DIVINE RIGHTS
D.J.Willetts
1 Corinthians 6: 19,20; Revelation 1: 12-20
I desire to say a few words, beloved brethren, about divine rights. We need, perhaps to go over in our souls some of the foundations of Christianity, and one of the things that enters into that is divine rights. So I ventured to read these two passages: the first relates to us individually, the second relates to assemblies. I need not remind you that the Lord’s rights are absolute. They remain in all their authority and power, but they are wielded in grace. It is a wonderful thing that at the present time the Lord is on the Father's throne, so that what marks the current dispensation is the predominance of grace. Now grace works with what it brings, not necessarily with what it finds. That is a wonderful thing, that God should exercise His right by the use of what He comes with, the fulness of divine resource. The rights and powers of a kingdom are tested by the ability to disburse its resources to the extremities of the kingdom and to contain its dominions. Now that would have its bearing upon us at the present time. We might say that divine Persons are not lax in regard of Their resources, because divine resources are not only adequate, but they are infinite, and the needs of the saints are many.
So I thought we should begin with this chapter. The background, of course, is one of great sobriety. The apostle Paul has referred in chapter 5 to the incestuous man, and in chapter 6 he comes to the general bearing of this upon the saints. Then you get these two beautiful verses at the end of the chapter. It is almost as if the apostle, in addressing his own by saying "Do ye not know ...?" in verses 15-16, and again in verse 19, "Do ye not know ...?", is reminding them of what exists of things that have always been true of the as having received the Spirit of God. It is like a parent saying to a child, Do you not know that you belong to such-and-such a family? The apostle would alert the saints at Corinth and say "Do ye not know ...?". He would remind them of their standing and he reminds them of divine rights. He says, "Do ye not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit which is in you ...?". That has a very practical bearing upon us, that our body is the temple of the Holy Spirit. The immediate point in the chapter, of course, is in relation to fornication but I think that we might look at it in a far broader way. It is not just certain members of the body but of the whole body - "Do ye not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit which is in you, which ye have of God ...?". That would remind us of where we have received the Holy Spirit from - "which ye have of God". It is a very salutary word to each one of us as we move about and seek to use our bodies in relation to the testimony; he would say, "Do ye not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit which is in you, which ye have of God ...?" - a wonderful thing that to contemplate, that each one of us as having received the Holy Spirit has something substantial from God. Everywhere we go we take Him with us, whether it is at work or at school, the factory or the office, or when we come to the meeting; even when we are at home in the household we have the Holy Spirit with us. What is in mind in the temple is dwelling conditions; so we would need to be sensitive as to His rights, sensitive as to where we go, and what we do, what we think.
This really takes us to Roman teaching; it has a very detailed working out for every one of us. I remember the first time I was affected by Romans 6. I do not know whether you have read it of late; it says, "Now, having got your freedom from sin, ye have become bondmen to righteousness. I speak humanly on account of the weakness of your flesh. For even as ye have yielded your members in bondage to uncleanness and to lawlessness unto lawlessness, so now yield your members in bondage to righteousness unto holiness" (vv 18,19). We are all familiar with the way we have yielded our members instruments of unrighteousness in bondage to uncleanness, but have you ever thought of yielding your members, as it says, "in bondage to righteousness"? Maybe you do not like the idea of being in bondage. Perhaps it is because you do not understand that formerly it was true of you that you were in bondage to uncleanness, that you were held in the power of uncleanness, in the power of sin. The death of Christ has come in in order that you and I might be completely free from the dominion of sin and the power of it. We recognise the fact that sin had dominion over us. Every one of us here has to recognise the fact, however acceptably outwardly to men we may have lived our lives, done the best we can for ourselves, that we have yielded our members in bondage to uncleanness. Now the way out of that is through the death of Christ; not only that Jesus died but that He was buried. So the very man who was under bondage to uncleanness has gone - gone (see v 6). So you can reckon yourself, not now alive in the things in which you used to walk, but alive in the things of God. So it says, "reckon yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus" (v 11). Wonderful thing that! So the apostle says, "yield your members in bondage to righteousness unto holiness". How very attractive that is, that we are required to be in bondage to righteousness. But it is not optional; every one of us is under responsibility to yield ourselves in bondage to righteousness unto holiness. The end in view is a state which is suitable for the divine presence.
