THE GOVERNMENT OF GOD
I wish to speak, dear brethren, of the operations of God’s government, especially the operations of it among the saints. The operations of God’s government are very extensive. The Father is the supreme Governor of the universe, and the prophets, especially Isaiah and Jeremiah and Ezekiel, show how God has His ways in government in regard of various nations, especially those nations which have had relation to His people. But, as you read those prophets, you become impressed with the sense of the way that God is keeping His hand in government over the whole world and all the nations, as indeed He does over every person. His ways in government are very extensive, they are also very detailed. So that we are told in Genesis 9: 5, for instance, that God calls to account even an animal which sheds the blood of man. That is a striking thing, as showing that not a single detail in God’s universe escapes His notice. Indeed, we are told that a sparrow “shall not fall to the ground without your Father”, Matt 10: 29. I only mention this as showing, dear brethren, how much it is intended that we should have the sense of God before us, the God with whom we have to do, and that He exercises government in an extensive way and in a detailed way, and His operations in government are especially seen at the present time, I believe, among those of the assembly.
Now, the passage we have read in Timothy says, “Of some men the sins are manifest beforehand, going before to judgment, and some also they follow after”. That is to say, God does not always bring things to light at once, but inevitably He does sooner or later. Similarly it says, “In like manner good works also are manifest beforehand, and those that are otherwise”—that is, those not manifest beforehand—“cannot be hid”. That verse shows, I believe, that God’s government is inexorable, inescapable, something that every one of us has to face, that God’s ways in government are absolutely inexorable and inescapable. I do not say that in any way to cause fear among the brethren, save that the fear of God is always right; it is, indeed, “the beginning of wisdom”, Ps 111: 10. But I say it in order that we may recognise this principle of God’s government, operating against evil on the one hand, but in favour and support of all that is good on the other hand. That is a most important matter to keep in mind, that the government of God is always operating in favour of what is good, as well as against what is evil.
And so we read in Romans 2 verse 2 that “the judgment of God is according to truth”. It is always according to truth, and as regards those “who, in patient continuance of good works, seek for glory and honour and incorruptibility”, they reap “life eternal”. And again that chapter speaks of “glory and honour and peace to every one that works good”. That chapter speaks of the operation of the government of God, who “is no respecter of persons” (Acts 10: 34), “both to Jew first”, Paul says, “and to Greek”, Rom 2: 10. His ways are invariable, and “there is no acceptance of persons with” Him.
Well now, the government of God, as it is acknowledged and bowed to, will work out for our blessing. Indeed, it is very encouraging to see how God will use His government in blessing to His people. You get an example of His grace in that respect, even as early as the history of Abel. The sentence of death had passed upon man on account of sin, and God had shown Abel’s parents that the sinner could be set up in righteousness before Him on the ground of the death of another. God had clothed his parents with “coats of skin”. Now Abel humbly recognises that and he draws near to God with a sacrifice, “a more excellent sacrifice than Cain”, Heb 11: 4. He brought a sacrifice that spoke, typically, of the moral excellence of Christ and of His death, and, on the ground of that sacrifice, God had respect to Abel. He had respect to Abel and to his offering. The offerer became identified before God with his offering.
Well now, notwithstanding that, Abel must die. The sentence of death had passed upon man and Abel must die. But what does God do, in His grace? The government of God necessitates that Abel must die, sooner or later. In God’s grace He grants to Abel to die as a martyr for the truth; the first man who dies, so far as we have any record, died as a martyr for the truth. So that the government of God, in Abel’s case, was turned by the grace of God into wonderful privilege, that he is privileged to die as a martyr for the truth of the moment. That is just an example, dear brethren, of how God will sometimes turn His government to account in a most encouraging and gracious way, when we are in the humble acceptance of it.
