THE GLORY OF WHAT DESCENDS

P. Martin

Matthew 23: 8–12; Acts 9: 22–25; Revelation 21: 1–6 (to “end”) I trust the Lord may help, dear brethren, to draw attention to the glory of what descends. Man as such is always striving to ascend, to promote himself. But there is a glory, a distinctive glory, in what is descending. Our brother Mr. P. H. Hardwick’s ministry, as to ‘The Glory of Descending Love’ comes to mind. What a glory it has! When man seeks to

ascend, his movements are largely because of dissatisfaction, and even the most ambitious of men, having had often a good spell of riding at the height, eventually are brought down. It is a natural principle that what goes up must come down; it is equally a principle with God that what goes down will go up.

I read firstly in Matthew because each of us is brought into a passage like this. There is much that comes into the chapter, and much that comes into the verses that we have read, but it was particularly in mind in verse 12 that, “whoever shall exalt himself shall be humbled, and whoever shall humble himself shall be exalted”. We cannot, as reading a verse like that, but think, of Jesus, of whom it says that He “humbled himself”—“and having been found in figure as a man, humbled himself, becoming obedient even unto death, and that the death of the cross. Wherefore also God highly exalted him”, Philippians 2: 8, 9. Beloved, let us ponder for a moment the One who could humble Himself. He “did not esteem it an object of rapine to be on an equality with God”, Philippians 2: 6. Think of the greatness of the Person who was there, and yet He was found in figure as a man; He came into the condition of manhood and as coming into the condition of manhood glorified it as He humbled Himself. He gave a character to it in His downward steps which had never been seen in man naturally, a character which was not because of anything which was found in Him that needed to go down; but because it was morally glorious, to God He went down, He humbled Himself. Think of where that path of humiliation led Him, becoming obedient even unto death, and that the death of the cross. Beloved, what was wrought out in those moments when Jesus was, we might say, at the very lowest point in His downward pathway; what was wrought out there for God; a whole universe was secured in one Man who went down. What an answer!

The Lord is not exactly speaking of that here in Matthew, but, beloved, we could never think of one humbling himself without thinking of Jesus. The Lord here is speaking to the crowds and to His disciples, and by extension He is speaking to us, that in the circle in which divine truth is being wrought out there might never be the feature of ambition and self-exaltation.

How close home I find these things come; ambition in the things of God is folly to God. It is right to want to make progress in the things of God, but if it is to bring attention to self, to mark out a place for self amongst the brethren, it is folly to God. God has wrought out His purposes in One who has gone down. Naturally (I find it in myself) we like to have some reputation, even amongst the saints. But Jesus made Himself of no reputation. Oh what a glorious Man! He was here amongst men not drawing attention to any outward fame; He moved here in lowliness, but there was in that lowliness what was, and always will be, seen before the eye of God in all its perfection. Think of what is before the eye of God now of the pathway of Jesus in humiliation. God loved that path; it was not terminated in that sense; His life was laid down, .but the life of Jesus is still before God. I could say simply that God loves the pathway of a man who is going down.

It is not natural to us to descend, but it is essential if there is to be moral power in testimony and response Godward. It says here, “Be not ye called Rabbi ... call not anyone your father ...

Neither be called instructors”—it is so easy to seek a place amongst the people of God. The Lord has used men who were prepared to go out of sight themselves that Christ might be in expression. Think of a man like Mr. Darby who served amongst the

brethren as perhaps no one else has served in the recovery. What labours his were, but he did not draw attention to himself. We have all heard of incidents in the life of that beloved man that only brought out that he was prepared to go out of sight that the testimony of God might be carried through in power. Beloved, am I? Maybe at times in my local company I am so obsessed with being recognized that the whole thought of the testimony is lost for the moment. Beloved, do these things come near to us? I believe they do; let us be honest. I believe the Lord would have to say to any of us if there is a spirit of ambition at all marking us. I say it in humility I trust, and I say it, beloved, as conscious that the Lord will test me as to it, because unless we take up any service before the Lord with the consciousness of being tested by it, we are hardly serving Him rightly. We need first of all to let the moral edge of the word come home to ourselves, if any of us are seeking to bring anything before the brethren. There will not be power in anything I say unless I am before God that the edge of it may be received in my own soul.

