Spiritual Judgment As Making For Our Preservation
SPIRITUAL JUDGMENT AS MAKING FOR OUR PRESERVATION
I desire to say a word as to the feature of spiritual judgment which is to be constantly in exercise amongst us both individually and collectively. It is intended to preserve us as going on in the things of God. The early part of this chapter takes account of a state of departure among God’s people, but also of recovery, so that .it says they put away their idols and served Jehovah only, and then God came in for them, granting a signal deliverance. But now this paragraph I have read comes in following on that, as if the Spirit of God would emphasise that there is something needed if we are to be preserved in the gain of what God has graciously recovered to us. One great feature that makes for our spiritual preservation is the maintenance of this element of spiritual judgment, for judgment is the application of divine principles or the truth of God to particular matters. Righteousness and judgment, it says, are the foundation of God’s throne (Ps 89: 14); righteousness being the governing principle, that is, what is right before God, and judgment being the application of that principle to particular matters. And hence it is important that we should all cultivate the faculty of judgment. We often speak of self-judgment, which is a very necessary matter, but the element of judgment, of particular matters should always be in exercise by us, and having the Spirit of God we are capable of it, for He becomes in us a spirit of judgment.
It says that Samuel judged Israel all the days of his life. He maintained the exercise of this element all the days of his life, and in a systematic way, going round, as it says, in a circuit. He went from year to year in a circuit, to Bethel and Gilgal and Mizpah and judged Israel in all those places. That would convey that what those places stand for was brought to bear continually upon the people of God, in their own practical everyday matters. What Bethel stands for was brought to bear upon them, and what Gilgal stands for, and what Mizpah stands for, was brought to bear upon them. It is important that we should thus realise that the Spirit of God has given us some indication of means which we may employ in the exercise of the faculty of spiritual judgment.
Bethel is of course the house of God, where God dwells. We are ourselves the house of God. We are always the house of God, in virtue of the presence of the Holy Spirit with us and in us; that is not simply when we are convened, but at all times. Christians having the Holy Spirit constitute the dwelling place of God, and hence that is to be borne in mind by us as to what befits the house of God. The Psalm so often quoted by us leaves us in no doubt as to that, “Thy testimonies are very sure: holiness becometh thy house, O Jehovah, for ever”, Ps 93: 5. Whatever form the house of God has taken down the ages, whether the tabernacle or the temple or now the assembly, holiness has become it. “Thy testimonies are very sure”. Instances could be brought forward from the Scripture to show that God always insists on the maintenance of the holiness of His house, and hence that is a matter which we are to carry with us. The Spirit of God, God Himself dwelling by the Spirit in us, would constantly remind us of it. When thoughts arise in our hearts, contemplated actions, before the thought has been translated into action; let this element of judgment be brought to bear upon it, that God is dwelling in His house by the Spirit. Paul in writing to Timothy says, “These things I write to thee, hoping to come to thee more quickly; but if I delay, in order that thou mayest know how one ought to conduct oneself in God’s house”, 1 Tim 3: 14, 15. The house of God regulates our conduct, because God Himself dwells there. And not only is that so in regard to the assembly at large, but it is even so in regard to each one of us individually, for “your body”, it says, “is the temple of the Holy Spirit which is in you, which ye have of God”, 1 Cor 6: 19. God Himself in grace has deigned to take up His dwelling place in us, the body of each believer being the temple of the Holy Spirit, and that is a matter to be borne in mind as something that is to regulate us constantly, and to enable us to arrive at a judgment of the suitability or unsuitability of anything that we may contemplate doing. Indeed, the great thing is that we should learn, and seek the Lord’s help by the Spirit, to control our minds. It says, “he that sows to his own flesh, shall reap corruption from the flesh”, Gal 6: 8. And I believe the way we sow to the flesh, our own flesh, is by allowing our minds to run riot, and not seeing to it that they are controlled by the Spirit of God. It is significant that the scripture says, “he that sows to his own flesh”; that is, not the flesh generally, but his flesh, one’s own propensities, the particular form that the flesh in oneself tends to take. That is specially to be guarded against, that it is not sown to. The truth of the house of God will help us in these matters, and this is one feature of Samuel’s service when he judged Israel from year to year at Bethel. Year after year the people of God found this element of the house of God was reiterated to them, brought to bear upon them by Samuel in the exercise of his judgment.
