SPIRITUAL INTELLIGENCE
[p. 249] SPIRITUAL INTELLIGENCE
Romans 12: 1; Ephesians 1: 15 - 23
I have in mind to speak tonight on spiritual intelligence, having in view that it is one of the great essentials for believers to be spiritually intelligent. It will be observed by those who read Scripture that the Holy Spirit emphasizes the importance of spiritual intelligence throughout. The prophet Hosea speaks about God’s people being destroyed for lack of knowledge. And then the same prophet, having spoken of the resurrection of the saints, says, “And we shall know”. In that remark one is reminded of John’s epistle which speaks in large measure on this subject. In it he says, “We know that the Son of God has come, and has given us an understanding”. The Son of God has abolished death. Indeed the mark by which He was marked off as Son was the resurrection of the dead and He has given to us an understanding, “that we should know him that is true; and we are in him that is true, in his Son Jesus Christ. He is the true God and eternal life”, 1 John 5: 20. We might say that there is the culmination in the believer of all knowledge in so far as knowledge may be possessed by a finite being, the knowledge of the true God in a Man and the knowledge of eternal life in a Man. In speaking thus of John’s epistle one is led to refer to the gospels for a moment. You will recall how in that passage in Hosea the prophet says “we shall know”. As raised up, the saints come into the apprehension of the resurrection. We are not literally raised. It is by faith of the operation of God: He raised Him from the dead. As we are risen by faith of the resurrection the road is clear for knowledge. “We shall know, — we shall follow on to know Jehovah”. And so one is led to speak of the gospels because in them we have the presentation of knowledge, or rather we have everything presented from the divine point of view. It is true that we know in part. We do. But there is such a thing as seeing the parts put together. One bit is added to another and so [p. 250] on, until we see it as a great whole in Christ, and that is what an understanding of the gospels leads to. We shall follow on to know as we understand the epistles, and as we learn in part we go to the gospels to see the whole, and so to Ephesians to which I hope to refer.
Now I referred to Romans because it is the initial epistle, and I referred to Ephesians because it presents to us the full divine thought in so far as we may apprehend. It is the spirit of wisdom and revelation, mark you! Not the spirit of wisdom and information, but of wisdom and revelation. We must have that for the gospels. They deal with revelation and in order to apprehend revelation we must have the spirit of revelation, and that can only be received from God. The apostle could not impart it to them; he had the knowledge, the doctrine, but he could only pray for the spirit of wisdom and revelation. And now in turning to the gospels one has in mind what John says in his epistle; that is, his reference to knowing the true God and eternal life, both things presented within the compass of a Man. God had said in Jeremiah that He would create a new thing on the earth, a woman should encompass a man. I have no doubt that a woman in Scripture is the subjective side, the side of desire, the side of need and affection. We read of seven women laying hold of a man to be called by his name (Isaiah 4: 1). They would provide their own bread but would be called by his name. Later it says, “Jehovah hath created a new thing on the earth, a woman shall encompass a man”, Jeremiah 31:22. I have no doubt that the longings of the apostle in his prayers in the several epistles, particularly in Colossians, Ephesians and Philippians, have that in view.
At Sinai, God thundered! He impressed the people with His majesty and dignity, but then in maintaining His dignity in that way before the people, God would come within their range. He began by calling Moses up to the mount, by calling attention to a pattern. He gives him a pattern and the first thing mentioned is the ark, something that could be carried. What is this? It is God come very near to us that He might be, as it were, compassed according [p. 251] to the spiritual intelligence that He gives us, that we might know Him. And so, the tabernacle was made in parts, and they were bound together in wisdom, so that it should be one tabernacle as the pattern was given to Moses; then God came near. What grace is in that! True enough the cloud ascended up, maintaining the truth of Him that was there, God Himself, the everlasting God. Moses, knowing it, says, “thou hast been our dwelling place in all generations ... from eternity to eternity thou art God”, Psalm 90: 1, 2. But God came in in grace within the range of an enclosure measuring one hundred by fifty cubits, even within a range of an enclosure of ten cubits. God was there. He was known there. I refer to it so that we might have before us how God has drawn near so that we might know Him. “Am I so long a time with you”, says the Lord, “and thou has not known me?” John 14: 9. What is that? What was the tabernacle but a type of that? It was God Himself come down within the range of that enclosure to be known by His people. God Himself was near and shining forth, and so in Exodus the tabernacle was set up and God comes in. He comes Himself. It was no less than the divine presence and so He speaks to Moses out of the tabernacle and says, ‘I am here to be preached, I am here to be known, I am here to be loved’. He made it clear that He had drawn near to them, approached them, loved them. As one said afterwards, “Yea, he loved the people” (Deuteronomy 33: 3); God’s love would lead Him to come so near. He came within their range, within the very thing that their hands had made. Wonderful grace! It was that they might know Him. As later it was said of Zion, “God is known in her palaces” (Psalm 48: 3); He was known there as a refuge or fortress.
