OUR OUTLOOK
OUR OUTLOOK
There are two things, dear brethren, that have been impressed upon me of late — one is the first word that is said in connection with the coming of the Holy Ghost, that is, that there was a sound from heaven. The first feature of the presence of the Spirit of God in Christianity is said to be a sound from heaven; and the other thing that has been on my mind is that Noah was told to make a window above in the Ark, which I think indicates that God’s thought for His people as passing through and being delivered from the sin and corruption and darkness through which we pass; is that our outlook should be above. The first would indicate that one great object of the Spirit of God’s presence in the Church is to bring to us the report, the sound, of that which is in heaven, the sound from heaven. There are other great and wonderful features referred to afterwards. It says, “Suddenly there came a sound from heaven.” I believe the thought of God is that His people here today should have communications, knowledge, and enjoyment of that which is in heaven, and that God would have the outlook of His people above. The window was to be above. One feels, dear brethren,
that the great object of the enemy is to divert the saints from the thoughts of God. He uses many, many things. I suppose if one speaks from one’s own experience, the first great question which arises in the history of the believer as desiring to lay hold of God’s thoughts stands connected with our bodies. The condition of a man’s body is described in the Epistle to the Romans. What a description it is! Various members are referred to — the throat, the lips, the mouth, the feet, the heart, the mind. The body was in such a condition that it is said of some that God gave them up. But when God comes in in His grace through the Gospel, and picks us up for Himself, there arises the conflict in the soul as to whether the body is to be continued as a servant of sin or whether it is to be held for God. I do not think anyone is free to pass any further, or move any further, in laying hold of what God has in His mind until that matter is faced. Is my body held as a servant of sin, or are the members instruments of righteousness? The end of Romans is that the body is presented as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God. The power for it is that first of all the heart has been brought into attachment with Christ. The man in Romans 7 says, “Who shall deliver ... death?” He goes on, “I thank God ... “ He has learned that attachment to Christ can deliver him from the body of this death. He gets light as to the immense value of the Holy Spirit as the power to be here, and the righteous requirements of the law are met, and the consequence is that the body is held for God.
One sees great numbers of young people at the meetings, and I am sure, dear brethren, that the great exercises of the epistle to the Romans lie as a doorway into further blessing, if we only face them. The Lord would challenge those of us who are young, particularly as to whether we have faced that great question as to what we are doing with our bodies.
Well, then, it may be that in some measure we have learned a little of that, and then we come to another great test, and that is the world. That is what the apostle brings forward in Corinthians. It is not the world on the lines of its lust and overt wickedness, but the world as the system of human pride and glory, and the enemy would introduce the glamour and greatness of the world to keep back the people of God from laying hold of what God has in His mind. What the apostle brings forward to meet that is the Cross. He says, “By which the world is crucified to me ... “ It is a remarkable statement — the world is crucified to me! He says the world in its shame and exposure and dishonour through the Cross of Christ is crucified to me (Galatians 6: 14). He lives in the light of the crucifixion of Christ; he sees the world of wisdom and glory in its true character. I think it is remarkable in the four gospels that they all speak of the place where the Lord Jesus was crucified as the place of a skull, which means it is the end of man’s wisdom. If you look at a skull, you will observe that it is the end of the intelligence, the glory, the wisdom of man. That is what the Cross is. The fact that the wisdom of this world should crucify the Lord of glory is the exposure of the worthlessness of man’s glory and pride and wisdom. The apostle says it is crucified to me, so that the heart is liberated from the sphere of man’s glory and man’s pride.
