THE SHEPHERD
Genesis 48:15 (from “the God that shepherded me”)
None of us here, beloved friends and brethren, has lived as long as our sister did, and this verse came to mind as thinking of this occasion. She had proved blessing throughout her life and the source of that blessing was that she had One who had shepherded her through the whole of her life, through every day, through every moment. Each one of us who is here can know the God who shepherds us all our life long. I have been local with our sister and proved the care and the support that both she and her husband gave to the local brethren and to the testimony, but what was evident when you visited her was that there was One who shepherded her, to whom she clung. She had her confidence in the Lord Jesus. It was drawn from the One who was her Shepherd.
God in His infinite wisdom has provided shepherd care through One who is referred to in Scripture as the good Shepherd. That good Shepherd laid down His life for His sheep, of whom our sister was one, and every one here, I would trust, is one of His sheep. One aspect of knowing the Lord Jesus as our Shepherd is proving His nearness and proving His succour and support every day of our lives. What a long life it has been for our sister. She came to know His voice, and as has been said before, she can still hear that voice; she knows it and will do so eternally. That is to be our portion, that the Shepherd and Overseer of our souls is the One who we know and love, One who we trust, and One who we come to know as we walk here in a scene that completely rejected Him.
What it is to know the love of that Shepherd! The scripture says, “keep yourselves in the love of God”, Jude 21. Through the love of God, we find that there is One who will shepherd us, giving us the shepherd care that we need. The change of direction, the encouragement to move forward, so needed when things may get a little bit difficult; that voice of care when we are feeling lonely as our sister no doubt felt at times – all of that support, all of that loving succour and kindness comes from the One who is the good Shepherd. He is still caring for His sheep as having laid down His life for them, loving them, never ceasing to care for each one of those who are His. He notices when one of the flock strays, when one of them is not well or needs a special word of encouragement. What a Shepherd the Lord Jesus is, and as the scripture says here, it is “all my life long”.
May all of us here prove what it is to know, as our sister did, the nearness, the love and the care of the Shepherd who died for us, for His name’s sake.
Word at a meeting for burial, Colchester
18 December 2019
Andrew E Mutton
QUIETNESS
Many in this room knew our sister much better than I did, but during the times that I was in her presence, one thing that affected me was her quietness. She was settled in her soul. She had, as our brothers have said, come to know Christ as her Saviour. She had come to know the One who had effected righteousness, and consequently she was settled, she was peaceful. Psalm 85 says, “Loving-kindness and truth are met together; righteousness and peace have kissed each other” (v.10). That happened at the cross, at the time when Christ died. Our sister was aware of that; she was aware not only of the price that had been paid for her salvation, but also that righteousness had been established and anything that stood in the way of her link with her Lord had been removed. The effect of His work of righteousness is peace. Peace, as we have often been taught, is not the absence of contention; peace is the state of a settled relationship of affection.
That is what our sister enjoyed in her day to day life, and this is what affected me, that the effect of righteousness is “quietness and assurance for ever”. What a wonderful thing, dear friends, dear believers, to have quietness and assurance for ever. Whatever the trials, and there are many, whatever the upsets, whatever the joys – in all of them, we can know quietness and assurance for ever. What a glorious thing that we have such a Man as Jesus with whom we can walk, with whom we can have this relationship as our sister did, so that there is no need for agitation. There is sorrow, yes, but quietness and assurance for ever. What a glorious thing! We are waiting for the Lord’s coming, as we have been reminded, waiting to hear His voice, waiting to see His face. Our sister now is with Him. How wonderful for our sister to be there, conscious of being in His presence. Christ has her with Himself uninterruptedly. What a glorious thing for Him and what a glorious thing for our sister, but in her life here, she knew quietness and assurance for ever. May we be encouraged to know that for ourselves, for His name’s sake.
Word at a meeting for burial, Colchester
18 December 2019
Terry W Lock
DIVINE COMMUNICATIONS
I read these few lines to call attention to the blessed fact that communications of love do not cease in the disembodied state. It is not only that the Spirit rests in the consciousness of love, but communications of love continue. The body is not necessary for the reception of these communications, for Paul at a time when he was unconscious of the body – he could not even say whether he was in the body, or out of the body, that is, the body had nothing to do with this matter – was caught up into paradise and heard unspeakable things said. Words are definite communications.
