“TO US AND NOT TO THE WORLD”
It is an interesting question that Judas raises: “how is it that thou wilt manifest thyself to us and not to the world?”. Up to this time the Lord had been available to all, He had gone into their houses, He had sat at the well with the woman, many had seen Him; perhaps few had believed on Him, but He had been available anyway. There is a change coming that the Lord is speaking of, He is going away, things are going to be on a different footing, and what the Lord says causes Judas to raise the question: “how is it that thou wilt manifest thyself to us and not to the world?”. I believe it is a wholesome question. The Lord is bringing home to them that He is just as available, He is to be enjoyed just as freely, but there is to be exercise to find Him, concern that there are conditions so that the Lord can be known. The Lord in His own sovereign operations first moved in love toward us, when there was nothing that could be called a response. It says, “in the due time Christ died for the ungodly”, Rom 5: 6. There was not a spark of response to call out His affection toward us, indeed far otherwise, there was everything to repel Him; but it says, when we were without strength Christ died for the ungodly. Those are the initial movements of divine love, movements that divine Persons found a reason for in themselves, not in us. Think of God finding a reason in Himself to come and bless us when we were without strength! These sections that we are speaking of now contemplate persons who have some strength, who have known Jesus and who will be exercised to be in the area where divine things are known. So many people today say they are at a loss, that they do not know, yet they form judgments about things; but beloved, unless we are in the area where divine things are current, we will be wrong in our judgments, and we will not know. It is a solemn thing to think of persons not keeping the Supper, not remembering the Lord and yet being very strong in their opinion and judgments about things. I do not think we have a right to form judgments unless we are in an area where divine things are known. The Lord spoke to the crowds in the gospels, but He also taught in the house. He took interested persons up a mountain and He took a man away from the crowds. The Lord took persons into an area where divine things were disclosed; and unless, dear brethren, we are in that area we shall be astray in judgments, and we will be at a loss as to how to move. So Judas’ question brings out this word from the Lord: “If any one love me, he will keep my word, and my Father will love him”. Persons who were once unlovable are becoming attractive to divine Persons and it is then that you get divine disclosures: “he will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our abode with him”. Divine things are not just general, they are specific; they are for all to walk in but certain persons get the gain of them through being in the area where they are known and enjoyed. So that in persons who have had touch with Jesus, who have had their sins forgiven, it is expected that the work of God will grow and we become lovable, not in the amiable features of the flesh but as having divine interests at heart: “If any one love me, he will keep my word”. Think of some formation taking place in persons. It will soon be displayed in its entirety. What a display there will be when the work of God in its aggregate is finally seen! It will be said, “What hath God wrought”, Num 23: 23. What a time of display there will be when that city comes down from God, when the earth is brought into reconciliation in fulness! But in the meantime, there is something worked out morally in persons that divine Persons love. God shows it with Abraham· He says “Shall I hide from Abraham ... ?” Gen 18: 17. He had a confidante in Abraham, one that He was able to disclose His mind to because he was in the way of obedience. It says “Abraham, being called, obeyed”, Heb 11: 8. So there are certain well-proven principles that we must move on in order to come into the gain and experience of divine thoughts. Abraham obeyed and the effect of that is that God says, Shall I hide from him? He is spoken of as the friend of God. We may feel we are too young, that we cannot do much. We can obey, beloved, we can obey the expressions of love from Jesus. “If any one love me”: that would touch a chord with every one whose sins are forgiven. He does not here speak exactly of maturity or how well developed that love may be; He says “if any one love me”. Would that not include every one in this room? What an appeal to the affections! What an answer to Judas’s question: “If any one love me”! The basis, beloved, of coming into divine things is that we love Him. There may be other questions to settle but I believe they could be resolved through this: “If any one love me, he will keep my word and my Father will love him”. Abraham could have raised many questions; it was a very difficult move to make, the odds would seem to be against him had he calculated in human reasoning. That may well be in a difficulty that you are experiencing now, beloved, things may seem against you. “If any one love me, he will keep my word”. It is a fine thing to get the Lord’s word about any matter and I do not think He is slow to give it. Can we be trusted with it? Are we in the way that we can be trusted with the Lord’s word about things? He trusts it to Abraham, His friend. God was about to do something that was affecting the earth, about to come in in His own way, and He said He would like Abraham His friend to know. God would keep us in the light of how He is moving. We feel very perplexed ofttimes about many things but the Lord here shows in answer to Judas’s question that there is a way of getting the divine mind, of knowing how the Lord is moving: “If any one love me, he will keep my word”. It can be tested; there is a need for us testing things, and we arrive at things through testing them. As to those disciples that we spoke about in John 21, what they saw on the shore, the overwhelming power of grace, captured their hearts. The Lord has His own way of showing us how He is moving in things if we make way for Him. It is my exercise at this time that in spite of the breakdown, in spite of what confusion there may be and so many held in it, divine things are going on and there is an area where they are to be enjoyed today. May we through grace and the Spirit’s help be encouraged to be in that area. He is not today manifesting Himself to the world; the Lord will soon make Himself known to the world in a different form, but He is making Himself known today to His lovers, to those who are moving under exercise like those men in Matthew who came from the east. They had divine guidance because they had their eye and their hearts set on finding the King of the Jews. Something had arisen in the heavens that had awakened their interest and “it came and stood over the place where the little child was”, chap 2: 9. We need