THE WORK OF THE LORD
[p. 249] THE WORK OF THE LORD
1 Corinthians 15:58; Isaiah 51:1 - 8
I am thinking specially, dear brethren, of the work of the Lord. There is the work of God, so viewed, and of the Father, so viewed, and of the Spirit, so viewed, but I am thinking of the work of the Lord as involving peculiar support. If one compares the gospels, this aspect of the truth fits in with Mark, and the Lord as presented there and in the passage I have read in Corinthians is to be viewed as all-powerful. As He said to Paul as having arrived at Corinth, “For I am with thee, and no man shall set on thee to hurt thee: for I have much people in this city”, Acts 18:10. It was an undertaking on the part of the Lord to take out of Corinth the much people that He knew were there. The same may apply to any one of our localities or to the whole world. The present time is the time in which the Lord, having bought the field, is taking out of it what He seeks. He will use the field later in other connections, but at the present time there is that in it which He values and He is taking it out through the gospel, but the circumstances require that those who are employed must be protected, so that He says, “No man shall set on thee to hurt thee”. Acts 18:10. Hence, the operation is carried on under His all-powerful wing.
Hence, in Mark we are told that the Lord was carried up into heaven, and sat on the right hand of God (Mark 16:19). That is more than is said by the other evangelists. Luke and Mark only record the actual ascension, but Mark adds that the Lord sits at the right hand of God, meaning that He is in the place of supreme power, and then we are told that His disciples “went forth, and preached everywhere, the Lord working with them, and confirming the word with signs following”, Mark 16:20.
[p. 250] That was how matters stood at the outset, and so that we might see the continuance of the Lord’s attitude and service 2 Timothy speaks of the apostle Paul at Rome in the very mouth of the lion, as if nothing could save him. What exercises the apostle must have gone through as at the lion’s mouth, for what hand could stay, as far as man could see, the emperor, and what hand could stay the mouth of lions, not only one lion but lions in a den with a Daniel there unprotected? But the lions’ mouths were stopped. The lion at Rome did not have his mouth stopped, but the apostle was delivered from it, which is equal, and, in a way, a more remarkable exploit. “The Lord stood with me, and strengthened me; ... and I was delivered out of the mouth of the lion”, he says 2 Timothy 4:17. It was the same Lord that, as ascended, sat at the right hand of God and worked with the earlier servants. But now, in a day of brokenness — for 2 Timothy contemplates that — our own times indeed — it is the same Lord, and He stands by His servant when all forsake him. “At my first answer”, he says, “no man stood with me”. 2 Timothy 4:16. How well the Lord understood that, for when He was taken, “They all forsook him and fled”, Mark 14:50. He stood there solitary and went through the judgment alone. None but He could do that. But He knew well the heart of His servant at that moment as forsaken, and He stood by him and delivered him from the lion’s mouth, and then he adds, “that by me the preaching might be fully known”. 2 Timothy 4:17 It is as if the Lord, having taken him up, would see him through and see him through victoriously, triumphantly. How he would realise at that moment the power and the sympathy of Christ! How he could say, as he does here in 1 Corinthians 15, “Thanks be to God, which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore, my beloved brethren, be ye steadfast, unmoveable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, forasmuch as ye know that your labour is not in vain in the Lord”. 1 Corinthians 15:57.
[p. 251] In brief, that is how this subject stands in the New Testament, and, as I have stated, 2 Timothy brings it down to our own times, and that epistle contemplates no surrender at all, but a continuance in the work. “Do the work of an evangelist”, Paul says 2 Timothy 4:5. That is what I am speaking of particularly, and so I wish to show from Isaiah how this works out in a remnant, because, according to 2 Timothy, we are in remnant times. So, as you will observe, the word is, “Hearken to me, ye that follow after righteousness, ye that seek the Lord”. That is exactly the 2 Timothy position, for, as naming the name of the Lord we withdraw from iniquity. How could we meet the position otherwise? Iniquity is so powerful in this world and is now contemplated as in religious circles, the word of certain wicked men eating as a gangrene, so that the system has been leavened and there is no hope save by withdrawing. But in withdrawing, it is as naming the name of the Lord, so that the Lord is on our side in the position, even although one has to stand alone like the apostle Paul, but the Lord will stand by you, and there is no power that can cope with Him. As the apostle says elsewhere, “Do we provoke the Lord to jealousy? are we stronger than he?”, 1 Corinthians 10:22. With the Lord on our side, as one said, “I shall not be moved”. Psalm 10:6. Psalm 16:8, Psalm 62:6.