So when you come to chapter 12 you are "to present your bodies a living sacrifice ... which is your intelligent service" (v 1). I think that all that can be read into these two verses in 1 Corinthians 6: "which ye have of God, and ye are not your own". That, you may say, is a lever in the soul for yielding our members instruments of righteousness; it is because you are not your own. Do you realise, young brother, young sister, that you are not your own? You have come under new ownership, "for ye have been bought with a price". What was the price paid for you? Can you measure what it cost God? - "He who, yea, has not spared his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not also with him grant us all things?", Rom 8: 32. Can you measure that cost, what it was to God not to spare His own Son? How attractive that is! What a price, the death of Jesus! So, beloved brethren, let it affect us. When you think of yielding your members instruments of righteousness, when you present your body upon the altar, however you move and in whatever circle, remember you are not your own, you belong to Another, and you belong to Another at such a cost. I would to God that I could present to you that cost today; the purchase price was the blood of Jesus. In Acts 20 it speaks of the assembly which he has purchased with the blood of his own" (v 28). Think of that! Think of the purchase price for you and me that we might be redeemed from evil. Does it not affect your soul afresh? When you are tempted of the enemy to yield your members back as those instruments of unrighteousness, remember the fact that it says, you are not your own, you have been bought with a price. O, what a price! I wonder, beloved brother beloved sister, if you would act any differently if the Lord Jesus was literally here; I wonder if you would. If He came into your house, would you change things? If He came into your business life would you change things? Would you do things differently if He were literally walking alongside you? Why should it not be that you change those things now? Your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who witnesses here to the Man above. Would you change your circumstances? Would you act differently? Would you do more for your parents? Would you be more obedient? Would you work harder for your employer? Would you? Do not forget, as we often say to the children, but I would remind all the saints, The eye of the Lord is upon us, it is never off us. He is looking for an answer. What is the answer? "Glorify now then God in your body" - in your body. Then it comes down to detail the way you think, the way you act, the way you act away from the saints, the way you act with the saints, the way you act in your household; the rights of Christ are at stake. Are you going to act as if you have come under His dominion and under His lordship? is power is undiminished, and as your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit you have One with you who can help you in the detailed working out of every day in the testimony for God's glory.
So I raise that question with you to think about solemnly - the rights of Christ. The rights of Christ remain wherever we are in whatever circumstance, however difficult, however pleasant, the rights of Christ remain in relation to you because of redemption and because He created you. That is a very sobering thought. Every time you draw a breath it is in the hand of God. None of us can add one day, one moment of a day, to our life; our breath is in His hands. He upholds all things in the creation; He has rights in every respect in relation to the creation, and the way we use it. It is a good thing to remind every one of us that we are not our own that we have been bought with a price. We speak about sacrifice but what is it compared with the infinite cost to the Father to give the Son in order that you and I might be bought for Himself. How affecting it is when you think of these things! What did He give up? It was not a life tainted by sin, marked by insubjection, no, far from it, it was the exact opposite to that; it was a life of perfection, it was a life of purity, and that not only in deed but in every thought of every moment of every day, completely and absolutely for the pleasure of the Father - "This is my beloved Son, in whom I have found my delight", Matt 3: 17. You may say the Father's emotions were stirred by what He found in the perfection of Christ. He looked down the history of mankind, through those great men, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Moses, David; He saw features of Christ; but then when Christ comes upon the scene the heavens were opened, that His very inwards, His inward breathings in relation to the manhood of Jesus might come out. Those secret years, those years of perfect public service, what they meant to the Father! He opened the heavens again upon Him and said, "This is My beloved Son, in whom I have found my delight': Matt 17: 5. That was the One who had to lie in the stillness of death if you and I were to be bought; His blood had to be shed. He had to lie for three days and three nights in the heart of the earth in order that the man that caused all the trouble should go out of the sight of God for ever, for ever. Brethren, what a price! In the light of that are we going to continue in the things in which we once walked? So what does he say? - "glorify now then God in your body". That is Romans 12, putting your body upon the altar - " glorify now then God in your body". It is not just in bondage to righteousness but there is a