OUR MINDS
A.J.E.Welch
Genesis 40: 23; Philippians 4: 6-8; 2 Timothy 2: 7
I want to speak briefly, and I trust in practical terms, about our minds. The last two scriptures read give us Pauline injunctions as to how we may use our minds, reminding us of things that we should think about. There is a great deal of scope for spiritual expansion as we think about what is of God; and the avenue by which the truth becomes effective is by way of our renewed minds. The mind of the flesh is death. Nothing that I seek to say is to allow any excursion of our minds that is not determined by divine truth. God uses our minds and would have us to use them as men's minds are intended of Him to be used, that is to arrive at a knowledge of Himself in the great rich extent of it. What is before us, if the Lord is pleased to leave us a few hours longer, is a remembrance of Himself. We well know from the measure of experience we have, which the Lord would still deepen, that that leads us into the wealthiest of experiences, to be in the presence of God's beloved Son. It begins with this remembrance: "this do”, as the Lord said, "in remembrance of me", Luke 22: 19. It raises the question practically, as we approach that occasion, How is Jesus in our minds? As we assemble, you might say with the gaze of the hosts of heaven upon us in that assembling, How is the Lord in our minds? Those minds become a channel by which our affections are reached and held, but there are impressions there of the Son of God, at least it is divinely intended that there should be. Do we receive and hold such impressions? Do we find those impressions expanding as we proceed in the service? As we set out into the further matters of an assembly week, what is really held in these minds and affections of ours?
In Genesis 40 we have a man before us who had greatly gained by the service of Joseph, in exceedingly oppressive circumstances, and it says of that man, "the chief of the cup-bearers did not remember Joseph, and forgot him". We marvel that it could be so when Joseph, apart from every personal quality that must have been with him to impress the man, when Joseph had filled such a key relation to that man's life, that he "did not remember Joseph, and forgot him". Joseph was not in his mind - an astonishing thing. Where was this man's mind going? Was he so imbued with the qualities, as he supposed, of his own service that every thought of Joseph was crushed from his mind? As to that we can only reflect and wonder; but here is the fact that he did not remember Joseph, and forgot him. What a personage Joseph was! What grace had been manifest in him in the prison, how distinctly he had appealed to this man to have him in remembrance when he secured his liberty. All the circumstances build up to remind us what pressure there was upon this man not to forget Joseph but to remember him. Yet the sequel shows that it was two full years before he came to the remembrance of Joseph - "I remember mine offences this day", chap 41: 9. Two full years afterwards! What a claim the Lord has upon us! What a claim the blessed God has upon us! We owe everything to Him; what marvels of grace we have experienced! Yet sometimes, I acknowledge it freely for myself, we have to recognise that in some sense we have forgotten Christ. I do not mean that every remembrance of Him has been erased from our minds, but we have set about our affairs as if there was no such Person in our reckoning. That is true, is it not? We have set forth into matters and gone through things in our own way, yet the divine thought is that Christ should be in our minds as to everything. I do not want to be hard or discredit any one, far less to discredit the work of God in anyone, but I would call attention to this feature, a feature really of the flesh in us which is such that what is most precious is for the time put from our minds by things which in very truth have a far, far less claim. It is needful to fulfil righteousness. When we go to work we need to see that work is well done under the eye of God, and we have to use our minds to do it; it may be much that presses in and claims our attention to do it, with most of us these days that is so, but it is never to be said as to us, as the scripture says of this cup-bearer, "that he did not remember Joseph, and forgot him". So how are these impressions, beloved brethren, working with us? When the Lord comes in at the Supper - 'Majestic, Almighty and Glorious' as we sometimes sing - is there anything to exceed the experience of that? Is not every second of time precious when that holy moment arrives? Does it not seem that the Spirit, as it arrives, is pressing so much into a short space of time, engaging us with glory after glory? It does not say that the cup-bearer forgot the prison; he forgot Joseph. How much depends on the way that the Person of Christ is held in our minds and affections! How is Jesus in my mind? Sometimes when we start making statements about Him we may exaggerate a bit, but behind what is in that spoken word there is something in my mind and yours. What is it? and above all, how is Jesus there? As having the blessed Lord Jesus Christ before us we have, speaking in all reverence, a Man before us, and we can discern the features of the manhood of Jesus. We have not some mystical thought before us, we have the concreteness, speaking in reverence, of the manhood of Jesus before our hearts; something that our minds as enlightened of the Spirit can take in and hold, something that can be expanded to us by that same Spirit. So our minds are to be under control - a fine point that comes up at the end of the seventh chapter of the epistle to the Romans - and we are to seek grace in the Spirit to control them.
