THE GATES OF THE CITY
J. A. Gardiner
Ruth 4: 1, 2, 6–8; Acts 9: 10–19, 2 Corinthians 2: 5–11; Philemon 10–21
I would like, with the Lord’s help, to say something about ‘the gate’. The gates of the city carry the feature of the pearl, each gate a pearl (see Revelation 21: 21). There is no diversity; the entity is in evidence at every gate. I would suggest that the idea of ‘the gate’ enters into the scriptures we have read. Boaz is a type of Christ who sold all that He had to buy the pearl.
Then I would like to say something about the gate at Damascus, the gate at Corinth, and the gate, at Colosse. The Lord very beautifully ministers an abundance of grace that the brethren in these places might rise to the divine thought and that the pearl might be in evidence in the matters in hand. The pearl is linked with administration, that love and grace might be in evidence in the way matters are handled and set forward.
The scripture in Ruth is, very beautiful; it appeals to the heart even in reading it. How deliberate the Lord Jesus was in His movements to secure the assembly. He paid the price publicly. He was prepared to do that. He said, ‘No one takes My life from Me’ (see John 10: 18). Many tried to do it. He says, “No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of myself … I have received this commandment of my Father”, and, “On this account the Father loves me”
(John 10: 17). Boaz here is deliberately setting out to purchase the right of redemption, to pay the price required to secure Ruth and Naomi and all that belonged to Elimelech and his family. How beautiful that Christ did that, beloved! He determined to go into death! We spoke earlier of the parables in Matthew 13 as to the treasure and the pearl and differentiated between the words “all whatever he has” (Matthew 13: 44) and “all whatever he had” (Matthew 13: 46), and rightly so, but in actual fact it cost the Lord Jesus the sufferings of Calvary to secure the assembly. What love was manifested, divine love in its fulness, in Christ, that He went into death and paid the price in totality. He met every divine requirement of God in righteousness and holiness. All that God’s holy nature demanded, Christ paid to the full. He exhausted the judgment of God against sin, cleared the ground, and accomplished the work of redemption. His blood was shed, carried in to God and put on the mercy-seat, atoning blood, so that your sins and mine might be covered, that the treasure might come into evidence and that we might reach a greater understanding of what the pearl is.
The man here in Ruth 4: 1 is representative of the law. He had a prior right of redemption but he did not have the resource, the wherewithal. The law never produces love. Legality never produces love. Demand never produces love. The law does not love us; Christ loves us, and we love Him because He first loved us. So this man gets the opportunity to redeem but he cannot redeem. He says to Boaz, “I cannot redeem it for myself, lest I mar mine own inheritance”. “What the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God, having sent his own Son, in likeness of flesh of sin, and for sin, has condemned sin in the flesh”, (Romans 8: 3), putting that man completely out of court. All this is Part of the divine transaction in order that Ruth might be purchased to be the wife of Boaz, that there might be a complete clearance and that we would never have to wonder whether this or that has been settled. The account has been perfectly cleared. He has drawn off His sandal. It carries the divine stamp of approval. You might
say that God has honoured that work in raising Christ from amongst the dead and setting Him down at His own right hand in the heavenlies. That is public. That was the gate.
The whole universe, had they wanted, could have seen Christ on the cross. They would not have been able to enter into the awfulness of the sufferings, or measure the depth of the intrinsic holiness of Jesus, but publicly they could have seen the work going on, a Man crucified and His blood shed. They could have heard that cry, “My God, My God, why hast thou forsaken me?” They could have wondered what that meant. The persons who surrounded the cross had their own ideas of what it meant. But Jesus is superior to all the circumstances. He is working out the thing alone with God, forsaken of God, and He pays the price. He secures the assembly for Himself, clears us of our history, clears us of our sins. Past history is finished. He leaves all that attaches to us in the line of fallen nature completely in the grave. That man is finished. Christ has vicariously put him out of sight. The gates of Zion, you might say, are opened in His rising, and love and grace flow out fully and freely to the universe. How wonderful that is! How great the distribution of divine love and grace is, as we see in the book of the Acts. In the preaching of the glad tidings the treasure is brought to light and most unexpected persons come to light. They manifest and prove in themselves that God has wrought in their hearts and they are introduced as members of the body of Christ.
In the passage in Acts 9 we have the gate in Damascus. Ananias was a very good man. Paul says in his account that he was “a pious man” (see Acts 22: 12). The Jews knew him. He had a testimony in the place. The brethren in Damascus would be very concerned; they would be full of trepidation
at what was proceeding. It says at the beginning of the chapter that Saul was breathing out threatenings and slaughter against the disciples of the Lord. What an upright man he was as to the law, probably the best that nature could produce, but he was under the power of the devil. He is going to persecute the assembly, “both men and women”, so that “if he found any who were of the way, both men and women, he might bring them bound to Jerusalem”. Think of the sufferings that were incurred by the brethren through the persecutions of this man.
