THE LORD JESUS PRESENTING HIMSELF
[p. 347] THE LORD JESUS PRESENTING HIMSELF
Song of Songs 2: 9, 10; Acts 1: 3; Revelation 22: 16, 17
These verses speak of the Lord Jesus as presenting Himself to His people under the varied circumstances spoken of in these scriptures. There is a peculiar attractiveness in His presentation of Himself. The scriptures abound with presentations of Christ, in type and figure in the Old Testament, and direct statements in the New. The Lord speaks of this; He said that the Scriptures testified of Him, “They are they”, He says, “which testify of me”, John 5: 39. If we read the scriptures aright and approach them as lovers of Jesus and as admirers of Jesus, we shall see wonderful things about Him. The Spirit of God loves the office of testifying in this way. One thing about the Spirit, dear brethren, is feeling: we are not devoid of feelings, of course, but often they are fleshly and mixed even in our service and praise. But the Spirit of God is marked by feelings and these feelings are expressed in those He uses. We read at the very beginning that “the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters”. He was occupied with the conditions feelingly; and so it is that throughout scripture His feelings are expressed in persons He uses to present Christ in type and figure, and in direct statements, particularly in the Psalms where you get deep feelings in the writers — they were affected by the Spirit. The assembly is to be affected by the Spirit, those of us who belong to it are to have spiritual feelings as well as intelligence, “I will sing with the spirit” (1 Corinthians 14: 15), that is, feeling enters into the singing, controlled by the mind of course but nevertheless the feeling is there. The poetic books of the Old Testament afford most of this depth of feeling, and this song, which is called the Song of Songs which is Solomon’s — which is Christ’s in [p. 348] spirit — is outstanding as expressive of feeling, a master-hand depicting it, whether in Himself or in those He would affect. The feminine figure represents the saints. The scriptures abound with presentations of Christ, and when He presents Himself we have what is particularly attractive, and it is so in these three passages.
The first passage has in mind believers who are somewhat at a distance from the Lord. No doubt the larger number of christians are content to move along somewhat at a distance, finding a certain amount of satisfaction even, without the immediate company of Christ. We readily allow things, saying they are legitimate, but they serve the enemy well, to hinder our view of Christ and our occupation with Him and to hinder Him getting near to us. He has His eye on every one of His own, however distant they may be from Him. He never loses sight of any of us, and the language here indicates that the Person spoken of is more than a mere creature. The remarkable kind of agility is more than creature agility, “He cometh leaping upon the mountains, skipping upon the hills”. An ordinary creature would soon get tired of that. It denotes more than creature power, and the Lord would have us to understand that, as the Lover of our souls and the Seeker of our company, He has more than creature power. Not only can He skip on the hills, but He makes the hills themselves to skip. You remember in Psalm 114, it says, “The mountains skipped like rams, the hills like lambs”. That is in the presence of the ark — in the presence of the Lord. Such is His power and influence that all has to give way to Him. Here it is not that; it is rather His power to move in spite of these obstacles. He does not remove them, but moves in spite of them. Sometimes we look to see things removed, but it is a greater thing to see the Lord moving in spite of them. So as the passage shows, “He cometh leaping upon the mountains, skipping upon the hills”. He has an object in His mind,
[p. 349] and that object includes every christian however distant from Him. Where should we be were it not for His great solicitude and agility to reach us in spite of obstacles. So that He comes; it testifies that He cometh, not going, He is coming, a very different matter. He is coming and the bride tells us what He is like, “a roe or a young hart”. The Lord is enhanced in her mind by the way He comes. Here it is not coming in love amongst us as in the gospels, but coming from a great distance and overcoming obstacles without any difficulty; it is a question of His divine power. He comes and He draws out this note as to what He is like. The Lord is acquiring a place in the heart of the speaker. She likens Him to a roe or a young hart. These figures denote agility and comeliness, because there is something very fine in His movements. And then, as the speaker says, “He standeth behind our wall” — He is standing there. The Lord who comes with such energy and desire is now standing. It is a question now of reaching the person. This is all for a distant heart, for hearts that are distant from Christ and enclosed behind obstacles, obstacles that are between Him and them, and between them and Him — He overcomes them. Love never fails and certainly in Christ it never fails. He stands behind “our wall”, it denotes exclusiveness; we may have a wall to exclude Christ, we may settle down in something which we regard as legitimate and right, but it effectively keeps Him at a distance all the time. There is much of that, dear brethren. Brethren who profess the heavenly calling settle down in certain settings which really imply exclusion of Christ.
