FEASTING AND FASTING
[p. 21] FEASTING AND FASTING
I have tried in previous lectures to give some idea of the testimony. It is a great point not to be ashamed of the testimony of our Lord, but, then, we need to understand what that testimony is. I have no doubt the word “testimony” is an indefinite expression in the ears of a great many. The fact is we need to be intelligent in divine things. Christianity is not dogmatism, though dogmatism has come into Christianity a great deal. One great principle of Christianity is intelligence, what the apostle expresses as “the full assurance of understanding”. We get a similar thought in John’s first epistle, “He has given us an understanding that we may know him that is true”. Therefore it is not the divine thought that we should be unintelligent. Then, again, I do not think that we want other people to understand for us. We want to understand for ourselves. In times gone by people used to be largely content for others to understand for them. No one can understand the things of God by mere natural power nor otherwise than by the Spirit of God; but then the youngest believer, as well as the most advanced, has the Spirit of God, and therefore there is the possibility of the youngest believer understanding. Now I think you get the idea of the testimony in what the apostle Paul calls “the mystery of the gospel”. Two or three times he employs that expression. His desire was that he might make manifest the mystery of the gospel; not in a public way, but to the intelligence of believers. The gospel had been committed to him, he himself had been made intelligent in the mystery [p. 22] of the gospel, now the point was that he might make it known, for to that end he was an ambassador in bonds.
I think we all have an idea of the glad tidings in their suitability to man’s condition, but what I have been referring to goes further, being spoken of as the “mystery of the gospel”. I think the mystery of the gospel is “the Christ”. If you turn to Romans 16: 25 - 27, evidently it lies in “the preaching of Jesus Christ according to the revelation of the mystery”. The mystery has now come out in the way of testimony, and is apprehended in the simple expression “the Christ”. “The Christ” really covers a great deal of ground; it covers the length and depth and breadth and height of what we may call the promised land.
Now in speaking about the testimony I have laid stress on one point, namely, that the testimony is of that which will be displayed in its own time. God has appointed a time for display just as He has appointed the present time for testimony. God displays nothing till He has set it forth in the way of testimony. The time of testimony is very important, and where the testimony is accepted it brings us into the light of God and God’s purpose. One is no longer unintelligent or dogmatic, but living in the light of God and in the knowledge of His purpose in Christ; because it is that which is made known in the testimony, and we are prepared for what He is going to display.
I took up another point, and that was, our qualification to be in the testimony, and the first principle is abiding in Christ. In that way we are no longer lawless, for we have come into attachment to Christ by the Spirit of God. We come under divinely ordered rule, and move in the orbit which God has appointed for us. “He that abideth in him does not sin”. He is no longer lawless but righteous, and [p. 23] so practises righteousness. That is, he does the will of God down here. You could not be in the testimony if you were lawless.
It is a great thing to have escaped lawlessness, and to be here subject to Christ, no longer carried about by your own will and fancy. I do not think man’s will is a safe guide, it is impossible to know where it will lead him. The only safe way is to abide in Christ. The disciples were continually abiding in Christ. They were fruitful in good works while they were with Christ. So too after Christ was risen and ascended we see the same thing in them. The Spirit of God had attached them to Christ. They were no longer lawless, but moving in the divinely appointed orbit; and as the Lord Jesus said, “That ye should go and bring forth fruit, and that your fruit should remain”, their fruit has remained to the present day, because they continued in Christ and His words continued with them.
I come now to another point. I have spoken of our qualification for the testimony, I want to speak of two things which go with the testimony and mark those who are in it, that is, those who are in God’s will, in the secret of His purpose. It is a great thing to be in accord morally with that which God is going to display. If you are not in such accord, you may depend upon it you are all wrong. The two marks which will, I think, characterise those who are in the testimony of Christ come out in this chapter. They are two very simple things — the one is feasting and the other fasting. Feasting takes place inside, and fasting takes place outside. We have to do with both the inside and the outside, in a sense, by the life of Christ, and in the Spirit we are inside, that is, in the house, and we have feasting in the house; but then as a matter of fact we have still to do with the outside, for we have the outward [p. 24] man, and the duties and obligations which are connected with the present life, and have to go through the world, and I look upon that as being the outside. When you come to the outside what is proper to us is fasting.
