FRIENDSHIP TO CHRIST
[p. 126] FRIENDSHIP TO CHRIST
Luke 8: 38, 39; 2 Samuel 15: 31 - 37
These scriptures serve to instruct us as to how the Lord disposes of us in view of His testimony and service; how He disposes of each of us, and how He disposes of us as viewed collectively; for it is to be remembered that the saints are what He has under His hand now. Whatever there is, small or great, the Lord will dispose of it wisely; in doing so He takes full account of the apparent overwhelming odds against us, such odds as would tend to terrify us and render us helpless, aside from faith. But obedience in the believer qualifies him as available to the Lord; he is, as it were, one of those numbered according to the book of Numbers, being “twenty years and upward, all that go forth to military service”.
What I have to say this evening is about military service, and the Lord, whether we be few or many, disposes of us with infinite wisdom, and with certainty of success. Nothing is more stimulating in warfare than the certainty of success, of victory, as it is said, “thanks to God”, not, who has given us the victory, or who will give us the victory, but, “who gives us the victory”, 1 Corinthians 15: 57. It is characteristic. So that no one need be faint-hearted in relation to the warfare. The type provides for any faint-hearted people; they are to go home, because they tend to interfere with the courage of the others (Deuteronomy 20: 8). Then again, in the case of Gideon’s army (Judges 7), it was reduced from thirty-three thousand to three hundred according to the test given of the lapping of the water, and the three hundred who did so were assured of victory. “Victory”, indeed, ought to be on the banner of the christian. There is nothing else in mind. Faith knows nothing else. But still, there are the throes of anxiety, and the Lord would have it so, lest we might become [p. 127] self-confident: self-confidence makes for defeat. You will remember that in the wilderness after Israel declined to go into the land — they despised the pleasant land — they said, “Here are we, and we will go up”. They would attempt it in their own strength, but they were defeated.
The man in Luke, in the country of the Gadarenes, is a type of what I am speaking of. The Lord had been there and had healed that man, it was a most remarkable case, and yet the inhabitants of the place urged the Lord to leave. The man, too, out of whom the demons were gone “besought him that he might be with him”, and were we to consult our own natural hearts we would say, ‘Let the man go, too. Such people do not deserve to have him stay amongst them, he would be overwhelmed by them’. But the Lord knew his capabilities, and instead of allowing him to cross the sea the Lord instructs him to go back to his house, and tell what great things God had done for him. He begged Jesus to let him go with Him, not that he dreaded being left behind, but rather because He so loved Jesus. If it were because he dreaded to remain, doubtless the Lord would have allowed him to go with Him, but there is no suggestion of cowardice in the man; he represents a man occupying an outpost, a lone man. There is not the slightest evidence that he was at any disadvantage as left there; he testified alone in that apparently barren soil, among a community so hostile to Jesus that they would prefer the man with the demons in him to Jesus.
Now, from the passage in 2 Samuel, I want to show you how, typically, the Lord disposes of His forces, not one man alone, but a number of persons, but I want particularly to dwell upon Hushai, for the reason that he is specifically called “David’s friend”. He is said to be that when David was in power, before there was any thought of his ejection from his capital by his son Absalom. It might be assumed that it would pay to be a friend of David when he was in power, no [p. 128] doubt it did, but a true friend is not looking for material gain; he is looking for company, for companionship, that is what a friend seeks. And that was Hushai. He was as true a friend to David when he ascended Olivet in rejection, as when he was in power on his throne. And now is the time, beloved brethren, for this kind of friendship. All will assume, no doubt, to be friends of Christ by and by when He comes forth out of heaven; as it is said, in Revelation 19, “behold a white horse, and one sitting on it”, with the armies of heaven following Him, with every mark of power, and whose name is called “The Word of God”. His enemies then will have been put under His feet. He will reign universally. There will, doubtless, be secret enemies even then, because some will feign obedience to Christ, but, generally, all will profess friendship to Jesus.
Now is the time, therefore, for the kind of friendship that we see in Hushai in 2 Samuel 15. He is specifically called “David’s friend”, and he came into the city as Absalom came in: “and Hushai David’s friend came into the city, and Absalom came into Jerusalem”, verse 37. It may be that there is someone here who has not as yet taken up his place in the city as Hushai did. You may have been thinking about it, and you may have weighed the possible consequences. You may have thought, as it were, Absalom will have a large army there; he will be king and dominate the city; David will be outside in rejection. That is just the position today. Fellowship implies that Christ is rejected in this world; that is what it means. It may be there is somebody that says, ‘Well, I cannot quite face that, the odds seem too great’. To join Absalom, and to be on his side, is, of course, another matter; but to be there in loyalty of heart to David is a most dangerous undertaking. That is how many regard it, and they hold back.