Beloved, let us just search our own hearts lest there be any root of ambition, any desire to make something of self, because it will be at the expense of Christ. Oh that we might be prepared to go completely out of sight that Christ might be seen in the local company. So many things come up, and we find the tendency is to insist on what I think, but all the time the Person of Christ is receding from the view of the brethren; how solemn that is! If it is a question of standing for the truth, it must be stood for at all costs, there is no doubt about that; but, you know, many things come up which are not a question of standing for the truth, and often lying behind them is what is personal. There are many exercises among us at the moment, and whilst I am not referring to any

specifically, yet quite often personal feeling lies at the bottom of them. Let us be on our guard lest any root of bitterness springing up devour any one of you (see Hebrews 12: 15). And why are there personal issues, why do they arise? Because I have not known what it is to humble myself. Dear brethren, these things are solemn, and we should be sobered in the presence of them. As I say, when it is a question of the truth it is a different matter, and the truth must be stood for. If we do not stand for the truth we shall not enjoy the presence of the Lord. These things are clear. But how do I stand for the truth? Do I humble myself? You know, I can afford to become nothing in the estimation of the brethren so long as Christ and the truth become everything. “And whoever shall exalt himself shall be humbled”—beloved, let us be careful.

I would appeal to those of us who are younger—and we are thankful to hear of younger persons being taken up in service in the preaching—beloved, commit yourself to the work of the Lord and when you have done your service get out of sight into the presence of God. The brethren would seek to encourage you; we know what it is like; and often encouragement goes beyond encouragement; it oftentimes becomes flattery. When you have done your service get out of sight into the presence of the Lord. Let your service stand, let your work stand, but you go out of sight; it is essential if there is to be developed among us what is proper to the things of God. Let us not exalt ourselves; in anything we do let it not leave an impression of self upon the spirits of the brethren. It could be what I say, it could even be the fact that I do not say anything, but let it not leave an impression of self upon the spirits of the brethren; if it does, the Lord will have to say to it. Let us be on the line of going down; there is a glory in going down. We have got

nothing personally to stand for, every right has been forfeited, it has gone in the death of Christ; we have got nothing to stand for. We have all been baptised by one Spirit into one body. How important it is to lay hold of that, that everything that, marks me personally according to one order is to go out of sight, but through baptism in the power of one Spirit into one body even the spiritual personality is to blend with the work of God that is local and universal for God’s pleasure.

No person, beloved, is to be unduly prominent in the things of God; Christ, and Christ alone, is to be exalted. A word in ministry may be in right words, it may be doctrinally correct, but if it has not the effect of leaving the soul with Christ, it would be questionable whether, it was of Him. Well, I leave that word, “And whoever shall exalt himself shall be humbled, and whoever shall humble himself shall be exalted”. Let us go down. Let us go down at the feet of Christ; as feeding upon Him we shall go down because He is the Man who went down. Let us go down at His feet in the simple recognition of His authority. If I am not humbling myself it is because I do not recognize the authority of the Man in whom all authority is vested; but let me go down in the presence of Christ.

When we come to Acts it is the brethren that let Paul down. That is a valuable service. We speak of service, dear brethren, this is a valuable one—the brethren let him down. How thankful we are for men who have let us down over the past years; they did not damage us; they did not drop Paul, but in love they let him down. It was not because anything had taken place that needed adjusting, the Lord was still working with Paul, but the brethren in love let him down. O, beloved, thank God for your local brethren, thank God for

your local brethren who let you down. I can say that with a certain sincerity having known what it is not to have local brethren outside of my own household, but when you have them you are thankful for them. One of the greatest services they can render is to let you down. Is there a brother as to whom perhaps the Lord in His grace, if I have gone down myself, might say to me. Just get alongside that brother and let him down for his salvation, that he might be saved for the testimony? I would appeal to each one of us. Have I the grace, as having gone down, and still going down, to save my brother who perhaps at this moment might just need letting down? One of the greatest dangers in the warfare, of the kings was with persons who had armour-bearers. I say that carefully; never take up the armour of somebody else. Do not be an armour-bearer; the greatest service you can do is to let a dear brother down—do not drop him, he is valuable, the brother for whom Christ died.

You may say, ‘He needs adjusting; I have rebuked him to the face’. That may be so, but can you let him down? You cannot do it unless you have been down yourself. I will not be able to help my brother unless I have been down myself—let us go down that there might be conditions where Christ in His supremacy may be known. We are reading at a point here where the glory of Christ was coming into expression in local companies. How wonderful that was; what a triumph that the man who had persecuted the assemblies of God was now being used to preach that Jesus was the Son of God—what a triumph; and the assemblies

“had peace, being edified and walking in the fear of the Lord, and were increased through the comfort of the Holy Spirit” (Acts 9: 31).

