EVIDENCES OF LIFE IN BELIEVERS
J. A. Gardiner
2 Kings 5: 1–6, 9–14; Judges 6: 11–25; Genesis 47: 7–10
We spoke in the reading about the life which is in Christ Jesus; what a life it is, different from the life which is in Kirkcaldy, Aberdeen or any other place, with different relationships, different associations; it is superior to all that is around us. There is a power and energy about it that is indisputable. The writer to the Hebrews tells us that it is an “indissoluble life” (Hebrews 7: 16), beyond death. We touch things, beloved, as beyond death. How wonderful that is, how blessed it is.
I have read about these persons because I think in some way they suggest the product of Aaron’s rod that budded. Here is a little maid, I think she is like a bud, there is the evidence of life. You might say she is a slave labourer; how awful that would be. The Syrians went forth in bands and took her out of the land of Israel. She became a servant in Naaman’s house. Can you picture yourself in that situation? It is happening to persons you know; where there have been invasions and persons have been taken captive, they have been made slave labourers and so forth. I believe in the broadest sense we need to feel for humanity; not only are we to pray for kings and all in authority, but we are to think of men, to think of humanity, all men.
So we need to look at this girl here, a little maid, who has displayed the evidences of life, evidences of the spirit of Christ. She could have displayed other things in Naaman’s house; she could have tried to get away, she could have caused turmoil, she could have done many things. But, I think, as manifesting the spirit of Christ she is conscious in her soul that all things are working together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to purpose. Is it so with us? This is quite a young person. Here she is in this situation, there is no word of her parents or family or anything else, she is just herself, and she is in this house. She must have come to know that Naaman was a leper. I suppose they would have kept that quiet. What does she say? Perhaps she could have said, Well that has happened to him, what you sow you reap, she could say that, but she does not. Does she attribute God’s government to him? Does she say, This has come upon you and you need to think about it? Why is it so? She does not say that. This is a bud, Aaron’s rod budded. She is going to make Naaman a bud. Can you do that, beloved?
What does she say? “Oh, would that my lord were before the prophet that is in Samaria! then he would cure him of his leprosy”. Would you believe that if you were Naaman or Naaman’s wife? There is moral conviction about this little maid, she is speaking in the power of life.
You might say, Well, Naaman and his wife are desperate, they have tried every human resource. This man is a captain of the army of the king of Syria, he is not a nobody. Here is a little girl, she has moral authority, moral power, and she convicts them, otherwise they would not have done what they did; that is the power of life; it is the manifestation in her of the spirit of Christ. Is that so with me? Do I manifest the spirit of Christ? Is there the evidence of the power of indissoluble life in you and in me? It is a proof that we are attached to Christ risen.
He listened to what she has to say; he paid heed to it, and what happens? You know the history of this, it has been used in the glad tidings; how Naaman goes, and how he has to be reduced, and how effective the Jordan is. Think of them going there outside the prophet’s house. I suppose we could relate to that in some way—I thought the prophet would come out and do some great thing. Naaman, like the rest of us, has to learn his nothingness. As that beautiful hymn of Mr. Darby’s puts it, ‘That we our nothingness may know’—
‘O keep us, Love divine, near Thee,
That we our nothingness may know,
And ever to Thy glory be
Walking in faith while here below’. (Hymn 87)
Then his servants come, and he said, Oh, are not the rivers in Damascus better than all the waters of Israel? Are not Damascus influences just as good as the influence of the Jordan?
No, they are not. There is no influence, there is no power but the death of Christ, none. His servants say, Well, he is not asking you to do much, only to wash and be clean. When the conviction of the word comes into his soul he plunges seven times in the Jordan, and he is clean. Have you done that? It is not the Red Sea, he is in the Jordan, he plunged in seven times. It is fullness of committal to his death with Christ; he comes up and he is like a bud, is he not? “And his flesh became again like the flesh of a little child”. He is ready for the kingdom, he now has affinities with the little maid, he is attached, you might say typically, to Aaron’s staff; the power of life is working, there is a change.
