PARTNERSHIP

PARTNERSHIP

1

A. C. Craig

PERSONS TESTED BY THE ABSENCE OF CHRIST

9

J. Renton

GLAD TIDINGS FROM GOD FOR MEN

14

D. J. Hutson

EXTRACT

23

A. C. Craig

1 Corinthians 1: 9; Exodus 30: 11–16; Luke 5: 1–11; 24: 40–43

I want to use these scriptures to say something about partnership. First of all how God has acted to introduce us to it, then our side of it, and then how it works out. It is not shareholding but partnership. A shareholder, what he is concerned about (he may not attend many meetings) is interest on his investment; that is all he is concerned about, so we should not be shareholders. But a partner owns the thing, that is the extent of interest he has in it is that he belongs to it, he is a partner. It is a very vital matter when we come to that, that what we belong to is not just something that I can exercise my individual opinion about. I have to consider others because what is involved in this is the truth that we speak about as one body, that belongs to this matter that we are in as partners, the great truth of the one body. That is a vital matter. And too, I am bound to it, for there are certain articles that belong to this partnership that I have to abide by. I am bound therefore. So I would raise the interest especially of the younger people as to what this is and how it works out, so that I am not just a casual onlooker as to what is going on, but I am committed to the thing, I belong to it; it belongs to me, and others, but it belongs to me. It is not only a question of what I am going to get out of it, it is a question of how the thing is going to work out for the testimony and the pleasure of God.

It begins, dear brethren, in Luke, with the great thought of the Father’s business in a Boy of twelve. Are there any twelve year olds here? The Lord Jesus as a Boy of twelve says, “did ye not know ...?” He was surprised at them. Joseph and Mary, “did ye not know that I ought to be occupied in my Father’s business?”,

Luke 2: 49. Luke pursues that line, and that is why I have referred to this matter in these two chapters, the Father’s business; and to think that He would call us into it, that is 1

Corinthians, “God is faithful, by whom ye have been called into the fellowship”, or partnership, the same word, “of his Son Jesus Christ our Lord”. Now it is grace that calls us in, faithfulness keeps us in it. “God is faithful”, but it is the sovereignty of His love and grace that has called us in. It is not what we put in it at first, it is a question of God having acted in His goodness, in His selecting grace He has come to us, and He has brought us in in His grace to this wonderful fellowship of His Son. What a dignity! Have you ever thought about that?

You go into your closet and you kneel down with the Scriptures spread out before you. Do you young people do that? That is what I do and I am not young any more, but I still go in, and I put my Bible down in front of me and read it on my knees. I want to get the utmost gain out of it. Well, you do that and get some impression as to the greatness of God and that He selects you. Think of that, He selects you to be brought into the fellowship of His Son. There is not anything greater that you could think about than that, and you go along day by day in exercise and He is faithful to keep you. Of course if you are not interested there may be the danger of being diverted, but He is faithful provided you show interest. You get occupied, like the Lord Jesus, in this great matter, find out more about it and how you can subscribe to it, what you can do to advance it. It is a very precious thought that God’s interests, the interests of Christ are down here, and He would have each of us fully exercised as to the greatness of that, as to the sovereignty of His grace that He has brought us into this dignified fellowship. That is God’s side of it.

Our side is that we pay half a shekel. All the people that were numbered had to pay half a shekel. That was their part as coming into this fellowship, into

this partnership, they pay half a shekel. The rich had not to give more nor the poor less, that was standard. Bear in mind you are coming into a partnership, and it is not a question of I have so many shares and you have so many more shares, that is not the idea. We pay our half shekel. Everybody comes in having contributed something. I remember reading in Mr Raven’s ministry, not just in this connection, but the principle applies, he says that he would expect that everybody coming into fellowship would have to surrender something. The principle lies there, that I am coming in interested in what is going on, and it exercises me. It is not just sailing into it with no exercise, but it exercises me that I have to surrender, something. So every one numbered had to pay half a shekel. That was what went wrong in David’s time when he numbered the people and God came in in judgment, he did not get the people to pay half a shekel. Paying half a shekel is the recognition of the divine rights. I have to come to it as an individual, I have to acknowledge God’s rights. David when he numbered the people, all he was concerned about was his own rights, and his own prestige and his own place as being over this great numerous people. He did not pay the half shekel. The half shekel, as I said, is the recognition on my part of God’s rights. God has rights.

