AN UNFADING INHERITANCE

A. Martin

Isaiah 40: 6–8; 1 Peter 1: 3–5; Ezekiel 47: 1–7, 12; Revelation 19: 6–8

I have a very simple impression, beloved, as to what does not fade. The scripture we read in Isaiah speaks of what does fade, and I want first to touch briefly on that because it is something that we need to understand. We were saying in the reading that what is of nature holds us more than we realise. Nature in its place is right, but nature is limited, and nature is bounded by death. That is something that we need to understand, and I believe the sooner we do the better it is for our souls, to realise that all around us will come to an end, and, if the Lord Jesus does not come to take us away, it will come to an end in death.

The prophet here is speaking to God’s people, he is appealing to them, and he is saying, “all flesh”. The people of God consistently over the centuries wanted to go the way of the nations but the prophet would say, “all flesh is grass”. It springs up and it dies down, it has no depth of root, “all flesh is grass”. He speaks about the comeliness of it, the most attractive things about the flesh have all to go in God’s sight, they are all put away in the death of Jesus. We were speaking about things which came up over the course of the last two hundred years and that was another thing that came up, there were those who thought that there were certain features of the first man that were not so bad, but the whole of the flesh has been finished in the death of Jesus. If God saw man in flesh and blood condition in perfection in Jesus, and Jesus went into death, that means that the whole order has gone in death as far as God is concerned, even the comeliness of it. Even nature tells us that, those beautiful and attractive things according to nature all end. The prophet says, “The grass withereth, the flower fadeth”. What a dismal picture he paints! You might say, Poor Isaiah, do you not have better news than that? And this is the gospel prophet, the great preacher among the prophets. There were other preachers of course, Jonah was actually called to preach, he was sent to preach. Isaiah is not called a preacher but his prophecy is a great message of the gospel, but he brings in this point and to appreciate the gain of the gospel you have to understand that even the best of what is of nature fades and withers.

Now Peter quotes this passage in his epistle. He does not say ‘fades’. Peter I think had learnt the lesson, he says, “The grass has withered and its flower has fallen”, 1 Peter 1: 24. Fading is the beginning of the process. We were remarking recently that in the south, early in the summer, it was noticed that something was wrong with many of the trees and the leaves began to fade. Early in the summer something was working, and that is the way things happen. The flesh works and you see first of all there is a fading; it is the beginning of the process. I wonder if anyone here is like that. I wonder if anyone here can look back and can say, there was a time when I was in much greater soul vigour than I am now. Why is it? Get back to the Lord. The Lord is faithful; He took account of His people in the next prophet, Jeremiah. He said, “I remember for thee the kindness of thy youth, the love of thine espousals, when thou wentest after me in the wilderness, in a land not sown”, Jeremiah 2: 2. He said, I treasure that love, but in Jeremiah’s day what expression of it was there? The leaf had faded. Ah, beloved, let not the leaf fade, let there be life in what is seen today, let us not be like those who as one tragic poet said,

‘My life is in the yellow leaf;

The flowers and fruit of love are gone;

The worm, the canker, and the grief

Are mine alone’.

What a tragic poet he was. One beloved brother wrote in answer to that,

‘My life is in the yellow leaf,

But I have heard God’s call above;

No worm, nor canker and no grief

Are in His love’.

(‘Selection of Poems’ compiled by G. H. S. Price, p.162). Beloved, that kept that brother going for over ninety years. Let us not be those who say our outlook is the yellow leaf; that is the outlook of nature, the grass withers and the flower fades; but there is something which abides, the word of the Lord goes through.

Think of the words of the Lord Jesus Himself. He says, “The heaven and the earth shall pass away, but my words shall in no wise pass away”, Matthew 24: 35. Think of the glory and greatness of One who could stand upon this very earth and in perfect truth and assurance and power, utter those words. The word of the Lord abideth for ever. Beloved, how great that is. Let us lay hold of the word of God, lay hold of the Scriptures. You say, Well there is not much time, life is busy. I say, start the day at any rate with one verse, start the day with something. Develop an appetite for reading the Scriptures, develop an appetite for reading about the truth. If you read corrupting things you will develop an appetite for them and what will it lead to? It will lead to misery, to want, to privation in your soul, but you can develop an appetite for the truth and that is something that you never regret. Ah, beloved, that is an appetite that will lead to soul satisfaction and lead to it for the rest of your life.

