A NAIL IN A SURE PLACE
[p. 142] A NAIL IN A SURE PLACE
2 Corinthians 1:19,20; 1 Chronicles 22:3; 2 Chronicles 3:9; Isaiah 22:23,24; Ecclesiastes 12:11
You will observe in these passages in the Old Testament the occurrence of the word ‘nail’, or ‘nails’ and, no doubt, you will assume I have in mind to connect the thought expressed in them with the passage in the letter to the Corinthians, which I read, because I would seek to show how the things of God are secured and held together divinely.
I wish to say at the outset that the idea of the nails enters into the truth of resurrection. There can be no holding things, save on that principle, and so I read from the second epistle to the Corinthians because the apostle speaks there of having preached among the Corinthians the Son of God. There had been, indeed, a threefold presentation of the Son of God to the Corinthians by Paul and Silvanus and Timotheus, suggesting to us that the apostle and the other preachers were concerned that the truth of the Son of God should be firmly in their souls, and Paul’s preaching of the Son of God was on the principle, as we read in Romans 1:4, that He had been “marked out Son of God in power, according to the Spirit of holiness, by resurrection of the dead” as it should read. Not simply His own resurrection. The declaration began to take form in His ministry in the raising of the widow’s son at the gate of Nain, in Luke, and in the raising of Lazarus, in John. In these instances we have witnesses of His power as the Son of God. But then He invaded death Himself. We see in His emotions, His groan, at the grave of Lazarus, His deep resentment of death in its sway over the people of God, and so, in order to follow up that deep groan, and those tears at Bethany, He invaded death, and, as we read, “annulled” it. He came out of it. He [p. 143] came out of it in such triumph that He has led captivity captive (Ephesians 4:8). He holds in His hand that power now. He has wrested it from Satan, who had it, and He holds it in His hand. So, if any one of the family of God die now, as we speak, he is put to sleep “through Jesus”, so that the people of God, knowing the Son of God by the preaching to which Paul refers, are no longer in dread of death, or in dread of him who had the power of it. The Lord Jesus, having come out of death, is in supreme control of the forces of evil. He presents Himself to us, indeed, as “he that has the key of David” (Revelation 3:7) and again as he who has “the keys of death and of hades” (Revelation 1:18).
And so you have at the outset in these passages the suggestion of a nail; that is, One great enough to sustain in His own Person every divine weight. In the Old Testament you have the thought in the book of Zechariah that from God comes the nail; (Zechariah 10:4). The corner-stone, and the nail, and the battle-axe, and the ruler, all proceed from God. But I will confine myself to the nail, so that we may see how divine purposes, and divine thoughts and principles, are all gathered up and secured in Christ risen from the dead. It is impossible that one of them can slip. Not an iota, as He says, of the law can pass away unfulfilled. Not a counsel of God can remain unfulfilled. Not a promise of God can remain unfulfilled. Whatever promises there have been “in him are yea, and in him Amen”, as we read in 2 Corinthians 1:20. And then, beloved friends, not only these abstract things, but all the persons that have been in divine counsel are hung on Christ, so to say. He is great enough to sustain every one of us. A]l vessels, great and small, as we read in Isaiah 22, are hanging on this great Person, whom God has fastened as a nail in a sure place (Isaiah 22:25). All the glory of His Father’s house, whatever thought came out in David, whatever came out in Jacob, Isaac or Abraham,
[p. 144] is secured infallibly in that Person. And then, as I said, every vessel is hanging on this great Person. And we are all vessels. The youngest believer here is a vessel — as we read in Romans, a vessel of mercy (Romans 9:23). Every one of us, whether great or small, old or young, is a vessel of mercy fitted for glory. Think of that! Think of the fact that God has taken us up in mercy — “according to his mercy he saved us” (Titus 3:5). And He has fitted us for glory. Each one of us will shine in that day, when God displays His vessels. There will be none to dishonour. They will be all pure gold. The dross having been removed, there are vessels for the refiner, so that every one of us will be there as the fruit of the sovereign mercy of God, fitted, as it says, for glory. We shall not be in the least degree out of place, nor shall we feel ourselves out of place. We shall shine as fitted for glory.
And so that great vessel, the aggregate of us all, the Holy City, New Jerusalem, comes down from God out of heaven, having His glory. Great as she is, corresponding in every way with divine requirements, even she hangs on Christ. We would not have it otherwise. He who upholds all things by the word of His power, upholds us, and He upholds us in the aggregate. Every vessel is hung on Christ, as it says in this passage in Isaiah. So we see, dear brethren, what a wonderful Nail Christ is. What a Nail from God! In due time the Son became a Nail. One appears who is capable of taking up all these things and bringing in the yea of God, and the Amen of God, in regard to every one of them.
