MAKING ROOM

Robert Taylor

Malachi 3:15-18; Psalm 132; 1-8; Genesis 24: 15-25; Acts 16: 13-15

In reading these scriptures, it was on my heart to say something of how God, in His faithfulness, has made room for the testimony and the light of the assembly to grow and, on the other hand, the need on our side to be making room for God to work, that Christ may have a resting place, making room for the Spirit of God in Rebecca and, finally, for Paul.

There is a great need for appreciating how God has operated against forces of evil to make room for the light of the assembly. It is a wonderful thing to me that for nearly two thousand years the light of the assembly has shone amidst the powers of darkness that have been against it and is still shining, we may say, still shining in its lustre. We sang in our hymn that there is a vessel here, on this earth that is saying, ‘Lord Jesus, come’. God has operated to see that through. The Lord says in the revelation that Peter had, “on this rock I will build my assembly, and hades’ gates shall not prevail against it”, Matt 16: 18. God has intervened Himself, dear brethren, to bring in this light - I should say, to bring in this formation, formed here in this dispensation, which is His own handiwork, and the building is going on today and it will go on until completion. God has made way for the assembly and assembly light. The powers that are against it are increasing. We hear these terms, ‘other faiths’, terrible expression. There is no other faith. There is one faith, and God has made that clear and He is making way for that in spite of these times of darkness. What an assurance to our hearts, what a privilege, dear brethren to be in the light and in the joy too of what God is seeing through and seeing through to completion! There is a need for our hearts in these darkening days to have a sense of that which God is seeing through. Look at the testimony in India, the powers of darkness and evil that are all around! Marvellous thing to think of the glad tidings being preached amidst such idolatry, persons holding the ground amid such darkness, in loyalty to the name of Jesus! God is seeing the testimony through. What an encouragement to be identified with it, dear brethren! What an incentive to make room for it!

In the passage we read in Malachi, persons were saying, it does not really matter. The book is full of what men say and what God says. Men are saying it does not matter; there are other faiths, we can serve God as we please; and the wicked are prospering. That is the day we are in. It says, “we hold the proud for happy; yea they that work wickedness are built up”. Men would look at these things in an outward way, but amidst all that, there were persons who feared Jehovah. I would like to enlist us all increasingly to be more fully among them. Amidst the darkness the scripture is very beautiful: it says, “Then”, as if God interrupts what men are saying and doing and thinking. The Spirit of God intervenes. It says, “Then”, in the midst of such conditions, there were persons who feared Jehovah and they “spoke often one to another”. That is the day we are in, dear brethren. It is what we are doing this afternoon, but may it not just be in our meetings! Amidst the darkness the great preservative – may I say, the great upbuilding for faith? – is that there are persons who speak “often one to another”, no distance there! “They that feared Jehovah”: It is the great need of the time when men are pleasing themselves and raising these other matters that I have spoken of, that there are persons who fear Jehovah.

It is a remarkable word of a great man, Joseph, “I fear God”, Gen 42: 18. Did he need to, you may say? A man there who had the whole land of Egypt under his rule and dominion, and he says, “I fear God”. Dear brethren, let us be preserved in the fear of God! We try to say it is not a slavish fear, but, you know, it is the normal condition of a heart that knows Him, “I fear God”, not for what He will bring in judicially, not that there will be penalty if we do not do as He pleases. “I fear God” means you make room for Him. You make room for what God is saying and what God is doing and you make room for God’s word amidst all that man is saying and man is doing.

“Then they that feared Jehovah spoke often one to another; and Jehovah observed it, and heard, and a book of remembrance was written before him for them …”. Did He really need that book, you may say? God had great pleasure in these persons that feared Him. Think of Him writing them down! Can I ask, my friend, are you conscious that your name is in that book? I do not speak fancifully, but I can think of God looking over the pages of that book in the darkening days that we are in and seeing one name, another name; and He comes to your name, sees something of persons there who walk in a different path who are governed by different principles, opportunities perhaps to do one thing or another. “I fear God”. That was Joseph. He had an opportunity to bring in retribution. How rightly he might have done it! How rightly he might have been vindictive against those brethren that so persecuted him. He says, No: “I fear God”.

