GRACE AND SEPARATION

J. Wright

Luke 3: 21, 22; 4: 14–35; Matthew 12: 46–50;

13: 1–3 (to ‘parables’), 10–12, 36–39, 44–52

My simple impression beloved brethren in speaking at this time, is to seek help to say a word on two prominent features of the truth that mark this dispensation. One of them is grace and the other is separation. Sometimes there is an effort to put one feature of the truth against another. Many sects in Christendom have been formed through pressing one feature of the truth at the expense of others. And some of us have known sorrowfully that kind of thing in our own history. Mr Raven used to speak of the truth as one whole, not truths, but the truth as one whole. If we give up one feature of the truth we lose the whole. And I refer to these scriptures because these features of the truth we are speaking of are seen perfectly in the Lord Jesus Himself, “as the truth is in Jesus”, Ephesians 4: 21. We see everything set out in Him perfectly.

Luke’s gospel sets out the Lord Jesus as the Vessel of divine grace. He has set forth divine grace, and in the section where we began the Lord Jesus was anointed by the Holy Spirit, the Holy Spirit came upon Him. He is the Vessel of divine grace, the anointed Vessel for testimony. God was making Himself known in grace in this blessed Man. In the dispensation in which we are, God is selective in whom He anoints. There were certain ones in the Old Testament who were anointed for a certain purpose. The Lord Jesus has made God known perfectly in testimony to men, and that was in the power and dignity of the anointing. The Holy Spirit came upon Him in a bodily form as a dove in a complete way. The Holy Spirit never came upon anybody like that before. The Holy Spirit did come upon persons in the Old Testament, but not in this complete way in which He was able to come upon the Lord Jesus. The perfection of the Lord Jesus comes out. He is perfect in every way. He is unique in every way. The stages of growth were seen in the Lord Jesus here, in this gospel, first as a Babe and then as a Boy and then as a Man. He had reached full maturity in manhood here, about the age of thirty. There was no development morally with the Lord Jesus. He was perfect at every stage of His growth in His life here.

He was in full manhood when the Holy Spirit came upon Him. There was holiness with the Lord Jesus, this gospel brings that out, “the holy thing also which shall be born”, Luke 1: 35.

There was intrinsic holiness with the Lord Jesus. It has been said, the first moral feature of glory seen in the Lord Jesus in manhood, was that of dependence. He is seen in this gospel as a babe wrapped in swaddling clothes lying in a manger, what dependence! In Luke 3 He was seen in dependence. He was praying; the Holy Spirit came upon a praying man, a dependent man. He was the holy Vessel of God’s pleasure. The Father’s voice is addressed to Him here, it says “the Holy Spirit descended in a bodily form as a dove upon him; and a voice came out of heaven, Thou art my beloved Son, in thee I have found my delight”. It is a remarkable thing that most of the Lord’s life is not recorded. Luke’s gospel gives us more than any other gospel of His earlier life, but he only gives us a little. We last hear of Him in this gospel, when He was twelve years old, in the temple, where He says, “did ye not know that I ought to be occupied in my Father’s business?”, Luke 2: 49. He was about His Father’s business, and then we hear no more of Him until He was about thirty years old.

His life was short, thirty-three and a half years. He was cut off, the scripture says, “after the sixty-two weeks shall Messiah be cut off, and shall have nothing”, Daniel 9: 26. The Lord Jesus felt that. He felt the fact that He was cut off, the prophetic reference in the psalm is, “I said, My God, take me not away in the midst of my days!”, Psalm 102: 24. Thirty-three and a half years and He was cut off. What that was to Him and what that was to the Father!

Think of the delight the Father found in Christ, “in thee I have found my delight”. Mr Taylor senior said that ‘every day in the life of Christ was like a millennium to God it was so full’ (see Vol. 32, p.347). One day is as a thousand years and a thousand years as one day with the Lord. A day in the life of Christ was like a thousand years to God it was so full, yet He was cut off in the midst of His days.

But I want to come to this point that He was the Vessel of divine grace. He set on this dispensation of grace, we have been speaking of it in the reading earlier. Scripture speaks of it, “the grace of God which carries with it salvation for all men has appeared”, Titus 2: 11.

There was grace before, in the Old Testament God operated in grace; it was not all demand, there was grace. There was grace on God’s part when He clothed Adam and Eve with skins; the children of Israel in their early years in the wilderness were under grace. But the time came when this glorious dispensation was set on, the dispensation of grace, and the Lord Jesus was the Vessel of it. He proceeds in the dignity and the power of the Spirit. The Spirit came upon Him, and the Lord Jesus was led by the Spirit in the wilderness. He was tempted in the wilderness. He met Satan there in the wilderness. He met Him in dependent manhood.

