THE GLORY OF THE GRACE OF GOD

^[p. 283] THE GLORY OF THE GRACE OF GOD

Acts 6:15; Acts 7:59,60; Acts 8:6; Acts 8:29-38; Acts 9:20

I have been thinking today of an expression that enters into this present dispensation in an affecting way, that is, “The glory of his grace”, Ephesians 1:6. It is found in the epistle to the Ephesians, which epistle usually presents the things of which it treats in their fulness and richness. We have in Ephesians, “The glory of his (God’s) grace” — the glory of it. Having that on my mind, I looked up these passages and linked them together as furnishing examples of vessels who were, in their service, in keeping with it. Not that it is to be confined to those who have been employed specially in the Lord’s service, for every believer is to be as a vessel of mercy fitted for glory, available to the Lord, and subservient to this great thought of the dispensation.

The present period is illuminated by the glory of the grace of God: the Gentile world came into God’s view in the birth of Christ. The Babe in the arms of Simeon was to be a light for the revelation of the Gentiles. In His face shines the glory of the grace of God, and the whole Gentile world should be illuminated with it. The design was that as it shone in the face of Jesus, it should be reflected in vessels here, “Vessels of mercy ... prepared for glory” (Romans 9:23) the glory shining from the face of Jesus into the hearts of these vessels should be reflected, for it shines wherever one is in the light of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. That was God’s design. And as I said, it is within the range of every believer in the simplest detail of everyday life. Peter presents it, where reproach comes in, as it says, for the name of Christ. “Blessed are ye”, he says, “for the Spirit of glory and the Spirit of God rests upon you”, 1 Peter 4:14; “rests” — ^[p. 284] God is taking account of the believer with pleasure (it may be a young man in an obscure place, or in the most ordinary circumstances) who comes in for reproach for the name of Christ..”Happy are ye”, Peter says, “for the Spirit of glory and the Spirit of God rests upon you”. God, as it were, finds in you — obscure though you may be — a resting place for His glory.

Now, in speaking of the glory in that way, one is reminded of Ezekiel, for this prophet fits into the gospel period perhaps more than any other. Not that he is as evangelical as Isaiah, but his ministry comes in under the heading of the “son of man”. You will find this designation more frequently in his book than elsewhere. And what is to be noted is that as among the captives, in obscurity, in a place far distant from Jerusalem, by the river Chebar, Ezekiel saw “Visions of God” (Ezekiel 1:1): “A whirlwind came out of the north, a great cloud, and a fire infolding itself, and a brightness was about it, and out of the midst thereof as the colour of amber, out of the midst of the fire. Also out of the midst thereof came the likeness of four living creatures”. In connection with all this he says, “And above the firmament that was over their heads was the likeness of a throne ... and upon the likeness of the throne was the likeness as the appearance of a Man above upon it”, Ezekiel 1:4 - 26. That is chapter 1. In chapter 10 he describes what he sees in Jerusalem in regard to these visions of God. He is taken to Jerusalem and he sees “The glory”. Here the “creatures” are called “cherubims”. The “living creatures” were God’s portion from His creation, but in chapter 10, where they appear as the direct supporters of the glory, we have cherubims. Instead of the face of an ox, we have the likeness of a cherub alongside a man, a lion and an eagle. In other words, we have a heavenly order of things in chapter 10. And the glory leaves the house which had been a resting place for it for ^[p. 285] centuries. From the time that David had set the ark in Zion and Solomon had built the house, the glory resided in Jerusalem. But now it leaves the house, it moved from the threshold, and stood over the cherubims.