I want to link that with the fact of offering our bodies a living sacrifice. By the compassions of God, you might say, by the goodness of God, by the fact that He has brought me into this wonderful fellowship, the dignity of it, of His Son Jesus Christ our Lord. What is my reaction to this great act of God? All His goodness to me in those wonderful chapters 3, 4 and 5 of the epistle to the Romans, where the good will of God is flowing out towards men, everything flowing out; there is no demand, no request yet. Everything is flowing out from God in chapters 3, 4 and 5. Then in chapters 6, 7 and 8 is my response to it, and I come to it that all I can do in response to these compassions of God is to offer my body a living sacrifice. What have you offered?

What have you offered to this great system of things, the Father’s business? What have you given? What do you give? In chapter 12 you come to the great truth of one body in Christ.

We all get the sense then of having paid our half shekel, each one has a personal vital interest in this. At the altar I offer my body as a living sacrifice and I come to the great truth that there is one body. As you realise that you have a part in the one body in Christ, you would not be a part of any other body.

That brings me to the articles, the articles of the partnership, and Romans 12 introduces that thought. It does not develop it but it gives you the light that there is one body. You have shown interest by the fact that you have offered your body and you are ready for the next step. You are ready to advance in the welfare of the business, of the partnership, and you come to this thought that there is one body. You are conscious of others. In Romans you are hardly conscious of anybody else until you come to that. It is individual, but then you come to the fact that there is one body and there are other partners. These other partners involve that we have to keep to the articles. It is not like what you find in Christendom where people get to do what they want, and they set their own standards. That is not it. This partnership is governed by articles, and they are binding. Now 2 Corinthians 6: 14–16 gives you five articles and they are all binding—participation, fellowship, consent, part, agreement, there are five articles there. This truth, beloved brethren, is in danger of being surrendered. There are persons who once held to that, who have given it up, even dare to say that that scripture is no more a basis for separation. Yet these are the things that bind us, they are the articles that govern the fellowship, “Wherefore come out from the midst of them, and be separated”. If you give up that binding you will exercise your own option, your own opinion, and you will soon lose your way. We must accept the articles are binding to this fellowship.

Well now, this half shekel is very interesting for the younger people. All these people contributed, it went to the making of the bases upon which the boards were set up. Each board had two sockets of silver, and that half shekel that you or I paid goes to making up the sockets in which the board stands up. You can see the importance of this, that a person in Israel would say, I have a half shekel in there, I have a real interest in there in the setting up of the boards in these two sockets of silver. What a wonderful thing that I am involved in the very presence of God. He has introduced us to the fellowship of His Son, Jesus Christ our Lord. What I paid in my half shekel, and in giving my body, gives me a vital interested part in the very centre of that divine system. What an honour that that should be so. These sockets in one location of the tabernacle would form part of the holy place, the next location might form part of the holiest, but such was the vital character of their committal that they had part in the presence of God. Whether it be in the innermost presence or in the holy place they had a vital part in that. Does that not impress you? Does that not induce you to give yourself to God? Keep to the articles, participation, fellowship, consent, part and agreement. They are all nouns, that is to say they are articles.

Now I want to say something about how it works out. I hope I have interested you in what this means as belonging to this wonderful fellowship of God’s Son, how I am committed to it and can have my part in it consciously so that it may be set forward. Now here is a situation in Luke 5 where the Lord says, “Draw out into the deep water and let down your nets for a haul. And Simon answering said to him, Master, having laboured through the whole night we have taken nothing, but at thy word I will let down the net”. The Lord said “nets”, but Peter said, “I will let down the net”, we will give it a trial anyway, he was not too sure. That is why the net broke, because he did not really fulfil the Lord’s word, he was not too sure, he was exercising his own option, he

was contributing something to the partnership that was not according to the articles. We all like to put forward our own thought about things, but no that will not do. It says, “they enclosed a great multitude of fishes. And their net broke. And they beckoned to their partners”. Now this is the thing I mean to say, dear brethren, “they beckoned to their partners”. Now this is the proper function of the partnership, “they beckoned to their partners

... to come and help them”, to come with their boat and take a share of this great blessing.

That is the proper function of the partners. Now I want to press this point, that is the proper function of partnership, coming to help; not the other thing, not to be marked by excision and cutting off; that is not partnership, that does not belong to the partnership. The proper thing for the partnership is, Come over and help us.

It is like two meetings, and partnership works by the need to come and help, not to come and cut off; one meeting cannot cut off another meeting, it cannot do it. One meeting has not the authority to cut off another meeting. That meeting originally was set up by God, “called into the fellowship of his Son Jesus Christ our Lord”. One meeting does not own any proprietorship over another meeting. The proper function of the partners is to come and help.

