"AFTERWARD THAT WHICH IS SPIRITUAL"
“AFTERWARD THAT WHICH IS SPIRITUAL”
Mark 14: 26; Mark 13: 1 - 5; Acts 1: 12 - 14; Judges 6: 17 - 24; Judges 13: 19, 20
My exercise, dear brethren, in reading these scriptures is that the Lord may help us so that through what is said we may become more spiritual. It is said in 1 Corinthians 15: 46 that that which is spiritual was not first, but that which is natural, and afterward that which is spiritual. What is referred to is what is now established in our Lord Jesus Christ as risen up from among the dead and ascended up into heaven, therefore the “afterward” spoken of in the passage I referred to is now in effect. The spiritual order of things has come to pass and has supplanted the natural order. Our Lord Jesus Christ came into the natural and recognised it. “He came unto his own”, as we are told, and as in the midst of His own after the flesh He recognised all that entered into that legitimately. But then there came a time in His ministry in which He said to His mother, when she intimated that she knew something which He did not know: “Woman, what have I to do with thee?” John 2: 4. He announced in that remark to His mother that as His own had rejected Him He was now entering upon the spiritual order of things, and in that order of things the natural was superseded. It is the sense I have, dear brethren, that with us there is the need of being reminded of these facts, that has led me to read these scriptures, because it is God’s thought that we should be brought into what is spiritual, and that we should be in it intelligently as judging the relative superiority of the spiritual to the natural.
Now, the apostle in writing his first letter to the Corinthians says that he could not write to them as unto spiritual, and I need not add that his remark thus addressed to the Corinthian believers could be as truthfully addressed to most believers at the present time. He says: “I, brethren, have not been able to speak to you as to spiritual”. There [p. 442] were the deep things of God which he was in possession of by the Spirit, and which he would love to unfold to the Corinthian christians, but he was hindered because they were not spiritual. It was not that they did not have the Spirit, because they did have the Spirit; they had not progressed for they were but babes, “babes in Christ”. They were really christians and in possession of the Spirit otherwise he could not say they were “in Christ”. We are only in Christ by the Spirit, but being in Christ thus is not to say that we are spiritual. It is one thing to have the Spirit, and another thing to be spiritual. But having the Spirit, beloved brethren, we have the means within us of being spiritual; so Elisha, in answer to the petition of the widow of one of the sons of the prophets, as she had to confess to him her bankruptcy, says: “What hast thou in the house?” It is a very humiliating thing to have to admit one’s bankruptcy spiritually, but what came out was that she need not have become bankrupt. Elisha says, “What hast thou in the house?” Well, she says she had “a pot of oil”, 2 Kings 4: 2. You see she needed fight, not credit; she needed light as to what she actually had. She had debt enough already piled up and her two sons were about to be sold to the creditors, but a real difficulty lay in the fact that she was without light as to what she actually had in her house. She did not know the value of the pot of oil, and so it is with christians; many christians are unable to discharge their moral liabilities because they do not know the value of what they possess in the Spirit, and they do not know how to make room for the Spirit. And so the prophet enlightens this woman, telling her she is to borrow vessels not a few, and as she poured out the oil, these vessels were all filled with the oil. The greater the number of vessels the greater the amount of oil, for the Spirit of God is infinite. God has not given His Spirit by measure; it is a question of your capacity, and the enlargement of the capacity is within your own range. It is a question of self-judgment, of the disallowance of the flesh, of learning to use the blessed Spirit of God instead of using the flesh, and of sowing to the Spirit instead of sowing to [p. 443] the flesh. The Spirit in the epistle to the Romans, which is the great elementary epistle, is first presented to the believer as He who brings into the believer the love of God. Speaking reverently He does not come, as it were, empty. The first mention of Him as in the believer, in the epistle to the Romans, reminds us that in coming in He brings with Him the love of God. Think of the precious commodity that the blessed Spirit of God brings into your soul, the greatest possible thing, beloved friends, the love of God!
