THE GLORY OF WHAT GOD HAS ESTABLISHED
H.J.Glass
Isaiah 55: 8,9; Hebrews 2: 5-10; Matthew 18: 18, 21-23
One's exercise is that we might be stirred a little in our thinking as to the glory of what God has brought in in His order of things in Christ and the Spirit, and that we have been made partakers of it. We get used to meetings and the Scriptures, I suppose, but we always need a touch in our hearts as to whether we appreciate the glory of what God has done and the glory of what obtains still. Think of it all to be gathered up for eternity, that is for ever, beyond what our minds can imagine! The young people here maybe think they have a lot of years ahead of them - that is all in God's way - but eternity is beyond what you can think. Think of the privilege of what God has brought to you in the glad tidings! We have been reminded of the glad tidings, the word of God that men might be saved and come to the knowledge of the truth. Think of what God has brought in for you dear young ones and all of us that we might have a fresh touch at this time of the glory of the way that God has moved!
So He says "my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts". We would do well to go over that, as to whether we really have an appreciation of it or whether we look at things in too natural a way, whether we assess things in the testimony too much in the light of what can be worked out in our own minds rather than what God would have us work out by the Spirit in accord with His thoughts and His ways as being higher than ours. So He has done it in Christ, He has done it in a Man. We would do well to be freshly affected by the glory of the One by whom He has done it. "What is man, that thou rememberest him, or son of man that thou visitest him? Thou hast made him some little inferior to the angels on account of the suffering of death". We sang of that: 'He no service thought too lowly, and no sacrifice too great' (hymn 141). You could not name anything that has ever taken place on the face of this earth that corresponds in any sense with the glory of what God has done. Those amongst us who are young, and perhaps some of us who are a bit older, hardly know of the effects that these world wars had on men. When they are completed there are epitaphs to the glory of men who have given up their lives, but what has it accomplished? God is over the nations and God is feeling for men that they might come to Him. But what is accomplished if you go over it? The glory of what can be raised as a tribute to what a man has done: how can it be compared to this? Paul says in Romans "perhaps for the good man some one might also dare to die", and "we being still sinners, Christ has died for us", chap 5: 7,8. Think of the way that God has brought in what He has brought in! So that ground is covered here: "What is man, that thou rememberest him, or son of man that thou visitest him? Thou hast made him some little inferior to the angels; thou hast crowned him with glory and honour, and hast set him over the works of thy hands; thou hast subjected all things under his feet. For in subjecting all things to him, he has left nothing unsubject to him. But now we see not yet all things subjected to him". How true that is! To outward appearances there is more and more insubjection, but God says that everything is subjected to Him. "Thou hast crowned him with glory and honour, and hast set him over the works of thy hands". Oh that we might get a fresh touch of the glory of the way that God has done things, the glory of the One by whom He has done it and in whom He has done it for His own satisfaction and that He might have His saints! We have been going over the objective that God might find delight in His people but think of the way that God has done it. He has done it in this One, this One whom He has crowned with glory and honour! He finished the work that was given to Him to do. There is a glory that belongs to such an order of things that you cannot compare with anything in this world. Oh that we might be raised in our thinking about that! How much higher are His ways and His thoughts than ours. So let us have an appreciation of the One, as it says here, to whom He has subjected all things. But we do not see that yet - it cannot be seen by the outward eye - but it says "we see Jesus". That is our privilege - to see Jesus. How much more buoyant we would be in our souls, how much more prosperity we would find among God's people, as we follow this, that we see Jesus, we see the One to whom everything has been subjected. Do you really see Him? do I? - the One to whom God has subjected everything. Or are we not so clear about that? I think therein lies our lack of joy perhaps, our lack of the working out of things as God would have them worked out. The writer says here "we see Jesus, who was made some little inferior to angels... For it became him, for whom are all things, and by whom are all things, in bringing many sons to glory, to make perfect the leader of their salvation through sufferings". Think of God bringing persons into the glory of sonship that He might be served! And the way He has done it, as it is brought before us here, is that He has made perfect the Leader of their salvation through sufferings. The Leader is perfect. What else in this world is perfect? I often think that we are in the time that Daniel speaks of where it says "Many shall run to and fro, and knowledge shall be increased", Dan 12: 4. We seem to be in those times when men have great ability to reach through to things that a generation ago they would not have thought of; God has given the ability to do that. We are in those times, but they do not help you or anyone to reach through to this; only the word of God can bring us through to this, the One who has been made perfect, the Leader of our salvation, the One who has brought in God's whole scheme - if one can say that respectfully – the scheme that God has had, the plan that He has had so that men might understand that everything has been subjected to Christ. If we do not get anything else out of this short time together it is that we might get a touch about that, that God has an arrangement of glory and that arrangement of glory involves that everything is subjected to Christ. So our enjoyment, our blessing, our satisfaction, whatever we can give in the way of return to God, comes from t hat. There is no other way - My ways are higher than your ways, and My thoughts than your thoughts.
