THE SPIRIT AS THE EARNEST OF THE INHERITANCE
[p. 274] THE SPIRIT AS THE EARNEST OF THE INHERITANCE
Philippians 3: 12 - 14; Numbers 21: 16 - 18; Numbers 27: 12 - 21
I had in mind, dear brethren, to consider the inheritance, so that we might be encouraged to lay hold of what is peculiarly our own, and for this what is needed is a recognition of the Spirit as the earnest of the inheritance. The Spirit of God carries on a varied service on our behalf. Indeed, as here, He has undertaken everything — He is that other Comforter of whom the Lord spoke who should take His place on His going away. He has been here for nearly two thousand years, maintaining this service in infinite vigilance, omitting nothing, overlooking nothing so that the assembly should have no lack, should want nothing, and His mission on earth is not yet finished. No, He is succeeding in developing in the saints some outline of assembly formation and beauty, working unceasingly, for the assembly is of Christ and every bit of formation is by the Spirit; all has reference to Christ, so that God delights in the feminine features at the beginning; the Lord was delighted as His eye saw the beauty of the assembly and as His heart found a response in the early days. He said in outlining her beauty that “the king is fettered by thy ringlets” (Song of Songs 7: 5), her head is like Carmel and the locks of her head like purple — He was held there by her beauty, that beauty that began to appear in individuals before He left Bethany. The Holy Spirit is working to bring about assembly formation and beauty according to what was at the beginning. At the end it is said, “I, Jesus, ... I am the root and offspring of David, the bright and morning star”, Revelation 22: 16. Every christian who rightly understands the gospel would understand this announcement. Hence the Spirit and the bride say, Come. The Spirit has secured her — she is the product of His mission on earth which has extended over these two thousand years. As I said He has now succeeded. What that [p. 275] history has been no church writer can convey, no church historian ever conveyed the items of the history; the Holy Spirit alone can convey what that history has been and what infinite patience has marked Him in waiting on the saints. Hence, the Lord says that if anyone should speak against the Spirit there should be no forgiveness. One can well understand it, beloved. But notwithstanding the insult and the blasphemy offered to Him, He broke us down and we are here today as the fruit of His service, or we are not here rightly, and these are occasions of the Spirit to bring to our attention what we need. So, beloved brethren, what I would seek is to show how an appreciation of the inheritance and the enjoyment of it depend on the Spirit in us, and not only on the Spirit Himself but on the work to which I refer. As one said, “Things which eye has not seen, and ear not heard, and which have not come into man’s heart, which God has prepared for them that love him, but God has revealed to us by his Spirit; for the Spirit searches all things, even the depths of God”, 1 Corinthians 2: 9, 10. Think of that — the Spirit that dwelleth in us searcheth the depths of God. We read of the depths of Satan — He does not search those. There are those today who are active under the direct energy of Satan; they would enter the domain of hades; what a terrible word! The Lord Jesus has the keys of death and hades. Is He opening the door to you? No, beloved, they are labouring at their own expense and to their own destruction but the blessed Spirit of God, who indwells us, searcheth the depths of God. What profound things there are to be provided. In Scripture we have a perfect record of things. The test for everything today lies in relation to the power of the Son and the Spirit. We are baptized, indeed, to the name of the Father, and of the Son and of the Spirit, and it is for us to enter into all that is disclosed. The Spirit, it says, searches all things, yea the depths of God, and so we are dependent on Him if we are to apprehend and enjoy our own inheritance. We must recognize the Spirit as the power for it, for that is one of His great offices, to bring us to the enjoyment of our own inheritance, and I think, beloved, it [p. 276] begins as we by the Spirit cry “Abba, Father”. There is much bound up in that, but that cry in a believer involves that he is brought to the heavenly door.