Another outstanding example of that, of course, is Saul of Tarsus. He was a man who breathed “out threatenings and slaughter against the disciples of the Lord” (Acts 9: 1), who “persecuted them even to cities out of our own land”, as he said, who “compelled them to blaspheme”, Acts 26: 11. He tells us that “in every synagogue” he beat those that believed on Jesus, Acts 22: 19. That man caused untold cruelty and suffering to hundreds and perhaps thousands of saints. It was inevitable in God’s government that that man should suffer. The government of God required it. “Whatever a man shall sow, that also shall he reap”, Gal 6: 7. It is a principle of God’s government. And it was therefore inevitable that Saul of Tarsus should suffer much more than ordinary people. But then what does grace do? Grace converted Saul of Tarsus, made him one of the leading apostles. He “laboured more abundantly than they all”, l Cor 15: 10. It may be—it is not for us to say, the Lord knows—it may be, he was more faithful and more devoted than anybody else, and, because of his faithfulness to the truth and his devotion to Christ, he was persecuted beyond measure, suffered beyond measure.
But then, as he experienced these sufferings, the Spirit of God would remind him it was, after all, only the operation of God’s government. He had caused untold suffering to many and he was to experience suffering. God’s government required it and therefore Paul would be kept very humble in the sense that all that was coming upon him, though it be as a faithful and devoted servant of Christ, was coming upon him in the government of God. And yet he would rejoice in the grace of the Lord that turned that government to account and allowed him to suffer as the devoted servant of Christ.
I only refer to these two examples, dear brethren, in order to encourage us to accept God’s ways in government in a spirit of humble subjection, because, as we do so, we shall reach the end that God has in mind for us. God’s ways in government are never against His purposes. They are always intended to further the end that God intends to reach with us, and therefore we are to remember what is said in the epistle to the Romans (chap 8: 28), that “all things work together”, they work together, not simply that they are overruled by God but they work together, as though God is in control of every incident. “All things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to purpose.”
And then it tells us what the purpose is, tells us that we have been “foreknown” of God. What a thought that is, beloved brethren, that every brother and every sister, the youngest believer here, is to understand that he or she has been foreknown of God, personally foreknown of God. And as foreknown, “predestinated to be conformed to the image” of God’s Son—what for?—“so that he should be the firstborn among many brethren”, that Christ might stand out before God as firstborn among many of His own order, completely conformed to His image. And you and I have been taken up for that great thought on the part of God, that which is going to minister pleasure to the heart of God throughout eternity.
And so with this in mind we can understand that God will make “all things work together for good”. “Whom”, it says, “he has predestinated, these also he has called; and whom he has called, these also he has justified; but whom he has justified, these also he has glorified”. That is, He is going straight forward, and every incident of the lives of God’s people is in His hand in order that it may conduce, under His hand, to the perfecting of His pleasure in us all. There may be, of course, much that is displeasing to Him, much that He has to set aside in us; but, in the setting of it aside, what He has in mind is that there should be the positive result in each one of us of coming to a positive appreciation in Christ of all that is morally excellent in the sight of God, and all else has got to go.
And so we have been taken up also, dear brethren, to form the assembly, “the body of Christ”, Eph 4: 12. All the work of the ministry has that in mind. But then, just think for one moment of Christ; let us have Christ before us, as He is before God. How outstandingly He stands out before us! There are two things which, to my mind, should impress every one of us with the way that Christ finally eclipses every other. We have been having it in our readings, how the thought of God was that every other man but David was to be excluded and that David was to be brought forward as the man of God’s choice, the man of His pleasure, and the word was, “Arise, anoint him; for this is he”, l Sam l6: 12.
So I say there are two scriptures which, to my mind, ought to have place with every one of us in a definite way. The first is (Rom 6: 4) that God has raised up Jesus from among the dead, “raised up”, it says, “from among the dead by the glory of the Father”, the glory of the Father, love and power operating hand in hand to raise up from among the dead the One who was the object of the Father’s heart. Have you ever thought, dear brethren, of the number of men who lay in death when Jesus lay in death, have you ever thought of the millions of them, including men who had figured largely in this world’s history? Have you ever thought of it? And there came a moment when God intervened and raised up from among them all one Man, Jesus, and left all the rest in their graves. How it should speak to us, dear brethren, how it should have the effect with us of eclipsing and displacing every other man from our thoughts, whether it be the first man in ourselves or the first man in the world around, whatever it may be! There is nothing more calculated to set Christ Himself before our hearts as the one Man that is pleasing to God and to whom we are all to be conformed, and we have been taken up to be formed as His body, the assembly; I say, there is nothing more calculated to have that effect with us than the contemplation of the way that Jesus was raised up from among the dead by the glory of the Father: a selective resurrection, every other man, whoever, whatever, he be, being left in death.
