PERSONAL LIBERTY
[p. 452] PERSONAL LIBERTY
Mark 11: 11, 27; Psalm 48: 12 - 14
I want to speak about personal liberty. I have selected the Lord Himself as my subject. It is suitable to connect the subject with the gospel of Mark for it is the minister’s gospel. In using the word ‘minister’ I am referring to service in ministry such as the Levites used to be engaged in typically. Now more accurately it would be those who serve in the word of God, although the service of the Levites included more. But the service of the word of God remains as belonging to the subject, the levitical subject, because it entailed toil or labour, real toil; and hence the word ‘labourer’ is the word to use if we are to be accurate. Mark is the section of Scripture that especially unfolds the truth to us as to ministry; and so when I spoke about personal liberty, I should have added particularly as to those persons who minister. But the Lord leads in this for us, as He does, indeed, in all the gospels. Recently we have spoken of the gospels extending beyond the present dispensation and have used a well-known phrase, the gospels go over the wall; that is, the wall of holy discrimination and separation in truth. Hence, we may speak of cutting in a straight line the word of truth. That expression is intelligible according to what I have said. The person who is dealing in the truth treats of the assembly in what belongs to it. That is, he does not mix things; he does not confuse things. The idea of a straight line means I am not confusing the truth by misapplication. And so in Mark He is introduced to us very abruptly. It speaks of the Lord as “Beginning of the glad tidings of Jesus Christ, Son of God”. It is very abrupt, but clearly it is a personal matter that the theme before us is [p. 453] Jesus Christ, referring to Him as a Man, but as Son of God. Personally He is Jesus Christ in His service, and of course, the term ‘Son of God’ might be left out and the matter would be perfectly intelligible to us, but ‘Son of God’ is added because it is a question of the levitical work, or the labourer’s work, the teacher’s work, the preacher’s work. And so the gospel provides not only for the Lord but for every preacher and every teacher; everyone engaged in the work, as it is called; nothing is omitted that the labourer needs. Above all, he needs encouragement. So we find in the record of the Lord’s baptism that the heavens were opened to Him and the voice was not, ‘This is the Son of God’, but, “Thou art my beloved Son, in thee I have found my delight”. That is a word for the labourer; a labourer needs to know that God is well pleased with him. You understand I am not at all detracting from the terms applied to the Lord personally, but it is clear that the labourer needs to be assured that God is well pleased with him, not simply that the brethren are well pleased with him or that he can preach well or teach well, but that personally God is well pleased with him. So the word was to the Lord Himself, and it would set Him on His glorious way as the gospel here presents Him, and what a way! What a way of glory! The Spirit came upon Him, fitting Him, if I may use that expression, for the service ahead. He is appointed, for it is a question of appointment as we had it already today. It is a question of God’s appointments and it is clear that the appointment of Jesus, whom God has made both Lord and Christ, should be clear. There should be every reason for it, every ground for it. He is appointed in heaven. “God has made him, this Jesus whom ye have crucified, both Lord and Christ”, Acts 2: 36. God has made Him that; the appointment is right. So it should be with everyone [p. 454] who is ministering. Heaven has to say to it; or, perhaps I might say as to everyone of us here who is doing it in some sense, heaven has had to say to it, and how we are doing it proves that or disproves it. It is one or the other.
So it is that chapter 1 is set in these beautiful words: “Beginning of the glad tidings of Jesus Christ, Son of God”, meaning that He is in the ministry but He is the Son of God, as if who He is must be known at every turn. So it is that one who is concerned, according to Luke, not according to Mark, that is, Zacchaeus, went ahead of the Lord and climbed up into a tree. I am not going to discredit him for that although some might, because it says, “And he sought to see Jesus who he was”, Luke 19: 3. So the Lord Jesus Himself in conversing with His disciples enquired what men were saying of Him. “Who do men say that I the Son of man am?” Peter answered that question; it is important that questions of that kind should be answered. Questions were asked of the Lord that were not answered, because they were not honestly asked, and the Lord is not going to support dishonesty even if it be a question of supporting a point of truth. The Lord would not support dishonesty even in a question, so He was silent.
