BEING RIGHT, OUTWARDLY AND INWARDLY
A.B.Parker
We need encouragement, dear brethren, and I think we are getting it. We do not want to be overoccupied with how much we need encouragement, but to be more ready to seize upon the encouragement which the Lord is giving. Having had some little experience in the testimony in America, it is very interesting for some of us to see the way the Lord's hand is operating today, particularly in arranging for servants who are ministering the pure word abroad to come to this side of the Atlantic to serve. We can see the Lord's consideration for us and we should take full advantage of it. If we believe that the Lord's hand is in it, let us be concerned about what the Lord is saying to us, for it will give us a clue as to His mind for us and how we should proceed in matters.
I have been affected by what the Lord says in the verses read - He speaks of externals and of what is internal. He speaks of something new coming in. In the book of Amos, reference is made to the new growth after the king's mowings. It would seem, in that book, that the testimony was about finished. The latter growth was in danger of being eaten up by the locusts. Amos appealed to Jehovah, "O Lord Jehovah, forgive, I beseech thee! How shall Jacob arise? for he is small", chap 7: 2. The latter growth represents something fresh and new at the end of the dispensation, I believe. It is fresh and new, but it is no different from what was initial; it is from the same roots. There should be nothing introduced today that is different from what was introduced by Paul and others; it is to be from the same roots that have carried the testimony through. We are having, in a sense, a revival of the 'good teaching'. It is fresh and new. The Lord speaks about what is new in the verses read, and we want to be alert to catch what the Lord is saying to us now that is distinctive to the present moment in church history.
The Lord said, "No one puts a piece of a new garment upon an old garment". I fear that there are some who are trying to do that. They may say that the new will rend the old, but the Lord did not say that. He said that the new piece will be rent. If what the Lord is arriving at amongst us now were to be associated with something old, it will be spoiled. Some may say that there are myriads of believers in the world, many of whom are more devoted than we are, and this may be very true, but are they walking in the vital truth of the recovery? Are they having part in the distinctive character of what the Lord is seeking to produce through the sorrows and pressures of the present moment? This, dear brethren, is like the fresh, new growth in Amos - it is the new garment, in character.
Think of the blind man who rose up, cast away his garment and came to Jesus! Someone may have said, 'Here is your garment; do not cast it away'. He would have said, 'I have something new' . He did not want his old garment any more; he was in fresh, new circumstances; he had come into personal contact with Jesus; his eyes were opened and he was following Jesus in the way. That was his new garment. And we want to be in that way, following Jesus in the way He is taking today.
Issue has been taken in the matter of associations. I believe that the Lord is calling our attention to the fact that, while we may have made due allowance for the efficacy of His blood, we may not be making proper allowance for the meaning of the water that came from the side of Jesus. The water has to do with our associations; in effect, our garments. Are they new or old? And if new, are they becoming spotted? Are we attaching them to something old? In Numbers 19 the intensity of the burning of the red heifer and the cedar wood, scarlet and hyssop is, in a sense, equal to the burning of the beasts whose carcases were burned without the camp on the day of atonement. The Lord Jesus suffered and died to put away sin; He shed His blood to make atonement, but He also suffered and died to provide a means of cleansing. In our approach to God we must recognise the need for the blood and the water: "sprinkled as to our hearts from a wicked conscience" (that is the blood) "and washed as to our body with pure water", Heb 10: 22. Water, as well as blood, came from the side of Jesus. That is stressed by John as having to do, particularly, with a day of breakdown when we are most liable to touch a dead body. In such a case the water is needed, and failure to use it causes one to defile the tabernacle of Jehovah and he must be cut off from Israel, Num 19: 13. We need to see the importance of being right circumstantially and that the sufferings of Christ have provided a means of cleansing.
The Lord Jesus also referred to what is inward - the new wine. It is to be put into new skins. Wine is said to cheer God and man (see Jud 9: 13). It reminds me of the oblation in Leviticus 2 which was offered to Jehovah but was also partaken of by the priest. It speaks of the precious life of Jesus; the absolute perfection, in detail, of His pathway here in which pressure only brought out the fragrance of that life, lived in the power of the Holy Spirit. God delights in it and He delights to share it with us. Reference is made in Daniel 9 to the evening oblation, and it must have been the evening oblation referred to in 1 Kings 18: 36-39, when Elijah offered the bullock, and fire came down from heaven and consumed the offering. What an encouragement to think that in the 'evening' of the dispensation God is delighting to share His thoughts about Christ with those who make room for the new wine. There is the outward side - the new garment - but there is what is inward. We need to have our joy in things in which God is finding His joy - that which gladdens the heart of God and men.
There is power in new wine; old skins cannot contain it. They can hold old wine but not the new. If I may be simple, the fermentation of new wine requires new skins to contain the power. Power comes in - "Not by might, nor by power, but by my Spirit, saith Jehovah", Zech 4: 6. This is the power by which we are to carry on in days of small things, and the Lord is preparing vessels that can hold it. Can we hold the new wine? It is new in the sense of freshness; it is being vintaged - in circumstances of pressure and trial, the trials of the last days.
In Matthew, as the Lord Jesus neared the end of His pathway and was drawing near to Jerusalem, He referred several times to the vineyard. He spoke of persons who were hired to work in the vineyard and the eleventh hour servants were spoken of in a distinctive way. Then there were the sons who were told to labour in their father's vineyard. One said he would not go but later he repented and went. We may know something of these circumstances. How difficult it has been to face the circumstances of the way. It may be that at times something in us rebelled against the circumstances and sorrows, but through grace supplied we went, knowing that the area of our toil would produce something to gladden the heart of God and men. Then, finally, the Lord spoke about the vineyard that was taken away from certain and given to others. All this has a bearing on the present time. We want to be in it rightly. We want to have this new wine and we want to have it in new skins the work of God in us that is able to contain the new wine.
Rock bottom has been referred to in these meetings. I trust that we have reached it. We can talk about reaching rock bottom but we may not realise how much we were impregnated by things which were not according to truth. Let us not feel that we have reached rock bottom and that the matter is settled; let us keep reaching it; let us see that every part of us is attached to the Rock. The Lord Jesus said, "On this rock I will build my assembly”, Matt 16: 18.
May the Lord help us to be right inwardly - indeed, may He help us in relation to both what is outward and what is inward, that we may be fully in what the Lord is doing in this outstanding period of the testimony, for His Name's sake.
TORONTO
1 June 1973