WHAT IS HIDDEN
2 Chronicles 22: 10-12; 23: 1-7
I desire to speak of what is hidden. In the book of Proverbs, it is said that “the glory of God is to conceal a thing”; and God works on this line of thought so that the greatest things that it is possible to conceive are brought out by Him among the saints at this time, without the world knowing anything of them. Christianity is a matter of mystery, and every believer is a mystery. Some of us were speaking yesterday about the trees which were found along the river in Ezekiel; the leaves and the fruits could be seen, but the roots were hidden, so that each believer is a mystery, nobody can see the place from which it draws its life; such is the principle of Christianity. The Lord said, in speaking to His Father: “thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent, and revealed them to babes”, which shows that God hides these things from those who take a position of intelligence and is pleased in His grace to reveal them to those of whom the world takes no account. The time is coming when it will be manifested that God has formed vessels of glory without the world knowing anything of it. It is also said that “the glory of kings is to search out a thing”. The kings are the saints, that is to say the saints in their dignity, as being sealed and anointed by the Holy Spirit, formed according to God, possessing a dignity which surpasses every dignity seen among men. God desires that we should understand how we have been dignified, so that we should walk in a dignified way in the position in which He has set us. It is our glory to search out hidden things; God has given the Holy Spirit to this end.
In the epistle to the Corinthians, it is said that we have received, not the spirit of the world but the Spirit which is of God, so that we should know the things which have been freely given to us by God; and it is worth reading that, “the Spirit searches all things, even the depths of God”. So that it is our honour to search the things hidden from men’s eyes. God has given us His Spirit so that we should be able to know them, so that we should not have to be satisfied as long as we are ignorant, for God His purpose desires intelligent sons. It is good to keep in mind the fact that all the things of God are hidden; God has hidden Christ from the eyes of the world; He has raised Him and set Him above. The world cannot see Him where He is, but the Spirit has been given to us so that we should see Him and that we should understand that our life is hidden with Him in God. When He is manifested, we shall be manifested with Him in glory. It is thus that the Spirit of God would give us the feeling that in every way we are related to Christ. If He is hidden, it is evident that we are hidden. For the time being, all is hidden, and everything rests in the Holy Spirit, on the subject of which the Lord has said “I will beg the Father, and he will give you another Comforter, that he may be with you for ever, the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it does not see him nor know him”, and, the Lord adds, “but ye know him, for he abides with you, and shall be in you”. It is thus that in this passage Paul says to the Corinthians, We speak wisdom among the perfect. In one sense, he reproached the Corinthians on account of their carnal condition; he could not develop many things among them; he was obliged to give them milk and not meat, and yet he says that there is a certain wisdom that can be spoken of where there are the spiritual conditions for it. He says enough about these things to produce with the Corinthians the desire to enter into the conditions which allow their development. He says: “we speak wisdom among the perfect”, but he adds “wisdom not of this world, nor of the rulers of this world which come to nought. But we speak God’s wisdom in a mystery, that hidden wisdom which God had predetermined before the ages for our glory”.
I ask myself if we have sometimes thought of the glory of the assembly as the body of Christ. Let us think for a moment of the greatness of this Person of the Deity become Man; and the fact that God is calling from all the nations persons who are to be united to Christ by the Spirit to form one vessel, the body of Christ, a vessel capable of expressing Christ, possessing His affections in relation to God and possessing His intelligence by the Spirit. What possibilities are found in such a vessel for the service of God, and what possibilities in such a vessel to express the light of God in the world to come. It is to this that we have been called, it is the mystery of God, “the hidden wisdom which God has predetermined before the ages for our glory”. The present time is the time when formation is taking place, and all the exercises undergone in the assembly are in view of developing in us the capacity to hold everything according to God. So that in this epistle, the apostle says “Do ye not know that the saints shall judge the world?”, and he adds, “Do ye not know that we shall judge angels?” It is a part of what we await; it is why the circumstances of this life are important and serve to develop in us the faculty of a spiritual judgment, that is to say, to judge things as God judges them, and that begins in us with the judgment of ourselves. We should be used to being in the presence of God ourselves, to follow and to do what pleases Him, and to refuse what displeases Him. This exercise of spiritual judgment should be applied to all our matters and we should thus become qualified to apply it to assembly matters. We can see the importance of the present time in which God is developing all these things in secret. It is only the wisdom of God which can set the saints together, order their life and their circumstances so that a perfect vessel responding to Christ is assured. Nothing is lacking, nothing is superfluous, this is what God does in His perfect wisdom, and it is of the utmost importance that we depend upon the Holy