A mark of a God-fearing man is that His confidence is in God. He does not need to try and justify himself. He does not need to take up the cudgels and to try and make a war against any that may be against him. He goes on quietly in confidence that God, the Judge of all the earth, will settle matters in His own way and His own time. In the meantime we are tested in our confidence in God. Think of the rising tide of things that are abroad today against the name of Christ, persons who wear the cloth, as we speak, with no fear of God in what they say. It should break our hearts as we hear these expressions against the Name of our Saviour and against the truth of Christianity that this country in some way used to respect. It should cause us grief to hear the things that are being said today, if we fear God. Would that these men feared God! Would that we were able to leave these matters, feeling them, but it says, “Then they that feared Jehovah spoke often”, holy conversation in the things of God. I believe it would increase as the darkness increases; in the pressure of circumstances, you can think of these dear brethren meeting one another – “spoke often one to another … and a book of remembrance was written”. They were not speaking just about the public things although they felt them. It is like these sons of God gathering together and speaking of the things of Christ and God writing this book of remembrance. It says it was “for them”. God has these books and, as I say, He looks them up. Maybe, dear brother and sister, you are passing through time, things that you can hardly understand and sorrows that you can hardly bear, and God looks at that book. He says, there are persons who fear me. He comes in in His mercy. As we fear Him and make room for Him, He comes in in His grace and in His love for these persons.

It says the book was written “for them that feared Jehovah, and that thought upon his name”. This is how the testimony has gone through, dear brethren. That is how the history has gone through in this city and this country. There are persons who have feared God and that book of remembrance has been written and we stand here today on the ground of the faithfulness of others who have gone before us. Let us, dear brethren, follow in those footsteps in a true way, in a committed way, in the fear of God, speaking often one to another! It makes room for divine blessing. Amidst the darkness, these persons made room for God to come in, made room for Him to come in with the resources of His love.

He says, “And they shall be unto me a peculiar treasure”. Oh what delight heaven has in the loyalty of the saints! No great exploits in this chapter. It is not David’s mighty men. It is you and I, insignificant persons in the world, of small account in the ways of men, but persons who fear God and speak often one to another and think upon His Name. Could anything be simpler, dear brethren? Could anything be more blessed? It is within the reach of the youngest heart in this room to have some sense of the fear of God in this way that we are speaking of it and to come into the blessings of His love. I say it is the way that things have continued to this day because there have been persons who have made room for God through their faithfulness, and He says, “And they shall be unto me a peculiar treasure”. Jehovah of hosts is speaking. This is a great stay to persons who fear Him, that God is over all. He is not limited to the limitations even of our faith. It is Jehovah of hosts.

He says, “and I will spare them as a man spareth his own son …” It connects with what I said as to God coming in for you in the circumstances and in the sorrows. He says, “and I will spare them”. He does not spare these worldlings. He does not spare the workers of iniquity. Their end is sure judgment, but of those that fear Him, He says, “I will spare them as a man spareth his own son…” Oh what affection is stirred in the heart of God from persons who fear Him and think upon His Name!

Well, I speak of David only briefly, as a young man who began to think about Christ, and to make room for Him. The Psalm is very beautiful, as is David’s history, but it says here about the ark, which is typical of the Lord Jesus, that “we found it in the fields of the wood”. This is where David found it. Could he not just have left it there? It had been there a long time. The connection of the passage would seem to be with the house into which the ark was carried. The ark had been in the hands of the Philistines and there was a movement of recovery begun, but God had to speak against it, not entirely, but God had to bring in some corrective measures, and the ark was carried aside. It says it was there a long time. If you look at that passage of scripture the comment of the Spirit of God while the ark was there is that “the time was long”, 1 Sam 7: 2. Oh, how God has felt it, the place that the public position has given to Christ, the ark that had led them through the wilderness! God called them out of Egypt, but the ark led them through the wilderness into an inhabited land. Beautiful expression! The ark was there leading them until they came to a land where there was room for them and there it is, carried aside to a house where it was neglected, and that is where things are today, dear brethren: the ark, the Lord Jesus, is outside neglected.

