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HOLD FAST WHAT THOU HAST

R. Taylor

Among the last words of the Lord to the assembly at Philadelphia are, “I come quickly: hold fast what thou hast, that no one take thy crown”, Revelation 3: 11. That is what led me to these scriptures, that we may be encouraged to hold fast what we have. We are in a day of great departure, with many of the cardinal truths of Christianity being given up and undermined, and I believe the Lord would use these words as an appeal to us to “hold fast what thou hast, that no one take thy crown”. What has come to us has come at great cost,

“others have laboured, and ye have entered into their labours”, John 4: 38. I suppose most of us here can thank God for others who have held the ground, I say again, at great cost, so that today we can come into these circumstances of blessing to enjoy what we have. The need is to hold it fast. That would mean it is not to be held loosely. It is not to be held as something that we can take up at our leisure, or as something that we can enjoy when we have time, but holding it fast means it is to be cherished by us. I think one way, perhaps the only way, that things will be held, is in the affections of the saints. They certainly will not be held officially.

I think we have seen that, and we see all around that you may have the terms of Christianity, with a great outward show, and yet the vitality has been lost. We suffer ourselves perhaps in our own histories, and certainly in a collective sense, from things having been held officially.

The Lord speaks to Ephesus, where outwardly there was much to commend, saying, “thou hast left thy first love”, Revelation 2: 4. So the Lord would encourage us that the truth is to be held and enshrined in our affections; and held, as we have read in this first passage, by the Holy Spirit. It is a wonderful thing that the truth is going through in this dispensation as never before. What a comfort and strength and encouragement to hold fast. The Lord says, “I come quickly”, and as He comes, He comes to gather up what has been held in the affections of His people. Other dispensations, I use the word guardedly, have declined because they depended for their continuance on man’s responsibility. While that is not absent in our time, the dispensation we are in, dear brethren, is going through because everything has been founded on the Man in whom all the promises of God are yea and amen (2 Corinthians 1: 20). What an encouragement to hold fast as we see how things are sustained and maintained at that great level of what is set out and dependent upon Him. As I say, our responsibility is not absent, and we shall speak of that, but what an encouragement to faith that in the inauguration and the carrying through of this dispensation, divine Persons have charged Themselves to see it through. There is the stability, there is the assurance that the testimony is going through. It is not going to fade out but will end in glory, having been treasured in the hearts of persons, who will soon be gathered up into glory to be eternally with Christ. What a hope for our hearts and stay for our souls in the presence of what men may be doing! As the enemy is active to undermine, we have the blessed assurance in our hearts that the dispensation is going through in the Spirit’s power, a tribute to Him and His grace as being here in this long dispensation. It is going through too as the service of Christ is known; as His great priesthood and succour is known by the saints, we are supported to the end at the true level of what is characteristic of our time.

So Paul here is encouraging Timothy in a broken day. He saw what was coming in, and says,

“Have an outline of sound words, which words thou hast heard of me”. It is necessary that we should understand the outline, and, as the footnote says, hold it fast. The great cardinal truths that have come to us are to be held fast in the presence of so many efforts of the devil to

undermine them. What we have in the blessed assurance of our sins forgiven, and the blessed hope of our souls of the return of our Saviour, these great cardinal features of the truth that have been set out and are to be cherished in the hearts of the saints; and also the truth that we have been freed from all that we are, as having been taken into favour in Christ. These are great outlines to be cherished in our souls. The enemy would bring many things in to cause doubts, but as Paul says here, “Have an outline of sound words”. It is very encouraging that they are still livingly maintained. Think of all that has gone on in this dispensation, the attacks there have been against the sound words, the truth of soul salvation being undermined, and the truth of the assembly being undermined. What efforts there have been to reduce the truth, but it is very fine that there is still an outline of sound words.

It is there in the books, in the ministry of the recovery. It is important that it should be read and cherished by us, as that which has been recovered in the Spirit’s grace and is there to be appropriated. The Lord would encourage us to appreciate what we have. How much there is to engage our souls and our minds positively in that outline of sound words. Paul says elsewhere, “Think of what I say”, 2 Timothy 2: 7. Some of it may be hard to be understood the first time; read it again. He says, “the Lord will give thee understanding”. Do not just say, I do not understand it. It is there to be understood. The outline of sound words is there to be enjoyed. So it would encourage us all to broaden out in our outline of sound words, which Paul says, “thou hast heard of me”. One thing that has been attacked is Paul’s ministry, and I believe that is what was in mind in the Lord’s word to “hold fast what thou hast”. We can thank God for the truth that we have been recovered to that there is a Head in glory, a living Man up there, our Saviour and Lord, and there is the Holy Spirit here indwelling the assembly, maintaining something in a vessel here that is suitable and in accord to the One who

is above in glory. That is to be held fast. The truth has come into our hands at great cost to God.

