LIFE
[p. 80] LIFE
Mark 4:26 - 28; Genesis 1: 9 - 12; Isaiah 44:3 - 5; Matthew 4:16
My remarks, dear brethren, will have to do with life. That is, life in a spiritual sense, life, as I hope to make clear, as in believers, for believers are made to live. They are said to have passed out of death into life, and not only have they passed into a realm of life, but are themselves alive. I am speaking now of Christians characteristically. They are alive, and life is seen in them, in an active way, so that they may be said to live, and that is why I have read these scriptures about the earth, that it brings forth fruit of itself. In this sense believers bring forth fruit of themselves, not that they are at all the source of life. God is the source of life, and God only, and this is seen in the Lord Jesus, as become Man; it is said of Him, that “In him was life, and the life was the light of men” (John 1:4), meaning that it was only for men, that is, that men are supremely privileged. As becoming Man, it was man He had in view, and the life in Him shone as light, so that the whole human race should be enlightened. It was the light of men. So that believers in themselves are not the source in any sense of life; God is the source of everything, “Of him” as it says, “and through him, and for him are all things”, (Romans 11:36). But we come into it, and that is why I read these passages about the earth, because they symbolise what I have in mind, the earth symbolising believers as having latent power in themselves, as believing, but not before they believe.
There is nothing virtuous at all in man after the flesh, whatever others may think. He is absolutely ruined through sin, so that the Lord’s remarks to Nicodemus have intelligible force to us; to him He said: “Ye must be born again”, (John 3:7). Nicodemus did not understand, but the Lord says, “That which is born of the flesh is flesh” (John 3:6). It is nothing else. Were a man simply born after the flesh, cultured so that he knew everything that it is possible to know in the schools, blameless as regards human ethics and principles, he would, after all that culture, be flesh, just flesh, and the Lord Jesus says “flesh profits nothing” (John 6:63), and that is what the Lord Himself says in the passage I quoted, “That which is born of the flesh is flesh” (John 3:6).
Nicodemus needed to know this and the Lord explained to him by figure that the wind blows where it lists. “Thou hearest the sound thereof, but canst not tell whence it cometh, and whither it goeth: so is everyone that is born of the Spirit”, (John 3:8). It is a sovereign action of God that affects a person, a human being, so that he can be said to be “born of the Spirit”; and the Lord also says that “that which is born of the Spirit is spirit”;(John 3:6). Not the Spirit, but it is of that kind, it is of that quality, it is spirit as over against flesh.
Now from that time the person operated upon has something that a person merely born of the flesh has not, and if there is anyone here tonight who has not had any knowledge of that operation in himself, he is simply born after the flesh, and just flesh, however religious he may be, a member of a congregation, or communicant, as we say, of the Lord’s supper. He may be a respectable citizen and all that, but he is just born after the flesh and no more, whereas a man in whom God has operated, according to the Lord Jesus’ own words, has something in him entirely different, something that is eternal, that will go through, that will survive death. Through it he comes into relationship with God by believing the gospel as presented to him. The gospel is presented to him and he believes it, and comes into the knowledge of Christ as his Saviour; he comes into the knowledge of redemption, and as believing in Christ and as obedient to Him, he receives the Holy Spirit; God gives the Holy Spirit to those who obey Christ: and thus he has more,
[p. 82] he has not only the effect of the new birth, but he has the living Spirit of God in him, who is said to be life in Romans 8; that is life in a potential sense. It is a principle he has that no one else has: born after the Spirit. The Spirit is life in view of righteousness.
Now that is the sum total, dear brethren, of all that this is, that the believer or believers have something in them, a latent thing that operates in fruitfulness, as the Lord says in His parable here, “The earth bringeth forth fruit of herself”. A man sows his seed in the ground, and he rises night and day, but he does not add anything to the growth; it is God that adds to the growth; it is latent power in the earth that causes growth of the seed — “The earth bringeth forth fruit of herself” the Lord says, first the blade, and then the ear, then the full corn in the ear. There are three stages mentioned before the reaping; that is, the earth does that.
