TRUSTWORTHINESS
[p. 114] TRUSTWORTHINESS
I intend to refer to other scriptures, but I read this at the outset so as to introduce what I have in mind, namely, that the church proves a trustworthy vessel; having that in view, I wish to speak about trustworthiness. In employing the word I have in mind that the apostle John was employed by the Lord to ensure this trustworthiness in the assembly. It is he who tells us that the Lord, being at Jerusalem at the time of the Passover, was believed on by many on account of His miracles, but that He did not commit Himself to them, for “He knew all men, and needed not that any should testify of man: for he knew what was in man”. This is a singular fact to be brought to our attention by him, who presents to us the church as coming down from God out of heaven, “having the glory of God”. It is a searching fact, too, because it reminds us of the utter untrustworthiness of man, and if of man, of all of us as in the flesh.
We have now to inquire how it is that this wonderful vessel, composed as it is of men, is possessed of the glory of God. She has it, and so I wish to bring forward at the outset one who is spoken of in Scripture as the friend of God, having in view that trustworthiness must primarily include confidence; it must depend on friendship.
So we find, according to Stephen, that “the God of glory appeared to our father Abraham” — the first one, as far as I know, to whom He is said to have appeared. He had spoken to others; He had spoken to Adam and to Eve, and to Cain, and to Noah; but in appearing to Abraham God intended to establish a peculiar personal link with him. I urge this at the beginning because a personal link is essential to [p. 115] confidence, and as God has confidence in us He trusts us; we are His “friends”.
Now Adam had proved untrustworthy; Eve had proved untrustworthy, Cain had proved untrustworthy; indeed Cain formally avows that he was not his brother’s keeper. If he could not be entrusted with his brother, with whom then could he be entrusted? When we come to Enoch, the mind is detained because in him we have a distinct indication of trustworthiness. We are told that he begat a son, and in begetting a son he walked with God. If God entrusts us with a son, it is essential that we should walk with Him or we shall not bring him up for God. Enoch walked with God, we are told, after he begat a son, three hundred years. Trustworthiness could be developed in a walk with God. In that walk he pleased God and God took him.
Now in Noah we have a remarkable testimony, as if God would set him up in trustworthiness in this world. He gave him the specification for an ark. He loved his family (he was a family man), and God directed him how to save his family. One can understand that such instruction would fit with Enoch, but it was given to Noah, and in the specification of the ark God made sure that it should be “thoroughly”, as we say, “sea-going”. There is not the least hint that one drop of water ever leaked through, and in that way God at the outset indicated what Christ should be, and it was for Noah to take note of it. He was to learn from the ark. But what came to pass was that that with which he was entrusted, namely, the government of the world, utterly failed in his hands, for he could not rule himself; Genesis 9: 20, 21. You may depend upon it that unless we learn how to control ourselves, how to rule our spirits, we shall never be entrusted with spiritual things.
So I come to Abraham. It is said that the God of glory “appeared” to him. I desire by the Lord’s [p. 116] help to dwell on that, because it is in an appearance that a personal link is formed. Abraham was entrusted with a son. God makes us wait for things in order that we should value them; He caused Abraham to wait for a son. I doubt not that in the appearance at the outset there was a forecast as to what God would do. If He is the God of glory, there must be a testimony to this. He called Abraham “alone”, but having in view that families should spring from him and that these should be blessed according to His own nature, that, indeed, all families should be blessed in Abraham. So in appearing to Abraham and in the words spoken to him, there was a clear indication of all this. Indeed God indicated to Abraham what was in His heart as regards Himself. In Ephesians we read, “the Father ... of whom every family in the heavens and on earth is named”. In an appearance there would be conveyed, in some measure, what He had in mind for the outshining of His glory. One loves to think of a universe formed of families, and one loves to think of the assembly as being formed of only firstborn ones. (See Hebrews 12: 23.) Think of that! Every one in it is a firstborn. No one is inferior to another in dignity. It is “the assembly of the firstborn”; the reference is to the Levites; Numbers 3. Think of the dignity that belongs to the assembly! Of the twenty-two thousand Levites, every one of them represented a firstborn, therefore they were necessarily the first family spiritually. So in the book of Joshua they have no inheritance on earth: they represent the heavenly family; that family that is to give the lead and shed its lustre on all the others, as necessarily it does, for every one in it is a firstborn.
But then there are other families, and they are all named of the Father; He had them all in mind when He appeared to Abraham, for he was to be the father of families; and in him should all the families of the [p. 117] earth be blessed. So God made him wait for his son, but ultimately he receives him. He is, as I might say, entrusted with a son; what a priceless treasure Isaac was! And now God puts him to the test. Abraham, can I trust you? He puts him to the test and demands Isaac from him. In other words, Abraham was to be allowed to show his trustworthiness, that he would yield up his son — “thine only son Isaac”, God says, “whom thou lovest”. Hence James tells us that as doing that he was called “the Friend of God”. He established a link with God, to which the Spirit of God gives a name; he is called the Friend of God.
