ANOTHER MAN
E.Palmer
Esther 6: 1-10; Acts 8: 26-39; 13: 21-24, 29, 30, 37-39
I have a very simple impression. I believe, dear friends, that it is a very important one - I want to speak to you about another Man - another Man. I would like to take my place with you so that we are together listening to the word. I do not apologise for reading Scripture; I think it is beautiful; I think it is powerful. I believe the Spirit of God has given words to the translator in our English version and has selected them so that they are calculated to penetrate into our consciences and our hearts. I take my place with those who hear the word because this matter of another Man has tremendous implications. Do you know that if the testimony of another Man is received it will set me completely aside, and so it will you, dear friend. Are you ready for it? Am I ready for it? The man of the world is not ready for it; man, apart from the workings of God's Spirit, the Spirit of grace, is not ready for it. The schools and the colleges are not ready for it; no! In them there is a desire to push forward the kind of man that God has set aside. Who is going to be top of the class? Who is going to be first in the sports? Why, they say, You are! That is the whole spirit of the world. Dear friends, God has another Man, and I want to speak to you about Him. He is despised and left alone of men and people do not immediately speak to you about Jesus unless they are believers; they might then. Even some believers are disinclined to speak about the Saviour to whom they owe their all.
Now Haman was an Agagite; you may say, What does that mean? Well, he descended from that element of man that is the most refined, cultured in the arts and in the sciences, educated according to the standards of this world - Agag: Hammedatha the Agagite was his father. This incident is recorded in this remarkable book of Esther. It has often been said that the name of God is not mentioned in it; moreover prayer is not mentioned in it; neither is there mention of what is priestly or of priests - a truly remarkable book. Now it says that the king Ahasuerus, who represents I suppose the supremacy of God, had the power to exalt or abuse whatever man he wished. It says earlier in the book that he promoted Haman: "After these things king Ahasuerus promoted Haman", chap 3: 1. He had the power to promote what kind of man he pleased, and what is more, he had power to dispose of what kind of man he pleased, and that is precisely what belongs to God. There is only one Man, dear friends, whom He will exalt and promote, and that Man is Jesus, and every other man is totally eclipsed. Would you receive that? I say in my heart, Would you receive it? It does not concern man according to flesh, the gospel of God concerns God's Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.
In this wonderful book of Esther this incident is brought forward; Haman virtually says, I am going to get rid of Christ. You say, But there is nothing said about Christ. No, there is not, but in the principle of it that is what he says; and what is more, I am going to get rid of all that is Christ's, not only Mordecai the Jew, I will not stop at one man, I will deal with them all. Haman shows the power of Satan operating in a man. But God is behind all these circumstances, and one night the king could not go to sleep; he has the chronicles read before him and he finds that Mordecai has been his personal deliverer, and he says, "What honour and dignity has been done to Mordecai for this? The king's servants that attended upon him said, Nothing has been done for him". Dear friends, let me ask you, is He your Deliverer? He certainly is mine, He is my Deliverer. What honour and dignity has been done to Jesus by us? They said, Nothing. The king virtually says, It cannot be like this, if nothing has been done for him, I am going to do something for him. And there was Haman waiting in the court, waiting to make a request to the king that Mordecai should be hanged on the gallows that Haman had prepared, fifty cubits high. The king calls him in and he says to Haman; "What is to be done with the man whom the king delights to honour?". The king did not say, I want to honour Mordecai and what shall we do for him? God does not put things to us like that; He raises in His questions what is morally inherent in the human heart. What is that? Pride; it is me. That is what it says, does it not? "Now Haman thought in his heart, To whom would the king delight to do honour more than to me?" - me. You say, Who is that? It is me. Dear friends, I respectfully say, it is you also. Oh, if only we could arrive at this, that God will not have that man whom He has set aside in the cross of Christ, He will not have him in His presence. "The end of all flesh has come before me", He said to Noah (Gen 6: 13) - the end of all flesh, and He has never gone back on it, never. "To whom would the king delight to do honour more than to me?" Oh, I say, the pride of my heart that thinks I should merit some favour from God, some honour from Him. I expect most here have come to a point where they have been profoundly glad that God has set aside completely, and in a judicial way in judgment, the man who is marked by this horrible pride. I am profoundly thankful, dear friends, I confess, because who comes into view? The Man after God's own heart, Jesus.
