CHRISTIANITY CONSIDERED
CHRISTIANITY CONSIDERED
A Summary of Seven Readings at Scarborough, November 1892 No. 1. - SINS PURGED. - The first morning, part of Matthew 14 was read. Here we see that when the light of the world has been refused and rejected, He, blessed be His name, does not cease to shine; but though He is outside the world, “walking on the sea”, He draws Peter (a sample of His grace) to Himself. This necessarily implies that by His death He opens the way for us to join Him where He is. John 6 unfolds this, and it is of special interest, for what is related there occurred at the same time as Matthew 14. It is, so to speak, God’s side, and shows us how we can join the Lord, cast out of this world. He was refused by the Jews as “the living bread which has come down out of heaven”, and then He gave His flesh for the life of the world. Hence, except we eat His flesh and drink His blood we have no life in us (verse 53). We appropriate His death to escape from the death, the judgment on us; and we live by Him; we have passed out of death into life. We are in Him on the other side of judgment, He, having purged our sins,
“sat down”. The exaltation that He is in is the guarantee that He has removed everything against us. This is more specially insisted on in Hebrews 10:12. It is of all importance to apprehend in faith that all sins are removed from the eye of God for ever for the believer, because Christ has sat down; and hence, that the great blessing vouchsafed to His own, consequent on His rejection and exaltation to the right hand of God, is that sins are all removed; there is no remembrance of them before God; there is no more offering for sin. Where there is a recurrence to sins which have been put away by His work, as there will be in the millennial day (see Ezekiel 46), the believer is connected with the earth, and to this the Lord’s supper is reduced by many; there is not a full and sure sense of the first blessing vouchsafed to His own who are in the place of His rejection, but are blessed by Him because of His exaltation.
It will be found that none of the blessings peculiar to christianity can be known but as the rejection of Christ from the earth and His exaltation to the right hand of God are strictly maintained; there is always a marked tendency, even with true believers, to a mixture of the earthly blessing with the heavenly. The earthly has not yet come, and is not of the same order as that vouchsafed to, and conferred on, christians. Thus, the first christian blessing is that sins are for ever removed from the eye of God. The second we can now consider.
No. 2 .- THE HOLY SPIRIT. - “Having therefore been exalted by the right hand of God, and having received of the Father the promise of the Holy Spirit, he has poured out this which ye behold and hear”, Acts 2:33. It is consequent on Christ’s exaltation to the right hand of God that the Holy Spirit was sent down; so that the Lord said, “If I go not away, the Comforter will not come unto you”. His leaving the [p. 6] earth, being rejected of men, would indicate, as it did to the two disciples going to Emmaus, that all was lost; evidently the sun had gone down at noonday; but, by the grace of God, the Holy Spirit comes down to each believer in Christ from the place of His exaltation. Where there is faith in Christ there is, through His name, the remission of sins; then the Holy Spirit is given, as we see in Acts 10:43,44. “To him all the prophets bear witness that every one that believes on him will receive through his name remission of sins. While Peter was yet speaking these words the Holy Spirit fell upon all those who were hearing the word”. In the type the blood was put on the ear, on the hand, and on the foot, before the oil was put on. It is not only that the blood had been sprinkled on the mercy-seat, but the blood is on the believer; you, personally, are under the virtue of the blood. “The love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Spirit which has been given to us”, Romans 5:5. The Holy Spirit is the greatest gift which could be given to us, and He is given consequent on Christ’s exaltation. In Christ’s death all that was contrary to God in us has been removed; and by the Holy Spirit given to us, we are introduced into all that is according to God. The Spirit is given to us; He dwells in us; but if it is not apprehended that He comes from Christ glorified, there will be on every hand, and in every connection, an imperfect apprehension of His work and purpose. You must bear in mind that He is here for Christ, while He is absent, in order to apprehend His services and operation. He is here where man and the whole world are at enmity with God, for, as the Lord says, “Now they have no cloke for their sin.... now have they both seen and hated both me and my Father”. The only One to connect us with Christ, and to enable us either to enjoy Him, or to stand for Him here, is the Holy Spirit; hence if we do not simply, and without compromise, rely [p. 7] wholly and solely on Him for power against the world, the flesh and the devil, we shall be checked and hindered here.
