PUTTING ON THE NEW MAN
PUTTING ON THE NEW MAN
Colossians 3: 9 - 11; 1 Samuel 15: 35; 1 Samuel 16: 1; 1 Chronicles 12: 23, 38
I have in mind to speak about the new man, a subject that will be of interest and, I believe, of profit, as the Lord helps in speaking of it. The very thought is delightful; as we consider the old man, what his history has been and what his current history is, how God is replacing him — not only that He will replace him, but that He is doing it. So that nothing in that sense is sudden with God. He brings in what is in His mind beforehand on the principle of testimony, and on the principle of establishing what is better. So having a moral right to supersede what is evil; that is, the moral right is to be established before the thing is actually set up and prevailing. That raises the question as to us as God’s people now; our position here is to establish moral qualities or values. He has not deputed angels to this service, He has deputed men. In Jesus “was life, and the life was the light of men” — that is, it did not go beyond men. And the same writer, that is John, says, “The darkness is passing and the true light already shines” — not that it should shine, it shines; but then it shines in men, it shone to them and in them and now shines from them, and very largely with a view to establishing qualities or values in a moral sense. Hence the value of every saint in God’s account from this point of view. And what I have in mind is to show that, whilst we may take on the principle of the new man, we may not follow the thing up in detail. I want to show from the Old Testament how this appears in us, in perhaps the [p. 338] most distinguished among us, as Samuel was in his day the most distinguished amongst God’s people. Brethren as a class are known to be persons who value principles; it is one of the best words we have, the word ‘principles’. But then, whilst we may be characterised as holding principles, we may fail in exemplifying them. That is what I have in mind, dear brethren, and as the phrase “new man” is used, no doubt many here will understand that in Colossians it is peculiar in the sense that the word denotes youthfulness or freshness. That ought to appeal to all the young people here, that it is not a mere question of physical youthfulness or freshness, but spiritual, and I am inclined to think that it has more scope with the young. There is always a freshness about recently converted people. Whether they retain the freshness is another matter, but at any rate, young people who have received the light of the gospel and take their place in fellowship, as we say, commit themselves and become a peculiar asset in the local company. Their part, as we call it, is usually very interesting. And I refer to the youth in that way so that they may retain their interest and their attractiveness, that years may not detract from this freshness. So that Colossians deals with that kind of ‘new’, what is young and fresh. But then it also takes on the thought of knowledge that is not characteristic in that way. It is not simply the knowledge of a young person, which is usually defective — not that I would disparage young brothers or sisters, but their knowledge is usually limited and defective — so that the Spirit of God balances the thought of youthfulness and freshness in the christian with another word, that is renewal — renewed in knowledge. That is, that the kind of knowledge you have and continue in is not what you learn at school, the high school or the like, or the college; it is a different kind of thing. So that God balances us in [p. 339] that way as to what we are constitutionally, young and fresh. We are not that in knowledge, our knowledge is different. It is different from the most learned in this world, from the most renowned person, lecturer or professor. The knowledge of the young christian is different; that is what the word means, “Renewed into full knowledge according to the image of him that has created him”. It is in the knowledge that the image of God lies. We do not attach the thought of freshness or youthfulness to God, so that the character of God in the way of knowledge stamps the christian, even in his youthfulness. Both these things go together and make christians unique in this world. They stand out; there are none like them. These words cover us in that way that there is nothing stale or effete about us. We have not grown “old and aged”, a remarkable phrase used in Hebrews; we retain our youthfulness and our freshness, but we balance that by a knowledge that is after God; we learn to know like God. Of course, all that has to come out in Christ; it is through Him we understand how God knows, what knowledge God has; it is a question of how Christ knew things, how differently He looked at everything. How much He could have told people in the days of His flesh as to so-called science, but He did not tell them much; but if He did speak of anything He spoke of it in His own way. We read of Him at the age of twelve in the midst of the teachers. It is a good thing for young people to understand that there are teachers, that is, that there are persons who are specially instructed. I do not believe in specialists amongst the brethren, but persons specially instructed I do believe in, and the Lord sees that there are such, and He sat amongst them. It was a fine sight — He was “sitting in the midst of the teachers and hearing them and asking them questions” (Luke 2: 46). Did He hear? He had His own way of hearing; He said [p. 340] God opened His ears morning by morning. Is there a college in the world where