RESULTS

^[p. 410] RESULTS

Jude 14; Genesis 5: 21 - 25; Acts 9: 31, 32; Acts 16: 4 - 6

I have in mind to speak about the results which accrue from exercises arising in the course of God’s testimony here. The apostle James in his epistle alludes to the end reached in such exercises. He says, “Ye have heard of the endurance of Job, and seen the end of the Lord”. The teaching in his epistle is very practical; among other things he alludes to knowledge amongst the brethren. He wrote, as we know, to the twelve tribes that were scattered and in doing so he referred to the patience of Job. The book of Job has its own peculiar importance in scripture as dealing with the work and testimony of God outside Israel but collateral with the testimony to Israel. It thus finds a place in the holy writings, and James alludes to it as being known. He says, “And seen the end of the Lord”. The “end” in that book illustrates what I have before me, namely, the end which the Lord has in view in dealing with His people. That end is to be triumphant and blessed!

Enoch is said to be the seventh from Adam. Jude mentions that fact. He would count from Adam, Seth, Enosh, Cainan, Mahalaleel, Jared to Enoch. Each of these names would have a place in his thoughts as he would come down to Enoch; but he would stop with that name, not merely to round out a sentence but to call attention to a result reached. There are ten names mentioned in Genesis 5, Noah being the tenth, which, no doubt represent a process to develop a further result, which is seen in Noah. But I believe Enoch is peculiarly in the mind of the Spirit of God, for He pauses there at the seventh from Adam to indicate a given result, and then goes on to a further result in Noah, which is also important, for these exercises ^[p. 411] which arise are like the ripples caused by a stone being thrown into a pond, they expand and become far-reaching in effect. What arises is thus turned to a definite result. Enoch suggests an assembly result; Noah a further one, typical of another world, a purified world. These thoughts are in the mind of God for us and we should not stop short of them.

So I began with Jude, a short epistle which is lighted up by this verse which refers to an antediluvian saint. This is not a casual, but a careful reference, embracing a particular exercise, and a result reached through it. What a history is involved in reaching the seventh from Adam, a remarkable line leading up to such a result! Chapter 4 gives us the line of Cain, but the most casual reader will notice the correspondence in it with the names in the line of faith, through Seth. Chapter 5 is called by the Spirit “The book of Adam’s generations”. Chapter 5 is the life line, and so the names given, save Methushelah’s, are significant. His longevity is instructive for it points to God’s longsuffering. We are through grace in the period of God’s great longsuffering and patience. But the names of each of the others have a significance, Enoch’s pre-eminently so. His name signifies tuition, education, learning, discipline or discipleship and I believe, has greater moral significance than the others, for it relates to the heavenly calling, and no saints are more distinguished than those who have part in that calling. Thus we obtain character and distinction through discipline, as it says, “My son, despise not the chastening of the Lord, nor faint when reproved by him; for whom the Lord loves he chastens, and scourges every son whom he receives”, Hebrews 12: 5, 6.

Now in Cain’s line we have the very name — Enoch — given to his son. It suggests, though occurring here before Enoch’s birth, imitation of what is of God, which is all round us. And so we find that this name is placed on this first city, that is, one of the most ^[p. 412] cherished thoughts in the spiritual line is placed on a city built by a murderer, by Cain. Some christians of today no doubt would say, ‘See, this city; see our church membership; our bells and architecture’, and flatter themselves by attaching the name of Christ to it. We find today that heavenly name everywhere, and the names of the apostles, too, on the most distinguished architecture in the world. How sad and offended they would feel were they to see it, and yet we see christians taking refuge in this very thing. It is profanity! The Spirit of God would recoil from chapter 4 and what answers to it today, that sacred names are found on bill-heads, bills-of-lading, stationery and such things in the city of Cain. How incongruous! He would turn away from all this and speak of Enoch, as the seventh from Adam, who prophesied about the Lord’s coming amidst his holy myriads. And so one would dwell on the exercise and its result, on what the seventh means, and see what is worked out from it, and what the Spirit of God means by referring to it in this epistle which deals with apostasy, in the midst of which we are found today. He would direct our attention to each of the preceding names also, for it is a time when Cain’s world is spreading out in commerce, music and social life. It needs exercise to get out of chapter 4, the line of imitation, and get into chapter 5, the line of life. That line of life goes through, silently I might say, and secretly, but none the less, surely. In Seth, we have the principle of recovery as it says in chapter 5: 1, the book of Adam’s generations. Chapter 2 gives the creation; chapter 5 introduces a restored Adam, reaching a fixed state of things in his son. Then Seth has a son and he called his name Enosh which means man as weak and mortal; that is, he accepts a dying condition. How important to remember our mortality. It is in the acceptance of this that we reach the seventh from Adam, for they all die but Enoch. He reached the full result of the exercise spiritually, and ^[p. 413] got the gain of all that preceded. Let us too, beloved brethren, get the gain of exercises, and not lose them. The devil is out to rob us of the full result of any exercise. So when these testings come we should not say, God has allowed them; it is preferable to say that He orders them; He means something to accrue to us through them, as it says, “All things work together for good to those who love God”. It is seen palpably in Enoch. It is the heavenly side; he walked with God. I mention that to show the great result of this exercise; it says that after Enoch’s son was born he walked with God three hundred years. The birth of his son is the moral reason for his walking with God. There is now a son in his house; maybe there had been a little selfishness previously, a little indifference, but now a son is born for this exercise and he realises that he must look to God as never before. But there is another reason for this exercise and that is to dignify and glorify Enoch. Walking with God became characteristic of him; he did it three hundred years! No doubt he prayed the day his son was born, but what a difference at the end, after the scourgings and the discipline, for that is the significance of his name. He would realise that divine scourgings are the scourgings of love, for God scourges every son whom He receives. Let us not shrink from it, dear brethren; it is all to bring us into the gain of the seventh from Adam. We scarcely know what our hearts are capable of. But the tests, year after year, bring out the depths of our hearts. We thus get to know ourselves and to judge ourselves aright.