But then, there is another thing. You might say, ‘That only eclipses those who had lived before Christ came’; but there is another thing, and that is that Christ has already “ascended up above all the heavens, that he might fill all things”, Eph 4: 10. Now, that is not something still in the future, that is something that has actually taken place. He “has ... ascended up above all the heavens, that he might fill all things”. He is already in that dominant position, from which He is going to fill all things. The vessel by means of which He will fill all things is being formed now by the work of the ministry. But, I say, Christ personally is already there, ascended up “far above all heavens, that he might fill all things”, Eph 4: 10 KJV.
Well, dear brethren, what is the use of attaching importance to anything that has got to disappear, for nothing that is not of Christ is going to remain? We may as well face it, dear brethren. God’s mind is absolute in regard of it, and He would bring our minds into accord with His own. And I say, that is the second thing which, to my mind, marks out Christ as the alone One who is to be before us, as worthy to be considered, worthy to be imitated. For we are told to be “imitators” of Paul, as Paul also was “of Christ”, 1 Cor 11: 1. I would say there is nothing more calculated to set Christ before our hearts in that light than to contemplate Him as having already ascended up above all heavens, that He might fill all things.
And so it says that from that position He “has given gifts ... some apostles, and some prophets, and some evangelists, and some shepherds and teachers, for the perfecting of the saints; with a view to the work of the ministry, with a view to the edifying of the body of Christ; until we all arrive at the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, at the full-grown man, at the measure of the stature of the fulness of the Christ”. Now, if we keep these things before us, beloved brethren, I think we shall be helped to have a right appraisement of things here. We were speaking this afternoon of not taking on the ways of the world, nor the features of the world. What a reproach they are to the Christian! It is a positive reproach to the Christian to bear any feature of the world, the Egypt world or any other kind of world. I suppose we are mostly free of the world as a system, we may be fairly free of the Babylonish world, although the Babylonish world, as has been brought before our notice lately in other places, is not only bound up with the glory of man in the religious sphere, but it is closely linked also with commerce. But the Egypt world, the world where man lives in independence of God and seeks to find all his resources in himself, how God feels it, how jealous He is of this world, with all that it has developed in recent times, with all its provisions for every contingency that may arise in human life!
One is not saying a word against what governments may bring in, which the instructed believer can accept with thanksgiving to God; but the whole principle of the thing is to make men independent of God, and God resents it. It may be the explanation of many of the exercises that are being raised amongst us at the present time, as to the necessity for coming out from unclean associations of one kind or another, and it may result in a certain limitation of our resources, so to speak, a certain enforcement of a lower standard of life or what not. What has it in mind? It has in mind that we should come to the reality of putting our trust in God. That is what it has in mind, that we should have God as our great resource. We often speak together, and have done of recent years, of 2 Corinthians 6 and how the call is to “come out from the midst of them, and be separated ... and touch not what is unclean”, because “God has said, I will dwell among them, and walk among them”. And then we say, ‘Well, what is it going to involve? What is it going to cost?’.
Now God comes in and says, ‘Here is My promise’. He says, “I will be to you for a Father, and ye shall be to me for sons and daughters, saith the Lord Almighty”, stressing His almightiness to be a Father to us individually as His sons and His daughters, if we answer to the truth and find ourselves in a position in which we have no one to rely upon but God. “I will be to you for a Father, and ye shall be to me for sons and daughters, saith the Lord Almighty”. Well, all this, dear brethren, is going on. All these exercises that are current amongst us at the present time have in view that God should have a greater place amongst us practically and that we should grow by the true knowledge of God and grow in the true knowledge of God, too. These are great things.
