CHRIST IN RELATION TO HIS OPERATIONS
[p. 208] CHRIST IN RELATION TO HIS OPERATIONS
Mark 14: 17; Jude 14, 15; 2 Thessalonians 1: 7 - 9
I wish to speak of Christ in relation to His operations into which He takes others — among the others, ourselves, as we are available. He also operates alone, of course. We read of His treading the wine-press alone. He was alone on the cross; we could have no part in that, His sufferings for sin the greatest of all operations. But He does carry on certain operations into which He takes others, trustworthy ones, and if untrustworthy ones are found in the movement they are eliminated. Judas represents this class, for the Lord’s associate in service is to be true as He is true; He is “the holy, the true”. “They that are with him are called, and chosen, and faithful” (Revelation 17: 14).
I have selected Mark in regard to this most attractive and touching of all the movements of Christ. Indeed, it culminates in the cross in all its terribleness, His atoning work into which even His followers could not come. But in view of it we are told in Mark, as I read, that He came “with the twelve”. He came with them, as if they were initially essential to the great matters before Him. He took them as far as morally possible, that is, into Gethsemane. He took them thus far and disposed of them in the garden on military principles; but He came with the twelve in view of all this. He did not come alone. He had sent two earlier to prepare. Great thoughtfulness entered into the matter, as indeed into every divine enterprise. Nothing is taken on lightly or haphazardly, all is on the principle of measure, and so preparation preceded this great matter into which the Lord is said to have come with the twelve. Matthew says that He “lay down” with the twelve at table, meaning that He lay down at a meal with them. It is suitable to do so; no doubt physically it is the best [p. 209] way to eat, and the way of eating is not to be ignored. But I am not occupying you with mere details, certainly not urging mere human ways in eating; on the contrary I would keep in view that moral instruction enters into such matters, especially what is now before us. Gideon’s enterprise reminds us of this, that we are to learn to discard the natural as sacrificing in everything so as to be victorious in the general testimony of God. So God says, “bring them down to the water, and I will try them for thee there” (Judges 7: 4). When you come to the hour of eating or drinking you are tested. Not one out of every thousand in the ordinary eating houses in the cities bows his head in thanksgiving to God when beginning to eat or to drink. The others say in effect, “Let us eat and drink for tomorrow we die”.
The Lord is implying, according to Matthew, that in what is before us there is to be deliberation. There is more than eating in the Lord’s supper, there is testing. “On this account many among you are weak and infirm” (1 Corinthians 11: 30). For what cause? The way they ate and drank what was professedly the Lord’s supper. So Matthew, in view of the assembly and all that enters into it, would say, Be deliberate in what you are doing. It is a most important matter and we should be deliberate about it. Weigh the matter, and in weighing the matter be sure to eat and drink according to the divinely given directions. As they were eating, the Lord challenged them as to His betrayal. That is to say, in the Lord’s supper, and the service of God, and those who have part in it, there must be discrimination. If the Lord is undertaking anything, He will have with Him whatever number or quality is necessary for the work in view; He knows what He needs in His enterprises. He makes a selection, and it is on the principle of twelve. Twelve is a very divisible number, a number that He can use flexibly according to what is in mind. That is what Mark would say.
[p. 210] The word is to all of us as to whether we are available to the Lord on that principle. If He is coming with the twelve, He is not coming with twelve people who have difficulties with each other. The Lord would not choose twelve persons for any work who are ignoring each other, who have secret or open difficulties with each other. He would make no such selection. Well, you say, there are such people coming to the Lord’s supper. But the Lord is not coming with them, He is not selecting them. Think of some of those at Corinth. They would no doubt say, Paul is a remarkable man, I was converted through him; but his bodily presence is weak and his speech is contemptible. What would the Lord think of remarks like that about His servants? Is He coming with such people? No, not at all. He is saying, I must deal with those people; there is no need of the twelve for those people, an executioner is needed for them. Put them away! That is the idea. Think of a man such as the one described in chapter 5 coming to sit down at the Lord’s supper! Is the Lord coming with him? The wonder is that there is not an angel meeting him on the way to slay him, as the angel met the prophet of old. We are living in a period of grace and advantage is taken, licence is taken. The prophet says that when God’s judgments are in the earth the inhabitants of the world will learn righteousness. But today grace reigns, and hence people take advantage. Think of the brazenness of a man such as is described in the 5th chapter of 1 Corinthians going to the Lord’s supper! Is the Lord with him? No, He is against him. The Lord saw to it that they took up an attitude against him, although in result it was for him; but for the moment it was, Remove him from among yourselves.
The Lord in coming in regard of His supper makes His own selection, those He can use, and the service is carried on in subjection to Him and to one another.
