ADDITION BY THE SAINTS
[p. 211] ADDITION BY THE SAINTS
Luke 1:38-40; Luke 1:46-56; Luke 24:30 - 36; Acts 4: 23 - 31
What is in mind is to speak about addition, the thought arising from David’s exhortation to Solomon that he should add to what had been already accumulated in view of the building of the house of God; that it was to be an accumulation of wealth not only once for all but added to continuously. And so the history of the kings following upon Solomon, and of the prophets, shows that this principle was maintained: there was continuous addition, and no doubt, as this matter is mentioned in our hearing, the desire arises in each lover of Christ and lover of God that he should, at least, add something to what he has found. Of course, each believer is an addition in himself, but that is God’s adding. We are told in the Acts of persons being added, but that is not to their credit; what is to their credit is what they added as having been themselves added by God; so while the divine addition is initial as applied to each of us, the addition by the believer is continuous. And it certainly would be a sorry result of any person being added by God that he should live as having added nothing, that one should just be added by God in His sovereignty and pursue his way spiritually inactively, unproductively, unconstructively, leaving only a heap of wood, hay or stubble to be burnt up. Scripture contemplates this, but no true lover of God can contemplate it with anything but the deepest sorrow if it be his case in any sense. We read in the Acts, as I said, of God adding persons, and then Peter who had to do much instrumentally with these additions, tells us that it is as a newborn babe that anyone grows up to salvation by the pure mental milk of the word, and becomes clear of all adverse elements, not only of [p. 212] those that are outwardly adverse to the truth, but of those in himself that would hinder his growth into salvation. It implies that one is clear and has a free hand, and thus he moves to Christ as a living stone. That is more than divine addition, that is self addition, Christ being the living stone to whom he comes: “Yourselves also, as living stones, are being built up”, 1 Peter 2:5 that is self addition. I mean in so far as he moves with Christ, the divine operation takes place at once, for he cannot build himself in: he is being built in as a living stone, as a spiritual house, a holy priesthood — he belongs to that — to offer up spiritual sacrifices. He has not only himself, but sacrifices; and not only material sacrifices, which are also valuable in their place, but spiritual ones and these are what I have in mind. Spiritual sacrifices can be traced from Solomon’s day onwards; yea, from Exodus 16, the great beginning of the service of God in redemption, we have continuous addition, until the Chief Musician arrives who puts everything in its place, so that even our addition, as well as ourselves, comes under divine control and filling, and hence, as passing off the scene under the will of God, one has left something.
Well now, I want to show from Mary in Luke 1 how this service proceeds; it is in one’s being singled out, and every one of us, beloved brethren, has been singled out divinely — a great and wonderful fact! Mary was separated and qualified for a great purpose; I speak now of her as illustrative, not to set out the great facts of the incarnation, but only to deduce a principle from them. She is taken up on a particular date, the sixth month, and that date has reference to a divine operation in another like her, that is Elizabeth, so that both have a common point of sympathy. Much is said by the angel to Mary which is familiar to us, but it finishes with a date as to Elizabeth, and Mary says, “Behold the handmaid of the Lord; be it unto me according to thy word”.
The angel had said to her, “With God nothing shall be impossible”. Luke 1:37. There can be no addition spiritually, dear brethren, save in the acceptance of that initial fact; it is what is possible with God. However I may think of myself as an unlikely person to add to the great testimony that has now moved down for centuries, this word settles everything, “With God nothing shall be impossible”. Let no one exempt himself therefore in this great matter. God had wrought with Elizabeth and He had now wrought with Mary; they have a common subject of interest, it is the work of God. They are set in relation to each other also on the principle of date, and these respective operations of God have matured in the most wonderful addition hitherto known, John the baptist, six months before the Messiah. No greater subjects, beloved brethren, could engage mortals or immortals, and they are here set before us; and relatively what may be deduced as applicable to ourselves is also transcendently great. The fact is that we have but little apprehension of the greatness of what we are engaged with; the most advanced of us is hardly equal to handling the great things we have to do with. And yet the lord graciously allows us to have to say to them and encourages us to go on, but with an increasing sense of responsibility that we have finally to give an account and that in the presence of the most scrutinising light, the divine eyes indeed.
