“THE MORNING COMETH”
P. Martin
Isaiah 21: 11, 12 (to “night”); 2 Corinthians 5: 5–10; 1 Corinthians 15: 24–28
I would like to say a word as to this question
in Isaiah 21, “Watchman, what of the night?” We know that the name Dumah involves silence, involving silence Godward. We are living in a world where largely there is silence Godward, dear brethren. Even in what professes His name, there is largely silence Godward.
We would feel such conditions. Indeed I think we would be urgent in prayer with God that His hand may be over the present testimony until the end. Paul says, “I exhort ... that supplications, prayers, intercessions ... be made for ... kings and all that are in dignity”, 1 Timothy 2: 1, 2. We need to be urgent in prayer for government as bearing on the testimony.
One thing in which I think God finds peculiar pleasure is assembly prayer. He listens to it, you might say, very diligently. Of course God listens diligently to every prayer. You could not think otherwise of God. But He finds peculiar interest in assembly prayer. Therefore there is a need to be diligent in prayer in relation to conditions that are around us. There is such a tide of evil which soon will be released when the church is gone. But we need to pray for its restraint until that time.
The cry goes out therefore in such conditions as we are in today and it would go out to responsible persons in local assemblies, “Watchman, what of the night?” The Lord may ask us in the place in which I am, or in which you are, “Watchman, what of the night?” The point I should like to draw attention to is the immediate answer the watchman gives here. The watchman said, “The morning cometh”. It does not matter how dark the night, dear brethren, what is immediately in view is the morning. We need to labour in our local assemblies keeping the morning before us, a morning without cloud, when Christ Himself will come, the glorious appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ. We are soon to see Him. We shall see Him face to face.
But the cry goes out now, “What of the night?” If the Lord asked me that in the place in which I am set, maybe the first thing I would say would be, ‘Well, it is dark, and there are not many left’. But that is not what the watchman is saying here, and I think the Lord is looking for persons who have their eyes fixed upon His coming, who find themselves governed in the scene of the testimony by the coming of the Lord. It has been said, as to the world to come,
‘of which we do not speak enough’. It is something that needs to be kept continually before us, that the Lord is about to come. It is not a moment for sitting down calculating how many more weeks there are, or how many years; some persons are doing that to their own loss; but for keeping our eyes on the Person who is coming. It is not just an event. It will be the greatest event that the believer could look forward to; but it is not exactly the event, it is the Person. May the Lord tune our affections, beloved, to be looking for His coming.
The cry is, “What of the night?” How are we continuing in view of that time? How are things being maintained in local assemblies until that time? What answer would He get in responsible persons if He raised this question today, “What of the night?” You might say, ‘Well, I had not really thought about it’. Let none of us be indifferent as to the way the testimony may move, or the way the Lord may move among His own. I believe the Lord would stir up our affections to be actively ready for Him at any moment. May that govern us in our local assemblies. There is need for us to keep Him personally before the saints, in the minds and affections of the brethren. The Spirit would help us to keep the Lord and His coming actively before the saints. We are at the
moment when the Spirit and the bride say ‘Come’. I believe that there is that call already in the affections of those who are near to Christ. Would that there was greater development with us of bridal affection for Christ.
Paul says, “I have espoused you unto one man, to present you a chaste virgin to Christ”, 2
Corinthians 11: 2. I think what Paul had in view at Corinth, whilst it would include what Corinth would be for Christ then, was also what the Lord would find when He came to take His own to be with Himself. Beloved, do I labour in my local assembly with that end in view? Is that the object of any part or any service that we may take on? It may be a word in the ministry meeting, it may be our part in the prayer meeting. Is it in view of a chaste virgin being here for Christ? Paul laboured for that. You might say to Paul, “What of the night?” I think Paul would immediately say, “The morning cometh”. His service had that in view.
What he did was directed to securing for Christ, finally when He comes, and at the present time, an answer for His own affections. Well, beloved, if there is to be an answer then, we would be ready that there should be an answer now.
We shall have the Lord’s coming before us tomorrow as we assemble, if we are not taken before. We may well be in glory, beloved, before the Supper. What a wonderful thing that would be? We may be with Christ actually. But if not, we shall have the experience of His coming to us tomorrow. As He comes in at the Supper to local gatherings, what does He find? I think He finds what is peculiarly attractive to Himself. It is to that that He comes. It has been said, of course, that He comes to what is of Himself. That must always be attractive.
Beloved, may that be more in expression
as we have His coming before us in our affections. The cry goes out, “Watchman, what of the night?” I think the Spirit would give us liberty to use this scripture to awaken desire in our affections that there may be something here for the affections of our Lord, that there may be true assembly conditions in which He can confide and in which He can rest.
