DEPARTURE AND RECOVERY
[p. 317] DEPARTURE AND RECOVERY
I am going to speak of things which are incontestably true. If everything were to be made a question of philosophy, which is man’s reason, or of science, which is largely man’s deduction, then you might put moral considerations aside; but if our minds entertain any thought of God at all, we must bring in moral considerations, and if there are moral considerations, there are certain things which are incontestably true.
There are two simple thoughts before me with which we are all more or less familiar, but which I am going to present to you in a somewhat new dress: they are departure and recovery.
If you entertain any thought of God at all, you cannot be taken up merely with material considerations. Surely we are moral beings: there is such a thing as conscience, and that is a moral consideration. So, too, in regard to affections: man is capable of intelligent affections, and if so there are moral considerations; and if you take them into account, you must admit the thought of departure and recovery. If you do not entertain the thought of departure, what you are reduced to is, that the handiwork of God is bad, because no one can deny that man is not entirely what he ought to be. If your mind entertains the thought of departure, you can understand that the work of God may have been good, but that man may have been corrupted from what God made him. But then you must entertain another thought, and that is recovery. God has not been pleased to cut man off suddenly, and that leads to the thought of recovery. One is the antithesis of the other. They are the subjects of the two great parts of scripture: the Old Testament is more or less taken up with the departure; you get gleams of light coming in here and there; but in the New Testament you get the recovery, for God was bent upon it. Both are presented in a striking way in the parable of the prodigal: departure [p. 318] on the part of the prodigal, and recovery on the part of the father. I should be dead against the material infidelity of the present day: I think it so unworthy and so immoral, because, unless you exclude all thought of God, you must take moral considerations into account, and if you do so, then you must admit departure and recovery.
Now, I want to touch upon the principles of each. The principles of departure were lawlessness and hatred. Consequently the principles of recovery must be correlative, and are righteousness and love. One deduces these things from Scripture: they are not inventions of the mind. I have great reverence for Scripture, and the effect it produces on my mind increasingly is that what is of God must be right. You may not for the moment be quite capable of discerning the rightness: but you may be sure it is right, and if you go on with God, He will show you the rightness of it.
I will bring before you a few thoughts in regard to the departure. It is not a very happy subject, but it is very important that we should understand what has brought about the present state of confusion in the world. I should not give a man credit for much observation if he did not apprehend the confusion which prevails in the world. I do not want to occupy you with that alone; I desire you to see how God has wrought to bring about recovery, and how He has brought in the principles of righteousness and love.
I will tell you what I mean by lawlessness: it consists in this, that a person is unattached. I know of no better definition. That is what came to pass in man departing from God. A bond had subsisted up to a certain point between God and man, and when man broke away from God and did his own will, he became morally unattached. In a sense, an attachment had come to pass between himself and Satan, but I am speaking for the moment in regard to God. Man had become unattached, and thus lawless. Man had broken his bond with God, and what followed in the train of that was hatred and the [p. 319] world; It was bound to follow, for when man broke away from God there subsisted no longer any real bond between man and man’s neighbour; the principle of hatred came in, and Cain killed his brother Abel. It was just typical of the way in which the Jew behaved to Christ. Christ came to the Jew, and the Jew killed Him. It was the completion of sin; it was morally consequent upon lawlessness. Adam broke away from God and became unattached; then Cain comes out in another direction: he was unattached too, as lawless as Adam, but his lawlessness works out in another direction, and he kills his brother.
I allude to these things because they are manifestly the two principles of departure: lawlessness and hatred; and these two principles are taken up in 1 John 3: lawlessness and hatred are met by righteousness and love.
