GOD'S KING
GOD’S KING
What we find unfolded in Psalm 20 is that there is trouble in the world, and in Psalm 21 we get enemies of God and His King. It is a sorrowful fact, but one that has always existed from the time that sin came in, of which it is the fruit, i.e., that there is trouble in this world, and enemies of God. Death is perhaps the [p. 269] chief trouble man has to meet, and Scripture speaks of this also as an enemy, though it is not the point here. It destroys all that man sets his heart upon down here, upsets all his plans, and breaks up all the natural relationships which God Himself has formed. The Lord Jesus Christ who is God’s King here spoken of, had to meet both trouble and enemies while here, for He was in Himself the testimony of God on earth, and ‘the truth’. In Psalm 21 we get mention of His enemies, and whose right hand shall find out those who hate Him, etc. Nothing could be worse than what has already taken place as to the hatred and enmity of man, when this reached its climax against God’s testimony in cutting off His King in death from the earth! And ever since then man has continued to make a dead set against the testimony of God here: and mark, it is not against those in it, but against God Himself and His truth. In Psalm 21 we find the outlet from both trouble and enemies. God has set His King where neither trouble or enemies can come, and Stephen who had to encounter both for the testimony here saw Him there. Looking up to heaven He saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing at His right hand. Death is the answer and end of trouble, and a place in resurrection life at God’s right hand is the answer to enemies! They are left behind in the scene where they belong, and resurrection glory is the entrance upon that which is endless! “He asked life of thee, and thou gayest it him, length of days for ever and ever”. And what has become the outlet from trouble and enemies for Christ has become ours. When we get in spirit outside this scene we leave it all behind and present peace is the result. Our path is now to identify ourselves with the testimony of God in connection with His King, accepting both trouble and enemies for His sake and thereafter we shall reign with Him. We are called to trouble here, for “in the world ye shall have tribulation”, and as surely as we are set [p. 270] upon identification with the testimony of God, so surely must we suffer. But to identify ourselves with Christ and His interests now is to have present peace in Himself in the very midst of trouble and enemies, and when the glory shall be revealed all will come to life as to where truth has been, and those who were connected with it here. Then too, shall the enemies of God and trouble be scattered in judgment. “Thou shalt make them as a fiery oven in the time of thine anger”. In Psalm 22 we have another point which refers to the present time. “I will declare thy name unto my brethren: in the midst of the congregation will I praise thee”. This is Christ identifying Himself with His brethren in the assembly now, and declaring the Father’s name to them. On the one hand it is given us to stand for His testimony and interests here where He was cut off and had nothing, and at the same time to recognise with gladness of heart that He identifies Himself with us in present association and relationship. May we awake more to a sense of what we are called to in a world of trouble and enemies, i.e., to suffer with Him now and hereafter to reign with Him.
1898.
Revelation 21 Every mark, every characteristic of the heavenly city is to be formed down here. See the contrast between Paul and John. John does not carry the church to heaven, Paul does. You get in Revelation, “Because thou hast kept the word of my patience I also will keep thee.. .”. The church is included in the twenty-four elders but it is not distinguished. On the other hand the testimony of Paul carries the church to heaven. Paul gives us the rapture and the [p. 271] place of the church in Ephesians. Every characteristic of the heavenly city must be gained here. You get Christ cleansing the church, all that is down here. He is going to present the church to Himself and He would not present anything to Himself which was unsuitable to Himself; all is effected down here by the washing of water and the conformative working of the Spirit of God down here. John brings the church out of heaven bearing the marks of identification with the whole course of God’s ways down here. There is the record in the heavenly city of all the detail of God’s ways down here. The church does not gain in heaven, it is presented in heaven, but comes out in all the beauty of the characteristics it has gained down here. We want to apprehend not what the church is in its ruin, but what it is in the mind of God. The church has the glory of God — glory is distinction in contrast to that which has been refused here.
We get the glory of man in Babylon — Nebuchadnezzar the head of gold — gold is symbolic of glory. The glory of God is where everything of God harmonises. The source of human glory is not God, it is derived from man. In the transfiguration we see the contrast — He received from God the Father honour and glory. The names of the twelve tribes show that nothing of God can fail; the twelve tribes record God’s faithfulness, it is recorded in the church. Then the twelve apostles — we get recorded those who were the special vessels. So there is the testimony of God’s faithfulness in regard to the twelve tribes, and God will not allow the apostles’ names to be forgotten (name means ‘renown’).
