GOD'S SUPPER, AND WHERE IT IS ENJOYED
GOD’S SUPPER, AND WHERE IT IS ENJOYED
To enter into the mind of God, as made known in Scripture, we have, I think, to be freed of certain habits of thought to which we have been accustomed. Our difficulties in understanding Scripture lie in ourselves, not in the word of God, for the word of God is simple. Everything is in the light with God; there is no complexity, all is simple, and it is presented simply, and is for the simple.
With this preface, I wish to say a little on what is presented to us in the passage I read under the figure of a supper.
We are much hindered from getting a right idea of what is presented to us in this thought, from having been brought up in a worldly christianity. The character of God’s present dealings is that He invites into His house, and this proves that the good things to be enjoyed are not brought to us where we are, but we are invited into His house to partake of them.
When the Lord Himself was here He was the One who could satisfy the poor with bread; that expressed the goodness of God bringing the abundance of His provisions to men where they were. This is quite different from being invited into a house for the pleasure of the one who invites. If I invite guests into my house, I have pleasure in their company. This is the first principle; those who come in are there for my pleasure, and I display myself by the kind of guests that I invite. My guests may have pleasure in participating in my pleasure, but it remains true that it is for my pleasure they are invited there. I call attention to this as showing that God calls us for His pleasure, and that we should participate in His pleasure.
[p. 439] This is quite a different thought from blessing being brought to us where we are.
Many people are content to pursue their business or pleasure for six days and have their religion on the seventh — the Sunday being merely an appendage to their ordinary life of business. They cling in a way to christianity as the best religion, because it is the only one which secures the relationships of life. A man apart from Scripture might have many wives. This fact accounts for the outward attachment to the Scriptures found in this country, and in others too. The idea upon which all this rests is that God has come out to confer something upon man down here. In the millennium God will do this. He will bring salvation and blessing to men upon the earth as Melchisedec blessed Abraham. But in the gospel God approaches man with the purpose of bringing him into another sphere, and not of leaving him in this. In that new sphere into which God would bring us divine enjoyment can be tasted.
If we were suddenly taken to heaven, do you suppose that we should have any of the surroundings of earth there? No. For one thing, there would be no distinction of sex; there is neither male nor female, Galatians 3:28. If we were transplanted to heaven we should all be very conscious that we had come into a new scene where all was light and blessedness.
When the Lord was here He brought light and relief and blessing to man where man was. In this chapter all is changed. Christ is virtually rejected, and God’s purpose to bring man into a completely new sphere is revealed. When Israel sang the song of victory on the wilderness side of the Red Sea, they found themselves in a new sphere. What a change for them, from being hemmed in between the Egyptians and the sea, with the dread of Pharaoh in their hearts. They were now with God.
In this chapter the grace of God addresses itself to [p. 440] man, that man may be introduced into a sphere where light and blessing are, and that while as to fact he is still down here. Now, this grace came into the world unobtrusively and almost imperceptibly. What marked those who first received the invitation and did not respond to it was that when these things came in they were scarcely disturbed in their ordinary pursuits; they were altogether unaware of the wonderful character of that which had come in. God had done the greatest thing that God could do, He had gained the greatest triumph He could gain, but all this was hardly noticeable by those whose hearts were otherwise detained. The fact is this, that if these things have come in they demand that all else shall be subordinated to them. When God approached man He approached him by the blood of Christ, with this witness of His righteousness. The blood bears witness to the full measure of the judgment having been borne. To put it in the words of another, “The man under judgment has gone in judgment”, but in the Person of the righteous One.
The next thing you come to in God’s approach by the gospel is a test of faith — and that is the resurrection of Christ. God makes known that in death He has crushed the head of the enemy — has “bruised his head”, the seat of his intelligence, and in resurrection the power of death has been broken. In the death of Christ God took all right out of the hand of Satan. He destroyed “him that had the power of death, that is the devil”, Hebrews 2:14. He was the accuser of the people of God and tormented them with the fear of death. But now God has put forth the might of His strength in resurrection to make known the greatness of His power on behalf of men; of those who had no claim upon Him. It is like the head of Goliath in the hand of David, or the enemies dead on the seashore.
The resurrection of Christ is the real test of faith. I am confident that if we could test the mass of professing [p. 441] christians we should find that although they might accept the resurrection as an article of a creed, yet they do not really believe in the resurrection of Christ. The apostle presses the truth of it in 1 Corinthians 15:4, “He rose again ... according to the Scriptures”. The truth of the resurrection is the burden of the preaching in the beginning of the Acts. It brings God so close to man. It is God giving the pledge of the greatness of His power. Suppose this truth is accepted in the soul, what next? It is that God confers the gift of the Holy Spirit, and His thought in this is in connection with bringing souls into His house.
The first thing that I am called to enjoy in His house is the victory which He has gained. God is made known as “a man of war”. If you believe in the Lord you believe in the existence of Satan. The testimony on which you believe in the Lord reveals the fact of a great enemy of man’s behind the scene. God has come out, exposed him and crushed his power, and we are called to celebrate this victory. How can I do this? One reason why I can do it is because I am not now afraid of the enemy. If he is the accuser, my complete answer is that Christ is my righteousness; I am covered in Christ. It is a wonderful thing to be thus covered. The idea of covering is often presented in Scripture — as in the coats of skin which God provided for our first parents; in the ark which saved Noah and his house; in the tents which covered Israel in the wilderness under the eye of Balaam; and in the New Testament, Christ is our righteousness, our robe in the presence of God.
It is wonderful to see God taking the place of a warrior! He has taken up the cause and has completely defeated the enemy in his stronghold. All was effected in the death of Christ. May God impress upon us all the blessedness of entering into the victory that has been gained. If there be any spirit in us we should enjoy God’s triumph; but we are so feeble that we enter but little into the greatness of what God has effected, and He did it by Himself, too, we had no part in it. Further than that, He has given us the fruit of victory; peace has been secured, reconciliation and favour and life have all been gained in death; they are the spoils of victory, and are to be enjoyed in God’s house.
Worldly christians do not enjoy the spoil. They hardly think of the death of Christ as that by which the enemy has been completely defeated. The results of the victory will yet be introduced into this world; the sure mercies of David will be brought into administration. This is not so now: christians are called into God’s house to enjoy the blessed spoils which God has secured through the death and resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ.
God will not allow His purpose to be thwarted, and so we get the thought of compulsion, which God puts upon man, that he may come in. All the evangelists in the world together could not compel a man to come in. God only can cause the collapse of man, which brings this about. All the qualities in a man which tend to make him great in this world God can bring to naught in a moment, and compel him to come in and enjoy the things which have come out of death. “Out of the eater came forth meat”, Judges 14:14. I may add that we do not bring anything into the house, but come in to enjoy what God has been pleased to set before us. What is of God’s house must be paramount to all else in your mind.
God can care for you in the wilderness, and though you may not get all that you would like you will have the sense of divine care, and things will be better ordered for you than if you had to care for yourself, for God knows how to care for His people.