Spirit, that we are formed under His influence; and that we should be formed according to Christ. It is thus that the apostle says, “Things which eye has not seen, and ear has not heard, and which have not entered into the heart of man, which God has prepared for those who love him”. It is marvellous that we can be those who love God, not only those whom God loves, but those who love God. God thus has the myriads who love Him, and we have received the Holy Spirit so that we can respond to the love that God has manifested to us. Another scripture says “that all things work together for those who love God”. We need to be impressed by the thought that all things are completely under God’s control, and they have to work together. God has worked in view of those who are called according to purpose. The more we enter into these things, we will be ready to be hidden in this world, and the more we find our satisfaction and our life in these hidden things, that is to say that things which are in the scriptures, known in the Spirit. You will remember that in chapter 13 of Matthew, it is said that “the kingdom of the heavens is like a treasure hid in the field, which a man having found has hid, and for the joy of it goes and sells whatever he has, and buys that field”. It is remarkable that there should be a double allusion to what was hidden: the treasure is hidden in the field and when the man finds it, he hides it.
As I have said, this hidden position really rests in the Holy Spirit. The Lord says: “the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it does not see him or know him; but ye know him”, and Paul says, “the Spirit searches all things, even the depths of God”. There is such an extent of hidden things, placed at the door of those who have receive the Holy Spirit.
Now, in the passage in Chronicles, we have the same thought also, as preceding and underlying what is brought into manifestation. Although I speak of manifestation, I do not have in view the public manifestation of Christ in glory, but the public side of testimony. The general character of Christianity, as I have said, is what is hidden; in this passage we have what is hidden from certain conditions of opposition in the court. Athaliah represents the apostasy which would get rid of what speaks of Christ. It is said that “she rose up and exterminated all the royal seed of the house of Judah”. But this state of affairs brought to light certain secret activities in the house of Jehoshabeath, as the king’s daughter and then the wife of the priest, and also the sister of Ahaziah. She represents those who are faithful to Christ in their affections. They are marked by dignity, which the king’s daughter suggests; Jehoshabeath is also married to the priest; this is what is important because what is priestly considers for God. She was also the sister of Ahaziah, that is to say that she resembled the king. These three features are set before us as the features which must mark the saints. Marked by these features, she hid Joash in the house of God for six years. This represents the exercises among the saints that cherish Christ in their affections, because it is in the assembly, which is God’s house, that Christ is cherished, in spite of what develops in the apostasy around us. It is easy to understand that men away from the truth, and by this means enemies, seek to get rid of all that may have the character of Christ; they would get rid of all that which bears His features and the testimony to His Name; but the conditions that exist only lead to the activity of affections seen in Jehoshabeath, that is to say that Joash is hidden for six years in the house of God, and in the seventh year it is said that Jehoiada strengthened himself as a result of the affections which Jehoshabeath represents. What is virile comes into view; Jehoiada strengthens himself, accepts the responsibility to bring out the king in testimony, and he gathers the chiefs of hundreds, that is to say the men of war, of influence, and that is what we have to be, ready to take our part in the conflict of the testimony, with power and courage that the Holy Spirit will give us. We read in 2 Timothy that God has not given us a spirit of cowardice, so that we must not be ashamed of the testimony of our Lord, but we have to have part in the sufferings of the testimony.
Jehoiada rallies these elements around him, the men of war representing the features which resemble the saints, the priests considering for God and for His pleasure, the levites who show their affections to support the testimony without special interests, without an inheritance in Israel, their part being to give themselves to God’s things. All these are manifested, Jehoiada says to the priests and the levites that a third from among them were to guard the doors, a third was to be in the king’s house, and a third at the gate of the foundation, that is to say that everyone is ready to accept the responsibility of the position and that is what we must not miss in the present time. The truth of the assembly has been recovered, and the assembly is the only place on earth where the Name of the Lord is honoured. It is therefore necessary that there is much diligence on the part of each one of us. We read in this chapter that everything had indeed been ordered, there were those who came in and went out on the sabbath day. Everyone protected their position, and this position was critical; all the priests needed to be brought into the matter to be able to take their part in the service with vigilance. I think this answers to present exercises. We have the privilege of maintaining the truth in the assembly, breaking bread from week to week, and maintaining a testimony publicly to the Name of the Lord until He come. The Name of the Lord cannot be attached to anything evil whatsoever, hence the great importance of being vigilant and that the saints should be determined to maintain at all costs the testimony of Christ until His coming.