And here is a young man who heard about it, a young man who heard that the ark was lying in the fields of the wood. It was neglected and he says, “I will not give sleep to mine eyes, slumber to mine eyelids, until I find out a place for Jehovah, habitations for the Mighty One of Jacob …” Oh that the Spirit of God would stir something in all our hearts today to find a place for the ark to have rest! Is it in your heart? That is where it began, in David’s heart, a young man as I say who might have said, Well, it is not my matter, a young man who might have left things as they were, but the Spirit of God so stirred him in his affections for Jesus. He says, I will not give rest until there is a settled place. It began in his heart and it ended in the glory of Jehovah filling the house of God in Solomon’s day. May it stir in your heart to give a place to Jesus! In Laodicea it says He is knocking. He stands outside, knocking. Has that been your case? It has been in mine. It has been in most of our histories, I suppose but that knocking makes way. He says, “if any one hear my voice”, Rev 3: 20. Have you heard His voice, wanting to come in? I trust you will not keep Him out any longer. Like that one in the Song of Songs, He could not get in at the door. He had to look through the window. Is that your only acquaintance with Christ? Is there something between you and your Saviour from your side? The door in Laodicea, somebody must have put it up. Has some barrier come into your life between you and Christ? He is knocking and, too, He is speaking. “If any one hear my voice”: do you not recognise it? The one in the Song of Songs recognised it at first, until she comes to a point where there is something awakened in her affections through some appeal of the sufferings of Jesus, I think. There is something awakened in her affections and she rises and opens the door and she goes through certain exercises until she finds Him.

Well, David here, he says, “… we heard of it …” and he says, I am not going to leave things like that. It may be we cannot alter it, but there is a young man here who says that his affections are so moved that he will do what he can and he prepares in his affection and he prepares in his affliction. His energies are bent on gathering up very small things, it may be, tested at every turn. The public position was so against him. You say, what can I do? A poor shepherd lad, a Saul on the throne who would be content to put things off and to discredit the testimony. There he is, room made in his heart, and in his life, and there he is gathering up, in these times of deep experience, substance, that the ark may have a resting place, not only in his heart, but a settled place. It is a very beautiful touch that comes in in Solomon’s time, based on this very activity of David. The ark has a settled place where the Lord does not need to knock to come in. He may come in as we sing the first hymn. I like to think of these sentiments expressed as the saints sing the hymns, as the Lord Jesus in His grace brings in touches of His love. As He hears the saints singing to Him, His footsteps are hastened to come among them and find there a settled place, somewhere where He can ungird Himself, where He can speak of His Father’s love, where He can speak of all the things that have been secured and settled from His position at the right hand of God.

As I say David in his affection, simple young man, made room, made a resolve. It is right to make resolves. It is right to seek grace to keep them. And David, I am sure, at times departed from his resolve. He felt the pressures of the way, turning aside at times, but he comes back. His heart was set on finding a resting place. Let us not give up when the tests come! When the exercises are raised, may we not give up! May it cause us to be all the more diligent to find a settled place where the Lord can be at rest amidst the darkening days that are around us! Well, may we be encouraged to make room for Christ! The old hymn we often quote:

Room for business, room for pleasure,

But for Christ the crucified,

Not a place that He can enter

In the heart for which He died.

Solemn words, ‘room for business, room for pleasure’. That would not be a son of God. There it is, a place made through David’s exercises where He can enter. Oh the ark I suppose in those days was there in a room with a cloth over it, maybe referred to historically. I suppose there were some great stories told in that house about what the ark used to do, but they were all historical. A comment has been made that it may be we are more familiar with a historical Jesus than we are with a Saviour at the right hand of God. Very true! But David had living, fresh, daily links. He says in one of his Psalms, “One thing have I asked Jehovah, that will I seek after: that I may dwell in the house of Jehovah all the days of my life, to behold the beauty of Jehovah, and to inquire of him in his temple”, Ps 27: 4. There is the objective of a young man, “one thing”. If there is one thing the enemy is active in today – and partially successful – it is to bring in diversity of object. “One thing” – I commend it to the younger brethren. Great things pressing in on us, I know. We have been there too. But there is a young man, “one thing”. If you were asked what the “one thing” was, what would it be? Maybe tonight you should just answer that to the Lord. What is the “one thing” that you desire? Solomon was given the opportunity. Let us not think these things are fanciful! In your life God may give you the opportunity. What is the “one thing” you desire? He gave it to Solomon and He was pleased with it. How pleased He was with this young man, David: “One thing have I asked of Jehovah”.

Well, I hasten to speak of Rebecca as one who made room for the Spirit. One thing that came into our reading today, if I may make such an observation, was the need for making room for the Spirit of God. The whole testimony is secured in Christ in glory. “For whatever promises of God there are, in him is the yea, and in him the amen, for glory to God by us”, 2 Cor 1: 20. The promises will all be effectuated and fulfilled, but the enjoyment of them today is dependent on our relations with the Spirit. This is what comes out, in type, in Rebecca. I only call attention to certain things that the Spirit of God raises with her. There is one thing noticeable about her: she was in an area where the Spirit could find her.

