"IN HIM IS THE YEA, AND IN HIM THE AMEN" (ADDRESS)
“[p. 348] IN HIM IS THE YEA, AND IN HIM THE AMEN” (ADDRESS)
There are not many passages of Scripture which set forth a greater fulness of blessing than the one before us. When the apostle wrote the first epistle to the Corinthians he was straitened; he could not let out his heart to them. Their low and carnal state rendered them unable to enter into the deep things of God. But the first epistle had its effect in producing self-judgment; they went down under it in true repentance. When Paul heard this it seemed to start all the springs of his heart, and he was able to write this second epistle, and to pour out on them all the wealth of God.
In 1 Corinthians two things are prominent, the cross and the Spirit. The cross shuts out what is of man, and the Spirit brings in what is of God. When we know the word of the cross as God’s power we judge ourselves, and when there is self-judgment on our part there is no hindrance to our entering into the deep and blessed things of God. We are then in a state to learn all that we are brought into by the grace and love of God. God’s pleasure and our blessing are established in Jesus Christ the Son of God, the One whom Paul had preached at Corinth. “The Son of God, Jesus Christ, he who has been preached by us among you ... did not become yea and nay, but yea is in him”. God would have us to know that blessed Person in whom is the “yea”.
In connection with this I wish to speak about three [p. 349] men who may be seen in Scripture. First, a man in whom there is nothing but “nay”. Then a man in whom there is both “yea” and “nay”. And, third, a Man in whom there is nothing but “yea”.
The man in whom there is nothing but “nay” is the natural, unconverted man. Whatever God says to that man, the only answer is “nay”. There is in him the constant negation of God’s will and pleasure. Let us look at a few scriptures which shew how there is nothing but “nay” to God in the natural man.
Genesis 6: 5, 6. Here we see man before the flood, with the light of nature and conscience, and the presence of death as the powerful witness of man’s fall and of God’s righteous judgment upon sin. There were also in that day the prophesying of Enoch and the preaching of Noah as further testimony. But was there any response to the light and testimony given? No. Every thought of man was evil and that continually; there was nothing in him but “nay” to God.
Psalm 53: 2, 3. This refers to a time subsequent to the giving of the law from Mount Sinai. Much more of the will of God had been made known to men, but the only answer of man is “nay”.
Isaiah 5: 7. This shows what man was in the time of the prophets. God had separated the children of Israel from the nations, and had cultivated and cared for them, but now when He looked for fruit pleasing to Himself, the only answer He got was “nay”.
Mark 7: 20 - 23. Now we have come to the time of Christ. Is man any better? Is he beginning to learn to say “yea” to God? Not a bit. The terrible things spoken of here as proceeding from the heart of man are altogether contrary to God. It is all “nay”.
Acts 7: 51 - 53. This is the time of the presence of the Holy Spirit, and man still continues his terrible history of [p. 350] contrariety to God. It is the same thing all through. Whether before the flood, or under the law, or the prophets, or in presence of Christ or the Holy Spirit there is in the natural man nothing but ‘nay’. He violates nature and conscience, breaks the law, despises the prophets, betrays and murders Christ, resists the Holy Spirit, and stones to death the man who witnesses of an exalted and glorified Christ. What a history!
One more scripture, and then I will turn from this man in whom is nothing but “nay”. In Romans 7: 18 we see a man who had learned in his own experience that in him was “nay”. He could say, I have conscious knowledge “that in me ... good does not dwell”. I put it to myself and to every one here, ‘Have we that conscious knowledge?’ You may say, ‘How does a man get it?’ Well, certainly not by the light of reason, or by the light of conscience, or even by the light of Scripture, for Saul of Tarsus had all these in great measure before he discovered that in him was “nay” and nothing but “nay”. It was the mighty work of God in his soul effecting the new birth which resulted in his making this discovery. He became conscious of a new inward man according to which he could take account of all that was in him according to the flesh and know that there was no good in him. When a man is born anew it is as though a divine candle were lighted in his heart which exposes everything there in an entirely new light. Saul of Tarsus had thought, no doubt, that there was nothing bad in him before, but now he discovered that there was nothing good. He looked into himself and found nothing but “nay” to God.
Have you found out that there is nothing in you according to the flesh but a continual “nay” to God? This is true of you as a child of Adam. If you have the conscious knowledge of it, it will help you to see clearly that all blessing must be in Christ. You cannot connect the [p. 351] blessing of God with sinful flesh. The reason people do not enter into the blessings of christianity is that they will hang on to that wretched man in whom there is nothing for the pleasure of God. They do not reach the moral end of self in their own minds. Someone has said that if you transpose ‘flesh’ and drop a letter, you find it is self. There is nothing in self but “nay” to God.
