HEBREWS BEFORE EPHESIANS
HEBREWS BEFORE EPHESIANS
Hebrews equals the Lord’s sympathy, succour, help, guidance for His own. We must go through Hebrews before we can be in Ephesians. We cannot jump into Ephesians.
In Hebrews 4 is the character of Christ’s support to me down here on earth. It is no question of sin. Priesthood is for me as a poor feeble person down here. We are going on to the rest, and how are we to get on by the way? Chapter 4 tells us how Christ supplies us as we pass on through this world. The first thing is the word of God; the second, the sympathy of Christ. I could not be sustained here where Christ is not, save by the grace of Christ. I have His sympathy.
You ask, How would a person know his gift? I believe that in some distinct way the Lord makes it known to your heart. When Christ revealed Himself to Paul, He said, “for I have appeared unto thee for this purpose, to make thee a minister and a witness both of these things which thou hast seen, and of those things in the which I will appear unto thee” (Acts 26: 16); and in Colossians 1: 23 - 25 he says that two ministries had been committed to him, a ministry of the gospel, and a ministry of the church. If the gifted one comes forth as Christ’s minister, the ministry connects itself with Christ, whatever it is.
[p. 460] Words that are inexplicable in any other connection, and upon any other level, will find their place in this group of chapters from John 13 to 17. Take as an instance: “Now is the Son of man glorified, and God is glorified in him. If God be glorified in him, God shall also glorify him in himself, and shall straightway glorify him”. (John 13: 31,32) It is into this circle of eternal glory and of divine love we are introduced in communion by the Holy Spirit, as between God alone in all that He is, and the Son of man, who when in this world could say that God had been glorified in Him; and, as a blessed result, and growing out of this, “God shall also glorify him in himself, and shall straightway glorify him”.
Jonathan gave all his things to David, but Ruth, a poor woman, outstrips him. Many would give up honours to a great conqueror, but Ruth follows Naomi when she is nothing at all. She says, I have learned a friend in my sorrow, and that friend shall be mine, though she herself has nothing; I will follow her unto death.
In Mary we find the same thing. In John 12 she is in concert with the Lord. She says, The most precious thing I have shall go down to the tomb with Him. A friend in sorrow who has known sorry, is the greatest friend of all. It is very interesting to see that Mary’s suffering was not relieved by meeting with the Lord. In chapter 11 she discovered what was in the Lord.
It is very refreshing to be with those who accept the truth of the out-of-the-world condition of things and relationships into which we are introduced by the Spirit of Christ. How little we know of all that His life embraces! Paul tells us of the new creation, the new man; John dwells more on the life that we have [p. 461] in the Son; 1 John 5: 20. I trust we shall all be much before the Lord in prayer, that as He has been pleased to open our eyes more fully to this truth we may be more in moral correspondence to Him here. It is a marvel to me that we are called to walk here, even as He walked here, to be witnesses of Him. To have the old clothes so absolutely superseded, that Christ should be magnified in our bodies whether by life or by death.
The word of God teaches me union, but the Person of Christ brings out all that I derive from union, The word is always my authority for my position, but acquaintance with the Person confirms my position. The heart of the bride is satisfied with nothing but to see Him! It is only the bride that says, “Come”. It is not simply character but affection - bridal character and bridal affection in company with the Holy Spirit say, Come!
I am sure the great suffering for Christ, in the present day, is reproach and disparagement from those who profess His name, because one stands forth to maintain the truth in its integrity and fulness. It is a small thing to be cut off and despised by the world; but to be accounted heretical by christians when you are seeking to preserve, and to present the simple truth to them, is, to my mind, the bitterest suffering. On the other hand, I feel that it binds the heart of every true disciple the more to such suffering one, valiant for the truth. It could not be otherwise. What an eclipse it would be to the soul to surrender or be deprived of a particle of the truth which in mercy has been given to us. There is a desperate effort going forward to swamp and leaven the truth.
[p. 462] The power of Christ working in me is a greater thing than a miracle, a poor feeble creature able to do all things! Souls that receive deliverance from their troubles never grow like those who get strengthened in the difficulties. Christ walked with God above things here, though He felt the misery of this scene, and to know what sustained Him we must walk as He walked, above the earth, where He walked with God.
