OUR CALLING AND JOURNEY
[p. 353] OUR CALLING AND JOURNEY
I need hardly say that this is the calling of God. We have all this whether we enter into it or not. Not that I like that statement in itself; but still the calling is ours, and I desire to present to you the way in which we reach it experimentally. It is true of us whether we practically reach it or not, but the question is, How do we reach it? I will put it in as plain language as I can, and for illustration I will say it is our commission, so to speak. For instance, a young man gets a commission from the Horse Guards. He gets his commission though he may not know his work as a soldier. He is taught to be a soldier. He is in the position of an officer before he has learned to be a soldier. It reminds me of an anecdote I heard long ago. An officer on his trial for some offence, when asked by the judge, ‘Was that the conduct of a soldier?’ interrupted him and said, ‘I am an officer, my lord’. The judge retorted, ‘Mr. Officer and no soldier!’ That was a reproach; it is, of course, a reproach to be an officer and no soldier. This is just an illustration to show you what I mean when I say that you have received your commission, but you have to learn what it confers. In the army a man is a soldier before he knows the nature of his calling, though as a rule, workmen (a carpenter and the like) are not employed until they know their work. But a soldier is one as to calling before he knows anything of the life of a soldier. And so God gives me a position before I know anything about it. I trust you see what I mean when I say there is no question about your commission. You are put by grace into the highest position, but are you in the enjoyment of that position? Have you entered into the realities of it?
[p. 354] You are a commissioned officer though you may not know much about the life of a soldier; but it is not to your credit if you do not. And though I know but little about being a soldier myself, I desire before the Lord to show you what the life of a soldier is. I desire to trace God’s ways with us, how He leads us into the realities of our commission.
I mean to refer to two or three things spoken of previously. I may have to allude to the steps spoken of in the epistles. I do not say they are exactly steps, but they are necessary as stations on the line. I go back to Romans 5: 1. You start with being justified. “Being justified by faith we have peace with God”. You get peace by being justified. The state of a justified man is peace. A justified man is a man cleared of everything because he believes God has raised Christ from the dead. There is a Man outside all the ruin here; one Man is out of it all. My eye rests upon Him. All my guilt and the judgment that rested upon me He has borne; and not only is the guilt taken away, but the One who bore it is risen out of it into a new condition. The removal of guilt is continually set forth in the Old Testament in type, but there is no type of a victim raised from the dead. Now in Christ I see the Victim raised from the dead. I believe on Him who raised Jesus our Lord from the dead. “Being justified by faith we have peace with God”. I am outside everything. My position before God could not be improved. I am justified on the ground of the risen Man, the Lord Jesus Christ risen out from among the dead. God Himself has justified me. Sin is no more imputed; “there is no more offering for sin”. Two things are now manifest; one, that my position before God could not be improved; and secondly, if I depart from it there is no reparation for my departure, “no more offering for sin”; but unless there be self-judgment, I shall be judged of the Lord for the destruction of the flesh.
[p. 355] Well, I trust, beloved friends, that all of you in this room have come to the wonderful spot when by the eye of faith you see Jesus risen from the dead. The eye of Jonathan rested upon David with the head of Goliath in his hand, the beautiful shadow of the ever glorious substance. Jonathan saw that all that was against him was gone; and now he is occupied with David who has cleared the ground. Thus, too, your heart rests on a greater than David; the One who has cleared the ground occupies the ground, as in the type the soul of Jonathan is knit to the soul of David. Our justification is perfect, and if we died when we were justified there would be no more trouble. All is accomplished; all is obtained for you; you would go straight to be with the Lord, according to the position He has given you; you would be in the practical realisation of it all. But God’s purpose is not only to save me and to give me heaven, but to set me up here in the scene of my disgrace in a new way, in the same acceptability as His own blessed Son. I think we often lose sight of what God’s purpose is. I see a man who up to a certain period of his life thought of nothing but pleasing himself, like Saul of Tarsus. See what the grace of God has wrought! That man who thought much less of God than of himself, God will have that man, or that woman, in the very place where he or she was once thoughtless of Him, and opposed to Him, as His own Son is before Him. “As he is, so are we”. In heaven? No; “in this world “. It is a marvellous word. God has saved me, and given me heaven; I could understand that; but the marvellous thing is that “as he (Christ) is, so are we in this world “. Someone said to me lately, You talk to people as if they were to enjoy heaven now. Yes; now. If you do not want to enjoy heaven now you are content to be where Christ is not; you do not seek deliverance from all here. Nothing less can satisfy God’s heart than that [p. 356] the believer should stand before Him in this world as the Lord Jesus Christ is at His right hand. Love could not have a second standard. It is an immense thing. We are never fully cast upon God until we see the immensity of truth, till we know that it is beyond our conception. Now then we start; according to Romans 5: 11, we “joy in God through our Lord Jesus Christ”. There is nothing between God and me. Like the Father kissing the prodigal, as if to say, There is nothing between Me and you. That is reconciliation.