So the angel departs as Mary takes the ground of subjection. She said, “Behold the handmaid of the Lord; be it unto me according to thy word”, and she is taken at her word. God loves to trust us, and the less we trust ourselves the more we shall be trusted divinely. God loves to trust us, but then, He knows us and trusts us according to His knowledge of us, not otherwise; He makes no mistakes. The angel departing implies clearly that she can be [p. 214] trusted, and think, dear brethren, of the stupendous character of the trust. You would have said a legion of angels ought to be around her all the time with such a trust. We might think that, but no — the angel departed from her. She is left alone; there is nothing said about Joseph coming in here; he has his place. But the stupendous nature of this trust, you might say, requires that all heaven should be around this person, this virgin, a young person, unprotected, left in this world with such a charge — but the angel departed from her. Need I say, dear brethren, that heaven never lost sight of her, the eye of the Father never lost sight of this distinctive personage. Why then is it said the angel departed? Surely to call attention to her trustworthiness; and that is the point to begin with as to any addition for God, it is the principle of subjection, absolute surrender. “Behold the handmaid of the Lord; be it unto me”, as she says, “according to thy word”, and the angel accepts it and departs. It is all with you now, Mary — as it were; and so it is, dear brethren, that in anything, however small, in which I might wish to add to what there is, the Lord will say, ‘It is your matter now’. Well now, what is she going to do? Is she to remain alone to sit on a throne of distinction without a companion? No other person ever had or could have such distinction, only one person could have this distinction through all time or eternity; she had it. Is she to sit on a throne of distinction alone, occupying all of it, and having others come and bow down to her? No, that is not the divine way, nor is it the way of Him of whom she was to be presently the distinguished mother. No, “I am among you”, He says, “as he that serveth”. Luke 22:27. It is a lowly attitude to take, “Behold the handmaid of the Lord; be it unto me according to thy word”, and what does she do? Well, the angel had been speaking to her about her kinswoman and [p. 215] about her son. What does this mean? This means that if I get any accession of light from God, He will give me to understand there are others, that I am not alone in this distinction — there is an Elizabeth, and she makes haste to get to her, she makes haste to get to the hill country where this other distinguished person lives. They are bound up in a common testimony and it is as if Mary were to say, ‘I must be there; she will support me and I will support her’, and so it was. She arrives: as we are told, she entered into the house of Elizabeth and saluted Elizabeth — she is worthy of the salutation, as all the saints are. However distinguished I may be, I need the saints, they are worthy of my respect; I shall never love a person if I do not respect him.
So Mary salutes Elizabeth, and the result is a remarkable contribution, a remarkable addition to what was there — I say to what was there, that is the fact as to Elizabeth. See what results, dear brethren, come out as I link on with my brethren who are, equally with myself, or relatively perhaps with myself, distinguished; see what comes out, what there is with me becomes enlarged, yea, something comes out unheard of before. What brought it out? The presence of Mary. As I visit and link myself on with the brethren, paying them due respect and affection, knowing them as acquainted with them by the Lord Himself, I bring out the very best there is with them, and then in return the very best in me will come out — there is double addition. In truth, there were three persons now in this pious bond of fellowship in the hill country of Judah. What an environment we are in now; not simply these two great women, but the hill country of Judah. We have to think of the antecedents of Judah, its place in this great thought: it refers to the divine claims, the service of God, for, when Israel came out of Egypt, Judah was God’s sanctuary — [p. 216] remarkable fact! And now we are in the very environment of it, and it is coming to light in these remarkable persons. They are in the hill country maintaining remarkable spiritual elevation, so that an unborn babe joins the fellowship. Is it not so, dear brethren, that the most unperfect amongst us, as we may call them, in such a holy state of things, such addition as this, that they too may act? Is it not possible for even the feeblest formation in a locality to be affected as a spiritual addition comes in? There is a general movement, the truth of the body