THE CALLING AND GRACE OF THE REMNANT - A BEACON OF LIGHT IN A DARK DAY

^[p. 493] THE CALLING AND GRACE OF THE REMNANT - A BEACON OF LIGHT IN A DARK DAY

Isaiah 6: 13; Revelation 2: 24, 25

I desire before the Lord to say a little to you on what becomes us in this day, what becomes us at the close. You see when the failure is complete in Thyatira it is the remnant who are addressed. I hope to show you the path of the man of God in this day. When I speak of the man of God I do not limit that to preachers, but I believe that each one is called to be such. I trust I shall be able to show you from Scripture that God always had a remnant and that a remnant does not mean the insignificant end of a thing, but it is characterised by the brightest trait of the original. I ask you to keep that before you. It is an immense help.

The more I consider it the more I can see where good men have failed all along the line. There never was a sect formed yet but that it began with trying to improve things. To begin, look at the Reformation. The word ‘reformation’ shows that it was a feeble work. Reformation cannot be a remnant. The remnant is the brightest trait of the original, and this may be displayed even in an individual; it does not depend on a company. It is an immense comfort to see this; I thank God for it I The brightest element in any place, the brightest spiritual element gives a character to the place, be it man or woman. Any person conversant with things will admit the truth of this. It is not a question of proclaiming it or anything else; without any effort or any attempt it gives a character to the place.

I read Isaiah 6: 13, because it gives us the principle. God always had a tenth; the tenth is the royal ^[p. 494] portion. The tithe belonged to the conqueror; that is why Abraham gave tithes to Melchizedek — God is the Conqueror. He has the right to the tithes. “In it shall be a tenth”. No matter how, God will have His right. If you want an illustration in the New Testament, I give you the case of the ten lepers; Luke 17. Ten were cleansed; one returned to give glory to God — God is the Conqueror. He has the spoil. Abraham would have nothing for himself; he took the tenth of the spoil and gave it to Melchizedek.

I trace it through Scripture. I do not refer to every Scripture, but I will give you instances, as far as I can remember, that you may understand this great principle; because I have this confidence before the Lord that any one who gets hold of it in power will go on in his Christian course in a brighter way. Everything is gone, you say! Then there is the more reason for you to stand. When I hear people say that everything is gone, I say that is only a fresh word to me to stand — mind you stand. If every one were going on well it would relieve you, but the fewer there are the more important it is that you should stand.

There is in profane history a character that ought to mark the Christian. It is that of an Athenian general trying to keep the boat from leaving the shore. First he held to it with one hand; they cut it off. Then he held it with the other; they cut it off. Then he held it with his teeth, and they cut off his head. He would keep the boat anyhow. If in natural things, how much more in divine! Where is the divine tenacity, the bravery, that would stand alone? that can say, ‘Even if left alone, I will stand’? Like Paul who stood alone; when all the saints forsook him he stood for God. He was the tithe. That is what you have to learn; that is the great principle. I see people occupied with good things, but I say, it is not God you are occupied with. I see a man who has a bit of light; but it is the congregation — the good ^[p. 495] of man he is occupied with, not with God. It is God who is before the remnant.

I turn to one or two examples, and the first I give you is Enoch, the seventh from Adam. What characterised him? “He walked with God”. He was in moral superiority to Adam’s failure; he came out in peculiar brightness where the failure was greatest. “Without faith it is impossible to please him”. By faith Enoch “pleased God”, he “walked with God: and he was not; for God took him”. If you read Genesis you will find that every generation to the flood survived Enoch except Adam, and he died fifty-eight years before Enoch, as far as I can calculate. It was Adam who brought in death. Enoch was a wonderful divine trophy: he did not see death, for God took him. He was a man down here who walked with God in the lowest condition of things, because he lived down to the time of the men who had to do with the flood; they survived him and they knew of him. I want to establish the fact that there was one man who walked with God before Satan could say, I have carried off in death man seven-fold: the seventh is translated that he should not see death. Why? Because he returned to the brightest trait of the original.

