SIMPLICITY AS TO THE CHRIST
I think Paul’s fears would be fully justified today as to the danger of our hearts being deflected from the kind of Man that Jesus is. I would like to read the footnote to verse 3, which says, ‘‘Simplicity’ here refers, not to a personal trait, but to the doctrine as to Christ; what a faithful heart retained in simplicity, as taught in the truth’. We would all like to have that, a faithful heart, what it retains in simplicity. Things have become very complex; Christianity is not complicated, but there have been many intrusions that have confused persons as to simplicity as to the Christ. There is one thing that stands out, dear brethren, He has left the world and all its facets. Someone wrote in a local newspaper, trying to justify education, sport and these things, that if Christ were here He would be the greatest professor in education, He would be the greatest sportsman in the world of sport, and so on. The next week some faithful soul wrote, Is this the Christ of Isaiah 53? No, there is no room for Him in this world, dear friend. However much they may attach His name to education or sport or any other thing, the world has no room for Christ.
Room for pleasure, room for business,
But for Christ, the Crucified—
Not a place that He can enter,
In the heart for which He died!
Daniel W Whittle (1840-1901)
I would like to stimulate our hearts as to simplicity as to the Christ. The devil is set against it, he is particularly set against the expression of assembly features as to Christ. Paul says here, “But I fear ... as the serpent deceived Eve by his craft”—“his craft”—not openly, though he is also denying the Person of Christ, he is very craftily confusing the affections of believers as to simplicity as to Christ, and especially as to the expression of assembly features. That is the attack today, as it has always been, against the assembly. Christ is in glory, but the attack is to spoil what is here for His pleasure. These attacks are going on, they become more prominent from time to time, but I believe there is a need for being warned that what is being spoiled is the assembly for Christ, in the undermining of assembly features. Well, how are they to be preserved? When Eve came on the scene the serpent became very active, it says he “deceived Eve by his craft”, not openly but he sowed doubts. That is what the enemy is doing today, he is sowing doubts in the hearts of the saints as to simplicity as to the Christ. He not only sowed doubts in the heart of Eve; he sowed seeds of pride in her heart. These things work in all our hearts, the seeds of pride. He would cause Eve to get out of her place. Did she refer to Adam about it? Not a bit, there is no reference in Genesis as to Eve asking Adam about what the serpent had said. Do we take to the Lord, dear brethren, things that come in that would spoil assembly features, and Christ having the assembly for His joy? In not speaking to Adam about it, she got out of her place. The enemy is very active to get us to act out of our place, and take us beyond our measure in what we may say and do among the saints. May we be kept in simplicity as to the Christ.
How charming is the simplicity of the Man of Isaiah 53, “he shall grow up before him as a tender sapling, and as a root out of dry ground: he hath no form nor lordliness, and when we see him, there is no beauty that we should desire him”, Isa 53: 2. It is a beautiful chapter, as to the lowliness of Jesus. There was nothing complicated about Jesus, or in the way He settled matters. They brought to Him almost unsolvable problems, as to whether it was lawful to give tribute to Caesar, for example. They thought they had a great case, the lawyers I suppose framed the question. They would say, You say it is God we should render tribute to, and we are under Caesar, what do we do? Jesus says, “Shew me a denarius. Whose image and superscription has it?”. They said, “Caesar’s”, and He said, “Pay therefore what is Caesar’s to Caesar, and what is God’s to God”, see Luke 20: 24. How simple! They brought to Him that woman in John 8, another difficult case. What did He do? He stooped down and wrote on the ground. How simple are these movements of Jesus that would charm and form our hearts that we may be preserved in simplicity as to the Christ.
The footnote speaks about doctrine. We used to be told that doctrine is like the banks of the river, and the banks keep the river in its place. An old brother used to tell us to take care that you do not become all banks and no river. The main thing is the river. Far be it from me to undermine good doctrine, but the great importance of doctrine is to lead to the Person. Do not become a professor, someone who thinks he knows all the answers; someone who thinks he can solve all the problems. The problems are all solved in simplicity as to the Christ. How simple the ark was. God said, Make an ark of wood. He might have said, Make an ark of gold. No, the ark was made of acacia-wood, speaking of the lowliness and endurance of Jesus; the One who was here in wilderness circumstances, God’s eye resting on Him. That holy ark, how beautiful things are spoken about it, an ark of wood. God said, “I went about in a tent”, 2 Sam 7: 6. Oh the lowliness of Jesus—“I went about in a tent”. There it was, that ark of wood—what an answer to all the murmurings, the ark was always the same, in the wilderness and in the land. See it in Dagon’s house and what happens? The whole power is broken, in the presence of that ark of wood, overlaid with gold. In the type, Moses must have fed upon the manhood of Christ; how the priests must have fed upon it; it illuminated the whole journey; it was there always the same, that holy ark.
