MAKING WAY FOR GOD
[p. 67] MAKING WAY FOR GOD
Genesis 15:8 - 11; Genesis 15:17, 18; Matthew 3:1 - 3; Matthew 3:11 - 17; Revelation 3: 20
The object of this address is that we might be instructed as to the divine way, how each may make way for God: first, in regard to things that relate to himself, his own blessing; then as to public testimony, how, as engaged in that, one may make a way for God; and finally, how a believer may make way for a divine visitation and the subsequent entertainment of a divine Person, and then an entertainment of him by a divine Person; in other words, how we may make a way for the Lord so as to entertain Him, and that He, as a consequence may, as He loves to do, entertain a christian, as the scripture read in Revelation says, “I will .., sup with him, and he with me”.
The first part of my subject, as I intimated, is what relates to the individual believer’s blessing, how he may be established in the mind of God for him. So I selected Abraham, who is the characteristic believer, the father of all believers. He was concerned as to knowing how the promise of God should be fulfilled to him. There are many who are content with much less, very much less, than what is intimated in divine promise. Divine promise is the outcome, as we perhaps know, of divine purpose; that is, God can accord a promise as having purposed. His promise obviously will not go beyond the limits of His purpose, but it may extend to the fulness of His purpose for us, and His purpose for us is very great, I need not say; it is commensurate with Himself as having come out in Christ, so that “whom he has foreknown, he has also predestinated to be conformed to the image of his Son” — He calls him and justifies him and glorifies him. Thus the purpose [p. 68] of God, as I said, is commensurate, in keeping with Himself; it is worthy of God, it becomes Him.
But then there are promises; these are all on the line of assurance; the promise and the oath (Hebrews 6: 18), were two immutable things in which it was impossible for God to lie. Where you have these promises and oaths and covenants, the assurance of the believer is in mind, and many need establishing. In making His promises, God undertakes to act for their fulfilment. It is impossible for God to lie, we are told, that is, we know what He is in a general way, but the promise and the oath are to afford us certainty, to establish us. Then He has to begin to work, and so you have in this chapter, for the first time, the expression, “the word of God”. The chapter involves a vision, and I suppose if God speaks on the principle of vision to us. He abstracts us from what would be hindering to us in taking in the vision, and to Him in presenting what He has in mind in the vision. We are not accustomed to vision now, but Scripture speaks much of it. God speaks to man, we are told, “in a vision of the night”. He takes account of us and knows how ordinary things interfere as He is seeking to commune with us, and so He abstracts us in His own way so as to have scope for what He has in mind to make known.
This chapter, therefore, is remarkable, God is taking on Abraham to assure him that henceforth he is to be an established believer, established not only in the knowledge of God, but in the certain knowledge that God cannot lie. He was to be assured for a long time to come, too, four hundred and fifty years — with us it is much longer, I need not say; I mean the fulfilment of the promise took that number of years. Abraham in his lifetime would always revert to this with comfort, and it is important that each of us should have some little transaction with God of this sort, beginning with the idea of His [p. 69] word, for His word penetrates, as we are told, it is “living and operative, and sharper than any two-edged sword, and penetrating to the division of soul and spirit, both of joints and marrow, and a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart”, Hebrews 4: 12. That is to say, there is the searching of the being; he is, in every chamber of his heart, exposed to himself: distinction is made in his soul between thoughts and intents, so that all selfishness is exposed and God would say, It is due to you; it is not only due to Me, but it is due to you that it should be so. You will labour under great illusion if it is not so, if you are reserving any dark crevices in your heart, in conversing with Me, entering into any, engagement with Me, or I with you.