Well, as I was saying, the first chapter is the great Worker, the great Operator in heaven, Jesus Christ. He is the great Operator because operational services belong to Him; He leads in them; and so He is set down in heaven, and He is known there as Lord and Christ, but the Spirit of Christ in the book of Mark prefers to present Him as Jesus Christ, Son of God. And as I said, He proceeds to fortify Him, speaking reverently, so as to fit Him for the great service before Him, and so that He should bring out that the whole environment of the service would be clothed with sonship, with the idea of liberty. I [p. 455] need not say this but it is important that we should see that there is nothing small at all about the Lord Jesus. Everything is in the greatness of sonship. There are to be no efforts to exalt ourselves in any sense at all. The Lord frowns on all that. He wishes, as the gospel of Mark sets out, that the holy liberty and dignity of sonship should clothe the services, whether His own or of those who are called into service. That is another thing you get in Mark. He went up into a mountain and called to Him whom He would and appointed them to preach. They must be preachers as He was; they must learn from Him. They must be teachers, or whatever it might be, as He was; they must get guidance from the Lord and that guidance is in the liberty and relation of sonship, so that we may learn it properly and be it, be marked as sons, “because ye are sons”. What a great phrase that is! “But because ye are sons, God has sent out the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, Abba, Father”, Galatians 4: 6. So that the whole environment of the service is to be marked by this relation, and hence there is liberty.
Well now, as I said, I have in mind personal liberty and therefore I read verse 11: “And he entered into Jerusalem and into the temple; and having looked round on all things, the hour being already late, he [p. 459] went out to Bethany with the twelve”. Certain people were craning their necks when they saw the Lord going out of Jerusalem over the mount of Olives, down to Bethany; doubtless there were those that were interested; maybe not affectionately interested but doubtless there were many that watched Him. He was watched and with vicious eyes, too. With murderous eyes He was watched, but He went out to Bethany without any question as to what might be thought of Him. Before He went out to Bethany, you will observe, “he entered into Jerusalem and into the temple; and having looked round on all things”, that is to say, He is observing. You may say, Such-and-such is very questioning, very critical. That may be necessary for a worker. The Lord was critical; He looked around on all things; not on all persons but on all things. Why do I say that? Because it is a question of things. That is the meaning of the passage. Christianity involves things as well as persons. So the man who had his eyes opened in Bethsaida saw all things clearly. It is very important, as we come together as we are now, that we see things as well as persons, and the Lord here looked around on all things. This is a challenging matter. We have often spoken of it, because every one of us has things attached to him. You have clothes, you have houses, maybe, you have possessions and all these things as well as ourselves, must come under the Lord’s review. Hence here He had come into Jerusalem and He entered into the temple and He looked around upon all things. But the word ‘when’ is there, meaning He is going to do something afterwards. He is in holy dignity; He is not inquiring as to what the people may think; He is going somewhere afterwards; I should say in a few minutes, maybe in half an hour He is going to go somewhere in liberty and dignity; in the liberty and dignity of His relations with God, of what He was Himself too. We have already spoken of Him as Son, God speaking by Him; God Himself speaking as God but speaking as Son. We have already had that today, but now it is not a question of His speaking: it is a question of His entrance into Jerusalem, and what a moment it was! What were they thinking about this great Person? In Matthew we have an inquiry about Him, which I do not need to turn to now. Who is this? The prophet from Nazareth? From Galilee? That is what they thought. He was more than that; He was the Son, perfected for ever, and He is in Jerusalem.