Now in turning to the gospels, you see that they present that very thing: that God had come near in a Man. And what I would remark is that they contemplate intelligence. We may as well make up our minds as to it, that if we are to understand the gospels it must be in the intelligence of the epistles. You have known in part through the epistles, and are now prepared to see the whole scheme of divine [p. 252] wisdom and intelligence presented in a Man; a wonderful proposal. Ephesians speaks of God abounding to us in all wisdom and intelligence, and so the first great feature in the gospels is the kingdom. One has remarked that God comes in kingdomwise to be known householdwise. John comes last; the house comes last. Matthew is the kingdom; hence the love of God and the love of Christ; the beneficiaries of redemption take up the book of Matthew and what we find is “Book of the generation of Jesus Christ, Son of David, Son of Abraham”. Books are of divine origin. I know that we are living in an age of books, corrupt books, books which when the gospels are understood will be consigned to the flames. As divine books are understood human books are consigned to the flames. That is what happened at Ephesus. So that, “Book” is the first word, and to understand a divine book, wisdom is needed. “None of the wicked shall understand”, Daniel 12: 10. They preach on it, but unless they have the Holy Spirit, they cannot understand. The wise understand. As Hosea says, “Who is wise, and he shall understand these things” (Hosea 14: 9), and so Daniel says, “I Daniel understood by the books”, Daniel 9: 2. You see how a wise man profited by books.
The Lord had said, “In the roll of the book it is written of me” (Hebrews 10: 7), possibly the most profound of all books.
When it was written, I do not know, but the very heading of it was that there was One who had come down to do the will of God. Any book that has not that as its basis is worthless. In that book it was written of Christ (in fact every book should be about Christ), “Lo, I come (in the roll of the book it is written of me) to do, O God, thy will”.
That was what was in that book. If we could but read that book we should find much. No doubt it all comes out in this gospel — that is the great thesis — the coming of Christ to do the will of God, and so this one, “Book of the generation of Jesus Christ, Son of David, Son of Abraham”.
And so we find here the power of the kingdom. We are in the presence of the King. We are in the presence of the One who will set up the kingdom which cannot be moved.
As Daniel says, “Thou sawest till a stone was cut out [p. 253] without hands; and it smote the image ... . And the stone that smote the image became a great mountain, and filled the whole earth ... . And in the days of these kings shall the God of the heavens set up a kingdom which shall never be destroyed”, Daniel 2:34,35; Daniel 2:44. Before you have the kingdom you must have the king, and the “Book of the generation of Jesus Christ, Son of David” presents the King to us; and so the first great feature of intelligence is knowledge of the kingdom in Christ, and that is the epistle to the Romans. You learn it as it benefits you in Romans, but in Matthew I see it in relation to the whole divine scheme. I see it as laid down in that book in which it is written, “Lo, I come ... O God”. That is Matthew, and I would urge on young people to consider this — the knowledge of the kingdom. The kingdom is not only deliverance and power but an order of things. It affords and asserts divine authority, one of the most essential things today. The wreckage of government is strewn all around us, but in the kingdom of God we have the assertion of divine authority, divine power, divine leadership and divine order; these are the things that the kingdom presents to us.
Now I pass on to Mark, because if you have the established kingdom the next thing is that things have to be known by preaching, so the preacher says, “I, the Preacher, was king ... in Jerusalem”; it is not, ‘I, the King, was Preacher’ but the Preacher is King; in other words the kingdom subserves the preaching but the preaching is His kingdom. Not that it is confined to that, because the King is preached, the person of the Son is preached, the love of God is preached; hence if we have the kingdom, we must have the preaching. Hence Mark begins, “Beginning of the glad tidings of Jesus Christ, Son of God”. The kingdom is the great background and support of the gospel.
And the next thing we find is Luke; divine order, no doubt. That is sympathy, the knowledge of God drawn near in the sympathies of a Man. The eunuch had been reading about the Lord as Man, about One who had grown up as a tender plant. There is sympathy at the very outset. “He shall grow up before him”. How that should appeal to every young christian as to whether you are growing up before men’s eyes or before God. Jesus was cast upon God from the very outset of His being here. He grew up as a tender plant before God; then the prophet outlines the manhood of Jesus. Nothing indeed appeals to one more than the manhood of Jesus. Philip preached Jesus. He had to preach the manhood of Jesus, God come near in a Babe, an Infant. God was there: who can deny it? He was there so as to be known to be compassable by us — the Man Christ Jesus. One has often referred to Moses, one of the finest types. When Aaron and Miriam had rebelled against Moses, the Spirit says, “the man Moses was very meek, above all men that were upon the face of the earth” (Numbers 12: 3), a forecast of Christ. If anyone should have known Moses, it was Miriam. She had watched him in the river; she knew his beginning, and if we read the gospel of Luke, we shall know the beginnings of Jesus in this world. There was no room for Him. It was not exactly hostility, but the condition of things. In Matthew He is found in a house. Matthew presents the dignity, whereas Luke presents the humanity, of Jesus. A woman was to compass a man, and so you see how in Luke 7 a woman came in and washed His feet. She began down below. Those feet had carried wonderful things to her, and she followed those feet, the feet of Jesus. In Luke He is anointed. You see how the Lord had come within the range so as to be known and to be loved.
