COMPANY

N. J. Henry

John 8: 28, 29; 1: 35–39; Genesis 24: 61–65; 2 Timothy 2: 20–22; Genesis 5: 21–24

I would like to speak about company. It is something that God values. He made man for His pleasure, and company, and He chooses company for you and me. It says, “God maketh the solitary into families”, Psalm 68: 6. We are meant to communicate with each other. You remember at Babel it was broken up. God in His government confused their language so they could not communicate with one another, and they lost company. That is what happened at Babel. The city was not destroyed but they left off building it. The principle of Babel still permeates the world in which we are, and any company with the world has no moral basis. They will have company going to the sink of corruption. They think it is strange that you do not go with them (1 Peter 4: 4). God takes account of it if you are not going to the sink of corruption. They will find things in sport or business or whatever it might be, but it is always a base level that they start at and remain at.

I want to speak about what God has in mind in company in these verses, and I thought what a matter to start with the Lord Jesus. He said He was not alone. The fulness of the Godhead was pleased to dwell in Him. The Godhead was there in His pathway here, but this is testimony in John 8. He says, “he that has sent me is with me; he has not left me alone”. It is very precious to think of that, that He was not alone. He says they will come to it when the Son of Man is lifted up. Think of those precious days wakening morning by morning and, as we know, the company of the Father went through until the sixth hour on the cross. He was still in communion in the first three hours on the cross. What blessedness the Father found in the company of that blessed Man, that holy perfect One. We know that in protecting His person the cherubim would do that, but it is just the fact that when others left Him, (in one account it says, the disciples left Him and fled (Matthew 26: 56), and yet He could say that He was not alone until that awful time of the forsaking on the cross. O that it might deepen in our hearts the awfulness of when that company was no longer enjoyed, when that blessed Man had to cry, “My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?”, Matthew 27: 46. You and I have to be brought into company by divine grace, but the Lord Jesus always had that company with the Father. I am not alone He says, “he that has sent me is with me; he has not left me alone, because I do always the things that are pleasing to him”. John 8 is a great conflict chapter. The Jews claimed Abraham’s company but did not have it. Abraham’s company was God (Genesis 18: 16). In John 1: 11 the Lord Jesus came to His own, and they received Him not, but He had the company of those that did receive Him.

Now when you come to John 1 you have the disciples of John. You might say that was good company. John was the greatest born of woman, he was a remarkable man, but more was in the divine mind for these disciples of John, it was new company. Think of the One who was the Lamb of God, that exclamation appealed to these two, the object was the Person. Then the walk of Jesus here, we might say, leads into the assembly because the two of them come into the company of Christ in His own circumstances. I think that is precious, Jesus says, “Come and see”. You might say it was an invitation extending to us here, that if you do not know something of a personal relationship with Christ and His company, you are invited into it. That is blessed. I think His walking here is not in relation to the sin of the world; He will do that, what a Person He is! Think of what He has done in His sacrifice and what He will do yet in His power as taking away the sin of the world. As one has said, He will do it by bringing God into the world, that is what He will do because lawlessness has to go, but here in this instance John the baptist is looking at Jesus as He walked and he says, “Behold the Lamb of God”. I think John was growing himself here, he was growing in his knowledge of this blessed One, “Behold the Lamb of God”.

Think of the eyes of our heart as referred to in Ephesians 1: 18. You should look at things in a new way and here he is looking at Jesus in a new way and the two disciples heard him speaking and followed Jesus. He knew they were following, He missed nothing. What a Saviour He is, what a Person He is! He turns round and in verse 38 it says, “But Jesus having turned, and seeing them following, says to them, What seek ye?”. Not ‘who’, but “What seek ye?” I think they wanted His company, and He answered it, He gave them what they wanted. I sometimes think the overcomer in the seven churches got what he really sought for. In Revelation the Lord says to the overcomer what the heart longs for. Think of the Philadelphian overcomer, what a range of glories is presented to him. The overcomer in Pergamos receives a stone written with a name which no one knows but he that receives it. How precious a secret with Christ! Here they are getting what they are asking for, “where abidest thou? He says to them, Come and see. They went therefore, and saw where he abode; and they abode with him that day. It was about the tenth hour”. How beautiful! Just think for a moment of that dwelling the Lord Jesus, the Lamb of God, and these two disciples. What would the atmosphere be like? There would be nothing to distract, there would be nothing palatial or religious. The Lord, the Lamb of God, and them. It would be like Mary sitting at His feet just listening to His word. All the words coming from the very heart of God through Christ into the hearts of these two disciples. How very beautiful!

