Nehemiah 2: 10-20; Revelation 3: 1-6
"MY ASSEMBLY"
W.L. ln the first reading we were looking at the thought of two, and two and three. I thought it might be appropriate to consider a parallel thought of two, two men, and in Sardis, a few names. We know that Ezra wrote before Nehemiah. Ezra gives us God's sovereignty, what He can do from His own side, whereas Nehemiah presents the work from the standpoint of man's faithfulness. Here was a man who had come to seek the welfare of Israel. Sanballat the Horonite, Tobijah the Ammonite and Geshem the Arabian who is added later. It is again two and three; Sanballat and Tobijah, two men, and it expands to Sanballat, Tobijah and Geshem. It speaks to us of the way the enemy would seek to meet what is of God and would represent the administration, the gates of hades, typically, the opposition that would be against a man who would seek the welfare of the children of Israel. There is a lovely blend in this chapter of what is individual and what is collective. It begins with one man, a man seeking the welfare of the children of Israel. I suppose that would be a feature that would mark the saints especially in these days, that we seek each other's welfare, welfare spiritually. It goes on to the influence of a faithful m an, how he is able to influence others, and would link with what was said, not only what is built but "let each see how he builds" (1 Cor 3: 10).
So Nehemiah came to Jerusalem and was there three days. I think it would bear an application to the history of the recovery, the ruinous condition that was in Christendom publicly and still exists, but there were men who sought the welfare of the people of God, men who had a secret with God. That is the key. We should be persons who have a secret with God, not selfishly but prepared to share it with others. Nehemiah says "but I told no man what my God had put in my heart to do for Jerusalem". It was not to think about Jerusalem simply, but to do for Jerusalem, a day for spiritual activity, a day for spiritual building, to consider for one another's welfare. I thought that the ''few men with me" is linked with the Lord's words, "Where two or three are gathered together". It expands in this book, They were all at the work and right through the book the work was opposed. The enemy is set against every spiritual activity of the saints. Then I thought we might touch on Sardis representing Protestantism. "A few names" in Sardis, not many but "a few names in Sardis that have not defiled their garments". We would love to be among those few.
L.McF. What is characteristic of Nehemiah is his feeling; how he felt the breakdown, he wept, he had genuine feelings how the saints are getting on. Would that be the character of things for which we look in the few?
W.L. I am sure that is helpful. We should be as persons who feel the breakdown in a real way. He came to Jerusalem, and was there three days; I wonder whether that would suggest the death of Christ - three days. It was quite an extended period, three days. It was three nights also with the Lord but three days - Nehemiah came to Jerusalem, he felt the whole thing. We should feel the condition of Christendom and our own part in it. Do you think it would be right to say that we have brought probably more disgrace on the testimony of our Lord than almost any in Christendom. We need to humble ourselves as to that.
L.McF. Dear Mr Renton remarked that, that we should be the humblest company in Christendom. I am sure that is true. We all have to confess how we have contributed to the breakdown.
W.L. And yet the work has to go on. That is what is brought out here.
J.A.P. There is a governmental side that we have to accept in this matter of being few. Is that right?
W.L. It is very important to see that and to confess it. We let the Lord down. We would never forget that. In the days in which we are, very positive days, the Lord is working in a very precious way and what He has in a few is very precious; in divine grace He will credit to all what has been held by a few. So here was a man who had something very positive, ''there had come a man to seek the welfare of the children of Israel", a man with a definite aim in life. That is important, a definite aim in life, to seek the welfare of the saints. Then that activity revolved around Jerusalem in the rebuilding. It is really the recovery. We are in days of recovery when there has been so much disaster but it is a day of building.
K.N.P. It says in the first chapter when Nehemiah first heard of it, he wept, and mourned for days, and fasted, and prayed before the God of the heavens (chap 1: 4). I wondered if there was some significance in the prayer. Is that how we get God's mind about things and then can go on with the building in accord with the plan?
W.L. That is helpful. Verses 4 and 5 bring out the kind of man he was. Paul could say, "By God's grace I am what I am" 1 Cor 15: 10. There is no room in the divine system for self-made men. Even men who study the Scriptures and the truth may have themselves before them; that is a sad thing. But these verses to which you refer bring out what kind of man he was. He felt the conditions in a very real way and turned to God about them. That is important; we have continually to resort to God about matters.
