THE JOY OF BELIEVERS AS ENTERING INTO DIVINE THINGS
A. Martin
Psalm 133: 1–3; Nehemiah 8: 13–17; 12: 31, 38–41, 42 (from “And the singers” ), 43
We have been occupied in the reading with the joy that the Lord has in His people, whether it be rejoicing in the lost sheep that was found, or the saints as set together according to their tribes and families, or seeing the Lord’s joy in those who kept His word and did not deny His name (Revelation 3: 8). It is a precious thing to be conscious of the joy of the Lord. I would like now to speak about our joy as entering into divine things. The Lord’s joy must come first, it must be so, that He secures what is for His pleasure. I could say, if it is not misunderstood, that our joy is incidental. I do not mean by that, that it is little. What I mean is that our joy is secured as the Lord finds His joy; His joy is the object. That is a principle throughout divine workings. God works for His own satisfaction. He is entitled to do so; we are not, we are creatures; we are responsible to Him. He works for His own satisfaction and the greatest blessing for the creature is in the acceptance of that, and that is where the greatest joy is to be found.
Now one thing I would say to start with is that God has in His wisdom taken us up, not simply as individuals. He has taken us up as brethren. David could take account of that. He said “how good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity!” As I was reading that psalm I thought of the feast of tabernacles, because there was a time when Israel was to dwell together, and they were to rejoice in what God had done. David takes account of this here, “how good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity!” How can that be because we are all different? And immediately he has the answer. He says “Like the precious oil”. The work of the Holy Spirit in the saints has a wonderful unifying effect, and we are to use diligence to hold it, to maintain it, to “keep the unity of the Spirit in the uniting bond of peace”, Ephesians 4: 3. It would be a great mystery to a person who did not know the Lord, to actually walk into this room and see the dear brethren attentive and interested in divine things, and yet all so different, naturally having such different characteristics, naturally having different interests. The work of the Holy Spirit has a wonderful unifying effect, and we know that if we speak of the Lord Jesus personally we see the smile come on the faces of the brethren. The work of the Holy Spirit in the souls of the brethren brings this about. How good it is, it is good to God, is it not, to see the saints together in this way. It is good to God and we come to appreciate that it is good for us. We see the brethren and we take courage. That is what Paul did.
You think of Paul on that journey. I love to think of him there, he was about to go to Rome, he was a prisoner. I suppose he knew that eventually he would appear before the emperor. The emperors were not particularly fair or just people in those days. What emotions would have filled his heart, and then he saw the brethren. It says “he thanked God and took courage”, Acts 28: 15. It is a wonderful thing that we are not alone, we are not called upon to tread a path alone. Think of the apostle John. You say, there was one who was alone, he was on the island of Patmos, and as far as we are aware nobody was with him; he was banished there but what does he write? He says, “I John, your brother”, Revelation 1: 9. He was conscious of the brethren, was he not? Maybe he could not see them, and times come sometimes in the lives of some of the saints when they are in circumstances when they cannot get to see the brethren, but I think John was conscious of the prayers of the saints and he held them in his heart. How good and how precious that was. They were there in his heart, in his affections, and they remained there so he writes the revelation as a brother. It is
interesting to see the way in which John writes. Somebody pointed out once that he writes the epistles as a father, and he writes the Revelation as a brother, and he writes the gospel as a lover. He was a lover of Jesus and he was a lover of God’s people. What an example we see in one like that and how he rejoiced. He says in his epistle, “I rejoiced greatly that I have found of thy children walking in the truth”, 2 John 4. He rejoiced to see it, brethren dwelling together in unity, “Like the precious oil upon the head, that ran down upon the beard, upon Aaron’s beard”.
Aaron, a great type of Christ in His priestly service now, the precious oil ran down upon the beard. You say he was distinguished, it is what marked him out—upon Aaron’s beard. First it was upon the head, you think of the place that the Lord has as head, and then upon the beard, upon Aaron’s beard, and then it ran down to the hem of his garments. We referred in the reading to “the supply of the Spirit of Jesus Christ”, Philippians 1: 19. Where do you touch it? You will find it in the hem of His garments, you will find it there. You say, what does that mean? The hem of the garment is the place nearest to the earth. You look around here, the hem of the garment is here, beloved, you can touch it. That woman in the gospels, she said let me just touch the hem of His garments and my life will stop ebbing out. Have you touched it? You say, well I know the Lord. Yes, but have you touched the hem of His garments, have you touched the circle? You see, the hem is complete. Have you touched something which is complete, which derives from Him, and found the life that flows from the ascended Head on high? Touch the hem of His garments; how extensive it is. Here it is in Aberdeen, the hem of His garments, the same garments, you can touch it in Buckhurst Hill, you can touch it in Aberdeen, you can touch it in Glasgow, you can touch it in Grangemouth, you can touch the hem of His garments.
