THE SAINTS AS THE INHERITANCE OF GOD
[p. 436] THE SAINTS AS THE INHERITANCE OF GOD
Hebrews 11: 13 - 16; 1 Corinthians 1: 1, 2; Ephesians 2: 6
I have in mind, dear brethren, to speak about the saints, connecting what I may have to say with the passage in Ephesians 1, which speaks of God’s “inheritance in the saints”, which is to be known by us. The apostle there prays to God, “the Father of glory”, that He would give the Ephesians “the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of him”, Ephesians 1:17. That prayer was to the end that we might be enlightened as to the hope of God’s calling and “the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints”, and the exceeding greatness of His power “which he wrought in Christ, when he raised him from the dead” Ephesians 1:20. Those are items of knowledge of a supreme kind, and no saint should be devoid of this knowledge. It comes in through the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of God. I speak only of the second item, that is, the inheritance that God has in His saints, and I hope to be able to divide up this thought into three parts. Firstly, what the saints are as the subjects of God’s work as called — in general, in the types, what appears in the book of Genesis; the passage I read from Hebrews alludes to this book. Secondly, the passage in Corinthians is to be linked with the book of Exodus. Thirdly, the passage in Ephesians is to be linked with the book of Deuteronomy. In order to apprehend the truth in detail and in its full bearing we need to go to those typical books.
The verses in Hebrews directly allude to Genesis, where the saints are viewed as the subjects of the work of God. It is as if God would allow His work to show itself as by itself, so that its own essential quality might appear, and what can be more delightful in that sense than the work of God showing itself? The Lord alludes,
[p. 437] for instance, to the lilies. Consider them, He says, “how they grow” Luke 12:27; not how they are cultivated — that of course has its own place, but “how they grow”. That is what Genesis presents — how things grow. The saints there are not seen as organised. They are so many persons, linked up indeed in a family way, but the allusion by the Spirit to them in the Psalms is to a “few men in number, of small account, and strangers” on the earth; “they went from nation to nation, from one kingdom to another people” (Psalm 105:12,13); they were defenceless outwardly, exposed to the ruthless hand of the world, but protected by God; and God is seen as speaking to the rulers of the world about His people, small though they were and of little account. Is there not an analogy today? The saints are to understand themselves in this respect. More, of course, might be said of them even as viewed in this light, but the correspondence is very definite. Outwardly, the saints are of little account, here and there one of them in business, one of them in domestic service, in a variety of ways they are occupied, but the more known, the less thought of. To be well thought of by the world is no credit to the saints. “Woe unto you”, said the Lord, “when all men shall speak well of you!” (Luke 6:26.) Not, indeed, that we are to be quarrelsome with our neighbours. The neighbours of the blind man whose eyes were opened enquired of him, and he answered them. The Pharisees enquired of him, and he answered them. His parents are enquired of about him, but they undertake nothing in the way of defence; he was of age, they said, and so was to be enquired of himself. They offered no protection; nor can we count on nature, even the nearest of relations, for defence. As our true character comes into evidence, they will fail us. And so, the psalmist alludes to the saints in that way; they are defenceless, moving about from nation to nation, but then, how comforting that God rebuked kings on their account! Is there not [p. 438] something in that, in the light of current national and international developments? May not the saints of God reckon on God rebuking kings on their account? The more we hold to divine principles, the more this will come about; the more we stand in consistency with the work of God of which we are the subjects, the more shall we be disliked at heart by the world, and the more will God intervene for us. Whatever the world thought of the saints of old, He says, “Touch not mine anointed” Psalm 105:15. They have nothing to distinguish them in man’s account, but in God’s account they are anointed. “Do my prophets no harm”. Where is the mind of God to be found save through them? God undertakes for us. “Come out from the midst of them”, He says, “... and I will be to you for a Father, and ye shall be to me for sons and daughters” 2 Corinthians 6:17. National feeling is to be watched; our words, too, in regard of those who rule are to be watched, our position is with God. God says to Abimelech as to Abraham, “he shall pray for thee”, Genesis 20:7. What a thing that is! And God enjoins us to pray for kings, and He considers for them on our account.