Now I want to work on these lines in what I have to say: to go back to Genesis 1 to show you that these principles are not new, that God was ordering things for us as we have them today in the creation; He ordered the waters, that were at that time enveloping the earth, to recede, and that the dry land should appear. That was the divine fiat, that the dry land should appear, and it did appear. A wonderful result for God, that the dry land that we call Australia, and Europe, and America, and Asia and the Islands of the Sea, the dry land appeared. What a mighty exploit of God! But then it came out of the waters, and had in it latent power, as I said, so that God says to it now: “Let the earth cause grass to spring up, herb producing seed, fruit-trees ... the seed of which is in them, on the earth. And it was so”.
Now what I wanted to show is that we here, as Christians in this room, with myriads more, thank God, in many parts of the earth, are regarded in this way by God, that things are to spring up, that we are not like [p. 83] dry sticks, that we are not like dead professors of Christianity; we are a living people. If there is anybody here who does not understand what I am saying, or has had no experience corresponding with what I have depicted, then it is for you to begin to think about these things, as for the moment you are outside of this realm of life, and certainly there is nothing at all in the way of fruit for God. God is looking for fruit in His creatures.
Well now, in order to make this clearer as applicable to Christians, Romans 6 tells us that as Christ was raised from among the dead by the glory of the Father, so we also are to walk in newness of life. Now the subject treated in that passage is baptism, which is called the first ordinance of Christianity. Every believer is to be baptised. The Lord says to His apostles, in sending them out, “He that believeth and is baptised shall be saved”, (Mark 16:16). Whether he is baptise before his conversion or after, “He that believeth and is baptised shall be saved”;(Mark 16:16) and this chapter, Romans 6, deals with baptism, not as a mere rite attached to Christianity, but as a figure of Christ’s death, a real thought, the Lord speaking of it feelingly; He says “I have a baptism to be baptized with; and how am I straitened till it be accomplished!” (Luke 12:50). That was really death for Him, a real thing, dear friends, which we should think of and speak of feelingly, that the Lord Jesus Himself entered the waters of death. He said, “All thy waves and thy billows are gone over me”, (Psalm 42:7). Deep calling unto deep, as it were. In His case it was the real article of death, and not only so, but the forsaking of God; He entered into death in all its reality for us. He never entered it on His own account. He was immune from death; He was the Prince or Author of life Himself, but submitted Himself to wicked hands, to be crucified and slain, and so He entered into death, and lay in the tomb three days and three nights, as He tells us Himself.
[p. 84] But this passage in Romans 6 says that He “was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father” (Romans 6:4). What a beautiful expression that is! It means that the Father, having watched over that precious body as it lay there for three days and three nights in the earth, as the time arrived He raised it by His glory, not only by His power, but by His glory; His whole affection was in it. So it says, “As many as have been baptised unto Christ Jesus, have been baptised unto his death”;(Romans 6:3) baptised unto Christ, of course, but the full bearing of that is that you are baptised unto His death, and the passage goes on to say that “as Christ has been raised up from among the dead by the glory of the Father, so we also should walk in newness of life”,(Romans 6:4). Now newness of life there corresponds with this passage in Genesis 1. It is as if we were coming out of the waters of death. We have come out with Christ, buried in baptism, and also risen with Him through faith of the operation of God, as Colossians teaches. The epistle to the Romans does not go that far, but it does say, “Walk in newness of life”,(Romans 6:4) meaning that there is tender fruit of life in Christians as they accept the death of Jesus, and come out of it. There is tender fruit in the way of life, delightful to the eye of God, and it corresponds, as I said, with the passage in Genesis 1, which really alludes to tender grass; it is fresh in life. That is what God is looking for. The passage in Romans does not refer to freshness but it refers to newness — it refers to something different from any life you can depict in this world. There is no life like it. It is a new kind of life, and that is what God is looking for, dear friends, that we also should walk in newness of life. In other words, there is this man, he is a carpenter, or this, a stone-mason, or this, a clerk behind a counter, and he is converted, and he gets the Holy Spirit, and you look at him on Monday morning and he is different, he is not what he used to be. There is no logic in talking about being converted, or a believer, aside [p. 85] from this, aside from some evidence of latent power in the soul to bear fruit for God. It refers to our everyday walk, Monday, Tuesday to Friday, Saturday; that in our daily toil there is a difference, there is a change, and God is looking for it, and without it our pretensions to be Christians are futile. I mean, how could anybody tell you are a Christian without such evidence? God may know there is something in your soul, but how can men know? It is by their fruits ye know them, and these fruits are the tender grass, that is what is meant.