Well, here is Damascus. It is away from Jerusalem. See the wisdom and skill of the Lord, beloved, as He operates in His wonderful grace. He does not appear to Saul in Jerusalem. He lets him go as far as Damascus because He has in mind that the assembly is to be separated completely from Judaism. There is going to be no mixture. It is going to be apart, and He is beginning here this, great work, this marvellous undertaking. He is going to have a people apart from all accredited religion that had been before and they are going to be set in relation to Christ’s glory.
The impression that comes into Saul’s soul at the beginning of his history is of Christ glorified, so that as he proceeds in his service he preaches the glad tidings of the glory of the blessed God. It is Christ glorified at the right hand of God. I am not saying that he did not have to repent. Peter told the Jews to repent and be baptised for remission of sins (see Acts 2: 38). The Lord does not say anything like that to Saul. He says, “Saul, Saul, why dost thou persecute me?” What words of love and grace! No condemnation! Here is this inveterate enemy of Christ and of the brethren. Jesus is showing how the gate works. He is showing how administration works, the administration of the gospel. ‘Why are you persecuting Me? I will reason with you’. Saul says, “Who
art thou, Lord?” and the answer is, “I am Jesus, whom thou persecutest.” How blessedly intimate that He can say that to him, “I am Jesus”. He does not say, ‘I am the Son of God’, or
‘I am the Christ’, or ‘I am risen from the dead’. He says “I am Jesus, whom thou persecutest”.
Then He tells him to go into the city and in the city it will be told him what he must do. Now the brethren are coming into this matter. The gate in Damascus is going to operate., going to correspond in love and grace to what had been manifested by Christ in glory to Saul of Tarsus on the Damascus road.
The Lord speaks to Ananias. He tells him what has happened and where to go and where to meet Saul. “He is praying,” He says, “and has seen in a vision a man by name Ananias coming in and putting his hand on him, so that he should see”. So far as Ananias is concerned, at this point the gate is shut and it is not going to open. ‘I know all about him’, he says. Now, beloved, imagine saying that to the Lord. The Lord ad said to him, “Behold, he is praying”. That should have been enough; Ananias says, “I have heard from many concerning this man”. He had just heard from Jesus. The Lord had brought him right up to date with, the history of heaven. You can understand how he felt, and how the brethren felt. The thing that had happened was almost unbelievable. We pray about things, and they happen, and can we believe they have happened, and that they are happening when they do? I suppose persons had prayed, in grace that Saul of Tarsus would be converted. I suppose Stephen had that in mind, when he said, “Lord, lay, not this sin to their charge”, Acts 7: 60. Oh how beautifully the gate operated in Stephen, the grace of Christ shining out in its wonder! There was some evidence there of the pearl, the sufferings of the saints as Stephen set out the whole position.
But I digress. Ananias says, “I have heard from many concerning this man how much evil he has done to thy saints at Jerusalem; and here he has authority from the chief priests”, and so forth. Beloved, we love to bring up past history, do we not? Saul is not getting in so far as Ananias is concerned. The gate is shut. What does the Lord say? He says, “Go”. That is authority. I suppose that woke up Ananias. “Go, for this man is an elect vessel to me”. There is wonderful grace in this conversation. Saul is going to come into this company, and when he comes in he has to see heaven reflected amongst the brethren. He has to see the continuation of what Jesus said, “Why dost thou persecute me?” He has to see the “me” in Damascus. So Ananias is adjusted. Now he is on the street of the city, one street, “pure gold, as transparent glass”, Revelation 21: 21. How beautiful, how wonderful, his movements are now! He is diffusing grace. “Saul, brother”, he says, “the Lord has sent me, Jesus that appeared to thee in the way”. See how the tree of life is in the midst of the street, this side and that side (see Revelation 22: 2).
Ananias is on the divine highway, Christ available to all in the city, “Jesus that appeared to thee in the way”. He completely identifies himself with him. “Laying his hands upon him he said, Saul, brother, the Lord has sent me, Jesus that appeared to thee in the way in which thou camest, that thou mightest see, and be filled with the Holy Spirit”. Saul must come into the body, be a member of the body of Christ, be filled with the Holy Spirit. In the power of that Spirit he will be baptised into one body and be given to drink of one Spirit. “And straightway there fell from his eyes as it were scales, and he saw, and rising up was baptised; and, having received food, got strength. And he was with the disciples who were in Damascus certain days”. He is happily identified
with the persons he was previously going to persecute. He sees the pearl there, he sees the evidence of it, he sees the evidence of the Street of the city. There are no mixed motives.
