THE LIGHT OF THE PRESENT DISPENSATION

R. Taylor

Proverbs 29: 18; John 14: 1–3, 15–17; Acts 10: 10–16; 26: 13–15, 19; Colossians 1: 18; 2: 9, 10, 18, 19; 1 Corinthians 11: 23–32

The scripture, which I read in Proverbs, “Where there is no vision the people cast off restraint”, is a word of warning for us today. If you look through scripture you will see that where the vision has been neglected—it is not that there was no vision, there has always been a vision, there has always been light from God as to the present circumstances—restraint was cast off and the people were taken into captivity. I was struck just the other day in reading the book of Ezra, there were some people who could not prove their genealogy, one of them was the children of Barzillai (Ezra 2: 61). There was a man who had a vision about David, and David says, Come with me into Jerusalem and I will maintain you. Oh, he says, Just let me stay in my own circumstances, and there were some of his descendants not able to prove their genealogy. It did not mean they were not Christian, to bring it to our day, but it meant they were not functioning in the priesthood.

I say these things to warn us of the danger of not heeding the vision. Throughout the Old Testament you can see how the people cast off restraint. In one instance they wanted another prophet; the prophet came with God’s word and they said, Is there not somebody else who will tell us something better? and they readily found it. There are false prophets, there are false visions. The king wanted someone who would tell him sweet words. These things have happened and are current today. In the public body, of which we are part, the vision has been neglected. Very distinctly, a vision comes from heaven, that is the first thing; it is heavenly light and it has shone in this dispensation as never before. The things I speak of, I trust we will see that they are true for this dispensation as for no other, they are what we may call our light. That is what the Lord says by the prophet, “Arise, shine! for thy light is come”, Isaiah 60: 1. Those beautiful chapters in Isaiah bring the vision home to the people, “Awake, awake; put on ... thy beautiful garments ... Shake thyself from the dust”, Isaiah 52: 1, 2. “Arise, shine! for thy light is come”.

That is the dispensation we are in, dear brethren, the light has come. And here in John 14 the Lord Jesus was still on earth, but I think He was giving light to these apostles of the present day in speaking of “my Father’s house”. He was leaving them, what sorrows must have filled their hearts, He was feeling leaving them too, but He would not leave them without this message. I think if you care to look into it, you will see that all that is contained in these chapters, John 13 to 17, is light for the present time. And the Lord begins it here by saying,

“In my Father’s house there are many abodes”. He is directing them to another world. He knew the world they were going to be in, He knew it was a world that would crucify Him, that is the world we are in too, and He gives this vision of another world, and He calls it “my Father’s house”—a settled place. How intimate the way He speaks about it, suggesting it is to be our home. There is plenty of room for all that will be secured by this vision; not only ourselves, but it says there are many abodes.

‘In that bright home of love divine,

The Father’s house on high,

There the full rays of glory shine

In Him who stooped to die’. (Hymn 144)

The centre of it is going to be Jesus. I think that all of the persons He is speaking to here likely faced martyrdom. What persecutions they endured, but in their heart was enshrined the joy of the Father’s house.

Then there is more than that. He says, “were it not so, I had told you”. There is the language of a friend. He says I would not keep anything back from you, “in my Father’s house there are many abodes”, but then He says, “I go to prepare you a place”. Think of how attractive He would make it to us.

The fact is, beloved, that when He went in I have a place there, like when the high priest went in he did not go in alone, He went in with our names on His breast. That is what He is speaking about here, and in these chapters He is the great Priest going to the Father with the saints on His breast and on His shoulder, shining there in all their lustre, in the glory of the Father’s love, “I go to prepare you a place”. But then He says more than that to confirm it, He says, “I am coming again and shall receive you to myself”. I would like to say, dear brethren, the thought of the rapture is a vision, if neglected, the people cast off restraint. The Lord’s coming is to be kept live in our affections. The Lord said that when people lose sight of the coming of the Son of Man they begin to beat one another, they begin to act irresponsibly (Matthew 24: 48). The light of the Lord’s coming is to affect our walk here, that we are not here to stay. We are looking for Him, we sing sometimes,

‘This world is a wilderness wide;

We have nothing to seek nor to choose’ (Hymn 139).