It goes on to say in the verse read, “He looketh in through the windows, glancing through the lattice”. The windows or lattice or both are between, but He is overcoming all obstacles, that is the point. “Glancing through the lattice”, it may read, “flourishing himself”. It is some particular way in which the Lord calls [p. 350] attention to Himself. He keeps on at it until you say, “It is the Lord”. One might cite the instance of the seven brothers in John 21 who went fishing and caught nothing. The Lord had obstacles to contend with to reach them, but He overcame the obstacles. He went round to get at them and He got at them. He says, “Children, have ye anything to eat?” That is a beautiful word — Children — it is grace to remind them that the relation stands whatever the distance, whatever the will, whatever the exercise of natural desire, the relation stands. “Children, have ye any meat?” Presently one of them says, “It is the Lord”. That is the point. John said that. Here in the Song of Songs He is glancing through the lattice. There is some movement, I suppose it is the eye. There is no organ that conveys beauty and attractiveness more than that. It is designed to be that. Of David it is said that he was beautiful-eyed. We read in this book, of doves’ eyes. The Lord is endeavouring to attract you in those circumstances. He would have you in nearness to draw you away from the circumstances whatever they are; the Lord wants us in nearness. Love abhors distance; one has often said and heard that, but it cannot be repeated too often. It is most distressing when we build up legitimate things to shut Him out and yet the Lord continues to look at us and seeks to attract us. He has wonderful ability to get at His people; He wants all His people in nearness to Him. I am speaking in this practical way particularly for the young. The Lord does not remove the obstacles; He overcomes the obstacles and the inference He would convey is ‘You can do it too’. We may ask the Lord to remove this or that obstacle or difficulty but He says, ‘I want you to understand you can overcome these things’. They are to be overcome. It is a great principle in scripture that God acts in spite of difficulties, and faith can do the same thing. The word ‘overcomer’ denotes that. An overcomer is not a person before whom [p. 351] God removes every difficulty; he is one who overcomes the difficulties. It brings out the energy of life.
This passage runs on so beautifully. The bride says, “My beloved spake and said unto me, Rise up, my love, my fair one, and come away. For lo, the winter is past, the rain is over and gone; the flowers appear on the earth; the time of the singing of birds is come, and the voice of the turtle is heard in our land; the fig tree putteth forth her green figs, and the vines with the tender grape give a good smell. Arise, my love, my fair one, and come away”, verses 10 - 13. The circumstances are not right: “Come away”, get out of them, come away. Added to the attractiveness of the speaker — of Christ — there is this energy of life as in spring time, because the Lord is moving in that connection, not making everything hinge upon Himself, although it does. In the new man Christ is everything and in all; ‘in all’ is the spring time, the energy of life. Christ in the saints would be the spring time — Christ in the energy of life in the saints. The believer is drawn to Christ and all around is spring; that is how the work of God proceeds, Christ is everything as an Object and in all. That is like the spring time when all these beautiful things spring up in life; the winter is past, the rain is over, the time of the singing of birds is come — all these things are the fruits of the Spirit. Is not that attractive? Do we not want to join in this fruitfulness that the Spirit of God is effecting?
