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UNCHANGEABLE THINGS

I have read these scriptures, dear brethren, with the desire to speak of two things: the will of God, and the circle of the brethren. What leads me to speak of these two things is observation of the Lord’s actings among us, and enquiry as to what He has in mind in acting thus. He has removed from among us very suddenly and unexpectedly a young brother of promise, and we know of young sisters suddenly taken with serious illnesses, and these occurrences raise questions, not only with those immediately affected, but with us all as to what the Lord has in mind to draw our attention to in them. So I commend these two thoughts to us all, not only the young ones, because anyone of us might suddenly find himself brought by the Lord into a position in which the circumstances of life that we have been used to, and which perhaps we expected would more or less continue, become suddenly changed, and therefore it is of great importance for us definitely to embrace things that are not affected by unexpected changes that may arise in the detail of our life. I believe that is one thing that the Lord would say to us at this time, to be prepared for unexpected changes, but to recognise that there is that which is intended to regulate and control and satisfy us, however circumstances may change in detail. There is the will of God on the one hand and the circle of the brethren on the other. I think it can be easily understood that the will of God will go through whatever happens in detail. God would not be God if it were not so. The will of God must go through, and therefore, if we ourselves are committed to the will of God, and are moving in the current of it, then we shall go through, whatever may arise in the way of detail. Then also, thank God, the circle of the brethren remains. Individual brothers and sisters may be removed, but the circle of the brethren remains, and will remain until the Lord comes.

The will of God is a very wide thought. On the one hand it embraces the greatest and most glorious thoughts which God Himself is capable of devising; it says that He works all things after the counsel of His own will. He would not be God if He did not and the more we know God, the more we are thankful that He works all things after the counsel of his own will. That is something very extensive. Even in the physical creation we get an impression of immensity of greatness and of glory as we take account of the heavens, but then on the other hand as we take account of creation we see that while God’s will and His power and wisdom are equal to the greatest and most glorious things as before our eyes in the heavens, He also is able to take account of the most minute detail. The tiniest insect on the earth, so small that you can hardly see it save with a microscope, is the object of divine care, and provision; the life that that insect lives is given by God and is sustained by God. These things are intended to impress us with the sense on the one hand that God is capable of what is infinitely great and extensive, and on the other hand that He is capable of giving attention to that which is most minute in detail. Hence the will of God extends to what is glorious and extensive and eternal on the one hand, and yet has its bearing on the most minute detail of the life of every one of His children.

Now the 12th chapter of Romans from which I have read presents the thought of the will of God from the standpoint of what I might call a principle of life. When you come to the epistle to the Ephesians you have the will of God in the vastness of its extent, in all that He is purposing to effect, but in Romans 12 it is a question rather of our understanding that the principle of the life of a believer is that he is to govern himself by God’s will. Whatever it may be for him in detail, he himself is to be governed by it, and so it says, “I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service”. The apostle is calling upon us to use our thinking faculties; he is appealing to us, he is reminding us of the way God has come out to us in mercy. The third chapter of the epistle establishes the great truth of the mercy-seat, that is, that in the death of Christ, in the value of the blood of Christ, God has brought in in Christ a point from which He can act towards us, as He has done, in mercy, without compromising anything that is right. He has established mercy as the great basis of His actings towards us, and He has done that at the cost of the blood of Christ, and now the apostle says in view of all this, what is to be our reasonable, intelligent answer to it. He is appealing to every one of us to give an answer. Surely it is that we should yield our bodies. He has redeemed us at infinite cost. He has not made demands upon us, He has come out in grace, and acted towards us in mercy, but now He says, Let there be an answer on your part. One might say, I cannot do much for God, but then each of us has a body, and that body can be yielded and held for God. We are to present our bodies to God a living sacrifice, yielded up to the blessed God who has come out to us in mercy, to be used henceforth at His disposal. Obviously, the body covers all our life in all the detail of it. Whatever we do in our life we do in our body and God in claiming the body is thus securing the person.