The question goes out elsewhere, “When the Son of man comes, shall he indeed find faith on the earth?”, Luke 18: 8. He will find it, dear brethren, and He will find assembly conditions suited to Himself. It must be so because of the presence here of the Spirit. Hence the need for us not to look exactly at the darkness that is around us, and the departure, although we would feel it before God, and in that sense would eat the sin-offering in relation to what has come into the testimony; but the need ever is to keep our eye on the goal which is before us. No doubt Paul had more against him than we have ever had, or are ever likely to have, for he filled up that which was behind of the tribulations of Christ in his flesh (see Colossians 1: 24); but Paul had, as perhaps no other has had, a sense of what the glory of Christ’s coming will be. Beloved, let us keep it before us. Paul says, “Not that I have already obtained the prize ... but I pursue”, Philippians 3: 13. We need to pursue therefore, “looking towards the goal, for the prize of the calling on high of God in Christ Jesus” (verse 14). That is the object of our pursuit, not to make a place here, to make a name—that has been removed anyway in the death of Jesus—but the pursuit is in relation to Christ and in relation to Him personally.
So the watchman says, “The morning cometh”. We know that at Dumah the judgment was to come also, so he says “and also the night”. But for those that have their faith in Christ, the morning will
come and no longer the night. He will come out in His glory. It says, “Thus we shall be always with the Lord”, 1 Thessalonians 4: 17. The night will completely recede. As Christ’s glory comes in, the radiancy of His outshining will expel the night. Beloved, what a moment it will be!
Well, the cry goes out, “Watchman, what of the night?” You would see the watchman standing on the wall and looking out to see if there was someone coming, looking for the morning star, (he would be the first to see it; he would be able to tell others about it), looking also for the sun-rising. How glorious that is! The watchman would see it. Persons in the city might still be in bed, but the watchman would see it. May the Lord give us to develop in the features of watchmen. The watchman sees afar. He sees one running. God has set watchmen.
It says in this very book, “I have set watchmen upon thy walls, Jerusalem” (Isaiah 62: 6). I think they are persons who see the glory of what God has in view in the present dispensation in relation to the assembly; persons are there and they see it. May we be helped to lift up our eyes and see the grandeur of what God is about to bring in, see the glory of it as related to the places in which He has set us at the moment, that there is a glory relating to each local assembly which is peculiarly for the heart of Christ.
Now in 2 Corinthians 5 Paul has the Lord’s coming before him. He says, “We are zealous, whether present or absent, to be agreeable to him”. We need to be exercised, dear brethren, to be agreeable to Him. It says, “For we must all be manifested before the judgment-seat of the Christ”. I should like to make it clear, particularly to those who are younger, that the judgment-seat of Christ does not involve penalty. The penalty has been borne, of course, by Jesus. Nor does it
involve your eternal salvation. Paul says his desire is “to be agreeable to him”. I do not think Paul desired to be agreeable to Him through fear of judgment, but out of his affection for Christ. Now there is nothing greater, in one sense, in your life than to be agreeable to Christ.
We ought to do the things that are pleasing to Him. We have read today of His doing the things that pleased the Father (see John 8: 29). He pleased the Father in everything. The Father’s satisfaction was full in relation to Christ. There was never a moment when the Lord Jesus did anything which was not agreeable to Him. That could not be thought of. The Father was fully satisfied in Jesus. We too should do the things that are agreeable to Him. It is a sobering thing that when the Lord takes His own we shall pass by way of the judgment-seat into the day of the Lord. We shall stand before Him. Paul says we shall be manifested before the judgment-seat of Christ. It is not intended to create fear, but I think it is intended to create exercise. The bearing of that is available to us at any time, to stand before Jesus, to let Him search us, maybe to search our motives, to search our actions, as David could call upon Him to do, to see that what is there is agreeable to Him, and to get His view of every matter.
Is that our desire, beloved? How much He has done for us! What He has done could never be measured. The greatness of the work of Christ in relation to each of us personally, how great it is. How much more then should we, through affection for Christ, do the things that are agreeable to Him? We may sometimes say, ‘I shall just do this, it does not matter’. Dear brethren, am I acting as agreeable to Him? You say, ‘How do I know?’ The way in which we know is to live near to Him. To give a simple illustration, a boy at home does
not always need to be told what he must or must not do, because he knows the things that are agreeable to his father, because he lives in his company. It is intended, beloved, that we should live in the company of Jesus. Finally we shall live with Him eternally. We shall be for ever with the Lord. There will never then be the need for anything to be adjusted. There will never then be the need for protection from evil influences around us. The pathway of responsibility will be complete. I believe the Lord would cause us in the present time to value the path of responsibility, not to see it as onerous, but to value it, to see that the Lord is working something out in our souls, oftentimes through mixed conditions around us, maybe through exercises relating to health and other things. The Lord works out His way with us, but, beloved, in it He is securing an answer to Himself in that persons are being formed to be agreeable to Him.