He did not meet him in the glory of what He was as a divine Person, He met him as a dependent Man. He overcame him, He bound the strong man and plundered his goods. He is going to plunder his goods, He is going to free men from the captivity and the power of Satan. The Lord Jesus was going to do that in His service.

God had committed Himself publicly to the Lord Jesus. The anointing involves that God committed Himself to Christ, and He was here to make God known in grace. But He moves in the power of the Spirit and He comes to Nazareth, where He was brought up. He was the anointed Preacher.

He brings that out, “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me”. He says. “And the book of the prophet Esaias was given to him; and having unrolled the book he found the place where it was written, The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to preach glad tidings to the poor”. The service of grace had begun. The dispensation of grace had begun. It had begun in the Lord Jesus in this way as the anointed Vessel. You might say, Well surely this would be accepted, the Lord Jesus would be accepted! He moved with such dignity and such power that they all “wondered at the words of grace which were coming out of his mouth”. They came out of the mouth of Jesus, those words of grace. But when the Lord Jesus began to apply the truth they rejected it. They did not like it. They did not like grace. Grace is a thing that persons find hard to accept, particularly the religious man, he finds it hard to accept. The Lord Jesus was pointing to the fact that there were those outside of Israel who came into the benefit of grace, the widow of Sarepta and Naaman the Syrian, and they did not like that, they were filled with rage.

When Paul was speaking to the Jews, he reached a point when he said he would go out to the nations; divine grace would go out to the nations and they would receive it; and that is when the Jews were opposed, their opposition came out, that is the Jewish mind. It is a wonderful thing beloved brethren to appreciate grace. It makes nothing of us at all, it is divine grace that operates.

Well the Lord Jesus still goes on in grace. He went on and goes into another synagogue.

Think of that, another synagogue, the seat of opposition was in the synagogue. And there was a man there having a spirit of an unclean demon and “he cried with a loud voice, saying, Eh!

what have we to do with thee, Jesus, Nazarene?”. The Lord Jesus goes into that place where there was opposition to Himself, and He served this man in grace, a man who was under the power of Satan. The Lord Jesus was plundering

Satan’s goods. He was delivering men from the power of Satan, and He serves this man. The Lord Jesus went into the synagogue, a place where we would not or could not go, but the Lord is serving persons today, wherever they are in grace. Whatever difficulty they are under, whatever bondage they are under, whatever power they are under, the Lord Jesus can go and He does go, and He serves persons. He is doing that today, to liberate them from the power of Satan. He serves this man in such a way that this demon comes out and there is no injury to the man. The Lord Jesus goes on in His service in this gospel in His service in grace.

Shortly after this He secures Peter. He goes into Peter’s house where his mother-in-law was suffering under a fever, very difficult conditions in that house. He serves her, He heals her, and she serves them. But He is out to reach Peter. The Lord is going to secure persons for Himself, and secure persons to have part in this dispensation where the grace of God goes out to men. He is going to secure Peter. He comes into Peter’s business, when business was bad and He made his business prosperous; but He served him in grace, and Peter came to a judgment of himself in the presence of the Lord, how unworthy he was, he came to that himself, “I am a sinful man”, Luke 5: 8. Peter was secured and how he shone in the early chapters of Acts, a vessel of grace, bringing out the grace of God towards men.

At the close of this gospel the Lord Jesus tells his disciples that they were to remain in the city until they be clothed with power from on high. The power in which the Lord Jesus ministered to men and displayed the grace of God, His disciples were to act in the same power, in the same character, the same manner. They were men who were formed by the Lord Jesus, they came under His gracious touch, they came under His instruction. Their wills were subdued. We spoke about that in the reading about how divine grace subdues our will.

There is nothing like grace to subdue us in that way. They were amenable under

the Lord’s hand, like the clay in the hand of the potter, how amenable these men were to the Lord’s service. You get the full result in Acts when the Spirit came upon such persons. The Spirit came upon persons who had the same character as the Lord Jesus. They were not perfect, but there was the same character there; and the Holy Spirit comes upon persons, the anointing comes upon persons who are formed after Christ. There is something there, in principle, of the manhood of Jesus, the humanity of the Lord Jesus. God is not committing Himself to any other man, or any other kind of man. The service goes on rightly in the power and dignity of the anointing. It is not a question of natural excitement, or natural ability. The Lord Jesus in this gospel of Luke is acting in a priestly way; it is also the priestly gospel and if this service is to be carried on effectively and rightly for God it is to be carried on in persons who are priestly. The priests had on the linen ephod and the linen breeches, there was no wool, nothing to excite. That is the kind of person that the Spirit takes up, and the service goes on rightly in the power and dignity of the anointing.

