WORSHIPPERS IN A DARK DAY
[p. 163] WORSHIPPERS IN A DARK DAY
John 4:19 - 24; Philippians 3:3; 2 Samuel 15:30 - 32
You will observe that in the passages I have read from the New Testament we have the worshippers of God alluded to, and I wish to show how these appear in a day such as is described in 2 Samuel, the Old Testament, as ever, serving to illustrate in the way of type and shadow what is presented in substance in the New. In the New Testament we have the substance, so that the result of this dispensation is seen in the heavenly city as coming down from God out of heaven having His glory; and, as measured, it is solid; it is a cube; it is not an abstract thing.
Christianity is substance, all emanating from the Head — from Christ. There was a demand for this throughout the Old Testament, and so in the coming in of the Lord Jesus as a man we have the substance; and the body, which may indeed be regarded as the substance now, is of Him. So that I selected the passage in 2 Samuel deliberately, as illustrating how worshippers of God appear in our own times — times which correspond with what 2 Samuel presents in the section from which I have read — times in which the public vessel of the testimony of God has failed, as of old David failed personally, and brought down upon himself, his house and his kingdom, these lamentable things which these chapters in 2 Samuel depict for us. We are in like circumstances, and the question in my mind in speaking to you now is, how is God to have His part? That He should have His part is obvious, and no Christian would deny it theoretically; but how it is to come about is not so clear.
We speak of the worship of God, meaning that He has His part, but Scripture rather stresses [p. 164] worshippers of God; it is a question of the persons, so that immediately I speak of the matter I have to inquire as to whether I am among the worshippers of God. John’s gospel therefore fits in, calculated, as it is, to secure for God in a day of small things and brokenness what is His due. That gospel has a way of bringing in things without always naming them, though sometimes, as in this case, the thing is formally named. The woman brought in the subject. In the preceding chapter the Lord Jesus is said to be loved of the Father as the Son, and that all things have been given into His hands. Amongst these “all things” necessarily, is the service of God, involving what is due to Him. The Old Testament had indicated that there should be “a minister of the sanctuary”; Hebrews 8:2 it was indeed a prominent feature, and what comes out in regard of the one who represented this, namely, Aaron, is that he, as first introduced to us, is called “the Levite” He was the brother of Moses — his senior by three years. We have no record as to how he acquired the distinction of being the Levite; it is not simply that he was of the tribe of Levi, for Moses was also, and he is not called the Levite. Aaron is called, not simply a Levite, but the Levite, which spiritually means that he had acquired the way of denying what is natural, preferring what is spiritual. That is what is said of Levi: “Who said to his father and to his mother, I see him not” (Deuteronomy 33:9); he on one hand could take his sword and smite his brother when the truth required it, and, on the other hand, present sweet incense to the nostrils of God.
Now John’s gospel presents the Lord according to this; it does not stress the official; it shows that the service of God was there before the time for the Lord’s entering upon it officially; “for John was not yet cast into prison” John 3:24 we are told, as if attention was called to that. Our Lord was already the Levite,
[p. 165] He was already cleansing the temple, He was already possessed with the zeal of the house of God, it was consuming Him, so that, according to the end of chapter 3 everything is formally given into His hands; He had, so to speak, qualified. This has not reference exactly to what He was divinely, but to what came out in Him as a man here, as I may say, spontaneously. It was His Father’s house, and He was moved, and consumed with zeal as the Levite to have it cleansed, for it was unfit in its then condition for the holy service which it was in His heart should be rendered to God.
And so this woman is undoubtedly guided, unknown to herself, perhaps, to bring in this subject — a most unlikely person, for what is to be of God in a day of brokenness and corresponding religious pretension is sure to come out in connection with unlikely persons. God goes out of His way, as it were, to bring in persons whom the religious mind of the day would repudiate; He slights what is in religious prominence and distinction among men. He is not dependent upon men with all their education and training, antiquity and public show; He shows, not only that He has no appreciation of them, but that He can do without them, as He says to the wicked, “What hast thou to do to declare my statutes, or that thou shouldest take my covenant into thy mouth?” (Psalm 50:16.) That is God’s word for unconverted people essaying to be His ministers. He needs them not; He says, “If I were hungry, I would not tell thee”; Psalm 50:12 He has infinite resources. Such is God’s holy independence of man in regard of His service.
