DIVINE SUPPORT AND PROTECTION
[p. 78] DIVINE SUPPORT AND PROTECTION
Acts 7: 59, 60; Acts 8: 1 - 6; Acts 9: 1 - 6; 2 Timothy 4: 16 - 18
What I desire to show you, beloved friends, is the character of that which receives divine support and protection in this world. That there is such a thing as divine support and protection is, I suppose, admitted by all, even in the christian world around. Nations and men assume that God acts in protection and support; but I desire to show what it is that God is supporting. It is easy to show what He is not supporting; that would not be a very difficult task. There is one thing perfectly evident that He is not supporting — the public body of christians: I think there is very good evidence that He is opposed to it. I think that God has given very distinct evidence of His disapproval of what is going on around us. God has His own way of indicating His pleasure and displeasure; and those who have eyes can see what God supports, and what He opposes, so that it would not be a difficult task to show that the public body called christians at the present time is not receiving any support from God.
Now, I assume, as christians here each one would desire to be conscious of the support of God, and of the protection of God. I would call attention to the way God honoured and supported Christ; to show how God signalises Christ, and that in honouring, defending and supporting Him, God will not honour anything other than that which is of Christ.
Now the Lord, beloved friends, was here in the world on the part of God. It is a very great thing to read the gospels in this light, that He came into this world on the part of God. He came knowing full well what was in it; He was well acquainted with the history of the world, and He came into it with the full knowledge of all, and in perfect sympathy with every thought that was in the heart of God.
[p. 79] He came into it as shown in the words; “Lo, I come to do thy will, O God”, Hebrews 10: 9. Now, that was a much weightier undertaking than we think; but the Lord had weighed everything, and He came into the world fully gauging every requirement of God, and fully estimating what He had to contend with in carrying it out. He came into this world as the vessel of divine glory. No greater subject of meditation could present itself to you than the presence of Christ as Son of God in Manhood. His heart was with God, and He thought with God, and took everything into account as it affected God. That was Christ here.
“The heavens declare the glory of God”, Psalm 19: 1; the earth was a dark spot in the universe, and what made it dark was that it was contrary to His will. What the Lord undertook was to establish the glory of God down here where everything was opposed to it. There was an Object on earth in which heavenly intelligences could see divine glory. Christ brought in, morally, all that was delightful in heaven; the glory of God shone down here. Take that in and you will have an idea of the ark of the covenant. Political, religious and social activity was brought in in opposition to that: “Take counsel together, against the Lord, and against his anointed”, Psalm 2: 2. Every element of the world was set against the anointed one of God. The anointed Man was the Man here for God; God anointed the vessel of His glory. “I delight to do thy will, O my God”. Every element was set in movement against that. Look at Him as He comes up out of the waters of baptism! His baptism was to fulfil all righteousness. God anointed the praying, dependent Man.
The Lord goes down before the world, but I want to show you what God vindicates and supports and protects. He “was transfigured before them ... and his raiment was white as the light”, Matthew 17: 2.
[p. 80] You cannot explain that; He was transfigured with the glory He was entitled to, but instead of remaining in the glory, He goes down deliberately to die. Moses and Elias were talking about Him, about His death; they “spake of his decease which he should accomplish at Jerusalem”, Luke 9: 31. He goes down deliberately to die; there was deliberate intent. One could dwell on the journey, on the scene in Gethsemane, but I only allude to them that you might have Christ before you as the ark of the covenant as He went down; apparently the powers of the world overcame Him, but the issue was between God and the world. It remained for God to show where right was.
Now the resurrection of Christ was not public, nor were the events connected with it. There were certain public events, but the world knew nothing, nor did it see Christ after resurrection. The world saw Him on the cross; He was there for God’s will. He was there for God; and I have often thought of the pleasure God found in Christ in the way He removed the man that grieved God’s heart. He was terminating the course of a man who had been an occasion of grievance to the heart of God. He was crucified in weakness; He went down before all the eyes of the world publicly.
To Israel He was as One having no beauty, but beauty was there. There were those who saw the beauty, to whom the light of the Lord shone, and who appreciated Him. The Lord had attracted a company to Himself; He had touched hearts and they saw His beauty.
I want to show that God vindicates Christ publicly by giving the Spirit to His disciples. I do verily believe that the gift of the Spirit was God’s way of vindicating Christ. The issue was between Christ and the world, and God would decide the matter.
