PUBLIC SERVICE
[p. 318] PUBLIC SERVICE
I have been thinking of certain public features that mark the present time, the end, as I may say, of this wonderful dispensation; corresponding somewhat with the end of the previous one. Certain public features marked the end of the Jewish dispensation. There were also private features, that is to say, what transpired in the upper room at Jerusalem on the evening of the Lord’s crucifixion, and other like occurrences. So there are private features today, features that are not taken account of currently in a public way; they influence what is public, but they remain mysterious and private, known to those who love the Lord. The public features may be known to others and may be written about by others, but the private features are known only to those who love the Lord.
We have here, alluded to by the Lord Himself, a certain action of Pilate, who was the governor of Judaea; and the fall of the tower of Siloam and the destruction of eighteen persons by it. Then we have alluded to, in a parabolic way, the whole Jewish system viewed, as you will observe, under the figure of the fig-tree. These are in the main public things. And then we have mentioned by the Spirit the service of the Lord Jesus; not His private service, but His public service; He was serving in the synagogue on the sabbath.
It is important that we should take account of these public matters. Some make much of them, however, and ignore the private side. We hear much of public occurrences in the East, pointing to the end of things, and these occurrences cannot but be of [p. 319] interest, but they are not the main guide for the saints at the present time. The private features are the surer. I was seeking to illustrate this in speaking to a sister today (I had not thought of it before). If a man of importance, of dignity, is away from his house and his family, and his return is left uncertain — purposely so — we do not look for the farm-hands or servants generally to have the first tidings of his return, we rather seek to get near to those whom he loves and who love him. If things be in secret, and there are any inklings of information as to his return, we may be assured that those whom he loves, his wife and his family, will have the first.
So it is that the Lord has left, designedly, the time of His return in uncertainty, as regards ourselves; He has, however, assured us that He comes quickly. Others may assume that they can fix the date. The false wife in Proverbs (as an illustration) says, The husband is away from home, he has gone on a long journey, he has taken a bag of money with him; (Proverbs 7:19,20). All that she says is to convey the impression that the period of his absence is to be extended and long. She says he will return at the time of the full moon; she puts it in the distance, not the new moon, but the full moon. Her great antitype, the Babylonish system, says, “I sit a queen, and am no widow, and shall see no sorrow” (Revelation 18:7) — the husband is ignored by her. She is riding upon the beast, she is occupied guiltily with the kings of the earth; as for the coming of the Lord, it is left out. Another, a wicked servant, says, “My lord” (he acknowledges his lord) “delayeth his coming” — he does not regret it — and, in the meantime, he smites his fellow-servants; (Matthew 24: 48,49).
So that you see how those who are non-lovers of Christ, guilty non-lovers of Christ, put His coming off, or ignore it altogether; whereas, “he which testifieth these things”, in His very last words to us,
says, “Surely I come quickly”, and the lovers say, “Even so, come, Lord Jesus”, (Revelation 22:20). These are the ones who get the inklings of it; whatever waves of His power are acting, they touch them first, it is quite obvious. So that the inward or private signs or intimations of the coming of the Lord are much surer than the external ones. The external ones, these international events, may confirm our spiritual impressions, but these latter afford the primary guidance. The lovers of God and the lovers of Christ are occupied with the works of God; they recognise the course of this world of course — Scripture does, specially the book of Revelation — but the positive thing is what we should look for and rely on; what the Holy Spirit is doing in consonance with Christ in heaven, how He is acting in the people of the Lord, the members of the assembly, the members of His body. The members of the body of Christ come directly under His influence. These outer things, international occurrences, do not come under His influence directly; they do not even come under the direct government of God, but only His indirect government. We look for what is going on within; as I said in my illustration, what the wife knows, what the children know, they may not be able to tell you in so many words, but they have got impressions, they have got inklings, and they are governed accordingly.
So we find the Lord saying in another parable — the parable of the virgins — that at midnight there was a cry, “Behold, the bridegroom; go forth to meet him”, (Matthew 25:6). That was not an appeal to the nations, it was an appeal to the lovers of Christ. There were those who had that place — five of them were foolish, and five of them were wise, but there was a movement, it was a spiritual movement, it was a movement in answer to a cry: “Behold, the bridegroom”. You see, it was an appeal to affection, not simply that He comes, but, “Behold, the bridegroom”.
