MANHOOD IN SERVICE
[p. 150] MANHOOD IN SERVICE
1 Corinthians 16:13; Genesis 4:26; Genesis 5:21 - 24; Genesis 6:9; Genesis 8:20,21
I have in mind, dear brethren, to speak of man as God desires to have him in testimony in this world. One might also speak of man as the object of the counsels of God, this side of the truth being seen in Luke 9, where the Lord Jesus is on the mount of transfiguration. When He was transfigured before His disciples, there were seen two men talking with Him; these represent the heavenly saints. In the counsels of God, man is to have a place in heaven; hence it says, “Such as the heavenly one, such also the heavenly ones. And as we have borne the image of the one made of dust, we shall bear also the image of the heavenly one”, 1 Corinthians 15:48,49. The Lord Jesus spoke to His Father concerning the men that the Father had given Him, asking the Father that they might be with Him where He is, that they might behold His glory. Moreover, He told His disciples that He would come to them to take them to be with Himself, that in His Father’s house there were many abodes and that He was going to prepare a place for them (John 14). All this is in mind in the passage in Hebrews which refers to us as “holy brethren, partakers of the heavenly calling”, Hebrews 3:1. This side of the truth should touch our hearts and stimulate us; in an instant we shall be transported from earth to heaven and made like the Lord Jesus as He is, as the apostle John tells us, “We shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is”, 1 John 3:2. He is coming to transform our bodies of humiliation into conformity to His own glorious body.
We will now refer to man as indicated in these passages we have read. Testimony in the world is in view, as well as the formation of believers, under the government of God in the circumstances indicated. The subject, as before us this evening, is rightly found in the epistle [p. 151] to the Corinthians, for they were hardly in harmony with the divine mind in relation to man as in the testimony. It was not that the ministry that had reached them was not of God; nor that the ministers were not in correspondence with their ministry, for the principal minister was the apostle Paul who had with him Silvanus and Timothy, three men who were in full accord with their ministry. They did not preach about themselves and in no way gave prominence to themselves in their ministry. Paul says: “We do not preach ourselves, but Christ Jesus Lord, and ourselves your bondmen for Jesus’ sake”, 2 Corinthians 4:5. They preached Christ, and themselves as bondmen of the assembly, so that the apostle could say in his second letter, “For the Son of God, Jesus Christ, he who has been preached by us among you (by me and Silvanus and Timotheus)”, 2 Corinthians 1:19. As you see, they preached the Son of God; it was, therefore, the best pattern that was presented to them, but alas, the result was not what might have been expected, for the apostle had to tell them that he could not “speak to you as to spiritual, but as to fleshly, as to babes in Christ. I have given you milk to drink, not meat”, 1 Corinthians 3:1,2. He had to speak to them as to babes in Christ; in other words, they had the Spirit; they were considered as being in Christ, but they had not grown. For instance, one said, “I am of Paul” and another, “I of Apollos”, which clearly showed that they had not reached the stature of full manhood, of full growth. The apostle told them that these sectional expressions denoted a low and carnal state; hence in chapter 14 he exhorts them: “In your minds be grown men”, 1 Corinthians 14:20. The word ‘mind’ should be noticed in this epistle, for, according to God, our mind should govern us, so to speak. This thought is expressed in Romans 7:25. “I myself with the mind serve God’s law”. The mind is a faculty given us by God which should govern us, but the mind which is before us now, dear brethren, is the mind of Christ, as it says in chapter 2, “We have the mind of Christ” (1 Corinthians 2:16), which indicates that, normally, a christian thinks as Christ does. He is capable of arriving at a right judgment, he is not senseless. We see the opposite in the epistle to the Galatians, where the apostle makes use of the word ‘senseless’, saying, “O senseless Galatians, who has bewitched you?” Galatians 3:1. That should not have to be said to christians; unbelievers are senseless, but it is humiliating that converted people, having the Spirit, should be marked by such unworthy behaviour that they are called “senseless”.