That is briefly how the truth I am presenting stands in the book of Genesis; and so the Spirit of God reviews the position in Hebrews 11:13. “These all died in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them afar off, and were persuaded of them, and embraced them”. They had opportunity to have returned to the country whence they came out, but now they desire a better country. These are the saints viewed severally, knowing each other of course, linked with each other in a sense, but not organised. They are subject to the rulers, of course — the most subject of any people are the saints of God, but they seek “a better country, that is, an heavenly”, that is deliverance from what is national. While observing with the utmost strictness what is due to those that rule, and praying for them, we are their best friends. As friends of God,
[p. 439] should we not be the best friends of men? That is the position in Genesis, so that it is said, “God is not ashamed to be called their God”. It is not a question of their numbers, for it is expressly stated that they were few men and of little account, but, because of what they were inwardly, because of their outlook, because of their grasping the promises of God — laying hold of them although afar off, embracing them “God is not ashamed to be called their God”, verse 16. That is indeed what He proposes to them. In speaking to Abraham, He says, “It is I”, as one Person speaking to another. How God regarded Abraham thus — and then He enters into covenant with him, and gives him a sign and says, “I will ... be a God to thee, and to thy seed after thee” — there is no change in that attitude — and “I will be God to them”, Genesis 17:7,8. I would urge that on young ones especially, what it is to have such a God as our God. I will be your God, He says. He proposes it in that peculiar way, and, isolating Himself in the presence of Abraham, He says, “It is I”, as if to invite Abraham to consider who it is who is speaking to him. One could say much as to what happened subsequently in the wonderful visitations to Abraham by Jehovah, but I speak only of what is said in this passage, that “God is not ashamed to be called their God”. And then He makes preparation for them. The legislators of the world are doing their utmost to improve conditions here; we know how poor the result is, but think of God making preparations! He prepared the heavens; this wonderful physical universe is all His handiwork, but think of Him preparing for those who are marked off thus, as “not ashamed to be called their God”: “he hath prepared for them a city”. Now, that is the position of the saints viewed severally, as the subjects of the work of God in this world, and it is a position that is very attractive it is to me, that God is not ashamed to be called my God. Paul speaks of “my God”, the God he knew;
[p. 440] and what will He not do for us? He will supply all my need “according to his riches in glory in Christ Jesus” Philippians 4:19.
Now, in the passage in Corinthians, we have the saints viewed as organised. They are the same people, no longer viewed merely as the subjects of the work of God, but also as coming under ministerial authority, as set together in an organised way. That is, God would have something here in this world, not simply so many people as the objects of His care, but as His habitation. When we come to Exodus it is the same people redeemed, so that God has undeniable rights over them. He had more rights over Israel in the wilderness, than He had over them in the land of Canaan before they came into Egypt; that is, He had the rights of redemption; and in that right, He formulates and establishes a ministry, and enters into covenant with His people. It is no longer so many men going “from nation to nation”, but “so great a people”; no longer now simply so many persons, but a “kingdom of priests”. God is now raising the question of service, of how we are to be with Him and to serve Him. He says, “ye shall be a peculiar treasure unto me”, and every Israelite was included in that, every saint. That was what was in His mind, “a kingdom of priests, and an holy nation” Exodus 9:5 - 6. It is now a kingdom and a nation, and a dwelling place. What a heritage God has in the saints, viewed in this light! What He has in this world, in spite of what is in it, in spite of the rejection of Christ, in spite of the existing hatred of God and of Christ in the world, God has a dwelling: “let them make me a sanctuary; that I may dwell among them”, Exodus 25:8.