What forethought has gone into this dispensation. Not that there was not forethought about Israel, but in this dispensation divine Persons have charged Themselves with seeing it through in triumph and glory, in a vessel down here being maintained in something of the joy of the place that Christ fills in heaven above. It is wonderful to know that we have been brought from darkness to light and have been brought into an area of divine blessing where the thoughts of Christ and the assembly can be cherished. I think it needs to be gone over increasingly day by day among us, what there is in this vessel that is so precious to Christ, what there is in this vessel that is the fruit of the Holy Spirit’s activities. You remember in Genesis 24, when the Spirit typically comes into the house. He brings out of His treasure these silver and gold articles, and gives them to Rebecca. That has happened in our time. The Spirit has unfolded the great things of divine love and the resources of divine grace. It does not just say He brought out silver and gold, but He brought out articles, something that had been formed in divine love and grace. Think of Rebecca appreciating what had come from another country, from outside of the area of man’s responsibility, from the resources and the wealth of divine love. The Servant, a type of the Spirit, brings them out and you see Rebecca appreciating what He had brought. It says the others were given something too, but there was something very precious for Rebecca in those silver and gold articles and clothing (Genesis 24: 53).

These things have come in our time, I say again, at great cost there has been developed in the Spirit’s grace a ministry as to Christ and the assembly that needs to be held fast and cherished in our minds. You can see what an effect it had on Rebecca, immediately she says, “I will go”

(Genesis 24: 58). I think that is the great effect of the truth of Christ and the assembly coming into our hearts

and into our minds, that we are prepared to conduct ourselves in another way. Great influence is brought to bear upon her. They say, Do you have to be so responsive? Do you have to be so committed? Ah, she says, My heart is enraptured, captivated by what the servant has brought out, “I will go”. May that response be more vital in all our hearts as we come to see what we have been brought into in this area of wonderful blessing. There have been times when things were held very loosely. That seemed to happen after the apostles. Things were not treasured as they should have been. Officially they may have gone through, but there was, many years ago, a revival as to this great truth that I am speaking of, and it came into some hearts. It has been spread abroad by the Spirit that there is something here in the assembly that is precious to heaven. She is heavenly as to her origin and belongs to Christ, but presently is here in the Holy Spirit’s care. He is serving in untiring patience that we may be preserved in the light and joy of what through grace we have been called to have our part in.

So it says, “Keep, by the Holy Spirit”. It is the only way it can be kept. Rebecca was kept in freshness. How long the journey was we do not know, but there she is in freshness adorned with that clothing and those precious articles, ready at the end of the journey to be in the embrace of Isaac, who is a type of Christ. That is how the dispensation will finish, dear brethren, we shall be there held in the embrace of Christ. He will be in the joy of what has been secured in suffering love, and we shall be there with our eyes feasting without a cloud on the One who has loved us and served us in such matchless grace. May it be kept alive in our hearts, as Paul says, “Keep, by the Holy Spirit which dwells in us, the good deposit”. We have in our hands now, “the good deposit”. It has been preserved intact despite all the efforts of the devil to undermine it. Think of Paul cherishing it in his soul as he was in prison, penning that epistle to the Ephesians,

with such a sense of his place in Christ, and too of what Christ had in this vessel that is here, the same vessel that will be eternally His counterpart. Although the assembly was there in those conditions of persecution and reproach outwardly, Paul is in the enjoyment of that good deposit entrusted. May the Lord encourage our hearts to be more responsive, to be more caring, to be jealously guarding what has been brought within our reach.

The scripture speaks of Solomon having a couch and of these mighty men that were around it. It is very like the local meeting. There is a place there that is different from what is around.