Then, dear brethren, there is something else the enemy would use, and perhaps in our day it is the greatest trouble — the earth! That is in Colossians. “Set your affections ... above.” Set your minds on things above, not on things of the earth. The earth would occupy the hearts of the saints as the absorbing object behind which Satan is working in order that we shall be diverted from the thoughts of God. One speaks, I trust, with some sense of the reality of this test. It is everywhere with us today as to whether the things of this earth are the things for which we are living and upon which our minds are set, or whether they are set on things above. It was the desire to say something as to what is above that was before me tonight. Seek the things which are above where Christ sits on the right hand of God. It challenges one’s heart as to what we know of what is above, of the things above. What are they? What do we know of them? It is as our affections and our minds are engaged with those things beyond, that we shall be preserved from living in the things of the earth. First of all I would like to say a word as to the God who is above, in heaven. It says God is in heaven. “But to us there is one God, the Father, of whom are all things, and we in Him” (1 Corinthians 8: 6). What an object there is for our hearts and minds in seeking God, the Father, who is in heaven! I do not mean in the physical sense; but He is above in every sense. He is above man’s world, above man’s wickedness, above man’s weakness. He is above. Unto us there is one God, the Father. The Spirit of God is calling attention to features of the Father for the enjoyment and appropriation of our hearts. He is the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. As the Father, He is the source. He is the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. Paul says, “For this cause I bow my knees unto the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ” (Ephesians 3: 14). That means, as I understand it, that everything that came out in the Lord Jesus Christ had its source in the Father. What an object! How earthly things look small as we think of the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the source of everything.
Then it says, He is the Father of glory; everything that is glorious, that is really great, dear brethren, has the Father as its source. Do we want to have regard to what is really great and glorious? The Father of glory is set before us. We are told, “In heaven they do always behold the face of My Father.” He is above. He is there as an object for minds and hearts — the Father of glory. Another blessed feature to engage us is the Father of compassions. The blessed source of compassion is above. He is there to engage us as an object for our hearts and minds. But then the Lord Jesus Himself is there. He is above. He has gone into heaven. Christianity began with men gazing up into heaven. I do not think that passage, “Why stand ye gazing into heaven?” is a rebuke. I think it is a right attitude for Christians. This same Jesus who has gone into heaven, I think indicates that He is there personally. Jesus is His personal name, not His official title, but His personal name by which He is known to every heart. We are told Jesus loved Martha. Martha had the personal sense of the love of Jesus. Jesus is personally in heaven. If we only realised it more, the claims of the earth would become insignificant. The earth as an object would fail if we realised more that Jesus personally is in heaven. This same Jesus has gone into heaven. He is there, too, as Saviour. “We look for a Saviour.” The Saviour is there. He has saved us and will save us even to the extent of the changing our bodies of humiliation, and fashioning them like His glorious body.
Then I wanted to say a little more as to other features of the Lord as in heaven. He is there as Head. As we read in the epistle to the Colossians, “where Christ is.” As Christ He is the Head for the whole universe, for every man. Think of it — every man! If they will seek Him, He is available to every man. He is a Head great enough to sustain and control and influence the whole Church. But He is above; so that Christ is the One in whom all that is pleasing to God resides. As Christ, He is Head. He is not here; He is in heaven — “Where Christ is.” Then He is there as Priest. He has gone into heaven itself. He has not gone into the holy places made with hands, but into heaven itself. He is the great Priest of the people of God, whether to support us in our weakness or in relation to God, He is above. So that, dear brethren, if the Lord help us, and He would help us, we should seek what is above, not what is on the earth. We are told to seek the things which are above; not only the God and Father known in His various characteristics, and the Lord Jesus in His many offices as well as Himself personally, but we are told to seek the things which are above.
There is a vast range of things which are above which are to be sought, and as we seek them we will find we are saved from the dominion of the earth. If we live in relation to the earth, you will find we will soon come under Satanic influence — earthly, sensual, devilish. What will save us from being earth-dwellers is seeking the things above. I wanted to draw attention to a few of them; the vast things that surround the Lord Jesus Christ, where Christ is. Scripture tells us to get a glimpse of what is above. James tells us of the wisdom that is from above. There is other wisdom that is marked by strife and envy and all kinds of evil. There is a vast amount of wisdom which is to be sought, and the Word tells us it is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, and easy to be entreated, full of mercy and good fruits, without partiality and without hypocrisy. That kind of wisdom is in store above in heaven. I know it is in Christ, but the Word says it is above and to be sought. We need it today. The spirit of strife and envy is abundant throughout this world, but what the saints need is the wisdom from above, which is to be sought. Wisdom is resource, and with such wisdom we can meet every situation. If we had a supply of that wisdom, all those other features would follow, and the worst situation that would arise would be met. So that we are to seek it.
