BELIEVERS KEPT IN LIFE

A. McBride

Joshua 6: 25; Ruth 4: 10; 2 Samuel 8: 1, 2; Mark 16: 9; Revelation 1: 5 (from “To him” ), 6

What I had before me centres on the passage we read in 2 Samuel, particularly as to this “one full line to keep alive”. What the Spirit of God has in mind is to maintain affections in the saints in view of life, this one line “to keep alive”. In Revelation the Lord Jesus has to say to Sardis, “thou hast a name that thou livest, and art dead” (Revelation 3: 1); He also speaks of the things that are about to die, but He presents Himself there as “he that has the seven Spirits of God” (Revelation 3: 1). Now that is a great comfort to us. It means that things in the hand of Christ, by the Spirit of God in His universal character, will be maintained according to God right through into eternity. I wanted to show that God is operating sovereignly in wondrous mercy in persons like you and me who are of no account in this world, in view of securing us for this great line of life, not only to maintain us in life, but to bring us through as having our part in the praising company. Now it is a great matter that there should be an answer to the heart of Christ and the heart of God, out of hearts that appreciate the precious work of Jesus. That will occupy us throughout eternity, the appreciation of the Lord Jesus, the One who loves us and has given Himself for us.

I wanted just to touch on David here in 2 Samuel 8 because he is a beautiful type of the Lord Jesus in this section. Battles are for the moment over. Saul is dead, the men of Judah had anointed David in Hebron (2 Samuel 2: 4), and then the men of Israel had anointed him too in Hebron, and he reigned over both Judah and Israel in Jerusalem (2 Samuel 5: 5). That is typical of Christ in His supremacy. How wonderful that is, to see Christ where He is now, glorified, a blessed anointed Man in the presence of God, the One, who holds the hearts of His saints. The people came to David and said, “we are thy bone and thy flesh” (2 Samuel 5: 1), that is, they understood they had a link with him, and we, as believers, have a blessed link with Christ. Our beginnings are in the death of Christ. He has come down in wondrous love to secure us in view of heavenly association with Himself.

It says here that “David smote the Philistines, and subdued them; and David took the power of the capital out of the hand of the Philistines”. That is a beautiful Colossian touch; Christ spoiled principalities and authorities. The very power that Satan had wielded against mankind, and is wielding today, Christ has taken out of his hand. He lives a glorious Man in heaven, and He has taken that power so that He can use, it for our benefit and blessing, and that is what He is doing. He has taken the power of the capital out of the hand of the Philistines, as in the type, and now He is the true David, who has the keys of death and of hades. How great He is!

Then it says that David “smote the Moabites, and measured them with a line”—“two lines to put to death, and one full line to keep alive”. It has been said that the two lines to put to death would relate to the law, and to the life of Jesus here. One line would be the law, that which was written and stood out against us. That is another Colossian touch, is it not? It says,

“having forgiven us all the offences; having effaced the handwriting in ordinances which stood out against us”. Colossians 2: 13, 14. What a power the law is, it condemns us to death, but the Lord Jesus redeems us out of it. The other line was typical of the precious life of Jesus here. When Jesus was here it was the glory of God; but it says, “for all have sinned, and: come short of the glory of God”, Romans 3: 23. That is the other line; both these lines condemn us. Of course they have a future reference as well, but meantime there is this one full line to keep alive, and that is an act of sovereign mercy. The Moabites were under the government of God. We sometimes speak, rather lightly perhaps, of the Moabites as representing our natural relatives, who would hinder us in the things of God, and that is true in a sense, but if you go to Deuteronomy 23 you will find that there are much deeper meanings than that. God says there that the Moabite was not to enter the congregation, not even the tenth generation or for ever (Deuteronomy 23: 3). He gives a reason; there was a line of opposition there, a line of corruption which God resented. David here you see is not bypassing that judgment, he is putting these two lines to death, but he is exercising, as Christ does, the glory of sovereign mercy to bring out a full line to keep alive. Is that not wonderful?

You and I, beloved brethren, are subjects of divine mercy. Paul says, “mercy was shewn me”; the Authorised Version says, “I obtained mercy” (1 Timothy 1: 13), but Mr Darby in his translation renders it, “but mercy was shewn me”. Paul would not even imply he merited it in any way.

So I wanted to speak about these three persons, Rahab the harlot; Ruth the Moabitess; and Mary of Magdala, as representing persons like you and me who have dreadful histories, and yet are subjects of wondrous grace. It is a marvellous thing that the Spirit of God has preserved to us such appellations for these three persons. They are not the only ones in Scripture, of course, you get for instance Simon the leper (Mark 14: 3), that is another appellation that refers to his previous history. Rahab is referred to in Hebrews 11: 31 as Rahab the harlot; she was not a harlot any more. In the second, chapter of Joshua, it is very beautiful the way these spies came and found a lodging in the house of this woman, Rahab, with this awful reputation. But she had flax on her roof, in typical language she had found the mercy of God in Christ, she had found the Lord Jesus. It is very precious to think of it. The Spirit of God retains these appellations, Ruth the Moabitess, and Mary of Magdala, not to depress, not to expose past history, for the precious blood of Christ has covered all, but to magnify the wondrous grace of God that can overcome all of our histories. Let us appreciate the glory of divine mercy. The epistle to the Romans is the glory of divine mercy, the way God has intervened from His own side, the glad tidings of God concerning His Son, Jesus Christ our Lord. I trust every one in this room knows the Lord Jesus Christ as Saviour.