Abraham says, “how shall I know ... ?” And God said to him, “Take me a heifer of three years old, and a she-goat of three years old, and a ram of three years old, and a turtle-dove, and a young pigeon”. This is Abraham’s matter, it arose from Abraham’s wish to know, to be assured — hence, in this sense, it is Abraham’s matter. It is for him to act now so as to make way for God; for God, in the fulfilment of His promises to us, does not only work all round us; He does work around us, but He has in mind, in working thus, to work in us, to get in. We are skilled in keeping Him out; able, perhaps, to tell others how God will enter into their souls for blessing, able to preach the gospel, and yet we have never made a way for Him into ourselves, and He is waiting to get in. He is saying to us, Unless I do, unless you make a way for Me, there is no possible confirmation for you of what I promised you; it is an inward matter, do not keep Me out. There are things that are impossible in this sense, morally speaking: God says, I cannot work in you unless you let Me in. And, in selecting female creatures, a heifer and a she-goat He would intimate that He is [p. 70] looking for a certain result here; they denote, in type, responsive affection. The Lord knows what you are capable of, but it is finding its outlet in other directions than towards God. The woman of Samaria, as we have often remarked, was a woman of great affection, and she found an outlet, a lawless outlet. In truth, any letting out of our affections exclusive of what is Godward, is indeed lawless, for we are to love Him with all our heart and all our strength.
So He prescribes three-year-old creatures. Abraham would have to find them, and in finding them among his cattle — he had large flocks and herds — he would no doubt be wondering what it all meant. Well, God intends to set us thinking when He purposes to do something for us, because He wants to work in us. He works for us outside of ourselves, but He wants to work in us, and He cannot really succeed in His purposes of love for us unless He is allowed to work in us. So there are these two female creatures, and then a ram of three years old, which involves a progenitive idea, that there is to be some result for God as an outcome of this. And then the birds — they are not to be divided, that is, you can retain whole thoughts of yourself, but in a little way, in this process, the smaller the better; the whole thought must stand in all this operation.
So it is now what Abraham will do; God did not tell him what to do with them, but they were for God; it became God that these sacrifices should be provided, and we may be sure that Abraham was particular as to the history of each creature, he would know its age. But now, having slain the creatures, he divides them, as you will observe. It says “he took all these, and divided them in the midst, and laid the half of each opposite its fellow; but the birds he did not divide”, that is, the pieces of the larger creatures were matched. There was to be no severing of the pieces in the passover lamb, the whole [p. 71] thought went through, it is food for collective position and service. But this is earlier than the passover, this is how an individual is to know, and there must be the separation of the pieces, and they are identifiable, they belong to each other. Well now, as in this process, if we are having to say to God, we may be sure that Satan is not far away. In one’s holiest moments, one is humbled to be made sensible of the nearness of the enemy, and the facilities he has to act on us. In the most holy moments that we, as christians, may experience we may find this. It is very humbling, and tends to make us small, but still, the whole idea is in the birds; do not lose the sense of that, the smaller one is the better, in these circumstances.
The birds of prey came down. There are two sets of birds here, that is, those that Abraham provided, according to verse 9, a turtle-dove and young pigeon — symbolic of good; but then there are other birds, birds of prey, as you will observe. “The birds of prey came down on the carcases; and Abram scared them away”. These are other birds. We must have discernment in reading Scripture; cutting in a straight line the word of truth, not simply the Scripture, but the word of truth, for truth is interwoven, very intricately at times, in what is presented to us. Abraham sees these fowls that came down — what is the intent? To spoil all that he was doing. I urge young people to listen to what I am saying, for, unless you come into this sort of experience in some sense, you will never he confirmed, you will never be settled or assured in divine love’s provision for you. You have to learn to scare (the word “scare” is in the New Translation) them away; do not entertain them. That is the difficulty that, in your holiest, most sincere moments, and the moments in which God is set to help you, the enemy is there. Even in a meeting like this, Satan comes, as we have often [p. 72] said, to rob souls that are listening, of what is being presented. So Abraham scares them away; God did not tell him to do it, but he did it; nor did God tell him what to do with the creatures, what he did was the outcome of intelligence.
