THINGS THAT REMAIN AMONGST US

N. J. Henry

Hebrews 13: 7, 8; Haggai 2: 1–9; Galatians 2: 1–5; 2 Timothy 3: 14–17

I would like to speak of what is available to the assembly. Certain things that we have read about are referred to as remaining among them, and I would like to use these scriptures to enquire whether we have laid hold of what is available to us. I would like to ask whether we have the faith to take these things up, because I believe truth must be laid hold of by faith and the Spirit, so that the truth might become formative in us.

I have read in Hebrews 13 to commence with, where it says, “Remember your leaders who have spoken to you the word of God”; such persons were no longer available to them and that is the situation now, that persons who have served, persons who are similar to those that John refers to in Revelation 14: 13 as “Blessed the dead who die in the Lord from henceforth. Yea, saith the Spirit, that they may rest from their labours; for their works follow with them”.

There are certain results from persons who have gone before and we are exhorted here to remember them. For the sake of our younger brethren, the ones referred to in verse 17, “Obey your leaders” are persons who are alive, you would know them in the present day, but verse 7

refers to persons who have already gone to be with the Lord. You may feel that is a certain disadvantage, but it is not put as a disadvantage here, it is a glorious opportunity that is presented by the writer of this epistle, he says, “remember your leaders”, and adds, “considering the issue of their conversation”. They had a certain trend in their way of life and their ministry that was out of the world. Our true fathers were unworldly persons and that character has to continue.

They were no longer available, but one Person is available and that is Jesus Christ. He is available! He is the same yesterday! Why does it say that? A person who existed before His humanity; there is no question who the Person is, but it concentrates the mind on how He came into a position to be available. “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, and today, and to the ages to come”. He will always be available to us. Not that we will always be in the time of need, but He will always be available to us. How great He is! I think that is wonderful in the day we are in. Jesus Christ is the same yesterday—you will not find Him different tomorrow or the next day. He is always the same and to be drawn on. How fickle we are, how changeable we are. We face different circumstances—assembly sorrows, assembly pressures, bodily pressures, think of what many brethren are going through—but Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and to the ages to come. What an anchor for the soul that is, and He is available, particularly, I think, to those of the assembly to be drawn on. It is the preciousness of that Person who is available to those at this moment in their time of need. We can remember those gone before and how they pointed the way to Jesus Christ, they proved that Person in their lives. So this writer says, “Remember your leaders” and then “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, and today, and to the ages to come”. How blessedly assuring that He is available to you and me whatever our need.

When we come to the prophet Haggai, it says, The word that I covenanted with you when ye came out of Egypt, and my Spirit, remain among you—fear ye not”. That is another thing that remains. It is a beautiful reference to find in the Old Testament “my Spirit”. You might say it is a reference to expect in the New Testament but to these persons the prophet is addressing.

God says, “The word that I covenanted with you ... and my Spirit, remain among you”. Is that not assuring? When He covenanted there were twelve tribes that came out of Egypt, and now here He is addressing two tribes. It is similar to the remnant conditions in which we find ourselves. In the first reference that God commits Himself to His people as they are brought out of Egypt. He says this, “The word which I covenanted with you”. It is His committal to His people that is involved in it. No doubt His name was involved in that, His covenant name must have been involved in that.

When the churches were actually addressed by the Lord Jesus in Revelation, He addresses churches that then existed and outlined conditions that would appear at the end. Remember that God’s word is the same, that the speaking is the same. It does not say what the Spirit has said, or will say, but what “the Spirit says to the assemblies”. The speaking is one, brethren, and why should persons say that the ministry that was given a hundred or a hundred and fifty years ago no longer applies. I would say to them, the Spirit speaks; it is one speaking and the speaking has been constant. Whatever has come to us in the recovery of the truth, which is a remarkable divine operation, it is one speaking, so it is evidence of a poor state of soul to say that what is past no longer applies. The Spirit says to the assemblies. I think that is something to hold on to. If the Spirit has spoken at any point, we should cling to that, because God is committed to it, that it remains amongst us. It says, “The word that I covenanted with you when ye came out of Egypt, and my Spirit, remain among you”. We should know that the speaking is one, and that speaking is for the benefit of the church, for the assembly, and has always been so. Blessed be His name, God is always true to His word, and that has come to us.

