COMMITMENT
Mark 16:9; Luke 8:1-3; John 20:16-23
I seek the Lord’s help and the Spirit’s help to speak about making a commitment. The three scriptures which we have read all refer to Mary of Magdala, or Mary Magdalene as she is sometimes referred to. In the first, it refers to seven demons having been cast out of her. Mary had made a commitment to the lordship of Christ. She had known Jesus as Lord; involving the power of One who was able to cast out seven demons. In the second scripture, it says of her “from whom seven demons had gone out”. I thought that we could speak about making a commitment to Christ, by the Spirit of God, and in the Spirit of holiness. In the last scripture, we have Mary in her affection and her commitment to Christ and it leads on to the intelligence of the assembly. There you have commitment to Christ and the assembly. How wonderful it is to be committed to divine things.
What an example Mary is, first in her affection and then in her intelligence. The truth is only preserved through exercise in our hearts. It has never been preserved merely as a historical record in books; the truth is preserved in persons’ hearts. You may feel, dear young believer, ‘What is there to be committed to?’ There is everything to be committed to, everything! God has not retracted anything that He has made known in Christ. We could have read at the beginning of John where it says: “And the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us”, John 1:14. That is the incarnation, and it is wonderful to think of it. There was a change of condition, “the Word became flesh”, and a change of position, the Word “dwelt among us”, but the Person remains the same. It is the wonder of the incarnation; it is the Lord Jesus Christ. It speaks of Him as the Word (v.1), not only the expression of God, but it is the expression of God in a Person, in the Lord Jesus Christ, the One who became flesh. That has never been retracted, it never will be. What a matter it was for God to make Himself known in the Person of the Lord Jesus Christ here as man, and now in glory as man. It has been said that the incarnation is the unshakeable pillar of God’s moral universe3. That is the character of things that God would ask you to be committed to. There is no diminution in that, there cannot be. How wonderful that we have that which is unshakeable. There are buildings which are made to withstand earthquakes. They are shaken and perhaps they survive, but God is not asking you to be committed to something that will shake and perhaps survive. The incarnation is unshakeable.
The devil puts questions in our hearts; he is the enemy of our souls. He does not have our best interests at heart; he only has in mind to rob God of His portion. He cannot affect the fact that you know (and I trust you do) the Lord Jesus as your Saviour. That is a complete matter; you are saved for time and for eternity. Nor can the devil affect the fact that the Lord is coming and is going to take you to be with Himself. The only thing that the devil can do is to rob you, and thus to rob God, of His portion. He would say to you, even as you sit in your seat, ‘Put it off to another day’. He has always done that. He wanted you to put off coming to know the Lord as your Saviour. It is called procrastination, and men speak about procrastination as the thief of time. It has also been said that procrastination is the recruitment officer of hell. How sober that is in relation to the glad tidings. So this enemy of our souls does not want you to put your hand to the plough. He does not want you to commit yourself to divine things, He always wants you to find an excuse for you not to do it, and so these reasonings arise in our hearts. You may say, ‘What is it I am to commit myself to?’ You cannot take the standard of what you find in the world; it is marked by falsehood and none of that belongs to God’s things. I was thinking of the scripture in John 8 where they ask the Lord Jesus “Who art thou? And Jesus said to them, Altogether that which I also say to you”, John 8:25. There is nothing false about Christianity, there is nothing false about what has been revealed in Christ. The footnote f says ‘‘in the principle and universality of what I am;’ i.e. his speech presented himself, being the truth’. You do not have to understand everything to make a commitment, but you need to apprehend it in your affections. That is what Mary did; she was led by her affections and then she quickly became intelligent. There are no dark shadows in divine things. We find dark shadows in our own hearts after the flesh and you will find, whatever you look at in the world, that there is something there which is not quite what it seems. But there are no dark shadows at all in Christianity. One scripture we can use is that the light that appeared to Paul was “above the brightness of the sun”, Acts 26:13. If you stood directly under the midday sun, there would be no shadows, and there are no shadows attached to what God wants you to commit yourself to. You can commit yourself to the Lord Jesus, who said that He was “Altogether that which I also say to you”.
