ELEMENTS THAT TEND TO UNITY
D. Robertson
Acts 2: 42; 11: 19, 20; 1 Corinthians 5: 7, 8; 12: 13; 2 Corinthians 3: 18
One feels led, beloved brethren, to speak of certain matters that would tend to unity among the saints. I have read in Acts chapter 2 because it stands related to the apostolic witness.
These men were commissioned of God to represent Him and to represent Him in authority, and I believe the basic feature that underlies unity among the saints is the acceptance of divine authority, it is not right to think that we can arrive at unity through agreement. Unity is not arrived at in that way, but rather the opposite. We arrive at agreement through unity, and that is a very important matter. I do not think that if I am marked by any feature of insubjection, I can have part practically in the unity that exists among the saints. So that these men were commissioned of God even as Moses was in the old dispensation to represent His authority. It is very remarkable that their testimony was not an arbitrary one, it involved suffering. So that when we are speaking of authority we are not speaking of something that was established in an unfeeling way, but these men established the testimony of Christianity under the hand of the Spirit of God; they established it authoritatively and sufferingly.
When we come to Revelation 21 it says that the wall of the city was great and high, and twelve names of the twelve apostles of the Lamb were on the foundations of the wall (Revelation 21: 12–14). That is noticeable—the twelve names of the apostles of the Lamb.
These were the men into whose hand God committed the authority to work in the establishment of Christianity and that work remains. I believe it is part of the firm foundation that stands. The fact that breakdown has occurred has not, in any way, altered the great fact of what was established of God through apostolic witness and, therefore, it requires on our part subjection to it. The witness was largely as to Christ risen. That was the public testimony of these men, laying out the firmness of the structure of Christianity, established in the light of a Man out of death; that Man, not only out of death, but taken up into heaven, God making Him both Lord and Christ. The whole position is established in divine authority—on that principle.
That principle is to be accepted by us and to be worked out in our souls’ history, so that we become persons who subject themselves to divine authority. There will be no blessing apart from it, and there will be no unity in our localities, or generally among the saints, unless we maintain subjection to the authority of God. The fact that it says that they persevered in the teaching and fellowship of the apostles, in breaking of bread and prayers is, I think, a direct result of the saints at this point accepting the authority that was committed to the apostles, and that was divine authority. As I said, it was not arbitrary authority in the hands of a few men, but authority worked out on the principle of suffering, because each of them suffered.
They all died as martyrs, as far as we know. The idea of the witness and the martyr is one word in Scripture, and I believe all these men died as witnesses of Christ, and died as witnesses to what God was establishing in Christianity in His supreme authority.
Beloved, it is necessary that we bow to that and yield to it. I believe it is the first basic principle of our unity in Christianity and in the things of God. It says that they persevered in the teaching and fellowship of the apostles and in breaking of bread and prayers. These persons are acting as affected inwardly, not merely outwardly, but affected inwardly by the authority of God represented in the apostles. I say again, and I say it to the young men and women, and to the older persons too, that we need to be maintained in subjection to the authority of God. It is vital. It is being given up on every hand even by Christians, persons who ought to know better, for a looser, Laodicean, line of things. People are pleading for a latitudinarian line. What is it leading to? It is leading to digression and diversion and to break up. As a result, if they follow this line, persons combine in another kind of unity and it is all false.
Let us see that we need to be maintained solidly, feelingly, and inwardly by the authority of God that came through these men in apostolic witness. It has come down to our own day. The testimony is here in the scripture for the Spirit has carried it down to our own day. I say there is no blessing and there is no vital unity unless we accept the basic principle of being under authority to God. I feel the danger of coming under these latitudinarian ideas and running into other lines of things, whereas, if we are to be a blessing and a testimony to others, it must be as we are maintained in subjection to the authority of God.
In Acts 11, I think we come to another great feature that promotes unity among the saints. It speaks here of the tribulation that took place on the occasion of Stephen. This is not part of the apostolic witness, what is represented in Stephen is not the representation of divine authority, but it is the preparedness to suffer to maintain the truth. If there is one thing that is needed today and one thing that promotes unity amongst the saints, it is the preparedness of the saints to suffer to maintain the truth. The scripture here speaks about the occasion of Stephen, as if it was something that had a tremendous bearing on the testimony at this juncture. Paul was still to come but, in its inaugural sense, the apostolic day was waning. The representation of the divine authority had been clearly established on the line of suffering, but there was a new requirement, because there was going to be, through Paul, the establishment of the economy of local assemblies. That involves the maintenance of the truth in each locality and, if the truth
is to be maintained in a locality, it is on the principle of suffering.
