THE NEW PLACE
[p. 287] THE NEW PLACE
I have a very distinct and clear sense before the Lord, as to what is the actual cause of all our feebleness and failure; it dates from the very beginning of man’s history on this earth; from the moment when man was turned out of the garden of Eden, and a flaming sword turned every way, to keep the way of the tree of life. From that date to this, man’s one and highest thought has been merely to get relief from guilt, and to find himself in easy circumstances in this world where he is an exile. Look at Genesis 3:9, “the Lord God called unto Adam and said unto him, Where art thou?” This question is not pursued, but a second is put in verse 13, namely, “What is this that thou hast done?” and this last is what we are always ready to pursue; what we have done is the great thought that fills the exercised conscience; all right so far, but overlooking the great and solemn fact as to the place in which we are before God. In the case of Cain and Abel, the sense of distance from God is acknowledged. Abel presents his offering, and it is accepted, but his place is not changed: and today the great lack in souls is not apprehending the new place into which the believer is brought. There is no doubt about this; but what is at the bottom of all individual and collective failure is the lack of understanding and appropriating our new place.
In Romans we are saved in hope, we “rejoice in hope of the glory of God”, we “abound in hope through the power of the Holy Spirit”, but no new place; though there be newness of life, which necessarily belongs to a new place. In the case of Enoch, the seventh from Adam, we learn what the full grace of God would accomplish. We are told, “he was not,
for God took him”. Here is a remarkable manifestation of the blessed fact, that God would have man with Himself.
Turn to Exodus 3: 8, “I am come down to deliver them out of the hand of the Egyptians, and to bring them up out of that land unto a good land, and a large, unto a land flowing with milk and honey”. We are all acquainted with the account of the journey of Israel from Egypt to Canaan; but before the journey was begun, as we find from the above passage, the purpose of God is made known; and that takes in two great things; one, the bringing out of Egypt; the other, the bringing into the land.
The commission was not only to bring them out, but to bring them in. Beloved, we are not according to our Father’s pleasure, nor are we in simple restfulness as to our acceptance, if we do not enter by faith into the new place to which He in His grace has brought us; and a further fact is that we have no place but that; and when we get even a glimpse of it, it alters immensely this place; this world through which we are passing, and all things in it, appear in another colour altogether. Can you say, Heaven is my place, and I have no other place? No doubt, [p. 292] it is a wonderful thing to know that I am a saved sinner on the way to heaven. But is that all? No. I am a saved sinner fitted for, and brought into a new place now. Delivered from my sins? Yes. From judgment? Yes. From the world, the place under judgment to which I belonged? Yes. Thank God that is all true. But there is more. He brings us into a new place, and fits us for it; and everything He does for us is in keeping with the place into which we are brought. I am made meet for it now; it is not that I shall be, but now while I am down here. “Giving thanks unto the Father, which hath made us meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light”. Everything here has a different complexion to me,
[p. 289] because of that new place into which His grace has brought me. We are brought to God.
To refer again to Israel and the purpose of God to bring them out, and to bring them in. We are told that 600,000 men were brought out, but how many of that number went in? Only two! And in the history of souls now, how many thousands are brought out, but how many are really brought in? How many taste the reality of being brought in? All have title to the place, but they do not know it, do not value it. Why did so many fail to reach Canaan? Psalm 106: 24 supplies the answer: “they despised the pleasant land”; and Psalm 81 shows us that, although they were brought out, they would not go in. “My people would not hearken to my voice”. How many Christians are like Israel: they despise the pleasant land and will not go in. Like Lot, if they lose their property they long to get it back, that they may be in easy circumstances here. Lot, no doubt, would thank God that he got back his goods; but what of Abraham? He was refreshed and blessed by Melchisedec. We cannot shut our eyes to the fact that few believers are clear as to their new place. When we began first we were Arminian trying to get it. Now we are Calvinistic; we say, ‘We have it all, and that will do’.
