Kenneth Robinson
FEATURES WHICH ARE TO INCREASE
Luke 2: 19; Acts 16: 13-14; 1 Samuel 25: 32-33; Romans 16: 1-3
I would like to draw from these scriptures to call attention to four features that I believe should be on the increase amongst the saints. It is a right and healthy exercise to identify features amongst the people of God that are important. We have thought earlier today of the word in the parable as to the sowing of the seed and we saw the increase. It appears necessary and right in the days of recovery that certain features are on the increase and I would like to call attention to four such.
Each of these four scriptures refers to sisters, and I have drawn from them to bring out the importance of formative work and the expression of specific features amongst the saints. However, it will be recognised that every feature will relate also to the brothers. If the testimony is to be maintained and we to be maintained in it and conditions amongst the people of God according to God maintained, certain features require to increase amongst both the brothers and the sisters.
The first feature is pondering, a very contemplative and necessary feature. We referred to Jacob in the reading and his activity. I think pondering is necessary as well as activity. Mary pondered about the things relating to Jesus Christ. She kept them in her mind and pondered them in heart. How necessary! I am sure that the secret of the increase of substance in spiritual things amongst every age group is to ponder the things concerning Jesus Christ. We have a great privilege to have the light and knowledge of divine things. Let us not trifle with them. I trust every soul values the privilege of having light and a personal knowledge and understanding of the precious truths of God which centre in the Lord Jesus Christ. We need to make time to ponder and to take time to ponder. You say, I have a huge schedule, my day is gone before I start, my week is filled. I would suggest that we need to make time to ponder the glories of the Lord Jesus Christ. Take time to ponder the glories of the fact that God has come into manhood in Jesus; the most wonderful, deep act to be contemplated in the history of time. What Mary was pondering was the divine communication that centred in that babe that was wrapped in swaddling clothes and lying in a manger. The voice had come to her. The sign had come to the shepherds, "for to-day a Saviour has been born to you in David's city, who is Christ the Lord", Luke 2: 11. Oh the glory and greatness, the holiness of the incarnation of the Lord Jesus Christ! God come into manhood. John is a ponderer. John's gospel is full of substance as we would know, and John includes himself amongst those who have contemplated the glory of the Lord Jesus Christ - "we have contemplated his glory", John 1: 14. That is the way to a deeper and fuller understanding of the substance of the "truth as it is in Jesus".
In Hebrews 12, the scripture says; "looking stedfastly on Jesus the leader and complete of faith: who, in view of the joy lying before him, endured the cross, having despised the shame ... For consider well him" (vv 2,3). The note says 'Weigh so as to judge its value'. Every impression of Christ that we have as believers is of intrinsic value. You say, Are you referring to knowledge of the truth? That is one side. You have to learn the truth, you have to learn an understanding of the outline of divine things, but is there anything so precious as having a personal impression of the glory of the One in whom everything for God has been secured, our Lord Jesus Christ. I trust every soul here has a knowledge of the One of whom we speak, of the Lord Jesus Christ. Mary kept these things. She was the mother of Jesus and she is a great study, but she became a treasury. We can all become treasuries of impressions of the Lord Jesus Christ.
