FEAR
[p. 364] FEAR
I have read these two verses to speak of what they speak of, and that is fear. Fear is a great element. It is the beginning of wisdom, we are told. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, but the fear of the enemy is another matter, and that is more what is in mind. Abraham and David are taken up in these verses; taken up to some extent at least, because they are divine favourites. It may he said by some that all are favourites, and there is truth in that too; although we can clearly understand that there is a difference between a person saved so as by fire and saved by the activity of love. So heaven has its own way of denoting its favourites, and it would stimulate what leads to favouritism in this sense; favouritism to heaven. The best example I can get of favouritism of divine persons is the apostle Paul. There must be many not especially mentioned, but beginning the list, if one might mention it, is Enoch. He was not, we are told, for God took him. God did not take him because he was displeased with him in any sense. On the contrary he pleased God. He had this testimony that he pleased God before he was taken. And Noah may also be mentioned, but I have more now in mind to stress Abraham a good deal, because he is a family man. Hence, to be the heads of families is a great aspiration; not the least because it tests us to be heads of families, and the test brings out what there is of God in the head whoever he may be. Paul himself calls attention to the fact that among the ministers of the word of God there were not many fathers, Ten thousand instructors is a wide range as applied to the instructors as compared with fathers. He said there were not many; not ‘not any’ but there were ‘not many’. So John speaks about fathers. “I write [p. 365] to you, fathers, because ye have known him that is from the beginning”, meaning that they were conversant or had a great knowledge of Christ; not simply as in redemption but from the beginning, redemption being in view, of course, but fatherhood preceded it as a qualification, as an acquirement.
So I venture to speak of Abraham as a prominent person among the favourites of heaven. Others I might mention, such as David, such as Moses, a peculiar favourite, of whom it is said, “the form of Jehovah doth he behold”. He would excel even prophets. Moses had a peculiar place, therefore, among the servants of God. “Why then were ye not afraid to speak against my servant, against Moses?” So that God is against all those who are against the favourites of heaven. Moses is regarded as a leading person in that sense and then David too, without coming into the New Testament. But I linger around this thought because I believe God is bent on bringing about favourites, heavenly favourites at the present time, such as He will have liberty in translating to heaven. Enoch is the great prototype of all of them. Before his translation he had this testimony that he pleased God. I do not have anything to commend more to the youth here tonight than that they should seek to please God. And so with Abraham in this peculiar chapter. I say peculiar because it is the first chapter in which the word of God is formally presented. It is said here, “After these things the word of Jehovah came to Abram in a vision”. It is the word of Jehovah. In having gone over favourites one has in mind the word of the Lord; not the commandment but the word; and Abraham is the first to have it presented to him. Therefore he is outstanding in that sense, and it came at a time before which he had been through trial. He had been through trial with his nephew Lot. Lot is a [p. 366] remarkable man, but his uncle brought him along as he was called out. Jehovah said He called him alone, but he brought Lot anyway. You might say, He was his nephew. Well, we have to be on our guard against our nephews or nieces. So the sequel showed that Abraham had good cause for regretting that he brought his nephew along with him. God had called him alone; and here Abraham is signalized as having been the first to whom the word of the Lord came. I mean formally, because the word of God was there at the outset from the time light shone. God spoke, we are told, and it was done. That was the word. He commanded and it stood fast. That is akin to the word. And then, “Because it is the God who spoke that out of darkness light should shine”. 2 Corinthians 4: 6. He commanded and spoke that light should shine out of darkness; but there is no formal reference to the word of Jehovah until this chapter. And it is quite significant that it should be in this chapter and that there should be a fear attached to it. Fear in the sense that we should not be affected by it. And what is in mind in speaking thus is the danger that fear may hamper us in our testimony; not the fear of the Lord, of course. That is the beginning of wisdom; but the fear of man; the fear of circumstances, the fear of hostility. Our testimony may be damaged by it, even the fear of physical harm; but especially circumstantial harm, such as might arise from personal circumstances. It is one of the greatest things that comes to many dear brethren, that we should be above the fear of man. “What can man do unto me?” it says.