Now I think that leads to the truth of the pearl which is the result of suffering. It is the result of pressure, and I think this line that is suggested in the occasion of Stephen, and these persons who were scattered abroad, but who continued under the divine direction, leads to the establishment of what is of pearl character among the saints. If we could refer again to Revelation 21, you will find that each gate was of one pearl (Revelation 21: 21). That means there was unity in administration because there was the preparedness to suffer for the maintenance of the truth. I feel that, at times, we fail through not being prepared to suffer to maintain the truth and, therefore, we let something pass. That is how it goes, and another thing slips, and so it goes on. Why? because we are not prepared to suffer to maintain the truth. We are in solemn days and standards are dropping. You say, ‘Why, because there is not a man to argue for it?’ It will do no good to argue for it. You will need to be prepared to suffer to maintain the standard of the truth. It is part of the assembly’s administration in a locality. It is what is committed to us, I believe, on the principle that is suggested as to the occasion of Stephen. It was a significant turning point in the testimony. He was a man who was not an apostle, but who suffered to maintain the truth, because it was precious to him.
Now I wish to refer to 1 Corinthians 5. Another great feature that binds saints together in a unified way is that we eat the passover together. It says, “For also our passover, Christ, has been sacrificed; so that let us celebrate the feast”. It is not an individual thing. We eat the passover together. Beloved brethren, how much do we know about it? How much do we feed upon the fact that Christ has borne the unmitigated judgment of God against sin? We speak about eating the sin offering but that does not mean we feed on the sin. Feeding on
the sin offering is to feed on Christ as the One who suffered the unmitigated judgment of God against sin. What holy food that is! What a basis for unity amongst us!
Let us celebrate the feast, not with old leaven nor with the leaven of malice and wickedness, but with unleavened bread of sincerity and truth. O the need there is of feeding together on Christ our passover. Paul says our passover, Christ, has been sacrificed. That is the sacrifice of Christ stands. It stands in all its sublime dignity, in all its moral glory, in all its moral worth in the sight of God. Christ has provided God with the basis righteously to judge everything that is offensive to Himself. He has borne the judgment of God in an unmitigated way. The sufferings of Christ—what holy food that is! What sobriety of spirit, what unity of judgment it would bring amongst us if we were feeding upon Christ our passover. It eliminates your opinion and mine. It eliminates our ability to reason or the spirit of contention among the saints. It eliminates it all. We are feeding on the One who has borne the unmitigated judgment of God against sin. I believe it is a great element that leads us on to definite and vital unity.
We have another matter in chapter 12. It says, “For also in the power of one Spirit we have all been baptised into one body”. That is a divine matter, God has done that. We have all been baptised into one body, whether Jews or Greeks, whether bondmen or free. Then it says, “and have all been given to drink of one Spirit”. Now Mr. J. Taylor pointed out that that is our action (Vol. 36, p.375). Baptism into the one body is the divine action, but drinking of one Spirit is what we do. We drink into that Spirit, into one Spirit. I would suggest this means that we are brought into unity of satisfaction; not only unity of judgment of sin and of everything that is disagreeable to God, but we are brought into unity of satisfaction. That is we are all drinking into one Spirit.
One Spirit will pervade the eternal scene. How perfect the matter is. How satisfying! It is available for us, that we should drink of one Spirit. What met the murmuring in the old dispensation was that God gave water from the rock. What meets the murmuring and any spirit of discontent amongst us is that we are given to drink of one Spirit. I believe it speaks of a pure, holy, satisfying stream of living water. Think of a gathering like this where we can drink together of the pure satisfying stream of the flowing of the Holy Spirit. It says it is bright as crystal (Revelation 22: 1). It is pure. Read Revelation 22 and you will see something of the wonderful character of the flowing of the Spirit.
Remember in Nehemiah in a day like our own, a broken day outwardly, but a day of recovery, it says, “all the people gathered together as one man to the open place that was before the water-gate”, Nehemiah 8: 1. What a wonderful thing! That is where we are today. I believe we are in an open place before the water-gate where the Holy Spirit has some measure of freedom. He is not bound up by clericalism. He may be bound up by somebody if we have not judged ourselves, by some lack of interest on our part. The Holy Spirit is bound by these things, but in the measure in which He is free, there is a pure living flow available. It is an open place before the water-gate. There is a wonderful suggestion in that, because the water-gate never needed to be repaired. Many things have been affected by the breakdown, and divine thoughts have been greatly hampered by the breakdown, but the Holy Spirit remains. We might say the water-gate remains and, through the Spirit’s service, is available as a wonderful source of living satisfaction. Our souls can drink of that living stream today and I believe it forms a wonderful blend of unity amongst us.