These features remind us of the simple charm of Jesus. Rising above the clouds of darkness, despair and discontent, is the charm of that Man. He is to be the centre, dear brethren, in all our gatherings. He is to be the theme of our conversations; He is to be the Object of our hearts. It is very fine to speak to a believer about Christ. I met an old woman the other week, as she was telling me about her conversion her face radiated when she spoke about Jesus. I had never met her before, but just in the conversation she referred to God and I referred to the Lord and her face lit up; she was crippled, but she rejoiced to speak in simplicity as to the Christ. It is fine not to be hardened, or academic as to the Person of Jesus. He has His own charm—
How sweet the Name of Jesus sounds
In a believer’s ear! (Hymn 54)
The verse goes on to say, ‘It soothes his sorrows’; some of the things we say may aggravate the sorrow. The Name of Jesus brings in calm to the soul. How sweet it is! I say, How often is it in our conversations, simplicity as to the Christ. The newly converted soul can speak about Him; and the man or the woman who has been on the way all their life does not tire in speaking about Him, or become hardened in their affections.
When Paul had to speak before Agrippa, what does he choose to speak about? He could have told Agrippa about things that God had done for him, or his exploits, but he speaks about Jesus that appeared to him in the way, his heart was kept tender and simple as to the Person of Christ. He said that a light above the brightness of the sun shone round about him, see Acts 26: 13. It illumined his heart and life. It was the great theme, and the great stay in all his experience.
Well, in Isaiah 42 God is calling attention to Christ as His Servant, “Behold my servant”. He does not say, Behold My King; that would not have been out of place. Isaiah gives some beautiful touches as to that word, “Behold”. It involves our eyes turning away to look on God’s Servant. You wonder at these expressions in the Old Testament, these writers must have wondered who God was speaking about. “Behold my servant whom I uphold, mine elect in whom my soul delighteth!”. Oh the joy that God has found in the humanity of Jesus! He has passed by every other man. Samuel, when he saw Eliab coming in, thought surely this is God’s man; I am sure he looked an outstanding man. No, God has not chosen this; He has rejected that kind of man. Another one comes in and Samuel says, Neither has Jehovah chosen this one, 1 Sam 16: 6–8. Well, may our eyes not be drawn away by another kind of man.
There is only one Man before God; only one Man been justified, raised from among the dead; God has glorified His Holy Servant Jesus. Think of Luke 2 as Christ came into this world in lowliness, in those conditions that were even abnormal for the society of men. The angels announced that One so great had come into these lowly conditions, it says, “today a Saviour has been born ... who is Christ the Lord”, Luke 2: 11. Mr Darby says—
How rightly rose the praises
Of heaven that wondrous night.
and again—
More just those acclamations,
Than when the glorious band
Chanted earth’s deep foundations,
Just laid by God’s right hand.
The creation was a wonderful matter, but the incoming of Jesus surpassed it all. The angels saw there God drawing near in grace in Jesus and, if earth was silent, they could not withhold acclaiming, “today a Saviour has been born ... who is Christ the Lord”. His lowliness did not hide His greatness in their eyes; great beings they were, but that lowly Babe in the manger did not becloud the glory of who was there—“a Saviour ... who is Christ the Lord”.
Well, God says, “mine elect in whom my soul delighteth!”. He delighted in the incarnation and in those silent years that we read very little about; He delighted in the movements of Jesus as He was subject to His parents; He delighted in the way that He grew up as a tender sapling, a root out of dry ground. He did not derive anything from the scene into which He came; He brought everything in with Him, the lowliness and grace Jesus displayed. He brought in with Him. He derived nothing from the scene into which He came but sorrow, tears, grief; but He brought grace, dispensing it liberally to all humanity. What it must have been to God to see a Man who could heal the leper, who could touch such in all their infirmity. The devil sought by the temptations to take Him out of the place of “my servant”, but in them all, He was perfect. He says, “Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God”, Matt 4: 7. The devil left Him for a season but when Jesus rose from the dead, the power of the enemy was broken and broken for ever. How He has glorified God! “My servant … in whom my soul delighteth!”
There on the mount of transfiguration, God for a moment gave Peter and James and John an insight into His delight in Jesus, “This is my beloved Son, in whom I have found my delight”. How interesting those thirty-three and a half years were to heaven; it is all chronicled there, and we will have a better view of it some day I am sure. Then it adds, “I will put my Spirit upon him”. He was anointed, God committed Himself to Jesus; the Spirit came upon Him. What a beautiful movement John saw, as he says, “I beheld the Spirit descending as a dove from heaven, and it abode upon him”, John 1: 32. It abode upon Him, He was honoured by heaven. Despised on earth, He was the Object of heaven’s attention.
Then, “he shall bring forth judgment to the nations”. God has committed everything in this dispensation into the hands of Christ and into the hands of the Spirit. How beautifully He handles things—“A bruised reed shall he not break, and smoking flax shall he not quench”. How readily we may do that you know. As marked by simplicity as to the Christ, we would not discourage any soul as to their links with Christ, “A bruised reed shall he not break”. Things almost gone, you may say, what use is a bruised reed? In His hands He makes it strong. Think of that woman bowed down for eighteen years, a bruised reed you may say, but a daughter of Abraham. I suppose very few thought of her like that, they thought of that poor crippled woman; the Lord speaks of her as a daughter of Abraham, Luke 13: 16. He makes the most of everything that is there—“and smoking flax shall he not quench: he shall bring forth judgment according to truth”. May we make way in simplicity as to the Christ that these things may work in hearts that are drawn to Him, and held in relation to Him. He does not make it complicated, nor long drawn out either. He would not need a lot of letters or long telephone conversations to sort it out; the whole thing is sorted out in simplicity as to the Christ. Christ and the assembly are the great issue. As these things are seen in their true glory, matters are relatively easily settled.
