remain inactive, but he always finds a way on which he can go further. There are those who call upon the Lord out of a pure heart, and Timothy is told he is to follow righteousness, faith, love and peace with those who call upon the Lord out of a pure heart (2 Timothy 2:22). It is important that precedence be given to the Lord. Many believers were added, it says, “and believers were more than ever added to the Lord, multitudes both of men and women”. That shows how God always honours direct judgment upon evil. We are always inclined to think that if we are too severe and maintain the attitude of refusing evil, we shall have no increase in the meeting, but this passage shows the opposite. If we are faithful in the judgment of evil, then God always adds some to us. It says in Balaam’s prophecy that Israel “shall dwell alone and shall not be reckoned among the nations”. They were separate from all. Then it says, “Who can count the dust of Jacob, and the number of the fourth part of Israel?” (Numbers 23:9,10).
[p. 248] That shows that if we really separate from evil, then God increases His people according to His own thoughts.
Rem Balaam says further, “Let my soul die the death of the righteous” (Numbers 23:10).
JT That was Balaam’s wish, which is very significant. If we want to die the death of the righteous we must live the life of such. It says of the Lord that He loved righteousness and hated lawlessness.
Rem Perhaps it was said after Ananias and Sapphira had done that, that everything was past, but they assembled further in Solomon’s porch.
JT It is possible that the porch of Solomon refers to the place of judgment. It says at the end of chapter 2, “And every day, being constantly in the temple with one accord” (verse 46).
They were in the temple then, but now they were in Solomon’s porch (chapter 5:12). In olden days a porch was the place where judgment was administered. It seems that this refers to the fact that judgment was being administered. Then further it says, “Of the rest durst no man join them”.
Ques Do you connect the maintenance of the righteousness of God with the glory of God, and is Solomon connected with the glory of God?
JT Quite so. He gave effect to the judgment which David had not been able to carry out, as with Joab and others. I have no doubt that the time of waiting in Solomon’s porch refers to that. If we have not the consciousness that sin is judged, then Satan still has room among us. Unsuitable material will then always come in. The great failure at Corinth was that there was no porch there, where judgment could be given. Even with ordinary affairs of life they went to the world’s law courts. The apostle asks, Is there no wise man among you who can put things in order? It says in 1 Corinthians 6:1 - 6 “[p. 249] Dare any one of you, having a matter against another, prosecute his suit before the unjust, and not before the saints? Do ye not then know that the saints shall judge the world? and if the world is judged by you, are ye unworthy of the smallest judgments? Do ye not know that we shall judge angels? and not then matters of this life? If then ye have judgments as to things of this life, set those to judge who are little esteemed in the assembly. I speak to you to put you to shame. Thus there is not a wise person among you, not even one, who shall be able to decide between his brethren! But brother prosecutes his suit with brother, and that before unbelievers”. That shows that there was no porch of judgment there.
Ques Would you also connect that with Acts 3:11? As the lame man “held Peter and John, all the people ran together to them in the portico which is called Solomon’s, greatly wondering”?
JT It seems that they had arrived at a right judgment about what had happened. That is set over against the false judgment which we find in the high council, the sanhedrim. In 1 Corinthians 6:3 it says the saints “shall judge angels”, we are being instructed for that in the way we judge evil. In Romans 8:3,4 we see how God judged our sins on the cross, God sent His own Son in the likeness of flesh of sin, and for sin, and has in this way brought it about that the righteous requirement of the law should be fulfilled in us. We are thus being instructed and put into the position to judge evil in the assembly. Romans prepares the material for the tabernacle and 1 Corinthians shows how the material is put together. What a lovely testimony it is when others say,. ‘These people judge sin. If I do not judge evil in myself I cannot go with these people!’ It says, “of the rest durst no man join them”:
[p. 250] Ques If we are living righteously, does that bring us to a place of dignity? It says in Proverbs 22:11,12, “He that loveth pureness of heart, upon whose lips is grace, the king is his friend. The eyes of Jehovah preserve knowledge; but he overthroweth the words of the unfaithful”.
JT That is a very important scripture, “The king is his friend”. After all, if the Lord loved righteousness when He was down here, how He must love it now when it is found among His people.
Rem If we love purity of heart we can also reckon on the Lord that He will help us to have a judgment of all evil.
JT The result of the discipline in 1 Corinthians 5 is to be that the spirit of the person concerned may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus. We have first the name and then the power of our Lord and the full result in His day. This is the way in which we are to be engaged with evil.
Rem All is to take place in the light of the day of the Lord Jesus.