One little word I must say in passing which is of immense value to ourselves individually. Restoration must always begin at the point of departure. Many a man is truly sorry for his ways who is not yet restored, because he has not begun at the point of his departure. I see it in Peter; in John 21: 7 his conscience is right, he is full of affection, but he is not in heart restored until verses 15 - 19. Why? Because he had not gone back to the point of departure. And what is more, beloved friends, let me tell you that when you do go back to that point, it is there you will excel; you are stronger there than anywhere because you are restored. I turn now to trace the path. Abraham is called ^[p. 496] out; failure eventually ensues. Jacob is the remnant at the close. Three things mark him . (1) he worships God, leaning on the top of his staff. God absorbs him. (2) Rachel is dead. I have nothing here; I seek for nothing. Yes; the self-seeking Jacob seeks for nothing here, death had made him a pilgrim and a stranger here. (3) He looks for the future. He blesses Joseph’s sons. God is before him. That is the great principle. God must be before you, and you must have God’s object. I do not believe any man has power who has not God’s object before him. I see that the man of power has God’s object before him. I have looked at the beginning of the sects in church history. Men began with good intentions, trying to correct things. George Fox tried to give the Spirit of God a place, but he did not keep God’s object before him, and he made a sect. The same with the Baptists; it was not God’s object that was before him but baptism, and thus he forms a sect. I want to show you where the defect lay.

I turn now to Numbers 14. Look at the spies. Only two stood for God. They all could say the country is beautiful; here are the grapes. Ten said, We cannot go up, we are not able. But Caleb and Joshua said, “If the Lord delight in us, then he will bring us into this land, and give it us”. What was the effect? What was it frightened the ten? Kirjath-Arba. That means, “the city of the four”, the giant and his three sons. What place did Caleb get? Joshua 14:13 - 15. That very place! Though he continued with the people in the wilderness, yet he got Hebron afterwards, and he said, “I am as strong this day as I was in the day that Moses sent me”. The place he got was the place that frightened all Israel.

If you stand for God, the place where there is the greatest opposition to you, that is the place where you will succeed the best. “Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies”. I know ^[p. 497] it myself in a small way. In the place where I have been reproached, slighted, for the name of the Lord, there He has honoured me — prepared a table for me. Where were Paul and Silas honoured? In Philippi by the jailor, in the very spot where they had been dishonoured. “A table” means a meal; I do not mean a material meal, but some distinct honour from God. “If ye be reproached for the name of Christ, happy are ye”. As sure as life you will get honour from God in the very house, the very spot where you have been slighted. It is because we are so little in it that we so little understand what it is. Do not think God overlooks things. And what other honour do you want but honour from God?

I turn now to 1 Chronicles 13. I may skip a good many — Joshua, for instance. In the last chapter of Joshua he says, “As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord”; we will stand for Him if all Israel be against us. In Chronicles we have a very interesting scripture. When David is set up in the kingdom, he summons all Israel to bring up the ark of God. They had not inquired of it in the days of Saul. Study it and you will be helped yourself. It is very interesting to see that every one receives from the Lord as he wants it. But I must go back for a moment; I have left out one scripture that I wanted to speak of, Exodus 33. Israel had all turned to idolatry. Moses was in the mount with God; he is told to go down. It is a remarkable thing that Moses and Aaron were brothers (this has explained a great deal of spiritual history to me); each knew as much as the other; in fact one (Aaron) was the mouthpiece of the other, as well acquainted with the word of truth as the other. Where is Aaron? He is with the people. If you are with the people, you are sure to be influenced by them; the people become your object, and not God. Moses was in the mount with God. He comes down and finds Israel taken up with an idol.

^[p. 498] You get this commented on by Paul in 1 Corinthians 10: 7: “Neither be ye idolaters, as were some of them; as it is written, The people sat down to eat and drink, and rose up to play”. That leads us to a very painful conclusion, even that many are idolaters in the present day. How do you know? By what Paul designates as idolatry; he does not say a word about an idol, but of their manner of We: “The people sat down to eat and drink, and rose up to play”. Why? Because, as Israel could make merry in the absence of Moses, so now Christians can find an object of interest and engrossment in the place where Christ died. They have something to occupy their hearts more than the blessed One who was rejected. Not a word is said about an idol. Mind that! They “sat down to eat and drink, and rose up to play”. Moses comes single-handed to face six hundred thousand of Israel. Does not that give you courage? Does not your heart encourage itself in God when you see that man? “The righteous is bold as a lion”. He not only breaks the image and grinds it to powder, and straws it in the water and makes the children of Israel drink of it, but he tells all who are on the Lord’s side to gird on their sword and go through the camp, and slay every man his brother, and every man his companion, and every man his neighbour. What a wonderful thing to see one man standing for God!

I am often reminded of a very good natural incident. A young man was finding fault with men and the state of things; his father, a very sensible man, said to him, ‘I say, J-, improve the world by one man!’ And I must tell you no man ever did more for God in this world since Paul’s day than that man. When any are complaining, I say, ‘What are you doing? If you say all is gone, it is clear that you are gone’.

