THE FORMATION OF THE WORK OF GOD IN THE BELIEVER
John 3: 1–8; 4: 9–14, 21–24; 9: 1–7, 35–38; 11: 21–28; 12: 1–3
PM It is in mind to enquire in this reading into the formation of the work of God in the believer. As we know, John does not present to us what is official; but what is moral and spiritual. In John, for example, you do not have the taking up of the twelve disciples as you have in the synoptic gospels, they almost come in incidentally in John’s gospel. What is in view is the glory of the Son of God and what He has come to secure for the pleasure of God. I wondered if these passages might help us to look at John’s presentation of the way in which the work of God is formed and developed in persons like ourselves. We began in John 3, we could have begun sooner in the gospel, but I wondered if we might get help in John 3 to touch briefly on the truth that John presents as to new birth. We often speak of the Spirit’s operations as beginning anew in the believer sovereignly, and of course that is true. But it seems to me that in new birth there is more than what is new, there is what is of an entirely new source, and if one might use the word, of an entirely new substance in the believer. God is not taking up the old and starting again with it. He is beginning with what is of Himself.
That in itself is wonderful. You look round a company like this and you can see that God has begun with what is of Himself in each one that has come to know the Lord Jesus. The Lord says, “that which is born of the Spirit is spirit”. It is of that character. It could not have derived from what Nicodemus was according to nature. The truth of the gospel comes in immediately after this, the Son of man had to be lifted up, but if there was to be any beginning in man, it had to be from God, and the operation was by the Person of the Holy Spirit. How much the Lord Jesus must have appreciated being able to speak to Nicodemus about what the Spirit was going to do. In chapter 4 we have the living water. The Lord Jesus says, “Every one who drinks of
this water shall thirst again; but whosoever drinks of the water which I shall give him shall never thirst for ever”. Then that woman has opened up to her the great feelings of the Father as the One who is seeking worshippers. You can see how the Lord Jesus is speaking of divine Persons and what They are doing and what They are seeking. He delights to speak about Them to this woman and to us. Then in chapter 9 we have the man who of necessity had to have his eyes opened to see the glory of the Son of God in order that he might become a worshipper; and in chapter 12 where the Lord Jesus had opened up to them the fact that He was the resurrection and the life. He introduces them to a new order of life and relationship, and immediately they find that everything centres in Himself.
J.W.
In chapter 3 we rightly stress what is of the Spirit; I suppose that is what is spiritual, would you say, from a new source? What would you say about the water, the necessity of being “of water and of Spirit”?
PM Yes. He says in verse 5 which you are referring to, “Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except any one be born of water and of Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God”. Is not the water here the purifying character of the word of God, the Spirit bringing it to bear on the conscience and affections of man? I wondered if being “born of water and of Spirit” involves what the believer is to become himself. The character of the Spirit’s operation in the believer is of a purifying character, and the word of God as brought to bear, has that effect. Peter touches on it, does he not, “born again ... by the living and abiding word of God”, 1 Peter 1: 23? Is that right?
J.W.
Yes, I think that is helpful. You made reference to the fact that John bears on what is subjective in what is moral and spiritual. You get both thoughts here, what is moral and spiritual. Naturally we do not know how to judge ourselves do we, but in the light of what you are saying we learn to judge ourselves and appreciate what comes from God?
PM And appreciate the One in whom it has come, because naturally there is no beauty in Him that we should desire Him
(Isaiah 53: 2). It seems to me that the operation of the Spirit in the believer even before He is converted is to cause him to see One who was entirely pure and holy. Nicodemus is feeling after that; he comes to Jesus, he is attracted to One who was of a different character from all that he had known before.
DJW Does this therefore give us some impression of the greatness of the One who was bringing in this new order of things? I was thinking of what the Lord said as to John the baptist, that there was no one greater born of women, a greater prophet, than John the baptist,
“but he who is a little one in the kingdom of God is greater than he”, Luke 7: 28. The word here is, “Except any one be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God”. I wondered whether that would set out the greatness of the Person, also the greatness of what He would introduce us into in this dispensation, do you think?
PM Yes, and the kingdom of God here displayed in a Man in humiliation. You might say, What was attractive in Jesus to the natural man? He was lowly and humble, the carpenter’s son. There was nothing outwardly that would appeal to man naturally, but the Spirit of God is working to bring persons into the appreciation of the greatness of what was vested in this blessed Man, as He came in and served among them.