to have our interests aroused and exercise in our hearts that we may find how the Lord is moving today. Things were against these men; religious and political powers were set against them but they found a way, through dependence and guidance, to where the little Child was. May we be helped, dear brethren, to be in that area, to keep ourselves in it as Jude says: “keep yourselves in the love of God”. You would have thought as to that day of which Jude is writing that everything was breaking up, but he says “But ye, beloved ... keep yourselves in the love of God”. Some of us may dwell too long in the confusion and breakdown, humbling as it has been, but Jude’s word is “keep yourselves in the love of God”. What an area to keep in! Who will ever exhaust that area of the love of God? How full it is! It is His nature, how He expresses Himself; God is love, keep yourselves in the love of God. Jude is saying that many things are coming in to try the saints, what is rising up in the apostasy, but he says the way through it is to keep yourselves in the love of God, an area that is very fertile and full. The suggestion is that we may wander out of the enjoyment of it; it is always there but it may be that through a lack of dependence, a lack of exercise and faith, we are outside the area where the love of God is enjoyed. We enjoy it individually, we know its help in our circumstances, but I think this would be even more than that—“keep yourselves in the love of God”. It is something that is always fresh, not only what we have learnt about God and how we have proved Him in the past, but something that is always flowing, and Jude’s exhortation is to keep ourselves in it. It would preserve us from becoming bitter, from hardness, from being legal, from being loose, from many things that are apt to overtake us. It is the answer to all these exercises that may be around us—“keep yourselves in the love of God”. The way Jude is speaking here is that there is something being formed in the saints. There is something outside that is building up with increasing momentum, but all the time there is an area that the breakdown can never penetrate—“keep yourselves in the love of God”. Think of that verse that says “God commends his love to us”. That is how He started, and that is how we first knew the love of God. What a commendation of His love to us in Jesus! Now He is saying, Do you have a taste for it? I think, beloved, we need help to have our senses exercised to have a taste for divine things. How hindered the people of Israel were through reminiscences of Egypt! They hardly had a taste for divine things. The manna was there and it says that they loathed it. So beloved divine things have come so near us but we are apt to regard them below their value. They reminisced about Egypt, they began to have wrong ideas about it and would have gone back; it was the opposite of keeping themselves in the love of God. All the time that manna was round about them. Was there ever a morning that it failed? They had just to go out and pick it up, there was never a morning but what God manifested His love and His patience toward them. “Keep yourselves in the love of God”. Beloved it is all round about us. There are persons thinking that the day is one of poverty, complaining about all that has come in, when all around them is the love of God. The love of God is a real area, and those who have proved it and know it would encourage us all the more to be in it. May we be watchful, dear brethren, that things are not allowed that would hinder the flow of divine love among us: keep yourselves in it. It means that I am available, that I see to myself that there is no blockage in me, no hard spirit in me, no wrong thinking. As I keep myself in the love of God, and as you keep yourself in the love of God, we are joined together, feeding on the same food, thinking on the same things. There is nothing more formative than the love of God; so I repeat these words, keep yourselves in it, be watchful that other things do not spoil it. Abraham deflected for a moment and went into an area where things were held up. We get other instances with the children of Israel—they were overtaken by sin and the cloud did not move on certain days it stood stationary in one place. Beloved, that was not in the love of God. We have known in assembly history that things have been held up because we have not kept ourselves in the love of God. So we should be exercised that nothing is holding us up.
Jude says, “building yourselves up on your most holy faith, praying in the Holy Spirit, keep yourselves in the love of God”. Every true believer has faith, and Jude gives that precious touch to it—“most holy faith”. In broken times divine things become all the more precious and real; it is not only “faith” but “most holy faith”. It is valued. Do we value what God has given us? He has given to each a measure of faith, and as the days are so broken, Jude says, Cherish it like this: “your most holy faith”. It is what you have. “But ye, beloved, building yourselves up on your most holy faith”; that is the principle that things are built on, they are not built on sight or on complaint but on “your most holy faith” that God has given to each one of us in measure. He would have it to be in exercise and function so that we are built up. Then “praying in the Holy Spirit”; a thing that I feel is constantly testing; you feel the danger of being formal or casual in your prayers. We would all pray morning and evening and at other times too, and we have often cause to pray in extremity, but Jude says, “praying in the Holy Spirit”. It is some fine touch given to prayer, not exactly a cry of need. It is praying in the Holy Spirit, a divine Person that is here. It is not just praying to the Father who is in heaven; praying in the Holy Spirit means I think that the Spirit is here in charge of things and you are seeking not your own will but that you might be with Him in the working out of divine thoughts. The testimony, beloved, is carried through in the Spirit. Persons have deflected in times of breakdown and failure all along, but divine thoughts are carried through in and by the Holy Spirit of God. Think of a divine Person coming here, not to the world exactly but into the assembly, into the saints, to carry things through to the glory and satisfaction of Christ. It is no tribute to men that the testimony has gone through; we are thankful for men who have been used to spread the testimony and through whom the ministry has come, we are thankful for their example, but the testimony has been carried through in the power of and by the Spirit of God. So I think that praying in the Holy Spirit would be that you have a divine ideal and divine interests in your prayers. “Praying in the Holy Spirit” is something we should be exercised about, not a formal prayer, not only a time of giving thanks, but something you would make definite time for and be exercised about that you would be with the Spirit in the working out of things today.
