DEPTH

DEPTH

Genesis 22:1-8; Genesis 22:15-18; Psalm 22:1-3; Hebrews 9:13,14

I have the desire, dear brethren, with the help of the Lord, to say a word as to the depths into which God entered in order that all His precious thoughts might be established for ever. I think we need to take account of this side of things perhaps more than we have done, in order that greater depth of feeling, and greater sobriety, might be brought to pass with us all, not that one would exclude oneself in any way from being in need of these things, but one feels that as the end draws near, and as the Spirit of God is emphasising the exceeding greatness and morally elevated character of the things to which we have been called, there is a need with us of increasing depth of feeling, and increasing sobriety, as befits those who are not only called with a heavenly calling, but are themselves heavenly. We have been speaking, in the meetings which many of us have had already today, of the heavenly level of the things in which we have been called to have part; perhaps it has not sufficiently impressed us all, how wonderful it is that one of the Persons of the Godhead should have taken up manhood, bringing into manhood all moral excellence. All that God could look for in man, adequate to satisfy His heart, and sufficient rightly to express Himself, has now come into being in the Person of our Lord Jesus Christ in manhood, the glory of His Person shedding its light on, and giving its character to, the manhood which now subsists in Him. But what is perhaps equally marvellous is that redemption having been accomplished, we are given to have part in that heavenly order of manhood by the Spirit given to those who have believed. It is not only a question, beloved brethren, of status, it is a question of actual formation according to Christ, and before long we shall actually take on His image. One would speak of these things feelingly in order that we might give them place in our minds to a greater extent. Not that merely thinking about them will effect very much, save as we are enabled in the power of the Spirit, to contemplate Christ; beholding the glory of the Lord we are changed into the same image, from glory to glory. It is a progressive work, which goes on as Christ is before the hearts of His saints as the great standard of all that affords unfailing pleasure to the heart of God, and as I have said, to whom we are all shortly to be finally and actually conformed. The apostle in writing to the Ephesians tells us of his prayer, in chapter 3, and he says that he bows his knees to the Father, of whom every family in the heavens and on earth is named, that he would give to us to be strengthened with power by His Spirit in the inner man, that the Christ may dwell in our hearts by faith; that is the first thing he desires, that the Christ may dwell, through faith, in our hearts and that being rooted and founded in love we should be able to apprehend with all the saints, carrying them all in our thoughts and hearts, what is the breadth and length and depth and height; and then he adds “and to know the love of the Christ which surpasses knowledge”; and to be “filled even to all the fulness of God.” The breadth and the length, I take it, refer to the great expansiveness of divine thoughts. I do not propose to speak of those now, but then the apostle says “depth and height.” We have had something of height before us already this day, those of us who have been present at the meetings, height in the sense of what is morally elevated, heavenly in character; but before we can really take on height, I believe we need to know something more of depth, and I trust we may be helped to see that the height which God has before Him, in regard of His wonderful thoughts in relation to those whom He has called, is commensurate with the depths into which He Himself has entered.

So I take up this passage in Genesis 22, a well-known passage, in order to call attention, not only to the sacrifice involved for the Son, typified in Isaac, but also to call attention to what it involved for the Father. Then the second passage, Psalm 22, will impress us, further, with all that has been involved for the Son in order to lay an immutable basis for the establishment of all God’s thoughts, and for the bringing into expression of all His glory. And the third passage will show that the Holy Spirit Himself has entered into this wonderful matter. You remember, dear brethren, that when God appeared to Moses at the burning bush, He spoke to him of the condition in which His people were, and His proposal to bring them out of Egypt, and bring them into a land flowing with milk and honey; and He said to Moses “I have seen assuredly the affliction of my people who are in Egypt, and their cry have I heard ... and I am come down to deliver them” - “I am come down.” Carry that in mind, dear brethren, it is not that He sent an angel, an angel could quite well have effected all that was necessary for the deliverance of His people from Egypt; but God says “I am come down.” And I believe as we begin to take account of the way God has operated to deliver us from all that in which we were involved, and to secure us for His pleasure, we shall find that it has involved the coming down of God, first in the Person of the Son, and then in the Person of the Spirit. God Himself entering into the conditions which had come in through sin, first, as I have said, in the Person of the Son, and then in the Person of the Spirit, in order to effectuate complete deliverance for His people.