Then there was Gilgal. Gilgal is a reminder to us day by day of the circumcision of the Christ, and of our having been circumcised in the circumcision of the Christ. That is, it is a reminder to us of the death of Christ and of the only right answer to it in our own souls in the understanding that flesh must be cut off, that cutting off having actually taken place vicariously in the death of Christ. He assumed in grace flesh and blood condition in order that by His death the condition of sinful flesh in which we were involved might be ended, and, as appropriating the truth, we have to make sharp knives as it says in Joshua. That is, we have to be drastic in the power of the Holy Spirit in applying the truth of circumcision to ourselves. As the people of God did so, Jehovah said, “This day have I rolled away the reproach of Egypt from off you”, Josh 5: 9. As long as any features of the flesh are in evidence and allowed amongst us, it is a reproach to us. We are carrying with us a taint of the world, a taint of that out of which we have been redeemed for the pleasure of God. It is for us to take up in our minds how blessedly the truth has been established for the pleasure of God in Christ by means of His death, as it says in the epistle to the Corinthians, “these things were some of you; but ye have been washed, but ye have been sanctified, but ye have been justified in the name of the Lord Jesus”, 1 Cor 6: 11. That is the objective side of the truth that has come to pass for us in Christ, and we have appropriated it by faith, and it is accredited to us. But the scripture goes on to say, “And by the Spirit of our God”. That is, God contemplates that there should be the power of the Holy Spirit. “Ye have been washed ... and by the Spirit of our God”; it means in the power of the Spirit of our God, implying that, as the Spirit of God is given His place, there is a subjective answer in us to our position objectively, as having in Christ been washed and sanctified and justified. So, as I say, Samuel from year to year brought Gilgal to bear upon the people of God.
Then there was Mizpah, and the name Mizpah means “Watch tower”, and a Scripture in Genesis will help as to the application of Mizpah. I refer to Genesis 31, the end of verse 48, “Therefore was the name of it called Galeed—and Mizpah; for he said, Let Jehovah watch between me and thee, when we shall be hidden one from another: if thou shouldest afflict my daughters, or if thou shouldest take wives besides my daughters—no man is with us; see, God is witness between me and thee!” That is the idea of Mizpah, that when we are separated from one another, when none of the brethren is present to see, God is seeing, God is a witness. Laban says; “When we shall be hidden one from another”. When we are not in one another’s company, when there is no human witness of anything that is being done, bear in mind that God is witness. And so Samuel brought that to bear upon, the people of God year after year as he went round in a circuit, and as matters that had arisen came under his notice, and were brought to him for judgment, he would say, Do not forget that God is witness, when we are parted from one another. When there is no one looking on, do not forget that God is a witness.
These are three important elements that come into this matter of spiritual judgment, as intended to be applied by us constantly with a view to our preservation, for, as was said in prayer, our God is a consuming fire. Everyone knows what his flesh is; as the Scripture says, “The heart is deceitful above all things, and incurable”, Jer 17: 9; anyone who knows anything of having to do with God understands that, but there is the power to move in superiority to the flesh, and to be preserved in superiority to it in the Holy Spirit. The spiritual meaning of these particular features of Bethel, of Gilgal and of Mizpah is intended to be remembered by us as a means by which, with the Spirit’s help, we may be preserved.
It says, “his return was to Ramah; for there was his house, and there he judged Israel; and there he built an altar: to Jehovah”, 1 Sam 7: 17. Now he is bringing in a fourth item, which can be used for our spiritual preservation. He is bringing in our private household relations with God. Samuel always returned to Ramah, for it says, “there was his house”, and “there he built an altar to Jehovah”. He was careful there to maintain his own personal links with the Lord, and he would remind us of the importance of maintaining our own personal links with the Lord day by day, seeing to it that the altar is availed of, not in a formal way, but in a real way, and as this is done it will be another feature that will serve to preserve us. That is what was impressed upon me to speak of this evening, the importance of every one of us cultivating and maintaining this element of spiritual judgment in the fear of God, and the way the teaching relating to these four places, Bethel, Gilgal, Mizpah and Ramah is intended by God to serve as a help so that we should be preserved in His fear.
Given at a meeting for ministry – place and date not known
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