So Mordecai is honoured. Of course we immediately think of Philippians 2 when we read this: Jesus, "becoming obedient even unto death, and that the death of the cross. Wherefore also God highly exalted him, and granted him a name that which is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow" (vv 8-10). This is now proclaimed before Him! The greatness of His Person, the glory that is His, the wonder of His work, and not only His official glory but those wonderful tender feelings that have the sinner in view that such might be delivered from the man that is under God's condemnation and brought, in Himself, into the present and eternal favour of God.
I refer to the eunuch because he was a man who arrived at another man practically. He was a great man and he was an Ethiopian. There is a scripture which says: "Can an Ethiopian change his skin, or a leopard his spots", Jer 12: 23. This Ethiopian was changed through the testimony of the gospel, the testimony of Jesus; in that sense he changed his skin. You say, He was still an Ethiopian. Oh, yes, but he had changed his man, he had changed for another Man, changed for Jesus. I believe he was an honest man; he must have been because he was in charge of all queen Candace's treasure: "a man in power under Candace queen of the Ethiopians, who was over all her treasure". God takes account of honest people, an honest heart. This Ethiopian was a man of integrity and had come to worship at Jerusalem; that is, he had come to recognise that there was something due to God. He was returning and sitting in his chariot reading the prophet Esaias; at the same time the angel of the Lord had His eye upon Philip the evangelist and spoke to him, and told him where to go; "go southward on the way which goes down from Jerusalem to Gaza: the same is desert. And he rose up and went". The Spirit of God also had His eye on this Ethiopian for there he was, reading the holy writings. Philip heard him reading the prophet Esaias and said: "Dost thou then know what thou art reading of? And he said, How should I then be able unless some one guide me? And he begged Philip to come up and sit with him". He was reading that touching scripture in Isaiah 53, speaking of the One who was despised and left alone of men, a Man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. But in that wonderful passage, before it comes to the part that is quoted here, it says of Jesus (I expect the eunuch had read that): "Surely he hath borne our griefs and carried our sorrows; and we, we did regard him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted. But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities; the chastisement of our peace was upon him, and with his stripes we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray, we have turned every one to his own way; and Jehovah hath laid upon him the iniquity of us all" (vv 4-6). Ah, dear friends, how could we preach the glad tidings without speaking about the cross of Christ? How could we proclaim glad tidings concerning the Lord Jesus unless we spoke of His death? How could we tell you of that other Man, save it be that we should tell you that He has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows, and that God has laid upon Him the iniquity of us all? Does He become attractive to you? Could anybody name another man who has undertaken to do what Jesus has done, and to do it in a way that is satisfying to God? Every one of us is guilty; there is none righteous no, not even one; Scripture says: "not so much as one", Rom 3: 12. I believe that in this world the enormity of sin in the sight of God is rapidly and steadily being written down. I would say to every heart, every person with whom this subject comes up, that sin, lawlessness, evil, lust, are abhorrent to that God to whom we sang this morning: 'Holy, holy, holy, blessed God we praise Thee' (No.100). The whole earth is full of His glory, and still is, and every sinner will have to say to Him. I am sure that everybody here has had to say to Him, but if there is the slightest thing that you feel is not quite right, you have to say to Him about it, because Jesus has had to say to God on behalf of the believer and He has had to say to Him in all the detail of our responsibility towards God. "All we like sheep have gone astray"; I once gave a man a tract 'All we like sheep have gone astray', and he said, That is true enough anyway. I said, Are you a believer? No, he said, I am not, but that is true. You see, people know that, they have the personal consciousness that they have gone astray. But God has laid upon Jesus the iniquity of us all. What does it mean? I believe it means that the righteous judgment of God that is due to that iniquity has been laid upon Him and He has borne it according to all t ha t God requires in regard of it. You say, What then? The believer is free of it, free of the burden, the burden of sin. Wonderful, is it not? This is this other Man, Does He attract you? It is good to call attention to Him, this other Man.
