THE LORD JESUS AS COMING OUT FROM GOD AND GOING TO GOD
D. C. Brown
John 13: 3, 4 (to “supper”)
I would simply like to speak tonight about this one Man, the only Man of whom it could ever be said that “he came out from God and was going to God”, the Lord Jesus Christ. It is a wonderful fact that God has approached us. He has approached man from His side. If you thought of approaching God yourself from your side, you would find it impossible. You would find it impossible firstly because you are a creature, and secondly because you are a sinner. God is beyond approach from your side. Because of what you are in weakness and the restriction that belongs to you as a creature, one created by God, God is infinitely beyond you; but He is beyond you also as you are a sinner, and He is holy. So if there is to be an approach it has to be from God’s side. God is the Creator. God is holy. God is great and wonderful. If He is going to approach, how
is He going to approach you and me? He is going to have to approach us in a way in which we in our smallness and in our sinnership can receive Him. That is why God has come out in the way He has come out. He has come out to us in Christ. So we can read here of One who
“came out from God”. The Lord Jesus, as to His person God, came into the condition of manhood so that He could come to you, so that He could speak to you in a language, in a way that you could understand and that you could receive. And as coming into manhood He could take up, as a Man, your needs and your liabilities. Now, we have to remember who it is in the glory and majesty that belongs to Him, of whom we are speaking. God has come near in a Man,
‘The mighty God who dwelt in light
Unreached by mortal eye’. (Hymn 153)
Have you thought of that, the light and the glory that belongs to God, yet come forth as a Man? It may be that there would be something that you could understand of God as you consider Him as Creator. As you look at the universe, at what you can see, you might begin to have some idea of the might and the glory of God. There is a poem that refers to the stars,
‘Forever singing as they shine,
The hand that made us is divine’. (Ode, Joseph Addison) It may be that you might get some idea of the glory of the Creator simply by seeing the stars; or something smaller or nearer to you. You might get some idea of God’s operations. There is an interesting hymn which speaks of the creation,
‘Through Thy great might and wisdom
Creation’s worlds were made;
To us, O God, Thy greatness
Is seen in them displayed—
Thy glory and divinity,
Thy power from all eternity’. (Hymn 393)
You might, as the hymn suggests, get some idea of God’s wisdom and glory and might in the creation. But that hymn goes on to speak of something more. It says,
‘But all Thy blessed nature—
The movements of Thy heart ...’
If you are to know the nature of God and the heart of God, it has to be in Jesus. That is why Jesus has come in in this way, a Man come from God, come in in blessing, come in in nearness, so that you could understand.
You find as you read the Scriptures that there are things which the Lord Jesus says and they are very, very simple. That is because He has come near so that you could understand them, so that you could understand the heart of God. If you look through John’s gospel, for example, you can see how God is coming out to men. If you look in John 1, you find how He comes out to persons. These persons are interested. They are two of the disciples of John and they are interested. Jesus speaks to them, saying, “What seek ye?”, John 1: 38. It is a very simple thing to say, very simple. He was ‘on their wave length’, as we would say in these days. He is not speaking over their heads. He speaks simply because He has come into man’s condition so that He can come in this nearness. You find in John 2 there is a need. At the wedding feast there is lack of wine. He comes in and tells them what to do. What He tells them to do is simple. Throughout the gospel you see He is coming in in nearness to meet the need of men, coming from God. You find a woman in John 4, a person of bad reputation, very clearly a sinner, and Jesus makes the heart of God known to that woman. You ask, Are these the movements of God’s heart? He says, “the Father seeks such as his worshippers” (John 4: 23). This is the Lord Jesus, coming in nearness to a person, that the heart of God, and God’s longings should be known. The previous chapter makes it even more clear, “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only-begotten Son”. The man, Nicodemus, knew the law and he knew God’s regulations, but now God’s love can be made known because of God giving His Son. There is a man in John 5, and Jesus comes to Him as well. He is a man who at least had some appreciation of his need because the Lord says to him, “Wouldest thou become well?” (John 5: 6). And the lame man says, “I have not a man”. What did he need?
He needed a Man, and God has provided a Man. He has come in in a Man for that man’s need, and He has come in in a Man for your need. This very day, this very moment, He is available as the answer to your need. You find in John 6 there is a need again, the need of food. The Lord Jesus can meet the need. He comes near, and He is not coming near to be difficult or complex. If there is need of food, He provides it. He is simple in the way He approaches. There is the man in John 9; the Lord comes in and finds there is a need. The man is blind and the Lord Jesus comes and gives Him the answer. He approaches, a Man come from God. The Lord Jesus has come from God to meet these needs.
