EXPANSION

^[p. 158] EXPANSION

2 Corinthians 6: 11 - 18; 2 Corinthians 12: 1 - 5

I have in mind to speak about expansion, a word simple to understand and much used among men and used in Scripture in a spiritual way. The believer, having the light of God revealed in Christ, and having come into the light of Christ as Man before God, has material in his soul for expansion. But as is usual when the Spirit of God would encourage the saints to go in for further spiritual things He has to exhort, and in exhorting to bring in negatives, hence we have here, “Be not unequally yoked together with unbelievers”, etc. 2 Corinthians 6:14. In drawing near to the realm of the spiritual, the Holy Spirit invariably brings about in the souls of the people of God, the sense of the necessity for contraction. The way in is narrow. The Lord says, “Narrow is the way and straight is the gate that leadeth unto life”. Matthew 7:14. So that in view of the narrowness of the way, and the straightness of the gate, the necessity for reduction becomes quite obvious. Big men are at a great disadvantage. And as we have seen in our readings, Rahab, when speaking with the spies sent to Jericho by Joshua, referred to the destruction of Og by the Israelites. “We heard what ye did to the two kings of the Amorites, Sihon and Og, how ye utterly destroyed them, and our hearts melted”. Joshua 2: 10,11.

She proceeds from the occurrence at the Red Sea to an occurrence forty years later. Passing over many doings of the people in the wilderness, doings that were shameful — they had made a golden calf; they had rebelled against Moses — but she passes over all that and says, “We heard what ye did unto the two kings”. Now I mention this, dear brethren, to bring before you how a spiritual person takes account of exploits of the people of God by reduction. Reduction ^[p. 159] can only be by the Spirit. Now I say that for the young ones here who may not as yet have begun to avail themselves of the Spirit of God, but He is available to you for reduction: “If ye by the Spirit put to death the deeds of the body ye shall live”. Romans 8:13. Do not attempt it otherwise. The Holy Spirit is available to you for the mortification of the flesh. This is what Rahab takes account of.

In the book of Deuteronomy, which in a special way treats of things spiritually, we have the dimensions of the bed of Og. He could never enter by the narrow way. Of course he was king of the Amorites, but he represents a feature in our spiritual history. He would be a man taken account of at Corinth. “Ye are puffed up”, says the apostle 1 Corinthians 5:2. Who could measure up with Og? See the size of his bed! He was a man of great stature, but his very stature would preclude a possibility of his entering. Og is the man in the flesh. It is that big “I” that stands out before us when we do exploits. “They measure themselves by themselves” said the apostle 2 Corinthians 10:12. The habit of setting one brother over against another leads to the recognition of natural ability and attainments and party feeling. These things have to be abandoned if we are to enter Canaan. They may, in some sense, find recognition in the wilderness, but Rahab took note of the destruction of Sihon and Og. They were brought down by spiritual power in the saints. Rahab spoke of what the Lord did at the Red Sea and what the people did to the two kings. The latter type refers to the work of the Spirit in the saints. The Spirit, in that way, teaches us what a sister Rahab was. The Holy Spirit loves to dwell on women of worth, because they represent the subjective results of the work of the Spirit. Proverbs 31 speaks of the virtuous woman. Rahab comes under that head. She took account of the exploits of the spiritual in Israel. It was by the power of the Spirit typically these two ^[p. 160] men were brought down. They were utterly destroyed.

Rahab herself has to undergo a most humiliating experience on the day of her salvation. She was saved alive and set outside the camp of Israel; Joshua 6: 23. She is not immediately brought into the camp. What exercises she would have as she saw the city sword-swept! She was set outside the camp. She would thus learn that the camp of God was holy. And then the Spirit of God tells us, “She dwelleth in Israel unto this day”. Joshua 6:25. I refer to her because in her we see the spirit of reduction.

In the first letter to the Corinthians the man after the flesh is shut out. The apostle insists on the cross, where he was judicially terminated. One said, “I am of Paul”, another “I of Cephas”, and another “Of Christ”. 1 Corinthians 1:12. Parties with leaders existed, and there were dissensions amongst them, at the Lord’s supper; and so the apostle rebukes even them. The first letter is like the “whip of small cords” John 2:15 with which the Lord cleansed the temple. No “package” was to be carried through the temple. No secret compacts among brethren, social distinctions, preferences, etc. — all these things are foreign to the house of God. You see, if you apply that today to Christendom there is very little left. But God will apply it. It is our business to apply these principles now. 1 Corinthians contains them.

The second letter brings in expansion. You cannot have expansion in the Spirit without reduction in the flesh. The apostle addresses them as one who had been down into death; 2 Corinthians 1:8. His very life was threatened. But God delivered him. He is brought up from the grave, as it were, and thus used to open up the heart of God to them, in the covenant and the truth of reconciliation. The covenant is what God is to us in Christ, and the reconciliation is what we are to God in Christ. In the light of these two truths we are called on to expand.