This woman with flax on her roof showed that she had found a Saviour, she had found in principle the Lord Jesus, she had accepted the righteousness of God by faith of Jesus Christ (Romans 3: 22). Have you opened your heart to the Lord Jesus? Do you know that your sins can be washed away in His precious blood? That is a blessed thing to know. It says in Hebrews, “By faith Rahab the harlot did not perish along with the unbelieving, having received the spies in peace”, (Hebrews 11: 31). She accepted the truth of the gospel, accepting God’s righteousness; she had no righteousness of her own, and we have no righteousness of our own,

but because of faith in Christ God would impute righteousness to us. She came typically into the joy of justification in One raised from among the dead; that is Romans 4: 24, 25. She lived in a city that was under the sentence of death, and if she had remained there, unconverted, she would have perished with the unbelieving. But she did not perish with the unbelieving because she received the spies in peace. Romans 5 is deliverance from the penalty and power of death. Where death reigned, grace has brought in life; where there was the reign of sin and death there is the overabundance of grace to “eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord” (Romans 5: 21). How glorious these things are! It says, “she dwelt in the midst of Israel to this day”, Joshua 6: 25. Now that is what is in view, that we are transferred from a life of sin and a history of sin, transferred into the company of those redeemed by the precious blood of Jesus, to have our part in that wondrous chorus of praise and thanksgiving to Him who loves us and has washed us from our sins. O that we might all come into that!

Then we come to Ruth. We had a touch on Lord’s day last how divine things are cumulative.

These persons represent a certain soul progress in divine truth; Rahab perhaps would suggest the initial matter of faith, faith in Christ, and faith in His blood, but then when you come to Ruth you come to the matter of committal. She was a Moabitess, she had no rights to the land but we might say, in the journey from Moab with Naomi, she came through these exercises of Romans 3, 4 and 5, to chapter 6, where a challenge is raised. Chapter 6 raises a challenge—“What then shall we say?” Naomi raises a challenge with Ruth and with Orpah her sister-in-law. Naomi says, I cannot do anything for you, Go back. What would they say? Orpah went away back, but Ruth said, No, I am not going, back, do not intreat me to leave thee. She accepts the sentence of death, she says, “for whither thou goest I will go ... thy people shall be my people ... where thou diest will I die, and there will I be

buried” (Ruth 1: 16, 17). She accepted in principle the truth of Romans 6, of baptism and death with Christ. Christ was raised by the glory of the Father, so we are to walk in newness of life. In the type Ruth began to walk in newness of life, and it says they came to Bethlehem at the time of the barley harvest. Then she found her way in that walk into the field of Boaz, the mighty man of wealth. What a blessed experience it is to come under the influence of Christ as the mighty Man of wealth, and to yield our members to Him. He calls her “my daughter”, how affectionate of him! In these fields she comes under his service and there is spiritual progress. He says, Stay in the field that is being reaped. What is the field that is being reaped in our time? What the Lord is doing in our day and what the Spirit is doing in our day; that is the field that is being reaped. There have been other fields reaped long before anyone in this room was born. In the history of the recovery there have been notable fields reaped, and from them great harvests. The enemy was against that and there were great conflicts in the testimony on account of such fields.

I want to refer briefly to two of these great fields and their results. One as to eternal life was just over a hundred years ago. The enemy was quite happy for the saints to understand that they had eternal life as almost a by-product of the gospel; that is if you believe the gospel you have eternal life. That is true enough but what was brought out in the field that was being reaped in that day was that eternal life is in Christ. That aroused great opposition from the enemy; he is happy enough if you hold the truth in terms, but he is not happy if you relate it to a blessed Man, because it magnifies His glory and liberates the saints. The terms of the truth are worthless unless they are related to a blessed living Man, Jesus. It says, This life is in His Son (1 John 5: 11). Now that was a great field that was reaped, and we are still in the harvest of it yet. Then there was another field reaped, just over sixty years ago,

as to the Person of Christ. It has been widely held that the Lord Jesus was in the relationship of Son to the Father prior to incarnation, but when it was brought out from Scripture that this blessed One, though ever on equality with God, took up the relationship of Son in manhood, the enemy opposed it bitterly. He opposed it because it opened up divine glory as to His deity and His manhood. A divine Person, God manifest in flesh; He came into the condition of manhood, though ever remaining God, and into the relationship of sonship, that you and I appreciate so much today. What a field that was and what gleanings there have been since!

