“THE NIGHT ALSO IS THINE”
J. Spinks
Psalm 74: 16; 1 Corinthians 11: 23–26 Leviticus 6: 8, 9
I would like to speak a little on what there is here for the pleasure of God in the night of Christ’s rejection; that is the present period. The believer is not of the night, he is a son of day. He does not belong to this world, he belongs to another world. The psalmist says here,
“The day is thine”. Well, God will have His day. That is the day the believer looks for, when our Lord Jesus will be publicly vindicated and bring in a rule of blessing to this sad world.
What a prospect! I trust everyone here is among those who love His appearing. It is good to think that there is something better before us. For the worldling, his day is fast drawing to a close, but for the believer the best is yet to come. It goes on to say, “The night also is thine”.
This world is going through its night season, but God is in control. You may say, ‘Where is the evidence of it?’ You look around and see the proliferation of evil, especially in these great cities of the world where there is the practice of every corruption imaginable. What a sad scene it is! We are told “The whole world lies in the wicked one”, 1 John 5: 19. Do we feel that? Do we feel the degradation of man? Nevertheless we can take comfort from a scripture like this and be assured that God has His hand over everything.
Then the psalmist says, “Thou halt prepared the moon and the sun”. You will remember that when God acted in creation He made “the great light to rule the day”; that looks forward to the return of Christ
when He will bring in a reign of blessing. Then it goes on to say, “and the small light to rule the night”, Genesis 1: 16. You may say, I can understand the beneficial effect of the sun, with its life-giving fructifying power, but the moon, what does it do? Well, I will tell you one thing that it does—I speak to the young people—as well as shedding its light on the earth it influences great masses of water. It is something to think about. The moon has its influence on the earth, and the tides can be predicted to the minute, years and years ahead. I believe it speaks in some way of the heavenly influence of the saints during this present period. You look around and everywhere you see the evidence of man’s lawlessness, the disregard of everything that is of God. Then if you looked a bit further, what would you see? You would see that God has a praying people here and that He is acting in relation to the prayers of His people. I often think of that. Whatever the time, day or night, you can think of it. You can wake up in the middle of the night and think of the prayers that are rising to God.
I do not think there has been a time since the Lord went on high when there has not been unceasing prayer to God, and God is acting through the prayers of His people. He has a praying people. Would you not like to be among them? Would you not like to be among the persons that God listens to in the night season? You say, I am just young; I do not have much intelligence as to these things. But God loves to hear your prayers. Do you know why?
Because it reminds Him of Jesus, that is why! When the Lord Jesus was here He spent a large part of His time in prayer. What an example! When God sees a believer praying, however young, however simple, it reminds Him of Christ. Is that not a beautiful thing? The night will soon give way to the day, but during the night season God is outshining in
Christ. Outshining in the face of a blessed Man whose last public utterance, as far as this world was concerned, was, “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do”. Luke 23: 34. Think of that! Was there ever such a prayer as that? God listened, you know; heaven listened to that prayer. God has taken account of it. He is going on with man in his lawlessness because of that intercession of Christ and because of the prayers of His people.
There is that which restrains. He who restrains is the Holy Spirit. How does He do it? We cannot limit Him in any way, but I have no doubt it is largely through the prayers of the saints. God is taking account of the whole evil course of things in this world. He is soon to bring in the Man of His choice, but in the meantime He is working through the prayers of His people and keeping control of the night.
I refer now to the scripture in Corinthians, a passage that affects every believer. Paul writes,
“For I received from the Lord, that which I also delivered to you, that the Lord Jesus, in the night in which he was delivered up, took bread, and having given thanks broke it, and said, This is my body”. How affecting it is! Think of His feelings as He could say, “The hand of him that delivers me up is with me on the table” (Luke 22: 21), the Lord feeling it all, yet making this wonderful provision for His lovers, this great rallying point, the Lord’s supper.
Dear brethren, what a privilege it is that we can gather in peace and quiet, without any interference, to remember the Lord Jesus. It is a privilege that pertains to the present period.
We shall not need it in heaven; there we shall be eternally with the Lord. Dear young one, would you not like to remember the Lord Jesus and to find your part among those who rally to His name during the night of His rejection? You know, that night continues, and it is intensifying. There is that
which ostensibly bears the name of Christ and yet is giving up every precious truth that relates to the glory of His Person.
The spirit of apostasy is rising on every hand and these precious truths that have been delivered to us are being given up by those who are professing Christians. How the Lord feels these things! It has been said that when Judas went out from that favoured circle, in John 13, he carried into the world the spirit of betrayal, and that spirit has come right down to the present time. We shall gather on Lord’s day morning, if we are left here; we shall see the emblems on the table and think of His precious words, “This is my body, which is for you”.
