ADJUSTABLE MATERIAL
[p. 354] ADJUSTABLE MATERIAL
Acts 19:1 - 7; Genesis 6:14; Exodus 25:10
The thought of divine material has been on my mind in regard to this meeting, and I would desire that we may understand the kind of material that God is now using. God is operating in a positive way, and the question arises in view of this great fact as to whether one is available for Him, not exactly in the way of service, but as material usable in His present divine operations.
You will remember that this subject appears in Matthew’s gospel, and also in whom it appears — in Peter. In chapter 16, the Lord, taking notice of Peter’s acknowledgment of Him as the Christ, the Son of the living God, said, “Thou art Peter” The time had now come for this feature to appear, so the material shows itself, and immediately it shows itself the Lord names it — “Thou art Peter” He used a word that signifies what is durable, for what was in view was that there should be a building, and that the material should be of an enduring kind. It was such as was needed, and what I wanted to show, beloved friends, in reading the passage in Acts 19, was that this material must be capable of adjustment, for apart from such capability it must be rejected. And so what you find in these twelve men at Ephesus is that they were ready for adjustment. They needed it. They may not have been aware that they needed it, but directly the need was pointed out they recognised it. They were disciples of John the baptist — evidently apt disciples — and it is a matter of deep interest that in at least three cases we have disciples of John ready for adjustment. Had they not been ready they would have missed the greatest possible advantage. The first instance is in chapter 1 of John’s gospel, in which we read of two of John’s disciples who stood with him and who heard him speaking. There is not the slightest evidence of their being dissatisfied with John, who was the greatest of teachers up to that time. He was a marvellous man, filled with the Holy Spirit, we are told, from his infancy, and was in the deserts — not simply in the desert but in the deserts — until the time of his showing to Israel. He was thus inwardly formed, as you can understand, built up in spiritual instincts, having the Holy Spirit from the outset; and then the influence of the deserts where he experienced the wearing down of fleshly tendencies, for after all he was a man of like passions to ourselves, but the results of these immense advantages soon showed themselves in the manner of his presentation of Christ.
You are all aware of the emphasis laid on his testimony in John 1, “This is the witness of John” John 1:19; attention is thus called to him and the manner of his witness. He says, “In the midst of you stands whom ye do not know ... the thong of whose sandal I am not worthy to unloose” John 1:26 He had a true estimate of himself, and great man though he was, yet he recognised the presence of the greater. It is the principle of giving way to the greater that is so presented in him, and so in keeping with this principle, he discerns, in seeing Christ coming to him, the One who takes away the sin of the world. John says, “I knew him not” John 1:31 but he discerned Him as he saw Him coming to him; he perceived that there was the One who was coming to him figuratively to die. John discerned that kind of movement. Very few of us — one owns it — are conversant with a movement like that, for it was a movement towards death. You can understand the bearing of it; you see the accompanying feelings, the accompanying expression. What a voice there is in it! When he saw Him coming to [p. 356] him, that is to say figuratively, He was coming to die, John says, “Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world” John 1:29 There can be no dealing with sin, beloved brethren, in greater or smaller measure save this way. Argument will never deal with it; contentions will never deal with it; it will remain after the contentions, and arguments, and discussions. It is a movement towards death and there is life in that movement, necessarily life, and John perceives it — “In him was life, and the life was the light of men” John 1:4 It was the radiation of the light of life, for there was life in the One who was moving. It is the movement of life towards death. That was the solution of the difficulty and so he named Him “The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world” John 1:29 Dealing with sin is in that way; there is light in the movement, and the One in whom it shone in perfection is named the Lamb of God, the suffering One, for it is suffering. The only way out, the only solution, the sure solution is that way. There is light in that movement, and what brilliancy in that light shone over the dark scene as that holy One moved towards Jordan! Then John says that he was told by the One who sent him to baptise with water, that upon whom he should see the Spirit descending and remaining on Him, the same was He who baptised with the Holy Spirit. Nothing was said about the movement to John. It was a question of the coming of the Spirit upon Christ. John himself discerned the light in the movement. The light appeared in darkness and the darkness apprehended it not, but not in John’s case, and you may be sure that any movement of that kind will be discerned by those who are the subjects of the work of God. It will shine for them.
Now, that is how John presented Christ, and two of his disciples the next day stood with him. Whatever they may have heard from him with regard to [p. 357] Christ, they still stood with John. John was not a party man; he sought no followers and is a model in that way, but still these two men stood with him. It is a most dangerous thing to be counting those who stand by you. You do not want men standing by you in a partisan way; God will stand by you. You ought to stand by Christ and the testimony. So John said, as he stood and the two disciples with him, and as he saw the Lord walking, “Behold the Lamb of God” John 1:29; and the two disciples followed Jesus. They were ready for adjustment, they needed it, for great as their teacher was, great as their light was, they needed more, and their readiness for it led them into the greatest privilege. Had they been blind, or deaf, or disregardful of John’s remark, see what they would have missed! But they were not, and when Jesus saw them following, He turned and said, “What seek ye?” Not ‘whom’ seek ye, but what. A very fine challenge! and their answer is striking. You may ask, Why did they not refer to the Son of God or to the Lamb of God? They had heard of those titles. They spoke according to their exercises. What were their exercises? They had had a wonderful teacher but they are ready to take another teacher, and the Spirit of God interprets what they said, ‘Rabbi’, which signifies ‘teacher’.