Then, in addition to that, you have a seal in 2 Timothy: “Having this seal”. That is, the withdrawing person — the person naming the name of the Lord who withdraws from iniquity — has a seal, that is to say, he has a moral right to serve. The seal is moral, but nevertheless a mandate that cannot be contested. It bears the divine stamp, for it has on one side, “The Lord knows those that are his; and, Let every one who names the name of the Lord withdraw from iniquity”. 2 Timothy 2:19.
The position, therefore, is, “those that are his” — “The Lord knows those that are his”. As at Corinth so today, He knows everyone in christendom that is His, and we want all those. The work of God has all those in view, no less than that. We do not know them, it may be, or only a few, but the Lord knows them all, and as we move under His direction we shall find them; He will not fail to direct us.
Then in the passage in 2 Timothy there is the idea of a great house, in which there are vessels to honour and to dishonour, and if one “purge himself from these”, 2 Timothy 2:21 that is, those to dishonour, “he shall be a vessel unto honour, sanctified, and meet for the master’s use”. That is to say, ‘the Lord’ involves protection, but ‘the Master’ is to be served. And what a Master! And then it goes on, “Flee also youthful lusts”, 2 Timothy 2:22 a very important word, because the burden of active service must be on the young men and the young women. “I have written unto you, young men, because ye are strong, and the word of God abideth in you”, 1 John 2:14. Hence, “Youthful lusts flee, and pursue righteousness, faith, love, peace with those that call upon the Lord out of a pure heart”. 2 Timothy 2:22. It is such persons who are addressed here in Isaiah 51. The prophet fits exactly; “Hearken to me, ye that follow after righteousness, ye that seek the Lord”, and then, “Look unto the rock whence ye are hewn, and to the hole of the pit whence ye are digged”. It suggests the remnant position, separated under the Lord’s direction and following righteousness. That leader never dies. It is an important thing to remember that God’s principle is to work by leadership, and He is never without leaders, and certainly righteousness never dies, and that is the leader: “Ye that follow righteousness”. Righteousness has been in the world since Abel, and never leaves it,
[p. 253] so that one has always a guide or leader in righteousness. Here it is not this school or that school as in Corinth, but the one great leader that God gives His people, holding at all times, for there is never a time in the history of this world when the idea of right does not exist, and I can follow that even if I have to die for it. So it is, “Hearken to me, ye that follow after righteousness, ye that seek the Lord: look unto the rock whence ye are hewn, and to the hole of the pit whence ye are digged. Look unto Abraham your father, and unto Sarah that bare you: for I called him alone, and blessed him, and increased him”.
Now I wish you to follow this intently, because it enters, as I might say, into the present position exactly, involving the work of the Lord, and how we may proceed in it in humility and smallness, for we could not be any smaller than Abraham when he was called. He was just one. If God could begin with one to bring in a multitude, as it says, “As the stars of the heaven, and as the sand which is upon the sea shore”, Genesis 22:17. He may do that now; I mean, He can work on that same principle. So that we need not be deterred or discouraged by smallness or fewness; it is a question of accepting the circumstances. As Paul said, “Luke alone is with me”. 2 Timothy 4:11. The company may be reduced, but the Lord stood by him; that is the principle, and if we are in a locality with one or two, is there nothing to be done? Abraham was only one, for the way it should read is, “I called him when he was alone”, not simply ‘alone’, but “when he was alone”. He was only one. What may not God do with one person?