DJW And the blessedness of the sovereignty of God in bringing us into these things; it makes nothing of ourselves but what is spoken of in John 3 in new birth is entirely sovereign, is it not?
PM It is, “The wind blows where it will”. So it is important for us to lay hold of, especially when we are young, that our coming to the Lord Jesus, whilst there was our responsibility, yet we would never have come had it not been for the sovereign operation of the Spirit. There was nothing in me that made me come to Him. There was everything in Him that made Him come to me, but there was nothing in me that made me come to Him, save what was wrought by the sovereign operation of the Spirit. We can take no credit for
our coming to an appreciation of Christ. Everything originates in the operation sovereignly of the Spirit in our soul.
D.J.H.
Is it right to say then that nothing goes through of what I am apart from the identity? New birth is the introduction of something which is entirely new, is it not, but it is just the identity of the person that goes through, and nothing else? Is that right?
PM That is what I understand. Just say more please.
D.J.H.
No I have no more to say. I just thought that should be clear, that it is the same person, is it not, but as wrought upon by the Spirit and as born of water and of Spirit, but nothing of the old is carried through is it?
PM No, so the Lord Jesus says to Nicodemus, “ye should be born anew”; “ye”, it is the person. As you say, the identity remains, but what will go through is what is of God Himself. I think that is important to lay hold of. Whilst the “ye” may refer to Israel, yet it comes down to each one of us, does it not?
G.C.B.
I believe it has been said that Nicodemus was probably already born anew, but as to his responsibility as yet he was hardly anywhere was he? God may well have begun already in this line that we are speaking of, but he is really hardly anywhere as to his responsibility yet is he?
PM That is right, hence he came to Jesus, there was something working in him. The Holy Spirit began work in our souls before we were aware of it, did He not? As we look back we see that it came into expression in certain movements that we made, but He began a work before I was aware of it. I think you can trace that in Saul of Tarsus; he goes back, he says, I was present at the stoning of Stephen. There was a point in Paul’s history that he goes back to. It is almost as though Paul would say, The Spirit was beginning to work.
G.C.B.
The feeling way in which he speaks about Stephen’s martyrdom, “the blood of thy witness Stephen”, Acts 22: 20.
PM Yes, something of a different character was going to be formed, not the insolent and overbearing character that
he had been, but the feeling character that the Spirit of God was implanting in the soul of Saul.
J.W.
As you rightly say, the work initially is a sovereign work, is it not? We had nothing to do with it. Is there any way we can facilitate the work?
PM Well we come on to that in our responsibility as prompted by the Spirit, do you think? Nicodemus answered to it. That comes out later, but he answered to the formative promptings of the Spirit. But I think what you say is worthy of enquiry, because if the Spirit is putting into the soul new desires and new feelings after Christ, it is my responsibility to answer to that, and I thought we saw that in the woman in chapter 4.
J.R.W.
Can you say a bit more about the sovereignty of the Spirit’s work in this connection? We have had quite a mention lately of the way in which young persons are brought up in an environment where the Lord Jesus is known, and the things of His are spoken about, and we were thinking of the way in which young people, as they grow up, they know about Him, but then the time comes when in their souls they maybe go a bit further and they come to know Him. I am just wondering if you could say a little more as to the sovereignty of the Spirit’s work in that regard.
PM Well you would know as a parent what it is to pray that the Holy Spirit might begin His work in your own children. It seems to me that many of us, as you say, have been brought up in favourable circumstances. It is not automatic that we would come to know the Lord Jesus, sadly that has not always been the case; but as in the believer’s house and assembling together with the Lord’s people, we are in an atmosphere in which the Spirit is working. Would it not be right to say that parents particularly, but all of us, pray that the sovereign operation of the Spirit, which you could not put in your children and nor could I, might begin by the Spirit. Does that bear on your question?
J.R.W.
Yes, I was seeking to link on with our brother’s enquiry as to what might facilitate the Spirit’s sovereign work, but then we come back to it, do we not, as to what you
said earlier, that it is His work and He is sovereign, and none can dictate, “The wind blows where it will”?