Now I return to David, which is more on my mind.

^[p. 499] David is set on the right thing, to bring up the ark; but there is a breach. Many of us know what it is to have begun with a good intention, and yet fail to carry it out in the divine way. What had David to learn? That none shall touch the ark of God but the Levites. He had to learn God’s mind and what suits Him. I do not dwell upon it; but look now at Daniel. Israel had been carried captive to Babylon. In Daniel I see a man for God; he was thinking of God-what suits God. He knows that his doom is sealed according to human judgment, but what does he do? He opens his window and prays three times a day towards Jerusalem. Jerusalem was a heap of ruins, and he was a long way from Jerusalem; but his heart was where God’s heart was: God’s object on the earth was his object.

Look again at the captives coming back with Ezra. What for? To seek their lands? No; but to build a house for God. Mark well the principle. I shall thank God for this day if any one here gets hold of that principle. Stand for God’s object; if you do, it is wonderful how you will get on. You will be characterised by it. I need not say how they failed; I do not dwell on Haggai’s time; but they were restored when they were again set for God’s object. I turn now to the New Testament. Our blessed Lord was brought into the temple; Luke 2. Who is there to greet Him? Simeon, an old man waiting for the consolation of Israel. He was the remnant, and not he only, but an old woman, Anna, at least eighty-four as far as one can count. She is a beautiful specimen. The man sets forth the energy of the remnant, the woman the affection. Where there is great human weakness there is great divine power. She “departed not from the temple, but served God with fastings and prayers night and day”. What did she gain? you may ask. “She coming in that instant gave thanks likewise unto the Lord”. It is ^[p. 500] beautiful, beloved friends. All the learned men in Jerusalem did not see Him. And I feel very often, one may be very learned and well up in Scripture, but unless you have God’s object and interest for the time before you, you will miss the mark. This old woman spake of Him to all that looked for redemption in Jerusalem. Do not excuse yourself because of your age, nor on account of infirmity. All you want is the grace of God, no matter what the age or what the infirmity, and you will surely come out for Him. What an occupied life she had! She spake of Him to all them that looked for redemption in Jerusalem.

I trust you are getting hold of the principle. I turn now to John 20, which comes nearer home to us. Here is the Lord risen from the dead. Who is waiting for Him? A poor ignorant woman. Is not that a comfort to your heart? As it has been said, she was culpably ignorant; but I should like to have her devoted heart! This world is intolerable to her without Him! I should like to see more like that! She is the pioneer. As another has said so truly, as a woman (Eve) brought in all the trouble to man, so it was a woman who brought in the greatest light. I think God often honours a devoted woman in a special way. Paul could speak of those women who laboured with him. It is like a star in the night which shines unknown to others, but for the benefit of others. She goes and tells the disciples the Lord’s message. Who can contemplate the scene without being affected by it!

But I must not delay. I turn now to 2 Timothy. I have already referred to Paul. All the saints forsook him. I say to myself sometimes, Where should I be if all the saints forsook me? Paul was deserted when brought before the Roman tribunal. If the Jews forsook Stephen, all the saints forsook Paul. He writes the second epistle to Timothy after that, and see what he says: “the Lord stood with me and strengthened ^[p. 501] me; that by me the preaching might be fully known”. He made known the mind of God, not merely preaching the gospel, but the counsel of God, “and that all the Gentiles might hear; and I was delivered out of the mouth of the lion”. Do not you feel now before the Lord that if you stand for Him there is no fear in you? All the fear is your not standing. If in natural things those who storm a fort succeed well, so in spiritual. STAND IN THE BREACH!

In chapter 3 the apostle gives a very important lesson to the servant as to the closing days. It is important to bear in mind that he had come down to a unit; he that was the wise master-builder. But he is not a bit discouraged. It has often been remarked that he never wrote with more courage than in 2 Timothy. “The things that thou hast beard of me among many witnesses, the same commit thou to faithful men, who shall be able to teach others also”. In chapter 3 we get the perilous times. Paul did not live until the perilous times. The great characteristic of them is imitation. Even amongst ourselves, a little company as we are, if you ask me, What do we suffer from most? I should say from imitation. If those who had connected themselves with us went back, when they departed from us, to the systems they had come from, it would be comparatively easy for us; but through imitation of the right thing they have been thorns in our sides. I have challenged them in my small way. I have said often, Give me a page of note-paper on the church. I believe I could test every man by his answer to the question, Have you God’s mind about the church? The only help for you is, as Paul says to Timothy (chapter 3: 10), “You are fully acquainted with my doctrine, manner of life”. His doctrine includes the gospel as well as the church, and I venture to say you will never understand the church till you have Paul’s gospel.

