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COMING TO CHRIST

James Alex Gardiner

I trust that the Lord might help us to see how He moves in sonship, in appreciation of the Father, the Father's will and activities, and the Father’s sovereign dispositions. In the midst of so much that would cause despondency and depression, the enjoyment of sonship, the blessedness of moving in the consciousness of the Father’s love, is, I think, the antidote. The situation in chapter 11 is quite serious. John the Baptist was a great person. The Lord Jesus says that ''there is not arisen among the born of women a greater than John the baptist", v 11. In this chapter John has got a bit down in his soul: he is not sure. You can hardly imagine that to be the case. You think of how John was in such power at the Jordan, how he was saying, "And already the axe is applied to the root of the trees", chap 3: 10, how he expresses his judgment on the Pharisees who come to his baptism. He tells people that what is needed is reality. We need no hypocrisy, no profession. He is the Lord's servant, sent before Him to make a way for Him, "to make straight his paths", Matt 3: 3. He is bringing down mountains and filling up valleys and making the way straight. And now he is in prison. His circumstances are changed and John is a bit down in his soul. Anybody who has any experience with God and has been in the path of His will will be able to tell you what it is like to be a bit down in your soul. John sends messengers to Jesus and says, "Art thou the coming one?" Imagine his saying that! He had seen the Spirit descending upon Him as a dove, but he would say, "Art thou the coming one? or are we to wait for another? " And Jesus says, Go back to John and tell him what you see and hear, that blind receive their sight, deaf hear, lame walk, and all the power and manifestation, the evidences of the anointing, and the Messiah are here. And then He says, "and blessed is whosoever shall not be offended in me." He is sympathetic with John the Baptist: he does not say anything wrong about him. What grace there is in Christ, beloved! How we need to learn from Him. That is what He appeal to, as we hope to show.

But you marvel at the way He handles John the Baptist. He turns to the crowds and says, What did you go out to see? The Lord Jesus in the scope and wisdom of His service is not allowing any cleavage to come in between Him and John the baptist. The devil would be looking for that. He would say, Look, there is John in prison. Now, look at him, he is not in faith, say something about him. Jesus says not one condemnatory thing about John the baptist. This is a lesson for us, beloved, amongst the many other lessons which the Lord would teach us. He says, What did you go out to see? A reed shaken by the wind? What did you think it was? What was your estimation of John the baptist? He goes on to say that t ere has never been a prophet like John the baptist. He does not disparage His ministers. He makes way for an inroad into which the devil could come to bring in a cleavage. We need to learn these things. In His grace, He would instruct us. He says, There has been no greater born of women than John the baptist.

And then He speaks about this generation, Cain’s generation, I suppose you could call it. He says, "For John has come neither eating nor drinking, and they say, He has a demon. The Son of man has come eating and drinking, and they say,... a friend of tax-gatherers, and of sinners." Well, that is a lovely commendation! Jesus is a friend of tax gatherers and sinners. And then He says, "And wisdom has been justified by her children." You would think He would be a bit depressed, because it goes on to say how He began "to reproach the cities in which most of his works of power had taken place, because they had not repented." They would say, Your ministry has not been very effective. You have done all this and where are the results? Where are the substantial results? Where is repentance? I believe, beloved, it is may be a good thing to raise the question with ourselves, do we know what repentance is? Do we move on continually as repenting sinners? The older you get, the more the Lord in His grace shows you how awful you really are. Do you believe that? He shows you the things that are in your heart. Mark, as recovered, says there are thirteen things which come out of the heart of man. I think Matthew says seven. Mark, as moving in the depths of self-judgment as recovered, knows exactly what he is capable of, and so he is concerned that he might be maintained in a spirit of repentance, with tender affections, with concern, that nothing should intrude into his links with Christ and, consequently, he says the ground is going to bring forth fruit increasingly, thirty, sixty and a hundredfold. That is how we will increase, beloved. Matthew is decline. He says, "one a hundred, one sixty, and one thirty", Matt 13: 8, but that is not Mark. (I just say this in passing.) The cities had not repented, they had gone on in their hardness of heart and the works of power had evidently taken place in them and Jesus begins to reproach them. You think, Well, it would be very depressing. You would be quite downcast if that happened to you. But He is not living in His ministry; He is not living in His service: He is living, beloved, in the enjoyment of His links with His Father. "This is my beloved Son" is not, in a sense, new to Him. He always lived in the consciousness that He was His beloved Son and in whom His delight was found. Right from the start, God's delight, the Father's delight, was found in Him. That verse we quoted of J.N.D's:

"I trace the Man of sorrows,

His boundless grace to prove"

goes on to say:

"A child in growth and stature

Yet full of wisdom rare."

He was conscious of the Father's delight in Him. “Did ye not know", He says, "that I ought to be occupied in my Father's business? " (Luke 2: 49).

"Sonship, in conscious nature,

His words and ways declare.

Then He goes on: He expresses His judgment about Chorazin, pronounces woe on it and on Bethsaida. He says, "For if the works of power which have taken place in you, had taken place in Tyre and Sidon, they had long ago repented in sackcloth and ashes." Then He goes on to Capernaum. He is going round the cities where His works of power had taken place, and express in His judgment, and pronouncing woe on them. He is speaking judicially because it is a critical situation. The nation is about to apostatise. How awful the situation is going to be in chapter 12 when they sin against the Holy Spirit and say, by Beelzebub, prince of demons, he casts out demons.

The Lord Jesus here is in the van of the conflict, you might say. He is in the very fore front. He is at the very forefront; He is at the point, and the devil's forces are around Him. And in the midst of that situation He is not depressed. He is moving in victory and in triumph in His soul. He says "l praise thee." "At that time”, the Spirit of God records that. He says in verse 24, “But I say to you, that it shall be more tolerable for the land of Sodom in judgment-day than for thee. At that time, Jesus answering said... " The answer to the Father is in Christ. Well has it been said that Christ is equal to answer the revelation of God. That is very beautiful and I think this is very wonderful. Imagine what the situation was like! The enemy, Hades’ gates, are all around here, and He turns and says, "I praise thee, Father, Lord of the heaven and of the earth, that thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent, and hast revealed them to babes." Jesus is related to the purpose and the counsel of God. The whole situation is under responsibility. There is no mitigation in that way. But He knows that God is working out His sovereign will and He is related to it. "I praise thee, Father, Lord of the heaven and of the earth, that thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent, and hast revealed them to babes. Yea, Father", He says, "for thus has it been well-pleasing in thy sight." He is saying that to the Father. How blessed it is, beloved, and how favoured we are to listen to these precious words of the Lord Jesus in the situation in which He is in this section. I think that in them there is the manifestation of the power and force and the enjoyment of His place in sonship.

And then He speaks to somebody else. He is saying, "All things have been delivered to me by my Father and no one knows the Son but the Father, nor does anyone know the Father, but the Son, and he to whom the Son may be pleased to reveal him." Would you like to know the Father? That is what He is saying to them. The Son is not the subject of revelation. Think how beautiful it is to see the way God guards the Person of Christ! Jesus came here in lowly manhood and He was vulnerable, His Person could be attacked. You see how the Father guards Him. He is not the subject of revelation, but He says, the Father is the subject of revelation, and I may be pleased to reveal Him to you. How do you feel about that, beloved, to know the Father as Jesus knows Him? The situation is severe. There are persons who labour and are burdened. Is that you, beloved? There were persons here in this situation where the Lord was and they were labouring, they were burdened, they had a weight upon them, they had concerns. Think of the appeal of His love! It is as fresh and living and vital and true at this very minute as it was at that time. He would appeal to all of us. "Come to me," He says. 'Are you burdened, I will give you rest.' How is He going to give you rest? He is going to show us how to be with the Father, how to live in relation to the Father. What He has in mind is the will of God. That is why He speaks to the Father as the sovereign Lord of the heavens and of the earth. He says, You are working out Your counsel and Your purpose according to Your own mind. Indeed, Paul says, "according to the good pleasure of his will", Eph 1: 5, and He is appealing to weary souls, appealing to burdened souls - and who knows, beloved, the burdens that are amongst us, the secret burdens that persons carry, the secret exercises, the secret concerns, that perhaps you would never breathe to anybody? The appeal of Christ's love is to come to Him: "Come to me", He says. How accessible He is! How easy it is to get along with the Lord Jesus! 'Come to me': you tell me about it! I will give you rest. I understand your problems! The first rest here has been likened to the rest that comes to your soul in the glad tidings from the point of view of relief. He says, I will relieve you of your burdens.

"Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me." Now, this is something else. See how He was yoked with the Father! Marvellous to contemplate the way the Lord Jesus conducts Himself, how He moves. I think this very beautiful the way that He would shut the door against the enemy who would seek to bring in a cleavage between John the Baptist and Himself. There is great skill in that. That is royalty, that is moral authority. I want to speak about the moral side. There it is in Christ, how He handles things, how He does things positively! The great conflict is between good and evil, the working out of the tree of good and evil is the present moment, and it has all been worked out in Christ. So He says, "Take my yoke upon you." Pull with Me! Be yoked to Me! How blessed to be yoked to Jesus! "And learn from me": I will show you how it is done! ''Learn from me." We speak about Mary sitting at His feet and listening to His word. It is very blessed, to be yoked with Him! I think it has been referred to as the yoke of sonship. You are bound with Him together, and you are with Him in relation to the will of God. "For I am meek and lowly in heart": that is not natural to any person in this room. "For I am meek", He says "and lowly in heart." I once heard it said that meekness relates to our links with men, and lowliness, our links with God. That is what Jesus was: (it says of Moses that he was the meekest man in all the earth. (Num 12: 3). That was up to this point. But here is Jesus, He says, "I am meek and lowly in heart. I will teach you, I will instruct you. I will show you, how it is done. "And ye shall find rest to your souls”. Not only, beloved, will He relieve you of your burdens and relieve me of my burdens, but He will give us rest to our souls in the sense that we are completely satisfied in relation to our committals to the will of God, "rest to your souls." You will be able then with Him to enjoy the sabbath, and your outlook upon things is different. Matthew has not the moral line in teaching in priestliness that Luke has, but the moral line is running through it. You have come to Him, you have been weary and burdened and He has given you rest. You have taken His yoke upon you, you have learned from Him. You appreciate the fact that He is meek and lowly in heart. His yoke is easy; His burden is light, there is nothing difficult or burdensome about it. And so you can enjoy the sabbath.

The next chapter says, "At that time Jesus went on the sabbath through the cornfields." If you are yoked with Him, you will go with Him through the cornfields. You will begin to appreciate the fact that the Corn of wheat has died and it has brought forth many grains. You look around the room and you see the many grains that the Corn of wheat has brought forth. It is not exactly the death of Christ from the side of man's responsibility. It is not exactly from the side of "ye, by the hand of lawless men, have crucified and slain", Acts 2: 23. I think we are on the line here of the death of Christ in relation to the purpose of God. It is more like the deep sleep of Genesis 2. You are beginning to feed on the brethren, these ears of corn. How great the teaching is, the first-fruits are waved, then you count the weeks before you put the sickle in. You come to Pentecost, you come to the Spirit and then you start the harvest. And the harvest at this moment, beloved, is going in. The summer is not ended; the harvest is not past. Jeremiah has to say that, "and we are not saved", Jer 8: 20. That is not the case at the moment. It is almost the case, but it is not the case at the moment. Be with Him in the cornfields! You are touching the inheritance, the land of corn and new wine. The sabbath is there, the rest of God is there. Rub these ears in your hands and enjoy them! It is heaven's food, feeding on new creation and on the brethren. You are seeing what can be brought about as you move on this line with Christ.