And so Jehovah says to Abraham here in a vision, “Fear not, Abram”. You might say that was a sort of formula although it is not quite. It is not quite so frequently alluded to in scripture as we might think; but it is alluded to. For instance, in the New Testament [p. 367] when the angel Gabriel appeared to Zacharias the father of John the baptist, he said, Fear not. There was no need of fear. An angel will cause you no fear if you are a righteous man, and he was said to be righteous, both he and his wife. There was no cause, therefore, for fear. And so with Mary and the Lord’s mother — “Fear not”. And so in the book of Joshua there are many references. “Be thou strong and very courageous”, was said to him. He was a leader of God’s people in the war, and dear brethren, we must expect war. If we evade it because of fear we will suffer damage and the testimony will suffer damage. I speak thus very advisedly because I have seen so much of it. One’s own mind has suffered from it: the fear of danger when there is no fear; and even if there were fear, go through it. For it is given to us not only to believe on the Lord Jesus but to suffer. And He says, “And be not afraid of those who kill the body, but cannot kill the soul; but fear rather him who is able to destroy both soul and body in hell”, Matthew 10: 28. Fear Him. That is wholesome fear. But fear of the adversary is another matter. It has to be carefully watched and evaded for it is given to us, as I said, not only to believe but to suffer. The Lord went through it. He went through it unflinchingly. He felt it but He went through it and was victorious.
And now to come back to this scripture; I am speaking of Abraham. I have in mind, of course, in the second scripture I read to speak of David, but Abraham, I might say, is young in the faith. He was in the faith; in fact he is said to be the father of the faithful; the father of all those who believe. He is first spoken of in chapter 12 and he is called out. We are in the age of persons being called out. “I called him when he was alone”, Jehovah said, but He did not leave it at that. He said, I blessed him. So that if [p. 368] we take up the right attitude we shall be blessed. Go through it. Warfare is involved, but victory is involved. That is a certainty. So the Spirit of God undoubtedly had this in mind in taking up this young man, although in the ordinary sense he was quite old at the time; seventy-five or so, but he was relatively young. He lived to be one hundred and seventy-five years of age, so he was not much more than one-third of his age at this time. Jehovah certainly felt for him and would guard him. He had no child, no son or daughter; and that in itself was a danger in his case, as the facts show. So that is what God says to him — “Fear not, Abram”. Abram immediately says, “Lord Jehovah, what wilt thou give me? seeing I go childless”. That has to be faced. There is danger wrapped up in it, and he immediately speaks of it to Jehovah. God had said to him, “Fear not, Abram; I am thy shield, thy exceeding great reward. And Abram said, Lord Jehovah, what wilt thou give me? seeing I go childless”. The sequel of this shows that there was great danger wrapped up in the barren condition of this man and woman. But God foresaw that too. Abram says, “Lo, to me thou hast given no seed, and behold, a son of my house will be mine heir”. Now again we have the word of the Lord. I am stressing this and have already stressed it, but I am referring to it again, because the realm of the word of God is the very realm in which we are to live. It will constantly test us — the word of the Lord; not simply that He says certain things, but the word of the Lord is a particular thing. Indeed, the Spirit of God describes it in Hebrews 4: 12, “For the word of God is living and operative, and sharper than any two-edged sword, and penetrating to the division of soul and spirit, both of joints and marrow, and a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart. And there is not a creature unapparent before him;
[p. 369] but all things are naked and laid bare to his eyes, with whom we have to do”. We have really no choice in that sense, if we are believers at all. The word of God is the realm in which we are to live; the only safe one really. It will unfold things to us, open up things to us; but it would correct us. It will cut through our purposes and ambitions. And so it was found here in this chapter; twice over already in these verses, and it is the first mention of it formally. Surely Jehovah has in mind to make much of Abraham. He has already made much of him. He is going to add to him. His soul is going to be pierced through. I am not speaking thus because Abraham is here to listen to me. He is not. He once was in the sphere of hearing the word of God and that is why I am speaking about him. We are here and each one of us is now obligated to pay attention to the word of God, and we see how it affected Abraham. He said, “Lo, to me thou hast given no seed, and behold, a son of my house will be mine heir. And behold, the word of Jehovah came to him saying, This shall not be thine heir, but he that will come forth out of thy body shall be thine heir. And he led him out, and said, Look now toward the heavens, and number the stars, if thou be able to number them. And he said to him, So shall thy seed be!” That is, God is now in His words full of encouragement to His servant and what I am saying is amplifying the first sentence read: “After these things the word of Jehovah came to Abram in a vision, saying, Fear not, Abram”. “After these things”. I have already alluded to these things in chapter 