I wanted to show how God intends that there should be correspondence with this great Nail in every one of us. One of the greatest things in the Scriptures is the principle of correspondence with Christ. But before that principle is taken up, we are impressed with His personal ability to hold everything.
[p. 145] I speak in considerable measure for the young, because, unless young people get this thought into their souls, they will not be equal to the process of which I intend to speak. You understand from the very outset (indeed, the gospel presents it to us), that God has got this great Nail in view, and that, in virtue of His power, every divine thought and every person purposed for blessing is sustained by Him. Every thought of God, as I said, and every person in the purpose of divine love, hangs on Christ. So that we start with the assurance in our souls of the security of everything as hung on this great divine Nail, which is “in a sure place”.
The world has its nails. I speak of them just for a moment, for the principle of a nail appears, according to Scripture, in the world. This principle of binding things so that they should be held securely is in the world. But what can be held securely when the nail is not in a sure place? However great a man may be — and the world accords its honours according to man’s estimate — if he be a man who can conquer and bind together countries into an empire, and hold them, yet if he is not in a sure place, what of it? Take any of them — they seem marvellous as they stalk about the earth, but presently they are gone. Death overwhelms every one of them, and their great structures necessarily come down, for the obvious reason that they are not in a sure place. How can any mortal man be sure? Uncertainty marks man from the very outset, to say the least, and so every great structure that has been reared up by man has come down. He himself comes down. In our own times we have seen empires come down. You see there is nothing sure, whereas the Nail in the sure place, that is, Christ the Son of God, declared to be such by resurrection, is beyond the power of any disintegrating thing, of any corrupting thing, of any thing that causes decay or weakness, and,
[p. 146] hence, the immense importance of having the light of the Son of God in our souls. Pilate says to the Jews, “Go your way, make it as sure as ye can” (Matthew 27:65). So they made the sepulchre as sure as they could. They sealed the stone, but next morning the stone was rolled away, and the sepulchre was empty. Such is the irony of God when man pretends to secure things. They had to make it good by a lie. The world seeks to hide its shame and weakness by falsehood. The guards were corrupted. They were bribed to tell a lie, and the lie became circulated among the Jews that the disciples stole the Lord away, and it became current, so that the world, in its effort at securing things, has had to have recourse to falsehood to save its respectability. But what a sham! Think of an effort to set aside this momentous fact — the resurrection of the Son of God! Think of the endeavour to set that aside by a lie! It cannot be set aside. It stands out. It is preached among the Gentiles, and it stands in the souls of thousands of people. Every thought of God is secured in that Nail in the sure place — Christ risen from among the dead.
I wanted to show the principle of correspondence with this Nail, because the divine thought is, as we see in the tabernacle and in the temple, and, indeed, in the physical creation, that things are to be held together. It is marvellous how the physical system is held. We know little or nothing of it. The cleverest scientists know little or nothing of it. I am not pretentious in saying that. I know it is so, that the physical system, which we call the universe, and what in Scripture is designated as “the worlds”, was framed by the word of God. No one understands it, except those who have faith. By faith we apprehend that the “worlds were framed by the word of God” (Hebrews 11:3). There they stand; these bodies move with precision, perfectly held together, having come from the divine hand. And so, in connection with [p. 147] the tabernacle, which, indeed, is a figure of the universe — there was one tabernacle, for God is one, and He works on that principle, and His thought is to work out in His people that principle, and if I am to be in that, obviously I must be subject. “He spoke”, it says, “and it was done; he commanded, and it stood fast” (Psalm 33:9). I suppose the speaking conveys the wisdom in which everything was made, and the commanding is the authority of God, in which everything is held. So that, if I am to be in this great system which is in mind, this great moral system, obviously I must be governed by those two things — the word and the commandment. If I am not subject, I shall miss the word, for the word is the unfolding of the mind of God. The commandment is the authority, and we are all obligated to submit to the authority of God. There can be no working out of the thoughts of God, save as we are subject to the authority of God. And so our Lord Jesus Christ is the great Pattern in this respect. He had the law in His heart. The law represents the authority of God, and He had it in His heart. He delighted to do the will of God, and, in doing the will of God, He unfolded to us the mind of God. He spoke. So, as I said, God intends to bring every one of us into accord with Christ. I confine myself to the thought of the nail, because my purpose is that we may seek to hold things together according to God. Every one of us has a function in that respect. “Every wise woman buildeth her house, but the foolish plucketh it down with her hands” (Proverbs 14:1). We are either building or we are plucking down — “Every wise woman buildeth her house”. So the great thing is to be in accord with wisdom. Wisdom has come out in Christ, and we are to be the children of wisdom, and in regard to holding things together I want just to show how God works to bring us into accord with Christ as the Nail.