And now I wanted, by the Lord’s help, to show you briefly from Numbers how the spiritual state and desire for the inheritance is brought out and how it corresponds with it. God Himself selects Joshua, the one who is to bring them into the possession. Moses, acting under divine command, set a man who had the Spirit before Eleazar and before the whole assembly. The Holy Spirit intends to convey in those beautiful words that we are dealing with what is spiritual; in this way we are helped by the Old Testament scriptures. Holy men of God spake under the power of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit knew what He was saying and it was in view of us. Joshua was a man with the Spirit and we see that we are dealing with what is spiritual, what is properly our inheritance typified in the literal land of Canaan. In chapter 21 you have the recognition by the saints of the Spirit. You will remember that after the passage of the Red Sea it says, “Then sang Moses and the children of Israel this song to Jehovah, and spoke, saying, I will sing unto Jehovah, for he is highly exalted”. This song stands out in every believer’s history as he apprehends the overthrow of death and of Satan’s power in the death of Christ. But you will observe that it is not Moses and the children of Israel that sing the song in Numbers 21. It is Israel alone that sings, “Rise up, well!” Considerable history had intervened. Moses had, alas, owing to the provocation of the people, disqualified himself, and he is not to be the leader in the spiritual inheritance. It is not now what comes down — the fact of the Holy Spirit coming down is one of the most wonderful things, but then the next thing is, beloved, the rising up or ascending (the original word really is ‘ascend’). From this point onwards our songs of degrees begin — songs of degrees or songs of ascension. The Lord Jesus came down and stood on a plain. We receive the forgiveness on the plain and we receive the Spirit on the plain, but as we recognize the Spirit the thought of ascension comes in and if we are not on the [p. 277] ascending line we may depend on it we will soon be on the descending line. I have been speaking of the depths of Satan. Proverbs speaks of the foolish woman — her guests are in the depths of hell. For the christian it is either ascending or descending. I cannot remain on the plain. I shall either ascend in the power of the Spirit of God or be on the descending line. And so the song is “Rise up, well!” I am conscious of the power of ascension in me. I hope you young people will lay hold of what I am saying. I have often thought of the birds as a type. There are clean birds and there are unclean birds. They both can fly. An unclean bird is one that has sufficient means in this world to rise above the heads of others — to soar away — far away from the ordinary level of humanity. The clean bird is one that has got power of a different kind. If he soars it is not in pride — he soars in the power of the Spirit — he begins to ascend — he has got a song for every ascent as it were and I believe this is the first one: “Rise up, well! Sing unto it: well which princes digged”. Thank God for the princes. Princes are not mere officials. A prince is a man who is morally great. A prince is one who has qualified morally. He digs the well. There are those, beloved, whom God has raised up, so that the Holy Spirit might be free and the result is that wonderful things have come to light. The princes digged the well by the direction of the lawgiver, that is, under the direction of Christ, surely, but nevertheless they say that the Holy Spirit was here and that He suffices for the assembly. No need of man. As John said, “Ye have not need that any one should teach you; but ... the same unction teaches you”. More than that — by that same Spirit the saint is united to Christ; we are part of one thing as we are constituted one body by the Spirit, but the most marvellous of all is that we are united to Christ — the assembly is linked up with Christ by the Spirit and where He is she must be. The principle from the outset is ascent, and so the Lord says to Mary, “Go to my brethren and say to them, I ascend to my Father and your Father, and to my God and your God”. That word ‘ascend’ would become a family word henceforth. Mary brought it into the company [p. 278] from the lips of a risen Christ, from the lips of; Christ who was about to ascend; she brought it in with her lips. How the Holy Spirit would use it! I have often thought, dear brethren, of what conversations the apostles and the other saints would have as they met together in later years; how they maintained their freshness; how they, would revert to that wonderful moment when Mary came in. How radiant her face must have been; how full her, heart must have been as she approached the company of the brethren and told them what she had seen and that He had spoken these things to her. Do you think she omitted anything of these things? Certainly not — the words were full of meaning — every word but particularly that word “I ascend to my Father and your Father, and to my God and your God”. Nothing but love marked that company and if Mary were present on those occasions how heartily she would have joined in, and how the Lord would come before her! So the desire to be with Him should fill our hearts with the thought of where He is. Nothing less than that, for He had already told them that “where I am, there ye may be also” and so, since the Spirit has linked us with Christ, our Head, in heaven, the power that we are conscious of in His presence would lead us to rise up as the Lord had said “the water which I shall give him shall become in him a fountain of water, springing up into eternal life”.