But maybe there is somebody not able to do it. There is a man here and his hand is withered. He is not able to enjoy the sabbath - at least, he is not able to enjoy it in its fulness. What are we going to do with him? It seems as if at one time his hand may have been all right. I do not think that he was born like this, His hand became withered. He has one hand that is working, but he is not able to work to his full capacity, he is incapacitated. God does not want anyone to be incapacitated. I am not speaking in any condemnatory way or seeking to administer any rebuke because if anybody ever needed to be rebuked or needs to be rebuked, I have to put myself in that place. But, beloved, you will begin to know Him, not only as the One to whom you are yoked but He is going to serve you in love. You are going to touch the Lord’s Servant. Think of the grace of Christ! He says to this man, Rise up, come into the midst. "Then he says to the man Stretch out thy hand." Exercise it! Be concerned about it! I believe that is a word to all of us. Be exercised about your service! You are not wanting to be one-handed: Stretch it out! Think about it! Pray about it! Be with Him about it! Come up to your full potential so that you are able to appreciate what is in the brethren as everybody else does.

I just say that in passing, because the Lord is going on in His service here and He is fulfilling this beautiful verse that Isaiah brings in, "Behold my servant whom I have chosen, my beloved, in whom my soul has found its delight." Oh, how precious to have to do with such a One as that! This is Jesus, Jesus in His service If you have a slightly dried up hand, He will heal it for you. He will show you how to do it, Stretch it out! Be exercised. Be concerned about the meetings! It is absolutely true that if you put the Lord's interests first in your life He will take care of yours. He is no-one’s debtor. He will look after your affairs better than you will be able to do it. Organise your life so that the meetings, the assembly, is the main thing in it! I know you have a house to pay for, the side of wages that we spoke about with Jacob: you have a family, Jacob had a family of boys. And he had a deal with Laban and things are so uncertain for you can never trust a Laban - you might go in on Monday morning and find that you are redundant. The Lord knows, beloved, He is over all. "I praise the, Father, Lord of the heaven and of the earth." He is in charge of everything. Great as He is not one single sparrow falls to the ground without Him. The hairs of your head are numbered. "My Father knows that ye have need of these things before you ask." We may be inclined to lose ground in our young years because of our lack of putting the Lord’s interests first. You might not notice it when you are young, but when you grow a bit older it becomes evident that there is something missing. You can catch up, of course. The Lord is very gracious. But why cut yourself short of blessing by having things in life out of perspective? I just say this because it is so important that every single person who puts their hands to the loaf and to the cup should have the Lord's interests primarily in their lives. Without fail, He will look after your interests better than you can yourself.

Think of this beautiful description of Christ that Isaiah, the prophet, gives us. Here he is, a humble man. He had been in the synagogue, He has healed a man's hand and going around healing. The Pharisees, like Hades' gates, are here, "But the Pharisees, having gone out, took counsel against him, how they might destroy him. But Jesus knowing it, withdrew thence, and great crowds followed him; and he healed them all." How wonderful that is! He is not discriminating. He is not saying, I will heal you, but I will not heal the next one. He healed everybody. That is Jesus, beloved. That is the Lord's Servant. He is avail able in service for all. And He is the King. I do not know any king who ever served his citizens like this King for He healed everybody. God says, "I will put my Spirit upon him, and he shall shew forth judgment to the nations. He shall not strive or cry out, nor shall any one hear his voice in the streets." He does not advertise Himself. There is nothing like that about Christ. We are so inclined just to bring ourselves forward. We need to learn refinement and we will learn it all from Him, that Christ is to be "everything, and in all", Col 3: 11. He is not striving, He is not crying out. If there is a bruised reed, He will straighten it out, a smoking flax, He will not put it out. He is promoting life. Where there is heat, there is fire; where there is smoke, there is fire. Whatever it is or wherever we are in our souls, beloved, Jesus will come alongside and take us on from that point. And shortly He is going to "bring forth judgment unto victory." That will all happen in the day to come and it will be so apparent, so evident, that "on his name shall the nations hope." The grandeur, the scope of things, the scale of all that is before us in Christianity! It is just awaiting that day when publicly what we enjoy now and what we have proved now will be manifested to the whole universe.