TENCE
10th November 1949
From Paroles d’Édification Mutuelle
DISCIPLES AND FRIENDS
There are two things that are characteristic of the present time. The first is that the Lord is greatly helping His own by the Holy Spirit to enter into the greatest spiritual privileges that belong to the assembly—to enjoy the love of Christ and to respond to Him and to have part in service toward the blessed God. Secondly, there is a great development of wickedness in the world—the mystery of lawlessness, in all its varied features. The intention of Satan is to make it impossible for the saints to remain faithful to the Lord; not that he will succeed in this, because the Lord will see to it that a way is kept open for us to go forward with the whole truth, maintaining faith and a good conscience. But if we are to have part in spiritual and heavenly privileges, on the one hand, and a living part in the maintenance of the testimony, whatever suffering or testing it will involve, on the other, it is essential that there should be the diligent pursuit and maintenance of what is right and good in the sight of God, and the refusal and avoidance of what is evil.
In the second chapter of Luke’s gospel, we have brought before us a man whose name was Simeon. It is said of him that the Holy Spirit was upon him and that it had been communicated to him by the Spirit that he should not see death till he had seen the Lord’s Christ, and that he came by the Spirit into the temple. But before all this is said about him, we are told that he was “just and pious”. That is, he was righteous; and piety means that he brought God in a practical way into all the details of his daily life. There was thus, with Simeon, what we might call a moral basis underlying what he was spiritually. We cannot take up spiritual things or become marked by spiritual features if a moral basis is lacking with us.
In this scripture the Lord is speaking to His disciples. They are called disciples, first, for publicly they were to be characterised as those who had learned from Christ. We ought to be known in this world as His disciples. But then the Lord addresses them as “friends”: “I say unto you, my friends”. He has in view that we should also fill that position in the world, being known as those who are true to Him and upon whom He can rely to maintain all that is connected with His name in this world. Now the Lord has in mind that there are certain influences by which we are in danger of being affected that would militate against our being friends of Christ, and He warns us against them and brings in what will operate positively with us as our preservative. The first influence is hypocrisy. It says, “he began to say unto his disciples, first of all, Beware ye of the leaven of the Pharisees, which is hypocrisy”. This is a word which we all need to take to heart, because everyone who knows his own heart will bear testimony to the fact that it is innate in us to make things appear what they are not: but the Lord calls it hypocrisy. It is part of the leaven of the Pharisees and the Lord says, “first of all”, as though to say, ‘this is essential; if you do not take heed to this there will be an element of weakness at the very foundation’. Then He says, “there is nothing covered, that shall not be revealed; neither hid, that shall not be known”: all is coming out, for nothing can be concealed from God. I might conceal things from my brethren or from the men of the world; I might even deceive myself, but nothing can ever be concealed from God, and it is a good thing to make up our minds to walk before Him. This is very simple, but fundamental, and it is necessary to be confirmed and established in these moral foundations, if we are to stand in these closing days.
The Lord then speaks of the fear of man. We know how Satan can use this, but the answer to the fear of man is the fear of God; so the Lord says, “Fear not those who kill the body and after this have no more that they can do”. It is a great comfort that the worst that men can do, energised by Satan, is to kill the body; if they are allowed to go to that length, that is the limit of their power, but at that point God will be known as the God of resurrection. All our hopes are bound up with Jesus, and He is beyond death. He is the beginning of another world which is to take character from Himself, and hence we can go forward in the thought that our portion is on the other side of death.
Satan, however, will not be allowed to get rid of all the saints, for the testimony’s sake. The more simply we are committed to the testimony of God, the more surely we can count upon divine support, because the testimony is to be continued in persons. So the Lord says, “Are not five sparrows sold for two farthings, and not one of them is forgotten before God?” How comparatively worthless is a sparrow: yet God in His minute care takes account of every single sparrow. The Lord would put us into the presence of God, in order that we may be fully available as friends of Christ. He says, “Whosoever shall confess me before men, the Son of Man will confess him also before the angels of God”. How many tests arise every day calling for the confession of the Lord’s name, and what a dignity attaches to confessing His name before men! But, on the other hand, the Lord says, “he that shall have denied me before men shall be denied before the angels of God”.