[p. 148] As to the passage in 1 Chronicles, by comparing it with 2 Chronicles 3:1, what you will see is that David had the site of the house shown him. David bought the place. He bought land, not only large enough for the site of the temple, but he bought the “place”. He secured plenty of room for the work, and, having the site shown him, he says, “This is the house of the Lord”, this is where the house of the Lord is to be. And so he provides iron in abundance for the nails. He did not make the nails; it was for Solomon to do that. David represents the kingdom. The kingdom is contributory to the house. The raw material comes in through the kingdom, and in the kingdom the processes proceed which prepare us for the house. I only wish to draw attention to David’s great thought here. He prepared iron in abundance for the nails — nails for the doors and the gate, and nails for the joinings.
You see how the Spirit of God suggests things to us. In that which God is building, as it is here in testimony at the present time, doors and gates are most important, and these should be firmly bound and held. Not on human principles, but on divine principles. So that, in admitting persons, we understand that the end of all flesh has come before God, and we do not respect persons in admitting believers to the house of God. They are confronted with what is stable, and, as one is admitted, there is discrimination, for we are not to admit anything inconsistent with the house. 1 Chronicles 21 shows what it cost to acquire this site. The sword of Jehovah was sheathed there. It can only be sheathed through a sacrifice, and that sacrifice was Christ. There can be nothing in the house inconsistent with the death of Christ, and so, on entering, there was in evidence the stability of things as set up in Christ in resurrection.
I believe every young person should be impressed with the stability of things. The house of God is [p. 149] not common, it is dignified. If you come into it, you are coming into a place of privilege — a place of dignity, where power is, and where love is; but the doors of the gates were well supplied with nails.
And then the “joists”. I suppose they were the things by which the whole house was held together, and made one. These also were supplied, so that, as one enters the house, one is impressed with the stability of everything — that we are not holding things on human principles, or on partisan lines, or on lines of personal preference. We are in the house on the ground of the death and resurrection of Christ. Worldly principles are out of place, and everything impresses you with the idea of security. And how can there be security except on the ground of resurrection, whence man, after the flesh, is repudiated altogether? The Corinthians were not recognising these doors and these joists in admitting foreign elements — elements of evil and disintegration, which they were doing. And so the apostle brings in this great Nail. He says, “My preaching was of the Son of God”. They were not in accord with that preaching; they were recognising men they were acting by men. There were parties, and preferences, and these things showed that leaven was working.
In the second book of Chronicles we come to Solomon. The first book is David. He made provision for the house; not only the provision, not only the site of the house — the provision for it in the raw — but the pattern of the house. David had everything by the Spirit, he says, and he gave to Solomon the pattern of the house, of the porch, of the treasuries, of the upper chambers, of the inner chambers, and of the place of the mercy-seat. He gave him the pattern, and so, in preparing the inner house, the house of the mercy-seat (what was called the Holy of Holies), gold is in great evidence.
But I want to speak about the nails only. It says,
“[p. 150] The weight of the nails was fifty shekels of gold”. Now, in iron, you have strength. David prepared iron in abundance for the nails, and what is more needed, beloved brethren, than strength in seeking to maintain the house of God — its principles — in an adverse world? David knew that the power of evil had to be contended with, and he prepared iron in abundance, so that the doors and the gates and the joists should be firmly held, and that they should stand. The people of God should stand against the admission of evil principles. How one could enlarge on this, even in occurrences of our own times, but the time does not admit of it. I want to come to the gold. Solomon is in control of abundance of gold, so that even the nails are of gold. How one would covet being one of those nails! It is quite obvious that we have not here exactly a type of Christ, but, rather, a type of the saints. It is not only now a question of strength (which is of immense importance, surely), but of the intrinsic value of each saint as under the eye of God holding the truth in love, as we had this afternoon. That, I apprehend, is the gold. It is the product of heaven. It is of God. Love is of God. Gold, I apprehend, suggests what is of God. We have known love, beloved friends, “because he laid down his life for us” (1 John 3:16). It is as if the thing were not really known until Christ died. That precious metal has come out and shone in the death of Christ, and hence the formation of the saints in love. We are taught of God to love one another. How delightful under the eye of God, as His people are seen, not only loving one another, but holding the truth in love! We may love at the expense of truth, but, as born of God, we hold the truth in love.