there is any such thing as that, where God opens people’s ears morning by morning? There is not. Well, that is how Jesus learnt. I speak of Him now as Luke presents Him to us in the loveliness of that perfect humanity that shone in Him from a babe to a man and peculiarly at the age of twelve, when He was sitting in the midst of the teachers, hearing ... It was not that He heard merely as a natural boy; He says God opened His ears to hear. What a fine example that is for the young people, to ask God to open your ears so that you hear aright. It is not the ordinary way, it is the divine way, the new man is “renewed into full knowledge according to the image of him that has created him”. We have to learn the divine way, it cannot be unfolded in words, it has to be understood through instinct as well as by what you hear. He heard, it says, and He asked questions. You never heard such a Questioner as He; no one ever did, how He questioned! Not that He would puzzle the teachers. He could have done so, of course; He could have confused them, but that is not the point. He was a boy of twelve and He acted in a seemly way, but He asked questions. There was never such hearing amidst the teachers, never such asking of questions, as on that day, at that time. Well, that is to be continued, that is the idea, “according to the image of him that has created him;” that is how the young christian thinks. Jesus was not a creation, of course. I am not referring to what He was, always the Creator; but by taking that lowly place He set us an example of how to get into the divine way of hearing, the divine way of questioning, and the divine way of answering, too, for He gave answers. They “were astonished at his understanding and answers”, it says.
Well now, these two thoughts present the idea of the new man in Colossians. The thought is to make [p. 341] it attractive and I have in mind to take up David at Hebron as typical of Christ in this sense. We have to understand him, not only personally, but in the way he is presented to us in various settings in Scripture, and in this setting in 1 Chronicles, he is at Hebron. I want to show, from the verses read in chapter 12, how this thought of the new man came about, and how it became universal in Israel at that time. But first I want to show, from 1 Samuel, how we may take on the principle. I was saying that to be men of principle is a very fine thought, but let us not stop at the principle. Now Samuel was full of principles in chapter 15, and what I am asserting here is that, where God intends to expose those who are governed by the principles of the old man, He will always bring in a test. We shall not escape; we may cover ourselves for a long time, but we shall not escape if God undertakes to test us. So Saul had a long reign, and many of us do have a long reign; I mean so-called leading men, leading brothers. For God will give us rein, He will give us plenty of scope as we lay ourselves out to do anything in the service, in the testimony. But as sure as anything He will test us, and when the test is applied there is no escape at all, there is no possibility of hiding any more. So Samuel says to Saul, You know these sinners, the Amalekites, how they harassed Israel, now Jehovah says to you, You go and destroy them. That is the message. “Hearken”, Samuel says, in the beginning of chapter 15, “to the voice of the words of Jehovah”. It is not a general thought, it is the words. God tests us out in the words with which He clothes His message. “Thus saith Jehovah of hosts: I have considered what Amalek did to Israel, how he set himself against him in the way, when he came up from Egypt. Now go and smite Amalek, and destroy utterly all that they have, and spare them not, but slay both man and woman, infant and suckling, ox and sheep,
camel and ass”. I suppose the word would cover all these creatures; do not forget them, do not be too general; pay attention to what is said — this is a test. And Saul undertook the commission and went and attacked the city of the Amalekites, and did well too. I am speaking now, dear brethren, not only of Saul, but of Samuel. That is, I am speaking of any whom God would test as a Saul, and I am speaking of all of us whom God would call upon to act according to the test and act fully according to the test, and observe the words in the test; “the words of Jehovah” it says. “And Saul said to the Kenites, Go, depart:” he is not going to be promiscuous and destroy everybody there. It is the Amalekites he is after; that is the commission. He does well. There is time to separate from Amalek, and he observes a good bit of strategy. He laid wait in the valley, as if he were to go down into death in what he is doing. He sees he is being tested, and he is not going to answer to the test, but he is going to palm off what he does as if he had answered to the test; he is going to conceal what he is at. Verse 10 says, “The word of Jehovah came to Samuel, saying, It repenteth me that I have set up Saul to be king”. This is before Samuel hears anything; it is what God is thinking about. It is now a question, dear brethren, of the saints coming into this matter and getting to God’s point of view in the matter. It is a secret matter, but God sees the thing; He sees what is going on in Saul’s heart all the time in the conflict with Amalek, and He says, It is all over with Saul. He may be clever in the way he conceals himself, and he was, but, as far as God’s mind was concerned, it was all over with Saul. It is very solemn, for there is no escape when God orders a test; I am exposed and I cannot hide myself.
