MARK 11
Ques What is the difference between “Son of David” and “Son of man”?
CAC As presented in this gospel the difference would be rather between His kingly rights and His service. The Lord has been seen in this gospel as engaged in the service of men. He comes in as a bondman acquired of men; He comes in to serve man, and He carries that to the point of giving His life a ransom for many. But chapter 11 brings in a different subject; it is a question of the kingly rights of Christ. It is a great thing to see His kingly rights and to be in accord with them. It is an immense thing at the present time to be prepared in the light of that for suffering, to be disallowed of men in the sense of the kingly rights of Christ, and then to see how He has claimed us. So far in this gospel we have been occupied with the way need claims His service and gets His service, but when we come to chapter 11 it is the other side — His claims. He asserts His rights, He claims the colt for Himself, “The Lord hath need of him”. The point is that the Son of David is Jehovah. Jehovah opens the eyes of the blind; David’s Son is David’s Lord. It involves a discerning of the fact that the Son of David is Jehovah. If you take the desire to see in the [p. 117] light of what it illustrates, it is the desire to have the capacity to perceive all connected with the One who is going up to suffer, but He goes as the One in whom all kingly rights are vested. He goes to suffer in that character, as rejected in His service, and His hands wounded in the house of His friends. This means that His service was rejected, not His hands wounded at the cross: those hands that were unwearied in their ministry were wounded, and the service of love refused. That is the cup He drank, love’s deep sorrow in having His service refused. He goes up outwardly as Jesus of Nazareth, but if we have spiritual vision, we see He is invested with all kingly rights, and that He claims us absolutely for Himself. It is no question of our need claiming Him here; but that He in kingly rights claims us for Himself. I hope we have all been touched in reading this gospel and seeing how need claims Him, but there is another side not to be overlooked, and that is He has kingly rights which claim us. It is a question of what He needs, and with kingly rights there is power — He must have what He needs — the colt.
Bartimaeus shows the activity of the Lord under which we must come if we are to have any perception of the situation. Everyone in christendom has a Bible, and many are conversant with it, but the mass of christendom have no perception of the situation. Bartimaeus is the contrast to the young man in the previous chapter who allowed his possessions to be a snare to him. Bartimaeus, though poor, has something to throw away and he throws it away. If we want to have the Son of God in our lives we must throw away our garments.
Ques Will you tell us about the title Son of man?
CAC It is a wide title, and hence the gentiles are brought in; but it involves suffering and death, because it involves taking up every question connected with man and glorifying God about it. Then as having done that He is morally entitled to be Head of God’s universe and have all things put under His feet. He rules absolutely as competent and qualified to do so; He is rightly placed over all things.
Ques Would you present kingly rights in preaching the gospel?
CAC Paul must have, because it went about that he said there was “another king, one Jesus”. It is part of the good news that God is going to bring to an end sin and confusion, and that kingly rights are vested in Jesus; it is an important [p. 118] part of the testimony to make that known. We find here remarkable testimony, how He is acclaimed in relation to the coming kingdom. It is what many are doing now.
Ques Do kingly rights differ from His rights as Lord?
CAC As Lord He has universal rights, He is Lord of all, but His kingly rights as Messiah are more connected with Israel. He is in the midst of Israel here, and He is going to suffer, but to those who have their eyes opened and who know Him He is King, He is vested with kingly rights.
Ques Is there any significance in the setting of this incident — the crossways?
CAC I think the Lord has come to the moment of which Daniel had spoken when he prophesied of Messiah the Prince. There was a definite period fixed and it was necessary that He should come into Jerusalem as Messiah the Prince; it pleased God to make everything subservient to that. The colt and the crowd and everything were subservient to the fact the Lord should appear as Israel’s King, “Behold thy King cometh”.
Ques Would you tell us its connection with the present crisis and our having sight?