And so in His ordering, a poor Samaritan brings in this subject. She is marked, indeed, by current ignorance. She talked about her fathers worshipping; she said nothing about herself. It was well that she did not, for until then she was no worshipper. But she talked about her fathers worshipping in a [p. 166] certain place, a habit which is very common. Where do you worship? people ask. The Lord says in effect, It is not a question of place, it is a question of state. I am just dwelling on this for a moment as governing the whole subject of the worshippers of God. It is “neither in this mountain, nor in Jerusalem” There was a great difference of course between the Samaritan mountain and Jerusalem, and the Lord will never let go any distinction that God makes. If I look abroad at Christendom and take up the great religious bodies, I certainly am bound to make distinctions, for God does. The Lord makes a great distinction, for salvation was of the Jews. It is a question of the mind of God here, not of the state of the Jew, and there was much to be said in favour of the Jew as compared with the Samaritan, and no true intelligent Christian would deny or ignore what is to be said in favour of any person or body here; the Lord would put this woman in her place. If I am dealing with souls associated with what is grossly wicked, I should not fail to tell them; it is for their good, as you find in the addresses to the seven churches. The Lord has a word for each of them, and He does not fail to tell them of the extreme wickedness where it existed. But there were great distinctions, and we find that the Lord in every address commended what He could. And so here. But then what He wants to say is that the worshippers of God must worship in spirit and in truth. The whole religious system around us is brushed aside as at a stroke in regard of this. He says, Worship does not consist in place, in buildings, in what is material; it is a question of spirit and truth.
Now, I want to point out briefly that the Lord is not speaking here of the Holy Spirit; He is speaking of spirit in contrast to what is material. What underlies it is the fact that “God [is] a Spirit” and that He has placed in man what corresponds with [p. 167] Himself. Man is spirit, soul and body, and if I am born again, as the Lord teaches earlier, “that which is born of the Spirit is spirit” John 3:6 that is the kind of thing it is; that is to say, not only have I got a spirit as over against what I am materially, but that is augmented in that in my whole being morally I am born anew, and what is born of the Spirit is spirit; so that whilst every man has a spirit, he who is born anew is in principle spiritual, which could never be said of the natural man; he is that in principle and he begins to think spiritually; and, inasmuch as that in him called spirit relates to God, what he is as born anew thinks of God. The gift of living water is a further and immense addition to that.
Now all this underlies what the Lord is teaching — that I have a spirit; as being born anew I become spiritual in principle, but I have also living water which springs up. My own spirit does not spring up of itself, nor does that which is born of the Spirit of itself spring up, but the Spirit of God coming into the believer, on the ground of redemption, becomes in him a spring, and that spring has reference to God. And so the Lord here, as already the Minister of the new sanctuary, is bringing out the great principles that govern the worshippers of God; they are constituted spiritual. The Father had been seeking them; the Minister of the sanctuary knew it, and He is bringing them in, so that they worship Him in spirit and in truth; He seeks such.
I want now to go on to Philippians to enlarge a little on the thing as it was at the outset. This (John 4) is the light from the Lord’s own lips, governing us as worshippers. The apostle, in writing to the Philippians, classifies the worshippers. There were those who were not that, and these were dangerous. They were dogs — persons who prowl about, unclean; they were evil workmen, possibly nominal Christians, showing that workmanship is not everything, for [p. 168] one may be working evilly; and then finally, the concision — people who do not go all the way — concision, not circumcision; and this enables the apostle to bring in his thought. He says, “We are the circumcision, who worship by [the] Spirit of God” It is not now a question simply of worshipping in spirit, it is a question of the power to worship. We have to give an account of ourselves. No truly spiritual people will advertise, but we may be asked questions, and so here you have the apostle giving an account of himself and of others in regard of this subject; they were worshippers, but of what kind and by what power? He says, “We are the circumcision” that is to say, we go the whole way spiritually. Now I would plead for this — going all the road. Circumcision means that you go the whole way. The Lord is calling for that. The number will be reduced as you go forward undoubtedly. The apostle goes on to speak later of persons who walk, but they were the enemies of the cross of Christ; he referred to them weeping — persons who did not go all the way, but rather were enemies of the cross.