The Lord is in heaven and, though He is rejected here, there is not the faintest thought of defeat in regard [p. 129] of any undertaking of His. David says to Zadok, “Carry back the ark of God into the city”. You say, ‘That is a most dangerous thing, to put the ark within the range of Absalom’. But no, the ark had been in even worse hands before; it had been in Philistine hands; the five lords had it, and without any protection at all, with not a priest to look after it, not a levite to carry it! But victory marked it! It returned to its own land. You will remember the most touching incident of those milch kine drawing the cart with that ark upon it. Dagon had fallen before it, and now the power of the Philistine nation was brought down; they had to send it away. The presence of the ark here is the guarantee of the overthrow of this world. Let us understand that. You say the ark is in heaven. No, it is not in heaven; that is not the idea. It will appear in heaven by and by (Revelation 11: 19), but the present position of it is here. It is a question of the testimony, it is the ark of the testimony. That is to say, it is Christ here in the hearts of His people, and the presence of Christ in His people is the guarantee for the overthrow of this world. Let no one make any mistake; it is sure victory! So the Philistine lords had to send away the ark, and send it away with sacrifice too. It is the power of God.
David sends the ark back again into the city, and presently he is at the summit in his rejection. Well, you say, what are these poor people anyway? They have neither creed nor priest, nor cathedral. Who are they, and what have they? Well, I will tell you what they have. They have moral superiority, as keeping the commandments of God and cherishing the ark of God, feeling things as they are in this world, as David did, for he wept and went up barefoot upon the sides of Olivet; but when he got to the summit he was able to worship. There was no failing in his strength. He was in moral superiority, and he worshipped God. That is the position. And presently Hushai comes to [p. 130] him in a like state; he is according to David. Every true friend of David, every true friend of Christ, seeks to be according to Christ. He says to the disciples, “Ye are my friends if ye practise whatever I command you”; and Hushai was one of these; he made no complaint when David sent him back into the city.
David had just heard that Ahithophel had joined the conspirators. That is to say, the man of greatest repute for wisdom had taken sides against David. Is there not today such a situation as that? The great sources of human wisdom are all against Christ, every one of them. The most renowned of the universities are against Him, and the Lord is not indifferent to this. They have great power. Modernism is the product of these institutions, and it is in direct opposition to Christ. That is what Ahithophel represents; he was renowned for his wisdom. At one time Ahithophel was amongst David’s officers as his counsellor; but he is not that now, he has altered his position, and that makes the difference. It is just then that Hushai comes into view. Who is Hushai? The simplest christian, if he loves Christ; the weakest, or the youngest, or the oldest, if he is a friend of Christ; that is the one. The Lord would enlist you. He has a right to you. He has a right to conscript you, for that is the principle of service, it is conscription. So David says, ‘If you go with me you will be a burden; if you go back to the city, you will serve me’. You will understand, it is not that he was not with David in spirit, for he was. He was a lover of David, but his position was to be in the city.
Now, in speaking thus, if I may refer to the conditions of the brethren in this State, what Absalom represents is peculiarly seen here. There is the most ancient and renowned religious institution predominant, and the saints have to do with it. It is a question of whether we are friends of Christ. It is no question of taking a sword now, but it is a question of friendship to Christ, and the friends of Christ are wise, for “the [p. 131] foolishness of God is wiser than men”, and this is seen in the saints. See how foolish that sister is! She might have shone in this world. Well, suppose she declines to shine in this world for a few years, and then she seems to go down like the setting sun — the sun rises again, it “hasteth to its place where it ariseth”, to shine again. The sun rises to shine again, if the christian goes down in the testimony, in loyalty to Christ, he hastens back to his place to shine; the Lord will bring him back again to shine where he suffered. Look at that young man. What is he going to be? He could have shone in the law, or in politics, or in the church, even in the religious world, but look where he is! Hidden away! That is how matters stand outwardly. But the Lord is saying to you, I want to place you in a certain position. The wisdom that is shining in you is regarded as folly in this world: God’s wisdom is foolishness to men. The world says, it is the height of folly for you to pursue that course. But you are a friend of Christ, and He says, I have a place for you, a place in the counsels of God, also a place here in the testimony.