There is nobody saying, ‘Well, you know what you were, Saul’. The brethren are moving consciously in the light of Christ glorified in this wonderful locality of Damascus where nobody appears to be prominent. There is no mention of gift or of elderhood. There is a certain disciple in it—a beautiful meeting. Christ in His wisdom introduced His great elect vessel into such a situation. There is the pearl in Damascus.
We are probably more accustomed to the gate in Corinth. The gate in Corinth was open when it should have been shut, and shut in this chapter when it should have been open. We are often like that. We allow things into our hearts, and sometimes into our meetings, on which we should shut the gate. It is very beautiful to consider these scriptures and see how divine grace helps the brethren to rise to the greatness of divine thoughts. Ananias in Acts 9 comes out in the clothing of the bride, fine linen. He performed a righteous act in identifying himself with Saul and letting him into the city, a priestly act, so that he is clothed in fine linen, which is the righteousnesses of the saints (see Revelation 19: 8). I think it is a great test to us to keep pace with what the Lord is doing. The first letter to Corinth had stirred them up and the man was put out, and it was right that he should be put out. The conscience of the assembly was stirred and the truth began to operate amongst them and this man was put out. He must have felt it very much, being put out, because he was grieved, and grief according to God had wrought repentance in him. He wanted to get back into fellowship. I suppose he had gone and spoken to a brother, or brothers, and humbled himself, shed many a tear, and so he rightly should,
for the course that he had been on was abhorrent even among the nations. But the man had got right. God had wrought and had granted him repentance. You cannot repent just when it suits you. God is the One who grants repentance and He had granted it to this man, but the brethren did not want to know. The gate was shut.
It is a terrible thing if, where God is working and helping someone, and change is in evidence, you shut the gate. It is a misrepresentation of God’s dispensation of love and grace.
Do not let us be like that. The gates of the city are open all the time. They are never shut.
Through these gates flow the holy ministrations of divine love and grace. How do you think the leaves of the tree are going to get out to the nations? They do not fly over the wall. They go out in the affections of persons who feed on Christ. They go out and they are exuding Christ to the nations, for the healing of the nations. Do you think the kings of the earth would bring their glory to Corinth as it was? Would the nations walk by its light? Do you think the nations could walk by the light of what is representative of the assembly in Aberdeen or Grangemouth or Edinburgh, or any of these places? Is it an attractive place? Think of the kings of the earth bringing their glory to it, the nations walking by the light of it.
Well, the Lord in His grace affords help here through Paul. Paul says, ‘You had better open the gate. You should show grace and encourage and help the man’. We were saying in the interval that we are dealing with souls, with humanity, with persons who have feelings. We are dealing with brethren in whom is the manifest evidence of the work of God. There is gold there. It needs to be made way for, it needs to be incorporated into this great entity. Well, Paul says he wrote the first letter with many
tears (2 Corinthians 2: 4). What a man he was, what soul he had, how he felt about these things, yet in faithful love he wrote the letter that he did write. It was effective. “But if anyone has grieved, he has grieved, not me, but in part (that I may not overcharge you) all of you. Sufficient to such a one” (this is, the man who was withdrawn from) “is this rebuke which has been inflicted by the many”. This is another point. It does not say by all, but by the many. Those are the persons, I suppose, who knew what the assembly was in the mind of God, and what the assembly was in expression and function. I do not think you ever get the
‘all’ in Corinth, but you get the ‘many’, you get the approved, and I do not use that word as it was used in what we call ‘the system’, but the approved as set out in the first letter, “that the approved may become manifest among you”, 1 Corinthians 11: 19.
So here Paul says, “on the contrary ye should rather show grace and encourage, lest perhaps such a one should be swallowed up with excessive grief”. It would be a terrible thing if that should happen. The cleansing system had done its work. The leprosy was healed. Where were the priests that they did not see it? Why were they so slow in setting up the man in the dignity of his calling? No doubt he would be at his tent door with his hair shaved off (Leviticus 14: 8), and it was evident that this man had come to a judgment of the whole course of sin he had been on. Now it is for the priest to take over and set him up happily, joyfully in fellowship.
Paul says, ‘You priests had better go and do this thing, because if you do not, Satan is going to get an advantage’. We need to be on the alert, beloved, because the devil is ever active and anxious to bring some kind of wedge into the local meeting, some kind of division, some kind of trouble, anything that will divert the attention of the brethren from being wholly occupied with Christ.
