SEPARATION—IDENTIFICATION WITH THE LORD
In one way, beloved friends, what we have read is a very simple passage of scripture: it is an appeal on the part of Jeremiah to Jehovah. The prophet was in circumstances of trial, of reproach and of persecution, and he turns to Jehovah and appeals to Him, asking that the Lord would interpose to avenge him of those who were his persecutors; and in connection with this appeal we learn what had brought the prophet into these circumstances of reproach and persecution. But before speaking at all of the answer that Jehovah vouchsafed to the prophet, I might say, beloved, that I have taken this scripture and bring it before you, because I believe that the time in which we are now living in a very important sense corresponds to the time in which Jeremiah was living; and the circumstances that surrounded Jeremiah find an answer in the circumstances that surround us as the Lord’s people, or, if you please, as God’s people, at this present time.
I need not tell you that Jeremiah lived on to the close of the history of the people of God in his day. Long before this, of course, the nation of Israel had been divided, and so far as the ten tribes are concerned, their history had closed in judgment; Shalmaneser the Assyrian had carried them away into captivity, and they have been there from that day to the present; they will, as we know, be recovered, and will yet be brought back into the land, and the whole nation will be reunited and brought into blessing; but even as to the kingdom of Judah, this prophet lived very near the end, he lived in the days of Josiah the king, and what marked Josiah’s time in the beginning? When he came into the kingdom everything was very dark, they were suffering under the hand of Jehovah the results of their unfaithfulness. But I just want to say that there was a wonderful revival in the days of Josiah and of Jeremiah. The house of God was in a very sad state, and the service of God in connection with it was practically well-nigh abandoned; but God wrought—Josiah was but a youth, but the heart of the young king was in exercise of soul before God, and he began where every true revival generally begins, that is, with God’s interests here, and, of course, those interests at that time were centred in the temple—the house of God—just as God’s interests are now centred in the assembly—the church of the living God—the house of God. So, Josiah began to clear up things in connection with the house of God. Shaphan was the scribe; Hilkiah, the father of Jeremiah, was the high priest, and in connection with the work inaugurated by Jeremiah, Hilkiah discovered in the house of God the book of the law of God, the book containing the mind of God concerning His beloved people. I must only speak briefly, but the book was given to Shaphan the scribe, and Shaphan carried it to the king, and the book was read, and the finding and the reading of that book was the beginning of a wonderful revival among God’s people.
Now Jeremiah alludes to this. In connection with his appeal to Jehovah he writes his own personal experience; he says, “Thy words were found, and I did eat them”. Hilkiah, the father of Jeremiah, literally found them; but it is not the details that I dwell on, but with the fact itself. What a wonderful thing! “Thy words”—the very words of Jehovah, setting forth what was in the mind of Jehovah concerning His house, and concerning His people—concerning His interests here in this scene.
Jeremiah says: “Thy words were found, and I did eat them”. You can understand the figure without any difficulty, because it is a very simple figure; in eating food we appropriate it, and in the appropriation of it we realise the good of it. Eating food is what we are in the habit of doing constantly and literally, but Jeremiah speaks of eating in a moral sense, though the simplicity of the figure is kept up, and the result of eating the words of Jehovah was that he realised in his own soul the good of those words; and the first result was they made him very happy; he says, “and thy word was unto me the joy and rejoicing of mine heart”. But why did they make him so happy? Because those words of Jehovah made known to him the blessed fact of his complete identification with Jehovah, and his complete identification with Jehovah in the way of blessing. It is well to know that a person is happy, but it is better to know why they are happy, and Jeremiah tells us why: “Thy word was unto me the joy and rejoicing of mine heart: for I am called by thy name, O Jehovah God of hosts”; he learned his complete identification with Jehovah God of hosts; it was such a wonderful identification. As illustration—when a woman marries, she takes her husband’s name—she becomes called by his name; so, Jeremiah was so wonderfully identified with Jehovah God of hosts, that he says, “for I am called by thy name”.
Then you get the next effect of eating those words. First—they discovered to him his complete identification with Jehovah, and thus they brought to light his privilege, as identified with that name, and they filled his heart with rejoicing. That was one side, but then the other side was his responsibility, and that which measured his privilege and his blessing on the one side, measured his responsibility on the other side. If being called by the name of Jehovah God of hosts was the full measure of his privilege, it became also the measure of his responsibility; he was responsible to stand apart from everything that dishonoured that name. So, he says: “I sat not in the assembly of the mockers, nor rejoiced; I sat alone because of thy hand: for thou hast filled me with indignation”.