Now, I have said all that as part of what is in mind, that is, making a way for God. If these creatures He has directed us to bring, or to provide, are damaged by the devil or his emissaries, God is interfered with. So the epistle to the Romans teaches us how we are to have control of our minds; it is one of the greatest acquirements of the christian initially, to learn how to control his mind. “I myself”; not simply “I”, but “I myself with the mind serve God’s law”. The delivered christian seen in Romans 7 has complete control so that the mind becomes servile and held for one use, namely, God’s law. That is not the ten words simply, but God’s law, whatever it be specifically. So, if the enemy comes — and he does come — and young people are hampered with him and wonder how it is, it is because we do not learn how to control our minds and use them according to their power as rightly controlled. Abraham scares the birds away, they are foreign, they are antagonistic. That being so, “it came to pass when the sun had gone down, and it was dark, that behold, there was a smoking furnace, and a flame of fire which passed between those pieces” — that is the power of God. Abraham made the way for it in scaring away the enemy; so God acts to confirm Abraham, and the whole territory from the river of Egypt to the great river, the river Euphrates, is secured to the believer, to Abraham and to his seed. How restful he would be after that! He would be not only a believer, but a confirmed believer. “He that establishes us with you in Christ, and has anointed us, is God”. That is what He is aiming at with every one of us. The young [p. 73] christians at Corinth could see how established Paul was; no storm could overturn him, he was established, but he says, “God who establishes us with you ...” That is, he was established with the Corinthians. It is peculiarly strengthening to be told that I am sharing a special blessing with one far ahead of me and distinguished in every way in the things of God.
Well, I now go on to John the baptist. From the believer — for Abraham is a characteristic believer now, confirmed in the purposes of God — I pass on to the minister, to speak of how, in our public service, we make a way for God. Christendom as it is has blocked the divine way; God cannot move out to the regions beyond now. I use the word ‘cannot’ in a moral sense, there are things God cannot do in that sense consistently with Himself. Paul says, “I, from Jerusalem, and in a circuit round to Illyricum, have fully preached the glad tidings of the Christ” (Romans 15: 19); in doing that he made a divine way; he provided, not only a way for man, the divine way for us, “the way everlasting”, but he provided a way for God. In the Acts, “the way” for the christian implies the fellowship, but then there is a way for God, so that God can go from city to city, town to town, and village to village, as indicated in the addresses to assemblies in Asia (Revelation 2 and 3). John the baptist is, I think, the great example for us in this respect; it is he that is selected by God for this service peculiarly, so that it says, in the passage from which I read in Matthew, “in those days comes John the baptist, preaching in the wilderness of Judaea, and saying, Repent, for the kingdom of the heavens has drawn nigh. For this is he who has been spoken of through Esaias the prophet, saying, Voice of him that crieth in the wilderness: prepare ye the way of the Lord, make straight his paths”. He is making a way for the Lord in preaching repentance, but I [p. 74] am not going into the details at all, there is no time for this; I would like more particularly to call attention to John himself, that is, the kind of man he was as a public minister.
Luke tells us that the word of God came to him, that marks his ministry: as the word of God came to Abraham, so it did to John. It is a question of the mind of God, and what one would specially desire is to convey briefly an impression of John the baptist. I have read from Matthew, rather than any other of the gospels or from the Acts, because of the point the Lord makes, in speaking to John, about righteousness. John the evangelist presents John the baptist in the most attractive way, I think, of any of the evangelists, and that is because he so stresses John’s admiration of Christ, the great estimate he had of Christ. I believe (if one may be allowed to speak familiarly of such a matter) that, if heaven were to catechise a prospective minister, what would be stressed would be, the minister’s estimate of Christ. How do you regard Him? What is He in relation to yourself? Do you think yourself at all comparable with Him? Now I think John the evangelist is like that in regard to John the baptist; he shows how he measured up with the divine requirement. He is presented, as I said, as a sort of ideal for all ministers of Christ.
