CHRIST'S SUPREMACY IN THE GOSPEL
CHRIST’S SUPREMACY IN THE GOSPEL
I was encouraged this morning, in this room, to accept an invitation to preach here this evening. I was encouraged by the fact that the Lord Jesus is calling attention to His supremacy in the gospel. John the prophet, John the evangelist, when he saw the Lord Jesus in His official garb according to Revelation 1, fell at His feet as dead, and the Lord laid His right hand upon him, saying, “Fear not; I am the first and the last, and the living one: and I became dead, and behold, I am living to the ages of ages, and have the keys of death and of hades”. This word is to be observed, and I have observed it.
The Lord is calling attention, as I have said, to His supremacy in the gospel. He is marked out in Romans to be the Son of God “according to the Spirit of holiness, by resurrection of the dead”-not one dead person only, but the dead in general. There were those raised by Him, and presently all who love Him will be raised, “those that are the Christ’s at his coming”, 1 Corinthians 15: 23. Then the wicked dead shall be raised one thousand years later. The first resurrection will apply to believers and the second to unbelievers. So I am encouraged to render this service with the hope that the Lord may bless it, for Peter says of Him, “Who is at the right hand of God, gone into heaven, angels and authorities and powers being subjected to him”, 1 Peter 3: 22. He is there supreme, not only being accepted in heaven, but triumphant over death, hell and hades. He has the keys of them; all the inmates of them are in His hand. The position of His triumph is clear, and none can interfere with Him. He has a free hand everywhere. He is on His Father’s throne; it is a throne [p. 334] of grace. He is on it, saving sinners, bringing about self-judgment and repentance, filling heaven with joy. Heaven’s joy is constantly being replenished by every repentant sinner. It is what is current up there!
David is a type of Christ here in this chapter. It is a dim one because there is judgment in it; but this is his great chapter of victories, every enemy falling before him. He is not destroying so much (though he does do this), but subjugating them; he subdues people to himself. Subjugation is not destruction. It is the idea of the gospel, subjection, “for obedience of faith among all the nations”. Joshua’s mission was destruction. That was an earlier matter; and later on, at the Lord’s appearing, His enemies will be destroyed. But here it is subjugation. If any here are insubject, let them come now under David, the beloved, a type of Christ in that sense. David was clever and keen as a warrior and ruler, to the end that subjection might be known. He was establishing his dominion by the river Euphrates. How widespread the rule of Christ is! He came not to destroy the world, but to save the world. Why should anyone be unsaved? It is His principal business to secure the members of the assembly, the greatest thing in the universe.
All that are saved now are to have part in the assembly. They are to be subject to Christ, and to other believers. Each one of us therefore is invited, indeed enjoined, to come into this system of subjugation; but it is more than that, it is a love system “For God so loved the world”. Jesus has gone to heaven to carry on this matter of love, and even the matter of judgment is love, “For Topheth is prepared of old; ... the breath of Jehovah, like a stream of brimstone, doth kindle it”, so that love pervades everywhere. The lake of fire is to restrict wickedness it is the delight of love to do this. Joshua began a war of destruction, beginning with Jericho, but David [p. 335] began a war of subjugation. So Christ, in His Davidic character, served in love; it is the service of the Beloved to secure persons on the principle of subjugation.
First we have “David smote the Philistines, and subdued them”. It is not a question of destruction, but subjection; and then “David took the power of the capital”, or ‘the Bridle of the metropolis’. If it were Philistine rule then, it is Rome now who keeps men under cruel bondage of metropolitan rule. But in David’s day the bridle was where people were held in slavery; today such towns and institutions are held in bondage to the wicked and cruel system by Satan’s work. Unionism is another system by which Satan holds men in bondage, but the Lord is set for your deliverance by subjugation, that is by subjection to His rule; and what a benign rule it is!
If there is anyone here under another rule, we say before God, Why are you not really free? Or do you realise that you are being held in some way or system with Satan behind it? He hopes to keep you in bondage. This runs through the chapter. The Lord would deliver you from man’s city, a place of nefarious uses, to His city, to Jerusalem above, “which is our mother”, in moral superiority to all these things I have alluded to. If you are saved here tonight, you will be saved for the assembly. You may say to yourself, ‘I am saved for heaven’. You feel safe. But no, you are to be saved for Christ now, for God, for the assembly, and this is the idea here. So David took Metheg-ha-ammah out of the hands of the Philistines, those cruel persons who David subdued. Samson ruled them, but David subdued them. So it is now; it is not heathen but christians. There is nothing much done in China or India or Asia: there is only one meeting in Asia, think of it! God is not generally working there, but in christian territory, though the gospel is for the heathen too! “For the word of God is living [p. 336] and operative, and sharper than any two-edged sword”, Hebrews 4: 12. Israel failed because they refused to hear the word of God, and if anyone here is failing to hear God’s word, I would say, You are piling up your sins every day. You may say, ‘I live a clean life’, but one day the pile of your sins will meet you, and you will then have to do with God; and many are doing this! Christian Science is almost worse than anything; it is lawlessness, yet called ‘Christian’! How the word ‘Christian’ may deceive people! And so it is, if you are insubject. David subjugated people; it says, “the Moabites became David’s servants”, not as servants to the world or any of its societies. You are either subject to the true David, or nothing. It is a question of subjection now, for wrath has been revealed, as it says, “For there is revealed wrath of God from heaven upon all impiety, and unrighteousness of men” (Romans 1: 18), but it is not yet being executed. As Christians we are delivered from wrath.
