GOD'S INHERITANCE IN THE SAINTS
GOD’S INHERITANCE IN THE SAINTS
1 Thessalonians 1: 2,3; 1 Thessalonians 3: 12,13; Ephesians 1: 4,5
I have before me to speak about the saints as before God. We have to take account of ourselves as before God. We read in the Old Testament that “the Lord’s portion is his people”, and that “Jacob is the lot of his inheritance”, Deuteronomy 32:9, and I desire to show how that thought is developed in the New Testament epistles, taking up this first one to the Thessalonians, who may be taken to represent the saints in the state of normal childhood, for they were but a few weeks old spiritually when this letter was written; and in that way they afford perhaps the most interesting company of believers that you can find in the Scriptures.
You will remember how that when the apostle in his labours visited Thessalonica he spent three sabbath days in preaching in the synagogue, and how that it is said that certain believed the word, and consorted with Paul and Silas, and of the worshipping Greeks a great multitude, and of the chief women not a few. The company, therefore, was made up of believing Jews and Greeks, among whom were some of the chief women. The apostle had to move on in his service, but he moved on with considerable concern as to the work at Thessalonica, lest he had laboured in vain, but the result of the visit of Timotheus brought to light that instead of his labour being in vain it had been a great success; not only had they believed savingly, but they had come to take account of each other in love. They had indeed taken form as an assembly, so that in writing to them he addresses them in that way. He addresses them as an assembly of Thessalonians, not a set of converts, but an assembly. They are addressed uniquely; there is no other company in the Scriptures addressed in this fashion, and it is because, as I understand it, that God would [p. 38] through the letter of the apostle disclose to them what a place they had in His affections. They had become in fact, as the letter says, “beloved of God”. 1 Thessalonians 1:4.
Now one would not suggest that every saint is not beloved of God, because we are. Love in God rises above our ways, even as in Corinthians when their ways were fleshly; God loved the Corinthians, but He had to write to them in a corrective way. In the Thessalonians there was that which was lovable, and the exercise with one is as to whether one is lovable. Love in God takes account of one, and sets itself upon one, even though unlovely in many respects, but this epistle indicates a state of loveliness in youthful Christians. That is, God in this letter lets us into His thoughts as to what He looks for in young believers, and one is free to address oneself to young believers.
You will remember that John in writing his first letter addresses himself to believers under three heads. The first set are called fathers, then he addresses young men, and then finally he addresses little children. The whole letter could be read by either set. I have no doubt the fathers could enjoy what was said to the little ones, and said to the young men, and thus the fathers would get more out of the letter than the little ones; but the little ones were not forgotten, and they are addressed as a class; and God has a great deal in the freshness and vigour that mark the young believer normally: He looks for it. If you have lost it through years, and grey hairs have come, He has not forgotten it; He says, “I remember thee, the kindness of thy youth, the love of thine espousals, when thou wentest after me in the wilderness” Jeremiah 2:2.
Now the Thessalonians correspond in that way with the beginnings of Israel’s history. We see in them the kindness of youth, and the love of espousals, and so I desire to dwell for a moment upon them before I pass on to Ephesians. The apostle says, We have great remembrance of you, “we give thanks to God always for you all, making mention of you in our prayers”. 1 Thessalonians 1:2.
It is a great thing to get a good start, and so you find it says in John that the Lord went away beyond the Jordan to the place where John baptised at first, and many believed on Him there; John 10: 40 - 42. That was a good place to believe on Him, where John baptised at the first.
It is an immense thing to get a right apprehension of God in Christ, for that is what this epistle indicates. It is God, but God in Christ. The light of the knowledge of God in Christ shone into their hearts, and they turned to that God. God came before their souls, and they turned to Him from idols, and then further it says, “to wait for his Son from heaven”. 1 Thessalonians 1:10. It was God’s Son. You see how the babes are set up in the light of the knowledge of God in Christ, and the Christ who has made God known is His Son, not the Son, but His Son. You are thus in the light of holy relationships, the Father and the Son. As I said, many believed on Him where John baptised at the first. The first principles were dominant there, and so, as John says to the little ones, “If that which ye have heard from the beginning shalt remain in you, ye also shall continue in the Son, and in the Father”. 1 John 2:24. That is how the little ones are set up, so that these Thessalonians, young believers as they were, had the Father, and they had the Son, and hence the work of faith; that is the next thing.