Now we will look at a man in whom may be seen both “yea” and “nay”. This is the converted man — the one who has been born anew and is the subject of a work of God. Practically, you will find that all through Scripture, and in actual experience there is in the converted man both “nay” and “yea”. I will shew you a few examples in Scripture.
We will look first at Moses — one of the greatest men in Scripture.
In Numbers 12: 3 we see what was “yea”, what was pleasing to God as the fruit of His own work and grace. I do not think meekness was natural to Moses at all. My impression is that he was a very different kind of man naturally. He was not very meek with the Egyptian some forty or fifty years before! His meekness was the fruit of God’s work in him; it was a little bit of Christ coming out in him, and it was well pleasing to God; it was a bit of the “yea” — an anticipation of Christ under the eye of God.
Let us turn now to Numbers 20: 7 - 11. Ah! there we see a bit of the “nay”. At that moment he did not enter into the mind of God. He did not understand that God was appearing in the glory of grace to supply the need of His poor, discontented people. He did not rise to the thought that God was going on with His people in grace, of which the priesthood was the abiding witness amongst them. He did not sanctify God in his language or his action. God sanctified Himself, it is true, and proved what He was in spite of it all, but there was “nay” to God in Moses and not “yea”. Holy meekness came out in him in chapter 12, but now he says, “Ye rebels ...”. This outbreak of the “nay” cost Moses a good deal. He was not allowed to enter the promised land.
Now let us read two scriptures with reference to David, 1 Samuel 13: 14 and 2 Samuel 11: 27. There was much in David that was “yea”. The grace and work of God were seen very distinctly in him. Indeed there is no man in Scripture whom the Spirit of God has used so much to give expression prophetically to the language of the Spirit of Christ, and of Christ personally. But there was also the “nay”.
Now let us turn to Matthew 16:16,17; Matthew 16:21-23, and see the “yea” and the “nay” in a New Testament saint. How close the “yea” and “nay” come together! When Peter said, “Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God”, it was “yea”; it answered perfectly to what was in the heart of God. But in how short a time did Peter, who had thus been the mouthpiece of a revelation from the Father, become the mouthpiece of Satan! His natural sentiments, even when they ran in so good a direction, as men would say, were really “nay” to the mind of God.
Beloved friends, if we are born of God and have the Spirit there is that in us which is “yea”, that which is of God and according to His mind, but in our practical history I am sure we have all proved that there is also with us that which is “nay”. Good does not dwell in our flesh; nothing improves it, not even the presence of the Spirit; the moment we cease to walk in the Spirit we drop down to that which is always “nay”.
What a solemn contrast there is between the beginning and the end of 2 Corinthians 12. A man in Christ goes up into paradise at the beginning of the chapter: that is all “yea”. But at the end the apostle expresses his fears lest there should be very much coming out in the saints at Corinth which was “nay”. How such a contrast ought to exercise our hearts and consciences! It is only that which is wrought in us by God which answers “yea” to Him.
Now I come to speak of the blessed Man in whom there is nothing but “yea”. What a divine relief and joy it is to turn to that Man! “For the Son of God ... did not become yea and nay, but yea is in him”. Thank God, there is a blessed Man in whom is the perfect answer to all His good pleasure, the eternal delight of His heart. God has brought perfection into this world, and set it up now at His own right hand in the Person of His Son Jesus Christ. People talk about not believing in perfection, but, beloved friends, you will never have rest and satisfaction of heart until you find perfection. God has provided for the satisfaction of every true craving of man’s heart and conscience by bringing in perfection. I do not mean perfection in us but perfection in Christ. The moment we come to Christ we reach perfection in Him. All is “yea” in Him. It is in coming to Him that we receive rest. He says “Come to me, ... and I will give you rest”. If you have not got rest it is because you have not really come to that blessed One in whom is the “yea”. I do not mean that you are not a believer in Jesus, but you have not come to Him in this blessed character as the resting place of God’s pleasure, and as the One in whom all God’s thoughts of love and grace are established, and also as the One in whom there is the perfect setting forth of all that God is. It is God’s great thought to make that blessed Person known to us, to firmly attach us to Him.
Now let us look at some scriptures which speak of this One in whom is “yea”.