What I feel beloved brethren, is that this dispensation of grace has been set on, and it can only be carried on in that power. It cannot be carried on in any other way but in the power of the Spirit, and the power and dignity of the anointing, otherwise God is not rightly represented or rightly served. That is what I had to say about grace, it is a wonderful thing. It is a wonderful thing to have part in this dispensation where grace has been made known so fully. You might say, Well how could I have part in it, I am not a preacher, sisters do not preach, but then when you come to Paul’s teaching in 1 Corinthians 12 he speaks of the anointed vessel, “so also is the Christ” (1 Corinthians 12: 12). That is not Christ personally, that is what the assembly is as the anointed vessel, and we can each have part in it, in fact each one who has the Holy Spirit is essential for that. That is the truth of the body that we are essential to it, no one member can elect himself out of it. So God has in various

places that which represents Himself, that in which divine grace is made known. So that it is not only in persons who may preach or serve or minister, it is to be seen in them, but it is to be seen in each one of us as having part in this vessel which is “the Christ”. We have all been baptised by one Spirit into one body. As receiving the Spirit we are baptised into this one body and we have an essential part in it. But to function in it effectively, it says, we “have all been given to drink of one Spirit”, 1 Corinthians 12: 13. I think if we drink into that, beloved brethren, and find satisfaction in our part in it, we shall function in it and fill out our part in it.

I want to come to this other feature and that is separation which comes out in Matthew’s gospel. The Lord Jesus here refers to persons as His mother and His brethren. First of all His natural mother and brethren who were standing without; the Lord Jesus was proceeding with His teaching and they were outside. You might say they had a natural advantage, but what was natural here was intruding on the Lord’s service to hinder it. The Lord Jesus takes opportunity to say, “Who is my mother, and who are my brethren? And, stretching out his hand to his disciples, he said, Behold my mother and my brethren; for whosoever shall do the will of my Father who is in the heavens, he is my brother, and sister, and mother”. The idea of family relations is brought in there, His mother and His brethren. The Lord Jesus is pleased to identify Himself with such persons. These are His brethren on moral lines, not on spiritual lines exactly as we get in John 20, but on moral lines. He is able to identify His disciples in this way as a family, and the Lord is pleased to associate such persons with Himself.

This comes at the end of a chapter where the awful conditions in Israel are exposed. The Lord Jesus at this point was rejected. Chapter 11 brings out the Lord’s rejection, His works of power had been rejected. The synoptic gospels present the Lord in His service to men and to Israel. The Lord presents Himself in perfection; the Lord’s

manhood, and the Lord’s person are presented to them, and His service and there was perfection in it. But men took account of it, many even got the benefits of it, the wonderful service of Christ, but He was rejected. In John’s gospel the Lord Jesus was rejected right from the beginning, but in the synoptic gospels He was presented to them, and the point comes when they say ‘We are not going to have that, we are not going to have that Man’, they reject Him. In Matthew 11 He is rejected because of the kind of man that He is, ‘We are not having that man, that kind of man’. Later of course when it came to the point of crucifixion, they say, “Away with this man” (Luke 23: 18), we will not have this Man to reign over us. He was rejected. He was rejected because of the kind of man He was, a meek and lowly man. He could not fit into the world’s system, that kind of man cannot fit into the world’s system and He is rejected. Did not the Lord feel it? but He said, “I praise thee, Father, Lord of the heaven and of the earth, that thou has hid these things from the wise and prudent, and hast revealed them to babes”, Matthew 11: 25.

But here in chapter 12 things are getting worse. They say the Lord Jesus cast out demons by Beelzebub, the prince of demons (Matthew 12: 24). Think of the awful conditions that existed in Israel at this point and the Lord leaves it, He separates Himself from it. Then it says at the beginning of chapter 13, “And that same day Jesus went out from the house and sat down by the sea”. He went out from the house, He left it. The point comes when the Lord has to leave it, separate from it. The state of things around us, beloved brethren, not only in the world generally, but in what professes His name, what is against Him in that way, the Lord has left it. Of course I quite understand there are persons in these systems who are the Lord’s. You hear sometimes of persons who speak against some of the things that are being done and said; they speak the truth, but they are there, and the Lord has left it.