Beloved brethren, how sweet it is to think of it. We know how the Lord loved to make communications of His love to His loved ones, and now there is a continuation.
But the words we have read carry us into the region of paradise. We find a man in Christ there. Oh! how we love to think of our sister there in this blessed order of manhood -- a man in Christ. No longer in mixed conditions, trammelled with the earthen vessel, free from all that, but still competent, blessed be God, to receive communications from God, and such communications as our ears have never heard, because communications of paradise cannot be uttered in this lower world. How good to depart and be with Christ which is very much better. But not only to be near to Christ, but to have communications of His own love, continued and continued as never known here. I love to think of it – in the disembodied state, not only do spiritual affections remain but as occupied with divine communications spoken and heard in that divine scene, how it enlarges the thought of "being with Christ".
So whatever the interval, long or short – with some, centuries, and some, only a short time – not only consciousness of love, but communications of love. May our hearts be greatly comforted by this.
Given at a Burial
From C.A. Coates Vol.34 (Words in Season) p.29
SAVIOUR OF THE WORLD
2 Peter 1:10-19; Revelation 5:4-10; Jude 17-21
We were speaking of Joseph in the reading. There are three interpretations of his name: he was the Saviour of the world, the Sustainer of Life and, if you read the footnote in Genesis 41 verse 45, the Hebrew means the Revealer of secrets. These are some of the glories of Christ that we could well dwell upon.
The Saviour of the world – what a Man He is! Is He your Saviour? The fact that the world needs a Saviour was never more manifest than in the present day. Job longed for “an umpire … who should lay his hand upon us both”, Job 9:33. Have you ever had those feelings; the need of a Saviour – someone to take the load? That is what Joseph did; the whole scene was lying in death, with famine all around, and they were all soon to perish, but Joseph was raised up as saviour of the world. The Saviour of the world can be your Saviour. It has been so beautifully said that if all the souls in the universe came to God tonight in repentance, the blood of Jesus would be enough for every one. That is a stupendous fact. There will be new heavens and new earth founded on the blood of Jesus. It will be sustained in the power of His life. But we begin with the question – do you know Him, the Saviour of the world?
There is no hope for the world; that is very evident. Jesus did not come to change the world. In the world, apostacy is rising, things are getting worse and worse, but in the midst of all the darkness a Saviour has appeared. He will help you through the world, He will help you at school, with the matters of your life and your circumstances. But finally He will take you into another world. Peter tells us that the present heavens and the earth are all going to be removed, but there is another world to be brought in of which Christ is the glorious and blessed Centre. Oh beloved, get to know the Saviour, get Him into your heart. He is a Man to fill your affections. John says about Him that He is the propitiation for our sins, but not for ours alone. The work that He did in the shedding of His blood and being buried and rising again has laid the foundation for God to bring in a whole new universe. The new heavens and new earth are not going to be empty; they are going to be peopled with the redeemed. Will you be among them, will you find your place there through being drawn to the blessed Man, the Saviour of the world? If you have not yet come to Jesus in the faith of your soul, come to know Him now as your Saviour. Lift up your heart to Him today and say, Lord, be merciful to me, the sinner (Luke 18:13). In simple faith, draw near to Jesus, just where you are.
But He is much more than a Saviour! I did not mean to say much more about that. I wanted to speak about how the apostles, in their lifetime, looked down to this very day we are in, and they saw that things were going to be broken. They saw the breakdown and the apostacy. But what did the apostles do? Did they give up? Did they say, Well, if things are going to go like that, need I suffer, need I go through these exercises? Paul had the light that things were going to break down. Corruption was going to come in. But was that all he saw? No, beloved, he saw that there was something going to go through, and go through in glory. The Lord is the Sustainer of life. He is greater than the breakdown. He is greater than all that will ever come into the history of time. He is greater than all that the devil will introduce, even into what bears the name of Christ. He is the Sustainer of Life.