Now, as earlier in the history of Israel when the first thought of the Spirit came in in the smitten rock (Exodus 17: 6) so the first move of the Spirit in the soul brings out the bitter opposition of Satan in the flesh. You have to look out for that. Joshua appears at once because it is a question of your hidden history, not what you are in the presence of the brethren, but what you are with God; that is the point. Joshua has to do with the hidden or spiritual history of the saints, not our public history; Moses has to do with our public history. Hence “your life is hid with the Christ in God”, Colossians 3: 3. That is the principle with Joshua. Amalek appears immediately after the rock was smitten so that they might drink of the water. He would hinder the people from entering into their spiritual inheritance; he [p. 279] would keep you out at all costs. There is, beloved brethren, a constant spiritual warfare, a constant endeavour to keep the people of God out of their inheritance, but God is acting for us. We know that. In Numbers 21 they recognize the Spirit, and although Balaam, failing to curse the people or to induce God to curse them, sought to corrupt them through family relationships and social links, the plague was stayed and the people were brought into their inheritance; hence they are numbered for the inheritance in chapter 26 and in chapter 27 the five daughters of Zelophehad come forward for their inheritance. I appeal to everyone here — what an appreciation have we of this rich inheritance which God has for us, this “incorruptible and undefiled and unfading inheritance, reserved in the heavens for you”, 1 Peter 1: 4? Satan cannot touch it. He can touch us for the moment but the inheritance is reserved for us; it is eternal, beloved; it is as God is; it abides and these daughters of Zelophehad would have it. They come forward to Moses and Eleazar the priest and the princes and the whole congregation — they stand out, beloved, in front of all. Where are we as to laying hold of what is spiritual — the spiritual inheritance that God has got for us?
Moses loved the inheritance. Oh, he said, I would like to go over there. I would like to see that holy mountain of righteousness. I would love to be there. Ah, but you cannot go, Moses, but I will let you see it. And God showed him all the land. And now, He says, now you see it you will have to die as Aaron did. Sorrowful sentence but humbly accepted by the great lawgiver when he says to the Lord “set a man over the assembly”. What a man Moses was! How unjealous he was. He knew Joshua, for Joshua had been his minister. He says to Jehovah “let Jehovah, the God of the spirits of all flesh, set a man over the assembly, who may go out before them, and who may come in before them, and who may lead them out, and who may bring them in”. God is dealing with our spirits. He is the Father of spirits, is chastening us that we might become partakers of His holiness. He is preserving our bodies and forming us in our circumstances — but it is the spiritual part of us [p. 280] that refers to God. He will have us perfect. “The spirits of just men made perfect”. So this leader reminds us of Christ. He gives us liberty to go in and to go out. That is spiritual. We need to be diverted from what is merely, natural to what is spiritual. The writings of John are intended to promote spirituality in us; to make us spiritual; to go in and to go out is spiritual and Joshua has to do that. Hence Jehovah says, “Take Joshua the son of Nun, a man in whom is the Spirit, and thou shalt lay thy hand upon him”. It undoubtedly refers to the Spirit of God in Joshua and indicates that Christ puts us in the possession of the inheritance in a spiritual way.
Well, let us turn to the Lord to know what this means. The Lord gives us understanding. But you say, ‘It is a spiritual matter and we have got to know how to enter spiritually’. We find Joshua has got the Spirit, meaning that the Lord Jesus has to be apprehended in a spiritual way as He was apprehended during the forty days of His sojourn on earth after His resurrection. It is in apprehending those forty days that we understand Joshua here by the Spirit. Joshua had the Spirit and we are conducted in in a spiritual way. Hence the great need of our spiritual formation so that, as I apprehend, the apostle was on this line in his great service here and the great result, the one thing before him as he considered his own thought and aspirations, was that he might apprehend that for which also he was apprehended; that he might run so as to obtain the prize of the calling on high. Mark you, not simply the calling but the calling on high of God in Christ Jesus. I consider this a good note of christian experience and I would put it before the brethren as simply and yet as positively as I can. He says, “One thing — forgetting the things behind, and stretching out to the things before, I pursue, looking towards the goal, for the prize of the calling on high of God in Christ Jesus”, Philippians 3: 13, 14. He had been in then and had seen more than anybody. He says, “I know a man in Christ, fourteen years ago, (whether in the body I know not, or out of the body I know not, God knows;) such a one caught up to the third heaven”, 2 Corinthians 12: 2. That [p. 281] was his experience. What it is to be in Christ as spiritual, in heavenly glory; to be with Him, to be in that domain, beloved, where He is, with Him as He says, “Where I am ye also may be”, John 14: 3. One often goes back to the lines
‘And see! the Spirit’s power
Has ope’d the heavenly door,
Has brought us to that favoured hour’.
You see the Holy Spirit brings us to it and that experience begins with the passage where you refer to the Spirit, “Rise up, well! sing unto it”.