Now that enters into a multitude of things — difficulties locally. There are those who profess to be helped, to be repentant, but they do not go all the way. They expect others to meet them; they say, Why do you not come and do this, and recognise this and that? That is not the circumcision, that is concision; you are only going half the way. I am to beware of you; if you do not go all the way, you are a danger to the saints of God, and you are classified with the dogs. I am not speaking disrespectfully of anyone; there are the dogs, the evil workers, and the concision — these are dangerous. The circumcision go all the way, every bit of the flesh relinquished, nothing is spared. With Saul, although nominally at Gilgal, he spared Amalek and the sheep and the oxen: “What [means] then this bleating of [p. 169] sheep in mine ears, and the lowing of oxen which I hear?” 1 Samuel 15:14 Amalek was a very refined man; he went “delicately” and he is a polite man. Ah, beloved, he is a dangerous man. Saul in sparing Amalek did not go all the way; he missed it, and he lost the kingdom.
We have to think with God. The apostle thought with God; he knew what God required for His worship, so he says, “We are the circumcision, who worship by [the] Spirit of God, and boast in Christ Jesus, and do not trust in flesh”; no confidence in the flesh. If we boast at all, we boast in Christ Jesus. We do boast, to be sure, but not in ourselves, nor in the flesh, but in Christ Jesus. If anyone thinks of boasting in himself, let him compare himself with the apostle, for he had occasion to boast, but he had come to see that boasting was in Christ Jesus and in Christ Jesus alone; he went all the way. He was a worshipper of God; he did not worship by material things, he worshipped by the Spirit of God; that was the power. True enough he worshipped in his own spirit — in spirit — instead of material things, but the power by which he worshipped was the Spirit of God. If you heard Paul speak to God you would understand it; he would not speak in an unknown tongue; he would not trust to mere words; he would pray with the spirit, and he would pray with the understanding also; he would sing with the spirit — his own spirit — and he would sing also with the understanding; he would give thanks with the spirit and with the understanding. This you would hear in Paul, a worshipper of God. What a lead he would give in a meeting! How one would defer to him in any meeting as a worshipper of God! You would get a conception in your soul of what he thought of God. He says, If I think of God, I am beside myself. Think of God, beloved, coming out in Christ, coming near to us in love! And so we worship [p. 170] Him in spirit and in truth, that is to say, the truth has reference to God coming out in Christ and also to my being in Christ.
Now coming to the passage in 2 Samuel, which indeed I had chiefly before me, we see a man who knew what to do in a crisis. David is not told what to do here. In these books which speak of David we sometimes find he is a type of Christ, but very often he is a type, as in this case, of those in whom God is working at the present time. It is of this latter I wish to speak. I do not wish to speak of him here as a type of Christ, but as a type of those in whom God has wrought. The work of God always shines in adversity; it is humbling to have to say it, but this book particularly teaches us that when we are in prosperity — even in spiritual prosperity — we are always in danger. It is in adversity, in the discipline of God, that the work of God shines, as is seen in this book, and in no place do we see this more prominently than in this chapter.