As for the charms of society - I have that in the Lord - and if I fail to find it among His people, I am glad to retire, and find it abundantly alone with Him.
Every great truth is either questioned now or weakened. The glorified Christ sustains us through our sufferings here. I go to heaven now to get refreshed, not to stay there yet. It is our only resource for outside pressure, or for inside weakness. It must be His life manifested in me. I may have but a thread of gold, but it is gold, and it is the only thing that will stand.
“Spring up, O well!” (Numbers 21: 17). The new springs in us going up to Him in whom every new desire is satisfied, every affection met. The new created man, finding his perfect joy in Christ, the glorified Man.
Separation and victory go together.
The peculiar power of a man of God - a true servant - is that he is not a mere channel like a gas-pipe, but he can impart, in measure at least, the feelings of his Master, the words of which are given him. Surely it is this that gives power and effect to an evangelist.
[p. 463] His heart is touched with the love of God to sinners: his conception of it may be small, but it is real; and according as it sensibly affects him, so he is qualified for his service.
The servant must attract you to Christ, by making known the love of Christ to you; he must know it himself first; love wants to be felt, not seen. The more the servant attracts you to Christ, the more he leads you on to understand union with Him, and this is the great purpose of God for every believer now. Another point is that the servant must come from the Lord, thus he brings you something from Christ Himself.
If you complain of your foes either inwardly or from outside, your strength is less than theirs; you are unwittingly making Christ inferior to them.
The moment I see a man of great common sense in the church of God I say, That man will never act with spiritual sense unless he crucifies his common sense. But a man without common sense, he turns to God, and then he acts with spiritual sense.
People think that they will get rid of their besetment by being occupied with their besetment. Never was a greater mistake! Be occupied with Christ, and you will be surprised to see how attenuated your besetment is become.
Answer to G.W., New York. - ‘The more heavenly your work, the less man will be able to see it, the less recognisable it will be. This is not opposed to the passage: “Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven”. (Matthew 5: 16) Because, while the works which men can see will not be overlooked, but will be diligently attended to, there will be, as one is heavenly, a class of works which men cannot recognise, and of which our Lord says: “I know thy works”. (Revelation 2: 2)’ ‘Many works of our blessed Lord were misconstrued, and He was accounted a deceiver of the people. And Paul was called a deceiver - though yet true. The light, too, must have reached the soul when any glorifies the Father on account of my works’.
To promote and maintain the rights of One only entitled where they are not owned, or only carelessly acknowledged, is not only the duty but the happiness of a righteous soul.
The church has failed in public testimony, so now the remnant must retire into private to promote the interest and progress of the family circle; like a man who failed in public, devoting himself to the care and education of his own.
The sealing of the Spirit is, I know that I am God’s property. The earnest of the Spirit is that I have got property.
I cannot be right in the present without judging the past, but I cannot mend the past. And, if really humbled, I shall not think I would do it better if I had the opportunity over again; I would fear for myself.
[p. 465] You never surrender anything to God that He does not take it; He is glad to accept every true offering.
There is nothing we meet with more commonly than two christians forming diverse judgments about the same thing. Is it man’s mind looking at the thing, or God’s? Instead of being very ready to give an opinion, first see whether you are with the Lord about it. Be in a right state, and then you will see His mind. When God wants to tell you anything, He must put you where there is nothing to interfere with His communications; He cannot communicate where there is interference with His dealings.
We can accept a previous revelation better than the present; we can accept a truth in the past better than one for the present time - the Lord’s prayer, for example, because there is less exercise of faith, less demand for divine power, in going back to a thing that is past. If you are not right you are rejoicing in things that are past, and not in Christ’s present things.
One set of things around us is going on to a city that suits man - Babylon; the other to a city that suits Christ - the new Jerusalem. Which are you going to? It is a great question. We get the picture of the future bride - how she will be adorned for her husband; and this is put before us when everything has failed in the church. The nuptial garments are brought out before the wedding-day in order that we may try them on. The bridal costume is shown us in order that we may acquire the characteristics of the bride. We are [p. 466] presented in Revelation 21 with all the beautiful features in which the Lord will have us stand before Him on the wedding-day.
In the epistle to the Romans the sinner is alone with God. It is like Jesus taking the blind man, or the palsied man, aside from the multitude, and then in solitude speaking to him, touching him, healing him, ere He sends him back to his companions.