I believe in 2 Corinthians 3 we have another element tending to unity among the saints; that is that we are all looking on the glory of the Lord. We can be collectively
absorbed with the glory of the Lord. Can any division exist there? It cannot. It is a great bond of unity. Some of the brethren may recall Mr. Stoney’s account of his last visit with Mr.
Darby and how he spoke of his indebtedness to him. He said, ‘I am more indebted to you than to any man living’. Mr. Darby said, ‘There is Another Man’ (‘Letters of J. B. Stoney’ Vol.1, p.219). Christianity is Another Man in another place. We serve one another because we love one another but there is Another Man. The Spirit would help us to have Him before us as the absorbing object of our affections. We all looking on the glory of the Lord are transformed—
a change takes place. Why is that? Because we are looking on Another Man. Most of the difficulties amongst us are because we are looking at the wrong man. We are looking at the man according to flesh and according to nature. I believe there is a great need, in our collective relationships, of going in freshly for these things together, learning what it is to be satisfied with the flow of the Spirit, and learning what it is to be absorbed altogether in our affections with the glories and beauties of Another Man. May God bless the word.
Address at Liverpool, 7 October 1995
GOOD SOLDIERS OF JESUS CHRIST
J. Wright
2 Timothy 2: 1–4, 7–13; 1 Samuel 22: 1, 2; 2 Samuel 23: 8–23, 39; 11: 6–13
I want to say a word as to being good soldiers of Jesus Christ for they are very much needed today. We are very conscious that the ranks are thin, and the need for good soldiers of Jesus Christ is very much apparent. I was in a brother’s house the other day and we were reading Proverbs, and one of them was, “If thou losest
courage in the day of trouble, thy strength is small” (Proverbs 24: 10). We do not want to lose courage, we want to find strength, it is available to us so that we become good soldiers of Jesus Christ. Paul exhorts Timothy to be strong, he says, “Thou therefore, my child, be strong in the grace which is in Christ Jesus”. If we are to be here for the Lord, and if we are to be with Him in the scene of testimony, we are not able to do it in our own strength. If we think we can stand in our own strength we shall fail and fall; but there is strength available to us, there is grace available to us, and it is in Christ Jesus. I do not think it is a great store we carry with us exactly, but it is a supply that is readily available from Christ as we draw upon it. If we draw upon Him, and are maintained in communion with Him, we prove the grace that is in Christ Jesus. How much it is needed!
Conditions without are difficult. Paul speaks of the last days as being difficult times. We are in those days and it is a question as to whether the heavenly character of the testimony is going to be maintained by us. It will be maintained by some, there is no doubt about that. I have the conviction that what has been set on in the recovery of the truth will be maintained.
The Spirit is here, therefore you cannot think of it failing. Responsible persons may fail, and might not be maintained in it, but it will be maintained. The banner will be maintained; let us be maintained in relation to it.
Paul is on the battlefield here; he has others with him and Timothy was one of them. Timothy was a timid man; he was a man who loved the saints; he had imbibed Paul’s teaching, and been affected by Paul’s ways and manner of life as being with him. How necessary these things are! In the epistle to the Hebrews, it says, “Remember your leaders who have spoken to you the word of God; and considering the issue of their conversation, imitate their faith”, Hebrews 13: 7. Take account of their manner of life as well as their
teaching. How necessary it is to know their teaching, and also their manner of life. Timothy would know that, but Paul is exhorting him to be “strong in the grace which is in Christ Jesus”. We cannot be rightly maintained if we get ruffled and upset in our spirits; we need the grace that is in Christ Jesus. Then he says, “And the things thou hast heard of me in the presence of many witnesses, these entrust to faithful men, such as shall be competent to instruct others also”. The things he had heard of Paul were to be maintained, and they were to be passed on undiluted. Now that requires faithful men. If there is any feature needed today it is that of faithful men.
