OUR OUTLOOK IN CLOSING DAYS
I have read these three scriptures, dear brethren, because I wish to call attention to what was engaging the mind of the apostle Paul as he was approaching the end of his course here, for, as we know, he was the minister of the assembly, and I think it is right to say that what was engaging the mind of the apostle Paul, as he drew near to the close of his history, may fittingly occupy the minds of the saints who compose the assembly, as we draw near to the end of our history.
I have begun with the second epistle to Timothy, because that gives us the public position, that is to say the position of suffering. There is the position of suffering, and it is likely not to get less, but rather to get more as we draw near to the close, so the second epistle to Timothy is characterised by the thought of suffering, that idea entering into each one of the four chapters of the epistle, but the fact that suffering enters into the position is in no way intended to discourage, for all through the epistle the apostle sounds a note of victory and triumph, and indeed, beloved brethren, if we will think of it for a moment, it is essential that some element of suffering should enter into our position here, however little we may feel some of us have touched it as yet. It is essential that the element of suffering should enter into the assembly’s history, because we are to be the Lamb’s wife, and not only be that, but to be displayed as the Lamb’s wife, and to stand by the side of the Lamb in the day of His public glory.
So we read in Revelation 19: 7, “the marriage of the Lamb is come, and his wife has made herself ready”; that is, she is enhancing the occasion by her presence there. She is in every way in keeping with the occasion, and the Lamb being the One who has suffered supremely in order to maintain the rights of God and the truth of God, it is fitting, and indeed essential, that the assembly should take on in some degree the same character of suffering, but what one wants to call attention to in connection with this passage in second Timothy is the way the apostle is looking forward to “that day”. It is an expression which occurs twice in the first chapter, and appears again in the passage we have read: “That day” stands in contrast with this day. This day has very nearly come to its end, and it is for us, dear brethren, as committed to the testimony in this day, to have definitely before our minds “that day”. The apostle is triumphant in this fourth chapter of second Timothy. He says, “I am already being poured out, and the time of my release is come. I have combated the good combat, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith”. He was conscious that he had come to the end of his course. He was now just awaiting martyrdom, the completion of his course in faithfulness to the Lord and to the truth was close at hand. Indeed so close at hand that he could say he had finished his course, and he was, as he says, already being offered. But what a note of triumph, dear brethren, when he was at the close. He says, “I have combated the good combat”; he is not saying, ‘I have fought a good fight’, as though to say that he had fought well. The point was that the fight in which he had been engaged is “the good combat”, the only fight worth being engaged in. “I have combated the good combat”, he says, “I have finished the race, I have kept the faith”, and so, dear brethren, there is constant conflict as we are set to maintain the truth. He reminds Timothy, that God “has called us with a holy calling, not according to our works, but according to his own purpose and grace, which was given to us in Christ Jesus before the ages of time, but has been made manifest now by the appearing of our Saviour Jesus Christ, who has annulled death, and brought to light life and incorruptibility by the glad tidings”, 2 Tim 1: 9-10.
What a note of triumph goes right through as the apostle speaks of these things to Timothy. Let us think of our having been called with a holy calling, beloved brethren, and that according to God’s purpose and grace, given us in Christ Jesus before the world began, but now come into being. Life and incorruptibility have come to light in Jesus risen from the dead, and it is available to us, so to speak, by the Spirit, so that there is no reason why we should not go on maintaining the truth in holiness right through to the end. Whatever influences contrary to the truth the enemy may seek to introduce, whether it be in the religious sphere, or in the political sphere, or whatever it may be, we are encouraged to go through to the end maintaining the truth in all its features in holiness, and having power for it in “the grace which is in Christ Jesus”, chap 2: 1. Paul went through to the end, and at the end he says, “I have combated the good combat, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith”, and now he is looking on to “that day”. It is intended as a stimulus to us to see that we go through to the end, whatever it may cost, fighting the good fight, finishing our course, and keeping the faith, and he says, “Henceforth the crown of righteousness is laid up for me …”
Then he goes on to mention various individuals. It is a serious matter to take account of, dear brethren, that when the testimony of our Lord is in question individuals come into view, and they are tested, and made manifest as to what they are, according to how they have stood in relation to the testimony of our Lord. It is a question of the good fight, and whether we are going on in it to the end in faithfulness, or whether we are going to drop out of it. Demas dropped out of it, “having loved”, it says, “the present age”, and there is his name in Scripture, and millions have read about it, showing what a serious thing it is, if once we have had part in the testimony of our Lord, to drop out of it as loving this present world. God thinks so seriously of it, that He has caused millions to hear about Demas, a man named in Scripture, and named as having that character, that he gave up the conflict, the good fight, because he “loved the present age”. Think of the seriousness of it, dear brethren, the seriousness of any such thing becoming true of any one of us just at these closing moments when it is a question of completion, and here is this man who, as the thing drew near to completion, so to speak, in his day, dropped out because he “loved the present age”. But then, on the other hand, Paul can point to one who was with him.
