“IT IS THE GLORY OF GOD TO CONCEAL A THING”
P. van den Berg
I am seeking help, beloved brethren, in relation to what has been read. The word of God has a very current bearing; whichever part of the Scriptures we read it has a very current bearing as the blessed Holy Spirit applies it to us in relation to the current needs of the testimony. As the brethren well know, the book of Proverbs works out in the woman of worth, who can be trusted. That is a great matter, to be trustworthy in relation to that which we have received.
What God in His grace has recovered us to is to be maintained at all cost. We have here the proverbs of Solomon and I would suggest that that would refer to that which is from the beginning. The brethren know the departure as it is traced in Revelation 2 and 3; it is traced to Ephesus where first love was left. The great height of things was set out at Ephesus; as Paul says, “all the counsel of God” (Acts 20: 27) was brought out. The Lord Jesus in the Revelation traces the departure at Ephesus because the departure is from the highest features of the truth, but then the recovery is to the highest features of the truth. So in Philadelphia we have a recovery, which I doubt not was in the Lord’s own mind from the beginning, to that which was departed from at Ephesus.
We have had a setting out of ministry, beloved brethren, that is related to that which is from the beginning; it is related, as John said, to “That which we have heard, which we have seen ... concerning the word of life”, 1 John 1: 1. John presents to us the Son of the Father’s love, and Solomon sets out the affectionate side in sonship. It is a great thing in every matter of responsibility to have in our hearts the great place the assembly has in the mind of God, the great place we have in sonship associated with Christ in the presence of the Father. In the working out of matters here we must proceed from the highest point, in the dignity that, according to God, has been given to the saints. What greater place could be ours than to be associated with the Son of God in the Father’s presence? I believe administration proceeds from that point. We have in Matthew 17 the Lord Jesus shining as the sun and a voice saying, “This is my beloved Son ... hear him”, and from that point the matter of responsibility in the testimony is met. We see in the close of the chapter how the Lord anticipated Peter as to what he might do and brings the matter to a conclusion in divine wisdom, as the Lord will conclude any matter relating to the testimony, for it is not yours and it is not mine; it is the Lord’s, it is the Lord’s testimony.
So wisdom has a great place in the assembly; the assembly is wisdom’s house, indeed we read in Ephesians 3: 10, 11 that the all-various wisdom of God is made known to the principalities and authorities in the heavenlies through the assembly, according to the purpose of the ages. That is, that in the purpose of God the present time was in view, the world to come was in view, and the eternal state was in view—that is finality; but the present time was in view in the purpose of the ages that there should be a witness, amid the scene of confusion, to divine order in the assembly. And God has recovered us to that. The house of God is not a place of disorder; the house of God is a place of order, and wisdom is working things out in relation to the truth that God has given us, that He has recovered us to.
I would suggest, beloved brethren, that in the men of Hezekiah we have represented those who have served in the recovery to bring out the truth as it was from the beginning, and we do well to give heed to it; we do well to pay heed to the distinct ministry which the Lord has given in the course of the recovery. Hezekiah’s time, as we know, was marked by a wonderful revival. We are in a time of wonderful revival; it may be in outward smallness and weakness, but it is very precious in the mind of God. What mercy it is that as we find ourselves here tonight, beloved brethren, we can trace the living current of the truth as it has proceeded in the recovery. Whatever has happened in the course of the recovery, whatever departure there may have been, Mr. Raven said it can be traced to not holding the Head, and we need Christ as the One who is the Source of all wisdom, power, and food.
So we have this reference here to it being God’s glory to conceal a thing; but the glory of kings is to search out a thing. I would suggest that the king would represent the way that things are worked out in administration. As we all know, administration is not universal; it will be universal; the day is coming, the world to come, when there will be a universal administration in the Man of God’s purpose. But the wisdom of God is seen working out in the present time in local assemblies, and it is a great matter to see how God’s glory is bound up with the assembly. The assembly will be the vessel of divine administration in the world to come when all that is now here in mystery will come out in public display. What a glorious administration it will be! There will not be any unresolved problem in the world to come. But the assembly is already in the light of the world to come and she is already in the light of the eternal state, and it works out in the present time.