The Lord would love to change us, and the change will only come about if we look upon His glory. As looking upon the glory of the Lord we are changed; we are changed according to the same image. I do trust in this meeting that the Lord is writing in our hearts, and we shall go out from this room increasingly manifesting the evidence of Christ. Naaman comes back to Samaria to the king, and you could say of him, You are Christ’s epistle. Something is written on him, the leprosy has gone, he is a different man, he is changed, and he is changed because he listened to the prophetic word. How do we get on, beloved, listening to the prophetic word? Maybe I think there is nothing much prophetic about it, just Mr. So-and-so speaking; but you take it to God and find out if it is His word, and if it is His word you will find it becomes effective in your soul, and there is change, you become different. I can look around this room and see persons, I can see Christ’s epistle, I can
see Christ written on persons. Maybe you can go back, ten, twenty, thirty, forty years ago, and there were evidences of Christ’s epistle, but maybe not so great evidences as there are today. He is writing on your heart, not on tables of stone, but writing on the hearts of believers with the Spirit of the living God. Think of the impression that this man Naaman would have had; he is cured, the leprosy has gone. There is no more evidence in him of sin in the flesh. He can testify now to the power and effectiveness of the death of Christ. Well, how does it bear upon us? I think Naaman joins the little maid in becoming a bud, he is associated with her in the power of indissoluble life.
I read about Gideon because 1 think he is like a blossom, he is growing. I suppose he is like a young person, he is concerned that there is no food, he is hungry. How many persons in this room are hungry for the truth? You may say, I want to understand this, I do not know what was being said in the reading. What is all this about Philippians, the power of life and testimony in chapter 2, and the energy of life and devotedness and committal to Christ in chapter 3? It does not register with me. What about my circumstances in chapter 4? God is said to be able to abundantly supply my need according to His riches in glory in Christ Jesus.
Try, beloved, do some threshing of wheat in a wine-press. The Midianites with their natural thoughts, natural connections, natural ideas, natural thinking will rob you of what the Lord will give. I really like Gideon, he is in the wine-press; it is not the normal use of the winepress to thresh wheat, it is normally used for the production of wine, the pressing of grapes, but he is in this limitation. You say, I am in limitations. Beloved, if you are in limitations the Lord will help you.
I will tell you something which is true whatever your circumstances may be; you may not think so, but the Lord has ordered them. He has ordered them so that you can get the best and the most of Himself. You may say,
I did this and I did that, I made a mess of things. That is not what Paul says, he says, “I have learnt in those circumstances in which I am”, Philippians 4: 11. He does not say, if I had not gone up to Jerusalem, and so on. If we submit ourselves to the situation in which we are we will find that God will help us. That is what Gideon does, he is going to blossom. The Lord would like you and me to blossom, threshing wheat in the wine-press. Now there is a divine intervention. “And the Angel of Jehovah appeared to him, and said to him, Jehovah is with thee, thou mighty man of valour”. That is not me, Gideon would say, I am not a mighty man of valour. O, yes, that is you he would say, Why am I a mighty man of valour? Because you are threshing wheat in the winepress; you are concerned to get food, you are concerned for the people, you are concerned for your soul. If you are just concerned for your own soul, you will find that God will help you, that is what happens here.
So it goes on, he has his doubts, he has his questions, that is all right. God does not mind you asking questions. Have you problems about your circumstances, about the situation in which you might be? Ask the Lord and He will help you. Have it out with Him. Gideon says, “Did not Jehovah bring us up from Egypt?” We may say, What about the great days of Mr. Darby, Mr. Raven and Mr. Taylor, and look at us now, look at the situation we are in! It is unbelief.
God has not changed; the Spirit is still here; things are still the same. Who is the responsible person? You take up your responsibilities in your local meeting and God will help you, He will. You say, Well, look at Mr. So-and-so. I am not interested. It is you and God. It was Gideon and God.