Think of the conditions that these people were in; they had come back from captivity, then in the second year of Darius the king, the word was given that the house should be rebuilt.

These prophets actually were encouraging the people of God to look and pay attention to God’s house. In Ezra 6 the elders prospered through their prophesying. That is what they were doing, they were stirring up the people, and I think prophetic words are intended to stir us up. What are God’s requirements? Are they being attended to? Even in Haggai, they did not say that it was not the right thing to do, but was it the time to do it? When the prophets addressed them, they said that they were looking after themselves but what about God’s house? It was the time for God’s house to be attended to, and therefore he stirs them up. Faithful men rise up and that is the great need at present for faithful men to rise up and consider for the rights of God in His house. They are always under threat, but this is a most touching reference to the Spirit remaining among them.

The reference to “my Spirit” coming at this point was something to touch the heart of the remnant. Think of the difficulties that came up on account of smaller numbers because the ten tribes were not with them. They had the feeling they did not possess the same ability as the men that had gone before. That is the Lord’s matter. Do you think when the seventy went out to Jehovah when He took of Moses’ spirit and put it upon them, that they would say they only got a seventieth of what Moses had? No, I think that what impressed these men is they had the same spirit as Moses. Now as to ourselves it is the same Spirit we have as at the beginning of the dispensation; as another has said, the calibre may be smaller, but nevertheless the same spirit is there. We proceed as having the same Spirit as the Lord Jesus, like those who have gone before, who pursued with jealous regard what was due to His house, and the building of it. That is what Haggai is doing, he is stimulating exercise and I judge behind gift lies faithfulness. Faithful men are near to Christ and their gifts are used accordingly. The Levite was given to the priest, involving his faithfulness to God.

In Galatians what is left to be among them involves God’s glad tidings. Paul preached “that the truth of the glad tidings might remain with you”. There is no gospel so threatened or more attacked than Paul’s glad tidings. They are always under threat. You might say, Why was what the twelve apostles preached not more under attack? There was still reproach, but it was nothing compared with that of Paul. He directed the attention of those secured to a heavenly Christ, bringing in relationships which were beyond the hand of Satan to touch, in linking persons with Christ above by the Spirit. It brought out the venom of the enemy. As to what happened in Acts 15, that is referred to, Paul does not say he went up because of the commotion that was caused, but he went up by revelation. “I went up again to Jerusalem with Barnabas, taking Titus also with me; and I went up according to revelation”. You see how the Lord is standing by His servant, he has this message, he has the word of the truth as it says in Ephesians, “the glad tidings of your salvation”, Ephesians 1: 13. Later, in Ephesians, you have the mystery of the glad tidings (Ephesians 6: 19), which must involve the body. Certain things were left to Paul, he opens up the great truth of sonship and the truth of the body; certain truths were precious and held by Christ and given to this apostle, and that brought out peculiar enmity, the vicious attack of the enemy against him.

But, he laboured immediately that the glad tidings he preached would remain among them.

He says, if an angel from heaven preaches anything else than I preach, showing how much he had the assurance that he had the word of the Lord. He sets the thing out here and he laid the thing out before those in Jerusalem, the glad tidings which he preached among the nations.

He set the matter out to carry the confidence of those that were of the apostles of the circumcision. He was using his utmost to maintain unity, but he could not give up what he had. He says, in fact, in chapter 1, “But I let you know, brethren, as to the glad tidings which were announced by me, that they are not according to man. For neither did I receive them from man, neither was I taught them, but

by revelation of Jesus Christ”, Galatians 1: 11, 12. Think of that! This man had something direct from Christ. He not only received the Supper from the Lord, but also the glad tidings from Christ. Think of what this man had, we need to pay attention to it. He says as to the false brethren, “to whom we yielded in subjection not even for an hour, that the truth of the glad tidings might remain with you”. Beloved brethren, I think it depends on us to maintain it. We might have all types of wonderful philanthropic feelings for men, and it is right to feel for men and speak to persons, I am not decrying it for a moment, but we need to maintain this. God gave the assurance that what He had given to Paul to preach was to be maintained amongst us, that persons are secured for the highest blessings.