The saints are not gathered on human principles but they are gathered in affection for Christ and for one another; it is like Solomon’s couch and it needs to be guarded. It is like the doors shut where the disciples were. There needs to be persons who are prepared to guard Solomon’s couch. Are you among them? Are you committed to guard the interests of Christ in the responsibility that has been placed on you where you are? Are you prepared to guard a place where He can find His rest? It says, “Behold his couch, Solomon’s own”. There are these mighty men guarding it, ready to defend his interests, ready to care that his rest is not disturbed. “Threescore mighty men are about it, Of the mighty of Israel. They all hold the sword, Experts in war”, Song of Songs 3: 7, 8. There is a call at the present time for persons who are not on the offensive exactly but are here with the sword ready to defend the interests of Christ, ready to see that His rest is not interfered with. In spite of the smallness and pressures and sorrows, they are prepared to guard what is precious to Him, so that He can find His rest in a world where His rights are denied.

I think that would be like Paul here encouraging Timothy to “Keep, by the Holy Spirit”. As I have said, there is a divine Person here to help us to keep matters at the true level that is suitable to the heart of Christ.

There is no other way, but what wonderful grace that the Spirit of God Himself has come to be with us and in us. What a mission He is carrying out in these days in which we are! May we give ourselves to know His grace and power and service so that there is something kept in our localities that is for Christ and for Christ alone. We must begin with ourselves, of course.

These are individual days in which Paul is writing to Timothy saying, “Take thy share in suffering”, 2 Timothy 2: 3. That is how things will be preserved, sufferingly, as persons are prepared to sacrifice their own interests, their time, their satisfaction and their rest, so that the interests of Christ and the outline of sound words may be preserved for those who are coming on. It would be an exercise for all who are older to see that things are being passed on untarnished. It would be a big exercise that the truth is being passed on in its glory and freshness so that it is held and passed on attractively. So Paul is encouraging persons to take their share in suffering. That is the only way it will go through because of the condition and circumstances we are in. He says, “No one going as a soldier entangles himself with the affairs of life”. The Lord says very clearly, we cannot serve two masters (Luke 16: 13).

Rebecca had no hesitation at the choice. What an appeal there was for her to stay, but she had no hesitation. That man had captivated her affections. The Spirit’s grace and service had endeared Isaac, the heavenly man, to her, and she says, “I will go”. So it says a soldier cannot entangle himself with the affairs of this life. If we have been called to have part in this wonderful vessel, these other things are below what is proper to the assembly. There are many calls upon us that we get grace and strength to fill out righteously, but the great calling for the Christian, as Paul speaks of it, is “the calling on high of God in Christ Jesus”, Philippians 3: 14. As called into such a vessel we are not to be entangled with the affairs of this life. The enemy is very active at the present time to entangle the saints with the affairs of this life. What demands are made upon us.

It is like the people of old in Egypt; Pharaoh laid added burdens upon them and enslaved them in his system. The devil is doing that by the world today, in various insidious ways, to take the saints away from the glory and richness of their heavenly calling to ensnare them in the things of this life. You may say, there are difficulties, but we are to “Keep, by the Holy Spirit which dwells in us”. There is a divine Person come here to help us to fulfil righteousness. He has come here to help and strengthen our desires for the heavenly Man.

Things are to be held in the affections of the saints, and the Spirit is here to nourish those affections, to keep us in the enjoyment of the love of God. It is a great word in Jude’s epistle, in a day of apostasy and of rising evil, he appeals to the saints to “keep yourselves in the love of God”, Jude 21. What love of God is all around us, and how richly we have been given to taste of it, but the exhortation in those declining days is, “keep yourselves in the love of God”. Then also it says, “make straight paths for your feet”, Hebrews 12: 13. The Lord says,

“if therefore thine eye be single, thy whole body will be light”, Matthew 6: 22. What blessing there is in having our eyes directed to the heavenly Man.

I read of David because we have here some men by whose activities things were held fast. In Saul’s time things were held very loosely, held as optional. The ark during Saul’s time, where was it? There was one woman, before Saul came to the throne, who said, “The glory is departed”, 1 Samuel 4: 22. Oh how she felt it, and publicly the saints would feel something of that now. There is not the glory of the beginning of Acts exactly, but the glory has not departed, dear brethren. The glory is not here in its public display, but it is here enshrined in the hearts of the saints. So the ark was very loosely regarded in Saul’s time. If you had asked persons, Where is the ark? they would hardly have known. It was in Abinadab’s house, and the Spirit of God uses these words about it, “the time was long”, 1 Samuel 7: 2. Things were held officially, persons perhaps kept the

ritual, but the ark was not held in the affections of the saints. But David brought the ark, as a type of Christ, to be enshrined in the affections of the saints. And here are persons who, when the trial comes, are ready to hold fast. There is the attack of the Philistines. How strong that is, great pretentious armies that would carry all before them. They would take away the distinctiveness of Israel. That was their great effort, to destroy what was distinctive to the people of God, and that is abroad today. But here is a man who was ready to defend them against the attacks of the Philistines.