Well now, that is what God is looking for; that is what I had in mind in these passages, and the passage in Mark is especially significant, because the Lord in that chapter gives us the celebrated parable of the seed sown by the sower, and He was that Himself, the Son of man, and He brings in this instruction, which every farmer will verify, that the earth brings forth fruit of itself. And now dear brethren, or friends, if we desire fruit, the next thing is what kind of seed are we to sow? The word of God is the seed; the Lord calls the seed the word of the kingdom, but Peter speaks of the incorruptible seed, “the living and abiding word of God”, (1 Peter 1:23).
Well, if I am, to use an agricultural figure, to look for the crop, I must sow the seed according to what I wish. Every farmer understands. It is the kind of crop you wish, so that I must be particular as to what is sown, what I sow in my field, or what I allow to be sown in my field. The idea of a field is additional to the thought of the earth; the earth is a great general thought, the field is a special thought, but the garden is a still more special thought. The idea of the field is taken up in Scripture as applied to one person, and that is Jacob. You will all remember the story of Jacob deceiving his father Isaac, but still, God was in the deception; He overruled in it, for Jacob was to be blessed. It was in the mind of God that Jacob was to [p. 86] be blessed. His mother knew this for God told her before the children were born that the elder should serve the younger. So there was no question but that Jacob was to be blessed above Esau, and he was. He had recourse to subterfuge, which is not to be commended, but nevertheless God saw to it that His purpose was carried out, and Jacob was blessed; hence it says, when Jacob drew near to his father with the venison, the savoury meat, that Isaac says to him “Come near .., my son” (Genesis 27:21), as if God would speak here tonight to some young man, and say to you, “Come near”.
Well, that is one great thought in God’s overture, that He would bring us near, a people near Him. Isaac says, “Come near ... my son”, and he smelt his son Jacob, and he said, “See, the smell of my son is as the smell of a field which the Lord hath blessed” (Genesis 27:27). A field! There is one person. He is called a field. It is an agricultural thought, and the father Isaac, representative of God in that particular instance, understands and with the use of his nostrils is able to tell that that young man has potentially the power of growth in him; he is potentially a field that will yield abundant fruit for God. He said, “See, the smell of my son is as the smell of a field which the Lord hath blessed” (Genesis 27:27). Now that applies to every Christian in this room. I do not know anything more comforting and which is to be accepted and cherished, than that one is as the smell of a field which the Lord has blessed; and then that field is to be worked out, so that God should have what He seeks in it, what He has designed in it, and in due course the fruit will come, as the Lord’s illustration shows, the earth brings forth fruit of itself; as you will observe He says, “First the [p. 87] blade, then the ear, after that the full corn in the ear”. There is perfect order, there is nothing irregular in God’s order; in God’s creation everything is in order, everything is perfect, “First the blade, then the ear, after that the full corn in the ear”, and then the harvest.
Now let us face all this, dear brethren, young people particularly, as to whether the blade has come up, as to whether there is any growth for God at all, and whether the ear is taking form as a real fruit that can be appropriated and used. The full corn in the ear is in view for God, as God has no half measures in His mind. He has presented Christ in this world as His ideal, and His thought is that everyone of us should come up to that, to the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ. God has furnished us with the means of it and He is looking for it: He is looking down from heaven every moment. Let us not think God is quiescent in heaven; God is active all the time. I am speaking with the greatest reverence. He is constantly active and sees things, and He looks down from heaven to see if there is any fruit and He is looking now for the full fruit, the full corn in the ear. Let us all face this in this town, and in all the meetings represented here; think what fruit there is for God!
