THE SPIRIT'S OPERATIONS IN VIEW OF THE WILL OF GOD AND THE INHERITANCE
THE SPIRIT’S OPERATIONS IN VIEW OF THE WILL OF GOD AND THE INHERITANCE
Romans 8:13 - 17; Numbers 33:50 - 54
I am exercised, dear brethren, to speak about the Holy Spirit, especially in the operations by which He leads us into the enjoyment of our inheritance. He is the earnest of our inheritance. The subject of the Holy Spirit is necessarily a very extensive one, covering every part of the truth; indeed, there is a remarkable statement in John’s first epistle, where the Spirit is said to be “the truth”. (1 John 5:6) So that He is to be regarded in relation to every part of the truth. It is quite clear that one could not deal with all that in a short address, but I desire to speak of His operations in connection with the believer’s state, leading up to having part in the inheritance. It is well for us to bear in mind that Christianity stands publicly in relation to the Spirit, as well as to the Father and the Son; so that one may be quite free to speak of the Holy Spirit in this definite way. Indeed, the chapter in Romans from which I have read is occupied with this great subject of the Spirit of God, according to what He is to the believer.
I would add to these preliminary remarks a word about 1 and 2 Corinthians, and the general bearing of these epistles on this subject. The first epistle, among many other things, may be viewed as setting forth the limitations which the will of God concerning the saints necessitates. God has seen fit to impose certain limitations on His people, viewed as His assembly. The epistle is marked by directions and commandments; and the test of one’s spirituality is the recognition that the things which the apostle wrote are the commandments of the Lord. That is to say, the Holy Spirit in the saints here works out entire conformity to divine limitations. The Holy [p. 212] Spirit can never be in any movement amongst believers which transgresses the Lord’s commandment. The Lord said, “He that hath my commandments, and keepeth them, he it is that loveth me”. (John 14:21)
The Holy Spirit in the believer operates on the line of producing complete conformity with all these ordinances, directions, and commandments. It is indeed the glory of the saints that they conform to these commandments. It is said in Psalm 19 that “The heavens declare the glory of God”; but in the incarnation; that is, the Son becoming Man here, we have the glory brought down to earth. In that psalm the sun in the heavens is likened to a bridegroom coming out of his chamber, and rejoicing as a strong man to run a race; he makes a circuit of the heavens. Then in verse 7 we get the law of the Lord; this was taken up by Christ as having become Man. He took it up, delighted in it, magnified it, made it honourable; so that the carrying out of the will of God, which marked the heavens, has now been seen on earth. The glory shone in every step of Christ, as He moved on in the path of God’s will, but that will involved certain limitations here. The Lord in grace came into them, accepted them, and moved within them, and in so doing He glorified God. There was entire correspondence between the great and blessed truth that He was the Son of man in heaven, and the fact that He was here in the most humble circumstances. In John 4 He is seen sitting “as he was” on the well. He was weary, and the will of God involved that. He says in that chapter that it was His meat to do the will of the One who sent Him, and to finish His work, and throughout His whole course the Lord moved in submission to the will of God, and delighted to do it. There is food in it for us; it is indeed the manna, the mighty’s meat: “Man did eat angels’ food”. (Psalm 78:25). What is that food? It is Christ here in every circumstance of [p. 213] life, moving in relation to the will of God, which involved certain limitations, which He accepted. He came down from heaven; indeed, He was “the Son of man who is in heaven”, and He could return there, but He came to do the will of God.
Now in 1 Corinthians we see what corresponds with this in regard to the assembly. There are certain limitations made obligatory by the will of God, and the spiritual man observes them, they are not irksome to him; they remain in all their authority as the commandments of the Lord, and as a lover of Christ he has them and keeps them. The Lord manifests Himself to such a one as that, and the Father loves him. The whole point, as to our position here, is that we are for God’s will, whether individually or viewed in relation to the assembly. The Holy Spirit would ever maintain us in accord with that, and in us He also links us with that which is outside the bounds of time; the second letter to the Corinthians presents the accompaniments of this. In it, you have such expressions as, “We look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen: for the things which are seen are temporal; but the things which are not seen are eternal”, (2 Corinthians 4:18). One has often remarked, and it is worth repeating, that the feast of Pentecost in Deuteronomy is not bounded by time like other feasts, because it refers to the coming in of the Holy Spirit. The Spirit recognises all the bounds which are set about us in the time conditions by the Lord’s commandments, and the spiritual man recognises and keeps them all, but the Holy Spirit is also the link with what is outside time; He is the link with eternity; and so the apostle says, “If our earthly tabernacle house be destroyed, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens ... ... He that has wrought us for this very thing is God, who also has given to us the earnest of the Spirit”,(2 Corinthians 5:1 - 5). We have the thing already in the way of earnest, and in the power of the Spirit we may enter into eternal blessedness.