We may well ask one another, What is your personal impression of Christ? When did we last have a vital personal impression of a living Man in heaven? You say, I have come to the meetings, I am reading the Scriptures. That is precious and excellent and puts you in the way of these things, but there is more than that. We deal with precious, living, vital matters and it is essential, that there is increase amongst the saints of precious impressions of Christ that result from pondering. You say, How do I go about it? Where would I do it? Take this exercise to the Lord, into the divine presence, and into your schedule, to use the phrase. The older brethren will just pardon this reference, but in most of the organisations commercially to which we are attached you have to have your schedule. Everything is marked out and organised. We should make sure that we make time to ponder and take time to ponder. Our spiritual progress depends on having these wealthy, formed, definite, personal, full impressions of the Lord Jesus Christ. Mary pondered them, she kept them in her mind. It is an interesting verb - to contemplate. It is a 2 Timothy verb. Paul brings it before Timothy, when says "Keep, by the Holy Spirit which dwells in us, the good deposit entrusted", (2 Tim 1: 14). Mary kept these things. We should build up our treasury, build up our own experience and understanding of the truth as it centres in the Person of the Lord Jesus Christ. How great He is! We speak of One who is God over all, blessed forever. In everything that is said we need the help of the Holy Spirit to ensure that the glory of such a One is protected. There is no greater privilege than to have the light of the glory of God manifest in flesh. The hymn says:
God manifest in flesh, O wonder of His universe! (Hymn 400)
The blessed God, remaining in His own holiness and distinctiveness, yet coming into manhood in the Lord Jesus Christ, coming and bringing into expression everything that God ever desired to find in a man. Blessed glorious Man! "He shall be great, and shall be called Son of the Highest; and the Lord God shall give him the throne of David his father; and he shall reign over the house of Jacob for the ages", Luke 1: 32,33. Every type in the Old Testament looked on to the glorious antitype in Jesus. We learn about Abraham, Isaac, Joseph, David, Solomon, and many others, and the features that they bring out, but only one Man remains unique and that is the glory of the Lord Jesus Christ. He is an incomparable, glorious, blessed Man! Ponder this. Ponder His glory. The Holy Spirit will help us all in definiteness of exercise to expand in our appreciation of the glory of the Person of Christ. This feature of pondering and keeping matters in relation to the glory of the Person of Christ, the preciousness of His work must be on the increase. Do we also ponder the preciousness His work? This is the One who came down from glory's height, who thought it not an object of rapine to be on an equality with God, but emptied himself. Think of Him taking a bondman's form, being found in figure as a man and taking His place in the likeness of men. That same blessed One was not only prepared to empty Himself but He was prepared to humble Himself, even unto death, and that the death of the cross. Do we ponder the down-stooping of Jesus? Do we ponder the preciousness of His work on Calvary's cross? When did we last ponder the preciousness of the moral glories which shone out in Him from the third hour to the sixth hour, when He endured at the hands of men, in utter derision, as they gave evidence of the full blown character of man's assessment of the One whom they described as worthless and placed on a Roman cross. In this period from the third hour to the sixth the moral glories of the manhood of Jesus shone. As Peter says, "Who when reviled, reviled not again, when suffering threatened not, but gave Himself over into the hands of Him who judges righteously", 1 Peter 2: 23. Ponder these precious words on the cross "Father forgive them, for they know not what they do". The greatness and glory of God towards man in grace is exemplified in these words spoken by the Lord Jesus Christ. Then we need to ponder the period from the sixth hour to the ninth hour and the atoning work of Jesus when He was made sin. We say, we will never understand it. But let us ponder it. It needs to be protected and we need great care when speaking of it as it is a holy matter. However, if anything should move us to adoring praise and worship to the Lord Jesus, it is to consider that "Him who knew not sin he has made sin for us, that we might become God's righteousness in him", 2 Cor 5: 21. No doubt there are many other matters which could be referred to, like His burial, His resurrection involving the glorious fact that there is a Man out of death. What a thrill, what a joy, what a comfort, what an encouragement it is to ponder the glory of the One who has been marked out Son of God in power by resurrection from among the dead. The glory of the Lord Jesus ought to be before us more. The Holy Spirit will help and this will develop a foundation in our souls, so that we realise that Christ is the true Isaac and that He is great and "becoming continually greater, until He is very great", Gen 26: 13.
We may ponder this problem and that problem, or that exercise, but I commend to the brethren that we need to make time to ponder and to ponder the glories of the Lord Jesus Christ. This will be our object eternally. We sang:
Hark! ten thousand voices crying
Think of the precious release there will be as we look on that day, when redemption and the full glory of what has been secured by that precious One and His work in coming into manhood will be celebrated. Heaven will be aglow and vibrant celebrating the worthiness of the One who has accomplished it all. Precious matter!
Praise the Lamb! - the chorus waking
Think of the glory of the presentation of the Lamb. Then Mr Darby says immediately,
Praise the Lamb! - the chorus waking ...,
Rolls around the endless song.
All the Father's counsels claiming,
Equal honours to the Son (Hymn 14)
This is the language of a ponderer of the glory of the Lord Jesus! It is like gem after gem coming forth. Would you love to be able to find in yourself as you speak to the Lord Jesus something, coming through from your affections, your personal substantial impression formed by the Holy Spirit, that you can bring back to Jesus as the light of His glory comes before you?