So, almost as soon as the Lord is seen here as Man in John’s narrative, we have John the baptist quoted as saying that He was preferred before him. He is urgent and energetic; he says, I want to say at once about that Man. He is preferred before me — that surely is a fine thing to start with. No one can be of any service really in the ministry of Christ, save he learns to be a second; and John puts his word in at once and says, He is preferred before me. That matter is settled; great as I am, John says, great as other people think I am, that Man is preferred [p. 75] before me, and for a good reason — He was before me. It is no question yet of the ability of Christ in testimony, it is a question of the Person of Christ, who He is; I must be clear as to that, and that is the point John makes. Jerusalem sent word to him and said, in effect, We are giving you a place in Jerusalem; your fame has reached us and we recognise you. Men will do that if you have gift; if you have ability it will be recognised, men will recognise you so that they may be enhanced. Jerusalem would be greater as honouring such a man as John; it would distinguish him by a title, whatever was needed. But John would honour Another, not himself: he says, “In the midst of you stands ... he who comes after me, the thong of whose sandal I am not worthy to unloose”. Do not think of me, think of the Man who stands in the midst of you; that is the minister making a way for Christ. I will not make a way for Him, if He is not great in my esteem; such is our make-up, that we are so self-centred naturally; but if we are to make a way for Christ, He must be everything. He is before us; He is preferred before us too. John the evangelist does not speak so much of John’s preaching as the others do, he stresses John’s remarks expressing his great appreciation of Christ. How he loves to speak of Christ, how superior He is! He will make a way for Him; and so here in Matthew he says, “Prepare ye the way of the Lord, make straight his paths”. And then, “I indeed baptise you with water to repentance, but he that comes after me is mightier than I, whose sandals I am not fit to bear; he shall baptise you with the Holy Spirit and fire; whose winnowing fan is in his hand, and he shall thoroughly purge his threshing-floor, and shall gather his wheat into the garner, but the chaff he will burn with fire unquenchable”.
Now, that is all perfect, and I have, as I might say,
[p. 76] a feeling of regret in having to point out something that you do not get in John’s gospel: that the Baptist would dissuade the Lord from something that the path He had entered upon required. Jesus comes to him; and it is when Jesus presents Himself to me that I am tested. I can talk of Him to others, but when I am face to face with the Lord, and He would stress His humility, I may shrink from the full truth — I may even protest against it. In ministry as the Spirit of God may empower a brother to bring out the humility of Christ, let us not be afraid of it, it is part of the testimony. What wonderful compression marked Jesus! Think of Him saying — and I refer to it with the deepest reverence — “I am a worm, and no man; a reproach of men, and the despised of the people”, Psalm 22: 6. How could He say that? Is it not part of His testimony? If one refuses it, he is not equal to this, not equal to the presence of Jesus. What wonderful compression, what wonderful sense of reduction comes before us in the incarnation, as we hear Him speak in that way! John the baptist is not just ready for that, he says, “I have need to be baptised of thee; and comest thou to me?” His words seemed to say that he knew better than the Lord! Let none of us ever be in that position. Prohibitionists, for instance, assume to know better than the Lord, though they do not say this in words. In many other instances, people who think they are pious, are really assuming to know better than the Lord. That will not do; nor will any of us be used or be useful unless we submit to the truth. Many have legal thoughts, thoughts that hinder us going in for the full truth.
“Then comes Jesus from Galilee to the Jordan to John, to be baptised of him; but John urgently forbad him, saying, I have need to be baptised of thee; and comest thou to me?” That was true, but then the Lord was doing the will of God, which [p. 77] required that He took this lowly place, and that John should serve Him in it. John was there expressly to make a way for Him; but without this service the divine way would have been blocked. The Lord was going on to a beautiful scene in this section, to the opening of heaven and the Father’s voice owning Him from there — I cannot stop to speak of it, but it is most affecting; but John, for the moment, was not making way for it, by introducing his own insignificance; without doubt his feelings as to himself were true, but their introduction at this juncture was contrary to his commission as the forerunner of Christ. Let us not be afraid of humility in anyone; none of us has a lot of it. Wherever you see it, let it work, let humility have its full way. The Lord was the embodiment of it. “Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me”, He said, “for I am meek and lowly in heart”. Jesus answered John: “Suffer it now; for thus it becometh us to fulfil all righteousness”. “Suffer it now, ...” — John in acceding is brought into full accord with his mission as Jehovah’s messenger to prepare His way, so that all flesh should see His glory. Think of the Lord having to say to me, Suffer Me to do this! Why should He? Would it not raise the question, whether I am ready to submit? He is the Lord of glory, and should I not submit unreservedly as He comes to me in this way?
