HOW GOD HAS BROKEN OFF ALL RELATIONS WITH THE WORLD
[p. 83] HOW GOD HAS BROKEN OFF ALL RELATIONS WITH THE WORLD
Zechariah 11: 4 - 14; John 10: 10 - 16
I have before me tonight to seek to show how God has broken off all relations with the world. There have been three worlds with which God stood connected. The first was that which was before the flood. It was owned in a certain relation as proceeding from Seth, the man whom God gave to Adam and Eve instead of Abel. His name signifies that he was appointed, and his posterity is given in Genesis S. God stood in a measure related to that world. There was one man in it who walked with God, and in that way maintained what was due to Him, no doubt as a testimony. That man was translated, and another appears to take his place. The appearance of Noah became a resting-place for the heart and mind of God, and in Noah He perceives one in whom He could inaugurate and set up another world; hence He breaks His relations with the first world. He gave men one hundred and twenty years, and during all that time there was one man who was endued with the Spirit of Christ; he was endued with the spirit of evangelisation. What grace on God’s part; but all in vain! There was a complete termination of that world; but then it was replaced by another, for Genesis 9 records the establishment of another world. It was set up on another work, but owned of God, and He entered into a covenant with it. That would receive divine support. There was in the cloud the token of God’s covenant. What was the result? We are told that men deliberately chose to eliminate God from their knowledge. The men of that world, in spite of all the kindness and power that God showed them, deliberately chose to eliminate God from their [p. 84] knowledge, and God gave them up. He then called out Abram and, in calling out Abram, He judged the second world, and, in the seed of Abram, God established another world. God never gives up the idea of a world; He loves the idea of a world as it says, “God so loved the world, that he gave his only-begotten Son, that whosoever believes on him may not perish, but have life eternal”, John 3: 16. So that there is “the habitable world which is to come, of which we speak” (Hebrews 2: 5), a world that abides, “the world of our Lord and of his Christ”, Revelation 11: 15. God never severs His connection with that world, but I want to show that God severs His connection with the world He established in connection with Abraham’s seed.
If God gives up a world, what will men do? Men are banding together; what they did in Genesis 11 is what they are doing today. If God withdraws His support, what will the world do? It must become self-supporting. It is a solemn day we are living in; it is a day of brotherhoods. But God not only severed His connection with the world, but He says, I will break up your brotherhoods (Zechariah 11: 14). What are brotherhoods for? To make man self-supporting. They say in Genesis 11, “Let us build ourselves a city and a tower, the top of which may reach to the heavens”. Towers are witnesses to the esteem in which men hold themselves; their object is to exalt men to heaven. “Let us build ourselves a city”; it is the idea of centralisation, not simply binding together, but making themselves conspicuous. God paralyses the system. How easily God can do it! You remember what took place at the tomb of Jesus, as recorded by Matthew. It says that they sealed the stone and set a watch. What did the seal mean? It represented all the Roman power. But an angel came down and he set aside all that power! It says he “came and rolled away the stone and sat upon it”,
[p. 85] and none dare touch him! He could have smitten all the legions of Rome. Do you remember how many one angel of old slew? A hundred and eighty-five thousand! (See 2 Kings 19: 35). So the angel sat upon the stone at the sepulchre in solemn irony. Suppose you take all the armies and navies of the world and bring them together, and God was to use lightning-the angel’s look was as lightning-how quickly He could obliterate them! In a moment He could do it. But for the time being all are allowed to continue, and God uses all that power in support of the gospel. The Lord in resurrection sends the apostles to disciple the nations, not to destroy them, and says, “Behold, I am with you all the days, until the completion of the age”, Matthew 28: 20.
Now the prophet says, “I took my staff, Beauty”. That staff represents what was in the mind of God with regard to Israel. They were taken out and set above all the nations, and divine beauty put upon them; the proposal of God was that Israel should be a nation of priests. Think of the beauty of Aaron’s garments! That was what was in the mind of God for Israel. The Lord came, not to break up that covenant, but to make it effective. “I have given thee”, says Jehovah, “for a covenant of the people”. He came in as the expression of the heart of God for the people; but there was no response. He found the shepherds murderers and thieves, and as to the people, He says, “We have piped to you, and ye have not danced”. Have you ever ‘danced’ to the gospel? David danced before Jehovah when the ark came into the city of David (2 Samuel 6: 14). Christ came in with all the affections of God for the people. When He drew near to the city of Jerusalem He wept. He felt their sin, but what He did feel specially was their indifference. He says, “How often would I have gathered thy children as a hen gathers her chickens under her wings, and ye would not!”, Matthew 23: 37.
