THE NEW COMPANY ON THE EARTH DURING THE ABSENCE OF CHRIST (2)
[p. 260] THE NEW COMPANY ON THE EARTH DURING THE ABSENCE OF CHRIST (2)
On the previous evening I took part of these interesting chapters, from the end of chapter 10 to nearly the end of chapter 13, setting forth the characteristics of the new company on the earth during the absence of Christ. I suppose no subject could be more interesting to one to whom the Lord is dear, than what really characterises the new company on the earth. In the previous chapters we had the first part, that is, how we are for Him here, waiting for His coming. Now the other part is our portion here, as belonging to His kingdom. I can only give you a mere outline, but I trust you may be so interested in the outline that you will study the chapters for yourselves.
I have said the first part is how we are here waiting and watching for the Lord to come. Now we come to the second part, which is how we are placed here ourselves. It is of deep moment to understand that if you are really for the Lord in the time of His rejection, instead of losing, you gain immensely. I think a great many true christians do not really understand it, and therefore they have not got the blessings peculiar to the path; it is in the path you get the blessings.
This chapter opens with the Lord curing the man with dropsy on the sabbath day; He there shows the character of His grace, really to the Jew, and no doubt He set forth there what He will do to the Jew eventually. We must bear in mind that blessing was first offered to the Jew; and when the Jew refuses the offer of blessing, then it is offered to the gentile; that is the order all through Luke. Then the Lord marked how they sought the chief seats (verse 7), and He said, No, take the lowest place, “For whosoever exalteth himself [p. 261] shall be abased; and he that humbleth himself shall be exalted”. Then He adds to His host, the one who had invited Him, “When thou makest a feast, call the poor, the maimed, the lame, the blind”, not those who can recompense thee. That is what He did Himself. That is the opening of the chapter. Then one of the company, no doubt a pious Jew, who was moved by what the Lord had set forth, said, “Blessed is he that shall eat bread in the kingdom of God”. Mind, it is “the kingdom of God” that is set before us - how we are here in the place of Christ’s rejection, and how we are blessed in this place, and how we are looking for the kingdom. The Lord in answer to this remark announces that there is to be a great feast before the kingdom. “A certain man made a great supper, and bade many: and sent his servant at supper time to say to them that were bidden, Come; for all things are now ready”. You have the feast in this chapter, and the guest in the next (chapter 15); but it is important to know where the supper is; the supper is in the house. He sends out the invitation, first to the Jew. That is always the order in Luke. The servant is sent to say “to them that were bidden” - that is the Jew - “Come; for all things are now ready. And they all with one consent began to make excuse”. One said he had bought a bit of land; there is nothing wrong in a bit of land, or in five yoke of oxen, or in a wife, but their hearts were holden by these things. They preferred them to the feast. That is uncommonly like ourselves; more or less we have looked for our blessings in the wrong place, the place of Christ’s rejection. Success in the place where Christ was rejected is no mark of God’s favour; I assure you it is very hard to convince us of that. It is not that a man may not do his work and do it well; but to become eminent as a man in the place where Christ is rejected is not of God. They all refused the invitation to the supper, and then he sent his servant out into the streets (that [p. 262] is still to the Jew), and then into the highways and hedges (that is where we come in), to “compel them to come in, that my house may be filled”. That is not to come to Christ, as is often said. Of course, if they did not come to Christ they could not come into the house; but the point here is to come into the house. Even in the next chapter, when the shepherd finds the sheep he “cometh home” to the house; ordinarily he would have brought it to the pasture; but it was not only of the sheep he was thinking, but of the joy that he himself had in finding the sheep; he brought it to the house, and called the neighbours and friends together to rejoice with him because he had found his sheep which was lost. I am speaking of the guest now, but the point is that the feast was in the house, and the guests were to be brought into the house: “Compel them to come in, that my house may be filled”.