Now God will bring Samuel into this, and He does. I want to show how Samuel was right in principle; he was with God in principle, but not in actual fact [p. 343] in detail in following out the thing to its completion. I have great respect for a man who has good principles, but principles are not all. Samuel set out the principles in most striking language. He came to Saul, we are told, and Saul met him, with all the glamour of a victorious general — he had carried out the mind of God, he said. Oh but, Samuel says, listen — that is not just so. You will observe in verse 13, “Samuel came to Saul; and Saul said to him, Blessed art thou of Jehovah”. How one is apt to be caught by that sort of thing. What a brother that is! He is victorious, and he is making much of another brother. “Blessed art thou of Jehovah”, he says, “I have fulfilled the word of Jehovah;” that is what he says. Is Samuel going to be deceived? Am I going to be deceived? Dealing with evil is the most difficult of all things, discerning the roots that are at work and the skill with which men who are experienced in evil conceal, or endeavour to conceal. Samuel is not caught with that; he is not the man to be flattered, thank God: he is a man of God. He negatively had put off the old man in the attitude of his mind, and particularly the old man in Amalek. There are many of us who will put off the old man in Amalek and retain the old man in Saul; but it is the same old man; the old man in Saul is the same old man as in Agag. Samuel slew Agag, but he did not slay Saul; I mean to say he did not slay him in the principle of it: he mourned for him. But, as I said, he goes over the principles. Time will not permit me to say much more as to that, but those who are familiar with the chapter will know how he points out in prophetic language that to obey is better than sacrifice. He set out in beautiful poetic language a word directly from God at the moment covering the principle. The great principle covering the chapter is that — “obedience is better than sacrifice, Attention than the fat of rams. For rebellion is [p. 344] as the sin of divination, And selfwill is as iniquity and idolatry”. So he says, “Because thou hast rejected the word of Jehovah, He hath also rejected thee from being king;” it is a settled matter. Samuel is perfectly clear as to the principle. A man like that would set out the thing perfectly in a Bible reading; the whole thing would be as clear as noonday. The principle as to what Amalek means, and how rigid God is in dealing with him; yet, you see, Saul is not dealt with except in principle. The speaker says, God has rejected thee from reigning and He has another, He has a neighbour; that is the new man. He had some idea of the fact that Jehovah had selected another, and in language that is excellent, the principles are set out perfectly. Well now, Samuel has stated the principles and Saul says, “I have sinned”. Well, you say, that settles the matter. He says it twice too, but why? Because he is caught; he is exposed, and he cannot help it. He should have said that at the beginning. But, you see, the crown was involved, the position was involved. I must retain that, and I must go to great length to retain that. But it is no question of a moral state of things, of self-judgment in his soul at all. He says to Samuel, “I have sinned; honour me now, I pray thee, before the elders of my people” — you see the kind of man he is, thinking of himself — “honour me now”, he says — not honour God, but honour me. And he goes to this extent that he catches hold of the garment of the prophet and tears it: that is the kind of man he was. Why should I do anything like that? Were I a humble man I would never attempt to act like that toward a brother; but it only emphasises the actual facts of the case. Samuel says, God has taken the kingdom from you, He has rent it: the matter is settled.