It says she came to the well. The servant when he came in this chapter came to the well. It says he came outside the city. That is where the Spirit of God has come today. He has not come into the world to the religious circles of men. The Spirit of God today has taken a place outside the city. I wonder if you have found it. That is where these transactions took place because a young woman made it her business to go outside the city to draw water. She did not find her pleasures in what was going on in the city. You say, was that her job? She had a brother. Should he not have been away there doing that? There she was, a young woman and she went outside the city. Oh, dear brethren, may we be attracted into an area where the Spirit can have liberty with us to raise certain questions, but to allure and draw our hearts into a place where we can enjoy Christ without distraction!

I said David’s longings began as a young man and entered into the house of God in Solomon’s day. And here is a young woman. The history begins by her going outside the city and it ends as she is in the embrace of Isaac – union with Christ through the exercise of a young sister. Well, she went outside the city and that is where she comes into contact with this personage, and she calls him, “my lord”. He is impressed by what he sees in her. The Spirit of God is attracted as He sees a young woman, a young brother, or old ones too, making some room outside the city, showing some interest in the ministry, having an interest in the testimony and how it is going, and the power to walk here in loyalty to Christ. The Spirit of God has great interest if He sees persons who have some of these interests in their heart and He is ready to bring out great things to lead us onward, to lead us inward, as I say, into the embrace, in type, of Christ.

And so he is attracted to her. He says, “Let me … sip a little water out of thy pitcher”. Have you anything for Him? We want so much out of things. There is a great divine supply, but have you anything for the Spirit? A little sip is all He asks. Oh she had a great wealth for him! She says, “Drink, my lord!” You just envisage it, a young woman there and here this personage asks for a sip, and how ready she is to pour out some of her exercises, some of her joys, not what is going on in the city, but she is there outside the city ready to serve him some refreshment for his heart. It gives him great liberty. I ask you to read the chapter in the light of what we are saying to find the liberty the Spirit has to bring out, His thought of Christ glorified.

I only wanted to say this, that He raises certain questions with her. He says, “Whose daughter art thou?” When He raises these questions, can you tell Him you belong to the household of faith? “Whose daughter art thou?” What an answer he gets! He sees that she belongs to the great divine family. She has not got a history of what is going on in the city. She belongs to the family. He raises two questions, “Whose daughter art thou?” “Is there room … for us to lodge?” He is raising these two questions with us today, I am sure. Do you know whom you belong to? Are you conscious that you are a son of God, that God in His mercy, in His love, purposed as we remarked already, even before the world’s foundation. But in time He has operated in redemption and in His love and in His Son to bring us into the divine family. Do you know whom you belong to? She moved in the full light of being of the household of faith. What a joy the Spirit had when he heard who she was. The chapter in another part says he was “astonished”, he wondered; he worshipped God too, through one young woman coming out with a sip of water and telling Him whom she belonged to.

She says there is room, plenty of room. She had room to hear what he was saying. She was attracted by what he had brought out. What wonderful things he brings out in this chapter, things of gold, and things of silver, clothing, what beautiful things he brings out. Another old hymn we used to sing:

Oh worldly pomp and glory,

Your charms are spread in vain;

I’ve heard a sweeter story

I’ve found a truer gain.

There is Rebecca, all the appeals of the city, what were they to her in the presence of that gold and silver and these articles of clothing? She says, I have room for these kinds of things. Have you room, dear brother, dear sister, for what the Spirit of God is bringing out today of Christ in glory? She had not yet seen Him, as we have not seen Him, but there is the Spirit of God telling us of the place that Christ has above.

There is a wonderful touch to the overcomer in one of the assemblies. It says, “To him that overcomes, to him will I give of the hidden manna”, Rev. 2:17. Very fine food, the Father’s appreciation of the manhood of Jesus! I think the Spirit brought something of that typically to Rebecca. That is what he did. He said, my master has an only son and he has given all that he had to Isaac. Think of the Spirit bringing that out to the heart of this young woman, telling her of the Father’s delight in Jesus. Have you made room for it, dear brother, dear sister? Are you prepared tonight to make room for it, to give yourself to what the Spirit is unfolding? Oh, there are voices, you may say, voices that may be legitimate. Let us wait ten days. That seemed a reasonable request, did it not? You say, Well, I will put it off until I am a little bit older. I will do my own thing today, but I mean to make room for the Spirit. “To-day if ye will hear his voice, harden not your hearts”, Heb 3: 7. The ten days would have been a hardening of heart, and the devil is doing that: “harden not your hearts”. May those tender affections as displayed in this young woman find an expression. She says there is room. Then the question is raised, “Wilt thou go with this man?” And she said, “I will go” (v 58). Oh, I can see, I can hear the servant’s exclamation, as she said those words. I can tell you, dear brother or sister, there is joy in heaven, not only over repenting sinners, but there is joy in heaven over persons that are committed to going with the Spirit in the journey to Isaac.