Then the apostle says, “be not conformed to this world”. He has good reason for saying that, for the principle of this world is that a man does what he likes. The world is a great system which has very many features in which Satan caters for every taste, but at the same time the governing principle of the world is that man lives to himself and pleases himself, and so the apostle has very good reason for saying, “be not conformed to this world”. That is to say do not adopt the world’s ideas, the world’s outlook, just allow the truth of God to have its place. “Be not conformed to this world, but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind”. It is very important to have our minds in the right direction, to have our minds controlled by the way God looks at things and not by the way man looks at things. “Be ye transformed ... that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect will of God”. That is to say, if God brings about a sudden change in the detail of my circumstances, it has not happened by chance; God’s will is entering into it and I have to learn what His will is. It is not a question of my resenting it or rebelling against it, because the more I yield myself to it the more I shall discern, as many believers can testify, that His will is good, acceptable, and perfect. As pursuing the path of God’s will, whatever it may be in its detail, we find prosperity in our souls and contentment and the blessing of God, whereas if we act against the will of God we shall find that our way is hedged up and that things go counter to the way we are marking out for ourselves. God is not against us, but He is seeking to bring us into the current in which we shall enjoy His full blessing.

In the early history of God’s people, as redeemed and brought out of Egypt through the Red Sea, they came to Mara, and they found the waters bitter so that they could not drink of them. God’s will led them there. They murmured because they could not drink of the water, and Moses cried to God and God showed him, it is said, “wood”, and as it was cast into the waters these became sweet so that they were able to drink of them. The wood is just a type of the humanity of our Lord Jesus Christ. It is well to understand that not only did Christ become Man, but as becoming Man He introduced into this scene an order of manhood that had never been here before. What characterised the manhood of Jesus was, as it says in Psalm 40. “Lo I come ... I delight to do thy will, O my God; yea, thy law is within my heart”. There was not a movement in the mind or heart of Jesus that was contrary to the will of God. Whatever God’s will ordered for Him, He delighted in it. He moved through this world on that principle. As born into this world He was laid in a manger—the Lord of glory laid in a manger! From the very outset He had an outcast’s place, and then brought up at Nazareth, apparently working, as He came to years, in a carpenter’s shop. There was nothing attractive to the natural man in the circumstances which God ordered for Jesus, and yet He moved in them in perfect obedience to the will of God, not grudgingly, but finding His delight in it. Indeed the Spirit of Christ has indited the 16th Psalm, and in that Psalm He says, “the lines are fallen unto me in pleasant places, yea, I have a goodly heritage”. What was it that was so goodly to the Lord Jesus as Man here upon earth? It was the portion that He had in the unbroken consciousness of His Father’s favour and approval. In the enjoyment of that He passed on through this world, a world where He had to endure the contradiction of sinners against Himself, in a path that eventually led to the cross, and all that the cross meant to Him. Yet His language was, “the lines are fallen unto me in pleasant places, yea, I have a goodly heritage”.

That represents the wood cast into the waters. You may say, Why has God ordered circumstances that are unwelcome, that are difficult in themselves? It is in order that we may learn in them the obedience of Jesus Christ, and discover in them the rest of mind and heart that comes as we move on that principle. The Spirit has been given in order that we may appreciate that principle and find power to take it on day by day. Then we shall find that, not only are we supported in it, but that we begin to prove the rest of mind and heart and contentment that result from it, as the Lord says to the disciples, “ if ye keep my commandments, ye shall abide in my love”, John 15: 10. Which is the happier portion? Which do you think is the happier portion, to have the enjoyment of the consciousness of the love of Christ day by day, or to take our own way and have no consciousness or enjoyment of divine things? Which is the more satisfying, the more assuring? Which is the line that ensures success and prosperity? It is the line of the will of God, and so, following on that incident of Mara in Exodus 13, we find in chapter 16 the manna. That is to say, we are to learn the principle of day by day, a great principle in the believer’s life, not planning ahead for years at a time, but day by day. I do not mean that we have not in regard of providing things honest in the sight of men to make certain calculations, and decide on a certain course that we may take, a course of study or what not; that is well, provided in our minds and hearts we are governed by the will of God. So if the circumstances suddenly change we accept it without reasoning, as understanding that God is indicating that He will is something different from what we expected, and as we take the path of His will we shall not only find ourselves blessed but we shall get great enrichment from the exercise that is involved in yielding ourselves to a complete change of circumstances, gaining a knowledge of Christ that we should never have had without the exercise. The manna was given day by day, and we have to learn the principle of “day by day”, moving dependently upon God, and receiving continually fresh communications from God, as was said of the Lord Jesus prophetically: “He wakeneth morning by morning, he wakeneth mine ear to hear as the instructed”, Isa 50: 4.