He says, “Luke alone is with me”, and then he says, “Take Mark, and bring him with thyself, for he is serviceable to me for ministry”. Why those two men, Luke and Mark? Why are they singled out? Why is it that those two men are so honourably mentioned? Is it not significant, dear brethren, that they are two men who wrote gospels, two men who were qualified to become the vessels in the hands of the Spirit of God to write gospels? What does that mean? It means that they had studied Christ. It must mean that. No one who had not studied Christ could possibly become a vessel in the hands of the Spirit to write a gospel, and so these two men, the one who is with Paul, and the other who is serviceable to him for the ministry, are men, dear brethren, who have made Christ, so to speak, their study, and therefore they go through to the end, because they have a perfect standard before their hearts, and that is the idea.
Luke appreciates Jesus, the heavenly Man here on earth, the dependent Man, the Man whose influence always resulted in glory to God. Wherever He went, whatever He said, whatever He did, according to Luke’s account, people glorified God as a result of it. So Luke was with Paul, whose ministry, as we were reading in Ephesians 3, has in view the formation of the assembly, which is to be the great vessel throughout all ages for glory to God. Then Mark was profitable for the ministry. How is it that he was serviceable? He had once been unserviceable, unprofitable, but now he is serviceable. How is it he has become serviceable?
The ministry is to go on to the end, there can be no question about that, and if the ministry is to go on to the end and to be fruitful, it is urgent that those who have part in it should study Christ and take Him as their Model. You remember how it says in Mark, “He does all things well”, chap 7: 37. What a Model for those who serve in any degree, and so Mark, who, we might have thought, was one not particularly to be taken account of, especially when we think of his early history, is brought in here at the end as one who is serviceable. Then there is the reference, as we are so often reminded at the present time, to Paul’s cloak, a reminder to Timothy that he is to have a true standard before him, for the cloak would be Paul’s measure, and Timothy is to be reminded of it. Paul is about to disappear. He is about to depart to be with Christ, and Timothy is to continue in the testimony, but he is to continue as having Paul’s cloak, so to speak, with him. So, dear brethren, before I leave this passage, what one has in mind is that in the rigours and testings of the outward position what is needed is true manhood.
In reading this passage in Ephesians what I had in mind was to point out that, as nearing the end of his course, Paul tells us that he is concerned about the mystery and about enlightening all as to it, and then moreover, having said that, he tells us how he prays in relation to it. We were hearing last night of Daniel as a praying man, and the importance and value of prayer, but here in this passage Paul comes before us as showing us how earnestly he prays. But before that he speaks to us about the mystery, and the grace given to him to announce among the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ, and to make all men see what is the administration of the mystery, which from the beginning of the world hath been hid in God, who created all things. “That now”, he says, “to the principalities and authorities in the heavenlies might be made known through the assembly the all-various wisdom of God”.
Earlier in the chapter he tells us that he desired that the Ephesians might know his intelligence in the mystery; that is, he would have us understand that he, at any rate, had intelligence in the mystery, which, he says, “in other generations has not been made known to the sons of men, as it has now been revealed to his holy apostles and prophets in the power of the Spirit”, v 5. It is now revealed, and Paul, at any rate, had remarkable intelligence as to it, intending to convey that there is no reason why we should not increase in understanding as to the mystery. I do not say that we are likely to have Paul’s intelligence of it, but at the same time he wanted them to know the intelligence that he had, in order to show that it is not beyond the range of the saints.