It is true if the Lord’s coming is enshrined in our affections, we are looking for Him.

The vision is not to become an event only, it is of a Person, I am coming again and shall receive you to Myself. It is part of our light, dear brethren, I repeat again, “Arise, shine! for thy light is come”. Why be bound by the things of this earth, in the circumstances we are in today, dear brethren, God is showing us the futility of everything here. The greatest, richest, most powerful, nations on this earth are seen to be powerless in dealing with present conditions, showing us that we have nothing here, to seek nor to choose, but only if we have our eye on the Lord, “I am coming again and shall receive you to myself”. What a hope to be enshrined in our hearts! But it is largely put off, we all know how time weakens our judgments, it tests our love, but in the meantime He is maintaining us. It is not an apparition, He is maintaining us in the light that He is coming, He is on the way, that is the meaning of these words. There is nothing to hinder Him, save that He is waiting, completing that formation that we have been speaking of this afternoon, during the waiting time.

So Peter says that, as we wait for Him, we are to be diligent to be found of Him in peace (2 Peter 3: 14). That is the kind of persons that are waiting, peaceful, they are satisfied. Some one brought that remark into the reading, they are satisfied because they are not expecting anything from man’s world; God has shown the futility of that, but they are looking for Him who will bring everything with Him, to receive them to Himself. Dear brethren, I would encourage our hearts that this light does not decline in our affections, but it comes into practice in the way we live, that we are not here to stay. We are not here to spread our wings, or make a name or reputation for ourselves, we are here in the light of the Lord’s words, “I am coming again and shall receive you to myself”. Then He says more than that, He is filling up the whole dispensation in these chapters; the more you read them the more beautiful they become. The way He starts is by washing their feet, there is not time to go into that, but here He says, “I will not leave you orphans”.

He says that while I am coming, there will be touches of My love all the way, while I am about to receive you to Myself, I will give you another Comforter. Very beautiful the way the Lord speaks about the Spirit in these chapters. He is as much as saying He will take My place! All that you needed from Me you will receive from the Spirit, how often they needed His support, the Pharisees attacked them, the Lord protected them; the Spirit does that. It says that when you are tested, in that hour you are not the speakers, the Spirit will be the speaker (Matthew 10: 20). That is a token of His love in our day, another part of the vision that is peculiar to this dispensation, the Holy Spirit of God, another Comforter is come. The Lord says, “I will beg the Father”, it is very beautiful how all divine Persons are active in the incoming of the Spirit. He knew the world into which He was coming, that had crucified Christ; what a token of His love. He was ready to come, “that He may be with you for ever”. What grace is filling out the dispensation that the Spirit of God has come. Again, He has been neglected, the vision has been lost, His place has been usurped by others, and God is very jealous of that.

You can see that where the Spirit of God has been displaced by human means and human minds, the people have cast off restraint. Why else would the priesthood, that hallowed name of priest, be attached to unholy surroundings? The vision was lost. May we be encouraged to hold fast to the vision that He will be with you for ever. It says, “the Spirit of truth”; He knew the error that was coming in, and here is how it is met, in the Spirit of truth, who will be with you for ever. May we know Him better, and make room for Him, because He can be grieved as well as quenched. He has been quenched and shut out, but it is also true that when He is grieved the vitality of the position is lost. Divine Persons, whenever their name is mentioned, command the greatest respect.

‘The mention of Thy Name doth bow

Our hearts to worship Thee’ (Hymn 6)

So we should feel about the Holy Spirit, who comes so close to us to be with us and to be in us, “do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, with which ye have been sealed”, Ephesians 4: 30.