I am speaking of the latter particularly, and if you take up that position, you will tend to upset the whole scheme of Absalom. You say, That is impossible; but it is not impossible. You are necessary to the Lord’s organisation, for that is what you get in this scripture. David set up an organisation in the midst of Jerusalem which was the undoing and overthrow of Absalom. Just a handful, two priests and Hushai, and two young men in the city of Jerusalem, Hushai, the special man amongst them, the friend of David, I urge that on you. John says, in writing to Gaius, “Greet the friends by name”, 3 John 14. Every friend has a name. They are most valuable. Only one of these men is called a friend of David, but all those mentioned come under that head. Hushai is a wise man. The friendship of Christ works out in wisdom. And so David says to him here, “If thou passest on with me, thou wilt be a burden to [p. 132] me; but if thou return to the city, and say to Absalom, I will be thy servant, O king; as I have been thy father’s servant hitherto, so now will I be thy servant, then mayest thou for me defeat the counsel of Ahithophel”, (verses 33, 34).
When the Lord entered Gethsemane the greatest conflict ever entered into by man took place. Satan approached with all his forces, and the Lord disposes of His disciples; He says to them, “Sit here until I go away and pray yonder”. He disposes of what was under His hand. And the Lord was facing the greatest combination of forces that could be against Him; Satan himself was there; as the Lord says, “the ruler of the world comes”; he was coming, and the Lord disposes of His forces. Well now, where am I in this disposing of the forces? Am I going to say, Lord, I am not equal to this, or, Am I going to stand by? Now is the hour; there will never be another like it. We are in the closing moments, and the Lord is disposing of His forces, and in doing so He is taking account of what we have to contend with; and we have to contend with forces such as did not exist earlier, we are in perilous times.
David knew that Ahithophel would give such counsel to Absalom as might damage him. And so here in this city, there are peculiar forces, and the Lord would prepare us for them. Hushai would defeat Ahithophel’s counsel as in the city. He went back, and as he entered the city Absalom entered it. That is to say, the battle is on! Why should the Spirit of God record it in this way? Hushai enters the city before Absalom. He has got an advantage. The Lord will never allow the enemy to get any advantage over His own. You may say, ‘My circumstances hinder me, my family relations or my business relations, for I have to earn my living — they seem to be against me’. Well, the question is, Are they God’s ordering, or are they your own choice? If they are God’s ordering, they are defeating the devil: that is the position. If I am in the position assigned to me by God’s will, however it may seem to be against me, it will turn out to be for me. Indeed, the apostle says, “all things work together for good to those who love God”, Romans 8: 28. It may be you do not think you love God. It is very comforting to me that at the foot of Sinai God speaks about the “thousands of them that love” Him — the thousands of them! Some of them might say, I do not know that I love God. Well, the test is, Are you doing the will of God? Are you disposed to do the will of God? Are you resolved to do the will of God? That is the test. The Lord says, “If ye love me, keep my commandments”, and again, “he that has my commandments and keeps them, he it is that loves me”. So that any disposition to keep the commandments of God, to be obedient, is an evidence of love; you are amongst the thousands of them that love God. Outward conditions may seem against you, but in due course you will look back on your history and say, God helped me by this or in that, I see this now, but I did not see it then, and I did this because I loved Him. There is not a doubt that every item is recorded, debited or credited, in the book of God, and the lovers of Christ will all come out victorious, the credit balance will always be there. God knows how to value what is done for Him. He gives us credit for much that we do not value. I say this for your comfort. But then the point is the disposition to take orders from the Lord, and to occupy the position assigned to me without questioning. That is what the man, out of whom the demons had been cast, did; he made no objection to the Lord’s directions; nor did Hushai here.
But then Hushai was not to be alone in Jerusalem, he was to have companionship. What was their bond? Their bond was love for David. That is our bond. I do not know of anything really more precious than that — the bond of christians in love for Christ. If I love the Lord and you love the Lord, and we are set here in this dark world, we have a common bond, the [p. 134] bond of perfectness — love. However few we are, we have the bond of perfectness.
So the time comes when Absalom calls for a counsellor, and Ahithophel was asked to give counsel, and from a military point of view his counsel was good, from a human point of view it was right, but it did not prevail. It was rejected, and Ahithophel hanged himself. That indicates what is going to happen to all that he stands for, in the way of worldly wisdom and worldly combination, at the present time. It will come to an ignominious end; whereas the simplest christian, who has taken sides with Christ as one of His friends, will come out victoriously, will come out gloriously. Now, is there not a call from the Lord to us now, beloved, to come into the city in the sense in which I am speaking of it? In truth it turned out to be a city within a city. Absalom had the outer, external thing, as the religious world has today, dominated by what he represents, but within that, hidden away, there was another city, and this inner city overthrows the external city. That is what is going to happen, dear brethren.
