SALVATION IN NONE OTHER
C.S.Elliott
In this passage the Spirit of God uses the occasion to point out the uniqueness of Christ. At that time in Jerusalem Peter said "Salvation is in none other" and we are thankful to God that this is still true. Persons can still be saved as they come to Jesus. It is a great thing that salvation is in none other. The Lord Jesus is such a worthy Person that you can understand something of the delight of the Father 's heart in placing all things in His hands. We sometimes sing: 'God has full delight in Jesus... All shall prosper in His hand'. That can be said of no other man, no matter how great he is. At times we put a great deal of confidence in persons, but later disappointment comes in. The Lord Jesus is "the same yesterday, and today, and to the ages to come", Heb 13: 8. That is a great thing - to find One who is the Same. He is so approachable, always the Same. It does not take much to change us, but He remains the Same. That is the Lord Jesus, the Saviour of the world. We need someone like that. Do you have Him? If you have Him lay hold on Him! He is precious "the chiefest among ten thousand", Song of Sol 5: 10. The first place belongs to Him.
So here the apostle says "Salvation is in none other". Think of the myriads of men who have lived on the face of this earth, great persons able to effect something; great doctors able to perform cures; great statesmen able to do great things; but great as they are, scripture says "Salvation is in none other". If we are to be saved we must come to Jesus, God's wellbeloved Son. Think of what it means! Every person on the face of this earth who wants to be saved must come to Jesus. Scripture says "Go to Joseph", Gen 41: 55. There was a time in Egypt when anyone who wanted food had to go to Joseph. If you were filled with pride and stayed away you would have starved to death. Many persons are like that. They know where help is but they stay in their pride and die in their sins. Thank God that the Lord Jesus has come in and we have known Him. He is the only One; no other name is given, "for neither is there another name under heaven which is given among men by which we must be saved". What are you going to do? Are you going to die in your sins? Is there anyone here who is going to die in his sins? Think how tragic it will be if you are not saved! Where will you spend eternity? With the devil and his angels? In the lake of fire? It is a real matter. Are you going to spend eternity there? Or are you going to spend eternity with Christ, which is far better?
So the apostle, just to settle any questions which might have arisen, said that it was the same Jesus. "Be it known to you all, and to all the people of Israel, that in the name of Jesus Christ the Nazaraean, whom ye have crucified..." How he laid it on their consciences! You have crucified the Just One! The word of God has a way of getting at our consciences. I might say many things and they do not reach you, but sometimes the right scripture comes in and brings conviction. It is the word of God. So here the word is bringing in conviction. He says that it is the same Jesus that you have crucified. That was meant to unsettle them. If something in the word unsettles you and turns you to Jesus it is wonderful, because that is where your faith ought to be - in Jesus, a living glorified Man. So here he says "in the name of Jesus Christ the Nazaraean, whom ye have crucified, whom God has raised from among the dead, by him this man stands here before you sound in body". What a great thing it was to see that man, who had been there begging, sound in body; and I would believe sound in mind also, for when the Lord works a cure He cures the whole man. Physicians might be able to cure me physically but it does not mean they will be able to reach my mind. When the Lord Jesus effects a cure, He reaches the entire being. The Lord Jesus is intent on getting the whole man for Himself. So here it is in that Name, the Name of love. We sometimes sing 'There is a Name we love to hear, We love to sing its worth' (hymn 455). Do you love to hear that Name? The Father takes delight in directing attention to Him - "My beloved Son". 'Thy name must live, whatever names may die'. His Name must live. Are you vitally connected with that Person? That Name is going through; it must go through. There is no other Name under heaven by which we must be saved. Then, if you believe on the Lord Jesus, He is coming to take you for Himself. In the meantime He is helping you here, keeping you, maintaining you in the time of His absence. The Spirit is here energising you, focussing your attention on Christ until He Himself comes. "The Lord himself", 1 Thess 4: 16! He does not leave it to an angel to come and take you to be with Himself. Scripture says that we shall not all die but we shall all be changed. There was a time in the history of the Corinthians when the apostle Paul said that: "Behold, I tell you a mystery: We shall not all fall asleep, but we shall all be changed, in an instant, in the twinkling of an eye... the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible", 1 Cor 15: 51, 52. In the meantime we go through a lot of exercises, and there is that in us which the Lord has to break down. The Spirit of God has to break us down, work on us, soften us, mould us in the way the Lord wants, but in the end He is going to have His finished product. At the end of Jacob's life he could say, "the God that shepherded me all my life long to this day" (Gen 48: 15), and he finishes as a worshipper God puts us through varied experiences with a vie w to getting us the way He wants. So the Lord Himself will come to take us to be with Him self. What a time it will be!
