REGULATION

W. Dickson

1 Corinthians 14: 37–40; John 13: 34, 35; Deuteronomy 27: 1–8

One has been thinking a little, beloved brethren, of the importance of being divinely regulated, a matter to which testimony is borne constantly. The celestial system creatorially is the setting forth of the principle of regulation. The seasons, summer, winter, autumn, spring, and day and night, are all regulated. That being so in a creatorial sense, it is very important that this principle should enter into our personal lives and also our assembly lives.

The pattern of our gatherings has in a sense been divinely regulated. The Supper, the reading, the preaching and the universal practice of the prayer meeting on the Monday night, and other meetings as they follow, show that divine guidance has regulated the economy of the assembly. It would be a matter of exercise that that regulated economy should continue amongst us, because even in ordinary matters an unregulated life does not bring forth much in the way of results. Men and women achieve results in ordinary matters of life because they regulate their lives, so the assembly is a place of divine regulation.

In that connection I wanted to speak of the use of the word “commandment” in these passages, as to how we are regulated by the Lord’s word, because if we take Paul’s instruction to the Corinthian saints there is no doubt that the chaos which has come into Christendom is because, in professedly adhering to Christian truth, men have dispensed

with the regulation of Paul’s ministry. Man has refused to accept the regulation which comes from the Lord’s commandment and thus chaos and disorder have come in. So it says, “If anyone thinks himself to be a prophet or spiritual, let him recognise the things that I write to you, that it is the Lord’s commandment”. How important that is, beloved brethren, in a time when, as in Judges, “every man did what was right in his own eyes”, Judges 17: 6. We need not have any difficulty in knowing the right course for a Christian at all times because the Scriptures help and guide us. The Lord’s commandment is very definite in the first epistle of Paul to the Corinthians, very definite. As we go through these various chapters in the Corinthian epistle we would learn by the Spirit for ourselves how to be regulated in our practice and in our thoughts by Paul’s commandments. The recognition of the Lord’s commandment is a test as to whether we are spiritual. It is asserted often that we are not in a legal system, which of course is true, but the Lord’s commandment given by Paul must regulate us in our assembly lives. When that is in any way dispensed with there is not the cohesion that is proper to the Christian assembly. There is not the compactness and the working together which results from being regulated by the Lord’s commandment.

Now in John’s gospel chapter 13, after the Lord had washed the disciples’ feet and Judas had gone out, the Lord speaks of this new commandment—“A new commandment I give to you, that ye love one another; as I have loved you, that ye also love one another”. The force of that, I hardly need to tell my brethren, is that Christianity involves what is morally superior to the old dispensation, that we love one another as Christ has loved us. When Christianity comes in, this “new commandment” “that ye love one another” is brought in. We should be exercised to be regulated by that divine standard “as I have loved you, that ye also love one another”. I test myself with that scripture very much. While I look round the company, I say, ‘Surely I love that brother; I am sure I love that sister’. But as to whether I love them in the degree in which the Lord has loved me is quite a challenge.

You might enquire. Where do you get the portrayal of the extent of the Lord’s love, so that you can measure your answer to the challenge? That would be an interesting enquiry, but I think, beloved brethren, it is that the Lord Jesus laid down His life for His own. In our time that does not necessarily mean martyrdom, but the measure of our love for one another is the measure in which we are prepared by the grace of God to lay down our life for the brethren.

And that, of course, involves regulating our lives. We should regulate our lives so that there is some time left in the day to pray for the brethren. It may be that something legitimate has got to be laid aside for this exercise of praying for and serving the brethren. Regulation may involve sacrifice.

Now I really wanted to come to Deuteronomy 27 because it was on my mind on Lord’s day after the reading on chapter 26. I would say in passing that chapter 27 of Deuteronomy is one of the most important chapters in the Pentateuch, both in its interpretation and in its application. I would exhort brethren who desire to understand the ways of God to look at the help that is available in ministry in regard to this chapter. In Deuteronomy 26 we have the unfolding of the great thoughts of divine purpose as we spoke of them on the Lord’s day.

“And Moses and the elders of Israel commanded the people, saying, Keep all the commandment which I command you this day. And it shall be on the day when ye pass over the Jordan unto the land which Jehovah thy God giveth thee, that thou shalt

set thee up great stones, and plaster them with plaster”. What that means, beloved brethren, is that in Deuteronomy 26 God gives us light as to His great thoughts, but what He is saying in chapter 27 is that the realisation of them is only as the saints are developed in divine formation. The great stones represent the work of God in a believer.

Then it says, “plaster them with plaster”. The purpose of the plaster is that the surface of the stones is impressionable so that the writing can take place. That is quite a challenge. The Spirit of God speaks expressly, as our brother said in prayer. Is the plaster with us that can be written upon, so that an indelible impression is left as to what the Lord is saying at all times?

This was no part of the ten commandments. Moses and the elders are telling the people that they have the great privilege of entering into the service of God. But it has to be accompanied by a testimony to the work of God and a readiness to be impressed with what the will of God is in divine things. So they set up these stones on mount Ebal and plastered them with plaster.

Now mount Ebal was the mountain of the curse. What it means for us in Christianity is that the Lord Jesus Christ, our blessed Saviour, bore the curse. He bore the full load of divine judgment in order that the work of God might flourish. Thus on this mountain of the curse it was possible to offer up burnt-offerings and peace-offerings.

Now it says an interesting thing in verse 5, “thou shalt not lift up an iron tool upon them”

(these stones). Beloved brethren, we have to be careful not to lift up an iron tool. In other words, we want to be delivered from any tendency to alter things to suit ourselves. That is the force of the iron tool. In the first epistle to the Corinthians Paul warns persons against lifting up an iron tool, altering the Lord’s commandment to suit

themselves. The Galatians lifted up an iron tool to suit themselves. So if we are to have the altar and the great stones there, a testimony to the work of God, and the burnt-offerings going up in service, and the peace-offering speaking of the holy fellowship that is to mark the saints, we have to see that the Lord’s commandment through Paul comes to us without interference, without any iron tool being put upon it. Otherwise we will not come into all the blessings which are ours consequent upon the death of Christ. I say these things so that we can be increasingly exercised as to how the Lord would have us in these days. The question is constantly asked with us at home, ‘What is the answer to the present situation?’ It comes up nearly every time we are together, ‘What is the answer to the present situation?’ I would commend it to the brethren that the answer to the current situation is that all of us, individually and collectively, are to be regulated by the truth, by the Lord’s commandment.

We should refrain from lifting up an iron tool to bring in our own modifications as to the truth and its practical application. May we be helped. Regulation is a fine principle and the Lord desires our blessing in suggesting it to us by the Spirit.