And so I was saying that it is a reproach to us, if we bear any feature of the world, the Egypt world. We were speaking this afternoon about the younger sisters and the first epistle of Peter (chap 3: 6) would tell us that sisters who are obedient to the truth are children of Sarah. It is a good thing to be children of Sarah. But then, what about the brothers? The scripture has a word for the brothers as well. What about Daniel and his three companions? According to the book of Daniel the intention of the king, Nebuchadnezzar, was that these youths, whose names all had reference to God, should be taught the learning and the language of the Chaldeans. The whole intention was to take young men who belonged to God and who bore His name, that they might take on the wisdom of the world and the language of the world. God does not want us to take on the language of the world, dear brethren. I speak appealingly to young men, because there is a constant danger with young men, and possibly with older ones, to take on the language of the world. But in the assembly of God there is a pure language and we should learn to speak a pure language, because we are of God and bear the name of God, and God wants to see His people completely sanctified. Scripture speaks of the “sanctification of the Spirit” (2 Thess 2: 13; 1 Pet 1: 2); not a legal setting apart, as is done in certain religious circles, but a powerful setting apart in life by the power of the Spirit of God.
And so there is this matter of the government of God, dear brethren, in favour of the good. Let me emphasise that. Sometimes, in speaking of the government of God, we think only of the operation of the government of God against what is evil. It does operate against what is evil; let any one who is going on in evil understand that, that he is against the operations of the government of God. But, on the other hand, the government of God operates in favour of the good. Let us take that clearly to heart, that, as we continue in steadfast maintenance of what is right in the sight of God, the government of God will operate in our favour.
Well now, we have said a good deal this afternoon about matters being worked out in the assembly and brought to a final issue there, and it is important that they should be. The assembly is set in local settings. The two epistles to the Corinthians are the great epistles to govern us in relation to the assembly of God, viewed in its responsibility in testimony here, and in that setting it is viewed as in localities. “The assembly of God which is in Corinth ... sanctified in Christ Jesus, called saints, with all that in every place call on the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, both theirs and ours”. And may I say in passing, dear brethren, that the apostle, in writing to the assembly in Corinth, expresses the desire that the saints in Corinth might be found “unimpeachable in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ”. That is something that the Spirit of God is working for, dear brethren. Think of the standards that God has before Him, “the measure of the stature of the fulness of the Christ”. What a standard! He says, “having no spot, or wrinkle, or any of such things; but that it might be holy and blameless”, Eph 5: 27. Let us keep divine standards in our mind. The epistle of Jude says, “hating even the garment spotted by the flesh”. That is to say, we are to take on the same ideas, the same feelings, the same judgments, in regard of evil, that God does, hating even the garment spotted by the flesh.
And then that epistle says, “But to him that is able”—that is, to God—“to keep you without stumbling, and to set you with exultation blameless before his glory”. Think of God exulting over His people, as He presents them “faultless” (KJV) before His glory. Do you say these are things that are unattainable? They are not unattainable. God intends to attain them. That is the whole point. That is one thing that explains our present exercises, that God is going to attain the end He has in view, and He sets it before us, and, if we are content to be with God in our exercises and pursue them diligently and faithfully, we shall find God is with us. But, if we resist Him or if we are indifferent, then we may find the government of God operating against us.
And so things are to be worked out in our assemblies, in our local companies. Sometimes it involves conflict. Well, the scripture in Proverbs would help us. It says, “The eyes of Jehovah are in every place”, in every place; not there a question of the Lord looking down from heaven, it is not presented like that, it is not even presented like the scripture in 2 Chronicles 16: 9, that says that “the eyes of Jehovah run to and fro through the whole earth, to shew himself strong in the behalf of those whose heart is perfect toward him”. That is another view of things, the eyes of Jehovah running to and fro through the whole earth. And then the scripture says that He “looked down from the heavens”, Ps 53: 2. But this scripture says that “The eyes of Jehovah are in every place”—in the place. If there is a place where there is conflict, some seeking to bring forward the truth, some seeking to maintain it, others—alas!—opposing, the eyes of the Lord are there, the eyes of the Lord are in that place, “beholding the evil and the good”. I understand that is not “evil” abstractly and “good” abstractly; it refers to persons, beholding the persons who are doing evil and beholding the persons who are standing by the good. The eyes of the Lord are in every place, beholding the evil and the good, KJV.