I just call your attention to verses 15 - 24. The supper gives you the idea of a feast. You get the same thing in the next chapter, verse 22. I want to point out that the feast is inside a certain domain, and the domain is God’s domain. It is not a domain of this world, it is God’s domain and His supper. So, too, in the next chapter, the feasting takes place in the domain of the Father. Now I would make plain to you where the Christian can live and feast. There is a moral domain, true to faith, which is apprehended in Christ. I believe the thought of the mystery of the Christ brings before us a domain. It is a moral idea which has to be apprehended by the soul, but it is to be apprehended; the Spirit gives us the apprehension of a moral domain in Christ. I do not think it will always be simply a moral domain; we anticipate the time when everything will be put under Christ, and what is now a moral domain will become an actual domain. Christ will fill all things. “All things” is not only a moral domain, but an actual domain; but now it is a moral domain which is apprehended in Christ. It is the “within” which is brought before us in this chapter under the figure of a house. Unquestionably that is a moral idea, but then there is “my supper”. I will tell you what I understand by “my supper”. It is the celebration of grace. Grace has come to pass in Christ. I understand the kingdom of God to signify the reign of grace. The reign of grace has come to pass, and what goes on in the house is the celebration of grace. There was a very different kind of reign until grace came in — “sin reigned by death”. Everybody was [p. 25] under the dominion of sin and death. Nobody celebrated that. But now another reign has come in, the reign of grace. Grace reigns through righteousness unto eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. The moment we come into the light of Christ we come under the rule of grace. Then we have “a throne of grace where we can obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need”. We have to resort to it continually, it is essential to us down here; and we are told to come boldly to it, I mean in the difficulties to which we are exposed. But further, the point is that grace reigns through righteousness unto eternal life, that is, the effect of grace is to bring to pass every condition in which man can live with God; grace reigns to that end. We get the gain of this now, but it will be brought to pass publicly. The conditions necessary to human life are found to a large extent in the rule of the sun; and the conditions which are essential to spiritual life are brought about by the reign of grace, grace reigns through righteousness unto it, through Jesus Christ our Lord. God has been pleased to interfere thus in divine mercy.
It is wonderful to think that the reign of grace is established. It is not appreciated by the natural mind of man. It is true to faith, and it is a very great thing to apprehend it; if you do apprehend it you are at the supper, you have part in the celebration. It will be a wonderful day when all the results of grace come out. Grace reigns now morally, but it will reign publicly and manifestly, as the sun reigns. In the meantime we are in the house and have part in the celebration. I think everybody ought to delight in the thought that grace is on the throne.
Now that is what I call the feasting. You get something of it in the next chapter. The father said, “Bring hither the fatted calf, and kill it; and let us eat, and be merry”. What wonderful terms are brought in, that we should be “merry”! I wish that would get hold of us, so that instead of being taken up with the things of this world we should see the wonderful things which have come to pass through our Lord Jesus Christ. We are entitled to feast in that sense, but if you feast it must be in the domain of Christ, it is not feasting in the world. My point is that every believer is in that domain. I do not mean physically, but in faith and by the Spirit of God.
Now I come to the other side. If you refer to verses 28 - 30 you come to the outside; here we get another scene. A great many things are found in it. There are people that mock, and a king with twenty thousand men. This is not inside the house. There was no mocking inside the house, and there was no going to war. Outside you find people ready to rejoice in the breakdown of a Christian, and there is the king with twenty thousand men. It is a great thing to understand the gain of the inside, what takes place there and the rejoicing that is proper to the inside; then you are qualified to come to the outside. I see around that people like building towers. Now I very much doubt if it be at all wise for a Christian to build a tower. What I understand by building a tower is to make a name. I doubt the prudence of this, the probability is that one may not have sufficient to finish. He may have enough to lay a foundation. On the other hand it certainly is not wise with ten thousand men to go to meet a king that comes with twenty thousand. The chances are that one will meet with defeat, and it leads to making terms. My impression from the passage is that it is undesirable for a Christian to go forth in human power to meet the enemy. People get into controversy and argument with infidels and sometimes bring upon themselves defeat [p. 27] and shame. You may depend upon it the enemy is far more acute than you are. I do not think infidelity is met by controversy and argument and that kind of thing. The point of the passage is that if a man is to be a disciple of Christ he has to forsake all that he has. The Lord could meet the king that came against Him for the simple reason that He was what He said He was. Therefore when the enemy came against Him with twenty thousand he was defeated. Christ is what He says He is. We could not say that of ourselves.
