KEPT FOR TRANSLATION
[p. 266] KEPT FOR TRANSLATION
Revelation 3: 7 - 13; 1 Thessalonians 4: 13 - 18
It would be admitted by all who are familiar with Scripture, that the truth of translation comes out first in connection with Enoch “By faith Enoch was translated that he should not see death; and was not found, because God had translated him: for before his translation he had this testimony, that he pleased God”, Hebrews 11. In his prophecy he does not speak of translation, but of the coming of the Lord, “Behold, the Lord has come amidst his holy myriads”; but the truth of translation is first introduced with him. I think, too, it is a principle in Scripture, that in the first introduction of a thought you get the main features connected with it, and these mark it right through. Scripture. So here one of the main features connected with translation is that God translates what pleases Him. Enoch had this “testimony, that he pleased God”. I suggested reading these scriptures that our attention might be called to this thought, that pleasing God precedes translation,
So in Thessalonians, the saints are spoken of as those who walked so as to please God; but the apostle exhorts them that they should do this “more and more”. The element of pleasing God is introduced at the beginning of the chapter, before he goes on to the thought of translation; and what is before one’s mind is the desire that the Lord would bring about in the people of God what is for His pleasure, before He is about to translate the assembly.
If we look at the address to Philadelphia, we find the principle of being kept there. The Lord says, “I also will keep thee from the hour of temptation”. The hour of tribulation is coming on those that dwell upon the earth, on the earth-dwellers, but the Lord says, “I will keep thee” from it. Through our exercise and the power of God working in us, and as having to do with God, we, are kept now. Translation is the power of the Lord working in the future, but we are being kept now. He says the hour of tribulation is coming, but I will keep thee out of it. So that we need not fear that the next dispensation will come upon us with all its tribulation. We are kept out of the moral elements of the tribulation now. It is not said I will take you out of it, but I will “keep thee” out of it. He keeps us from the moral elements of evil which call for the tribulation.
The moral elements are present now; they are taking form now. In the reconstruction of the world, the principle of covenant or agreement will predominate. Men see the great advantage to be gained from agreement, and that it should hold and not be broken at will, and they seek to reconstruct the world on that principle. Now God will meet that condition of things. He will see that His people are brought into an agreement, that they have a fellowship. The book of Revelation shows how the world’s fellowship will work out under the beast; the principle of boycott will mark all, but we are fortified against that by what we are committed to in our baptism, and then by fellowship. There are things which we cannot do because of the terms of our fellowship. By the terms of our fellowship we are committed to God. That is right; certain things are laid down; God has His highways, as the Psalmist says, “in whose heart are the ways”. We have the highways in our hearts; we cannot turn aside to byways. In that way the fellowship commits us to God, and then, too, we are committed to the fellowship of His Son and the fellowship of His death. That is our fortification against this phase of things.
The title of the Holy and the True under which the Lord presents Himself to Philadelphia shows what [p. 268] He was as committed to God. They are features in which He is known to us now. He is the Holy and the True; these things involve what is due to God; if we are committed to God it must be in holiness, it is what becomes His house. So, too, with what is true. Then as to power He has the “key of David”; that is a wonderful light in which to see Christ as the One who opens and no one shuts.
“Endurance” is walking so as to please God. In other words, it is abiding true to the terms of God’s relations with us. He says, “Because thou hast kept the word of my patience (my endurance) I also will keep thee”. It is what Christ is to the assembly. In speaking to Philadelphia the Lord says “thee”; He is addressing the whole assembly; He includes in that expression all the saints, but it is the assembly in the abstract. The features He marks out in Philadelphia are seen in some, and He accredits it to the whole. The trials He mentions, the “little strength” and keeping the word of His patience and not denying His name are seen in some; and in that way He clothes the whole with what is seen.
A Philadelphian takes account of things in the light of this book; he sees that there are earth dwellers, those whose hearts and hopes are on the earth. Paul speaks of some of those and adds, of whom I “tell you even weeping, that they are enemies of the cross of Christ”. (Philippians 3: 18). In contrast to that, the Philadelphian is with the Lord in his spirit; he is recovered to normal assembly relations and takes account of how things affect Christ and God. He endured; the Lord endured whatever came; He endured for God; He could say “the reproaches of them that reproached thee, fell on me”. (Psalm 69: 9). So, too, the Philadelphian endures for God; the patience that marks him is according to Christ, there is correspondence to Christ in the endurance. It is in this way that being for God’s pleasure is arrived at [p. 269] practically, and as I said, this precedes translation. To be kept is in accord with the dispensation, we are “kept by the power of God”.
What God is looking for today is that we should please Him. Christ is the pattern of everything with God. He has set forth His mind in Christ, and now He is looking for an answer to that in us The revival is to that end. 1 Thessalonians emphasises the need of increase; they were to abound yet more and more; the thing was to come to full fruition. There is to be brought to pass in the saints what is pleasurable to God in view of translation. The Lord speaks of incompleteness to Sardis. That was not pleasing to Him. They came short of what was set forth at the beginning. Christianity does not come short, it is full measure. Paul writing to the Corinthians, spoke of his measure reaching to them; he did not come short; he fulfilled his ministry. Christianity is full measure. There is no Yea and Amen in the Old Testament; you could not get that till you come to Christ, but in Him is Yea; there is the perfect answer to the mind of God. Now if He has undertaken things for God, all must surely come to pass. So revival brings us back to what was true at the beginning, not indeed in any outward or public way but in that God secures an answer to Christ under His eye.