The word of God abides for eternity. What does it say? What Peter writes is the word of God. He says, “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who, according to his great mercy, has begotten us again to a living hope”. A living hope was something that was in Peter’s soul, it was living, he could not keep it down. Think of Peter, he laid down his life for this; he laid down his life on account of his living hope. Here was a man in whom the work of God was so great and so living that nothing on earth mattered. We read of his failures; I am glad we do because they give us encouragement. The fact that we read of the failures of a man like Peter is a simple evidence that he gained from them, he learnt their lessons, and when you read his epistles you can see that he learnt the lessons from each of his failures. He says, “has begotten us again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from among the dead”, leading us on, beloved, to what is not bounded by death, to what is eternal, “the resurrection of Jesus Christ from among the dead”, and then he goes on “to an incorruptible and undefiled and unfading inheritance”.

It has often been pointed out the way in which decline comes in is the reverse order to that, things fade, then they become defiled and then they become corrupt. That is the way things work according to nature, but our inheritance is incorruptible, and not only that it is undefiled, and not only that it is even unfading. What is our inheritance? It is really our portion, our association with Christ in the assembly, our association with Him and with His people, our association with Him in His own sphere, His own realm, our part with Him there. That is our inheritance and it is unfading, it is glorious and it will remain glorious as it was in the day when the Lord Jesus rose from among the dead; our inheritance will remain as glorious as it was in God’s thoughts from all eternity, it was glorious in His heart and in His mind.

Peter says, You have been begotten for this, “An incorruptible and undefiled and unfading inheritance”. Do you have an impression of the inheritance? Do you have an impression of what it will be to be associated, without the encumbrances of these bodies, in the presence of Jesus? That is the greatness of it but, beloved, we have the experience of it in our spirits, and if you experience something in your spirit, it is genuinely an experience. I say that because sometimes people might say that you might touch something in your spirit but really you are still here in flesh and blood condition. No, the spirit is the man, and if you enter into something in your spirit you have entered into it, and that is something, beloved, that is going to be yours and remain yours eternally. And so we have been called to this incorruptible, undefiled and unfading inheritance. No thought of God’s will fade. Everything connected with the earth will, even the millennium will show decline at the end. Is that not a sorrowful thing? It will but, beloved, there will be no decline in what is heavenly, it is unfading.

I read in Ezekiel about divine resources. Peter wrote to those who were going through tribulation, and what he wrote is that even though you are going through tribulations you are not to start declining because you are kept guarded, you are kept guarded by the power of God. How do I prove the power of God? It is the presence of the Holy Spirit. The presence of the Holy Spirit who keeps my footsteps, keeps me walking in the way of righteousness, keeps me in relation with Christ on high, keeps me in relation to His people here. How wonderful is the service of the Holy Spirit. We were reading in the previous occasion of the beautiful figure of that divine Person; it says, “all the treasure of his master was under his hand”, Genesis 24: 10. All of heaven’s resources are under the hand of the Holy Spirit, and what we have in Ezekiel is really the outflow of divine resources. It relates in its literal teaching to the millennium and it is interesting to read that. The prophet was brought to Jerusalem and he was shown the house and he was taken around it, and these chapters are extraordinary chapters because the detail and the measurements of everything is given.

They are most extraordinary chapters, but then he is brought to this point and he says, “waters issued out from under the threshold of the house”. What it implies is that there are divine resources coming from God’s house, coming from God Himself. It is like the end of Revelation. Revelation and Ezekiel are parallel books, they are each written by someone who is in exile, they each saw the breakdown, Ezekiel saw the glory departing. John recorded the addresses to the assemblies, with the Lord saying to one that unless it repented He would remove its lamp. They are parallel books but they both end with the glory and with the river, the river of God flowing out, bright as crystal. Ezekiel sees it here and this man says to him, You have to pass through, you have to enter into it. It is no good just watching, looking from the side, you have to enter into it.

