SEARCHING AND FINDING
Rodney Brown
Acts 17: 10-12 (to “believed”)
It will be evident that these scriptures refer to what is hidden and what can be found. We had that before us on Lord’s day at the Supper, and in the reading, in relation to the treasure hid in the field and also in relation to the merchant seeking beautiful pearls, “and having found one pearl of great value … sold whatever he had”, Matt 13: 44-46. So he sought something that was not readily accessible, and he found it; and there seems to be a particular recompense in that - finding the thing you are looking for is the objective. As to spiritual things, everything comes to us when we first believe, when we put our trust in the Lord and in His blood and we benefit from the gifts that God has given, that He has bestowed in His love. God is a giving God, as we are often reminded, and He has given His best, in His Son and in the Holy Spirit. And these things are ours, as we believe in faith and lay hold of them. But then we come into the enjoyment of them as we search things out. Not everything is on the surface: spiritual things are hidden from the natural mind, so there is recompense in searching things out. The scripture makes that clear.
We spoke of the verse in Proverbs on Lord’s day. It is the glory of God to conceal a thing, and I think that relates to the treasure in the field that we were occupied with. What was hidden in God’s purpose came to light when the Lord came into manhood, and He valued it so much that He gave what He had to secure it, (JT vol 27 p308. The treasure is to be found in the assembly, and that was borne out by what we had in the reading. That treasure is not therefore evident to the natural man, it cannot be taken account of naturally, but there is no doubt that it exists and there is glory attached to it; and there is a certain glory in searching it out, coming into the enjoyment of it, benefitting from what is available in the assembly. And, more than that, there is what is for the glory of God. So God has concealed things, but then as we search them out, it returns glory to Him, it glorifies God. We come into the benefit of them.
The setting here is the glory of a king; so the scripture would present it as a dignified thing, a noble thing, and that is borne out in the Acts with these Bereans. I am sure that those in Thessalonica were noble enough, but scripture records that those in Berea “were more noble than those in Thessalonica”, and the reason for that commendation seems to be that they received the word “with all readiness of mind, daily searching the scriptures if these things were so”. So the word as received with all readiness of mind was found to be more effective as it was verified from the Scriptures. It is not - as has often been said - casting doubt on it, or seeking to disprove it but “daily searching the scriptures if these things were so”. That brings out firstly, the need to search the Scriptures and to become acquainted with them; and then the thought of “daily”. It is not when something comes in in a reading, and I will search the Scriptures to see if they fulfil it, but it is a “daily” matter, a habit. We need to get into good habits - I find it easy to get into bad habits, and a bad habit would not be reading the Scriptures enough, not valuing the Scriptures enough, but “daily searching the scriptures if these things were so” suggests that they valued the Scriptures, and they sought to be persuaded as to them. And that was a commendation; they were “more noble”: there was a dignity about them.
As to Corinthians, we had a word at the Supper, and the brother who addressed the Holy Spirit talked about the servant in Genesis 24, how typically “all the treasure of his master was under his hand”, v 10. So the Holy Spirit is really the key to these things. You can search the Scriptures all day without the Spirit and get no benefit from it. The key to understanding things, and coming into the benefit and secret of what is hidden is to rely on the Holy Spirit. Otherwise, it will be what we have here, that things have not come into man’s heart. So we are to rely upon the Holy Spirit: God has revealed things by His Spirit, and we come into the benefit of what God has prepared for them that love Him. They are only available by the Holy Spirit: “the Spirit searches all things, even the depths of God”. So the Holy Spirit searches things: He dispenses things. The hymn was also quoted:
Dispenser Thou of heav'ns store (Hymn 158).
The depths of God and heaven’s store must be closely aligned. It is a glory of the Holy Spirit, and an aspect of His service, that He “searches all things, even the depths of God”. You could not define or restrict what “searches all things” entails - “even the depths of God”. You might say there are depths of God in the saints of the assembly, and in everything that God has done. You can take account of the depths of God in some way even in creation. There is an aspect there: the natural man can see something but the spiritual side is completely closed off.
So we need to rely on the Holy Spirit to enter into these things and benefit from them; and as we do so, then our life comes into accord with the One who is above, Christ who sits at the right hand of God where our minds are to be. It says, “seek the things that are above, where the Christ is”. In the address on Saturday, there was reference to the upper room; things were elevated. We are to gravitate to where our life is. If our life is in the things on the earth, that is where we will gravitate, that is where our interests are. The scripture we read in Colossians 3 presents the things that are on the earth as distinct from the things that are above, “where the Christ is”. And with the Spirit, we should gravitate to the things that are above; because that is where the Spirit leads us, that is what the Spirit’s searching relates to. It does not relate to things down here, the Spirit searches what is for our benefit: the Lord Jesus says, “he shall receive of mine and shall announce it to you”, John 16: 14. The things of Christ are not based on what is on the earth, although they have their effect here. But we are to take our cue from what is above, where our life is hid with the Christ in God. So we are to find ourselves in another realm altogether, and that is where our interests lie.
Then it says, “Christ who is our life”. We might ask if this is so, but I do know that if we rely on the Holy Spirit, Christ is magnified and more attractive, and we are more bound up with Him and the things above, and less linked to the things that are below. There are things that we have to deal with, but what is the bent of our lives: is it here, or is it there? When we are manifested in glory, we will find that the things that are on the earth were for a time. The coming of the Lord is near, and in the meantime, we have tremendous resource in the Holy Spirit and in the ascended Man to draw our life and affections to Him in the glory above.
May God give us encouragement, for His Name’s sake.
Linlithgow
1st May 2025