THE SUPPLY OF THE SPIRIT OF JESUS CHRIST
1 Samuel 25:18-35; 2 Samuel 19:24-30; Acts 7:54-60;
In 1936, there were three-day meetings in this city with Mr James Taylor entitled ‘The Supply of the Spirit of Jesus Christ’. I do not intend to go over what was said then, but I commend that ministry to you to read1. I have read these scriptures about persons who are examples to us of those who had the supply of the Spirit of Jesus Christ, despite the difficult times described in these passages.
David was a man who had often showed that spirit before, particularly in times of adversity. Twice he could have killed Saul, but he did not; he had respect for the anointing. But I would like to start with Abigail and to refer to the verses before those we read so that we get the setting. David, it would appear, had taken care of Nabal’s interest in the wilderness, and he had politely asked Nabal for food for his men. Nabal was rude and it had set off a spirit of vengeance in David, so that very quickly a crisis had arisen. If I might refer to Mr Taylor’s ministry again, he gave an interesting address using this chapter on how crises are met2. There was a young man of the household of Nabal who had quickly seen the urgency of the situation, and he had gone to Abigail because he knew that Nabal was such a son of Belial that no-one could speak to him (v.17). Abigail immediately acted. She brought in a supply of the food that David had asked for, “two hundred loaves, and two skin-bottles of wine, and five sheep ready dressed, and five measures of parched corn, and a hundred raisin-cakes, and two hundred fig-cakes, and laid them on asses”. She set off to meet this crisis, and she met David. Abigail came down by the covert of the hill, while David and his men came down on the other side, and they met at the bottom, suggesting a lowly spirit. We see that spirit in Abigail, in type the supply of the Spirit of Jesus Christ.
David had said, “So and more also do God to the enemies of David, if I leave of all that is his by the morning light any male”. David fell from his usual high level here, and if he had carried out his plan, the young man who had brought the report to Abigail, and had the same judgment of Nabal as David had, would have been slain. The first thing she did was “she hasted and lighted off the ass, and fell before David on her face, and bowed herself to the ground”. Was that not a humble attitude? It was an attitude that was necessary to meet the crisis of the moment, and then she said, “Upon me, my lord, upon me let the iniquity be”. She took responsibility for the matter. You may remember a difficult time when Joseph was seeking to be reconciled to his brethren, but there was no progress made until Judah came forward and took responsibility. That is what Abigail did here; she took responsibility even though she was not personally responsible.
I speak feelingly, beloved brethren. I think we should be humbled by the present state of things, and the more we feel it, the more we will provide a basis for the Lord to move in deliverance. But then Abigail said, “but let thy handmaid, I pray thee, speak in thine ears, and hear the words of thy handmaid”. She had a message, and the first thing it brought out was that Abigail, despite being the wife of Nabal, had the same judgment as David about Nabal. “Let not my lord, I pray thee, regard this man of Belial, Nabal; for as his name is, so is he: Nabal is his name, and folly is with him”. The meaning of his name is ‘fool’, ‘ungodly’, ‘impious’. Then she put suggestions into David’s mind, “seeing Jehovah has restrained thee from coming with bloodshed”. You might say that the narrative shows that he had anything but that in his mind, but she said this about Jehovah restraining David from coming with bloodshed “and from avenging thyself with thine own hand”. David had learned in his history that God could deal with his enemies. God Himself removed Saul, and as the narrative goes on later in the chapter, He also removed Nabal. So we can safely commit things into the hands of God. David did not need to come with vengeance; God dealt with Nabal.
So Abigail brought this food, and she said, “I pray thee, forgive the transgression of thy handmaid”. What grace that was! She was not personally responsible for Nabal’s transgression, but she took it on herself. I think this attitude provided the basis on which God could come in. She reminded David that “if a man is risen up to pursue thee and to seek thy life, the soul of my lord shall be bound in the bundle of the living with Jehovah thy God; and the souls of thine enemies, them shall he sling out from the hollow of the sling”. She reminded David that God could deal with his enemies. She had a right judgment about David as well as a right judgment about Nabal, for she went on to speak about how David would be appointed as a ruler over Israel. But she was concerned that in taking up his kingship, there should be “no stumbling-block to thee, nor offence of heart for my lord, either that thou hast shed blood without cause, or that my lord has avenged himself”. That would have been a blot on David’s testimony. Abigail prevented it; in type, she prevented it by showing the supply of the Spirit of Jesus Christ.