So we have these scriptures concerning what we may think about, two remarkable references in the Pauline ministry. There are some very impressive circumstances touching them. In Philippians "the peace of God, which surpasses every understanding, shall guard your hearts and your thoughts by Christ Jesus". That follows on the exhortation, "Be careful about nothing; but in everything, by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God"; that is, the person is accustomed to speak to God about them. Freely, simply, plainly, in practical terms bring everything to God and speak to Him about it, which means that we get into God's presence. We were speaking on an earlier occasion of the necessity for reading scripture; may I now take opportunity to emphasise the necessity for prayer. It is just a question how long we spend in prayer, whether we allow things to be cut short a bit sometimes. I would earnestly entreat the dear younger brethren here especially to take time to pray. It is not only the younger ones that need it but, maybe with the busy activities of such a day as this, that time for prayer tends to get restricted a bit and perhaps a bit more and a bit more still. Take time to pray, pray when there is not any urgent necessity to take you away in five minutes, fifteen minutes or half an hour or longer. Pray when you can get to God undistracted and tell Him about everything. Speak to Him not just about your needs - He loves to take account of your needs and His grace is proved in the way He answers them - but speak to God about His interests, about the impressions you get; you will find that they will get bigger and richer and get a fuller hold on your mind. One idea of prayer which perhaps would be in some of our minds is that we just come to God with our need, and of course He knows it in any case better than we know it ourselves. But how He loves to hear us speak to Him about what relates to Him and His interests; I believe scripture would show us this. What it was when David went in and sat before Jehovah and spoke to Him! You marvel that in his day David could do that and say the things that he did, but it just shows how things can become promoted, strengthened and expanded in our minds as we speak to God about them. So the answer here is that the peace of God, which surpasses every understanding, shall guard your hearts and your thoughts by Christ Jesus; because as we speak to God it tends to subdue our minds. Maybe you have your mind full of this matter and that matter; you get before God and pray, and things seem to fall into place, your mind is liberated and you come out peaceful in the sense that things are not in disorder but that the hand of God is upon them and upon you in them; and the peace of God is something that you know, it leaves your mind free of stress and doubt. Then he goes on to tell us what we should think about, running on to the end of verse 8; he says, think on these things; that is, there is an avenue in which we may use our minds for great profit, not your own profit but the profit of divine interests. What you find as you look at the things he mentions is that morally they are pure and right according to God. There is a wonderful diversity that our minds can rest upon and enjoy, things which our affections enter into and are stimulated by; and as we think of God and His things there is a certain productive power in the mind enlightened by the Spirit. I have wondered often what must have been the point in Isaac's mind when he was meditating in the fields at even. It is perhaps one of the scarcest activities in most of our lives - meditating; and yet it is a very productive activity as the mind is under the control of the Spirit. Sometimes in a sense it is forced upon us; you may have a sleepless hour in the night, and as the Spirit is free with us we meditate; what rich impressions come, things become expanded in ways in which you have never seen them expanded before. It is a question of where our minds are. If on our puny difficulties at our work, the household difficulties, the things that tend to crowd in when our minds are left for the time unoccupied, what a wonderful thing to find help from the Spirit to leave those things where they belong and to find the great things of God, which come into expression supremely in the glory of Christ, engaging the mind and leading you on in the knowledge of Himself. These things we are enjoined to think of; pure, true, noble, just, amiable, of good report, virtue, praise. They are things of moral excellence, things that are far above the dark degraded level of the world in which the testimony is still extant. Let those things be cast in the Spirit's power from our minds, for much that we see and hear will tend to obtrude; but the Spirit of God has set a certain moral standard concerning things which we think about, and in the Spirit there is power to keep these minds of ours under control. Look to Him about it and you will find how speedily and definitely, if we are submissive to Him, He answers by giving us that which we can think about which is pure and holy and undefiled by the flesh of man. How much there is to think about in the glory of the Person of Christ! It is not that the human reasoning mind is released in the holy things of God; far be the thought! but a mind controlled by the Spirit becomes a channel for great enrichment, firstly of persons whose minds are thus opened, but secondly of the assembly. For what is in those minds comes into the assembly and is under the Spirit's touch to be presented there. Every divine thought is to find some presentation in the assembly where it is for the pleasure of God. There is moral excellence in the things spoken of here, showing the level on which we are to examine ourselves as to where our minds are. There is no thought of being unpractical, but it is a question of what our minds have recourse to when they are left free.