[p. 211] There are Peter, James, John, Bartholomew, Matthew — twelve of them. You say, There was one there who was not right. Quite so, but he was only one out of twelve and such a situation is remediable. That one can be dealt with. I mean to say there is power enough, there are men enough, to deal with that one. Let there be no mistake: if there is any person such as Judas, he will be dealt with. My point is that the Lord comes with the twelve. The Lord as risen appeared to the twelve. The Lord was preparing them to be ready for further enterprises, for they are constant. I thank God for these meetings, that they are so frequent, one of the greatest encouragements at the moment. The Lord comes every time with what is needed. Everyone of us would say, I am not going to be there simply as a spectator but as one of them; but if you come, be sure you have love; do not come without it. Do not be pretending to have it; your ways will soon show what your motives are, they will soon tell why you are here. The Lord is constantly working with us to make us available for these occasions, but above all for the great weekly occasion — the Lord’s supper and assembly service.
Luke says the Lord placed Himself at table when the hour was come, He took His place. Luke says order belongs to this matter, time belongs to it, place, seemliness of way and demeanour; He took His place at the hour and the twelve apostles were with Him. It is a great victory — they with Him, not He with them. It is a question of men when the word ‘apostle’ is used; it implies skilled workmen, men of moral weight through acquaintance with the Lord Jesus. We are greatly in need of such people. The Lord, at the hour, came and took His place at table and the twelve apostles were with Him. Judas was there, also, but not affording a situation that was irremediable; there is nothing irremediable from God’s point of view. But woe be to him that is there [p. 212] against the divine current! Judas was, because Luke says, “the hand of him that delivers me up is with me on the table” (Luke 22: 21). Think of the awfulness of eating with the Lord and being ready to betray Him, his hand ready to stretch out for the thirty pieces of silver! Think of what the Lord meant, what He felt! What would happen to that one? It were better for him if he had not been born, that is what the Lord says. There is no trifling in these matters. The Lord wants the twelve on His own terms, as His own pupils, as His own finished product, so that He can proceed with His great enterprises. That is what Luke says. How beautiful to have learned from Christ in the way of moral weight and authority, in having a little power to admonish or rebuke a brother or sister! How valuable such persons are with the Lord at the table!
Now, He says in effect, I can go on, I can proceed. Mark is usually urgent, for time is very precious to the Lord, to heaven, and to those who are engaged in the Lord’s service. They have no time to spare, and Mark could say, Do not waste any. If you are with the Lord as one of the twelve, or rather, if He is with you, He is trusting you, He is counting on you. If you have been trained, if you have gone to school, gone through the curriculum, you know that time is precious — not to be idled away. The Lord proceeds to expose the matter of Judas and to institute His supper. He does not institute it with Himself alone, or with just two or three, but with the twelve; and after they have partaken of it they sing a hymn. I suppose they were all singers. It is heaven’s way that we should be singers and it is heaven’s way to have something to sing. I do not know much about singing, but I can join in. It is heaven’s way that all should join in the signing. So they sang a hymn. Had they not often sung with Him before? Undoubtedly. They had sung with Him — He and they [p. 213] together. Who raised the tune? The Lord must have done it, you say, but I suppose any one of them might have done it. And then they went to the mount of Olives. That is to say, Jerusalem was taken account of in the enterprise. These men were accustomed to Jerusalem, John and the others had been there. Moses and Elias had been talking of Jerusalem on the mount with the Lord when the three were with Him. You can understand what solemnity there was in walking through its streets. What about the matter of cities in these military times? What about the matter of administration in cities, of elders? These men were solemn; they had been with the Lord Jesus at the table, they had been with Him at the institution of His supper, they had partaken of the passover with Him. Look at them moving out with Him, moving out from that city, so favoured once, but now doomed. The Lord had already wept over it, and they move out to the mount of Olives; all this enters into this solemn scene. Think of what the Lord has in His mind in this wonderful institution called His supper, involving the assembly of which He says, “my assembly, and hades’ gates shall not prevail against it”. He is passing through Jerusalem and the twelve apostles are passing through it with Him. They are going out to the mount of Olives after having sung a hymn. Think of the seriousness of it; think of the streets of Jerusalem, narrow as they were, all their past and all their terrible immediate future. How the apostles would later recall the Lord’s tears as they went out! He had all this in mind in coming with the twelve, they were to be with Him in all this. In our own time it is not a question of Jerusalem, but of cities and their influence. Jerusalem was not then capable of good influence, nor is any city today capable of good influence. The Lord, you will remember, when He came down through the coasts of Decapolis found a “deaf man who could not speak right”, evidently the influence of [p. 214] the city. How necessary from the Lord’s point of view to have the twelve in view of cities! So we have the Lord’s supper today. Revelation 11: 8 speaks of “the great city, which is called spiritually Sodom and Egypt, where also their Lord was crucified”. Let the young take that in. How do you look at cities, young people? What are they to you? Do you hasten through to the mount of Olives? The twelve were going, and the Lord was going — do not you lag behind. Instead of going to the Bible reading in the afternoon, do not go for a walk in the city. You will be damaged in your soul. And if you go to the country you will be no better off. Keep on with the twelve, they are influential for good, they are on the way to the mount of Olives. They are going on to heaven, they belong to heaven. All true believers in Christ are going there; the Holy Spirit is indwelling us, and wonderful disclosures are being made. You do not want to be out of all this. The Lord is bringing the twelve with Him; they are being used by Him to hold us. That is what the epistles to the Corinthians teach. You will understand that I am speaking of the principle entering into the fellowship into which we have been brought.