No. 3. - OUR (THE CHRISTIANS’) PRIEST IS IN HEAVEN. - Hebrews 7: 23 - 28; Hebrews 8: 1 - 4. It is plainly stated in Hebrews 8: 4, that if Christ were on earth He would not be a priest; so that, being rejected here, and exalted to God’s right hand, He is the Priest for all believers during the period of His rejection. It is of the deepest importance to seize in faith this great blessing. It is altogether and singularly from heaven; and it is only as the believer is drawn to Him where He is now, that he enters into and enjoys the priesthood of Christ. If you bear in mind that it is only in heaven that He is a priest, you are necessarily drawn to Him there. You must start with the assurance that your sins have been removed, and that it is not your salvation you are seeking, but that it is simply approach to God. The question of sins has been settled by your Saviour; now the point of interest is to enter into the presence of God. Hence, first, your infirmities engage the attention of our Priest. Hebrews 4:14,15, reads: “Seeing then that we have a great high priest, that is passed into the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast our profession. For we have not an high priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities, but was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin”. Infirmities are not sins; they are weaknesses. Man is naturally liable to them. It may be pressure of circumstances, or bad health, or bereavement - any human weakness.
The word exposes to us whether we are set for the rest of God, and then the sympathy of Christ is vouchsafed to us, as to Mary of Bethany, to raise us above the pressure under which we are, into company with Him who has passed through all these sufferings, but [p. 8] is now higher than the heavens. Though the pressure may not be removed, we are so supported by Christ under it, that we are borne above it; and we, in company with Him, enter into the holiest of all. We rise with Him into the spot of cloudless light. How blessed! Though our Lord has been refused where we are, we know His support in our infirmities here, and are conducted by Him to be in company with Himself - as Aaron’s sons with their father in the holy place typified - in the holiest of all. And as we know Him there, we run on to Him.
No. 4. - OUR (THE CHRISTIANS’) PLACE IS IN HEAVEN. - Hebrews 6:20. - “Whither the forerunner is for us entered, even Jesus, made an high priest for ever after the order of Melchisedec”. The Forerunner has entered within the veil. Christ, having been rejected here and exalted to heaven, has secured a place for us. The earth, or a city for the earth, was the portion of the saints before the ascension of Christ. Every christian, as a rule, accepts Christ’s ascension to God’s right hand, but there is not power in this truth except it be maintained in connection with His rejection here; for if the latter is truly apprehended you expect nothing from the place where He was rejected, but all your hopes and gain are from Him from the place to which He has been exalted. You have no place where He has been rejected, but you have a place assured to you where He is exalted to the right hand of God. If you look for anything here you are diverted from your true place; and here many christians suffer loss.
No. 5.-THE ASSEMBLY (THE HOUSE AND THE BODY) CHRIST’S ONLY PLACE NOW ON THE EARTH. - 1 Peter 2:1 - 9. The assembly as the house is first set forth in Matthew 16: 18, when Christ had been rejected by Israel. He had been rejected by His own people, but He will have a structure on the earth built by Himself. “.... I will build my church (assembly), and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it”. He is supreme above all the power of evil and death. He is the Son of the living God. To be a living stone in that structure is more than conversion. In 1 Peter 2 we read, first, “If so be ye have tasted that the Lord is gracious”, then “To whom coming, as unto a living stone, disallowed indeed of men, but chosen of God, and precious”. The believer comes to Him, the only true foundation, disallowed indeed of men, but chosen of God. You must come to Him as the One rejected by men, but chosen of God, the Living Stone, the Son of the living God, outside of all the evil here, supreme. You accept your place as a living stone. If you were not converted you could not be a living stone, and you are convened with the purpose of being a living stone, but you have not found your place in Christ’s building till you come to Him, the Living Stone; until you apprehend in your soul the true ground of the assembly which He builds. Coming to Him in His greatness, you become through grace material suited to Him. Take the man building the tower in Luke 14: 28 - if Christ is not the material it cannot be finished. Each one is built in individually by Christ; and then, as we find in Matthew 18, the two or more are gathered to His name. It is very evident that if every saint had come to Christ as God’s foundation stone they would have been placed by Him in His assembly, and then there would have been one united company - one church on the earth. The assembly was first formed in Acts 2. The Holy Spirit filled the house where they were sitting, and each one was filled with the Holy Spirit, according to the Lord’s promise in John 14: 17. Thus assembled, as each was led by the Spirit, Christ was paramount.
