THE SPIRIT AS KNOWN BY BELIEVERS
J. Wright
2 Corinthians 3: 17, 18; 1 Peter 1: 10, 11; 3: 17–20; Acts 16: 6–10; Galatians 4: 6
I would like to say a word as to the way that the Spirit is referred to in these scriptures as the Spirit of the Lord, the Spirit of Christ, the Spirit of Jesus, and the Spirit of God’s Son. I feel I cannot say very much about it, it is so full, but I do think it is essential that we come to know the Spirit in a greater way, and that we are subject to His operations, subject to His leading and direction. It is a wonderful thing that we are living in a time when the Spirit is here; He is indwelling the saints and He is in the assembly. We are really not in the current of things at all unless the Spirit has liberty with us, and we have known relations with the Spirit of God, and acquaintance with Him.
These titles of the Spirit, in the scriptures read, relate to the way the Spirit is Himself related to the Lord Jesus. There are other titles of the Spirit such as the Holy Spirit and the Spirit of God. You cannot separate divine Persons, God is One. You can distinguish but God is One.
God has made Himself known in this dispensation in this way. There is one God, but then God is One; perfect oneness marks the Godhead. I feel the way to help us into practical unity is to know the Spirit in a greater way; to know His leading and direction. It is essential to be governed by the Lord’s commandments; we will never get anywhere without that. There is what is external in that way; the children of Israel in their early history knew the leading of Moses, and the authority of Moses. That feature is never to be left behind in a believer’s experience, but the believer is intended to make progress. When the children of Israel came to the brazen serpent and the springing well there was progress, distinct progress in the recognition of the
Spirit in type, and His leading and direction. This has all been pointed out to us in ministry, but the exercise is, and I raise it with myself, as to what I really know of the Spirit’s leading and direction and service.
In this chapter in 2 Corinthians 3 we have the reference to the “Spirit of the Lord”. First of all we have that “the Lord is the Spirit”. It is sometimes difficult as you look at this scripture to see whether the scripture is speaking of the Lord or the Spirit, they are so closely connected, but “the Lord is the Spirit”, is I believe the Lord Jesus. The Lord is the Spirit of Christianity, and the Spirit of the new covenant. You get the spirit of things in the Lord Himself. I wondered if this expression, “the Spirit of the Lord”, would maybe relate particularly to the way we see the Lord in Matthew, but I would not like to limit it to that; we cannot put things too much in pigeon holes, but it may be emphasized more in that gospel. It surely would relate to the Lord’s authority and, if we are to get the gain of this, it would involve on our part the spirit of subjection to the Lord, and to the Spirit of the Lord. What is to mark us in our comings together is that the Spirit of the Lord is there; where the Spirit of the Lord is there is liberty. I think this would have a particular bearing on our being together; where the Spirit of the Lord is there is liberty. Lawlessness is not liberty, it is bondage. Beloved brethren, we get nowhere in our soul’s history without subjection to the Lord. If we think we can pursue our own way in divine things we come to disaster; subjection is a great feature, but subjection to whom? Subjection to the Lord! We have often been reminded that God has put authority where it is most attractive, in the Lord Jesus. Matthew’s gospel brings out the glory of God’s King, but it brings out the attractiveness of His Person, One who is meek and lowly in heart.
Think of being subject to One who is meek and lowly in heart! Would you have anything to fear? Would He harm you? Would He lead you in a way that would damage you? He would do the very best for you.
But I think “the Spirit of the Lord” would engage us with that Man where He is, “where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty”. Liberty to do as I like? No, but liberty to look on the glory of the Lord, that is liberty. It may involve the need to deny ourselves of other things.
Mr. Stoney said, ‘If I myself deny I suffer bitterly, but sweet is liberty’. This is the positive side of looking on the glory of the Lord. It is a wonderful experience to look on the Lord in glory where He is, and you can look there with unveiled face; there is no veil on the face of Jesus in glory. The sight is wonderful; Man in righteousness is there. The glory of God is shining in His face. He is the most lowly Man that the world has ever seen. Mr Taylor Snr.
said that a babe would be attracted by the face of Jesus. There was a certain veil when Jesus was here but there is no veil now where He is. The glory shines, it is shining in His face. As you look on that glory, you are transformed; something happens in the believer as he is looking on that glory, he comes out different, he has taken on an added feature of glory, from glory to glory. That would be accumulative as the believer looks upon the glory of the Lord, it says, “are transformed according to the same image from glory to glory”—“the same image”—we become like Christ. It is a wonderful thing to become like Christ, and we become like one another; there are no oddities, it is what we are as being transformed from glory to glory, and we become like one another. Unity is not just agreement; there is plenty of agreement in men’s societies, they agree on certain things and they often disagree too.
Christianity is not just agreement. This is true unity, something organic, something vital, as we take on glory, “from glory to glory”.