I would add a further thought to show that this line of exercise is productive of very great things, and that is that formation in the obedience of Jesus Christ results in the bringing to light of an order of manhood that is capable of being here in God’s testimony. As the narrative proceeds in Exodus God calls upon His people to provide Him with a sanctuary that He might dwell among them, and then the tabernacle is to be carried through the wilderness in testimony. One of the most important constituents of the tabernacle system was shittim or acacia wood, a character of wood that was particularly enduring. It is in principle an incorruptible order of manhood. Obviously a man who wants to do his own will is not incorruptible. A man who loves his own will is a man whom Satan can use for all sorts of evil. God cannot entrust His testimony to a Man who does his own will. If we are to have part according to the will of God in the privilege of carrying the testimony through the wilderness, we must be formed after Jesus Christ, and I believe the experiences resulting from presenting our bodies a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable, and of proving that God’s will is acceptable and perfect, result in the development, you may say, of acacia wood. They develop in us the features of another order of man, to whom God can entrust His testimony, and who can stand all the rigours and testings of the wilderness position simply because he has the one principle governing his life that he is here for God’s will. It makes things very simple, and it means that we become ready to fill our part, and a wonderfully privileged part it is, in the testimony of God in this world.

Now the other thing that remains unaffected by any change in our circumstances is the circle of the brethren, and a very blessed circle it is. Thank God, He is giving us more and more to appreciate the circle of the brethren, and it is a remarkable thing that John brings in the world as opposed to it. Paul says, “be not conformed to this world”, showing us that the world is opposed to the idea of the will of God. Now in speaking of the circle of the brethren John says, “marvel not if the world hate you”, and it does hate true believers. The world may not hate a worldly Christian, but it hates those who bear the true features of the children of God. The apostle says, “Marvel not, my brethren, if the world hate you. We know that we have passed from death unto life, because we love the brethren”—a great thing for every soul here. We might perhaps get away from the Lord, and Satan might even begin to suggest to us that we have never been true Christians at all, and yet there is something there that we can identify, if it is really there at all. If you have real, genuine love for the brethren, there is something you can lay hold of, and perhaps that you would like to get back to, and Satan is putting all sorts of difficulties in the way and suggesting that you are not genuine and never have been genuine, but, if you know that you love the brethren, it is an evidence that you have been born of God. So you can take account of it and identify yourself with the work of God in you, and you can seek the Lord’s help that lie will bring you back to what He has begun. The apostle says, “we know that we have passed from death unto life, because we love the brethren”. If any have tasted the world I believe they will agree at bottom that it is a system of moral death, and on the other hand those who live in and enjoy the circle of the brethren know that it is a circle of life, that Christ is loved there, that God is loved there, and God is served there, and that the things of the Spirit are spoken of and enjoyed there. They know that great support is found in love circulating among the brethren; it is a circle of love and of eternal life that cannot be touched by death. Death may come in and remove a particular brother or sister, but the circle of the brethren goes on and the interests that are known there go on. It is a sphere where life that is eternal—untouchable by death is enjoyed all the time. Sorrow may be there, because it is necessary that the saints should taste sorrow while we are here—the Lord Jesus Himself was a Man of sorrows—but joy is there at the same time, joy that no one can take from us, joy that the world can neither give nor take away, enjoyed and known in the circle of the brethren.