Now to go on to the second scripture, I wanted to point out another enterprise of the Lord’s. It is seen a long way off. The prophets saw a long way off. One of the greatest difficulties I have is to take a long outlook and a broad outlook. If you do, it will greatly aid you in overcoming, because the end will be greater than all the difficulties. There is a remedy for all difficulties in the long outlook. So Enoch of old, and other spiritually educated people, had a long outlook. Enoch was a prophet; we are not told about it before, but Jude, like Paul, tells us about things for the first time. We have narrated for us just a small percentage of the great happenings of God and His people. The Holy Spirit knows them all, and He takes up somebody like [p. 215] Jude to tell us something new, and we are enriched to that extent. So Enoch says, according to Jude 14, “Behold, the Lord has come amidst his holy myriads”. This is another matter; it is not a question of twelve here, it is holy myriads. You cannot count them. The Lord comes with them. It is another enterprise, and it enables me now to say a word as to the difference between the present time and the future in regard to the present war. There is not a word now more prominent in the whole vocabulary than the word ‘war’, a terrible thought, and we have to take it upon our lips. Enoch was speaking about a holy war — he speaks about the Lord coming in the midst of holy myriads. It is another kind of war than that which conscientious objectors, as we are called, have in their minds. They are ready for the holy war of Ephesians 6: 12; “our struggle is not against blood and flesh”, that is what the great leader, Paul, says to us in the great military epistle, the epistle to the Ephesians. It is “against principalities, against authorities, against the universal lords of this darkness, against spiritual power of wickedness in the heavenlies”. Our weapon of warfare is the sword of the Spirit, the word of God. That opens up to us the position we are in and how we have to take up a right attitude in regard of it so as to be a right testimony to those in charge of the present war of blood and flesh. What a war it is! It is not only that, but tanks, airplanes, submarines, cruisers, and destroyers, a terrible situation. We christians have to understand it. What does it mean? God is impressing us in these last days with blood-and-flesh wars. Paul tells us expressly they are not ours. Understand I am not saying anything against them — the war of blood and flesh is a department of God and these weapons are necessary. But our warfare, what is it? Let me put my name into it; I have to learn what it is. If I do not learn it I shall be confused in the presence of the authorities; they will [p. 216] think I am foolish and unreasonable; I shall be no testimony. But I shall not act thus if I am instructed in the way of the Lord. He says to Pilate, “if my kingdom were of this world, my servants had fought” (John 18: 36). Enoch says they are going to fight — the armies of heaven are coming out to fight in a very substantial way, but not now. The Lord is instructing Pilate about it. Pilate says, “What is truth?” The Lord says in effect, You listen to Me and I will tell you what the truth is. The Lord was not going to lay Himself out to teach a man like Pilate, one who could not take in divine thoughts, but still He says, “if my kingdom were of this world, my servants had fought”. That meant the twelve; they were His servants. Peter was ready to fight at once; Peter would say, I know about the sword, I have used one. The Lord says, Put it into the sheath. They did not understand Him then. Let us be instructed in this matter of war. “My servants”, the Lord says. Who are they? I want to be one of them. If I am to be one of them, I must learn from what He says to Pilate and others. “All who take the sword shall perish by the sword”, He says (Matthew 26: 52); and finally to Pilate, “if my kingdom were of this world, then my servants had fought”. He is not saying there is not going to be any more warfare of this kind; He is saying otherwise. The prophets are full of it. At this point the Lord is going out alone, the people are not with Him, but in Revelation 19: 11 - 14 they are with Him. There the Lord comes out Himself riding a white horse. It is a war-like passage: “And I saw the heaven opened, and behold, a white horse, and one sitting on it, called Faithful and True, and he judges and makes war in righteousness. And his eyes are a flame of fire, and upon his head many diadems, having a name written which no one knows but himself; and he is clothed with a garment dipped in blood; and his name is called The Word of [p. 217] God. And the armies which are in the heaven followed him upon white horses, clad in white, pure, fine linen”. This is real war. I hope to have part in it. Notice there are “armies;” there will be different armies, having perhaps varied forms of skill. I cannot tell how many divisions of soldiers there are in each, or what the actual equipment will be, but we can be sure it is a splendid system, a heavenly one. And here are the beast and the false prophet. Let us have our eyes and feelings active; God is bringing these two before our eyes that we may be in accord with heaven. These two are to be cast into the lake of fire without dying, and it is perfectly righteous. All these things shall be dealt with in righteousness. Not a stain will be upon the glorious apparel of our great Commander-in-Chief, “King of kings, and Lord of lords”. It is