I want to speak now of the Spirit of Christ as presented in Peter’s epistle. I would take it that what we have said as to the glory of the Lord and the Spirit of the Lord in 2 Corinthians applies to the present time, the present dispensation. It could not have been spoken of in the Old Testament where the Spirit of Jehovah was
spoken of, but it involves the Lord Jesus where He now is, the distinctive character of the present day; not only the Lord Jesus where He was but where He is. We need to keep our eyes on Him. While the Spirit of Christ would have a peculiar bearing on us now, what Peter is speaking of here in these scriptures is what took place before; the Spirit of Christ that was in the prophets, and the Spirit of Christ that was in Noah. It is a wonderful thing that God was looking to the incoming of Christ—but it shows that even in the Old Testament time there was that which was substantial of Christ in persons. Generally speaking what marked that day was the Spirit coming upon persons; He came upon different persons; some were commendable and some were not. You could not say, for instance, that the Spirit of Christ was in Jephthah although he was a man of faith; he was not a spiritual man, and yet the Spirit of God came upon him. The Spirit of God came even upon a man like Balaam to use him to say right things.
But there is something different when you come to persons who have the Spirit of Christ in them. There would be certain feelings, certain affections marking those persons as a result of the Spirit of Christ being in them. How the prophets in the Old Testament loved the people; how they suffered, they suffered for their testimony but they loved God’s people. They loved God, and they brought out the word of God whatever it cost them. The Spirit of Christ was in them. How much Christ loves us! I think these references to the “Spirit of Christ” apply particularly to service. I would not limit it to that, but it applies particularly to service in the setting in which it is presented here, in the way that service is carried on in God’s people. The Spirit of Christ being in persons enables things to be said to convey God’s thoughts in a right way, with feeling. It is not just a parrot speaking, as it were, there is feeling behind it, and God is rightly represented. How the Lord would be seen particularly in Mark’s gospel in that way, God’s Servant, “Behold my servant whom I uphold, mine
elect in whom my soul delighteth!”, Isaiah 42: 1. Think of God looking upon Christ in that way! Do you not think God found pleasure in these men in the Old Testament, the Spirit of Christ speaking in them? I am sure He did. He found great pleasure. He found satisfaction and delight in those persons. In themselves they were not perfect but the Spirit of Christ was in them.
How are we getting on with this matter of prophecy? How are we getting on with the preaching? You see the Spirit of Christ is so essential for it, so essential to bring in a word from God, not just a form, something that you have made up, but you have been with God about it, you are with God. The Spirit of Christ in that sense would be available to be in persons. Am I such a person? Paul goes through the exercises of a believer in Romans, and he comes to a point in chapter 8 where the believer recognises the Spirit. He says in that chapter,
“but if any one has not the Spirit of Christ he is not of him” (Romans 8: 9). That is a solemn thing. Why not have the Spirit of Christ? Those exercises in Romans are intended to produce that in the believer. So that the believer in recognising the Spirit has the Spirit of Christ. You know how to bring in a word.
It says of these prophets that they “prophesied of the grace towards you, sought out and searched out; searching what, or what manner of time, the Spirit of Christ which was in them pointed out”. The Spirit searches, it says that in Corinthians, “the Spirit searches all things, even the depths of God”, 1 Corinthians 2: 10. It is not a question of just repeating things you know, reading something and repeating it, something is to be searched out. We need the Spirit’s help for something to be searched out; something would be found that is of value, something fresh, not novel, but something fresh. It says, “testifying before of the sufferings which belonged to Christ, and the glories after these”. What things are there to be searched out, what depths there are in the prophets, it says, “the sufferings which
belonged to Christ”. You read the book of Ezekiel. Can you understand it? I feel I need the Spirit’s help in understanding it. We speak of the sufferings of Christ—there should be no controversy about the sufferings of Christ. We need the Spirit’s help, not the natural mind to pry into things. The Spirit here was searching out. No doubt the prophets themselves did not understand what they were saying, but they were testifying as to the sufferings of Christ.
What feelings would come into it! And the prophets themselves suffered. Ezekiel not only spoke of the sufferings of Christ but he suffered, he went through things, and the other prophets did, the Spirit of Christ being in them—“testifying before of the sufferings which belonged to Christ, and the glories after these”. That blessed Man is in the glory. I think the prophetic word would come in a powerful way to affect us in regard of these things. You say, Well, we are not up to much. No, but how about the Spirit of Christ? You come to recognise the Spirit of Christ and you would serve the saints. It is a great thing to desire to prophesy, and sisters can do that (not in the meeting), but they can prophesy. I wonder how much we prophesy, but the Spirit of Christ is needed for it.
Now in Noah’s day, it is wonderful that really the Spirit of Christ was in Noah; the Spirit of preaching you might say. The preaching of the Spirit of Christ began in Noah’s time, and the long-suffering of God was in evidence. Both the prophets and Noah bring out the patience of God. How the prophets bring out the patience of God with His people, yearning over them, and Noah is patient over men. God said in an earlier chapter, “My Spirit shall not always plead with Man” (see Genesis 6: 3), but the Spirit of Christ was in Noah. You say there were no results, only his family saved, but the Spirit of Christ was there, he went on with the preaching. Let us go on with the glad tidings; not only public preaching but speaking to souls.