In writing to the Corinthians Paul says, “I speak as to intelligent persons: do ye judge what I say” (1 Corinthians 10:15); we are intelligent because we have the Spirit. I suppose this verse expresses what is potential, hence we take account of one another as having the Spirit, and can be encouraged by the fact that there are great possibilities in christianity. In chapter 14 he says, “but in malice be babes; but in your minds be grown men”; in other words, malice should not be active at all in us. Then we come to this passage: “Be vigilant; stand fast in the faith; quit yourselves like men; be strong. Let all things ye do be done in love”, thus indicating what the apostle had in mind for Corinth. Corinth was a wicked city, noted for its depravity; for which reason the saints had need to be on their guard that they should be established and controlled. “Like men”, that is, do not be unstable like children, without self control; as John says, “He that has been begotten of God keeps himself”, 1 John 5:18. We have the power at out disposal to keep ourselves; God has given us this power, and as we exercise it we are men according to God.
I would now like to illustrate this thought, or rather to show how it is amplified in the book of Genesis. I would draw attention to the fact that the word ‘man’ includes the woman as well as the man. In the beginning God said, “Let us make man in our image”, then it says that “God created Man in his image, in the image of [p. 153] God created he him; male and female created he them”, Genesis 1:26,27. The word ‘man’ in this sense includes male and female; it is a question of the kind of being. What we have said then refers at the same time to brothers and sisters. Hence, using what is said in Corinthians, we can say to the brothers, ‘Be men’ and to the sisters ‘Be women’; for God gives in the Scriptures His idea of a woman in Sarah, Rebecca, Hannah in the Old Testament, and in Anna, Lydia, Priscilla and many others in the New Testament.
God said of Eve that her seed should bruise the serpent’s head; so when Cain was born, Eve evidently thought that he was the seed who should do this, but it was some thousands of years after Cain before the Seed came who would bruise the serpent’s head. But whilst awaiting this God displayed the thought of manhood in one person after another until Christ came. The full thought of manhood, dear brethren, is set out in Christ, as the scripture expresses it so magnificently, “The mediator of God and men one, the man Christ Jesus”. He is the Son of God who would do the good pleasure of God, according to the Old Testament. That could be said of One only, though every true believer should resemble the great Model in some measure, and should be governed by one great principle, which is to do the will of God. Cain did not in the least answer to that thought, he was a murderer, but Abel answered to it. Abel represents Christ, and the feature of manhood which appeared in Abel was suffering; He offered to God “a more excellent sacrifice” than Cain (Hebrews 11:4). That is the first feature; he offered a sacrifice, and one that was pleasurable to God. The epistle to the Romans teaches us that a believer always has something to sacrifice, and as he sacrifices he shows in himself the stature of the full-grown man; he presents his body “a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God”, Romans 12:1. This is seen in Abel.
I pass on now to Seth, whose name means “appointed”; he is appointed in place of Abel; typically it refers to Christ as slain and risen. Christ risen has taken the place of Christ who was put to death for us. It then says that to Seth also was born a son, and he called his name Enosh, a name which shows that Seth had faith. His faith recognised that his son, born according to flesh, was not according to the divine thought; Enosh signifying ‘Man, as weak, mortal’. Nobody can attain to the thought of full grown manhood according to God, who has not learnt in himself what man in the flesh is, as the Lord says, “That which is born of the flesh is flesh”, John 3:6. Now you will notice, dear brethren, that it says after that, “Then people began to call on the name of Jehovah”. That is one of the great features of the grown man, he has no confidence in himself, but in God.
What is to be noted then is what comes out in Enoch, who, we are told, walked with God. “The mind of the flesh is enmity against God: for it is not subject to the law of God; for neither indeed can it be”, Romans 8:7. When I see that, I begin to call on God, and in calling on the name of God I obtain the power of the Spirit. So it says, “Ye are not in flesh but in Spirit, if indeed God’s Spirit dwell in you ... for as many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God”, Romans 8:9 - 14. So you can see how the epistle to the Romans develops this thought of full-grown manhood, for it is in the sons of God, led by the Spirit, that manhood is manifested, and this corresponds with what is found in Enoch. In Romans 8, we are enjoined not to walk according to flesh, but according to Spirit, and in so doing we are walking with God. Enoch walked with God; what a marvellous thing to walk with God! What is brought out is that the man who walks with God is outside of this world. Moreover, before being taken by God, God said, ‘I am pleased with this man’. God took him, but before taking him to heaven, God gave him to understand that he had pleased Him. How precious and blessed to have [p. 155] the sense of being pleasing to God! He is so pleased with you that he is happy for you to walk with Him, and He is so pleased to see you walking with Him that He says, ‘I want you for ever’. Think of God saying that! He took Enoch to be for ever with Himself. The kind of man that will be in heaven is the one who pleases God down here.