So David said, “blessed be thy discernment, and blessed be thou, who hast kept me this day from coming with bloodshed, and from avenging myself with mine own hand”. It had the desired effect. Abigail has been referred to as the ‘church militant’3. Our weapons are not carnal. “I … entreat you by the meekness and gentleness of Christ” (2 Cor.10:1); that has been referred to as Paul’s militant ministry4. It was effective in removing those who reigned as kings at Corinth, but it was not done with carnal weapons. Again, I feel tested by it. “So David received of her hand what she had brought him, and said to her, Go up in peace to thy house; see, I have hearkened to thy voice, and accepted thy person”. That is the way in which this crisis was met, in principle by the supply of the Spirit of Jesus Christ.
In 2 Samuel we have a different set of circumstances; we have Mephibosheth. We know his history. David, showing the Spirit of Christ, had said, “Is there not yet any of the house of Saul, that I may shew the kindness of God to him?” (2 Sam.9:3), and he showed it to Mephibosheth. He brought him in to have a place at his table. The verses I read bring out that Mephibosheth never forgot the grace that had reached him through David and, beloved brethren, let us not forget it either. Paul did not forget about divine grace; it had an effect upon his spirit for the rest of his life. This was just after the time of Absalom’s rebellion. Absalom had stolen the hearts of the people. He had usurped the place that David had; in principle he usurped the place that Christ should have. David had received a report in relation to Mephibosheth from Ziba, and he had accepted that report without two or three witnesses. It greatly wounded David in his behaviour in this chapter, but what I want to bring out is the supply of the Spirit of Jesus Christ seen in type in Mephibosheth in such circumstances. These were very adverse circumstances. It was not easy for Mephibosheth, but he was prepared to be misunderstood. David was not at his brightest in this chapter. Mephibosheth said, “For all my father’s house were but dead men before my lord the king; and thou didst set thy servant among them that eat at thine own table”. He did not deserve anything; he was of the household of Saul who had been inveterately opposed to David, but Mephibosheth never forgot the grace that David in a brighter day had previously shown to him. He says, “What further right therefore have I? and for what should I cry any more to the king?”. But David did not seem to recover here; “the king said to him, Why speakest thou any more of thy matters? I have said, Thou and Ziba divide the land”.
I read the last verse because it is very affecting. Mephibosheth was in a very testing circumstance, and you might wonder, What is this going to bring out? What it brought out was the principle of the supply of the Spirit of Jesus Christ. Mephibosheth said to the king about Ziba, “Let him even take all, since my lord the king is come again in peace to his own house”. He was prepared to let personal considerations go. They were of no importance to him. What was important to him was, typically, the place that Christ should have; all that mattered to him was that David was back in his place. Would not Mephibosheth be an asset in any local assembly? I am challenged in my own heart about whether I am like that, whether all that matters in my local assembly is that Christ has the supreme place. That is all that mattered for Mephibosheth. He rose above everything; he rose above being misunderstood, he rose above being slandered. This brings out the place that Christ typically had in Mephibosheth’s heart. May He have that place in all our hearts also!
In Acts, again in very difficult circumstances, we see in Stephen the supply of the Spirit of Jesus Christ. The last verse of chapter 6 says, “all who sat in the council, looking fixedly on him, saw his face as the face of an angel”. Here we have a heavenly testimony in Stephen at the time of his greatest suffering. Stephen had a very intimate knowledge of the history of the children of Israel. He went over it in detail in his address to these Jews. I wonder whether you or I have sufficient knowledge of what has entered into the wars of the Lord, things that have come in in relation to the recovery of the truth, and the conflicts that have been involved. Young brother and young sister, make yourself acquainted with it. There is a book called ‘The Recovery and Maintenance of the Truth’. See if you can get hold of a copy of it, and read it. The Jews listened to Stephen going over their history, and he was faithful; he brought it up to date. The testimony in God’s view is the present testimony. Stephen said, “O stiffnecked and uncircumcised in heart and ears, ye do always resist the Holy Spirit; as your fathers, ye also” (v.51); he brought it right up to date. He brought it to them in convicting power, but sadly, it was rejected. “And hearing these things they were cut to the heart, and gnashed their teeth against him”, and from this point on, the Lord turned away from Israel and turned to the Gentiles. Saul, who was going to become the apostle of the Gentiles, was present at this time. They “laid aside their clothes at the feet of a young man called Saul”.