So he says, “Take thy share in suffering as a good soldier of Jesus Christ”. There is something to be taken up. The Lord Jesus, when He was here, spoke of those who would follow Him, they were to take up their cross; He said, “let him ... take up his cross and follow me”, Matthew 16: 24. That is not the Lord’s cross, it is our cross; that is not suffering through illness, it is suffering for the testimony. I believe it is as being like Christ that we suffer. We do not change our ways according to the company we are in. A good soldier of Jesus Christ would maintain the standard. Wherever he was the true standard would be maintained, that is the character of Christ would come out. So he says, “Take thy share in suffering as a good soldier of Jesus Christ”. We are to represent Him, for good soldiers of Jesus Christ would be like Him. We can only become like Him as we are occupied with Him, as we are with Him and know Him where He is. That is one of the kernels of Paul’s ministry, to know Christ where He is, to know the heavenly Man, and have a living, conscious link with Him. A servant of the Lord said, If we are to be like Him where He was, we must know Him where He is.
It says, “No one going as a soldier entangles himself with the affairs of life”. Things have to be attended to righteously, we have to maintain righteousness, but we
need to watch that we do not entangle ourselves with the affairs of life, so that we are not available to Christ. This chapter is our charter in these days and we know that separation is essential. The great point in the chapter is that we might be vessels serviceable to the Master.
So let us watch that we do not entangle ourselves with the affairs of life, and get so embroiled in them that we are not available for Christ and for the testimony to maintain the standard.
Then it says, “that he may please him who has enlisted him as a soldier”. The Lord has enlisted us that we might please Him. We can only be maintained by affection for Christ.
When the Lord speaks of persons following, He says that some may lose their life for His sake and the gospel’s (Mark 8: 35). It cannot be attempted in a legal way, it cannot be attempted in a way to make much of myself, to bring some honour on myself, that will fail miserably; but for Christ’s sake, out of love for Him, you would seek to be true to Him in a scene that is against Him. A good soldier of Jesus Christ would be conscious that the world is against Him. The Lord Jesus was conscious, as He moved through this scene, that the world was against Him, particularly as He approached the cross. Did the Lord evade the suffering?
He felt the suffering; how He felt it in Gethsemane! He said, “My Father, if it be possible let this cup pass from me; but not as I will, but as thou wilt”, Matthew 26: 39. Of course, he had primarily before Him there the sufferings from God; but then the Lord Jesus suffered from men and He did not evade it. He did not seek to escape it; not that He did not feel it. Did not the Lord feel reproach? It says of Him, “the reproaches of them that reproach thee have fallen upon me”, Psalm 69: 9. It is a great thing to know the sympathy and support of Christ, because He has been through suffering and reproach in a way which none of us will be called to go through. Nothing will be put upon us more than we can bear, but we are to take our share. We may seek to evade it, may seek to get along with persons, and to some extent that is right; but
let us not evade the suffering and reproach, let us not hide our colours. These are challenging things, are they not? But, it is for His sake, to please Christ, that is the motive.
Then he says, “Think of what I say, for the Lord will give thee understanding in all things”.
Think of what Paul says! No doubt you think of the scope of Paul’s ministry, but think of what he says here. Intelligence is required, we need to know why we do things. Each one of us needs the conviction of knowing why we are where we are. Why am I here today? The Lord will give us understanding, we need to be intelligent in divine things. A good soldier needs to be fortified in that way, to understand what he is doing, to understand the purpose for which he is here and the course he is on. We are not to be haphazard or aimless. Peter has to say as to Paul’s writings that they are hard to be understood, but Paul says, “Think of what I say, for the Lord will give thee understanding”. The Lord opened the understanding of those at the end of Luke. He will help you in your understanding of the truth, and where you should be and why you should be there, and the course you should take. What a resource we have in Him!
Then he says, “Remember Jesus Christ raised from among the dead, of the seed of David, according to my glad tidings”. That is a great thing to keep before us on the battlefield. The end of the course of suffering for the Lord was that He was raised from among the dead; it was a selective resurrection. God showed His pleasure and delight in Him in raising Him from among the dead. What an end to a course of suffering! The Lord went through in faithfulness and He was raised from among the dead. Paul suffered on account of the elect, he suffered for the glad tidings. He did not just preach in a room with a favourable audience on Lord’s day, he endured, “all things for the sake of the elect, that they also may obtain the salvation which is in Christ Jesus with eternal glory”. He had in view the bringing to light
of the elect and that they might have this salvation which is in Christ Jesus with eternal glory.
What a thing to possess! We would desire that the elect may have it. There are the elect, persons who have been chosen. Many may be hidden in the systems of men, or in the world, but we would desire, and maybe suffer for it, that persons may have, “the salvation which is in Christ Jesus”. Then he says, “The word is faithful; for if we have died together with him, we shall also live together”. This chapter is intensely individual, what each one has to take up, but it does not exclude what is collective, “if we have died together with him, we shall also live together”. That has a bearing upon us, for, if we have died together with Him, there will be no trouble in living together.