[p. 81] The Jews, in putting Christ to death, believed they were acting for God. But was God with them? Peter said, “God was with him” (Acts 10: 38), but the Jews denied it. The Spirit convinced “the world, of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment”, John 16: 8. What did the Spirit establish here? He established that Jesus was vindicated! The resurrection was not public (although that vindicated Christ), but the Spirit was public. For fifty days it was undecided whom God supported, but He gave the Spirit to the followers of Jesus. What is the Spirit? The Spirit was the power by which Christ was raised, and the power by which the disciples were identified with the testimony. He was the power by which they were to be supported in their testimony. God could in that way show what He would support. He was supporting Israel in the days of David and Solomon, but that support was now withdrawn. Moses and Joshua had support but it is accorded now to those that attach themselves to Christ.
Stephen presents the case, as it were, for God in regard of Israel, filling the position in the Spirit of Christ. It was a critical moment; but his face reflected what was in heaven; “Lord, lay not this sin to their charge”, Acts 7: 60. So we see that God supported Stephen; He could have rescued him from the stones of his persecutors. Paul was stoned to death afterwards, and he rose up and went into the city; God could have raised up Stephen, but it was far more glorious for Stephen to go down. Stephen was in perfect accord with the ark of the covenant. In crossing the Jordan there were two thousand cubits between the ark and the camp. Stephen was allowed to follow the ark; he was equal to it by divine support. Think of the power he is able to express in the presence of the bitterest opposition, the Spirit of Christ when he went down into the waters of death. He was wholly conformed to [p. 82] Christ; he did not seek deliverance. Stephen was in the way, and he saw the glory; the end of that way was death, but the end of that death was glory! The way is through death, that is God’s way. He asks for no deliverance, but he died with feelings of affection for Israel. He loved Israel, and the hopes of Israel were buried with him for the moment, and though Stephen was not allowed to remain for the testimony, yet his testimony lives. God saw to it that the light of that man’s testimony should find a vessel in Saul, a man who represented the power of the wicked one for the moment.
I want to touch on the power of the kingdom. The kingdom is for the support of the testimony. David represented the kingdom, and what marked David was unwavering interest in the ark. Now Saul is a representative of the power of the world. He not only attacked the assembly corporately, but privately; he acted with intelligence and determination to carry out his designs, he visited the homes where the saints lived. He held great power; he meant to obliterate the light. God had placed a greater power in the hands of Christ; that is the kingdom. Now God brought Saul down; the Lord spoke to him; it was the meeting of two great forces, nothing could be more interesting. Saul had the power; he had letters from the high priest, he was the representative of the power of the world, but God brought Saul down. The great meeting had taken place; Christ overcame. It was an eventful meeting, the greatest that had ever taken place. It brought Saul down: “Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me?”
He wrought in Saul what corresponds to Himself, for Paul says “Lord, what wilt thou have me to do?”. That is the Spirit of Christ; that is the attitude of the Lord with regard to God; that is the ground to be on. In that man you have a vessel for Stephen’s [p. 83] testimony; his testimony was not buried. Paul’s testimony was precious; he says that his testimony was not bound. The testimony was to take the form of love to man in a vessel to be formed after Christ; now that was Paul. You know Paul’s history; Paul should always be studied after Christ, I have scripture for that: “Be ye followers of me, even as I also am of Christ”, 1 Corinthians 11: 1. What a man he was! how the Spirit of Christ came out in him. To the Corinthians he sent Timothy, “my beloved and faithful child in the Lord, who shall put you in mind of my ways as they are in Christ”, 1 Corinthians 4: 17. See how the Spirit of Christ came out in Paul, he said: ‘I can only bring judgment; instead of coming myself, I send my son to you, my dearly beloved son, he will put you in mind of my ways as they are in Christ’. That was the Spirit of Christ. Everywhere he went he was supported and protected. Few in our days know what it is to be forsaken of the saints, and to have to say at a moment when you need support more than at any other time, “No man stood with me”, 2 Timothy 4: 16. At one time he represented the power of the world against Christ; now he represents the power of Christ against the world. He stood before the emperor — the Lord stood with him; the Lord was not ashamed of His servant Paul. He breathes out the spirit of Christ; when all forsook him he says, “I pray God that it may not be laid to their charge”.
So I understand in 2 Timothy the apostle calls attention to the standard. He had carried the testimony of God into a certain position and set up the standard; we are not to recede from that. We are called upon to support the testimony, Paul’s testimony. How is it to be? In accordance with the ark of the covenant; that is to be the character of the vessel. We have light; the Lord supports that in a vessel suited to it.
[p. 84] So He will stand by each one of us; “When I am weak, then am I strong” (2 Corinthians 12: 10), no self-consciousness there; “Behold, he prayeth”, the Lord said of him to Ananias. “Behold, he prayeth” is a most wonderful commendation.