One word more before I turn to the next chapter. What is to be the character of the persons who have this peculiar blessing? Verse 26 tells us: they must hate their own life. Nothing that belongs to that life commends you to God; you have your duties, but you fulfil them on another principle, and therefore, “If any man come to me, and hate not his father, and mother, and wife, and children, and brethren, and sisters, yea, and his own life also, he cannot be my disciple”. And then the Lord gives two figures to set forth what He was teaching - a tower and an army. A tower signifies defence, and an army conflict; you are to protect yourselves like a tower, and you are to count the cost. Now the cost is generally thought to mean what you would lose by it, what you would expend; but I believe the simple meaning is that nothing will stand but Christ, anything of your own material will perish; and therefore He closes up by saying, “So likewise, whosoever he be of you that forsaketh not all that he hath, he cannot be my disciple”. You may think the terms hard, but if you understood [p. 263] better the wonderful nature of the blessing which you are brought to, blessing in His own house, you would not think them hard. We have the blessing that belongs to the house now; we have not left the earth, but we have the blessing on the earth, though not from the earth. The mistake is in looking for blessing from the earth; if you look for blessing, there is the greatest blessing for you, “joy unspeakable and full of glory”, as Peter says; but where does that come from? Not from the earth. I am speaking of the blessing that is given to us while we are waiting for the kingdom. Do you think all the earthly possessions that ever were can equal it? Most of us know something of earthly possessions, and the man that has most is the man that knows best how unsatisfying they are. Prospects are much more attractive to a man than possessions, because he thinks there is something in the distance which, if he possessed, would make him happy; but when he possesses it, he finds that happiness is not in it.
With reference to the last two verses of the chapter, Israel was properly the ‘salt’, but the salt had lost his savour, and wherewith could it be seasoned?
In chapter 15 we have, as I have said, the guest, but it is the delight of the finder that is set forth. The object of the parables is not the joy of the found one, but of the finder. There is the shepherd, and the woman with the light; it was no action on the part of the sheep that brought it back, and no action of the silver piece. The shepherd found the sheep, and the light shone on the silver piece. Finally the work of grace is set forth in the prodigal son, who is an example of us all naturally, alienated from God. He is turned to God, and is brought back, counting upon the goodness of God; there was nothing in himself to count on, but he counted on the goodness of his father. And this is the work of conversion - the first step; you turn to God, believing that there is goodness in Him;
[p. 264] but you have nothing to say for yourself. What he finds is that the father receives him in the most tender way, “fell upon his neck, and covered him with kisses”. You get in the three parables the whole work of grace.
If the shepherd had not gone out the father could not have met the prodigal. God would not have been able to come out, according to all His righteousness, and embrace a poor prodigal in his rags; and if the light had not shined into the prodigal, he would never have turned towards the father. So you have all the Persons of the Godhead at work in the blessing of a soul; and the prodigal is brought into it; the father says to the servant, “Bring hither the fatted calf, and kill it; and let us eat and be merry.... And they began to be merry”. Just think of that, the happiness in God’s presence; and that is what the prodigal is brought into. In heaven? No; it is in the place where Christ was rejected that this joy is known. It is known on earth, though it is not from the earth. People may say, But I have not got that joy. Why? Because you are looking for something from the earth. The great importance of chapter 14 is to expose to us the disturbing element, that which would lead you to look for blessing in the wrong place, to look for some blessing in this world. The first thought of a man, if he can manage it, is to get a plot of land to build a house on. It is not anything really wrong, but it shows where the heart goes. You do not belong to the place where your Lord is rejected, and you are to look to another place - the place where He is accepted, for your joys. “They began to be merry”. The elder brother (figuratively the Jew), says, “Thou never gavest me a kid, that I might make merry with my friends”. He is angry, not because his brother is forgiven, but because his brother is feasted; “Thou hast killed for him the fatted calf”. What the legal man objects to is the wonderful position in which grace sets us. I have often asked myself what is the measure [p. 265] of the grace? No one can tell, because it is not the need which is the measure of the grace, but God’s heart that is the measure; He has removed everything to His entire satisfaction in the cross of Christ, so that He can now do His heart’s pleasure in taking this poor prodigal and conducting him into all the blessing of His own presence, and that not by and by, but now. This is not what you get in John 14, where the Lord says, “In my Father’s house are many mansions.... I go to prepare a place for you”. Here the believer has got a home now in the Father’s house. Would that every believer knew and enjoyed it! But if you do know it, you must learn and accept that the man that refused Christ here must be in abeyance, otherwise you cannot be His disciple. Therefore the Lord says, “Whosoever he be of you that forsaketh not all that he hath, he cannot be my disciple”. You may say, I should be a nonentity. No, you would not be a nonentity, you would be Christ’s servant; your body is the Lord’s, and He would order it according to His pleasure. We should be taken care of a great deal better, for when we think we are taking care of ourselves we are very often pleasing ourselves, and when we are pleasing ourselves we are doing damage to ourselves; whereas if we were following the Lord He would take care of us.
