THE LORD'S WORK
THE LORD’S WORK
Revelation 1: 4-6; Revelation 5: 6-10; 1 Chronicles 23: 1-6
I desire to say a few words that might help us to understand a little more what the Lord is doing at the present time. Scripture speaks of the work of God and the part of it that is finished. It says, “Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and all the host of them,” wonderful work! These wonderful works were done by Christ, that blessed Person whom we know as our Lord Jesus Christ. John says: “All things were made by him”; and Paul that He is the “firstborn of all creation; because by him were created all things, the things in the heavens and the things upon the earth... all things have been created by him and for him,” and Moses tells us that they were “finished,” Genesis 2: 1, implying that there was nothing whatever to be added to them. None could suggest any improvement on the work of God, the expanse in which He set the sun, the moon, the stars: He has established the ordinances of the heavens, Pleiades and the bands of Orion, and we realise there is nothing unfinished about them.
Then, too, what a wonderful sphere the earth is, on which many millions of people are provided for every day. It says, “the king himself is served by the field,” Ecclesiastes 5: 9; all are sustained by the infinite resources that the Creator has put in the earth. God’s workmanship is seen in the flowers, the insects, the birds — God says to Job, “Doth the hawk fly by thy wisdom?” Job 39: 26. Our bodies, too, reveal the wonderful work of God, but He is not inactive because this phase of His work is “finished.” It does indeed say that God rested from His work on the seventh day and was refreshed, Exodus 31: 17, but that does not mean that He has ceased to work since that time. The Lord said, “My Father worketh hitherto, and I work,” and I desire, with the Lord’s help, to say a few words on what the Lord is doing now. We could never compass all His work, but I would like to speak of four features of the work of the Lord at this present time.
Scripture does not disclose how long God took to create the heavens and the earth in Genesis 1: 1, but we are told that He prepared the earth from a state of chaos and emptiness for man in six days. If God brought forth conditions suited to man in six days, what must be the magnitude and glory of what the Father has done “hitherto” and of what the Lord is now doing during six thousand years! I read these passages to bring before us the great thought of what the Lord is doing now.
In the first passage the apostle John tells us of the One who loves us. In worship he comes to it, “To him who loves us, and has washed us from our sins in his blood, and made us a kingdom.” The One who made the worlds, “All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made,” this One is said to have made us a kingdom. This is a very great and glorious matter, and John is in the light of it, that God is making a great and eternal kingdom — the everlasting kingdom of our Lord Jesus Christ. The thought of making involves a process, it is not quite the same as creation, which was by command, and it stood fast. Making implies deliberation and a certain process to bring about a result. “Let us make man,” it does not only say that God created him. God is our Creator; but God formed man and he is fearfully and wonderfully made. God breathed into man’s nostrils the breath of life, showing there was a process in the making.
Now the Lord is making a kingdom and He has great pleasure in this kingdom, which He is making in our hearts. When we receive the glad tidings we are attached to His kingdom; He is making us. One loves the gospel because it tells of the God who translates us from the power of darkness into the kingdom of the Son of His love. Our blessed Saviour Himself comes before us, and in the power of what is seen in Him, the soul moves out as delivered from the kingdom of darkness into the kingdom of the Son of God’s love. We become part of His kingdom; He is our Lord and we become subject to Him; an extension of His kingdom is thus secured in hearts in which He rules.
Now that is what the Lord is doing. He is bringing us under control in a practical way. It does not operate in its fulness all at once, for many things claim the hearts of young Christians, and indeed all of us. We all have to say, “other lords beside thee have had dominion over us”; but I am sure the desire is that He only should be Lord to us, and that loyalty to Him should be maintained. We are receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken. God has established it and the work of God cannot be shaken, it will stand for ever. It is the everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ, it is the work of God and of Christ which has been going on for six thousand years, and is still going on now. It is a much greater thing than the establishing of the heavens to rule over the earth, which God did in a day. This kingdom is a process going on little by little as the blessed influence of the love of Christ becomes more deeply rooted in our hearts. The power is love and it is a constraining power. The apostle says, “the love of the Christ constrains us, having judged this: that one died for all, then all have died; and he died for all, that they who live should no longer live to themselves, but to him who died for them and has been raised,” 2 Corinthians 5: 14. The Lord is establishing His kingdom through the activity of the Holy Spirit sent down from heaven. Little by little the process goes on in the heart of every believer, and thus His kingdom is established. It is true, and will be true to eternity, that unto us there is one Lord, Jesus Christ.