When the Lord converted Saul, He said to him, “enter into the city, and it shall be told thee what thou must do”, Acts 9: 6. You say, Is He sending him to the mayor of the city, or to the aldermen of Damascus? He is not sending him to any such persons. No, they are not in the Lord’s reckoning at all in that sense, but He is, nevertheless, sending him into the city, “Enter into the city, and it shall be told thee what thou must do”. The “city” I may liken to the great religious area today; but there is a city within it, hidden away, which is allowed to be its undoing.
What was in Damascus? Well, there is a man named Ananias in that city. The Lord knew where he lived. He was not a great man in Damascus, he had no part whatever in the government of Damascus. There was another man who lived in a street called Straight, and [p. 135] the Lord knew the name of that street, and the number. He knows where His people reside. This man, and those like him in the city, were the inner thing, just as Hushai and Abiathar and Zadok and the young men were, in the city of Jerusalem. There was an inner thing in Jerusalem that was really an organisation of David, as much as any organisation under him had been. And so there is today an inner thing, the secret organisation of Christ; it is a city within a city. And so Saul is led into the city — blind. He is led to the spot where he can get light, instruction and general furnishings, where he can be qualified to go out into the outer city and bear witness. That is the position; the Lord had an organisation. Ananias was part of it, and the man in the street called Straight was part of it, and many others, and these men furnished Paul with what he needed so that he might go into the outer city, into Absalom’s city, as it were, and bear testimony. And he did. His eyes were opened, and he took food and got strength, and he was baptised and got the Holy Spirit, and preached Jesus as the Son of God. That was in the public city, in the synagogue. That is, we bear testimony publicly as we are furnished secretly.
Elijah, if you will remember, took a journey with Elisha, before Elijah was caught up into heaven. They started from Gilgal, and went to Bethel, and from Bethel to Jericho, and from Jericho to Jordan. They crossed the Jordan, the power of God drove it back and they went over; and they talked and walked on the other side of the Jordan. Then Elijah is caught up to heaven, and as he went up to heaven his mantle fell, and Elisha takes that mantle. He had asked Elijah for a double portion of his spirit, and he got it, and he makes the return journey. All this is secret; Samaria knew nothing of it. That is what some of us here have to do now — to make the return journey. We have been on the one line, getting objective truth, but now we want to make the return journey, to prove the power [p. 136] of God over the world — to go to Bethel and go to Carmel; Elisha went from Bethel to Carmel. That was not in the first journey, it was in his return journey. Carmel was where Elijah gained his great victory over the prophets of Baal; one of the most signal victories recorded by one man; it was what one man did against eight hundred and fifty, for there were two companies of false prophets. Elisha would fill his lungs, as we ought to, with the atmosphere of Carmel. There is a lesson to be learned in mount Carmel that you do not learn elsewhere. But from Carmel he goes into Samaria; that is where Ahab was, and where Jezebel was, I am not going to speak of Jezebel now. You know about her. We have to bear testimony where she is, and she represents all the wisdom of the world. As I was saying, there is no institution like that which she represents. It is the most ancient now, and in all its ramifications it is augmented in every possible way by the wisdom of this world, and that is where we have to serve, especially in this country. Elisha went deliberately from Carmel down to Samaria, and that is where he testified, and that is where we are called to testify; and he was eminently successful.
Hushai was eminently successful in a similar position; he gave counsel that overthrew the counsel of the wisest man of his day; the man with the greatest reputation for wisdom was overthrown. And so may the weakest of us, for I would say to the youngest present, the foolishness of God in you — for that is where it is seen — is said to be wiser than men, and the weakness of God, which is in you, is stronger than men. As Paul says, “When I am weak, then I am powerful”. So that there is every encouragement to come into the city, as it were, however hostile it seems to be, or however impossible the position appears, for certain victory awaits us. The Lord would call upon us, as His friends, “Ye are my friends”, He says, “if ye practise whatever I command you”. We cannot afford [p. 137] to be wanting in friendship to Christ. The Lord grant that we may be here as His companions, to know what He is to us, and to know what we can be in friendship to Him.