WHAT IS PASSING, AND WHAT ABIDES
Matthew 24:35; 1 John 2:14 (from “I have written to you, young men”) -17;
2 Corinthians 4:16-18; 1 John 2:8
I seek help from the Holy Spirit to speak about what is passing, and what abides. The Lord Jesus, in this verse in Matthew where we read, says “The heaven and the earth shall pass away”. It is understandable for us to think that the earth and heaven are permanent, that they have always been this way – the mountains have always been the way they are for as long as anyone can remember, and the stars have always been there too. It seems that they are permanent, but the Lord Jesus says that they shall pass away. We are living in a temporary place. You could also say that our natural lives here on the earth are temporary lives – they are passing. But in contrast to what is temporary and passing, there is what abides, what is permanent; in the Lord’s words, that which “shall in no wise pass away”. It is a strengthened negative: “my words shall in no wise pass away”. This sentence is identical in the gospels of Matthew, Mark and Luke; it is as if the Lord Jesus would emphasise this, that “my words shall in no wise pass away”.
Have you heard the words of Jesus? Have you heard His voice? Have you heard what He is saying to you? He said, “Come to me, all ye who labour and are burdened, and I will give you rest”, Matt.11:28. Have you heard these words, the words of Jesus, beloved? It is good to hear them, but in one sense it is not enough simply to hear them. The Lord Jesus also said, “why call ye me, Lord, Lord, and do not the things that I say?”, Luke 6:46. In that passage, the Lord goes on to say, “Every one that come to me, and hears my words and does them, I will show you to whom he is like. He is like a man building a house, who dug and went deep” (vv.47,48). Beloved, hearing the words of Jesus gives you a foundation in your life, if you act on them. “Believe on the Lord Jesus and thou shalt be saved” (Acts 16:31) is what Paul and Silas said. The Lord says, “my words shall in no wise pass away”. Think of the great volume of words that there must be in the world, as a result of technology that exists now. I suppose there are more words written now than there have ever been in the history of time. These words can cause people to be confused and misled. Beloved, unless the words concern the things of Jesus, they are passing; they are of the world and they are passing away. No matter how many words there may be, or what technology produces them or repeats them, they are all passing, but “my words shall in no wise pass away” – the precious words of Jesus. The world is full of empty words, but the words of Jesus are precious. They are valuable, they are lasting, they have eternal value.
Make sure that you have heard the words of Jesus, and that you have answered to them. As well as His words, there is His voice, communicating something to you about His feelings for you. Sometimes when we receive a text message, we do not know what the person who sent it is feeling towards us; we do not know what the person really means. I may think that the person who wrote is upset with me. Perhaps the person did not intend that at all. The voice of Jesus, however, conveys His feelings. He would speak to you when you are on your knees in communion with Him. He would have you to recognise who it is that is speaking to you. A voice is unique to a person. Beloved, let us value the words of Jesus, and His voice as He speaks to us, because what He says to us, and the effect of it, is permanent and eternal, and will never pass away. Everything that is created will pass away, as the Lord says here. There will be a “new heavens and a new earth, wherein dwells righteousness”, 2 Pet.3:13. This poor earth has been spoiled by sin and man’s sinning and will soon pass away.
The passage I read in 1 John refers to the world, and the fact that it is passing. The heavens and the earth speak of what is created, of course, but we could think of the world as a system under the power of Satan, an active system, an organisation of evil calculated to trap men and women and children in it and thus to prevent them from turning to God. Satan’s objective is to rob God of what He deserves. God deserves your worship: “the Father seeks such as his worshippers”, John 4:23. He seeks you as a worshipper. No matter how young you are, or how old, the Lord Jesus would love you to be a worshipper of God. But the world is against that, and the ruler of this world, Satan, is against that. The passage I read is addressed to young men. There are young men here today – indeed it is a feature of the meeting in this place. The apostle says, “I have written to you, young men, because ye are strong, and the word of God abides in you”. We spoke about that in the reading meeting: you have heard the words of the Lord, you have learned them, you have applied yourself to reading the Scriptures, and to learning the truth set out in ministry which was given in the power of the Holy Spirit, and you have gained from it. You have known the word of God abiding in you, and you have overcome the wicked one.