We might say ‘That is all very good, but things are not the same now’. Well, John writes not only his gospel but he writes the Revelation, and writes to the seven assemblies. The last four assemblies addressed go on to the end. The last assembly, Laodicea, had not made any commitment; the Lord had to say to them “thou art neither cold nor hot; I would thou wert cold or hot. Thus because thou art lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I am about to spue thee out of my mouth”, Rev.3:15,16. Prior to that He says “These things says the Amen” (v.14). What God is asking you to make a commitment to is complete; there is nothing else around the corner. Sometimes we are asked to make a commitment, perhaps in the way of a purchase, and we are not informed that there is another model coming and there will be some enhancements. There are no enhancements to what God presents in Christ. God has reached finality in Christ. In the last days He “has spoken to us in the person of the Son”, Heb.1:2. There is nothing to compare with this, and there is nothing coming after it either. There is nothing for us to add, nothing to be added to what has come to us in the Scriptures and in the recovery of the truth. There is a great danger in seeking to introduce things into the fellowship that have never been there before.
A book that is linked with Laodicea is Colossians. Laodicea really is philosophy and vain deceit, man’s mind coming into God’s things in a developed way. It has been said that philosophy is man’s answer to the Holy Spirit, introducing something that the devil would ultimately use to displace a divine Person, the Holy Spirit. Paul wrote to the Colossians as a warning against the influence of others, “See that there be no one who shall lead you away as a prey through philosophy and vain deceit, according to the teaching of men, according to the elements of the world, and not according to Christ”, Col.2:8. So the Lord presents Himself to Laodicea as the Amen and then as “the faithful and true witness”, Rev.3:14. We had reference to that hymn earlier on today:
‘Faithful amidst unfaithfulness
‘Mid darkness only light’ (Hymn 230)
That marked the Lord in His pathway. Faithfulness refers to light; it is a challenge for us that we should be faithful to the light that we have. That is the measure of our faithfulness; it is measured according to our being faithful to the light that we have. The Lord is the true witness. This is no theoretical matter. “True” would refer to the Lord’s affections and His feelings, to what He loved. He loved the will of God; He loved the Father’s will. He was raised “by the glory of the Father” (Rom.6:4); everything that was in Jesus was approved of by the Father. How blessed that is, “the faithful and true witness”, and then He says “the beginning of the creation of God”. He is writing to the assembly for the last days. Do you still think there is nothing to be committed to? Think of the Lord saying that He is “the beginning of the creation of God”. I think that is a reference to Christ as the Son of God.
We spoke about the incarnation being the unshakeable pillar of God’s moral universe. It has been said that coming to know the Son of God, having a spiritual experience with Christ as the Son of God, is the climax of spiritual experience. The reference to “the last Adam a quickening spirit” (1 Cor.15:45) would refer to the Son of God. Think of having to do with a Person who is able to make persons live. The Son of God forms the family of God. Think of Him introducing us into the family of God, into being brethren of Christ and giving us to know something of being with Him as sons in association with Him before God. It is all available to be committed to. The Lord says affectingly later in that address to Laodicea, “Behold, I stand at the door and am knocking”, Rev.3:20. It may be that the Lord is standing knocking at your heart. The Lord does that through our circumstances; He knocks. The devil would say that it is just coincidence, but it is not; it is the Lord knocking. The Lord knocks using our circumstances. Perhaps you did not get the exam results you were looking for; that might be the Lord knocking. You may have your whole life mapped out as to what you want to do. He is saying ‘I want a central place in your plans, and I am knocking’. You have to hear His voice. Then He says “if any one hear my voice and open the door, I will come in unto him and sup with him, and he with me”, Rev.3:20. How blessed! In Revelation, the portion of the overcomer is for those who have made a commitment to divine Persons and divine things.
How do you describe divine things? Paul “heard unspeakable things”, 2 Cor.12:4. It would be quite understandable to describe divine things as being superior, but they are greater even than that. If you use the word superior, it suggests that you are considering something in relation to what is inferior; it is a relative term. In Corinthians, Paul wrote that there are “Things which eye has not seen, and ear not heard, and which have not come into man’s heart, which God has prepared for them that love him”, 1 Cor.2:9. He says that there is nothing to compare, they have never even come into man’s heart; man has never seen them or heard of them. How wonderful divine things are! They are available to us and Mary is an example.