I pass on for a moment to Psalm 19. The psalmist looked up to heaven, as we might, to the material heavens; and there he saw no confusion. In a world where there is lawlessness and hatred you have confusion; but when the psalmist looked up to heaven, he saw no confusion. Every planet was moving in its appointed orbit; the sun as a bridegroom coming daily out of his chamber. Anyone who observes the heavens sees that there is perfect rule there. Order is the effect of rule, and that is seen in the heavens. The earth and the moon do not travel out of their appointed orbits, and the heavens declare the glory of God. Confusion is where there is absence of order: in the heavens there is order, hence there is no confusion. But when the psalmist looked down to earth, he could not look at man: everything was confusion. When Balaam looked from above on the children of Israel dwelling in their tents, according to their tribes, he saw no disorder or confusion. But if Moses had looked inside their tents, he would have seen things very differently.
Now, after the psalmist has spoken of the heavens, he is obliged to look at the law. There was no confusion there. All the principles of moral attachment were to be [p. 320] found in the law, that a man should love God with all his heart, and his neighbour as himself. If the law were made effectual in man, there would be an end of confusion, because man would be brought into attachment with God and with his neighbour. Instead of confusion there would be order; instead of lawlessness, righteousness; instead of hatred, love. The psalmist could not see that represented in man; he could only see it represented in the law of Jehovah, and, therefore, he celebrates the law of Jehovah.
Now, I will show you how God has wrought for recovery. If God sets to work to bring recovery in, He of necessity brings in recovery in contrast with departure, and introduces principles opposed to the principles of departure, so that in recovery the first principles are righteousness and love.
I will tell you where I think was the real beginning of recovery: on the day of Pentecost. What marked the day of Pentecost was this, that God was pleased to bring in points of attachment in regard to man. The first great point of attachment was Christ, and the second was the christian circle. The preaching of the gospel has been God’s great means of recovery: the light of God has gone out in it to bring recovery about; but there was no preaching of the gospel until God had seen fit to establish points of recovery, and the two great points were, Christ and the christian circle. Christ existed, like the sun in the heavens, and the christian circle also existed, before ever the gospel went out in the world. The Holy Spirit had come and established the christian circle here upon earth; and when that was established, the gospel went out into the world. The power of recovery was there; righteousness and love were there, established in Christ, and in the power of the Spirit. It is a point of the last moment to see that God was pleased, at the very outset, to establish the great principles of recovery in contrast with the principles of departure. The principles of lawlessness and hatred were met by bringing in the principles of righteousness and love, in Christ and in the power of the Spirit.
[p. 321] Now, I should like to call attention to the case of the blind man in John 9. The eyes of the blind man were opened by the grace of Christ, but the Jews excommunicated him. Surely that man had never been placed in so trying a situation. Excommunication was no slight thing: it meant being cast out, so that nobody would have any regard for him at all, and his being cut off from all that in which he had lived until then. Now the Lord goes after him; He did not lose sight of that man. He appeals to him, and says, “Dost thou believe on the Son of God?” (verse 35). The man says, “Who is be, Lord, that I might believe on him?” (verse 36). And Jesus said unto him, “Thou hast both seen him, and he that speaks with thee is He” (verse 37). I lay great stress upon that expression. It conveys to my mind that the Son of God had come within the cognisance of man in such a way that man could see Him, and that He on His part could put Himself into communication with man. That is what I believe to be the beginning of recovery. The effect of it on the blind man was that he said, “Lord, I believe, and he worshipped Him”. The blind man had found another world; he had found it in the Son of God. If I have the Son of God, I have another world. I am content to be turned out of this world, because I have found another.
The first step which God takes to bring man back from lawlessness is in presenting Christ to man as a point of attraction. You must get attraction before you get attachment. You could not have attachment without a point of attraction, and God has brought in a point of attraction in Christ, the One in whom the grace of God is presented to man in order to attract man. That is the first principle of the gospel. The gospel sets before men the grace of God in a Man to attract men to that Man. It is not the end of the gospel; what God has in view is to form a bond; but before it can be formed you must get people attracted to Christ by the grace which is presented in Him.
I think the blind man presents that to us. He had been [p. 322] attracted by Christ, at least in a measure; and when the Lord spoke to him in the way He did, he was in principle attached to Him, and in finding Christ he found another world. The same thing is true in regard to us. In John 12 the Lord says, “Now is the judgment of this world: now shall the prince of this world be cast out: and I, if I be lifted up out of the earth, will draw all to me” (verse 31). He virtually says, I am the beginning of another world, the beginning of the creation of God.