Now what have you to do? What is the path of wisdom? You have to forsake all that you have. When we come to the outside and our pathway through the world, the safe place for the Christian is the place of self-abnegation. I am sure that, while on the one hand we have celebration and rejoicing, there is the appropriateness of fasting. Fasting, I take it, is self-abnegation. The Lord would not have the disciples fast when He was with them because fasting was not appropriate to that moment. No more will it be appropriate when Christ comes again. A man will not have to forsake all that he has in that day. The Bridegroom is not in the world, and therefore for the moment fasting is appropriate. The first thing in fasting is the refusal of the flesh. “If ye through the Spirit do mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall live”. We have to accept the rule of the Spirit, and the Spirit sets itself against the flesh. You do not the things to which you are prone for the reason that the Spirit is opposed to the flesh, and will not tolerate it. But there is another point and that is self-abnegation. You have to let your yieldingness be known unto all. If you stand upon your rights you do not give up all that you have; and after all man’s rights are very shadowy, he brought no rights into the world, and every right that man [p. 28] claims is acquired, Scripture makes the path of the Christian plain. “Let your yieldingness be known unto all. The Lord is at hand”. I am content to have my rights with the Lord. If I have part in the rights of the Lord, I think that I may be well content, and in the meantime the path of wisdom undoubtedly is to let your yieldingness be known unto all. The apostles all walked on that principle. Peter and John did not assert their rights; Paul rarely asserted his rights, and when he did he was wrong; in the latter part of his course you never see him standing on his rights, and it is he who gives this admonition.
There is another point: in fasting we have to deny ourselves not only in regard to things that might be considered wrong, but in respect of things that are lawful but which are not appropriate. I have no doubt that there are things which in themselves are legitimate but which are not proper for the moment. The poor live from hand to mouth. My sympathies are with such. They can do very little beyond providing for what is necessary; but there are a great many people differently situated in the world. Of course you cannot expect to find very many of the rich among Christians; but supposing riches are within your reach, the question is whether what they can compass is appropriate. You have to take into account that the Bridegroom is not here, and while the Bridegroom is absent fasting is proper. You have to look to it whether this thing and that thing is suitable in His absence. In the midst of a lawless world my impression is that we want to be as simple as we can, avoiding every self-indulgence. If I had much means, people might ask me why I did not maintain a large establishment. I should say, because I think a large establishment and display, and that kind of thing, inappropriate in the absence of the Bridegroom.
[p. 29] There will be a large house, and plenty of glory and honour, when He comes. I think we want to wait until that day. In the meantime it appears to me that largeness in this world, and everything connected with it, is inappropriate. When we come to the inside, in the domain of Christ, feasting is the order, and you cannot have too much of it. “They began to be merry”, and there is no end to the merriment. Let your feasting be on what I might call moral dainties, not natural dainties, or dainties of this world. Then when you come to the outside, as I said before, you are in the world. You may have to meet mockery and opposition, and the king that comes with twenty thousand. Do not attempt to build a tower. Do not try to be conspicuous, and do not make war in your own strength. The true path is to forsake all that you have, to refuse the flesh and its working, to renounce all idea of maintaining your own rights, and to be prepared to exercise self-denial in a world from which the Bridegroom is absent. In that path you will be simple and not hampered. You will be able to take up the discipleship of Christ. You do not want to be better than your Master. We have to tread the path that Christ trod, and we do not wish to be better than our Master; we suffer now, but the reigning time will come; when Christ reigns you will reign with Him. You do not want to anticipate this. Just be prepared to accept the outside and what is suitable. Depend upon it nothing is suitable to the outside but discipleship of Christ. Thus you will be suitable to the testimony. It is a great thing to be prepared for the path of self-denial, to tread in the footsteps of the Lord Jesus here upon earth. It will greatly aid us in fasting outside to be in the feasting inside. As we do so, the path of self-denial will be what we shall desire.