Well, I want to go on and show from Isaiah how the children are to be brought into all this prosperity. There has been a tendency for years to segregate children in their education, spiritual education, but the divine thought is that they should be with those that are spiritual, that they should grow up where there is spiritual prosperity. That is the divine thought. Not that they should be in another room from the parents, or the parents in another room from the young at the meeting where the Spirit of God is functioning in the assembly; but the divine thought is that the little ones should be there, that they should be in the place of warmth, and the place of prosperity, that they should be where the Holy Spirit is active, and so Isaiah by the Spirit says here, “I will pour my spirit upon thy seed, and my blessing upon thine offspring; and they shall spring up as among the grass, as willows by the water-courses”.
Now notice “among the grass”, and remember that this word is used in connection with the third day in Genesis 1. It is one of the things that God orders from the earth, that the grass is to spring out of it. Now He says of the seed here, that is the children, “they shall spring up as among the grass, as willows by the water-courses”. There is not much grass where little children are taught by persons who may not themselves be Christians, or if Christians, perhaps not spiritual. There is not much grass there! But there is grass, there is prosperity, spiritually, where the brethren are together over the word of God, where they are together for prayer, where they are together to worship God; the Holy Spirit is there, and every true Christian present is characteristically emitting the warmth of life, and the children feel it. A child has got five senses, as have his father and his mother, and as he feels it he is comforted by it; he may not be able to say anything about it, but he feels it and he grows up in it. There is prosperity there. If there is a happy state among the brethren the children experience it. I am not saying there are no exceptions but I am speaking of what the Scriptures present to us, that the children are to grow up as amongst the grass, and subsequently as willows by the water-courses, and the water-courses refer figuratively to the living action of the Spirit of God, the even flow of the Spirit of God, as He ministers Christ in one way and another, and through one and another, amongst the brethren.
Is not that the place for our children? It is a wholesome place, a warm place; it is the place of growth where they grow up; it says so here. “They shall spring up as among the grass, as willows by the water-courses”. You will see them growing. You try it. God is helping the brethren everywhere on these lines. The enemy’s great effort today is a very wide attack of the devil to get the children, to destroy them by the influence of the schools and other influences; the Spirit of God is aiming through [p. 89] His people to get the children into the place of spiritual prosperity and warmth and instruction, where they should grow up among the grass, as willows by the water-courses. Let us be on the lookout for our children God expects it. Bring them where they can get help. You say they will not understand. Never mind, they will understand; the most exalted truths in the types are presented as a matter of enquiry by the children.
In the book of Joshua you get the placing of the twelve stones at Gilgal, and it is said, “When your children hereafter ask their fathers, saying. What mean these stones? then ye shall let your children know”, (Joshua 4:21,22). These stones refer to the epistle to the Colossians, exalted truth, and the children of the people of God will ask about these stones. Where will they hear about them, but where the teaching of the Spirit is? Then they begin to ask. Let us listen for the children’s enquiries. The Lord Jesus is the great example for children, as in all else. It says that He was in the temple when He was twelve years of age. He was in it when He was a Babe, His father and mother brought Him there, and Simeon took Him in his arms; let all you children think of it, the Child Jesus in the arms of Simeon; he spoke wonderful things about Jesus, about the Babe; but later on the Boy Jesus is in the temple by Himself without anybody taking Him in his arms, and He is sitting in the midst of the doctors. ‘Oh’, you say, ‘a child of that age should not be amongst the doctors, he should be taught by somebody in school with children of his own age’; but Jesus is there amongst the doctors; the doctors allude to spiritual brethren, if I may extend the figure. It is no question there of evil in these learned men at Jerusalem, the point is that the Boy Jesus — He is called a Babe, He is called a Boy, He is called a Child, and then He is called a Man — the Boy Jesus was there. These are stages of growth. When He is called a Boy, that is a potential Man. He is getting on to manhood and He is preparing for [p. 90] manhood, and so He is sitting amidst the doctors; He is sitting where instructed men are sitting; He is sitting there and what is He doing there? He is hearing, that is the first thing, and that is what every child should be doing; God will help them to do it, as in faith we place them there, God will help them to do it. He is hearing, and the next thing is that He is asking questions, and the third thing is, that they were astonished at His understanding, and His answers. Why should we not pursue that course, dear brethren, so that our children should come into the testimony in due time and fill up the ranks in the house of God, as the Lord takes one old brother and one old sister after another? Satan said he must have the children, Pharaoh said he must have them. No! the Lord must have them! They belong to Jesus, and they must be cultivated, there must be fruit, they must be taught. Where can they be taught according to God save where the Holy Spirit is? And the Holy Spirit is in the assembly where the dear brethren are together in the temple in the light of the house of God, that is where the Holy Spirit is operative.