CAC I think we should all admit that the present is a very critical moment, and that it is a question of confessing the rights of Christ. It is largely the testimony that we should confess the rights of Christ, that we should carry Him in testimony. That is what is set forth in the colt. He was an unsubdued creature, but the Lord in asserting His rights brings this creature into absolute subjection to Himself, so that it carries Him in testimony. It is a striking picture and represents what man is naturally, but the Lord subdues him. We get it illustrated in Saul of Tarsus; he was an unsubdued, untamed colt. Man is said to be a wild ass, a colt. “The Lord hath need of him” — there is that side of the truth that every one of us is absolutely claimed and Christ has the right to claim us because all the rights of God are vested in Him.
Ques Was the colt being tied providential?
CAC Yes, God has in view from the outset what He is going to do. Saul was tied from the outset, he says, “God, who set me apart even from my mother’s womb, and called me by his grace”, Galatians 1: 15. He was secured from the outset; it was the exercise of sovereign rights.
Ques What is the force of the crossway?
CAC It was not the main street. The colt was not in the king’s highway, but in the crossway where we all were. It suggests that man is out of the way.
We only carry the Lord in testimony as we are subdued to Him. There is a difference between the colt and the crowd. The crowd was acclaiming Christ and honouring Him, but the colt sets forth a creature subdued to Him so as to carry Him. Many may be by divine grace ready to acclaim and honour the Lord, yet not at all personally subdued to Him so as to carry Him in testimony through the scene of His reproach.
Ques How does the subduing take place?
CAC By the power vested in the Lord Himself. Here is an untamed creature with no desire to be subject; it was not broken in — “upon which no child of man has ever sat”, yet the Lord asserts His rights to have that creature and to bring it into perfect subjection to Himself. The epistle to the Philippians speaks of “the power which he has even to subdue all things to himself”. There is a power vested in that Person. There was no desire in Saul of Tarsus to be subject, just the opposite. There was in him the most intense and inveterate opposition, he was a thoroughly unbroken man, yet the Lord subdues him in a moment. It is a sovereign matter and we should greatly covet to come under that subduing power. What greater honour could God put on anybody than to bring them into such subjugation to Christ that they are able to carry Him in testimony in the full recognition of His kingly rights! He has an absolute right to control us. There are many shouting Hosanna today who are not prepared to be subdued to Christ.
Ques Why did not the Lord fetch the colt Himself?
CAC The Lord likes to be served by His servants; we find the service of Ananias in connection with Saul. The subduing is the direct influence of the Lord applied to us sovereignly without any sort of condition being there on our side to help it on. The Lord says of Saul, I have need of him. God presents these things to us to awaken desire; God’s sovereignty does not exclude desire on our part.
Ques It creates desire, but then, if it is connected with sovereignty, is it within our reach?
CAC Yes, I think the sovereignty of God has put it within our reach. He has put us where such exercises are raised. We all obtain peculiar favour in the sovereignty of God. It is in the sovereignty of God that we are here tonight [p. 120] and He has put very great spiritual privileges within our reach. To find that I have been the subject of sovereign favour is one of the most subduing things; though I have deserved nothing and had no more claim than others, yet peculiar favour has been shown me!
A great many have the truth of the Lord’s coming, and they are ready to acclaim Him as the One who is coming in to have His rights as King; many are writing books and shouting Hosanna, but perhaps not identified with the testimony itself. Now is the time for the testimony; the rights of Christ are as great this minute as they ever will be when He takes kingly power and everything is in subjection to Him. His rights are as great now as then, and the question raised now is not whether we are ready to acclaim His rights which He will soon exercise, but whether we have come personally under His subduing influence so that we carry the testimony of what He is through the world. That is the form which the rights of Christ take in their claim on us now. The rights of Christ are paramount; no one has any claim — neither the colt nor its owner has any rights in the presence of the rights of Christ. Man ties us up but the Lord looses us; we are loosed so that we may be serviceable to Him. It is a greater thing to carry Christ in testimony than to shout abroad concerning the glory of the coming kingdom, though those who do it have their place in the public ways of God.
Ques Would this be connected with, “We have come to mount Zion”?
CAC We have come to it now. It is our privilege to be like the 144,000 in Revelation 14, who were with Him on mount Zion before the kingdom was set up. We are privileged to be with Him now in the recognition of His kingly rights before they are publicly acknowledged.