Well now, that is something for us to take account of, dear brethren. It should strengthen the hands of those upon whom the responsibility devolves of taking things up in their localities. It should exercise us all to be among those who are supporting the good. I would not like to have the eyes of the Lord in the place where I am, beholding the evil and the good, and finding me among those who are supporting the evil; but the eyes of the Lord are there, they are in the place. Those “that in every place call on the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, both theirs and ours”, and the Lord is there, His eyes are there, in every place, in jealousy for what is due to God.
We often remind ourselves of the way the Lord went into the temple and “overthrew the tables of the money-changers”, Matt 21: 12; Mark 11: 15. People might say, ‘What drastic action! Overthrowing tables of money-changers!’ But He said, “make not my Father’s house a house of merchandise”, John 2: 16. He was considering for God, and the Lord’s eyes are in every place, beholding the evil and beholding the good, and He is there to support all those who are seeking to maintain the rights of God. And He is there, taking account seriously, soberly, of any who might be opposing or resisting or even indifferent, because He has regard to our hearts, and therefore I bring forward this scripture, “The eyes of the Lord are in every place, beholding the evil and the good” (KJV), in order that we might be encouraged in the sense that the Lord is actively concerned with conditions in our localities, as to how far what is due to God is maintained and promoted, and what is contrary to God is dealt with.
Well now, I have not much more to say, save to refer to this striking verse in Zephaniah, where it is a question of the Lord being “in the midst of” His people. The prophet is speaking, of course, literally of conditions in Jerusalem, but it is a word which can be rightly applied, I am sure, at the present time, as to the effect of God dwelling amongst His people. The assembly is His, the assembly of God. It is also Christ’s; He says, “my assembly”. When the Lord says, “my assembly”, in Matthew 16: 18, I believe He is viewing it as that which was available under His hand to maintain a faithful witness to God, as He Himself had done. That is what He has in mind in Matthew’s gospel.
And so this verse says that “The righteous Jehovah is in the midst of her: he doeth no wrong. Every morning doth he bring his judgment to light”. It is a very searching matter, dear brethren. I think we have all been feeling during the past year or so that the ministry has been of a very searching character and it is likely to be, because of the end that God intends to reach. But it has been a very searching matter and, “Every morning”, it says, “doth he bring his judgment to light”. One has thought recently, beloved brethren, of David and those who stood in relation to David. We have had David before us already in the readings. Think for one moment of different ones who stood in relation to David. Think of Saul; he fell on mount Gilboa, 1 Sam 31. Why should he fall? Why did he not accept that he was rejected? Why did he go on opposing David after he had been told that he had been rejected? If he had humbly accepted it, I am sure God would have shown him mercy. He even showed Ahab mercy, when he humbled himself. God would have shown some mercy to Saul, if he had accepted that he was rejected and that David was the man of God’s choice. But he did not accept it, he went on opposing the truth for the moment, you might say. And the end is, he dies on mount Gilboa. God was bringing His judgment to light. He gave him plenty of time; but the moment came when He brought His judgment to light.
Think of Jonathan, what a man Jonathan was, how David appreciated the love of Jonathan, how Jonathan at one time wrought with God, how he stripped himself for David. But yet he falls too; why is it? Because his heart was not right. He was quite content for David to have the first place; but he wanted that he himself should have the second place, and that will not do. And then he allowed himself to remain linked with his father’s house, instead of being fully identified with David in his rejection, and the result is that, although he was a true lover of David and one whose love David greatly appreciated, he dies on mount Gilboa too.
How solemn these things are! God brings His judgment to light. He takes account of the course of people and their hearts and He brings His judgment to light. He does no wrong. The scripture says that: “he doeth no wrong”. We may rest assured of that, that He does no wrong. But, as you go on with the testimony, go on with the saints, go on with the assembly, you find that this kind of thing is working among the saints. As you are observant, you notice it, and it is intended that we should notice these things, dear brethren, and that it should exercise us in the fear of God, in the sense that, without regard of persons, He judges according to the work of each, and that therefore we should exercise ourselves to be humble before Him and to be attentive to what He is saying and to watch lest we in any way oppose.
