Sitting
SITTING
I wish to call your attention to three persons who are recorded as sitting. In the first two cases sitting at the feet of Jesus, and in the third case sitting before Jehovah. These I believe, present to us certain features that God looks for in those who are of the assembly. First of all, the feature of moral excellence as taking character from Christ, seen in subjection and being clothed; then secondly, the feature of intelligence, which, I think, is what is in view in Mary; and then thirdly, the feature of the spirit of worship. I think God would look for all this in the assembly. In each case, as I say, the person is spoken of as sitting – a spiritual habit which we need to cultivate – the ability to sit; not listlessly, nor self-indulgently, nor self-complacently, but sitting in subjection, and at the same time, in alertness. That is a thing to be cultivated.
Perhaps there never was more need of it than today, because the tendency in present-day conditions, with things moving at a great pace, is for the mind to move continually from one thing to another, and it is often difficult to acquire a quiet mind; a mind that is alert, and at the same time restful. That, I believe, is essential—a quiet mind and a quiet spirit—if we are to have our part acceptably in the assembly. While the Lord Jesus Himself is presented to us as sitting, it is not quite in the same way as it applies to us. In the case of the Lord Jesus, His sitting position speaks of exaltation, and of the completion of what He has done. As it is said, “But he, having offered one sacrifice for sins, sat down in perpetuity at the right hand of God, waiting from henceforth until his enemies be set for the footstool of his feet”, Heb 10: 12-13. And then again in Colossians, “seek the things which are above, where the Christ is, sitting at the right hand of God”, chap 3: 1. We are to have the light in our souls that Christ is sitting at the right hand of God as indicative of a position of exaltation consequent upon His having completed the work of redemption, and also in order that our minds and affections might be carried to where He is, so as to understand that there is a system of interests connected with Himself where He is, to which we are to devote our attention. He is also presented as sitting as a Refiner, Mal 3: 3. That is intended to convey to us the idea that He has a matter in hand to which He is giving deliberate attention, so He sits down to it and attends to it carefully, and deliberately; He is sitting as a Refiner. That is going on amongst His people in this time, especially amongst those in any degree walking in the truth. The Lord’s activities as a Refiner are constantly going on, and wisdom lies in recognising it and submitting ourselves.
Now to come to these three. As I said, we do not want to get the idea of sitting, as applying to ourselves, in any listless or self-indulgent way. We read of Eli grown old, sitting by the wayside, his heart trembling for the ark, but having no power to stem the course of evil that was over-running Israel. Then it says, he fell backward and broke his neck, “for the man was old, and heavy”, 1 Sam 4: 18. We do not want to become like that, through lack of spiritual exercise. Then we read of Saul who was sitting under a tree at Gibeah, his spear in his hand, 1 Sam 22: 6—a man who would gather others around himself, and was marked by motives of self-seeking.
Now the first of the three who are sitting according to God is the demoniac, or rather the man out of whom the legion had departed; he sets forth the first results of the teaching of grace. He had been brought into touch with the Lord Jesus. He is presented as an extreme case—one possessed of a legion of demons, but an extreme case is presented in order to show what the divine intention is, that each of us should be marked by the features that marked this man. They come and find this man sitting at the feet of Jesus. Obviously in a position of subjection, and now under a new control; he was clothed, and was now possessed of certain positive characteristics that did not previously mark him; for previously he wore no clothes; he was exposed in his nakedness. Finally, he was sensible—in his right mind. Now it may be an elementary thing to say, but it is well to understand that none of us is a free agent, nor is it intended that we should be. Apart from the grace of God, whether men know it or not, they are the slaves of sin. In Romans 6 it says, “But thanks be to God, that ye were bondmen of sin, but have obeyed from the heart the form of teaching into which ye were instructed”, v 17—ye were the bondmen of sin. God’s way in grace to secure men and women for the assembly, which is the great object of God’s operations in this time, is to bring them under the sway of Christ. He has no other way. It is not God’s intention that any one of us should be lawless or marked by self-will. His one way of delivering souls from lawlessness, and securing them for Himself and His own pleasure and the assembly, is to bring each one under the influence and sway of Christ.