Well now, in this 22nd chapter of Genesis. God called upon Abraham to act, “Take now,” He says, “thy son, thine only son, whom thou lovest, Isaac.” The answer on Abraham’s part was immediate, and just by way of digression for a moment, in connection with what came before many of us this afternoon, I may point out that with this great matter in hand it says that Abraham rose early in the morning. It will be found frequently in Scripture, where something of importance is to be taken up, that those concerned rose early in the morning. We have it here in this chapter, we have it in Exodus 24, where God called upon Moses to go up the mountain with Aaron, Nadab and Abihu, and seventy of the elders of Israel, and they went up, and saw God, and ate and drank in the presence of God. But it says in that scripture, that Moses rose early in the morning, and built an altar. And then again in the book of Joshua, in chapter 3, when they were about to cross the Jordan, and to enter into the land, something which we have before us every Lord’s day morning, that by the grace of the Lord, and in the power of the Spirit, we may pass over Jordan and enter into the land, on that occasion it says that Joshua rose early in the morning. We know well that on the great first day of the week, the day on which the Lord Jesus rose from the dead, Mary of Magdala, that great lover of Christ, rose very early in the morning, while it was yet dark, and went to the sepulchre. But as has already been remarked this afternoon, the Father was there before her, the Father had been there, and had raised up Christ from among the dead by His glory. One often thinks, and I have no doubt others do too, what the feelings of the Father must have been when He raised up Jesus from among the dead on that first day of the week. Every cherished thought of the Father was now secured, and the One in whom it was secured was there before His face in glorious manhood, firstborn from among the dead. And then, too, what the Lord must have felt on the first day of the week, to find Himself, speaking reverently, raised from amongst the dead by the glory of the Father; and all that He had cherished in His heart so blessedly was now secured for the Father’s pleasure for eternity. So that He was able to speak to Mary Magdalene later on of “my brethren,” and of the heavenly relationships which were now to be introduced. How much there is connected with the first day of the week. It is well that we should carry these things in our minds every first day of the week, and that we should realise that important things are before us, as we take up the privilege of the Supper, and all that springs out of it, and then go through the day with other features proper to the first day of the week. How much there is that is glorious in character, that we move amongst, that we have part in. And it is well that we should be concerned to be early in relation to these things, and that they should be before us, not as something casual, not as something even merely habitual; but as something glorious, into which every first day of the week would give us fresh entrance. And then we find too, alas, on the other side of the matter, that God, in His dealings with Israel, had to tell them several times over, through the prophet Jeremiah, that He had risen early in the morning, sending His prophets to them. Think of God using such language, that He had risen early in the morning in an appeal, in an earnest desire, to secure again the affections of His people which He had lost. So intent was He upon it that He would rise early in the morning and send prophets with that in view, in order that the affections of His people should be stimulated, if it were possible, and the answer that He sought might be secured.