comes out, for this is what it is; it is a question of the delicate means of communication so that the service of God goes on in a marvellous, you might say a miraculous, way. But how marvellous it is, and all through the voice of the mother of our Lord. It is the voice of Judah, it is his voice, you might say, penetrating that mother, the tender mediums, the fine mediums spiritually, so that the voice of Judah, “Hear, Lord, the voice of Judah”, Deuteronomy 33:7 affects Elizabeth; it affects the unborn babe, so that there is a precious circle, dear brethren, of fellowship, and all the outcome of one who knows how to act, she has something; hence what you find is that Mary’s addition now comes to light. Her presence surely was an addition in the hill country: there was no more distinguished person in the universe. She made haste to get there, she is there, and now there is a result, but she has her addition, a mature one, not one springing up at the moment, for it is not said the Spirit came upon her — it is rather a mature one. I do not go over the words of it, but anyone who does, anyone who followed them as I read them, will see that it is the product of a person who has learnt how to distinguish her inwards, as in Romans we are taught to analyse the different faculties and organs of affection functioning; she says her soul magnifies the Lord and her spirit
[p. 217] rejoices in God her Saviour. It is what He is doing, it is a question of God; she had become subject to His work and she knew it, and this is the holy product, the holy addition, as I have spoken of it, that we have in the hill country of Judah. It is a holy, elevated fellowship, dear brethren, and any of us, however feeble, who pursues the line indicated, has reached the same result, that is, leaving an addition.
Then in the last chapter we have two persons of another character; there are a great company of them at the present time — I mean as they were before the Lord revealed Himself to them, they were wanderers. It has come before us today that the children of God are scattered abroad; those known to us, dear brethren, are but a tithe of the number, and the divine promise alluded to already is, I will gather others. Satan, the wolf, has scattered; God is gathering. The Lord Jesus died “not for that nation only, but that also he should gather together in one the children of God that were scattered abroad”, John 11:52. Gather them together into one! What a thought of unity that is! It is not simply christians in profession, but the children of God, real souls. Now these two persons are of that class and they are being gathered. It is no doubt exemplary, like gathering goes on today; every one of us here has, I suppose, experienced something of it, the gathering together of the children of God into one by the great Shepherd of the sheep who died for that very purpose that we should not be scattered abroad but gathered together into one. It is a perfect matter. And so they are amenable to the Lord’s conversation with them; in fact He joins them. There is nothing haughty about them, no turning away from this stranger. Who is He? An unknown person to them. “Art thou only a stranger in Jerusalem, and hast not known the things which are come to pass there in these days?”. Luke 24:18.
[p. 218] Some person might come in this manner to such wanderers and they would not wish to hear him, so that the example of these two is to be noted; they are listening, and the more they listen the more they hear — the most wonderful exposition of Scripture. Surely as moment after moment passed in this journey their souls must have been affected — Who was this? Never man spake like this Man. And so it is, dear brethren, if we listen; and, if there is a wanderer here, I would say this to you, Do not despise any one who seems to be a stranger and ignorant of religious matters, give heed, and you may find that he knows more than the ancients. That is how it stands: unlikely persons know more than all the teachers at the present time. Hence they say later, “Did not our heart burn within us, while he talked with us by the way?”. Let no one here be haughty and turn away from one who may seem to him to be an ignoramus as to religious matters, as to what is current in the different convocations and among the great dignitaries of the churches. Do not turn away from him, he may have a message for you. And so they became more and more interested. I can understand their looking at each other, Did we ever hear such words as these? How often it happens, and souls are just affected and bowed inwardly and restored. Oh, what a need there is for restoration, dear brethren. The field is strewed with derelicts who have turned away, turned a deaf ear to those who would speak words of truth to them. So, as I said, one could imagine these two saying to one another, Who could this be?