We read in Mark’s gospel. Mary had had seven demons. As soon as you start to have some appreciation of divine things, the devil changes his tactics and might say ‘You have some appreciation, but it is not for you. Think about who you are, think of your history; do you really think that you are going to be committed to this?’ Dear friend, do not let the devil ever put you off. It does not matter where you are sitting in this room. You may be sitting in the back of the hall, and your heart may be bursting to enjoy what those who are speaking of these things have. But they are yours! Mary is a wonderful example; she had had seven demons, she had been under the complete domination of sin, and the Lord had come into her life. She really came to know Jesus as Lord; that is what salvation involves. It says “that if thou shalt confess with thy mouth Jesus as Lord, and shalt believe in thine heart that God has raised him from among the dead, thou shalt be saved”, Rom.10:9. Mary had this transaction and she came to know the Lord, and that is a wonderful thing.
I wonder what you really think, dear young person, when we speak about the Lord. Do you think it is about rules and regulations? I do not think that Mary would ever have had such thoughts. She would think only of the blessed Lord and what He had done for her. The Lord Jesus, the One who we own as Lord, is always to be held in reverence and fear and homage. As we go through Romans, we come to know Jesus as Lord, and His lordship takes on the character of being able to subdue. We need that, do we not? We have spoken about what is moral, and we need that; we need to work out the truth of Romans. It involves the lordship of Christ. It is a wonderful thing to know that subduing power. His lordship is known in Corinthians in a subduing way, which would always cause us to have reverence in relation to assembly order and principles. These things are seen in the Lord, and in His exercise of lordship in Romans and in Corinthians. How complete the lordship of Christ is; it affects every part of our life. Where we read in John’s gospel, He is Lord in relation to what is eternal and in Ephesians there is a military aspect to His lordship. As you come to the end of Ephesians, there is conflict in the land, but how complete He is, what a Lord He is. His lordship is established in resurrection. It says in Romans 14, “For to this end Christ has died and lived again, that he might rule over both dead and living” (v.9). What a power! So the normal activity of Christ’s lordship towards us is in grace and power, and Mary knew that. She knew what it was for that to enter into her heart and for these demons to be cast out.
Where we read in Luke, it says “Mary who was called Magdalene, from whom seven demons had gone out”. As coming to know the lordship of Christ, there is the matter of the Spirit and making way for the Spirit of God. These demons went out from Mary because they could not stay there any longer. There was a condition being worked out in Mary’s heart and they could not stay there. What an exercise it is to sow to the Spirit. Mary of course did not have the indwelling Spirit as we have, but we begin by making room in our hearts for the Spirit of God. That is a practical matter. In Genesis, we read about the raven and the dove, and it speaks of the raven “which went forth going to and fro” (Gen.8:7), then it speaks of the dove and about the “sole of her foot” (v.9). We start to be developed in sensitivity in relation to our links with the Spirit. The Spirit would never want us to feed on evil, but we are surrounded by it. The Spirit would give us sensitivity and sensibilities. Sometimes you may see a headline in a newspaper, and the Spirit’s operation in you would tell you that you are not going to read what is below the headline because it is only going to defile you. That is the character of the dove. The sole of her foot suggests a spiritual sensitivity coming into the believer’s heart.