14 particularly. It is the chapter in which Melchisedec appears: king of righteousness, king of Salem, priest of the Most High God. But other things have happened in the chapter and these are the things I have already touched: the danger of being afraid of them. If we become afraid of [p. 370] circumstances we shall not be able to carry through the government of the house of God because it involves what Satan does not like. There is not time for me to go over the ground of what has been said of comparatively recent times, as to what should not be done to alleviate the state of things in certain persons, because of the danger of them being turned aside; and that danger is that they will turn aside to evil; and the danger that would be averted would be evil — leaven laying hold of people in their homes; in their marriage links, in their family links. Some of you may think I am unintelligible — I am not plain enough; but what I am saying is plain to most of you. There has been a trend among the brethren of lowering the standard of the fellowship, and I am warning now that God is not going to brook it at all. He will go on even if He has to reduce the number that are going on. If they go away, as the Lord says “Will ye also go away?” — if they do, He will say to us, There are certain principles that I have set out and I am going to stand by them, and I will stand by those who stand by them, even if the numbers be reduced. God is more concerned about quality, about holiness and purity than He is about numbers. Of course, He loves numbers if they are such as He wishes; and He is going to have numbers. We read of the many brethren — many. We read of the word ‘few’ in scripture too, referring to the saints. “Into which few, that is, eight souls, were saved through water”, 1 Peter 3: 20, — Noah and his house. Eight souls were not many but God was determined to have them and He had them. We do not hear of any turning away at the door of the ark. Many did not come to the door. I know that. Millions did not come Only eight came, but they came, and the ark moved along with them, showing that God is not concerned about filling vessels or ships. He is concerned about [p. 371] the quality of the persons who are in the path of faith professedly. And so there was no lowering of the standard in Noah’s day. He kept to the principles. There are those who have a vocabulary that God cannot set His seal to; nor can faith set its seal to; the word ‘narrow’ for instance. It is said the brethren are too narrow. Well, scripture says, “For narrow the gate and straightened the way that leads to life”. Matthew 7:14. Let us be sure we have that word in our vocabulary in its meaning. “Wide the gate and broad the way that leads to destruction”. I am endeavouring to bring in the idea of vocabulary, because Christians ought to have a vocabulary of their own. God has. He is not afraid to use the numeral eight referring to the number that were saved. You might say, It is not enough for a meeting. Well, they were there one hundred and fifty days or so. Can we not believe there was something for God in the ark? One thing to be noted is they were all grown persons, all mature persons. God has had that in His mind too, maturity. “Until we all arrive at the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, at the full-grown man, at the measure of the stature of the fulness of the Christ; in order that we may be no longer babes”. That was at the door of the ark — no babes, no little ones. You say, Well, that is somewhat contradictory of what you have been saying, because a household implies the babes. I spoke about households and fathers of houses and households imply babes, but not in the ark. You will not find any trace of a babe or a young person among the inmates of the ark. Do not misunderstand what I am saying, because there must be children. God said, “Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth”. He said that to Adam and Eve, and it holds today. At the same time we have to follow what God does in His wisdom and He did not direct that the children [p. 372] should be there. You say, Well what became of them? Did Noah not have any? Did his children not have any? We are not told. There were eight souls saved by water and heaven does not hide for a moment that there were no children, because God intended to bring out something and He is intending to bring out something now too, and He will use others suitable for that something so that we may have the truth, and have it standing and stand by it.
So that it is worth the while; the fellowship is worth the while. It is worth the name of fellowship. If we have in mind simply to augment the fellowship in the sense of numbers then fellowship will soon disappear and become idolatry, so that it will have to disappear. God will not go on with it. Pardon me for lingering so long. I find if I become pressed I would like to hear if it is the Lord’s voice and I keep on at that; I feel I am safe keeping on at that. The brethren need that. They do not necessarily need a long address; not necessarily. Paul spoke until midnight, but that must have been necessary, very necessary, even if it called for, apparently, the death of a boy. Let him die if the word of God cannot go on because of him. But Paul enfolded him in his arms and said, “His life is in him”, and brought him up and he became a brother among the brethren. I say ‘brother’ though he is not called a brother; but a boy may be a brother. Some of you here who are boys are brethren. Thank God for that! You are in danger, though, because you are boys. You need maturity and if you ignore what you need you are in danger.
