RECOVERY TO ASSEMBLY TRUTH

J.N.Castle

Romans 8: 3-6; Exodus 36: 20-34; 39: 32-43; 40: 1-3, 34, 38.

I would like to speak of Christ as having come in to provide a basis for the blessing of men, and in so doing, as bringing in all that was needed from the divine side. The Lord Jesus was here "as a root out of dry ground", Isa 53: 2. It has often been referred to that He did not draw in any sense from the surroundings in which He was found. Much the rather, as He was here, He graced those surroundings, as it says: "For he shall grow up before him as a tender sapling, and as a root out of dry ground". "He" would refer to Christ; it is the Lord Jesus under the eye of God. We might say He was growing up, entering in unique holiness into manhood, and gracing it as it had never been set out before in the whole history of man kind. His presence would be one of moral excellence. He was not here with a commanding presence after the manner of men. That is a feature of the flesh exemplified by Saul as head and shoulders above others. As regards the Lord Jesus it says "he hath no form nor lordliness" - note that - "nor lordliness". Just let that rest upon our spirits. This was a different kind of man, beloved. This was the Man that God was bringing in to supersede the first order of man. It says "he hath no form nor lordliness, and when we see him, there is no beauty that we should desire him". Consider the greatness of God come nigh to men and the attractiveness of it under the eye of God. That is something to get hold of, what is attractive in God's sight. We can put ourselves right in there where it says "there is no beauty that we should desire him" but the beauty was such as heaven could discern. That is the beauty of the second Man, who was despised and left alone of men. These facts can be verified in the gospels. Have you ever compared Isaiah 53 with the gospels and seen for yourself that He was a Man of sorrows and acquainted with grief, and like one from whom men hide their faces? Then, also, you get some impression from such prophetic passages, as in Isaiah and other prophets, of what Christ endured on behalf of God and on behalf of men. It is not only to be general; it is on our behalf, it is on your behalf. I would like you to feel that you could say 'on my behalf', for this is our Saviour - your Saviour, my Saviour. It continues: "despised, and we esteemed him not". You can be thankful to God for in some way giving you His own viewpoint so that the working of the flesh in you in its usual course can be stopped. That is the purpose of the glad tidings, that men may be stopped just where they are, reversed in their course of sin and brought into consonance with God's Man and with heaven. Think of God working in Christ and Christ going to the cross, His precious blood being shed, the blood and water coming out immediately; as the scripture says (see John 19: 34). It is immediate so as to meet the urgency of your need and mine. There was no delay on God's part when it was a question of the urgent requirements of His throne and the sinner's need. This is the God that you meet in the glad tidings, a God who brings in a Man that replaces the one in whom Is found the workings of flesh. The glory of what He has done is one of the delights of heaven. What Christ has effected and what the Spirit has done and is doing will be carried through in substance and glory into eternity. That is God's mind, for He always has His final and greatest thoughts, His purpose before Him, and He has provided the means whereby His thoughts can go through. They have already gone through in Christ. He has everything already in Christ. He is getting it now in men by making them like Christ.