I want to speak about Peter and John in that regard. Although they saw the breakdown and the ruin, they left the saints with an impression of Christ that would see them through until the rapture. Indeed they speak of things far beyond that time. They look right on to there being a new heavens and earth where God will dwell eternally with men, based on the work and the glory of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. Peter speaks about His majesty. I would like to convey some impression about the humanity and the deity of Jesus. Peter is speaking about His humanity. There are few, if any, who speak about Jesus like Peter. I think he knew Him better than most, and, as he reflected on that Man who he knew day by day in the circumstances of Galilee and Palestine, he says, “who did no sin”. Was that enough? No, he says, “neither was guile found in his mouth” (1 Pet.2:22) – what a Man Jesus was!
I love to think of Peter going over these days of Jesus reflectively. How He was reviled, but Peter goes on to say that He “reviled not again; when suffering, threatened not”. Then, and this is perhaps the most beautiful of all, He “gave himself over into the hands of him who judges righteously”, 1 Pet.2:23. There is the humanity of Jesus; a Man with confidence in His Father. Could He not have answered for Himself, He who calmed the troubled waters, who fed the five thousand yet answered not when falsely accused in Pilate’s judgment hall? He reviled not again, but gave Himself over. Oh, what a Man, what a Saviour!
Peter then goes on further than that; “who himself bore our sins in his body on the tree”. That is a very beautiful touch. It brings Jesus very personally home to us. Are your sins still troubling you, beloved, are they still on your conscience? What a Man to trust about your sins, to entrust with your soul’s eternal welfare. Will you do it now? Your sins can be gone, gone for ever through the grace of this glorious, precious Saviour.
I wanted to come to the way in which that Man bears majesty. He was not only the lowly Nazarene, but Peter had another view of Him – “having been eye witnesses of his majesty”. He was a lowly Man, no different outwardly from others. They came to take Him as a robber with swords and sticks and He says “I am He”, John 18:5. There was majesty. Could they do anything? They went away backwards and fell to the ground.
Peter had a view that day that he never had before, a view that remained in his soul for the rest of his life. Jesus was the Revealer of secrets. You need to have a secret. You will never get through life, with all its exercises, without a secret in your soul. You get these secrets through being in the presence of Him who reveals them. Peter was taken up into a high mountain apart and he came into the secret of the Father’s delight in Jesus. The voice from the excellent glory – “This is my beloved Son, in whom I have found my delight”. What stability was brought into his soul. There was a very important remark made in the first reading today: ‘The only point of stability today is a Man at the right hand of God’. What will happen to your career; what will happen to your plans? There is nothing secure, but there is a point of stability presented to you today, and that is in a Man at the right hand of God. It was a secret that Peter came into here. He wrote that Jesus “received from God the Father honour and glory”. That has filled out this dispensation. I love to think of this dispensation beginning with three thousand souls converted in one preaching. What was that? It was the Father’s delight in Jesus. The floodgates of heaven were opened and a rush of grace and mercy flowed out that day upon a guilty city which had just crucified the Lord of glory. But the Father’s delight in Jesus was so great that He says, as it were, ‘I will flood the whole city with My mercy’.
It says that they were eyewitnesses of His majesty. It is fine to hear from an eyewitness, and that is what the apostles were. There has been nothing added since the time of the apostles. Jude refers to that. What came out in the apostles was enough to see the dispensation through. The Spirit’s grace has been with us, and we have had it opened out to us, but there has been nothing additional to what came out through the apostles. Indeed, beloved, anything different from what the apostles said is false. Get back to that; what came in so early in the dispensation in the apostles’ ministry is enough. What men they were – eyewitnesses.
Peter is saying that he was about to depart; he did not expect apostolic succession , nor person to claim they were succeeding to his line of things and his authority. He is really saying, ‘After my departure, you will have this, that I was an eyewitness of His majesty’ – the lowly Nazarene, blessed lowly Man. But the veil was drawn aside; He was God’s glorious Son, “over all, God blessed for ever”, Rom.9:5. My friends, never read the gospels without a spirit of worship. He came so low, but that never detracted from His greatness, it enhanced it.
