OUR PART IN BUILDING
Henry Jensen
1 Corinthians 3: 9-16; Ezra 6: 14,15; Nehemiah 3: 1-3, 7, 8, 15, 19, 20; Ephesians 4: 7-10, 15, 16
I thought we might speak briefly, dear brethren, about our part as believers, as saints, in this matter of building. We have spoken about what God is doing and how Christ is building His assembly on the rock of which He spoke in Matthew 16. God’s side is very wonderful and He will see that the building is completed. Whatever I do, God is going to carry through His thoughts and they will be carried through in perfection and for His own praise and glory. And as we sang, He will have a dwelling place where His love can be at rest (Hymn 83) – a wonderful thing to think of. But then there is our part in relation to the building. That is what these scriptures, I believe, bring in, that we have a responsibility too. Paul lays that upon the Corinthians in this chapter. He says, “let each see how he builds upon it”, each one. That does not leave out anybody. Young and old must see how we build on this foundation that Paul says he has laid as a wise architect. And he tells us just what we had in the reading that the foundation is none other than Jesus Christ. How are we building on that foundation, the Lord Jesus? How am I developing and building in my own soul? What am I putting into this building by what I do on a daily basis or on a weekly basis or on a yearly basis? That becomes the test of responsibility for me and for you, for each one. Paul says, “For we are God’s fellow-workmen; ye are God’s husbandry, God’s building”. Is that not beautiful? Think of the company he was writing to. He was writing to the Corinthians; not a company of Ephesians exactly but a company where there was a lot of difficulty in the meeting, a lot of things that needed correction in the company of the Corinthians, and yet he could say that they are God’s husbandry, God’s building. That is God’s viewpoint of His people. Whatever the difficulties may be, whatever may yet need to be corrected in our histories or in our activities and links together as brethren, God can view us as His husbandry, His building. How beautiful that is! Because He is going to have the final product worked out according to His own mind, according to His own great thoughts. You may say, I do not get along with that brother because his personality is not so easy to get along with. God will work that out. It takes time sometimes but God just smoothes the stone in me, as our brother referred to earlier. Our brother referred to those five smooth stones of David’s that he picked out of a brook. God did the smoothing. It takes time to smooth things out in some of us. Sometimes it takes longer with other than with some, but He is going to smooth it all out, work it all out, in His time. In the meantime He says, that is my husbandry, my building – how fine that is.
But the next test is, “let each see how he builds upon it”. What are we putting into it? So Paul names some things, some kinds of material that might but put on this foundation. He says, “gold, silver, precious stones, wood, grass, straw”. We need to analyse what we are putting into this building. What am I doing daily, weekly, yearly in relation to this building? Have we put in gold, silver and so on? I suppose the gold and silver and the precious stones would be very delightful things to put in, would they not? Any impression you have of the wondrous redemptive work of Jesus in your soul, bring it in because that is related to the silver. We have already been speaking about the gold, which is divine majesty and glory and greatness and divine love, all that is divine. Bring that in, develop it in your own soul in your links with the Holy Spirit. And bring that into the building, building on the foundation in your own soul, and then building in the local company. Undoubtedly Paul has in mind in what he is saying here the building that was going on in Corinth in the local company because he is speaking collectively to them as God’s building. So each one needs to be bringing in what is of the divine nature. The gold would speak of that I believe and then the precious stones. We had that thought of what is precious in Peter today. So there are things that relate to the precious character of divine things, the precious character of the ministry, the precious character of the Holy Scriptures and the precious character of what God is developing among His people. We can bring that into the building, can we not, and make it of value to one another? These other things I would not think are so valuable, the grass and the straw. They may be the things that can be burnt up. We want to be careful we do not bring in things that can be burnt up and will be consumed and finished with. I thought this scripture would remind us of our responsibility in relation to what God is doing in our localities. We have a responsibility as a part of God’s building to be also fellow-workmen in this building process.
I read in Ezra and Nehemiah because I thought they indicate how the saints of the prior dispensation were involved in building what was for God in days of recovery. In Ezra they are working on the house and it took some time for this house to be rebuilt. If you read this section in Ezra the work has stopped for a while. They had been frightened by what was going on around them in opposition. And then these two prophets, Haggai and Zechariah, got a word from God that the building should go on. God wants the building to go on. Whatever happens around, whatever opposition comes up, God is desirous that the building goes on. So He uses these two men, Haggai and Zechariah, in a prophetic way to stimulate the people to get back into the work. Then it says here in the verses we read, “And the elders of the Jews built”, how fine that is that they built. It does not say exactly what material they used, or what tools they had, it does not say any of those things, it just says they built – how fine that is. “And they prospered through the prophesying of Haggai the prophet and Zechariah”. They are two very fine prophets for us to read because you can see how God spoke through those prophets to these persons in Ezra’s time in order to get back into the work even though it was a day of small things. That is what Zechariah says in his prophecy, “Who hath despised the day of small things?” Zech 4: 10. That is what had happened, those who were opposing the building there in Jerusalem were despising the day of small things. God says, Who has despised it? As though He is challenging that. So through the prophesies of these two the building went on and it was finished. How fine that is that it was finished, completed.