PM And if I might say, that as parents we have a responsibility that what proceeds in the house should be conducive to the sovereign operation of the Spirit in the young.
J.S.G.
Would that be increased by the bringing in of God’s word in the house, “born again ... by the living and abiding word of God” (1 Peter 1: 23), do you think? And then Peter follows with what is incorruptible. It helps us practically, does it not, to have the Scriptures by themselves continually before us in the home, would you say?
PM I think so. Some of us may be humbled if we look back on the years when we were bringing up young ones, but what you say is nevertheless the truth, that it is the responsibility of fathers to keep the word of God and the character of the word of God in the house both literally and in the conversation.
Q.A.P.
In chapter 6 they ask the Lord Jesus, “What should we do that we may work the works of God?” (John 6: 28), and He replies, “This is the work of God, that ye believe on him whom he has sent” (John 6: 29). I just wondered if for us it really involves giving place to His Person.
PM Yes, and the work of the Spirit, as we shall see in these passages, has in view the exaltation of Christ. If He begins a work in new birth in the believer, it is not exactly to make much of the believer, but to make everything of Christ. The seeing and entering the kingdom has that in view I think.
Q.A.P.
I was thinking of what Paul says to the Galatians that he travailed again in birth until Christ was formed in them (Galatians 4: 19). Is that really what is in view, do you think?
PM I think it is helpful to bring that in, that whilst that was the apostle’s exercise and operation, yet nevertheless he continues the character of what the Spirit was doing that Christ might be formed in the saints. That is one of the great objects of this dispensation, that Christ should be formed in the saints.
J.W.
Nicodemus was among the Pharisees. Do you think
the Spirit’s sovereign work would have in mind that Nicodemus should get free from that class? All the time he was in that class the instincts that the Spirit might give would be hampered, would they not? He got free of it eventually.
PM These passages would help us as to that, that divine work in the soul never leaves us where it found us. If it is answered to, it is answered to in movement of soul. That may, as you say, involve our company that we keep and associations of life, and really each of these persons that we have read change their company. That seems to me to be important as to what the Spirit does, that He establishes us in relation to company that finds its common object in the appreciation of Christ.
D.J.H.
I wondered in that regard, the way our brother refers to that first verse, he does not just say there was a man among the Pharisees, but was a man from among the Pharisees, as though he had come from that position.
PM Yes, he was already beginning to move away from it.
D.J.H.
I wondered if that was the beginning of the work of the Spirit.
PM Yes to take us out, as Nicodemus was, from the company that he kept religiously. The woman is taken from the company she kept morally; the man in John 9 is taken from the company that had no room for Christ; and the company in John 12 made everything of Him. Perhaps we should move on to chapter 4, because this woman had spent her life drinking from the well. The Lord Jesus says to her, “Every one who drinks of this water shall thirst again”. Mr S., you were going to say something.
B.E.S.
Well only in relation to Nicodemus, that the first thing he had to do responsibly was to recognise the necessity of being born anew. We have referred to his being from among the Pharisees, he would have been prepared to recognise perhaps that others needed to be born anew, but the Lord says, “ye”, people like him.
PM Yes, that would come to each one of us, “ye should be born anew”. There is no work in the soul, it seems to me, apart from what has been begun by the Holy Spirit.
B.E.S.
Yes, and when God begins to work in us, that opens our eyes to the need for it, but there could be no other way than that God did begin.
PM Yes, and He will do so with Israel later. But in this present dispensation He is operating in persons like you and me, in order that there might finally be a company that makes everything of Christ.
J.R.W.
What is the Lord referring to when he says, “the gift of God”?
PM “If thou knewest the gift of God”, or the giving God. I thought He was referring here to the gift of the Holy Spirit, “If thou knewest the gift of God”. He goes on to speak of the living water, “thou wouldest have asked of him, and he would have given thee living water”. One of the things that is so important in our souls as having come to the Lord Jesus and found Him for ourselves as our Saviour, is that there is a supply for satisfaction. That is one thing that marks the believer out from the world through which he is passing, that he is satisfied.
J.R.W.
I am glad of what you say, it is interesting. I often note when we read this section that these two things are put together, “the gift of God” and “who it is”. I suppose you could hardly have the gift of God made way for without knowing “who it is that says to thee, Give me to drink”. Something must have seemed a bit mysterious to this woman when the Lord first started speaking to her, and yet you get the impression that there was something infinitely attractive that really held her attention, do you think?