One thing that is needed, beloved young persons, is to visit the saints, to visit the elderly. It is good to have young company; I am not saying

anything against that; but make a habit of visiting the elderly. There are a lot of them, and many of them have gone through assembly crises, have seen things happen that you and I may never see happen. Make a habit, a custom, of visiting the elderly. You will find it will yield great rewards, and, among other things, older persons, when you are in their company on your own, are able to draw alongside of you, to open up the way of God maybe, as some did to Apollos in Acts, they unfolded the way of God more exactly (see Acts 18: 26). It may be they will be able just to provide something for your own soul by way of the appreciation and enjoyment of divine things. You will find yourself surprised by what pleasure you can get by visiting older persons in fellowship.

When we come to Revelation God’s masterpiece is coming down. That is a triumph. It is what has been wrought out here in suffering, what has been wrought out through the work of Christ, what is wrought out through the indwelling of the Spirit, we might say it is the culmination of every thought of God secured in His tabernacling in the assembly, but it is coming down. Is it too great to come down? It is so great that it must come down; it is coming down from. God. It is the answer to the Man who came down in humiliation, the answer is this vessel that is coming down in glory. O, beloved, let us get a view of what the assembly is in her glory for God; what a vessel she is, coming down. It says firstly that there was a new heaven and a new earth, a whole scene of new creation. It needs new creation finally to display what God has wrought for His satisfaction, but John says, “I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of the heaven from God”. He is not told to look; later in the chapter he is told, “Come here, I will shew thee the bride, the Lamb’s wife”

(Revelation 21: 9). In the millennial aspect John is told to behold it, but in the

eternal day, when the fulness of what God has wrought is being brought out, you might say for God’s satisfaction, there is no need for John to be told to look at it; it is there in its glory.

“I saw the holy city”—what a city! It is not like the cities of this world; they are not our cities; we have our local companies, but as to men’s cities, death and corruption is in them on every hand. In this city there is no death or corruption, it is glorious throughout.

What a vessel it is, coming down prepared, she is prepared as a bride. What love lies behind the preparation of a bride. We know what it is like, we see it at these marriage meetings, the love of a bride for the bridegroom. Here she is prepared out of affection for Christ, prepared as a bride for her husband. O, beloved, she is not the bride here, she is the city, but what marks her here is that character, that she is prepared as if she was a bride; preparation has gone on, but lying behind that preparation is love for Christ. Beloved, if we are to have our part in what is for God’s present enjoyment in the assembly, it must involve formation in love for Christ. That is a commodity needed among us perhaps more than anything, love for Christ. Any who serve in the glad tidings should labour that love for Christ might be stimulated; it is needed tremendously among us. If there is to be anything formed substantially, as there is in this vessel, for God’s eternal delight, it is formed because there has been love for Christ. The Spirit’s preparation has been in it too, we have touched a little on that already today, the preparation that the Spirit would bring about in order that there might be what is complete and perfect. There is nothing needing adjustment in this vessel, nothing to be altered, it is a city which is complete.

It has an administration; it is not administering in relation to evil; even in the assembly’s administration in the millennium there may be the touch of what is administered in relation to right and wrong, but, you know, it is not so in this city, evil is not there. The administration is the administration of divine love where man can dwell before God, God tabernacling with men. What an administration that is where everything is entirely according to God’s pleasure. Beloved, I believe the Lord would have us to enjoy in our settled relationships with Himself a sphere, could I speak carefully, which goes beyond administration in relation to right and wrong, that we might be settled in divine love in the enjoyment of what it has secured for itself. The work of the Spirit in the believer is such that it is securing such an atmosphere in the soul of the saint that he is not always to be striving in relation to right or wrong, but settled in relation to what is for God’s satisfaction, and that comes out in the administration in the day yet to come. What a glorious answer it is, but it is coming down.

O, beloved, let us get a sense of it. You might say, ‘If I go down I might lose ground’. It is the greatest moral triumph that God has secured in man. One Man came down, and God has secured through the coming down of that Man a city, think of the extent of it, composed of persons, which will come down out of heaven from God. The assembly belongs to God in that sense, and comes down out of heaven from God. There will not be anything comprising that city which is not in keeping with the presence of God Himself. May we be in exercise as we leave these occasions that, something of the holiness of God may be before us. Beloved, it will be there in that city; it will not be there for the repelling of evil, but it will be there as affording conditions entirely suited to His love; and it is to be present in each local

assembly that we might enter into the enjoyment of divine love for His praise and glory. May it be so for His name’s sake.

Address at Barnet
25 June 1983