I want to dwell for a moment on the idea of the rock and the pit, because we have got to go back to the beginning if we are to work rightly. If we are to do that in which the Lord would support us and protect us, it must be in relation to first principles. So that we are to consider Abraham, that is to say,
[p. 254] the rock. A rock has a great place in Scripture; it is what proceeds from God. The idea of a stone is permanency, but the idea of a rock is firmness; hence in Timothy, “The firm foundation of God stands”. 2 Timothy 2:19. There could be no change in that. But the foundation is not simply that; it is something out of which we are hewn. Therefore, the faith is linked up with Abraham as representing God in the manner in which He has come out sovereignly. No one solicited God to come out, as far as we know. It is said of Abraham, “Your fathers dwelt on the other side of the flood ... and they served other gods”, Joshua 24:2. Apparently he was an idolater with the rest until God came in. Who asked Him to come in? He came in Himself; He reserves that right, but He came in as the “God of glory” Acts 7:2, and took up one man and made him the root of His thoughts and the repository of His promises. Therefore Abraham represents what we call the objective, that is, what is of God come in in Christ, for that is the idea of the foundation, of the rock. What can there be immutable save what has come in in Christ? Abraham was a man like ourselves, but it is what he represented. He represents the great patriarchal idea and sovereign intervention and call and blessing. We have all originated thus, every one of us. If we are christians that is how we have come in; we are all of God: “Of him are ye in Christ Jesus” 1 Corinthians 1:30, that is, of God. We are of God through Christ; our spiritual being and status with God is in that way, and we are to consider that in the day of small things.
Then, the pit is the other side, the “pit whence ye were digged”. That is to say, the rock is what Christ is from God, and the other, the pit, is Christ on our side involving what is brought in out of death. Everything must be brought in in that way and set up before God out of death, so that the Lord Jesus was three days and three nights in the heart of the [p. 255] earth, and we are said to have been “curiously wrought in the lowest parts of the earth”, Psalm 139:15. It is the work of God, the coming up, whereas in Abraham the idea is God coming down to us to establish His thoughts and to establish a foundation here. But in Sarah we have the maternal, so that it is not only that I see every thought of God in Christ, but as the apostle says, “To the glory of God by us”. 2 Corinthians 1:20 It is what the Holy Spirit forms here out of death. In other words, in these last days we have the two great ideas before us in the way of balance, that is, what God is in Christ, and what man is in Christ. Many hold to the one and overlook the other, as if the working out of the assembly were not possible in our days, but it is possible, as I hope to show. We should therefore consider the maternal side, and one might say much from Galatians on that head, but I only touch on it to show that the work of the Lord implies perfect balance between what God is in Christ and what man is in Christ, that is to say, what the assembly is to Christ. Jerusalem above is said to be our mother. That has direct reference to Sarah for she is the mother of us all. Her seed came in not on the principle of nature; we do not come in on the principle of nature, either from the paternal or the maternal side. Sarah’s seed came in on the principle of faith, and from her we all spring, “as the stars of heaven, and as the sand which is upon the sea-shore”. Genesis 22:17. It is all spiritual, so that the work of the Lord is carried on in relation to the two great principles of the paternal and the maternal, and thus we are kept balanced. We are kept free from current religious thought. Some would attack Abraham, the rock. You will hardly ever find the Jews referring to Sarah for parentage; they will always refer to Abraham. When Samson went down to his wife he took his father and his mother, but then it is said later that his father went down to the [p. 256] woman (Judges 14:5,10). The mother is omitted and hence the disaster. Samson proposes a feast and there is affiliation with the Philistines and the consequent revealing of his secret. That is christendom; it is disregard of the mother side. I commend that to you. In the work of the Lord in which we are to abound, we are to “Look unto the rock whence ye are hewn, and to the hole of the pit whence ye are digged”, involving both Abraham and Sarah.
Now, to show how all this works out from smallness and from a remnant character I direct you to the later verses I have read in Isaiah 51. Verse 3 speaks most encouragingly of what God will do: “For the Lord shall comfort Zion; he will comfort all her waste places; and he will make her wilderness like Eden, and her desert like the garden of the Lord; joy and gladness shall be found therein, thanksgiving, and the voice of melody”. Is that not most exalting in the work of the Lord? As elsewhere it is said, “The glory of this latter house shall be greater than of the former”, Haggai 2:9. It is the prospect that is before us. We are not looking for things to ebb out or die out or wear out; we are looking on to the greatest possible things, and that is the suggestion here. Then it goes on, “Hearken unto me, my people; and give ear unto me, O my nation”. Although these are days of small things, God has His own way in such circumstances of conveying to us that we are actually His people. Not that we assume to be anything distinctive; that it not the point here; it is what God says. As the Lord says, to Philadelphia Revelation 3:8,9, “I have set before thee an opened door”, and “I have loved thee”. That means the assembly, but He is saying it to us, that is to say, to those who, as loving Him, do not deny His name and keep the word of His patience. He has His own way of conveying His thoughts of us. We do not need to assume to be the assembly; that would be a falsehood [p. 257] but the Lord gives us to understand that He is thinking of us. He has nothing less before Him than the whole assembly, and so here in Isaiah 51 He speaks about “My people”, and then, moreover, He says, “Give ear unto me, O my nation”. How touching that is! How the Jewish remnant of the coming day will be made to understand that in the midst of the great mass of faithless profession God will respect them and give them to know that they are His people and His nation, for indeed they are. As I might say, potentially only the real ones will come into the position, those that are poor in spirit, those that mourn, those that follow righteousness and so forth. Those are the ones, and so in pursuing the work of the Lord and abounding in it in our day the Lord will give us to understand that we are bearing traits of the assembly, not that we are to assume to be it, but if He gives us to understand the position, it would give great moral power in our souls that what we cherish is presently to appear as the heavenly city.