Meantime how glorious it is to have to do with this Person! He is the greatest Person in the universe. Do you know any other person as great as the Lord Jesus? You cannot find one. In Him there is perfection, excellence, manhood according to God. All the features delightful to heaven are concentrated in this glorious Person. It is little wonder that the voice could exclaim "This is my beloved Son, in whom I have found my delight: hear him", Matt 17: 5. How worthy the Lord Jesus is to be heard! How worthy He is of our affection! He is the One who loved us so much that He bore all the bitterness, all the ignominy and shame that was due to us because of sin; the Lord Jesus bore it all. In my righteousness and in yours we could not stand before God. Scripture says, "all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags", Isa 64: 6. Think of such a description! That is what your righteousnesses and mine are in the eye of a holy God - filthy rags! But then there is One who is great enough to take our liabilities upon Himself. The hymn writer says, 'Himself He could not save, He on the cross must die' (no 240). How great it was that the Lord Jesus did that for you and for me! He died that we might live. We are not using empty words; it actually happened. We could not stand before the eye of a holy God. We are born in sin, shapen in iniquity: the Lord Jesus took all that upon Himself. He bore it all in His body on the tree. He did it because He loves you, and me. He did not hold Himself back but went the whole way; as the hymn states, 'That bitter cup - love drank it up' (no 415). And now what? Blessing! The apostle can say, "The cup of blessing which we bless", 1 Cor 10: 16. Do you find blessing coming into your soul as you have to do with Jesus? The bitter cup is gone and now there is blessing for you and me as we have to do with God.
"He is the stone which has been set at nought by you the builders, which is become the corner stone". Are you building without Jesus? If you are building, make sure that the Lord Jesus is the corner stone. We read of a building built on sand, and it says that its fall was great (see Matt 7: 27). We have seen tremendous crashes in our time and they will continue to occur. If the building is not built on Christ, and He is not the corner stone, it is sure to collapse, and great will be the fall of it. We do not want that to happen in our lives. We want to be those who are building with Jesus as the corner stone. It says "Unless Jehovah build the house, in vain do its builders labour in it", Ps 127: 1. Make sure the building has this corner stone. And if it is founded on Christ the corner stone the whole building takes proper proportion for the pleasure of God. So Peter says "He is the stone which has been set at nought by you the builders, which is become the corner stone". He is God's corner stone, everything for God is centred in Him. Are we going to make more room for Him so that He becomes increasingly precious to our hearts? It is wonderful to have some regard for what is for the heart of God. It is man's whole purpose here that he should be living in relation to his Creator. His whole being should be in that direction. But when we look around what we see very sadly is the power that the enemy has on the souls of men. It is a great power. Think of the myriads of people alive at this time, and think how few really have a regard for Christ. I say that guardedly; the Lord knows. Persons are rushing along the road to destruction. The newspapers are full of calamities. Persons who have to do with Jesus are steering another course, but many are going their own way without regard to Christ. It makes us feel the power the enemy has. He is like a roaring lion (see 1 Pet 5: 8). He has been active for centuries, turning the souls of men and women away from God. And he is still doing it. He will continue until his time expires. What we have to see in the meantime is that he has power and he is using that power to the maximum to turn away the souls of men and women from God. But then we thank God that there are those who have a conscious sense of coming to Jesus and being sheltered by the blood, in order that they might live. He is "ascended up above all the heavens" Eph 4: 10. Acts 3: 21 says "whom heaven indeed must receive". That is the Lord Jesus. What excellency in Him, the Lord Jesus! How unique He is! How excellent, the chiefest among ten thousand, the chiefest One to our hearts! Do we find Him so? Is He still chief to our hearts? Is He still being accorded the first place? If that is so it is glorious; and may it be more so, for His heart's pleasure and delight.