It says, “his majesty”; Jesus is upholding the whole scene, and if there is a King then there is a kingdom. Peter is attracting these scattered brethren into this everlasting kingdom. It says “use diligence to make your calling and election sure”. Do not have doubts about things; as Christ is enthroned in your heart, doubts fly away. What can He not do, what can He not compass? He is greater than the difficulties, greater than the exercises that may come in. How real they are, but you can have Christ enthroned in your heart. Any kingdom takes its colour and its character from its king, and Christ is giving character to His kingdom.
Peter is exhorting to make their calling and election sure. You may say, ‘Is it not sure if I have put my trust in Christ?’. It is. Every blood-bought saint who has put his or her faith in the work of Jesus will be in glory with Him for eternity. But what about time? What about the present time? Is the joy of the kingdom not to be known now? Peter’s choice of language is so beautiful. He was a lowly fisherman, uneducated in the language of the day, I suppose, but he uses the choicest language as he writes. When he is referring to the kingdom, he writes about the “everlasting kingdom”. It is no ordinary kingdom you come into. Think of coming into an everlasting kingdom now, amidst all the confusion, all the disorder there is. Think of being attracted into an everlasting kingdom! You may ask, Is it not going to break up? No, it is going on, it will go on until we are with Jesus in glory. Peter speaks of more than the everlasting kingdom; he could well have said the kingdom of our Lord, or the kingdom of Jesus, but when Peter speaks about Christ or about divine things, he uses superlatives. He says “the everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ be richly furnished unto you”.
Well, beloved, the way to make our calling sure, the way to stability, is to come to appreciate His majesty, the majesty of the Man who was once lowly, despised and rejected, as we sang in our hymn, but crowned with glory. Does your heart not go out to Him? Is He crowned in your affections? Does He have a place there that could be enlarged as we speak about Him? Peter’s appreciation of Christ grew. We are tested about that; is your appreciation of Jesus growing? Perhaps we are more familiar with a historical Jesus than a glorified Jesus. Is He historical to you? Is it just a matter of history that some time ago, maybe long ago, you came to know a Saviour who dealt with your sins? Is He alive in your affections today as a Man in the glory who will see you through, ready to reveal secrets? As Revealer of secrets, you have to be near to Him. A secret is usually whispered, it is not broadcast. It is something that you will get while on your knees with Christ, that He is enough, He has majesty. So Peter is saying to those dispersed people that Christ will see them through, bringing them into an everlasting kingdom. Peter is bringing out the compensations of coming under the rule and the influence of Jesus.
There is nobody higher than Jesus in His majesty. One of His names when He came in, according to Luke’s gospel, was “Son of the Highest”, Luke 1:32. Peter is saying to these poor, suffering saints, ‘There is nobody higher, nobody greater, His majesty will never break down’. There can be no question of it being passed to another; there is no other able to bear it, but this lowly Man bears the majesty. He received from God the Father honour and glory, never to be transmitted to any other. He is the Man who is seeing the dispensation through in His majesty. May we have our hearts filled with reverence for Christ, may we be more drawn under His influence, under His guidance.
Peter is telling them that the secret he is passing on is enough until the day dawn and the Morning Star arise in their hearts. It has risen, beloved: has the Morning Star arisen in your heart? The Morning Star is a name of Jesus which He uses Himself. He says, “I am … the bright and morning star”, Rev.22:16. Is He in your heart as the Morning Star? We said already that most of the dispensation is past. There will be testing times, but if the Morning Star is there, it is easier to see your way through. It is a point of reference. The Christian is never left without a point of reference. The children of Israel were never left without a point of reference; dark the days may have been, with sand all around them, but there was always a cloud and a pillar of fire, and the cloud was ever ready to guide them.