Then it goes on, “For a law shall proceed from me, and I will make my judgment to rest for a light of the people”. That is one of the most important things we can notice; “A law shall proceed from me”. God has His own way of asserting His rights, His commandments and His principles. What a testimony that is! “A law shall proceed from me”. We do not make these commandments; we do not formulate them; they proceed from God; they are eternal. But the Lord gives us to understand that He sets them up in connection with those who follow after righteousness, who abound in His work, who as loving Him do not deny His name and keep the word of His patience. And then it goes on, “My righteousness is near; my salvation is gone forth, and mine arms shall judge the people; the isles shall wait upon me, and on mine arm shall they trust”.
[p. 258] You see how we proceed into expansion, how God makes His testimony to expand and to go forth so that the isles wait. If we are thus abounding in the work of the Lord we may rely upon it that these traits will be manifested. It may be in a small way, but the principle holds good.
Then, “Hearken unto me, ye that know righteousness”. Now you see, we are not only seeking after righteousness, but we know it. As I was saying, righteousness is ever existent, but then, what a thing it is for God to have a people in this world who know it. Jesus leads the way; He loved it; He loved righteousness and hated lawlessness. He leads the way for us. As we seek after righteousness we soon get to know it. “If ye know that he is righteous, ye know that every one that doeth righteousness is born of him”, 1 John 2:29. Morally, it is the greatest thing to have a people in this world who know righteousness and who practise righteousness. So that now the appeal is to persons who know righteousness, and He says further, “The people in whose heart is my law”. How beautifully that corresponds with Christ, who loved righteousness and hated lawlessness. The law was in His heart: “In whose heart is my law”. I cannot go into detail, but each one of these verses would be enough for a discourse. Think of what is involved in having the law in your heart. It is anticipative of the millennium when God will write His law in the heart and minds of men, but it is greater in this the day of the indwelling Spirit, because the righteous requirements of the law are fulfilled in us “who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit”, Romans 8:4.
So it says, “Fear ye not the reproach of men, neither be ye afraid of their revilings”. The work of the Lord will bring us into reproach. We may as well accept that. To be held in high regard in the work means that we are diluting the truth. The work of [p. 259] the Lord will never be held in high regard by men; it will always be in reproach; it will always bring revilings as it did on the Lord, who, “when he was reviled, reviled not again”. 1 Peter 2:23. It says, “If I had not done among them the works which no other one has done, they had not had sin”. John 15:24 “But now they have no excuse for their sin”. John 15:22. So you see what the work of the Lord is. What a testimony it is! How it leaves men without excuse! It may incur their revilings, but then the prophet goes on to say, “For the moth shall eat them up like a garment, and the worm shall eat them like wool; but my righteousness shall be for ever, and my salvation from generation to generation”. So that there is every incentive for abounding in the work of the Lord. We cannot help feeling the revilings of men, but they are to be eaten by the moth, a very contemptuous reference to man in his most exalted station. Like Herod who slew James by the sword and who would have taken and done the same to Peter, but the Lord stepped in and he was eaten of worms. How ignominious! That is man in his most exalted station as opposed to the work of the Lord. What can puny man do? He is to be eaten by the moth like a garment, but ‘My salvation is near and it is for ever’. What we are engaged in goes on in triumph into eternity.