Is it not worth while making room for the blessed Spirit, not only on His account as here a divine Person, but because He brings into the believer’s heart the love of God? “Hope”, says the apostle, “does not make ashamed, because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Spirit which has been given to us”, Romans 5: 5. So that, as I said, there is every incentive for christians to make room by self-judgment and self-denial for the blessed Spirit of God. In chapter 8 He is seen to be present, and by His presence the believer is said to fulfil the righteous requirement of the law. That is, he discharges his moral liabilities, and he loves God. One of the first evidences of the presence of the Spirit is that one loves God, and then secondly you love your neighbour. The Spirit of God enables us to do these things, and so the prophet says to the woman, “Sell the oil, and pay thy debt, and live thou and thy sons on the rest”. Living on the rest, that is to say, the blessed Spirit of God for He is not diminished at all. There is no such thing as diminishing what we have of the Spirit; there are infinite means whereby we live as we recognise the Spirit.
And so the passage in Romans goes on to say: “For to be carnally minded is death; but to be spiritually minded is life and peace”, Romans 8: 6. Such is, among many other things, the great result of the recognition of the Holy Spirit as in us. Think of the blessing that lies in being spiritually minded! It is said to be “life and peace”.
Well now, I have selected these passages in the New Testament because each contains a reference to the mount of Olives. I understand that the mount of Olives suggests [p. 444] the Holy Spirit, and I wanted to show from the first passage, Mark 14, that after they partook of the Lord’s supper they sang a hymn. Notice that the “they” includes the Lord Himself. It touches the heart to think that the Lord Himself, who is about to undergo the judgment of God alone, and who is about to be abandoned on account of our guilt, should join with His disciples in a hymn after He had instituted His supper. My thought in dwelling on this is to seek to show that we have to learn from Christ how to be spiritual. Were we present we should have had the opportunity of seeing how the Lord joined in the hymn. We should thus learn how to “sing with the spirit”; it is not merely being able to join in the tune and use the words. It is said: “I will sing with the spirit, and I will sing with the understanding also”, 1 Corinthians 14: 15. You would see how the Lord was moved for He expressed holy emotions before His disciples. Perhaps there is nothing we know less of than holy emotions. We read of the Lord rejoicing in spirit, and one would have loved to have seen Him rejoice in spirit. We may be sure that the hymn employed at this time fitted the occasion. We are not told who selected the hymn because the Spirit intends to impress us with the great fact that the Lord, in His grace, could join in with His own in singing a hymn. We are not told what hymn it was; that is not needed. What is needed, and what we find, is that the Spirit of God records that He joined in the hymn, and having sung it they went to the mount of Olives. They had the opportunity of discerning how the Lord acted in this connection; it is a spiritual reference. We all know, I think, that after He arose, He charged His apostles by the Spirit (Acts 1: a). He intended to impress them with the great fact that the Spirit was to be the medium in the establishment and maintenance of christianity, and so here He ascended Olivet with them; they all went. They would be impressed with the sense of the Spirit of God, for the Lord was about to inaugurate, as I said, a spiritual order of things; in chapter 13 we may see that from mount Olivet we get private communications from Christ, and I wanted to show in connection with these private communications [p. 445] that if we understand that mount Olivet represents the Spirit, the link with heaven, we shall not ally ourselves with that which is accredited as the accepted religion of this world. The Lord has His attention called to the temple; what a structure it was! Primarily, as Solomon built it, I suppose it was the most imposing structure on the earth. It towered up from Mount Zion, the porch rising one hundred and twenty cubits. What an elevation it suggested then! Viewed from the heights of Olivet, even in the Lord’s time, it must have presented an imposing sight. So one of the disciples called the Lord’s attention to it: “See what manner of stones”. How many there are at the present time who are held religiously by that which is materially imposing! The leaders of the accredited religions of the world go in for these things. They acquire silver and gold to rear up these great structures that stud christendom at the present time. I know of one of them for which fifteen million dollars have been recently subscribed for the extension of it; and as thus extended and embellished it is regarded as the temple of God. It is no such thing, beloved friends, it is not the “temple of God”! Those who have been to mount Olivet with Christ deny that it has any resemblance to the temple of God. It is a Babylonish temple, a “high place”, and of no relation whatever to the temple of God; as the Lord said of this great structure, which indeed had divine sanction, so may it be said of these later structures: “there shall not be left one stone upon another, that shall not be thrown down”. That is what He says. One of His disciples said to Him: “Master, see what manner of stones and what buildings are here!” The Lord answered him, “Seest thou these great buildings? There shall not be left one stone upon another, that shall not be thrown down”.