So Paul says finally, “We must all be manifested before the judgment-seat of the Christ, that each may receive the things done in the body”. I believe that does involve that the Lord will measure our path of responsibility here in view of our place in the kingdom. The Lord has not set before us things which are impossible, but we have been given the Spirit in order that we might attain to these things, that we might walk in the steps that are pleasing in the sight of Christ.
In 1 Corinthians 15 Paul is looking forward to the end. What is in view is God being all in all.
God must be His own end in all that He has done. He will be His own end. It has been said that God will reach His end because God’s end is God. He will reach His end, beloved. He will secure everything in glory. It will not be secured in weakness, it will be secured in glory.
It will be secured as equal to God’s own thoughts in purpose.
How wonderful that is! God has not been defeated, and at the judgment-seat of Christ we shall see everything in relation to the present testimony as God sees it. There has been a reason for everything. God has allowed things of which He has not been the author, but He has allowed them, I think, in order that there might be created in us exercise to continue to be faithful to Him until the coming of the Lord.
We shall see all things then clearly. We shall know as we are known. We shall see the glory of what God has in view for Himself when He shall rest in His love and joy over His own with singing. What a wonderful thing it will be when, without the hindrances which we find in us and around us, we shall view God’s ways from His own side. But Paul here says, “For he must reign until he put all enemies under his feet”. He must reign, dear brethren. It is a necessity of God that Christ must reign. Here in the scene in which He has been rejected and cast out, where persons have said, “Away with him”. He must reign. What a reign it will be! I would encourage those who are younger to be bold in your testimony for Christ. You might be the only person in the classroom or in the office who stands by the name of Jesus, but finally you will be associated with the One who will reign. You might say, ‘I do not feel very strong in giving testimony to Christ’. But stand by His name, because finally you will be associated with the One who must reign.
It does not look like it at the moment when you think of the problems that there are in the world, the anxieties that are upon the spirits of men. .How vast they are! When Christ comes out in His glory to reign everything will be set in its place. What a reign it will be! Evil will then be scattered. The One who comes out will scatter
evil with His eyes (see Proverbs 20: 8). “The earth shall be filled with the knowledge of the glory of Jehovah as the waters cover the sea”, Habakkuk 2: 14. He will put into effect in His reign in the world to come what He has done in His death for God’s pleasure. But the wonderful thing is that we have the earnest of that in our hearts already. Therefore I believe it would help us and govern us in the time in which we are, in the night season, to live in the outshining of the reign of Christ. He reigns in the affections of the saints now. That is not future, beloved. “He must reign” in its fulness relates to what is future, but He reigns in the affections of the saints now. May we make greater room for Him to reign in our lives! There will not be a problem in the world to come that He will not be able to resolve, and in our lives now the reign of Christ can be as effective as it will be in the day to come.
Let us make way for Him. Let our affections expand in relation to Jesus. “He must reign until he put all enemies under his feet”. Everything will be brought into subjection to Christ. There will not be a single insubject element left; the enemy himself is finally to be confined, and death annulled. Think of the glory of it! Christ will bring in a universe which will be entirely for God’s satisfaction. You might say, “Watchman, what of the night?” These things would stir us in our affections. Sometimes the picture looks very dark, but it is not all dark. There are exercises to carry in the testimony, the burdens the Lord would place upon us, but let us face them and carry them in the light of the glory of what is about to dawn upon our view, Christ Himself. May the Lord encourage us therefore. All things will be brought into subjection to Him and then He Himself will be placed in subjection to Him who put all things in subjection to Him, that God may be all in all. Everywhere you look in that eternal day what will be
seen will be the outshining of God. Everywhere in the affections of men what will be seen will be the supremacy of God.
Beloved, these things are intended to set our hearts on fire, to stimulate us in the time of testimony in view of the time when we shall share the glory, when we shall be with Him in the reigning time, and then, finally, when there will be conditions where God will tabernacle with men. Think of God tabernacling with men, finding delight in dwelling amongst creatures, among persons who have known and proved His love, and being their God. What a wonderful thing that will be that God will tabernacle with men. I think it involves that there will be something peculiarly distinctive in the bringing in of the eternal day of which it is said, “Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men”. There will be a knowledge of Himself that will crown the knowledge the saints have had of Him throughout the testing time, and all will be brought through to the glory of the outshining of God in His own realm. No doubt it is linked with the word to the overcomer in Philadelphia, “I will write upon him the name of my God, and the name of the city of my God ... and my new name”, Revelation 3: 12. May the Lord stimulate us, therefore, dear brethren, to have the morning before us, to keep the outshining of Christ before us, and to let that shining have its effect in our lives and in our local assemblies, so that there may be conditions here with which He will be pleased when He comes. May it be so, for His name’s sake.
Address at Grangemouth
15 September 1979