And so with Apollos, another striking example; he was mighty in the Scriptures, a man of eloquence in his day; he arrived at Ephesus, but missed Paul, the great apostle. But he found Aquila and Priscilla there, and he is ready to be adjusted even by them. They “took him to [them] and unfolded to him the way of God more exactly” Acts 18:26 He was ready for the adjustment.
Now these cases, beloved brethren, I bring forward because they represent material; they represent what God can use. Apart from capability for adjustment one must be rejected or left in a negative [p. 358] position, until one comes to it, for God will not accept anything but what is suitable to Himself. He is God, and He has His own thoughts, His own desires. He knows what He needs and He will have that. He will not be diverted one hair’s breadth from it. Be what we may, He will have that, so that the question is — are we to be left negatively, or to be used positively in what God is doing?
Before I proceed to Acts 19, I want to go back to the Old Testament, so that we may see how God names His own material. He might have told Noah in time of the flood to build a vessel giving him a specification with the dimensions and so forth, but He mentions the kind of wood. I am referring to wood now as the well-known type in Scripture of the humanity of Christ. It is a very interesting study in Scripture, and so this wood, mentioned here only, unquestionably alludes to Christ. We may not be able to tell just what species of wood it was, but that is a matter of no moment, for Scripture deals with these things spiritually, and what it means spiritually in unquestionable — it means Christ. It is quite obvious that Noah knew the kind of wood to get. “Make thyself” God says, “an ark”; not ‘make me an ark’; but “make thyself an ark of gopher wood” It is for Noah, it is a question of headship. Noah had appeared as answering to the mind of God; as one who represented Christ from that side, one who understood that the things of God were valuable and precious, and that they must be preserved; as the Lord Himself said, “not one of them has perished but the son of perdition” John 17:12 Becoming man and taking His place here in this world in testimony, every living thing was in His mind; every thought of God was in His mind. It is that kind of thing; you cannot afford to lose one; you are great enough to embrace all. You see how great that is spiritually, and hence you immediately find cells in the ark, that [p. 359] is, small compartments and storeys, first, second and third, and the light at the top; and above all, the dimensions were three hundred cubits long. This represents great size; you see it is a large vessel even now it would be considered a large vessel. What God values is largeness of heart, ability to embrace all that is of God. And then the stability of it! It had to be pitched with pitch inside and outside. You can understand how all this speaks figuratively of the mind and heart of Jesus and how all was carried through intact, nothing lost, but all that belonged to God is carried through on to resurrection.
Such is the gopher wood. It is such a feature that the apprehension of it would save us from valuing lightly one of the least of these His brethren. “Destroy not him with thy meat for whom Christ has died” Romans 14:15 — the weak brother. Are there not conditions tending to destruction of the things of God? Are the conditions among us living or dying conditions? You want living conditions. These you find in the ark. There is not a word about any death occurring there — all is carried through. All came to Noah into the ark. Now, that is the gopher material that God would use at that time. Is it not needed at this time? The people of God, the thoughts of God, the principles of God, have all to be cared for in living conditions, not in dying conditions. There are things ready to die, so we have to be on the outlook for the gopher, that kind of humanity which refers to Christ, but has its counterpart also in us. It is the kind of thing that would preserve what is of God and save it from death.
I turn now to the passage in Exodus where we get the shittim wood brought in. I want to dwell on this point so that you may see how God in His operations specifies the material; it is available, for God never makes any requirements that cannot be complied with — never. In Exodus directly the people entered [p. 360] the wilderness, they murmured. The water was bitter (Marah), and they murmured, and it says that God showed wood to Moses. Apparently it was not there to the natural eye. It is a question of divine showing. Things have to be shown. I wonder if we have all been shown this wood. God showed Moses the wood; he cast it into the water and the water became sweet. Can you understand what an enquiry there would be as to that wood? Do you think that the house of Israel passed that by? Surely not! At least if there were spiritual ones there, they would make enquiry. It was shown. It was not simply shown to Moses for himself. What was shown in the case of Peter’s revelation was shown for us. I desire that you would take that in — how this idea of material is shown. And then as we arrive at the idea of God’s operations, God’s building, He says, “Make an ark of acacia-wood” You say it is a growth of the desert. Well, no doubt. It is known to those who are subject. In the chapter I refer to (Exodus 15), as the wood is shown to Moses and cast into the waters, he makes an ordinance and puts it upon Israel that they should be subject. It is a question of subjection to God. Where subjection to God is, this wood will be. It is called shittim wood here. I am not saying it is called shittim wood in chapter 15. I am speaking of subjection, and as I was saying, it is a growth of the desert. It is a growth in believers in the desert. I am not now referring to what Christ was here. I need not say that primarily it is a type of Christ. It is a type of Christ become man, but there it was: “Make an ark of acacia-wood” as if it were there. Do you think you would have known it had it been there? How many of us understand the humanity of Christ — the kind of humanity thus typified?