PM A different kind of man from what she had been used to. She comes to the well, she finds a weary Man sitting there, and yet He is talking to her about giving her living water.
P.J.W.
Do you think too it would involve the giving disposition of God? The Lord says elsewhere, “how much rather shall the Father who is of heaven give the Holy Spirit to them that ask him”, Luke 11: 13. Do you think it would involve not only the gift itself but the wonderful bountiful disposition of God in His willingness to give such a gift?
PM It seems to me that alternative rendering brings out that disposition, if thou knewest the giving God. The character of God, “He who, yea, has not spared his own Son”
(Romans 8: 32), He who has given of the Spirit freely, how much He has given! “If thou knewest”, such a One, He says, “thou wouldest have asked of him”. He was right there before her.
P.J.W.
Yes, I heard a brother say, If thou knewest the givingness of God.
PM Yes, very good.
AM The Lord is offering this woman what would be for her satisfaction. The Holy Spirit’s operations in chapter 3 really create a sense of need, do they not? But as having been received from Him, that is what satisfies.
PM Yes, and in chapter 3, would you say, there is what is sovereign, but immediately that work begins to take its character, and the soul comes to Christ in repentance, sees the One who has been lifted up, immediately there are such movements in responsibility, the resource is there to help and to satisfy. So the Lord says, he who drinks of the water from the well, and we have all done that, shall thirst again, but am I drinking from the water which He gives? If I ask myself today, and maybe each of us, Have I drunk and am I drinking from the water which He gives?
R.M.B.
I was just thinking about the difference between what is presented in chapter 3
and in chapter 4. Do we need to distinguish between the work of the Holy Spirit in our hearts and the dwelling of the Holy Spirit?
PM Yes, go on.
R.M.B.
Well no one would be fit to receive the Holy Spirit if He had not already worked in our hearts, but the receiving of the Holy Spirit as a gift from God is a distinct matter, is it, involving another transaction with Christ, would you say?
PM And so the Lord says, “thou wouldest have asked of him”. It was necessary that her history had to be cleared if she was to receive the gift of the Holy Spirit; and it is necessary with each one of us, is it not, that our history has to be cleared and that the cleansing character of the water
should be known in the believer. There is a pure character that is established in the believer that is of a new source altogether. We come into it through the operation of the Spirit and through repentance, and through the reception of the Lord Jesus; and thus there is a new character in the believer and it is to such that the Spirit can come.
J.W.
The Spirit as the living water is in a vessel, is it not? This woman’s body would be the vessel, and it has in mind that the vessel secured should be a suitable vessel, do you think?
PM I think so. We did not read it, mainly because of time, but everything in her history had to be cleared in order that the Spirit might take up His dwelling-place there; and immediately that is so, this soul moves. She moves not only away from one order of things, but she moves in relation to Christ and in relation to the Father. I sometimes have to ask myself. Why is it you make so little soul movement? And I think the answer lies here, that it may be that I am not drinking of the water which He gives.
P.J.W.
I was going to ask about that because she seems to move and get on much quicker than Nicodemus. Why should that be, do you think?
PM We do not know much about Nicodemus’ history do we, except what comes in at the end? But it seems to me, that everything from her side here had been cleared. She lays it all out before Him. He knew it all already. She comes to appreciate the One who knew all, and immediately there is a new resource for satisfaction in the believer. I think it is right to say, we make little soul progress unless we know what soul satisfaction is, and satisfaction for the believer rests in the indwelling operative power of the Spirit.
P.J.W.
I wondered if she had a certain advantage over Nicodemus because he was very respectable, as most of us are, which is a test, so that was why the Lord spoke to him of new birth. Do you think that that man, however respectable, had to go, but this woman I suppose knew that she was not, so was it in a certain sense easier for her?
PM Yes, she was glad to get rid of her history, as indeed
many of us have been, glad to have our history cleared, not only because of what it meant to us but because we were conscious of what it meant to God.
J.W.
She not only gets free of the guilt of her history, but she is delivered from it, is she not? She is delivered from the power of it. She finds really the Deliverer. Her Deliverer becomes her new Husband, does He not?