So Stephen in beginning his address to the Sanhedrim at Jerusalem says, “The God of glory appeared unto our father Abraham when he was in Mesopotamia”, and at the end of his wonderful speech it is said that he saw “the glory of God, and Jesus”. The glory had pertained to Israel (Romans 9: 4), but that nation had forfeited it, and now it was in heaven with Jesus; but the church was to have it — first, in testimony on earth and then permanently in heaven. This is one of the most interesting suggestions that could be made: that it pleases God to deposit His glory in that of which we form a part!
So I now come again to the principle of appearing. The Lord appears to Saul of Tarsus. I dwell on that because it involves that a link of confidence is established, and the entrusting of “the good deposit”, 2 Timothy 1: 14. So that Jesus appeared to him, the Jesus whom Stephen saw in heaven. We must not assume from the remark by the Spirit in regard to Stephen that the glory was somewhere else than in Jesus. It says, “He saw the glory of God, AND Jesus standing”. We must not assume that the glory was in some other one or in some other position, it was not, it was in Jesus. The glory of God is in [p. 118] His face. It is the shining forth of God’s nature in the accomplishment of His purposes. The Holy Spirit tells us it was seen in heaven. So the Lord appeared to Saul. And why did He appear? He was taking up a vessel whom He could trust; He was to form him so that he should be trustworthy, hence He appeared to him. He says, “I appeared to thee, to appoint thee to be a servant and a witness both of what thou hast seen, and of what I shall appear to thee in”, Acts 26: 16. So that all that which was entrusted to him to be ministered to others was presented to him in the appearances of Christ. I dwell on this because of the emphasis which Paul in his own account accords to the Lord’s appearances to him. He appeared to him, and He should later appear to him. The full truth of the assembly — the glory in it — would be conveyed in these appearings. The Lord’s first word to Saul intimated that the saints were His body: “Why persecutest thou me?” In His body is cherished and reflected the glory of God, which Christ is; and this glory was conveyed to Paul’s heart and mind, to be deposited there in the assembly (for he was the minister of the assembly) through his ministry.
It is very wonderful that we should have part in that which is in this way the vessel of the divine glory. What an incentive to be faithful or trustworthy! You may depend upon it that the flesh in us is no more trustworthy than it was in Adam, or in Eve, or in Cain. In fact the nearer the flesh is to Christ the more treacherous it is. Take Judas, what does he represent? He represents the flesh in the place of supreme privilege. He was the Lord’s friend outwardly, but not really. One may be breaking bread, as we speak, and yet have no personal link with Christ, and as having no personal link with Him, no friendship with Him, and the Lord not having confidence in such an one can entrust him [p. 119] with nothing. I want to be very practical, because we are drawing near to the end, and the Lord would impress us with the importance of faithfulness. The ministry of John has this in view — it ensures the reliability of the church. I would also refer to the ministry of the new covenant.
In 2 Corinthians 3 the apostle refers to himself and others, and says, “God, who has also made us competent, as ministers of the new covenant; not of letter, but of spirit. For the letter kills, but the Spirit quickens ... Now the Lord is the Spirit, but where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty. But we all, looking on the glory of the Lord with unveiled face, are transformed according to the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Lord the Spirit”. I want to raise a question with every one here as to whether you know the service that the Lord would render you in bringing the love of God into your hearts? His service on the cross can never be told out in words, but there is one service He is carrying on which is in a way the greatest service He can render to you now, and that is to make the love of God effective in your heart. He can do that. He will do that. It is by “the Lord the Spirit”; this conveys an administrative idea. He is shedding the love of God abroad in our hearts by the Holy Spirit given unto us, and thus He brings about a state in our hearts of confidence in God. If I have got the love of God in my heart it makes me love God, and in loving God, God in turn has confidence in me. That is what I want to come to. “The flesh”, beloved friends, “profits nothing”. Let us take that home.
As I said, John records for us that the Lord did not entrust Himself to certain ones, in spite of the fact that they were believers. But then the evangelist goes on to show how a trustworthy vessel is brought about; and hence he quotes the Lord’s words as to [p. 120] the necessity of man being born anew. One has to be completely set aside that the new family may be brought in. There is to be a wholly new humanity, and it is seen at the end of John’s gospel. I understand that John 20 brings in the trustworthy persons who form the trustworthy vessel. The Lord says to them, “As my Father hath sent me, even so send I you”. Let us consider these words. His Father had sent Him; He had sent Him in infinite confidence. That is what the presence of Christ here meant, and now He says to His disciples, “Even so send I you”. What a position they were to have! And having said that, He breathed into them, and says to them, “Receive the Holy Spirit: whose soever sins ye remit, they are remitted to them; whose soever sins ye retain, they are retained”.