I just want to refer to David and his men. There are many scriptures we could read as types of this, but I thought of David and his men because they took on David’s character, typically they took on the spirit of Christ, and a good soldier would do that. Paul was able to send Timothy, that good soldier, to Corinth; he says, “who shall put you in mind of my ways as they are in Christ”, 1 Corinthians 4: 17. Paul could have gone with a rod but instead of that he sends Timothy; he says he will put you in mind of my ways as they are in Christ. He was a timid man yet he would be strengthened there among those big men in Corinth, to put them in mind of those lowly ways. He would be there in faith, he would speak to them of Christ, and set out Paul’s ways as they are in Christ.
In 1 Samuel 22, there are these men who come to David in the cave of Adullam. They were not a very attractive lot when they came to David. David was in reproach, he was in rejection, and the Lord Jesus is in rejection. What made the cave of Adullam what it was, was that David was there. We are to go forth to Jesus, without the camp, bearing His reproach. These persons came to David because they needed him, they needed his protection. He says later to one man, Abiathar,
“Abide with me ... for with me thou art in safe keeping”, 1 Samuel 22: 23. We need the protection of the Lord Jesus, because we have a wily foe, and we cannot stand in our own strength. They had been affected in various ways and some were in distress. Are you in distress? If you are in distress come to Christ. It says in Matthew, “Come to me, all ye who labour and are burdened, and / will give you rest” (Matthew 11: 28).
Then, “every one that was in debt” came to him. If you are in debt, you feel you cannot meet your obligations, but the answer is to come to Christ. So “every one that was in debt, and every one of embittered spirit collected round him”. There were such persons in that day; no doubt it was not difficult to get an embittered spirit under Saul’s regime. They came to David,
“and he became a captain over them”. They would be safe with David and would learn from him; they would learn how to conduct warfare and how to conduct themselves under David.
David had been taught by God how to conduct warfare, “He teacheth my hands to war”, 2
Samuel 22: 35. He learnt, even as a shepherd lad, how to conduct warfare; he was ready for Goliath because of what he had learnt in dependence upon God. These persons would learn from David how to conduct themselves, even in difficult circumstances, through being with David when he was hotly pursued by Saul. There could be no more difficult circumstances than David and his men were in at this time. We say we are in difficult days and we are, but think of the days they were in when hotly pursued by Saul. Yet what a spirit marked David!
Was there any hard feeling against Saul? Not a bit! He was able to overcome things because of the spirit that marked him.
These persons learnt from him, and at the end of 2 Samuel there is this list of mighty men given at the end of David’s reign. In Chronicles a similar list is given at the beginning of his reign, but here they are brought forward at the end. I believe it would represent the
wealth there is in this present dispensation. The quality there was at the beginning is also to be at the end. We cannot say necessarily because we have been reduced that there is quality, but quality is what the Lord has in mind. It is a question of what we are learning from Him, whether we are with Him. At the end of David’s reign these men are referred to; they were men of exploits, men who took on David’s character and spirit.
There was one who fought against eight hundred slain by him at one time; he did not miss his man. You cannot do that in your own strength, you need to be kept in dependence. Then there was one who smote the Philistines until his hand was weary, and his hand clave to the sword.
His hand was identified with the sword, and it became part of him—he knew how to use the word of God. He knew how it applied to himself; we cannot use it rightly unless we know how it applies to ourselves. A sword in the hand of an unspiritual man is a dangerous weapon; but this man is a type of a spiritual man, he knew how to use it, it clave to his hand, it was part of him. Then there is one who stood in a plot of ground full of lentils, when the people had fled before the Philistines, as it says, “he stood in the midst of the plot and delivered it, and smote the Philistines, and Jehovah wrought a great deliverance”. Jehovah wrought a great deliverance through one man standing. I do believe, beloved brethren, that we are not to let any feature of the truth go. You might say. What is this plot? Why stand there? There was food there, it was full of lentils and that was valuable. The food supply is essential. This man stood there and delivered it.
Then three of the thirty chiefs “went down, and came to David in the harvest time”. They acted together. That is typical of one thing Christ is longing for at the present time, that is to see something of the assembly working in persons who act together as knowing His longings.
Publicly, what is for Christ has gone, it is in the hands of the Philistines. The word to
Sardis was, “thou hast a name that thou livest, and art dead”, Revelation 3: 1. There is what is publicly connected with His name, but is that yielding anything for Christ? Does the clerical principle and the congregation yield anything for Him? Does it yield what He is longing for?