I am seeking to set before you the journey of a soul experimentally. Now the next station is in Romans 6. Sin in me, not sins now, but sin. “He that has died is justified from sin”. You are clear from everything before God in the death and resurrection of Christ. There is in His death a judicial termination of myself morally. I am clear in the sight of God in the death of Christ. But it is as I appropriate that death that I am experimentally free from sin, “reckon yourselves dead to sin, and alive to God in Christ Jesus”. A soul has to accept this in faith, and here the practical difficulty lies. I have gone through it myself. It is not that I gain position by experience, I only become practically acquainted with what is through free grace my own. It is all accomplished for me by the death and resurrection of Christ. As I appropriate His death I am delivered from that wherein I was held. “Reckon yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus”. I am out of the one and ready for the other. I think that one who can assert that he knows deliverance and all the time continues to live in the things which he assumes to be delivered from is an outrageous Pharisee. I repeat, it is all ours at the outset, but it is only gradually that we enter into it.
Romans does not go beyond dead to sin and alive unto God. When Israel went three days journey in the wilderness they found no water to drink. It was [p. 357] Marah; they could not drink it. Man cannot drink death. The tree, Christ, makes Marah sweet. Some try to reduce Marah to wilderness circumstances. It is not merely circumstances. Israel had gone through the Red Sea, and now they were to drink the water of the Red Sea. We are in all the efficacy of the death and resurrection of Christ; now we are to be in practical keeping with what has been accomplished for us. God showed Moses a tree; that made the bitter water sweet. That passage helped me much years ago when I was tried by circumstances, and was wishing them to be altered. God, as it were, said to me, I will not alter them, but I will alter you. We are freed from selfishness in the cross. You get clear of the bitterness when you get rid of your will. Therefore Peter says, “Forasmuch then as Christ hath suffered for us in the flesh, arm yourselves likewise with the same mind, for he that hath suffered in the flesh hath ceased from sin”. The sin is gone when I apply the cross to it; I do not gratify myself. I have not gratified myself, but I have suffered in the flesh. If I suffer in the flesh I cease from sin. That is the history of a soul; I am thankful that I know something of it. God does not send angels to teach us; we have to teach one another. You cannot teach another unless you have been the same road yourself. A guide must know the road. It is preposterous for a man to assume to teach me a road which he has not travelled himself. All the journey is by faith. “As in water face answereth to face, so the heart of man to man”. I know what it is to go the wrong road. I once thought I could manage myself. I had great ideas of self-culture. I found that to be profound fallacy. Thank God! Now I know that it is as I appropriate the death of Christ that I am delivered from myself. You would not lose your temper if you were living in the appropriation of Christ’s death. The body of the flesh was destroyed there; sin is [p. 358] condemned. Alas! the way with souls generally is sinning and confessing. The relief of the conscience, the sense of forgiveness, is all that is sought for. I do not believe that one who is occupied with his sins is really out of them. If he were out of them he would be praising the One who saved him. I believe no one is a true soldier ready for battle until he is clear of himself. He must be free from self-occupation to quit himself as a soldier and a witness for Christ. It is not that he does not find sin rising, but he can treat it as an intruder; it has no business there. Practically, if I live in the Spirit I do not fulfil the lust of the flesh. When you are overtaken you find that you have not reckoned yourself to be dead with Christ. You do not learn from experience and try again where you have failed; no, you do not trust yourself; you avoid the circumstances where you failed. The more delivered you are the more you fear the thing from which you are delivered. You fear to be entangled again. Instead of saying, I am delivered, I am not afraid of it, you fear it the more:
“When we our tastes deny,
Where we could gratify,
We suffer bitterly,
But sweet is liberty!”
It is not that I am out of it once and for ever (before God I am, but I mean practically) but I know there is but the one and self-same line always. I reckon myself dead, and I know what a great thing deliverance is, but I have to learn it practically over and over again. Some seek holiness really to stand well with themselves. They always have a low standard; they do not regard anything as sin except a breach of the law. In true deliverance you have ceased from sin; the cross makes the bitter water sweet. “Always bearing about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus”. Nothing for which Christ died is to have place in me. The more your heart is attached to [p. 359] Christ, the more you appreciate the privilege that you can reckon yourself dead with Him, and refuse the thing for which He died, and that you are now alive unto God in Christ Jesus, which is liberty.