glory about it. Did you ever think of that, that it is possible through the members of your body to be able to use them to glorify God? Very attractive, is it not? The rights of Christ all lie in that because He has not only His rights creatorially but He has His rights because we have been bought with a price. So may that just affect you, beloved brother, beloved sister, afresh, and may it cause you to yield intelligently your members as instruments of righteousness that you might glorify God in your body. It is possible by the power of the Spirit to glorify God in your body, even in these days, in 1987; it is possible to move amongst your school mates as glorifying God in your body; it is possible to move amongst your work mates in the same way. Even though there has been a breakdown in household relations to a point that perhaps the world has never known before it is possible in that relationship to glorify God in your body. It is possible to hold those positions of authority that have been delegated to us as glorifying God in our body. The rights of Christ individually are effective; they have a very broad bearing. They are set forward in delegated authority, you may say - God, Christ, man, woman, children; there is a line of authority that comes down which has to be respected. It is very sobering to think of, the way the lordship of Christ is presented in relation to family relationships, and business relationships, and relationships with children and their parents; the rights of Christ enter into them. In the next chapter, chapter 7, the apostle speaks of the authority of the husband and the authority of the wife. There are divine rights that have been delegated to us, and we need to fill them out in our bodies. So wives can be subject to their husbands. It speaks in chapter 11 of a woman having authority on her head; there is what is attractive to heaven where the rights of Christ are recognised in the way He has put authority in the man. The rights of Christ are recognised in the way the children are obedient to their parents, the way they are subject. So in every one of these relationships, the way God has established His right is the way for our blessing. We may think that we know better particularly when we are younger, we think perhaps that we know better than our parents; then we have to come to it that it says, "Children, obey your parents" (Col 3: 20) and be submissive. Why? Because it is the way divine rights affect you. Then he speaks about the husbands too, does he not? "Fathers, do not vex your children". So that we all come into this line of authority that has come down from God. As filling out those relationships, as recognizing the authority of God in that way, we come into a sphere of blessing.
That leads me to Revelation; it is a very profound scripture, the rights of Christ are there, not only in relation to individuals but the rights of Christ relate to each local assembly. So I read this section, the way the Lord is presented judicially. It says, "And I turned back to see the voice which spoke with me; and having turned, I saw seven golden lamps, and in the midst of the seven lamps one like the Son of man". Think of the Lord Jesus presently moving amongst His local assemblies. He has a right to do it; He has a right to do it. He exercises that right as He walks amidst the seven lamps. It says, "I saw seven golden lamps"; that is very interesting, is it not? Lamps are light bearers; the local assembly is a place where divine light has been deposited and it speaks of golden lamps; that is, there is the glory of divine righteousness attached to that. You say, How can that be? When you read about those seven, How can that be? - "seven golden lamps". There are certain ones the Lord has to speak very severely to, and yet they are still referred to in this section as golden lamps. Whatever the state, there was that there which answered to divine light; even in Laodicea there was what answered to the divine light - "I counsel thee to buy of me gold purified by fire ... and eye salve ... that thou mayest see", chap 2: 18. In each one of these churches the Lord was asserting His own rights in relation to the conditions that existed. I suppose all know that these seven churches represent the phases of the assembly's history from Pentecost right up to the rapture; they refer to the things that are. But they are addressed to seven churches that existed; they were not all the churches, as we know; Colosse is not referred to, neither is Corinth, and there are others you could think of, but they were seven churches that co-existed. I think it would speak to us of the various states that may exist in assemblies, and the Lord's rights relate to each one.
So it says, "and having turned, I saw seven golden lamps, and in the midst of the seven lamps one like the Son of man". Think of the Lord Jesus asserting His rights in relation to each one. The Lord Jesus is asserting His rights at the present time in relation to London; asserting His rights, maybe, in relation to Croydon, and He is walking amidst the candlesticks. What is He going to find? He is moving here judicially in order that He might see, you may say, how the saints have answered locally to the light that has been vouchsafed. We are very privileged, beloved brethren, at the end of the dispensation to have a great amount of light, and the Lord is raising the question as to how much we have answered to the light that He has vouchsafed to us. So He moves here judicially, "clothed with a garment reaching to the feet, and girt about at the