So Philip hears him reading; and "the eunuch answering Philip said, I pray thee, concerning whom does the prophet say this? of himself or of some other?" He was not only an honest man, he was an enquiring man. It is good to enquire, for if you have a problem and do not enquire you remain with the problem; if you do enquire you will get an answer. This man said: "concerning whom does the prophet say this? of himself or some other? And Philip, opening his mouth and beginning from that scripture, announced the glad tidings of Jesus to him". I believe what Philip had to say was so attractive; it was the glad tidings of Jesus. As the sin Bearer? Yes. The reason that He was led as a sheep to the slaughter, Yes? He was delivered for our offences; led as a sheep to the slaughter, as a lamb dumb before its shearers, thus He opens not His mouth. He did not say a word; He bore it all; He went that way of subjection to the will of God. He made no complaint; not that He did not feel it; He did. You remember that scripture in John where it speaks of the Lord Jesus saying "Now is my soul troubled, and what shall I say?", John 12: 27. What a moment it was when He said "Father, save me from this hour". Oh, the feelings of Jesus, the reality of His manhood, dear friends. "But on account of this have I come to this hour. Father, glorify thy name". You remember the answer from heaven, that voice; people said it thundered, but it was a voice from heaven, a voice to Him.
"The glad tidings of Jesus": it included His glory; I believe that Philip would speak not only of what He had undertaken to do as a sheep that was led to the slaughter. It goes on: “In his humiliation his judgment has been taken away, and who shall declare His generation? for his life is taken from the earth". He spoke the glad tidings that, although He had gone this way, God had highly exalted Him; He was an available Saviour. He "announced the glad tidings of Jesus", that Man, to him. What was the effect? They came to water and there this Ethiopian says, I would like to be identified with Him, but I can see that if I am to be identified with Him I must go out of sight. These are wonderful things, and they are things, dear friends, that make for the reality of Christianity to be practically known in the hearts of people like you and me. If there is an allowance of the man that God has set aside, by so much as that man is allowed, by so much is the enjoyment that properly belongs to the believer taken away from him. When He is given His place, and that place is supreme, the Spirit delights to bring the believer into the blessedness of that link with another Man. We often hear that that Man is the centre of another world, and thank God it is the truth.
So it says: "And as they went along the way, they came upon a certain water and the eunuch says, Behold water; what hinders my being baptised? So he commanded the chariot to stop. And they went down both to the water, both Philip and the eunuch, and he baptised him". They both went out of sight. Philip the preacher in his action would say, I recognise with you that God has another Man. But notice: "But when they came up out of the water" - not when the eunuch came up, but when they came up out of the water - "the Spirit of the Lord caught away Philip, and the eunuch saw him no longer, for he went on his way rejoicing". What do you think made him rejoice? I think he was occupied with another Man; the Ethiopian had changed his skin. Wonderful, is it not? I believe he had the Holy Spirit and he went on his way rejoicing. I have an impression that somehow or in some way by God's own operations the testimony that he carried back to Ethiopia has continued until this day; I think there are believers in Jesus in Ethiopia at the present time.
When we come to Acts 13 the people addressed are religious; but religious people have to change their man too. These are Jews, but the apostle PauI is speaking to them; he spoke about that king whom the people desired, Saul, but it says a very significant thing about him; although God gave them Saul it says "And having removed him". How was he removed? He was removed, dear friends, in the cross of Christ; that is where he was removed, removed in judgment, and that judgment remains, the judgment of God on the man that is removed. These are the fundamentals of God's gospel, but how liberating! Are you not glad to be free from the man that could never ever please God? We should be profoundly glad to be occupied with another Man. Then it says: "he raised up to them David for king, of whom also bearing witness he said, I have found David, the son of Jesse, a man after my heart", and it is in this scripture that David, the man after God's heart, is linked with Jesus: "God brought to Israel a Saviour, Jesus". Paul speaks about what they did to Him, and then he speaks about what God did to Him. God raised Him from among the dead. What shall be done to the man whom the king delights to honour? He raised Him from the dead and gave Him glory, as Peter says in his first epistle: "who has raised him from among the dead and given him glory, that your faith and hope should be in God", chap 1: 21. A glorious gospel, is it not? The One whose precious blood has made atonement, that precious blood that cleanses from every sin; the One in whose death the man after Adam's order has been terminated judicially by God, God has raised from the dead and given Him glory. I believe I can catch something of the spirit of exultation in this. "But he whom God raised up did not see corruption. Be it known unto you, therefore, brethren, that through this man remission of sins is preached to you".