Now that is what I understand to be the secret of the church’s trustworthiness. It is that the persons who form it are possessed of the breath of Christ; these He trusts. The Lord, as it were, signs a cheque and hands it over to them and says, You fill it in to any amount. Is not that trustworthiness? “Whose soever sins ye remit, they are remitted to them”. There is no limit. Is not that confidence? John alone records this precious action of the Lord.
Let us look into this as to what it is. The Lord, as I said, hands over to them to use a figure, a signed cheque, that can be filled in to any amount. That applies, you may say, to the twelve. No, that is a mistake, there were only ten of the apostles there. Indeed, you will find in John that wherever the twelve are brought forward there is usually something to indicate defection. Throughout his gospel he brings forward certain things that prove that the twelve, viewed as such, had failed. In chapter 4 the Lord is alone in weariness. His disciples had gone into the town to buy bread. They did not all need to go; they were disregardful of the Lord or they [p. 121] would not have left Him alone. In chapter 6 He says to the twelve, “Will ye also go away?” and Peter says, “Lord, to whom shall we go? thou hast words of life eternal; and we have believed and known that thou art the holy one of God”. But the Lord says, “Have not I chosen you twelve, and one of you is a devil?” You see thus how the official number is regarded in John. And so in chapter 20 there were only ten of the apostles there; Thomas was away, so that it is no question of officialdom, but of disciples having the Spirit of Christ; it is not a question of the number but of their nature. It is that that can be trusted, and so the trustworthiness of the vessel is secured in the individuals who form it possessing the Spirit of Christ. “He breathed into them”, and so He can have confidence in them.
Now I think that is what the Lord would bring about at the present time; He would bring about a state in us in which He can have confidence; and it is a question for each one of us to decide for himself as to whether, first of all, one has a personal link with Christ; and then, secondly, whether one has the Spirit of Christ. I am not speaking now of the Holy Spirit as coming on the day of Pentecost (although that great event included what I am speaking of), but of something from the Lord conveyed in the most intimate way; think of Him breathing into them! Dear brethren, what about knowing the Lord in that intimate way, and then being entrusted with something? Before this wonderful transaction the Lord had revealed the Father’s name to the disciples, having at the same time announced to them that they were His brethren. In breathing into them the Lord imparted His Spirit to the disciples; this fact underlies what comes out in the assembly in Revelation: she has the glory of God. Let us understand it. Further, what God is, not only in His attributes, but in His nature, is [p. 122] perfectly set forth in Christ, and is also seen in the assembly; and John shows us the assembly as coming down from God out of heaven. She is at liberty. She comes down; others fall down. Satan falls as lightning from heaven; the star falls; Babylon falls; but the church comes down. She is in the liberty of sonship. Every one in her is a firstborn, as I said, but not only that, but each one is made a companion of Christ.
We are all sons of God, as it says, by faith in Christ Jesus, and because we are sons He has sent out the Spirit of His Son into our hearts crying, “Abba, Father”. The ministry of Paul placed the assembly before God in heaven in Christ; as composed of sons, she is there in liberty. John sees her coming down from God out of heaven, having the glory of God.
What a fine offset we have here to what is said in John 2 that the Lord could not trust Himself to man; here we have this vessel, formed of men, coming down from God out of heaven, having the glory of God; and then she is identified with the very ones who had accompanied the Lord in His service here, for the names of the twelve are on her foundations.
May God bless the word and exercise us as to holding fast what we have got. We have nothing less than all the ministry of Christ; we have no less than the ministry passed on to us through the apostles and through those who followed; it is a wonderful heritage. The Lord says, “Hold that fast which thou hast”. It is not that it shall not be held fast, for in result all is preserved in the assembly; every testimony is secured in her, but at the same time the exhortation is, “Hold fast”; this is responsibility — “that no one take thy crown”. But confidence underlies all this, as the Lord said, “Henceforth I call you not servants ... but I have called you friends: for all things that I have heard of my Father I have made known unto you”. But [p. 123] it is in adhering to His commandments that we prove our friendship and that we are thus entrusted with the glory. The Holy Spirit dwells in the assembly; the Lord said the Spirit would abide with us for ever, and He is constantly bringing in testimony to the glory of Christ.
Pages 124 to 188 — “Reconciliation and New Creation”, London and elsewhere, 1922 (Volume 58).