Romans 2, to which I have alluded, refers to those who “are contentious, and are disobedient to the truth”; am I contentious? Perhaps I may be naturally of an argumentative disposition; if I am naturally of an argumentative disposition, I am in danger of becoming contentious. One has got to judge these things and, if I am contentious, I may find myself contentious and not obeying the truth. Well, these things are solemn matters, the Scripture takes account of them: “those that are contentious, and are disobedient to the truth”, it says, and therefore we have got to watch all these things, dear brethren, because God “is in the midst of her: he doeth no wrong. Every morning doth he bring his judgment to light”. “Doeth no wrong”.
Think of Asahel, the brother of Joab, 2 Sam 2. You might say he was on the right side, he was on David’s side, yet he falls. Why does he fall? He was a man who wanted to make a show of his ability and energy; he “was swift of foot”, and so on, and “pursued after Abner” alone, instead of just supporting the truth. And he falls. And then Ishbosheth falls; he is slain, 2 Sam 4. Why did God allow him to be slain? He was a righteous man, David says he was “a righteous person”; why should God allow Ishbosheth to be slain? But he was slain. Why? Because he fought against David, because he was not in the line of what God was doing, he was opposing what God was doing. And so Ishbosheth falls. And then Michal the daughter of Saul, she is not slain, but she dies childless. She was half-hearted. She loved David, but then she did not sever her links with her father and, when David comes to bring up the ark with dancing, she is despising him in her heart, and the Lord sees that, and she dies childless, 2 Sam 6.
And then Abner falls, a prince, “a prince ... in Israel”, 2 Sam 3. He falls; why is it? God is bringing His judgment to light. You might say Abner for a time supported Saul and then was ready to support David; quite so, but he had never judged himself. His reason for turning from Saul to David was a selfish reason, because he was offended by something that Ishbosheth said to him. God is not going to allow things of that sort, dear brethren. “Every morning doth he bring his judgment to light”. It is a good thing for us to place ourselves before God as to our course and as to the motives that are influencing us in our course, because God is no respecter of persons. One feels the solemnity of it, as speaking, because each one of us has got to face these things, face the God with whom we have to do. His judgment is according to truth.
And so you might think of others. One does not want to prolong the matter, but you think of all those that were related to David in the testimony and see how they fared. There are some of them who shine brightly, of course. There is Ittai, there is Hushai, there is Abigail, there is Mephibosheth, there is Benaiah, there is Zadok; all of these figure well, and God loves to put their history before us, in order that we may see that there is that which is worth supporting with our whole heart. Whatever God is saying and doing, it is for us to be with Him in it, and to be with Him in it with a pure heart.
And so I need not say more. It was impressed upon me to speak in that way of the operation of the government of God, as it is seen amongst His people. We are in the very presence of these things, dear brethren, and we are nearing the end. We sang at the beginning of the Lord’s face being “set steadfastly”; that is a reference to Luke 9: 5l, where it says, “when the days of his receiving up were fulfilled ... he steadfastly set his face to go to Jerusalem”. And the time has come for us to “steadfastly set” our face to finish our course in complete obedience to the truth, whatever it entails, because God has in mind that we should be brought into complete correspondence with Christ. There can be nothing greater than conformity to God’s Son, on the one hand, to be amongst the many brethren amongst whom He is supreme, for the pleasure of God, and also to fit into our place in “the assembly, which is his body, the fulness of him who fills all in all”, Eph l: 22, 23.
Well, these are great things, and all the exercises that God is bringing to bear upon us have in mind God reaching His end in regard of every one of us. May the Lord help us, then, to walk humbly before Him! Remember what it says, “But to this man will I look: to the afflicted and contrite in spirit, and who trembleth at my word”, Isa 66: 2. And then again in Isaiah 57: 15, it is not only the one to whom God looks, it is the one with whom He dwells, “I dwell ... with him that is of a contrite and humble spirit”. God will look towards such an one and He will dwell with such an one.
May the Lord encourage us thus to go on with Him humbly and in the fear of God, but humbly with the truth! That is the great matter, to go on with the truth.
May the Lord bless the word!
GLASGOW
17th August 1960
At meetings on ‘Kingship and Priesthood in David’ with S.McCallum, 1960
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