I have pointed out that the Philistines were subdued, and the Moabites became David’s servants, but in verse 2 we have David measuring them with a line, casting down two lines to be put to death, and one full line to keep alive. I spoke of David as not suggesting wrath, and this is perfectly right. The Lord Jesus spoke of Jezebel in Christendom, a cursed name, attached to the most wicked system in Christendom; He says, “Her children will I kill with death”; it is coming, as we get it in Revelation 18 and 19. I refer to it here because of the two lines appointed to death; it is put off for the moment, but there the Lord has the means of dealing with it. I cannot tell you how many there are in that system, probably millions. See how many there are all around us, men being dominated and ruined by it. The Lord has to deal with it; He gives her time to repent, but she does not. Yet He is still on the line of subduing, and is here to do it this evening. Some of us Christians may need it, for [p. 337] outside of faith there is nothing in any of us for the Lord. But if faith is there, however small, as it says in Luke 7: So, “Thy faith”, there is something for Him. Let us think how much we have; not the doctrine of Scripture, or the knowledge of the Synopsis, but the measure of faith. Here David measures persons, “making them lie down on the ground; and he measured two lines to put to death, and one full line to keep alive”. If we are exercised as to life, and are repentant, it is one full line for life. How accurate he was! How he dealt with insubjection; and how he dealt with this one line! Are we living? All the principles of the gospel are in this chapter. The power of the capital is Metheg-ha-ammah (see note to 2 Samuel 8: 1), yet Jesus has the bridle now in His hands, “The Jerusalem above is free”. That is a gospel matter for us to understand. No other city is free, though great men are granted the freedom of cities. What freedom is it really? Jerusalem is the only one that is free, and that is because God’s Son has died, and in His mighty liberating power He has annulled death. He is now “at the right hand of God, gone into heaven, angels and authorities and powers being subjected to him”! That is where He is now, forming that wonderful city, which is soon to be seen as “the holy city, Jerusalem, coming down out of the heaven from God, having the glory of God”. The gospel goes further than the forgiveness of sins, it means a place for you up there, in the city of the living God. I am preaching the gospel, endeavouring to enlighten you, and the Lord Jesus is free now, in heaven; He is free on earth too. He will yet go to hades, to deal with all that. He has dealt with everything in the universe, and now He is subjugating men, that they may be subject to God.
In verse 6 it says that “David put garrisons in Syria of Damascus; and the Syrians became servants to David, and brought gifts”. ‘Garrisons’ is a military [p. 338] term; armies of occupation are called garrisons, that is the principle of it. It applies to all in this room; you must be in it, for the effect of this garrison principle is that people became David’s servants, and brought gifts, which means that the service of God is enriched. We have, on the one hand, Jerusalem above, and on the other, these garrisons, which would refer to towns and cities here. I think they refer to the saints universally all over the earth, thus constituted by the teaching of Christ. In the main we have to rule out Asia, but the service of God is prospering here and in America and in the Antipodes, and the garrison principle is going on in the forming of saints into assemblies by the formative work of the Holy Spirit, using the word. This word which began in Palestine after the Lord went to heaven was used in power, and as things ripened we get persons added. They were added to what there was, so that they were all together. The place where they were was shaken, God was acting in love. The one hundred and twenty were all called persons; they were together. It speaks in Acts 1 of “the crowd of names”; they were living. The divine actings did not go beyond the one hundred and twenty at first. It was not an organised position, but all could be distinguished by life; that is my point, it corresponds with this “one full line to keep alive”. But in Acts 2 three thousand souls were added, the first time such a large number is mentioned. God could have made it more, but the number was sufficient.
They persevered in the teaching and fellowship of the apostles-that is what ‘adding’ means. You may not be added yet! It says “the Lord added to the assembly daily those that were to be saved”. I look for that here tonight, that all might be saved.
I wish it were so. But I speak of “those that were to be saved”. You are not really on His side, or really added to Him, if you do not know this, for He is working now on this line. He is not working with [p. 339] Israel yet, but now, as then, He is adding “those that were to be saved”. It is a ‘daily’ matter. Maybe there were a hundred meetings, or more, in Jerusalem after that first preaching, and they were being added to every day, “those that were to be saved”. Let every one here search his heart; is he, or are you, one of those “to be saved”? You may say, ‘Why does He not come into my way?’. But He may not. Sometimes He waits for you to come into His way, like the two blind men in Matthew 9. He did not answer them, but He went into the house, and stayed there, and they came to Him. He was ready to save them, and He says, “Do ye believe that I am able to do this?”. And then He says, “According to your faith, be it unto you”. That was a sweeping statement, but true; there is nothing in that sense apart from faith.
This is a remarkable chapter of David’s official glory, he fills every office. He becomes greater and greater. It typifies Christ as growing in the hearts of the saints, and so He is to become constantly greater. God preserved David all the time.
I leave it with you to work out this chapter and God will give you light through this type of David, and the thought of the full line of life. You have also the garrisons, and at the end the thought of David’s cabinet, the officers that he had. It all prefigures the Lord Jesus working all the time in adding to the assembly, having the great end in view when it will be seen “coming down out of the heaven from God, having the glory of God”. The city of the living God is one of the things that we have come to according to Hebrews 12: 22 - 24. Let us see that these wonderful things are ours, and that we are in them!