I thought that in Matthew we get a sense of the way that these things are to be found here in this scene. There is no question but that they are found in Christ. He has been raised from among the dead, He has been crowned with glory and honour, He is at God's right hand. In God's eye everything is subjected to Him. We do not see it yet, but in God's eye everything is subjected to Him. But think of the way that God has designed that this is to be found here! It is to be found in the assembly. Our brother mentioned in the reading that we have the means in the assembly for all that is needed. I suppose you would say that it is all in the Spirit. The Spirit is the power. Ye shall do greater things than these, the Lord said, speaking of the time of the Spirit. But behind it all is Gods mind about it. "The assembly of God which he has purchased with the blood of his own" (Acts 20: 28): that is behind the whole thing; and behind whatever operates is God's thought about it, His thoughts higher than our thoughts. You never would have thought of this. The hymn says that: 'For sure no other mind... Thine only could it be'. We could not have thought of this; God has thought of it, thought of it for His own satisfaction, for His own glory. It is a system of glory.
So He says here "Verily, I say to you, Whatsoever ye shall bind on the earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatsoever ye shall loose on the earth shall be loosed in heaven". Think of what proceeds in the assembly!
Have you found your part in it in a full sense? Have I? Think of what is open to us that God can be glorified in His saints! God can be glorified in the assembly. It says that: "to him be glory in the assembly in Christ Jesus unto all generations of the age of ages. Amen", Eph 3: 21. These are God's thoughts, but what is working out in us, in our localities? Is each of us set for this, that we are acting properly in the light of what the Lord has left with us? "Whatsoever ye shall bind on earth shall be bound in heaven and whatsoever ye shall loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven". O what operates in the assembly! We do not want to lose sight of it. We may back off sometimes from the exercises involved, but what glory there is to Go in the assembly. I think He delights to loose. The binding is His too, it shall be bound in heaven. Think of God being in accord with our judgments. We were reading Psalm 37 the other night: "for Jehovah loveth judgment, and will not forsake his saints" (v 28). We want to prove that in the present time: "Jehovah loveth judgment". It is that He loveth a right judgment about things. We need to be developed in that. I think that is the thought in Matthew 18, that we might be developed in a right judgment of things. "Verily I say to you, Whatsoever ye... " Well, who is the 'ye'? It is you and I in the present time, in the privilege that we have of being set in the assembly, of being set in the places where we are to fulfil our responsibility so that God may be glorified and that His great thoughts may be worked out here in this scene. Christ is on high crowned with glory and honour and everything is subjected to Him. In God's view everything is subjected, but what you find here in the assembly is that God intends that everything is to be in accord with that. We know that the exercises in working it out are sometimes difficult. I just thought today we might get some touch about how high God's thoughts are and that He intends us to go on according to them until the Lord comes for His own.
Then Peter comes and says to Him, Lord, how often shall my brother sin against me and I forgive him? Well, these things come up, they come up to hinder these thoughts of God, to hinder the way that He would have us. We have been reading about greeting one another with a holy kiss, but things do come in. Oh that we might be prepared for them! Peter was a man who was prepared for things; he was prepared for that searching in John 21. He says here, How often shall I forgive him? Think of the glory of what is to be found in this administrative sense where things are bound and things are loosed in the light of all that is in accord with heaven, in the light of judgment according to God - "Jehovah giveth judgment"! It has a great place with God that His people have a right judgment. We were mentioning about Samuel; one thing it says of him in the Acts is "he gave them judges till Samuel" (chap 13: 20) - He gave them judges. The time of the judges was not a very good time, every man did what was right in his own eyes; that is not a feature of subjection, is it? But in the face of that the word was that He gave them judges till Samuel. Think of God always considering for His people! Think of Him considering for us in 1982! You might say, I can remember when things were better; I can remember when there were more brethren available to us and when we had persons who could serve with great ability; what good times we had! But God knows what we need; He does not forsake His saints, He is ready to help us. So these things come in that hinder and Peter asks the question. Think of the Lord's answer: "until seventy times seven"! We need to understand how the principle of forgiveness is to operate. Have you, have I, that spirit so that we do not hold on to things that offend, we understand how forgiveness is to operate? Matthew of course does not mention repentance, he does not mention putting the thing right. Matthew would always presume righteousness. But he raises this matter of forgiveness, of a forgiving spirit, seventy times seven. That tests you, does it not, whether you could do that? Seventy times seven is a lot of times. But I think what it is at is, have we that spirit of forgiveness? We must have that for right relations to operate among the brethren. When the brethren are few you get very picky in your thoughts; there are only a few brethren and you see the same ones all the time. But think of the divine system; "my ways higher than your ways", and that this provision is made, that you are to forgive him seventy times seven. One of the things needed in our present exercises is to know how to forgive. The Lord's rights are in this because He says "For this cause the kingdom of the heavens has become like a king" (the note says 'a man a king') "who would reckon with his bondmen". Well, we have to do with God. David had to do with God.
I think we would be encouraged today to take away what has been before us, to see the greatness of the order of things that God has set up: "to make perfect the leader of their salvation through sufferings". Oh that we might get a glimpse of that and understand what God has done in Christ, and that we might understand how that order of things is to operate here! For His Name's sake.
PLAINFIELD
27 March 1982