C.F.D. Do you think that the way that God was moved in relation to this man is very instructive? He says, "I told no man what my God had put in my heart to do for Jerusalem". That is really a reference to his personal, private, intimate, link with God, that God is operating in putting something in his heart to do for the assembly.
W.L. I thought we should see that; a personal link with divine Persons is an absolute essential. I suppose we have all the experience of meetinggoing. I think it is in The Steps of Faith by Mr Stoney (who, by the way helps us as to that first reading, "He that is joined to the Lord is one Spirit". Mr Stoney speaks much of union with Christ as bearing on the individual, we may have neglected that a bit); he says, There are three classes of persons among the saints: one - those who go to the meetings as persons would simply go to a church; two - those who come along because they know it is the right place to be; and three - those who are there by faith. I would like to be in the third category. As assembled here we are persons who are here by faith, our resource is in God and we bring God into every circumstance. That is what this man did in his prayer, in his fasting and in his beseeching God. The man was in earnest and he brought God into these circumstances. What a difference it makes when we bring God into our circumstances.
C.F.D. The scripture to which our brother referred brings in fasting, as you have just done. It seems to me that that is an area where we need a lot of help. I wonder how many of us here today know what it is to fast. Maybe you would say a word about fasting that would help us.
W.L. It is a private matter, is it not? The Lord indicates that; it is private, not something you publicise. Fasting is a denial of what is legitimate. You might say, Well, I could do without that - maybe a luxury of some kind - and never miss it. But fasting is that we do without things that are legitimate. Would you agree with that?
C.F.D. Yes. In Scripture power in prayer is linked with fasting. If our localities are anything like each other we need power right now in prayer in order that things might be brought about, because God is able.
W.L. That is very fine. It has been said - how accurate it is requires a lot of thought - that fasting deals with the flesh and prayer brings God in. I think it is quite a good definition.
L.McF. In Acts 13 there is prayer and fasting, then the introduction of the liberty the Spirit had among the saints. That is a point we need to understand too, how room is made for the Spirit as there is this state with us.
W.L. Yes. Again could I quote Mr Stoney - If I myself deny where I could gratify, I suffer bitterly, but sweet is liberty - that is fasting. It is well put. These exercises cost something: that is what comes to light in Nehemiah, his exercises cost him something deep down in his feelings, it was no selfish matter with him.
G.D.P. Nehemiah was concerned about Jerusalem when it is in ruins. He does not wait until it is all built up.
W.L. That is a fine thought. I think Nehemiah would portray the right feelings we ought to have in our day. We may speak about the ruin. The recovery begun by the Lord in the 1820s has been the subject of division. How many different groups there are in this city and in other cities. It is something to think about. And those are the conditions that are portrayed in Nehemiah, the wall is broken down, its gates are broken down - almost total destruction. That is what the enemy is at. The enemy is represented in these men, "mocked us and despised us". That is Galilee to which we referred at the end of Matthew and we are to be prepared to accept the mocking and the despising. It is the day we are living in.
K.N.P. What do you say about the way he went - he went out by night by the valley-gate?
W.L. It would be a lowly and humble way. These gates are not of much repute, the valley-gate toward the jackal-fountain. The jackal is not a very nice creature. And the dung-gate - he went that way. "I viewed the walls of Jerusalem which were in ruins, and its gates were consumed with fire". I think he is like. Daniel; he fully identifies himself with the conditions extant at that time. He did not take a stand-offish view and say, Well, this has nothing to do with me. That is a common attitude in Christendom. We sometimes say it ourselves - I do not want to be bothered with that, it has nothing to do with me. But this man accepts full personal responsibility for conditions that existed and we should accept it. We might say that past divisions have nothing to do with us, but what we have to realize is that the root of all these things is in our hearts and must be judged there.
K.N.P. If we are going to be occupied in building the wall it takes us back to what we had in the first reading, does it not? - "my assembly" and the delight He takes in that. That is something of the view, do you think, that Nehemiah had?
W.L. That is good. I thought that Jerusalem would link with "my assembly". It is obvious what Nehemiah had in his heart, "what my God had put in my heart to do for Jerusalem"; right at the beginning he had God's view as to Jerusalem, what Jerusalem was and ought to be in God's sight. He laid hold of that and I think that what we had is essential, to lay hold of the purpose of God and of the pattern, not the ruin. We have to face up to that but we need to lay hold of God's great thoughts as to Jerusalem, as to the assembly, and work from that standpoint because the ruin is not our standard. Sometimes a kind of fatalism can come in and we say, Well, that is how things are, we just have to accept them. Nehemiah does not do that; he says, We are going to rebuild in view of this whole structure that is for the glory of God.