The tendency, as we see in Corinth, is to be merely individual in the assembly; and where this is the case, those who take a part are only governed by the Spirit’s [p. 10] action on themselves, which they offer to the assembly as if it were intended for the assembly. And this has led to the idea that if you have anything, hymn or prayer on your heart, you are justified in presenting it to the assembly. When one is led by the Spirit for the good of the assembly, under the direction of the Head, there will be edification; but until the mystery is known, you will not be preserved from individual ministry; that is, a ministry where the individual is prominent, and not the assembly. Hence the knowledge of the mystery is a great addition to the knowledge of the assembly.
The mystery was not divulged until after the stoning of Stephen, when in reality the citizens sent the message, “We will not have this man to reign over us”. The offer made to Israel, consequent on the Lord’s ascension, was deliberately and wantonly refused in the murder of Stephen. In Acts 8, we learn the true state of things from Philip’s mission to the Ethiopian eunuch. The scripture which the eunuch read declared it, “His life is taken from the earth”. The believing eunuch accepts this great fact, which leads him to ask for baptism. As to earth, all the light has gone; hence in chapter 9 the light comes down from heaven to arrest Saul of Tarsus. The gospel from a Saviour in glory is revealed to him; and not this only, but the mystery was now divulged in the words, “Why persecutest thou me?” The mystery then is the church, the body of Christ. Not only is each stone built in by Him to form a temple for Himself, but each believer is a member of His body, set there by God, and united to Him where He is, by the Holy Spirit. It is not only that He has a house on the earth built by Himself, but each believer is in the closest tie to Him in heaven now. I do not say that all apprehend and enjoy this favour, but nevertheless it is true for one and all. The knowledge of the mystery is a great addition to the knowledge of the [p. 11] assembly, the habitation of God through the Spirit.
It is evident that the Colossians did not hold the mystery, and many now genuinely seek to be true to Acts 2, who do not in faith apprehend the mystery. The part of the mystery presented in Colossians is the Head. If Christ is not known as the Head common to every believer, then the mystery is unknown. If He is known as Head of each member of the body, then the rest of the mystery easily follows. The mystery cannot be known unless you realise that you are complete in Christ (see chapter 2 10). If you are complete in Him nothing can be added to you, either from tradition or from learning. Then you are “circumcised with the circumcision not done by hand, in the putting off of the body of the flesh”. If “the body of the flesh” be cut off in the cross, it cannot in any way contribute to Christ. There is no opportunity for either rationalism or ritualism. As the body of the flesh is put off in the cross, then we, being dead with Christ from the rudiments of the world, and risen with Him in His life, mortify our members which are on the earth; we practically embrace all that has been effected for us in His death; we put off the old man and put on the new; we exchange the old for the new; and now, apart from man of every class, Christ is everything, and in all. We know Him as our Head. If He were truly known as Head to each one in the assembly, if each were “holding the Head”, it is plain that every service would be directed by Him, and each one would be consciously assured of His ministry. When He is known as your Head you are apart from all that suits natural life, you taste an out-of-the-world condition of things. He is your life, and now you are prepared, like Rebekah led by the servant, to rise to Christ where He is. When you are conscious of the power which wrought in Christ, you are brought by the Spirit to the place where Christ is; then you realise union with Him.
[p. 12] When union with Christ is known, then the qualities of this great position are made known to you. The Christ dwells in your heart by faith; you comprehend with all saints the range of His possessions; and you so know the love of Christ, that passeth knowledge, that you are filled unto the fulness of God. Now you come out in the power of the heavenly Man, first in the church, secondly in your own family, and finally, “strong in the Lord, and in the power of his might”, you withstand all the force of Satan, the universal lords of darkness, and spiritual wickedness. Wonderful truly is our position on the earth where our Lord has been refused. Though we encounter every form of hindrance, yet as we walk in the Spirit we are made conscious of the greatness of our Lord’s exaltation, in the very place of His rejection.