These principles are brought out in the beginning of the third chapter of John’s first epistle. We read, He was manifested to take away our sins. If so, surely Christ has a claim upon us. But that is not the end: it is the beginning, His having been manifested to take away our sins gives Him legitimately a claim upon every man. Then we come to another point: “In Him sin is not” (verse 5). He is the centre and Head of God’s universe; in Him is no sin, and God in result intends to have a universe in which there is no sin, the beginning of it is the One in whom is no sin. We are first attracted to Christ by the grace which is presented to us in Him; but what God has in view is to bring about an attachment to the One in whom is no sin, so that we should abide in Him. Once that is the case, then we have escaped from lawlessness. Lawlessness is the contrast to attachment; bring about attachment, and we are delivered from lawlessness.
That is what comes to pass in the grace of God: Christ is presented to us, we are attracted to Him, then attached to Him by the Spirit of God, and then we are delivered from lawlessness, because God has been pleased to bring about attachment. That is a great thing to have been effected. I quite admit that the great point is affection; but you must have attachment before you have affection. When attachment is brought about by the Spirit of God, affection will follow in the train. My impression is that the moral order of things is attraction, attachment, and affection. Attraction is the answer to grace; then the next point is attachment; Christ gives living water to the one who has been attracted to Him;
[p. 323] then when you have attachment, you get affection. I do not know whether all will agree with me, but I believe that the true affection between a man and his wife really begins when they are married. I do not say that there is not a sort of affection before; but my impression is that it is when the bond is formed the true affection really springs up. The bond is the true starting point; the man and his wife come to know each other’s worth in a sense in which they never knew it before, and true affection is formed according to the bond in which they are linked together. Now, I believe that to be the case in regard to Christ and us. We are married to Christ; we have been first attracted to Him, then attached to Him, then we come under His influence, and it is the influence of Christ which brings out our affection to Him. If we are married to Him, He makes known to us all His worth, and He draws out in that way our affection to Him. He makes us conscious of His affection for us, His service and His care for us, and thus turns our affection towards Him. That is the way in which I should suppose affection really exists between Christ and those who have been attached to Him, and in that way we are delivered from lawlessness. Christ gave Himself for us, to deliver us from all lawlessness, that we might be attached to Him in the power of the Spirit, so that under the influence of Christ we might bring forth fruit unto God.
Two great benefits of being attached to Christ are sunshine and rain. To take a figure from natural things: the earth derives great benefits from being attached to the sun: it gains sunshine and rain, and thereby becomes fruitful. If the question were put to me why there is so little fruit for God in saints, I should say it is because they come so little under the sunshine and rain which ought to result from their attachment to Christ. It is a great thing to be in the brightness of Christ; it is really the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. If you come under the influence of that brightness, you will also get rain. The sun draws up the moisture from the earth, and it returns to the earth in the form of rain. Rain is [p. 324] dependent on the sun, and the same thing is true in spiritual things. All ministry is dependent upon our sun, and the brightness of our sun is the moral effulgence of God in the face of Jesus Christ.
It is a great thing to have been recovered from lawlessness and brought into attachment, so that we can say we are righteous as Christ is righteous. Christ is the only point of righteousness, as He is the point of attraction and attachment; there is no righteousness in the universe except Christ. He is the righteous One, who has accomplished righteousness, in whom we are righteous, as He is righteous. We stand in relation to Him; we are no longer lawless or unattached; we apprehend Christ as the blessed beginning and centre of God’s world, the universe of bliss. That is the first point of attachment, and it is of the greatest importance to apprehend it, so that we should come very definitely under the influence of our sun, that we might be fruitful. Then there is another point as to Christ: He has come within the range of man’s vision, and He talks to us. If He could talk to the blind man in John 9, He can talk to us; He communicates with us, and we can sit at the feet of Jesus and hear His word, like Mary did.