Indeed, he was concerned to enlighten all as to the administration of the mystery, and that we might have our eyes opened to see what there is on earth in the assembly, through which principalities and powers in the heavenlies even now are learning the all-various wisdom of God, for, beloved brethren, it is God’s masterpiece, the assembly. I am not speaking now of it abstractly or theoretically, but I am speaking of it as that which has concrete existence at this present time, and we ourselves are part of it. There is here on earth—and I say again, we ourselves are part of it—that which is God’s masterpiece in wisdom and love, a company drawn out from the nations, knit together, bound together in the power of the Holy Spirit in love amongst ourselves, and united in affection towards Christ in glory, and held in relation to Christ, so that He can speak of it, as He does, as “my assembly”.
Whatever Satan may do contrary to the truth, there is that here as held under the influence of Christ, and deriving wisdom from Him in whom all the fulness of the Godhead dwells bodily, which Satan cannot overcome. That is a great thing, beloved brethren, that there is a sphere here in which what is of God is maintained in living expression, and it is to be seen in various parts of the world, and in it the service of God is maintained in a unified way and in spiritual power. Love amongst ourselves is seen there, and whatever Satan brings in, God turns it all to account to further this wonderful interest of His, which He has here on earth. The war [1939-1945] and all the ravages of it, so to speak, all the testings of it, have just brought to light love amongst the saints in a universal way. And it has resulted in the saints being enlarged in their apprehension of this great vessel that God has here on earth, and the links in the divine nature which bind us together have been strengthened and become more real. God has used all the moral confusion in the world, brought in by the lawlessness of man, with Satan behind it, to further this great interest of His here on earth.
Whatever has happened, Satan has not been able to interfere with the service of God, but through all the testings the service of God has been enriched. The saints are being delivered from earthly-mindedness and from having their interest in things here, and heavenly things and spiritual things are becoming more and more real as a consequence. You can understand how angels are taking account of what is going on. They are learning in it “the all-various wisdom of God”.
You might say, dear brethren, ‘Well, it looks as though Satan is having it all his own way in the world’, but it is not so. God is using everything and turning everything to account to further this great interest of His on earth, the assembly which He is forming, and He is bringing it increasingly into view and making it more real to us all. After the apostle has spoken about this, and note, he was in a prison, though the conditions may not have been quite so rigorous when he wrote the epistle to the Ephesians as they were when he wrote the second epistle to Timothy, but he tells us he was a prisoner; in those conditions he was not praying to the Lord to take him to Himself or to release him from prison.
He is engaged with the saints, and the ministry of the assembly committed to him, and wanting to enlighten all as to the administration of the mystery; that is, how it works, and the present importance of it, that principalities and powers in the heavenlies are learning in it the all-various wisdom of God. Surely, dear brethren, it is for us to have the assembly before us. Having said all that, Paul tells us that he bows his knees. Why does he say that? Is it not that we should bow our knees?
Is it not that we should understand that however much is ministered to us, if we really want to get an impression of the mystery, what the assembly is to Christ, and what it is to God, it is a question of getting down on our knees, of bowing our knees? That is to say, it is a matter of real exercise. One is reminded of the incident regarding Othniel and Achsah, Caleb’s daughter. Achsah is a type of the assembly, and Caleb says, “He that smites Kirjath-sepher and takes it, to him will I give Achsah my daughter as wife”, Josh 15: 16. That is to say, he is really presenting the assembly in her attractiveness. And Othniel goes and smites Kirjath-sepher, the city of the book, and overcomes it. That is, we are not to suppose that we can get into the truth of the assembly merely by reading books.
Read the ministry by all means, beloved brethren. If the Lord is giving ministry to the assembly, we ought to be diligent to follow it up. Thank God for the ministry, for the books in which it is recorded and made available to us, but let us not think we shall get into it merely by reading books. And so Othniel had to overcome the city of the book. He moved in energy because he wanted to have Achsah, and if we want to have the assembly, so to speak, and the assembly as the wife, what she is to Christ, it is a question not simply of reading books, although we may get help as to the mind of God by reading books, but what is necessary is that there should be the energy of the Spirit, for Othniel no doubt represents one in the energy of the Spirit, to apprehend the truth, and if the energy of the Spirit is to come into evidence, what goes with it is that we should be marked by prayer. This thought of prayer is amplified in the incident. You remember that Othniel took Kirjath-sepher, and Caleb gave him Achsah his daughter as wife. But then she urges him to ask of her father a field. It is a question now of the influence that she exerts upon Othniel to ask of her father. That is what Paul was doing, he was asking of the Father. He said, “I bow my knees to the Father”. The assembly was so great in his mind that it urged him, so to speak, to get on his knees to the Father. Typically, that is what Achsah does; she urges Othniel to ask of her father. Then it says, “she sprang down from the ass. And Caleb said to her, What wouldest thou? And she said, Give me a blessing; for thou hast given me a southern land; give me also springs of water. Then he gave her the upper springs and the lower springs”. Some of us have been together these last three days, and I think we have had a taste of the southern land which God has given us, a good land indeed.