It was a wonderful opportunity for the daughter of Zion when her King came in this way — a lowly King — but having an infinite salvation in Himself. There seems to be a certain analogy between the Lord’s presentation of Himself to the daughter of Zion, and His presentation of Himself to the church as the “root and offspring of David, the bright and morning star”, Revelation 22: 16. He presented Himself to the affections of the daughter of Zion as having in Himself everything she needed, her King and salvation. The complete salvation of Jehovah was there in His Person for the daughter [p. 121] of Zion. In a certain way the Lord is presenting Himself to the assembly now in that character. What is learned of Himself will give character to the coming day. We learn the blessedness of the coming King, not that He is exactly King to us, but we learn Him as lowly and having salvation — it is all in Himself. There is no true, spiritual deliverance for any of us except what we find in Himself; it is only as that Person acquires His place in our affections that we know what it is to be delivered from what is not of God.
We have to learn that, while the Lord comes in and presents Himself in the blessedness of His lowly character and in the wealth of salvation that is in Himself, yet He comes in as entitled to pass everything under His scrutiny and to have a judgment as to all that goes on in the christian profession. So He asserted His kingly rights and expressed His judgment on all that went on in the temple in that way. One side is His presenting Himself in His affections to His people, and the other side has to do with His moral judgment of all things. Both are very important.
The hunger of the Lord, His inward cravings, could not be satisfied from anything that Israel after the flesh, or indeed man after the flesh, brought forth. It is only as He Himself is received and honoured, the lowly One who carries all the power of God’s salvation in Himself, can there be any fruit to answer the cravings of His heart. “From me is thy fruit found”, He says by the utterance of the prophetic Spirit to Israel; Hosea 14: 8. We should receive Him in responsive Hosannas. Hosanna means, Save now: it is a time now when we can lift up our hearts and say Hosanna. The great deliverance God has effected for His people in these last days has been brought about by the influence of that Person; we should all be still trammelled and filled by what is of man if we had not come under the influence of Christ.
Ques Is learning the cursing of the fig-tree the beginning of having right thoughts of man?
CAC Yes, the Lord would teach us, not only that Israel and man after the flesh have utterly failed to produce any fruit for God, but there is never to be any fruit from that. There is to be no expectation from the flesh henceforth. The two things go together: an intense appreciation of Christ, and a complete distrust of the flesh — the one suggests the other. We need to get a vision of the One who thus presents Himself, and we [p. 122] cannot doubt that the Lord presents Himself at the end in a remarkable way to the assembly. There is analogy between His saying, “I am the root and offspring of David, the bright and morning star”, and His presenting Himself as the lowly King to the daughter of Zion. It is a closing action at the end of the period, but everything needed for salvation was there in His Person, and, when we see that, we are prepared to accept His judgments on everything contrary to God. One thinks of the Lord at the present moment as looking round (verse 11). “He entered into Jerusalem and into the temple; and having looked round on all things, the hour being already late, he went out to Bethany with the twelve”. One feels that is very much what the Lord is doing today, looking round on all things. It is not exactly action, but scrutiny and discernment. He is looking round on all things, on the whole profession. There is no precipitate action, but He is looking round with deliberation and calmness and kingly dignity. The Lord values moral judgment more than action. He has a moral judgment on everything, He discerns everything contrary to God and Himself, and He is seeking to have His own in correspondence with His moral judgment, so He retires to Bethany with the twelve. It is very like the place of moral separation into which He calls His own today. We get hearts there to anoint Him. He was anointed at Bethany, a little circle where the wealth and rights of His Person were recognised, and became the subject of adoring affections. What a privilege to have a judgment in correspondence with the Lord as to all that is going on, to be in moral accord with Him and to know a sweet retreat! What must Bethany have been to the Lord! We do not know that He ever spent a night in Jerusalem; He had no resting-place there, but in Bethany He had a resting-place in the circle of family affections where He was greatly appreciated. The daughter of Zion should have greeted her King; she should have crowned Him.
Ques Would this correspond with the movement ninety years ago?
CAC The fact that there was a movement ninety years ago would not affect us now. The Lord is looking round on all things now, and while He does not act He forms a definite moral judgment. It is most important that the saints should have a moral judgment and not only come into outward separation.