The Lord does not say, ‘I will take thee out ofthe hour of trial’, but “I also will keep thee” that is the principle of the dispensation; “kept by the power of God”, and there is correspondence to Christ in it. Enoch, before his translation had the witness that he pleased God, but it does not say when he got it. He tells us about the Lord; his testimony is as to the Lord coming, but in the secret of his soul he had the witness that he pleased God.
It is sorrowful to see that the assembly and the outward profession of Christianity have largely [p. 270] taken up a place on the earth today. It has been the tendency of things from very early days. We see it in the two going to Emmaus; they were going into the country; there was the tendency to earth-dwelling even there. In Mark we see it was the direction of their walk, “they walked and went into the country”. Luke tells us they were going to their own home. It shows the tendency of our hearts. The overcomer is not promised anything on the earth; he is not an earth dweller; the promises have to do with the things which he cherishes. The rewards are just what he would desire, and the Lord knows it. People who live on the earth do not want these things.
There may be recovery. In the end of Luke we read of a man coming up out of the country, and the world puts the cross on that man. And such a man gets a posterity; in Mark he is referred to as the father of Alexander and Rufus. That is very suggestive. The crisis today is between what is earthly and what is heavenly. We have to ask ourselves whether we prefer what is heavenly to what is earthly. If we desire what is heavenly, we shall surely get it and we shall be taken to heaven. Of course, we go to heaven, because it is the purpose of God to have us there, but His power is exercised to bring about suitability for the place His purpose has given us. He brings in circumstances and certain things which will fortify us against the forces of evil.
Another thing seen in Enoch is endurance, continuance. He walked with God for three hundred years and he pleased God. In Genesis 5 you have a life-line; chapter 4 is collateral, but it is Cain’s line; it begins in a murderer even though his life is preserved. It typifies the Jew, whose life is preserved, but he is a murderer. But chapter 5 is the line of Seth, and we see that on that line men live long lives before they die, and one of that line is even translated [p. 271] that he should not die at all. So now, immunity from death, and translation, is the testimony of the moment.
We are able to take account of God’s saints as pleasing to Him; Enoch speaks of the holy myriads and that the Lord is among them. It is a serious matter to accuse the saints. The points given in 1 Thessalonians 4 are, first, your vessel is holy, and you do not despise any man, and you love the brethren, and we are to abound in the things we have; you do it more and more; you increase in love. It is the substance of Christianity; the character of it. In Romans you have the expression “much more” and in the gospels the Lord says, “to him that hath shall more be given”. There is to be increase. Enoch moved in the region of family life, and it is in that connection that he walked and pleased God. When he begat Methuselah he began to walk with God, and he continued that walk three hundred years. We sometimes sing, “In spirit there already”. When the Lord went up to heaven the hearts of His own went up with Him; their place henceforward was heaven. In Colossians we read that lie has “reconciled us through the body of his flesh, through death” (Colossians 1: 22); and then in Ephesians, that He has reconciled both Jew and Gentile “in one body” (Ephesians 2: 16); it is the body that is translated. That involves unity. It is delightful to the heart of God to see His people together in unity: He keeps that company.
The very name “Philadelphia” involves brotherly love; reconciliation understood brings about unity in affection. Then they have a little power, and an opened door is set before them, for they are pleasing to Christ. I think we -see the state of Ephesus in the elders weeping on Paul’s neck: they loved him. Those were beautiful tears, and God took account of them; He put them into His bottle; they were lovely to Him. “First love” is rather the love of a [p. 272] wife for a husband, but here it is a question of brotherly love, “we are taught of God to love one another”. The love at the end is the same in quality, though it is not the same in quantity. There is a remnant who are brought back to first love, and to such He says, “I have set before thee an opened door”. We are not to be occupied with ourselves, but we can only acknowledge that God has wrought wonderfully. He has proposed great things for us, and He would bring us to see we are committed to the wonderful things He has proposed to us in Christ, by the terms of the fellowship we enjoy.
Baptism and the Lord’s supper become the means by which He “keeps” us. If we look at the way Scripture presents baptism, it does not speak of the person who baptises us, but of the person baptised, and the deduction is that such an one is committed to Christ and to Christ’s death; he yields his members to God; he is God’s bondman.
In the Lord’s supper you come on to the marital relation, we are become dead to the law by the body of Christ that we may be to Another, in order to bring forth fruit to God. Partaking: of the Lord’s supper is my answer to that. I express my love to Christ. It is a very serious matter to take the Supper in any other way than as loving Christ. Paul says, “If any man love not the Lord Jesus, let him be Anathema Maran-atha”. (1 Corinthians 16: 22) I express in partaking of the Supper my love to God and to Christ. In baptism, though another commits me to Christ’s death, yet all the consequences fall on me. The Lord’s supper is my committal to the terms of the gospel. We are baptised to the full revelation of God, to the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. The teaching of 1 Corinthians 10 brings in the question of our consistency with all that.
I think we can all testify that from the time we committed ourselves to the Lord’s supper we became [p. 273] more definite in our testimony to the death of Christ; we desired to be true to the terms of it; our consciences demanded it, and in that way we become fortified by the Supper. Primarily the Supper is a question of reciprocated affections; we drink into the love of Christ, and we express our love to Him, and it fortifies us against what is in the world.
When we first took the Supper, we were very sensitive as to what we committed ourselves to outside. So God looks for committal on our part to what He has called us to by the gospel; and in the bread we are committed to one another also, for we all eat of it. But it is the answer of affection to the Lord. No doubt the preservative power of it is of great moment to us at the present moment. If the Lord is going to take us to Himself, He would have every wrong link broken. As the apostle says, “Ye cannot partake of the cup of the Lord and the cup of demons”. (1 Corinthians 10: 21)