The angel measures the city with the golden reed — there is no trace of sin because Christ was made sin here; all in the city answers to the strict requirements of divine righteousness — not one single trace of that for which Christ suffered. The application of this now is that we are made the righteousness of God.
[p. 272] In Christ we are outside of all connection with sin that we may be the expression of the righteousness of God. God gives the answer to this in the holy city. The holy city is set forth as meeting every demand of divine righteousness, it is the witness of divine righteousness, meeting every requirement of the measuring reed of the angel.
How could saints have access to the presence of God if they were not before Him entirely apart from sin in the grace of God! It comes out here in the new man — saints walking after God. God has already given the answer to it in the new man. There are three things: foundation of precious stones; the gates; the street. The precious stones are reflective; reflect the nature of God. The virtue of precious stones is that they reflect the light and in various ways, not all in the same way — all comes out in the saints now. He has given us the appreciation of His love, then we get reflection, “We love him because he first loved us”. We love saints because God loves us. God is the fountain of all love; God works in you the appreciation of His love; in that way the nature of God is reflected and shines in the precious stones; all are brought into the light and reflect the light. God has pleasure in that which is moral — that which is an answer to Himself. Every adornment and characteristic of the holy city is gained down here. There is the temple there; all the ways of God are gathered up in the holy city, nothing of them is lost, ‘no need of the sun to shine in it’ — no need of man’s mind — all perfectly understood in the light of God. We get darkness here, light there — sin here, holiness there — the nature of God coming out there, the lust of the flesh here. The nations shall walk in the light of it — they shall apprehend in the holy city the great expression of the grace of God.
Croydon, 1899.
[p. 273] Deuteronomy 10; Romans 12 We get in these Scriptures two points which though widely apart as given here, in reality go together. A principle underlines what the ten commandments contain and this is of all importance to apprehend. ‘The letter killeth’, but we may know the declaration of God’s will. There was nothing of this given to Adam, nothing moral, but rather arbitrary. After God had redeemed a people out of the world He saw fit to give a declaration of His will. The tables of stone were broken, but it must stand as a declaration of the divine will. What is the law of God? It is love and the law of God, i.e., what God is, is the principle that is to govern the world. Man was to be ruled by the love of God, and in return he was to love his neighbour. This is the underlying principle. In Psalm 40 we find God vindicated by a man upon earth. The law of God was within the heart of Christ, and this was the doing of God’s will in love. So what was to govern the universe was there in His heart! The man morally who brought sacrifices was removed in His death, and He Himself was left as the expression of the law and will of God, i.e., the ruling spirit of love, the man offensive to God being removed according to His glory. This was the tables in the ark. God is to be all in all in the universe. God presents Himself in grace first in testimony in order to save and disentangle man from all that is contrary to Him. Thus the kingdom is established in his heart in order to deliver him from the enemy’s kingdom. When grace is established then divine teaching comes in, and this is the love of God made known consciously in the soul. This will never fail until we are according to glory and in the glory. It is true practical sanctification. No one can be sanctified except by the knowledge of divine love which instructs in the will of God. We are set apart for God from an evil world by the [p. 274] knowledge of divine love. In Romans 12 we prove by practical walk the declaration of the will of God, and then the knowledge of divine love. We measure ourselves in the presence of this love, and are able to arrive at the true judgment of self and man. ‘Oh, keep us, Love divine, near Thee, that we our nothingness may know’. Here we are capable of serving God, for in the presence of divine love we learn our nothingness and become sober. Next we recognise the one body, and that demands that each member should wait upon God for His will towards the members, one of another. Every social link is second to our place in the body and our function or office there. Each one has a place there given by the Holy Spirit who baptises into it. Why are we to “show mercy with cheerfulness”? Because we are ruled by the love of God. Why is a teacher to wait on His teaching? Because He commands the love of the saints. The least thing is done in a right way because the spring of it all is divine love.
1899.