Paul says, “if I have forgiven anything, it is for your sakes in the person of Christ”, ‘I am not going to be behind’. This man was the subject of forgiveness. He was enjoying forgiveness from God, what we call plenary forgiveness, and now the local meeting should have administered that forgiveness. The priesthood should have been active in the administration of it, welcoming him back into the heart of the assembly. The Lord said as to Lazarus, “Loose him and let him go”, John 11: 44. The Lord was saying in effect, ‘I have raised him. It is now for you to take the graveclothes off him and let him go and find his place in the flock’. The gate in Corinth eventually would work. There would be a representation of the pearl in Corinth. Recovery proceeds, beloved, in the power of the grace of Christ. You get them on to the street of the city, on to the divinely appointed highway, because I am sure the street of the city would connect the gates. Think of the brethren thronging that street, ‘Where the saints in glory thronging’, in the happiness and blessedness of the power of the life which is in Christ Jesus. And Paul wants all this to operate in Corinth, so that the administration there is a reflection of what goes on in heaven.
Now I come to Colosse. This letter to Philemon is a remarkable one. Paul has great wisdom.
Onesimus, as we read in the letter to the Colossians, was “one of you”, Colossians 4: 9. But here he had been a bondman of Philemon and he had run away. He had become disconsolate, discontented with his position as a bondman. I do not suppose it was a very great job. He had run away to Rome. Whichever way he had gone, he had gone a long way. In the ways of God it is marvellous, wonderful!—from Colosse to Rome and there he meets Paul, a prisoner in Rome. He might have said to Paul, ‘Why are you looking so happy?’ Paul would say, ‘I have everything to be happy about’.
Hear Paul telling him about Jesus who said, “I will not go free”, Exodus 21: 5. That would bow his heart. Christ could identify with a man like Onesimus in bondmanship, in the rigours of it. He loved His master, His wife and His children, He would not go free. Paul might say,
‘He could have gone free, Onesimus, but He thought about you and He thought, about me’.
Wonderful! Paul was now sending Onesimus back to Colosse, and he would say, ‘I can see a problem here. I am not too sure that Philemon is big-hearted enough to declare a year of release. I suppose he is, but I think I shall just send this letter with Onesimus’.
We must use diligence to keep the unity of the Spirit, in the uniting bond of peace. There is wisdom in a little forward-thinking as to what the results of our actions might be, and we should seek the Lord’s help that we might give consideration to what might happen if we do certain things. So Paul writes this wonderful letter and sends it to Philemon. It is wonderful if you can make a release. “This is the manner of the release”, Deuteronomy 15: 2. Have you lived seven years in the land, seven years in the fulness of the blessedness of the love of Christ? Such are wealthy persons. The creditor relaxes his hand upon the debtor. That is the gate of the city. You are not charging anybody. No, you are wealthy, rich in Christ Jesus. So Paul writes to Philemon, “I exhort thee for my child, whom I have begotten in my bonds, Onesimus … receive him as me”. That is very wonderful, very beautiful. Philemon has no option. Paul says, ‘This is the gospel working out. This is how the gate in Colosse is going to operate’.
Onesimus goes back. He has washed his garments, his robes; it is evident that he has a right to the tree of life. Philemon, in the light of this letter, would be the first to open the gate. The sister
Apphia might need a little help. Her mind might be on the things which Onesimus may have taken when he fled, because we are like that, beloved. But our minds are to be on the things that are above, not on the things that are on the earth. “Seek the things which are above, where the Christ is, sitting at the right hand of God—have your mind on the things that are above”, Colossians 3: 1, 2. The hearts of the Colossians are to be full of Christ. Paul says to Philemon, “Yea, brother, I would have profit of thee in the Lord—refresh my bowels in Christ”. He says he is confident, that Philemon will do more than he says, “knowing that thou wilt do even more than I say”. There is the street of the city; it is pure gold. It is absolutely divine. It has not been tainted by the hand of nature at all. It is love in the Spirit and love operating in its blessedness, without restriction.
I remember Mr. A. B. Parker saying once, ‘To live in this area is millionaires’ row’. You need wealth to live at this level, and all the wealth that you would ever require is to be found in Christ. The fulness of the Godhead dwells in Him bodily, “and ye are complete in him”
(see Colossians 2: 9, 10). It is very blessed, and the Lord would encourage us, beloved brethren, to rise to the greatness of what is in mind in the holy administration of divine love and grace, so that the numeral twelve is not just something that we speak about. Thank God it is in evidence amongst the brethren. I trust and pray that there might be increasing evidence and testimony to the fact that the nature of God is in circulation among the saints, evidence that the pearl is there, that the assembly is there in function and that the brethren are growing in their souls in capacity to love and to move in love and grace as Christ did. There is thus to be a reflection in every locality of the Man in the glory. May it be so, for His name’s sake.
Address in Grangemouth
27 January 1990