What are you doing, beloved? You see we are left here, we are baptised into the light of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit - a wonderful heritage of light! But what are we to be in that light? We are to develop into sons of light, and the first great thing is your body. That is how the truth is developed in Romans; the members are to be yielded unto God as instruments of righteousness.
[p. 40] In Romans the body is to be presented to God a living sacrifice. So we get here the work of faith. What are we doing? Are we working for the brethren to take note of us? I know well enough how it is for young people, and even with older ones, how we do work for wages; that is to say, we look for approval, we look for recognition. Now the work of faith is not that, the work of faith has God before it; so he says, “Remembering without ceasing your work of faith, and labour of love, and patience of hope in our Lord Jesus Christ, in the sight of God and our Father”. 1 Thessalonians 1:3. How lovely this company was in that way. There was in it the evidence of life in its beginnings. It worked out in the way of taking account of God.
Such is the picture the Spirit of God gives us of a company of Christians a few weeks old. And the apostle goes on in chapter 3 to introduce the subject of holiness, which I would dwell on for a moment. If you have life in activity the great thing is to give it a lead. Life springs up of itself, the principle of it is spontaneity, but it has to get a lead; there has to be formation, the growth has to be according to the pattern; so the apostle is that pattern primarily, and then the Lord Jesus, and then God Himself. And one of the most serious considerations I know of today for the elder brethren is that so many young ones are coming on, what kind of pattern are we setting? Now the apostle calls attention in chapter 2 to what he was amongst them. He cared for them as a nurse her own children. We may be sure, as elder ones, that God holds us accountable for what has come to us. What comes to us has not come from our children but from our fathers, it has come in that way; “the father to the children shall make known thy truth” Isaiah 38:19; therefore it is a question for those who are elders as to whether we are exponents of what has come down to us.
[p. 41] These young believers became models because they were patterned on a model. Who was the model? Paul was the model. “Ye became followers of us, and of the Lord”. 1 Thessalonians 1:6. As they imitated the one through whom the light came, he passed them on to Christ. That is the principle of a model. This is important, dear brethren; it has to be taken up; God is graciously working, and young ones are getting light, and taking their stand with the saints; what about models for them? You say, Christ is the model; thank God He is, the Same yesterday, today, and for ever, but He is in heaven, and so the apostle says, “I write unto you, fathers, because ye have known him that is from the beginning”. 1 John 2:13. To the little ones he says, “If that which ye have heard from the beginning shall remain in you”, 1 John 2:24 etc., but to the fathers it is, “Him that is from the beginning”. 1 John 2:13. We are to be models as acquainted with Him; not simply with that which is from the beginning, but with Him. It is the knowledge of the Lord Jesus Himself as from the beginning that constitutes us models for others, and so the apostle calls attention to the fact that he regarded the Thessalonians as did a nurse her own children; that is to say, he exercised the skill of the nurse with the affections of the mother.
We may be sure that this is necessary at the present time; the young are coming in (thank God for it!), but the great point is the model, and then he goes on to say that he was like a nursing father. There was in his service in those few weeks among them the instincts of the mother and the skill of the nurse, the maternal side; but there was also the paternal side, so that he says, “as a father his own children” we admonished every one of you 1 Thessalonians 2:11. And then he says, You became imitators of God, and lastly of the assemblies of God.
Now I mention these facts for the young, because they show the development of life in us, and I would specially call attention to the imitation of assemblies.
[p. 42] It is because there are so many non-catholics, because we are so sectional and so national. Now the Thessalonians were Greeks, most of them, and as Greeks naturally prejudiced against the Jews; but the evidence of life was so present with them that the normal effect of it was that they overcame their national instincts, and they became imitators “of the churches of God which in Judaea are in Christ Jesus”. 1 Thessalonians 2:14. They might have gone elsewhere for assemblies to pattern themselves on, but the apostle says, “Ye, brethren, became followers of the churches of God which in Judaea are in Christ Jesus”. 1 Thessalonians 2:14. These assemblies were not established by Paul, they were established, doubtless, by the labours of the twelve, and there is not much evidence that the Thessalonians knew Peter and John and James, so there was all the more evidence of the power of life in that they overcame all feeling, national instincts, and so on, to pattern themselves on assemblies so far away as Judaea. There is in it the catholic principle which one feels is so important, because God in these days is calling attention to His house. The house of God naturally extends beyond all national boundaries, it includes all the saints, and the Thessalonians, young though they were, understood how to overcome rational or social prejudices, they patterned themselves on the assemblies of God; God was their link.