I say to you that one meeting cannot cut off another meeting. One meeting has no authority to cease fellowship with another meeting unless they can prove that the Lord has left. The franchise was not given by one meeting to another meeting. That does not happen. The meeting was set up by God, by the Lord, and until it is obvious and evident that He has departed no meeting can act and cut them off. The proper function of partnership is to come and help. I hope that is clear. Say a new meeting is being set up, who was the first Mover there? It was God, it was the Lord. A number of Christians in a place might agree to come together. Who originated it? God did. The nearest meeting did not do it. All they can do is to discern what is there and extend fellowship to them.

All they can do is recognise what is there. It is the same principle as coming into the city in Revelation 22: 14, as we have been taught; that one coming into the city has established his right to the tree of life. Those in the city confer nothing on him, they only recognise his right to be there. Beloved brethren, that should be held to. Every local meeting should hold to that, that what they have has been divinely given and can only be divinely removed. One meeting only recognises what is there, can confer nothing on another. But the proper function of partnership is, Come and help us. May we keep that in mind. Do not forget the beckoning.

Well now, just a word on this partnership in Luke 24. It says, “they gave him part”, notice that, “part of a broiled fish and of a honeycomb”. The honeycomb, what is that? That is the great fruit of a partnership working, that is the honeycomb, that is the result of the partners all working in harmony, all keeping the articles and working in harmony. They have this honeycomb and the honey, and the Lord partakes of that. That is the normal thing. You remember Samson went back after he slew the lion, and there were bees there, a swarm of bees and honey. That is like Luke 24. Here is that very city, Jerusalem, the lion, so to speak, guilty of the Lord’s death, but in that very city, the carcass of the lion, there the bees were.

Think of those disciples in their working together, and they have something to offer to the Lord, that is the point, “part of a broiled fish and of a honeycomb”; the partnership is working, and it is working successfully, all in harmony. O brethren, let us keep by the articles, let nothing be allowed in any way to interfere with the normal working of the partnership, that there might be that to give to the Lord when He says, “Have ye anything here to eat?” It was for Him, for Himself. It is not like in John 21 where He is considering for them, but here He is wanting to participate. What privileges are ours, that we may have the consciousness in the normal working of the partnership that He can partake of what we are having.

That is wonderful to me. I trust it will become wonderful to us all, that we might have the sense that what we are at, He can appropriate.

There is one secret visit in this chapter, that is to Simon. The Lord appeared to Simon. No details are given about that, but when the two came back from Emmaus that is what those gathered were saying, “The Lord is indeed risen and has appeared to Simon”. That was the note that was being struck when these two came back from Emmaus. Now I think that it was Peter, after the Lord’s secret interview with him, who supplied the fish, the fish that the Lord ate here, “part of a broiled fish”. It was the fruit of that secret, you might say, under the water, under the surface secret interview; nobody else knew about it, but I think Peter brought the fish. Brethren, in all these exercises we need reviving in our souls, we need recovering. May there be some positive fruit brought about! That is what we are capable of as belonging to this partnership; we have the wherewithal in the Spirit, in any matter when we get down and get away, but as recovered, to have something that we can carry back to the company. I think the two coming from Emmaus were like two bees, they brought the honey and the honeycomb. What a wonderful experience they had in their own house when He was made known to them in the breaking of bread. If you are really in this partnership, you may get down, you may get discouraged, but in that very discouragement, as having a visit from the Lord, the partnership is such that you can carry something back that can be partaken of among the saints. That is very wonderful! This is no mere worldly system of things, it is a divine system, a spiritual system, a spiritual order of things. May we, in our part in it, be more consciously contributive to it. This is what belongs to the partnership. May He bless the word.

Address at Spaldwick, 22 May 1993

PERSONS TESTED BY THE ABSENCE OF CHRIST

J. Renton

John 5: 8–16; 6: 16–21; 9: 10–12; 20: 11–16; 21: 1

The gospel writer, John, follows very closely the movements and teaching of Jesus. It is a great subject of John’s gospel that he keeps the narrative very closely related to the Lord Himself. Other gospels mention other persons, but John keeps in the main to the movements and statements of the Lord Himself. But I have read of five instances where the narrative relates to certain persons, that is, the Lord leaves certain persons, and what comes out in these persons is what appreciation they have of the Lord Himself. And so with each one of us, we are all left to ourselves. The Lord is good to us. He has spoken to us these two days, but eventually He will leave us to work out whether we have an appreciation of Him or not. We are therefore left to prove ourselves. I do not intend to go into much detail or speak at length, but to touch on these five incidents.