That is the first thought I had. The second is that Christ is not only seeking to gain souls and attract them out of unsuitable circumstances, but to have them in life in Himself, the kind of life that is in the mind of God. How early life is as regards vegetation, we get it brought in in Genesis on the third day, then animal life, and then human life. The last is the divine thought, but not yet presented as in the counsels of God. Adam was only a figure; God breathed into him and he became a living [p. 352] soul. He became that by the breathing of God, but he was only a figure of Him that was to come. Life now is presented in Christ; not in the days of His flesh did He present Himself thus. He did it after He suffered. “Having by the Holy Spirit charged the apostles whom he had chosen, he was taken up; to whom also he presented himself living, after he had suffered”, Acts 1: 3. The apostles were competent witnesses of this great matter. Sometimes the question is raised, Who were present when the supper was instituted? If we go by the scriptures we see that the twelve were with Him, the point being authentic testimony to what was there, and that is what we have here. Here we have them again, the twelve, that is the apostles, those He had chosen and to whom He had presented Himself. There is no doubt what is in mind. The thing is to be presented without question, “To whom he presented himself”. It is the Lord’s own way; no one but the Lord could do it as He did it; He presented a life that was in the mind of God for us, He presented Himself living after He had suffered. That is the kind of life. This is not merely for attractiveness to draw us out of unsuitable associations; it is to impress us for the assembly and for heaven. We are to be like Him even as to our bodies; “Who shall transform our body of humiliation into conformity to his body of glory”, Philippians 3: 21. That is what we are to be like. God effects this through our feelings, our affections and intelligence, so He produces impressions. We are formed by impressions. It was said to Moses on the mount, “See that thou make them according to their pattern” (Exodus 25: 40) that was so that he might be impressed by what he saw. No one could make the tabernacle according to the specification but Moses. Christianity is to be inaugurated with the clear impression in intelligent chosen men of the life God had in mind in His counsels. That life is personified livingly in Christ. He is “the eternal life”, 1 John 1. When we come to Acts there is the assembly and life according to the counsel of God, dear brethren. Christ is it, He is the eternal life, “that which was from the beginning, that which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes; that which we contemplated, and our hands handled, concerning the word of life; (and the life has been manifested, and we have seen, and bear witness, and report to you the eternal life, which was with the Father, and has been manifested to us)”. The epistle of John is the great epistle on this point, it brings out the life that was manifest “concerning the word of life”, not only the thing but the word that conveys it to us, that we might be impressed and know as we enter on it what it is — this is what we should treasure. The epistle of John was written for that — “These things have I written to you that ye may know”, that is conscious knowledge. Again it says, “He is the true God and eternal life”, 1 John 5: 20. I hope I am not saying what is beyond us; it is humbling if it is so. The Lord shows Himself to convey the idea of life; He presented Himself living after He had suffered. At the end of that verse it says, “Being seen of them forty days”. A full period of time was given that the Lord should be seen in varied circumstances here after He suffered. It is not that He appeared to them, as elsewhere, but they saw Him — they were competent witnesses. He was seen of them during that period of time — forty days — a full period is given so that there could be no question that the thing was seen by one and another of them; Christ out of death, Christ after He had suffered, Christ as He is; though we ought to make allowance for the word “glory”. It is His body of glory. John says we do not know what we shall be — “It doth not yet appear what we shall be, but we know that, when he shall appear, we shall be like him; for we shall see him”, — notice that. He was seen of them forty days, but then “we shall see him as he is”.
[p. 354] My final thought is in Revelation 22: 16. My first thought had reference to recovery, or saints being brought into nearness to Christ — companionship to Christ. My second thought is that, as thus brought, as thus together, convened, called persons, we are to be impressed with what He is that we might understand life as in the counsel of God for us. Then thirdly and finally, I want to show how the Lord presents Himself to the assembly at the end of the dispensation in which we now are. “I Jesus”, it says, “I” is the Person speaking; “Jesus” is the name by which He is known. It is Himself as we get it at the end of the gospels — “It is I myself”. It is Himself, dear brethren, and the assembly is to understand. I believe the Lord’s supper is much before us, thank God, at the present time, and it is to help us in relation to Himself. One can understand the apostle saying to the best results of his ministry — the Ephesians — that he would have them to understand “my knowledge in the mystery” — they did not understand it. It is perhaps what is least known, Christ’s relation to the assembly and the assembly’s relation to Him. Here He says, “I Jesus have sent mine angel to testify these things to you in the assemblies”. He says, as it were, ‘it is Myself, I have taken account of the church and all the exigencies of the church’s history here below, and I have sent Mine angel’. That is a representative, but it is “I Jesus” who is doing the matter and it is in relation to the assembly. He says, ‘I have sent My angel to let you know I have thought of you’. The Lord would impress upon us how faithful He has been. Should we have any meetings like this, should we have any breaking of bread, were it not for His faithfulness? We should be where the great masses are, in worldly religious associations, or worse. Whatever we are, it is due to the faithfulness of Jesus. He has never lost sight of the assembly from the beginning; the seven assemblies is the whole thought.