PLAINFIELD NJ
28 December 1975
GOD OPERATING IN A SECRET WAY
J.Spinks
1 Samuel 1: 9-11; 2: 18,19,21 (last sentence), 26; 3: 19,20; Judges 16: 20-22, 25-30
I would like to say something, with the Lord's help, about what God is doing in a secret way. In these scriptures the enemy apparently has the upper hand. The first scripture in Samuel shows how departure had come in among the people of God. Those who ostensibly were protectors of the ark were acting in a corrupt way, away that was displeasing to Jehovah. God was taking account of it. It says of the sons of Eli that "the sin of the young men was very great before Jehovah, for men despised the offering of Jehovah", 1 Sam 2: 7. This really depicts, I believe, what has taken place in Christendom, that persons who set themselves up as leaders of God's people have taken the most precious things and made them common, and have brought in what is blasphemous in character. The sons of Eli were taking the offerings and using them for themselves. How God felt that! The preciousness of Christ, the fat of the offerings and their fat, things that spoke to God of Christ, these men were appropriating to themselves. Things were in a very low state in Israel. Surely it would be like the present day when things outwardly have degenerated to a very low state. We would not exclude ourselves from it; we are all responsible for the public failure of the assembly. But what impressed me, dear brethren, is that God works. In spite of man's failure, God is operating in a secret way and He is operating today. I would to God that all of us might get our eyes opened to see that God is operating and that He is operating with us individually.
In this first chapter we have Hannah, a woman of no special standing in Israel but a woman who felt the conditions that prevailed among God's people, who felt the deterioration of the priesthood as seen in Eli, a man who in some sense knew what was right but was powerless to bring in the answer, powerless to stand against what his sons were doing. What a condition of things is depicted in this book! What a condition of things there is around us, dear brethren! The Spirit of God would help us to feel things in a far deeper way than we do. In the first chapter of Genesis it says that "the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters" (v 2). I think it shows something of divine feelings. How the Spirit of God has felt what has come in through sin! Think of how He feels the present condition when men are turning aside from all that has been brought in through Christianity, taking all the benefits that accrue from a Christian country yet despising God and turning aside from all that God has brought in. God feels it and we are meant to feel it. A believer is meant to feel these things in a very deep way. Men feel it in some measure. Men deplore the depravity of men, all that has come in in the way of corruption. I do not believe there has been a time in the history of the world, certainly not in the history of the western world, when there has been so much depravity and corruption increasing at such a speed that no one can stop it. God feels these things and we are meant to feel them, dear brethren.
God is working in Hannah. It says "Hannah rose up after they had eaten in Shiloh, and after they had drunk... and she was in bitterness of soul". Here is a woman who felt the condition of things, who felt as God felt in some measure. We should feel things as God feels them. A priest does that. A priest thinks for God and, I would say, a priest feels for God. We need to develop in these priestly feelings. I feel for myself how shallow I am. Maybe we all feel that, how shallow we are; but the Lord and the Spirit would promote depth with us, this feeling side of things that would be with God in what He is doing, that would feel for God in the conditions that prevail at the present time. So she asks for a man child. Is it for herself? No, it is for God. She has an outlook towards the testimony. She feels what has come in; she sees the need for a man child. Oh, the need for men, the need for a man child, this element that will take up responsibility and hold things for God when what is public has so deeply and grievously failed. Hannah says "if thou... wilt give unto thy handmaid a man child, then I will give him to Jehovah all the days of his life, and there shall no razor come upon his head". God granted this wish, He granted Hannah a man child. What I wish to stress is that there was something here that was really the answer to all that had come in. Think how God is working in this way. The position publicly seems hopeless, the priesthood failed and corrupt, bringing disrepute on the whole system; but God was working through the feelings of this woman, bringing in the man child, something that is growing. There is something wonderful about what God can do in a secret way. The enemy is doing things; he appears to have the upper hand, leading men in the path of lawlessness and disrespect of every human institution that God has brought in. The mystery of lawlessness is working. But there is something else working. It is a wonderful thing to see that God is working. As the scripture says: "I work a work in your days", Hab 1: 5. What God is doing in the present day through persons who have feelings akin to His, who are concerned for the continuation of the testimony, persons that are desirous that something will come in that will be for God!