Now the Lord made as though He would go further, but they constrained Him, and that is the word. Do not let a person go away in a hurry if he says something that causes your heart to burn, get him into the house, let him say more. They say, “Abide with us”: Luke 24:29 he is worthy of it a heaven-sent [p. 219] messenger to restore your soul. Zacchaeus was glad to receive the Lord into his house; these were too, and the Lord was persuaded to go in, and He broke the bread, as we learn here. “He took bread, and blessed it, and brake, and gave to them”. You say, that is peculiar entertaining; why did they not give to Him? But no, He gave to them; He is the Head of the house, He is the house-father, He is supreme in the house of God. One has likened it to a guest chamber in the house of God. The Lord of glory — how fitting it is that He should direct and control. And He is the entertainer as well as the guest. What impressions He is casting around us, and these hearts are ready to receive them now. And then we are told their eyes were opened. You say, I wonder how it was I did not discern before — how often one has said that to oneself, Why did I not see it before? Why? It is well to ask oneself. Some moral defect, it may be. I believe therein often lies the reason why we do not see. But still, their eyes were opened; it was divinely ordered that everything should happen as it did happen; it is a perfect picture of recovery. No one can portray things like the Spirit of God. It is not only a question of the recovery, but of the One who does it — how perfect He is! Though you might think you are entertaining Him, He gives you to understand He is entertaining you, and everything is His; the bread they gave Him was His — it is all His.
Now their eyes are opened — I want to come to this addition. They have something now to carry back to Jerusalem that they never could have had except through this experience. And so it is with anyone here tonight who is ready to listen to the divine speaking, that you carry something back to the assembly. It is your place; why should you be away, a stranger to it? They returned the same hour and they came to the city. Did they know [p. 220] where He resided? Did they know where John resided? It appears as though they had looked about a little. They found the eleven; one is not worth much who does not learn to find something. There are those of us who think that everything must be found for us. Indeed it is a truth that there are many of us who are just paupers, living on the brethren spiritually. Not that I would deny them that; not that I would deny anybody anything I could give them spiritually; but why not find something for yourself? They “found the eleven ... and them that were with them”, that is, they are all included in the title. They sought out and found, and let me assure anyone here tonight that this is the principle. Do not sit down and wait for everything to be found for you; move a little and find what there is. Find those who maintain the rights of Christ; morally it is one of the greatest finds to find those who maintain the rights of Christ in the confusion of christendom: they are to be found — thank God! I know nothing surer than the fact that I know those who maintain the rights of Christ; I have found them. This means I look about for them. But then they have found something, not just to talk about it in a fleshly way like Gehazi. We desecrate things we have by telling brethren as information what we have. The thing is to go to the place where they maintain the rights of Christ; put it there, it ceases to be yours peculiarly; it belongs peculiarly there now, it belongs to the brethren. To deny them what I have is unrighteous, it belongs to them. So they went to the company and they were just where and how they should be — gathered together, and they were saying what they should say: they were saying, “The Lord is risen indeed” — there was no question about it — and He had appeared to Simon. And now these two say what they know. I suppose we may assume that this great fact about Simon was [p. 221] carried into the company by Simon himself; he certainly added something. I can see him enter the door. Erstwhile he would have slunk away in shame that he had denied his Master, but now he says, It is all settled; I have seen the Lord, He saw me, He made it His business to see me. I should like to say to Simon, What did He say to you? How did He look? — for all that enters into it. It was common property; He had appeared to Simon — it is a question of grace. If He appeared thus to Simon, He would appear to any other poor sinner. Now these two have something; they are leaving something behind them; they are the only two who had this experience, and one might say that these experiences are peculiar to any person who has any one of them. The two had theirs; Peter only had his experience; Mary hers; Elizabeth hers, and so forth. Well, the two had the same experience. I would regard them as perfect testimony; they saw the same thing at the same time, both of them. They marvelled at it, they were moved by it. The way back from Emmaus must have been much easier than going the other way. You know it is so, “The way of transgressors is hard” Proverbs 13:5, even if he has only one sin to confess; if he has his back to the Lord, he has a hard road. But now the Lord would appear to them, not simply as He appeared to Simon; you might say He appeared to them assembly-wise in the breaking of bread, a great thought already introduced into the testimony, now it is being verified: He is made known to them in the breaking of bread. Well, my point is, dear brethren, that by their confession they made an addition enabling Christ to come in, and that is a great matter. If I, in my little way, tend to create a condition into which Christ can come, I have done something, and it is within my reach; it is within the reach of every one of us to create a condition suitable to Christ. The Lord Himself, we are [p. 222] told, stood in the midst of them as they were saying these things.