The Holy Spirit would occupy the hearts of the saints with Christ. There was a movement, and it took the form of preparation and going forth to meet a person. How real it was! It was not an event that was called attention to, but a person; and those in direct relationship with Christ come under the influence of it first; that is where you get the inkling. The wise virgins knew what was necessary and had oil in their lamps. The oil points to the presence in them of the Spirit of God. The foolish virgins were without it, their lamps went out; whereas the five wise virgins, that is to say, those who are real christians, and who really love Christ, those who have the Spirit of God — they go to meet Him and go in to the wedding with Him. They are the ones to be noted; there is light in their movements. See what they are doing!
Now, certain came to the Lord and called His attention to what Pilate had done. It was an atrocious act, a cruel thing, to mix with the sacrifices the blood of certain Galileans. It does not appear that they were vicious people; they were Galileans. Our times have been marked by such public occurrences, and we may be as much misled in regard to them as these people were in regard to Pilate’s atrocious act. The Lord neither condemns Pilate nor justifies his victims. It is a question of seeing how matters are at the present time; why in the government of God such awful calamities, as we may say, come over the world, over christendom. Perhaps we say, Certain nations are more wicked. Will the Lord listen to us? No; He will not listen to us. Let us not flatter ourselves that our immediate nation or nations are any better. The Lord would wish us to have a right understanding of things; He says, “I tell you ... except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish”. Terrible prospect! It is well that the people of God should [p. 322] have a right view of things; He says, “Ye shall all likewise perish”.
And then there are great physical and other such catastrophes, the late war, earthquakes, fires and the like, causing immense damage — such as the fall of the tower of Siloam; we are not to be deceived by such happenings. Unless they have a moral effect upon us, they are lost upon us; we may talk about them, write about them, and fix dates by them, and say, The end of things is at hand, but if there is no moral effect, these things are lost upon us. In the government of God He allows them to arouse repentance, so that at least some might be saved. Think of the awfulness — as you look abroad today on this favoured part of the world, western Europe and its outgoings — of what is going to happen to it! The Lord in one short sentence shows the present bearing of it — “Except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish”. What a serious matter this is! As we look at this nation and all the nations and their enterprises, what effect has what God allows in His government on them! There is utter indifference. But the word is, “Except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish”.
Now He speaks a parable, “A certain man had a fig tree planted in his vineyard; and he came and sought fruit thereon, and found none”. Now we are in the presence of the patience of God. But in His patience He looks for fruit. If He has given His Son to die, and raised Him and set Him in heaven and sent down the Spirit, and the Spirit has remained here for all these centuries, God has something in view. As He had something in view in Israel, so He has something in view in christendom. He has spent much more on us than He spent on Israel. Think of the cost to Him that there should exist the present order of things. I mean, the sphere in which the Lord Jesus is owned, and in which God works specially; in which His love has been and is being [p. 323] told out. He has an end in view. There is some fruit today, but in the public body, as such, none, and hence the imminent removal, as indicated here. The vine-dresser, however, says, “Let it alone for this year also”. The man who planted it says, It cumbers the ground. That is how God looks at it, it is cumbering the ground, He has got something else to bring in, and He is about to bring it in. This thing has been a failure publicly. You say, Why does not God wipe it out? He is going to do that; but there is someone who intercedes for it — a most touching thing! As you will see here, “He answering said unto him, Lord, let it alone this year also, till I shall dig about it, and dung it: and if it bear fruit, well: and if not, then after that thou shalt cut it down”.
Now you see there is an intercessor. Every one of us here as christians tonight is a testimony to this. It ought to appeal to us. The extension of time included us. I believe the Lord Jesus is urging the extension of the dispensation — He is on man’s behalf. Is it because He does not love the church and wish it to be with Him? Not at all. He loves the church and gave Himself for it, and He is about to present it to Himself a glorious church not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing; (Ephesians 5:27). He will have the church with Him, but He has patience, He has regard for men, and hence the continuance. Oh, the patience of Christ and the patience of God! I just dwell on that for a moment, so that there might be some little reflex of it with us. It is no question of getting out of these things, of desire to be with the Lord to get away from the sorrow, but of being in the patience of Christ; as John speaks of himself — “Your brother, and companion in tribulation, and in the kingdom and patience of Jesus Christ”, (Revelation. 1:9).