I turn now to chapter 16, where we have the parable of the steward. The Jew failed in being steward, and was to be steward no longer. No one is steward now in Christ’s rejection; it is all Christ’s property, and the point is that you are to make friends of “the mammon of unrighteousness”. “The mammon of unrighteousness” does not mean the mammon of dishonesty, but it means that you have no divine right to it; that is the great point. You may say, I have it in my possession, and I got it from my father, or, I got it by my industry. Well, I do not deny that, but still it is the mammon of unrighteousness; because the [p. 266] owner of all has been refused here, and therefore what you are to do with it is to make friends of it; that is, to use it in view of the future. A person might say, Am I not at liberty to spend it on myself? If you do you get the present good of it, but if you make friends of it, they will receive you, or rather, as it should be, you are received into everlasting habitations. “Make to yourselves friends with the mammon of unrighteousness, that when it fails ye may be received into the eternal tabernacles”. The idea is to use it in view of the kingdom, or, as Peter says, “the day of visitation”.
Here we read “the lord commended the unjust steward”, not for his unrighteousness in taking his master’s property, but the instruction the Lord means to convey is that if you use the property entrusted to you in view of the future, as the unjust steward did, He will approve you. The Lord says, ‘It is all My property, and if you use My money in that way I will approve you’. They were looking at the present advantage of riches; but the point is that the Lord connects it with the future; therefore the chapter finishes up with the parable of the rich man and Lazarus. Which was the best off in the end, the poor man or the rich man? “Thou in thy lifetime receivedst thy good things, and likewise Lazarus evil things”, but what is their place in the future? You see, beloved friends, you must take into account that you are in a place where the Lord is rejected; the Lord takes an interest in every one of us, whether poor or rich; but what He is showing here is that earthly goods are His property, and the way He would like you to use them. It is not that He would like you to neglect yourself and be ascetic, but the real good of the possessions is that you can make friends for the future; that is, that as you spend for the Lord and for the benefit of others what is properly His, but entrusted to you for the time being, it will be for your [p. 267] advantage in the kingdom. Therefore it is said, “laying up in store for themselves a good foundation against the time to come”; that refers to earthly possessions. Some think it is an easy thing, but I believe it is a very difficult thing: “He that is faithful in that which is least is faithful also in much: and he that is unjust in the least is unjust also in much ... if ye have not been faithful in that which is another man’s, who shall give you that which is your own?” “Your own” is heavenly things. I believe we have to own how little we have regarded what is called earthly means as really belonging to the Lord, so that we seek His approval whether we spend it on ourselves or on others. It is not merely a question whether you can afford it, but whether He approves of it.
Now we come to chapter 17, and here the Lord brings before us another test. He says, “It is impossible but that offences will come: but woe unto him, through whom they come”. In such a scene as this is we necessarily find it difficult to get on; we are baffled by the things about us here, therefore the Lord says in verse 3, “Take heed to yourselves: if thy brother trespass against thee, rebuke him; and if he repent, forgive him. And if he trespass against thee seven times in a day, and seven times in a day turn again to thee, saying, I repent; thou shalt forgive him. And the apostles said unto the Lord, Increase our faith”. They as Jews knew what it was to look for their rights, but it was entirely a new lesson that they were to forgive a man that had trespassed against them seven times in a day if he repented. (There is a good bit of the legal element in us all.) Therefore the apostles say to the Lord, “Increase our faith. And the Lord said, If ye had faith as a grain of mustard seed, ye might say unto this sycamine tree” - (the wild fig tree, that sets forth the Jewish order of things) - “Be thou plucked up by the root, and be thou planted in the sea; and it should obey you”. Then He tells them [p. 268] that whatever they do they have only done their duty, and in what follows He gives them an example.