Beloved friends, do you see what an immense thing it is to suffer for the name of Christ? You become in accord with that which Ezekiel saw — “The Spirit of glory and the Spirit of God rests upon you”, 1 Peter 4:14. What an immense thing to be employed as the supporters of the glory, and the Spirit of glory resting upon us! It is not beyond the most obscure of us to attain to this honour. It is the privilege of the saints today to support this great feature of the dispensation, the glory of the grace of God, and I have taken up these three persons as illustrative of it. One loves to think of the vessels whom God uses when they are in accord with their ministry. The book of Deuteronomy, as an example, should be read carefully if we are to understand “the man Moses”. What you find in him is a heart genuinely affected in regard to God, in regard to the people of God, so that he sings at the end; Deuteronomy 32. He was an hundred and twenty years old and about to pass away. A man’s sentiments enter into his song, and so with the song of Moses. He calls upon the heavens to hear, and the earth. He says, “My speech shall distil, as the dew, as the small rain upon the tender herb, and as the showers upon the grass: Because I will publish the name of the Lord; ascribe ye greatness unto our God. He is the Rock. His work is perfect, for all His ways are judgment: a God of truth and without iniquity, just and right is he”, Deuteronomy 32:2 - 4. That song was to be on every lip in Israel and in every heart, and it has conveyed all down the generations the spirit and character of the man who wrote it. So in these passages I have read we have examples of vessels who were sustained in correspondence with ^[p. 286] the light of the day in which they served. They are the brightest features of the dispensation and I have been encouraged to call attention to them so that there might be a certain imitation with us. God is working up to a brighter end; I am sure of that; He is working up to an end that is to be in accord with the beginning. That is what He is doing, and He would call attention to what was at the beginning. He would call our attention to what has been brought out in men of like passions with ourselves, particularly Stephen, and Philip. They had no apostolic commission, they come into view rather through their own devotedness.