I think John would help us as to how they are settled. He says as to Christ He was preferred before me. John’s ministry, I think, is to help us in the settlement of things. The ministry of John the baptist takes away every other man; he says that the axe was applied to the root of the trees. It is very interesting that in a critical time in John’s gospel, the Lord went to the place where John was baptising at the first, see John 10: 40. Maybe we need to make room for the way John would operate in his ministry to put the axe to the root of the tree; not only dealing with the fruits of it and the branches, but to be able to apply the axe to the root of the tree, and be established in what John was teaching. What was that? The baptism of repentance, repentance brings us back to simplicity as to the Christ, and the charm of His grace fills the soul; John’s ministry came in to remove the kind of man that stood in the way.
Think of Jesus coming in unrecognised, “He came to his own, and his own received him not” (John 1: 11); they had not that simplicity as to the Christ. Dear brethren, do we recognise Him when He is spoken about? Do we recognise Him when He comes in? Samuel was brought to that as it says, “Arise, anoint him; for this is he” (1 Sam 16: 12)—not Eliab nor any of these other men. He is without a rival, “Arise, anoint him; for this is he”. John’s ministry brings about that there is no rival to Christ. John was not going to be a rival. No, he says, my ministry is the baptism of repentance—repent from all the complications that have come into your life, repent from these things that have beclouded the lowliness of Jesus, repent, make way for God’s Man, “my servant whom I uphold, mine elect in whom my soul delighteth!”.
Well, it says that “he sees Jesus coming to him, and says, Behold the Lamb of God”, another “Behold”—“Behold the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world”. What a sight to fill his vision; how simple, God’s Lamb, God’s Man, the Man of Isaiah 53—“he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities”. Can you say, With His stripes I am healed? He is the Man who was wounded for our transgressions; the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. I said the Christ of Isaiah 53; I may have said the Christ of Philippians 2, the Bondman. That is how He was here—
Nor yet in triumph passing,
But human infancy! (Hymn 188)
How Paul delighted to write about Him! He took “his place in the likeness of men; and having been found in figure as a man, humbled himself, becoming obedient even unto death” (Phil 2: 7, 8)—the simplicity as to the Christ, that is how He met things, beloved. The complications of sin, and all that had come into the world since Adam onward, He met it, the Lamb of God met it, the taking away the sin of the world involved the sacrifice of Himself. What an example to us, dear brethren, maybe to suffer more and speak less. Maybe too, to take home to ourselves the responsibilities of things that have come in, and be affected by the way that Christ has gone to remove the man who has brought in the difficulties—“Behold the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world”. How could John have understood that? What a matter was the sin of the world—Who could measure it? God alone, and God alone has provided the Lamb.
Well, John saw that, how he delighted to speak about Him, and again, on the morrow, he says, “Behold the Lamb of God”. He is not now thinking about the sin question; but about the Person who did the work. These words, “Behold the Lamb of God”, seemed to attract these disciples. Would that we could speak about Jesus more attractively to cause persons to raise the question, Where abidest Thou? Where does it all come from? How can we be maintained in the lowliness of Jesus? How can we be maintained in simplicity as to the Christ? Jesus says, “Come and see”. How simple! He could have said a lot of other things. He could have given them a letter to read; He could have referred them to Isaiah or some other scripture, but He says, “Come and see”. They went to see, and they abode with Him that day. How formative it was! Andrew came out from the presence of Jesus and found his own brother. What would he tell him? He would not tell him about the splendour of a great house. No, he would speak about simple things; perhaps about how He gave thanks for His food or how He spoke about the Father. He would speak about the simplicity of His manner and the charm of the Man. May our hearts be affected by it, the simplicity as to the Christ. The Lamb of God who met the greatest difficulty that there has ever been in the history of mankind, met it in suffering love, He met it by dying. All our sorrows and problems are answered in the Lamb of God, “the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world”. He has met difficulties, not by talking about them, but in a suffering way, a Man of another kind.
May our hearts be encouraged as John was encouraging these disciples to follow Jesus. May the theme of our hearts and our conversation be the Person and His work, what He has done for God, how He has made Himself increasingly precious to God in the way He has gone. God has glorified His holy Servant Jesus. May we heed Paul’s appeal, that we may not be corrupted from simplicity as to the Christ. I say in closing, the attacks are against the assembly, spoiling what is here that is simple and true and loyal to our absent Lord. He is absent, the testimony is here, the assembly is here, and it will be here until the end. The city of Revelation 21 will be the display of what has been formed in time by the Spirit of God, in which Christ is finding His delight and joy. May it be increasingly our theme, our occupation, Christ and the assembly. For Christ’s Name’s sake.
COLCHESTER
26th June 1993