[p. 457] He has just come in. I can well visualize myself if I were in Jerusalem then, but knowing what I do now, I should not be at home if the Lord were coming into Jerusalem. I do not know anything that would keep me away. I hardly know what could keep me away, any more than what could keep me from a meeting like this. Of course, I could give you certain reasons that would keep me away, but I am pondering on this matter of the Lord of glory coming into Jerusalem. He had been there before; very little was made about Him. His father and mother had left without the Lord; they had gone up to the feast and left without Him. Such are our mothers and fathers; there is the possibility of fathers and mothers being neglectful of their children. Mary herself and Joseph were neglectful of the Lord; so neglectful that they went some days on the way to Nazareth, or wherever it was, and they left the Lord in the town. But He was there, and as I said, He asserted His sonship. His mother came back into the town and she questioned Him severely as if she had a right to do it, whereas she had not. He says to her, “Wist ye not that I must be about my Father’s business?” “My Father”, what does that refer to? Mary says: “Thy father and I have sought thee sorrowing”. She referred to Joseph; but the Lord did not refer to Joseph; He referred to His own Father in heaven; the Father who opened the heavens on Him and looked on Him and said, “This is my beloved Son, in whom I have found my delight”. Well now, that was what happened. Mary and Joseph left without Him and they had to come back and search for Him in Jerusalem. They did not have far to go because He was in the temple; He was found there. It was His Father’s temple. It was where His Father’s business was and that is where He was. What a word for all you young people here, as to what interests you have in the business of God, in the Father’s business. Well, I speak thus because it is now here a question of personality in the Lord and He is coming into Jerusalem, and He has entered into the temple. You might ask how He knew. He did know; He knew everything. He sent the blind man into Jerusalem at another time to go to Siloam and he went, though blind; he went and found Siloam and washed in it. He did what he was told to do. So the Lord is under command; He was yet a minor; He was twelve years of age when He was in Jerusalem at this time that I am referring to. But now He has been baptised — when He was about thirty years of age we are told; He was in Jerusalem at another time. Eighteen years elapsed and it is important to think of the days and the hours of that holy life; heaven does. The world itself, John says, could not contain the books that should be written if everything was written about the Lord, all that He did. So this is eighteen years afterwards and He is now in Jerusalem, and in the temple; the same temple where He spoke to His mother about His Father’s business. He looked round upon everything; the position is different, the circumstances are different, the persons are different, the people there are different. Eighteen years make a great difference in a person of the Lord’s age. You will remember that I am seeking to speak in a holy way, a reverential way; but it was eighteen years, and now He is in Jerusalem and He is in the temple and He is looking around on everything. And, as I said before, everyone of us may come under that surveillance. What an eye the Lord may cast on some of you here, bringing up into your minds the secret history that no one knows but yourself and God. He is God. He looks around on everything; He would survey the clothes we are wearing, and so on. It was not the persons, but the things; and then He went out to Bethany with the twelve. That is to say, the Lord is not now alone. He is in company; not that He could not be alone, because we are told elsewhere that at night He went to the mount of Olives. With whom was He there? We are not told. I would say without any hesitation He was with His Father. Yes, dear brethren, He was with His Father. That was the company He would have on the mount of Olives; but now He has other company. He is in an administrative environment; twelve men are his companions. He is going out to Bethany with them. What would they say on the way? What would they talk of? What would be their theme? What does the number twelve mean, attached to them? Why were there not thirteen? Why were there just twelve? The word ‘twelve’ means something in Scripture, and the Lord knew it well, and so did the twelve. “Have not I chosen you twelve?” And so in chapter 3 of this gospel He called them up into the mountain and selected them that they should be with Him and He sent them forth to preach. Hence, what would they be talking about save that they were to preach? There are young men here that have never preached, but the Lord may have you in His mind that you are to preach; and, though you may not know it, I would advise you to be ready for whatever the Lord would have you do; whatever the contingency may be, whatever there is that you can do, be ready to do it. So I would say these twelve men and the Lord would be saying something about what should be done. What are they to do? Well, we are not told, as I said, but they went to Bethany. We are not told where, but I have not a doubt as to where they went; they went to the house of Mary and Martha and Lazarus, and hence that leads me to speak of companionship and what is within the range of a man who is in liberty. It is not fair to criticize a man who is serving, on whom the Lord [p. 460] has put an obligation to serve. We should be very careful about our criticism of him. He has to do with the Lord; he has to do with God; he has to do with the assembly. He needs all the support we can give him. Hence, the Lord went up with the twelve. He did not ask any questions or raise any thoughts at all as to what people may have thought of His being in such company - some of them fishermen and tax-gatherers. That was no matter to the Lord. “Have not I chosen you twelve?” What a thing it is to be chosen by the Lord of glory; not simply chosen for heaven but chosen for service here below! The greatest possible honour is to be chosen by Christ for service here below. And see that you fulfil the mission you have. Do not treat it lightly; it is serious. When the Lord appointed the twelve He prayed all night about it. We will suppose it was a long winter’s night. How He would go over every one of them and go over them again, each one by name, and if any had a wife, her name; if any had a mother and father, their names. The Lord would think of their fathers and grandfathers and great-grandfathers, because God takes account of the past as well as the future. Paul speaks