Then Jude adds that word I have spoken about already: “keep yourselves in the love of God”. I think it is a wonderful climax that such a thing is available today to Christians. It is not available to the world. O beloved, what an outlook we have! The rising tide of apostasy that Jude is writing about here is coming upon the world, but what believers can do at the present time is to keep themselves in the love of God. May it be our portion, may it be our joy as we are exercised to have the sense of it; as I have said, it is so near, just to hand. Jude says, Just keep yourselves in it. There is to be a watchfulness with us that divine things are not made common; they are to be well known but never in familiarity. O beloved, who can but be worshipful as we think of the love of God? It has come near us, met our needs, taken up our case and yet it is inexhaustible. The hymn writer puts it well –
Oh the love of God is boundless,
Perfect, causeless, full and free! (Hymn 212)
Causeless: there is nothing to draw it out as I have said, and yet as we keep ourselves in it we become formed so that we are attractive to divine Persons and persons whom divine Persons can trust. I wonder if we are all like that in our local places, in our homes—persons that the Lord can trust. I think He is looking for such persons. While others may be bemoaning the breakdown, the Lord is looking for persons who can be entrusted with His secrets, with His manifestations. “How is it that thou wilt manifest thyself to us?”. Beloved, that has never stopped, that has never been interrupted for some; it may have been interrupted for me but some persons by the Spirit have kept themselves in the love of God and the manifestation has never stopped. How is it? We do well to enquire about these things, and it may be if I search my soul, I feel it is not happening with me. Jude would encourage us to build ourselves up on our most holy faith, to pray in the Holy Spirit and to keep ourselves in the love of God.
I just was impressed by the way Paul closes the two letters to Corinth: “The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Spirit, be with you all”. There had been much to speak of, much to exercise the saints, he had had to rebuke them, but he would not leave them without some impression of the resources that they have in the locality. He is not here speaking of some doctrine; he had spoken of doctrine and it is right that doctrine should have free course among us. Paul had had to get to the doctrine in the epistle, certain principles had to be in the lead because they were not acting rightly, but at the close it is the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ he is speaking of. They could hardly have enjoyed it in chapter 5 of the first epistle if they had continued on that line. Some of them came together for the Supper and they hardly enjoyed the grace of the Lord Jesus and the love of God and the communion of the Spirit there because, he says, when you come together it is to take your own supper. But as he comes to the end he says, Let this be with you all. Well, beloved, what a close to two such epistles, where there has been so much correction! As they read through the epistles, I do not suppose things had been completed even at this time, maybe some were feeling that there was so much still to do. Well, Paul says, that may be, but “the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Spirit, be with you all”. They had proved themselves that they were exercised. He did not say this to them in the first epistle or before they had put away the evil thing that was among them, but having done that, having moved in exercise, he says the grace of the Lord Jesus be with you all. O beloved, what a resource to have in local difficulties, what a resource to have in exercises that may well overwhelm us—the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ. There may be severe matters, maybe matters that involve withdrawal, but the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God and the communion of the Holy Spirit are still there. There is a very fine word about David. He was a man of war and we sometimes think of him like that but he was always ready to sing. I think this verse would explain something of that. If difficulties have become so great that we cannot sing there is something wrong. David is called a man of God not because he was a fighter but because he was a singer. The only reference to David as a man of God is in Nehemiah; it speaks of “the musical instruments of David the man of God”, chap 12: 36. May we be known as persons who are on God’s side about issues, persons who are with God in seeking to provide an area where love is enjoyed. In doing things for God we will know the grace of our Lord Jesus, the love of God and the communion of the Holy Spirit. I think it is a testing question, Can divine Persons be with me in what I am doing now? That is something to test ourselves by each day, in our individual life, in collective matters. I think the Corinthians would test themselves like that. There are things to do: is the grace of the Lord Jesus with me in doing it? Is the love of God with me in what I am doing? And do I know the communion of the Holy Spirit? Paul is saying as he closes the epistle, with many things still to be done I think, may this be with you and may you move in the conscious enjoyment of it. Well, may we be encouraged to move like that: broken, difficult, troublesome times, yet divine Persons to be known in the way they have displayed themselves. The grace of the Lord Jesus, who could overcome that? Though He was rich, for our sakes He became poor. O beloved, the grace that met the difficulty of the situation, the grace that absorbed the difficulty, absorbed the debt, grace that paid the price, that did what was needed to be done! “The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Spirit, be with you all”. May it be worked out with us in our various lives and various localities for His Name’s sake.
GILLINGHAM
22nd May 1976