The first is this man who was laid thirty-eight years with his infirmity, and the Lord offers to make him well, and does make him well. Jesus said to him, “Arise, take up thy couch and walk”, and immediately the man became well, and took up his couch and walked. He was a subject of relief, he was helped as to his infirmity, he derived some benefit from the Lord’s speaking here. Now he was tested because he took up his couch and walked and the Lord had left him. In a sense the Lord leaves us to prove ourselves; and He left this man, but he is a sample of one who was pleased with just getting benefit. Many in the gospels received benefit from the Lord. Take the five thousand who were fed; they ate and were satisfied and we hear no more about them, there was no moral work effected with them. It seems so with this man, there was no moral result. What the Lord looks for, and what the glad tidings have in view, is that

there should be a moral result. It seems this man had more affinity with the Jews than he had with the Lord. It says, “The Jews therefore said to the healed man, It is sabbath, it is not permitted thee to take up thy couch”. Instead of being attached to the Lord personally he found his fellowship among the Jews. Therefore, you see, he was tested and found wanting. It may be he was only physically helped, and many in the gospels received physical help. In Luke’s gospel there were ten lepers cleansed but only one returned. The Lord says, “the nine, where are they?” (Luke 17: 17). They derived benefit from the Lord. Were they attached to Him? Had they appreciation of Him? Therefore we are challenged and tested as this man was here, and it would seem there was certainly not a deep work with him, he was content with having relief. I am just taking these incidents as they happen.

In chapter 6 the Lord went up into the mountain and the disciples went down to the sea and having gone on board ship went over the sea to Capernaum. John does not record that the Lord commanded them. Another gospel says that the Lord commanded them to go into the ship, but in any case the disciples were found, you might say, in the right place, in the ship. It says, “they went over the sea to Capernaum”. They were in the ship all with one objective, the same objective, rowing in the same direction and were making progress. Rowing involves the whole being, the arms, the feet, and so on; they were rowing in rhythm, and they rowed about twenty-five or thirty stadia, that is about three miles, or about five kilometres. So they are making progress and it seems the Lord was pleased with that. These are persons who are left to themselves and pull together in the same direction, rowing in rhythm, a very commendable company in this ship. We make no progress if we have different objectives, and obviously if we row in different directions. But here they are all agreeing together, each one committed, and the Lord came to them. There is no doubt He was pleased with

them. While He was absent, here they were making progress towards one objective. I think we would all like to reach the same objective and we would all desire to row together for the Lord’s pleasure, that the Lord may join us, may come to us. They were first of all frightened when the Lord came. I suppose if the Lord came corporeally amongst us we would all be frightened, but the Lord comes to us nevertheless in a spiritual way to encourage us. It says,

“They were willing therefore to receive him into the ship; and immediately the ship was at the land to which they went”. I just call attention to this beautiful feature of these disciples acting together. It is one of the objectives the Lord would have us reach, and ministry is meant to help us. Ministry and food they have in this chapter. They are meant to promote this feature of unity. There is nothing the enemy is more opposed to than brethren dwelling together in unity, or rowing together in unity. The enemy cannot do much about a believer who preaches the gospel and testifies individually, faithfully. He may discourage, but he can work havoc when it comes to what is collective. What he is most opposed to is a company expressing Christ, and if our object is Christ we will express Christ.

In John 9 we have this very attractive man who was born blind, and the works of God appear in him. It is not so much here in this chapter a question of our sins and the forgiveness of our sins—of course that is important in its own place—it is a matter of expressing the works of God. This man has a very simple but very definite impression of the Lord Jesus. You might say that he does not know very much. The neighbours said to him, “Where is he?” He says, “I do not know”. Certain things he does not know, but there is one thing he knows, that whereas he was blind, now he sees. There was something definite in his soul, it was “A man called Jesus”. How simple that is, “A man called Jesus made mud and anointed mine eyes, and said to me, Go to Siloam and wash”. He was sent and he obeyed and

he came seeing. And then all these verses following the Lord is absent, and this man is tested; first of all with the neighbours in verse 8, then the Pharisees from verse 13, then the Jews from verse 18, and his parents in verse 20. He stands firm and resolute in his appreciation of the Lord Jesus, in appreciation of “A man called Jesus”. I trust “A man called Jesus” means something to every one here. It is amazing how the simplicity of appreciation of “A man called Jesus” enabled this man to stand against all the opposition. In fact he becomes an embarrassment to them. The Lord Himself was an embarrassment in chapter 8. They took up stones to stone Him. The Lord was rejected in chapter 8, and this man was rejected in chapter 9. They could not do anything with him. He really baffled them by the simplicity of his appreciation of Jesus. All they could do was to cast him out. He did not belong to their system, they could not fit him into their system. They could not fit the Lord in in chapter 8, they could not fit in this man in chapter 9. Let us be established, be true to our appreciation of

“A man called Jesus”. You know ‘Jesus’ is not a title. The Lord has titles, but ‘Jesus’ is His name, His personal name. We are often tested as to our fidelity to Jesus. And this man was faithful against all the opposition, and the works of God were manifested in testimony.