said: “Upon his head many diadems, having a name written which no one knows but himself; and he is clothed with a garment dipped in blood; and his name is called The Word of God” (Revelation 19: 12, 13). The inscrutability of His Person is there. What triumph is written across the whole wonderful scene! How stimulating the Lord’s language to Pilate in the light of this wonderful display of military power in which we shall have part! It is a question of righteousness. So we are told “And I saw the beast and the kings of the earth and their armies gathered together to make war against him that sat upon the horse, and against his army. And the beast was taken, and the false prophet that was with him, who wrought the signs before him by which he deceived them that received the mark of the beast, and those that worship his image. Alive were both cast into the lake of fire which burns with brimstone” (Revelation 19: 19, 20). What a finish that is for these awful antichristian outbreaks extending back so many years! The present peculiar latter-day eruption of Satanic power is allowed of God, it is not an accident. And this passage [p. 218] shows what will happen to it. The movement goes far beyond God’s disciplinary and judicial purpose and its authors will have to answer to Him. As the Spirit and the assembly leave the earth the man of sin will appear and his final doom and that of the false prophet is fixed. According to the scripture before us these two representatives of satanic power are alive cast into the lake of fire which burns with brimstone. Jude 14, 15 says, the Lord comes with holy myriads, and he points out that He comes “to execute judgment against all; and to convict all the ungodly of them of all their works of ungodliness, which they have wrought ungodlily, and of all the hard things which ungodly sinners have spoken against him”. That is to say, the whole matter is to be brought up, as to why this is so and why that. There is to be the conviction of guilt in all these uprisings of evil men of which Jude speaks; the Lord is going “to execute judgment against all; and to convict all the ungodly of them of all their works of ungodliness, which they have wrought ungodlily, and of all the hard things which ungodly sinners have spoken against him”. It is an awful time of ungodliness. I want you to notice the recurrence of the word ‘ungodly;’ we are living in a day of great ungodliness when people are lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God. The world without God is atheism; the word ‘atheism’ simply means ‘without God’ — leaving God out. So we have ungodliness and speaking against Him, as it says, “to convict all the ungodly of them of all their works of ungodliness, which they have wrought ungodlily, and of all the hard things which ungodly sinners have spoken against him”. Think of the man of sin, what a mouth he has, speaking great things and they are against God. And now he is to be convicted of these things he has said against God before he is consigned to eternal doom. God is telling them why they are cast into the lake of fire. What conviction that is! Before [p. 219] the lake of fire receives all its doomed inmates, each one will be thoroughly convicted. He will be confirmed that he is getting just what he deserves.
Now a word as to 2 Thessalonians. The Lord will bring with Him His holy myriads in view of conviction; Jude has this in mind. The ungodly will be convicted of their hard speeches. Now the passage read in 2 Thessalonians is another matter. Here the Lord comes “with the angels of his power”. It is a question of power now. It is a question of those that do not obey the gospel. So that the Lord will come “with the angels of his power, in flaming fire taking vengeance on those who know not God, and those who do not obey the glad tidings of our Lord Jesus Christ; who shall pay the penalty of everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord, and from the glory of his might”. The gospel has been disobeyed. The judgment involved would refer more to those who in the present dispensation refused the gospel. I am not saying that others cannot come into it, but it is a question of “those who know not God, and those who do not obey the glad tidings of our Lord Jesus Christ; who shall pay the penalty of everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord, and from the glory of his might”. People ignore Him, and neglect Him, and displease Him. The Lord says, I am coming with powerful beings to deal with you. Think of the difference between coming with the twelve and coming with the angels of His power! I do not know how much strength an angel has but I do know that in military affairs one angel destroyed 185,000 men at one time. What could you not do with one angel in a war like that of today! Think of what ten could do, think of what one thousand could do. God could send them, but He is not doing it. But the Lord Jesus is coming with them presently, to execute unmitigated punishment on those who know not God and do not obey the glad tidings of our Lord Jesus Christ. At that time “he shall have come to be glorified in his saints, and wondered at in all that have believed”.
All this array of power is brought before the suffering Thessalonians and the apostle comforts them, saying, “for our testimony to you has been believed”. You are to be at rest with us — precious thought — in that day, verse 7. As others suffer the terrible consequences of refusing the glad tidings of Christ, those who believe now shall be at rest with Him for ever.