I deal with it now, because it may help some of us, if not all, as to how to give God His part, His due, in a day of disaster, for it is a day of disaster. Sometimes as we move along, we think of our meetings as growing and everything being orderly — right hymns chosen, right words used in the giving of thanks, and so forth, and we almost assume that we belong to a system of things by ourselves that God can own. But that is an entire mistake. We are in circumstances that are most humiliating, and we cannot get out of them. We are in the midst of a Christendom divided into a thousand fragments, in some of which, most, alas! Christ is dishonoured. It is not that one wishes to speak against any, but everything in Christendom is my responsibility, from Rome down. Can I get out of it? I cannot. I may get out of it in spirit, as we see here, by ascending. David got far beyond the reach of Absalom in his soul in this [p. 171] position, but Absalom was in Jerusalem nevertheless, or coming to it. The kingdom was in revolt. Can I ignore these things? No! If I am with God, I accept them.
There is nothing now that God can own publicly. David sent the ark back; he would not take the ark, he would not assume to represent what God owned in a public way. The ark belonged to Jerusalem, and Jerusalem was about to be captured by Absalom. You see the spiritual intelligence, the features of Christ in that. He sends the ark back; he sends the official priests back, and now he ascends, see verse 30. That is what we want to understand. The way out is by ascending. “But David went up by the ascent of the Olives” But how ascend? With tears and head covered, and barefoot. I acknowledge in all these things that my feelings are moved; as Paul says, “I tell you even weeping” Philippians 3:18 as he thought of those who were the enemies of the cross. Head covered, what does that mean? It meant for David that he had been devoid of wisdom in his conduct; he had not only sinned, but he had been devoid of wisdom; he had been woefully astray in regard of wisdom and he covered his head, and his feelings were moved, and his feet were bare. Was not God delighted with him? He was, beloved. He was acting suitably, humbly; he was owning things as they were, but he was finding an outlet. What is the outlet? The outlet is in heaven. Hence you notice the repetition here of going up. He went up, he went up, and he went up until he reached the top. It was spiritual power in secret; spiritual power in the full acknowledgment of the position.
Now what I have said is for us. This passage in 2 Samuel 20 is for us in the present time. It is to show us how God has His portion in a day of brokenness and disaster. David goes up and he reaches the top. Before he reaches the summit the word comes [p. 172] to him that Ahithophel is among the conspirators. Ahithophel refers to that which has the reputation for wisdom, that which once was, as it were, in the service of Christ, but, alas! is now in revolt. One might enlarge on it; that which had a reputation amongst the saints of God for wisdom and actually had part in the service for God is now on the side of revolt. We are rapidly reaching the time when the whole profession will be in revolt; it is well nigh here. It is appalling, the rapidity with which the revolt against Christ has spread and is spreading, but here is a spiritual man; he prays to God; he says, “Turn the counsel of Ahithophel into foolishness” He reckons on God. Is there any other way for us? Shall we not be overwhelmed with the rebellion and revolt save as God comes in for us? and is He not coming in for us? He is. Have we no incentive to pray? We have. What happened? Ahithophel was utterly defeated in his counsel, and he went and hanged himself. We can count on God to make a way for us, both locally and generally, however powerful the opposition, and David knew the power of Ahithophel; but God was more powerful, and He turned that wisdom into foolishness, for “the wisdom of this world is foolishness with God” 1 Corinthians 3:19 But it does not always for us turn into foolishness; many of us go by it. But it is when it is turned into foolishness (and God knows how to do that) its power is broken. We can reckon on that.
Then David went on to the top, to the summit of the mount. What mount? The mount of Olives, the place of the Spirit of God. It is the power of the Spirit; Olivet generally signifies that. It is only thus that I can ascend, and in ascending and reaching the top to worship God.
It is worshippers thus indicated, as I believe you will agree, that God is seeking. Do not speak of worship, speak about worshippers — it is the persons [p. 173] God seeks, and David is representative here of those who worship God. You see in him what is comely and befitting in a day like ours; and so we have the covering of the head — the refusal to claim anything in the way of wisdom, the baring of the feet — the acknowledgment that we really deserve death, to go back into the earth; and then the weeping — moved in our feelings in regard of conditions, and the result on the summit that we worship God. And then Hushai comes, a friend, one who, as the sequel shows, became the means of the overthrow of Ahithophel and of Absalom. That is the way, and one hopes that we may all learn it a little, and that God may have His portion in these our days, for His name’s sake.