So in chapter 20 we have the Lord risen, but He does not appear immediately. The Lord is somewhere around, and Peter and John and Mary are tested. They are quite active, they ran and one ran faster than the other, and John arrived at something in intelligence. It says at the end of verse 8, “he saw and believed”, but he went to his own home. Both Peter and John

“went away again to their own home”, quite content with the intelligence they had. Then it says, “But Mary stood at the tomb weeping without”. We have with Mary not only appreciation but deep affection. No one could satisfy her but Jesus. He was absolutely indispensable to her. She remained at the tomb. The tomb was the last place

that Mary knew the Lord to be, and in the devotion of her affection she remained by the tomb. I often think you could have offered Mary the best business proposition that ever was offered, she would not be interested; her interest was the Lord Jesus, nothing else in this world. We often speak about her. I wonder how many of us are like Mary? I am afraid not very many, maybe none of us. I think when John wrote this he would say, Why did I go home? Why did not I stay with Mary? Why did not I tell Mary I had come to something in intelligence? The disciples went away again to their own home. You think they might have said to Mary, You know, Mary, we have come to something. It all emphasises the devotion of the affection of Mary. Well, what can we say? Would we not all desire to have the devotion of Mary? The Lord had a great message to give, and Mary was the only one available to get the message. He could have given it to John or Peter, but they went away. Mary remained the only one available for this wonderful message, “go to my brethren and say to them, I ascend to my Father and your Father, and to my God and your God”. This is the excellence of a believer’s devotion of affection. You see it is a question of the Lord Jesus personally. All my failures, and there have been many, have been a failure in discipleship to Jesus. We can be as near to the Lord Jesus as we desire to be. May the Lord encourage us.

In chapter 21 John might have written, After these things the disciples went astray. He might have said, After these things there was a tremendous departure, there was a very sad failure; but he does not say that. He writes, “After these things Jesus manifested himself again to the disciples”. They went off on an expedition independently. Most of us know what that means.

Yet the Lord is absent. He leaves them to express themselves, and meets it all in grace. Has He not done that with us? There is not a word of rebuke. He fed them. He said, “Come and dine” (John 21: 12). He has something to take up with Peter but He takes it up very tenderly.

It is

the third manifestation, it says so in John 21: 14, “This is already the third time that Jesus had been manifested to His disciples”. So that John does not describe how wrong it was, exactly, although it was wrong of course. It became the occasion for the manifestation of the Lord Himself. Well it ends with the word, “Follow me”, in fact the last word to Peter is, “Follow thou me”. John was following. The Lord could call attention to John as one who was following. The Lord would no doubt say to every one of us here, “Follow thou me”. It comes down to each one individually, young or old, “Follow thou me”. It could not be more intimate, nor more appealing, “Follow thou me”. May the Lord help us.

Address at Cologne, 2 May 1992

GLAD TIDINGS FROM GOD FOR MEN

D. J. Hutson

Isaiah 6: 1–7; 1 Peter 2: 21–25; Hebrews 13: 10–14

What we read of in Isaiah 6 happened nearly three thousand years ago, but the One of whom it speaks is the God with whom we have to do today, and this is the God whose glad tidings have been preached now for nearly two thousand years, concerning His Son Jesus Christ our Lord. Nevertheless, God is unchanged; indeed if you read the Bible you will find that one of His names is the Same. Men change, kingdoms change, politics change, everything changes all around us, but God is unchanged, He is the Same. He is as holy now as ever He was and ever will be. You and I have to do with Him, the same as Isaiah had to do with Him, and I trust as you have to do with Him you find the same as Isaiah found, that you are absolutely unfit for His presence. That is not glad tidings but it will make you feel the need of the glad tidings. This same blessed

God against whom we have sinned, and in whose presence you feel so unfit, is the God who has made provision so that you might be free and at home in His presence. He has made such provision at infinite cost to Himself. What did you deserve? Nothing but judgment! But what a God He is! What a Saviour He is! He has given the Lord Jesus Christ. His only begotten.

Son as the scripture says, “God so loved the world, that he gave his only-begotten Son, that whosoever believes on him may not perish, but have life eternal”, John 3: 16. Isaiah, I suppose, in the presence of such an awesome spectacle, felt that he would perish. How could he stand there? But thank God there was one there, a messenger; that is what the preacher would be, a messenger who would come to you tonight, as you feel your condition as unfit for the presence of God, he would come to you announcing that God has a basis to say. Your sins and your lawlessnesses I will never remember any more. Not simply forget them; we so often forget things and then they come back to mind. But God has power through the death of Jesus, and in the virtue of the value of His shed blood which cleanses from every sin, never to remember again the sins of all who put their trust in Him. Are these not glad tidings coming from such a God? What a God He is!