I refer to this, beloved friends, so that you may see as we visit Olivet with Christ, as we are led into the light of the Spirit of God, these buildings are nothing to us; that they are wholly out of keeping with christianity. They have no relation to christianity; christianity is spiritual, it is not of sight, it is in faith, and these buildings are for sight. They [p. 446] are intended for sight, being intended to influence men through their natural senses. They are Babylonish, as I said; they are marked by the wedge of gold and the goodly Babylonish garment that Achan stole from Jericho. The wedge of gold and the goodly garment go to make up these Babylonish systems around us, and, as I said, they have no relation whatever to what is spiritual. God is a Spirit; He dwells not in temples made with hands, and so the Lord says: “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up”, John 2: 19. What temple? “He spoke of the temple of his body”. God dwelt there, beloved friends. God was in Christ; His mind was there, the light of God was there, and now He is raised up into heaven and exalted and the light radiates from His face, radiates into the hearts of the people of God on earth. The light is in the people of God, as the scripture says: “Ye are the temple of God”. The saints of God, not, these great buildings, are the temple of God. It is for the saints of God to know this, to have it plainly told to them so that they will not be held by these things. It is a religion of faith and not of sight; the dispensation of God is in faith and not in sight (1 Timothy 1: 4), and as we recognise the Spirit we come to these things and refuse the religions of this world. As the Lord says, there shall not be a stone left upon another in all these great buildings that shall not be thrown down.
The Lord is on Olivet, and Peter, James, John and Andrew come to him privately. I just wish to point out that as the Spirit is recognised there are private communications, and we have to understand what these mean. The shut doors in John 20 correspond with what I am saying. These closed doors shut out earthly religion and all its elements, and they enable us to receive private communications. The gospel is public, it is to all, but there are private communications. Think of the privilege of having such communications from the Lord! “The secret of the Lord is with them that fear him”, Psalm 25: 14. In order to have these private communications we have to put out the flute players and those that make a tumult (see Matthew 9: 23). We must put all these things out; they but interfere with [p. 447] the communications which the Lord would make to us by the Spirit.
Well now, from Acts 1 I just wanted to show that being on Olivet with the Lord, as ascended into heaven, enabled the disciples to act on the words of these private communications. They were not deceived. The first communication is, “Take heed lest any man deceive you”. You know the world around us is saturated with the lie. Every ’ism that springs up is based on a lie. One knows the sources of some of the most potent of them, but all are based on lies. So the word of the Lord is: “Take heed lest any man deceive you”. Let us be on our guard against deceptions. Many lie in wait to deceive. As they went back to the city of Jerusalem they were not deceived. They did not go to the structure which the Lord said would be thrown down. I quite admit that they went later, but that is in connection with another line of things. They did not go to the temple for their associations; they went to it in testimony, for God in patience bore long with the Jewish system. As coming from Olivet to Jerusalem, instead of going to the temple, they went to the upper room, and here there is light for anyone seeking it. If you have come to the recognition of the Spirit you will not go to any of those imposing structures; you will seek the upper room. But then it is not simply the upper room! We need more than the room; we need the people who are in the room. Who are they? “Where were staying both Peter, and John, and James”, and all the apostles. Well, you say, there are none of these now! No, quite true, but their doctrine remains, and what you look for in the upper room is their doctrine, their testimony. The apostles represented the authority of Christ, and as you recognise the Spirit, as you come under His influence, you will seek the upper room where those are who recognise the authority of the Lord; you will not go elsewhere. I am not theorising, I am speaking of what I know exists. I know that of which I am speaking exists at the present time. There is the upper room and there are those in it who respect the authority of Christ; moreover, the women are there, including the mother of the Lord,
[p. 448] and His brethren, too, are there. What an interesting circle! We read, “The crowd of names who were together was about a hundred and twenty”. Every name covered some variety of spiritual formation; for where the Spirit of God is active you are sure to find variety, variety in glory. “By his spirit”, we are told, “he hath garnished the heavens”, job 26: 13. What variety there is as we look up into the expanse of the heavens, what variety of glory! Who is there that knows God that is not impressed with the greatness of the Creator as he or she looks up into the vault of heaven and sees those orbs shining in their glory? “By his spirit he hath garnished the heavens”, and that Spirit is operating in this upper room; He is bringing about a variety greater than the variety of the stars, variety in life. Every name indicates some spiritual formation. What a world we are brought into as we recognise the Spirit! Every one of us, as we are sown in death, shall be “raised in glory”. “It is sown in corruption, it is raised in incorruptibility. It is sown in dishonour, it is raised in glory. It is sown in weakness, it is raised in power. It is sown a natural body, it is raised a spiritual body”, 1 Corinthians 15: 42 - 44. What wonderful variety there will be in that day as all the fruit of the Spirit comes up and shines with Christ; what a variety of glory! We may well indeed say again: “Afterward that which is spiritual”. First that which is natural, and afterward that which is spiritual.