No. 6. - “THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN”. - Matthew 13:18 - 48. - The kingdom of heaven is quite distinct from the church. Though the church is formed in the kingdom of heaven, yet it is quite distinct from it.
The kingdom of heaven is the rule of the word of God on the earth during the absence of the King. When Constantine accepted the christian religion he assumed to govern by the word of God, and eventually the rulers of the Latin kingdom avowed that the word of God was their authority. Very markedly it was so in this country, though of late there has been a grievous departure from the authority of the word of God. Romanists, Jews, and atheists are now admitted into Parliament. Every christian should be known as one who is ruled by the word of God in all his relations in life; while ever obedient to ‘the powers that be’, it should be evident that he is governed in his own life and ways by the word of God.
There are seven parables in this scripture; four of them are public, to be recognised by every eye; while three are private, only known to those who are in seclusion with the Lord.
[p. 13] The first is the parable of the sower. The sower is the Son of man; the seed, the word of the kingdom. There are four classes of hearers.
The second parable is that while men slept the enemy sowed tares among the wheat: professors are found amongst the real ones on the earth.
The third parable is the grain of mustard seed, “which indeed is the least of all seeds: but when it is grown, it is the greatest among herbs, and becometh a tree, so that the birds of the air come and lodge in the branches thereof” (verse 32). This is a great system which has grown as a tree - the glory of the earth.
The fourth parable is the leaven which a woman took and hid in three measures of meal till the whole was leavened. Everything is corrupted, distorted, and estranged from its natural simplicity. Thus far we have the so-called christian world described.
Now the Lord sends the multitude away and goes “into the house” (verse 36), and then explains to His disciples the parable of the wheat and tares. And then He enunciates to them three more parables. First, the treasure hid in the field. “Again, the kingdom of heaven is like unto treasure hid in a field; which when a man hath found, he hideth, and for joy thereof goeth and selleth all that he hath, and buyeth that field” (verse 44). For the sake of the treasure the field is bought. The second is the pearl. “When he had found one pearl of great price, went and sold all that he had, and bought it”. And the third, “A net, that was cast into the sea, and gathered of every kind: which, when it was full, they drew to shore, and sat down, and gathered the good into vessels, but cast the bad away” (verse 48). The good fishes are separated from the bad ones by those who understand what the church is to Christ, as indicated in the two preceding parables.
[p. 14] I conclude that as each saint is in the kingdom of heaven now, so will he be in the future kingdom of God, that is, when the King reigns.
No. 7. - THE TRAITS OF THE COMPANY ON THE EARTH WHO WAIT FOR THEIR LORD’S RETURN AND HIS KINGDOM - Luke 10: 33 to 18: 30. - The new company on the earth is introduced consequent on the inability of the Jewish or legal system to meet the case of the man who went down from Jerusalem to Jericho and fell among thieves; chapter 10: 30. The Lord is the Good Samaritan, despised and rejected by the Jew; and by Him is the wounded man cured, and carried, and cared for in the “inn” until He comes again.
Then the company who wait for the return of the Lord and will reign with Him here are described. There are seven traits, but they are not consecutive. A person has various traits, and these combined form the person; so it is here. They are not described in the order in which they are received, but in their moral order. The first is the word of God and prayer, set forth in Mary, who sat at His feet and heard His word (chapter 10: 39); and in the parable of the man who went to his friend at midnight for bread; chapter 11: 5 - 13. The true way to learn the word is to be really near the Lord, affectionately desiring His mind; and in prayer to be really cast upon God as your Friend, knowing that He can help you, and He only; so that you are absolutely confined to Him, assured that you will receive the greatest gift, thus indicating the immense gain from praying.
The second trait is more external - YOUR BODY IS LIGHT (chapter 11: 34). The lamp of the body is the eye; therefore when thine eye is single thy whole body also is light. The whole body, your external appearance, is a contrast to the darkness here. You describe a line of light in the darkness, but in order to do this, there must be no dark part within. The light [p. 15] must rule within before it rules externally. The Pharisee is attracted by this discourse; “And as he spake, a certain Pharisee besought him to dine with him” (verse 37). The Pharisees are all for appearances without internal power; they “make clean the outside of the cup and the platter; but your inward part is full of ravening and wickedness”.