Luke 2: 49. Here we see Him as a holy Child of twelve, having come into this world of which it had been said that “there is not one that seeks after God”, and He is the perfect contrast to it all. His Father’s business was [p. 354] His one concern. There was absolute devotedness to God in that holy Child. How wonderful it is to think of Him coming into this world at the lowest point as a Babe, and growing up here in divine perfection under the eye of God, God’s tender Plant in this scene of thorns and briars!
Luke 3: 22. He had then reached the age of thirty and was about to go forth in public service and ministry. God’s voice greeted Him from the opened heaven as the beloved Son in whom was God’s delight. In Him was “yea”; there was the perfect answer to all God’s pleasure in Him.
John 8: 29. Here we see again One in whom all was “yea” for the Father; He was the perfect and divine Servant of the Father’s pleasure here.
John 12: 27, 28. Note these verses well. Why was His holy soul troubled? It was because He, in whom was the perfect “yea” to all the will of God, was about to put Himself in contact with sins, and curse, and death, and judgment, with the condemnation of the man in whom was nothing but “nay”. He was going into the place of sin for the glory of God, and the bearing of sin, the removal of the man in whom was “nay”, was a terrible thing. It cost Him the anguish, the darkness, the forsaking on the cross. But in view of all this, and knowing well what it involved, He gave a perfect answer to the blessed God, “Father, glorify thy name”. That was His answer to God in view of His sufferings and death. In Him was “yea” even in the place of sin’s holy judgment, and of our curse and condemnation. It had been written of Him from the past eternity, “Lo, I come ... to do, O God, thy will”, and that will was that all our guilt and pollution should be put away in righteousness so that we might be blessed in the knowledge of God. And in the place where all this came upon Him He gave a perfect [p. 355] answer to the holiness of God, justifying the Holy One who there forsook Him: “Yea is in him”.
But where is He now? He must needs suffer and rise again from the dead that the Scriptures might be fulfilled; He has been raised by the glory of the Father and He now sits at the right hand of God as the Beloved. He is there — the eternal Object of the Father’s delight and love. In Him is the “yea”. One ray of His glory is enough to take the shine out of this world for the heart that perceives it, and to throw self into the shade. When you see Him you are glad to say, ‘He is, and I am not’; you are glad to disappear in the presence of the One in whom is the “yea”.
Then the apostle goes on to a further thought in verse 20. How vast is the scope of this one verse! One might preach on it for a hundred years without exhausting it. Some one has said that there are thirty thousand promises in Scripture. It may be so; I have never counted them; but whatever the number is, “in him is the yea, and in him the amen”. They are all affirmed and confirmed in Christ. How great, how glorious is Christ!
So far as I see there are three great classes of promises in Scripture. I will give you an example of each, and you may find it interesting to follow it out more in detail for yourself.
Genesis 3: 15. You may say that this was not exactly a promise, as it was addressed to the serpent, but it had certainly the nature of a promise. It was a statement of what God would do for His own glory and for the blessing of man. In this chapter we see the introduction of sin and death and Satan’s power. These three things go together. No sooner were they introduced than God appeared on the scene with this blessed declaration of His own purpose. It is so all through Scripture. As different manifestations of the power of evil and its fruits appeared [p. 356] God met them with promises. In the case before us, the serpent had no sooner shown his head than God said, ‘I will have a Man to bruise that head’. And as the history of evil and of man’s weakness developed, God met it all by promises. He pledged Himself in that way to remove the evil and to put a corresponding good in its place. So every manifestation of what was evil became the occasion for a promise in which God engaged Himself to remove that evil, and to put in its place what was good and holy and blessed. And whatever promises of God there are, in Christ is the yea and in Him the amen.
It is a terribly solemn fact that sin and death and Satan’s power have come into the world. Men struggle in vain to get rid of these things. All civilised nations are doing their best to improve the condition of things here. They succeed, perhaps, in whitewashing the exterior a little, but under the surface there are “dead men’s bones and all uncleanness”. Then men try to grapple with death. There is no science people are so deeply interested in as medical science. With what delight is every new discovery hailed! Men are glad to think that death can be pushed back a year or two. But how impotent is man in all this! Sin is here and men cannot remove it; death is here and men cannot set it aside; Satan’s power is here and men are glad to have it so. An overwhelming majority are in favour of Satan’s rule, and prefer it to God’s. Satan says to man, ‘You can go your own way’, but if God were to rule He would necessarily say, ‘You must go My way’. Man says, ‘I prefer to go my own way, and not God’s way’. He thus chooses to be ruled by Satan.