The godly Israelite in his tent might wonder what he would do. He might say, Is this all I have come to, this vast howling wilderness? But he would look at the cloud and he would say, ‘There is something fine here, something to guide us’. The cloud moved on and they moved on; the cloud was more ready to move to Canaan than they were. The cloud tarried, it was detained by the state of the people. In patient, suffering love and grace, the cloud tarried, and it is tarrying today. There is always a point of reference. Get on your knees and look to the Lord in His majesty. Men may oppress you – what powers they assume. It may not be so much known today, but it was not very long ago that they put people out of work. Some men in this very area were persecuted about their employment, but the Lord came in in His majesty and gave them a way through. There was suffering, but there were tributes to His majesty. The government of the day would have compelled persons to be in unions, denying them the right to work, but the Lord exercised His right in His majesty and He saw them through. These things are very real and very practical; expressions of the majesty of Christ. There is no authority above Him – He has been given a Name that is above every name. Oh, get in touch with Him! Get to know the secret of His love. It is not a majesty that is official; who Peter is speaking about is the Man who bears the crown, and there is no authority greater than His!
John speaks of that same Person. Perhaps he was affected for the moment by the weakness of the position. He says “And I wept much because no one had been found worthy to open the book”. Had he forgotten about Christ? You may think that there is nobody able for the difficulties, for your situation, but He is not only worthy, He is able! That is what John comes to see. It is fine for someone to draw near to you in your problems, in your difficulties, your exercises, and remind you about Christ. He has been through them all; tempted of the devil forty days and forty nights, but the devil left Him. What a Man in whom to have our trust – a well tried, well known Christ. This is what the apostles passed on.
So John speaks of things even beyond our dispensation, happenings in the world after the church has gone. Do you know the point of reference in Revelation? It was not any place on the earth, it was in heaven. John was looking on the earth; he looked round about him and saw how terrible things were going to be. He wondered how things could continue. The voice says to him, “Come up here”, Rev.4:1. The point of reference is always heaven, because it is where Jesus is. He has been crowned there with glory and honour, awaiting the time of His public rule and public display. There is only One able to handle the affairs of the nations, the affairs of the universe. He will handle it, but for faith it is already settled. So John is brought to see something of His deity. He is brought to see the suffering love of Christ in the Lamb standing as slain. The Man who was here in lowly grace has been exalted as a Man in heaven; in His Person He is “over all, God blessed for ever”, Rom.9:5.
I say again, we should never think of Christ without a spirit of worship in our hearts. An elder now speaks to John about the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the root of David. There is more about Christ than we have ever seen, more than will ever be expressed. But the sense of His greatness adorns what has been displayed. The Man in whom grace has been displayed is the root of David. It brings out His deity, and there are no happenings in heaven or on earth outside the control of Christ, nor will there be.
This refers to a day yet to come, when it will be seen that only Christ will be able to meet the needs of the universe, and deal with them all, that in the end God may have His dwelling eternally with men in a new heavens and a new earth. But John is brought to apprehend His greatness, that the One who suffered once must reign. “One of the elders says to me – Do not weep”. The breakdown is very severe indeed, but there is what is going through under the influence and rule of Christ, and there are persons going through in whose hearts these secrets are enshrined.
So John hears this new song. What a triumph it is as Christ fills your heart, what a tone it gives to the singing. Not now just sitting by the banks of the Red Sea, but singing a new song, a fresh impression of Christ finding spiritual poetic expression, so they sing “Thou art worthy”. You may say that has been said before, but oh! it will be forever new:
‘Hark! Ten thousand voices, crying
“Lamb of God!” with one accord;
Thousand thousand saints replying –
Bursts, at once, the echoing chord!’
That poem of Mr Darby’s, ‘The Endless Song’, is beautiful. “To him who loves us”, Rev.1:5, What a song the new song will be; the echo will be taken up through the whole vast creation – praise the Lamb!
These persons, in singing this song, speak of the Redeemer, who has “redeemed to God”, Oh, what a price Jesus has paid, but what a purchase He has made. The summation of it all is seen at the end of the book in the bride, the heavenly city. Think of John having that view. Despite all the confusion, he finished with a view of that heavenly city, the Lamb’s wife, the bride May we never lose sight of that precious view. May we be brought to see that things are never out of control, that things are in good hands!