The opposition was through imitation; as Jannes ^[p. 502] and Jambres withstood Moses. They tried to do the same thing which Moses did; they could imitate Moses to a certain point, but they could not produce life. Nothing baffles the imitators but life, and here I believe John’s ministry comes in in the present day. One great difficulty of this day is the ready way the form of the truth is often received, while at the same time there is no apparent divine effect from it, and this I judge is the cause of the unreadiness there is to understand the teaching in John. The objective side of truth can be accepted without any displacement of the old order, but as soon as you are in any measure taught of God as to His work in you, as set forth by John, a new day has broken in on your soul, and a new path altogether is opened out to you. Paul says, “thou hast fully known my doctrine”, and lower down he speaks of the Scriptures, “thou hast known the holy scriptures”. That is why I have taken up the Old Testament scriptures. We get there the mind of God with regard to men, and there are found His ways with men.

I pass on now to Revelation. From Thyatira there is no undivided church; the four last run down to the end, and we find the remnant now. I would dwell upon this for a little. We ought to take it more to heart that there should be so many sects. Sardis is the Reformation; the very word shows what it is. What you should seek for is the beginning. Hold fast “That which was from the beginning “. If you have departed you must return to the beginning, to the point of departure. You may be sorry for failure, but if you do not return to the beginning, you are not restored. When any Christian declines he surrenders the best bit of truth he has received; and so it is with the church, and consequently there is no restoration until you return to the point of departure. The remnant has been restored to the point of departure. I often say, If a man begins to repent at all I accept ^[p. 503] it, because if he goes on with God his repentance will be deeper every day. He will have a deeper sense of the grace of God in restoring him. Where a bone knits after it is broken is the strongest part of the bone. As the Lord says to Peter, “When thou art converted, strengthen thy brethren”. He would be strongest where he failed if fully restored. And so in Acts 3 he turns round and says to the Jews, “Ye denied the Holy One and the just”. They might retort, That is just what you did; you denied Him. Yes, I denied Him; but I am not denying Him now. That is the man; he is up to it now.

Well, to return. Sardis is a poor state of things I Luther was a great servant till he became acquainted with the Elector of Saxony, and got under worldly patronage; then he was spoilt; he was nothing after that. There are two things the man of God has to do; he has to purge himself from the vessels to dishonour, and then the next question is, Who are your associates? “Follow righteousness, faith, charity, peace with them that call on the Lord out of a pure heart”. Here many fail: they try to be separate, but they fail to find the right company. Do you say, How am I to find out the right company? First know what is right and associate with nothing less. A pigeon will not go to rooks! That is all I can tell you. If a man is right himself he will soon find the right company; he will not compromise the truth he knows.

Now I come to the last chapter of Revelation. I see there what should mark us all, and I trust every one of you will find out the true course to reach it. To begin at the point of departure is the true course. John begins in Revelation 2 with Paul’s best church, Ephesus. The failure occurred there which entailed the removal of the candlestick. “Thou hast left thy first love”. There are two great characteristics of the assembly. One is affection, and Mary Magdalene is an example; and the other responsibility, or service.

Ephesus had lost the first, “thou hast left thy first love”. You never can know what a person’s love is unless you are near that person; you may know benevolence at any distance, but you cannot know love except near.

The resuscitation of the remnant is by John, We get the form from Paul. John writes a letter to the seven churches. The book of Revelation is one letter. I wish every one would read it as one letter and not bit by bit. It is one letter written to show you the state of things at that moment, because the Lord would not come till the full state of things had come out. John was to tarry till then. This letter shows the full state of things had come out. As I might say, every tree on that lawn was planted forty years ago. They have grown since, but they have long been there. Everything has come out, no matter how small. Now all things are ready for the Lord to come. Read the terrible state to which man has come, his wickedness, as we had before us last night, where the cross is the measure of man’s sin. What is the great attempt of man? It is to obtain possession of the earth, to put God out. They advance things with this object; they can do without Him. If I look at the Pope, I see he is exalting himself in all that is called God; antichrist exalts himself against all that is called God, a very great difference. What you see in Revelation is the state of things the upshot of it all is the Lord comes to reign. In chapter 19 you get the church in heaven. Babylon is set aside, there is joy in heaven; Christ has taken to Himself His great power to reign. Now you get in this closing scene before He comes (chapter 22: 17) the remnant coming out in the most beautiful trait of the original. In decline the best goes first, but in restoration the best is vigorously re-established. The first love was left in Ephesus; now you get here, “The Spirit and the bride say, Come”. It is the bride, her ^[p. 505] heart set upon Christ as her Object. You must know union in order to be in the affection of the bride, to be in concert with Him. You could not have either His power nor common thoughts with Him except in union. Now He is coming, and He makes an announcement. What is the announcement? I generally hear the half of it quoted, but not the whole. Whenever you leave out anything in Scripture you have not got hold of the idea. I have found myself out in that way, and other people, too! The announcement is, “I am the root and the offspring of David, and the bright and morning star”.