Think of God sealing us with the Holy Spirit, it means that there is a distinctive mark on the Christian as the Spirit is made room for; may it not be dimmed. It says, “the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive”. It is not automatic that because you are in a Christian company or household that you have the Spirit, it says “whom the world cannot receive”.

God does not give it indiscriminately, He gives it to those who obey Him. That would be one great outstanding feature of the vision, that it is obeyed—maybe not fully understood, but it is obeyed.

I would like to speak about Daniel for a moment, he had a vision, yet he could not understand how things were going to work out in the world he was in, but God put His hand on him and said, Daniel, you be quite restful, the vision is to the end, go thy way, you will stand in your lot at the end of the days (Daniel 12: 13). There is a man who received the vision, and walked in the light of it. So God would encourage our hearts to be moving in the light of the Holy Spirit having come to be with us. The world cannot receive Him, it does not see Him, does not know Him, but it says that “ye know him, for he abides with you, and shall be in you”.

How close He has come, something unique to this dispensation, He could not be closer, in simple terms He is here as a companion, a guide. It speaks about Him like that here, He will guide you, He will lead you through the confusion of the present day in the light of the heavenly vision.

Now I speak of Peter in Acts 10, seeing a vision from heaven. That is the impression left on Peter’s soul about it in these verses, the heavens were opened, a certain vessel descending as a great sheet bound by the four corners; Peter here is receiving the light of the assembly as a heavenly vessel. That is the great vision of the present time, that there is a vessel on the earth that does not belong here, it is heavenly in origin and heavenly in destiny, and is full of cleansed persons. What a company! What a company Peter saw, his soul shrank from it a bit when he saw it at first, it was not just his idea of the assembly; he had seen something of it in practice; but the Lord is giving him a view here that the assembly is not an earthly creature.

Another has said, She is an exotic. She owes nothing to the law, she does not belong to Israel, she does not belong to the earth, but here is a vessel coming down from heaven, and the graces of heaven are resident in it. What a view Peter saw, he never forgot it! It is emphasised to him that it came down,

and the Lord did not stop at Peter’s hesitation, it says it took place thrice, to show the importance of appreciating what we have been brought into, as the assembly of God, which has its origin in heaven and it is soon to be finally taken back. So Peter, like Paul, was not disobedient to the heavenly vision; it says it took place thrice and it was straightway taken up into heaven. Does he doubt it? The Spirit of God works, you can see that if you read the rest of the chapter, Peter received the vision and was helped by the Spirit to understand it. You see how divine things are synchronising; the heavenly vision coming down, as Peter receives it and thinks about it, you see the Spirit active to confirm the thing in Peter’s soul and he is established in the light of the assembly as a heavenly vessel.

Paul comes on to the scene and he says that what he saw was a light above the brightness of the noonday sun, something again that is peculiar to our dispensation, he says “at mid-day, on the way, I saw ... a light above the brightness of the sun, shining from heaven” (Acts 26: 13), and he says, “I was not disobedient to the heavenly vision”, Acts 26: 19. Dear brethren, the light of the assembly is something, I say again, that is being neglected, “Where there is no vision the people cast off restraint”. Since these early chapters of the Acts, the enemy has brought in a counterfeit to the assembly, something that is earthbound, something that has taken on features of the world, it is called a great house, and we are part of it. It has taken on features that do not represent heaven, owns another head, but the assembly has a heavenly Head. The Lord has very patiently and graciously served to bring home to us the light of the assembly. May we, like Paul, not be disobedient. It is not man’s imaginations, it is a wonderful thing to me, that something that was expressed on this earth some two thousand years ago is still here in its lustre and glory and beauty, the assembly of God. Nothing has been attacked more, it is what the Lord says to Saul here, “why dost thou persecute me?” He is pointing out that He was here in the assembly, He was here in those persons whom Saul was persecuting. Saul could not extinguish it, all the wiles of the devil have not extinguished it, but where the vision is not cherished the people will cast off restraint.

