OUR COMMANDING INTEREST
[p. 65] OUR COMMANDING INTEREST
It is a great word which we get at the close of this chapter, “Be of good cheer; I have overcome the world”. It really involves that Christ will bring in another world — the Father’s world. He overcame the existing world, every other one had been overcome by it, but He overcame it, and He would establish the Father’s world. That is a passing remark.
What I want to bring before you is the importance of having a commanding interest. It is necessary to man, because of how he is constituted. People who have no commanding interest are apathetic and listless. In the world people are commanded by different interests; one by business, another by politics, and another by science. A man with a commanding interest has an aim in life. It is important that we should be here as having an aim. I see people who lack energy because they have no definite object to pursue. It would greatly affect people if they had a commanding interest. I want to bring that out of this chapter. But to go back for a moment — the basis of chapter 14 is the coming of the Comforter. The relation of the Comforter with the saints down here is unfolded in chapter 14. The point in chapter 15 is our relation to the Father and the Father’s relation to us. We begin with the Spirit, and then we learn the relation in which we stand to Christ, and from that we are led on to our relation to the Father. It is in connection with the Father that we find our commanding interest, and we want to know what that interest is, and to be regulated and commanded by it. Take the Israelite of old. When the tabernacle was set up, what would then be his supreme interest? The tabernacle! Now the tabernacle was the truth. As to their practical state, they were perverse and lawless, and that was not the truth, but the tabernacle was figuratively the truth, and that was to be the Israelites’ supreme interest. So now the truth is to be [p. 66] our commanding interest. The Lord says of the Spirit, “He will guide you into all truth”, and the truth is to be our commanding interest. I shall try and make plain to you what the truth is, and then press upon you that every energy that you have should be bent on promoting the truth.
One word more as to these chapters. In chapter 14 we get the Spirit. I would compare that with the first epistle to the Corinthians, which unfolds our relation to the Spirit, and the Spirit’s relation to us. Two great truths come out there. They were the temple of God — the Spirit of God dwelt in them, and they were baptised into one body, by one Spirit. Then chapter 15 compares with the epistle to the Colossians, where they were “fruitful in every good work”, because they stood in relation to Christ. Then chapter 16 compares with Ephesians. The Father’s world is “the truth”. This world is kept up by appearances, and that is not truth; the truth is the Father’s world. People think that the truth is the bald exposure of what is very wicked. The exposure of wickedness is not truth; truth is what things are in regard to God and there is no wickedness in that. It is of God, and according to God. You will find it profitable to compare these scriptures at your leisure.
There are three points I want to touch on in chapter 16: (1) see verse 10, “Of righteousness, because I go to my Father”; (2) verse 13, “When he, the Spirit of truth is come, he will guide you into all truth”; (3) verse 23, “In that day ye shall ask me nothing ... whatsoever ye shall ask the Father in my name, he will give it you”. Thus the first point is, righteousness; (2nd) the whole truth — the “all things”; (3rd) Christ’s Name. If you do not apprehend the “all things”, you cannot apprehend what Christ’s name imports. The “all things” are the Father’s things. In regard to the first point, “of righteousness, because I go to my Father”, men would like to get rid of these principles — sin, righteousness, and judgment — men would blot out these words in their scriptural meaning, in their moral significance, from [p. 67] their vocabulary. Man dislikes the idea of things being brought to a point. But the Holy Spirit would come and substantiate these principles; He would bring demonstration of them. The world is declared to be lawless — but there is righteousness there. The Spirit maintains that, for it is the principle and basis of God’s world. What is here is Satan’s world. God’s world is with the Father; it is hid, but it will be developed and displayed — there is a world to come out from the Father. Righteousness is gone to the Father; righteousness is there as the basis and bond of God’s world. There, too, judgment will be maintained. “The prince of this world is judged”, John 16: 11. There is a world which for the moment is hid in God in Christ. It is important to apprehend righteousness; it is the basis and bond of God’s world — the coming world, and Christ is the righteousness of the whole world to come! The nations will be justified in Christ. Israel will be justified in Christ. The basis and bond of the coming world is there. Christ is with the Father. The Lord says, “righteousness because I go to my Father”. It could not be said until Christ was there.