That is the position for us, so that there is a continuance of the time, and hence the prolongation of the [p. 324] gospel. You can see the magnitude, therefore, of the position of the people of God — of our position — as being in sympathy with God in the continuance of this period. We know well what is coming in, we know well that christendom, as it is publicly, is cumbering the ground, and that infidelity and blasphemy are extending and deepening, and that the time is well-nigh at hand when God will have to deal with it we know that well. Yet we are loth to give it up — it is the kingdom and patience of Jesus Christ; it is not a forlorn hope, the kingdom is here as it ever was, but it is the kingdom and patience of Jesus, that is what pleases God. John in Patmos was a companion of the saints “in tribulation, and in the kingdom and patience of Jesus Christ”. As in this attitude the saints correspond with, and reflect, the continued attitude of God toward all men.
The prolongation of the period is to be characterised by instruction, so that the Lord is said to be teaching. If He wishes the period continued, He is active so that people might be taught, that the evil abroad might be combated, and the positive truth as it is in Jesus might be set out among the people of God; that we might know the truth, that “we may be no longer babes, tossed and carried about by every wind of that teaching which is in the sleight of men, in unprincipled cunning with a view to systematised error” (Ephesians 4:14); that we should be “holding the truth in love”, and not only holding it, but, having power, telling it abroad.
It says that “He was teaching in one of the synagogues on the sabbath”. It looks as if they did not wish to have this woman in the synagogue; whereas obviously she was in the synagogue — this crooked woman. That seems a point in the position — that He was teaching in the synagogue, “And behold, there was a woman which had a spirit of infirmity eighteen years, and was bowed together”. There [p. 325] was no power in the synagogue, you see, to deal with her. The public thing has utterly failed in that sense, there is no power, but then the teaching is there, and the Lord is there. What a picture! There was a woman there, it says, with a spirit of infirmity; you see what we have to contend with at the present time, it is not only infirmity spiritually, but the spirit of the thing, she had the spirit of infirmity; and how long did she have it? Eighteen years; and she was bowed together. Now we are in the presence of past history; we are called upon to deal with the effects of Satan’s work eighteen years back. What a state of things!
Whatever responsibility there may be on her side, there is a poor woman with a spirit of infirmity eighteen years, and she is bowed together — she cannot even lift up her head; that is what is in the synagogue. Of what moral value is the synagogue then? There is no power there to deal with such a case; but the Lord was teaching — it is the public side of things — and He was teaching on the sabbath, and he calls her. He “called to her”; the point is that there is a call, it is service involving that. She is morally at a distance for the moment, and He calls to her. She could not but be at a distance; there could be no nearness in such a case. Something happened eighteen years ago; you know it, God knows it, others may not know it. Satan knows it, he was the instigator of it; it was his act, but you are the sufferer, and you have suffered all these eighteen years. You are not near, but you are within reach of the Lord’s call, and He calls you. That is the position.
Today the voice of Christ, through a christian, may reach these dear people in a modern synagogue. He called to her, and then He said to her, “Woman, thou art loosed from thine infirmity”. It was a word of authority. How one yearns for believers who [p. 326] are thus bound spiritually by something that happened years back! You would fain forget it, you would fain let it drop into oblivion, but it does not, its effect remains with you, unless you have dealt with it as before God. The Lord calls, and He says, “Thou art loosed”. Who could say it but He? And then He lays His hands upon her; the recovery in view involves contact. It says, “He laid his hands upon her; and immediately she was made straight, and glorified God”.
Now you will see that I am dealing with the public thing. It is what is going on, and God would have us to go on in it, because these conditions exist, and God would meet them. The call is one thing; the laying on of hands is another, the laying on of hands implies fellowship — applying the thing today. In the Lord’s case, it implied complete identification with her; He was undoing the works of the devil. When one stands up to preach or to minister, it is really a question of the conflict of light with darkness — such is the situation. If you preach the gospel, it is the direct conflict of light with darkness. The call is involved in the gospel — He called her. Then the laying on of hands implies complete identification, in the Lord’s case, with her in her infirmity; He took her infirmity, He alone could do it; He was undoing, as John tells us in his epistle, “the works of the devil”. “To this end the Son of God has been manifested, that he might undo the works of the devil”, (1 John 3:8). In this case something had happened — some action of Satan eighteen years before, and this woman was lost to God, practically, all these years.