Now this man was there; he was sitting at the feet of Jesus. It says in Romans 6 that we were the bondmen of sin, but “have become bondmen to righteousness”, v 18; not become free agents to do what you will, but you come under the sway of that principle—righteousness. The world is a great system of sin, where every kind of will and fancy of man is catered for. Now the Lord Jesus has come in and died to sin once, in order that we might understand that God has set us free from the dominion of sin; grace entitles us to reckon ourselves “dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus”. “He has died to sin once for all; but in that he lives, he lives to God”, Rom 6: 10-11. God has brought in, in Christ, a Man great enough in His own moral excellence to transform everyone brought into touch with Him. Never was it more seen, I suppose, than in the case of the apostle Paul. He was taken up by God to set forth livingly every feature of the truth. He was a pattern sinner, an insolent overbearing man; the kind of man that you would not find it at all easy to get on with. In addition, a blasphemer and persecutor who breathed out threatenings and slaughter against the disciples of the Lord, but what does he become? We all know what Paul became. “I myself, Paul, entreat you by the meekness and gentleness of the Christ”, 2 Cor 10: 1. He says, “I myself, Paul”, as though he would set himself before them. They all knew well what his history had been, but he could now set himself before them and say, “I myself, Paul, entreat you by the meekness and gentleness of the Christ”. If Paul had not himself been marked by a spirit of meekness and gentleness, he would not have dared to say that. I know this is fundamental, but I would urge it upon you, and young believers especially. Do not think, because you have trusted Christ, and received forgiveness of sins, and the gift of the Holy Spirit, that that is everything. God has indeed forgiven your sins, and you are entitled to rejoice in His favour, for He is holding nothing against you, but has brought you into favour in Christ, the Beloved. You can be in the enjoyment of the love of God, but He intends that you should understand that the One who has redeemed you is the One to whom you are to live. Christ “gave himself for us, that he might redeem us from all lawlessness, and purify to himself a peculiar people, zealous for good works”, Tit 2: 14. You notice what it says, “to himself”. Henceforth the believer’s attitude of mind and spirit is towards Christ. What a subduing and sanctifying effect that has. You begin to discover in you some element of self-seeking, perhaps seeking a reputation even amongst the people of God, for “The heart is deceitful above all things, and incurable; who can know it?” but then, “I Jehovah search the heart”, Jer 17: 9-10. Thank God He does! In faithfulness He discloses what is in our hearts, and at the same time freshly reminds us that He Himself went into death that it might be for ever set aside from before God. Our blessing lies in living to Him. As the element of self-seeking or wanting a reputation arises, the Lord speaks to you. He reminds you that He was in the form of God, that He is God; He did not think it robbery to be equal with God—“did not esteem it an object of rapine to be on an equality with God; but emptied himself, taking a bondman’s form”, Phil 2: 6-7. The Lord reminds us of these things, counteracting what comes to light in our hearts by what is resident in Himself. This man was sitting at the feet of Jesus clothed. He had previously been naked—worn no clothes; all the wretchedness of the flesh was openly manifest in him. They now find him sitting at the feet of Jesus clothed. What kind of clothing would you like to appear in? God has indicated the Man in whom He delights; it is because of the moral excellence that has come to light in Jesus that God has “highly exalted him, and granted him a name, that which is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow”, Phil 2: 9-10: the name of the One who made Himself of no reputation and took a bondman’s form. That is the extent to which love would go. God wants His assembly to be composed of persons who have taken on the features of Christ and of no other—this is essential. When He had in mind to bring in deliverance for His people Israel in view of His house, He raised up David, a man after His own heart. Saul was outwardly head, but he was not the man of God’s choice; God found David a man after His own heart and set him up over His people, and in result they all came to appreciate David and repudiate the other man.
