ATTRACTION
It is thought that this occasion might be suitable to remind ourselves of how God uses the principle of attraction to hold us in our households, in our localities and in our exercises. He would hold us as attracted into what He has provided. It is a very attractive occasion today; the very basis of our being here is that persons were attracted to one another. Indeed, we are all here because we have been attracted. It is a principle that God works on. He is going to have things like that in a day to come. He says, “many shall come from the rising and setting sun and shall lie down at table with Abraham ...”, Matt 8: 11. What a journey that will be! Think of the movements there will be in that day, the whole extremes of creation being affected in movement as persons make their way to lie down in the place where Christ is honoured.
I have read about Paul at the end of his time and David at the end of his time and they are not speaking about hardships; they are speaking about the One who attracted them and maintained them in the power of attraction. What a thing, dear brethren, to be held, but not legally! What a thing to be there because we have been attracted! Not a hardship, not there because it is required that we should be there, (although that would be true too)—but there because we are attracted! Paul is speaking here—he could have chosen many subjects, he had a life of rich history to draw upon but what he draws upon is this light that attracted him—the last reference he makes to it but by far the finest, “a light above the brightness of the sun”—above it. That was what held Paul. It had happened a long time before. It happened before those in Asia forsook him. It happened before Ephesus and these places turned away, and this is what he falls back on, that there was a light “above the brightness of the sun” and a voice speaking to him in Hebrew,—that choicest and most feeling of languages, saying, “Why persecutest thou me?” Well, beloved, the Lord would appeal to us today as we are here—we are in the testimony, we are in our households, we are in our localities—because of being attracted, and we are held here as committed to this One. He spoke to Paul, He has spoken to you. What has He said to you? While Paul says, “Who art thou, Lord?” He says, “I am Jesus”. He did not say, ‘I am the King of kings’. He did not assert His authority as He might well have done over such a rebellious soul, but He says “I am Jesus”—the Jesus of the gospels, the Man who was in that house in Luke 7, the Man of John 8 who said, “I am altogether that which I also say to you” (v 25). That was the Man who says, “I am Jesus”. That is what held Paul through the testimony. May it hold our brother and sister, may it hold us all! There are exercises among us, exercises ahead. What is the answer to be? Are we here because our parents have been? Why are we in the testimony? Paul would say, I am here bound with, a chain in answer to Jesus. Well, beloved, may we be helped to pursue like that. As I have said, none of us would have a harder time than Paul but he was held as attracted by that Man of the gospels. But not only that: he was held by the Man who was enthroned in heaven. That was what Paul was impressed with, that this voice came from heaven. It far exceeded the brightness of the sun—it came from heaven because that is where Jesus is—the Man who hung on the cross for you, the Man who bore my sins in His own body on the tree—He is in heaven and He is speaking from heaven and He is attracting us to heaven. These exercises we have to go through, dear brethren, are not the end—the voice came from heaven where He was, and to which He was attracting Paul. That is the secret of why Paul’s ministry is referred to as a heavenly ministry—not that Peter’s was not heavenly but Paul’s is distinctively a heavenly ministry because the Lord intervened from the glory and the voice was from heaven—“Why persecutest thou me?” May the appeal of “I am Jesus” hold us in these present times.
In David I would refer to one who committed his all, may I say, to the local assembly. He says, “I have prepared”. He prepared in his power—that was one thing and maybe we do not have so much opportunity as he had for that—but I want to speak especially of what he says, I have given “in my affection”. It was not so great in quantity but the quality was surpassing. The gold that he provided in his affection was not just gold, it was gold of Ophir; what he provided was silver that was refined—that is what he provided of his own hand, dear brethren. That is what he provided as a result of exercise, but here he is at the end of his days. I think he gained this very early in his life. Our brother has been speaking of reading the ministry, reading the Scriptures, applying ourselves to what the Lord would be saying—I think that is where David gained this—because he became very busy. Exercises almost overwhelmed him, but I think he gained that gold of Ophir in his early days. There was something there that the Spirit could expand. May I appeal to us all, especially to those who are younger, to commit ourselves early to have this gold that the Spirit can refer to as the gold of Ophir—something that was matured—silver that was refined. I think these things were gained—they began at least—in his early exercises and he maintained them. He says, “Behold, we heard of it at Ephratah, we found it in the fields of the wood”, Ps 132: 6. It came into his heart early. Oh, beloved, if things come into your heart early, apply yourself to them. It may not look worthwhile. Did it look worthwhile for David? A great Saul on the throne and he in the wilderness. Did it look worthwhile? He would say here it was well worthwhile—like Jacob at the end of his time with God, “that shepherded me all my life long”, Gen 48: 15. What a fund he had to draw on and what a fund here David has to draw on—that gold of Ophir and refined silver. Oh, let us appreciate divine things in broken days, beloved, and let us commit all that we have in our homes, in our localities, to the furtherance of what is going to finish in glory—not in breakdown but in glory. So David finishes with this appeal. He says, “And who is willing to offer to Jehovah this day?” Are you going to commit yourself today, beloved? Our brother and sister have made certain vows today. Are you going to join in avowal to God today? Who is willing? Is anyone going to hold back in the presence of such attraction? As I said, how many were drawn here today! God would just speak attractively. He says, “I will allure her, and bring her into the wilderness, and speak to her heart”, Hos 2: 14. Oh, what a word to an erring, guilty Israel. That is what God says, “I will allure”. Well, He is doing that to you today. May your heart be affected, with our brother and sister, with us all, to willingly commit yourself today to what God has proposed that is so attractive, so blessed and soon going to issue in glory!
EDINBURGH
24th August 1974
On the occasion of a marriage