JOTTINGS OF A READING
At The Farm, Quemerford, 7th June 1902
J.W.B. proposed as subject - The difference between knowing the Scripture and knowing Christ.
W.J. The case of the eunuch, which we read this morning, is a good illustration of it.
ACTS 8: 25-40 read
W.J. Many read the scriptures, and even read them a great deal, but do not seem to know much of the Lord personally.
In Luke 4, the Lord goes into the synagogue, and the book of the prophet Esaias is put into His hands to read. He reads the prophetic scriptures, but there He was Himself, the living Person, in their midst. He reads and then says, “This day is this scripture fulfilled in your ears”. Now look at the eunuch - he “sitting in his chariot read Esaias the prophet”. It was well for him that he was reading the scriptures, but he had not got yet the key to them.
C. “They are they which testify of me”, John 5: 39.
W.J. Yes; but it was the “Me” who blessed the eunuch.
J.P-tt. It is very interesting to see the order in which the eunuch is led on. First, there is interest in the scriptures; then he gets the key to scripture - Christ, and then there is the moral effect - “What doth hinder me to be baptised?” - he is baptised. He had found Christ, and he goes the same way that He went; he goes into death.
J.W.B. The great characteristic of Christianity is that it is a living, loving Person, not a system of doctrines.
J.P-tt. I do not think anyone gets right as to doctrine who makes doctrine an object; we must have the Person. Take the case of Cornelius (Acts 10), there was evidently a work of God in him; he had desires, and God sent Peter to enlighten him.
All here is in the death of Christ, but death is the path to resurrection. “Henceforth know we no man after the flesh; yea, though we have known Christ after the flesh, yet now henceforth know we him no more” (2 Cor 5: 16); there is no such Christ to be known now as Christ after the flesh.
W.J. I think many do not understand the presence of the Lord in the assembly, they have never touched it, and so when the word is ministered they do not feel that the Lord has touched them in it. The real thing is to have a sense that the Lord has spoken to you - that you have come under His influence, that He has touched you. You might remember all that was said in the ministry, and yet it might not be one bit of good to you. It is everything to get a sense that the Lord has touched me secretly. It may be that He has put His finger on something which is hindering me in my service.
W.E. Have we an example of it in Mary sitting at the feet of Jesus?
W.J. Yes; she came under His influence. People read scripture and know a great deal about the Lord, but they do not know Himself. It is by the Spirit that you come into the good of things, not by the letter.
J.P-tt. I think faith is light in the soul of what is presented, but if it does not bring you into exercise and near the Lord, you do not gain much.
W.J. Take the late meetings that we have had here. Honoured servants have ministered to us, but if we only come under the influence of the servants, that will not do; we must come under the influence of the Lord Himself. That is the only way to get the good of the ministry or to get any real knowledge; it is what you receive from the Lord that is effectual. We may go to and fro like a door on its hinges; we may listen to ministry and enjoy it; but if it be only a general knowledge of all that has been said, it does me no good. What I want to feel is, that the Lord has spoken to me in it. The eunuch could say good-bye to Philip, who had been used to him in such a wonderful way, and go on his way rejoicing because he had Christ - he had the key to scripture. He had found the Man who had died, risen, and gone up, and so he could do without the channel that had been sent to enlighten him. When we come to these Quemerford meetings, we are often depressed afterwards, because the Philips are taken from us; but if a fresh link has been formed between your soul and Christ, you can go on your way rejoicing. If you neglect the gifts, you are all wrong.
J.W.B. But if you have the truth only as what Mr So-and-So teaches, it is no good to you; you must have it as spoken to you from God.
W.J. Philip was God's man for the occasion, and the eunuch could not have done without him; but when he has got the key to scripture he can go on his way rejoicing, though Philip was taken from him. The fact was, his soul was linked with another Man and another scene.
It is possible to read scripture, and even to find pleasure in it, and yet not to get linked with the Lord by it. But mind you this, this man did not throw away his roll; doubtless he valued it all the more - he held on to scripture, but he had got the key to scripture in personal contact with Jesus. It is a living thing. Many a time I have thought of the Bible as a gramophone, you must get not only the words but the living voice.
W.T.P. “Till I come, give attendance to reading”, &c, 1 Tim 4: 13. Would you say we could do with the Lord apart from the scriptures?