Well now, Samuel is still mourning for Saul, and that is what I want you to see. The verse I read says,
“[p. 345] Samuel saw Saul no more until the day of his death”. He is not going to visit that brother any more; that is a settled matter. He has the right principle, the matter is settled, the mind of God is clear: he is the rejected man. But still I am hankering after that man; there is something there, there is a link between him and me. I am not going to visit him, but I am mourning about him. The Lord says, ‘I am repenting about him; you are different from Me’. I am not with God. I am with God as to the principle, but not as to my feelings, and God says, ‘I want you to be right in your feelings — I want you. I do not want a man mourning for a man I have rejected, I want you to be with Me in My feelings’. Well, that is how the matter stood. God says, I am repenting about it. When God says that, there is something very peculiar, it is a question of His feelings. He did not like to give up Saul, but He did give up Saul, and it is a finished matter; He will never have recourse to him again. These finished matters are very rare amongst us, dear brethren. Finishing things is a great idea in Scripture. So the next chapter opens with this, “How long wilt thou mourn for Saul, seeing I have rejected him from reigning over Israel?” He says, ‘You know you are not with Me in this’. How God must have felt that, speaking to such an honoured servant of His. But it is a voice to the most outstanding brother there is, how we may be out of accord with God because of personal predilections in regard of brethren, some personal link that holds us together, and we are not with God in it. Now He says, “Go”. He must be obedient, for he had already established the principle of obedience in chapter 15. Obedience is a mark of the new man, and Samuel had the principle; he had put off the old and put on the new, in that sense, but not in his feelings. God says, “Fill thine horn with oil, and go, I will send thee to Jesse, the [p. 346] Bethlehemite; for I have provided me a king among his sons”. The Lord says, as it were, ‘I will tell you who he is when you get there’. Now that is a very humbling thing, that God does not trust you now. He says, ‘I cannot trust you to go by yourself and get the king I want; you have not come to the new man in your feelings; I will go with you, it is too important to be left to you’. I am referring to Samuel, dear brethren, because he sets out an example for us from God. He has to suffer for me that I might learn, not only right principles, but right feelings, that the new man should be entirely embraced by me, so that I know him when I see him in whomsoever it may be. In whomsoever it may be, I know the new man, if my feelings are right. Samuel went to the house of Jesse, and presently the sons of Jesse come up, and sure enough, he made a mistake at once. He thought Eliab was the new man; but there was not a trait of the new man in him. God had said, ‘I will not let you go alone; you are not the one to go and see a brother or sister to be included amongst the people of God, your feelings are not right, you cannot be trusted’. Now I want to be trustworthy; we need to be trustworthy, dear brethren, in the carrying out of the divine administration. Times are difficult; Scripture says, “Difficult times shall be there”, and they have come, and it is a question whether I can discern the new man, not only the principles but the feelings and the practical concrete characteristics of the new man. I have them in myself and I discern them in another. It is as sure as possible, if I have any special friendships or personal links with the brethren, I shall miss it; I shall be apt to be governed by these in visiting that person. I need to be free of that. God says here, ‘I cannot trust you, I shall have to go with you’. Of course He goes with us at all times; but He cannot trust Samuel. He says, ‘Do not name him, I will name him — it is an important matter’. This matter of kingship is too important to be left in the hands of a man who is held in his affections by the man God has rejected. So Samuel says, “Surely Jehovah’s anointed is before him”. Jehovah says, ‘He is not before Me; you are making a mistake, and the secret is you have been held in your affections by the man I have rejected’. And all seven sons pass before him, and the word as to each is, “Neither has Jehovah chosen this one”. Samuel is adjustable, thank God! and it is very beautiful how readily he comes in for adjustment. He is gradually coming into the idea of the new man, and presently the new man appears before him, the most beautiful man as the Spirit of God presents him to us; he is ruddy, of beautiful appearance, and he is beloved — there he is. Samuel knows him, but still God says, I do not trust you with that — “Arise, anoint him; for this is he”. So, dear brethren, it is a most important thing to learn to keep the right man before us in the administration of the things of God. Not only that the person is nominally christian, or even a true christian, but can I see the characteristics of the new man? That is how the matter stands. And it says, “The Spirit of Jehovah came upon David;” that means, that kind of man, he is beloved. God says, ‘I commit Myself to a man who is spiritually lovely’. Samuel had not been doing this, but he will do it hereafter — and he did, he stood by David.