So God has provided a Saviour. He has provided blood, blood which has efficacy to cleanse from sin. Think of the blood of Christ as contrasted with all the blood that ran throughout the whole Old Testament system. Think of the volume of it. But even if the volume had been more extended the blood of beasts would never have been able to take away sin. It required the blood of Christ, the blood of a Man who was without sin. We get that here in Romans in the reference to what Christ has done in totality. It is indeed needful to have our sins forgiven, and it is needful also to see that the whole matter of sin has been met. He "has condemned sin in the flesh". God has brought in a Man who has superseded the other. He has even brought in a way of doing things, "the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus" that has superseded the old law which only condemned. The old law could show you where you were wrong but you could not find the power to do what was right in yourself. That is what God says: "For what the law could not do in that it was weak through the flesh". That is, what it had to work with was unable to fulfil the righteous requirement. What the law had to work with was the flesh of sin, the flesh of man, its workings, and what it produces.      God's provision is "his own Son, in likeness of flesh of sin". It gives us some idea of what Christ became; He was made sin. That is, no doubt, more than we can take in, but I think it is essential as entering into the souls of believers so that they might have no doubt about having peace with God. You may have your sins forgiven and have peace as to that, but you might see sin still working. Therefore what is needed to come to is that the matter has been fully met by Christ who, "in likeness of flesh of sin, has condemned sin in the flesh, in order that the righteous requirement of the law should be fulfilled in us, who do not walk according to flesh, but according to Spirit". The Spirit of God at this point in this epistle is assumed to be recognised and active in the believer. Romans 5, to digress for a moment, is connected with Exodus 17. It is well for saints to look into the truth and to see how things are set. Exodus 17 has to do with persons who are newly saved. They have been brought out of Egypt but are not yet sensitive to the working of the flesh in them. They were murmuring, you might say, against Christ. As to fact they were murmuring against Moses; but God does not chide them. He simply says to Moses "Go on before the people, and take with thee of the elders of Israel, and thy staff with which thou didst smite the river, take in thy hand, and go. Behold I will stand before thee there upon the rock on Horeb; and thou shall strike the rock, and there shall come water out of it, that the people may drink", Exod 17: 5, 6. God not only provides Christ in all His glory, His blood and the water that is needed for continual cleansing, but He also provides the Holy Spirit. But what is stated in Romans 8 regarding the Spirit is that not only is the Spirit given but He is being made use of. This scripture links with Numbers 21 where you find persons of ennobled character who have dug away to get rid of the flesh so that the Spirit of God could be free in His intended service in the believer. This is most important to get hold of. The truth in its detail will keep us. Get hold of some of these facts in your mind and they will keep you in a day of trial when the enemy presents himself to you. The enemy is always doing that. We are not out of the world yet. None of us is in glory. We are here in the world just like the tabernacle was in the wilderness. But it was God's building, of material especially designed for the wilderness because it could go through. And that is what God intends believers to do as taken up in the glad tidings, that is, to go through to glory. So we are to use the Spirit. Notice that in Numbers 21 it says, in verse 18, "Well which princes digged, which the nobles of the people hollowed out at the word of the lawgiver, with their staves". This is God moving beforehand on our behalf. Who are these nobles? I think we would say that they are those who have gone before in the testimony and have shown what it means to dig away what hinders the Spirit. It is often spoken of as the disallowance of the flesh. You learn what the flesh is in you, you see that God has condemned that sin in the flesh and you look to Christ and live. You see that the way has been shown how to dig and hollow out. No doubt the lawgiver would be Moses but he would typify Christ. Also, they digged with their staves, as though to say that what is princely and authoritative has been involved in it.