The element of holiness is introduced, and I would remark on it for the young, because in our beginnings as believers our motives are apt to be very mixed; hence the importance of understanding holiness, so that we have the word in chapter 3, “The Lord make you to increase and abound in love one toward another, and toward all men, even as we do toward you: to the end he may stablish your hearts unblameable in holiness before God, even our Father, at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ with all his saints”. 1 Thessalonians 3: 12,13. The element of holiness must be present, and this [p. 43] leads me to say a word about the covenant, because as the people took their position before the mount in Exodus 19, the question of holiness necessarily arose. God was proposing to dwell, and if He is to dwell it must be according to His nature. Righteousness is present, and righteousness judges sin with authority; it faces the sin, and it deals with it. We have to learn that. It says, “The body is dead because of sin; but the Spirit is life because of righteousness”. Romans 8:10. There is no more important lesson you can learn than that you have the Holy Spirit in view of righteousness; in the power of His presence you must judge sin with authority.
But then holiness repels it, shrinks from sin, it shrinks from evil, hence God sets up an enclosure in which He is to dwell, but He is to dwell there in holiness, in holy love; so the Lord Jesus is presented to us in the epistle to the Corinthians as bringing in the love of God to our hearts. The apostle says, God “hath ... made us competent as ministers of the new covenant; not of letter, but of spirit. For the letter kills, but the Spirit quickens”. 2 Corinthians 3:6. Then he says, “Now the Lord is the Spirit”. 2 Corinthians 3:17. Now look, beloved, I would like you to understand that the Lord Jesus has not only made the love effective in dying, He has not only attested it in His death, but He makes it effective in our souls. One of the most precious services the Lord renders to us at the present time is to make the love of God effective in our souls. In dying He says, “Thou art holy, O thou that inhabitest the praises of Israel”. Psalm 22:3. He did not forget that God was dealing in righteousness. He was dealing authoritatively in righteousness when Jesus died, but He was dealing in holiness, and the Lord recognised that. He says, “Thou art holy, thou that dwellest in the praises of Israel”. Psalm 22:3. He says that on the cross. How then is He to praise in the midst of the assembly, to praise such a God as that? How except by bringing [p. 44] in the holy love of God into our hearts, so that we not only judge sin but we abhor it, we recoil from it. There is already in our souls by the administration of Christ, in the gift of the Spirit, a holy love. The love of God in us is a holy love — “the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Spirit which is given unto us”. Romans 5:5. It is in virtue therefore of the administration of Christ, the love of God being shed abroad in our hearts by the Spirit, that we are constituted suited for the abode of God. And in keeping with that there is the administration of the Father, the Father of our spirits: “Shall we not much rather be in subjection to the Father of spirits, and live?” Hebrews 12:9. But how live? Live in holiness, so that we are chastened by the Father of spirits that we should live in holiness. Then it adds, “without holiness no man shall see the Lord”. Hebrews 12:14. Difficulties will arise, crises come up among the saints: who knows His way? He who has holiness, and he who has holiness sees the Lord. It is a question of where the Lord is in the crisis, and who sees Him but he who has holiness; so, beloved, the importance of holiness in a practical way is apparent, but it is specially apparent at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, and so he says, “The Lord make you to increase and abound in love one toward another, and toward all men, even as we do toward you: to the end he may stablish your hearts unblameable in holiness before God, even our Father, at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ with all his saints” 1 Thessalonians 3:12,13. What a word that is! To have our hearts established in holiness, established in it, at a time when we shall need it — that is to say, when the Lord comes with all His saints, for He is coming with them all. This thought appeared very early in Scripture, for it is said by Jude that Enoch prophesied of the Lord coming with the “holy myriads”, Jude 14, so when He comes with these, beloved, we shall need holiness. It will be a wonderful time, and this is [p. 45] before our God and Father, so the saints come in there before our God and Father with hearts established in holiness.