Stephen corresponds with Ezekiel’s cherubim. From the face of an ox, we are occupied with a countenance as of an angel. I have no doubt the ox has to do with the earth; we are told, “The sole of their feet was like the sole of a calf’s foot”, Ezekiel 1:7. Peter develops for us in his epistles the thought of the firm tread of the ox. God’s government moves on in His ways on the earth unerringly, but then there are introduced heavenly agencies. We have in Stephen the introduction of the heavenly side; that is what we should seek to see brought about today. We see him brought into this midst of the council — a high sounding word, a word which in Jerusalem once had its force. A wise man said — “In the multitude of counsellors, there is safety”, (Proverbs 11:14) and there is, but not in this multitude of counsellors. The Lord spoke of the “assembly of evil doers” (Psalm 22:16) — terrible assembly! It enclosed Him. Righteousness had fled from that assembly, pity had fled, mercy had fled, and now His martyr, Stephen, is in the same assembly, and he maintains the light of the dispensation in its full lustre. The Lord had been led, we are told by Luke, to Calvary, which being interpreted means “Place of a skull”, Mark 15:22. It was the end of all knowledge acquired without God. All true wisdom and intelligence ^[p. 287] begin in the fear of the Lord; but men did not like to retain God in their knowledge, and hence what they have come to is a skull. It was no accident. “There they crucified him”, Luke 23:33. Two malefactors, one on the right and the other on the left, were crucified with Him. The Lord says at that moment, “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do”, Luke 23:34. You see the moral greatness of Christ arise in that awful moment, into which all the guilt of centuries entered, for just before He died, the Lord brought it all down (from the blood of Abel to the blood of Zacharias), to Jerusalem. “Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and stones those that are sent unto her, how often would I have gathered thy children together!” Luke 13:34. He wept over Jerusalem. Luke tells us that. He sees how the Lord would maintain at all costs the glory of the grace of God. He brought it nigh to a poor woman in Simon’s house. She kissed his feet and anointed them; they had carried the grace of God to her. The glory shone there; but what the Lord carried to her He had carried to Jerusalem, He had carried to Simon. Grace was there in all its fulness. The woman of the city desired it and appreciated it. She loved Him, and the Lord caused her “to inherit substance”, (Proverbs 8:21) but Simon was left out. What the woman appreciated was also for Jerusalem, He brought grace to Jerusalem, and He would have it there in spite of, or rather, through, His death. He says, “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do”, Luke 23:34. Like the glory in Ezekiel 10, He lingered over the city. After His resurrection He directed His disciples to stay in Jerusalem, “Till ye be clothed with power from on high”, Luke 24:49; “and that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in his name among all nations, beginning at Jerusalem”, Luke 24:47; the glory in that way lingered over the city. Now, the Sanhedrim was faced with it, shining out in Stephen. We are ^[p. 288] told earlier in the chapter that he was “Full of grace and power”, (Acts 6:8) and so he confronts the council, and they, “Looking fixedly on him, saw his face as the face of an angel”; doubtless it was shining with greater lustre than Ezekiel’s cherubim, for he was truly a cherub, a heavenly witness to the glory of the grace of God. It was there, and so in standing up in answer to the high priest, he beamed with glory. He said, “Men, brethren, and fathers, hearken; the God of glory appeared unto our father Abraham when he was in Mesopotamia, before he dwelt in Charran”, Acts 7:2. He begins with the God of glory, and goes on to show how this glory had been refused. And so at the end of his wonderful address, in which he recounts the sins of the people, he says, “... ye do always resist the Holy Spirit; as your fathers, ye also”, Acts 7:51 And they stoned him. It was a deliberate act in which they all took part; but as the stones fell on Stephen, the glory of the grace of God shone out. This is what one would impress upon you. He “Being full of the Holy Spirit, having fixed his eyes on heaven, he saw the glory of God, and Jesus ...” (Acts 7:55) I think of him as corresponding with the ark; what wonderful power wrought in him! His spirit was so maintained under those dreadful circumstances that he could look away from the scene of murder and hatred to a scene of glory. He saw the glory, and Jesus at the right hand of God. He testifies to it. Most marvellous scene, and set down by the Holy Spirit at the beginning of the dispensation as an example to all believers! “And kneeling down”: how remarkable that a man had the thoughtfulness, and the feelings under such circumstances to change his posture in this way! He kneeled down, and he says, “Lord, lay not this sin to their charge”. It was not for him to ask for more, but it was right to ask for forgiveness for that sin. Next to the murder of Christ, it was the ^[p. 289] most heinous of all, I think. He says, “Lord, lay not this sin to their charge”. What a model for us as sufferers! He suffered, and he showed the spirit of forgiveness, the spirit of the dispensation; it carries with it a testimony to the glory of the grace of God. It sets forth the spirit of forgiveness, and not seven times, but, as we may say, seventy times seven. Forgiveness is to be with us in its fulness at all times. “Lay not this sin”, he says, “to their charge”. It was perfectly suitable that he should have said that. The Lord’s word was, “Father, forgive them” — not only for that sin, it was the fulness of forgiveness — “for they know not what they do”, Luke 23:34. Stephen asks that the sin against him be not laid to their charge. There is mercy, and I am sure as full as it could be in a finite vessel. In such a vessel it was a marvellous testimony to the glory of the grace of God.