In speaking of the history of a soul, I think that the next step in faith after Romans, in which you have learned justification, deliverance and liberty, is Hebrews. I think, as a rule, Hebrews is learnt before Colossians; that is approach to God. It is sorrowful how little we know of approach to God. With Israel there was only one offering for the sinner; that is Exodus 12. All the other offerings typify approach to God. Romans is escape, and more; Hebrews is approach. You will find that souls know very little of approach to God, because to approach Him you must drop yourself. The ten lepers in Luke 17 are an illustration. All were healed, but only one approached Him, and that was the one who came back and fell down at His feet. Self must go. In the Spirit you are always free of yourself; in liberty you are outside of it all. A believer able to say, “Abba, Father”, is at the moment free of himself, happy in the presence of his Father, he has great joy; and yet afterwards he may be in great distress if he does not prove deliverance by reckoning himself dead with Christ. This may arise from defective teaching, but such cases prove the importance of knowing deliverance in the divine way. I do not now dwell upon Hebrews, but I think the way of approach is very interesting. We have “boldness to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus”. Many dwell on blood who do not reach in faith this boldness. The blood got you out of your misery, saved you from Egypt. Do you know boldness by the blood to enter the holiest? By the new and living way we enter into a scene where everything is of God. Not a soil there. Just think of travelling such a path! That is not future but present.
[p. 360] Now I turn to Colossians for more of the journey. The more fully you hold the Head, the better you will be up to your commission; Colossians 2: 19,20. You are “dead with Christ from the rudiments of the world”. It is not a question of sin here, but that everything morally that is not of God is gone through death with Christ. As I appropriate His death I am outside of everything here. We sometimes sing:
“The cords that bound our hearts to earth
Are loosened by His hand”.
No doubt we require them to be loosened by His hand, but they are all loosened by His death. Jordan is entrance into present heaven, not future heaven. It is a mistake to make it future; there is no fighting in the future heaven. Canaan is the type of heaven before I get there, and while I am actually still on this earth. I am while here in a mortal body brought by divine grace into acquaintance with heavenly things where I shall be bodily by-and-by; for this you must cross Jordan. All is accomplished for us in the Red Sea. We appropriate what is accomplished for us. In crossing Jordan I do not see a drop of water. In the Red Sea the waters were a wall unto them on their right hand and on their left. The more Christ is to your heart the more you accept Jordan. You are on this side, He is on the other side. The true heart can say, “Whither thou goest I will go”.
There are two experiences in Joshua 3. The first is, “This day will I begin to magnify thee”. Christ is paramountly before the heart. The second is, “Hereby ye shall know that the living God is among you”. That is power. If you have not crossed Jordan you are not a soldier as to power yet. In Colossians it is not only Christ’s resurrection, but I am risen with Him. “If ye then be risen with Christ”. Next you are at Gilgal. Your action now is the same as Elisha’s on receiving Elijah’s power; he took hold of [p. 361] his own clothes and rent them in two pieces; 2 Kings 2. I know the first verses of Colossians 3 are used as practice. I do not think it is practice; I think it is practical. As a man going to work, you take off your coat; you are disencumbered. No doubt when the prodigal received the best robe he did not retain his rags. You come out in new conduct, the conduct of the new man. What is typically set forth in Israel is, they cross the Jordan and then come to Gilgal, circumcision. There the reproach of Egypt is rolled away; that is, the entire removal of all that was connected with Egypt. That is practical. In Romans 6 I reckon myself dead to sin; but in Colossians 3 I am risen from the dead in faith. In this new place I am in the life of Christ. Therefore I come out in a new colour upon the earth. I repeat, a new colour upon the earth; because in Colossians you are not seated in heaven. It is true that you have not done with the old country; you have crossed Jordan; but you are not yet keeping possession; you are not seated in heaven as in Ephesians. It resembles the forty days that the Lord was on earth after His resurrection. You are risen with Him, and as risen with Him, you put on the new man. Therefore practice comes in, in keeping with it. You are not as high as in Ephesians, but you are on new ground, alive in the life of Christ; and you have the practice answering to that even down to the slave.