So as I said, we want quality. Therefore we come back to what was said to Abraham, “Fear not, Abram. I am thy shield”. Look at this. It is a matter of protection. Just a few nights ago we were speaking about the wall of the heavenly city; how great it was,
[p. 373] great and high. That is to say, evil was excluded. The wall was supposed to exclude evil. There was a great and high wall. And then we are told about the beautiful ornamentations at the bottom, at the foundation of it. It is most beautiful to think of all that, and all that is because of what I have been saying — the danger of lowering the standard of fellowship. And now God is saying to Abraham, I know the danger you have been in. I know you have had three hundred and eighteen trained soldiers in your house. God would say that to Abraham — three hundred and eighteen trained soldiers in his house. I do not say they were always soldiering. I do not think they were. They were trained soldiers in the house of Abraham, but we may be sure they did other things. I do not think brethren would get on very well if they did nothing else but soldiering, or fighting. Love must be made way for. But to come back to Abraham: “I am thy shield, thy exceeding great reward”. The shield is protection. Of course, it is very good to have protection if there is danger — persons who would attack you or kill you. But that is not all; the next word is, “I am ... thy exceeding great reward”. That is what you are going to get in your position; so that the word ‘fear’ enters into that. Fear not. But what enters into that is “great reward”. Danger, of course, may be there, but “great reward” is there. God is telling us, dear brethren, that we belong to the Abrahamic line. He is the father of us all. None should be more interesting to us here tonight than Abraham. His name means, ‘father of a multitude’; not simply that he had a wife and a house. That would be small as compared with this wonderful expression, father of a multitude, which is the name that Abraham acquired from God after this. So that he has the idea of protection of which I have been speaking, and if we have not got that [p. 374] protection and if we do not avail ourselves of it, and if we are afraid of our circumstances the fellowship will become deteriorated and disappear. We may as well face these facts, because if God is to go on with us He is bound to impress us with the facts. It is urgent and we must recognize these facts and not fear with any amazement. So we have protection and it really implies that Abraham is a comparatively young brother. He was young in the faith. He was the father of the faithful but he was comparatively young in it and he needed this encouragement. He needed not to fear. “Fear not, Abram; I am thy shield, thy exceeding great reward”.
So the history of Abraham is just to open up all this. I could not speak of anything more important or practical than what I am saying. The history of Abraham stretches out before us in its — I could not say infinite and yet in a way it is infinite — length, because Abraham is just the outgoing, as it were; the fact of what God is in man. God is not man; Abraham was a man. God is to be worked out in Abraham, and hence the reward would undoubtedly include children. Hence the word is, “And he led him out, and said, Look now toward the heavens, and number the stars, if thou be able to number them. And he said to him, so shall thy seed be!” Now listen, “And he believed Jehovah; and he reckoned it to him as righteousness”. And then, as I said, the wonderful history of Abraham just opens up to our minds at the present moment, if our minds are ready for it. The Spirit of God would enlarge the thought, the history of Abraham, implying that we are all the children of Abraham; in fact, the children of God. And the children of God is what we are said to be in the gospel of John particularly. “Now are we children of God”, it is said in the epistle. But in the gospel we have the thought that it is given to us; the privilege is given [p. 375] to us to become children of God; “born, not of blood, nor of flesh’s will, nor of man’s will, but of God”. That is our great heritage and it enters into the moment as I am speaking; the heritage that we belong to and that we have implies the children of God. We have the brethren. We cannot say how many; they are said to be many. There are many sons and there are many brethren; many brethren of Christ and many sons of God, so that we will have plenty of fellowship, plenty of love eternally. It is, therefore, incumbent upon us to be urgent in regard to the principles of God, and to maintain what is suitable to the house of God in the way of government whatever it costs. It is most painful to survey the history of the testimony as one has the opportunity of doing, and see how many are lost; lost for simply selfish reasons — people turning away from the truth as they turned away from the Lord. And I would say to you now, you young people, “Will ye also go away?” Peter says, “Lord, to whom shall we go? Thou hast words of life eternal; and we have believed and known that thou art the holy one of God”. The priestly side is stressed there, and we cannot afford to lose the priest, nor shall we. If they are real priests they will stay. It is because they are not priests they go.
