MODELS

^[p. 97] MODELS

Matthew 11: 29, 30; Philippians 3: 15 - 21

I have in mind, dear brethren, to present from these Scriptures and from others to which I may feel obliged to refer, the place a model or pattern occupies in the things of God. You will recall how, when the tabernacle was to be constructed, God said to Moses that he was to be careful in regard to the pattern of it, that in the building of God’s dwelling there was to be no deviation from the pattern. It was a question of God’s habitation, and God was concerned that it should be in every way as the word says, “according to the fashion thereof which was showed thee in the mount”, Exodus 26:30. Now, we have obviously in that, a word which should be ever before us in regard of our position here in relation to the house of God. I do not know if it can be said that the physical system was made exactly by pattern although everything was the result of the word of God. We have a word in Hebrews 11 which is suggestive in that respect: “The worlds were framed by the word of God”. We know from other scriptures that the creation was the result and outcome of God’s commandment. “He commanded and it stood fast” (Psalm 33: 9), but there was at the same time a speaking, and God speaking necessarily suggests some expression of His mind. The worlds were framed by the word of God, in fact it says they were made by the Son, “By whom also he made the worlds”, Hebrews 1: 2. In the formation of the physical universe, wisdom was there, indicative of the fact that whatever was done, was done according to wisdom, but there is no reference that I know of to a pattern, in fact you could scarcely think of a pattern when the direct workers were divine Persons, but when we come to human agency in divine work, a ^[p. 98] pattern becomes necessary. The passage in Exodus emphasises the importance of that.

I read that word in Matthew from the Lord’s own lips, “Take my yoke upon you and learn from me”, having in mind that the Lord is about to introduce the great subject of the assembly and it was important that His disciples, and indeed all who believe on Him through them should have a pattern before them. It may be observed that in approaching this great subject of the assembly, the Lord was very deliberate and measured in His instructions. Some subjects in the gospels are presented, notwithstanding their importance, very briefly; but this great subject of the assembly is unfolded to us, as I said, in measured and deliberate discourses, and accompanied by examples, so that those who had become followers of Christ through faith, should know how to act, when they had to do with the assembly. Hence the Lord presents the idea in Himself of a model. “Learn from me”, He says. We are also to listen, but that is more Luke. I think Mary of Bethany suggests to us the ideal of the Spirit in Luke. She was a listener, and there is no habit more important to cultivate in divine things than to listen. “Keep thy foot when thou goest to the house of God”, the word says, “and be more ready to hear than to give the sacrifice of fools”, Ecclesiastes 5: 1. The house of God is the place for hearing, and I take it that Mary of Bethany is a model hearer. She could listen notwithstanding very great interference and complaint. You may be able to adduce very good reasons for not paying attention to what the Lord is saying at the present time, reasons which are more or less satisfactory to yourself, but no reason can be satisfactory to the Lord for your withholding your ear if He is speaking. So Mary is set before us in Luke as a model in that regard, a model listener, and she could listen in spite of interference, in spite of severe criticism. It is said, “Mary sat at Jesus’ feet and heard his word”, Luke 10: 39. What that word was we are not told, but whatever He was saying, she was taking it in. Let us be prepared for that. Luke gives us this side and before he brings it forward he tells us of the manner of the Lord’s speaking. He presents Him to us in Luke 4, that passage of unique beauty and force where the Lord is speaking in the synagogue. I judge it was a comparatively small room that He spoke in, but it says he went in “as his custom was”. The Lord had customs, and it is well to take note of them. He “stood up to read and there was delivered unto him the book of the prophet Esaias”. He read it, one might be bold to say, as it never had been read before. It was read by the Lord Jesus. One would love to listen to Him reading the Scriptures. Then He closed the book, sat down, and the eyes of all in the synagogue were fastened on Him. And then we are told He began to speak and what He said was, “This day is this Scripture fulfilled in your ears”. It was fulfilled in their ears; it does not say in their hearts. There is much fulfilled in our ears which is not fulfilled in our hearts. What follows in Luke 4 shows unmistakably that what the Lord said was not fulfilled in their hearts, but the witness of its being fulfilled in their ears was that they marvelled at the gracious words which proceeded out of His mouth.

You can understand why Mary had chosen the good part. It was to her undoubtedly delightful to sit down at Jesus’ feet and we ought to note all that the Spirit says about her, she “having sat down at the feet of Jesus was listening to his word”, Luke 10: 39. In that speaking, we have the idea of the tabernacle developed. The Lord opens up and unfolds and sets in order divine thoughts, and all that He said He was; so Mary was in greater favour than even Moses on the mount with the Lord. I would ask you to dwell on it. She was listening to the ^[p. 100] actual words of the Son of God, as He unfolded the thoughts of God, and that is the idea really of the tabernacle. She was in a position to receive into her soul divine thoughts, and one can understand how the Lord would pour them into her ear, not indeed that it is stated that He was speaking to her. He was speaking and she was a model listener, so you can understand how one thought after another would find a lodgment in her heart. Then in the next chapter, the Lord is seen praying, and one of His disciples says to Him, “Lord, teach us to pray”. Mary had heard Him speak, had heard Him present the thoughts of God which were to be received into human minds and hearts, but now in chapter 11 He is seen as the High Priest. In the first case He is the Apostle, in the second, the High Priest speaking to God; and one of the disciples when He ceased said, “Lord, teach us to pray, as John also taught his disciples”.