You say, It was for God. Surely; it certainly was for God. Primarily that is what the Lord came in for “Lo, I come … to do, O God, thy will “(Hebrews 10: 7), but then how affecting it is, “This is my body, which is for you”—you think of that; it was for you. Dear young brother and sister, it is for you that Christ died; that body was committed unto death for you, in order that you might be sanctified by the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.
Then, “In like manner also the cup, after having supped, saying, This cup is the new covenant in my blood—this do, as often as ye shall drink it, in remembrance of me”. How much there is in that! How little I feel able to speak about these precious things. You will remember that when the soldier pierced the side of Jesus, scripture tells us He was already dead. That precious blood flowed from a dead Christ. It was a witness to the whole universe that the question of sin had been cleared to God’s complete satisfaction. On the day of atonement in Leviticus 16 the blood of the sin-offering was brought in and sprinkled on the mercy-seat and seven times before the mercy-seat. I
believe it relates to this; God is testifying to the universe that every outstanding matter has been met righteously by the precious blood of Christ. What a thing it is! We are privileged to gather Lord’s day after Lord’s day and look upon, and partake of, these precious emblems.
You young sisters can bring in something of Christ; you will find that someone will voice it.
Your thoughts about the Lord Jesus will enrich the meeting. You cannot take part audibly, but you will find that some brother will give expression to your appreciation of Christ, and quite apart from that, God can look into your heart and feed on what is there. God feeds on Christ, and these impressions you have, however small you may think them to be, are precious to Him, and He provides occasions for His people to gather and present what they have of Christ.
In the passage we read in Leviticus 6 we have the law of the burnt-offering, and the fire on the altar had to be kept burning all night. That would be a testing time. No doubt the priests would be kept busy as, in the measure of their intelligence, they would present their offerings, but there comes a time when those activities cease and the fire has to be kept burning all night. That would be a testing time, would it not? Nights can be long sometimes. You ask older brethren and you will find that the night seasons can be long; but this fire is to be kept going all night. What does it mean? It means that you have affection in your heart for Christ and you are not going to let it go out; you are going to maintain it in its brightness. That appreciation of Christ, these impressions of His suffering love, you are going to keep them kindled, keep them bright, keep them warm. The meetings are a great advantage in this. You come to the meetings a little jaded sometimes, and
as the brethren converse over the truth you find that little flame you have kindles up. Then as we meet in the households of the saints—not that we are able to sustain much—but if we sustain some conversation related to the things of God it all helps to keep the fire burning.
We also must not neglect private reading and prayer. How it should affect us. How it should deliver us from the whole system of things in the world that crucified the Saviour. The night remains the same; however much of a facade the enemy puts on it—and when we are young the world can seem very attractive—it is still the night in which He was delivered up.
Leviticus 6; this relates to the priests, the priesthood. If we think of that in worldly terms we think of great buildings, ceremonialism, and ostentatious garments. All these things mean nothing to God. Dear young believer, I want you to think of what true priesthood is to God.
He sees a believer coming up with something in his heart. He has some appreciation of Christ, and God delights in it. So in the previous chapters we get the service of the priests, the sons of Aaron. The offerer comes up with a bullock, or whatever he brings, and the priest is able to present it in a way that is pleasing to God. What does it all mean? It means that as we grow in our appreciation of the Lord Jesus, grow in the knowledge of Him, we are the more able to bring what is of Christ and present it in a way that is pleasing to God.
He loves to see His people come up with their hands filled. They do not appear before Him empty. The gospel hymn says, ‘Nothing in my hand I bring’; those are the right and suitable sentiments of a sinner who has forsaken his own righteousness, but they are not the rich sentiments of a priest. A priest comes up with something of Christ and he is able to present it in a way that is pleasing to God.
I believe that is one reason God is prolonging the present period; He is delighting in what His people are bringing. He loves it. Every one of us, down to the youngest, can present something of Christ. However small your impression, bring it in. It says of John the baptist,
“He was the burning and shining lamp”, John 5: 35. I do not think there will be any shining unless there is the burning. That means that what you have in your heart, that appreciation of Christ that has been placed there sovereignly by God, is kept burning; you keep it going all night until the morning.
I have a book of ministry that belonged to an old sister who is now with the Lord. There are little marks on it by passages that impressed her. There is one passage where the writer was going over the glories of Christ. She had underlined it and written in the margin, ‘Praise and bless His glorious name’. Is that not wonderful? You see, she was a sister who was keeping the fire burning; she was keeping it going all night until the morning. The morning will soon come for us all. Let us be encouraged, dear brethren, to keep this fire going. May these occasions encourage and stimulate us in love for Christ during the little while that is left, and may we keep the fire going until the morning, for His name’s sake.
Address at Redbridge
9 January 1988