Now I want to connect these verses in Romans 8 for a moment with that. In 2 Corinthians Paul develops the accompaniments of this outlet from time limitations into eternal blessedness. Chapter 5 states that “If any one be in Christ, there is a new creation; the old things have passed away; behold all things have become new: and all things are of the God who has reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ”. That is wonderful to think of; if any man be in Christ he is not only a new creature, but he is in a new creation, and in that new creation all things are of God. So in the power of the Spirit one may pass out of time limitations into eternal blessedness. Hence the apostle says further on, “I know a man in Christ”. He had the experience fourteen years before of being caught up to the third heaven, to paradise, to the place of eternal blessedness. Think of being caught up to that! He was let down the wall in a basket at Damascus, and in the next statement he can speak of being caught up to the third heaven. It was a man in Christ; he was not bound by bodily conditions, for he was quite unconscious whether in the body or out of it. But he knew something of the place; it was paradise, a place of supreme blessedness. That is the prospect for the Christian, and the Holy Spirit is in him in order that he may know something of it whilst he still has part in time limitations.
The verses in Romans that I have read treat of life. John does not in the main take us off the earth it is a question of God coming here, and having His children here, who, as in the faith of the Son of God, have the victory, and are clear of death. So we do not get John employing the word sons, with one [p. 215] exception in the Revelation; whereas Paul is occupied with the thought of sons, because he would bring us to God; he would lead our souls to God in suitable dignity. So he first speaks here of life; he says, “if, by the Spirit, ye put to death the deeds of the body, ye shall live”, and then he goes on, “ye have not received a spirit of bondage again for fear, but ye have received a spirit of adoption [or sonship], whereby we cry, Abba, Father”. You have received that Spirit, he says, and by that Spirit we cry, “Abba, Father”; it is not simply the employment of words; we cry, “Abba, Father” by the Spirit. Paul must bring himself in when it comes to enjoyment; he says, “we cry”. You will recall that in Galatians the cry is the Spirit’s; the Spirit of the Son coming into the believer turns to the Father and cries, “Abba, Father”. (Galatians 4:6) Then you will observe in this chapter, “As many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God”. Romans gives us the operations of the Spirit in the believer, and brings in the thought of the Spirit leading, and that those who are led are sons of God.
Now I want to connect that with Numbers, and to touch on a point or two in that book. Most of you will recall that the Holy Spirit is viewed as having been received by believers typically in chapter 21, and it is in the light of that chapter that all that follows should be read. Hence when Balaam sees the people, he does not see them in relation to God’s tabernacle; he says nothing about God’s tabernacle; he sees the people in their tents; it was a question of what they had severally. It is the saints viewed as having the Spirit; their tents are worth looking at now. “How goodly are thy tents, O Jacob, and thy tabernacles, O Israel”. (Numbers 24:5) He saw them as having the Holy Spirit typically, and abiding in their tents according to their tribes. May God help us to lay hold of this! It is a question of families. The family [p. 216] feature is what the Spirit would emphasise. In the early part of the book the tents of the tribes stood in relation to the tabernacle of witness. That had its place in the early part of the book, but there is nothing said about that here; they are seen dwelling in their tents according to their tribes. It is the saints viewed as having the Holy Spirit; not in the flesh, but in the Spirit. Balaam sees them without a discrepancy; how beautiful! “How goodly are thy tents, O Jacob”. Sometimes we speak of Jacob as a poor, crooked, failing man, but he is not so seen here. I understand Jacob to speak of man here as he is set up through redemption and the gift of the Spirit; whereas Israel is the man of purpose.
You remember how the Lord speaks in Luke 18 of two that went up into the temple to pray, and says that the one returned to his house justified; that is, he took righteousness back into his house. His house would be marked now not by crookedness and corruption, but by righteousness. Israel would speak of a man wholly in the Spirit, a man whose name is changed; one who was bringing in all that was of God into his tabernacle, and governed in it by what God is; an imitator of God, walking in love, as Christ also hath loved us. That is what you would look for there. Then he goes on to say, “As the valleys are they spread forth, as gardens by the river’s side, as the trees of lign aloes which the Lord hath planted, and as cedar trees beside the waters”, (Numbers 24:6). What a view, dear friends! let us not put it away in the distance. The Spirit of God would bring this picture before us. The saints are viewed now as having the Holy Spirit; the tabernacle is not in view, because it is not now a question of being occupied with what is objective in heaven, or the great system that has been inaugurated on the ground of redemption. It is another side, which is connected with the Spirit.