This man in Luke 8 is found sitting at the feet of Jesus clothed and sensible. I do not think that supposes a large measure of intelligence, but that his mind is in the right direction. Previously his mind was entirely wrong, under the influence of evil, and Romans 6 is very much occupied with getting our minds in the right direction. You yield yourself to God, you take account of yourself as “dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus”, v 11. Grace having set us in that position—bondmen of righteousness—you are wholly yielded to that principle. A bondman is completely yielded to the person to whom he is bondman. As yielding ourselves, our “members instruments of righteousness to God”, v 13, we become bondmen of righteousness, and then it says, “bondmen to God”, v 22. There is nothing to be ashamed of in being bondmen. Each of the five apostles who have been taken up to write to us, Peter, John, James, Jude and Paul, speaks of himself as a bondman, John in the Revelation, and the others in one or other of the epistles. There is nothing to be ashamed of in being a bondman of righteousness, a bondman of God, a bondman of Christ— “the freeman being called is Christ’s bondman”, 1 Cor 7: 22. To be bondmen is God’s way of completely delivering us and securing us for His pleasure.
Well now, when we come to Luke 10, we have an advance on chapter 8, and I believe intelligence is more particularly in view in this chapter. In chapter 8 it is a question of subjection especially, and as a result, taking on moral features that are pleasing to God, which are derived from Christ, but chapter 10 is a question of intelligence—characteristically listening to the word of Christ. The chapter raises the question as to what the Lord looks for and finds in places where His people live. He does not find the same conditions in one place as He does in another. The exercise is, what kind of conditions He is going to find in this place or that? The chapter begins with the Lord sending out seventy, two by two, “into every city and place where he himself was about to come”. That is a serious consideration! The Lord sending out the seventy has specially in view Paul’s ministry, that is something additional to the ministry of the twelve in chapter 9. The Lord is coming to see what the result is, to take account of what is there as the result of the ministry that He has given. Well, one cannot dwell on the chapter now, but an important point is that we are to rejoice that our names are written in heaven, v 20. That is, we keep our mind in that direction, we take account that our calling is heavenly, and this will give its character, lustre and dignity to what there is for God in the place. As in Ephesians—“walk worthy of the calling wherewith ye have been called”, chap 4: 1. That is, you test things; you test your behaviour in the assembly, you test what is going on in the assembly; is it in keeping with the heavenly calling?
Then in the parable of the Good Samaritan, as we speak of it, the Lord shows the spirit in which His interests in the locality are to be cared for—“Take care of him”, Luke 10: 35. The spirit really of the new covenant, the spirit of grace; the spirit of supply and not demand; not the official spirit of the priest and Levite, nor the legal spirit of the lawyer; and all in view of the Lord coming to see what there is for God. In the beginning of the next chapter we have the Lord praying in a certain place, showing the great place that prayer has in this matter, but in between we get this little incident as to the house of Martha, and Mary in it, and what the Lord commends. It says, “And it came to pass … that he entered into a certain village”. This is a village with certain persons there, and marked by certain features; the next village would not have the same persons and features. What does He find? He finds a spirit of unsubduedness, of activity that is not rightly controlled. Activity for the Lord is good, but let it be rightly directed. Here Martha’s activity was out of place, and it brings into relief the attitude taken up by Mary. It says, “she had a sister called Mary, who also, having sat down at the feet of Jesus was listening to his word”. That is, it was characteristic of her. That is important if there is to be intelligence—we are to be habitually marked by listening to the word of Jesus; as in Colossians, “Let the word of the Christ dwell in you richly”, chap 3: 16. “The Christ” is the anointed Head, the glorious Head of the assembly, and He is always speaking to the assembly. Let us see to it that the ministry which He gives, that which is distinctively from Himself, has a definite place in our lives. That we will not just read it if we have time, but we will make time, and not just go to the meetings if we have time, but make time. I am not, of course, ignoring unavoidable circumstances that arise to hinder, the Lord knows about that, but I am only urging that this attitude of mind—listening to the word of Jesus in a spirit of subjection, sitting at His feet—should characterise us. The word of Jesus is what comes to us, maybe through the local brethren, through gifts the Lord raises up, or through what is published, but the thing is, to be characterised by listening to the word of Jesus.