J.A.P. Where we started this morning, the Person of Christ, is so important, is it not, "Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God". As I understand it Mr Darby really protected the Person of Christ, the humanity of the Lord Jesus, in the Bethesda matter. Is that right?
W.L. That is important. Error had come in as to the Person of Christ and persons took a neutral stance as to it. The Lord would not have it, God would not have it. Then Nehemiah goes on to the fountaingate - we were referring to these gates - and to the king's pool. These are very positive matters. He comes back and entered again by the valley-gate and returned; he is maintaining that spirit of humility. He did not come in by the fountain-gate again, he returned to it and to the king's pool, but he entered again by the valley-gate and returned. He maintained that spirit of humility that is most necessary with all of us; it is the only kind of spirit that God will support. I trust this exhortation will be comely and timely. "Come, and let us build up the wall of Jerusalem".
J.A.P. This thought we have about few men, verse 12, "I and some few men" - he was carrying some with him, was he not; it was not just a one man matter. Is that right?
W.L. That is fine. I thought it gave a lovely blend of the individual and the collective. One thing that has emerged in divisions that have occurred in the history of the recovery is a pronouncement that there is no longer what is collective; it is an individual day. I say it is a day for both, Scripture clearly indicates that. It is a day for persons who have a secret, personal link with God and who work together with other persons who likewise in their own lives have a secret link with God. That is 2 Timothy 2; you take an individual action, then you find you walk with those that call upon the Lord out of a pure heart. Nehemiah was a man with a pure heart, pure motives. That is another very important thing that in all things our motives are pure. There was no self-interest with this man, his motives were pure through and through.
Now just to touch on Sardis. We were reminding ourselves that the last four addresses go on together to the end, running concurrently, and in each of them the overcoming comes before the hearing. I think Nehemiah was an overcomer. It requires faith for overcoming and we overcome as individuals. It is clear from the Lord's word to these churches that the way into the enjoyment of what is collective - all these wonderful thoughts of God - is individual on the principle of overcoming, and as we noticed, and we should stress it, it is only the overcomer that hears. When matters have arisen persons say, I do not see it. Why do they not see it? It is because they are not overcomers; they have allowed their sight to become beclouded by something else. Often it is like that man who had the first touch in Mark's gospel. He opened his eyes and saw men as trees walking. He required that second touch to see all things clearly (Mark 8). One would covet to be among those who see all things clearly.
L.McF. We can be unduly occupied with personalities.
W.L. Never let us again give undue place to man.
C.F.D. Maybe you would open up a bit what is an overcomer.
W.L. You can help us. Give us your impression of it?
C.F.D. The enemy is set to keep the overcomer from Christ, and from all that Christ has in His mind for His people. The enemy cannot stop a believer going to heaven - eventually a believer is going to go to heaven, he will be with Christ - but he is bent on stopping and robbing God at the present time and does that in individuals. Overcoming requires that I get back to 2 Timothy to which you referred earlier, because that is individual. We know what it is to walk with those who call upon the Lord out of a pure heart, but you have to move individually first, do you not?
W.L. That is right. "Let every one who names the name of the Lord withdraw from iniquity". You are put then on an overcoming basis.
C.F.D. The principle of separation begins there.
W.L. It does indeed. You then can take your place among those ''thou hast a few names in Sardis which have not defiled their garments". Our garments are what surrounds us. This links with 2 Timothy 2. There is a very important article, following a series of readings Divine Names, on Unspotted Garments, in which Mr Taylor speaks about the warp and the woof (Vol. 50 NS) and the danger of leprosy in the warp or in the woof. Leprosy getting into that pure fabric destroys it and contaminates everything else. But here are per sons which have not defiled their garments.
C.F.D. And that constitutes them morally able to walk with Christ. "Walk with me in white", purity. They are able to walk with Christ. This is an overcomer, is it not?
W.L. It is indeed. I think these are persons who are anticipating Revelation 19, "And it was given to her that she should be clothed in fine linen, bright and pure; for the fine linen is the righteousnesses of the saints" v 8. I think the Lord has great delight in seeing persons who are practically showing forth the features now of what will be seen in the wife, and the linen bright and pure, because they are worthy. That is a wonderful thought. Later on we get, "Worthy is the Lamb", (chap. 5: 12), but before that the Lord speaks about persons who are worthy. How gracious He is.
NEW YORK