[p. 86] And so He breaks off His connection with them. There is one other staff remaining, the staff that symbolised the unity of Judah and Israel. If you maintain relations with each other when unity with God is broken, it is iniquity. Unities today are to render man independent of God. Where are you? Are you connected with any unity, any society, any brotherhood in the world? Jacob says, “Simeon and Levi are brethren”; the name is external, for it goes on, “Instruments of violence their swords”. The name is deceptive, even if divinely given, when it is connected with what is contrary to God, “For in their anger they slew men, and in their wantonness houghed oxen”. Self will is the order of the day, and God intends to deliver men from it. Jacob says, “My soul, come not into their council; mine honour, be not united with their assembly”, Genesis 49: 6. Whatever may be the pretensions, it only remains for God to bring in Christ, to bring out what is there. All will work out in the support of Him who comes in His own name. What are you going to do with Jesus?
He says in the language of the prophet here, “Give me my hire”. Are you going to sell Him? Are you going to barter Him?
I would appeal to the young. Satan is seeking to gain your soul by something of this world, but the Lord puts Himself before you. What are you going to do? His voice appeals to you tonight, “Give me my hire”. And so it says here, “They weighed for my hire thirty silver-pieces”. What are you going to sell Him for? Are you going to give up Jesus for the world? The Lord had nothing but kindness in His heart for Judas. How much has the Lord given for you? I love to read Peter’s writings for one reason; he uses adjectives by which he shows his appreciation of Christ. He speaks of “precious promises”, and of being redeemed by “precious blood”. He says, “Ye have been redeemed, not by corruptible things, as [p. 87] silver or gold ... but by precious blood, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot, the blood of Christ”. Has that any weight in your soul? Did you ever admit the Lord’s title to you? He has redeemed us and He lays claim to His property. Do you admit it? If there is one thing I glory in, it is that I belong to the company of the redeemed. Young people are in danger of despising christians because they seem to be in the minority; but they are really in the majority. Enoch was in the sense of it when he says, “Behold, the Lord has come amidst his holy myriads”, yet he was alone at that time. The prophet John too saw vast multitudes; can you number them? There are those who have admitted the Lord’s claim and as recognising that they are His by right of redemption, He puts His seal upon them. The seal is the gift of the Spirit. Have you received it? At the end of John 3 we read that “The Father loves the Son, and has given all things to be in his hand”. That is what I would call an economy of affection.
Now, what is the result? In chapter 4 the Lord’s proposal is to give living water to the woman at Jacob’s well, and the giving is equal to the authority.
I want, in closing, to refer to the flock in John 10. It was God’s mind that His people should be banded together. The covenant is divine beauty put upon us; that is the staff called Beauty. Then there is the staff called Bands or Binders. What are the binders? The unity of the Spirit. In Zechariah 11 God scatters, but there were “the poor of the flock”. I used to be ashamed of the poverty of the Lord’s people; but the Lord says, “The poor of the flock that gave heed to me”. In John 10 therefore the Lord brings in a brotherhood. In chapter 4 He gives the Spirit and that Spirit in you produces certain affections. You have the same Spirit with which Jesus was anointed, and Jesus gives it to us. The Spirit forms affections; and these affections crave kindred affections. Christ [p. 88] as the Shepherd calls His own sheep out; He does not leave you alone, He gives you the Spirit, and He will care for you. The voice of the Shepherd is the voice of affection for your soul. But what will He do with you? It says, “There shall be one flock, one shepherd”. Sheep are defenceless creatures; they allow their wool to be taken away. It says of the Lord Himself, “He was led as a lamb to the slaughter, and was as a sheep dumb before her shearers, and he opened not his mouth”, Isaiah 53: 7. But they cannot touch you spiritually; you belong to the flock, tended by the Shepherd. It is unity, unity of nature. That is the thought of unity in John’s gospel. And you have the society of those that have the same affections as yourself.
May God bless the word.