He says, “I Jesus have sent mine angel to testify ...” He would say, as it were, ‘You have got away from Me, and I have overcome it in regard to you, and have sent mine angel to testify to you in the assemblies. The whole assembly is mine’. Does that not appeal to us? All that we are and have today, individually or collectively, is directly due to the faithfulness of Jesus in sending His angel “to testify these things to you in the assemblies”. It ought to affect our hearts and produce more loyalty. The Lord will be what He has been to the end. He will be what He has been right through; He knows what is ahead, He is prepared for it. He will not remove the difficulties, He will overcome them. Let us not be deceived as to what is coming; we are getting near the end of things, things that are quite unexpected will happen. The enemy is attacking the Lord’s people, difficulties will come that we have not expected; the enemy is attacking the assembly, but the point is, the Lord has overcome and He looks for us to overcome. He will empower us to do so, that is how He met the enemy and does meet him.
I would speak now of the Lord’s faithfulness in testifying and sending His angel, and then the response. Further He says, “I am the root and offspring of David, the bright and morning star. And the Spirit and the bride say, Come”. He is speaking now of what He is to the erring church. He sent His angel to testify, but He says, “I am the root and offspring of David”. He is now appealing to a movement that He has brought about in some, however few. It is normal and characteristic of the assembly that the assembly knows who Christ is. The Lord has been challenging us in recent years as to who He is. He says, “I am the root ... of David”, and “the offspring” too. It is as if He would say, Do you understand? He challenged some opposers as to David calling Him Lord — “If David then call him Lord, how is he his son?” Matthew 22: 45. They [p. 356] could not understand that. The church can answer that, it is His deity, dear brethren. You know how the creed has cast a shade on the deity of Christ for about fifteen hundred years. The saints have been under a shade, their minds have been beclouded as to the deity of Christ by the accepted creed of christendom, saying that He was begotten of the Father before the foundation of the world. That has cast a shade on His glorious Person, but the church normally does not hold that; John did not hold that, his gospel contradicts it. There is no begetting in past eternity, it is here on earth — “This day have I begotten thee” (Hebrews 1: 5), that is in time as a Man below. The assembly understands that. John represents normally the understanding of the assembly, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God”. That is the statement, the enemy cannot get rid of that statement, it keeps Christ before the saints in His true dignity and deity, and we are to hold it fast; on the other hand, glorying in the fact that He has become a Man, which opens up the side for us to be His brethren for ever. “The root ... of David” — and offspring, which is His humanity, His Person is unchanged and unchangeable. He has taken a new condition, but He has not changed His Person, He remains what He is. “Before Abraham was, I am”, He says, John 8: 58. He is the root of David, but He is the offspring, and moreover, the bright and morning star.
May the Lord move in our hearts as we think of it, as He presents Himself in this way, “The Spirit and the bride say, Come”, the Spirit takes the lead. When the failure took place in Thyatira, when the candlestick was lost, the Lord addressed Himself to Sardis as One who “has the seven Spirits of God, and the seven stars”. What a great fact that He has the seven Spirits of God! The Spirit has asserted Himself in these last days, and in asserting Himself He has made everything of [p. 357] Christ. As Christ presents Himself in this way, the Spirit says, Come, and the bride says Come — there is a perfect lead. “As many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God”, Romans 8: 14.
That is what one had in mind to impress us with. Then there is the word John adds, thinking of the saints and the gospel, for the gospel was near to John’s heart. In the main, he wrote to assert the deity of Christ, but you get statements in John that you get nowhere else about the gospel. So here, “Let him that heareth say, Come. And let him that is athirst come. And whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely”. It is as if the coming of the Lord would suggest that. Every true lover of Christ would say, Let us tell everyone about Christ! “Let him that heareth say, Come. And let him that is athirst come. And whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely”.
May the Lord bless His word.