It says he “caused me to pass through”. He is saying, Come on, come into the waters, and “he measured a thousand cubits”. You might say that is a long way, “the waters were to the ankles”. Ah, beloved, maybe on an occasion like this you enjoy meeting the saints, you enjoy hearing the Scriptures, you enjoy hearing the brethren discussing the truth together and you say, Well that was nice, and you go home, the waters may have reached the ankles. Maybe you go home and get on your knees, you have gone another thousand cubits, the waters reached the knees, that is better still. Maybe your affections have been touched and you make a committal, you say my affections are now held in relation to the Man in the glory, the waters have reached the loins, I am going to hold myself for Him. Then he measured another thousand and the waters could not be passed through. That is what divine resources are like, they could not be passed through. We had a touch in Buckhurst Hill a little while ago, “the river of God is full of water”, Psalm 65: 9. Think of that expression—what a wonderful thing, the river of God is full of water, and that is what we have here. The river of God is flowing out and there is no diminution of it, the waters could not be passed through. It does not say that he could not enter them, no, but he could not pass through. Let us bathe ourselves in the blessedness of what is flowing from the throne of God today. It is still flowing. It is not awaiting a day when Christ’s throne will be set up in relation to earth. For those who acknowledge His rights, and those who have put their trust in Him and own Him as Lord and Saviour, and have the gift of the Holy Spirit, and have found their place and enjoyment in divine things, find those waters are flowing. They are flowing today freely, nothing will hinder my enjoyment of them except myself; I am the only one who will hinder that but let us enjoy these waters.

And not only that, let us take root by them, let us draw from them. And so the prophet comes back and the man says to him, “hast thou seen this?” Well he saw the waters, but he says ‘I am going to show you something else. I am going to show you the saints in a new light. You have partaken of the divine supply, now I am going to show you the saints in a new light’. He “brought me back to the bank of the river. When I returned, behold, on the bank of the river were very many trees”. Have you ever had that experience, seen the saints in a new light? I may have been local with a brother for many years and have never appreciated him like this before. I see him in a new light, I see there is something in his soul which is heavenly and draws from what is flowing out; if only I had appreciated that before. He would say, go into the waters, enjoy all that is flowing from God and then come back and see what is there, see what is growing beside the waters. It is the saints, and later on he says, “and by the river, upon its bank, on the one side and on the other, shall grow all trees for food, whose leaf shall not fade”. If we are maintained as drawing upon the Holy Spirit, as drawing on the divine supply that comes through Him in every circumstance, in turning to Him. If we are maintained in links like that, what will we find? The leaves will not fade, there will be a living answer and there will be something for others, there will be food, there will be something to supply food and healing for others. How that tests us! It tests me! How much healing is needed but, beloved, there is resource for it, resource to keep fresh, resource for supply for others, resource for healing.

Jeremiah says, “Is there no balm in Gilead? is there no physician there? Why then is there no dressing applied for the healing of the daughter of my people?”, Jeremiah 8: 22. Let us be exercised currently in this service of healing; how are we able to do it? By drawing on divine supply, drawing on the Holy Spirit and what flows down from heaven. So that let us occupy ourselves with whatever comes to our hands to do, the things that relate to the Lord, there is supply to sustain us in it. If the Lord tells us to do something we have to do it, we really have no choice. Let us be occupied as drawing on this supply. We may say we are not able to. I think the Lord would use us in the areas that we feel we are naturally not suited for, because it demonstrates that there is a supply that comes from above which is greater than nature, greater than anything here.

In Revelation we find that there is something bright and pure. This verse was confirmed in the reading, “And it was given to her that she should be clothed in fine linen, bright and pure; for the fine linen is the righteousnesses of the saints”. Every action that you do in love for the Lord, everything that you give up in love for the Lord, everything that you are prepared to do as governed by Him and as drawing on the power of the Holy Spirit, goes into this wonderful, beautiful garment, this glorious garment. There is nothing there for the flesh, “fine linen, bright and pure”. The assembly will shine out radiantly. This has been my impression, that there is something which is going to shine out in radiance, brilliance. I love these last two chapters, “Her shining was like a most precious stone, as a crystal-like jasper stone”, Revelation 21: 11. Think of that glorious city just shining out in all its radiance. The glory of God is there but here she comes as the bride, the Lamb’s wife. The wife is the one who is responsible, faithful in the time of His absence, “and his wife has made herself ready”. What we find is that her clothing is the righteousnesses of the saints, giving Christ His place, giving Him that which He is looking for, the righteousnesses of the saints.

Beloved, that is my impression. I have spoken feebly, I know, but there is such a contrast between divine things and all that is around. We have been called to an incorruptible and undefiled and unfading inheritance. It is ours to explore now, something which will never fade, which will never grow dim; we have been called to that. We have divine resource to help us so that we may be maintained unfading as drawing on the Holy Spirit, and thus as contributing to the brightness of what will be seen in a day to come. May the Lord bless the word.

Address at Grangemouth
26 September 2009