But that is not all. The Spirit of God is here to make it good to us. It is all ours. On the cross all was accomplished for us. I can look up the shining way and see it all done; but if we are not in it, if it has not been made good to us by the Spirit of God, there is no power, no joy, no testimony. The Spirit of God is down here to lead us into the practical reality, the present enjoyment of all that Christ has done for us, to lead our hearts into the apprehension of what we are, and what we have in him, in that place where He now is. Every man’s testimony must be in the power of the Spirit, and the measure and [p. 290] character of that testimony will be in proportion to the measure he occupies of what is really his. In proportion to his acquisition of what is heavenly is his surrender of this world. If there were more heavenly acquisition, there would be more surrender of things here, and surrender must be a daily thing. It is not to make one great surrender and then stop. That is a fatal thing. It must be daily, and your acquisition too. If your acquisition is daily, your surrender will be daily.
In Exodus and Joshua, we find the two great parts of the work of Christ typified; the one, by the Red Sea; the other by Jordan. In the one we have Christ’s dying for us; and in the other, we have our dying with Him. Where does the crossing of Jordan bring us? Exodus 15: 17 tells us. “Thou shalt bring them in and plant them in the mountain of thine inheritance, in the place, O Lord, which thou hast made for thee to dwell in, in the Sanctuary, O Lord, which thy hands have established”. In the epistle to the Colossians, the Red Sea and the Jordan coalesce. We are brought to God, but there is another thing, and one which we have practically to learn, even that we have died with Him. In Colossians 2: 20, we are “dead WITH Christ from the rudiments of the world”. We have ended our history, and practically we have a new place. His death puts us outside everything. His death for us removes all between God and us; our death with Him removes all between us and God. At the Red Sea the enemy’s power was completely broken. In Jordan I have died with Him, I am free of Satan and the flesh where they both are, and I am introduced into a new scene. There is not a thing against me; all was ended in the cross of Christ. I am clear out of every single thing that barred me from the presence of God. A person says, ‘I do not feel it’; I am not asking you to feel it, but to believe it. The thief on the cross, a man [p. 291] who was a scandal to the Jew, an offscouring society, was taken from the very lowest depths of shame and misery, and put into the brightest and most blessed place in company with Christ that day; he was in the new place that “day”.
There is no question about there being a beautiful new place for the Christian, but people limit it to its being theirs when they die. Scripture shows that it is ours now! People say, “You get heaven when you die”. No such thing. You have it now. It is not your death that entitles you to it, but Christ’s death. There is not a single shade that was between us and God, but Christ has removed it in His death. No person can be truly happy until he knows that he has a new place now, and that it is where Christ is.
Turn to Luke 15. The Lord is there opening out His grace. What do we find? This: that on the prodigal’s reception by the father, he is brought to the house: he is entirely free of old things and has entered the new; there is no break in that scene of enjoyment: the found one is there in all the good pleasure of the father. These two things are connected with the new place: first, I am where I am fully fit for God; second, I am there according to the Father’s pleasure. These parables portray what passes today between God and the repentant sinner. When the Shepherd found the sheep, His joy was not complete until He brought it “Home “. The real full joy of the Finder was when that spot was reached; and the joy of the father was when the prodigal was brought to the house. Then it was he said, “It was meet that we should make merry and be glad”; and the blessed fact is, that we now share in the very joys of God by the Holy Spirit sent from heaven.
Peter in his epistle speaks of “joy unspeakable and full of glory”. That is not when we get to heaven, but now. In how many souls is this made good now? How many of your acquaintances are in that joy?
It is a wonderful thing to know it down here. But how few rise up to the blissful apprehension of what is theirs! How often is Scripture reduced to the level of the thoughts and experiences of man!