Now, we have read here not only that He had come from God, but that He was going to God.
One thing that strikes me about that is that the going to God was very different from the coming from God. Coming from God He has come alone, because no one else could take up that place as coming from God. He has come from God alone. It does speak of a man earlier, John the baptist, and in a degree he was a man come from God—and it may be true in a degree of other persons—but not in the fulness and glory that “he came out from God”
conveys. That is distinct to Jesus, only one Man has come out from God in the fulness of what that means. But He was “going to God”, and He has not gone back to God alone. Now if you think of the literal fact of the ascension of Christ, you could say that He has gone alone.
If you look at that in the history of it you will say, He arose from the grave, He ascended, and He went up alone. But the principle of Christianity is that He did not go up alone, but as He went up He established a place in heaven, a place with God, for everyone who has trusted in Him. Now is that not a wonderful thing? There are persons who know that their position is what is referred to in other scriptures as “in Christ Jesus”. And
where is Christ Jesus? He is on the Father’s throne, He has gone back to God. And my position, where is it? It is in Christ Jesus. Do you think there is anyone anywhere who can do anything to remove me from that position? I only use myself as one example of the myriads who know their assured position in Christ Jesus. Can Satan remove me from that place?
Certainly not. Can the world remove me? It cannot. The position of a believer in the Lord Jesus, “in Christ Jesus”, is unassailable, untouchable. It is a wonderful thing, that there is an assured and secured place for the believer “in Christ Jesus”. So there is that difference, in going to God. He did not go alone.
What does it mean that He was going to God? It meant that He had to go a certain way, He had to go the way of the cross. He was hours away from the cross when He was speaking here. He had to go the way of the cross. In a certain sense He had been going the way of the cross before that, but taking it from here, He had to go the way of the cross. If He was going to God, and if He was not going to go alone, there was the matter of your sins and your position as a sinner that had to be met. He could not have gone back to God with you or with me, if every charge and every need had not been righteously met, and met by the only Man who could do it, the Lord Jesus Himself. He could do it only because of who He is personally, because it was God who had come in. God had come in to take these matters up in Christ. He could only do it because He had come in reality into that condition of manhood.
There was nothing unreal about the manhood of Christ. It was perfection of manhood, it was manhood entirely according to God. What a wonderful thing it is that God had in His view, for that period when Christ had gone out from God and before He had gone back to God, in this very world that is marked by every other man being lawless and offending God, a Man who was entirely according to God. That qualified Him. What did it qualify Him for? Well, you could say that it qualified Him for the glory. Yes, it qualified Him for the glory. It qualified Him to have the chief place in this earth. That is true too. But I will tell you what it qualified Him to be; the Sin-bearer. The fact that He was a perfect and holy and sinless Man meant that He was qualified to be the bearer of sin.
So He went to the cross. He went to the cross and was nailed to the cross; this world marked its final public rejection of Jesus by crucifying Him. Every sinner is implicated in that act.
Every sinner has a responsibility in that act, because it was your sins. He died for sins. It was the sins that put Him there. Men put a title up in the three languages of the known world there—Hebrew, Greek and Latin. That was a symbol that every one was responsible. There as on the cross, as despised and rejected of men, He took on the question of sin and was forsaken by the God whom He had so perfectly served, as having come from God. Having served God perfectly as Man entirely according to the pleasure of God, and thus qualified to do so, He took on sin and was forsaken and bore the judgment of sin. “Awake, O sword, against my shepherd”, Zechariah 13: 7; the judgment of God was on Jesus. Why? because of sin, because of sins, because of your sins and mine. It is an affecting thing to think that in the three hours of darkness in which the Lord Jesus was bearing sin, in the entirety of these three hours of darkness He was bearing my sins. So that I can say with assurance that my sins have been borne. Will I have to bear them? Could God come to me and say, There is a sin there, you have to bear the judgment of it? God could not do that. God will not do that because He is entirely satisfied with the work of the Lord Jesus Christ on the cross. And there is a witness. This gospel tells you about it; after He died His precious blood was poured out.
There is a witness before God of the righteousness of the position, of the fulness of the completion of the work and that the penalty of death has been met. The Lord Jesus has gone into death. God is entirely satisfied with the work of Jesus. And I am entirely satisfied with the work of Jesus.
What else could I be if He has done all that for me?
But I have to ask you what your position is. Are you entirely satisfied with the work of Jesus?