PM She is set free from herself. The one who was the source of that history she is set free from, she leaves her water-pot. It is so easy to take the blessing; and one has in mind in this enquiry our dear young brethren, as well as those of us that are older, but it is so easy to take the blessing and just go on as we were. But the operation of the Spirit in the believer puts something into the believer of a pure character, that will not rest and will not be satisfied until He is made way for, and Christ becomes the centre; and therefore she has to leave her water-pot, and all that that spoke of. All that she had depended on in herself, she leaves it all and says, “Come, see a man”.
J.W.
She would not be ready to leave that until she found something better, something that really satisfied her, do you think?
PM Yes, and she began drinking, did she not? I would say, dear young people, just pray about this, and maybe those of us that are older too, and ask the Holy Spirit to help you to know something about drinking of the water which He gives. It is not from this world, it does not make anything of this world at all; it brings you to appreciate that the world has been removed in judgment, and man has been removed in the death of Christ, but as drinking of the water which He gives, you find that there is another life and another Man who is able to satisfy and fill the heart, and open up onto your view the whole scope of the purpose of God.
Is this right?
E.O.PM Yes, and what comes out in this chapter is that the Father is seeking this.
PM Yes, go on please.
E.O.PM Well, substance in the believer is something that
God is looking for, is it not?
PM And her feelings were going to be akin with this, were they not? It was not just presented to her as an objective in which she would have no part. As you say, the Father’s feelings were presented to her, and she would have a part in answering to them. How wonderful that the believer is established to be able to do that.
E.O.PM And to use history which has been finished and judged, to use history to expand on that substance. She goes to the men of the city. So that while not going back to her old life, she is able, and the substance is in her, to influence others who are still marked by that history.
PM Yes. What a testimony, “Come, see a man who told me all things I had ever done—is not he the Christ?”. It says earlier as to this woman, she saw that He was a prophet.
It seems to me that she came to see that in the Lord Jesus there was one who could convey words which were full of life and power, that she had never known before and it affects her soul. She really comes to appreciate that He was more than a prophet, He is the Christ.
Q.A.P.
When Paul wrote the second epistle to the Corinthians he ended the epistle with
“the communion of the Holy Spirit, be with you all”, 2 Corinthians 13: 14. I am just enquiring whether that might help us in our understanding of drinking of the living water, that there is One that we have the liberty to commune with.
PM It is a remarkable expression, “the communion of the Holy Spirit”, and that it should come in in the epistle to the Corinthians where so much had needed to be met; but it gives us some impression of what was in view in the meeting of it, that there should be a company there at Corinth that was in the living enjoyment of all that the Holy Spirit would convey.
R.H.B.
How do you understand the way the Lord speaks of “eternal life” in chapter 4,
“shall become in him a fountain of water, springing up into eternal life”?
PM I wonder if the emphasis here, “springing up into eternal life”, was that the Lord was setting before this
woman, an order of life that was above this whole scene through which she had lived up to now; an order of life and relationship that is outside of this world. Mr Raven helped us as to what eternal life is, an out of the world order of life and relationship. That is something that the Lord sets before this woman, it is “springing up into eternal life”. Now help us please.
R.H.B.
I was searched, and always am, by this strong word, “never thirst for ever”, and I notice that Mr Darby’s note not only conveys that it is strong in negation but goes beyond this present life. The satisfaction that the Lord is speaking of is something that will satisfy the soul eternally, and I wonder whether if that is not known it is because this process becoming
“in him a fountain of water, springing up into eternal life” has not been undergone. You were speaking of facilitating the work of God and it becoming in Him seems to suggest a process, does it not, as well as the drinking?
PM I think so, a process on our side of self-judgment in order that the Spirit might have the place that He is worthy of, “shall become in him”; He would help us in that. The power for self-judgment lies in the Holy Spirit, but it depends how much room I am prepared to give Him.
T.J.H.
Do you have something to say about what the woman speaks of worship?
PM Well I would rather speak about what the Lord speaks of as worship. But go on, what did you have in mind?
T.J.H.
I was thinking of the formation, and it says, “the Father seeks such as his worshippers”. You may say, He seeks such as the woman, but I wondered if “seeks such” has the formation and the eternal life in them, and can “worship him in spirit and truth” as this woman would come on to, do you think?