So we have in Timothy, "Think of what I say, for the Lord will give thee understanding in all things". Paul does not say , looking back over his long history with Timothy, 'Think of what I have said', but "Think of what I say"; that is, there is that coming to the saints as a matter of current concern and interest which is particularly to be in our minds. Lying behind this injunction and the way in which it would be received would be that long link of respect and affection between Timothy and Paul his spiritual father, between Paul and Timothy his beloved child. We are in the testimony, dear brethren, which has such links as these running through it and strengthening it, especially in the course of this wonderful recovery. We can look back on those, thank God, that we have respected in relation to the truth; they have said things to us and in a certain sense are still saying things in the force in which their ministry comes. Are we ready for this? Are we ready to think? I use the word 'think' in the productive sense, the way impressions come to our minds and get hold of us and work on our affections and hold us in relation to divine things. What a wonderful recovery God has brought about! It is not that I want to delve back into history but let us see what our heritage is, let us see that of which the entrusted deposit consists. Let us see how God has wrought in the Spirit in the past century and a half to bring the most refined and choicest elements of the truth into place through the canon of Scripture, and what wealth the Spirit has opened up from it. You look at the bookcase sometimes and see the extent of what is there, and you ask yourself how much of what is there in print has come into our minds and our hearts and formed us, as the Spirit delights to form us, in the truth itself. Dear young people, let us just review today our heritage. Let us get some fresh view of what Paul in writing to Timothy speak s of as the good deposit entrusted and let us rise to our trust as holding what has been held faithfully through conflict and held in such wise that the truth has constantly been expanded and consolidated in the sense of our apprehension of it. The truth itself is out, but there is the apprehension of it in which saints stand and God is pleased, in His tenderness and often His patience, to carry things along that we may become established in what His mind is. Whilst there is what God brings in from His side, there is our side to think, to devote our minds to divine things so that what is spiritual becomes more characteristic and definite in its association with our whole life and course, and that what is only of passing value is excluded in the power of the same Spirit. Practical things take their necessary place but, as our minds are free let us think on the things which according to these appealing, forceful, scriptures are to be thought about according to the great line of Pauline truth. For His Name's sake.
GILLINGHAM
10 January 1976
MEETING NEED
W.McKay
Revelation 3: 14-20; 1 Samuel 25: 18,19; 23-28; 32,33; 2 Samuel 17: 2 7-29;
2 Kings 4:42-44
It will be apparent as we have read the scriptures that what is in mind relates to the meeting of need that exists amongst the saints at any time. It is important that we should be able to discern what the need of the saints is, and not only to discern it but to bring in what would be calculated to meet it in a way that will secure a right result. I say that because I think it is very important, in seeking to bring in something to meet the need of the saints, to do it in a right spirit. For instance, Martha in Luke's gospel was doing a necessary service, she was meeting a need that existed, but she was doing it in a complaining spirit, she complained to the Lord that her sister was leaving her to serve alone and she called upon Him to tell her to come and help. Her service was good and necessary but the way she was performing it failed of the divine thought. Even a Moses (and we need to be very careful how we speak of a man like Moses) but in Numbers 20 he discerned that the need amongst the people was for water, and God told him to take Aaron's rod and speak to the rock and the water would flow. Instead of that, Moses, harassed by the complaining of the people, took his own rod and he called the saints rebels and smote the rock. The water came to the saints all right but the way that the thing was done failed to hallow God in the sight of the people. Paul says to the Corinthians as to the collection (I know that refers to monetary matters, but the principle is there), "that this may be ready thus as blessing, and not as got out of you", 2 Cor 9: 5. He is referring to the way that the thing is done - in the spirit of blessing. We are to be amongst the saints in that spirit and in that spirit only.