But we all know what it is, sometimes, to go back a little, and to slip away a little. Today might be an occasion that the Lord would use to encourage us to go on and to pursue the things that are eternal and permanent. Everything in this world is passing. It might seem attractive, it might seem sophisticated, or refined, or interesting, or enjoyable. The scripture speaks of “the temporary pleasure of sin”, Heb.11:25. That is all the world can offer, things that are temporary. Satan knows that, and so he becomes more and more desperate to distract you, and deflect you from what is really important – that is the things concerning the Lord Jesus and His words. “And the world is passing”: what a comfort that is. In the world today, people are genuinely frightened. There are educated and intelligent persons who are scared about what is happening in the world, and they are beginning to admit it. They are worried about what is taking place, the unleashing of technology, built by man’s mind and Satan no doubt promoting these things. He is spoken of as “the ruler of the authority of the air”, Eph 2:2. People in the world are fearful, but the things of the world are passing, they are passing away. The attractive things in this world that may, for the moment, have your attention – they may even hold your affections if you are bound up with them rather than being bound up with Jesus, so look away from them – they are passing! The whole world system is passing.
The scripture adds, “but he that does the will of God abides for eternity”. It is like “Every one that comes to me, and hears my words and does them”, already referred to. Are you hearing the words of Jesus, and are you doing them? What does He ask you to do? He asks you to remember Him (see Luke 22:19). That would be included in doing “the will of God”; simply coming to Jesus, remembering Him and following Him. The Lord said to Peter, “follow thou me”, John 21:22. The words of Jesus! Are you following Him in your life, or are you following your own way? Are you following a way that leads away from Him, and into the world? It has been said that you can only be contributing to the building of one of two cities: Babylon here, or Jerusalem above2 . That may seem stark; you may say, I am just looking at things in the world, I am only doing that occasionally; but by being occupied with it you are contributing to it and supporting it. Do not support something that is passing. Invest your time and have your affections in what is worthwhile, what is heavenly, what is permanent, what is true. It says, “he that does the will of God abides for eternity” – it is true of the person who does God’s will. Do not be someone who is going to pass away with the world; I trust there is no-one like that here. If you do the will of God, you will abide for eternity. You will be able to stand, and to withstand too, while we are still in the world, yet not of it. Beloved, I feel the test of this myself, but the Lord would encourage us and remind us of the proper value of things; the Holy Spirit would help us to do that, to have an assessment of the true value of things – what they are really worth. The world is passing; it is spiritually worthless. The world itself cast out my Saviour, it considered Him to be worthless. How could you be interested in a world that did that? But what is eternal is worthwhile.
I read in Corinthians because sometimes doing the will of God will involve suffering; indeed, it will always involve suffering. I cannot speak about suffering in a way that many here could; I cannot claim to know anything much about it. But there is suffering, and it is felt in different ways. People suffer in their circumstances, at home, or at work, in their health or in their families, or in their local assemblies; beloved ones suffer. Paul writes these words that we have read, I think, to reassure us that when we are doing the will of God, then “our outward man is consumed, yet the inward is renewed day by day”, and “our momentary and light affliction works for us in surpassing measure an eternal weight of glory”. What is outward is temporary, these mortal bodies that we have, but what is inward is renewed day by day. Beloved friend, do you know what it is to be renewed day by day inwardly? You will receive communications from divine Persons as you spend time with the Holy Spirit in private communion with Him, and with the Lord Jesus, the Son of God; and with the Father of glory. That is time well spent, time well invested. The world is putting claims on our time as never before; it is worth spending time in the presence of God. You will find what it is to be renewed inwardly day by day. It is a day-by-day matter. It refers to what is accumulated day by day, a little at a time.
Paul writes about affliction here – he knew about affliction. He lists in the epistle all the things that he bore, shipwreck and many other things (see 2 Cor.11:25-27); yet he refers to “our momentary and light affliction”: he includes himself in that. Why did he consider it to be light? I think it is because he is comparing it with the result that it works out. Beloved friend, I am not belittling what we may suffer; we feel it deeply and keenly. But as you pass through suffering with the Lord Jesus, the One who is tender in His sympathy, who is able to sympathise with us because He has been here and He has suffered (see Heb.4:14-16), you will find that the Lord Jesus knows what you are passing through. He could say, through the words of the prophet, “see if there be any sorrow like unto my sorrow”, Lam.1:12. The Lord Jesus knows; He knows all about you and He would be with you in the sorrow. When we are in it with Him, the suffering “works for us in surpassing measure an eternal weight of glory”. It is contrasted to what is momentary and light; it is something that is eternal and substantial, “an eternal weight of glory”. It is being accumulated – have you been accumulating that glory day by day? Have you been reading and praying; and contemplating Jesus, asking the Holy Spirit to point you to Him? If so, you will have been building up that eternal weight of glory.