There may be godly souls there, but is the system yielding anything for Him of assembly character? That is what He is longing for.
These men acted together, they knew David’s longings, they were near enough to him. Can we move together as knowing the longings of Christ’s heart? I think what is of assembly character is seen when persons move together in this way. What is individual is precious to Christ, but then there is what is collective, as persons move and pursue things together. That comes out in 2 Timothy, “pursue righteousness, faith, love, peace, with those that call upon the Lord out of a pure heart”, 2 Timothy 2: 22. Whatever it cost them they were going to secure it. There have been men of that character at the beginning of the recovery and through the recovery; they brought about this kind of response because they knew what Christ’s longings were. It was not a one-man affair at the beginning of the recovery. Certain men were distinctive, but it was not a one man affair, there were those who moved together. Now can we do that as knowing Christ’s longings? It is not thinking of ourselves; these men risked their life in doing it. How can we risk our life? The thing is to secure it all at cost. Whatever it may cost me, it is a matter of working with others who are like-minded to secure something for the heart of Christ, to satisfy His longings. How David valued their action is but a type of how Christ values our response now. Then there is one who smote two lions of Moab. Also it says, “he went down and smote a lion in the midst of a pit on a snowy day”; he did not evade it because conditions were difficult. He would not stay away from the meetings because it was raining; he was not deterred from this because it was a snowy day and it was cold. No, he
went forward.
Now I just want to refer to Urijah the Hittite. He comes last, on the list, thirty-seven in all, but David does not leave him out, as if we are left with Urijah the Hittite. David in his dealings with Urijah the Hittite did not act like Christ, far from it.
David had been doing well in previous chapters where he was typical of Christ, but in 2
Samuel 11 there is a drop; he is not a type of Christ, he is a type of a responsible person. You and I are responsible; it is no good saying Mr. So-and-so is the responsible brother here, we are all responsible. We have a responsibility to maintain the testimony; it is fairly and squarely upon each one of us. David here is not answering to his responsibility. At the time when kings go forth, David does not go forth; he sent Joab, he put things in the hands of an unspiritual man. David himself should have gone but he stayed in Jerusalem, he was taking his ease. A good soldier of Jesus Christ would not take his ease. In the army leave was regarded as a privilege, not a right. A good soldier should be available at any time. The battle is constantly on, the enemy is constantly attacking. So David should have gone forth, but he stays at Jerusalem and falls into sin; he falls into lust, and one thing leads to another.
Over against that, Urijah the Hittite was not deflected, he was not turned aside. David calls him and tells him to go down to his house but he does not go down to his house. David had done that but Urijah does not. What a rebuke to David! We can set things out often in a greater way by example; there is the need of exhortation, but the great thing is example.
Urijah was an example, and it was a rebuke to David. When he is asked about things he says to David, “The ark”, these are his first words. His first words typically are about Christ, then
“and Israel”, the people of God. Think of what he had before him, “The ark, and Israel, and Judah
abide in booths”. They were in poor circumstances and he was not going to take it easy. It was characteristic of David to think of the ark, although he was not up to it at this point. But Urijah had the spirit of David, when what marked David characteristically was failing in him.
You wonder how David felt on hearing these words from Urijah the Hittite, “The ark, and Israel, and Judah abide in booths; and my lord Joab, and the servants of my lord, are encamped in the open fields”. They were suffering, they were being deprived of comforts because of the testimonial battle, and Urijah was not going to take his ease. He maintained the testimony and lost his life as a result.
The need today is to be good soldiers of Jesus Christ. Let us be committed to this, let us keep in His company and learn from Him, let us take on His spirit, so that we may be good soldiers of Jesus Christ. May it be so in the Lord’s name.
Address at Peterhead, 16 September 1995
HOPE THAT DOES NOT MAKE ASHAMED
R. S. Renton
We sang of hope in our hymn, ‘Hope of our hearts, O Lord, art Thou’ (Hymn 215), and this passage has come to mind. We have been hearing of Daniel. I suppose many of the men of God in the Old Testament and in the New Testament would be characterised by this feature of hope. It is good for us, as believers in the Lord Jesus, to count our blessings. A brother in this city used to say, Count your blessings ton by ton, and I think there is something in that. A sense of being forgiven, is that not wonderful! We shall never come in for
judgment because we have accepted the Lord Jesus as Saviour. You say, that is simple. It may be simple but it is wonderful. God has taken full account of my past and yours, and has forgiven us. Now that is one of the blessings, and it is a wonderful blessing. We have been given the Spirit of God, the most wonderful gift that could be devised has been given to us.