Well, the final word is just that we have two more sent persons. Not two prospective mothers, not two straying ones restored now, but two great servants of Christ, actively engaged and suffering. Can they not add? They have been added; no two men perhaps are more interesting than these two, Peter and John. They say, “Look on us”, Acts 3:5 and now they are sufferers for Christ. They had served successfully, they had added a great convert, and not only is he converted but he is holding them, he is in the fellowship, and he is a real addition to the fellowship. He is not promiscuously among three thousand; he is one person secured by these two men, a peculiar result of their service. He is with them, and they are suffering for Christ in their service. I speak now to those of us who are serving in greater or lesser measure, and, dear brethren, it is not a question of making a name at all, but rather of adding to the mutual state of things, for that is what happened; it is a mutual state of things. These two men find their own company, we are told, as released by the authorities and they tell the company what had happened and what the chief priests had said. So the result is that when they heard that, they lifted up their voice to God with one accord and said, “Lord, thou art God, which hast made heaven, and earth, and the sea, and all that in them is”. The two great servants then in active service returning with grace — morally and literally, one result was they merged in the company, and, in merging, they added to the company: the company rejoiced by what they saw. The addition is a levitical addition, if you understand me. The minister certainly ought to be able to add by what be is ministerially to what he is in the company. Think of these men speaking together, there is Peter, there is John, what lowly [p. 223] men they are, how different from the high priests, how different from the doctors of the law; how they sit down as amongst us, for those who lift up their voice are not simply Peter and John, it is the company. One might assume that neither Peter nor John did this; it is a question of the company, of what is mutual, that I can merge with the brethren and add to them through merging; it is a great levitical addition. Every young brother in the place would be affected that these great servants who are so successful, such sufferers too, can come and sit down amongst us and tell us just simply what had been said, and all know it and they lift up their voice to God and call Him Master or Despot. It is a question of humility, it is a question of an addition, dear brethren, brought in levitically that produces humility. It is a very unusual address to Jehovah, the word is Master or Despot, as the margin reads. As much as to say, Peter and John are not conveying to the company that they are doing great things, it is that they are, bondmen, that God is doing great things and He is going to do great things, and that without Him there are no great things. And so their prayer is to Him as a Despot and they appeal to Him as the Creator and how everything under His hand goes well, and it is all a question of His holy Servant Jesus. (This is a word that may be rendered ‘child’, but it is really ‘servant’ — “thy holy servant Jesus”.) It is through Him they are acting now; you see, dear brethren, what a holy savour for those who minister to spread abroad in the company! that He is addressed as an Owner of slaves, for after all, what is it but that? We are amongst the slaves and He is doing things by us, — but it is through His holy Servant Jesus. They recorded what happened in Jerusalem and then they say, “to do whatever thy hand and thy counsel had determined before should come to, pass”. And then they say,
“[p. 224] Now, Lord, look upon their threatenings, and give to thy bondmen with all boldness to speak thy word, in that thou stretchest out thy hand to heal, and that signs and wonders take place through the name of thy holy servant Jesus”, Then, “when they had prayed, the place in which they — were assembled shook, and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit, and spoke the word of God with boldness”, I think you can follow what I mean there, dear brethren, from the ministerial or levitical side, addition coming in with the attitude of those who serve; others will follow. There is only a few years and every one of us who is serving now will have gone; if the Lord continues His testimony others are to follow. What better addition can I leave than an addition proper to a levite that others may emulate and take on, and the Lord will help in it, as He has helped others of us; and hence it is no longer Peter and John that are being used, but the apostles, all gainers by what the apostles Peter and John brought in at this particular time.