Now it was not because of the rejoicing that filled his heart in the discovery of his privilege, it was not on that side that he had got into reproach—although, of course, these things cannot be disconnected—these two sides of the truth are never really apart. You may distinguish them, but you cannot separate them, for they go together. There is joy in the apprehension of privilege, but there is also the exercise connected with the apprehension of the side of responsibility, and, in a word, that is where you get into trial. The devil does not care how happy you are; he is not concerned about your apprehension of privilege and your joy in the apprehension of it, but what the devil is opposed to is separation, and separation will get you into trouble. It always has got the people of God into trouble. That is nothing new; it could not be otherwise, I think, in a sense, that it was Abel’s separation that got him into trouble with Cain. I think one might say, speaking reverently, it was so with the Lord. Oh! it was His intense separation that man could not bear, He was “holy, harmless, undefiled, separated from sinners”, Heb 7: 26. That was one reason why He suffered as He did at the hands of men. There is a wonderful testimony in separation, not in denunciation. Souls will get hardened under denunciation; you can easily get hard, and bitter, in connection with denunciation, but testimony is in separation, and as sure as we are marked by separation, we shall be in the reproach that Jeremiah suffered from; and we know from the body of the book how he not only suffered reproach, but he suffered in every way from the hands of his enemies.
Well now, what I want to come to is this, just as there was a revival in the days of Jeremiah, so there has been a revival in our day, and, let me say, it is God who brings about a revival. God brings about revivals in the history of His people, and He brings them about for His own glory and for the blessing of His people. You always find, beloved, in a divine revival that God ever has respect to that which He has established, to that which He has set up, There may be but a very few who are directly, personally, involved in the revival, but I am bold to say that in every revival God has in view, not only the maintenance of the testimony which He has established, but He has in view the blessing of His people.
Well, God has been pleased to bring about a revival in our day, He has been pleased to recover the truth for His own glory, and for the blessing, not simply of the few that may be immediately and personally concerned in connection with the revival, but God has in view the whole of His people, I wish we could think of that, because sometimes it seems to me we act as if we thought we were kind of favourites—a few select ones, and that God had some special interest in some few of us that He has not in all His people. Well, there is the revival; but now the question is, what is your relationship and mine concerning it? God brings about a revival. But then a great many people become connected with it in a mere outward way. It was so in times of old; it is so in more modern times. In the days of Martin Luther there was a revival, and I believe God brought it about. He brought it about for His glory and for the blessing of His people, all His people; yet how many there are that have a mere outward, historical connection with it! They still speak of belonging to reformed bodies or reformed churches; but, alas! it is only like what the Lord says about Sardis, “a name that thou livest and art dead”, Rev 3: 1. It may be so now. I am not saying whether it is so or not, but it may be a mere historical, outward, doctrinal, or ecclesiastical connection. But what I am concerned about is this, beloved, have you and I in our souls a living, vital connection with that revival which, unquestionably, the Lord has brought about in these last days? I do not wish to undervalue any one or any thing, but I am inclined to the conviction that we have witnessed the last revival in the history of the assembly here, and it is a very serious question—what is your relationship and mine to it?—for, however God may have wrought, and by whomsoever He may have wrought, the revival has come, God has brought it about, and what I think is emphasised in the passage I have read to you is this—that whilst the revival concerns the honour and glory of God, the glory and the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, whilst it concerns the whole church of God, you and I have to be brought into it individually. God has not a remnant of the church before Him, do you think He has given up the church? Never, He will never give it up; the church, beloved, is just as much an object of interest and concern with God, and with the Lord Jesus tonight, as at any moment in its history.
But while it is true that the revival is not a matter that has for its object the blessing of an individual, or a number of individuals, but that in it God has the assembly in view, the honour and glory of God, the maintenance of the testimony of our Lord—I repeat that I think what we should learn is, that you and I have got to be brought into it individually. We like large companies, and I am not averse to them; I am very thankful to the Lord for all that are here tonight; but we have to take this matter home to ourselves, each one of us, and we have to look it in the face, how far are we personally and individually in what God has brought about? My father, mother, brothers, sisters, may be in the meeting; but that will not do, if you are going to touch at all what God has wrought, if you are going to know the reality of it, you must know it for yourself: “Thy words were found, and I did eat them”. These things test us as to our spiritual state, as to how it is with us in relation to God. Jeremiah ate His words; he had an appetite for them: have you an appetite for the words of God—for the testimony of our Lord Jesus Christ? Then we see from what Jeremiah goes on to say that the question which was involved in the word of God’s truth was identification of God’s people with God Himself ... You may say, Is not that true of the whole church? Yes. I grant it is; but have you got a personal experience with regard to it? Has there been wrought in your soul such a spiritual appetite for God’s words, His truth and His testimony? Some people are where I was once myself, when one thought the whole thing—the acme in Christianity, was in being saved, and I am not saying anything against safety, nor certainty, nor enjoyment; but I am opposed to sitting down on the doorstep of Christianity. There are a great many religious people in these days, there are a number of people, Christians too, who think that the whole thing is to get a little blessing for themselves. But that is not all; of course, we all have to learn our A B Cs; but that is not the end of it: “Thy words were found, and I did eat them”. It is a very serious question—have we learned for ourselves our identification with the Lord Jesus Christ as the prophet learned his identification with Jehovah God of hosts? That is the test. I am afraid that we somehow hide ourselves under the general statement of the truth we know. Oh! you say, I have seen wonderful things about the assembly. But how have you seen them? Have you seen them through the light of the Spirit of God in connection with your own experience? If not, you are only the victim of a theory; it may be a very beautiful theory and quite correct, but that is all. Perhaps you have been brought up in the meetings—have been converted, and you break bread, and I am thankful for it; but you will not mind if I ask you the question, have you really in your soul grasped this—“for I am called by thy name”? We did not all learn it so easy; some of us learnt it alone—apart from teachers, or evangelists, and apart from tracts and books—and it cost us something, and I want to press upon you the reality of it. Have you got the joy of it? We are told in the Old Testament that “the joy of the Lord is your strength”, Neh 8: 10. You ought to be happy; you and I are divinely entitled to be perfectly happy, and it is a great thing to be happy; you are so safe when you are happy divinely: “Thy word was unto me the joy and rejoicing of mine heart: for I am called by thy name”.
