THE MYSTERY OF PIETY
[p. 31] THE MYSTERY OF PIETY
Ques Is it one great thought of the assembly that it is God’s house?
CAC I trust that we really value the privilege of forming part of God’s house and having a place in His assembly. It is a place where we have to learn how to behave ourselves. The ways and manners of the world will not do for God’s house. We have to learn to set them aside and to acquire the manners suitable to God’s house, God’s assembly. Wonderful things are said of the assembly, “the assembly of the living God”, the place where God dwells, His house. It is a place where everyone must learn how to conduct himself or herself. There is a place for each servant, each vessel, and piety is the livery; each one must wear that. There is nothing much more important than piety.
Rem And this does not contemplate us as come together but as before men.
CAC Yes. It is the assembly as “the pillar and base of the truth”. It is God’s pillar in this world, always standing. There is stands. It is a reference to Genesis 28: 10 - 22, Jacob at Bethel. He “took the stone ..., and set it up for a pillar, and poured oil on the top of it. And he called the name of that place Beth-el [house of God] ... . And this stone, which I have set up for a pillar, shall be God’s house”. There is the thought of a pillar there. We have to recognise that God’s pillar is in this world, set up in the power of the anointing; therefore there is ability to maintain the truth in the Spirit. There is power to maintain the truth in the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit will never deviate from the truth. That is very plain.
Rem He is “the Spirit of truth”.
CAC Yes. “The Spirit is the truth” (1 John 5: 6). The Spirit is never going to move a hair’s breadth from the truth.
[p. 32] One Person, the Spirit of God here, will stand by the truth.
Our great privilege is that we are to stand by the Spirit of God; that is how we become the pillar. If I stand by the Spirit of God, then I can be a pillar. We may be conscious that we are a poor and feeble folk, and know that people laugh at us as they did in Nehemiah’s day, saying, “Even that which they build, if a fox went up, it would break down their stone wall” (Nehemiah 4: 3). But we are identified with God’s pillar and with the Holy Spirit. An old man used to say to us, ‘Boys, keep on good terms with the Holy Spirit’.
The Holy Spirit is never going to deviate from the truth and, by God’s grace, we are going to stand by the truth and by the Spirit and count on God to support us all through.
The house of God is marked distinctively by confession. “And confessedly the mystery of piety is great”. That confession marks the house of God. Each one in the house is marked by that confession. In one sense the support of God’s pillar is piety. Not one of us here will be any good for the pillar or suitable companions for the Holy Spirit if not marked by piety.
Ques. What is piety?
CAC Piety at the present time is a mystery. It is not mysterious but you have to be instructed, initiated into it, let into the secret of it. Piety is the secret of the people of God; we must be let into the secret to know it. It is the greatest favour to be let into it, so as to become really pious. These six things that follow (verse 16) show us what the character of piety is. They are not mentioned in historical order at all, not put together in order of time. For example, Jesus was received up in glory before He was preached among the nations. But they are put in the order in which we have to take them up spiritually to be instructed in the mystery of piety.
Firstly “God has been manifested in flesh”. God has actually brought to pass what He had in His mind from the very beginning. “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness” (Genesis 1: 26). Man should be in His image and likeness. God wanted to give expression to Himself, the invisible God. As long as He was that, He could never be known. We could not know the invisible God.
Rem “Whom no man has seen, nor is able to see” (1 Timothy 6: 16). “No one has seen God at any time” (John 1: 18).
CAC We can know about Him in creation, “both his eternal power and divinity” (Romans 1: 20), but that does not give us to know Him. Just as we might examine a table or a watch in which we could see the ability of the workman, but not the workman himself. Creation does not make God known to me. He wished to be known. So the first thing is the true knowledge of God as manifested in flesh in Christ. What is going to make piety work? We want the spring as with a clock. The spring is, first, what God has set forth of Himself in Christ. We were in flesh as created. He would come very near to us “in flesh”, “manifested in flesh”. A nobleman was once calling this in question and, pointing to some ants, said, ‘How could I make myself known to them?’ A sister answered, ‘You could do it very well if you could become one of them’. That was very fine. It is the way God has taken. A lowly Man in this world, but who could say, “Before Abraham was, I am”.
‘Thou wart the image, Lord, in lowly guise, Of the Invisible to mortal eyes’.
It is a wonderful thing to consider as we look at Jesus. A lowly Man with no position, no wealth (He had not a penny), but “who is over all, God blessed for ever” (Romans 9: 5). A Man feeling, speaking, etc., but all that comes out in the expression of God. We might well say that “the mystery of piety is great”. We confess that it is great. What marks all who are in the house is the confession that God is fully revealed in a Man. There are no questions, no misgivings, we know the blessed God Himself revealed in Jesus. There things get a place in our hearts and form a secret spring that sets piety in movement. How it would affect me and bring [p. 34] everything in my life under the influence of what God is!
God has His place in everything in the hearts and lives of those who compose His house.
Rem We are controlled from inside.
CAC Yes, and with a view to the same kind of thing coming out in our flesh that came out in the flesh of Jesus.
God is dwelling here is His house. He was here in Jesus, and now by the Holy Spirit in His house. We are in His house and if marked by piety we shall learn to give all these things their place.
Secondly, “Has been justified in the Spirit”. We learn to recognise that. Though everything that was of God and pleasing to God was in Jesus, it was never honoured by men, not even by those nearest to Him. “Neither did his brethren believe on him” (John 7: 5), and on one occasion His relatives “went out to lay hold on him” (Mark 3: 21). He was not justified in this world. Those thirty years of the private life of Jesus (”the hidden manna”) were justified by the Holy Spirit coming down on Him (Matthew 3: 16, 17). The people who lived in the same house with Him did not justify Him, but the Spirit did. The Spirit justified Him in all His works. He was left alone of men but the Spirit justified Him. Are we prepared to follow One who was not justified by men but always justified in Spirit? Piety would be content with that, no vindication or justification by men but content to be justified by the Spirit. If the Spirit justifies, it does not matter who condemns. The blessed Lord was always justified in Spirit.
