EXTRACT – A LITTLE SANCTUARY
If there is the bowing to God’s government in the acceptance humbly before God of all that He may allow to come upon His people in common with men, then He will be to them a little sanctuary. We shall know what it is to have a little retreat reserved to us where we may enjoy our inheritance, even in these conditions.
From ‘Collected Articles of Ministry by A J Gardiner’
Vol.1 pp.125
JESUS CRUCIFIED, GLORIFIED AND SATISFIED
Mark 15:25-39; Philippians 2:5-11;
I would seek grace to speak of the Saviour as presented in three simple thoughts – Jesus crucified, Jesus glorified and Jesus satisfied. I was affected by something that came into our first hymn this morning,
‘Thine the cost and Thine the suffering,
Thine the cross and shame;
Ours the never-ending blessing
Through Thy precious Name.’ (Hymn 41).
I have read this section from Mark’s gospel which tells us something of the cost and the suffering borne by the Lord Jesus so that we should have the blessing. Luke depicts how He was on the cross for six hours, from the third hour to the ninth hour. From the third hour to the sixth hour, His sufferings were at the hands of men, what men did to Him. They did various awful things; they mocked Him, and they reproached Him. The others who were crucified on either side of Him, they reproached Him, and the chief priests and the scribes, they mocked Him. In suffering these things, these unjust accusations, He was there as One who had lived a life which was perfectly acceptable to God. There had been no other life like it, and there never will be again. For thirty-three and a half years, Jesus was here as Man on the earth and was entirely delightful under the eye of God, and here in Mark 15, it was that One who was being crucified.
It says “when the sixth hour was come, there came darkness over the whole land until the ninth hour; and at the ninth hour, Jesus cried with a loud voice, saying, Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani? which is, being interpreted, My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?”. We might wonder why the One who was so delightful to God all those years should be in this situation, the scene shrouded in darkness It would help us to understand that what was taking place there was entirely between Himself and God, because He was there as the sin-offering on our account. It says, “Christ indeed has once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God”, 1 Pet.3:18. There He was, the Saviour for those who believe in Him. The work that He accomplished is available for all, it is available for the whole race. The whole world was in view; the Lord Jesus glorified God and He satisfied God entirely in relation to the whole matter of sin that has come into the human race. What a work was accomplished there, as it says, by “the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God”. It was in mind that persons should be brought to God, brought to know God, brought to enjoy His love and to serve Him, and brought to love God. Jesus was going to put away the distance that had come in, in order that men should be brought near to God. Now the Lord Jesus utters this loud cry, “My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?”. This was foretold in Psalm 22 many, many years before, and it came to pass here, that He would be here at this moment forsaken by God. What it must have meant for Jesus to be forsaken by God! He knew what it was to have suffered in His spirit during His pathway because of the presence around Him of sins and sin, He knew that perfectly because of who He was. But on the cross, He was suffering as man under the hand of God in order that we who believe should be brought into nearness to God and to know God.
So He was there and there were those who stood by, but they misinterpreted His cry; they thought He was calling for Elias. It says, “Jesus having uttered a loud cry, expired”. That loud cry is very important. He had borne the judgment of God against sin and sins. The judgment was exhausted, but He was not exhausted; He was still able to utter a loud cry, and He expired. It was not because He was crucified that He died. He went that way and He was prepared to lay down His life Himself so that persons like you and me should be brought into unending blessing. So it means that our sins can now be forgiven. God is righteously able to forgive our sins, every one of them. God has this attitude towards the whole world, and He is entitled to have this attitude because Christ has glorified Him completely in regard to this matter, so that, through repentance, we can have the forgiveness of sins.
Now that depends on our putting our faith in Jesus. We must believe in this work that He has accomplished, the great work of redemption; we must have faith in His blood, for His work necessitated the shedding of His precious blood. We can put our faith in the Person who has accomplished the work, and in His blood. He uttered this loud cry and He expired. He was not exhausted: He exhausted the judgment and He uttered this loud cry and expired. He gave up His life Himself. It is remarkable that “the centurion who stood by over against him, when he saw that he had expired having thus cried out, said, Truly this man was Son of God”. How he must have been affected by this cry! I wonder if we have all been affected by this loud cry, coming from the lips of the Saviour as He died there on the cross. What suffering it must have involved. His was the cross, His was the suffering, and we can come into never-ending blessing, can know the God who Jesus came to make known. Then He was buried, representing how the man in us who had sinned was removed in death vicariously. Jesus did not have to be buried on His own account but He was buried, and the order of man that had sinned was removed from before the eye of God. Then He was raised, which shows that God was fully satisfied with the work He had accomplished.
Now I want to speak not only of the fact that Jesus was raised but also that He was glorified. It is very affecting to read this scripture in the epistle to the Philippians. It speaks of how there was such a mind in Christ Jesus “who, subsisting in the form of God, did not esteem it an object of rapine to be on an equality with God; but emptied himself” – or “made himself of no reputation” (KJV) –“taking a bondman’s form, taking his place in the likeness of men”. Jesus came into manhood to accomplish, among other things, this great work of redemption, and that meant that He had to come into the “likeness of men”. But He not only came into “the likeness of men” but He took “a bondman’s form”, He took the lowest form of humanity. How far down He went! The One who in His Person was entitled to such a glorious place took a “bondman’s form” to accomplish this work, and “having been found in figure as a man, humbled himself”. How attractive that is – He “humbled himself, becoming obedient even unto death, and that the death of the cross”. He became obedient all the way even to death. He went to that extent, “even unto death, and that the death of the cross”. Hee could accomplished that as coming into manhood. All along the way, He knew what He would have to suffer and that He would have to die, but He did not turn aside. Wonderful Person! It says at one point that “he stedfastly set His face to go to Jerusalem”, Luke 9:51. Oh, how much He considered for persons such as you and me, the whole human race, and He was prepared to set Himself steadfastly, knowing fully what was before Him in order to accomplish this great work.