Well, I only say that by way of a digression because of what has been raised, and is being raised, as to whether we might not well begin our privileges on Lord’s days earlier than we do, and take up the day with a sense of the glory attaching to it, and of the importance of the things in which we are about to have part. Here in this 22nd chapter of Genesis it says that Abraham, with great things before him, rose early in the morning. God had said to him, “Take now thy son, thine only son, whom thou lovest, Isaac, and get thee into the land of Moriah, and there offer him up for a burnt-offering on one of the mountains which I will tell thee of.” The verses that I read at the end of the chapter show us that as a result of what was done, as a result of all that it meant for the Father, and of all that it meant for the Son, all the precious promises of God are secured. But this is the way by which they were to be secured, a way which involved infinite sacrifice. All was to be in the nature of a burnt-offering, there is wonderful acceptability, there is wonderful fragrance before God in relation to Christ, in the way of self-sacrifice in which He has gone; but at the same time, dear brethren, it may be we do not always give sufficient thought to what it has meant for the Father; and so it says that they went both of them together. But it says also, that “Abraham took the wood of the burnt-offering, and laid it on Isaac his son; and he took the fire in his hand (that is Abraham’s hand) and the knife, and they went both of them together.” It is interesting how this scripture speaks of the wood of the burnt-offering, twice it speaks of it, “the wood of the burnt-offering.” I suppose it refers to the humanity of Christ, as underlying all that was effected by means of His precious death; and what a glorious humanity it was, dear brethren; moral excellence stamped upon it. You remember how it says in Psalm 40 that in the volume of the book it was written of Him, “Behold, I come, ... To do thy good pleasure, my God, is my delight, and thy law is within my heart” (verses 7, 8). Think of that, dear brethren, a Man now appearing under God’s eye, who carried all the will of God in His heart, and was bent upon doing it as His delight, not as something imposed upon Him, but as something in which He delighted. What it must have been to the heart of God. You can understand something of the idea of the ark of the testimony in the holiest, it speaks of Christ as devoted to God’s will, for the testimony was laid in the ark, and it means that as a result of God having brought in, in Christ, One who was devoted to His will, He is going to secure a universe that is characterised by persons who love the will of God, persons who have taken character from Christ. Think of the wide extent of what God is securing as the result of the coming in of Christ, and of the basis laid in His wondrous sacrifice. And it began with that, that He came in as delighting in God’s will, cherishing every detail of it, and determined to go through with it to the end, whatever it entailed for Him. You can understand that all the movements of Jesus were fragrant to God. His coming into the world, and all His movements right through this scene, and the final movement to death, and His offering Himself without spot to God, how fragrant it all was, dear brethren. I think one is beginning to get an increasing sense as one goes into the presence of God, that the presence of God is really filled with the fragrance of Christ. It is a delightful thing to repair there. All around there is that which is entirely obnoxious to God, save of course what is found in His people, but when you get into the presence of God you get an impression that there is one Man there, in the Person of our Lord Jesus Christ, who fills the heart of God with positive delight, because of all that He is, as well as all that He has done. But then, ere that could come to pass, this way of suffering and sacrifice had to be taken, and it is well that we should see that the Father had His own part in it, the scripture presents things in this way in this chapter, in a kind of pictorial way, in order to enable us, by the Spirit, to get some impression of it, without exactly a direct statement of Scripture as to it. But there is enough in the passage to enable us, by the Spirit, to get an impression of what it meant for the Father that His thoughts should be established by this way of infinite sacrifice on the part of His Son. And so it says that the wood of the burnt-offering was laid upon Isaac, but then it says that the father, Abraham, took the fire in his hand, and the knife. Isaac was his son, his only son, for here God takes no account of Ishmael. Isaac was his only son, whom he loved; and Abraham and Isaac were going together and as they thus moved together, in unbroken communion, on a journey this part of which was still far off when it was commenced, the father was carrying the fire and the knife. He would know well what use was to be made of the fire, he would know well what use was to be made of the knife. It is put in that way, I believe, dear brethren, in order that we should not think that God is above having feelings in these matters, indeed rather we are to understand that all the Persons of the Godhead have been involved in the most extreme sacrifice, in order that divine thoughts of blessing might be for ever established. And so we are to read into the passage, I do not doubt, that it was not without cost to the heart of God Himself, cost that we cannot measure, that the basis of all the blessing that is to subsist through the world to come and through eternity, was laid; it was not, I say, without cost, either to the Father or to the Son, that this way was undertaken. And so it says, “they went both of them together.” A wonderful contemplation. We see the Father and the Son moving together in the gospel of John, in a particular way; how They moved together, there was never a shade of divergence of thought between the Father and the Son, the Son did nothing of Himself, but what He saw the Father do; on the other hand, the Father hid nothing from the Son, but shewed Him all that He was doing. A wonderful contemplation, the movements together of the Father and the Son in the gospel of John; and yet we are to understand that there came a moment, when the supreme sacrifice was to be made, as it says, “He who, yea, has not spared his own Son, but delivered him up for us all.” And so we are to be affected by this, dear brethren, that we do not treat divine things lightly, that we do not regard lightly the fact that we have been called with the wonderful calling with which we have been called, but that underlying all that we are brought into, lies this remarkable expression of depths into which God Himself has entered. Infinite depths, and I believe I am right in saying that the blessing and the glory in wonderful moral elevation, and all that speaks of height, are commensurate with the depths into which divine Persons have entered.