Well now, I want to finish with Matthew 4; it says, “The people which sat in darkness saw great light; an to them which sat in the region and shadow of death light is sprung up”. It is not light shining down from heaven here, as elsewhere; from the sun, light shines down; it does not spring up from the sun. Christ is also exemplified in the sun. The light shines down from the sun, that is a great objective thought, but in this passage it is springing up, light is springing up, and it corresponds with what I have been saying, dear brethren, that the Lord here as Man was the light: “in him was life, and the life was the light of men”, (John 1:4). He was down here. He had been in Nazareth, and we are told that He left Nazareth and went to Capernaum, and the Spirit of God quotes from the prophet Isaiah in a passage that covers the position; this passage unfolds that the Lord Jesus was in that [p. 91] town, resident in some house, in some street, in the town of Capernaum, and that light was springing up there. Think of living next door to Jesus. Think of that. Some did. Some lived in the same house with Him. As He came out of the house in the morning you would see light. What a different kind of man He was from all others, and yet there were some in that town who could see all this. Light had sprung up. It is not a question of light coming from heaven, but a Man here, a Man in ordinary circumstances, living in a house in some street in the town of Capernaum. There He was. You would see Him in the morning, in the afternoon, and in the evening, and you would see light, it was springing up. It was the energy of life, but then it became light, the life was the light, we are told. The light that had sprung up was really the outcome of the life that was there. The life was the light of men. There He was in Capernaum and the light was springing up. Now, dear brethren, that is what God is looking for, the continuation of that, as I was saying before. In John’s gospel we have the Lord as the life, and that the life is the light of men. In John’s epistle we have it that that same life is in Christians; the same life, the true light that shines; where is it shining from? It shines from Christians, “Which thing”, says the apostle, “is true in him and in you”, (1 John 2:8).
John speaks abstractly but he speaks certainly. He speaks of what is characteristic of Christians, that the same precious light that was seen in Capernaum, that sprung up there, is now in Christians by the Spirit. It is the true light; there is no other. The devil is suggesting things today that are wicked. They are not the true light. The true light has shone in Jesus and it is shining now characteristically in Christians, and God looks for it in this place, in this town, and in every place where we are who are here tonight, that the true light, something that is true, should shine. The word true is applied to many things; it is applied to God,
[p. 92] it is applied to light, the true light, and this true light already shines; moreover the apostle says the darkness is passing. It is passing. You might say, ‘Well, it looks to me as if the darkness is increasing, that the light is about to be put out’, but it is not so. Although little may be evident, yet the great fact remains that the darkness is passing. It has passed in my soul, it has passed in the soul of nearly everyone here tonight; that is what is meant, and where it has passed it is replaced by the light; it is replaced by the same kind of light that shone in Jesus and shines in Christians. That is what God has in His mind, that in twos and threes, in His people in every part of the world, the true light should be there, that the reflection of the light of Christ should be in us.
That is what I had in mind to present, the light in you, so that there is a real testimony. The Lord says, “for a testimony unto them” (Matthew 8:4), however small, for a testimony to them that the real thing is there, it is that which corresponds to the light of Christ, “Which thing is true in him and in you” (1 John 2:8); the true light already shines.
May God bless these thoughts to us, for His name’s sake.