PM Yes, it is not just that the Father seeks worship, but He seeks persons of that character who can worship “in spirit and truth”. It seems to me, as we said at the beginning, that the Lord is drawing persons morally and spiritually away from all that was established here, and drawing them to what is established in the Spirit that can be responsive to divine
Persons. In chapter 9, the Lord Jesus speaks of the works of God being manifested in this man.
A.J.McS.
I was impressed with what was said earlier as to how quickly the woman in John 4 came to something, and the man in John 9 comes to something quite quickly as well. I suppose these were persons who had no reputation in this world. I just wondered whether that was something that would help us, if we did not stand so much on our reputation, but placed ourselves at the feet of Jesus, do you think?
PM I am sure of that. What is our reputation anyway in the light of the One who is worthy of all honour and glory. Finally even the kings will come off their thrones and surrender their crowns to Him. There is One whose reputation will fill the earth, but that is to have a moral effect in us now, is it not? These persons are not persons of renown in the world. The further we keep from the world the better. I suppose there is always a danger of having our names registered in the world, but it is much greater to be conscious that our names are registered in heaven.
J.W.
What would you say the bearing upon us is of the Lord making mud from the spittle and putting it as ointment on his eyes, and the man going to the pool of Siloam and washing? It is not that he had to wash from sin exactly here, but the mud that was put on his eyes, he had to wash that. What is the bearing of that upon us?
PM We can enquire together. It seems to me that the Lord making mud from the spittle and applying it to his eyes is the bearing of the perfect holy humanity of Christ that is placed upon this man’s eyes, and yet still he could not see it.
J.W.
Yes, I agree with what you say. Why does that have to be washed?
PM Well naturally we cannot appreciate Him, can we? We can go back to Isaiah again, “there is no beauty that we should desire him”, Isaiah 53: 2. But I also have to come to it that we could have no part with Him in that perfect humanity which had to be laid down.
He came into flesh and blood in order to terminate that condition, and thus our link with Him is on an entirely new basis.
R.H.B.
I wondered whether it connects with what Paul says in Corinthians “that we henceforth know no one according to flesh; but if even we have known Christ according to flesh, yet now we know him thus no longer”, 2 Corinthians 5: 16. There is a setting aside in the washing, is there not, of an order; not exactly what is sinful, but an order, and even in Christ, speaking with the greatest reverence, that has come to an end. Is that right?
PM I think so; and there may be a danger in settling for a study of the life of Jesus here and yet not know the Person. We may study the gospels, and it is right that we should, but unless I have been to the pool of Siloam and washed I shall not come to appreciate the glory of the Person who He is and where He is. This man does that, he sees who He is.
R.H.B.
The man is a new creation, is he not? There is a discussion at the end of the first paragraph as to whether he is the same man or whether it is somebody else, and so on, but the works of God being manifested in him is that he himself is new, is he not? He is a new creature.
PM And he names that, “It is I”. That seems, does it not, to be the location in himself of the work of God that is entirely fresh, “It is I”. You say, What is going to happen now. He is cast out, as he will be, because that character of work will have no place in this system, because it takes its character from Christ, “they cast him out”. But then the Lord Jesus finds him and says, “dost thou believe on the Son of God?”. He is now going to have another Centre in another world as the object, who will give character to his life here.
T.J.H.
Is it significant too that what was done was on the sabbath?
PM Yes, go on.
T.J.H.
I was just thinking that it brought in a complete new order of things, as has been said, so there is formation created in this man, but all that was going to come out in service from this man to the Lord is going to be in place of the old order of things of keeping the sabbath, do you think?
PM This man is now associated with another world, and Christ, the Son of God, is the centre of it; “he said, I believe,
Lord—and he did him homage”. He has an appreciation of the humanity that came in in lowliness and wonderful grace, but now sees Him as the One who is the Son of God, the centre of another scene altogether? Do I know him there? He says, Thou, dost thou believe on Him? He is not saying, Do you believe that your eyes have been opened? I might rest in that, wonderful as it is, that my eyes have been opened, but He is not saying that, He is asking
“dost thou believe on the Son of God”, not have you believed? But dost thou believe on the Son of God?
J.W.
The Lord makes Himself known to this man as the Son of God, does He not? I suppose it is when the man was ready for it. This man was cast out. The Lord was cast out.
