GOD'S WORKS

GOD’S WORKS

Genesis 2: 7; Genesis 3: 19; Genesis 5: 1, 2; John 9: 1-12; 1 Kings 7: 40-47

No doubt, dear brethren, most of us have observed that God from the outset has had two spheres in His mind — one called the heavens and the other called the earth. This is indicated in the first verse in scripture, “In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.” It is continued in the eternal condition, so that the writer of the Revelation says, “I saw a new heaven and a new earth.” God has arranged that there should be various elevations in the heavenly sphere — these are the heavens, He Himself having His glory in its fullest sense above the heavens. But in the sphere of creation, looking at it for the moment as one whole, there are evidently various elevations. God has chosen us according to His eternal purpose to be heavenly — to bear the image of the heavenly. “As is the heavenly one, so also are the heavenly ones.”

But I wanted tonight, with the Lord’s help, to speak about the earth — a sphere much lower than the heavens in every sense — and what God is doing on earth, and something that has come to light on earth. In Genesis 5, when God made man, male and female, He called their name Adam. When God names anything, nothing can improve on nor nothing alter the name given. The beginning of Genesis is wonderful in that regard in the way God names things. He called the light day, and darkness night — He gave them each a name. “Let there be an expanse” — what majesty! an expanse none of us is capable of measuring, and He called the expanse Heaven. Then God said, “Let the dry land appear,” and He called it Earth, and the waters He called Seas. These are God’s doings. Then when He made man, male and female, He called their name Adam — Adam means earth. I feel it is important to press this, dear brethren, as we read, “Dust thou art,” made out of the ground, out of this lowly condition in contrast to the heavens. Heaven is not earth, the stars are not earth, angels are not earth, but He called their name Adam, meaning earth, indicating the lowly condition that marks man in himself. Previously He had said, “Let the earth bring forth the living creature,” creeping things, four-footed beasts, as well as the trees and the herbs, etc. — all came out of the earth, and then God says, “Out of the ground wast thou taken — Adam.” Elihu confirms this in a wonderful way — he shows, of course, that man is not all earth — man’s swelling pride would go if he were to read this chapter: “The Spirit of God hath made me,, and the breath of the Almighty hath given me life.” God breathed into man the breath of life — the breath of the Almighty has been breathed into man’s lowly condition, so that man is capable of having to do with God consequently. Elihu says, “I also am formed out of the clay.” If all would face this it would keep us humble, that as being here on earth our name is Adam. What is dust cannot compass God — it cannot compass heaven, much less Him Who is above the heavens. Hence how imperative that we should recognise what is inscrutable, what is unapproachable, what we cannot even draw near to. But God loves man — “Let us make man.” Job is a wonderful book; it says there: “God is mighty, and despiseth not any.” Though man is earth, God does not despise man; indeed, man is the object of His purpose. It says, “Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither hath it entered into the heart of man the things that God has prepared for them that love Him”; God has thoughts for man that the human mind never could have conceived.

In John 9, the great point the Lord calls attention to is that God has permitted all that has come in, in His wisdom, in order that the works of God might be manifested in man, though so insignificant in himself. How will He do it? I think what the Lord did there is wonderful beyond expression. The Lord speaks of Himself as coming into this world as “light,” and it says, “when He had thus spoken, He spat on the ground, and made clay of the spittle.” The New Translation adds, “as ointment.” The Lord brings before us here the wonderful truth and reality of incarnation. He makes an ointment of that which is a combination of His spittle and the ground, the most wonderful thing in the universe. The spittle refers to Himself personally; spittle is probably more personal than breathing even. It is what is essentially of Himself, coming into human conditions, coming into the ground. It is what He is personally coming into man’s estate. This is how He brings God’s works to pass. I believe, dear brethren, the Lord wants us to see more clearly than we have done, both His deity and His manhood. The “I am,” the One who “is over all, blessed for evermore, Amen,” but coming into the same condition as man is in — the ground. Matthew tells us “a virgin shall be with child and shall bring forth a son, and they shall call His name Immanuel — God with us.” O dear brethren, let the might and glory of it into our souls — God manifest in flesh! The Word who was God become flesh and dwelling amongst us — what wonderful ointment! How different from Adam, wonderful as Adam was! God Himself — none less — coming into flesh. “As the children are partakers of flesh and blood, He also Himself took part of the same” — that is what I understand spitting on the ground means. But, dear brethren, this is what is called ointment. He made it as a means of healing. This is the divinely appointed ointment for the removal of the darkness, even from a man who was born blind — never heard of since the world began! What an ointment! God manifest in flesh! The great healing power of the universe — it will heal everybody who will allow it to come upon his eyes.