^[p. 161] Unless we understand the covenant somewhat we will be in poverty and under restraint. So in Isaiah 56:3 we read, “Neither let the son of the stranger that hath joined himself to the Lord, speak, saying, The Lord hath utterly separated me from his people: neither let the eunuch say, Behold, I am a dry tree”. You see, the Spirit of God is dealing with people labouring under disabilities. All this clearance that I have been speaking of may bring about in some a legal state, whereas God would have us free. He says of the eunuch, “Even unto them will I give in mine house and within my walls, a place and a name better than of sons and of daughters”. Isaiah 56:5. And of the son of the alien, “Even them will I bring to my holy mountain, and make them joyful in my house of prayer: their burnt offerings and sacrifices shall be accepted upon mine altar”. Isaiah 56:7. What a word of encouragement for every soul here who is labouring under any disability! The son of the alien necessarily labours under limitations and the eunuch labours under limitations. Whereas God would have you to know that as taking hold of His covenant He gives you a place and a name in His house, better than of sons and daughters. God would impress upon us the importance of the covenant. How He sets our hearts free. “Perfect love casteth out fear”. 1 John 4:18. And where is perfect love to be seen? He has given His Son for you. I believe there are many saints labouring under assumed disabilities. They have given up the world, they earnestly desire to be with the people of God. They have joined themselves to the Lord, yet through want of spiritual intelligence labouring under disabilities. As a believer you are not the son of an alien. You are “no more strangers and foreigners, but fellow citizens with the saints, and of the household of God”. Ephesians 2:19. God would disabuse your mind of these disabilities. He says, “I will make you joyful in my house of prayer”. Isaiah 56:7. How attractive ^[p. 162] it is! You are there in perfect liberty in God’s house, and He will accept your offerings, however small.

The results of the working of the flesh among them is dealt with in the first epistle to the Corinthians. Now the positive side is the love of God, and this the new covenant opens up. I think we have found a little of that since we have been together. “Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty”. 2 Corinthians 3:17. That is 2 Corinthians 3. Chapter 4 brings out how completely the minister of the covenant was in accord with the covenant, and the next chapter brings out what pleases God. As in accord with the covenant we are in accord with reconciliation. We are moving about in the body, agreeable to God. “We are zealous, whether present or absent, to be agreeable to him”, 2 Corinthians 5: 9. And then he goes on to say that “If one died for all, then were all dead, ... that they which live should not henceforth live unto themselves, but unto him which died for them, and rose again”. 2 Corinthians 5:14,15. “Though we have known Christ after the flesh, yet now henceforth know we him no more”. 2 Corinthians 5:16. “If any one be in Christ, there is a new creation”. 2 Corinthians 5::17. There is first reduction and contraction, then the expansion of the heart of the saints by the presentation of the love of God, reconciliation and new creation. They are not only presented doctrinally, but in the apostle’s life and ministry. Whether present or absent he wished to be agreeable to the Lord. He had a definite object in life. Then he said, “We do not know any one after the flesh”. 2 Corinthians 5:16. Only he could say it, perhaps, but it is a wonderful thing to have such great spiritual experience brought near to you in a man of like passions with yourself. So that if any one be in Christ, it is new creation. We are not literally in new creation yet, but did it ever dawn on you that there is such a thing as new creation? “Old things are passed away behold, all things are become new”. 2 Corinthians 5:17. I do commend to you that remarkable statement.

^[p. 163] In the next chapter he gives us a list of some thirty-five or more things or circumstances which he had experienced himself; 2 Corinthians 6: 4 - 10. Then he says, “Our mouth is opened to you ... our heart is expanded”. 2 Corinthians 6:11. They were his children; he says, “I speak unto you as children; let your heart also expand itself” 2 Corinthians 6:13. He had presented the truth to them, being himself a witness to it in his ways, and now he appeals to them to become enlarged. And then he uses negatives. “What fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness? and what communion hath light with darkness? and what concord hath Christ with Belial? or what part hath he that believeth with an infidel? and what agreement hath the temple of God with idols?” 2 Corinthians 6: 15,16. The questions answer themselves, and their very answers involve absolute contraction from the side of the flesh. This must be if there is to be spiritual expansion. And I do warn young people especially about entering into any alliance, marital or otherwise, with unbelievers.

So the apostle is led, in giving the list, to refer to the temple of the living God. But they were it, and he goes on to say, “God has said, I will dwell among them and walk among them”. 2 Corinthians 6:16. One has often thought of God walking amongst the saints. Suppose God walked about amongst His saints in their homes, their business, what would He find? We read that the Lord looked around in the temple first, then cleansed it, and then walked and answered questions in it; Mark 11.

Well, now, that was about all as to 2 Corinthians, except that in chapter 12, after speaking about cleansing in chapter 7 (chapters 8 and 9 deal with the “giving” of the saints), in the succeeding chapters he brings forward the things that he suffered. He was let down through a window in a basket. And now he says, “I will come to visions and revelations of the Lord. ... Such an one ... caught up into ^[p. 164] paradise, and heard unspeakable words, which it is not lawful for a man to utter”. 2 Corinthians 12:4. One has to stop there, because one has to confess that one knows little of visions and revelations of the Lord, but one would contemplate that we are men in Christ. In that day when we are free from the trammels that hold us now we shall appear as men in Christ. We shalt be manifested with Him. So the church is presented as composed of such, not babes in Christ, but men in Christ. Here it is presented in one person, fourteen years before, but in Ephesians it is, “Until we all arrive at the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, at the full-grown man, at the measure of the stature of the fulness of the Christ”. Ephesians 4:13.

Paul had a most humiliating experience in being let down in a basket, and now, as a man in Christ, he is caught up to the third heaven, into paradise. As here in the flesh he needed the reducing experience of the basket and the “thorn”, but expansion belongs to a man in Christ.