The next man is Noah; it is also said of him that he walked with God, but it says more, “Noah was a just man, perfect amongst his generations”. There are three things noted: he was just, he was perfect amongst his generations, and he walked with God. If a man is perfect amongst his relations, and a question arises as to God, he will take God’s part. This is what the tribe of Levi did; he said to his father and his mother, “I see him not”, Deuteronomy 33:9. If questions arise, a just man like Noah would take God’s part and not his relatives’. This having been said of Noah, it is added that he had three sons, and their names are given, indicating that he is a man who will populate another world; he is the kind of man who would bring a contribution to the assembly, to God’s world.
Passing on to the end of chapter 8, I desire just to show that Noah sacrificed to God, he built an altar, in other words, he was a builder. He built the ark on the orders of God, and now he builds an altar. God had not asked him to do this, but how pleasing it is to God to see one of His children doing what pleases Him without having to tell him! He knows what God desires without God telling him. The construction of the ark was an important matter; the fact that Noah built this great vessel shows that he was a man capable of undertaking great things; this is the point I wish to bring out. There are little things to be done in the service of God, and He will never despise the smallest thing we do for him; but to be a full-grown man according to God it is necessary to be able to do great things. There are great things that need doing, and if they are [p. 156] not done in our locality, it is because there are not any great men to do them. In Jerusalem there were great things that needed doing in Nehemiah’s day, but there were no great men to do them until Nehemiah came to Jerusalem, and travelled, with this in view, some hundreds of miles. When he came to Jerusalem, he said, “I went out by night”, and such was the state of things that “there was no place for the beast under me to pass”, Nehemiah 2:13,14. What work had to be done, and there had been no one there to do it, but Nehemiah undertook to do it, and while doing so, could say, “The work is great and extended”, Nehemiah 4:19. In every locality represented here, there is a great work to be done, but the question is, Is there a great man to do it?
Noah builded the ark, doing it under God’s direction, and the ark is brought safely through into another world, and Noah comes out of it under divine ordering. The feature of full-grown manhood seen in him is very attractive. Then he built an altar to Jehovah. This was one of the greatest things he did; morally it was a greater work than the ark. The ark was to carry some creatures into another world, no thought of worship comes into it. Great though that work was, there was in it no suggestion of the worship of God, but in the altar there was. It was the first altar that was built and morally was a great work. “Noah built an altar to Jehovah”. The Lord Jesus told the Samaritan woman that the Father was seeking worshippers. He was seeking them in Noah’s day, and He is seeking them now. Noah’s heart was responsive to the thoughts of God, and so he “built an altar to Jehovah”. Nobody had told him to make it, and nobody had ever made one before, so in this sense it is he who inaugurated the service of God. He was a man used to making great things, and there can be nothing greater than the service and worship of God. Moreover, it says that he “took of every clean animal, and of all clean fowl, and offered up burnt-offerings on the altar”; that is, he did [p. 157] not build the altar just for a religious display, but he built it to Jehovah, and he used it for the purpose for which he had built it. In taking “of every clean animal, and of all clean fowl” and offering them on the altar, he showed his unselfishness. We may worship in a half-hearted way, and God will accept what we offer, as when Jacob said to God, “I will without fail give the tenth to thee” (Genesis 28:22), and God was prepared to take it. Here Noah offers of every clean animal, and of all clean fowl. He might have said, ‘If we offer them we shall have no cattle left of this kind’, but he did not think like that. If I am attached to the material things I possess, I shall find that I shall want to give only a little for the service of God, but this was not at all in Noah’s mind. He took “of every clean animal, and of all clean fowl”, that is to say he offered, without reserve, the best that he had.
Dear brethren, these are only a few of the features of full-grown manhood, which are required in the testimony of God, but they are ones that God is longing for. He says elsewhere, “I called, and none answered”, Isaiah 66:4. It is not like that today, dear brethren, for there are men; in this room there are men whom God is using, but He wants more. He needs us all, desiring that we should no longer be babes but men, that we should be strong and vigilant, holding fast and doing all things in love. May God grant it.