You cannot put any limit upon such an ointment, can you? Not like the remedies of earth! Ointment is used to work within, to affect what is inside, “manifested in him.” But literally, dear brethren, it made him darker than ever; it meant that for the moment if he were blind before he would be blinder still. Though the ointment in itself was powerful beyond telling, one thing is essential if it is to be operative, and that is subjection, subjection to the Lord. The Lord says, “Go, and wash in the pool of Siloam.” The man might have said, “I am blind; how can I get there?” But he says, “I went and washed, and I received sight.” Light as to the blessed person of Christ is inseparable from obedience and subjection. Unless we are prepared to be subject, we do not get the gain of even such ointment as this. Let us be prepared to obey the Lord at all costs. They said, “How were thine eyes opened?” He says, “A man called Jesus.” That was the point he had reached — not very far, but he soon knows more. He says, “He is a prophet, He has the mind of God,” and then later he says, “He is of God.” They say, “We do not know”; and he says, “Marvellous thing that you do not know.” They answer, “Thou wast altogether born in sins, and dost thou teach us?” and they cast him out. Jesus was just waiting for that moment, and He heard that they had cast him out and finds him. Obedience brings more light, for the Lord loves to find such. “Dost thou believe on the Son of God?” He does not say, “I know everything”; but he says, “Who is He, Lord, that I might believe on Him?” I am ready for more light, Lord — who is He? The blessed One who came into the clay, the One who is right alongside you and talking with you — He is the Son of God, the One who in manhood declares God. “Lord, I believe,” and he worshipped Him. How it shows the profound excellence of the ointment when coupled with obedience that makes a man born blind into a worshipper! What a wonderful thing to take place on earth! Job says the expanse is empty — Job 26: 7, N.T. (though some would tell us that there are people living on Mars); the earth is the sphere of the greatest of divine operations in this period, for it is here that incarnation has taken place.

One word more — I would just like to refer to something else that is taking place on earth. The passage we read in 1 Kings refers to what Solomon the king did. He was preparing at that time vessels for the house of God — the place where God would dwell, a place for the Ark. How great the Ark was in both David’s and Solomon’s minds! That lowly vessel represented to them something so great. And he proceeds to prepare the vessels, and he prepares them in such number that they were never weighed — vessels many and varied — and where were they prepared? “In the plain of Jordan did the king cast them, in the clay ground between Succoth and Zaretan.” It was the king, Solomon, a type of the One who is the wisdom of God and the power of God. How it would solve men’s problems today if they had a Solomon! “God gave Solomon wisdom and understanding exceeding much, and largeness of heart, even as the sand that is on the sea-shore.” And so the true Solomon, with all the wisdom and power and resources that mark Him, is engaged now in casting vessels, innumerable vessels, of bright brass, in the clay ground. Think of all the saints right down the ages, vessels in that way, every one of them having a different service. He will use the earthly conditions of our lives at the present time down here on the plain of Jordan, that plain with the ashes of Sodom and Gomorrah on the one side, and the river Jordan on the other ready to overflow its banks at any moment — there are the vessels of bright brass cast for the temple of God. If we could only see this, it would help and encourage us with regard to the clay ground, all our earthly circumstances and even death, for David could say, “There is but a step between me and death.”

You see it in Job. There he was in that plain — what sorrows were his! His sons and daughters gone, his money gone, his cattle gone, his health gone, death but a step away — in fact, his wife says to him, “Curse God and die.” But the only wise God is casting in the clay ground a wonderful vessel of bright brass, in accord with the holiness of God. When the casting is over and the clay ground left behind, look at it! Job says, “I abhor myself” — that is brass, bright brass, reflecting the holiness of God. God turned the captivity of Job when he prayed for his three friends, not when he repented, not when he abhorred himself, but when he prayed for his three friends. That was the completion of vessel — a man like God. His three friends had spoken bitter and cruel things against him, but as the vessel comes out of the clay, he prays for them. If we have a sense that we are in captivity for the moment, going through intense exercise, spoken against unfairly — can we pray? I don’t mean formal prayer in the prayer meetings, I mean the intense longing in the heart for the blessing of those who have spoken against us.

The true Solomon is doing this with us all — in wisdom baffling to the natural mind — our circumstances used as a mould in which He will form vessels that correspond with the holiness of God.

Stephen stands right on the banks of the Jordan, the river about to come up and remove the clay ground altogether, and there comes out a vessel suitable to God, bright brass — you can look into it and see the character of heaven reflected — “Lord, lay not this sin to their charge”; not a trace of hatred, not a trace of bitterness or resentment in his spirit, but a blessed vessel for the temple of God — one of those innumerable vessels that cannot be weighed for number.

We see it in Paul, too. What a mould he had been formed in! At the hands of the Jews, his brethren, he had five times received forty stripes save one; thrice was he beaten, once stoned, and so on, yet he could say in Rome, “Not that I have anything to accuse my nation of.” Not one accusation to make — what a vessel! Accusing is the Devil’s work; let us leave it to him. The work of Christ is to intercede for the brethren. I beg you all, dear brethren, and myself too, to face this out — am I secretly accusing the brethren, or am I retiring into the secret of the presence of God and praying for them? Do not take the edge off it, and do not turn it on to someone else.

The Lord help us to get the gain of the clay ground in the plain of Jordan, with the skill of the true Solomon using it to form innumerable vessels, in great variety and of immeasurable weight, to adorn the dwelling-place of God.

As to our estate as connected with the earth, God called their name Adam — man in his strength and woman in her beauty. So that we should not boast in the strength of man, nor in the beauty of woman. But here on earth the wonder of incarnation has taken place: God manifest in flesh — the effective ointment to open eyes that never have seen.

And the earthly circumstances of our lives are the mould in His hands to form something that is not earth, but bright brass, ready for the day of display.

May He help us to know our own nothingness, and more of the greatness of that blessed Person who has come into manhood.