Well, that is Luke, but Matthew, as I remarked, is presenting the assembly and he contemplates the followers of Christ as becoming members of it, as having part in it, so he sets the Lord before us as saying, “Take my yoke upon you and learn from me”. What were the circumstances at the time the Lord said this, dear brethren? Circumstances such as would fill the ordinary heart with dismay and discouragement, whereas the Lord is seen in triumph. “At that time”, as we read in the earlier verses He turns to the Father and says, “I thank thee — because thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent and hast revealed them unto babes”. He is in the spirit of thanksgiving; He is in the presence of the Father, as sovereign ruler of heaven and earth, and He is presented there as the model of every one that should believe on Him from that time onwards. Now you will understand in speaking thus, I would desire to bring the thought of a model down to ourselves, and one has ample warrant for it in the epistles, not ^[p. 101] only in the one I have read but in others. Peter, for instance, says to the elders, “the elders which are among you”, for they are the ones who are to be taken account of, “I exhort whom am also an elder and a witness of the sufferings of Christ, and also a partaker of the glory that shall be revealed. Feed — or shepherd — the flock of God which is among you”, 1 Peter 5: 1, 2. That is what you are to be engaged in, then He says, “Being ensamples (or models) to the flock”.

John in like manner addresses himself to the fathers who would naturally correspond with the elders, for a young man can hardly be an elder. John says, “I write unto you, fathers, because ye have known him that is from the beginning”; and then again he says, “I have written unto you”. I understand that the letter being referred to a second time carries the thought of continued or permanent obligation, it is a letter that has been written and remains. What is contained in the word to the fathers? Because ye have known Him that is from the beginning; that is all. Well, who is He that is from the beginning? It is the Model, the divine Model for the fathers, for the elders. In this passage it is not “that which is from the beginning”. We get that in the first chapter, for the Spirit of God is speaking there of eternal life, hence He begins with “that which is from the beginning”; but in the second chapter He is speaking of the Person and the fathers knew the Person. In this way they could be fathers, and where there are fathers you look for children, and in the children you look for some representation or continuance of the fathers.

So Timothy was Paul’s child in the faith. His mother handed on the faith, but his mother was not the model, she is not so presented. She formed the character, doubtless, and mothers under God contribute enormously to the house of God. One need only ^[p. 102] cite Timothy as an evidence of the contribution which the faith of a grandmother and a mother yields to the house of God. He was not only the child of a mother and a grandmother who had faith, but spiritually the child of a father who knew Christ as the One who is from the beginning. Paul was spiritually his father, and we can have but one father in that sense. Paul says to the Corinthians, “For though ye have ten thousand instructors in Christ yet have ye not many fathers; for in Christ Jesus I have begotten you through the gospel”, 1 Corinthians 4: 15. The Corinthians were his, the product of his ministry, but they were not taking very well to his pattern, and that is the defect, dear friends. The pattern was entirely according to God, for the apostle says, “Be ye followers of me even as I also am of Christ”, 1 Corinthians 11: 1. God had so formed that wonderful man that he could speak thus by the Spirit as inspired, he could speak of himself as one to be followed. But then the Corinthians were not following. The model was there, one who followed hard after Christ, one who was known to them and had laboured in their midst, but they were not followers. Hence the apostle says, “For this reason I have sent to you Timotheus, who is my beloved and faithful child in the Lord, who shall put you in mind of my ways as they are in Christ”, 1 Corinthians 4: 17. In other words he accompanies his letter to them by his child Timotheus, and why? Just because he was his child. I do not know, and one has to be very humble about it, whether one has any such, whether one can father a child spiritually. In speaking of mothers, and the place they may occupy as contributing to the house of God, I would commend to you, and to myself also the vast importance of fathers in Christ; that is, those who know Him that is from the beginning. I can see in the fathers the traces of the Man of the gospels. The more one advances in the truth, the ^[p. 103] more one finds interest in the gospels. They present not progression, but perfection from the outset in a Man an the fathers are marked by the knowledge of Him that is from the beginning. Hence, while the mother contributes to the formation of the character, the father gives spiritual status and tone, so that there is a representation under God’s eyes of what Christ was as presented to us in the gospels, and in that way Peter can desire that the “elders which are among you” should be ensamples or models to the flock.

And now, what about young men? John has a letter for them, and one is always reminded of Timothy when it becomes a question of a young man, and so the apostle knowing full well how Timothy would be looked to as his child, and realising how important it was that he should be in every way in keeping with himself, urges on him to take heed to himself and to the doctrine. Let me just read to you what he says about this point in the first letter. “Let no man despise thy youth”. That was an obligation resting on Timothy; “but be thou an example of the believers in word, in conversation, in charity, in spirit, in faith, in purity”; 1 Timothy 4: 12. What an obligation! what a word for young men! The elders are to be ensamples or models, but the younger are to see to it by their deportment that no one despise their youth, and that there should be a model presented in these features, in word, in conversation, in charity, in spirit, in faith, in purity. How does that come home to one? I have to be a model to my brethren as Paul says to Timothy, “Thou hast fully known my doctrine, manner of life, purpose, faith, long-suffering”, 2 Timothy 3: 10, 11.