I go on to Chronicles to show you how all Israel is brought into this, for one great thought in christianity is not only that there are leaders, prominent men and women, but that all are to be brought into the thing. “Leaders led in Israel”, and, if that is so, Israel will fall into the lead, and they become right, they see with God. So what you get in this chapter is how David became very attractive. In the first part of the chapter we see how people came to him in certain positions, first at Ziklag, then in the [p. 348] wilderness, and so on, and how Judah came to him. That is how the Spirit of God comes in when the saints are moving in this way, taking up positions in relation to Christ that in themselves are not inviting. The wilderness is not inviting, but they came to him there. As the history goes on, Benjamin and Judah came to David, and the Spirit of God came upon Amasai; that is, we have God coming into the gatherings of His people, the Spirit of God coming upon someone and making it perfectly clear that David is the man. You can look for that, dear brethren, in crises, that God will come in at some point and make it quite clear where He is and who is the right man; that is, when conditions are right. So they say, “Thine are we David, And with thee, thou son of Jesse: Peace, peace be to thee! And peace be to thy helpers!” So the position is clear as the noonday.
Then we have the position of the tribes that came to David, and that is what I want to finish with, so that I might bring you all afresh into this great matter of the new man, so that there is no doubt in your mind as to what is meant, that you are thoroughly on that side. So in the second part of the chapter you have characteristics; each of the tribes has his own distinctive feature, and I would particularly allude to the Aaronites, the tribe of Levi. In all this part of the chapter, you will observe there are no names given to us but those of these two men, Jehoiada and Zadok. Zadok is said to be a young man; he is one of the most distinguished men in Scripture, so much so that God carries him right through into the millennium and he is to be the priest there. He represents the divine thought in youthfulness and valour in his day, and God carries him right through — the priesthood in that day is to be the sons of Zadok. I think it is a very great thing to get a long-distance outlook in divine things and to see how God carries things right through; that what I am going on with [p. 349] now is what will be then; it is not local to time or place, it is going on. Then Jehoiada — he is not said to be young; he is a priest, he is the leader of the Aaronites. We must have a man like this, the most spiritual man, as the name would indicate, of the priesthood; he is the leader of it. How important to get a man like that, and then a young man like Zadok; as he is called in verse 28, “a valiant young man, and his father’s house two and twenty chief men”. You can understand that youthfulness is not everything in this matter, there is more than youthfulness in this man, he has twenty-two captains with him. There must be some superiority beyond youthfulness in this young man; he has intelligence, that is “renewed into full knowledge according to the image of him that created him”. This young man will converse with you, and he will converse with you about the most exalted things; these captains are not minors, they are men of experience and dignity, and they are with him. But we have the youthfulness beautifully balanced in this young man; he is the only young man mentioned by name of these myriads that are spoken of as having come to David to Hebron. Why is that? It is undoubtedly to call attention to the new man. Jehoiada is called the prince of Aaron; he surely has knowledge according to God, for “the priest’s lips should keep knowledge”. His lips should keep it; not only that he has knowledge in his mind, but in his lips. A remarkable thing! He is always ready to give the mind of God: he keeps the knowledge in his lips. Of course he has it in his mind, but he is ready. We read of a great priest called Ezra who was a ready scribe. It is very important to be ready when you hear of questions coming up, difficulties to be solved. This man is the leader of the Aaronites, that is the particular class of the family of that kind, the sons of Aaron. So that I think, between Jehoiada and Zadok, you have the balance [p. 350] of the new man, I mean the character of the new man. It is what is formed in us, not only what is put on in our minds — and the idea of putting on is, I think, a matter of mind — but the thing itself that you put on is to work out so that others can see it, and as soon as they see you they discern you.