God has every provision for the wilderness. He is able to take you up where you are and make you into a board in the tabernacle. No doubt that has often been referred to, but it appeals to one again that, when Moses set up the tabernacle, the boards were made standing. All the boards were set on bases of silver and the bars were applied, and then there was one bar brought in to produce unity in the whole structure. Then it was covered with gold, as though it was able to support the very finest thoughts of God in relation to Christ. And so it is. God always moves in grandeur in His architecture, whether it is in the establishment of this tabernacle in the wilderness, or in the temple, or in the soul of the believer which really supersedes everything that He has done in a material way. That is what the final viewpoint will be. Every soul, I am sure, will come to that - the grandeur of God's architecture, which shows that every detail has been provided for. Men do not do that. They replace one design with another and often make alterations as the work proceeds. They add strengthening here and strengthening there, and finally the thing is done. But God has seen the detail through from the very beginning because He has always had Christ before Him, the One who came here in the glory of His manhood and was here reconciling the world to God. How He graced the whole idea of manhood and made it possible for men to be before God! I think this all enters into the matter of standing up as boards in the tabernacle. The thing is set out here in Exodus and then the truth of it is brought out later. I think that is generally the way God works. He sets out something and then He brings you into the actuality of the truth of it. I refer to the tabernacle because the boards are made standing up and typify believers connected with the testimony of God. Would to God that all were in unity as these boards are! Our privilege and responsibility is to present the glad tidings in fulness, as God would have it, so that the work can proceed in the souls of those who hear. Every believer enlightened in the whole thought of God would keep the best, the whole thought before him.      These boards are made so that they bear a certain relation to another board. It is important to get hold of that because God does not save believers in the glad tidings to have them stand alone, He would set them in His own way in relation to other believers. God's work itself tends to unity. We are exhorted in another section of the Scriptures to use diligence to "keep the unity of the Spirit in the uniting bond of peace", Eph 4: 3. That is said to believers who are intelligent. We might also bring it before all believers because it is a wonderful thought to keep before us. One is only referring to it to show that God's work is one whole. independency in that way is not a thought of God. God's thoughts and actions effect unity, and a believer enlightened in the glad tidings in its fulness will see that, as a board standing up, he is to be in relation to others in some way. God makes this relation clear. Even the detail for conditions in which we now find ourselves is furnished. Everything was provided for a broken day before the canon of Scripture was closed. Would anyone think that God would be taken unawares by what has come in?       It would be impossible. God has thought of everything. He has it in Christ, and He has thought of everything for the believer. He is now putting him on a basis that is most wonderful. Notice the tenon into the silver base, speaking of a vital link with Christ in the soul as regards redemption. He is my Redeemer. Do you know the Lord Jesus in that way? I think, therefore, what the tenons would speak of is that you rest on the unchangeable character of the work of Christ which nothing can disturb. These things are needed in our souls so that we might have peace and rock-solid security; that what God has done in Christ is immutable, nothing needs to be altered. The Holy Spirit, as ungrieved, would normally maintain this in the soul. Believers may lose their joy in what Christ has done. This is not normal and, alas, is due to the work of the enemy. But the fact of what Christ has done remains. That is to say, once saved you are saved eternally and nothing can change that. Your soul can rest on it. God Himself is behind it. In dealing with His people of old God even intervened by an oath. Think of that! Not that He needed to, but just to show His creatures how true and unchangeable is His word. Think of the God we have who conducts Himself toward us in that way.

And so, just to refer to the detail, all that is needed is to point out that God's actions and ways amongst men would put all believers in relation to one testimony. He would set you in relation to the assembly, which is His grand prerogative. He recovered saints to the truth of the assembly in a most affecting way. God never gave up His work with men. If you go back, for example, to the Reformation you can see that it was a time when, we might say, God would hardly revive the truth of the assembly. The Reformation was a great public matter. It had political and commercial and religious aspects attached to it. It was indeed a time that had a precious feature in the mind of God, of course, because there was a man who was getting something in his soul as to the fact that "the just shall live by faith", Rom 1: 17. But it was a great public thing. God works in a public sense, surely, in the glad tidings; but the truth of the assembly is a matter involving great intimacy. He gave this light that Christ is the Head in heaven and that He has a body here; and that has worked out into the most marvellous truths being unfolded, the truths as to the assembly. Of course, these truths were all there in the Scriptures but God has been pleased to recover persons to them. The assembly is indeed the greatest created vessel that ever will be, because of its marital relation to Christ. All believers are claimed by God for it. How wonderful God is! He was working on this great matter from the moment that the Spirit came, and He will complete it at the rapture when the assembly is taken up. It is really God's grand purpose in the glad tidings to secure persons and bring them into His service in this way.

As the narrative proceeds (Exod 39, 40) He vouchsafed His presence. That is a most wonderful thing. The sense of it is open to men now. The gospel began as towards all. It is still towards all, and it is "upon all those who believe", Rom 3: 22. It is our responsibility to believe, to accept the glad tidings and come into the blessed sense of the presence of God. God would set us up so that we can be free in His presence and in His service, in His praise and in His worship. So, there is the cloud of Jehovah "on the tabernacle by day, and fire was in it by night, before the eyes of all the house of Israel, through all their journeys". God in this way would manifest His presence and bring persons into the gain of it. May God bless the word.

PLAINFIELD

21st October 1973