The Lord Jesus said, “If thou knewest the gift of God, and who it is that says to thee, Give me to drink, thou wouldest have asked of him, and he would have given thee living water”, John 4: 10. That is our portion, living water, the gift of the Spirit.
We have divinely provided companionship in the fellowship. I think we are beginning to value it increasingly, the beloved saints of God and our fellowship with them. Then we have been given a hope—
‘No resting place we seek on earth,
No loveliness we see’. (Hymn 215)
The world is becoming worse and worse, but the hope we have is becoming brighter and brighter. Beloved brethren, very, very soon we shall see the Saviour. What a moment that will be! What a moment for the Lord Jesus when He will have the whole assembly housed with Him, and we shall gaze with wonderment at His glories and beauties, for we shall have bodies like His body of glory. Nothing has been overlooked by God for our blessing in divine things! Meantime we are in a scene of tribulations. Chapter 5 was referred to in a meeting recently, it was remarked, “we have peace towards God through our Lord Jesus Christ”
(Romans 5: 1), that has to do with all our past; “we have also access by faith into this favour in which we stand” (Romans 5: 2), that is our present portion and enjoyment; “and we boast in hope of the glory of God”, that is a secure future. So that our past, our present and our future have been well taken care of.
Then he says, “And not only that, but we also boast
in tribulations, knowing that tribulation works endurance”. That is what we need, dear brethren, we need endurance. We have been taught that the proof of reality is continuance and endurance. Then it goes on, “endurance, experience”. We have been hearing about our knowledge of God; that enters into our experience daily, our knowledge of God and our proving God. “And experience, hope”, these things are cumulative. Now this is the point that I just want to leave, “hope does not make ashamed, because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Spirit which has been given to us”. We have been richly blessed, nothing has been overlooked from the divine side. The question is, is there a moral answer on our part for all that into which we have been brought? “The love of God is shed abroad”, so that if we allow it, every crevice of our moral being would be saturated with the love of God.
Could we ask for more? We sometimes sing Mr. Champney’s hymn—
‘Our joy is full—we have Thee, Jesus, still’ (Hymn 229) There is everything to uplift us as we are together; there is everything to depress around us in the world. Our endowment and the enjoyment of it, “the love of God shed abroad in our hearts”, involving our affections surely would cause response Godward, for this is what the Spirit would have in mind, that there might be increase for the pleasure of God. May there be some reminder to God of what was found in perfection in Jesus. It could only be in measure, but the Spirit would promote that, and there would be, as I said, a reminder to God of what was found in supreme moral excellence and perfection in Jesus. May it be so, for His name’s sake.
Word in meeting for ministry, Edinburgh, 14 December 1993
THE GATES OF ZION
A. J. Gaskin
“Jehovah loveth the gates of Zion more than all the habitations of Jacob”, Psalm 87: 2. There is no doubt that Jehovah had particular affection for Zion, the hill top fortress at the south east corner of a group of hills that were later to form Jerusalem. He spoke of it as, “the mount Zion which he loved; And he built his sanctuary like the heights” (Psalm 78: 68, 69),
“Beautiful in elevation, the joy of the whole earth, is mount Zion, on the sides of the north, the city of the great King”, Psalm 48: 2. It was the royal city where David established his capital, the place to which he brought the ark back after its capture by the Philistines (2
Samuel 6: 16; 1 Kings 8: 1). He expressed Jehovah’s affection for it in Psalm 132—“For Jehovah hath chosen Zion; he hath desired it for his dwelling—This is my rest for ever; here will I dwell, for I have desired it” (Psalm 132: 13, 14). It was indeed a beautiful picture of the time when Christ comes into His rightful place in the kingdom. It was the stronghold of God’s mercy, Zion with its beauty, its elevation, its unshakable position, sets out for us what God has established through the death and resurrection of Christ, and in what He finds for His pleasure in the assembly.
Then the city has gates, the means of entrance, “We have a strong city; salvation cloth he appoint for walls and bulwarks. Open ye the gates, and the righteous nation which keepeth faithfulness shall enter in”, Isaiah 26: 1, 2. How important the walls are, they are there to exclude evil and are well called “salvation”. Paul writes to Timothy, “Let every one who names the name of the Lord withdraw from iniquity”, 2 Timothy 2: 19. It is the great and high wall of separation from iniquity of Revelation 21: 12. But how thankful we are that there is every facility to those who have washed their robes to go in by the gates into the city (Revelation 22: 14). The holy city has twelve gates, from every direction in which it is
approached there is a gate, and it says, “its gates shall not be shut at all by day, for night shall not be there”, Revelation 21: 25. Those gates however exclude every kind of evil, “nothing common, nor that maketh an abomination and a lie, shall at all enter into it” (Revelation 21: 27).