If we are really to be with the Lord, we have to be governed by the Lord’s own movements, and that is what comes out in this section in Matthew; the disciples, these persons who do the will of the Father who is in the heavens, are governed by the Lord’s own movements. The Lord has left one house, but He goes on with His teaching, He takes on this parabolic teaching. I used to think at one time that the Lord’s teaching in parables would make the truth simple, but it is not, there is what is judicial in the Lord’s teaching in parables, that things are hidden from certain persons. He hides things from the mind of man. He is not pandering to the mind of man, things are hidden from them, but there are persons who are interested. The disciples came up and said to Him, “Why speakest thou to them in parables?” He tells them that He has spoken certain things in parables because things are hidden from certain persons. In Matthew 11 He speaks of the Father hiding things from the wise and prudent and revealing them to babes. But here the Lord is saying regarding the crowd that things are hidden from them.

But then the disciples ask the Lord questions, and the Lord takes up another position in verse 36, “Then, having dismissed the crowds, he went into the house”. He went into another house. He had left one house and He went into another house. We have to leave what is not of God, that is to separate from evil, if we are to come into what is of God. The Lord had left one house and gone into another, and His disciples followed Him. They had left too, they were following the Lord, and being governed by the Lord’s own movements. We are exhorted at the end of Hebrews, “let us go forth to him without the camp, bearing his reproach”, Hebrews 13: 13. Separation is essential if we are to come into the gain of the truth of the assembly. The Lord opens up in this other house the truth as to the assembly and what the assembly means to Him, first of all in relation to the treasure and then in relation to the pearl.

He spoke in other parables to the crowd about what the kingdom of God had become publicly. It was never intended

that the whole sphere should be leavened, but that is what has happened, the public position, it has become leavened. It was never intended that it should become the great tree, housing all kinds of birds, that is what it has become. The question the disciples address first of all to the Lord is as to the parable of the darnel of the field. There are those whom the Lord has sown, these are the sons of the kingdom. The disciples would be among them. Now the question is, Am I among them, am I among the sons of the kingdom? persons who are formed in kingdom truth, in kingdom principles as coming under the Lord’s own instruction. But then there are the sons of the evil one and they are an imitation. The effort of the enemy in opposition to the truth at this present day is imitation, and the nearer the imitation is to the real thing in appearance the more dangerous it is.

There were those who came to Him in the house, who had already left one house. We have to really separate from evil if we are to come into the gain of the truth of the assembly. And it provides a ground of gathering. To say that separation from evil is not the ground of gathering, but grace is, leaves it too open. Grace is necessary, we need to maintain the grace of the present dispensation, but we have to separate from evil, and grace is the power for gathering, it is the power for it. It is a wonderful thing that grace is operating and it is the power for gathering. When we speak of the ground for gathering, that involves the ground on which the assembly actually stands as in this world. There is the light in which the assembly is in the counsels of God, but as in the world in testimony it is founded on the judgment of evil. We must have that, beloved brethren, if we are to come into the gain of the truth of the assembly. (There is a helpful reading with Mr James Taylor on ‘The Ground of Gathering’ in New Series Vol. 37, page 128).

The Lord opens this up to His disciples here, those that were with Him in the house. It is like what has been opened up in the days of the recovery to the truth in temple enquiry,

things have been opened up. It is because persons have separated from evil that they come to the truth as to the assembly in temple character. I might be brought up where the truth is known, and I come along because my parents come, but we all have to face this that we are in that position where we have separated from evil and the Lord can open up things to us. So they were governed by the Lord’s own movements and He says at the end, “Have ye understood all these things? They say to him, Yea, Lord. And he said to them, For this reason every scribe discipled to the kingdom of the heavens is like a man that is a householder who brings out of his treasure things new and old”. He has something to bring out of his treasure, things new and old. He has come under the Lord’s instruction, he is a householder, he cares for divine things. How we need to care for divine things, beloved brethren, how we need to care for the precious truth as to the assembly, what it is to Christ, it is near to His heart! May we care for it, may we cherish it, and may we be helped to bring things out as to Christ and the assembly.

I feel how feebly I have presented these things, but the two things must be maintained. If things are to be maintained rightly in this dispensation, we must maintain grace, beloved brethren, we must be helped of the Lord to maintain it, and it can only be maintained rightly as we are in the power of the Spirit, in the power and dignity of the anointing. And to maintain separation from evil so that what is precious to Christ, the truth as to the assembly is preserved. May the Lord help us in His name.

Address at Ormond Beach/Bunnell
23 May 2009