NOTES OF ADDRESSES IN ILFORD
These notes were discovered in manuscript form; they have been reviewed for publication, but there is no record that they were revised by the author
THE KINGDOM OF GOD
10th June 1916
I have read this wealthy and interesting passage to help me in bringing before you the subject of the Kingdom of God. It is my purpose to speak of that, and my point is, that, in the measure we have Christ as our Head, we know what the Kingdom of God really is. How is it produced, ... how it is understood and enjoyed we shall see as we go on.
In the 11th chapter of the 1st of Corinthians the apostle there says “the head of Christ is God” (v 3) and the Man Who has God as His Head proposes to become our Head.
The gospel by Luke has a peculiar character and a fitting title would be, I think, “The Head of Christ is God” (1 Cor 11: 3), for throughout this gospel we have set forth a Man who’s every action was swayed by God in all things. He had God for His Head, and God would recover us for His pleasure in the life of that Man who had God for His Head.
It is very important that we should know the truth of the Kingdom for it affects us individually and I have a feeling that we are defective there. If we are not maintained in the truth of the Kingdom we cannot understand and enjoy the spiritual truths of the assembly. The truth of the Kingdom of God touches us individually. What is proposed for you in the Gospel is, not to go to heaven when you die, but to be controlled by Christ as Head now, and thus to be for His pleasure. It is noticeable that none of the preachers of the Gospel throughout the Acts of the Apostles, speak of heaven as the goal - not one of them presents the Gospel in that way. We must get rid of notions and be controlled by Scripture. The spiritual thought is for each one of us to be set up in the knowledge of God here - to know God and to be supremely happy in spite of circumstances. Undoubtedly, we shall be happy by and by but it is God’s thought for us to be happy now and not to be dependent upon circumstances for our joy.
The kingdom of God is righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Ghost, Rom 14: 17. That is what I see in the truth of the Kingdom exclusive to Luke and Paul and I think Luke illustrates Paul’s teaching. I refer, of course, to one aspect of it.
This is a marvellous passage that we have read; as a fitting title for it I would suggest, ‘The journey from the speculations of men to the appreciation of the Father’.
The Lord is seen here in prayer and afterwards He addresses His disciples. He turns and asks them a question which shows what was passing through His mind. He had ministered to the multitude; He had fed them in their need, and now He wishes to know what they say about Him.
Do their thoughts stop at what they had received from His hand, or do their thoughts rest as to Him? He does what He does, and He gives what He gives, that we may know Him, and that constitutes our blessing. Their need was met and now there are idle speculations as to whom He is. Moses, Elias or one of the prophets. How truly He has met the need - He has left nothing undone. He has rendered you the greatest possible service. Why? That you might be able to sing with greater reality the verse that we commenced with:
We love Thee for the glorious worth
Which in Thyself we see.
That is the end of it, not only to meet my needs, but that I may know Him.
He is seen in prayer. He that has God for His Head prays and the Kingdom of God is there. The great end is dependence; thus, in the next chapter but one (chap 11) we are taught how to pray and it is the Lord that teaches us. You say, ‘We have got the Spirit’. Yes, but the Lord will teach us. In this gospel the Lord is seen seven times in prayer and we have to learn the lesson of dependence upon God from Him - from the Man who had God for His Head.
The Lord is seen in circumstances which sin had created. He is weary, tired and in sorrow. He is not in a garden as the first man was, where all spoke of the pleasure of God. The first man in that environment gave all that up for Satan. The second Man holds all for God in spite of untoward circumstances. God has a Man who will have Him as Head in the very circumstances that sin had created.
Throughout this gospel, Jesus is seen as the dependent one in prayer to God in every circumstance, whether favourable or otherwise.
It is an interesting study to trace it. Seven times He prays, beginning at His baptism and finishing at Gethsemane. He prays when the people would make much of Him; when His fame goes abroad and the multitude throng Him He retires to pray. He prays when the attitude of the multitude is reversed and their hatred is shown. “They have rewarded me … hatred for my love” (Ps 109: 5); prayer is again His resource.
Here He prays when He is neglected and His gifts put before Himself. Immediately He goes up the mountain and prays and the fashion of His countenance was changed.
Then He descended and teaches how to pray; and lastly, He prays in Gethsemane. He prays in His sorrow. He had God for every resource. He had God for His Head.