The Lord found him congenial company, and He makes Himself known to him in that way.
What would you say about that?
PM The Lord Jesus could not make Himself known to him as the Son of God, while he was still in the circle from which he was going to be rejected, because He Himself was being rejected. It seems that the rejection of this man is bound up with the rejection of Christ from Jerusalem in John’s gospel. The Lord from here begins to speak of the one flock. He is beginning to speak of the operations of the Spirit, and speaking to the Father of men who will be here in the scene of His absence, from which He has been rejected. All that is in view, I think, in the way in which He makes Himself known as the Son of God.
G.C.B.
I take it that although we hear no more of this man, he is perfectly safe in his relations with the Son of God, and we will be too by God’s grace.
PM I suppose we hear no more of him in relation to the Lord’s pathway here because now his life is in another scene altogether.
R.H.B.
What does the expression “the Son of God” convey to you?
PM Go on, you help us.
R.H.B.
I am asking. He does not speak about Messiah or Me, but “dost thou believe on the Son of God?”. What is the
distinctive feature of that presentation?
PM Does it not bring out the greatness of who was here. He did not belong here but came into the scene, Himself divine, ever divine, and yet coming in in lowly manhood to secure men for another world altogether.
D.J.H.
Can you see the way that the man is being helped to come to this? I was thinking of what he says, we have often commented on the way he advances in what he says to the Pharisees, but he has come to a point where he says—“If this man were not of God he would be able to do nothing” (John 9: 33), but then he has to realise that that Man is the Son of God.
PM Yes, and when the Lord Jesus says to him, “dost thou believe”, he comes to see that God Himself was there in the person of His own Son—how wonderful that God has come so near in the person of His Son, in order that He might take us up and secure us for the world in which everything is centred in Him.
DJW I was wondering if that is why it goes on to say “he did him homage”, a sense of the greatness of the Person who fills another order of things. What produces worship is a sense of the greatness of who the Lord is and who God is, do you think. In John 4 it says, “we worship what we know”, that is the God who has manifested Himself and who is known by us.
PM And having been to the pool of Siloam and having had some sense of having to do with the Spirit in relation to who was here he comes, you might say, ready for what the Lord was going to manifest. He is cast out, rejected publicly, but there has been the inward operation of the Spirit in relation to this man, and immediately he grasps who was before him, and he does Him homage.
J.R.W.
I wondered if you could say a little more in that connection about changing the company. You have mentioned it once or twice. I think you also said about not keeping near the world, and I think practically for us these things are very important. Can you say a bit more about it in that connection?
PM We often used to be reminded when we were young as to the gospel of place, did we not? God has come near to us in wondrous grace, not to leave us where He found us but, as the Lord Jesus says in John 17, there has been the divine operation proceeding in the men that had kept company with Him; He says, “they are not of the world” (John 17: 14).
These things are so great. The divine operation in those men had established something that had no link with the world at all save in testimony, but the testimony was to the Man who is the Centre of another world. That is the position of the believer, that we are taken up, the Spirit has begun a work in us; it did not originate from the world and neither did it take character from it. Christ has put in His claim. We do not belong to any other but to Him, and as such our place is in association with Christ where He is in privilege, and where He is in rejection publicly. Am I prepared to be associated with a rejected Christ? This man was. If I am prepared to be associated with Him in rejection, the world will not want me and I will not find a home in it.
R.M.B.
I was just recalling that Mr Walkinshaw used to exhort us to protect what is spiritual in ourselves. Would that be in line with your exercise for this occasion?
PM It is very much so, that there may be no hindrance to what has been begun in us and its answer in formation from my side. I think what you say is important and raises a good deal of exercise as to, How do we protect the work of God?
R.M.B.
What would you say is the answer to that?
PM Well you will have some thought because you have thought about it before, but it seems to me that the service of the Spirit in occupying the believer with Christ where He is, and causing that that Man should become my life as I am maintained in self-judgment here, is one of the ways in which we protect the work of God.
R.M.B.