Then we get other tribes, such as the children of Issachar, men who had understanding of the times; that is a trait of the new man. I do not apprehend that that is mere political times, or international times, or business times, but divine times. I attach no importance to anything but divine divisions of time. When Daniel gets the word from Gabriel it is a question of divine times: “Seventy weeks are determined upon thy people;” that is a divine time that passes over myriads of years of human time. It is not a question of what is current in the newspapers, beloved friends. Statesmen may scan the newspapers to know what they ought to do, but Issachar “had understanding of the times, to know what Israel ought to do”, that is, what the saints ought to do — and that is the whole matter with God. The times of the nations, as they are called, are just appointed of God in relation to the saints. When the matter of the saints is finished, the times of the gentiles finish too; it is all a matter of the saints. What happens to the people, that is, Daniel’s people, to make an end of sin and to bring in righteousness and holiness, and Issachar would understand, and God would have us, beloved brethren, to understand the times in that sense and know what Israel ought to do. As I said, the different tribes have different traits. Then we are told, in verse 38, “All of them men of war, keeping rank in battle array, came with a perfect heart to Hebron to make David king”. This is an appeal to everyone, and that is what I had in mind, a perfect heart, at Hebron; it is not simply David, but David at Hebron. We often speak [p. 351] of Hebron and what enters into it from the spiritual point of view. Absalom may take it up later, but of course that is imitation. Imitation is one of the most potent things we have to contend with. David was here: spiritually it is Christ in Colossians. The great thought in Colossians is Christ, and not only Christ in heaven but Christ among us — the mystery in Colossians is Christ among us. Think how blessed that is, to have Christ among us, not far away, but among us. Well, that is David at Hebron, and all Israel came with a perfect heart, even across the Jordan, that is, men who had not wanted to go into the land at the beginning, an hundred and twenty thousand of them came with a perfect heart, with all kinds of instruments of war, to make David king. That is what is going on; God is aiming at affecting every saint on earth at the present time. We have understanding of the times. It says of Daniel that he understood by books; we understand by books, but then there is instinct needed and waiting on God in these matters, so that we discern how things are; we discern that the time of translation is near, and we want every saint with us. Is there a lover of Christ who does not want every saint with him when he goes to heaven? I do not think so. Every saint who loves in the Spirit, is in the unity of the Spirit and he wants every saint to go with him to heaven when he goes, and he wants every saint now to know the life that now is. They are coming from all parts of the territory of God to Hebron to make David king; David is the central point. He is typically Christ, as the scripture I read says, “Christ everything”. You hear these people talking as they wend their way, ‘David’, ‘David’, ‘David’. I look at any one of them: he is occupied with David; David is reflected in him; he is thinking of David and Hebron; Christ is everything to the mind and in all. He is in every heart; every heart is a lover of David, “with a perfect heart”, perfect unity of the Spirit to make everything of David. What a scene it is! I think, dear brethren, you will conclude that these chapters help us as to this matter of putting on the new man. The chapter in Colossians goes into specific things, but the Old Testament brings out the thing more clearly. It helps us in persons to see what is meant by putting on the new man in detail, so that you are thoroughly in the matter, so that, if anyone sees you, it is Christ in you. “No longer live, I” says the apostle, “but Christ lives in me; but in that I now live in flesh, I live by faith”.
May God bless the word.