Jude also tells us that Enoch had the light of another world, and as he prophesied of that world and of God’s coming with his holy myriads. Enoch would no doubt think of coming with Him. How he would shine in view of this. The light of this came, I believe, at the end of his life. God would open up the world to come to him as he walked with Him. Alas, how few are in ^[p. 414] the good of that world! But as Enoch walked with God, the reality of it would lay hold of his soul, and he would see the Lord coming. What encouragement it would be to him! But I am thinking of the result in its heavenly character. Being the seventh and caught up, he would be equal to the place into which he was introduced, for God placed him there. Were we left to ourselves we would never be equal to such a change, but we may be sure Enoch was completely restful in that heavenly place, for he would have the sense that God was sufficiently pleased with him to translate him. I believe the present discipline of God is to make us equal to this; for His discipline in the wilderness is as ordered as His counsels in eternity. Paul helps as to what is before us. He says, “Whether in the body I know not, or out of the body I know not, God knows; such a one caught up to the third heaven”. His was no mixed condition, nor was he conscious of any unsuitability as caught up into that holy spiritual altitude. I wish for myself not to miss anything of these exercises from Adam to Enoch, for I do not believe that God will translate to heaven what does not suit Him down here.

In Acts 9 we have another end reached. It says, “The assemblies then throughout the whole of Judaea and Galilee and Samaria had peace”. This alludes to the end of a period of exercise, and marks a division in the book. Following the suffering of the twelve, the death of Stephen, the conversion of Saul and his reception by the brethren at Jerusalem, we are reminded that God had reached an end, which affected all the assemblies. Some here may remember conflict of twenty-five years or more ago, but what was the culmination? This scripture in Acts 9 is the first allusion to assemblies over a wide area being affected for good. No ground was lost! It says they had peace and were edified. One might ask the question, Are we being edified? Edification is a characteristic of local ^[p. 415] companies. Are we able to edify one another in our local gatherings even though they be small or isolated? The power for this lies in the Spirit. Edification is never wanting if love is present and active. In a wider sense the body is self-edifying in love. It is not a question of gift. The smallest and most isolated company may be self sustaining if these features are found in it. And then, walking in the fear of the Lord is an important matter also. It is a certain deliverance from the fear of man and the world. The fear of man brings a snare, we are told. And then they were comforted too. This word is from the same root as Comforter: it brings out the thought of a divine Person spreading comfort. What qualities are these, as seen in the local company, rendering it independent as divinely constituted, having peace, being edified, walking in the fear of the Lord, and then multiplied through the comfort of the Holy Spirit. You would hesitate to add to any company except on these lines, for what is added must be of a piece with what is there.

In Acts 15 it is a question of doctrine. There was a great danger of cleavage. Judaism had been introduced at Antioch, and now at the end of chapter 15 we find two brothers alienated, two great servants of God, Paul and Barnabas, and what is recorded is not by mere formal mention but because of the results that accrued. Paul chose Silas and together they go forth committed by the brethren to the grace of God. This is not said of Barnabas. Paul may have had warm feeling but he is, in principle, commended by the brethren. He will not take a man like John Mark with him; he will not partake in others’ sins, nor will he take with him one who would weaken the service, but a brother like Silas and later, Timotheus, brothers who adorned the path. He passed through Syria and Cilicia confirming the assemblies. He was not on party lines — he confirmed the assemblies. It says they instructed them to observe the decrees determined on by the ^[p. 416] apostles and elders who were in Jerusalem. Think of the apostle Paul, the greatest servant on earth, yet he carries out the results of the service of others, and in this sinks his own importance. How delightful it was to heaven to see him distributing those decrees. It was the best thing he could distribute. It was not the ‘latest ministry’, but it had its place in binding the brethren all over the world. How Paul would surrender his own importance to do this! so that nothing is lost as the result of this exercise. The assemblies were confirmed in the faith, and increased in number every day.

Let us not miss, beloved brethren, what God has for us today. He would look for more heavenly mindedness with us, affording him pleasure in view of translation; and then peace and comfort and then multiplication, and then confirmation in the faith.