The apostle goes on to say, “Hereby we have known love, because he has laid down his life for us, and we ought for the brethren to lay down our lives”. See what a, dignified circle the brethren are. They are such that we should lay down our lives for them, and thank God, we can see a great deal of that among the brethren. One says it humbly, but it is true; it is a circle where love operates, where the brethren will lay down their lives for one another. It is a question of the divine nature in living expression, so that things are not theoretical but real. What a circle to dwell in! What a different atmosphere entirely from that of the world around us! Then it goes on to say it is a very practical thing—“Whoso hath this world’s good, and seeth his brother have need and shutteth up his bowels of compassion from him, how dwelleth the love of God in him?” It is a circle where things are seen; they are not theoretical, but you are in touch with one another, and if need arises in the circumstances of a brother or sister there are those who come forward, and their bowels of compassion are opened out and they supply the need. All this is very real and tangible, dear brethren, and it is a question of committing ourselves wholly and unreservedly to the circle of the brethren. It is a great provision that God has made for us in this world. It is over against the world. “We know that we have passed from death to life because we love the brethren”. We have to mingle with those of the world in our business, but our real life is in the circle of the brethren. It is the provision God has made for us so that we might be preserved, as passing through an evil world. It was so from the very outset. You remember how it says of Peter and John in chapter 4 of Acts, how they were brought before the council, and after being threatened they were let go, “and being let go, they went to their own company”. What a company it is where the Lord regards us as His own—“having loved his own which were in the world”; we can claim the saints as our own company, a great provision God has made for us, the circle of the brethren, and it is a circle where divine love circulates and finds expression.

Then there is more than having our eyes opened to see material need. In chapter 5: 16, we have our eyes opened to see spiritual need. It says, “if any man see his brother sin a sin which is not unto death”. That brings in a very solemn matter, that there is a sin unto death. That is to say, there might be a sin so serious that God might not allow the person concerned to remain here in testimony any longer, but then there is a sin not unto death not to make little of sin in any way, for all unrighteousness is sin. That is brought in so that we should not he careless about sin. If we depart from the principle of being here for God’s will we immediately fall into unrighteousness, and all unrighteousness is sin, and hence our safety lies in yielding ourselves to God’s will as the principle governing our lives. But then we have our eyes open as moving with the brethren, and if we see a brother or a sister sinning a sin not unto death, what do we do? We ask for him. We get to God about it: we pray about it. What a circle of affection it is! The person concerned may not know of it, but someone sees him sinning and immediately asks God to give him life, to bring him to repentance, to judge himself as to that sin, so that he may continue in life, and in service and testimony here. What a circle of care it is! There is no circle like the circle of the brethren.

As acting thus, governed by God’s will, the saints have power with God, and this is open to every one of us. Abraham had influence with God, he was called a friend of God, and he had three hundred and eighteen servants trained in his house. He prayed to God for Lot, and when God overthrew Sodom, God remembered Abraham and brought Lot out of it. See the power that Abraham had with God, and that is the idea here, that any one of us moving on the line of God’s will may not only save ourselves, but we have power with God and can save our brother, so that if we see a brother sin a sin not unto death we ask for him, “and he shall give him life”. Then, “He that is begotten of God keepeth himself, and that wicked one toucheth him not. And we know that we arc of God, and the whole world lieth in wickedness”. I do trust that no one will think that this is an extravagant statement. God does not make extravagant statements; He simply speaks the truth, and it says, “We know”. That is what Christians know. Christians who are true believers and who are answering to what they are as born of God, know that the “whole world lies in the wicked one”. It does indeed. The world may take on various aspects, but it lies in the wicked one. And then, “we know that the Son of God is come”. Over against what the world is, we know that the Son of God has come, and God has given us an understanding, that we should know Him that is true. The Son of God has brought God out into wondrous revelation think of the Son of God taking His place as Man in the presence of God and we ourselves before God eternally in Him. Think how glorious it is, and this is where it can be known and enjoyed by the Holy Spirit whom God has given to us.

“We are in him that is true, in his Son Jesus Christ”. We are really embraced and held by God Himself in the Person of His Son, and so the apostle says, “This is the true God and eternal life”. We can well understand that he should say after that, “Little children, keep yourselves from idols”. Satan is seeking to influence you by bringing forward one idol or another; he has in mind that God should be robbed of His portion in the affections and service of His people. But on the other hand, the Son of God Himself has come; God has not sent a prophet to make Himself known. He has brought God out into glorious revelation. He has brought us to God in Himself and we are firmly attached to Him by the Spirit, and in grace we are held and shall be held eternally in the very centre of divine love, and that being so we may well keep ourselves from idols. May we everyone be concerned to flee from idolatry from this time onwards, to see that we are governed by God’s will on the one hand, because it will never fail, and on the other hand that we find our life and resources in the circle of the brethren.

ST ANNES-ON-THE-SEA

6^th November 1948

From Words of Grace and Comfort

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