That is about all I have to say, only I have to go to David for a moment. It is not because David was so old or because he had such a large family, or because he had such wealth, such military ability, but because and only because he had experience. David had experience. Abraham is not represented in the passage I have read as particularly having experience. He needed to get right as to what God could do for him and would do for him, and had done for him. But David in the psalm I read says, “Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will [p. 376] fear no evil: for thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff, they comfort me”. These are the words of an experienced man, a man experienced with God. He is the author of the number twenty-four, not the author of the number twelve. That is Jacob. David is the author of the number twenty-four; that is to say, double twelve, two dispensations instead of one. We are a dispensational people. Those who form the assembly are dispensational people, but not necessarily in the singular, but people of dispensations. We belong to dispensations. We know something about the coming dispensation and we know something about the past. We are in the present and it is the greatest of all the dispensations, but David is the author, as I might say, and the worker-out in the first book of Chronicles of the number twenty-four and it is brought into the New Testament; that is to say, the Revelation. The word ‘revelation’ largely enters into the matter of twenty-four. The word is ‘apocalypse’ and signifies an unveiling, things opened up to us that are not yet manifest. Those who love God will get the unveiling of His mind; and the book of Revelation is just that. It is the unveiling and almost immediately we have four and twenty elders and four living creatures. David has in mind what is used of God to open up the dispensational idea in the plural; I mean, the dual character of it. That is to say, the place that is ours is in the longest and greatest of all, because it involves the assembly. It is formation and it is testimony; what it is to be in heaven; to open up the heavenly side here on earth. That is our dispensation. But then we have been looking down on the coming dispensation, or what is called the millennial day. The word ‘millennial’ is of course, one thousand years; the oldest man was nine hundred and sixty-nine years old, but he did not attain the age of one thousand. But presently we shall [p. 377] be living eternally. In a moment we shall be transferred; maybe in a meeting like this the transformation will take place — the translation to heaven. We read how Paul says that the Lord appeared to five hundred brethren at one time, most of whom are still alive, he said, but some have fallen asleep. They are not changed yet. They have died; they have fallen asleep, but they are not raised. But when the millennium comes, the very threshold of it, the thousand years, it says, “blessed and holy he who has part in the first resurrection”. It opens up the first resurrection. It begins with that; but then it runs on here on earth with men and women and children in flesh and blood. Children are spoken of and old people in flesh and blood. God is going to show what He can do in retaining people here on earth in flesh and blood. He can keep them alive one thousand years. Some will have to go; they will die under judgment even in that thousand years, but in general it is a wonderful time. It is a time of perfection in which God keeps things going in men in flesh and blood and we have part in that too. We have part in the present dispensation which is the greatest, as I said before — the longest and the greatest in the sense of the formation of the assembly; in the sense of the calling out of the assembly. Now I am speaking of the most blessed and greatest things, that we are called out and yet left here as men and women to glorify God in bodies of flesh and blood. It is said of the Lord that He ate before them; He partook of actual human food that would sustain blood and flesh. The Lord partook of that after He rose from the dead. It is what He can do; what God can do. What can God not do? So that if God says He will retain men here for one thousand years, He can do that. And then what I am speaking of now is that we shall have part in this wonderful thing as well as having [p. 378] part in the present, the gospel period; the period in which souls are called out and formed into an assembly through the gospel. At the same time we are going to be translated before the millennium starts. “Blessed and holy he who has part in the first resurrection: over these the second death has no power”, Revelation 20: 6. We shall never come into the second death. We will go into heaven; we belong to heaven. We are translated to heaven by the power of God; but in that sense we have part in the coming dispensation, which is another one, as I said before, of flesh and blood, but God keeping it in power, showing what He can do. We shall look down upon it. We shall reign over the earth; not on it but over it. So you can see that great things are ahead of us, but what I am speaking of now is the present, and the importance of being without fear. Fear not those that kill the body. We are to be without fear of circumstances, going through according to the will of God. It is said of David, “He had served his own generation by the will of God”. If we do that we will attain to the divine principles. Stand by them whatever they may cost us.