W.J. No; but in the early days they had not the New Testament scriptures. We see in the Thessalonians the moral effect. The apostle could say of them: “Remembering without ceasing your work of faith, and labour of love, and patience of hope”, &c (1 Thess 1: 3), there was a moral effect. Certain facts had been ministered to them, and believed by them, and certain moral effects were produced. The apostle says, “Who also hath made us able ministers of the new testament; not of the letter, but of the spirit”, 2 Cor 3: 6. The scriptures are given to direct us, without them we should get into mysticism.
Rem. “Shewing by the scriptures that Jesus was the Christ”.
W.J. That is it, and now we are living in the midst of a Judaised Christianity, so it is all the more necessary for us to reason out of the scriptures. Supposing you went out as a missionary to the heathen, you would need to carry the gospel to them livingly as well as the scriptures. You would state the truth to them, but you must be the moral expression of it for them to see.
W.T.P. The Lord said, “This day is this scripture fulfilled in your ears”, Luke 4: 21.
W.J. Yes; He was there the living Person. The eunuch came in contact with that living Person, and he could go on his way rejoicing. Paul says to Timothy, “the holy scriptures, which are able to make thee wise unto salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus”, 2 Tim 3: 15. It is good to preach Christ to people; but you must preach One whom you know. Then how necessary it is to be near the Lord and to know Him for this.
“Preach the word” (2 Tim 4: 2) is a very large expression, it does not mean the scriptures, but the testimony of God, the record of it is in scripture. You are “mighty in the scriptures” (Acts 18: 24) if you know the Lord. I think it is interesting to see how things are set forth in the Acts. In chapter 8 we have the eunuch; he gets the key to scripture in Christ. Then in chapter 9, we have Saul; he is brought to own Him as Lord: “Lord, what wilt thou have me to do?, v 6” Then Ananias, “Behold I am here, Lord”, v 10. The question is not - Do I read the scriptures or do I pray, but do I in my spirit confess Him as Lord? Is it the habit of my life? People do not know Him much as Lord.
Ques. Might not a young believer know Him as Lord?
W.J. Yes, it is proper to him to know Him thus.
Ques. Do you mean that if you know Him as Lord, you know what suits Him?
W.J. That would follow as result. Take the Ephesians. Paul says of them, “after I heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus, and love unto all the saints”, Eph 1: 15. They had the Lord Jesus objectively before them, not as their Saviour simply, but as Lord.
W.E. How is it that so many of us do not know Him personally?
Rem. There are degrees of knowledge.
W.J. There are. There are two characteristics of a Christian. He believes on the Lord Jesus Christ and on God who raised Him from the dead.
I believe in God now; I believe in Christ now; it is not a question of what I have believed, it is a continuous and present thing. If you simply believe in scripture, there is nothing living about that.
W.T.P. Is there any difference between knowing the Lord individually, and knowing Him in the assembly?
W.J. Yes; but you will not know Him in the assembly if you do not know Him individually. Do you not know the difference between reading scripture and praying in a religious sort of way, and coming into living contact with the Lord? When one points out these things, people say - you are undervaluing scripture; but there is no moral work in the soul apart from living contact with Christ. In the Epistle to the Hebrews we find that there is a living voice in the house of God. When a living Person is presented, your affections are brought into play. Every precept in scripture, all that we find in Psalm 19, is presented to us in a Person. If I take up precepts apart from the Person I am on legal lines.
Rem. “The words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life”, John 6: 63.
W.J. It is the contrast between “spirit” and “letter”. How could you understand what He had been saying to them otherwise? “I am the bread of life”, &c.
B.B. “The letter killeth, but the spirit giveth life”, 2 Cor 3: 6.
W.J. I sometimes ask young Christians, and I ask myself - Do you know what it is to come under the influence of the glory of the Lord?
J.W.B. The effect is you are transformed into the same glory.
W.J. Yes; it is quite different from merely reading scripture, you come under a moral influence. I have a living Person in me - the Holy Ghost; and He links me with a living Person in heaven. Sometimes I read, and read, and then shut my Bible and say - I will get near the Lord; then you get wonderful things unfolded to you.
None of us express Christ unless we enjoy Him first. The value of true ministry is that it links you with Christ Himself; “married to another, even to him who is raised from the dead, that we should bring forth fruit unto God”, Rom 7: 4.
J.W.B. I suppose you must be withdrawn from all that is of man to get under the influence of Christ?
J.P-tt. So it was with the eunuch in baptism.
W.J. Yes; he was severed from this world and put in touch with another world.
We are often tested in connection with these things. You must get things from the Lord or you will never get on.
_____________________
From ‘Truth for the Time’, 1902