But now what is needed, beloved brethren, are the upper and the nether springs. It is a question of the power of the Spirit operating in us both in relation to heavenly things and also in relation, you might say, to the responsible life here, because if we are not maintained fulfilling righteousness in the responsible life here, we shall not be able to rise to the spiritual level that God has in mind for us. So Paul tells us that he bowed his knees to the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, “of whom every family in the heavens and on earth is named, in order that he may give you according to the riches of his glory, to be strengthened with power by his Spirit in the inner man; that the Christ may dwell, through faith, in your hearts”. I know nothing more encouraging than this, beloved brethren, nothing more stimulating than that we should give ourselves to praying to the Father in relation to this great matter of the assembly and our apprehending it in a real way. That the Father “may give you … to be strengthened with power by his Spirit in the inner man”. It is the Father’s Spirit. The Father is the Originator of these great thoughts of divine love, and in them, Christ Himself is the Centre. And the Father in devising the assembly has been considering for Christ, providing something for the affections of Christ. The more you think of it the more you see how everything dove-tails together in wonderful wisdom, but the Father is the Source of all, the One who has conceived it, and it is the Father’s Spirit which strengthens us with might in the inner man. The Father’s Spirit will give us something of the Father’s thoughts, and the Father’s feelings in regard to Christ, and the Father’s intentions in relation to Christ in giving Him the assembly, and will give us to understand the portion that the assembly with Christ is to fill out in the whole range of glory of which the Father is the Source. It says that every family in the heavens and on earth is named of the Father. What an immensity of glory, of which the Father is the Source, lies before us! And we are nearing the actuality of it. We are to get an impression of the immensity of it, “the breadth and length and depth and height”. The Spirit of God uses these words to convey that there is an immense range that we are to take up, that we are to enter upon. We are in the very centre of it, dear brethren, because we belong to Christ. Christ is the Centre of it, and the assembly is with Him, in the very centre of it. The assembly has the foremost place with Christ. Wonderful thing!
And so the apostle prays that “the Christ may dwell, through faith, in your hearts”. As He dwells in our hearts, the true wifely features proper to the assembly will develop at the present time: faithfulness as to His interests and consideration for His tastes. There is plenty to do, dear brethren, at the present time. Proverbs 31 shows us how much there is to do, how the assembly is to be marked by activity that is the result of her wifely affections for Christ, as the outcome of the Christ dwelling in her heart by faith. All these things are open to us.
I would beg of you, dear brethren, as I would urge upon myself, not to allow these things to be just abstract thoughts in our minds, but to seek that we might get a greater view in a concrete way of what there is here among the saints. The assembly is to be seen now representatively, and its features, in all that it is for the heart of Christ and for God, are more and more to come into expression. But then the apostle gives us this wonderful example, he tells us that in the light of these great things, he bows his knees to the Father. There is much wealth in the passage which one could not touch upon now, leading up to that which we so often speak of as to the assembly as the great vessel of praise to God throughout all generations of the age of ages. “To him be glory in the assembly in Christ Jesus unto all generations of the age of ages”. We are to be concerned as to the service of God now. How shall we develop in ability to ascribe glory to God unto all generations of the age of ages, if we do not avail ourselves now of the Holy Spirit, as capable of developing us in spiritual intelligence and affections, so that we might be formed as the vessel of praise?
