THE ADMINISTRATION OF GRACE, AND OF GLORY
N. T. Meek
Hebrews 4: 14–16; Isaiah 22: 20–24; Psalm 84; 1–12
These scriptures involve an administration. Certain persons will sit on thrones in a day to come, persons who are worthy. We have often remarked that in the millennium those whom the Lord puts into positions of trust will be worthy; they will not fail Him. The learning time is down here, and, in a sense, the failing time is also down here. We could also say that the grace time is here and the glory time is future. It is said in the psalm that “Jehovah will give grace and glory”. But if you have the Spirit you know something about glory, even down here. Every believer who has the Spirit of God is in some sense glorified already.
In Hebrews 4 the writer appeals to us to approach to the throne of grace. We have a High Priest “who has passed through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God”; He has been here, and He has been tempted in all things in like manner, sin apart. It is food for us, is it not, to think of the range of the Lord’s experience, speaking reverently; what He went through down here.
He knew what it was for His strength to be weakened. Young persons do not normally know that—old persons do and the Lord knew it when He was here, “He weakened my strength in the way”, Psalm 102: 23. So that the Lord is able to be the Saviour for old persons, in that sense, as well as for young ones. It is beautifully guarded in that it was “sin apart”. In everything the Lord went through there was no
answer in Him at all that responded to sin. But it says that He was “tempted in all things in like manner”.
How real the Lord’s life was!—and we have often been exhorted, if in a certain situation, to ask ourselves, ‘How would the Lord have been in this situation?’ And if you have any impression as to how He would have been, then you know how you should be. How real was the humanity of Jesus! We are not following a mystery. The Lord Jesus entered into every kind of circumstance that you are likely to be in. Even a mother’s feelings the Lord entered into, speaking reverently; He speaks of Himself as desiring to gather, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wing. His humanity was perfect. It is a great comfort always to know a Person who can sympathise as having been in the circumstances that you are in. He is able to sympathise, not exactly because He knows how you feel because He is God, but He knows just how you feel because He has been in that circumstance.
In the light of this the apostle says, “Let us approach therefore with boldness to the throne of grace”. The Lord will never say, ‘I do not understand this trouble you are in’; He would never say that to anyone who came, even if it is a trouble of my own making. How I would like to encourage us all to approach Him, to speak to Him, to be simple in our relations with Him.
The Lord Jesus is related to a throne of grace; “Let us approach therefore with boldness to the throne of grace”. You will find that the Lord Jesus is there, and that there is a great administration there that is dispensing grace. What a throne, dear brethren!—the world has never witnessed a throne like this. David’s realm at times somewhat reached to it. With a person like
Mephibosheth (2 Samuel 9) there was a kind of inkling of it; an inkling of what was to come; but the throne of grace, dear brethren, is something, one might say, out of this world, and yet it stands related to what is in the world—how you and I might be in time of difficulty and pressure.
There is a throne which is dispensing grace. You do not have to wait for the sceptre to be held out—it is already there, and you can approach with boldness. Esther trembled, I suppose, as she waited, so to speak, in the foyer. Would that sceptre go out? If it did not go out, she dare not enter. But, dear brethren, the scripture says, ‘You can approach with boldness’. In one sense you do not even have to knock on the door. You can fall on your knees at any time, and you can just speak to the Lord Jesus, I would like to encourage us all, whether we are young or old. We have real pressures when we are young—maybe things that you would hesitate to speak even to your parents about—but you can always speak to Jesus, and you will find that whilst there was nothing with Him that in any way answered to sin, yet He will enter into your problem, and He will help you in relation to it.
It is very simple, but in a sense your root lies in these simple experiences. The root of a believer lies in His direct and personal links with the Lord Jesus, and with the Spirit. It lies there, and there is a throne that is dispensing grace. It has a supply to meet you; that is able to provide you with the wherewithal to meet that problem—not to dispel the problem; not to banish it; but to supply you with what you need to meet it, and leave you with an impression of the One who dispenses it. It would be a poor thing, would it not, if we constantly received grace and never had any impression left of the One who dispenses it?