JT Yes, we find the pure gold then; the Lord will not have anything else. In the day of Christ the pure gold is there, the Spirit is quite free, and the flesh is set aside. David said to Solomon that he had gathered in abundance for the house, and Solomon was to add to it. He was not to add anything poorer in quality. In this way, if the assembly respects the rights of the Lord, then nothing unsuitable will be brought in, as the apostle says, “For other foundation can no man lay besides that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ” (1 Corinthians 3:11). There is to be nothing present which is not in agreement with this foundation.
Rem In Exodus 35, where the children of Israel had the privilege of bringing the materials for the tabernacle, they brought [p. 251] gold.
JT If we separate the precious from the vile and put away all that is common, then we shall treasure every little bit of gold.
Rem Those who were added to the Lord were worthy of it. Being added involves a certain proving of oneself.
JT I believe they were new converts. It says “multitudes both of men and women” (Acts 5:14), that means the kind of people who are needed for the assembly publicly, men and women. We must have both for the assembly, the brothers and the sisters.
Ques. Who are “the rest”?
JT Those were they who remained behind, who made no progress, and did not give themselves over to the Lord. They are perhaps those who always come but never ask for fellowship; that is quite a peculiar class of people. Then it says “the people magnified them”; that is more general; these did not come to the meetings at all, but they magnified them. Then comes still a third class, that is the believers, the multitudes of men and women. These are the ones whom we must have, the believers.
Ques Would these men and women have the hands of the apostles laid on them?
JT It does not say that they did so. It says that many signs took place “among the people” through the hands of the apostles. It is a matter of there being a testimony among the people. From the middle of verse 12 to the end of verse 14 there is a parenthesis, which is brought in to show the occurrences in the assembly. There was not only a great testimony present but there were also actual results there in the saints. “They brought out the sick into the streets and put them on beds and couches, that at least the shadow of Peter, when he [p. 252] came, might overshadow some one of them. And the multitude also of the cities round about came together to Jerusalem, bringing sick persons and persons beset by unclean spirits, who were all healed”. Verses 12 - 14 are inserted to show the result which comes to pass in the public testimony where judgment is really exercised, as was the case with Ananias and Sapphira. The result was that believers were added to the Lord.
Ques Can we still expect the same today?
JT No. We are living today in a day of small things; at that time it was a day of great things. But the day of great things here in the Acts shows principles which are also still to be followed today. The principle is that if we are faithful in the exercise of judgment, then God will also add some.
Ques “Great fear came upon all the assembly”. Does the great fear still come upon us today also?
JT It was “the fear of the Lord”. It is in a certain way godliness, piety. There is a very striking passage in Hebrews 12:29. “For also our God is a consuming fire”. God is, among other things, a consuming fire. We are not to be afraid that God is a fire, that He consumes what we find in 1 Corinthians 3:12, wood, grass, straw.
Ques Have we in Ezra 9 the judgment and in Ezra 10 the increase?
JT You are referring to Ezra 9:5 - 7, “And at the evening oblation I arose up from my humiliation; and with my mantle and my garment rent, I fell on my knees, and spread out my hands to Jehovah my God, and said: O my God, I am ashamed and blush to lift up my face to thee, my God; for our iniquities are increased over our head, and our trespass is grown up to the heavens. Since the days of our fathers, we have been in great trespass to this day; and for our iniquities we, our kings, our priests, have [p. 253] been given into the hand of the kings of the lands, to the sword, and to captivity, and to spoil, and to confusion of face, as it is this day”, and then to Ezra 10:1, “And while Ezra prayed, and made confession, weeping and falling down before the house of God, there were gathered to him out of Israel a very great congregation of men and women and children; for the people wept very much”. That was the result. I should like too to refer to Daniel 9:18,19, where we have the same. “Incline thine ear, O my God, and hear; open thine eyes and behold our desolations, and the city that is called by thy name: for we do not present our supplications before thee because of our righteousnesses, but because of thy manifold mercies. Lord, hear! Lord, forgive! Lord, hearken and do! defer not, for thine own sake, O my God! for thy city and thy people are called by thy name”. In verses 20 - 22 we see the beautiful answer to it, “And whilst I was speaking, and praying, and confessing my sin and the sin of my people Israel, and presenting my supplication before Jehovah my God for the holy mountain of my God; whilst I was yet speaking in prayer, the man Gabriel, whom I had seen in the vision at the beginning, flying swiftly, touched me about the time of the evening oblation. And he informed me, and talked with me, and said, Daniel, I am now come forth to make thee skilful of understanding”. That shows what an answer we receive when we judge sins before God. In one case we get perhaps addition, brethren who are newly added, or in the other case new light, as Daniel received fresh understanding. It says, “Thou art one greatly beloved” (verse 23). We see how God values such. Then he was told what God is doing, “to make an end of sins, and to make expiation for iniquity, and to bring in the righteousness of the ages, and to seal the vision and prophet, and to anoint the holy of holies” (verse 24).