It leads on to the Spirit of Christ which we touched upon in relation to the manna; the Spirit of Christ starting to be formed in the believer. What a substantial answer that involves. It says in Romans 8, “but if any one has not the Spirit of Christ he is not of him” (v.9). That does not refer to your not being converted, or that you do not have the gift of the Spirit, but it involves character. There is a certain character starting to be formed in the believer. It is feeding upon the manna. The epistle to the Romans never takes us off the earth; there is a constitution being built up, there is a type of person being formed that is entirely suited to belong to the body. That epistle gives us the body in Christ; the persons who belong to it are those who have the Spirit of Christ. They have that sensitivity. What an exercise it is! The Lord is not looking just for what is outward, although it is important, but it must come from what is inward. The Pharisees were an extreme example of those who only cared about what was outward, and the Lord had to say to them, “for ye are like whited sepulchres”, that is like white gravestones, you “are full of dead men’s bones” (Matt.23:27); you are the “offspring of vipers” Matt.23:33. Outwardly, everything looked so good, but what a state of heart they had; they placed burdens upon all those who came in contact with them. The Lord does not do that. He is working from the inside out and He wants to form us in our affections. As we develop in our links with the Holy Spirit, these matters become real to us. When we came to know the Lord as our Saviour, we did not exactly fear sin, we feared more the consequences of sin; we feared the fact that if we did not come to know the Lord as our Saviour, we would be lost for eternity. That was the consequences of sin. But as we make way for the Spirit of holiness, we fear sin because it starts to intrude upon the links that we have with divine Persons, upon our communion with Them. Paul says “But we have rejected the hidden things of shame, not walking in deceit, nor falsifying the word of God, but by manifestation of the truth commending ourselves to every conscience of men before God”, 2 Cor.4:2. The footnote ‘g’ says ‘i.e. all that of which one is ashamed and therefore keeps concealed’.
What God is seeking to arrive at in our hearts is transparency. That is what marks Christianity, and in Revelation 15 there were those who could stand upon a glass sea (Rev.15:2). We sometimes sing:
‘Not a cloud above – not a spot within’. (Hymn 22)
As we develop in our links with the Spirit, that sensitivity develops. It marked David. He says in one of the psalms, “Search me, O God, and know my heart; prove me, and know my thoughts; And see if there be any grievous way in me; and lead me in the way everlasting”, Ps.139:23,24. Holiness can be developed through making way for the Spirit of holiness, that which is entirely in keeping with Christ Himself, and that too which is entirely in keeping with the assembly. In Revelation 21, you find the transparency that marks the city; it says “and the city pure gold, like pure glass” (v.18), and then “and the street of the city pure gold, as transparent glass” (v.21). God is securing this now. We are not to be one thing externally and another thing internally. God is looking for you to make room for the Spirit that you might be formed in this matter of holiness, that you might “have your fruit unto holiness”, Rom.6:22. You start to have the sensitivity that you should be all you appear to be. That is what the Lord said of Himself, “Altogether that which I also say to you”, John 8:25. There is this wonderful transparency secured in individuals, and it allows them to have part in the holy city. What a substantial matter the holy city is. It is described as being a cube of twelve thousand stadia, which is about fifteen hundred miles. That is the substantiality of what God wants you to commit yourself to. It is the city, the assembly, and it is there in all its greatness. It says in Revelation 21 “the nations shall walk by its light; and the kings of the earth bring their glory to it. And its gates shall not be shut at all by day, for night shall not be there” (vv.24,25). It has been said that holiness repels evil4. That marks the city, so the gates do not need to close. On the one hand it demonstrates that men can have access into the city if they should so desire, but at the same time nothing that is evil could ever enter into the city. It would be immediately repelled because the city is holy. This is not a picture on the wall; this is what is being substantially formed in the hearts of the saints now. So we are to commit ourselves to making room for the Spirit of God, to commit ourselves to starving the raven and feeding the dove, to commit ourselves to the Spirit of Christ and that character of man, to commit ourselves to the spirit of holiness. I feel that the spirit of holiness is the life of the church, it is the life of the assembly, so that the assembly can be in union with Christ, with that order of Man and all that is in Him. Mary must have worked these exercises out because it is said that the demons went out, they could not stay there because of what had been formed in her heart.