Then there is what comes with the happiness; there is responsibility. There are many people of God who claim to see the truth, they like the truth and hold it; but what about the separation? If your separation is not equivalent to your joy, I am rather suspicious about your joy. “I sat not in the assembly of the mockers, nor rejoiced; I sat alone because of thy hand: for thou hast filled me with indignation”. Have you just left one thing and joined another? That will not do. “I sat alone”. That will do. You have got to sit alone outside “the assembly of the mockers”. In 2 Timothy 2, we read: “If therefore one shall have purified himself from these in separating himself from them, he shall be a vessel to honour, sanctified, serviceable to the Master, prepared for every good work”. Then you flee youthful lusts, you do not do it in a crowd, you do it alone, and you pursue righteousness, and faith, and love, and peace; you do that, then you are clear; and when you are clear you find a few more, and then you can walk with them. We want to have a personal experience on these lines at the present time; and now let me say this, lest I should be misunderstood. Do not think I am speaking against fellowship—against the joy and blessedness of walking with a few of your fellow believers in these days, God forbid. But I would like you to enjoy it when you get it—and you will only enjoy it in the measure in which this has been made personally good and true in your soul.
And then, what was the indignation about? “for thou hast filled me with indignation”. It was about the Lord’s name. The Lord is your joy, and you are indignant at the dishonour to Him. If you get indignant about persons you will get hard, and you will be most unlovely and unlovable. Jeremiah says, “because of thy hand”. His indignation was for the Lord’s dishonour; he could not go on with the mockers. It was his separation from them that got him into trouble; all manner of things were laid to his charge. Well, it seems from the appeal of Jeremiah that the Lord did not come in at once. I take it that the Lord allowed Jeremiah for a while to suffer, and so he makes a desperate appeal. He says: “Why is my pain perpetual”, &c. Here is the answer—“Therefore thus saith the Lord, If thou return, then will I bring thee again, and thou shalt stand before me: and if thou take forth the precious from the vile, thou shalt be as my mouth: let them return unto thee; but return not thou unto them”. What wonderful words! I have no doubt that we need them in these days. “And I will make thee unto this people a fenced brazen wall: and they shall fight against thee, but they shall not prevail against thee for I am with thee to save thee and to deliver thee, saith the Lord. And I will deliver thee out of the hand of the wicked, and I will redeem thee out of the hand of the terrible”.
Of course, these words of Jehovah could be, and no doubt were, taken in a literal way by Jeremiah—all in perfect keeping with the character of that dispensation; but we must take them in a spiritual way, and let me say that in the answer of Jehovah taken in that way there is everything that the heart of the believer could desire. You can count on the Lord; you can count on His making you to stand; you can count upon Him for your spiritual protection and preservation, for your deliverance. I would like to encourage any trembling heart that has been brought face to face with a little of the consequences of what it is to be true to the Lord at a time like this. He will really cause you to “stand before the Lord”—to have a standing, as it were, in His presence. “And if thou take forth the precious from the vile, thou shalt be as my mouth”. Beware of indiscriminate condemnation or censure of anybody. Learn to discriminate; there is the precious and there is the vile; learn in your souls to discriminate spiritually. God encourages every one of us in that direction. He says: “Thou shalt be as my mouth: let them return unto thee; but return not thou unto them”. If the Lord has separated you, never set your face in the direction of what He has separated you from.
Well, beloved, I have spoken simply and personally. I have not thought of entertaining or of pleasing you; but I have spoken with some desire of helping you, and I trust the Lord may really take up these feeble, scattered thoughts, and bring them home to you, that they may be a real blessing to you and to us all. Let me say to you, the measure of your helpfulness among your brothers and sisters in the Lord all hangs upon the measure in which in your own soul you answer to the Lord and are found in intelligent response to His mind. Remember there is the privilege, there is the joy, and then, on the other side, there is the responsibility of separation—of being apart from everything that would dishonour His blessed name, by which name we have been called.