You say, I know Him as my Saviour. That is fine. If you do not, put your trust in Him this moment. Do not let a moment pass without putting your trust in Jesus, and make sure it is entire, that you are entirely satisfied with the work of Jesus. There are persons who call themselves believers, and I would not challenge their position; who speak of Jesus and speak of Him as Saviour, yet who show by their behaviour that they are not entirely satisfied. They try to improve on His work. They try to do things themselves for their own salvation or to help their salvation. If there is anyone who has that kind of way of thinking, I can tell you that it is a waste of time. What you have to do is to find that you are entirely satisfied with the work of Jesus. God is. Be assured of the completeness of the work of Jesus, that it is total, it is unchallengeable, the work of Jesus. Well, His work went on. He went into the grave, that what was offensive to God should be put out of God’s sight. It went on in the fact that He was in the grave. He remained, of course, only so long, or so short a time as was necessary.
God would not leave Him in the grave a moment longer than was entirely necessary; but He has gone in and He has come out. He has risen, He is a triumphant Man, and He was going to God.
He has gone in, He has gone through the heavens. Hebrews speaks of the fact that He has “passed through the heavens” (Hebrews 4: 14). Then it says, “Jesus is entered as forerunner for us” (Hebrews 6: 20), and it says, He has “sat down ... in the heavens” (Hebrews 8: 1). He has passed through all the heavens, He has entered, He has sat down. Where is He? At the Father’s right hand, and I am in Him. Can you say that, ‘I am in Christ Jesus’? Scripture speaks of “the saints in Christ Jesus”, Philippians 1:1. Do you have the assurance that He did not go in alone, that He has gone in bearing every one of them?
There is a reference in that to the priest as he has taken his place, going in. When the priest went in he did not go in alone. Personally he went in alone, but every time the high priest went in in the old dispensation he bore on his breast and on his shoulders the names of the twelve tribes of Israel. He did not go in alone; he went in bearing on his heart and on his shoulders every one in principle who belonged to him. Do you know the Lord Jesus as the One who is bearing you now? Problems come in in life. You say, I am saved, I am assured of my eternal salvation. But still problems come in in our lives, and there is a Priest to bear us before God, would trust that every one of us has their heart set upon this Man and values the fact that He has come out from God to pour out a blessing on you. He has come out from God for you. But then He has gone in. Are you sure that you have gone in with Him? Are you sure that you are firmly attached to Him?
Then He would desire that you should display that. It should be a known fact, a testimony in this world, that you are firmly attached to the Lord Jesus. He would say that to you, that to be in the fulness of salvation you would have to confess His name, to say, Jesus is my Lord.
Have you ever said that, ‘Jesus is my Lord’? Have you said it to Him? Have you said it to the Father? Have you said it to others? Oh, the scope of that, Jesus is my Lord. There is salvation in that because there is a world that would seek to rob God of His portion in you, and would seek to rob you of your joy in Christ. The answer to that is the power of the Spirit and the testimony, Jesus is my Lord. May each one of us be in these things, not just knowing about them, but knowing them really in our souls, in our spirits, knowing them in the activity of our hearts and responding to the Lord Jesus where He is as in that elevated place in the Father’s throne. May it be so, for His name’s sake.
Preaching at Bo’ness
14 May 2000
HEARING AND DOING THE LORD’S WORDS
D. T. Pye
Luke 6: 47–49; 2 Corinthians 3: 17, 18
It is a very challenging word in Luke 6, and it is the Lord Himself who raises it, which is a challenge that will always remain for us, because we are still in the time when the Lord is free to speak, if we have ears to hear. He was finding at this point a blankness around as to hearing what He said. They were even seeing the things that He was doing, those works of power, yet they were unaffected by them; indeed they raise every opposition possible against the Lord, and they reject Him. But you find in verse 46 He says, “And why call ye me, Lord, Lord, and do not the things that I say?” The Lord felt the reproach; He felt that men were turning away from the blessings that were there for them. If we have formed a link with the Lord we need to maintain it. That is the challenge for us at the present time—the maintenance of our links with Him—because it is from that everything else flows.
It is worthy of note that the Lord says, “Every one that comes to me”, that was the Lord’s earnest desire, and persons were coming and still are. But what He has to say is, “and hears my words and does them”. That is where the challenge comes in. To hear the words of Jesus is indeed very precious in the heart of a believer, because the joy of the Saviour comes into your soul. What a glory it is to have a living link with Jesus! O, how blessed His words are; words of life, words of grace, words of truth. Now that is the fulness that comes to us, and the need is, then, to hear and do them, and that is where we are very much tested. It is all very fine to enjoy the wonderful things, and the fulness that there is in the Lord Jesus for us, but the challenge today to our hearts is as to what we do.
