“GIVE PLACE TO THIS MAN”
A. Duthie
Luke 14: 7–10; Revelation 4: 1
I have been thinking, beloved, about this matter of giving place to this Man. It is a wonderful thing that we should give place to Christ. That is what this section means, and as thinking about our beloved brother whose body we are about to commit to the Lord we think of the hymn which he often used to quote—
‘We bless Thee, Lord, Thou lov’st to take Thy place
Amongst Thine own, who taste Thy boundless grace;
‘Tis thus we know Thee as Thou’rt known above
In heav’nly glory—home of perfect love’. (Hymn 84)
He used to say, ‘We would give Thee Thy place, Lord, because Thou hast taken our place’.
The sense of the place that the Lord Jesus had in our brother’s soul used to affect me as I sat beside him. The Lord Jesus took your place and mine. He was abandoned by God—that should have been our position, but the Lord Jesus took that place in order that the great work of atonement and redemption should be accomplished and be completely and eternally established. That is one of the treasures our brother will carry through to the eternal day.
Then there will be no Bibles or hymn books or ministry, but there will be the treasure that God will bring out from every lover of Himself in relation to His divine service and for the satisfaction of His own affections.
Proverbs 8: 21 says, “... that I may cause those that love me to inherit substance; and I will fill their treasuries”. What a treasury our brother had in his appreciation of the place Christ took for him on the cross. Christ was crucified, He died, and was buried, and He was raised for our justification, therefore we are obligated to ‘give place to this Man’. What a Man He is! He is the Man for the satisfaction of the heart of God, and He is enough to satisfy your heart and your soul and your affections, and mine.
Oh, dear brethren, let us covet this, to give place to this Man. No other is entitled to the first place. Well may Paul, writing to the Colossians, say that Christ is to have the first place in all things. Sometimes, you know, it is business that has the first place, and maybe your home has the next place, and Christ has the last place, but I feel that as a result of our being together on this occasion we should be prepared to give Christ the first place. He is knocking; that is what He was doing in Laodicea—“Behold, I stand at the door and am knocking”. His knocking may be in a circumstance; death is a circumstance, and He is knocking in your heart, and in mine, in order that He might have a greater place in our affections. He says, “If any one hear my voice and open the door, I will come in unto him and sup with him, and he with me”, Revelation 3: 20. That is a wonderful appeal; it is the voice of Christ. What a thing it is to have a sense in the soul of His speaking to us and then, as in the section we have read, to give place to this Man.
I read the verse in the Revelation because it will not always be a matter of our taking “the last place”. Our brother is now absent from the body and present with the Lord, awaiting the body of glory. What a time it will be when the body of glory will be equal to what has been wrought in soul formation, when there will be no more limitations. What is formed here in the scene of testimony will be brought out in glory in a coming day. What treasures there will be in the souls and affections of those who have given Christ the first place, those who have heard His voice and who have, in the power of the Holy Spirit, kept the good deposit. Then God will bring out into display those wonderful treasures that have been formed here.
In this section John was in the isle of Patmos for the word of God and the testimony of Jesus.
Our brother was here in Aberdeen for the word of God and the testimony of Jesus. “The spirit of prophecy is the testimony of Jesus” (Revelation 19: 10); God delights to see the testimony of Jesus continued down here in the power of the Spirit. The Spirit is here and there is a testimony rendered by those who are in relation to the glorified Man in heaven, those who do not walk according to flesh but according to Spirit. So John says, “The time is near”, (Revelation 1: 3). We are, in the closing days of the dispensation; the time is near. The Lord Himself is to come for us and “we, the living who remain, shall be caught up together with them ... to meet the Lord in the air”, 1 Thessalonians 4: 17. Our brother’s communion is continuing with the blessed Saviour whom he loved. His body will lie in the grave, but he is present with the Lord. His communion with Him continues and he is awaiting the resurrection and the body of glory of which our brother has spoken.
Let us be encouraged, dear brethren, so that we ‘give place to this Man’; then we find that there is a door opened in heaven and a voice says, “Come up here”. There you get the place of exaltation. Here is the place of limitation and suffering for the truth and for the testimony, but it will not always be that; there will be a time when the voice says, “Come up here”. It was a wonderful thing when John got an insight into what this means. Later on he says, “He carried me away in the Spirit, and set me on a great and high mountain, and shewed me the holy city, Jerusalem, coming down out of the heaven from God, having the glory of God” (Revelation 21: 10).
Well, let us be encouraged to give place to this Man and to see that the great end in view is that there is a door opened in heaven and a voice saying, “Come up here”. May the Lord bless the word for His name’s sake.
Word at the burial of Mr. J. Addison, Aberdeen
14 February 1985