I simply mentioned those points as to prayer just in passing but I feel the importance of them. While you may speak of the privileges of the assembly, remember, there is another spot where no stranger can intrude - you must have your own private history with God, you must not depend upon meetings only. Bethany sets forth what you get there, but Bethany and the Mount of Olives are very closely connected geographically, and so must they be spiritually. We cannot do without the Mount of Olives. Power and communion will be seen by that. You remember His prayer, “if it be possible, let this cup pass from me, nevertheless not as I will, but as thou wilt”, Matt 26: 39. That is the seventh presentation of Him in prayer.
If Christ is our Head, we shall be taught how to pray - we need to ask the Lord to teach us how to pray. Then shall we be delivered from those mental recitals that go no higher than the roof. He will teach us.
I go back to the passage we first read. “There be some standing here, which shall not taste of death, till they see the kingdom of God”. They saw it in that Man. Let us never forget that as to His own Person, He was God over all, blessed for ever. He could not cease to be what He was because of what He became. It is the perfection of what He became that we have here. It was God set forth morally. It could not be otherwise for He was governed in every movement by God.
God-conscious and governed by God-consciousness - happy proposal; how little we know of it. It would be a great gain if we are in even a small measure aroused to it. It is in the measure in which Christ is our Head that we can be in God’s kingdom.
I want to illustrate this by reference to four passages in this same gospel, in each of which the expression “at his feet” occurs and which show progressive apprehension of Christ as Head.
The first is in the seventh chapter. It is well known to you all: “a woman in the city which was a sinner, when she knew that Jesus sat at meat ... stood at His feet behind him weeping, and began to wash His feet with tears, and did wipe them with the hairs of her head”, v 37, 38. That is the first introduction to Christ as Head. The point is that you are taught to appreciate Christ. I am sure, beloved brethren, the point of the passage is the way He endears Himself to us. That is the start, the first note struck in her heart. She “wiped them with the hairs of her head”. Her glory is all gone. The first introduction to Christ is through His feet. You understand me, “How beautiful are the feet of them that preach the gospel of peace, and bring glad tidings of good things”, Rom 10: 15. He evangelised God. He is the vessel of the grace of God, and the Person in whom the blessing is, is endeared to you and you are awakened.
What a contrast between the woman and Simon! With him there was not a single pulsation towards Jesus. He was living in the environment of selfish satisfaction. This woman had reached a spot where you always find Christ. I am nothing. She had affection for Him.
Every young Christian listen. This is the way of introduction to Christ - through His feet - through the glad tidings of the grace of God. Then she hears the glad message, “woman, Thy faith has saved thee; go in peace”, v 50.
In the next chapter she is seen in the company of those who had been taught to love Christ. She is introduced into the circle of divine affections. God give us grace to remember that He is the only bond, let that be powerfully maintained and happy will be the results. That is the first way you are introduced to Christ - He is the vessel of the grace of God.
In the eighth chapter we get another thought - it is the mind of the Spirit in presenting these things in this order - in the 35th verse it says they “found the man ... sitting at the feet of Jesus, clothed, and in his right mind”. That is the next step - He that endears Himself to you subdues you. This man was entirely under another domination but he is now found sitting at the feet of Jesus. That is the place of subjection; happy subjection which is the fruit of affection. The man is in restfulness, now subdued to Him.
Then you come to Mary in the tenth chapter - you know the passage well. Now Martha served and Mary sat at His feet and received His word. Her ear was opened to Christ. That is the right thought for one who has Christ for his Head. He not only subdues you but He teaches you. Under that subduing influence He pours divine thoughts into her heart. That is what we want. Martha is cumbered about much serving - she is a type of the one in the seventh of Romans who is not free from the first husband. Mary is set free.
What always produced life in you is the enjoyment of the life as expressed in Him. I could not say anything more important to you than that. There is a helpful parable I sometimes use to express what I mean and to illustrate my point. It is this: There is the sea out yonder and it sighs and moans, ‘O that I might reach the heavens’. So, the wind, willing to help, blew and blew again till the sea rose high. Under the pressure of the wind the sea rose high and mounted up in huge billows, only to fall back again after the mighty effort was made. Again, the sea sighed and moaned and again the wind exerted all its force, causing the waves to mount high up the cliff but alas, only to fall back again into the ocean. Just then the sun shone out. ‘Be still’ it said ‘and I will draw you up'. That is what we want - the shining of Christ and to drink in His glorious perfections. The love which we enjoy in Him shall be seen in us. There is no effort, the sea was marked by effort. There should be energy, divine energy, but no effort. We have the privilege of coming under His influence and it is to this end: that these moral features shall be seen in us and we shall be governed by what is suitable to God.
