LIBERTY
[p. 72] LIBERTY
Galatians 5:1; Matthew 12:1 - 8; Revelation 21:9 - 11
I have in mind to speak of liberty, in a spiritual sense. It will be observed that in the passage in Matthew a particular time is stressed, and ministry of the word has to take account of time; so, I apprehend the thought of liberty is needed to be stressed at the present time. The epistle to the Galatians was written in regard to the conditions of that particular time and particular place, in order to assert the principle of “the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free”. The enemy endeavoured at that time to snatch it away from the saints, for the apostle tells us that certain had crept in unawares to spy out the liberty which we have in Christ Jesus. That persons should trouble themselves in that way to enter clandestinely amongst the brethren to spy out their liberty, is remarkable, for it was not a commodity which they could steal and use; they could not seize it; but their object was purely to rob others, as we may say, of their inheritance. As a thing it would be impossible for them to steal it, but they spy it out, in order to deprive the saints of it, and destroy it as their portion. Such are the malicious tactics of the enemy always, to destroy for the sake of destroying what love has effected.
These are solemn suggestions as to what the enemy is constantly set for — to destroy what we have, out of hatred; but against that the apostle stresses that Christ has set us “free in freedom” — a remarkable expression — and that we are to stand fast in the liberty.
Now my object mainly is to show how we come into this principle; for most of the brethren are not in it at all. Satan has succeeded in alluring many out [p. 73] of the liberty with which Christ has set us free, and therefore the ministry of liberty has peculiar application in our times. Not only this, but those of us who have come into it are to stand in it, that others might come into it. For this, as in all else, we have to see it expressed in Christ. It enters into His remark to Thomas, “I am the way” (John 14:6); He is a way for us, and that involves how He moved here. He leads in everything, not only in teaching but in example too; that has to be understood. He requests in the end of Matthew 11 that all should come to Him: “Come to me, all ye who labour ... Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me”. “Learn from me” is by His example, and the babes had to learn everything from Him. The Father, indeed, had revealed things to them, but had not become Man to be a leader for them, but the Son had. This is the way in which the expression “the way” is to be understood; that the Lord has to be understood as Leader in everything. God is leading many sons to glory, but has made our Leader “perfect ... through sufferings” (Hebrews 2:10). The thought of liberty is thus extremely important for us, as first exemplified for us in Christ. It is doubly important that we should learn it, because it is through us as having been taught that others learn it.
We read of “the revelation of the sons of God” (Romans 8:19), the whole creation looks for it; not perhaps with intelligence, but with instinct; it has been subjected to vanity, but it is to be released from the bondage of corruption “into the [p. 75] liberty of the glory of the children of God”. You see how the saints of this dispensation are brought into the centre of things, in order that the whole realm of creation should be brought into liberty; that is, it awaits the revelation of the sons of God, and the liberty of the glory of the children of God — a very touching thought! I believe that is bound up in sonship, in the peculiar way in which the saints are to be manifested by and by, and when I say ‘manifested’ I allude to what we shall be. John, the apostle, says it is not yet manifested “what we shall be”. We might assume that John knew what we shall be; he wrote long after the Lord was manifested in the flesh, but he says, “What we shall be has not yet been manifested” (1 John 3:2).
I want to dwell a moment upon that: “What we shall be”, the apostle says, “has not yet been manifested”, but “we know that if it is manifested we shall be like him” — that is enough. What He is now is the point. There is what He was in the days of His flesh; His flesh was a veil indeed; and there is that which He was from the morning of resurrection to the day of ascension — that is, what He was in a spiritual way. He had taken on a new condition; it involved complete superiority to matter; the point is it was spiritual. He moved in and out amongst them, disregarding what was material, so that the stress is upon the spiritual; but there is more than that attaching to His position in heaven. His position in heaven transcends all that is approachable by the human eye; even transfiguration is not equal to what He is now. He was transfigured before them on the holy mount, and John saw that, and nevertheless says, it is not manifested “what we shall be”. That is as conformed to Christ in glory. He is received up in glory, but then He is all glorious; there is infinite radiance and light from Himself; it is not what He takes on, but what He is. He is transfigured before them, but what He is is from Himself; the increasing display of glory and greatness is of Himself. When He is manifested we shall be like Him, “for we shall see him as he is”, not as He was. There is no change in the Person but there is change in what we see. Think of the manifestation of the sons of God, and then the liberty of the glory of the children of God! Creation comes into “the liberty of the glory of the children of God”, but our liberty exceeds all this; it comes nearer to the liberty of Christ.