He then brings in the Holy Spirit, a divine Person here indwelling the saints, and that for ever, in order that the testimony shall triumph by divine power. He says, “But when they bring you before synagogues and rulers ... the Holy Spirit shall teach you in the hour itself what should be said”: as though He would say, ‘the Holy Spirit will take charge of the whole matter’. Think of our very bodies being the temple of the Holy Spirit, that God should deign to dwell in each one of us individually! And hence how watchful, how sensitive we should be that nothing should be allowed that is unworthy of the presence of God Himself.
One of the company says to Him, “Teacher, speak to my brother to divide the inheritance with me ... And he said to them, Take heed and keep yourselves from all covetousness”. He goes on to speak of the man who was making his plans for many years without reference to God, and to whom God said, “This night thy soul shall be required of thee”. The Lord would remind us of the uncertainty of life. He removes from this world some who are young and who appear to be in the best of health, in order to impress upon us the uncertainty of life here. The rest of our time is going to be short in any case, so let it be devoted to God’s will! If we are planning for years ahead and occupied with how much we have made or are going to make, the Lord says, “Take heed and keep yourselves from all covetousness”. It is a poor thing for any of the people of God to build up riches in this life, when there is the whole testimony of God to which to be committed, as friends of Christ in this world. God may give prosperity, and Satan may take occasion by it to introduce the desire to be rich and to have the pleasures and luxuries of the rich. The Lord says, “Take heed”, as though He would say, ‘Satan is behind that’.
The Lord then speaks of anxiety as to what we shall eat and what we shall drink; and very significantly He says, “for all these things do the nations of the world seek after”. We know how much the food question is the concern of the nations, and this would be in our minds as we continually pray to God for kings and those in authority. If the testimony is to go through to completion, then the saints must be available, and for this they must have something to eat and drink. “Your Father knows that ye have need of these things; but seek his kingdom and all these things shall be added to you”. The kingdom of God is the sway of God over the souls of His people by the Holy Spirit. A Christian is not governed by the same considerations that mark an ordinary person. He has God dwelling in him, and God brings to bear upon him that which weighs with Him and not with men; and as we seek the kingdom of God we shall find that we are preserved, and thus we shall continue.
After speaking of these things, the Lord brings in what is positive. He says, “Let your loins be girded about, and your lamps burning”: He is speaking of the urgency of the moment. It is the night of the Lord’s absence, and hence it is not suitable to loose our loins or put out our lamps. We ought to be in readiness for anything that occurs—ready to open to Him immediately if He were to come at this moment. We do not want to have anything out of keeping with what will obtain when He comes to establish the will and glory of God.
The verses suggest that what the Lord has in mind is not necessarily His actual coming; He might come in at any moment to see how things are amongst us, for the true rendering of verse 38 is that “if he come in the second watch, and come in the third watch”. Are we able to open to Him immediately? He says, “Blessed are those bondmen whom the lord on coming shall find watching; verily I say unto you, that he will gird himself and make them recline at table, and coming up will serve them”. If we are in any degree watching and maintaining conditions suitable to Himself in our localities, in our homes and individually, the Lord takes occasion on the first day of the week particularly to set us free for the moment from all our cares, in order to give us to sit down and eat; and He comes forth to serve us.
Peter now raises a question, saying, “Lord, sayest thou this parable to us, or also to all?” We should all be as servants who are waiting for their Lord, but there are those servants to whom the Lord has given special ability—“Who then is the faithful and prudent steward, whom his lord will set over his household?” There are such, and the Lord says, “Blessed is that bondman whom his lord on coming shall find doing thus”. If the Lord has given any one of us a measure of gift to do things, we must see that we do them! So He says, “Blessed is that bondman whom his lord on coming shall find doing thus; verily I say unto you, that he will set him over all that he has”.
We are to be watchful lest any of these influences—hypocrisy, or the fear of man, or covetousness, or anxiety, or slothfulness in maintaining what is pleasing to Him, or in any particular service entrusted to us—come in, and thus hinder our being fully available to Him as His friends.
LONDON
From Words of Truth 1949
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