It is one thing to enter into the kingdom, through the preaching of the twelve, and find the place of stability here, another thing to be placed in heavenly places in Christ through the preaching of Paul; there is nothing like it, nothing richer. It is not only the proof of the preacher’s love for Christ, I think it is proof of the preacher’s love for the assembly, because the assembly is not worthy of anything less than Paul’s glad tidings. That is what I believe is the truth, that the assembly is such that we should not lower anything. It would not be suitable to such a glorious thought in the divine mind but that we should get the best. Beloved brethren, let us hold to Paul’s glad tidings, the richest most blessed thoughts, because if we are going to be ready for the coming of Christ, I think Paul’s glad tidings prepare us for that.

There are two sides in Paul’s ministry that are worthy of looking at; one is how you pursue and reach the end, and the other how you are brought into the truth immediately by the Spirit.

In the end of Timothy, chapter 3, Paul refers to the sacred letters, the Scriptures, and in chapter 4 the books and the parchments. I am not going to go into these at the moment, but there is a need for the Scriptures to be

used by us. Even in the reading of the Scriptures you must do it by the Spirit. If you read ministry you must do it by the Spirit. But here, the Holy Scriptures are able to do what nothing else can do, that is, make you wise unto salvation. We know salvation is in Christ, but this making you wise unto salvation is what the Scriptures can do. They have come down to us and we should thank God that the Scriptures are in our hands today. The enemy would do his utmost to remove them from our hands and he tries to spoil them and bring in mixture in translation. When you go back to the account of the recovery in Nehemiah they revert twice to the law, the book of the law of God and the book of Moses. You say it is so wonderful because everything had gone, they had taken everything; they had destroyed the sea, everything that was set up in the tabernacle and the temple, was taken away. What came back were the vessels, which represented persons coming back in the time of recovery, that is like our time.

But, as well as that, the books were there, the book of the law of God was there. God is jealous of His word, His written word; although when it was written in Timothy the whole of the Scriptures at that point was not finally compiled, because John’s writings had yet to be included, respect for the word is a vital thing amongst us. We have proved great help in gathering round the word and letting it speak to us. It is able to make us wise unto salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. Could we just lay hold of what has been made available to us, made available for the assembly? As long as we have the Scriptures, may we use them that we might prove that they make us wise unto salvation, through faith which is in Christ Jesus.

It goes on to say, “Every scripture is divinely inspired”. This is a young man being referred to here, and Paul says “that the man of God may be complete, fully fitted to every good work”.

That is what should be in the minds of our younger men and women, to prove the value of the Scriptures, the power of them, that the man of God may be complete, fully fitted to every good work. What a blessing!

We should respect what has come down to us, both in men and testimony; first what we have in Christ, then what has come down in men and women who have been faithful to it, and then come down to this that the Scriptures are available to us, that they might remain amongst us.

We do not know what may lie ahead in the work of the enemy in his strategy to remove the Scriptures, but we are to hold fast to such, “hold fast what thou hast, that no one take thy crown”, Revelation 3: 11. What is Philadelphia’s crown? It was very precious, very elevated, it must have been Philadelphia’s known link with Christ, knowing Him as Head. The headship of Christ, a direct link with Christ, “that no one take thy crown”, what a beautiful touch! Later in Revelation, the elders cast their crowns before the throne, but not the Philadelphia crown, that is something you hold on to, something reserved for the Philadelphian. I think it is something the assembly has in her immediate link with Christ, and you hold fast to it, in the day when everything is being given up. May we be encouraged by these words, beloved brethren, for His name’s sake.

Address at Denton, Texas
6 March 2004