breasts with a golden girdle". His affections are restrained for the time because He is not appearing to the assemblies in relation to His bride, He is not presenting Himself in this part of Revelation in that aspect, neither is He presenting Himself in relation to the body, He is presenting Himself in relation to works. He says, "I know". In each of these assemblies He says, "I know". He is presenting Himself in relation to the way each of the assemblies has answered to the light that has been given to them. Then it says, "his head and hair white like white wool, as snow". Think of that! He is moving as One who has a great wealth of experience. That is to be respected, is it not? Think of the Lord presenting Himself to the local assembly as One who has a wealth of experience, and He is saying, Have you answered to the light. Are you prepared to answer to the Lord Jesus in His rights in relation to the light He has presented? But then it says, "and his eyes as a flame of fire". Think of Him burning up all the works that are just of man. The idea of the flame is "for also our God is a consuming fire", Heb.12: 29. Think of that! The Lord will not rest until He has removed every vestige of what is unrighteous in every place. Then it says, "and his feet like fine brass, as burning in a furnace; and his voice as the voice of many waters" . He is giving us a sense that His voice is powerful. The penetration of the Lord's present speaking, I think, is seen in the meeting for prophetic ministry, the voice of many waters; the Lord would present Himself each week in that way in His own particular voice to relate to the conditions in our localities, for encouragement, for strengthening, for education, in order that the light that has been presented to us might be answered to. Then it says, "and having in his right hand seven stars; and out of his mouth a sharp two-edged sword going forth; and his countenance as the sun shining in its power". The Lord's rights here are presented as absolute - "as the sun shines in its power". There is no greater luminary in the universe than the sun, and apart from the sun everything would become dead. Remove the sun, and immediately everything dies, not only because of heat, but because of light. The Lord Jesus is presenting Himself here to these seven assemblies in His right to an answer to the light presented from the countenance that shines in its power. The idea of the countenance is that whatever Christ is in His own Person, in the grace and the beauty of what He is, is towards the saints in grace. Wonderful thing that, that the Lord is towards us in His countenance as the sun shines in its power. I wonder if we can look,
in that way, the Lord in His face in relation to local conditions. It is very challenging, as to whether I can present the state of my local assembly before the Lord and feel things. Well, you come to this last verse, "The mystery of the seven stars which thou has seen on my right hand, and the seven golden lamps. The seven stars are angels of the seven assemblies; and the seven lamps are seven assemblies". What a thing to contemplate! They are on His right hand - "the seven stars which thou hast seen on my right hand". The right hand involves the place of power; but then, as these addresses open up, they are not only on His right hand, but they are in His right hand. Has the Lord relinquished that? A brother referred earlier to Sardis; it says, "These things saith he that has the seven Spirits of God, and the seven stars", chap 3: 1. He still has them. The Lord has not given up His right to any local assembly. It raises the question, beloved brethren, as to what constitutes a local assembly. I think that would be a very sobering and searching contemplation for any one of us here today, because it is apropos to present exercises among the saints.
One has been thinking of Corinthians; Paul addresses them in a very elevated way; he says, "Paul, a called apostle of Jesus Christ, by God's will, and Sosthenes the brother to the assembly of God which is in Corinth to those sanctified in Christ Jesus, called saints, with all that in every place call on the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, both theirs and ours", 1 Cor 1: 1,2. He addresses these saints at Corinth as the assembly of God in relation to what is universal. It is interesting that the Lord speaks of these local assemblies, as to the voice of the Spirit; He says, "what the Spirit says to the assemblies"; in other words, what is universal is in view. So it is interesting to ask ourselves, What constitutes a local assembly? Let us take Corinth for instance. Now the state at Corinth was bad; there was a man there who was incestuous; then you come later in the epistle to those who were teaching bad doctrine, saying that the resurrection had already taken place; there were those there who were reigning as kings, and yet the Lord through Paul addresses Corinth as a local assembly. I believe we have to find our way through the application of 2 Timothy 2 (in the great house and that sphere of things) and you would say, of course, 2 Corinthians 6. We need to be reminded, dear brethren, that Matthew 18 still stands: "where two or three are gathered together unto my name, there am I in the midst of them" (v 20). We have been taught that that is two or three assembly-minded persons. If you look at Corinth that is what you find; certain persons had written to Paul in the apostleship that he had, but instead of exercising it by going, he writes a letter in grace to the assembly of God which is in Corinth.