The narrow gate in Matthew 7: 14 is a two leaved gate, and although it may be difficult to find, offers no obstacle to those who really desire to enter in. These are the gates of Zion that Jehovah loves. But the gates of Zion are important in another way, for they are the place of administration, where matters can be righteously adjudged. It is the place where the husband of the woman of worth in Proverbs 31: 23 was recognised, “when he sitteth among the elders of the land”. It is the place where Boaz resolved the problem of the right of redemption, that Naomi’s other kinsman was not able to resolve righteously, but in doing so Boaz secured Ruth for his affections, just as Christ has wrought redemption and gave Himself in love for the assembly. Whatever difficulty arises let us know how to “turn the battle to the gate”
(Isaiah 28: 6), for he who has control over the gate has access to the whole city. How precious are the gates of Zion! Each gate in the holy city is one pearl and every one who enters in would be reminded of the price Christ paid for the assembly, that one pearl of great value, for against it the gates of hades’ shall not prevail (see Matthew 16: 18). The habitations of Jacob remind us of the places and the travails and exercises through which he had to pass until he arrived at Bethel, the house of God, where God met him and changed his name to Israel—a prince of God (see Genesis 35: 10). These tabernacles or habitations are said to be lovable and Paul refers to this when he says that God would dwell among them and walk among them and would be their God. The habitations of Jacob are loved indeed, but how much more the gates of Zion.
In Nehemiah’s day, a day of recovery, he was concerned about the rebuilding of the walls of Jerusalem, as though the principle of separation from evil needed to be restored, but in doing this he set up the gates with their locks and bars. The first of these were the sheep gate and the fish gate, reminding us that although it is a day of breakdown and small things externally, the heart of God still goes out in the gospel, for our Saviour God desires that all men should be saved and come to the knowledge of the truth (1 Timothy 2: 4). The testimony still goes out that “God so loved the world, that he gave his only-begotten Son, that whosoever believes on him may not perish, but have life eternal”, John 3: 16. In that way the gates of Zion are still open. The psalmist says, “That I may declare all thy praise in the gates of the daughter of Zion. I will be joyful in thy salvation”, Psalm 9: 14.
Aberdeen, 1994
EXTRACT
The privilege belongs to every Christian, but it is one thing to have a privilege belonging to me, and another thing for me to have entered into the truth and reality of the privilege. It is in the realisation of our privilege that we more fully understand the true character of the assembly, and you can enter into that apart from any kind of ecclesiastical pretension. The point is to have the great reality of it in our souls, to accept the privilege, and to be in the light and joy of it, to be found in company with the other children, that is, in the assembly. If you do not understand the proper privilege of the assembly, and the great blessing which belongs to it, you will fail to present a testimony which is according to God. It is in the assembly that we properly learn our relationship with the Father and with one another. You may accept the light of it, but it is in the assembly that you enter into the reality of it. We all get set in our place in the assembly. The Lord’s supper is the beginning of it, it sets us in our souls rightly in
relation toward all; to the Father, to Christ, and to one another. Then we come out of the assembly to be here as the vessel in which God is displayed in the world. You must apprehend things in the order in which they are unfolded in the epistle (John’s). Souls are bound to learn them in that order; first fellowship, then privilege, which places us in the Father and the Son, and then testimony. God is displayed in the heavenly band, which stands in Christ. That is the divine order. Precisely the same order is found in Paul. You could not enter into Colossians if you did not first understand Corinthians. In Corinthians you get fellowship and the privilege of the assembly, but in Colossians you get the other side of it, that is, the life of Christ coming out in the assembly; the divine nature as in Christ expressed in the Christian company.
All this is suitable to the day of ruin in which we are. I pray God to grant for myself and for us all that we may be more prepared in spirit to come under the sense of the ruin, and to take our share in it. May God keep us from attempting to construct anything, from setting up any kind of imitation of the church, but may we recognise that the church is still here, both vitally and responsibly; and though the house is in ruin, it ought to be a very great encouragement for us that all that is essential abides. There is a true bond of fellowship in which saints can be together here, and true privilege which belongs to them, and which none can deny them, which is made good to them vitally by the Spirit of God. And if we enter into our privilege, I believe that though the company may be very restricted, there will be a real expression of God in that little company, and thus a testimony for Him.
F. E. Raven (Vol. 9, pp.10, 11)
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