So one of the seraphim came and it says, “he had in his hand a glowing coal, which he had taken with the tongs from off the altar”. It speaks in type of the sacrifice of Jesus. As another has said, There were no tongs for Jesus; He had to do with the fire of God’s unsparing judgment against sin and sins, as we read in Peter, “who himself bore our sins in his body on the tree”. For Him there were no tongs, nothing to mitigate the full effect of the fire of God’s unsparing judgment. Beloved friend, we would like to take, as it were, a glowing coal from off the altar, to make some fresh application of the death of Jesus to your needy soul. You may perhaps be still labouring in fear of judgment, but we can tell you that Jesus has borne the judgment;

that all who trust in Him can be completely cleared of all that would merit God’s unsparing judgment, for it has been met in the death of Jesus. O the wonder of it that such a One should be made sin for us! The very thing that was instilled into the human race like a virus by the devil so early on, the very root of sin has been dealt with, and the fruits which you and I have given place to have been dealt with too—He bore our sins in His body on the tree. O what a Saviour! He went to Calvary and suffered there on the cross for you and me, as it says,

“Cursed is every one hanged upon a tree”, Galatians 3: 13. It was all borne by Jesus. O that one might be able to bring some living application to you of the death of Jesus; bring some glowing coal, as it were, from the altar and apply it to you just where you need it. That is what this seraph did, he applied it where it was needed. Isaiah could say, “for I am a man of unclean lips”, and the glowing coal was placed where it was needed, to his lips. May you feel the need; is it needed in your sin-stricken heart? Is it needed by you? It is available to you just where you need it, brought to you in the glad tidings. You do not have to move from your seat, you do not have to make a pilgrimage or anything of that kind; it is brought to you just where you are, and applied to you in all its living power.

The sacrifice of Christ was made nearly two thousand years ago, but it remains as powerful and as efficacious as ever today. We would seek to bring it home to you, so that you might come into the consciousness of what God would say to you tonight. Your sins and your lawlessnesses I will never remember any more. What a God He is! What a Saviour He is!

What a cost, the precious blood of Jesus! Well might Peter speak of it, saying, “knowing that ye have been redeemed, not by corruptible things, as silver or gold ... but by precious blood”, 1 Peter 1: 18. How he loves to speak positively of the redemptive power of the blood of Jesus. It was shed for us poor guilty sinners unable to help themselves, in whom there was nothing but what

was displeasing to God, but God in His infinite mercy has provided a Saviour so that you might come, every hindrance removed, that you might know the liberty of His presence, and not only to be restored, but brought into a relationship which could be never known apart from the death and work of Jesus. It was God’s eternal purpose that He should have man brought into sonship, the blessed privilege and relationship of sons of God; and be formed into one glorious vessel which could be for ever the counterpart of His beloved Son who has finished the work. We seek power to speak of such wonders; eternity will not exhaust them. I love to think that eternity is a necessity; God will have us in the full knowledge of Himself, the full knowledge of His love, and it will need eternity. Sometimes we used to sing, Where will you spend eternity? Eternity will not be spent. It is a solemn thing for those who do not put their trust in Jesus. We cannot compass it with our poor finite minds, but where will you live eternally? Will you live in the presence of God. God who has made such provision at such infinite cost? Or will you live for ever abandoned from His presence, in unsparing judgment, in the fire that cannot be quenched, the awful position of those who refuse the glad tidings? God, in infinite mercy and wondrous grace, presents them for our acceptance, but in His faithfulness warns us of the cost of not obeying the glad tidings. It is not optional. God presents the glad tidings for the obedience of faith, obedience which will involve your eternal blessing. What a God He is!

It is this same God, as I say, that Isaiah met nearly three thousand years ago in all the holiness and majesty of His presence, and it is the God who has drawn near to you in the Person of Jesus, the One who is Himself, as it says, over all God blessed for ever. Yet He became a Man for this very purpose. He came into the world to save sinners, the only Man who ever came to do the will of God. You were not born into the world to die, you were born in the world so that you might live, hear the gospel and inherit eternal life. Nevertheless, death is all

around us. The power of death has been broken, he who had its might, that is the devil, has been annulled, and the way has been made through. Typically the Jordan overflowed all its banks when Jesus went into death to make a way through for us, and it has returned as aforetime. That is, death is still here, nevertheless there is a way through. Jesus has made a way through; death for the believer is now nothing to be feared, for it is but to depart and to be with Christ which is very much better, and to await that house which is from heaven, to be clothed in conditions which are suitable to the work of God. O, what wonderful things these are! How full the gospel is! How little we can say of what is in the glad tidings in the few minutes of time available to us.

