THE DESIRES OF THE LORD JESUS
P. Martin
I just seek, beloved, to say a word as to the desires of the Lord Jesus. We may come to an occasion like this and we may say, ‘Why?’ ‘Why?’. But the Lord Jesus has desires. He has desired that our brother should be with Him. He desired his company. All those that love the Lord Jesus will be with Him, as we have been reminded, but the Lord Jesus has exercised His right to have our brother with Him now.
What a comfort that is! It was His doing. He did it. He put our brother to sleep, because, as He says here to the Father, “I desire that where I am they also may be with me, that they behold my glory”. What a prospect is before us all, beloved, that we shall be with Him, to behold His glory. He has a right to claim His own. He had a right to put in His claim on our brother. He had established that through the work of redemption. He had secured our brother for Himself. He belonged to the Lord Jesus, because He had died for him. The Lord Jesus has died. There had never been a death like that.
Everything for God and for us has depended upon the death of the Lord Jesus, and His rising again. Glorious, blessed Man! The Lord Jesus loved our brother so much that He went into death for him. I can say that He loved me also and shed His precious blood, in order that I might be cleansed from all that stood against me, and be set in perfect liberty in the light of a glorious, risen and exalted Man in the presence of God. And it is in the light of that, that the Lord Jesus says to the Father, “I desire that where I am they also may be with me”. Our brother could not be in a better place. He is with Christ as Paul says, which is “very much better”, Philippians 1: 23. But the Lord would speak to us as to our part here, and He has desires that we might be with Him now. Our brother knew what it was to be with the Lord in His testimony, He has desires that we might be with Him in His testimony.
The Lord took Peter up for service. He was first among the apostles. But there is a moment here when Peter says, ‘What about somebody else?’. John was following. Peter says, ‘What about him?’. The Lord says to Peter, ‘You leave that to Me’, but you, “Follow thou me”. That would be a word to me, and perhaps it may be to someone else. Whilst we are waiting for Him to take us to be with Himself, our portion now, is to follow Him; to follow Him in His testimony, to take up the part that others have taken up before us. Scripture speaks of being “baptised for the dead”, 1 Corinthians 15: 29. That I understand would mean that whilst I cannot fulfil their personality, yet in committal to Christ, I would desire to take up the part that they took up, and fill it out to the glory of our Lord Jesus. There are ranks to be filled dear brethren. I would say to those that are younger, there are ranks to be filled, and the present moment calls for persons to put their hand to the plough and not to turn back. The Lord Jesus says, “what is that to thee? Follow thou me”. It is entirely personal. It comes to each one of us.
May the Lord Jesus strengthen us. It is His desire, not only that we should be with Him eternally, but that we should be with Him now in having part in the testimony, and that we might prove support in His testimony as we are with Him. May it be so. May the Lord comfort us. We do not understand, always, the timing and the way in which He works things out, but we do know that the basis for what He does is His own desire. He desired to take our brother. It could have been any one of us, but He desired to take our brother. The Lord wanted his company, and He had a right to him because He had secured him for Himself.
May each one of us know what it is to own that claim that the Lord Jesus has, and to be here for Him in the little time that remains. For His name’s sake.
Words at the Burial Meeting of Gordon McKay, Glasgow
3 August 2010
Edited and Published by J. Strachan, 59 Frederick Street, Dundee, DD3 9DE, Scotland Printed by Crystal Stationery, 22 Western Road, Billericay, Essex CM12 9DZ, (T) (01277) 650661