Lastly we read in John’s gospel. Mary arrived at this position in her affection and because of her affection. It has been said that when God approaches us, it involves light and then love. Hebrews tells us “let us approach with a true heart” (Heb.10:22); it involves our affections. All of what we have been speaking about involves our affections. It could only be preserved livingly by the Spirit in our affections and holiness really involves that. It is true affection, affection for what is pure, affection for what is holy. We sometimes refer to Mary as initially lacking in intelligence, but what affection she had. She must have been the loneliest person on the earth in John 20, because the world had crucified Christ, the disciples had gone to their home and she stood alone at the grave of Christ. What a person she was, what love she had! I wonder if I would ever be prepared to stand alone because of my love for Christ. Mary stood alone and the Lord came and spoke to her. We did not read it all, but “She, supposing that it was the gardener” and “Jesus says to her, Mary”, John 20:15,16. Think of that personal touch. “She, turning round, says to him in Hebrew, Rabboni, which means Teacher”; it means ‘my own teacher’. So as we make a commitment to divine things, the Lord will teach us, will open certain things up. It is not normal to have affection that is disproportionate to intelligence, so Mary began by being possessed of affection, and then she became possessed of intelligence, but most of all she was possessed by the Lord, and she was His. When she brought the word to the disciples, it says “Mary of Magdala comes bringing word to the disciples that she had seen the Lord, and that he had said these things to her”. She had appropriated the message, and she conveyed it to them.
So the Lord said “I ascend”. No man had said this before, no other man could do this. The Lord Jesus did it in the power of His own Person, as a divine Person. He said “I ascend”; what a matter it is that Christ is not only risen. Resurrection is a wonderful matter; it involves His lordship. It has been said before that the only power that operates on the other side of death is God’s power; a power that is towards us. He has been made “both Lord and Christ” (Acts 2:36); that is in heaven. Joseph is an example of lordship; it was through his commandment that all the people were to regulate themselves. There was a famine and the choice was either to starve or to go to Joseph. He had “corn as sand of the sea exceeding much” (Gen.41:49); they had to leave off numbering it. Such is the beneficence of Christ’s lordship towards us. But here it is not only resurrection, He is ascending. Resurrection involves what has been left behind, what has been removed, but ascension involves what lies ahead. Ascension and what belongs to heaven is where there has never been the intrusion of sin; it is a stainless joy that the Lord has in mind for us. So He says “I ascend” and no man had done this before. Christ now is the ascended Man, Jesus, perfect and glorified before God, before the Father and no other man has or could have this place. Adam was the first person here on earth in flesh and blood condition, but he forfeited the situation and sin came in. The place that we have in Christ can never be forfeited, can never be given up because it is in Him as the ascended Man. What opens up here is the truth of the assembly. The assembly in Christ Jesus is a vessel which is inviolate, that is, it cannot fail. Everything established in Christ is inviolate. New creation in Christ Jesus is inviolate. The new man is created “in truthful righteousness and holiness” (Eph.4:24); “to him be glory in the assembly in Christ Jesus unto all generations of the age of ages” (Eph.3:21). That cannot fail. No failure will ever come in to what God has secured in His purposes of love. That is why Christ came and stood in the midst. He is the centre of the spiritual universe, He is the last Adam, He is making all alive. He could show them His hands and His side, but first He said “Peace be to you”. It is the settled purposes of grace that have been secured through divine love and it is all available to us to commit ourselves to.
What underlies all of this is divine love. I was thinking recently that divine love is not simply a general matter. The love of Christ is a personal love. He loved His God and Father, He loved the will of God, and He “loved the assembly, and has delivered himself up for it”, Eph.5:25. His is a personal love for the assembly and He has a personal love for you. He has a personal love for each one of us, a wonderful love. We spoke of it in the reading; none of us could measure the sufferings of Christ. The wonderful matter of atonement being secured is because God found a Man who had His estimation of sin, and so He was a perfect Offering for sin. How great were Paul’s sufferings physically, but Mr Taylor said that the Lord’s sufferings were infinite5. Think of that! Divine love is infinite and the sufferings of our Lord Jesus were infinite because of the holiness of His person, because of who He is. That love is personal towards us; the hymn writer could write:-
‘Were the whole realm of nature mine,
That were an off’ring far too small;
Love so amazing, so divine,
Demands my soul, my life, my all!’ (Hymn 272)
Now is the time to make a commitment to divine things, to divine Persons. May you do so for His name’s sake.
Address at Grangemouth
8 August 2014
J. Drummond