That, I apprehend, refers to the nails of gold; God would bring us into correspondence with Christ in that way. The love of God is set out in Christ,
[p. 151] in that He laid down His life for us, and hence the pattern, so that every saint is conformed to Christ. Another thing about divine love is that it goes beyond what is local. Indeed, the house is a pattern, not of what is local, but of what is general. The house of God is never connected with the local assembly. It is a general thought, and if I am to be in it as a nail, my outlook must be universal; so that, in all lowliness, and meekness, and long-suffering, I endeavour to keep the unity of the Spirit in the uniting bond of peace. There, I think, you have the nail of gold. The unity of the Spirit is not a local idea, it is a general idea. There is one body and one Spirit, and maintaining the unity of the Spirit is a nail of gold; it is holding things for God. It is in the Spirit that things are held according to God, and so you find the advanced Christians that are contemplated in Colossians and Ephesians, are said to love all saints. The Colossians had loved in the Spirit. The only mention of the word ‘Spirit’ in Colossians is just there; Colossians 1:8. To love in the Spirit is to love like God. You are wholly outside the range of national or local feeling, or personal preference. You love all the saints. You love those begotten of God because you love God, and it is in this way, as I understand it, that the nails of gold are holding things for God at the present time. How great a thing to be formed out of gold! Formed of divine love — forged, as I may say, in the death of Christ, for these nails issue forth in that way, and thus we hold things for God. We are as concerned about the interests of Christ in Europe as we are about them in Australasia. We love all the saints, because we know that all are essential to what God is doing.
There is just the one thought more, and that is the nail of Ecclesiastes. It says, “The words of the wise are as goads, and as nails fastened by the masters [p. 152] of assemblies, which are given from one shepherd”, Ecclesiastes 12:11. Now we are not dealing with persons, but with words, and I need not enlarge on this, because it is obvious to all how words as received universally, words coming from the wise, principles set out in right words, bind the saints together, and hence we hold the truth, as it is said, “until we all arrive at the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, at the full-grown man” (Ephesians 4:13).
There are a variety of gifts, according to the chapter in Ephesians (chapter 4). They are all given of one Shepherd, and they have all got their words of wisdom. The Lord knows those to whom He gives gifts. The vessels are prepared. There is but one Shepherd, and He thinks of the sheep, and He has ascended on high, having led captivity captive. He gives gifts. He gives “some apostles, and some prophets, and some evangelists, and some shepherds and teachers ... with a view to the edifying of the body of Christ; until we all arrive at the unity of the faith” (Ephesians 4:11 - 13). That is, we have the unity of the Spirit, and we also have the unity of the faith, because the words of the wise do not conflict. They are all from one Shepherd. They are all wise. They all have words of wisdom, and, taken together, they present the truth, and so the unity of the faith. We have the whole truth. Let us see to that, for the unity of the faith involves agreement in regard to the truth. It was never the Lord’s intent that His people should agree to differ. It is a false principle. It is not according to God. It is a human principle. The principle of God is agreement in the Spirit, and the unity of the faith, for there is only one faith — as it says, “One Lord, one faith, one baptism; one God and Father of all” (Ephesians 4:5). There are not two faiths, and so God intends, by the words of the wise, to hold His people in the truth. We love the persons, but we love the truth, and we hold the truth [p. 153] in relation to the persons. So that, as it says, they are “nails fastened by the masters of assemblies, which are given from one Shepherd”. The masters of assemblies, I suppose, are those who form local companies, who would be responsible for them. Indeed, the word ‘preacher’ in this book is a former of assemblies, for every preacher has in view that assemblies should be formed. His work is not finished until assemblies are formed, but, when formed, assemblies have to be guided and controlled by wise principles, and hence the words of the wise are as goads. I believe the goad touches the conscience, which is a most important service, for if our consciences are not touched by the words, they do not become nails — they are not fixed in our souls. As the Lord says to Saul. “It is hard for thee to kick against goads” (Acts 26:14). Our consciences must come into action. Saul’s conscience was evidently aroused, but he was kicking. How often it is that, as the word comes to our consciences, we resist it. If we refuse it, it does not become a nail; we cannot hang our thoughts on it, and rest in it. Thus the saints are held together by right words and principles.
And so, dear brethren, the ministry that the Lord gives is so important. Not that we are to swallow it without chewing the cud; we are to be like the Bereans, who searched the scriptures diligently to see whether these things are so, and if they are so, hold them as nails. You can hang your thoughts and affections on them, and rest securely in them; so that you know where you are. You are no longer a babe tossed to and fro and carried about by every wind of doctrine; you are a man, and able to hold the truth in love.