HOW OUR SOULS ARE AFFECTED BY CHRIST

J. McKay

Matthew 11: 25–30; Psalm 23: 1–6; Jeremiah 31: 10–14

The background to the passage in Matthew 11 is a very solemn one. The Lord begins to reproach the cities where most of His works of power had taken place. We have spoken together today of the things that God is doing and the need to perceive them, the need to be alert as to them, and the need to be positively affected by them. Here is the contrast to that; the Lord had been in these places, and had done all these works of power and there had been no response. He says, It will be more tolerable for Sodom and Gomorrah in judgment day than for you. What this really means is that divine activity brings with it a degree of responsibility which we cannot avoid. It is something that the Lord would remind us of in days when we realise the greatest privileges. We are in a dispensation, dear brethren, the like of which has never occurred before, it has never had an equal. God will secure from it an answer to His greatest thoughts, the assembly in all her glory and distinction will come down out of heaven from God having the glory of God. The universe will see the great aggregate of what God has secured for His pleasure; and we, in these days of opportunity, are in the time when God is active towards that. Let us be alert to it. Let us not be casual, but be ready to be affected positively by the things that God does.

Now it is very wonderful to see the answer in the Lord Jesus to this condition, “At that time.

Jesus answering said”. It is an answer to the public casualness, the public lack of responsiveness. He says, “I praise thee, Father, Lord of the heaven and of the earth, that thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent, and hast revealed them to babes”. There was something, dear brethren, in Jesus that the enemy could

not disturb. Is that not wonderful? Hebrews tells us to “consider well him who endured so great contradiction from sinners against himself”, Hebrews 12: 3. Think for a moment of all that mounted up against Him, and yet there was something that was undisturbed in His relations with His Father. He lifts His eyes to heaven and says, “I praise thee, Father, Lord of the heaven and of the earth”. What a great title that is, involving the unchallenged supremacy of that glorious Person. The Lord’s affections are towards the Father and He is going through, and in spite of the scene of turmoil and unresponsiveness around, there is something tranquil in the soul of Jesus as totally undisturbed by it. Now I believe, dear brethren, that God is working that such a condition may be reached in His people. This first, scripture refers to rest of soul, “ye shall find rest to your souls”.

I want to speak at this time, if the Lord helps a little, as to soul prosperity. John refers to it in his third epistle, saying as to Gaius, “I desire that in all things thou shouldest prosper and be in health, even as thy soul prospers” (2 John 2). What was evident apparently was that his soul was prospering, his outward circumstances are not described. We live in days of affluence publicly; in days when material things are easily secured, and God does not grudge us what we need. But what is very important, dear brethren, is that there shall be soul prosperity. A believer should have an identity spiritually, not being dependent on others, not simply going along with the current of things even among the brethren, but having an identity according to God. The psalmist says, “my heart is not haughty, nor mine eyes lofty; neither do I exercise myself in great matters, and in things too wonderful for me. Surely I have restrained and composed my soul, like a weaned child with its mother”, Psalm 131: 1, 2. We are thankful for those who have exerted maternal influence among the brethren. How much we owe to it, in the way of early nurture, encouragement and protection. You young people, learn to thank God for what is amongst the brethren for your

protection. Nevertheless there comes a time when you need to stand upon your own feet, like the psalmist saying, “my soul, like a weaned child with its mother”; standing in its own distinction, character having been imparted, yet not engaging in matters too great for us. So the soul is key to the personality formed. Mary refers to it in the passage we have been engaged with; she says, “My soul magnifies the Lord”, Luke 1: 46.

I am concerned as to myself, and I am concerned for my brethren in these days that we should be delivered from what is superficial. The world is suffering from it, religiously, politically, commercially; there is a veneer on the whole system that is around us, and if you penetrate that veneer things are not the same underneath. Christianity is to be the complete contrast to that, persons are to become like Jesus was, a Man who said, I am “Altogether that which I also say to you”, John 8: 25. How is it with us, dear brethren? You know, it is possible to be a believer, to have your faith in Christ and to have your eternal future secure, and yet go through the whole of your life in testimony without finding rest to your soul.

Should we not be exercised? Isaiah says in contrast to this, “the wicked are like the troubled sea, which cannot rest, and whose waters cast up mire and dirt”, Isaiah 57: 20. How much that characterises the public scene is the casting up of what is unclean, of what corrupts, of what comes from Satan, “the wicked are like the troubled sea”. How distinctive the saints are to be in the midst of such a scene as that because they know what it is to find rest to their souls. How much blessing we have come into, how much there is in the way of wealth, even in this passage that we have read.