I thought perhaps we could get help if we looked at the Lord Jesus first to see the divine perfection that marked Him in bringing in what was required to meet the need of the saints. So to Laodicea He says "I know thy works, that thou art neither cold nor hot; I would thou wert cold or hot. Thus because thou art lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I am about to spue thee out of my mouth". How perfectly the Lord describes the state that actually existed at that time. He says "I know", and then details the state that marked them: "Because thou sayest, I am rich, and am grown rich, and have need of nothing, and knowest not that thou art the wretched and the miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked". This is what the professing system has come to. It ought to solemnise our hearts that it has come to a state where the Lord is about to spue it out of His mouth; He has not done it yet, but the state is such that it is nauseous to Him, and one of the worst features in that state is that they are oblivious of it. Thou knowest not, he says, that "thou art the wretched and the miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked". He is not sparing them. Presently the great professing system will be judged with the world. I want you to notice the spirit with which the Lord proceeds to speak; "I counsel thee" - think of the Lord saying that - "I counsel thee to buy of me gold purified by fire, that thou mayest be rich; and white garments, that thou mayest be clothed, and that the shame of thy nakedness may not be made manifest". He has everything in His hands that is calculated to meet the situation that exists in the whole professing body; He has the provision and makes it available. As to the professing system there is no hope for it, but the Lord is appealing to individuals in it: "buy of me". He has all that is needed to meet the present state and He counsels them to buy. He does not say 'I will give you'. What is in mind is that each individual should enter into a transaction with Himself and secure what is required to meet the current need. Is it not wonderful how the Lord brings it in? He says I have it all; there is not a need existing that cannot be met if you will only enter into a personal transaction with Me. So He goes on, "I rebuke and discipline as many as I love". I want you to notice that that word for love is 'phileo'. There is another word for love which implies a settled disposition, but 'phileo' means that there is something lovable in the object, and the Lord is saying that "I rebuke and discipline as many as I love". We must not be indifferent to the amount of discipline that there is amongst the saints at the present time. Even in a state like that of Laodicea there are those in whom there are lovable features, features that are attractive to the Lord, and it is those whom He rebukes and disciplines. "Be zealous therefore and repent. Behold, I stand at the door and am knocking". O what an appeal! He is ready to meet the state in Laodicea. In spite of the fact that the public body is nauseous to Him He lingers over it in infinite grace. And then He says, "If any one hear my voice and open the door I will come in unto him and sup with him, and he with me". And to emphasise this grace He says that the overcomer will sit with Him in His throne even as He has overcome and has sat down with His Father in His throne. We are thus to be impressed with the attitude of grace and blessing which the Lord maintains through to the end in spite of all that has come in.
Now I refer to Abigail in 1 Samuel 25. Here a very serious situation has arisen, the rights of Christ as typified in David have been slighted. David and his men had served Nabal, had been a wall to his young men by night and by day; all the time they served with them in the fields Nabal lost nothing, David protected it all. Now David sends and says "give, I pray thee, what thy hand may find - He had a perfect right to do that but he is slighted: Who is David, and who is the son of Jesse? there are many servants nowadays that break away every man from his master” (v 10). That is Nabal; and what a crisis it was! It would be a very serious thing in any locality if the rights of Christ were not fully respected; a situation like that may arise. David, who is then not a type of Christ, resolves to meet it by force, which would involve the loss of life; he is going to do it that way. "Gird ye on every man his sword" (v 13): how far David is removed from the spirit of Christ at that time! Abigail, a woman of a beautiful countenance and good understanding, weighs over the situation: What are the consequences going to be? What intelligence she has! She took "two hundred loaves, and two skin-bottles of wine, and five sheep ready dressed", and so on. She furnishes herself with all that is needed to meet the need of the moment and goes to meet David, and when she saw him she hasted and lighted off the ass and fell before him on her face. Then she speaks to David about Nabal, she is not defending him, the rights of Christ have been slighted and she is not defending the man that did it, neither is she justifying David's action, she is not taking sides with any as to this matter; and what she is doing is a result of her discernment. She brings what is needed and says "And now this blessing". David has the sword girded on; Abigail has the supply to meet the difficulty and brings it in in the spirit of blessing. Now David says "Blessed be Jehovah, the God of Israel, who sent thee this day to meet me. … And blessed be thou".
Oh, dear brethren, what is so important in seeking to meet a need amongst the saints is to do it in the spirit of blessing, not in the spirit of complaining or of grudging, not in the spirit of anything that belongs to the order of man that is here, but to bring it in in in the spirit of blessing. Abigail later becomes the wife of David; what a worthy woman she is a type of the assembly.