How precious it is, and what you find is that there is priestly grace, the gentle wonderful grace accompanying all that He does. You say, well some of the things have been difficult. Yes, sometimes times are difficult but there is the dew of Hermon. You touch the hem of His garments, you have contact with the Lord and you find there is special grace for the difficult times. You say, well maybe His hands have been heavy at times. Yes, it has been heavy, but the more He acts in such a way the greater the grace that comes with it. It is a sign of His love, you know. He says “I rebuke and discipline as many as I love”, Revelation 3: 19. If you find that there are things in life which do not go easily, and which are difficult to understand, get back to Him because it is a sign of His love. “I rebuke and discipline as many as I love”, and if His love has allowed things in your life or mine, He will provide the grace to go with it. “He gives more grace” it says (James 4: 6). The dew of Hermon is that special gracious touch, and then it says “for there hath Jehovah commanded the blessing” and that is what you find. As you go through experiences with the Lord you find there is blessing at the end of it.
You say, I would not have chosen to go that way, no, you certainly would not. But the Lord leads you, and what you find is that as you go through it with Him, you prove the grace and you find that there is blessing. And you find that your joy is in Him alone, because He is the One who is able to sustain all His people whatever the times, whatever the circumstances may be, and you find your joy in Him, and you find your joy in the company that He has secured to be here for you to be part of, to be associated with; you find your joy is in such a company.
That is what led me to think of the feast of tabernacles, the feast of booths. The feast of tabernacles was specified firstly in Leviticus. When you get home (do not wait until you have a spare half-day because then you will never do it), but when you get home look at Leviticus 23 and you will find there are seven feasts of Jehovah specified one after the other. It starts with the sabbath, then the passover, and the unleavened bread, and so on but it ends with the feast of booths. It was the climax of the year for the Israelites; they were to make these booths and they were to take these branches, olive-branches, wild olive-branches, myrtle-branches, palm-branches, branches of fig trees, in Leviticus it speaks about beautiful trees and willows of the brook; they were to take these branches and they were to make booths and they were to live in these booths for the eight days. A wonderful thing, the first seven days is really a figure of the millennium, what will be established in the millennium, but it goes on to eight days. It is a little beyond that, suggesting which is secured in the resurrection scene, which is us. The children of Israel were to dwell in those booths all that time; though they were living in the land, they were to dwell in those booths for those eight days to remind them of the way in which God had brought them.
He had brought them through the wilderness and they dwelt in tents, and they were to dwell in those booths. They were to rejoice in Jehovah, they were to find their joy in Him as they were dwelling together in those booths. It was one of the feasts where they had to go up to Jerusalem. For three of the feasts they had to go up to Jerusalem and this was one of them, and they were all to dwell there together in those booths, but you know, that feast was not celebrated. From the time of Joshua it was not done. How quickly we forget what God has done for us, how quickly we forget the blessings that we have had or the fact that we owe everything to Him. We settle down in our blessings, the children of Israel settled down in the land. Once the enemies had been overcome they just settled down and they started adopting the ways of other nations. How sad it was, they had forgotten what God had done for them, they were not dwelling together in booths.
Now here we are in Nehemiah. Because of all their unfaithfulness they had gone into captivity, and now God had acted and there had been a revival, there were some brought out of captivity and brought to know that Jerusalem was the place where God had set His name and brought to be exercised about what was suitable to God in this place. You can trace it through the history of the church; things died down and then there was a time when what was due to God came to light and souls were revived. You can trace all that in church history and do so, it is good to read about it, and they came back. Nehemiah is a book that gives us the recovery from the point of view of man’s exercise. There was this man Nehemiah himself and he was exercised about the recovery from the point of view of God’s sovereignty. He acted in Cyrus to bring about recovery, but along with that Nehemiah was exercised about what is due to God.
Here we have the reading of the law; the law had been neglected and they started to read it. It was all new to them and they had one day when they read the law, and they came again to the second day and they realised that they were at that point that the law was actually referring to; it was actually that day that they should be dwelling together in booths, they should be living together. What an awakening to their hearts it was! There was all the labour that had been going on in Jerusalem, all the toil and there were times when some were saying it was all too much and there were those who were trying to hinder the work, but they realised that this was the day when they should be living together in booths. What a wonderful thing this was, what a light to their souls! They should be rejoicing in all that God had done, they should be rejoicing in the fact that God’s promises were coming about and they were there in this land. Then it says, “the people went forth and brought them, and made themselves booths, everyone upon the roof of his house”. Yes, you can rejoice, “Rejoice in the Lord always”, Philippians 4: 4. On the roof of your house? Yes indeed! The household conditions there are suited for rejoicing in what God has done for His people, and rejoicing in His people, there on the roofs of the houses and there in the courts of the house of God. We are never out of the house of God, we are always in the house of God. We are to be conscious of our place in God’s house and rejoicing there, dwelling there in booths, dwelling together, rejoicing in the house of God, and in the open space of the water-gate. There is plenty of room there, beloved, to draw on all the supply that comes from above, plenty of room in the water-gate, and then we have this reference to the open space of the gate of Ephraim. What does that mean?