How shall we pray? His ear is opened to the cry of need, to the cry of sorrow, to the cry of woe. I love to think of that. The 68th Psalm begins with the God of power, yet that is the God of the widow, the God of the fatherless. He is cognisant of the solitary ones and His ear is open to the cry of distress.
How sweet it is to pray intelligently, so often our prayers abound with ‘me’, ‘my’, ‘mine’ where it should be ‘Thee’, ‘Thy’, ‘Thine’. O that we might pray the right way up! The Lord sets the example, “O Father which art in heaven”, Matt 6: 9. That is the start - God and His interests first. I grant often with us it is otherwise yet He graciously hears our prayers, I quite admit it, but it is a very great thing to get the moral order as set forth in Luke’s Gospel.
I have tried to show you that in the 7th chapter He endears Himself to you. It is an affection which is not natural, it is engendered by the Spirit. Then He subdues you. Thirdly He teaches you by presenting Himself to you. Last of all as the great climax, you get in the 17th chapter what is greater than all these - you are effaced.
“And one of them, when he saw that he was healed, turned back, and with a loud voice glorified God, And fell down on his face at his feet giving Him thanks”, v 15, 16. That is the climax, He effaces you. That is it - he was on his face. He was effaced - he glorified God. That is, he came into the position of God-consciousness instead of self-consciousness. Christ effaced him - the Kingdom of God was reached.
These few scriptures show the progressive apprehension of Christ as Head. That produced the kingdom of God. This man would not go to the priests - they only stood for the Jewish system of law which was marked by demand. God’s kingdom is marked by revelation. Happy going back, one had discovered the Kingdom of God - Christ had effaced him. These are very real things. The spiritual man is the man who is effaced. We think perhaps of a spiritual man as one who can expound scripture, unfold doctrine etc. There is always too much of self-consciousness - I deplore it in myself.
The Pharisees come at this juncture and demand when the Kingdom of God should come. It is here in your midst and ye do not see it. Sovereign mercy is there too, that is another mark of God’s Kingdom, but they do not see it - their religious environment kept them from it.
As a climax to my address I desire three things, three hindrances which keep us back and account for, I think, our small knowledge of experimental things. Three great hindrances to our practically entering the Kingdom.
From this chapter regarding the Pharisees we pass on, after a dispensational parenthesis, to a parable (chapter 18). In this, two men are presented as going up into the temple to pray. I would have you understand that this is recorded for instruction to Christians. I know the Gospel is preached from it and rightly so too, but it is for our learning. The Pharisee stood up and said, “I thank Thee … I”. That resembles greatly the man in the other chapter who gave thanks, but put your ear close down to it and it is “I thank Thee I” &c. The other man said, ‘I thank Thee Thou’, the self-righteous “I” shuts us out - it is the leaven of the Pharisees that spoils us. The self-righteous “I” has no place in God’s Kingdom.
Secondly, the ‘mental I’ has no place in God’s Kingdom. Verse 15 goes on to speak of little children. Let each stand here and learn the lesson. “Whoever shall not receive the kingdom of God as a little child shall in no wise enter therein”. What is the charm of a little child? It is its simplicity. I have often grieved in watching a little child to think it must sooner or later lose its simplicity. Have you a desire to enter God’s Kingdom? You say, ‘I do not understand it’. No but do you believe it? Believe it and you will understand it. In the outside world we understand and then believe but not so with God’s things. Do not say, ‘It is too deep for me’. I do want each one of you to know these things experimentally. Only as we have experienced things can we help others. Gehazi put the staff on the face of the child. He had for a long time been living in the presence of the testimony and yet the child never moved. We want a ministry that is living.
Thirdly and lastly there is the ‘I of acquisition’. The young ruler (v 18 onwards) went away sorrowful for he was very rich. Beloved young men, if you are set for riches beware. It is not having riches that is the danger - not the possession, but the acquisition that is harmful. Riches of course may be a snare also, they make you independent and able to carry on your own will.
I wonder why it is we scarcely ever pray for people who are prosperous. A brother prayed recently that those who had become suddenly rich through the war might be kept. He was right, such people need far more grace than the poorer saints. To be rich is to be in a place of danger. The only way to be kept from the ‘I of acquisition’ and all it involves is to be kept under the influence of Christ.
Now as I close I would ask you not to try to remember all that has been said, but just to get hold of the little bit that is from the Lord for you. May we each be kept under the influence of Christ that we may reflect His image. God grant it for His name’s sake. Amen.
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