It has happened, but may we be revived, “Arise, shine! for thy light is come”, the light of this glorious vessel, heavenly in origin and heavenly in destiny. What is the purpose of it? The purpose of it is that it shall be the counterpart of the heavenly man, soon to be shining in His likeness, in His graces and features. In Revelation 21, it says, “Come here, I will shew thee the bride, the Lamb’s wife” (Revelation 21: 9). It must have been cherished to have been shown to John, and John has the light and joy of it enshrined in his affections. Another has said that John stands in the outward ruin of Paul’s structure in the early part of Revelation, but before it closes he sees the heavenly city in all its glory to shine eternally as the bride of the heavenly Man, the Lamb’s wife (J. Taylor Sr. Vol. 34, p.180).

That is what the Lord is saying to Paul here, “why dost thou persecute me?” Oh, how that struck home to his heart, and you can see what happens from that moment as Paul’s ministry sets out that there is a Head in heaven and a body here. That is what Paul is speaking of in Colossians. One of the personal glories of Jesus is that He is Head of the body, the assembly.

Paul’s epistles are written that the saints may live in that light. He was not put off by the state in Corinth, he says, I am looking on you as a chaste virgin for Christ, he was not put off the vision, it remained in his soul. Dear brethren, in the breakdown and the confusion, the sorrows of the testimony, may it remain in our souls that He, only He, is the Head of the body, the assembly. It speaks elsewhere about the joints and the bands. From the Head there is a whole source of supply, that is the idea of the Head and the body, that the Head is the supplier to the body of all that it needs,

‘Great source of wisdom, power and food,

All riches from Thee flow’ (Hymn 199).

May we be exercised to know something more of the function of the body as under the influence of the Head.

Paul says, “ye are complete in him, who is the head of all principality and authority”. He is Head over all these things, but He is Head of the body and He is Head to it. In other words, the body does not act independently of the Head, the body is an expression of the Head. So, Paul’s teaching is that in the body there is something here on earth that is deriving vitally from the Head in heaven, even while being under attack and being misrepresented publicly, a false system having been set up. We should feel the sorrow of these things, dear brethren; God feels it, the enemy has succeeded in setting up a false system of things that would attach to itself the name of Christ, and an earthly head. People are assuming to be head of the Church, but that is not Christ’s body. The body is of Himself, bears His features and expresses His grace. He is the Head of the body and we have been brought, through grace, into the light of it. Again I say, “Arise, shine! for thy light is come”. These things have become dim, these visions have become distorted but they still remain in their glory and in their fulness for faith. They are to be enjoyed by every Christian; the glory of the assembly as a heavenly vessel, counterpart of Christ, what He calls His body, and we are called to fill out our part in it. The Spirit is giving grace that the joy of it and the supplies of grace from the Head may be enjoyed without hindrance.

Well, I come to the Lord’s supper. You will notice that where we read Paul says, “I received from the Lord, that which I also delivered to you”. May it be enshrined in our affections. The Lord’s supper is one of the outstanding features peculiar to this dispensation, but it has become distorted in all sorts of ways. There is a warning about that in this section. The Supper is an appeal to His lovers, “the Lord Jesus, in the night in which he was delivered up”, saying, “This is my body, which is for you”. What a touch of His love on those occasions! Dear brethren, we will soon be partaking of it in some hours, are you ready for it? The Lord is ready. May the impact of it be more governing in our lives; where the sanctity of the Lord’s supper is lost we cast off restraint. That is very easily seen in our own histories. The Lord’s supper may become common, just another occasion, but here Paul says, “I received from the Lord”, that is the Lord in glory.