I do not think we can expect that God will have the pleasure that He desires from the assembly if it lacks in intelligence. In Ephesians it says, “he has caused to abound towards us in all wisdom and intelligence, having made known to us the mystery of his will”, chap 1: 8-9. How much do we know about the will of God? Epaphras laboured for the saints at Colosse that they might “stand perfect and complete in all the will of God”, chap 4: 12. Let us ask ourselves how much we understand of the will of God. Not so much His will in relation to our pathway, though that has its place, but how much do we understand of the will of God which really centres in Christ and the assembly? God desires that we should grow up in intelligence, and that can only be secured as Christ is livingly held as Head in the affections of the saints, and His word is recognised in that light. We do not come to listen to this brother or that brother, but come in the faith of our souls that the Lord, as the living Head of the assembly, will take the occasion to speak, and His word is to be listened to. We have of course to prove all things. The Bereans are commended for that, they are contrasted with the Thessalonians as being more noble because of “receiving the word with all readiness of mind, daily searching the scriptures if these things were so”, Acts 17: 11.
Now the apostle, in writing to the Thessalonians, draws attention to that feature that was lacking in them, and says, “quench not the Spirit; do not lightly esteem prophecies; but prove all things, hold fast the right”, 1 Thess 5: 19-21. The feature that was marking the Bereans is the feature that the apostle specially mentions to the Thessalonians when he writes to them. And so the epistle to the Colossians develops this thought of the headship of Christ, and the intelligence that is to flow from it. He warns the saints against “philosophy and vain deceit”, chap 2: 8, and then says, it is “not according to Christ”. That is to say, everything that is presented is tested in that way—is it of Christ? Is it according to Christ? You notice the Lord commends Mary in saying, “there is need of one”, it really is, that is the one thing that is needful; “and Mary has chosen the good part, the which shall not be taken from her”. If in any degree we have become marked by the features of the man in chapter 8, let us see to it also that we seek to take on this feature of characteristically listening to the word of Christ, that we may become intelligent in the mind of God, for God has nothing less than sonship in mind: and that involves affection and intelligence. A father and mother take pleasure in their young children and delight in their affection and simplicity, but they delight in seeing intelligence develop; they rejoice in the time when their children can converse with them intelligently and sympathetically. So God is like that: He wants His children not to remain babes, but to enter intelligently into His own thoughts, and respond to them according to His mind.
Now when we come to Chronicles we have depicted what is greatest. I can only touch on it for a moment, but it says, “king David went in and sat before Jehovah”. It was a deliberate movement on his part. He had it in his heart to build a house for Jehovah, but God intercepted him through the prophet Nathan and told him that he was not to build it: it would seem that something was necessary before it could be built. David understands. What is in view now is the assembly as the great vessel of praise and worship Godward; the place where God is served. Are our gatherings together worthy of God? Is our response worthy of the blessed God, is all that takes place in our gatherings suggestive of the assembly of God—the privilege, and dignity, and liberty, and intelligence of such a company? I believe intelligence and subjection are the two great features that should be seen publicly in the assembly as convened.
Subjection should be seen in brothers as well as sisters; but I believe sisters are intended to set forth especially the great feature of subjection. Brothers too are to be marked by subjection—“spirits of prophets are subject to prophets”, 1 Cor 14: 32—subjection that is governed by intelligence, but intelligence is specially to be seen in the brothers. They should be able to speak intelligently, and move intelligently, whether in the service of God, or ministry towards the saints, and sisters are to set forth the great feature of subjection. So you will remember in 1 Corinthians 14, where the apostle is dealing with the assembly and what is to mark it, he speaks largely of intelligence and understanding, but he insists on the sisters being silent in the assembly and being in subjection, v 34. Those two features are to mark the assembly: intelligence and subjection. In so far as they do, it is worthy of God.