[p. 123] Ques Is it at Bethany that moral judgment is arrived at?
CAC We could not enjoy companionship with the Lord at Bethany unless we had first arrived at moral judgment in concert with Him. “He went out to Bethany with the twelve”. He went out carrying His company with Him, and they went out as in correspondence with Him.
Ques Many do not go here and there because they think it is contrary to the rules of brethren.
CAC Yes, that makes it so important that we should have a moral judgment, spiritual understanding for the present moment. Being in a certain position religiously will not secure anything for the Lord, but having a moral judgment in accord with His own is of great value, and it is really fruit. Jehovah looked for fruit from Israel, Zion’s King looked for a state of hearts and minds in correspondence with Himself, but He did not find it. “He looked for justice, and behold, blood-shedding; for righteousness, and behold, a cry”, Isaiah 5: 7. Jehovah looked for what would correspond with Himself and did not find it in Israel. The Lord’s hunger was for what would correspond with Himself; nothing but that could satisfy Him. The Lord shows us that the product of man in the flesh could never satisfy His hunger; nothing could satisfy the cravings of His inward being but what was in correspondence with Himself. Israel was not, and the assembly as a public profession is not.
Ques Numbers come out in separation. Does the Lord look for all such to have moral judgment?
CAC The affections of the Lord embrace every true saint, and He regards them all as divinely called to the fellowship, but nothing will satisfy His heart but that they should be in accord with Himself. He will place us all in accord in glory. He is presenting Himself in a peculiar way to bring them into accord with Himself; even to Laodicea He says, “If any one hear my voice and open the door, I will come in unto him and sup with him, and he with me”, Revelation 3: 20. He says, as it were, I will bring him into communion with myself: that is what he is seeking to do for the whole assembly. It is the twelve, the completed company. The Lord is jealous about the completeness of the assembly; He will not leave one out.
Ques Is Bethany a response to the presentation of Himself?
CAC I think it is. It is the spot where there is a family circle, it is where the Lord was received, appreciated and honoured; and where He was anointed. It is wonderful to [p. 124] think that there is a circle like that today. What a privilege to be where the lowly One who has salvation is received and honoured! We look to Him alone for salvation, and we say Hosanna to Him; no one else can save us. In the midst of a corrupt christendom, who can save us but the One who has salvation? There is nothing in outward things to satisfy the Lord’s hunger, but we can be sure that He found something at Bethany to satisfy His hunger — they made Him a supper and ministered to Him. Man after the flesh could never satisfy Him — “their heart is far from me”. We all have to learn to distinguish between leaves and fruit. There are many leaves about that look very nice; they are the proper beauty of the tree, but we have to discern between them and the fruit.
Ques In moments of difficulty and trouble Hosanna is a good cry for us?
CAC Yes, we have to learn to say it in all our exercises. If you come to the morning meeting and find yourself out of tune, you cannot shake off that business worry, what are you to do if you cannot say, Hosanna!
Ques What about “in the highest”?
CAC It implies the absolute supremacy of the Lord in His saving power. It is a quotation from Psalm 118, and it involves the sending of prosperity, “Oh save, Jehovah, I beseech thee; Jehovah, I beseech thee, Oh send prosperity! Blessed be he that cometh in the name of Jehovah”. You can always say Hosanna to Him, whatever difficulty you are in, whatever the state of soul, however low the key. You can always say Hosanna even when perhaps you cannot say Hallelujah. I have come to a meeting feeling right down low — what can I say? Hosanna. It brings in the power of salvation; we have to say Hosanna to beseech that blessed One to give prosperity. What a great thing it is to be in divine prosperity! In the last days it will be possible for the remnant, the true daughter of Zion, to be in spiritual prosperity, and that in spite of the disorder and corruption in the temple and in the city. If that lowly King who had salvation is before their hearts, they can say Hosanna to Him, they can be in prosperity, and so can we.
Ques What is to bring about Bethany conditions with us?
CAC I suppose they are brought about as we come under the influence of His love. The Lord is known in Bethany; there was a household there pre-eminently marked as subjects [p. 125] of the love of Jesus, and there they learned to see the glory of God and the glory of the Son of God.