Now I pass on to Ephesians 1: 19. Here we come to power, “the exceeding greatness of his power”, the practical knowledge of it. The apostle prays that we may know the power that wrought in Christ. As has been often said there is nothing about conversion there; nothing about the journey of which I have been speaking; it is all God’s counsel where He has set you; nevertheless, you have to take a journey to reach the ground experimentally; and then you find out where God has brought you, that you are [p. 362] where Christ is. Peter in the ship, when he saw Christ walking on the water, would go to Him. Stephen saw Christ where He is. Are you ready to go to Him? You may say, I shall go there when I die. You can go there now, if you will take the journey. Are you willing to go now? “Wilt thou go with this man?” If you are willing you will find that you have the power. The power that brought Him up has brought you up. When He rose you were raised. If a bird flies up all its feathers go up with it. I may be only a little feather, but the smallest goes up with the bird. If you want to know His power you must believe that His power is given to you to go to Him. The apostle prays that they may know His power. If you read Joshua 3 you find, “Hereby ye shall know that the living God is among you”. If you yourself are not brought into the sense of Christ’s supremacy over everything, you cannot turn round in His power and face all the opposition to Him on earth, as Stephen did. All the power on earth was arrayed against Stephen; he was above it all; he was not only superior, but he was in supremacy; he prays for his murderers. He was standing for the Man in heaven, and in the power of that Man against all the accumulated forces arrayed against him. He was in Christ’s supremacy. Everything that Christ encountered from man in Psalm 22, Stephen encountered. Seven things in Christ’s triumph are mentioned; sin, reproach of men, and despised of the people, bodily weakness, bulls (the Jewish hierarchy), dogs (the Gentile), the lion’s mouth (Satan), the horns of the unicorn (death). Stephen is a man in power; a soldier fighting for the Man in heaven; standing for Him against all the accumulated forces of the religious world. In the type Israel, after crossing the Jordan, confronted the seven nations, the whole force of man. When you come to Ephesians 6 you find all the power of Satan unmasked. You find that it is not [p. 363] flesh and blood, not merely man, but the devil. Here on earth, in spite of all the opposition of the enemy, in the face of all his power, you can withstand him, “having done all, to stand”.
Let me supply a link alluded to yesterday; the way this power works in me. In chapter 3 Christ dwells in my heart by faith. It is not place that dwells in my heart, but it is the Person who is in the place. He dwells in my heart by faith. The difference between a Person and everything else is immense. His mind, His tastes, His power, are mine. I do not then ask myself, Is this or that heavenly? I used to do so; but if Christ is dwelling in my heart, I have His tastes. It is a wonderful thing to have a Person controlling one. No amount of teaching, nothing can make up for a Person, the Lord Himself, who is the eternal life, and everything dwelling in your heart by faith.
One thing I must add. Every step you travel you must hold as a wise general; every position he gains, he holds and fortifies. Where you fail, there you must begin again. You see it all through Scripture. Traces of imperfection come out generally where you have prospered. When Israel was in possession they failed. Danger is imminent when we rest from war. Israel was in the land when they suffered from the Philistines. As a rule one has learned the heavenly position before there is a falling away; at least it is then more noticeable. Any change of circumstances test one’s faith, even a new house, or an affliction. You will find that a very small thing turns one aside. Abraham because of a famine left the land. Isaac (the saddest tale that ever was told) was warped in Esau’s favour contrary to the word of God, because he did eat of his son’s venison. Only for his wife where would he have been? She had more respect for the word of God, “the elder shall serve the younger”, than Isaac had; though I do not commend her way of showing it.
When he sees his error, “Isaac trembled very exceedingly”. A great moral revolution occurs; man is displaced; God gets His place. Isaac then says of Jacob, “I have blessed him yea, and he shall be blessed”.
I close now, trusting that each of us will better understand the great position to which we are called; officers, if you like; but we are learning to be soldiers, and we learn first to be superior to ourselves in any circumstances. Then in Ephesians 6 you come out in His power: “Be strong in the Lord, and in the power of his might”. What is a soldier or a man up to his commission? He has not merely to overcome circumstances; he confronts the whole force of the enemy down here, and “having done all, to stand”. You live by faith. You must keep on the armour. You must not leave it off. Like the armed men going round Jericho, you are invincible when invulnerable; that is the principle of the fight. If you are drawn aside by the world, and it is sad how we are drawn aside, even in a social way sometimes by conversation, sometimes by unsuitable books, self-elevation in some form or other; but whatever it is that you are drawn into, you revive the man that has been consigned to death; and to be restored you must judge yourself. If you do not judge the man whom God has ended in the cross, God will judge you. As it is said, “deliver such an one unto Satan for the destruction of the flesh”; the idea is the same. If you do not judge the flesh, judgment will come on you here, because sin has been condemned in the cross. “Our old man has been crucified with him, that the body of sin might be annulled, that we should no longer serve sin”.
The Lord grant that each of you may understand the marvellous dignity of your commission. Are you walking worthy of it? Are you a soldier? You are not really standing for Christ until you have passed [p. 365] Gilgal; until you have in circumcision thrown away the old clothes. The recruit drops the civilian. Have you always the appearance of a soldier? A soldier never parts with his scarlet coat, even for mourning; he cannot give up his high position.
Finally, let me repeat that it is only in the power of the Spirit that our heavenly portion can be enjoyed; and if the Spirit is to be unhindered in us to this end we must accept and walk in the truth and reality of Christ’s death.
The Lord grant that every one of us may leave this room thanking Him for the wonderful position He has given us, and seeking grace that we may occupy for Him here on earth where He was rejected.