These things are very precious, but are they on the increase? You look round your local meeting and say, There is more to that brother's part than there used to be: That brother took part to the Lord in a way which I have never heard him do before! A young brother stands up and speaks to the Lord Jesus, and you have some sense as he is speaking to Him, that he knows who he is speaking to and that he has something to say about Him. Beloved sisters look on, and the value of what they have gathered is able to be communicated and expressed publicly through the brothers and also in private conversation. They can bring out their personal appreciation as ponderers of the glory of the Lord Jesus. This needs to be amongst the saints. Things need to be on the increase, there is always the danger that other things are on the increase: and the things that ought to be on the increase are on the decrease.
I want to refer now to Acts 16 to the feature of attending. There are four references in Luke's writings to attending. Lydia is brought forward here "whose heart the Lord opened to attend to the things spoken by Paul". We need to attend to divine things. In chapter 1, Luke refers to those who had previously written, and one of his complementary features about them is that they were "attendants on the Word" (v.2). That was not Luke himself, but those that were His disciples. Think of Luke, speaking simply, in his research for his gospel, speaking to those who had been attendants on the Word - a precious feature. I think it brings out the value that is placed on divine things, Luke must have researched and spoken to souls who were attendants on the Word. No doubt he spoke to Mary. Mary would be one such person, who was an attendant on the Word. It is a fine feature. Attendant implies, I think, proximity and confidence and the ability to take in everything that relates to a subject. Somebody must have told him about the woman in Luke 7, as you do not get it in any other gospel. Think of Luke listening to "an attendant on the Word" telling him about the experience in Simon the Pharisee's house. Is that not precious? He gives a whole paragraph in his gospel to this experience of a woman in Luke 7 who came and knew she was a sinner and found her place at His feet. With tears she came, and washed His feet and wiped them with her hair. Luke brings it all out in his gospel. Somebody must have told him about these gems regarding the glory and work of Jesus. Let us value the gospels and the writings that we have in our hand, as the work of those who were attendants in relation to divine things.
Next I want to refer to an attendant in Luke 4 at the preaching in Nazareth. The Lord stood up to read and was handed the book of the prophet Esaias and he found the place where it was written "The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to preach glad tidings to the poor; he has sent me to preach to captives deliverance, and to the blind sight, to send forth the crushed delivered, to preach the acceptable year of the Lord" (v 18). The whole truth of the gospel coming forth, brought forth there into that Nazareth synagogue, and then it says, "having rolled up the book, when he had delivered it up to the attendant" (v 20). As we stand up to preach, do we feel like an attendant upon the divine Preacher, the anointed Preacher? What a responsibility it is, but yet what a privilege. Consider this scene and let it stir up exercise. The divine Preacher, the anointed Preacher, rolled up "Isaiah 61" and handed it to the attendant. What an exercise and responsibility! Are you able to convey the testimony of God's grace in the power of the Spirit of God sent from above? Are you able to be a true attendant? What a privilege, what a matter to be able to bring out the feelings and right representation of God in grace. "The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me" (v 18). An attendant is someone who is near and who understands and who sees all the eyes of the synagogue focused on the blessed Man who had spoken - "and wondered at the words of grace which were coming out of his mouth" (v 22). And the Lord Jesus says "To-day the scripture is fulfilled in your ears" (v 21). An attendant is not a careless bystander. An attendant is fully fitted to take on the responsibility of what is handed to him. There are also two references in Acts. In Acts 13, in the assembly in Antioch, the word comes as to the Holy Spirit "Separate me now Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them" (v 2). Immediately there is a comment; "And they had John also as their attendant" (v 5). Yet, later on in the chapter it says that John went away back. Early on in the opening out of the truth of Paul's ministry, this feature is highlighted but not sustained. However, the gap, we may say, is beautifully filled by Lydia in chapter 16 as she comes through with an open heart to attend to the things spoken by Paul.
Now this feature was going to be so necessary and it still remains necessary, to be an attendant upon Paul's ministry, with an opened heart touched by the Lord. Divine light has come into her soul and Luke says of her "to attend to the things spoken by Paul" (v 14). She must have listened and taken on the truth. I think it would relate to what came out afterwards in the whole Philippian ministry, as she becomes an attendant on the things spoken by Paul. Can this be said of every one of us? Do we have the desire, do we have the appreciation of the great ministry of the apostle Paul which flows from Christ glorified? One of the first features referred to as the testimony moves westward is of attending - "whose heart the Lord opened to attend to the things spoken by Paul". This needs to be on the increase. It is not a careless, haphazard feature, but a real sense of the fulfilment of responsibility and a valuation of what is there.