So the Lord gives us an illustration and it is meant to affect us as to how it operates from our side as we have had His word. As it says, “He is like a man building a house, who dug and went deep, and laid a foundation on the rock”. That is what is so necessary in the believer’s pathway. There is much exercise involved in doing the Lord’s words, that involves the digging deep and laying the foundation. You will notice it is on the rock, the stability of what is in the Lord Jesus is laid hold of by us as we go deep. That is soul exercise wrought out in us, but then there is something arrived at and you come to that sure foundation which is established on the rock. How much we need that! It is all very well having the joy of salvation, it is wonderful in the soul. Just recently, I noticed a lily growing in a garden near us, and it was beautiful, a plant about a foot in height with a mass of orange heads; but in three days it began to wilt, and that was its beauty gone for another year. Is salvation like that to us? Is it just a joy that brings its brightness only for a time? or are we prepared to dig deep and lay a sure foundation on the rock? It is all established for us, but something has to take place in me through exercise before the reality of it is firm in my soul. That then is where stability comes in through the truth being consolidated, bringing about in the believer preparedness to withstand all the tests that come. When the stream broke upon that house it could not be shaken because it was founded on the rock. The reason for it is that something has been done related to the Lord’s work in the person.
Then the Lord gives the other illustration of the man who has heard and not done. The house appeared all right for a time but it was not on a sure foundation, and that is where the trouble comes. We may be hearing the Lord’s words but there is no true foundation upon Christ being built. When the stream broke it tells us the breach of that house was great. How true these matters are, we know it in our own short histories, and sadly we are very slow to learn these lessons, I feel it for myself. But the Lord’s words are there for us. How His desire is to set us together in the bonds of unity, and the link of brotherly love; rejoicing in preparing a place where God Himself can be free to come, a place where He can rest and joy over what He has in His people. It requires our answering to the words of Jesus and doing them, because it builds something substantial in the soul.
I read the verses in Corinthians where you find that there is a wonderful liberty available. As to whether we are in the joy of it might well be another matter; but these things are known and enjoyed in the gatherings of the saints, and the challenge would be for me as to whether I am there really enjoying it. We have spoken recently of what related to Israel and the veil being there, not aware of what God was doing. God had blessed that area as we know, but now something far greater had come on to view, and it speaks of it here. “Now the Lord is the Spirit, but where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty”. That requires what is built upon the foundation, and is of that true character, so that He can come and have freedom amongst us. These conditions are settled, the true brotherly relationship is strong, matters clear in view of the Lord coming in, and affording Him liberty to set us free. The blessed Spirit is serving in these matters, so that something formative should come into expression, and you know what joy it is to look on the glory of the Lord. It says, “But we all”, the we is emphatic, everybody. It was a state within them ready for these promptings, and the freedom where the Spirit can operate, “But we all, looking on the glory of the Lord, with unveiled face”. There is nothing hindering this link and relationship because morally something is substantial in the saints. Everything has been met in the death of Christ; we are able to rejoice in what He has wrought, and to be ready for Him. It is in looking upon Him transformation comes about, and it is an ascending path, from glory to glory. The depths have been touched, but then we are ready for heights, and the fulness of them. So there is the wondrous joy of being
like Him, suitable to Him, but like Him too. That is the power of transformation, and it is according to the same image. We are to rejoice in the blessedness of those links in glory.
We need to be strengthened I think, and stimulated to appreciate it, to reach out to it, and to enjoy it also. Hearing the Lord’s words, and doing them, is the moral path in our soul, which forms us and ends in glory. We need to be occupied with this. As members of His body, we are of His flesh and of His bones. It takes us back to the type in Genesis 2 where it says,
“Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother, and cleave to his wife; and they shall become one flesh” (Genesis 2: 24), showing the glory of what the assembly is to Christ Himself. So He is lavishing all upon it; He has given Himself to secure it; but He is serving it still to bring out the richness and fulness that would rejoice Himself from this wondrous vessel. Therefore He needs to have our interests related to Him. Much that comes into the individual path of the believer requires His headship; collectively too as we draw from Himself we find that we can walk in accord with what is to His pleasure. It challenges us as to it, and would arouse exercise for close links with the Spirit for His help, so that we may be free from the hindering things, and be stimulated into the joy that the Spirit will afford. What fulness there is for us in the way of divine provision. It is there to bring us through to the greatest blessing. How amiable a position to be in where there is such closeness of links, both of His bone and of His flesh. May our interest be stimulated to be here more for the Lord and for His pleasure.
Word in meeting for ministry, Kirkcaldy
5 October 1999
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