Well now, David as having in his heart to build the house, but being told he must not do it, goes and sits before God. In doing so he sets before us that, if we would develop in the ability to respond to God in a true spirit of worship, we must learn to sit before God, and allow God, so to speak, to become greater and greater before our eyes and hearts, as we take account of what He is going to do. Because, after all, God must be supreme; He must be greatest; and the more He becomes great before our eyes, the more there will spring up in our hearts the spirit of worship. So God deflects David from the movements which would have occupied him with what he was going to do, and he goes and sits before God, and allows what God has said to sink into his mind and heart, and to be impressed with the fact that it is all what God is going to do. When we apply this idea to ourselves, I have no doubt we find the answer in Ephesians. If the answer to Luke 10 is in Colossians, the answer to this is in Ephesians where we find the apostle in a spirit of worship; and what is causing the worship? He is really imbued, as he writes that epistle, with a sense of what God is pleased to do for His own pleasure and according to His own glory. “Paul”, he says, “apostle of Jesus Christ by God’s will”, chap 1: 1. Then he speaks of “the good pleasure of his will”, v 5, and the One “who works all things according to the counsel of his own will”, v 11. “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenlies in Christ; according as he has chosen us in him before the world’s foundation, that we should be holy and blameless before him in love; having marked us out beforehand for adoption through Jesus Christ to himself, according to the good pleasure of his will, to the praise of the glory of his grace, wherein he has taken us into favour in the Beloved”, v 3-6. What great thoughts they are, emanating from God Himself! Only God could have conceived them. They are not called forth by any condition of need on our part, for they were formed before the foundation of the world. God would display what He is in His greatness, but more than that, He would set forth what He is in the blessedness of His own heart: sons of men in the place of sonship; involving that a divine Person, in fulness of time, should become Man, accomplishing redemption that we might be brought into it by the grace of God, and stand before Him as sons.
The glory of redemption has shone out—“In whom we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of offences, according to the riches of his grace”, v 7. There is not only the glory of His grace, but the riches of God’s grace, and the incoming of sin has involved that God has shone out in a way that could never have been known otherwise. There has been a display of holiness, righteousness, grace; there has been a display of mercy and of power, in bringing in everything on the platform of resurrection, and we, as taken up according to divine purpose are intended to sit down before God and let the sense of the greatness of God sink into our hearts, that there might be produced more real substance, more real, intelligent appreciation of the blessed God, that there might be worship Godward that is worthy of Him.
I believe that is set forth in this chapter. David speaks in a real spirit of worship. He says, “Who am I …? “ and then verse 19— “according to thine own heart, hast thou done all this greatness”; and then in verse 20—“Jehovah, there is none like thee, neither is there any God beside thee”; in verse 21, is the thought of redemption, and how David glories in it; then in verse 24—all that God has said, “Let it even be established, and let thy name be magnified for ever, saying, Jehovah of hosts, the God of Israel, is God to Israel”. That is, He is not only the God of Israel, but God to Israel. Israel holds Him now in their affections in that regard.
That surely, dear brethren, is our portion—“Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ”, Eph 1: 3. He is God, He is that to us, so that as worshipping the Father in spirit and truth, what we come to is that the One we worship in this holy and blessed way, knowing Him as sons, is God, thus known, and He becomes the great theme of worship of His people. God becomes all in all.
God would bring this about in the assembly now, that a greater sense of the grace conferred upon us—that we should be taken up to form part of the assembly—should be with us. I believe we are to cherish above everything, that we belong to the assembly. We have everything in Christ and the Spirit to enable us now to seize every thought that God has in His mind for the assembly, and we should be developed in our affections and intelligence, and learn to sit before Him, that the sense of His greatness might sink into our hearts.
May the Lord help us to cultivate the spirit of sitting at the feet of Jesus, and sitting in the presence of the blessed God!
Place and date not known
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