Now, that is Exodus; and it involves the most precious things, in a great variety of materials. These materials are to be supplied by the same people that have been hitherto regarded as so many individuals; they are now to supply the means of a house, a dwelling place for God. It is very appealing, if you take the list in Exodus 25 — gold, silver, brass; blue, purple, scarlet,
fine linen; goats’ hair, rams’ skins dyed red, badgers’ skins, and shittim wood — all these furnished by the saints. Think of what is in them! Where is the mine of minerals that can supply such things? The saints form the reservoir of all this supply — the raw material — and then, too, the requirements and skill in constituting them fit for the dwelling, and, finally, the dwelling itself. Can anything be more attractive, as it is understood, than the fortieth chapter of Exodus? All these instructions carried out to the letter, the tabernacle set up, every item of it functioning according to God. The tabernacle set up and anointed in every part of it, the cloud covering it and the glory filling it. It is not now simply a matter of protection, but God claiming the saints, viewed as such material formed in the power of the Spirit. The cloud covers the tabernacle and the glory fills it, and Moses could not enter. Think of God, as it were, intimating, I am so delighted with this that I want it all to Myself, for that is really what it meant; not that He is there in any selfish way, for love is not selfish, but to show how pleased He is with it.
Moses could not enter: that is no discredit to him, he represents authority which for the moment is not needed. Moses is the man that tells you what to do, and in the wilderness there is no getting away from his authority; what a man he was! Stephen says, “This is that Moses ... that was in the church in the wilderness”, Acts 7:37, 38. It says that he “was faithful in all his house” (Hebrews 3: 2), and his faithfulness required that he had to give orders, but orders coming on the principle of “living oracles”: “Jehovah spake unto Moses, saying ...” being constantly repeated. So that although Moses could not enter, the position now is, what God has in the wilderness, in an adverse scene, but as effected by one who is faithful in all God’s house. “Do we provoke the Lord to jealousy? are we stronger than he?” 1 Corinthians 10:22.
That is the position; so that whole-hearted surrender,
[p. 442] whole-hearted obedience, whole-hearted subjection is the order, if I am to have part in this wonderful structure that is covered by the cloud, and filled with the glory; the residence of God in the wilderness. I think that should be most attractive. It is not attractive to the flesh, but it is to those who love God, and that is the underlying feature in Exodus — there are lovers of God. Without lovers of God you cannot have this. God says: “shewing mercy unto thousands of them that love me” (Exodus 20:6) — there are the thousands. What can God do in this world without lovers? What can He do with them? He can have a habitation for Himself, a residence here in spite of the contrariety; and He likes it so well, that He fills it, taking it all on for Himself for the moment. It is not only the residence of God, but it is the tent of the testimony, and the tent of meeting too, where the saints meet God, and where the testimony is enshrined, and it goes through. Stephen says, “Our fathers had the tent of the testimony in the wilderness” (Acts 7: 44), and it was received “from their predecessors”, who brought it in “with Joshua”. They are accredited with that; not simply that Joshua did it, but that they carried it in with Joshua. It is the military man, but the fathers carried the tent of testimony over, and then we look on to David, as it says, “until the days of David”.
Now, I just touch on the final scripture, namely, the place of the saints in heaven. I have been speaking of the dwelling here, and of what is carried over, for the testimony is not to be lost. We shall see the ark of God’s testimony in heaven presently, after the assembly is raptured by Christ; for the testimony goes over. The days of David suggest the heavenly side of things. David represents headship, but I only want now to show you that the saints are viewed anticipatively in Ephesians as in heaven. There could be no heavenly colour, no blue for the ark and holy vessels, aside from an understanding of the heavenly position. In truth,
[p. 443] the assembly herself here is based on that. It is a heavenly thing on earth and that can only be understood as we anticipate the position of the saints in heaven. Hence it says, He “has made us sit down together in the heavenlies in Christ Jesus” — not with Christ there, but in Christ; Ephesians 2:6. The point is dignity or status up there; so that we might have a look into that holy, glorious scene.