How many there are amongst the people of God, known as the people of God, who have been lost to God and lost to His people for many years! Satan has done it, and they are unable to recover themselves. Thus a call from God is necessary. She was immediately made straight and glorified God — that is the [p. 327] end in view; the believer is made straight and God is glorified. “God hath made man upright; but they have sought out many inventions”, (Ecclesiastes 7:29). And so it is that the people of God come under the influence of these things, and are made crooked. Something has happened — in the house, or in the personal life, or in the business; and you are made crooked, you are not able to lift up your head; whereas the service of Christ is to make you straight.
Righteousness is a great thing for the moment, that is to say, to be made practically righteous, so that we become priests unto God. “Let thy priests”, it says, “be clothed with righteousness; and let thy saints shout for joy”, (Psalm 132:9). You see, the priest’s clothing must be righteousness. How can I lift up my face to God, and lift up my hands in the sanctuary, save as I am garbed with righteousness? So the Lord here makes this woman straight and she glorified God. She was one of the daughters of Abraham, a “seed of the righteous” (Proverbs 11:21), and Satan knew it; in making her crooked he was depriving God of her, and this continued for eighteen years.
I think you will agree that these are important things to have in our minds — and particularly in regard to this public service — that we are able to call people; and then the identification, so that there is complete recovery, and the persons are made straight and glorify God. What follows this in the passage, you will observe, is the complaint of the ruler of the synagogue. These are the persons that Satan is using today, persons who have official religious status; he was the ‘ruler’ of the synagogue. They may not come out openly and deny the Person and work of the Lord Jesus; in many instances they dare not do it; that would mean open apostasy, and the relinquishment of their living; but if Christ is not a divine Person, what is there in christianity?
[p. 328] It is a myth! What is your clerical garb? It is a myth! Give the whole thing up! That is the logical result of open denial of the deity of Christ and the inspiration of Scripture.
Alas! some are bold enough to do all this now and retain their positions, but others do not wish to do it, it does not suit them. Their status is involved, the antiquity of their church is involved; all these things enter into it. So these people do not openly attack Christ; here the ruler of the synagogue attacked those who came to be healed. “There are six days in which people ought to work” — what a wretched excuse! Is it not an exposure of what is current around? So the Lord exposes him; He calls him a hypocrite. Recently there has been a large commentary published by certain leading church dignitaries, in which the inspiration of most important scriptures is denied; and yet it is asserted that there is overwhelming evidence of the resurrection of Christ! That is to say, they make Christ a liar (for the books of Genesis and Jonah, from which the Lord quotes, are involved), and then they say that God raised Him! You see the utter inconsistency of the thing. They will not come out openly and renounce christianity; they retain enough to keep their system going — the rest can go.
Here the ruler of the synagogue attacked the persons who came to be healed on the sabbath day; but he really aimed at Christ. The Lord calls him a hypocrite. The ruler’s position was being undermined by the Lord’s service. He could not heal the man, although he was a ruler of the synagogue; the Lord Jesus healed him. That is what we have to see; the work of God exposes the sham and hypocrisy of what is around us. So the Lord said, “Hypocrites does not each one of you on the sabbath loose his ox or his ass from the manger and leading it away, water it? And this woman, who is a daughter of Abraham,
[p. 329] whom Satan has bound, lo, these eighteen years, ought she not to be loosed from this bond on the sabbath day?”
The way for true christians today is to pursue the line of the work of God. Thus there will be positive results, and in the light of these positive results, the Lord exposes the hypocrites, and all honest people glorify God. Here they “rejoiced for all the glorious things that were done by him”. There is a great field opened up to us in these last days — in the presence of all these things — there is this public service. May the Lord help us to continue in it!
Pages 330 - 489 — “The Divine Standard of Service”. Barnet, June, 1929 (Volume 96)