Well, I read the two passages in judges to point out that in a day of brokenness, such as the book of judges depicts, we have the idea of divine visitations. These things are written for our learning, as we read, and the book of Judges shows a state of things such as we have to do with, and notwithstanding the brokenness there are divine visitations. As the Lord says: “He that hath my commandments, and keepeth them, he it is that loveth me: and he that loveth me shall be loved of my Father, and I will love him, and will manifest myself to him”, John 14: 21. You see there that He promises manifestations to those who keep His commandments, who love Him, and so He comes to Gideon who was amongst those who loved Him and kept [p. 449] His commandments. He was threshing wheat in the winepress to keep it from the Midianites. He was serving God in that way, and serving God’s people, and so as the angel sat under the oak he saw what was going on. He saw the devotedness of this young man and he looked on him; “Jehovah looked upon him”. What interest God showed in this man who was devoted! And so the passage goes on to describe how Jehovah was actually detained at the request of Gideon, who says: “Depart not hence, I pray thee, until I come unto thee, and bring forth my present, and set it before thee”. It is very beautiful and touching, reminding us of what goes on at the present time. How the Lord takes account of those who are devoted, who love Him, think for Him, and keep His commandments; He manifests Himself to them.
Now I want to show you, just for a moment, with what beautiful intelligence Gideon comes out with his present. “Gideon went in, and made ready a kid, and unleavened cakes of an ephah of flour: the flesh he put in a basket, and he put the broth in a pot, and brought it out unto him under the oak, and presented it”. How delightful to heaven all that was! Then the angel directs Gideon, and as he touches it with his staff the fire goes out of the rock and consumes the offering. What was all that for, beloved? It was to impress Gideon with what is spiritual. It was a spiritual matter; it was intended to form him and fortify him for the divine warfare which was ahead of him. “We wrestle not against flesh and blood”, as we read, “but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places”, Ephesians 6: 12. And so we are to understand what it is to be spiritual to meet all these things. Gideon has this wonderful visitation, and then he saw the angel no more. It does not say here that the angel ascended to heaven, but when we come to chapter 13 we have a fuller thought. There is not time to go into it beyond calling attention to the fact that the angel “did wondrously”, and doing wondrously he would impress Manoah and his wife with what is spiritually wonderful. And so at the present time [p. 450] the Lord comes in and He does wondrously. Many of us have observed in our short experiences the wondrous workings of Christ in relation to the assembly. As the offering is presented the angel says, ‘It must be presented to God’. Now we are on higher ground. If the Lord comes in in a spiritual way it is to lead us to God. We are to understand what it is to have a spiritual Leader, the Leader of our salvation, and He leads us to God.
So as the offering is made the angel did wondrously, “and Manoah and his wife looked on”. I want you to take account of this, to learn to “look on” as the Lord acts wondrously, to learn to see things in a spiritual way. It is said that without holiness no man shall see the Lord; things are going on constantly and you do not see them because you are not holy. They are to be seen but they are seen by those who are holy. Manoah and his wife looked on, that is the thing to do, and in looking on they would be impressed with the spiritual wonders that the angel did; the last thing was that he “ascended in the flame of the altar”. It points, I doubt not, to the end of the dispensation in which we are. We are to go out in the acceptability of the offering of Christ; we ascend with Christ as He descends and takes us up. The angel went up in the flame of the offering, a wonderful spectacle, but it is not as wonderful as that in which we shall have part, that which is about to take place. The apostle says: “The Lord himself ... shall descend from heaven”, 1 Thessalonians 4: 116. He comes for us and takes us up. He descends with an assembling shout; “the dead in Christ shall rise first: then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord”. In the meantime we have part with Christ in heavenly relationships, as those who are raised up and made to sit down in heaven in Him.
As we see these wonderful things spiritually then we shall understand what the rapture means. It is a spiritual thing, and we are to be formed spiritually so as to understand it, and so as to be prepared for it, and so as to be looking for it.