You might say, ‘I am just young’. Dear young friend, if you commit yourself to spending time with Jesus every day, you will find that there is something spiritual built up in you, something that is accumulated in you that corresponds to this eternal weight of glory. It might not be seen yet, but a day is coming when this “eternal weight of glory” will be seen. At present, “we look not at the things that are seen”, that is everything that goes on around us, the things that are going on in the world, these are the things that are seen. How sad they are, and our feelings of sympathy go out towards our fellow men, and we cry to God that they may be saved through hearing the words of Jesus. But let us not have the things that are seen as our occupation. Let us look “at the things that are not seen”. ‘How can I look at things that are not seen?’ you might ask. Well, you need faith and the Holy Spirit, and then you are able to look at things that are not seen; “the things that are seen are for a time”, they are passing, they are temporary; “but those that are not seen eternal”. Think of that! The scripture says, “But now we see not yet all things subjected to him, but we see Jesus … crowned with glory and honour”, Heb.2:8,9. That is something that is not passing, that will never pass. He is there, installed in glory; the Father has given Him that place and we can see Him there. It says, “But now we see not yet all things subjected to him” – not yet, but soon we will see everything subjected to Him, and what a change this world will see! Beloved, this is our opportunity to be engaged with what is abiding, what is eternal, what is permanent, what is of Christ and of God, what pleases God. Nothing of the world pleases God; the world is entirely opposed to the Father: that is something the apostle John presents here. He contrasts the world with the Father.
In the second passage in John’s epistle where we read, John says, “I write a new commandment … which thing is true in him and in you, because the darkness is passing and the true light already shines”. As I understand it, the “in him” there means ‘in Christ’. It has been said in ministry that darkness has had its day3. How could that be? It seems that the darkness in this world is getting worse and worse! Beloved, every believer on the Lord Jesus on the face of this earth has the true light already shining in them. Do you have it? If you have come to Jesus, if you believe in Him, you can be here as a light in this world – as “children of God in the midst of a crooked and perverted generation; among whom ye appear as lights in the world”, Phil.2:15. How pleasing it must be to God to see that the world has not been overcome entirely by darkness, but there is light there, light in the darkness; and “which thing is true in him and in you” – in Christ. Think of Him as the light of the world, and think of God in whom there is no darkness at all! There could never be a trace of darkness with God; it would be impossible to think of any darkness in Him.
We were once in darkness, were we not? We were once far from God and in darkness, but now “the darkness is passing”. You might say that darkness is passing, one believer at a time. That divine light from Christ, the light of the world, has shone into every believing heart, the light of Christ Himself, and then it is shining out again. “The darkness is passing”. It will soon pass entirely: the Sun of righteousness will arise (Mal.4:2). Think of the beams of light that He will shed. Every one then will know the Lord Jesus. Think of the light that will spread across this poor, dark world. Think of the ignorance of God that there is in the world today – that is what darkness suggests (see Eph.4:18) – those who are ignorant of God and do not care about Him; they are dark, morally dark. But think of the light that you have inside you! It is an interesting expression, “the true light” – not only light, but “the true light”. It is not an appearance of light, or something superficial or transient; it is a deep, lasting, pure light. And it conveys the character of what is in Him – “which thing is true in him and in you”.
That is a wonderful contemplation, that the light that was seen in Jesus, that same light, has shone into you as a believer. Why? For the shining out again. I feel to my shame that I sometimes hinder the shining out of that light again. The Lord Jesus said, “if therefore thine eye be single, thy whole body will be light”, Matt.6:22. I think that is the answer, beloved, to have our eye single, simply fixed on Jesus. You can ask the Spirit to help you as you go through your life day by day, to have Jesus before you, and to have a simple view of Jesus. Then there will be less and less to hinder that light shining out from you, and your whole body will be light. There will be something that can be taken account of by people around; they will be able to look on you and say, ‘That person is not like other people in the world; what is it that makes them like that?’. And you could be the cause of someone being attracted to Jesus. What a victory!
Friends, “the darkness is passing”. Satan will not have the last word. That could never be so; God will have the last word. “The darkness is passing”: it has already started to pass because of the light that is shining in people like you and me, through the grace of God, the people here in this room. What a victory God is going to have over the world. Let us spend the little time that remains until we shall see Jesus face to face – engaged with Him, occupied with Him, investing our time in, and devoting our affections to, the things that are abiding. Let us hear the words of Jesus and do His will, knowing something of the eternal weight of glory that is being built up. The occasions of our gathering are opportunities to accumulate “an eternal weight of glory”. Come to the meetings when you can: the Lord speaks there. You will gain something that will go through to eternity, something that the world cannot give you. No matter what it pretends to offer you, it cannot match what God can give you and what God is doing, which is eternal. It will go through into that eternal day when there will be no darkness. It says in Revelation that “night shall not be there” (chap.21:25). A day is coming when there will be no more darkness. We are looking for the One who is coming and will bring in that wonderful day. In the meantime, let us spend our time occupied with what is permanent, and what is abiding and what is worthwhile.
May the Lord bless the word.
Address at Witney
1 February 2025
John Speirs