After Thyatira the coming kingdom is prominent. The overcomer in Thyatira is better off than in Laodicea. All the latter gets is to sit on His throne, no action, only to sit there. In Thyatira the overcomer rules over the nations with a rod of iron. People speak of the morning star as if it were only the rapture. Any one who knows what it is to be out at night, as I know, would know the morning star is the harbinger of the day. In the old coach days, when you saw the morning star it was the day you thought of, not the star. You say, Will not great things come to pass for us then? Yes; but the heart of the bride thinks also of the Bridegroom as well as of herself. He is coming to reign; He is coming to be acknowledged in His rights here. She is a heartless bride, or wife, who is only thinking of her own advantages, overlooking the interests and rights of her Lord. She says, “Come”, to the One who is the morning star, as well as the root and offspring of David. She is in concert with His own mind, and in the full interest of His concerns.

Then the call goes round to others. If it were so with us, I believe it would have a great effect. I can speak for myself personally, the wonderful effect it had on me when I first heard of the Lord’s coming. I am sure if I were to say, “Come”, in this practical, perfect way, it would have a great effect on every ^[p. 506] Christian. Why? Because they would see that I am so affected by what I say that they would be moved by it. The greatness of Christ’s appearing is lost sight of in directing attention exclusively to the rapture; but remember you will be called to account for the way He finds you here at His coming. The holidays come before the examination, I admit; but, the examination will come. Hence we read, “that ye may be found of him without spot and blameless”. I remember the effect the coming of the Lord had on myself. I was about nineteen, and I walked to a reading meeting some miles off. I took a gun by way of recreation. When I got into the house, a young friend, younger than myself, said to me, ‘You have been out shooting’. I assented, but I added, ‘I see no harm in doing so’. He retorted, ‘Would you like the Lord to find you out shooting?’ I replied, ‘No, certainly; and I will not touch it again’. If you were assured that He was coming, you would like to be in every way ready for Him. If you think of the rapture merely, you think of your relief in being taken out of things here; but you will be taken to account for the way you are found here. Suppose a Christian could say, I have been serving the Lord for many years; but I ask, What has been your course the last six months? You are received in heaven in pure grace. Do not let me disturb any one as to that; but your last days here will affect you in the kingdom. The rapture is mentioned once in Scripture, 1 Thessalonians 4, and possibly implied in John 14. If You read the epistles to the Thessalonians carefully you will find that the apostle insists on the day. “Unblameable in holiness before God, even our Father, at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ with all his saints “. I need not add more, beloved friends. The last phase of the kingdom of heaven is that ten virgins went forth to meet the Bridegroom, and it is deplorable that there are as many false ones as true. The foolish ^[p. 507] virgins are imitating the brightest trait of the wise ones; but the Lord will say to them, “I never knew you”. The wise ones are devoted to the Bridegroom, for Him they are looking. This comes out plainly at the end. “Let him that heareth say, Come”. As your heart is set on Himself so will all His concerns interest you while waiting for Him. You will see that the household is well cared for, getting meat in due season. The unfailing characteristic or mark of every one in conscious union with Christ is that he or she makes Christ’s interests PARAMOUNT. This mark was very palpable in Rebekah; when she saw Isaac she threw a veil over herself; her individuality was merged, she was lost in another. You are gone. Many a happy marriage has been marred because the wife’s individuality has not been merged in her husband’s.

In a scene of dislocation and distraction like this, it is an immense comfort (thank God, I know it in any little measure) to retire to my own room, and say, Though we are very insignificant in the eyes of man, yet there are true hearts here looking for the Lord, to whom He is everything. Look at Elijah. I might say his last day was his hardest day. Look at Paul and John. One in prison, the other in Patmos receiving the Revelation. You may not have bright surroundings, yet all is right, for you have a bright prospect, and a very bright present in company with Christ.

The Lord grant that we may each more answer to Christ’s mind, and that we may be found, more and more, from affection to Himself in the true remnant character, waiting for Him, for His name’s sake.