Then I read in Nehemiah because it is beautiful how these persons in building the wall worked together. Here they are building around Jerusalem. It was some years after Ezra’s time that Nehemiah became so concerned and exercised about what had developed for God in Jerusalem and how things were in ruins there even though the house had been built. When he got there he was able through his great concern for things to get persons working again. And here they are in this chapter 3 working side by side. That is what I thought was so impressive, that Eliashib the high priest is one who gets started with his brethren and they build the sheep-gate. How important that sheep-gate would be in Jerusalem. Then the fish-gate is built and so on. We read about all these different gates; what they would mean, I suppose, has a great spiritual significance in each case. The sheep-gate would be to bring the sheep in, would it not? We want to bring the sheep in if we can, bring them in to what God is doing. But what I was thinking of more than anything was how they were working together. One worked a certain part of the wall, built a certain part of the wall to a certain point, and then there is another brother working there at the next part of the wall; “next to them”, it says. “Next to them built the men of Jericho”. And then it says, “And the fish-gate did the sons of Senaah build: they laid its beams, and set up its door, its locks and its bars”. A lot of detail is involved in setting up these things and they were doing the work. God’s side is one thing but here it is actual, literal working out of things together as they work side-by-side building this wall. Then it says about these persons in verse 7, “And next to them repaired Melatiah the Gibeonite”. Remarkable persons are brought in here, a Gibeonite working on the wall. It is like ourselves, somebody who has come into the assembly in an unusual way, or you might say an unusual person. Most of us are that, you know, kind of unusual persons to be included in the assembly and a Gibeonite would be that. There he is working side by side with the high priest and the priests and the others, on this wall. And that is what it is in the assembly; we are working side by side in relation to building up what is for God. It says of some of them that they were goldsmiths, and a perfumer; Hananiah of the perfumers. These are persons who have a distinctive ability, a distinctive trade and they just set it aside for the time being and build along with the others. I suppose these goldsmiths would be experts in working out the details of gold. Well, that was not really needed in the wall; they would need that when the wall was built, and they would go back to that service of working as goldsmiths. But here whatever their profession was, however skilled they may have been in a natural way, they are working on the wall that relates to the encompassing of Jerusalem and you might say it is a wall of separation. How much that has been developed in these days of recovery since Mr Darby’s time, in relation to the ministry that has come to us. And how many have been involved in it? How wonderful that is! But then it is our responsibility to see that our piece is built side by side with our brethren. In one place here it says they built over against their own house (v 10). Well, it is often the case that you do more building in relation to your own house or your own household than any other place because that is where the brethren seek to maintain separation in relation to their circumstances, in their homes and households and that is what the wall of separation has in view. I thought these things would encourage us as we are working together in local companies like Corinth, like New York, like Los Angeles; we are working side by side building up what is for God.
I read verse 19, “And next to him repaired Ezer the son of Jeshua, the ruler of Mizpah, a second piece”. He took a second piece. He had built one already, one piece of the wall, but he has the energy and the strength to go on and do a second piece. There are several of them in this section who built a second piece of the wall. How fine that is, that you can build a second piece; add to what you have already done in the local company, build another piece that is for the good of the saints. And then it says of Baruch the son of Zabbai that he earnestly repaired another piece. Is that not a fine commendation, earnestly repaired? How much we need to be involved earnestly in the things of God, give our devotion earnestly to what is being developed for the heart of Christ in our local companies.
I thought in Ephesians that this was the crowning touch in what Paul says about building and our responsibility in it. Where I first read he says, “But to each one of us has been given grace according to the measure of the gift of the Christ”. I think that is very encouraging. Some of us say, Well, I do not have much ability, I do not have much gift, I am not much, just a little peg here that goes into the building, but Paul says, “each one of us has been given grace”, each one. That is the young people too; each one has been given grace. You say you do not have much, not, but you have been given grace. Who has given it? It is the gift of Christ. Whatever grace there is in relation to your development and whatever grace there is in relation to your knowledge of divine things, it has been given you as a gift from Christ; that is what it says here, “according to the measure of the gift of the Christ”. And the Lord delights to give us the greatest measure that we can sustain; the greatest measure that you can take on the Lord delights to give it to you. And so he says, “Wherefore he says, Having ascended up on high, he has led captivity captive, and has given gifts to men”. That is beautiful! You often think about that as persons who are very talented and gifted in relation to the work of the ministry, but here it is more in relation to everyone, every one has received grace, every one has a gift in that sense that can be used in the assembly. That is what Paul is getting at. So that finally, where we read in the last part of the chapter, he speaks about the whole body, fitted together, and connected by every joint of supply. That is you and me, dear brethren, is it not, every joint of supply? You say, I am just a little peg, just a little joint, but every joint of supply is connected together in the body. That is what our brother referred to in Corinthians; the body is working. It speaks about the eye and the ear and the hand, all the parts of the body working together (see 1 Cor 12). Take your own human body, it all works together and toward one thing and that is the self-building up. That is what he is saying here in relation to every one of us, we have been given grace as a gift from Christ that is to work out as connected together, and he says, “according to the working in its measure of each one part, works for itself the increase of the body to its self-building up in love”. Is that not fine? Whatever your measure is, it says, “according to the measure”. You say, I do not have much of a measure; yes, but you have some measure. Whatever that measure is it can be working together with others and supplying something as a joint of supply. You think of our joints in our body: they supply something for the rest of the body. And that is what we can do, each one of us, because of the grace that has been given to us; work along together, side by side in relation to the building up of what is for Christ. Here it is in view of the self-building up in love of the assembly. Is that not fine – self-building up in love? So everything that we do let it be done in love, beloved brethren. Love for one another, love for Christ, love for the things of God and that I think is the most important way that the building goes on and we can take our responsibility in it. May the Lord bless the word. For His Name’s sake.
NEW YORK
8 July 2000