It struck me freshly as to the way in which Peter writes. As we have been saying it cost Jesus so much to be here, coming from the heights of glory into a world which was stained by sin; surrounded by sinners, surrounded by death, surrounded by the effects of sin. Who can say what it meant to the holy Saviour? What sufferings He knew in His lifetime here. We need to think of the literality of the Scriptures, about such as Isaiah nearly three thousand years ago, and Jesus here nearly two thousand years ago; Isaiah was a real man like you and me, and Jesus moved about amongst real men, women and children like you and me. As has been said by one who has helped us in the truth, someone actually lived next door to Him. How near Jesus came, when you think of who He was in His Person, but living here, and growing up.

The scripture speaks of Him before He was born as the Holy Thing that shall be born; it speaks of the Babe; it speaks of the little Child; it speaks of the Boy Jesus. When He had grown up into full manhood the Holy Spirit descended upon Him, so that He could say, “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to preach glad tidings to the poor”, Luke 4: 18. The perfection of the manhood of Jesus was real; He was here among men but He was different from every other man. That is what Peter

brings out—“who did no sin”—Could that be said of anyone else? Could it be said of you? It is not a question of gradation of sins, there may be that, because Jesus could say, “he that has delivered me up to thee has the greater sin” (John 19: 11), but sin, what is offensive to God; what we are as doing our own will, what we like to do. A preacher told us once that the children were asked in a Sunday school to write down what they liked doing best, and the one who won the prize was the one who said, I like doing best doing just what I like. That is how we are, and that is sin, doing just what we like doing, our own will as distinct from the will of God. But Jesus did no sin. He did not do just what He liked. The Bible tells us that the Christ pleased not Himself. How wonderful the perfection of Jesus!

It says, “neither was there guile in his mouth”, Isaiah 53: 9. We may not be given to telling lies, but guile is something you say that makes people think something different than what is really the truth, something which has an ulterior motive behind it. But oh, the purity of the words of Jesus! What words they were, words which confounded those that came before Him! Think of the time when it was said that no one dared ask Him any more questions. Such were the words of Jesus. When officers were sent to take Him, and came back to those who sent them, on being asked “Why have ye not brought him?” replied, “Never man spoke thus, as this man speaks”, John 7: 46. Never was guile found in His mouth. O, the perfection of the words of Jesus, powerful, wonderful, “who, when reviled, reviled not again”. He never answered back. Can we see how different Jesus was? It says of Him, “when suffering, threatened not; but gave himself over into the hands of him who judges righteously”. Think of how He gave Himself over in Gethsemane. He offered Himself without spot to God by the eternal Spirit. He was absolutely perfect, without spot and without blemish, absolutely suited to be the Sacrifice. It was only because He was such, only because He was perfect, that He was able to

bear the sins of those who put their trust in Him, and able to make atonement for those sins to God’s absolute and entire satisfaction, and to be made sin for us that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.

Peter goes from one kind of suffering to the other. Jesus suffered in His life to give us a model. Then it says, “who himself”, the same Person in all His perfection, “bore our sins in his body on the tree”. Peter is speaking to believers; he is writing to believers. Can you say, He bore my sins in His body on the tree? That is the question which I must raise with you—

Can you say, He bore my sins in His body on the tree? The judgment fell on Jesus’ head, it was in His blood the price was paid—

‘The judgment fell on Jesus’ head,

‘Twas in His blood sin’s debt was paid;

Stern justice can demand no more,

And mercy can dispense her store’. (Hymn 357)

By the sacrifice of Jesus, that life in all its perfection was given up, and the witness to it is that His blood was shed. What a Saviour! What a provision! This is what we are speaking of, some living application of the death of Jesus, and the shedding of His precious blood for your sin-stained soul. It is available today; it may not be available tomorrow. When I was a boy, and others here could say the same, the last words of the preacher, after he had finished his preaching with a hymn and a prayer, were to say to the congregation, If the Lord will, the gospel will be preached again at the same time in this room next week. We would not say that now, because it might cause someone to put off accepting the gospel, perhaps to their eternal loss—“now is the well—accepted time; behold now the day of salvation”, 2 Corinthians 6: 2.

The time of salvation is now!