I wish to show how this came about in the Lord. He moved through the corn; that was deliberate. The point is not what He said, but what He did. For young people here it is important to notice what spiritual persons do. In the gospels we have examples set by the Lord; in the Acts it is what the apostles and others who are spiritual do. The term ‘Acts’ is appropriate, because it describes what is visible, the inauguration of a state of liberty and glory in a moral sense. The apostle that was selected to replace Judas, was one that had companied with them the whole time from the baptism of John until He was received up; not a moment of that time was to be missed. The apostle to fill the place should be one of those; it is a question of what they were, not only of what they said. So in the gospels, it is not only a question of what the Lord said, but of what He was: He says, “Learn from me”, that is, how He moved; these circumstances have their present force, and from them we learn how to move.
It was inevitable but that this movement should cut across what was current in Judaea, and Galilee, and Jerusalem, what was generally accepted, the legal obligations that honour the flesh. The Lord selected the sabbath to set out the principle of liberty He enjoyed. He made the law honourable, yet it was the law given by Moses, not what they had made it. It had been added to and perverted and had lost its identity in other hands, and they would not lift a finger to carry the burdens. He brought in a principle from heaven that has more than magnified and made it honourable; He moved in the liberty and dignity of a Man out of heaven. It was a new thing, and He moved here for God, but in doing this He cut athwart what was current religiously.
[p. 76] What I want to show is that it was a particular time when these instructions were necessary; He was leading His own on to the footing of the assembly. Aside from this teaching no one can be in the assembly according to God; he is in it in self-occupation unless he understands what the Lord had in mind in this action. He entered into the cornfields, that is all — He led the way. That is what I would say to any who need liberty. The disciples did more than that, but He intended them to do it. The Lord gives you a lead in the corn on the sabbath day. You are transgressing the law in the eyes of the religious world; they will not overlook this. Never mind; you are being extricated; you are coming out of bondage and that can only be said of the christian as the whole person, including the spirit, is in liberty. You have not received the spirit of bondage but the spirit of adoption. The apostle says we cry, “Abba, Father” by that Spirit. Maybe you are not doing that? That is, He takes us out of the religious world and gives us access to God. He cries Himself in the saints; the Holy Spirit does not cry aside from the saints; but He is here, in relation exactly to what the Lord did in this chapter. He cries, “Abba, Father”; it is urgent — and He makes you feel it is urgent; and He points out to you in the gospel of Mark that the Lord Jesus did that, He cried “Abba, Father” by the Spirit.
“Ye have received a spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father”; there is now an outlet to the Father, and the Holy Spirit is here in relation to what the Lord did to make it experimentally true in the christian, that we have access to the Father. You can appropriate also anything there is to eat for food. Many are restricted from reading and appropriating what God provides in the way of food.
The Lord Himself was the food. That enters into the passage. He Himself was the cornfield and the [p. 77] grain, and He would lead them into the liberty of partaking of it. He does not pluck the corn, but He does enough to set their souls on the line of liberty. They saw it and acted accordingly; they got food. Many of our brethren are starving; the enemy sees to it that they do not reach such books as would provide for what their souls need to eat. The Lord would virtually say to us, I have come down from heaven to be food, and the enemy’s business is to prevent your partaking of what is under your hand. He went into the cornfield. Christianity is not an order of things that is to be understood from the dictionary or concordance; it is intelligent and you know what you are doing. The business of the minister is to be what he teaches, so that the saints might see what is meant; it was so with Christ, and with Paul, and in measure is so with us today. The Lord says, I am “altogether that which I also say to you” (John 8:25). He had in mind that they should partake of what was available in Him. His disciples follow Him, and rub the corn in their hands and that would be food for their bodies; but it is spiritual food for us, and it is for those who minister to show the way.
This brought out opposition, and if there are those who are stirred up by what I am saying, you are sure to find opposition. It may be from your family, or neighbours or work-fellows, but you will find opposition.
The next thing is, the Lord defines the position. The complaint is about the disciples; that is how the matter stands today; people profess to revere the Lord, but the attack is upon those who follow His example. These people are not following in the way of accepted religion, they say. It is a way of liberty; whatever opposition you encounter in the way, do not give up; Christ has set us free. The Lord defined the position, dealing with the situation by the [p. 78] Scriptures. Many recognise the Scriptures today, hence the value of the weapon we have to use.
One loves to think of the Lord speaking of the great servant in this way. David was young, and fleeing from the murderous enmity of Saul, and the Lord says, “He entered into the house of God”. Men say, Unless you are a priest you have no status; David was not a priest officially, but he was more priestly than Ahimelech! There are those today, moving about in their daily occupations, that are priests because they have the Spirit. David knew how to use the ephod; it belonged to the priests, and he knew how to use it; God honoured him and answered him. He goes to Ahimelech and enters into the house of God. People say, Who are you? We know who we are; we are part of the house of God. David entered into it. One would commend that to you.
How heaven looked down on that young man, fleeing from the enmity of Saul, and entering into the house of God! All he had was a few loaves, but it was not apart from the place. Ahimelech suffered and God will honour that; but he did not understand David.