Now, in Philip you have not a martyr exactly, but an evangelist; he displays what is essential to the position. One is able to see in a character like Philip, one content to do anything that would be for the furtherance of the testimony. We are told that he went down to the city of Samaria and preached Christ; and then the angel of the Lord spake to him, saying, “Arise, and go toward the south, unto the way that goeth down from Jerusalem unto Gaza, which is desert”. He was sent, and he went down, so you see we have one governed by evangelical feelings and desires. First he goes apparently of his own volition, and when sent, he goes at once. The Lord loves to see young men moving with evangelical desires. It is really the fruit of the grace of Christ in the heart. God takes account of devotedness, He notes the desire of your heart, if you are faithful, He will help you; presently He will give you a commission. Here we have Philip perfectly at the disposal of heaven. He is ready for the Lord’s ^[p. 290] service; he obeys at once the angel’s command. The way that led from Jerusalem to Gaza was desert; there was nothing to attract one naturally, still Philip does not complain, he is at the disposal of heaven. Heaven is full of light and grace, and it seeks vessels for the diffusion of them. Philip is available, and hence the angel of the Lord said to him, Go down. It was a desert place, but he arose and went down without a question. Then the Holy Spirit directs him. There are two agencies, one the angel, and the other the Holy Spirit. The angel represents heaven, and the Holy Spirit, the authority of the Lord on earth. He says to Philip, “Join this chariot”. You need not be afraid if the Holy Spirit bids you to join anything. And, it says, “Philip running up, heard him reading the prophet Esaias”. He is received and taken up into the chariot and he announces Jesus. He preaches Jesus. He had told the Samaritans about Christ, he tells the eunuch about Jesus. The Holy Spirit would use a convenient text. The eunuch did not understand what he was reading, but Philip, beginning at the same scripture, preached unto him Jesus. And then it says, “They went down both to the water, both Philip and the eunuch; and he baptised him”. His going down was in accord with the moment; not in any way does this act detract from his service, it is in keeping with it. It is a scene for heaven. And then, “The Spirit of the Lord caught away Philip, and the eunuch saw him no longer, for he went on his way rejoicing”, Acts 8:39. The Spirit had appointed Philip to another service; He caught him away, and he is found at Azotus, “And passing through, he announced the glad tidings to all the cities till he came to Caesarea”, Acts 8:40. Philip is the characteristic evangelist of Scripture.

I just want to dwell for a moment on Paul, to show how this great vessel in his place maintains the ^[p. 291] character of the moment; the Lord had spoken to him from heaven — it is not now an angel, it is the Lord Himself. The Lord would speak out of heaven. First there is a light from heaven, and then a voice from heaven, and that voice full of tenderness and sympathy for this wicked man, for he was that, “An insolent, overbearing man”, (1 Timothy 1:13) as he calls himself, the chief of sinners. What I want to show you is that the Lord had in Damascus an agent, who was subservient to His will, although at first he reasoned with Him. The Lord said to Ananias, “Rise up and go into the street which is called Straight, and seek in the house of Judas one by name Saul, he is of Tarsus”, Acts 9:11. And Ananias says, “I have heard from many concerning this man, how much evil he has done to thy saints at Jerusalem”, Acts 9:13. We need to see that the Lord will not brook any such attitude in us, He will use us to sustain the glory, but only as we are wholly subservient to Him. He says — “Go, for this man is an elect vessel to me”, Acts 9:15. And then Ananias goes; he is in accord with the moment. I mention all this in regard to Ananias because when difficulties arise in one’s own history, one is inclined to reason with the Lord, as if one knew better than He. Let us be on our guard against insubordination! Ananias goes, and says, “Saul, brother, the Lord has sent me, Jesus that appeared to thee in the way”, Acts 9:17. Through the ministry of Ananias, Saul is set free. But I would specially bring out the fact that Saul immediately begins to preach that Jesus is the Son of God. He is in keeping with the moment; the testimony required now, this great truth that Jesus is the Son of God. Philip had preached that He was the Christ, and he had told the eunuch who Jesus was, and now Paul adds this great, all important truth, necessary to the maintenance of the grace of God, that Jesus is the Son of God. It characterised him all the way through his ministry; God revealed His Son in him ^[p. 292] and he preached Him. It is not said here (Acts 9) that he was told to preach Him, we are told that he did preach Him, and not only in one synagogue, but in the synagogues. You see how thorough he was in preaching this great thought of Christ, that He is the Son of God. Presently he had to suffer, but that meant nothing, he had the light of the Son of God in his heart, and he preached it. And so the Lord is looking for a maintenance of things — as I said, it is not in Paul simply, or Stephen, or Philip, but in the most insignificant of us, as supporting the testimony, we may come into circumstances where the Spirit of the glory and of God rests upon us. May we indeed know the greatness and blessedness of this!

^[p. 293] Pages 293 - 428 — Readings and Addresses. Belfast, 1924 (Volume 63).