Just a word now in closing, on the third of Philippians, because there we find Paul also at the close of his course, for he is ready to be offered, or rather as he says in chapter 2, “if also I am poured out as a libation on the sacrifice and ministration of your faith, I rejoice, and rejoice in common with you all” (v 17); showing that he was contemplating martyrdom, and rejoicing in it. He was now drawing near to the close of his history, and what impresses one in relation to Paul in this epistle, is that, wonderful man though he had been, with wonderful gift, and wonderfully devoted in service, and he still was devoted to the saints, as we see from Ephesians 3, the one thing that was before his heart was that he might win Christ, have Christ as his gain. His one desire was to know Christ better. He speaks of the “excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord”, chap 3: 8. It is what a spiritual man has before him at the close of his career; not that he is giving up service, not that he is ceasing to pray for the saints or anything of that sort, but over and above all that, he is commanded by one thought, that he desires to know Christ and to have Him as his gain. And not only that, but he has known that he has been apprehended by Christ Jesus, for a calling on high of God in Christ Jesus. He is viewing Christ Jesus, Christ in glory, the Man of God’s purpose and good pleasure, and he sees that he, as an individual saint, and so with every individual saint, has been taken up to be found in Christ. It is a wonderful thing, beloved brethren. If we have it before us, I think it will help us to renounce everything that would attach any kind of importance to us as in the flesh, or minister to self-gratification in any form.
The more we get into our souls that we have been apprehended for a calling on high of God in Christ Jesus, Christ Himself where He is is the Pattern of it, the more we shall recognise that the one thing to do is to allow God to go on working in our souls to that end, bringing us increasingly at this present moment into conformity to the One to whom we are shortly to be conformed, even as to our bodily condition. For that is what Paul had before him.
He said, “we await the Lord Jesus Christ as Saviour, who shall transform our body of humiliation into conformity to his body of glory, according to the working of the power which he has even to subdue all things to himself”, v 20-21. Christ’s body of glory enshrines supreme moral excellence in a Man, and we ourselves are to be found in Him, and our bodies conformed to His body of glory. We have been apprehended for that. Paul understood that God was using everything in his circumstances to further the work in him of moral conformation to Christ. He would accept everything with that in view.
We read from the first chapter what the circumstances were; he was in bonds, and that unrighteously. And then certain brethren were seeking to add tribulation to his bonds by preaching Christ out of contention. Think of what that would mean to the spirit of a man like Paul! And now the question was, was he going to be overcome, or how was he going to meet it? He says, “for I know that this shall turn out for me to salvation, through your supplication and the supply of the Spirit of Jesus Christ”, chap 1: 19. He would not allow himself to be overcome by it. He rejoiced that Christ was preached, and as to the circumstances, in the way they affected him, he would accept them and be with God in them, in the spirit of obedience It is set out in its blessedness in Christ in the second chapter; it has proved itself of such moral excellence in the sight of God, that He has ordained that the One marked by obedience supremely, shall be acknowledged by all, heavenly, earthly, and infernal beings, acknowledged by all as Lord.
God is going to exalt publicly the Man in whom obedience was supremely seen, and, beloved brethren, God will use every circumstance in our life, if we are with Him in it, and are in the light of the calling on high of God in Christ Jesus, to promote further the features of Christ in us so that we may be found truly answering to our calling. Paul says, “I do not count to have got possession myself; but one thing—forgetting the things behind, and stretching out to the things before, I pursue, looking towards the goal, for the prize of the calling on high of God in Christ Jesus”. “One thing”—it is a good thing for us to have one thing before us. If we have one thing before us, beloved brethren, we shall make a straight course; and if we allow ourselves to be diverted from the one thing that God would have governing us, we shall not make a straight course. What a day it will be, when suddenly, in the twinkling of an eye, we find ourselves absolutely and for ever with Christ. Not a trace left of what we have been, not a trace left of the flesh, nor of the poor, frail, mortal conditions that we are in at the moment; and yet it will be ourselves, in the full result of the work of God in us. What more is there to be desired? What glory to have it before us! The apostle would urge us, so to speak, by his own example. He is ranging himself alongside of us as one of the brethren and he tells us what is before him. And if that was before a spiritual man like Paul, as he was nearing the end of his day, we, as conscious that we are nearing the end of our history here, may well have it before us also.
Well, that was what I had in mind, dear brethren, that what was governing the mind of Paul as he neared the end of his course, might be found governing us also.
May the Lord grant it for His Name’s sake.
AUCKLAND
27th November 1947
This date is uncertain: Mr Gardiner was in Auckland in December 1946 and March 1947, and it seems unlikely that he was there again in November 1947
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