Well, dear brethren, there is a throne of grace, and it will never be shaken. This dispensation will run on, the dispensation which is in faith, but grace is on the throne. Nothing will displace grace. Persons, even sects of christendom, might seek to depose grace; but they never will. And whilst you and I are here, it will remain, stable. It is founded on righteousness, “Righteousness and judgment are the foundation of thy throne”, Psalm 89: 14.
God’s moral attributes have been fully upheld by Jesus. It is unshakable; and grace can be dispensed.
Well, I would encourage us constantly to come, to have this constant experience—not for its own sake only, not only to be able to reach the end of the day, but in doing so to find yourself more attracted, more taken up with the Lord Jesus. There must be a result. You see, these things are intended to form us for that day of display. And what do you want to do in the day of display? What do you think your role will be? What would you like to do most? I think you would like to reflect something of the glory of Christ.
Every one of us will then be totally delivered—even if we are not now—we shall be totally delivered from self. We will not want to impress each other one little bit. We shall be absolutely delivered. But the formation that is going on now is going to result in the Lord Jesus being wondered at in all that have believed. How wonderful! Therefore it has a great positive and permanent result. It is grace for the moment, and grace for today; grace for this afternoon; fresh grace for this evening—grace upon grace,
and yet some divine influence on the soul remains, and the person is mellowed so that he is fit to enjoy God’s things. He is no disgrace to God’s thoughts. As he goes into the land, he goes into the enjoyment of it as a person who has, so to speak, been spiritually conditioned for the enjoyment of God’s thoughts.
Now in Isaiah we get a throne of glory, and what is impressive is that the Person Himself is the throne, as it says, “He shall be for a throne of glory to his father’s house”. Do you say,
‘This is Jesus in His millennial glory?’ I suppose it refers to that; the government committed into His hand. He would, when here, have gathered them, but He will yet be “a father to the inhabitants of Jerusalem”. Indeed, He will be the Father of the age, that millennial age. He has the key of everything; that will be seen then.
The electorate does not have the key. Democracy thinks the electorate have it. It really only makes for confusion, and so paves the way for the appearance of the beast. That is what will happen. Men will eventually get alarmed over the confusion and they will look for a man, and they will get a man, but that man will be a beast. Even now men realise that democracy can only work as long as persons will let it work. Man being selfish, selfish interests will sooner or later stop it from working, and then they will go for a man who will be a beast. These things are very near to us—we are almost in the shadow of them.
Then it says, “And he shall open, and none shall shut”—there will not be any Opposition!
There will not be a debate in Parliament when the
Lord rules. A council of ministers will not veto His decision! “He shall open, and none shall shut”. This is brought forward into the Christian dispensation. Is not this said to Philadelphia
—“He who opens and no one shall shut … I have set before thee an opened door”, Revelation 3: 7, 8? No one shall shut that door, beloved brethren. I think Mr. Darby said that probably the saints at Philadelphia were so weak that they could not even open the door—it is not that they had no power, but the power was small and they could not even open the door; but the Lord had set before them an opened door, and He said, ‘No one shall shut it’. So these things have a present bearing. They are millennial; but the secret of them is cherished in the heart of the saint, and he says, ‘If that can obtain then, it can obtain in my heart now; and it can obtain amongst God’s people now’.
Then it says, “I will fasten him as a nail in a sure place”—not only a nail, but He is in a sure place. Mr. Taylor, Snr., said it is Christ in resurrection, “in a sure place”. No one can touch Him there. No one can bring Christ down. No malign power—not even Satan’s power—can reach Christ—He is in a sure place. He is fastened there. What stability it gives to the soul!
Mr. Raven said, ‘It is certain that one Man risen is worth a thousand million of dying men, a world full of dying men’. The Lord is a nail, and He is out of death, in a sure place. God has fastened Him there, and all His thoughts are there, hanging on that Nail. Therefore they are all going to go through. Later in the chapter it speaks of it being cut down. That is what happened publicly down here; outwardly He was, so to speak, cut down. But He is in a sure place; He is the One upon whom we can hang everything, “and he shall be for a throne of glory to his
father’s house”. Think of that! I suppose the glory that is Israel’s will all stand related to Christ; the glory of that system, and the glory of God’s presence, will all stand related to Him.