So it raises a question with every one of us as to whether we recognise the local assembly that God can address. If you addressed a letter to the local assembly in Richmond, where would it go? No doubt, dear brethren, it is a question for every one of us to recognise that it has a moral foundation, not "a name that thou livest and art dead" (Rev 3: 1), but a moral foundation - "Let every one who names the name of the Lord withdraw from iniquity", 2 Tim 2: 19. It is that character of persons that make up the local assembly. So Paul can speak of the assembly of God which is in Corinth because he anticipated that they would be able to deal with the incestuous man, and that his word would be acknowledged. I believe that is one feature of a local assembly, that it deals with evil, knowing that the Lord's rights exist. It is very interesting that, in these seven addresses, they are all to recognise the Spirit's voice: "let him hear what the Spirit says to the assemblies". So we need to have a universal ear to what the Spirit is saying to us, in our own locality but also what the Spirit says to the assemblies, in the plural, what He is saying to every locality. He does not say to Philadelphia, Thou hast a little power, you had better go over and help Laodicea, does He? Why is that? The reason is because the Lord has His own rights in Philadelphia and He has His own rights in Laodicea; He has His own rights in Sardis. They are still in His hand, they were never taken out of His hand and we need to recognise them. One of the things that comes out in these seven addresses, and I just appeal to the brethren to take note of it, is patience. He speaks to them of "the word of my patience". In relation to Ephesus Mr Darby says that which characterises power is patience. I wonder whether we acknowledge that power is characterised by patience. The Lord credits Philadelphia with having kept the word of His patience (see Rev 3: 10), and He says to Smyrna: "ye shall have tribulation ten days", chap 2: 10. That would involve that the saints have to exercise patience. Dear brethren, what we need with one another in our local assemblies is patience, in the knowledge that the Lord still maintains His rights in every local assembly. I say that, beloved brethren, because these simple fundamental facts need restating amongst us, because the Lord has His rights, even if there are only two or three. We may say, just to be practical, that certain ones may be slow in doing things; maybe you would like to see things resolved quickly, but the Lord perhaps would take ten days, whatever that might refer to for this assembly. Maybe it was in the history of things ten separate persecutions, maybe it was ten years, I do not know; whichever way you look at it, time was involved, and the Lord has a right to use time because He made it. We might think that things are not going quite as fast as we would like, but what we need to learn is the patience of the Christ. His rights remain in relation to each local assembly, and bear in mind that if there are the true features of the local assembly there, it is a golden lamp. Beloved brethren, what a fulness of light has been given to us: is there going to be a full answer to it, as the Lord walks amidst the candlesticks? He continues to walk, and He continues to hold those seven stars Himself; therefore every local assembly is directly related to Christ.
So we come back to Corinth and what do you find? Christ has been made unto us wisdom and redemption (see 1 Cor 1: 30); everything, you might say, is in the local assembly, it has a full resource within itself to resolve its own matters. That does not, of course, absolve us from our universal responsibilities; the Lord does not do that in these addresses; He appeals to every one to listen to what the Spirit has said in other assemblies. What is more, according to Corinthians, Christ is present in each locality. Everything is in Himself, to meet every exigency that appears, for a resolution for His glory. May the Lord help us, beloved brethren, in thinking on these things. Maybe I have presented it feebly, but I think you can see the bent of my thoughts, that we need to recognise the Lord's rights individually, and as recognising the Lord's rights individually there will be a fuller answer in that in our bodies we will glorify God, and as recognising the Lord's rights in our local assemblies there may be an answer to Christ's present affections in fulness. May it be so for His Name's sake.
RICHMOND
10 October 1987
THE CHILDREN'S LESSONS
We know that the Lord Jesus was - and surely is - lovingly interested in children of all ages. More than once He spoke to the great apostles by this term of endearment and we know that He took the little ones into His arms and cherished them. No doubt the old and the young are looked upon as being able to learn the lessons that He came to teach. He even watched the young children at play in the market-places and saw that sometimes they did not keep the rules of their games of weddings and funerals. Indeed, He gave the grown-ups a lesson from this! On the one hand they should have rejoiced in spirit as if dancing, because the Son of man Himself was amongst them: on the other hand they should have felt more deeply the fact that it had been necessary for John the baptist to suffer in calling them to repentance.
The lessons that the heavenly Teacher gave were often in the form of word-pictures relating to His own wonderful creation. He told earthly stories with heavenly meanings. He spoke of trees, flowers, animals, fishes, moths and even of insects. Count up and you will find from the Gospels about seventy familiar things in the course of His lessons. It is wonderful, too, that His earliest teaching was not in criticism, nor by way of correction, but He pronounced a nine-fold blessing upon those who would hear and do those things that He taught.
For a period of two years the apostle Paul taught in a school at Ephesus and, as a special mark of God's presence, he wrought "no ordinary miracles" of healing. It is interesting that our word 'school' comes from an older language where it meant a place where persons spent their leisure time talking over matters of importance to them. Paul was a teacher by divine gift and we can say that his ministry, with that of others in New Testament times, provides for the needs of believers until the Lord shall come. Part of Paul's teaching was that slaves should obey their masters, where there might be no affection; how much rather therefore should children obey their parents, where there is a special love known, shown and enjoyed! Paul wrote that "this is pleasing in the Lord". Are you pleasing to Him?
J.C.Evershed