That helps, and I was thinking also in connection with what our brother brought forward that the drawing out of this man from the Jewish system of things, and bringing him into the Lord’s flock, had to do with his protection, did it not? So that these exercises as to separation from the world, and
the places that we go to, and the company that we keep, and so on, they all have to do with the protection of the work of God in our souls. The exercise as to the reading of the Scriptures in the home, that has been referred to, that would be another factor, do you think; the exercise of self-judgment, that you have spoken of, all these things would help to protect what God has done in my soul, would you say?
PM Yes, and prayer is so important for the believer. My mother used to test us by asking, ‘Could you go anywhere where the Lord Jesus would not be happy to go’? That will help us, I think. It helped me. How could you go somewhere where the Lord Jesus could not keep company with you?
R.H.B.
It comes down really to affection for Him, does it not? And each of these persons you have been speaking about, grew in their appreciation of Him, did they not? You have spoken of them changing their company, but that was commensurate with the growth in their souls and appreciation of it, was it not?
PM It was, and that comes out finally in John 12, where nothing else mattered save Christ and Him alone. That is what is in view in the company. He had spoken to them of Himself as the resurrection and the life. Even before He was raised He was the resurrection. It was intrinsic in Himself, “I am the resurrection and the life”. It is in the light of that that this company is assembled together and He is supreme, “There therefore they made him a supper”.
R.H.B.
It is really a picture in chapter 12 of eternal life, would you say?
PM I think so, and everything is settled here. The dead man Lazarus is there. Martha is serving, there are no complaints; everything is at rest because Christ is everything and in all.
A.J.McS.
I just wondered whether chapter 11 was so important in that connection. You have drawn attention to the Lord Jesus as the resurrection and the life, and also Martha confesses Him as “the Christ, the Son of God”, and I
just wondered whether that would maybe lift us up a little, because if we are going to speak about our affection for Christ, none of us can say too much. But if we speak about His affection for us, and His care and interest with us, what can we say but worship, do you think?
PM Yes. Well that comes out in these persons that we have spoken of, that Christ becomes their absorbing object, and why? Because of the way He had moved towards them, and not only meeting their need but bringing before them the greatness of who He is in the eye of God. That is a wonderful thing to come to in our own appreciation, to come to what Jesus is in the eye of God. That would lift us, I think, as worshippers, as you say. Not only what He is to me, because my appreciation of Him may not be very great, but what He is to God is unchanging.
B.H.C.
Peter says, “I lay in Zion a corner stone”, 1 Peter 2: 6. I was thinking of where it says in that scripture, “To you therefore who believe is the preciousness” (1 Peter 2: 7), but it is what God has done with Christ, is it not?
PM Yes it is, and it seems to me, that it is answered in Bethany, and the result of the Spirit’s work in the saints is that Christ should be everything and in all. That is the point to be reached, I believe, individually and collectively. We come together in our assemblings, and most of us gather in small conditions. They were very small conditions here, but to them Christ was everything. They had come through the experience with Him of knowing what His love was that had brought them through and brought them through to the end.
DJW It was evident that this was in the Lord’s mind, because in verse 2 of John 11, it says it was “the Mary who anointed the Lord with ointment and wiped his feet with her hair, whose brother Lazarus was sick”, so that the whole process gone through in chapter 11 had in view Mary’s action in John 12, did it not?
PM Let that be our desire, to make everything of Christ. Self-exaltation has no place in the assembly or in any other sphere in which God has set us, even in our employment, but the exaltation of Christ is what filled Mary’s soul.
D.J.H.
So it is “the dead man Lazarus” that is here, is it not?
PM Yes. Go on.
D.J.H.
I was thinking what you said, Christ is the only man who has any place in this company. “The dead man Lazarus”, it does say, “whom Jesus raised from among the dead”, but he is still referred to as the dead man, is he not? It is only as we are dead men really that we appreciate the greatness of Christ and give Him his right place, is it not?
PM Yes, indeed; and really that is the character of John’s gospel, is it not? John writes really to exalt Christ. May it be so increasingly in our gatherings.
Reading at Havering, 31 October 2009
KEY TO INITIALS
R. M. Brown
A. J. McSeveney
J. R. Walkinshaw
G. C. Bywater
A. Martin
J. Walkinshaw
B. H. Clark
Martin
D. J. Wright
J. S. Gray
E. O. P. Mutton
J. Wright
T. J. Harvey
Q. A. Poore
D. J. Hutson
B. E. Surtees