Jude exhorts the saints. He says, “remember the words spoken before by the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ”. What God has placed in the apostles and their teaching is enough. It is no wonder that their names will be on the foundations of that holy city. For nearly two thousand years, the assembly has been under attack and yet the light of it is still enjoyed and practised today. What a tribute to the Holy Spirit of God! I do not think that the dispensation will close in poverty. You speak to certain persons and they say that we will all be together in heaven; that is true. They say that the Lord will soon come – that is very true. But the coming of the Lord is not a rescue operation! He is not coming to take us home because the path has become too difficult. No, He is coming to receive to Himself His precious bride, a tribute to what the Spirit has done through the dispensation.
I might mention in passing to the young people here that the older people are very apt to reminisce, and they speak about the earlier days as if there was something greater then. I am not sure that is true. I understand what they mean, but there is already a sweeter note in the service of God, and that is happening now. Let no one say otherwise. The service of God has a beauty about it, and a fulness about it, that was not there before. Not that I can say much about earlier days, but you only need to read earlier ministry to see how much had to be corrected. The finest hour is now. Oh, come and have your part in it, come and have your happy part in those closing days of the testimony.
Jude is exhorting us to cling to what the apostles have brought in. He is speaking about the apostacy, maybe in the strongest way in which Scripture speaks of it, but he says, “But ye, beloved …”. Amidst all the confusion, there are these beloved brethren. He says, “But ye, beloved, building yourselves up on your most holy faith …”. It is not only faith, but it is most holy faith. The darker the day, the more precious the truth becomes, like these vessels of shining copper in the Old Testament; they were as precious as gold (Ezra 8:27). So the faith is not only faith, it is “your most holy faith”, the link you have with God. Build on it, beloved; it is most holy, it is imperishable, it will stand the test of time and all the exercises that will come in. Build yourselves up on it and think of these things. We are so apt to think about things that are not faith. Troubles among the saints, personal feelings that have come in, have been among the most destructive things that have happened in church history, and they are not “your most holy faith”.
Jude also speaks of “praying in the Holy Spirit”; not just praying but praying in the Holy Spirit. Would that I understood these things more, but there is a divine Person who comes into your prayers. You not only speak to God, but you have a sense of a divine Person with you in your prayers. It says that “the Spirit joins also its help to our weakness”, Rom.8:26. But this is more; praying in the Holy Spirit gives you access into the holiest, into the very presence of God. I think that you feel a sense of your Father’s hand upon you. He would say, “I know, my son, I know”, Gen.48:19. He would put His hand upon you as you pray in the Holy Spirit, that you may be strengthened in your spirit. Asaph of old went into the sanctuary and he says, “then understood I their end”, Ps.73:17. He did not understand before he went into the sanctuary. You might be troubled about how some people get a better job than you, how they have more money, a better house or car than you do. Something like that might have troubled Asaph but he says, “I went into the sanctuaries of God”. He saw in type that he had everything in Christ, everything in that glorious Man. That is what praying in the Holy Spirit would bring us into.
Jude goes on to say, ”Keep yourselves in the love of God”. That should not be difficult; it is all around you. Could you get out of it? No, but you may get out of the joy of it. Applying the parable in Luke 15, the prodigal in the far country was not outside the reach of the love of God, but he was in poverty in his soul, he was outside the enjoyment of the love of his father, but he came back into the love of God. As the hymn says:-
‘… If clouds have dimmed my sight,
When passed, eternal Lover,
Towards me, as e’er, Thou’rt bright.’ (Hymn 51)
How much there is to go in for, how much there is to go on with.
I would just conclude with a further verse from Jude: “But to him that is able to keep you without stumbling …” (v.24). What an end to an epistle that has taken account of the apostacy and the darkness. What a standard! Then “… and to set you with exultation blameless before his glory, to the only God our Saviour, through Jesus Christ our Lord, be glory, majesty, might and authority, from before the whole age, and now, and to all the ages”.
May we close these meetings with such a note of doxology and praise to our God. I would just leave these three words: go on in faith, go on in prayer, keep yourselves in the love of God, for Christ’s name’s sake.
Address at three day meetings in Grangemouth
19 May 1991
Robert Taylor