That is the need for us: to know what is under our hand. We hear of meetings very small and isolated; the persons who visit them are few; there is no gift, but the point that David makes is, What have you got here? Look round and see what you have got. That is the priest. The liberty the Lord is seeking to lead His people into is seen in this, in the type. The Lord says this is only for the priests; but David explained what Ahimelech did not understand, that it is in measure common.
Then David says, Have you got a sword? In a small meeting some have no idea of conflict. The best sword there was was there, but Ahimelech was doing nothing with it. That is how it stands in the smaller gatherings, and sometimes in the larger ones;
[p. 79] it is a question of conflict. You may depend the enemy will not leave you alone if you are going on with God. Ahimelech says, The sword here is the sword you took from Goliath. The Edomite was there. Why did not Ahimelech use the sword there upon the brother who had come in to spy out the liberty? Why not use the sword against that Edomite? Ahimelech did not understand that there was an enemy right there in Doeg, a false brother who crept in unawares. Ahimelech had liberty to give David the loaves, but the liberty was not protected, he exposed the fact to Doeg. The best sword was there, wrapped behind the ephod; it would look as though the ephod and sword were not being used, and that is what it is.
You can picture to yourselves what a scene it was in Matthew 12, the Lord defending the liberty of His disciples, the liberty He had brought in. The Lord was using the sword of Goliath, and thus put the enemies to silence; He then proceeds to say, “The Son of man is Lord of the sabbath”. Condemnation of the guiltless marks our times, and it is because people do not understand the Scriptures. The Lord rises to the great height of the Son of man being Lord of the sabbath.
Now I want to say a word about the passage in Revelation 21. I conceive the chapter to set out liberty in the greatest way. Revelation sets out great concrete, spiritual things, and the greatest of these is the assembly; we should keep our eye upon that. The Spirit of God does not forget what it has been, but dwells upon what it shall be; the latter glory is to be greater than the former. The greatest expression of liberty is there. I am not alluding to the Lord, but to what it is in believers.
One of the angels that had had the last plagues, one who had had to do with the false church, Babylon, takes John to see the wonderful vessel of liberty and [p. 80] glory. I am speaking from the standpoint of liberty: “And he carried me away in the Spirit, and set me on a great and high mountain, and shewed me the holy city, Jerusalem, coming down out of the heaven from God”. The word, “from God” I would allude to in passing. John the baptist is said to be “a man sent from God”; it is not that he was called from a distance into the royal presence to receive a commission, and then to be sent forth; the idea is, he is sent as being with God. To be with God, and come from God, is not to be learnt when we go to heaven; the education of the assembly is now, we learn how to get with God now. This education enters into the spirit we have received, the spirit of adoption. What a difference from the spirit of Rome! “Ye have not received a spirit of bondage again for fear” (Romans 8:15) — the current spirit of Rome, but “a spirit of adoption”, and christians characteristically cry, “Abba, Father”.
I would especially urge young brothers and sisters to get to God, to have your soul flooded with the sense of the presence of God. I am speaking now of going in to God, and of coming out from Him, out of heaven. By that I mean practically, that one learns to turn to one’s closet. One said, “Teach us to pray”, (Luke 11:1), and the Lord did it. Now, says the Lord, “enter into thy closet, and ... pray to thy Father which is in secret”. That is the surest way to get the knowledge of the holiest; it is as you enter into your closet and speak to the Father in secret, that your soul becomes flooded with the sense of what Christ is before God. He is the One that is delightful to God, and the One who has done all His will. To see Him thus produces restfulness, and one comes out to shine like Moses. Moses’ face shone with what is inside with God. That is what is in the mind in this allusion to the bride, the Lamb’s wife “coming down out of the heaven from God”. She had been with [p. 81] God; she had been placed in heaven, but that she was with God is the point. What would heaven be without God? What would it be without Christ, or the Spirit, or the saints? The saints are essential to heaven.
Moses was shown the land with the people in it; he was shown where Dan was, and where Judah was; that is a wonderful sight! I am speaking of what it is to be with God; we are being fitted now to be with God. It is said indeed, of this wonderful vessel, the city, that “the glory of God did lighten it, and the Lamb is the light thereof”.
Access is open for the christian to God, hence we come down out of heaven, from God. The assembly belongs to heaven as Christ does. The Father is of heaven, the Son is of heaven, the Spirit is of heaven, and the assembly also; it is our native place. We come down “out of heaven”, not sent as Jesus was; she is seen coming down out of heaven “having the glory of God: and her light was like unto a stone most precious”, and she has “a wall great and high”. In the holy liberty in which we are set now, as then, there is protection against evil; there are those who would break down the wall, but it is essential to the glorious liberty in which we are set. It has its counterpart now, in the maintenance of the fellowship in which we are set, and which secures the liberty which the enemy would spy out and destroy. The enemy is apt to creep in unawares; there is constant need of watchfulness so that the liberty should not be destroyed.
That is all I have to say, and I think you will see the applicability of it at this juncture, that we should stand fast in the liberty that Christ has secured, and in which He has set us free.