Who is this Man? He is the other Man: "that through this man remission of sins is preached to you, and from all the things from which ye could not be justified in the law of Moses". Now what? "In him". Oh, I say, let us take account of this: "in him" - that is the other Man - "in him every one that believes is justified", every one who has faith in Christ, faith in the Man that is risen from among the dead. Having completed that wonderful work of redemption He is raised and glorified, and in Him every one that believes is justified. What does it mean? It means that judicially, before God, the believer is as clear of guilt as Jesus is. It is as if God, the Judge of all the earth, has had regard to all the facts, the facts of the sinnership, the facts of the state of the sinner, what is inherent in his heart; He regards all the facts; then He takes account of that wonderful work at Calvary's cross and that glorious Person who did the work. All the facts are before the Judge, and He says in the light of what has been done, you are as clear of all that once belonged to you as Jesus is, the Man who is in My presence. You say, then I can be free? Absolutely free! No wonder the apostle said to those Galatians; "be not held again in a yoke of bondage", Gal 5: 1. Do not get under bondage any more, just live in the light of the liberty God has for us; and then, let us remember that that liberty is in another blessed Man. These are truly glad tidings and I say there is nothing like them, they are magnificent glad tidings, and the focus all the time is upon the Person of our blessed and glorious Lord. The Spirit is given that the reality of these things might be known by us; and as they are known by you and as they are known by me, we shall be regulated by what is pleasing to Him, to walk together in the light of the assembly, of which He says, My assembly! May God bless the word to us.
CROYDON
15 April 1984
MEMORIALS
The following may be familiar to many but they "yet speak".
First: Mr.Darby's first impression of another brother: Mr Darby's first impressions of Mr.Wigram - about 1827. (Extract of a letter).
Such a saint as Miss F. brought in to take tea with me this afternoon, a Mr Wigram, not more than 22, preparing for the ministry. Whilst his spirit and conversation have laid me in the dust, his weighty words and sentences, I pray God I may never forget. So much is given him of the Spirit, one felt our Lord's sanctifying presence amongst us.
He read to us, during tea, Psalms 67 and 23 with such a holy solemnity of voice and manner as if he felt every word was God's word. Our conversation took the following topics: -
That we did not simplify prayers enough.
That it is the lifting up of the heart all the day long that we may be assured, walking with God as a friend, telling Him everything.
That we lose much by not waiting on Him in following up petitions - suppose the salvation of a friend to be ours, to turn the mind to that point during the day.
That we may be assured the closer we walk the more the light of His countenance we shall enjoy.
That ejaculatory prayer, the lifting up of the eye and the realising the eyes of God continually upon us, is the great secret of spirituality in social intercourse.
That the deeply spiritual mind cannot be a great talker because such are watching and cherishing the visits of the Spirit, ascending at intervals in all the secret acts of faith and love and praise.
That the expression of the eye tells those breaks off, whilst those around them are taken up with present things.
You never find a spiritual Christian lie late in bed. Mr Wigram sees such a want of spirituality in this interior state of things as to communion, with busy active people - the soul starving amidst the sense of duties.
Mr Wigram came and sat with me 1½ hours yesterday. I can give you no idea of his prayers, every word filled with the realising of His presence before whom the angels cover their faces, so hallowed, so happy, as if in the presence chamber. The savour of his two visits I feel at this moment and never can forget the messages the Lord commissioned him to speak to my soul. Oh how much did he dwell on the privilege of cultivating the continual presence of Jesus, as living in the spirit of prayer all the day long.
(J.N.D. was about 27 when he wrote the above).