It is very suggestive that, when the Lord spoke about righteousness, John the baptist submitted. May we not be touched with the importance of righteousness in this matter? — and not one righteousness, but all righteousness. The way of God requires the fulfilment of all righteousness; and not merely that Jesus should do it, but that John should do it. He said, “Suffer it now; for thus is becometh us to fulfil all righteousness”. And John suffers Him, thank God! He is now in the full dignity of his mission. Think of the honour of baptising the Lord Jesus!
[p. 78] He came in that way in love identifying Himself with the remnant of Israel, not indeed that He needed to be baptised — surely not. He is the great Baptiser Himself, He baptises with the Holy Spirit — but the way of God required this lowly attitude of Jesus, and John suffered Him, and the glory honoured Jesus at that point. The way of God has brought in the full light of the divine glory, of heaven opened. John was never more consciously in it, I am sure, than he was at that moment. He says elsewhere, “I saw, and bare record that this is the Son of God”. He had made a way for Him. How great a thing it is to make a way for Jesus, whether in myself or publicly in my ministry; so that heaven declares its pleasure in Him, and I am in all that light and blessedness!
Then finally, in the Revelation, the simple thought in mind, as I said, is to make a way for the Lord to come to any of us. He knocks: “Behold, I stand at the door and am knocking”. Speaking simply, you might open the door because of His knocking; but the point is, “if any one hear my voice and open the door, I will come in unto him and sup with him, and he with me”. It is contingent, not on the noise made by the knocking, but on His voice, it is His voice, that is, you know who is knocking. We may hear the knock and not Him that did it; knocking may be some severe thing that happens. There is no voice in a knock, but it is “my voice”, the Lord says, it is His voice heard accompanying the knock. “If any one hear my voice and open the door, I will come in unto him and sup with him, and he with me”. Now some of us may never have had any experience like this, perhaps have not thought of it. We have had severe things happen in our circumstances, business losses, and what not — knocking is there; but then it is the Lord’s voice in the knocking, or with it, that is, it is Himself.
[p. 79] A parallel passage to this is in the Canticles, the Lord is out in the night; it does not say He is suffering anything outside in Laodicea. He presents Himself in His greatness to Laodicea, One who can give counsel, gold, eye-salve. He can provide everything that the Christian needs — or even what the whole profession needs. So that it is not Christ as in need outside, as suffering outside; here, He has resources. It is not that in the Canticles, it is One whose locks are wet with the dew of night, He is exposed and He comes and knocks at the beloved’s door, and she is in bed, and she is too lazy to open; she misses Him; but here He says, “if any one hear my voice and open the door, I will come in unto him and sup with him, and he with me”. Is there anyone here whose heart is too hard to take this in, the Lord’s appeal! He says, I will sup with you. If you are able to discern My voice, and you open to Me, I will come in and I will sup with you. But then He says, You will sup with Me. Supping with Him is Philadelphia, supping with Him is part with Him. And the Lord is appealing to someone here, maybe to all of us, as to opening and making a way for the Lord to come in, as hearing His voice. It is a characteristic of a sheep of Christ to hear His voice. Hearing His voice, you open to Him, that is, you are moved by His voice.
The feminine speaker in Canticles says, “it is the voice of my beloved”; well, it was, but still she did not open, and He left, and she suffered loss. Now, dear brethren, the closing word is, Let us not be in that plight. Knocking is going on, but are we hearing His voice, the voice of Him who knocks? Let us hear His voice, His own accents; it is the Lord, let Him come in; as He comes in, He sups with you. But He further says, “and he with me” — and that part would involve the blessedness of assembly privilege.