That is why I referred to Deuteronomy, because in the last chapter of that book, it tells us that Moses was taken up to the top of Pisgah, and Jehovah showed him the land — but not merely the land. It was, of course, the bare land, but I am speaking now in the language of the Holy Spirit, which we have to notice. Abraham was directed to look “northward and southward and eastward and westward” Genesis 13:14, and to survey the land; but there was nothing said of the tribes in it when Abraham saw it, whereas when Moses saw the land, it was the land of the tribes. What a beautiful thought that is! It is anticipatively looking into heaven as the heaven of the saints! Oh, you say, it is the heaven of God. Yes, indeed, and the heaven of Christ, the heaven of the Spirit, and the heaven of the angels, but think of heaven with the saints in it! Is that not attractive? “Jehovah shewed him”, it says, “the whole land, Gilead to Dan, and all Naphtali, and the land of Ephraim, and Manasseh, and all the land of Judah” Deuteronomy 34:2. Think of that! How lovely to see heaven with the saints in it! That was the view Moses had. Not that the tribes were actually in it but the Holy Spirit mentions, that it was “the whole land, Gilead to Dan, and all Naphtali, and the land of Ephraim, and Manasseh, and all the land of Judah”. Let us have no anxiety about the saints; they will all be there. It is not simply that they will all be raised. We shall be raised. “Behold, I tell you a mystery”, says the apostle, “We shall not all fall asleep, but we shall all be changed, in an instant, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet; for the [p. 444] trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible ...” 1 Corinthians 15: 51, 52. Let it be shown to us; let the Holy Spirit show it to us, but then, it is not only that we shall be changed and raised — the dead raised and the living changed, but there is the further thought in 1 Thessalonians 4: 16,17 that “the Lord himself, with an assembling shout, with archangel’s voice and with trump of God, shall descend from heaven; and the dead in Christ shall rise first; then we, the living who remain, shall be caught up together with them” — note that. He has “raised us up together, and has made us sit down together in the heavenlies”; that is anticipative. God can so speak, and faith can so regard the position, that the saints are there, and we are to look into heaven; we are to be shown it with the saints in it. Stephen did not see the saints, I admit, but there was one saint caught up there; there was a “man in Christ” caught up there. He was not there when Stephen looked in, but there is the thought that the heaven that is presented to us is the heaven with the saints. We are to look into that, and see that. Not one will be omitted; we shall meet them all.
“Nor what is next Thy heart
Can we forget;
Thy saints, O Lord, with Thee
In glory met”. (160:8)
Is that not stimulating? God would show it to us, as He showed it to Moses. Presently Moses would be in it, as we see in the New Testament. We shall soon all be in it, but let us look into it now, and see “Gilead to Dan, and all Naphtali, and the land of Ephraim, and Manasseh, and all the land of Judah, unto the hindmost sea” — the whole of it! That is what was shown to Moses. It was shown to one who wished to go into it. Do I wish to go into it? That is the question, whether I care for it. “Holy brethren”, says the writer to the Hebrews, “partakers of the heavenly calling”, Hebrews 3:1. Have I a taste for that? Moses had, and he represents that side. “Let me go over, I pray thee, and see the good land ... that goodly mountain, and Lebanon”, he says, Deuteronomy 3:25. He would like to be there. As he could not enter the tabernacle when the glory filled it, so here he could not enter the land; not because — at least from the standpoint of Deuteronomy — of any personal defect in him. He was debarred, indeed, according to Numbers, for disobedience, but in Deuteronomy it is not that. Spiritually it is because he represents authority. We shall not need to be told what to do up there; we shall have no wills to be subdued up there; nor do we need anyone to tell us what to do in the assembly, as we are there in the true spiritual sense. It is a question of the liberty and the intelligence we have in that in which God dwells and in which He is served.
Well, that was all I had to present, and I hope it will lead to some practical effect in us as to what the saints are to God, as the inheritance of God, both now and for ever. “For the Lord’s portion is his people; Jacob is the lot of his inheritance”, Deuteronomy 32:9. “Ye shall be a peculiar treasure unto me”, Exodus 19:5. May God bless the word thus to us!