In Genesis 24, as we know Abraham’s servant had come to secure Rebecca. In verse 57 it says, “Let us call the maiden and inquire at her mouth”. That is another good thing, to enquire where a person stands. I remember a brother who used to ask me, Where are you with the Lord? Here Rebecca said, “I will go”. “And Rebecca arose, and her maids, and they rode upon the camels”. “And Isaac had gone out to meditate in the fields toward the beginning of evening. And he lifted up his eyes and saw, and behold, camels were coming”. The Lord knew that power from experience. He returned in the power of the Holy Spirit, in Luke 4 after the temptations. The power that was available to bring Rebecca to Isaac is typical of the power that is available today. You will not get to Christ without the power of the Holy Spirit.

Isaac looked and he saw camels, a type of the power of the Holy Spirit to carry us to Christ. It was the same power Christ had proved as a Man down here. Rebecca comes and the servant tells Isaac “all things that he had done”. What company she was in, she did not change her company. I tell you now, do not change your company, the Spirit is available for you. He is to be with you for ever, John 14: 16. I know it says in verse 17, “shall be in you”, but the first reference is “with you for ever”. The company of the blessed Spirit of God is the company to keep.

I want to speak about 2 Timothy 2 after what we had in the reading. “In a great house there are not only gold and silver vessels, but also wooden and earthen; and some to honour, and some to dishonour”. That is the great house. We have to be preserved from religious pride. God hates pride. He hates religious pride. You remember the Lord suffered from those marked by it. The Pharisees I suppose set out what religious pride was like; they thought they were superior to the rest of the Jews and they persecuted Christ. We need to be preserved from it. The way to a pure heart is through purging. That is what I understand this scripture means. You are available to Christ because you have been purged from what is dishonouring to His name in the profession. Profession is obnoxious to the heart of Christ. He says to Laodicea, “I am about to spue thee out of my mouth”, Revelation 3: 16. That is how the Lord feels. I wonder if we feel the depths of what it is for a person to go on unpurged, when the Master of the house requires cleansing and purifying and being available for His service. You will find company in purging yourself and that is wonderful. It is not negative. This scripture gives you a positive end that you find company to walk with, “those that call upon the Lord out of a pure heart”. The way to a pure heart is through purging, and that is an exercise we must maintain.

In Ephesus they fell from their first love. We have been reminded that you cannot drift into Christianity, but you can drift out of it. The thing here is that these persons are following the prescribed route so that they might be available to the Master. In 2 Timothy 2 we have that responsibility of purging ourselves so that we might be among those who have a pure heart and serve the Master, prepared for every good work. Is that not an appeal to you? I think we need to have a judgment as to what is surrounding us. If there is anything at all that we can hold on to it is what Christ has done, how He has helped us in the purifying of ourselves, so that we might be among those who are serviceable to Him.

Now I just want to touch on Genesis 5 as to Enoch, a word maybe to young parents; there are many young parents here. He walked with God after he was given the family. You may say, Well that was easier to do before the family came, but it says Enoch walked after. It says twice that he walked with God, it is remarkable. He walked with God three hundred years and did not change his company.

Think of the grace of God. You might say God would come down to the steps of a man, a creature, and make His company known to this man. Enoch prophesied of holy myriads. He knew there would be others who would have company, God would have company with others. He pronounces prophetically against the ungodly and the thoughts and insinuations of the ungodly. He said judgment would come on them. These three hundred years he is walking with God and, as I say, he does not change his company.

You know something else? The bride in Revelation 22 does not change her company. The Spirit and the bride say, “Come”. Mr. Raven said, he would love to hear more saying “Come” to Jesus. I would say to you today, be in it, look for Christ coming. The glory of Christ is just at the door, just about to dawn, but do not change your company. The Spirit and the bride say, “Come”. The rapture is just about to take place. Do not change your company, it is the last hour. John would say it is so critical. Commit yourself fully to the Spirit and come out in these glorious words, the same word as a divine Person, but in a creature vessel, “Come”. It is not to the Lord Jesus, it is just “Come”, because you know who could be so addressed. Later in the chapter it says, “come, Lord Jesus”, but here it is “Come”.

Is that not attractive? Is not this company attractive? God has given us one another. We have not chosen Him but He has chosen us, and we have been set together with good company, and we want to keep that company and not lower the standard of it. We have to go on in lowliness and humility, but cling to what Christ has done for us, not only in His work, but in His priestly grace in delivering us from the world around, and from the profession around that can so easily spoil us. May it be so, for His name’s sake.

Address at Dundee
16 October 2010