The characteristics of the body of light are described in chapter 12. You do not fear them that kill the body (verse 4). You “take no thought for your life, what ye shall eat; neither for the body, what ye shall put on” (verse 22). But you seek the kingdom of God, “a treasure in the heavens, ... for where your treasure is, there will your heart be also” (verses 31 - 34). Your loins are girded about and your lights burning (verse 35); not only are you waiting for the Lord’s return, but you are watching (verse 37); you are so vigilant during the night, and proving your assured expectation of His coming, that you are interested in the welfare of His household, and “give them their portion of meat in due season” (verse 42). In plain language, if you love Him that begat, you love them begotten of Him; 1 John 5:1. The more He is to you, the more His own are to you.
The third trait is in chapter 13: 16. - THE BODY LOOSED FROM THE POWER OF SATAN. The attempt to amend man by culture, “digging and dunging”, had proved ineffectual, but the body of the believer is the Lord’s. In apprehending and acquiring each of these traits, we must keep in mind that we have to confront and overcome the Jewish or legal element. On the earth the kingdom of heaven is a huge system in which the fowls of the air lodge. It is this externally, while internally all that was pure and simple is leavened. It is a narrow path now. Jerusalem, God’s city, the Lord says, is desolate - “Behold, your house is left unto you desolate: and verily I say unto you, Ye shall not see me, until the time come when ye shall say,
[p. 16] Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord” (verse 35).
The fourth trait is THE GREAT SUPPER (chapter 14: 15). When one of the company said to the Lord, “Blessed is he that shall eat bread in the kingdom of God”, the Lord, in reply, announced the great supper. The great supper is in the house; the Jew, and everyone with an earthly mind seeks for earthly blessings, and thus loses the supper. The work of the servant is to compel those in the poorest place and most abject circumstances in this world to come into the house.
The prodigal son in the next chapter (15), is the sample guest. He has been led by the pressure of circumstances in the far country to think of his father. The goodness of God leads to repentance; he comes, and his father kisses him. God has effected the reconciliation. He is clothed, made meet for the inheritance of the saints in light; he feeds on the fatted calf. The joys of the Father’s house are made known to him; “they began to be merry”.
The fifth trait is THE STEWARD (chapter 16). When Christ’s rights on the earth are disallowed, no one can have divine title to anything. All property is the “mammon of unrighteousness”. You have no divine title to any property here. It is really the Lord’s; but if you are His steward, and make friends of it by ministering to those in need, you will invest for the kingdom, the day when Christ’s rights shall be acknowledged. The important fact is that riches are of value now only in proportion as they are expended in making friends, that is, in rendering service to others. It is the Lord’s will that the rich man should have every needed comfort; this is His love and care for each of us; but the more the rich man spends in serving others, the more he lays up for himself a good foundation against the time to come. “Ye cannot serve God and mammon”.
[p. 17] The sixth trait - AN OUT-OF-THE-WORLD CONDITION. The world is the greatest obstacle to the saint. It is man’s organisation, and with legal religion, or the Jewish element, it is still more difficult to overcome. Faith only can say unto this sycamine tree (the wild fig), “Be thou plucked up by the root, and be thou planted in the sea”, chapter 17: 6. Hence when the ten lepers are cleansed by the word of Christ, only one by faith overcomes the world, and rising above every influence within and without, “turned back, and with a loud voice glorified God, and fell down on his face at his feet, giving him thanks” (verses 15,16). He was led into his true place in relation to Christ on the earth. He was really a stone of Christ’s building.
The seventh trait - SEEKING THE KINGDOM OF GOD. The snare in the present day is the same as in the days of Noah, and as in the days of Lot (chapter 17: 26); to be completely indifferent to the coming crisis. You cannot seek the kingdom of God if you are not expecting Christ to come and reign. There will be a very distinct separation between the two classes in that day; “the one shall be taken and the other left”. The Jewish remnant will not be forgotten, as we see from the beginning of chapter 18. If you are of the kingdom, you are characterised in a twofold way: first, by being a little child (verses 16,17) - no antecedents, but absolutely dependent on God; the other, that you are not held by an acquisition here, but that you surrender all, even your own life, to follow Christ (verse 22). For everything which you have left for the kingdom of God’s sake, you shall receive manifold more in this present time, and in the world to come life everlasting (verses 29, 30).