Now think of God bringing in Christ to meet the question of sin, and to annul death and Satan’s power! Now there is a spot where neither sin nor death nor Satan’s power can ever come. Where is that spot? It is the blessed Person of the Christ. He has put away sin, annulled death, and bruised the serpent’s head. Where do we see this victory? In the course of things in this world? No; we see it in Christ at the right hand of God. In contrast to sin and death and Satan’s power, He has brought in righteousness and life and the kingdom of God. He is the antitype of the coats of skin and of the tree of life. All the promises of God in Him are yea and in Him amen.
Now turn to Genesis 12: 2. I turn to this as an example of another class of promises, which come in in relation to all the confusion which sin has introduced here. Sin and death and Satan’s power having come in, there is confusion here instead of blessing. Everything is out of order. “Let us make ourselves a name” (Genesis 11: 4) is man’s supreme ideal of happiness. A man would not mind working all the flesh off his bones and dying in a gutter if he could thereby make himself a name. But all this results in confusion because it excludes God, and there is no true happiness in it. “Blessing” is happiness conferred by God. God’s answer to Babel was the calling out and blessing of Abraham. “I will ... bless thee, and make thy name great”. God called him out of the confusion of the world to have true happiness, and to be made great in a divine way. The world has but a poor idea of happiness and greatness; it is all confusion if looked at morally. But God delights to make men happy and great by giving them the knowledge of Christ. God made Abraham’s name great by bringing Christ into his family. All the blessing of God has come in in Christ. I put it to every one here, Are you in the joy of divine blessing — of happiness conferred by God? We are either looking for happiness from Babel or in Christ. God has brought in the greatest happiness for man in Christ. The world system looks very attractive to the young; they go into things with enthusiasm and do not see the emptiness of it all. But it is all tinsel and unreality. There is a good deal of gaiety in [p. 358] this city, but do you suppose there is real happiness in the hearts of these devotees of fashion with all their pleasures? They get a certain amount of gratification for their natural tastes, but morally it is all confusion. If you want happiness it is to be found in Christ and there alone, but you cannot have it without separation. God said to Abraham, “Go out ...”. To reach blessing you must leave the place where there is nothing but confusion. In the gospel Christ is presented to us that we may be attracted to Him and thus morally separated from this world of confusion. God gives what is infinitely better, what is worthy of Himself, “things which eye has not seen, and ear not heard”, 1 Corinthians 2: 9. All the promises of God are brought to pass in Christ, and established in such a way that they can never be overthrown.
Then a third class of promises comes in in connection with the utter weakness of man. As an example of this we may turn to 2 Samuel 23: 1 - 5. These were the last words of David. God’s gentleness had made David very great; many divine promises were connected with him, but now he had come to his last words; he was not suffered to continue by reason of death. Death is the utter weakness of man. The promises could not be established in a man who was going down into death. David was not strong enough to hold the promises. Whatever God might give to man after the flesh he could not hold it because of his weakness. David recognised the necessity for another Person to come in who should be “as the light of the morning, like the rising of the sun, a morning without clouds”. There was One who could pass through the night of man’s death and condemnation, and rise to be the Sun of an eternal day, One able to hold everything for the glory of God and the blessing of man in the power of resurrection. David had to turn from himself and his own house to Christ. He was dying, and his house was “not so before God”, but he could turn to a greater Person in whom everything should be established in the light and power of resurrection. “An everlasting covenant, ordered in every way and sure” is established in a risen Christ. David could not hold the promises by reason of death, but, by the Spirit, he was in view of One who could establish them and hold them for ever. Whatever promises of God there are, in Christ is the yea, and in Him the amen. Then mark those words, “For glory to God by us”. God gets the glory and praise of all that He has established in Christ “by us”. He does not get it from angels but from men. It is by the assembly that principalities and authorities in the heavenlies learn the all-various wisdom of God. God will have glory in the assembly in Christ Jesus throughout all ages. The assembly has divine intelligence of all that God has established and confirmed in Christ, and thus becomes competent to give Him the glory and praise of it. The praise and glory of God will be found in the fullest way in the assembly for ever.
God’s perfect delight is in Christ; in Him is the “yea” of all God’s pleasure. And all the promises of God, the establishment of God’s thoughts of love and grace towards man, in Him are yea and in Him amen. May God make us better acquainted with Him, so that in fuller measure there may be “glory to God by us”.