Now, having called attention to the elder and to the younger, I want to come to Philippians where they are not distinguished, but set down together, for, when it becomes a question of the race to heaven,

^[p. 104] it is a matter for each one, whether old or whether young, as to how he is pressing forward. So Peter, to whom we have already referred, says, “And all of you bind on humility towards one another” — all of you. A sure way in a difficult day is to bind on humility. You bind it on so that it does not fall off easily; if it is bound on it is there permanently. And so the apostle says to the Philippians, “Let us therefore as many as be perfect be thus minded”. As many as be perfect! how the Holy Spirit would address Himself to us; yea the Lord; as to how far we have come on together spiritually, how far we are agreed in mind and heart. “Let us therefore, as many as be perfect be thus minded; and if in anything ye be otherwise minded, God shall reveal even this unto you”. We can, for the moment, leave the things in the hand of God that may not be mutually clear to us, that gives God His place. They are in good keeping; you may leave them there and the Word says “God shall reveal even this unto you”, but let us see to it that we are not divided in heart. We have to see to that, and leave the rest with God. Well, then, are we to agree to differ? No, that would not be in accord with a heavenly minded man. No one who apprehends the calling of saints wishes to differ from his brethren, nor is he content that there should be a difference. There must be no agreement to differ, that is not heavenly-mindedness; that which is the occasion of difference is in the hands of God, and He will not let it rest, He loves His people too much for that, so the apostle says, He will reveal it. But are we prepared for the revelation that God will make, for He will do it, dear brethren.

And then the apostle goes on, “Nevertheless whereto we have already attained, let us walk by the same rule”; or as the New Translation renders it, “let us walk in the same steps”. There are the steps of Christ, and there is much in that way for us in common. Then he continues, “Brethren, be followers together of me”. Mark that, not now separately, but together. How far can I follow Paul with all my brethren? That is the question I have to put to my soul. You will understand the apostle speaks of himself as one whom they had known, and in whom what Christ is was brought livingly near to them. I must not follow alone, how far can I follow with my brethren? I am not ignoring that one has to take heed to oneself, but the nearer one is to the Lord, the nearer one is to one’s brethren, and I can assure you it is much easier to follow with them than alone. The word tells us that two are better than one, and a three-fold cord is not quickly broken. So if one fall the brethren will lift him up, the brethren will help him and they do help us. The nearer you get to the Lord, the more you love that word together. So in the epistle to the Ephesians, you get “raised us up together and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus” and no one would have it otherwise. And so in regard to our walk on our way to heaven, for this passage in Philippians refers to the way to heaven, the apostle is urging on the saints to move together. One has often referred to the first movements of the Israelites when they were called out of the world, how they went out of Egypt five in a rank; they had to learn to keep rank, so in the wilderness each tribe and each family had his own place in relation to the tabernacle, and hence as the ark led forward each tribe would fall into line accordingly. They marched together, that was the divine thought. And so here, dear brethren, the apostle urges upon us that we are to be followers together, not so many isolated individuals finding our way as best we can, no, we are to keep near to the brethren to keep beside them.

He goes on, “and mark them which walk so as ye have us for an example”. That does not mean ^[p. 106] that we are to be occupied with those who do not walk like Paul, the word is “fix your eyes on those walking thus as you have us for a model”. So, dear brethren, one would urge, that we should keep our eyes on those who walk like Christ, who are followers as Paul was, for he says “as you have us for a model”. Fix your eyes, he would say, on everyone who walks as we do. And then he proceeds to show that the principle of example continues until we reach the glory, when it is not Paul, surely, but Christ, for he says, “Our conversation is in heaven”; that is the centre of our interests, “from whence also we look for the Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ, who shall change our vile body that it may be fashioned like unto his glorious body”. That is the model in heaven, the model here was Paul because he walked after Christ; that is to say in the wilderness it is a question of smallness, despicableness, a question of the followers of the Lord being the filth and offscouring of all things for that is befitting in a world that rejected Him. But when you think of heaven, and the model there, who is it? The Son of God. So we read elsewhere, that we are predestinated “to be conformed to the image of his Son that he might be the firstborn among many brethren”, Romans 8: 29. Christ is the great and blessed model in heaven. Christ as the Son of God and it is only a moment until He brings us bodily into conformity to His body of glory, so that all there shall be after the pattern of Christ, and He the firstborn among many brethren. That is the divine thought.

I believe God would hold us together not with the thought that we can leave things indefinitely, but rather with the sense that we are in God’s hands, and He will reveal what is obscure and meanwhile we are to be followers together, as far as that is possible, of Paul who followed hard after Christ who, as he says, is our model. May God bless the word.