HOW WE ARE TO BE FOR CHRIST
[p. 374] HOW WE ARE TO BE FOR CHRIST
Matthew 14: 22 - 31; 1 Peter 2: 1 - 5
JBS We have been considering our side - what Christ is for us; now we come to His side - how we are to be for Him. Every christian knows something of what Christ is for us; but the practical difficulty is, how to be for Him. These scriptures show that we are first to go to Him. He came into the world to our side to relieve us of all our misery, and bring us into the boundless joy of the Father’s house. Everyone is delighted to hear of Christ in the vessel (Matthew 8: 24), that is our side; but here (Matthew 14) He is not in the vessel, but walking on the water; supreme above all the power of evil here. The point is, will you join Him? For that you must be attached to Him. Peter, in leaving the ship to join Him, discloses the reality of his affection for the Lord; he leaves a position suited and natural to man, and representatively sets forth the christian moved by faith and love to leave all for the company of Christ. The first great thing is to see where He is. I do not now mean in heaven, but above all the power of evil here. He is supreme as the risen Man on this earth. You must take one step at a time. John 6 and Matthew 14 happen at the same time. The Lord says, “Verily, verily, I say unto you, Except ye eat the flesh of the Son of man, and drink his blood, ye have no life in you”. You cannot have it but through His death; therefore “many of his disciples went back, and walked no more with him”; they would not take that path.
Ques How can you see the Lord risen out of the ruin, and not look at Him in heaven?
JBS It is an out-of-the-world condition of things; you must be above all the evil of this place first. Practically people are pretty clear about heaven [p. 375] and earth, but not about the middle place; that is out of the world, and that is the first great step. In 1 Peter 2 Christ is the living stone, disallowed indeed of men, counted worthless. “To whom coming”. Are you ready to take that step? It is very much against flesh and blood. He has a spot on this earth where He is supreme and is known there as such, as Son over God’s house, as the risen One, the Son of God with power.
Ques. On earth?
JBS Yes, He had not left the earth when He walked on the water, or Peter either. Peter left the ship, and as still on the earth, knew Christ as supreme above all the power of evil. Matthew 14 and 15 are education for the assembly; chapter 14 is His supremacy above every power here; chapter 15 is that He is able to relieve us in the lowest condition here because of Satan.
Ques The supremacy really comes out in resurrection?
JBS Yes, of course. In the out-of-the-world condition of things, everything of man is a hindrance. You could not retain anything of man; that is the great moral power of resurrection on the soul. John 20 presents to us a beautiful pattern of this. The first thing the Lord pronounces is “peace”, every disturbing element gone. Who would like to introduce the subject of their sins or their needs there! It corresponds with chapters 13 and 14; the disciples are shut in with Him, and He washes their feet to keep them fit for this new ground. If you are not in intimacy with Him, you will not feel the need of having your feet washed.
There was nothing but Christ before Peter in the step he took when he left the ship and walked on the water to go to Jesus. It was not a question of place, but to join the Lord. You have the pattern in John 20. They had heard the Lord had risen, and they were [p. 376] waiting to see Him. He had said, “I will see you again, and your heart shall rejoice”.
Ques Is it faith in His word - “if it be thou, bid me come”?
JBS It is not that way with us now because we have the power to come. Peter had not the power, but he had the affection; that is the difference between Peter and us. What we want is affection.
Ques Would you say that every one coming into the assembly should know Christ as the Son of the living God?
JBS You must know who He is. I do not see how you can be in your right place if you do not give Christ His place. The whole point is the Lord’s place. The important thing that comes out in chapter 16 is, “I will build”, etc. - ‘I will have a structure on this earth which no power can remove’. It is to be maintained on earth. If you admit that Christ has a place on earth, how can you be without the desire to join Him? The practical obstacle is the lack of recognition that Christ has a place on this earth.
Ques Would you say everyone having the Holy Spirit has the power, and everyone that has affection would say, I must join the Lord on this new ground?
JBS Certainly, I do not ask for intelligence, but simply affection; we have the power.
Ques In Matthew 14 you do not get as far as the assembly?
JBS No, it is first spoken of in chapter 16; chapter 14 is to show how you can enter on the new ground. You have a pattern of the Lord supreme in resurrection above all the power of evil here, and how He would by His Spirit conduct you to Himself. What we are tracing is the leading of the Spirit of God; our hearts are drawn to the Lord to be where He is.
Ques Do you mean to go to heaven?
JBS No, resurrection ground on this earth; [p. 377] it is outside of man. It is here John 6 comes in, you must travel to it through Christ’s death. Nothing but what is of Christ could be on that ground. Look at the order in 1 Peter 2: “To whom coming, as unto a living stone, disallowed indeed of men ... ye also, as lively (living) stones” - you become one.
Ques I thought we were living stones when we come?
JBS “To whom coming”, you must first come.
Ques I thought you came to be built up?
JBS Quite so; but you are recognised as a living stone by coming to the Living Stone.
Ques I thought we were recognised as living stones?
JBS You first taste “that the Lord is gracious”. “To whom coming” is another step; “disallowed indeed of men” - you pass outside man, that is before you are built up. You are built in first, then you are built up. “Ye also, as lively (living) stones, are built up”. You are of the same material as Christ, you are of Him, He does not build of other material.