All the support of heaven was available to Stephen at the time of his martyrdom. He looked up into heaven; heaven would be opened to such a person. It does not say that there was any cloud there; he looked right in with the eyes of faith, and “he saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing at the right hand of God”. Jesus was now in a position of power and authority at the right hand of God, and all the resources of heaven were available to Stephen at this critical time. “I behold the heavens opened, and the Son of man standing at the right hand of God”. The Son of man is a very wide thought, it is an indication that God was going to reach out to the Gentiles. In the Lord Jesus Christ as the Son of man, everyone on this earth has a claim on Him, and He has a claim on you. Stephen had a claim on Him and he drew on the resources that were in Jesus, but the Jews went ahead and “having cast him out of the city, they stoned him. And the witnesses laid aside their clothes at the feet of a young man called Saul”. In chapter 26, in the account of his conversion before Agrippa, Paul said that he had been told by Jesus that it was hard for him to kick against goads (v.14), as if there had been something reached in his conscience as to the heavenly testimony of Stephen and his faithfulness. Paul later referred to him as “thy witness Stephen”, Acts 22:20. No doubt he could not get from his mind the angelic face of Stephen, the heavenly character of it. So “they stoned Stephen, praying, and saying, Lord Jesus, receive my spirit”. The spirit of Stephen was like the spirit of his Master. There was the supply of the Spirit of Jesus Christ; “Lord, lay not this sin to their charge”. It reminds you of the language of Jesus on the cross, “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do”, Luke 23:34. Stephen went out in the spirit of his Master; “And having said this, he fell asleep”, fell asleep through Jesus. What a sweet thing that was; what a testimony! I have been affected by these young Christians who were killed in Kenya recently, and as they were killed the language on their lips was ‘Jesus is Lord’. What a testimony that was. How heaven must have been pleased with that testimony. It was the supply of the Spirit of Jesus Christ.
I refer lastly to Paul. He had been with the Corinthians for eighteen months. Despite all that they had received in the way of Christian teaching from Paul, they did not always appreciate him. The chapter that we read from shows that they harboured persons in Corinth who were opposed to the apostle, and yet they owed everything to Paul in the way of Christian teaching. It must have been a test to Paul, but it did not divert him from his affections for them. Indeed, when he saw that their thoughts had been corrupted from simplicity as to the Christ (2 Cor.11:3), he sought to present them as a chaste virgin to Christ. Paul’s jealousy for them was of one who was priestly seeing their affections being diverted to someone other than Christ. Then Paul wrote, “Now I shall most gladly spend and be utterly spent for your souls, if even in abundantly loving you I should be less loved”. What a thing that was for him to say! Is it not a test? Even in natural things, it is painful if love is not reciprocated. Paul’s love was not reciprocated at times, but he was determined that he would nevertheless spend himself in his affections for the Corinthians, even if it meant that he was less loved.
These things are very challenging, and I am conscious that if I speak in this way, I am sure to be tested by it. But in closing I would just say this, that there will be conflict to the end. The enemy knows that his time is short and he is redoubling his efforts to destroy any assembly response to the heart of Christ. If you and I are to effectively have our part in the wars of the Lord, one very important part of your armoury and mine is the supply of the Spirit of Jesus Christ. These chapters bring out that there is moral power in it. It is not carnal; there is power in this supply. I desire that these few words might stimulate us to be developed in the supply of the Spirit of Jesus Christ. May He bless the word.
Address at Glasgow
25 April 2015
D.J. Wright