Then in Revelation 5 He is making other things, or persons. The elders say, “Thou art worthy to take the book, and to open its seals; because thou hast been slain, and hast redeemed to God, by thy blood, out of every tribe, and tongue, and people, and nation, and made them to our God kings and priests; and they shall reign over the earth.” The Lord is seen there as the One who makes kings, not crowning them, but making them. On that line, our life here is not too long for the process. It is so great a matter that we need every moment that God leaves us here. What marks the kings is that they are like Him. Of Gideon’s brethren it was said, “As thou art, so were they; each one resembled the sons of a king.” Gideon said, “They were my brethren,” they had kingly features. How we need to make room for the Lord’s work to appear in kingly features, in contrast to the contemptible and worthless character that marks us all naturally — to make room for the formation of what is kingly, for in Scripture a true king is one who is beautiful. “Thine eyes shall see the king in his beauty.” A king is one who is dignified, who is glorious, who is able to rule. It is the idea of a person who is supreme.
We have to be made, but not so the Lord — He was born a King. As to His own Person, He is the King of kings; kingly features were always there, but as coming into manhood it was said, “Where is he that is born King...?” So this great Maker of kings takes us in hand to instruct us and to form us that we may bear kingly features, and that we may be able to rule. The first portion of territory over which I rule is my own spirit. A person who rules his own spirit is greater than he that takes a city, Proverbs 16: 32. No one can be trusted with extensive territory until he has learned to control his own spirit, so that it does not get out of hand. I am quite sure the older brethren will agree that it takes a long time. That kind of a king cannot be made in a day; it is a lifelong exercise to learn to control one’s own spirit. This applies also to our bodies; the apostle said he buffeted his body, indicating that he would not allow it to dominate him. How often we lose ground by our natural desires assuming control, or our spirits, and by our not allowing the Lord to control all. With many a Christian the love of money becomes the dominating power, and like the brethren of Joseph, the place that Christ should have in their hearts is sacrificed for money.
A king does not act like that, he rules his spirit and has control over his body and over his money. It is most important for all of us that we should have our businesses under control, and that we should hold them rightly in relation to the Lord. This applies also to the home. Many of the sisters are dominated by their homes, but the house is not to rule them, they are to rule the house. That is the sphere where they are being made kings by the skill and wisdom of the Lord.
I come now to what the elders say, which is that “Thou... hast... made them... priests” — a most magnificent thought! These twenty-four elders represent what has been gathered up by the Lord. He has gathered up kings and a kingdom; they are round His throne and are His kingdom, and His throne dominates them. They are His kings, each has a crown and all are sitting on thrones. There are millions of them, not merely twenty-four, but these are representative of all. Also they all have golden bowls full of incense.
The process of making us priests is a most intensive one. What marks a true priest is holiness, a preparedness to consider for God on all occasions and to be able to bless. The priests stand and bless. The priest’s lips keep knowledge and one learns the law at his mouth. Think of the precious grace of Christ that takes up you and me and transforms us by His own work so that we qualify to be priests! The apostle speaks to the Corinthians of the various kinds of evil-doers who shall not inherit the kingdom of God, and then he says, “such were some of you.” If we read the list we all have to admit how humbling it is. He adds, “ye have been washed, but ye have been sanctified, but ye have been justified in the name of the Lord Jesus, and by the Spirit of our God,” 1 Corinthians 6: 11. Think of the precious grace that would win your heart and add you to His kingdom, making you a king and a priest. It is a time when He considers for God. He is able to bring the odour of the holy incense before God. These elders say, “thou... hast... made them... priests,” they are His workmanship. It is something infinitely greater than the creatorial power of God in the physical creation, but it is a kingdom over which Christ is exalted as King, the everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. There are myriads of kings who are crowned and able to rule for God in the world to come. “Be thou also over five cities,” said the Lord to one who had been faithful.