Now look for a moment at this wood, what it was used for; besides the ark the boards of the tabernacle [p. 361] were made of it. Have you ever thought of the size of them? They were at least fifteen feet long, and two feet three inches wide — large boards. I do not believe they were patched — two put together. We have to apprehend them spiritually. And then there were bars running through the tabernacle made of this wood. One of the main bars ran between the boards through the entire length of the tabernacle, possibly forty-five feet long. Now, take that in spiritually, the kind of thing that this wood was used for. How pliable, how durable, how strong it was! These features have to be apprehended as presenting the kind of material God is using. Well, I see it in Christ. I have been speaking of the boards, alluding to the saints, and the bars, but look at this material as in the ark — Christ Himself. The ark — two and a half cubits by one and a half, by one and a half — a small chest or box. We thus see in type that wonderful thing, the humanity of Christ, that blessed, holy humanity — “That holy thing” as the angel said, “which shall be born” Luke 1:35 As the Lord came into this world, He was surrounded by a holy atmosphere, no unholy thought, no taint of sin. But look at the outward smallness. You see the wonderful capability of the blessed God coming into manhood, and yet characterised by such smallness. That is the idea, infinitely great inside but very small outwardly. It is not now a huge vessel like the ark of Noah, but a small chest or box. Think of that! It is divine love here below, content to be nothing in man’s estimation, content to be the servant of all, for the Son of man came not to be ministered unto but to minister and to give His life a ransom for many. As He said to the woman at Sychar, as He sat down just as He was, no effort to alter His appearance for He was weary: “If thou knewest the gift of God, and who it is that says to thee, Give me to drink, thou wouldest have asked of him, and he would have given thee living water” John 4:10 That is the ark. That is the kind of material that God is looking for, and He got it in perfection in Christ. But it is still to be found, and God is using it. Paul says, “Other foundation can no man lay besides that which [is] laid, which is Jesus Christ” 1 Corinthians 3:11 All the material used must be of that order. The ark, besides being small, was said to be the glory of God, and the strength of God, and it went before the people to search out a resting-place. It is a question of divine love showing itself in one being content in smallness, if by being small you can serve the saints.
In the book of Numbers which contemplates the love of God active among His people — a wonderful study — it is God speaking in the wilderness out of the tabernacle. It is divine love come down into our circumstances and content in them in order to serve us; and so you find in the ordering of Numbers the ark has the central position, but when the people move it leaves that position; it moves from its place of dignity and takes the most menial place, going three days’ journey before the people to seek out a resting-place for them. The ark went before — a type of Christ — and the rock followed them — a type of Christ. It is divine love in the wilderness; that is the book of Numbers. Think of what that holy vessel was to God, that in which typically His love was expressed in every circumstance of the wilderness! Divine love finds its place among the people of God in lowliness in order to serve. Love will never fail it will go down in order to serve. “By love serve one another” Galatians 5:13 That indicates the kind of material that God is using. Do you want to be that? I do. I do not want to be here negatively letting God pass on without me. I want to be active in what He is doing in it livingly. I want to be available in the building; I hope everyone does; I make an appeal to you.
And so these twelve men at Ephesus represent the [p. 363] kind of material that enters into the great structure that is contemplated in the epistle to the Ephesians; and the Spirit of God goes over the ground and shows that they had been instructed of John and had been baptised unto John’s baptism. But Paul says in effect, ‘that is not enough; the great point now is the Spirit; John did not give you the Spirit’. And so now whatever your instructors may have been, and there are many instructors today, none of them can give you the Spirit. There is much imperfect teaching, too, and so the apostle here in view of the great structure that was about to be reared up insists upon the Spirit. He said, “Did ye receive [the] Holy Spirit when ye had believed?” It is not primarily a question of the doctrine or what you know or who your teachers have been. The point is, “Did ye receive the Holy Spirit?” Well, they had not even heard of it. They did not even hear that there was any Holy Spirit; and then Paul goes on to tell them that John indeed preached the baptism of repentance, but he said, there was One coming after him, a greater than he, even Christ. And when they heard that, they were baptised to the name of the Lord Jesus. Now you see how the material shines — they are ready for the adjustment. When they heard that, they were baptised not in the name of the Lord Jesus here, but to the name, that is to say, they are so intent on getting all that is in that blessed Man that they are baptised to Him. Can you afford to miss that? They could not afford to miss it, and so they were baptised to the name of the Lord Jesus, and Paul laid his hands on them and they received the Holy Spirit, and they spoke with tongues and prophesied. The presence of the Holy Spirit in those days was a very positive thing. They spoke with other tongues and prophesied; and then we are told that the number present was twelve. After that the apostle laboured in the synagogue for three months.
[p. 364] This seems linked with the twelve who had received the Holy Spirit; that is to say, such material was there. God proceeds where He has the material. And then the apostle taught in the school of Tyrannus for two years, showing how God builds as the material is present. There was readiness for adjustment, to take on fresh thoughts, and to take on the mind of God for the moment in these twelve men, and so they became the nucleus of the great structure at Ephesus.