Now it says, “Wherefore also God highly exalted him, and granted him a name, that which is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of heavenly and earthly and infernal beings, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to God the Father’s glory”. He has been glorified. All His moral excellence had been displayed in His pathway here, and now He has been glorified. God the Father has “highly exalted him, and granted him a name, that which is above every name”. How worthy He is of it, the greatest name in the universe has been given to a blessed Man. Men can bring forward names of great personalities but there is none to compare with the name of Jesus. He is absolutely incomparable. You cannot make any comparison with Him. He has been glorified, He has been given the highest place in the universe; and there is an object in view, “that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow”; and that embraces “heavenly and earthly and infernal beings”. Even Satan will have to bow. But now the opportunity is for every person in the human race to bow, men and women, boys and girls, young people – God has put Jesus in this place and is expecting persons to bow to the name of Jesus. Indeed, the way it is put, that at His name every knee should bow, means there is a moral obligation on everyone to bow to the name of Jesus, to accept not only that He has died for our sins but accept that He has become our Saviour and our Lord. How wonderful that is, to recognise the rights and the claims of the One who is so fully entitled to them, and entitled to have the first place in us, because believers have been bought with a price.
Believers are those who get the gain of the gospel. It is a very solemn thing to be an unbeliever in the face of the presentation of the gospel, but those who believe get all the gain of the great work that has been done by God’s Son. But it is a matter of bowing the knee, and not just doing that formally but yielding ourselves to Jesus as Lord. When the light shone into the soul of Saul of Tarsus, he said, “What shall I do, Lord?”, Acts 22:10. Oh, how the Lord Jesus had captivated that man, absolutely captivated him, and that is what is intended in the gospel, that persons should be captivated by the Lord Jesus and the attractiveness of His claims. He has gone this way in love, and we confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to God the Father’s glory. So it is a great matter to confess Him as Lord, to call Him your Lord, to believe and to bow the knee, and to accord Him His rights in our lives day by day. It says it is “to God the Father’s glory”. Think of God the Father securing glory in persons who are prepared to bow the knee and confess the name of the Lord Jesus. Now heaven is committed to supporting persons who are on that line.
There have been great results from Jesus being glorified. One result is that the Holy Spirit has been given. When Jesus was here, He asked the Father that the Holy Spirit might come, and the Holy Spirit has come. Believers on the Lord Jesus, those who accept Him as Lord and accept His claims, can come into the gain of the gift of the Holy Spirit. That is a wonderful gift, to be set up here with the ability to answer to God Himself. God is looking for persons who will glorify Him on the earth, and the Holy Spirit is the power in persons by which we can do that. One of the features of the Holy Spirit being in persons is that He binds them together into one body, and they can enjoy links with one another in this one body. What a circle it is, a circle of affection, a circle of divine affection, and we can enjoy fellowship with one another. I think that is very attractive, that there has been that provision made through the gift of the Spirit so that we can have links together in fellowship and enjoy divine things together apart from the world.
I read in 1 Corinthians 11 as we had many references this morning to the Lord Jesus being satisfied, and it is very fine to think of this. People often think, ‘What can I do for Him? He has done so much for me; what can I do for Him?’. Well, there is one thing that the Lord Jesus has left for us to do down here on the earth, and it has been preserved for nearly two thousand years – that is the institution of the Lord ’s supper. Believers can have a part in satisfying the Lord Jesus by remembering Him. It says that the Lord Jesus “in the night in which he was delivered up” – that is the night which we have read about when He was crucified; what tremendous compression went into that night – “the Lord Jesus, in the night in which he was delivered up, took bread, and having given thanks broke it, and said, This is my body, which is for you”. What an appeal of affection there is in that, “my body, which is for you”. Then “this do in remembrance of me”. That is something we can do, “this do in remembrance of me”; we can remember the One who has been glorified. “In like manner also the cup, after having supped, saying, This cup is the new covenant in my blood: this do, as often as ye shall drink it, in remembrance of me”. This reference to the new covenant in His blood is very affecting. It involves the personal love of the Lord Jesus and involves the making known to us the love of God, God’s disposition to bless. How wonderful the new covenant is! God is not demanding anything, He is providing, He is supplying everything in His love. The Lord Jesus says, “this do, as often as ye shall drink it, in remembrance of me”; it is very simple. If we break bread together, and drink the cup we do so in remembrance of Himself.
How satisfying this is to the heart of the Lord Jesus. People can seek to do wonderful things for Him, but it is open to every simple believer to do this “in remembrance of me”. And He says, “as often as” ye do it; it is not just once and for all, but as often as we do it. We have the opportunity week by week of coming together, with others who are like minded, to do this. The Lord said, “For as often as ye shall eat this bread, and drink the cup, ye announce the death of the Lord, until he come”. As often as you do it – every time can be fresh. I do not remember two occasions of the Lord’s supper being the same. It is fresh every time because what motivates it all is the love of the Lord Jesus Himself, and He is satisfied with the responses that are offered. What an attractive thing that is to every believer, to feel that the Lord Jesus is satisfied with being remembered. So we should do it.
He has His satisfaction too in the assembly; as the Bridegroom, He has the satisfaction of having a bride. All believers who have put their trust in Him and have the Spirit are part of the bride, and that is what is for the heart of Christ. Oh, how He delights in and is satisfied with the response of believers in this way. It is as often as we do it. It is not to become stereotyped, but it is fresh every time, and truly it is the love of Christ that sustains that freshness.
May the Lord bless the word.
Preaching at Dundee
19 January 2014
John Strachan