Priests are marked by holiness. Perhaps some of us may know a little about righteousness, but what do we know of holiness? That shrinking from evil in our spirits, and the abhorrence of it. Peter speaks of a holy priesthood, and it is seen in these elders. They are able to stand before God and to present incense, every one of them having vials.
It is a magnificent spectacle, myriads and myriads of holy priests having golden vials full of incense, which are the prayers of saints.
In Chronicles we have another feature of what is made. There we have what David is said to have made, “the instruments which I made, said David, to praise therewith.” David is the chief musician, the sweet psalmist of Israel, and he is king David in majesty, glory, victory, and power. Then he is a priest, for he wore the linen ephod and danced before the ark. We also have the prayers of David the son of Jesse. This company of four thousand singers were to use the instruments “which I made, said David, to praise therewith.”
I want to touch upon this making instruments to praise therewith, as part of the work of Christ. One loves to think of the Lord making instruments of music. Music is a great matter with God. I love to look at the saints as the instruments which Christ has made. In the Psalms David speaks of a great variety of instruments, the greatest perhaps is the harp, and these are the instruments in the hands of the elders in Revelation 5. The harp is an instrument which expresses the most beautiful music as the strings are tightened and tuned under the hand of Christ. Then there is the pipe, which is breathed into — showing that it comes from the spirit, so to speak, the trumpets to sound aloud, and the cymbals that the hands use to make a sound. Thus the Lord is operating over this long period to make His instruments; He intends to have an orchestra. If you read the last few Psalms, particularly the last one, you will see how the different notes come in, and all are blended to have one sound. That is the divine idea, to have no discord.
The Lord is producing this harmony in the hearts of the saints now. It is all gathered up in the twenty-four elders. They are a kingdom, and they are kings, they have crowns; they are priests with their white raiment, their vials full of incense and they have harps. The Lord is still making, and these are just a few suggestions of His present work. He would make us submissive to Him, that we should see something of the greatness of it, and to be in His hand that He should make us kings and priests.
Satan has not ceased in his work in making a kingdom of darkness. He always imitates, and in that way deceives men. His kings are the “rulers of the darkness of this world,” and he himself is a king. It says, “They have a king over them, the angel of the abyss: his name in Hebrew Abaddon, and in Greek he has for name Apollyon,” that is Destroyer, Revelation 9: 11. He also is an anti-priest, the accuser of the brethren, and he has a system of anti-priests. Thus he is in contrast to our great High Priest who intercedes for us. He also has his instruments of music to carry out his purposes, as Nebuchadnezzar said, “at what time ye hear the sound of the cornet, pipe, lute, sambuca, psaltery, bagpipe, and all kinds of music,” (Daniel 3: 5), ye shall “fall down and worship the image that I have made.” Satan is forming vessels,
instruments of satanic music to woo the hearts of men and women to the system of worship he has set up to the destruction of mankind.
I appeal to the young people to remember that there are these two systems. In the one there is what the Lord Jesus is doing from on high by His Spirit, making His kingdom, His priests, His instruments of music; and in the other there is Satan with his kingdom, subverting the hearts of men who are willing to obey him. It is a very solemn matter for us all to consider to which kingdom we are lending ourselves, for everyone is being formed in one kingdom or the other. Soon the dividing line will come, for all that the Lord has made will be removed and brought into display in another world when He comes “to be glorified in his saints, and to be admired in all them that believe.” The time will come when He will be admired, and that which has been formed on the opposite side will go out into the blackness of darkness for ever. One desires that we might take account of the present moment, for it is of great importance, when little by little we are being formed by the Lord. May He help us to take account of these things, and to be in His hands as clay in the hands of the potter, that our own wills may be judged, and that He may form us as He will for His praise.