These truths, and others, were not established without great cost. Those of us who are younger need to value more what has come down to us. Then there is this present field, which would of course include the others, and that is the field I think that Ruth typically was exhorted to stay in. It is the field where the glory of Christ has been expanded, and the glory of the assembly, universally and locally, has been expanded by the power and blessedness of the Holy Spirit’s service. Then the Person of the Spirit Himself that has come out so gloriously and the richness of the service of God.

This passage that we read in Ruth says, “Ruth the Moabitess, the wife of Mahlon, have I purchased to be my wife”. That transaction in the gate of the city is a touching typical reference to the death of the Lord Jesus as securing for Himself what is precious to His heart.

The Lord Jesus loves the assembly. Ruth represents in one way the assembly, but she also represents an individual believer; it is that really that is in my mind just now, that you and I might appreciate as individuals the way that God has met us and blessed us in Christ, and has brought us into this living character of things. Ruth reached, in type, Romans 7, did she not?

The beginning of Romans 7 is the new husband, she got a new husband. You follow these typical things through and they teach something as to how we progress in the truth, and this woman reached the new husband.

Then we come to Mary of Magdala, it says, “out of whom he had cast seven demons”. I do not suppose we know much about demon possession. There is such a thing in the world amongst men, and it is there also in the profession. I was shocked this week to read something as to the General Assembly in Edinburgh. Someone had proposed a motion that the only Saviour for men and women was the Lord Jesus Christ. That was the motion, that the Lord Jesus Christ was the only Saviour for men and women. They put it to the vote and it was rejected! Was that not awful? Such a fundamental truth was rejected by a majority in that system which bears the name of Christ. That opens the door for all kinds of things. I do not say that to attack anyone but we should be sober about these things. Now Mary was no longer possessed by demons, the Lord had cast them out, seven of them, not one but seven. O the wondrous perfect power of Christ to meet the power of the devil in any one! I would think she had found the Deliverer of Romans 7, and had reached Romans 8; she was in the sense of no condemnation, she was free from the law of sin and death. I am not saying that the experience of Romans 7 has anything to do with demons; the awfulness of the flesh is not demon possession; what it is is the awfulness of the flesh, that is what it is. But we need the great Deliverer, as she found Him, and He will be yours and mine as we take up these exercises and work our way through them. This woman was a lover. If Rahab shone in faith, and Ruth shone in committal, I would think Mary of Magdala shone in love. What a lover she was! She was first at the tomb John tells us. She could not live without Jesus. According to John 20 she went away and told the disciples the Lord was not in the tomb and they came and saw that Christ was risen. They went away home but she stayed. Would not Peter and John feel it afterwards that they went home and Mary stayed? She met the Lord, and she got that wondrous message, “go to my brethren and say to them, I ascend to my Father and your Father, and to my God and your God”, John 20: 17. How He delighted to find

Mary there! What it would mean to His heart! He says to her, “woman”, what a salutation that was! That was much better than Mary of Magdala. That is the last time we hear of her, although I am certain she would be there at the beginning of Acts in the upper room. It speaks of those there, some were named and others were not named. I think she would be among those that were not named. There were several women in Acts 1: 14; she would be among them I am certain, but then the thought is that, in not being named, she merges into the company. I think that is what it means.

Now that brings us to Revelation. John, I think, was merging into the company. He was alone on Patmos, but he speaks here and says, “To him who loves us”—think of that. John had never lost his link with the company, so he says, “To him who loves us”. Rahab has a part in this; Ruth has a part in it; Mary of Magdala has a part in it, and I trust every one in this room has part in it to say, “To him who loves us”. Who is it? Jesus, the blessed One, who “has washed us from our sins in his blood, and made us a kingdom”. That is the full line to keep alive. How blessed that is, the wondrous end of divine mercy is the securing of worshippers, persons whose hearts are full, with hearts able to express themselves unitedly in appreciation of the glory of our blessed Saviour. I hope everyone here has their voice in the praise of this glorious Man, the Lord Jesus Christ. He is the One who loves us, and has washed us from our sins in His blood, and “made us a kingdom, priests to his God and Father—to him be the glory and the might to the ages of ages. Amen”. The ages of ages is eternity, and there is going to be no end to it. Wondrous mercy has brought us in, you and me, to be priests to His God and Father. Think of Christ’s Father, Christ’s God. What relationships of love we are introduced to. That was the message to Mary—My Father and your Father, My God and your God. Think of being brought into the secret of that! That expression, Christ’s God, takes us back in our thoughts to the cross,

when all was darkness when He said, “My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me”, Matthew 27: 46. If divine mercy were to come to you and me it necessitated that cry of anguish from Christ. It necessitated what we speak of reverently and feelingly as the abandonment, when He was alone on that cross in all that darkness, in all that distance, in view of you and me being brought into the line of life and the knowledge of His God. He has made us a kingdom, priests to His God and Father. Then it says, “to him be the glory and the might to the ages of ages. Amen”. Surely every heart would say, Amen.

Address at Buckie
22 May 1993