THE LORD - THE DEFENDER OF THE FAITH
[p. 86] THE LORD — THE DEFENDER OF THE FAITH
Zechariah 3: 1, 2; 2 Timothy 4: 16 - 18
I wish to show you how that for which Jerusalem stood in the Old Testament times is now connected with the assembly, and that directly the true bearing and character of the assembly comes to light the world-power attacks it. I therefore refer to the apostle Paul, because he was the great vessel in whom that testimony came to light. You will remember that in the detail of his conversion in Acts 26, it is said that a light above the brightness of the sun shone from heaven round about him. There had been light set at Jerusalem, but it is a more wonderful thing to be illuminated from heaven. Now we may say that heavenly light shines about us; the light shone all about Paul; and so when Christ was born the glory of the Lord shone round about the shepherds. It is one thing to have the light about you and it is quite another thing to have it in you.
In Paul there was the reflection of the testimony; he was the witness of it, and so he comes in contact with the beast, of Daniel 7: 7. The four gentile monarchies are likened to four beasts in that chapter. Now beasts are made to be taken and destroyed, but God, in wonderful forbearance, bears with these beasts till they commit some overt act against the testimony. In this there is an important principle for us. We are not to interfere with the agents of evil. We know they are there. We know they are ravenous beasts, but we are not to interfere with them. Neither does God interfere with them until they commit some overt act against Him. He allows them, in wondrous patience, to continue their course.
The wicked man described in Daniel 8: 23 - 25 who “shall destroy marvellously, and shall prosper, and shall practise”, is allowed to pursue his course until he stands up against the Prince of princes and then he is “broken without hand”. In the future the whole world-power will combine under one head. The beast, the false prophet and the kings of the earth will all be gathered together against the Lord, but only to meet their final doom. The Lord will come out of heaven with His glorious titles; for He has imperial titles. The only one entitled to imperial titles is Christ. He will appear as King of kings and Lord of lords. He will come in imperial and heavenly glory. The beast and the false prophet, the great representatives of worldly power, will be taken and cast alive into the lake of fire. Think of the power the Lord has! Consider the power of the angel who sat at the Lord’s tomb in Matthew 28, of whom it is said, “His look was as lightning ... and for fear of him the guards trembled and became as dead men”. If all the navies and all the armies of the world were put together, how easily God could smite them with lightning! Now the Lord Jesus Christ controls all that power. If all the powers of the nations were concentrated under one head, what is that in the presence of Christ? The beast and the false prophet will be taken alive and cast into the lake of fire. And then the great adversary, whose titles are given to us in Revelation 20, will be bound; an angel comes down with a chain, and what irony is in that figure, and that great adversary, the Devil and Satan, is chained and cast into the bottomless pit to remain there for a thousand years. Such is the power that is in the hand of Christ, the great Defender of the assembly.
When the ‘beast’ attacked Paul, he said, “The Lord stood with me”. There was not another to stand by him; he said, “All men forsook me”. How searching that is! How we recoil from “the lion’s mouth”! Paul did not; he says, “Notwithstanding the Lord stood with me, and strengthened me; that by me the preaching might be fully known, and that all the gentiles might hear: and I was delivered out of the mouth of the lion”. The lion was not destroyed, nor is he yet destroyed. Indeed, Paul was afterwards, as it were given to him, and it was Paul’s glory to give up his life for Christ, but the Lord did not allow him to be sacrificed to the lion until by him the preaching was fully known. If the preaching is fully known, Paul can depart; he can have the honour of martyrdom. But the power is in the hands of Christ, and the lion’s mouth must be closed until the preaching is fully known. Thank God, Paul was retained here until then. The Lord was the great Defender of the testimony and the preaching must be fully known and all the gentiles must hear and then Paul can depart.
Peter said, in writing his second epistle, that he was about to put off his tabernacle, as the Lord had shown him; but this was not until he had finished his testimony. He was not communicating anything new; he wrote to remind the saints of what had been already ministered. He puts off his tabernacle when he has finished his ministry, and not before. And so with Paul; the lion’s mouth is stopped, so to speak, till the preaching is fully known, till all the gentiles hear. We are among the gentiles, and thank God, we have heard. But the lion is going to open his mouth again. The great western persecuting power is really continued in the ecclesiastical system that has replaced the empire, and it will reappear in an imperial character and it will attack the testimony, but only to be broken, never again to be revived.