about being set apart from his infancy before he began to serve at all. He had been selected in heaven, and in due time the Lord says of him, “This man is an elect vessel to me”, a chosen vessel unto the Lord. There are things that belong to such an occasion; so, if the Lord is in Jerusalem and He has looked around on things and He moves out immediately in the direction of Bethany what is there in it? What is there likely to be in it? What are they likely to be saying? Well, He is there in holy dignity. He is doing what He knows to be right and He is not concerned about what others are thinking. He is under His Father’s eye and His Father is well pleased with Him. He was well [p. 461] pleased with His selection too, I am sure, so that they are to go on the way from Jerusalem to Bethany, fifteen furlongs away. It was not very far; a couple of miles. But they traversed that journey and the question is what they did when they got to Bethany. I cannot say. I have already conjectured they were in the house of Mary and Martha and Lazarus. That is all I can say; but the Lord went to Bethany. He came back again, we are told in verse 27: “And they come again to Jerusalem. And as he walked about in the temple”, He is not now looking around on everything but walking. That is another matter. John the apostle says that John the baptist looked at Jesus as He walked. That is another thought. But now He is walking in the temple. Earlier He was walking around the Jordan before He was baptised. That is what John 1 speaks of; He was walking there; but now He is in the temple and that is another thing. Every one of us here who go to the meetings should consider our walk, our movements in the assembly, the movements of the brethren. The attire and attitude and walk or whatever it may be is under the surveillance of heaven, and it is under the surveillance of spiritual people in the meeting too, and it is very important that young people should learn to behave themselves in the meetings, in the assembly. The Lord was in the temple when He was twelve and He was about His Father’s business, and so it is now that every one of us who is young should know how to behave in the house of God, where the saints are assembled, where the Spirit of God is.
Well now, the Lord is walking in the temple and I just had a few words to say about that, because He is not now looking around on all things, criticizing them or whatever it may be, but walking. He would be there for everyone who had eyes capable of appreciating the great and the glorious, for everyone [p. 462] who had eyes that could appreciate such a walk. He was there to be appreciated. It was for those who were in the temple to appreciate Him. I am speaking now, dear brethren, of the Lord’s walk in the temple; not what is seen in John 1 which would be around the Jordan before He was baptised or after, but in the temple; the kind of walk that is proper to the temple. What is to be seen? We might think of the ark of the covenant covered over so as not to be gazed upon under certain circumstances, but the Lord is in the temple; He is in the open. If He is walking now He is walking in the assembly or in the assemblies. So we have in Revelation 1 that John hears a voice behind him and he turns back to see the voice; remarkable phrase. He turned back to see the voice, and what he saw was seven golden lamps. You say, Did he see the Lord first? No. He saw the seven golden lamps first, showing we are not dealing with another dispensation; the lamps are seen before we see the Lord. You will understand that I am not in any way detracting from the Lord of glory but He has an assembly and He loves that assembly. He gave Himself for it. There is nothing He loves more, except His Father, than the assembly, and so He walks in the midst of them. He is first seen in the midst of them in chapter 1, and in chapter 2 He is said to be walking in the midst of the seven gold lamps, showing that the Lord in this dispensation is now walking in the midst of the assemblies. I would say without any hesitation that He comes into meetings like these and walks around. You will all remember how Samuel made a circuit every year; it does not say for just how many years, but it was a good many for he lived a long time and he made his circuits too in the same period. We are told, too, the towns that he visited. They would fear when Samuel came; not that the Lord would cause us to fear, because if we [p. 463] are here as we are, thank God, submissive to the Lord, He would indicate that He is pleased with us. I am sure He is. He comes to all places like this. And so Samuel went to these places every year in a circuit and judged Israel in a circuit, an important matter. So the Lord is judging His people too because it says He is girt at the breasts with a golden girdle and clothed in a robe down to the feet. You cannot see His beauty; He is covered over because things have to be judged. I am not dealing with that now; I only wish to point out that the Lord walks in the midst of the seven golden lamps. He is looking for the gold; the gold of that land is good, it says in Genesis 2, and that gold comes down in the golden lamps in the midst of which the Lord walks. It means more than literal gold; it is the beauty of the saints, the workmanship in the saints, that we are all taught of God. We are all the workmanship of God and the material is gold, but the gold is good. It means something spiritual; it is the finest of metals, and those who are spiritual understand the meaning of the word ‘gold’. It is the very best. David speaks of the very best gold; the finest gold: of his own affection he said he provided it for the house, three thousand talents of it; it was the best kind of gold, so is the assembly the best kind of gold. In the book of Revelation it is contemplated as if the Lord were in the midst of it and would value it in so far as He could. He would certainly value the gold. So it says in verse 27, “And they come again to Jerusalem. And as he walked about in the temple, the chief priests and the scribes and the elders come to him”; that is, He is there and He is walking and they are there too to question Him. They raise questions about certain things and the Lord did not answer those questions. The Lord would say, Who is John the baptist? and the enemies would say, Now if we say he is from [p. 464] heaven this Man will say, Why do you not believe on him then? And they did not answer. They were not honest men. The Lord did not answer their questions: “Neither do I tell you by what authority I do these things”. The Lord has the right of sonship to deny answers to men who are dishonest. Why should He not deny answers to men who are dishonest? Why should He encourage dishonesty? He would not.