The Lord goes on to say, “All things have been delivered to me by my Father”. Think of the greatness of the Person who was speaking. How great Christ is! He says, “no one knows the Son but the Father”. Do you know that the Person whom you have learned to

trust has a greatness that will always be beyond you? I think our links with Christ are vital if we are to have spiritual identity in the testimony of God. No one knows who the Son is but the Father, so eternally there will be what is inscrutable about the Person of the Lord Jesus.

He has called the universe into being. He sustains all things by the word of His power. He is the focus of attention of all those who are true in the area of testimony, and at this point He says, “Come to me”.

What an appeal! I would like to pass that appeal on today. The Lord says, “Come to me”. He is not asking you to come to an area of Christendom. He is not asking you to come to a particular persuasion, a particular company of persons; He is asking you to come to Himself.

I would ask you, dear fellow believer. How long is it since you came to Jesus? You came a long time ago, you put your trust in Him for eternity. Have you kept coming? The answer to an unsettled condition of soul is to come to Christ. He says, “I will give you rest”. Our brother spoke in the reading about impartation. Nobody can impart things like He can. As coming into His presence you find that the divine answer to everything is there. It really means that if you are in an unsettled condition of soul it is because you have not tapped divine resources. It means that in some sense you are depending on your own strength, depending on your own convictions perhaps, even as to the truth. Mr Darby exhorts in his ministry. Depend upon what Christ is and not on your thoughts about it. You learn to depend upon what Christ is, it is He that says, “Come to me ... and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me; for I am meek and lowly in heart; and ye shall find rest to your souls”.

Now this is additional to what is given. Firstly He says, I will give it to you, and there is nothing can surpass what we receive from Christ. Go through the Scripture and look for the things that He gives and the things that the saints receive. It is a very interesting study. But this is beyond what He gives, He says, “ye

shall find rest to your souls”. It involves exercise on our part and involves the reaching experimentally of a condition that is undisturbed in our relation to Him. I wonder if we have found it. You may say, Yes, he gave it to me; but have you found it practically? Has it become characteristic of the walk that you are pursuing? He says, “I am meek and lowly in heart; and ye shall find rest to your souls; for my yoke is easy, and my burden is light”. What was the yoke of Christ in this context? Another has suggested that His yoke was to bear the burden of others. That was the yoke that Jesus took. Thus Paul says in Galatians, “Bear one another’s burdens, and thus fulfil the law of the Christ”, Galatians 6: 2. The Lord Jesus was so low in the scale of human affairs that He was willing to be a burden-bearer for others.

Would you be willing to take such a place? There are tremendous pressures among the saints.

You look around and you wonder at the capacity of the saints to endure. Revelation speaks of it, “the endurance and the faith of the saints”, Revelation 13: 10. We are in the presence of these things. Are you able to take somebody’s burden? Can you bear it and thus fulfil the law of the Christ? “My yoke is easy, and my burden is light”. I would appeal, dear brethren, that we should get into the presence of Jesus and that our walk should become characterised by our link with Him, and we shall find rest to our souls. There is a very interesting passage in Jeremiah 6 which we were reminded of not too long ago. I will read it to you. “Thus saith Jehovah—Stand in the ways and see, and ask for the ancient paths, which is the good way, and walk therein, and ye shall find rest for your souls” (Jeremiah 6: 16). Notice the way that walking is connected with what we are saying. It is your actual path in the wilderness. As subjects of the divine call, ‘Here for a season, then above’. What shall our walk be?

In Psalm 23 we have the Shepherd, and the word I want just to draw attention to is in verse 3,

“He restoreth my soul”. What if you got away from what you first

knew? What if that nearness that brought you into such rest, to cause you to find a tranquillity which nothing could break in upon, has been lost in your experience? The great answer is that

“Jehovah is my shepherd”. Here it is not what the Shepherd does, it is what He is; and here it is not that He is claiming you, it is that you are claiming Him. I speak to the young ones here, we are glad to see you, and the Lord would appeal to you today as to whether you are prepared and willing to claim Him on this line. Not simply to respond as a needy sinner to His love but to claim Jehovah as your Shepherd. The care of a shepherd is something that you will always need. As reading in the gospels we find more than one occasion when the Lord Jesus describes persons as “sheep not having a shepherd”, Mark 6: 34. There is something very vulnerable about that, and the implication is that sheep always need this kind of care.

The lambs, according to John’s gospel, need feeding, but the sheep need shepherding and it will always be so. Can I appeal to you, lest any spirit of self-sufficiency should creep in amongst us. You need the touch of the Lord’s shepherd care, “Jehovah is my shepherd: I shall not want”. His sufficiency is our great resource. He is unfailing in His care, attention and affection.