I just want to finish there because it is a question now of who the Lord can claim relationship with. If we follow on this line that we have been speaking about, we will find that we are of His flesh and of His bones. These persons, the babes, to whom the Father has been revealed and to whom the Father as revealed things, here they are. They are coming out here in relation to the will of God persons who have found rest to their souls who have come to Him, weary and burdened and heavy-laden and He has given them rest. His yoke easy and His burden is light. They have taken His yoke upon them and they have found rest to their souls. And so His natural relatives come and they stand without. Where were they? Why were they not within, why were they not in this circle listening to what He had to say? They are claiming some kinship with Christ, some relation with Christ, but He is disowning them. He says, I am identified with persons who "do the will of my Father who is in the heavens." There came a time in 2 Samuel 5 when all the tribes came to Hebron to make David king, and the elders said, "We are thy bone and thy flesh, v 1. They could identify in themselves what was there in David. Can we do that, beloved? Can we identify in ourselves what the Lord has wrought Can we identify an entirely new creation? You can look back in your history and you can say, and everybody should be able to say, No, that was the old me. That is not me. This is the true me. You come through Romans 7 and you find yourself, "I myself”; and so you stop speaking about yourself. I think the personal pronoun is used maybe forty-some times in Romans 7. In Romans 8 it is hardly used at all. That is teaching and that is practice, but here are persons, here are the babes. He is looking round at the babes and He says, "Who is my mother, and who are my brethren? And, stretching out his hand to his disciples..." - that is the persons who have come and learned from Him and been with Him in the cornfields on the sabbath - and He is saying, "Whosoever shall do the will of my Father who is in the heavens, he is my brother, and sister, and mother." We are here on the side of responsibility: there are brothers and sisters and mothers. It is not an 'over-Jordan' position; it is a wilderness position, and the same as 2 Corinthians 6, "and I will be to you for a Father, and ye shall be to me for sons and daughters", v 1. I trust there will be some encouragement for us in what I have said and to acquaint ourselves with coming to Christ. No matter what the problem is, go to Him, and He will maintain us in life and in buoyancy. Secretly and inwardly, we will find rest to our souls and, consequently, I believe, we will become the more able to handle the various crises that come upon us, that come upon the testimony and come upon us in our own lives and in our own histories and in our own families, for you marvel at the way that Jesus could handle things. What capability He had! and He would impart something of that capability. Think of the capability that Paul had, how he could fall on Eutychus, and embrace him, how he could get the brethren in Corinth to come round to what the truth was, how he could write in view of shutting the door on the enemy as he would seek to come into Colossians with man's mind and man's thinking. God has in mind that we should develop on these lines because we are going to be kings and priests. Revelation 5 says He has "redeemed to God ... and made them to our God kings and priests", v 9,10. Think about it, it is a very wonderful consideration, one day we are going to rule over the earth! We need to allow our souls to rise to the greatness of divine thoughts, made us a kingdom, priests to his God and Father", Rev 1: 6, and then it says in Revelation 5 "and made them to our God kings and priests, and they shall reign over the earth." You begin to learn that in yourself, you begin to know how to rule in yourself, how to rule and maintain your own spirit. J.T. often quoted the word, better is he ''that ruleth his spirit than he that taketh a city", Prov. 16: 32. I trust the Lord will encourage all our hearts and help us to progress and to mature in these great matters and find they are the joy of our souls. That is our life. Moses says, "Lord, thou, hast been our dwelling-place in all generations", Ps. 90: 1. May it be so for His Name's sake.

REDBRIDGE

7 December 1996

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