So we come to Hebrews where it speaks of those beasts “whose blood is carried as sacrifices for sin into the holy of holies”, there carried into the very presence of God. Dear friend, you may feel that you have not

sufficient faith, you have not sufficient appreciation of the blood of Jesus, but who of us can say that we have? The value of that precious blood is known to God alone. Thank God for that! If my salvation rested upon my valuation of the blood of Jesus I should ever fear, but just as God said to His people of old, “when I see the blood, I will pass over you” (Exodus 12: 13), so my salvation and yours depends on the fact that that blood is still before God, and His valuation of it is what is efficacious for the cleansing of your sins and the removal of sin from before His sight. Well, it says, “Wherefore also Jesus, that he might sanctify the people by his own blood, suffered without the gate”. Cast out and rejected, while the crowds cried, Away with Him, crucify Him, Jesus suffered without the gate. He was outside the religious order of the day, outside of the organised systems of men. He is still outside, and the place of believers is to go forth to Him without the camp. What a matter this going forth is; there we shall find a company of sanctified ones, for He sanctified the people by His own blood; persons who are set apart from the current course of things, and set apart for God. As He could say, “I sanctify myself for them”, John 17: 19. He is set apart now in the glory, outside of this world altogether, and He has a place there for you, dear friend, if you will but trust Him.

Meanwhile, let us go forth to Him bearing His reproach, for He is still in reproach, and the confession of the name of Jesus will bring you into reproach. But as I said, He has been here, and He has suffered leaving us a Model that we should follow in His steps. When He was a boy of twelve he was with the teachers, hearing them and asking them questions, and they were astonished at his understanding and answers (Luke 2: 46, 47). He “advanced in wisdom and stature”, Luke 2: 52. Then He knows what it is to go to work. Wonderful thing, the positions into which Jesus came according to the Scriptures; we are not speaking of fanciful things, it is what is in the Bible, the inspired

word of God. What did they say, is not this the carpenter? Think of Jesus, as a carpenter, using the very materials that His hands had created, using them, what perfection in what He must have made. He knows what it is to go to work; if we find reproach at work, I am sure Jesus must have found reproach. I am sure He could not have fitted into the trade unions or whatever it might have been in that day, I am sure He must have suffered reproach for it, as a carpenter, going to work. So you go to school and Jesus understands. As you are faithful to Him, as you go to Him without the camp bearing His reproach, as you go to work, you find that whatever you have to face in the world, you find that Jesus is able for it. Our great High Priest is able to bear our infirmities when we feel the weakness of the condition in which we are. He is able to bear it all and sustain us and strengthen us. If we fail He is there as our Advocate; He is there the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only but for the whole world. O, the advocacy of Jesus and the power of His present position!

Then it says, “for we have not here an abiding city, but we seek the coming one”. The believer does not fit in with the politics of this world, but there is a city which is coming down out of heaven having the glory of God, and every believer in Jesus is going to have his part in that which is thus able to bear the glory. It speaks of Jesus prophetically in the Scriptures as being able to bear the glory (see Zechariah 6: 13). Think of the company of the saints coming down in that day as the heavenly city, able to bear the glory! Then it says, “the glory of God has enlightened it, and the lamp thereof is the Lamb”, Revelation 21: 23. We have not here an abiding city but we seek the coming one—“By him therefore let us offer the sacrifice of praise continually to God, that is, the fruit of the lips confessing his name”. We speak of the service of God and we have been happily engaged in it today; think of the service of God tomorrow, and the sacrifice of praise continually, the fruit of the lips,

confessing His name. Let us not confine these things to the Lord’s day, but let us see that the service goes on, that there may be praise continually to God, confessing His name. We shall find He is still a Saviour, able to save completely all who come to God by Him. May the Lord bless the word.

Preaching at Edinburgh (Loanhead), 9 May 1993

EXTRACT

“Who art thou, Lord?” A fine question, the question that issues from instincts of the divine nature. If it accompanied all conversions we should have more subjection amongst us. Now the word ‘Lord’ is put into our mouths, and rightly, but this is instinct. Here he just gets the answer, “I am Jesus, whom thou persecutest”. The answer is in keeping with the state. The Lord says, “No one knows who the Son is but the Father”, Luke 10: 22. But here the answer is in keeping with the circumstances, “I am Jesus whom thou persecutest”. He would never forget that—whom thou persecutest. That refers to chapter 8, and chapter 7. Terrible challenge to his heart. I “am not fit to be called apostle, because I have persecuted the assembly of God”. That man had to go, and he did go, not only from the eye of God but from Paul’s eye, too. Whenever he would look at the saints afterwards Paul would think of that; it is a question of what Jesus is in those persons; they represented Jesus. “I am Jesus”, that lowly unresisting Man at Calvary, not Lord. Paul says, “Lord”, but He says “Jesus”, “whom thou persecutest”, showing that it is Jesus who suffered here in man’s reach. Not up there.

Paul could not persecute Him up there, but it is what He was in the saints.

J. Taylor (Vol. 96, p.121)

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