I would say to younger people, there is great need at the present time for the development of gift among the brethren, gift in teaching, gift of prophecy. How does it come about? It comes about by desire, follow after love and desire earnestly the greater gifts, but rather that ye may prophecy. If the testimony is to continue, and it is, it is to continue in freshness and vitality and good health. That is what Gideon is concerned about. He does not want to move on in a skeletal way, he wants to move on in a healthy way. If it is to be so there has to be this kind of committal and desire after what is of God. We look round our localities and how fine it is to see younger persons coming on. I would seek to encourage every one, that they should move on the line which Paul advocates, to desire earnestly the greater gifts. There is nothing wrong with desiring gift; discipline will come along with it. There is great need for gifted personality in the local meetings; gifted personality that comes from the ascended Head. You will say that is sovereign, and so it is, but, do try, beloved younger brethren, to put yourself in the way of it because there is great need for it. You may say that it is not a day for gift, the day for gift has passed. I do not think the day for gift has ever been passed. I am not saying that we are going to have such gifts as Mr. Darby or Mr. Raven or Mr. Taylor, but I am saying there is great need of persons who understand what the Spirit has been unfolding throughout the dispensation, and are able to radiate it as the brethren come into the temple of God. How wonderful that is and how necessary it is! It will not make anything of you, believe you me; in fact, if you really want to know, it will make nothing of you, but it will make everything of Christ.
Now watch how this man expands. It says, “And Jehovah looked upon him, and said, Go in this thy might, and thou shalt save Israel from the hand of Midian”. He would say, Where is my might? I am not mighty I have no power. Gideon’s might was in the fact that he was the least in his father’s house; in the tribes of Israel, he was nothing. God says, “Go in this thy might”. That is your might, that is what I will support. I will not support you if you think you are somebody, I will support you if you move in the consciousness that you are nothing. So what does he go on to do? He proceeds to blossom, he says, “If now I have found favour in thine eyes, shew me a sign that it is thou who talkest with me. Depart not hence”. He brings an offering, a kid of the goats, he had some increasing apprehension of Christ. Is that you? Is that me? He brings a kid of the goats, and he is becoming priestly in how he handles it. To go along with it, he has an ephah of flour in unleavened cakes and the flesh he put in a basket. He is becoming spiritual; he knows how to present Christ to God, he knows how to consider before God the humanity of Christ, and to consider before God the intrinsic holiness of Christ, he put the broth in the pot. Who can say what that broth was? Who can measure the immensity of what was before God in this presentation of Gideon?
Then he built an altar, one thing leads to another; he is getting stronger in his links with God.
It does not mean he is praying for ages but he is becoming substantial in his links with God.
He is becoming sacrificial, beginning to understand what it means to give up things naturally in order that he might be for God. He is beginning, you might say, to appreciate the greatness of the presentation of Christ in Philippians 2, the One who became obedient even unto death, and that the death of the cross (Philippians 2: 8). O, what a Jesus we have! Think of Him subsisting in the form of God. The broth refers to the essence of the offering; it would be what Christ is essentially in His Person and how He emptied Himself, taking a bondman’s form. Think of the character of the service of Christ here; He would serve anybody, turns nobody away, that is Jesus. You can go to Christ any time of the day or night and He has time for you. That is a priest, he is learning, he is blossoming. Well, beloved, how we need to blossom. Then it says, “And it came to pass the same night, that Jehovah said to him, Take the young bullock, which thy father hath”, now he is to take the second bullock. He is making way for the Lord to come in in deliverance, freeing from what is idolatrous. The great antidote to idolatry is to “know thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent”, John 17: 3. That is what he
is coming to, he is blossoming, growing.
Then I come to Jacob. He is a ripened almond. Think of the maturity that marks him. I have often said before and it is worth saying again, Jacob is like an old friend, he has been through it all. He has tried this, that and the next thing, he would start by making bargains. Have we not been through it? God says, I will take you on, yes, even ten per cent. On he comes, and in chapter 32 he wrestles with God, he begins to touch discipline. God weakens him, touches the hollow of his thigh, he limps, his name is changed, he is going to be Israel. But he does not act as Israel, he gets into business and what is commercial. We come to chapter 35, and he is beginning to come on to what is proper to the house of God, and here he is now a ripened almond. These persons are the manifestation of the ruling class as superior to their circumstances, they are in control. The little maid is in control in Naaman’s house; Gideon is in control with his father’s house, going on to deliver Israel; and here is Jacob before Pharaoh, the king of Egypt. Think of the grandeur and splendour of all Pharaoh would set forth in his house. It says, “And Joseph brought Jacob his father and set him before Pharaoh”.