The great test as to all truth that is ministered is as to what there is in the way of a practical working out in relation to it. For what would truth be if there was no practical working out of it in administration? I am not afraid to use the word administration; administration is local, and God has given us light and truth to be maintained in faithfulness in the way it is worked out amongst us.
The king would represent that side of things, the line of administration, governed by the prophetic word. The king does not determine the truth, you know; the king is governed by the truth. The kings of Israel were to be governed by the prophetic word; what the prophet said was what they were to do. So the prophetic meeting has an important place, and God is confirming the saints in the prophetic ministry that He gives. We have in Revelation 2 and 3 the prophetic word as it bears on local assemblies in the way that the Lord Jesus appears prophetically to them, each in its own responsibility, each governed by one and the same Person and by one and the same truth, for the truth is one, and the Spirit is One, and Christ is the Head of the assembly. So there is glory working out in the assembly at the present time.
We have this statement here—“It is the glory of God to conceal a thing”. You know, beloved brethren, the natural mind is not able to take in the things of God, and it has pleased God to hide things from the natural mind that are evident to the spiritual mind. “The spiritual discerns all things, and he is discerned of no one”, 1 Corinthians 2: 15. The king is not discerned by anyone. Paul in writing to the Corinthians had to combat the natural mind, and there is nothing more serious and dangerous than the natural mind interfering in the things of God.
The king would know that—it is the glory of kings to search out a thing. How wonderful that God has secured an answer to His eternal thoughts in the assembly, the assembly the vessel of His praise, and there is nothing that tests us like responsibility, because we are here in responsibility, and privilege precedes responsibility. That is one thing we need to have established in our minds, that privilege precedes responsibility. The more we are in the gain of our privilege spiritually the more we shall understand the working out of things in responsibility; that is the glory of kings, the glory of kings is to search out a matter.
The natural mind will not understand. Peter had to learn that he could not rely on his mental capacity in the working out of the truth. The Lord had to rebuke Peter in Matthew 16 when he had just had that wonderful revelation, “Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God”. The Lord said, “Flesh and blood has not revealed it to thee, but my Father who is in the heavens … thou art Peter, and on this rock I will build my assembly”. But Peter immediately fails by resorting to the natural mind. Beloved brethren, we cannot be governed by natural feelings in the things of God; we must be governed by the truth, we must be governed by that which God has given as light and as truth, the way God has recovered the truth by the men of Hezekiah, the distinct ministry we have had in the recovery. We need to pay heed to the history of the recovery, the way the enemy has been against it all the time, because the enemy will be at the life line, he will be against that which represents the living line of the testimony at any given moment. The situation of the testimony today is not the same as it was in Mr. Taylor’s time, or Mr. Raven’s time, or Mr. Darby’s time; we are living in different days and there are different needs and different circumstances, but the truth is the same, and the Lord is the same, the glorious Head of the assembly.
There has been much departure from the truth in the history of the recovery but the Lord says to Philadelphia, “Hold fast what thou hast, that no one take thy crown”, Revelation 3: 11. The Lord would credit the holding of His word. And it is a test, you know, especially when there is a trend that goes differently, to be governed by the Lord’s word. What the Lord is saying currently, and what the Spirit is saying to the assemblies, is the test.
It is a day in which the dross is being taken from the silver, as we have it here, in view of a vessel for the refiner. What a charge the Lord has given us in relation to the truth once delivered to the saints. How the enemy has been against it in the course of the recovery, and how the truth has been established, and the truth will stand. The assembly is the pillar and base of the truth. John says, “the Spirit is the truth”, (1 John 5: 6), and the Lord Jesus Himself is the truth. He is the way, and the truth, and the life (John 14: 6), and we have that reference in Ephesians 4: 21, “as the truth is in Jesus”. The assembly is here where the Lord Jesus maintained the rights of God. You remember Pilate saying to the Lord, “Thou art then a king?” The Lord says, “I have been born for this, and for this I have come into the world, that I might bear witness to the truth”, John 18: 37. The Lamb’s wife, the assembly, is in the place where the Lord Himself stood; that is where the assembly is today. There is a continuation here in the power of the Holy Spirit of what was here in Jesus. He went through death and He went into glory, and as has been said, what went up in glory came down here in the power of the Holy Spirit, and it is here in the assembly.