Now in 2 Samuel 17 David is in rejection fleeing from Absalom. It says, "And as soon as David came to Mahanaim, Shobi the son of Nahash of Rabbah of the children of Ammon, and Machir the son of Ammiel of Lo-debar, and Barzillai the Gileadite of Rogelim": these are men who have a history. David and his men were in need and these men knew what was needed. David is in the wilderness fleeing from Absalom, and they bring beds for rest, basons for refreshment, earthen vessels and food for sustenance: all what is actually needed. We need to be practical, dear brethren; if need exists amongst the saints, what is it? These are men who had been affected by grace as it had been manifested in David. Take a man like Shobi; his brother had despised grace (see 2 Sam 10: 1-5); but grace had a place in Shobi's heart and he evidently had real affection for David. Machir the son of Ammiel of Lodebar is the man that had housed Mephibosheth; it is out of his house that Mephibosheth came up to David. These men had been affected by grace, and the work of God evidently had taken shape in them, but they had kept in the background up till now. God sees to it that circumstances arise in which every bit of His own work comes into manifestation. There are many secret lovers of Christ around us today but sooner or later God will bring about a condition of things where His own work will manifest itself. At the end of John's gospel there are two men, Joseph of Arimathaea and Nicodemus, secret lovers of Christ, but the day comes when circumstances arise in which the work of God in their souls comes into manifestation. We can pray that God will bring about conditions in which His own work will be brought into expression in persons that have kept in the background up till now. What a link these men had together! What is holding them together? What held Joseph and Nicodemus together? I believe it was the work of God. They had a link together which was strong, unbreakable, a link in the work of God, and they did what was necessary to meet the need at the moment. The body of Jesus was still on the cross; who was going to take it down? Scripture had said that He was with the rich in His death. Who was going to do it? These two men come forward and do what is necessary to meet the need of the moment. I do feel we need a great deal of help to meet the need of the moment and to meet it in the spirit that will reach the divine end. Surely what Nicodemus and Joseph did fulfilled the divine word fully. These men in Samuel brought all this wonderful supply; "they said, The people is hungry, and weary, and thirsty in the wilderness". There is a good deal of this kind of thing today - people hungry, weary, and thirsty in the wilderness. Do not let us forget the circumstances of the wilderness. Let us also think of those who are serving us continuously in the ministry. Does it not involve work, labour, weariness? Of course it does. It is not all the bright side of joy and happiness; there is weariness. There are, too, the beloved brethren who are isolated in very small positions. Think of keeping on week after week in a very small position; is there not weariness? Let us be practical, dear brethren, and get to God and see what the need is and bring in what is required in such a way that it will meet the divine end.
Now I thought that the man from Baal-shalishah would give us a good finish. This is a wonderful chapter; it may be applied to the scope of Paul's ministry beginning at Romans. There is the truth of the Spirit, the pouring out of the oil into the vessels, and the increased wealth: "pay thy debt, and live... on the rest" - persons set up in fulfilled responsibility. Then we get the food supply and a man filling his lap with wild colocynths and shredding them into the pot - a careless way of going on, trying to handle divine things in a careless way and not discerning what is there; this man shredded in what was wild and there was death in the pot. Elisha says "Then bring meal" - that is Christ. He did not put his hand into the pot to take the poison out, he brings in Christ; that meets the situation. Then we get the man from Baal-shalishah; I think he represents a man like Paul. Baal-shalishah, I understand, has a connection in meaning with the lord of the third part, the higher level. It is a heavenly ministry. It says he "brought the man of God bread of the firstfruits, twenty loaves of barley, and fresh ears of corn in his sack. And he said, Give to the people that they may eat. And his attendant said, How shall I set this before a hundred men? And he said, Give the people that they may eat; for thus saith Jehovah: They shall eat, and shall have to spare. And he set it before them, and they ate and left thereof, according to the word of Jehovah". It reminds us of the miracles that the Lord Jesus wrought in feeding the multitudes. Paul is a man that has been to another place and he brings the food in - a heavenly ministry. Dear brethren, there is a great need at the present time for a heavenly ministry. This man had been to the place where that ministry is to be obtained. Paul had been there and he brings in a ministry that lifts the saints up I believe the intent of it is that, as the constitution of the saints is built up on this food, it gives a desire to get to the place where the ministry came from. That is what Paul had in his mind; he had been there and he came back and supplied a ministry which, if taken hold of, fed upon, would build up a constitution that would never be satisfied until the person got to the place where the ministry came from - that is the heavenly side. How often we are reminded of it Jesus is there, He has gone to heaven and He says; have prepared a place for you. Our destiny, dear brethren, is heaven; why should we not get there now not in actuality but in spirit? What this man bring in is a crowning feature to this wonderful chapter. It is an Ephesian touch where Paul reaches the zenith in the spirit of blessing.
Well, may the Lord add His blessing. I feel there is something in what has been said; do not destroy the word, there is a blessing in it. That is what the prophet said: "Destroy it not for a blessing is in it" Isa 65: 8. It is a question of discerning where the need is and what it is, and being exercised to bring in what is required, and see that we bring it in in such a way that the divine end will be reached, for His Name's sake.
GILLINGHAM
20 September 1975