The gospel of John is the final and great feature of divine and spiritual intelligence, because he presents the Son, and he presents Him in the bosom of the Father; He is to be contemplated in that position. It is not a question of what He does for me; it is a question of what He is “We have contemplated his glory, a glory as of an only begotten with a father”. The spiritual intelligence involved in that is that I see that God has a family, and as having a family He has a house, and as having a house and family He loves in His house and family and is to be known there. Hence the first disciples drawn to Christ enquire,
“Where abidest thou?” Why should they say that?
Because it suggests the point of view of that evangelist. What can be more precious than to know where He dwelleth and to be invited to come and see, and then to be freely and happily there, if but for two hours. “They abode with Him that day. It was about the tenth hour”. What a time they had! I refer to it because it suggests to you what the spiritual intelligence in John’s gospel involves for us.
Now just to come back to the beginning, one would like to say a word for beginners; we have all had to begin. Most of us, perhaps, have not got on very far, but you will find that the epistles to the Romans, Colossians, Ephesians and Philippians each speak of knowledge. The apostle prays in each one that those to whom he is writing may have knowledge. Now, John, in writing to the little children, says, “It is the last hour”. He does not occupy them with a long period of time but brings it within an hour. “It is the last hour, and ... there have come many antichrists”, 1 John 2: 18. The apostle warns the little ones about them. Who of us who has had his eyes opened is not aware of the antichrist? The apostle says, “Ye have heard that antichrist comes”. Then he tells them how they are to know him; the antichrist denies the Father and the Son; he throws off christianity altogether. Then he says, “Ye have not need that anyone should teach you”, 1 John 2: 27. So you see, beloved brethren, how God has provided for you in the Spirit, and Romans shows us in this passage how the initial teaching of the gospel brings about intelligence in regard of our bodies. “I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the compassions of God, to present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your intelligent service”. That is in the light of what you have heard. It is intelligent to use what is always available, that is your body, for God and to present it a living sacrifice. One has to go back in the epistle to see how it can be a living one. It says, “If Christ be in you”; that is a wonderful suggestion; Christ in the believer, in the gentile it may be, for in Romans we are gentiles. “If Christ be in you, the body is dead on account of sin, but the Spirit life on account of righteousness”, Romans 8: 10. The Lord would only be in our body as it is governed by righteousness. Chapter 6 shows that the members are to be presented as instruments of righteousness, but here the body is to be presented totally by the believer to God. It means that we are to be in accord with that wonderful book to which I have referred: “Lo, I come”, a body controlled by righteousness and by the Spirit. They are, as it were, vessels through which Christ is expressed here. What a triumph, that in the gentile world that wonderful saying of Christ in that book should find a reflection in believers doing the will of God. “Be not conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is the good and acceptable and perfect will of God”, Romans 12:2. That is the proposal to us; Christ in becoming Man is reflected in us in our bodies being presented to God a living sacrifice. That is the beginning of christian knowledge. It works out in the way I hold my body. We all know our bodies and it is an immense thing, knowing our natural propensities, to see how God has provided us with the means of putting them to death, so that the Spirit in us is the means of righteousness. So the great end is in the Ephesians where the apostle says that he prays that God “would give you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the full knowledge of him”, Ephesians 1: 17. What is the knowledge of Him? “Being enlightened in the eyes of your heart, so that ye should know what is the hope of his calling, and what the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints, and what the surpassing greatness of his power towards us who believe”. You begin to look at the saints from God’s side. How different they look as God’s inheritance. “And what the surpassing greatness of his power towards us who believe, according to the working of the might of his strength, in which he wrought in the Christ in raising him from among the dead”, Ephesians 1: 19, 20. How great and full this is! Then he says, “and he set him down at his right hand in the heavenlies, above every principality, and authority, and power, and dominion, and every name named, not only in this age, but also in that to come; and [p. 257] has put all things under his feet, and gave him to be head over all things to the assembly, which is his body”, Ephesians 1: 20 - 22. So you see how intelligence which begins and is seen in presenting our bodies to God finds its full answer in the knowledge of God, that He has placed Christ over all things, and that the assembly is His body. Think of having part in that! What an incentive to begin now with those bodies while we are here, and to learn thus, how we are to be the complement of Christ in the aggregate in the future. He is “head over all things to the assembly, which is his body, the fulness of him who fills all in all”. How wonderful! The full knowledge of God is apprehended by those who have the spirit of wisdom and revelation.