As He was going on there met Him ten lepers, who besought Him that He would heal them. “And when he saw them, he said unto them, Go shew yourselves unto the priests. And it came to pass, that, as they went, they were cleansed. And one of them, when he saw that he was healed, turned back, and with a loud voice glorified God”. They were all cleansed, but there was only one man who came to Christ. You may say, Did not the Lord desire them to go to the priest? Yes! but when they were cleansed they ought to have understood the presence of God. The nine who went on were like the mass of christians now, healed, but seeking by ordinances, or in one way or another, to learn approach to God. Practically, these nine lepers turned to Leviticus 14 in order to find approach; but one man went direct to the Lord, and found approach. Any one who has found approach will understand the great difference. This man found approach to Christ! What a moment! This is literally what a soul finds when sealed by the Holy Spirit:
“In whom also after that ye believed, ye were sealed with that holy Spirit of promise”. He “fell down on his face at his feet, giving him thanks”. And that is plainly approach; he has to do with the Lord Himself. No one is in the happiness of all sin being removed, until he has found approach. Many have found escape who have not found the blessedness of approach - of going to Himself. In this chapter we find what is the true place for us here upon the earth, because it shows that we are in a world of difficulties, and we have to help one another, and show grace to one another; and as we learn this, we have to break with all the legal order of things; we are outside of it all, but outside it, we find approach to the Lord. No language of mine could convey to you the nature of the enjoyment that that man had when he was at Jesus’ feet. In figure [p. 269] he had parted company with himself, but he was in the company of the Lord: it is a moment of inexpressible joy, a moment that could never be forgotten; he became acquainted with the Lord.
The subject of the kingdom comes in at the end of this chapter, but I do not dwell upon it because it relates to the judgment that is to come; the Jewish remnant is referred to and the judgment; “One shall be taken, and the other left”.
In prospect of the kingdom there is great instruction for us in seeing the characteristics of those who belong to the kingdom. If you turn to chapter 18 you will see that the first characteristic is that a person has nothing to say for himself. “He spake this parable unto certain which trusted in themselves that they were righteous, and despised others”. Two men went up to the temple to pray; the one had nothing to say for himself - that is the first characteristic; he says, “God be merciful to me a sinner”. Then, following on that, in verse 15, “They brought unto him also infants, that he would touch them: but when his disciples saw it, they rebuked them. But Jesus called them unto him, and said, Suffer little children to come unto me and forbid them not: for of such is the kingdom of God”. Now, beloved friends, it is of deep importance that we should see the characteristics of those who belong to the kingdom. The Lord says of little children, “of such is the kingdom of God”, because what characterises a little child is that it has no antecedents, nothing that it can fall back upon; it clings, and it cries. There is something extremely touching in the way a soul truly rests on God. There is dependence and confidence. I have no dependence in myself; I may not even know what to ask Him; but just like a child I cling and I cry, and I know that He understands. An infant has three or four different cries, and a mother understands the meaning of each cry. But I want to press on you the wonderful [p. 270] dependence and confidence that such a soul has, and that is the first great characteristic of being in the kingdom of God. Any of you who have been truly exercised will corroborate what I say, that often the time you have found the deepest blessing was when you did not even know what to say, but all you could do was to cling; you knew that He had what you wanted, and you were shut in to Him; you could not perhaps explain it to yourself, but you were really cast upon Him. “Of such is the kingdom of God”.
That is not all. Now (verse 18) comes a certain ruler, saying, “Good Master, what shall I do to inherit eternal life? And Jesus said unto him, Why callest thou me good? none is good, save one, that is, God. Thou knowest the commandments, Do not commit adultery, Do not kill, Do not steal, Do not bear false witness, Honour thy father and thy mother. And he said, All these have I kept from my youth up”. The Lord only asked him five commandments - those which relate to man; the four commandments that relate to God were not mentioned, nor did He name the tenth commandment, which relates to the secret motive of the heart - “Thou shalt not covet”. Clearly he was an admirable young man. In Mark’s gospel, which gives the servant character of the Lord, we read: “Jesus beholding him loved him”; but He tells him that he lacks one thing, according to the Lord’s requirement in chapter 14, and that was, to forsake all that he had. “Now when Jesus heard these things, he said unto him, Yet lackest thou one thing: sell all that thou hast, and distribute unto the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven: and come, follow me”. Follow Me, the rejected One; but he could not follow Him, he was too much interested in his possessions. Beloved friends, what a picture it is of many a christian, who is too much interested in his possessions here to follow the Lord. The characteristic of the one who is [p. 271] waiting for the kingdom is that he follows Christ in His rejection.