Ques Is not everybody a living stone who has tasted that the Lord is gracious?
JBS I do not think that is the order in Peter. “If so be ye have tasted” first; then “to whom coming”; you come to the One who is counted by men as worthless; you come into vital contact with the Living Stone.
Many sincere people have left a religious system because of the evil; but separating myself from evil is one thing, being drawn to the Lord where He is, is another. Whatever God has established on the earth He does not give up, though men give it a new form. Here, it is a “spiritual house”, it is the house of God.
Ques Is the spiritual house spoken of here the progressive building which will ultimately be the new Jerusalem?
JBS No, it is a question of present privilege here.
[p. 378] Ques Would it be in the place of what they had lost?
JBS Yes, they had lost the material and got the spiritual, therefore it must be for the present.
It is an immense thing in the history of the soul to step into Christ’s place here on earth, an entirely new thing, and everything outside of man.
Ques In the very place where He is disallowed of men?
JBS Yes, not recognised by man for a moment. It is here in keeping with the parables in Matthew 13; after having set forth the first three the Lord sent away the multitudes and “went into the house” (verse 36). The disciples follow Him apart from man, and He points out to them in the last three parables what His real interests were here. There is nothing so little known as what His interests are. People are looking for something or talking of the ruin. If you are inside you are not occupied with the ruin, but with His interests. The business of the evangelist is to separate the good from the bad.
My impression is this, and it makes me very anxious on the subject - if you do not take the first step you will not go on; if you do not get to the company where He is, you will never know the mystery.
Ques The first step is coming to Him as unto a Living Stone?
JBS Yes, and the difficulty of seizing it arises on account of the confusion of christendom; it must be taken in a sort of abstract way. Everyone must be individual in the step, and there is nothing for you to see. “Disallowed indeed of men” is the real difficulty. You cannot limit the truth of the spiritual house to those who have taken the step, still if they have not they are not in the enjoyment of their privileges. The fact is that some do not really take the ground of the house of God - the spiritual house.
[p. 379] Ques I suppose it is that there is no idea that there is such a thing, or that Christ has such a place on earth.
JBS That is what I mean; you have to seize the truth in a sort of abstract way. It does not take many to form the house; there were not many at the first. I think if a person has not got the truth he adopts a material idea. The difficulty is that it is impossible for anyone to enter into it except spiritually.
Well, it is an immense thing to know that the One who has been rejected as worthless by man has a place on this earth where He is supreme, and where I can be in His company.
I think we must understand the assembly in Acts 2, before we can understand the mystery. Our subject is the leading of the Spirit in our souls.
Ques Which way would you say Paul learned it?
JBS No doubt it was revealed to him at first, though he was not in the power of it till afterwards. He was to be “a minister and a witness both of these things which thou hast seen, and of those things in the which I will appear unto thee”.
Now we come to Acts 2. They were so filled with the Spirit that they were entirely governed by the Spirit. They were led of the Spirit. The mystery was not revealed.
I am come to Christ’s place, God’s house, and am now in the power of the Spirit. As the Spirit really leads me, He leads me in reference to the Lord. With the soul full of the Spirit everything of self is in abeyance.
Ques What is the practical difference between the way of acting in Acts 2 and as governed by the Head?
JBS I should say anyone who knows Christ as Head, and is in communion with Him as such, would act according to His dictation. I do not think, until you know the Head, you could act beyond Acts 2 - filled with the Spirit.
[p. 380] Ques You could not get better direction than by the Spirit, could you?
JBS No, if you were absolutely under Him, but from the Head you get distinct dictation.
Ques If full of the Holy Spirit you could not get more?
JBS Still the Spirit’s help in opening the Scriptures is a different thing from dictation from the Head. I think when it is from the Head He may propose a subject to you of which you know little, but it is His pleasure and you obey.
Ques You mean in the assembly?
JBS Of course; it is a different thing altogether.
Ques Some insist that we cannot go beyond Acts 2?
JBS A great many have no idea of the Head at all, but of being moved by the Spirit of God. In Acts 2 they did not act themselves, the Spirit of God moved them, perhaps beyond their intelligence.
Ques Did not the Spirit of God exclude the man?
JBS I quite admit it; still it is different from dictation from the Head.
Ques Does the Spirit of God refer us to the Head?
JBS The Head directs. I have no bond to Christ but the Spirit. The great thing is to understand first what Acts 2 is.
Ques Do you mean in Acts 2 a person may have the sense that the Spirit will help him to do it?
JBS Yes, and I may speak on Scripture as impressed by the Spirit, but I think dictation from the Head is quite different. I do not think we are as a rule beyond Acts 2; the question is, are we up to it? They were a company all filled with the Spirit of God, and the Spirit of God led them.
A man in the assembly might speak with tongues in the power of the Spirit of God without direction from the Head. 1 Corinthians 14 gives the idea of the power of the Spirit without the knowledge of the Head. I do not think the Corinthians understood the mystery.
[p. 381] In John 13 and 14 we have the Lord preparing the disciples for the field of service; if you do not understand the Lord inside, you cannot be rightly for Him outside. It is a great thing to see these chapters in connection with the assembly.
Ques Is Acts 13 an illustration of it - they ministered to the Lord and fasted?
JBS Yes, everything in the assembly comes from Christ. Gifts are given in the assembly. A saint finds out his mission there.