Well, I will come back in a moment to the later part of this chapter, but will now endeavour to speak, and it is holy ground indeed, on the verses we have read from Psalm 22. It is the language of our Lord Jesus Christ, as we know, on the cross; He said, “My God, my God, Why hast thou forsaken me? why art thou far from my salvation” - how much there is in that Word ‘far,’ “why art thou far?” How the Lord felt it, dear brethren, the terrible distance that had come in. To Him who had always walked in unbroken communion with God, and in the sense of being pleasing to God, there came this moment when He says, “why art thou far from my salvation?” He says, indeed, “Thou art my God from my mother’s belly.” From the very outset He had depended upon God, He had relied upon God in everything. He had ministered to the pleasure of God unceasingly, the heavens had opened upon Him twice, and the Father’s pleasure in Him had been declared. But now there came a moment when He says “My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? why art thou far from my salvation?” Are we able, in the Spirit, to enter in any degree, dear brethren, into all that was involved in that? The Lord speaks in the gospel of Matthew, on a certain occasion, not referring to the abandonment, but to that which followed it, “even as Jonas was in the belly of the great fish three days and three nights, thus shall the Son of man be in the heart of the earth three days and three nights.” First abandonment by God on the cross, and then three days and three nights in the heart of the earth - the heart of it. I only call attention to these things, dear brethren, because I believe they are intended to promote depth of feeling with us, that we may understand that God Himself, and Christ Himself, have entered into deepest depths that no creature could ever fathom, in order that the thoughts of divine love might be established on a basis that can never be overthrown. What would it mean to the heart of God to hear His only Son say, “Why hast thou forsaken me? why art thou far from my salvation?” What would it mean to the heart of God to hear that language? what would it mean to the heart of Christ to be in that position? I do not want in any way to work on feelings, one would desire to touch this matter only in a holy way, but I believe the Scriptures are intended to have with us the voice that they carry, so that, as helped by the Holy Spirit, we might get some impression of the depths to which God has gone in order that His thoughts might be for ever made good. But then there is something else that comes out. The Lord says, “And thou art holy, thou that dwellest amid the praises of Israel.” He was under the judgment of God in order that God’s holy nature might be vindicated, and His rights established, by the precious work of redemption effected in His death, and so He vindicates God. He says, “And thou art holy, thou that dwellest amid the praises of Israel.” No complaint, nothing but perfect complete accord of mind and heart with God in His holy nature, and a determination in holy zeal, that all God’s nature should be vindicated, and all His precious thoughts for ever secured. We may well boast in our Lord Jesus Christ. It speaks of our being the circumcision, “who worship by the Spirit of God,” that is, we disown every other power, “and boast in Christ Jesus,” that is, we have no other Man before our hearts to boast in. And here we get that which would surely promote in our hearts a feeling that we may well boast in our Lord Jesus Christ, and indeed in our God too.

And then, as we read in the epistle to the Hebrews, “if the blood of goats and bulls, and a heifer’s ashes sprinkling the defiled, sanctifies for the purity of the flesh, how much rather shall the blood of the Christ, who by the eternal Spirit offered himself spotless to God.” We are intended to gather from that, dear brethren, that the Spirit Himself entered feelingly into this matter of atonement, “who by the eternal Spirit offered himself spotless to God.” I do not think one can say any more about this than the passage itself conveys and expresses, but there it is, in order that we might have an impression that the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit have all entered into this matter of the atonement, of the accomplishment of redemption, in order, as I have said several times, that God’s will should be established, and all His precious thoughts brought in.

And so now returning to the passage we read in Genesis 22, the word from heaven says to Abraham, “By myself I swear, saith Jehovah, that, because thou hast done this, and hast not withheld thy son, thine only son, I will richly bless thee, and greatly multiply thy seed, as the stars of heaven, and as the sand that is on the seashore.” What wonderfully extensive results now come into view as the outcome of that which we have been considering, “I will multiply thy seed,” it says, “as the stars of heaven.” No doubt in one way this reference to the stars of heaven and the sand that is on the sea-shore may refer to heavenly and earthly families to be brought into blessing, but I believe on the other hand they may both be applied to the saints of our day, we are as the stars of heaven already, in one sense the full thought requires resurrection, as we have it in that wonderful resurrection chapter, 1 Corinthians 15, how star differs from star, it says, in glory. It looks forward to the moment when the saints will shine in the glory of Christ as all raised, and yet star differs from star in glory. What a scene is before us, dear brethren, in which we have part through grace. In Isaiah 40 the prophet calls upon the people to lift up their eyes on high, and take account of the stars, the number of them, and God knows them all by name, and brings them forth by their number, and, thank God, He knows us by name too, our names are written in heaven, the Lord says, everyone having his own distinction, having his own glory, it says star differs from star in glory. There may be differences of measure, but at the same time star differs from star in glory. It is as though the Spirit of God would impress us with the sense that glory is before us, and indeed our position is glorious already. It says in Peter’s epistle that the God of all grace has “called you to his eternal glory in Christ Jesus,” 1 Peter 5: 10. Think of the glory of being in Christ Jesus. It is not only a question, as I said before, of heavenly status, there is status in it, but there is power in the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus to form the saints already in the moral qualities of the second Man out of heaven. That is what is involved in being in Christ Jesus, the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus, the apostle says, has set me free from the law of sin and of death. The one who commenced as a persecutor of the assembly, breathing out threatenings and slaughter against the disciples of the Lord, now seen, as a result of the operations of the Spirit in him, as completely free from all that previously marked him, so that he could move already amongst men, in the dignity of one of the sons of God, in the grace of Christ, serving others in love, content to make himself least of all and servant of all. These are glorious features, love is glorious, dear brethren; and the more we take on love, as learning it from Christ, the more we are formed in that which is of God, and which is morally glorious. And our conditions down here, as set amongst the saints in suffering and testing conditions, are only intended to bring into greater evidence and display, the formation of love that there is in the saints. And so it is a question of what is heavenly shining, the apostle writing to the Philippians says, “among whom ye appear as lights in the world, holding forth the word of life,” chapter 2: 15. You get the expression “the word of life” in John’s epistle, in relation to the life of Jesus here. But now the saints, as heavenly luminaries, as real stars, hold forth the word of life in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation. What a dignity it is, dear brethren, what a calling it is. Let us be concerned to take on the moral features proper to our calling. It says in the epistle to the Corinthians, “Such as he made of dust, such also those made of dust; and such as the heavenly one, such also the heavenly ones. And as we have borne the image of the one made of dust, we shall bear also the image of the heavenly one.” But we can already, as formed by the Holy Spirit, come out in the moral features of the second Man out of heaven, and insofar as we do, we are shining here in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation as heavenly luminaries. And so that is one great result at the present time - I am not speaking now for the moment of what will be, the moment is near when the Lord will come, when all of us who are living shall be changed, and the dead shall be raised, and we shall be caught up together in His likeness to meet the Lord in the air. That moment is near, dear brethren, but even at this present time, there is the possibility for us to take on what belongs properly to our heavenly calling, and to have the sense, in the measure that the saints do so, that God finds a present answer in keeping with the wonderful depths to which God has been, as we have already had before us.