The Lord said, Here is something I want to leave impressed on this dispensation that it is My Supper, “This is my body, which is for you”. We never fail to be charmed by the appeal of those words, “This is my body, which is for you”. In 1 Corinthians 11, the loaf on the table is an emblem of the Lord’s own body that He laid down, the body that He had here, “my body, which is for you”. That body, holy vessel of God’s pleasure, that is what was given for us. If that does not touch your heart, my friend, I would say you are hardly Christian.” This is my body”; what a body! It is like some of the offerings, they were opened up, the legs and the inwards, everything pure and perfect. What for? It says it is for you to contemplate. Then He says of the cup, “this do, as often as ye shall drink it, in remembrance of me”, and further, “For as often as ye shall eat this bread, and drink the cup, ye announce the death of the Lord, until he come”. Another has said that if the world really understood what we were doing, in taking the Lord’s supper properly, they would not allow us to do it, because we are saying, Come, Prince of Peace, come and take up Your rights, come and set everything right, because these words, “my body ... for you” has put everything right in our hearts. We want Him to come and have His true place, but He has it in His assembly, He has it in those who are announcing His death. In the announcing of His death we are really saying there is nothing for us here, because He is absent.

Mr. Pellatt has these fine remarks, ‘This world once had something to commend it, but now it is gone, the Son is with the Father’. In this world once there was a Person upon whom heaven looked with infinite pleasure. He is no longer here, He has gone to the Father; but there is another vessel here, the assembly, and the interest of heaven is centred today on the assembly. May the vision be cherished in our hearts! He puts a warning, I trust the brethren just take it as it is read. It says, “For the eater and drinker eats and drinks judgment to himself, not distinguishing the body”.

That is happening, persons carelessly taking part in what is an assembly privilege. Paul here is putting the Lord’s supper in an assembly setting. It is assembly persons who remember the Lord. Then it is part of Paul’s warning that there are persons who are treating it carelessly, and I only say that we take these verses to heart, “On this account many among you are weak and infirm”; where no vision is the people cast off restraint. Well, dear brethren, these words I trust are for our encouragement, that there is something here that belongs to heaven. In the midst of all the breakdown there is something going through, waiting His coming, maintaining direct links with the Holy Spirit of God, appreciating what is here as our light, the assembly as Christ’s counterpart, the Head in heaven and the body here. In the meantime, it is an assembly function to be announcing the death of the Lord until He come. It is a gateway into these relationships of love, “Rise up, my love, my fair one, and come away”, Song of Songs 2: 10. He is saying that to these persons who are announcing His death until He come.

Well, John in Revelation, writes of the Lord looking at these assemblies and He sees Sardis and says, “Be watchful”, Revelation.3: 2. He says if you do not watch I will come upon you as a thief. He says there are a few names there who have not defiled their garments. These overcomers in the midst of the breakdown have assembly features, they had not defiled their garments. It says they will soon be in other garments, but they have been faithful to the Lord in His absence, He says that He will give them to walk with Him in white. To the rest in Thyatira He says, “what ye have hold fast till I shall come”, Revelation.2: 25. Amidst all the breakdown there are assembly persons who are represented in the overcomer to whom He promises to give the morning star. We are to enjoy these heavenly things now in the midst of the breakdown. To Philadelphia He says, “hold fast what thou hast, that no one take thy crown”, Revelation 3: 11. Let us hold fast to the light that has come to us and live in the light of these visions I have been speaking about.

Then there is Laodicea, what does He say? He says, “Behold, I stand at the door and am knocking”, Revelation 3: 20. These persons that have missed the vision, they have cast off restraint, and in all His grace, He says ‘I am knocking’. Today He is knocking very loudly.

May we be encouraged in the way that the Lord, in divine grace, has served us in this dispensation, to await that hour when we see Him face to face. Then we will be like Him, it will be no great surprise, will it? The rapture will be a change of condition, not a change of company exactly, it will be a change of condition as with Enoch. The persons who have learned to walk with Him below will be at home in walking with Him above. May we be encouraged, dear brethren, to be committed to the visions that have come in, to arise, and shine and live in our light, for Christ’s name’s sake.

Address at Grangemouth
17 September 2005