So that is where we are today—“As he is, we also are in this world”, 1 John 4: 17. What a vessel the assembly is! What a sense it should give to our hearts of the dignity of the place that has been given us, and as we are in the sense of the dignity of what the assembly is in the mind of God and in the, heart of Christ we shall not find it difficult to determine anything that is not in keeping with it. “Take away the dross from the silver, and there cometh forth a vessel for the refiner—take away the wicked from before the king, and his throne shall be established in righteousness”, Proverbs 25: 5. That is what we would covet for each local assembly, that the Lord’s rights in local assemblies might be recognised, that the world to come may already be in evidence in the administration in each local assembly. The Lord has His direct rights in each local assembly and they are not to be interfered with, beloved brethren, and the Lord will stand by His rights. We can be assured that if the Lord addresses local assemblies in Revelation 2 and 3 there will be the element of the overcomer in the local assembly that will answer to it, even if it be but one, and such have a peculiar promise.
So it is a time of completion, the time in which the Lord Jesus is completing the dispensation, in outward weakness, in outward smallness, but in the maintenance of the truth as it is from the beginning and in the recognition of the truth as it has been ministered to us by those that have gone before. What a distinct ministry the Lord has given in this city; not that it gives any distinction to any city, because the local assembly is the local assembly—we need to see the glory and the distinction of it, and we need to have great respect for it, and for one another too. What the saints are in the mind of God is something that we need to get hold of in our hearts increasingly. I am sure we shall find that things will be working more efficiently as we appreciate the spiritual links we have together so that the functioning of the body will be promoted, and there will be in body feelings and in sensitiveness a working out or depth in a mutual way for the glory of God. The assembly is not only the vessel that has the glory of God as it comes down in administration in the world to come, but it is the vessel of glory to God throughout the eternal day. And as there is the maintenance of what is due to the Lord Jesus in each local assembly there will be in result the service of praise. The Lord Jesus died that the praise might be secured. Whatever there may be working against it by the power of the gates of hades, there is that working out in the assembly that cannot be overcome.
We were reminded locally of how in Hezekiah’s day the enemy came up against Jerusalem and the matter looked hopeless, but it brought out an element that could not be overcome; it brought out the virgin daughter of Zion who laughed at, and scorned, the enemy, and the enemy was not to shoot one arrow into the city. And the Jerusalem dwellers will be saved from the enemy; they are in a position that is unconquerable. The enemy will have no way in if you are a Jerusalem dweller. If saints are carried away it brings out that they are not Jerusalem dwellers. Jerusalem dwellers will stand, like Simeon, by the truth as it has been received. Simeon means ‘hearing’, and he was a man in Jerusalem; he was the pattern man for the rapture when he received Christ in his arms and said, “Lord, now thou lettest thy bondman go, according to thy word, in peace”, Luke 2: 29. In priestly grace his hands were filled with Christ. The end of all administration is Christ, that Christ may be seen in the gates; “Her husband is known in the gates”, as it says at the end of Proverbs, as a result of the working out of wisdom in the assembly.
So it is the glory of God to conceal a thing; it has pleased God to conceal matters from the natural mind, and we thank God for doing it. The natural mind cannot understand it but the spiritual mind will understand it; it is the glory of kings to search out a thing. Whatever our natural feelings may be, whatever the personalities that our eyes may be on, it is not a question of natural feelings, it is not a question of personalities, beloved brethren, it is what the assembly is according to God, what the house of God is as governed by divine order. And we need to hold at all cost what we have received through beloved men like Mr. Darby, Mr. Raven and Mr. Taylor. I do not know how much Mr. Taylor’s ministry has been followed up, but I am sure the brethren have the highways in their heart; it says, “Blessed is the man ... in whose heart are the highways”, Psalm 84: 5. Such will see to it that the living line is continued at the present time in the way that things are maintained in faithfulness in local assemblies. The Lord would trust the local assembly; that is where He has committed things in responsibility and we can count on Him to come in as to any matter amongst the saints. “It is the glory of God to conceal a thing”. It may be concealed, and if a thing is concealed we need to go to the Lord about it; we need to find out, beloved brethren, as Moses said, “Make me now to know thy way”, Exodus 33: 13. Think of the way Moses finished up as king in Jeshurun, the truth worked out in such a way that Moses was king in Jeshurun. May the Lord bless the word to us, for His name’s sake.
Address in Brooklyn. N.Y.
22 May 1979