"Samuel ministered before Jehovah, a boy girded with a linen ephod. And his mother made him a little coat, and brought it to him from year to year". Growth was there, it was a testimony to the growth of the boy. How delightful this was to God, the boy growing up! Seemingly nothing was outwardly happening in the whole system; the ark was being neglected (as we know it was taken into captivity in these chapters); but there was something there that was growing. Oh, dear brethren, let us be concerned to be growing. We may feel small in our apprehension of divine things (it surely is small), but we can always grow, we can always take on features of Christ. Think of that coat as Hannah brought it each year, and it fitted. There was some increase. How delightful it was to the eye of God! Here was something growing, something that was going to make its mark in Israel; in that we can presume to make much of a mark outwardly in Christendom, but God takes account of what there is of Christ, what there is of the subjective work of the Spirit. So a man is needed for testimony. That is what Paul has to say to the Corinthians, when things were at a low ebb and when the responsible side was neglecting what was laid upon them; he says "quit yourselves like men; be strong", 1 Cor 16: 13. What is needed in our localities is not only the feeling side that Hannah depicts but the side of manhood, the side that will take up things for God. Samuel is growing, and soon men take account of it: "the boy Samuel grew on, and was in favour both with Jehovah and also with men". Let us covet to grow in this way so that it becomes evident that God is with us; growing in the knowledge of God and growing in a sphere of influence among the brethren too. Manhood is required in these days, manhood that will take up the things of God and hold them. "Hold fast what thou hast" is the word to Philadelphia, that no one take thy crown", Rev 3: 11. Thank God for the way the Lord has brought us through sovereign mercy into a position where we have a sense of the lord's approval. Let us hold fast what we have. It is no time for complacency, dear brethren, no time for holding back. It is a question of holding fast what we have. Manhood is required for it. To be an overcomer at the end requires manhood, because there is so much to distract. The enemy knows our weaknesses, what to bring forward to lead us astray; but manhood ,according to God will hold fast what we have. What it is to hold a position inviolate to Christ! How soon the Lord's coming will be! What it will be to Him to find persons who are holding fast what they have. Think of the ministries of the recovery, dear brethren. Let us value them, go over what we have. Have we appropriated them for ourselves? Let us hold fast to these divine principles that have come down to us at such a cost "that no one take thy crown.
So "Samuel grew, and Jehovah was with him, and let none of his words fall to the ground". I think it has been said that his words would find an entrance into the hearts of those who were prepared. We need to acquire power in our local settings, not to make much of ourselves, but we need to be with God to see that we are acquiring this power with God, this priestly side that Hannah would depict, and the responsible side depicted in Samuel. He was established a prophet; that is what is needed in these days, prophetic speaking, the word of God coming in to help us and to preserve us in our local places." By a prophet Jehovah brought Israel out of Egypt, and by a prophet was he preserved", Hos 12: 13. I just mention this to encourage us all to take up things for God; on the one hand to develop feelings, induced by the Holy Spirit, that would feel the conditions that have come in in the way that God feels them, and on the other to be able to bring in the answer as in Samuel that can hold things for God.