In Luke 14 we have the word, “Bring in hither the poor, and the maimed, and the halt, and the blind”. And again, “Compel them to come in “. Where is “hither”? Where is “in”? These passages are generally used in reference to bringing the sinner to the Saviour, but observe the point is, “That my house may be filled”. The feast is there, not in the land now, but in the house; and this chapter sets forth the finish of the gospel; that is, to place the sinner in the house. The salvation effected for us by our Lord Jesus Christ as truly gives title and fitness for a place in heaven now as it delivers from hell. The work that has brought you to heaven is the same work which took you out of hell. You rejoice that you are out of hell, why do you not rejoice that you are in heaven? Why do you not walk about with the sense, that, that is my place and this is not my place? You have as good a title to be in Canaan as to be out of Egypt. In Hebrews 11: 14 we read, “For they that say such things declare plainly that they seek a country”. It is that plainness I want to see. It is a wonderful thing to find that I have a place - one of unbounded joy and delight. I am not in it yet, but I have the power of that place down here. Many and great efforts have been made by earnest minded Christians to be heavenly, and to reach this. They have sought to get rid of earthly things, refusing this thing, and that thing, in order to attain a heavenly state. But that is not the way. Get hold of your place there. Do you think a person can be much occupied with this place, if he has the joys of that place in his heart? Thank God, we are heavenly, we are brought to that new place; and we have the Holy Spirit on this earth to bring down the joys of that heavenly place to [p. 293] which we belong, to fill our hearts whilst we journey through the old place. No one can be clear of the attractions and pleasures of the old place, without first knowing and tasting the joys of the new. If a man asked me what he should give up in order to be heavenly, I could not tell him; but I could say to him, ‘If you knew your place there, you would find there are many of these things about you which you would not want’. If you get a little taste of heaven, there are many things (not wrong things) that you will be glad to do without; you will lose interest in them. Those who refused the feast in Luke 14 were looking for their joys in the wrong place. What was it that hindered the invited ones coming to the supper? One had bought a piece of ground; another, five yoke of oxen; the things in themselves are not wrong but the heart is set on things in the wrong place. And if we look round on the church today, what has been her ruin? Is it not from choosing an earthly portion, and not apprehending that her portion is heavenly?
Does she not even reach that, if souls are walking in the favour of God, they will be blessed with earthly blessings? Woe betide you if you seek earthly blessings. The truth is that the more thoroughly we are for Christ the more thoroughly He will preserve us from the power of earthly blessings. I have to represent the heavenly Man in the place where He has been rejected, and my joys are all in the place where He is.
In the epistle to the Romans, and the epistle of Peter, we have the heavenly hope as a future thing; and in Hebrews we are seen running on to it. It is “the race that is set before us”. I run on overcoming every obstacle, as in a steeplechase. But how little the reality of this is displayed in our daily path! Were people to ask, “Where are you going?” and we replied, “Going to heaven”, would they not often [p. 294] have ground for expressing surprise that we should encumber ourselves with the many weights and hindrances of this passing scene? A racer makes himself as free as he can. I am looking out to Him who is up at the top, and I run on to that spot. What delights your heart? I believe that when a man has a real understanding that he belongs to that new place the Spirit of God delights his heart with the things of that place. I used to pity these who are alone in the world. I pity no one now who has a room where he can find himself isolated from every one, to be with the Lord, where he can have his feathers oiled to come out, and face all the roughness here.
In both Hebrews and Numbers we have a people going on to a new place, and with a knowledge of what the house of God is. It is the person who is really going on to the place who enjoys the house of God here; he gets a taste of heaven here. In Hebrews we find three things: (1) a priest to sympathise; (2) I am in the sanctuary with Him where I have a sense of the blessedness of His company; and (3) the race. I am racing, overcoming every obstacle to get to Him up there. I have infirmity, and I get His help. I find Him in the sanctuary; I taste His company there. I am helped out of my infirmity for this, and then I race on to where He is.
So far I have dwelt on the importance to us individually of the new place where the gospel sets us. Firstly, if you are not enjoying it, you are not according to the Father’s pleasure, and you are not in simple rest as to yourself. Secondly, you are not out of the earth, have not given up seeking earthly things. Many are earthly who are not worldly. If you are earthly you are on a dangerous precipice. It is the beginning of a downward road; “earthly, sensual, devilish”. Thirdly, you are not enjoying the house of God here. Fourthly, if you do not keep the hope of heaven before [p. 295] you, you do not occupy heavenly ground. You will never progress. You cannot advance in truth, or be educated up to the Head. It is in the new place that Christ is everything and in all. When you have reached that, you know the Head; you have tasted the old corn of the land. In Colossians 1: 5 Paul prays for them according to the hope laid up for them in heaven. We are risen with Christ: and are brought into a position “where there is neither Greek nor Jew, circumcision nor uncircumcision, Barbarian, Scythian, bond nor free, but Christ is all and in all”; and there we find the Head.
Further, it is only in the new place that we can know union, and this brings us to the importance of it to us corporately, or as the assembly.