But now I am speaking of walking and I go on now just for a moment to my scripture in the Psalms to encourage all of us here to walk about Zion. In verse 12 it says, “Walk about Zion, and go round about her: count the towers thereof”. Do not let me stand here to criticise sisters who go into these big towns and look in the windows; pay big prices too. Let me not take any liberty like that. I do not wish to; but I do say, dear brethren, that it is a question of walking about Zion. “Walk about Zion ... count the towers thereof”. Well, you say, what does that mean? Is that literal? No. It is what is here before me now, the brethren that are here, because I believe you are nearly all Christians. I thank God for it too. That is one of the greatest encouragements, that there are so many that one can call brethren that have not left us. Some have, and many have not. There are persons coming along all the time. We rejoice in this; they belong to heaven; they are pilgrims and strangers; they are going to heaven, travelling home to heaven. That is where we are going. We are on the way tonight. We get encouragement here. So it is, “Walk about Zion”. In any day or week the brethren have opportunity to walk about Zion and tell the towers. Look at the brethren; go into the town of Plainfield, Westfield, Cranford — what shall I see? What will a spiritual eye see? I am challenging myself. The Lord would encourage us to do it, to walk about Zion; walk [p. 465] around not only to the front door, but the back door too. See what you can see; see what God has in the place. “Walk about Zion, and go round about her: count the towers thereof; mark ye well her bulwarks, consider her palaces: that ye may tell it to the generation following”. That is the thing to carry with you, for the coming generation needs to be told about what you are accustomed to. Tell the brethren of what the earlier days were. I often do that. Some of us are older than others and sonship entitles us to speak about what we have seen. Why not? I have seen a good many brethren, sons of God. They have been going around the world; one of them especially travelled to the east and west of this country, travelled through the Pacific to New Zealand; travelled about this country again, and went to England and Ireland and Scotland and all the countries of Europe. What could he tell? He loved to tell of those he saw; they are heavenly. They are just as heavenly as if you went up and saw Gabriel. “Such as the heavenly one, such also the heavenly ones”, 1 Corinthians 15: 48. That is what we are, dear brethren. Let us take it in, and go around and see them; count the towers, those with special strength - and bulwarks, and palaces meaning where adornments are; spiritual adornments in the sense of house or palace. Take notice of it. So that we are doing what the Lord did. I am stressing the thought of sonship: it belongs to every one of the saints: “such as the heavenly one”. Let the dear brethren take that in: “Such as the heavenly one, such also the heavenly ones”. God has constituted us heavenly. Why not? It is the dignity that belongs to us; the best robe, for instance. The prodigal had it put on him; it was brought forth and put on him. I can imagine he always kept it. That is the idea. The Christian is always himself. He is not one thing on Monday and another on Sunday, not at [p. 466] all. The Christian is ever himself. The Lord Jesus was always Himself. “It is I myself”. And so it is one can always say it is oneself, and that oneself is the work of God. If one is a Christian he is the work of God and one is entitled to go around and see what there is of the work of God and to be what he is as the work of God. May God grant it to us.