Then there is a citizenship for us above. Have we a sense of the greatness of that? Citizen’s rights in heaven! How it would save us from citizenship of this world! How the cities of this world would look small if we took account of the heavenly city! Scripture speaks of the heavenly Jerusalem — Jerusalem above, and we have a citizenship there. Every saint of God has a citizenship in heaven which saves him effectively — as it is sought, it saves him from the citizenship of earth. What a city! It has the glory of God. It is an amazing expression to be connected with that which is created. The holy city, heavenly Jerusalem, descending out of heaven, having the glory of God! No human lips, no human pen could pen such a thing” — having the glory of God.” Other cities have the glory of founders or countries where they are. What are they? What is the glory of Melbourne compared with the glory of God? The outshining glory of what God is! What are its features? One of the greatest is there is nothing whatever of darkness there. Transparency is probably the greatest feature of the city. Its shining is most precious — clear as crystal. Its light that emanates from it is as clear as crystal. Its walls are of jasper, and the city was pure gold, like unto clear glass. The whole city is pure. Its river was a pure river of water of life — clear as crystal. Every influence from that city is undefiled by the dark influences that belong to this world, which every city of this world is tainted with to a greater or lesser degree. But in that city the throne of God and of the Lamb are found. God and the Lamb — that blessed One who suffered. His throne is established in that city. It says, “I saw no temple therein, for God and the Lamb are the temple thereof.” God and the Lamb are immediately and directly there. They are not there in the shrine, not in any intermediate way, but there as the temple themselves. We have a citizenship in that city which is above. Our citizenship is in heaven. Let us seek as one of the things which are above to know the blessedness of citizenship in that city.
There are other things that one can suggest. Peter tells us that we have an inheritance incorruptible and undefiled which fades not away. An inheritance which is incorruptible, that cannot be taken away; not only that it is not corrupted, but it cannot be corrupted or defiled, and that can never disappear, or fade away. Dear brethren, what an inheritance! What are the inheritances of the earth compared with the inheritance that is reserved in heaven. In the mind of God there is an inheritance reserved in heaven, and it is to be sought. Seek the things which are above. Some of us were speaking just now of a man that had an inheritance left him that would enable him to do everything on this earth, but life was worthless to him. But there is an inheritance that is ours, which is ours for the seeking. It is reserved in heaven. What is it? The greatest feature of it is that in the enjoyment of it we are conformed to the image, of His Son. That is, we are to correspond to Christ as the Son of God. We are to have in that inheritance a place of sonship before the Father. The liberty, the joy, the holy affections, the blessed service that belongs to sons! Our tiny minds and hearts know little of it. We see it in Christ, the deliverer of our souls. The One who as a Blessed Man could look up and say “Father” without a shade or shadow of distance, with all the liberty of holy relationship. That is what I believe is the climax of that inheritance reserved in heaven. It is to be known now. If we seek it we shall taste it. In the power of the Holy Ghost we shall enjoy our inheritance. There are many other things we cannot speak of. The temple of God is there; the ark of the covenant is seen in the temple. What a range of thoughts for our minds and hearts! Christ as the Ark of the Covenant! The blessed Vessel was seen there, is to be seen there! One other thing — we know that the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness. The execution of it is future — but it is there, and as we seek what is above, we have the knowledge of it though we will never be the objects of it. I can understand that as Noah and his family moved through the waters, the outlook was above. They would be sensible of the wrath of God, conscious of His judgment on unrighteousness; but their outlook was above.
One desires to suggest these thoughts that the Lord may use to help to save us from the things of the earth. They are the snares. One is conscious that the things on the earth are the snares, and they are used to divert our hearts and minds from the things above; but let us have a glimpse of the great realm of things which find their centre in God, and in the Lord Jesus Christ, in the Ark of His covenant, and all the things which are above, and we shall then be preserved in our minds. One would call attention to the importance of the minds. Set your minds on things above. How much we are affected by that which occupies our minds. I know the heart has an immense place, but the mind has a great place also. Set your minds on things above. There is that which is above, which is worthy, dear brethren, that our minds should be occupied with and controlled by, and as that is so I am sure we shall find that the Lord preserves us from the dominion of that which is on earth.