Now I pass on to Ephesians, because we have there the full thought of God for us, and what you will see in Ephesians is that it is a question of what is before the foundation of the world. I do not suppose any one of us can take in the idea of eternity, I know we cannot, and God takes account of that. It is something to be realised, not defined, nor compassed, and so we have “before” here, as it says, “according as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world”. Ephesians 1:4. We are thus led into the thought of God in regard of us; He had in view that He should have an inheritance. I do not know of anything so interesting to contemplate as God’s inheritance. The apostle recognising the difficulty of saints having hold of it prays to the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory. I would that I could convey to you something about that, the Father of glory. He prays to Him that the saints might have the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him; not revelation, but the spirit of it in the knowledge of Him, “that ye may know what is the hope of his calling, and what the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints”. Ephesians 1:18.
Now this is not children, it is not the beginnings of life; no, it is sonship now. Before the foundation of the world God had sons by Him, and so He says, “When Israel was a child, then I loved him”. Hosea 11:1. He loved him in his youth, but He says, “I ... called my son out of Egypt”. Hosea 11:1. He had sonship before Him for them. “Let my son go”, He says Exodus 4:23, not ‘My child’. The child is lovable, but the son serves; the son reciprocates intelligently the affections of the Father, hence He calls His son, He would have His son before Him, He would have His son to serve Him, and so He brought them out that He might bring them in. He led them out by the hand, as He says,
“[p. 46] I it was that taught Ephraim to walk, he took them upon his arms”, Hosea 11:3. That was the beginning, but in going into Canaan it is another matter; it is a question of recognising the Lord Jesus as moving that way. He has been here, He has gone there. How has He gone there? It is for us to discover that spiritually. He went through death.
Psalm 22 is the “hind of the morning”. It is Christ invisibly moving about amongst His people. It is love active, active invisibly, to the natural eye, for the world saw Him no more; it is the movements of Christ known spiritually. Now He says, “I ascend”. “Go to my brethren, and say unto them, I ascend unto my Father, and your Father; and to my God, and your God”. John 20:17. What a word! That is for sons; it supposes intelligent affection, which the Lord would develop in us, so that we might see the Lord as He has gone up.
You remember how Elisha coveted a double portion of Elijah’s spirit. It was a wonderful desire, an intelligent desire, a desire appreciated by Elijah, so he says, “If thou see me when I am taken from thee, it shall be so unto thee” 2 Kings 2:10 — if you see me go up. That is the thing; have we seen Christ go up? We often dwell on the coming down, the wonderful descent of love, but what about the going up? “When the queen of Sheba had seen ... his [Solomon’s] ascent by which he went up into the house of the Lord, there was no more spirit in her”. 1 Kings 10:4,5. It does not say only, He that descended is the same also that ascended; He “descended first into the lower parts of the earth” Ephesians 4:9 in love; let every one who has gift remember that, the descent precedes the ascent; but He ascended too, far above all the heavens, and it is for us to see the nature of that. So Elijah says, If you see me when I am taken up it shall be granted unto you; and the apostle shows how it is in the appreciation of [p. 47] Christ going up that we become acquainted with what is becoming to that scene.
Directly the Israelites crossed the Jordan, as you all know, the manna ceased; it ceased on the morrow after the passover, then they ate the old corn; it abounded in the land, it was the store corn, it was carried forward from the previous harvest. Paul was caught up into the third heaven, and heard unspeakable words. It is a wonderful inquiry as to the manner of Christ’s going up, what He is there before God, that we might know the pre-world thought of God, that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love. Predestinated unto sonship through Jesus Christ to Himself; it is all before Him so that the Lord’s portion is His people; “the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints” Ephesians 1:18; and it is only as we apprehend Christ going up, and what He is there in His own domain, that we understand what we are, that we should be before God holy and without blame in love.
I have often said that the Christian does not go up alone, nor would he desire it. The more we love the more we desire to have the brethren every inch of the way, so we are quickened together with Christ, raised up together, and made to sit down in the heavenlies in Christ. We are there in love, we would not have it otherwise. If we love the Lord’s people we want them all there. And we are made to sit down together there; it is final; we are to sit down in Christ, in full dignity, before God.
Well, I hope I have indicated something of what there is for God in His people.