I trust the Lord will give light to every one of us to see that it is a beautiful path; it is indeed a path outside this world, but what wonderful blessings and wonderful interests we find with the Lord in that path! “And when he heard this, he was very sorrowful: for he was very rich”. Why was he sorrowful? He would like to follow if he could follow and still keep what he had. Many christians would like to follow, but they do not, because they think if they take that path they will have to lose earthly things, like this young man. He would have been very much pleased if the Lord had said, You may keep all you have and come with Me: but no, it was to part with all he had and come with Him. “When Jesus saw that he was very sorrowful, he said, How hardly [it should be translated ‘difficultly’ ] shall they that have riches enter into the kingdom of God!” It is not a question of the riches themselves, but of the riches holding him. “It is easier for a camel to go through a needle’s eye, than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of God”; that is, a man that is well satisfied with his possessions here. “And they that heard it said, Who then can be saved?” It was strange to the Jews to hear this; but you must bear in mind that the Jewish element is the thing that hampers us; we may think we are free of it, but we are not. “And he said, The things which are impossible with men are possible with God”.
Now in the next verse we get Peter’s boast, “Lo, we have left all, and followed thee”. We read in chapter 5 how they forsook all and followed Him; it was not in the day of their poverty that they followed Him. And that is what I like to see - a man breaking with things here to follow the Lord, not when he can find nothing else, but when he is in his brightest day naturally. It was when their ships were full of fish that they brought their ships to land, “forsook all,
and followed him”. We can understand how the crowd around would say, What fools they are! they have got a great blessing from heaven, for this great take of fish was a miracle, and what did they do? They brought their ships to land and forsook all, and followed a poor man! Do you think they lost by it, beloved friends? No, they had His company. While He was here upon earth it was a wonderful time to them, little as they understood it, and they must have felt when He went like unfledged birds that fall out of the nest; they were scattered. Peter says, “We have left all, and followed thee”. And the Lord’s reply is important for us to bear in mind: “Verily I say unto you, There is no man that hath left house, or parents, or brethren, or wife, or children, for the kingdom of God’s sake, who shall not receive manifold more in this present time, and in the world to come life everlasting”. There is nothing that you have parted with for the kingdom of God’s sake that you do not receive manifold more for in this present time; I do not say you get it in natural things, I think it is a mistake to say so. Peter might have said, I never made by it, but he would not, he dare not say so, for he had got manifold more in the company of the Lord, and the company of the Lord is compensation for the greatest losses and the greatest sacrifices that ever were made by man upon this earth. I have seen men sorry for the sacrifices they had made, sorry that they had parted with their fortune or profession or business or whatever it was, and I have seen the Lord give it back to them, but it was not for their spiritual prosperity. Here the Lord says they shall receive “manifold more in this present time”; and what did they receive? HIMSELF! I trust many in this room will say, Well, Himself, His own company is better than anything we could lose in this world; that can more than make up for any surrender or any loss on this earth.
I need not add more; I desire that every one in this [p. 273] room may be really moved in heart to be here for the Lord in this scene of His rejection. I trust that we are glad to be of His new company, not expecting anything from the place where our Lord was rejected, but daily receiving joys unspeakable, joys in this place, though not from this place; and thus we shall prove that as we follow the Lord we are not losing, for we have deeper acquaintance with Himself. And therefore, as Paul says, “If we suffer” (endure), “we shall also reign with him”. We are looking for the day of His appearing: we “love his appearing”.
The Lord grant that each of us may be more distinctly for Him as we walk on the earth, in this place of His rejection, for His name’s sake.