You say, it is a long journey. How will we go? Mr Darby was faced with certain persons who were exercised about the truth. They said, we assent to what you are saying and it is very beautiful, but we have our livelihood. We have this and we have that. How can we do it? You know what he said? He wrote a hymn to them:

Rise, my soul, thy God directs thee;

Stranger hands no more impede:

Pass thou on His hand protects thee

Strength that has the captive freed.

That would be for us all tonight, ‘Rise, my soul …’ The difficulties? There are camels there to meet them. Oh, what divine provision she comes in for as she says, “I will go”. It says, “And Rebecca arose … and … rode upon the camels” (v 61). Where are the difficulties for the camels? The journey long.

Though thy way be long and dreary,

Eagle strength He’ll still renew;

Garments fresh and foot unweary

Tell how God hath brought thee through.

That is the operation of the camels, to conduct her into the embrace of the heavenly Man. Dear brethren, may I appeal to myself and to us all to make room for the Holy Spirit of God and not in fleshly resolve, but in dependence, conscious of our weakness and dependence on Christ and the Spirit, to say tonight, “I will go”. Three most precious words that are ringing in heaven as souls commit themselves to the Spirit of God.

I close in speaking of Lydia, another young woman. Again the similarities are very striking. She was outside the city, a young woman who up until then perhaps had thought she was a lost, helpless case, and yet the work of God was going on in her soul, and there she is: she was outside “where it was the custom for prayer to be”. That is something that makes room for divine operations, prayer. The prayer meeting is a meeting where Lydia would be. She was among the brethren. She went outside the city I suppose. Speaking in our day, she would pass the cathedrals that might be nearer to her. She would pass other things that might have attracted her, but she went her way. She made her way past these things, outside the city by the river. She wanted something living, you see. She did not want just to trade on stories or what was historical. She wanted something living. And God sees her making her way to the prayer meeting. God sees her seeking to be in that company where there is exercise working and He hears such prayers. He hears them, more ready than we are to receive the answer.

It is a very telling incident a few chapters earlier. The brethren were praying for Peter and there he is knocking at the door and he could not get in. The Lord is very ready to answer our prayers, but it speaks about persevering in our prayer. That does not just mean repeating it, but it means being exercised as to how God comes in with the answer. I feel tested myself that what we pray for is often forgotten, but there were these persons praying for Peter, and God was operating very quickly. Before the prayer meeting was finished, He was working and they were slow to receive the results. That is not Lydia. Here she is at the prayer meeting, and there is Paul coming in. It says, “and we sat down and spoke to the women who had assembled”. There is a certain dignity about the prayer meeting, a certain dignity about the saints making room, in faith, for the Spirit of God and for the Lord and for God to work, and it says, “whose heart the Lord opened to attend to the things spoken by Paul”.

There is a great need today to attend to the things spoken by Paul. The Lord opened her heart. She already had those feelings and those desires and the Lord touched that heart to make room for Paul, to make room for the light of a man in heaven, and that settles the questions that may have perplexed her, that the Man who was crucified, the Man who had been rejected here is gone into heaven. Very fine word the way Peter speaks about Him: “who is at the right hand of God, gone into heaven, angels and authorities and powers being subjected to him”, 1 Pet 3: 22. Paul brought that light into this woman’s heart. The Man, the Saviour who had been rejected, there He is crowned with glory and honour. Well, she made room for the things spoken by Paul. They are put aside today. May our hearts be open “to attend to the things spoken by Paul”!

If David’s desires issued in the house of God with Solomon, if Rebecca’s desires issued in being in the embrace of Isaac, here a woman’s desires issued in the local assembly in Philippi, a young sister exercised to make room for Paul; and it made a fine assembly, the assembly of God in Philippi, where Paul was able to unfold some of these precious jewels about Christ, able to speak about the Man Christ Jesus with such liberty. May it be, dear brethren, through making room for Paul, our local assemblies are enriched and we are sustained, as making room of these divine things in the joy of our heavenly calling, for Christ’s Name’s sake.

 

 

GLASGOW

28 August 1999