We know that Ephraim was the head of the ten tribes, and there is the element of responsibility there when they departed, but there was an open space at the gate of Ephraim. I think that is a very precious suggestion. There are many believers everywhere, believers all over the world, many with whom we once walked, many whom we know, but we cannot enjoy fellowship with them. How sad that is. Ah, beloved, the gate of Ephraim is there. May we pray more that believers may come to find a path that is pleasing to the Lord. The gate of Ephraim only comes in on one occasion, as far as I can see, in the earlier history of the children of Israel. You will find it in 2 Kings 14: 13 and 2 Chronicles 25: 23. You remember Israel was divided, and the king of Judah decided to make war against the king of Israel. Terrible thing to do; we do not make war beloved, if we find another believer, our immediate objective is not to find out how we differ, no, it is to show them the way to the gate of Ephraim. This man went to make war with the king of Israel and he was soundly defeated. Do you know what that led to? The king of Israel came down to Jerusalem. Israel had earlier gone away, they had become idolatrous. Now they came down and they broke down the wall by the gate of Ephraim, they broke it down. Do not break down that wall beloved! The wall was to protect what was inside, and the way to come into the city is by the gates. You come in by the gates. That is a principle that goes right through to the end of Revelation. Do not break down the wall. Keep that wall intact.
The gate of Ephraim remains. In Nehemiah’s day the wall was built. It is not a hostile thing the wall. The wall was there is preserve what was precious to God. That is the purpose of the wall; it is to preserve what is inside. It is not to be aggressive or put a bad front to others, but it is to preserve what is precious to God inside. In Nehemiah’s day the wall was repaired and there was the gate of Ephraim. And you know there was the open space of the gate of Ephraim. Who has come in that way? I have come in that way. Can anyone else say the same? I am sure we can all say the same. I am sure we all have, we have come in that way. But what is the testimony going out? The testimony here was that God’s people were enjoying dwelling together in unity. If anyone was to approach the gate of Ephraim to enquire, what they would find was that the feast of booths was going on, the feast of tabernacles, and there were souls inside the city rejoicing in all that God had done. Ah, beloved, what testimony are we showing, what testimony is going out to the world? Is it a testimony that I am rejoicing, my life is centred in all that God has prepared for me, and all that He has done for me to bring me through? Is that the centre of my life? May it be the centre of all of our lives, beloved. May that be the testimony that goes out. There are the booths in the open space of the gate of Ephraim.
Well I just read the other part because the gate of Ephraim comes in once again, and this time it is to do with the service of God. Actually there are two things we are set here for; one is the service of God and the other is the testimony. Here we have the choirs upon the wall, “half of the people, beyond the tower of the furnaces”. Beloved, the tower of the furnaces, think of what had taken place in the history. You think of the furnace, think of what the Lord had experienced, “the tower of the furnaces even to the broad wall; and from above the gate of Ephraim”. There is the service of God going on, “both choirs stood in the house of God” and it says, “the singers sang loud”. They had an overseer and “they offered great sacrifices, and rejoiced—for God had made them rejoice with great joy”. If the Lord leaves us here, is that what is going to happen tomorrow morning? You say, Well we always have a good time on Lord’s day morning. Yes, but in a certain sense Lord’s day morning is for the Lord, it is for God. As God calls us to rejoice in all His goodness and all that He has secured for Himself. Beloved, we have come this way, we have come from the tower of the furnaces, we have gone over the gate of Ephraim, we come to this point where the two choirs meet and the service of God is going on, and it says “the joy of Jerusalem was heard even afar off”. It was heard in heaven, it was heard afar off. Yes, and there was a testimony to a joyful company.
I am conscious as I have said this that there are many sorrows weighing upon the brethren, but I would just repeat what I said in the reading, that in the midst of the greatest sorrow there is a deeper, if a calmer, joy and that can be experienced even in days like this, days when everything seems to be broken down, when you wonder how you are going to get through, you wonder what the Lord has in mind in the circumstances of the saints and what He is passing them through. Beloved, through it all we know the God with whom we have to do, we know the One whose hand is over it all and we can rejoice that it is all in His hands, that everything is in His hands, and we can rejoice that there is a testimony being maintained. We can rejoice that there is a way for all His own to enter into the joy of being before Him, and being consciously maintained before His face, we can rejoice in the service which goes on continually to God, we can rejoice in all these things, beloved. May it be so, for His name’s sake.
Address at Aberdeen, Scotland
25 February 2012