Ques Does the Lord commit His rights in relation to Israel to the custody of those who love Him and would cherish them?
CAC Yes, His kingly rights, all that is due to Him now, are cherished in the affections of the bride. She is at the present moment the custodian of all His rights. What a treasure to have enshrined in our hearts! If you confess His rights you will be careful that those rights should be maintained by you personally and you would not accept compromise with that which denies His rights. You would have no more sympathy with selling and buying in the temple than He had. Man is using divine things with a selfish motive, turning every sacrifice of God into selfishness. The Canaanite is the trader, and man is so base that he makes gain for himself out of God’s things. It is like the ultimate point of man’s baseness that he will make gain out of God’s things for himself. The Lord has a definite judgment on it all. We can see how christendom is full of it, and we have to watch it in ourselves lest that element come in, “all seek their own” (Philippians 2: 21), that in principle is the Canaanite.
I think the Lord would have us to understand as to the fig-tree. The Lord gave the disciples further instruction when they saw that it was withered away: He told them to have faith in God, not to have before them what was great in man’s eyes. Israel was in man’s eyes great for God, the temple and all its services were like a great mountain, apparently great for God. The Lord would give them a judgment of what was about to be set aside in His own death. We see in His own cross and death the fig-tree withered up from the roots by divine judgment; it was not decay at all but divine judgment, withered from the roots.
Ques It is important for us to see that we are all capable of the Canaanite in ourselves?
CAC Yes, we have all the corruption of christendom in our own flesh. There is not a single bit of corruption in christendom that I cannot find the germ of in myself, and I must have the moral judgment of it. It makes one cry Hosanna, and one learns the principle of exclusiveness in one’s own private exercises — the man after the flesh must be excluded altogether.
[p. 126] The Lord suffered not that anyone should carry any package through the temple: there is no place there for any private or personal interest. A package or vessel would suggest a man carrying something which was concerned with his private interest.
Ques What does the temple set forth in contrast to the house?
CAC The temple is the house, but I suppose the thoughts are different. The house is more where God dwells, and the temple is more the place where we get the communications of His mind. We connect the heart of God with the house and the mind of God with the temple. The heart of God comes out in connection with the house — it was to be the house of prayer for all nations. What an immense conception of the heart of God, a house of prayer set up for all nations, not only for Israel but a place where the universal beneficence of the heart of God is known! It is illimitable and goes out to all nations. How falsified man has made it — a den of robbers! Instead of people finding comfort there and getting everything they came for, they come to be robbed.
It is the result of having salvation that the voice of triumph and salvation is found in the tabernacle of the righteous. You must have it in your own house first before you can know the blessedness of it in God’s house. Your own house must be first in order and then God’s house can be cared for.
Ques What does this mountain refer to?
CAC I think the Lord uses a figure that is of wide application; a mountain is that which is great in the eyes of men. I have no doubt it refers to the place which judaism had in the eyes of men. The temple with all its services, its ancient glory and the traditional reverence attached to it, was great, and the disciples needed to be delivered from that. There is no greater proof of faith than to be delivered from the influence of all that is accounted great; certain things are accounted great as to this world, but faith would deliver us from them. It seems to me that, as seeking to walk in faith, we would find ourselves in the presence of mountains, and one’s own particular difficulty seems the biggest mountain, but faith in God will get rid of every mountain. It may be the great external mountain like the christian profession today, which has such a tremendous influence over people that they could not entertain the thought of coming into separation from [p. 127] it; or it may be in the individual pathway there is what seems to the soul a mountain, but faith gives power to get rid of either mountain. The secret of deliverance is to have faith in God.
Ques Would standing praying (verse 25) enable one to be in the good of the house?
CAC I think so. We would be in the good of the house and in harmony with the spirit of the house. To pray intimates harmony with God and intense desire of heart that God’s will should prevail. What does a man pray for if he is not in harmony with God and desiring God’s will to prevail? We cannot pray if we are not filled with the spirit of forgiveness. We cannot address God if we are entirely out of harmony with everything in the heart of God. What marks the heart of God is beneficence, unlimited beneficence for all men, and along with it this beautiful spirit of forgiveness. If people find in praying that they have an unforgiving spirit, the way to get rid of it is to come into the atmosphere of the house; we cannot bring it there. The Lord suggests in these verses the importance of the spirit in which we pray; in the act of praying our spirit is most important.