You can understand how persons will want to go up to Jerusalem in that day. That will be a man’s longing, to get as near as he can. Jerusalem will influence the whole earth, but you and I, as amongst those of the assembly, will influence Jerusalem. And who will influence us? It will be the One who is a throne of glory! It has been pointed out how influence will spread; from Christ, through the assembly, down to the earthly Jerusalem, and out to the nations.
What a system of administration it will be!
Every thought of glory stands related to Jesus. “He shall be for a throne of glory to his father’s house—and they shall hang upon him all the glory of his father’s house, the offspring and the issue, all the small vessels, as well the vessels of cups as all the vessels of flagons”.
We have often referred to this. In one sense our measure is immaterial. It is not that you would not like your measure to be increased, but the point here is that it hangs upon Christ.
You may be just a cup, but even Paul hung upon Christ, and he surely was a flagon. Paul relied upon Him, “I know whom I have believed”, he says; he lived in relation to Jesus. I suppose that the whole bent of his life was towards Christ. He would say, ‘I would like to be with Him, to depart and to be with Christ, that is very much better. If I have to remain, well
…’, but you can see he wanted to be with Him.
I remember as a young lad being, encouraged by this scripture in relation to taking part at
the Supper. A brother said, ‘You may be only a cup, but you can hang upon Christ. So as you get up you hang upon Christ. He is a Priest there to support you’. So now I would encourage you to hang upon Him; to learn to serve, learn to speak, in relation to Him. You could not hang on a greater; you could not hang on a better, than to hang upon Jesus.
Perhaps the Psalms are becoming more living, more real, to us. We know they will be taken up by the remnant, certain books of the Psalms especially. They will express their feelings, and in a certain sense the reality of the saints’ feelings are already reflected in the Psalms.
Psalm 86 speaks about passing through the valley of weeping, but what I wanted to come to was that “Jehovah will give grace and glory”. It is a question of what we can stand, dear brethren. In any case glory is not now for public display, and yet I have an impression that it is not to be entirely limited to a future day. “Jehovah will give grace and glory” and glory is really an outshining, almost a reflection of grace absorbed; like a reflecting back. It says that “in his temple doth every one say, Glory!”, Psalm 29: 9. It is intended that as we serve, especially at the great occasion, there should be what is glorious in the saints. It is not for public display, and it is not appreciated by the vulgar eye of man; but it is morally and spiritually glorious. It must relate to formation. A person goes through the valley of weeping but he also goes from strength to strength and appears before God in Zion.
We may feel we go from crisis to crisis, but in the measure in which we relate these things to the Lord Jesus, and in the measure in which we are before Him about them, in that measure we go from strength to strength, because every situation is intended to strengthen the believer; to strengthen him in an inward and moral sense. How do you think, dear brother, that you are going to bear an eternal weight of glory? You say, ‘Me?’—Yes! Paul says that “our momentary and light affliction works for us in surpassing measure an eternal weight of glory”, 2 Corinthians 4; 17. How do you think you are going to bear it? You will not grow any more after the Lord takes you. Well, I think it is that affliction strengthens that bearing character, like the gold being put on the acacia wood, that enduring wood, in the tabernacle system. It is like the glory being put on what has been formed here. I think I can say one has seen it as persons serve; there has been an element of glory in it, in a moral sense.
I just commend these two thoughts, dear brethren, the throne of grace, an administration of grace, and an administration of glory; and whilst the latter will be seen in display in the future, yet I think there is to be some evidence of it in the sanctuary even now. May the Lord encourage us to think of these things. This psalm is of the sons of Korah and it evidently involves a good deal of subjective experience, what is actual and real; but it does seem to me that as saints appear before God. He looks—and what does He see? In one sense He sees trophies of His grace, and yet they appear before Him. There is a certain dignity in that, “each one will appear before God in Zion”. It is like a presentation; each one appears; into the Presence they come; their name is called, and they appear before the Majesty, they “appear before God in Zion”. Perhaps one who appears has suffered at work. Perhaps he was reviled by his workmates, but at the service of God he comes and
he appears before God, and there is glory in it. There is an administration of glory in that sense, and it all stands related to Christ. So may we be encouraged, for His name’s sake.
Address at Sandwell
16 March 1974