“All things that the Father hath are mine: therefore said I, that he shall take of mine, and shall show it unto you”. I venture to read the prayer at the end of Ephesians 3: 14 - 21. See especially verses 15 and 16, “Of whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named”, etc. All these families go to make the “all things”. “He that built all things is God”, Hebrews 3: 4. The tabernacle was the pattern of the “all things”, not as we see them but as they are in the purpose of God. “Of whom every family in the heavens and on earth is named” (Ephesians 3: 15, New Trans.). The expression “all things” leaves nothing out. They are not what our senses can take account of; they are what are before the Father.
To go back to Israel, when the people made a golden calf, what must Moses and Joshua have thought of the people? There was nothing in the contemplation of the people to give pleasure, but there was in the tabernacle,
[p. 68] which was set up in the midst of Israel. Look around christendom — can you get satisfaction in that? Is there satisfaction in popery, or in the eastern church? or even in Protestantism or in any existing bodies which surround us in this country or in other countries? We want to comprehend the “all things”; we want to contemplate them, and that is what the Holy Spirit would bring before our view. The Lord explains what are His things; they are “all things that the Father hath”. Every family is named of the Father. The “all things” can only be taken account of by the Spirit of God. We want to have in view a world different from this world. For the Father everything is established in the Son; all depends on the fact that the Son is with the Father. All that was prefigured in the tabernacle is in Christ. The whole world to come is hid in Christ with the Father. The Holy Spirit can show us all that. It is He who can bring it before us. “The truth” is what is before God in Christ, and God would have all men to be saved, and to come to the knowledge of the truth. The different families have not yet come into view, but all is hid in Christ with the Father. “All things that the Father hath are mine”. I would like to impress upon you that, in the world that will be of the Father, all belongs to the Son, and it is for that reason that the apostle prays that “Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith”, that the saints might comprehend the breadth, and length, and depth, and height.
Now as to the name — asking in His name. The Lord says, “Whatsoever ye shall ask the Father in my name, he will give it you”. “At that day ye shall ask in my name” (chapter 16: 26). We get brought out in this chapter our relation to the Father, and the relation of the Father to us. “The Father himself loveth you”. They had a commendation to the Father, and that was that they loved the Son. The Father loved them because they loved the Son. If you knew the Father’s love, you would have no difficulty in approaching Him, but then we approach the Father in the name of the Son. Now in [p. 69] connection with that name we could not ask for any benefit in this world, for I cannot connect His name with this world; I connect it with the Father’s world. The name of the Son is in connection with that world — I would ask in the name of the Son whatever would tend to promote that world. To come to the application of it — we are not being formed for this world, but for the Father’s world. The apostle’s prayer in Ephesians 3 was in Christ’s name. He prayed to the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ — that prayer would tend to promote the Father’s world, both in oneself and in one another. Many are content with the conversion of others. That is the first step, but we want those who are converted to be attached to Christ, and to be conformed to the Father’s world.
I appreciate the position. I abide in Christ, and bring forth fruit, and I love the brethren, and I am controlled by a supreme interest — even the Father’s world. We ought to be a pattern to other saints. The apostle Paul could say, “I would to God, that not only thou, but also all that hear me this day, were both almost, and altogether such as I am, except these bonds”, Acts 26: 29. The desire of every christian ought to be to cultivate what would promote these things, first for ourselves, and then being a pattern to others we seek that it should be promoted in others.
The interest of supreme importance is the “all things” that are of Christ, and which the Holy Spirit brings the report of. We have our part in it; Christ dwells in our hearts by faith. When we have thus this commanding interest we have confidence to approach the Father — to ask in Christ’s name. I think each one should be so controlled by the Father’s things that he can say, ‘I should like every saint to be in the same position as myself, so that he might have liberty of approach to the Father’. The whole system of the world to come, will come out when Christ comes out from the Father. The heavenly city will play a most important part in that day, and why? Because we have been [p. 70] instructed here in the light of the Father’s world. If people have not a commanding interest in this way they are bound to drop down to the level of things here, and so become listless in regard of God’s things. It is of all importance that we should have an interest which commands us here.
May God lead us into it in His grace.