Now, there is another point of attachment, which is equally important, in order that we may escape the world and the hatred in it. God’s work is perfect, and His way is perfect. When God set to work to bring about recovery for man, He had in view not only to recover man from lawlessness, but from hatred, and, therefore, before the gospel went out into the world God had established the circle of love down here upon earth. The apostles not only had the testimony of Christ, but there was also the circle of the brethren, and the gospel went out from that circle. It was a point of attachment, so that those who were attracted to Christ might be brought into it, and escape from the hatred in the world. If you come under the rule of Christ, you cannot remain in the world, because that does not come under the rule of Christ. I think the Father holds the world in hand; but [p. 325] the rule of Christ refers at present to those who believe in Him, in order that they may be fruitful for God; they leave the world for the circle of love.
I believe that is where a great many christians fail: they have come, in a way, under the rule of Christ, but they do not apprehend the christian circle; they are mixed up with the great christian organisations in the world; they have never really escaped from the world and its hatred. There is no escape from the world except in the christian circle, the circle of love. God saw fit to establish that circle here, the atmosphere of which was to be the love of Christ. In every company on earth — the House of Commons or any other — there is a sort of moral atmosphere. So it was with the company formed on the day of Pentecost: its moral atmosphere was the love of Christ. Souls who were converted were brought into it, and thus delivered from the poisonous influences which existed in the world: and they became conscious that they had passed out of death into life. They had left an atmosphere full of moral poison, and come into an atmosphere of life and love, the little circle which had its character from the love of Christ, and they were conscious they had passed from death unto life, because they loved the brethren.
Now, it is in that way that the work of God is complete: not only to deliver souls from lawlessness, but from hatred, from everything that came in by departure. God’s work is perfect in contrast with the departure, and, therefore, in the recovery you get the two points of attachment. The one, of supreme importance, is the Son of God, the beginning of God’s creation, the head of every man; He is the first point of attachment, so that you may abide in Him. You come under His blessed influence, and get sunshine and rain. The other point is equally important, and that is, that you come into the christian circle, which you find ready prepared. The Spirit of God brings you into the circle of love, and you become conscious that you have passed out of the poisonous influences of the world into life, because you [p. 326] love the brethren. You cannot attach too much importance to the christian circle. It is as much a principle of recovery as the rule of Christ. The rule of Christ and the christian circle go together, in order that God’s recovery may be complete, so that souls may be delivered not only from lawlessness, but from the world, and the hatred that characterises the world.
Now, if, through the grace of God, you are brought under the influence of Christ, you abide in Him; and if you find yourself in the christian circle, where the love of Christ prevails, you apprehend that you have come into a scene of moral order; you get the benefit of it in your own soul. Depend upon it, moral order can only be found in those who are under the rule of Christ, abiding in Him on the one hand and in the christian circle on the other, conscious that they have passed out of death into life, because they love the brethren. The world is a scene of confusion, full of noxious and poisonous influences. My heart aches when I think of the things to which the young are exposed in the world, the filthiness and abominations which are paraded before their minds. But there is an outlet, and the first point is to come under rule. Rule is a wholesome thing, it brings about order. It is so important to come under rule, to abide in Christ, the blessed Head and centre and sun of God’s universe, and then to enjoy the christian circle, the atmosphere of which is the love of Christ. How wonderful to think that there should be a circle down here whose atmosphere is the love of Christ! It is a great thing to come into it and to fulfil our own obligation in it, that is, that we love: we love the brethren. You could not do that, if you did not first recognise that the brethren were there. You were brought into that circle; but it existed a long time before you were converted. It existed at the beginning, before any had been converted by the gospel. Christ formed it, and the Spirit of God sanctioned and gave character to it. Those converted by the gospel were brought into abiding in Christ on the one hand, and into the christian circle on the other.
[p. 327] It is wonderful to contrast the two I have attempted to bring before you: lawlessness and hatred, as the effect of departure; and on the other hand the principles of attachment, righteousness, and love, which characterise recovery, all blessedly brought to pass in Christ and the christian circle.