Another attendant in the Old Testament was Joshua. Joshua is described as an attendant at a critical point, at a point where the people had gone into idolatry in Exodus 32, where Moses is pitching the tent apart from idolatry. At that point it is said that Joshua his attendant never departed from the tent of meeting (see Exod 33: 11). That is a committal in 2 Timothy 2 days to maintain what is according to divine principle and to divine commandment. When he is referred to later in Numbers 27, it is "take Joshua" (v 18), not now described as Moses attendant but as a man in whom is the Spirit and he is one who is ready to cause the people to inherit. How precious these things are! We see in a good number of our localities elder brethren being taken. Their part in the testimony is over and they have the blessed privilege of being with Christ, which is very much better. However, the onus now is for us younger brethren to come forward and take up responsibility. This needs to be on the increase. While one detail of it is attending meetings, it is important to see what your attendance is related to. It is not exactly to the maintenance of a position, but it is attending to the things which relate to the gospel, things which relate to a glorified Christ, things which relate to the truth now of the Spirit indwelling the assembly, and things which relate to the saints inheriting God's purpose for them. It is suggestive that as the attendant in John in Acts 13 goes back, what comes through in Lydia is the same feature maintained as the testimony moves westward. Let it be on the increase.
In 1 Samuel it is discernment. This is very exercising, but a very necessary feature amongst the people of God. Abigail was, as we understand from the teaching, one of the full types of the assembly in the Old Testament. Mr Taylor has a fine set of readings on the truth of the assembly as brought out in types in the Old Testament. In 1 Samuel 25, Abigail's discernment shines. Her discernment shines as she preserves the glory of David and to preserve life. She maintains and operates "with the supply of the Spirit of Jesus Christ". Discernment is necessary in the things of God. To both Timothy and Titus, Paul says "be sober". The need for sobriety is linked with discernment. I do not think sobriety is a long face and a glum approach to life. I think. it is having a sober and clear judgment and assessment of all that is going on. That is needed. I do not think inexperience, rashness, and a lack of understanding of the principles of the house of God ought to be evident among the saints. There needs to be clear understanding of the truth and principles which govern the house of God. Discernment flows from this.
One man who prayed for it was Solomon. He prayed for discernment, and God granted it to him. How valuable therefore to everyone of us is his book. of Proverbs. He wrote three thousand proverbs and his songs were a thousand and five! Thirty-one chapters full of discernment and guidance. I remember a touch of Mr Brian Deck's: A chapter for every day in the month. A good habit would be to read one chapter from the book of Proverbs on each day of the month!
Hebrews 5 tells us "solid food belongs to full-grown men, who, on account of habit, have their senses exercised for distinguishing both good and evil" (v 14). Discernment is needed in every local meeting, by parents, in household and family matters, by individuals in every exercise. It is the ability to assess and decide what is right and fit and appropriate for the testimony, whether it be in a believer's life or the believer's house, or behaviour among the people of God.
Another source of help in this feature can be found in the letters of the brothers who served in the recovery. These letters are of value and indicate in many occasions careful assessment and then guidance and comment. They are well worth reading. It may relate to a person's state or health, or an exercise that may be proceeding in a household, or an exercise that relates to a locality, or even an area or feature of doctrine. Abigail preserved life. She brought forward food, and the other beautiful feature often referred to in relation to her in 1 Samuel 25 is that of going down. One company went down from one side of the hill, and another went down from the other side of the hill. We do not live in a day for personal or self justification; we can leave that with the Lord Jesus in His own time. In the meantime we want the feature of Abigail to develop in every local meeting.
Finally Romans 16 refers to helping. Paul writes the whole Roman letter, it brings out the truth of the gospel and in the last chapter says; "I commend to you Phoebe, our sister", and she was a helper. She was a patron and she did what was necessary, and how Paul appreciated the fact. He does not describe her for her knowledge; he commends her as being a helper. We can all increase in this feature and we can help one another in practical matters, in conversation, in way of life, in influence, and in many other ways.
I want to commend these four features which I believe need to be on the increase amongst us. May we not be saying that worldly features are on the increase. May some of the features that are on the increase amongst the saints relate to pondering, attending, discerning and helping for God's glory.
DORKING
2 May 1998