Following the truth of this chapter you cease to have any expectation from the flesh in yourself or in anyone else; all your expectation centres in God. You do not need to look to the world, to anyone here, or to any mountain; you can get all you need from God, but in order to get what you need from God you must be in correspondence with God. God gives everything to a man who is in correspondence with Himself; we do not get our prayers answered sometimes because we are not in correspondence with Him. God has to wait until we get our spirits into correspondence with Himself, and then He answers our prayers.
Ques What is the meaning of “heard because of his piety”, Hebrews 5: 7?
CAC It is a wonderful expression connected with the Lord, and it illustrates what we are speaking of. There was with the Lord perfect correspondence to the mind of God; He was in full recognition of all that death was according to the divine estimate of it. We might certainly say that no one else ever had a full pious sense of what death was. He prayed in perfect correspondence with the mind of God, so He was heard because of His piety and His prayer was answered in resurrection — “He asked life of thee; thou gavest it him, length of [p. 128] days for ever and ever. His glory is great through thy salvation”, Psalm 21: 4, 5. He had prayed in perfect correspondence with God; He felt the pressure of death as God intended man should feel it. No one but the blessed God felt it in full measure. True prayer is that those who are praying pray in perfect intelligence and correspondence with the will of God. I have said that every true prayer is minted in heaven, and therefore, when you bring it back and present it at heaven’s treasury, it must be honoured because it came from there. It supposes that not a single prayer you present is a carnal one; no fleshly desire is there. That is all judged in the death of Christ, and now you have faith in God, you enter this wonderful experience down here in the midst of exercises and perplexities, but everyone is a benefit to you because it becomes an opportunity to find out experimentally what a God you have. The reason why we have not more faith in God is because we give so much place to the flesh. This whole scene supposes moral discernment and judgment first, and then the clearing up of things so that they are brought into suitability to God; no hindrance to prayer, but the spirit of forgiveness, which is the true spirit of God’s house — a wonderful triumph.
There is a striking contrast suggested here: an inside circle where things are adjusted and brought into correspondence with the One who has royal rights; and an outside circle where there is no appreciation of Him. They come cavilling and asking questions, by what authority He does these things, and they only prove that they are characterised by utter lack of moral discernment.
The fig-tree largely represents righteousness which the Lord craves to find in His people. He loves righteousness, that is, what corresponds with Himself. If we see that man after the flesh is judged, we do not want to give any place to that man’s desires or to the arrangements that he may set up; we see his true character is offensive before God. A good many of us have had to prove and find it dried up by the roots!
There are manifestly two parts in the presentation of the Lord in this gospel. The first part presents the whole of His service which He rendered to men in their varied and manifold needs. Then at the end of the gospel we have the second part; we see the Lord in the exercising of His rights, bringing everything under the test of His own Person.
What we see in this chapter (verses 27 - 33) is the complete [p. 129] blindness of those who were in the place of responsible authority; they were completely blind to all that was there. The Lord compels them to confess their blindness, and He will always do that; sooner or later He will bring every one of us to the acknowledgment of the truth. The light was there, but they could not discern it. They might as well have asked the sun by what authority it shone in the heavens; it would have been an equally suitable and pertinent question.
Ques Why did the Lord bring in the baptism of John in this connection?
CAC I think it brought their whole state to light, and shows how the Lord in the simplest way can bring to light the real state of man’s heart and the motives that control him, and actually make him confess it in spite of his unwillingness to do so. The Lord in exercising His own rights can make man confess his true state. It must have been a terrible humiliation to have to say, “We cannot tell”.