In Ephesians we are raised together and made to sit together in the heavenlies; and it is there, and when we know “the exceeding greatness of his power to us-ward”, that we understand and enjoy union. Necessarily we cannot be in the power of it if we do not know it. If we are not on heavenly ground, we cannot enjoy the things that are there. If we have not passed over in spirit to the place, we are not in the power of the place; we do not know union. It is ours, but we do not know it. We are not united on earth, but in heaven. The Spirit’s power has ope’d the heavenly door. Many pious divines, such as Rutherford and others, adored their Saviour, but had no intelligence or apprehension of union with Christ. Had they known it, they would have been delighted beyond measure. You must enjoy His company before you can know union or appreciate it. If we are in the enjoyment of Christ’s company, nothing gives such absolute joy as the fact of our being united to Him; it is the consummation. When we know it, the whole character of our life is altered. When we are in association with Christ in heaven, He dwells in our hearts by faith, as in Ephesians 3: 17.
[p. 296] Chapters 4, 5 and 6: 1 - 10 are the heavenly practice; and this is to be displayed in the common relationships, and daily pursuits of life. It affects a man in his business (chapter 4: 28); he is to “labour, working with his hands the thing which is good”. The fathers are to bring up the children in the nurture and admonition of the Lord. A man is to come out in quite a new way on the earth; he is to appear in heavenly colours, and in keeping with his heavenly dignity.
In chapter 6: 11 we come to the heavenly warfare; and for this you must be consciously on heavenly ground, or you cannot use the armour. If you are not on heavenly ground what do you want the armour for? You do not want it till you face the foe. In Romans you want the armour of light in the midst of darkness. Here in Ephesians it is the armour of God for your maintenance in the place to which you are brought. The whole armour of God must be taken up; the loins girt about with truth, and having on the breastplate of righteousness; feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace. Above all taking “the shield of faith, wherewith ye shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked: and take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God”. In chapters 4 and 5 we are furnished with the finest field of practice, but the moment you seek to carry it out, you meet the most unrelenting foe; and he will not allow you to advance one inch if he can prevent it. If you want easy times you must sleep, and then as far as you are concerned the devil will sleep; but if you move on, he will move on, and oppose every movement. If you are valiant for the truth, and standing for it, he will be your unsparing opponent; his wiles will be unweariedly employed against you; he will use every stratagem to displace you from heavenly ground. He works all round in everything; at every turn some wile awaits [p. 297] us; and we must remember that we cannot be invincible unless we are invulnerable.
And what next? “Praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit; and watching thereunto with all perseverance and supplication for all saints; and for me that utterance may be given unto me, that I may open my mouth boldly, to make known the mystery of the gospel, for which I am an ambassador in bonds”. Victorious over the foe, we are at liberty to give ourselves to prayer for all saints, and for the spread of the testimony.
I will just recapitulate the points which we have been considering, as to the importance to us individually and corporately of the new place that is given us.
Firstly, as to the individual believer.
- You are not according to your Father’s pleasure, nor are you in simple confidence of heart as to your own acceptance, unless you know that the Father’s house is now your home.
- As heaven is your home, you are severed from the earth.
- The more fully heaven is your home, the more you appreciate God’s house on the earth, for there you taste of heavenly things.
- You grow into the mystery.
Secondly, as to the saints corporately - the assembly.
- It is in heaven by the Holy Spirit that we know union with Christ; Ephesians 1: 19.
- In association with Him there, we learn to be heavenly. He dwells in our hearts by faith.
- We then display the glory of God here, by Him who “is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that worketh in us”.
- Then we withstand all the powers of wickedness in the heavenlies.
I cannot convey to you even my own impression of what the apprehension of the new place would be to [p. 298] you. The Lord alone can show it to you; but I feel comfort in the confidence that He will make it good to you; and thus you will not only have victory over the adversary, but in proportion as you hold on in the power of the Spirit to your heavenly place and portion your joy and power will be in that proportion, both as an individual and in the church.
He has said, “I go to prepare a place for you”, a place in the Father’s house; and not only does He add, “I will come again and receive you unto myself”: but, I will send the Comforter. I not only give you a new place, but I send a divine Person - a power from that place to dwell with you in a twofold way, and enable you to be here according to My pleasure.
May we so understand what it is to belong now to heaven, that new place, that we may truly answer to the good pleasure of our God and Father whilst we journey down here!