Thirdly, “Has appeared to angels”. Piety always takes account of the angels.
Rem “On account of the angels” (1 Corinthians 11: 10).
CAC Piety takes account of unseen spectators. Every step in the pathway of Jesus was followed with intense interest by myriads of angels. See them at His birth, in the wilderness and in the garden. We are always under the observation of angels. It is a great mark of piety to recognise the [p. 35] angels. Angels are mentioned 172 times in the New Testament. They are unseen spectators. With what adoring delight they followed Jesus! They never had to learn obedience, they had always been obedient. And now they saw the One whom they worshipped (”When he brings in the firstborn into the habitable world, he says, And let all God’s angels worship him”, Hebrews 1: 6), their Creator, come down and learning obedience, what He had never done before. They watched it and wondered at it. Obedience at the cost of suffering was seen in His sufferings. What a sight for them! They sat “one at the head and one at the feet, where the body of Jesus had lain” (John 20: 12). “Which angels desire to look into” (1 Peter 1: 12). It is part of piety to recognise that. Angels are watching us. As another has said, we are ‘a lesson-book for angels’. “In order that now to the principalities and authorities in the heavenlies might be made known through the assembly the all-various wisdom of God” (Ephesians 3: 10). Think of angels looking down at what we do in the assembly. What would they think if they saw a woman with her head uncovered or with her hair cut off? Angels would be perfectly horrified at a woman having her “glory” cut off (1 Corinthians 11: 15).
“Therefore ought the woman to have authority on her head, on account of the angels” (verse 10), not because there are any men looking on. It is part of God’s wisdom. Man prays with head uncovered. The truth of headship is to govern all in the assembly. The question is, what do the angels think? They are watching us when the brethren are not. What about the angels? They are watching.
Rem After the obedience they saw in Jesus, they could not tolerate lawlessness in us.
CAC Obedience, dependence and subjection were all seen in perfection in Him.
Fourthly, “Has been preached among the nations”. The whole scope of the testimony of grace has been preached among the nations. We have to be careful that we do not belie or spoil that testimony. Gehazi spoiled the testimony. A [p. 36] Gentile had been cleansed and he wanted to pay a very large sum for it, but that would not be consistent with the grace of God, and the prophet would not have it. Naaman is sent back to testify of free grace to the Gentiles in Syria. But Gehazi by his subsequent actions would leave an impression of covetousness and selfishness on Naaman’s mind. It is a dreadful thing if a Christian leaves that impression on the world. What sort of conduct are you going to show to the Gentiles? A spirit of grace? We must take heed that we do not belie the preaching or spoil the testimony. A man to whom I was seeking to present the gospel the other day said to me, ‘I have had a lot of nasty things done to me in my life and they have all been done by professing Christians. I do not want to hear what you have to say’. Those ‘nasty things’ were not piety. We need to be careful in our ways with men that we do not spoil the testimony of God. It is a very important part of piety.
Fifthly, “Has been believed on in the world”. There is a great company of persons in this world who have believed on Jesus in whom God has manifested Himself. It is God’s treasure, the household of faith. We should like to know every one of them. They are the only thing of real interest to us in the world. Our interests, service and care are bound up with those people. They do not believe in man after the order of Adam at all but in the Man in the image of God. Piety takes account of them all. We are linked in our affections with all the people of God; we have a vital link with them.
Ques. Past and present?
CAC Yes, quite so. You seek to get into touch with them and to help them to believe. John’s first epistle is to those who have believed. All our confidence and joy is centred in the Man who is the image and likeness of God.
Sixthly, “Has been received up in glory”. Piety recognises the present place of the Lord Jesus Christ in heaven. Everything now for us turns on the place where Christ is. If Christ were on earth, earth would be the place for us. The German emperor once sat down by mistake at the wrong end of the [p. 37] table, at the foot of the table. His attendants drew his attention to the mistake he had made, but he answered, ‘Where I sit is the head of the table’. This may serve as an illustration. Where Christ sits is the place of importance. If He were on earth we would like to build a wonderful place for Him. He will have one.
Luke 9: 51, where we come to “the days of his receiving up”, is the turning-point in the gospel. After that the Lord says to the seventy, “rejoice that your names are written in the heavens” (chapter 10: 20). Our place is where Christ has His place. He has been received up. Everything in Him was suitable to be received up. He was invested with a glory suitable to be received up. Piety would cultivate those things that will be received up in glory. God is our glory now. It is said of Israel that “they changed their glory into the similitude of an ox that eateth grass” (Psalm 106: 20). We often change our glory, what we know of God. We are often ready to give it up for something worthless. Jesus went up in the glory of it all.
Rem He adorns heaven.
CAC He has carried into heaven what adorns it. We are here to be waiting for the moment when we will be received up. Our names are there now. We are citizens of heaven. Enoch was translated, but “before his translation he has the testimony that he had pleased God” (Hebrews 11: 5). Enoch was not missed in the theatres and art galleries of the world; he was not always reading newspapers, etc. “Enoch walked with God”, and he went on walking with God higher up. “He was not, for God took him” (Genesis 5: 24).
It is very helpful to put these things together as forming the hidden spring of piety in our souls; as they are in us and abound, they qualify us for the house of God, the assembly of the living God. We shall stand firm for God “as mount Zion, which cannot be moved” (Psalm 125: 1), and God will be known in His house.