[p. 217] When we come to Numbers 33 the spiritual geography is very pronounced; it is, “in the plains of Moab by Jordan near Jericho”. I wonder whether we know this territory, dear brethren? Aaron has died, and Moses can go no further; the lot is just over Jordan, the rich inheritance of God. And the word is, “Speak unto the children of Israel, and say unto them, When ye have passed over Jordan into the land of Canaan”. What is now in view is their being led by the Spirit in regard to the inheritance. I am not referring to the leading of the Spirit in connection with the passage of the river; all that Christ is to us in love comes into that, and the surrender on our part of all that is natural. His love led Him there, He went down beneath those waters and drove back death, so that it disappeared altogether. There is nothing to dread or to conquer there. The passing over Jordan is typical of what we have in Colossians; it is entering into this, “Buried with him in baptism, wherein also ye are risen with him through the faith of the operation of God, who hath raised him from the dead”, (Colossians 2:12). But all that is simple light, and I am occupied for the moment not with the light, but with the Holy Spirit in the believer in relation to that light. Then, further, when they had passed over they should “destroy all their pictures, and destroy all their molten images, and quite pluck down all their high places”, but I am not now occupied with that. I want to go on to the inheritance, and to show you that it is to be divided mutually. I want to show you how the Holy Spirit in the saints forms us in relation to one another, so that we think of each other in love.
Do we understand, dear brethren, the principle of mutuality? I think the Lord began with the Supper. I think He has set before us in that institution the mode in which the saints should be together in family relations. He had no thought of large congregations;
[p. 218] although the Israelites had to go up to Jerusalem to keep the passover, because Jehovah’s name was there, yet they kept it family-wise. It was not one huge congregation keeping it; it was a family affair, if one might so say. The Lord kept the passover with His disciples, and it was after the passover that He instituted the Supper, and in the institution He intimated His thought that the saints, during His absence, should retain these family relations, and that in these relations there should be mutuality. He never thought for a moment that there should be saints eating the Supper together unknown to each other. They were to be known to each other; every one in the company should know all the others. How could it be otherwise, if the relation is to be that of the family? A large congregation does not admit of that; there are many we do not know; they come and go, and we do not know them. The Lord’s intent was that there should be circles of brethren, of disciples, small enough for each to be known by all, and that each should partake of one loaf and one cup. For it is the cup. He says firstly, as to the passover cup, in Luke 22, “Take this, and divide it among yourselves”; it was to be mutual. There is no evidence that He handed it first to Peter or the loved disciple, but He says, “Take this, and divide it among yourselves”. He says again, “By this shall all know that ye are disciples of mine, if ye have love amongst yourselves”. That is mutuality. I am speaking for a moment of the position of the saints viewed in relation to the Lord’s supper. The principle is mutuality. It is the very essence of the assembly’s position here. We are to have love amongst ourselves.
In Numbers 33:54 he says, “And ye shall take for yourselves the land as an inheritance by lot according to your families”. You see it was themselves; they were to do it. It is not here Jehovah [p. 219] giving the inheritance, or Moses, but they were to take it for themselves on the principle of mutuality. “To the many ye shall increase their inheritance, and to the few thou shalt diminish their inheritance where the lot falleth to him, there shall be each man’s inheritance; according to the tribes of your fathers shall ye take for yourselves the inheritance”. Dear brethren, what a rich inheritance is ours! The Spirit does not enlarge on the inheritance in Romans, but He brings in the thought that we are heirs, “If children, then heirs; heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ”. But the passage in Numbers runs on to Ephesians because it speaks of the inheritance not yet possessed, but about to be possessed, and when possessed it is to be shared on the principle of mutuality; that is, I love the brethren, and all that I have I want them to share. The lot brings God in, but the passage has in view the love that the saints have one for another. The presence of the Holy Spirit brings about these mutual conditions.
Then I would remark, that it is to be “according to the tribes of your fathers”; that is, anything that we have in the nature of a spiritual inheritance is not simply for the few near to us, it is for “the tribes”. The division of what we have must have all the saints in view. We must not be narrower in our affections than the whole assembly. The good things that we have in the Spirit are the common inheritance of all the saints, and so the Ephesians are said to have love for all the saints. The division of the inheritance is to be according to their families, according to the size of the families, and according to the tribes. The word tribes suggests much to faith. God never had anything less before Him than the twelve tribes, nor did ever any man of faith have anything less before him. Nor will any man today who has the Spirit and walks in the Spirit, think of anything less than all the saints of God. They all [p. 220] belong to the assembly, and what we have in the Spirit we share with them, according to the size of the families, as it says.
The Holy Spirit would produce this in us. It is important that we should have love one to another, and that unalloyed by any selfish considerations, and as walking in the Spirit, and loving in the Spirit, we should embrace all the saints. Whatever we have in the way of spiritual gain and blessedness is to be shared with them all. Divine love in us leads to enlargement, so that we embrace them all in our affections. May the Lord bless His word.