Another group was gathered, the Philistines in a troop. Not only individual attacks but there was an organised attack, as there has been against Christ and the assembly, and here is this man who defended the food supply. There was this plot full of lentils, maybe not much value to men outwardly, but he would defend it; he stood there, and it says, “Jehovah wrought a great deliverance”. Hold fast, God will work the deliverance. We are not called upon to put the world right, we are not called upon to set Christendom right as to its errors, but we are called upon, dear brethren, to hold fast what we have “that no one take thy crown”. These persons with David, were holding fast the crown. They were appreciating what had come to them in David’s grace and in his reign. So it says of this man “he stood in the midst of the plot and delivered it, and smote the Philistines, and Jehovah wrought a great deliverance”. He had judged in himself the mind of man working in the things of God, and so he was able to bring help into the local company; he was able to name things when difficult circumstances arose, and God wrought the deliverance. May we be encouraged to stand and hold fast.

Then there were three men who heard the longings of David. That is what we would seek to hold fast above all else. They heard the longings of David when he longed and said, “Oh that one would give me to drink

of the water of the well of Bethlehem”. Have you ever thoughts of the longings of Christ?

Have you ever thought what He feels about the breakdown? We know what we feel about it and the sorrows that have come in, but have you ever thought how the Lord Jesus feels it? It says about Him prophetically that He had laboured in vain and spent His strength for nought (Isaiah 49: 4). What service He rendered towards Israel and there they are unresponsive.

What labours He has rendered towards the world, and there it is going on without Him. Have you ever thought of the feelings of Jesus, that men are so bent on themselves, how the Lord feels the departure that has taken place? These men were prepared not only to hold fast, they were prepared and ready to respond to his longings. May our hearts be encouraged to give Christ something that He longs for. How much He has given for us. How much He has brought us into. Now He would give us to know something of His longings, “Oh that one would give me to drink of the water of the well of Bethlehem, which is in the gate!” It says they “broke through”. They broke through going there to secure it, and they broke through coming back to deliver it into the hands of David. How precious it was to him!

He longed for it for himself, but when he received it he poured it out to God. Oh how blessed an experience to know something of Christ appreciating what we minister to Him in our time.

It says, “the three mighty men ... brought it to David; however he would not drink of it, but poured it out to Jehovah”. Think of the Lord Jesus having something in this present dispensation, through the saints holding fast what they have, answering to His affections, and the Lord Jesus taking that and pouring it out to God. Have you ever thought of that? It may be some little bit of suffering that you have undertaken, some confession of the name of Jesus that you have made, something simple in your life of committal to the Lord’s interests in your locality; the Lord says, How precious that is to Me, and He pours it

out to God. That is how the response Godward is being secured, there are persons who are seeking to please the Lord Jesus, they are seeking to give Him something in response to the appeals of His grace and His love. May it be enshrined in our affections and held fast. He says, “I come quickly”. What a hope and assurance for our hearts, what an encouragement to hold fast, “I come quickly”. However long or however short the time may be, the Spirit of God is here so that these longings of Christ may be appreciated in the hearts of the saints and we give Him to drink. The celebration of the Lord’s supper each week may tend to become a formality, the recurrence of it may cause it to be held very lightly, but it is part of what is to be held fast. The Supper is to be held intact at its true level as the request of the Lord Jesus,

“this do in remembrance of me”, 1 Corinthians 11: 24. In this time when Christ is rejected there are persons who would gather together to remember Him, to answer to His longings.

There is what He has provided for us, but in the Supper there is what He secures for His own heart, and what He pours out to God.

May there be, dear brethren, in all our places, an increase of what there can be in the hands of Christ that becomes so rich Godward. So that God has His joy in seeing, in spite of all that has come into time, the fruit of divine labours in something going through that is going to end in glory. May we increasingly, as committed in affection to our absent Lord and Saviour, have our part in holding fast, knowing the Spirit’s power and strength to hold the ground. We are not asked in these days to be pioneering, but things have come to us. May we have grace and affection to hold fast till He comes so that He may have a response in the meantime for His own heart and for the pleasure and praise of God, for His name’s sake.

Address at East Finchley
20 February 1999

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