He says in the gospel, speaking to the Father, “I have not lost one of them”, John 18: 9. How precious the sheep are then to the heart of the Shepherd. But the emphasis here is in the experience of one person who claims Jehovah as his Shepherd, “He restoreth my soul”. Did you ever try to restore your own soul? I think we have all been guilty of that. Such efforts, however well intentioned, will not be effective. He restoreth my soul. We belong to Him, and the only answer to departure is to be brought back to a direct relation with Himself. There are many sheep, and I speak spiritually, there are many sheep in this world at the present time who are unattached. At the end of Psalm 119 the writer says, “I have gone astray like a lost sheep”. He said many precious things, he stated much in the way of wonderful

truth, and yet as to his soul experience he went astray. I appeal to you today, the One to restore your soul is the One to whom you first came. So he says, “seek thy servant”. The Lord will not fail to answer such an appeal, and the confirming of your link with Christ will make it easy to have your link with the brethren re-established too.

That is why I read Jeremiah 31, because here we have a very interesting collective reference to the soul. It says, “their soul shall be as a watered garden”. Is that not an attractive allusion?

This is not what you are personally, it is not what I am personally, it is what the saints are as together. So it says here, “He that scattered Israel will gather him, and keep him, as a shepherd his flock”. Not simply the individuals, but together the saints are preserved under the gracious service of the Lord Jesus. He says, “I am the good shepherd; and I know those that are mine”, John 10: 14. He says, I know them. It is not simply that they know Him and know His voice, precious truth, but He says, I know them, and He is able, dear brethren, to bring us together in a unity which is of God. Men strive after unity, do they not? And the kind of unity that men strive for is unity by agreement. How different it is to realise that in the divine system, we have agreement in the light of a unity that is already established. If you seek to work the other way, you make everything depend upon man and you will never reach a unity that is supportable. The unity of the Spirit exists and as seeking to keep it, it is confirmed in our experience. The service of Christ would bring the saints together under His own matchless touch, so that we have this reference to the Shepherd and His flock. For Jehovah hath ransomed Jacob, and redeemed him from the hand of one stronger than he”.

Then it says, “And they shall come and sing aloud upon the height of Zion”. What will it be on the morrow? If the Lord does not come, we shall gather

and our engagement will be a very wonderful one in regard of the service of God, “they shall sing aloud upon the height of Zion”. Zion is the place that Christ has acquired in the affections of His people on the principle of sovereign mercy. The mercy that has met you is the mercy that has met me, and He brings us together, and we learn to celebrate the sovereignty of the grace that has brought each of us into blessing. I think “the height of Zion”

is a wonderful allusion. Perhaps in the service of God we should think more of the mercy that has brought us to the blessing that we know in answer to God’s purpose in His love, “they shall come and sing aloud upon the height of Zion, and shall flow together to the goodness of Jehovah, for corn, and for new wine, and for oil, and for the young of the flock and of the herd”. What can we say? It is an attractive passage that requires little comment, but flowing together is very positive, is it not? As if unresistingly we are brought under the influence of what is of God, and we flow together in the experience of it. The goodness of Jehovah has met our condition, but more than that, has poured in an abundance that will ensure that there is always an answer for God Himself. Our response is not to be a superficial thing, not a crystallised thing, but a living spontaneous response, the result of a unity among the saints which is entirely according to God, “their soul shall be as a watered garden”. Paul speaks in Philippians about being “joined in soul”, Philippians 2: 2. That is the feelings of the saints are brought together. We spoke of it a little in the reading as to Mary and Elizabeth, brought together, joined as to the deepest and most intimate things. We thus have not simply an external link, but a constitutional, organic link with one another. So it says, “their soul shall be as a watered garden”, territory that the Lord has cared for. The Song of Songs refers to it, the spouse says, “Let my beloved come into his garden”, Song of Songs 4: 16.

As the Lord comes amongst us, what sort of condition does He find? I conclude with this question

because I feel it very challenging, but the greatness of divine resource means that He should find what is described in this wonderful passage, “a watered garden”, a refreshed area; not an area that is arid and lacks fertility. It is not an area that is unresponsive, but an area that is full of life as the Lord comes into it. He says, “I am come into my garden, my sister, my spouse”, Song of Songs 5: 1. May it be as He comes amongst us, dear brethren, that He finds the answer to the skill in service that He Himself has expended. The expenditure of grace is very wonderful, and the answer to it is to be realised as the saints come together in an atmosphere where Christ being supreme, all that is in the saints of Himself becomes responsive. May we be encouraged in some sense by these few words, for His name’s sake.

Address at Peterhead
7 August 1999