I read in Judges because this again shows us a picture of how the enemy apparently gets the upper hand. Samson is overcome by Delilah. It says he "thought, I will go out as at other times before, and disengage myself". He was insensitive to what was happening. We can be like that, insensitive to an overpowering influence. We have to examine our own hearts as to what it is, what can come in and overpower us so that our strength for God is failing. This insensitive side has to be watched, for we can be gradually losing our power. The enemy can bring in something that overpowers us, so that where once we were bright, gradually there is a diminishing. Gradually we may find that we are praying less, giving less time to divine things, that we are insensitive to the enemy gradually overpowering us. We have to see that we are on the alert at all times, maintaining things by the Spirit, because at best we are weak. The flesh is weak and the enemy knows how to take advantage of that. The position here is a very pathetic one, referring again to what has transpired in Christendom; indeed we would bring it closer home, what has transpired amongst us. Oh, the humiliation of this position; but have we not contributed to the public humiliation? The Lord would have us to feel things. There was one who gave "great occasion to the enemies of Jehovah to blaspheme", 2 Sam 12: 14. Well, we have contributed to it all. But what brought me to this scripture was that "the hair of his head began to grow after he was shaved". The enemy would not notice this. These men thought that Samson was finished but there was something there almost indiscernible, the Spirit of God working, the hair of his head growing. The enemy can take account of a lot but there is something that he cannot take account of. When a man feels things before God, when self-judgment is working, when the Spirit is finding a basis through self-judgment to bring in something, it is like God operating in a secret way. "The hair of his head began to grow after he was shaved". It is a wonderful thing that through self-judgment we can give room for the Spirit to operate. It is only through self-judgment on our part that the Spirit can find a basis to operate and bring in moral power. "They called Samson out of the prison-house, and he played before them; and they set him between the pillars". What a picture of abject humiliation! A man who had been used of the Lord in a marked way, who had been used to free the people from the bondage of the Philistines, was now an object of humiliation. That is what the position has become publicly, but thank God there are the inward, secret workings of the Spirit of God. Thank God He has an entrance into our hearts through the work of God that is there. I do not think we value enough, dear brethren, the fact that God has deigned to work in us. The work of God is a wonderful thing, that God has come into persons like you and me, weak, mortal men and women, persons who have known what it is to be under the domination of sin, and He has operated in His own way and has worked a work that has led us in repentance to Christ, and then given us the Holy Spirit so that there is formation in a scene where formerly we were under the bondage of Satan. Here it says "Samson said to the lad that held him by the hand, Let loose of me". I think there would be something in that too: "Let loose of me". You may say it is a lad, it is not much. But Samson says "Let loose of me". However small it may be, the Lord would have us dispense with it, because it will only hold us here, hold us in bondage to a system that has rejected Christ. He is led to the pillars upon which the house stands. We think of what supports the whole world system: the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, the pride of life – the whole world system is supported on these principles. But when the Spirit of God operates we find other principles working within us, the principle of obedience, the principle of subjection to Christ. These things are foreign to us naturally but God operates in such a way that through this we can overcome the whole world system. Here Samson rises to a type of Christ, One who slew in His death more than ever He had slain in His life. What a type of Christ he is! the One who brought down the Philistine system and did more in His death than in His life, speaking reverently. I think Samson is also a type of the believer. As the Spirit of God has room to operate with him he can be used to bring down the whole world system. What a thing it is that God can operate in young believers in such a way that the world system is brought down in their lives; not only in their hearts, but in their lives, meaning that we are walking here as those who are not of the world, who do not draw from it, who are not in any sense tied up with all that is in the world, all these terrible principles which God is soon going to have to say to in judgment. Let us see that we live by the principles that the Spirit of God sets on in us. Think of these wonderful features of Christ, and such as you and I can display these features. It is a wonderful triumph of divine grace.
I remember a servant of the Lord saying that a subdued saint is a testimony to Christ's power to fill the universe. If He can do it with one man He can do it with a whole universe. He is going to do it in a very-soon-coming day. Everything is going to be headed up in Christ. Those who have rejected Him will have to come and do homage: "At the name of Jesus every knee should bow", Phil 2: 10. Let us see that our knees are bowing increasingly, dear brethren, that He is having a greater place with us; that the Spirit of God is given room to work. In Genesis 24 the word was "room to lodge" (v 25). Give the Spirit room to lodge and surely He will work out these subjective features which will bring down the world system. May we have our eyes opened to see what God is doing in these days ("I work a work in your days" He says) and see to it that we are giving the Spirit of God room to work in us, for the glory of God. May the Lord help us in it for His Name's sake.
GRANGEMOUTH
21 September 1974