But then also, there is the question of the sand of the sea-shore. I know that these similes are taken up, the stars and the sand, in order to convey the idea of wonderful innumerability, and there is something very stimulating, dear brethren, in considering the immense number of the saints. In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, we shall see them all, we shall then not feel that we are in reproach, we shall then not feel that we are in the minority, we shall feel that we are connected with what is infinitely glorious, when the whole of the work of God comes into view, and we ourselves forming part of it. But now just for the moment, there is not only this idea of the stars of the heavens, to which I have already alluded, but there is also the sand of the sea-shore. And we find in the book of Jeremiah that God has “set the sand a bound for the sea by a perpetual decree, and it shall not pass it, and its waves toss themselves, but they do not prevail,” Jeremiah 5: 22. That is the position the saints are in today, as heavenly ones in the midst of a world of evil, of increasing evil, that God has placed us there as a bound, so that the forces of evil cannot prevail, and they will not prevail so long as the saints are here, maintaining a heavenly influence, maintaining the light of God in this world; however greatly evil increases it will not prevail as long as the saints are here. It is a question of the sand which God has set as a bound for the sea, so that it cannot pass over.

Well, dear brethren, these are great thoughts, we want to clothe ourselves with them, clothe the dear brethren with them; it is what belongs to us, and then it not only says “the sand that is on the seashore,” but “thy seed shall possess the gate of his enemies.” I believe that appears in the assembly now. We know that Hades’ gates are arrayed against the saints, that the counsels of evil are all being directed to the overthrow, if it is possible (though it is not possible) of what the Lord has here in His assembly. But thank God there is a sphere in which administration according to God is maintained, so that administration of evil does not have it all its own way. There is a sphere on this earth where what is of God is maintained, and in that way the victory is secured; there was a time, I suppose, when there was very little in the way of true assembly administration known among the saints, the enemy had so wrought that he had destroyed almost every thing of an assembly character amongst the people of God; but now the truth has been recovered, and what is true of the assembly is seen in function in various localities. It is a great thing to see that administration according to God is now secured again, after perhaps, one may say, it had for a long time been lost; so that “thy seed” it says, “shall possess the gate of his enemies; and in thy seed shall all the nations of the earth bless themselves, because thou hast hearkened to my voice.”

I need not say more, dear brethren, these verses we have read from verse 15 onwards are the great result secured for God as the outcome of the wonderful sacrifice that precedes in the chapter. The devotion of Christ to the will of God even to death has ascended to Him as a sweet savour, it was a burnt-offering; and the sweet savour remains, you cannot go into the presence of God, I believe, without getting some sense of the sweet savour of Christ that fills His presence. But it is a sweet savour founded on the fact that He was prepared to go to infinite depths which no creature could ever fathom, in order that God’s holiness might be vindicated, His righteousness established, His heart set free, and all the precious thoughts of His heart established for ever.

May God grant us a greater sense, dear brethren, of the depths to which God has been, so that we ourselves may become increasingly marked by depth, and by sobriety too, and enabled thus to take on in some greater degree of power, what is heavenly and spiritual.