Pharaoh is being privileged to see a ripened almond, privileged to see the final, you might say, product of the discipline of God in one of His great princes. Royalty is manifest in Jacob.
Pharaoh has the world’s royalty; people get influenced by that, but here is Jacob, this is true royalty. What is being manifested to Pharaoh is true royalty. So what does Pharaoh say? Pharaoh says, “How many are the days of the years of thy life?” It is obvious that he was an old man. Jacob says to Pharaoh, “The days of the years of my sojourning are a hundred and thirty years”. What is he really saying to Pharaoh? He is saying, I am a perishing Aramaean, and I have come down to Egypt with a few, but I am a worshipper, I am in the gain of Deuteronomy 26. I have a basket and it is full of the first-fruits, but it is not for you. Think of the glory of this, the wonder of divine formation in these ripened almonds, and there are ripened almonds in this very room. Do you believe that? I could point out one or two. He says, “The days of the years of my sojourning”, he is telling him about piety every day, “The days of the years of my sojourning are a hundred and thirty years”. He did not say to Pharaoh, I went away from home and cheated my brother; he did not go over all the history as to Laban and so on. He is telling Pharaoh how he had proved God as moving in piety. He says, “Few and evil have been the days of the years of my life”. Some may tell you how good they are, of all their achievements, what they have won, and they never come away with the failure side. Even brethren may tell you how right they were at this time; how right they were at that time.
There is evidence of the power of an indissoluble life in the way he speaks to Pharaoh in the Spirit of Christ—“Few and evil have been the days of the years of my life, and they do not attain to the days of the years of the life of my fathers, in the days of their sojourning”. What a concise outline of his history that is. Maybe he could have said to Pharaoh, Abraham is the heavenly man characteristically, Isaac is the heavenly man officially, and I am the heavenly man formatively in the power of the Spirit. Maybe he did not know that but it is true, because there at the end of the wilderness, when God’s ways and purposes come together, what does God say? “What hath God wrought!” He makes Balaam say that, “At this time it shall be said of Jacob and of Israel, What hath God wrought!”, Numbers 23: 23. How fine it is to be shut up to God. How fine it is to be consciously associated with and held in the power of an indissoluble life; to be sustained in the priestly grace of Christ; and to find that in Kirkcaldy and in every other place, there is the evidence in the local meetings of the golden bells and the pomegranates, and the anointing, the Spirit is here. How fine it is to be conscious of the limitless
supply of the Spirit of Jesus. That is what is here in Jacob, he is saying this to Pharaoh and blessing him. Pharaoh may not have understood it; I suppose he would ask; How old are you now? People say these things. Jacob goes over it, the days of the years of my sojourning.
What formation there is in this man. It is Jacob, it is not Israel; verses 7 to 10 refer to Jacob; the responsible man who is now equal to his responsibilities. He can review his life as under the hand of God and as consciously associated with and sustained by the priestly grace of Christ. In a chapter or so he is going to die; what a person he was. He says that the days are coming when I shall die, and he commands his sons, and he worshipped on the top of his staff; that is the result of his experiences.
I would commend this to myself and to everybody here, that we might increasingly prove the power and infallibility of the indissoluble life that radiates from the priesthood of Christ. In a day of breakdown that is why he brings it in, “according to promise of life, the life which is in Christ Jesus”, 2 Timothy 1: 1. Maybe you are getting down and need rekindling. There it is, that is the life. God has not given us a spirit of cowardice, but of power, and of love, and of wise discretion. People speak about 2 Timothy 2, and how rightly it is the case. What does it start with? “Be strong in the grace which is in Christ Jesus”. Lean upon Christ and draw from His priesthood, it is so available to us; the precious oil has reached even to the hem of his garment. May we be increasingly aware of it in our local assemblies, and move consciously in the gain of it, so that in the local meetings we are conscious of His sound, He is up there. He is moving around in the sanctuary, and we hear the golden bells and we see the pomegranates. May the Lord bless the word for His name’s sake.
Address at Kirkcaldy
6 June 1998