He came to the daughter of Zion as her King and He came in divine character as the lowly One and as having salvation in Himself; but then all that meant the full exposure of everything — whether the defiled temple, or the chief priests, scribes and Pharisees, or the whole nation — all were exposed. The Lord raises the question of moral conditions; that is the question which John’s ministry raised at the outset. It was a call to repentance in the light of the coming King, which found out every exercised soul in Israel. They responded to it; many, as we should say, were not even converted, not the subjects of the work of God; but they recognised the call to repentance. It was a call to the nation, and a door open to the possibility of taking right ground with God. It is always open to us to do the same. Christendom and all of us are being tested, as judaism was, as to whether we are prepared to take right ground with God — ground on which He can bless and enrich us. The greatness of His salvation is in Christ.
What we find with these people is they had no moral exercise at all. The chief priests, scribes and Pharisees had no moral discernment or exercise as to their place with God; their great concern and desire was to maintain their place with the people, and they were in a state of unbelief.
Ques What do you mean by right ground with God?
CAC The ground on which John’s baptism put people. The Lord said, “thus it becometh us to fulfil all righteousness”
[p. 130] The Lord could identify Himself with what was right; the fact was that the axe was laid to the root of the tree, and no other righteousness was possible to man but the recognition of that. It is comforting to be told that the axe is laid to the root of the tree; every bit of man after the flesh has been cut down in holy judgment. The chief priests, scribes and Pharisees could not come there because it was giving up their whole status; they were not competent to come there; they had no discernment of the suitability of it.
Ques Do we see the ground of righteousness in Romans 3?
CAC Yes. Romans 3 is one of the most comforting chapters in the Bible. The chief priests, scribes and Pharisees were not on the ground of righteousness, and in the last days the christian profession is not. The first thing we have to follow is righteousness and then faith. Righteousness is that we recognise the state of man after the flesh, and have come into accord with God’s judgment of that man. Faith brings in all that is of God and of Christ.
Ques Is that taking up the truth of our baptism?
CAC Yes, that is what it is, so that baptism is a tremendous thing if we think of it rightly. It is moral discernment. The Pharisees had no moral discernment, and the Lord made them own it: He made them say, “We cannot tell”. This is very like the state of things today. People will not commit themselves entirely to God’s righteousness; they want to establish their own righteousness. I think that is the great analogy between the circumstances in which the Lord was found here and those in which we are found in the last days. There is a divine profession, a profession which has been divine in character originally.
Ques Is the Lord still carrying on the work of cleansing?
CAC I think He is, and morally judging everything; not outwardly and manifestly, but morally. The Lord refuses to stand at man’s bar. They call Him to account, but He refuses to stand there on moral grounds; that is, on the ground of their confessed blindness and inability to see whether the things of God are of heaven or of men. We are all tested by our discernment of things. There are certain things now, as there were then, which are of heaven; and there are certain other things which are of men, and we have to exercise a judgment. There are certain things in the christian profession which every one of us here tonight is convinced are of heaven,
[p. 131] and certain other things which are of men. Now can we clearly and definitely pronounce judgment on these things? The ability to discern is in the Spirit, and the saints as having the Spirit have their eyes open. Ananias says to Paul, “the Lord has sent me, ... that thou mightest see, and be filled with the Holy Spirit”, Acts 9: 17. If people follow their spiritual intuitions instead of listening to every voice that comes along, they will have a clear thought about things; they will not say, We cannot tell, for they will be able to tell. I have said sometimes that it is a peculiar favour to be living in a time when people are left to do what is right in their own eyes, because it brings to light what is right in their eyes. We are tested all the time. Are the things of men right? If they are, we should follow them; but, if the things of heaven and of the Spirit are right, we should follow them. Everybody shows up where he is; we are all being tested, every one of us. In Revelation 2 and 3 it is not only what the Lord says to the assemblies, but what the Spirit says. What the Lord said was all said at once, and John wrote it down; but the Spirit has kept on speaking ever since. The Spirit is always speaking to the assemblies on the line of moral discernment, of the refusing of all that is of men, and the accepting and adhering to what is of heaven. By the grace of God I want to pursue what is of heaven, and I hope we are all set for that.
Ques Does the Holy Spirit always speak through the Scriptures?
CAC He will always be in accord with the Scriptures. What the Spirit says can always be tested and approved by the Scriptures.