We are in a time very much like the time Noah lived in; the earth is full of violence and corruption, and things are heading up for
judgment. We are not in the time of judgment yet, it is the day of God’s grace, and God is looking upon men favourably; He is long-suffering. Think of God’s long-suffering, how it is testified to in the present day in which we are, He is waiting upon men. The time is coming when judgment will come, but meantime is the Spirit of Christ active in me? Is He active in this way? Appealing to men, speaking to men, for God’s desire is that they should be saved and come to the knowledge of the truth.
I refer to this section in Acts as to the “Spirit of Jesus”, for it seems to be a very sensitive matter. Paul and his company are marked by great dependence in this section and they are tested. The spirit of dependence seen in Jesus comes out particularly in Luke’s gospel. I think the Spirit of Jesus particularly comes out in that gospel, shown in how He was near to men, how He was dependent, how He prayed. This section of Acts involved a movement into Europe; the testimony coming into Europe. How careful God was at this time; how careful the servants of the Lord were. What took place in Philippi was far from Judaism, it was not tainted by it in any way. The opposition of Judaism was going on right up to the previous chapter. It is a question of there being suitable material for the movement of the testimony into Europe. You think of what God has secured in this dispensation in Europe and its outgoings. It is not to make anything of Europe as a continent compared with any other, because Europe is just as wicked as any other; you think of the wars there have been in Europe, and the evil that has arisen there. Yet the Spirit of Jesus was marking these men as they entered Europe. Well, beloved brethren, that Spirit is to mark us, but it is a dependent Spirit. They were ready to be adjusted, in their outlook they were ready to receive limitation as to where they went. There was a field to be reaped—the Lord Jesus had acquired the field where the treasure was, and where the treasure was to be brought to light. In Philippi there was great
refinement in the assembly there. The Lord Jesus is looking for refinement in the day in which we are. I think it bears on this matter of the Spirit of Jesus; the way we go through things; the way the apostle went through and those with him; the way they suffered. The Spirit of Jesus is brought out in Philippi and one of the most unlikely men is secured. The jailor is secured, and not only is he secured but the Spirit of Jesus marked him. Think of what he was before; how he put these men in the stocks; then how gentle he became; how he served them in the Spirit of Jesus.
It is an exercise with me as to how much I know of being governed by the Spirit in things. We would be unselfish if we were governed by the Spirit of Jesus. We should be thinking of the saints, thinking of God, and we would be thinking of the testimony. We would not be considering for ourselves and what suits us. I am not going to lay down rules because it is not in accord with the Spirit of Jesus to be marked by rules. We do not want to be like the horse, guided by bit and bridle, but we may have to be. I am not setting aside the Lord’s commandments, but one who is marked by the Spirit of Jesus would not need rules, he would be sensitive as to his movements. Some go off on holiday and there is no meeting near where they go. Would the Spirit of Jesus lead a person in that direction? I do not think so. I am not going to make rules, but my exercise is that if we become more acquainted with the Spirit and His movements, we would be related to what the Lord is doing; we would be related to the testimony, and assembly features would be developed. Think of what came out in Philippi.
Paul requested the saints that they might pray for him that he might have the supply of the Spirit of Jesus Christ; that Man, that lowly dependent Man, the Man to whom God has committed Himself, the Man whom God has exalted.
I refer lastly in Galatians 4 to the Spirit of God’s Son. Sonship in the saints is developed in Paul’s ministry; I would not say it was not there before but it was developed under Paul’s ministry.
The time of sonship has come; the fulness of the time has come when God sent forth His Son.
Sonship was seen in Jesus here in manhood in its perfection. Sonship is for God’s pleasure, for His delight. How God looked on to the time of sonship. It is referred to in the Old Testament, “Let my son go, that he may serve me” (Exodus 4: 23), but that was not really the time of sonship. We see sonship in the Lord Jesus, maybe it stands out uniquely in John’s gospel, but it is in the other gospels as well. Think of His relations with the Father, how they are brought out peculiarly in John’s gospel. Not until chapter 20 in John’s gospel do you get the saints in the relationship of sonship with the Father, when the Lord says, “I ascend to my Father and your Father” (John 20: 17). But now the Lord Jesus is on high, beloved brethren, it is the time of sonship in the saints. We are sons through faith; every one who has faith in Christ Jesus is a son; the youngest believer who has faith is a son. It says here, “But because ye are sons, God has sent out the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, Abba, Father”. That is a peculiar expression of affection. The Spirit of God’s Son in our hearts would cry, “Abba, Father”. I think the Spirit of God’s Son would make us conscious of our relationship. We are sons by faith, but the consciousness of that relationship with the Father would be by the Spirit of God’s Son. In Romans 8 it speaks of a spirit of adoption, which is more characteristic of a believer. I was thinking of this reference here to the “Spirit of God’s Son”. There would be those feelings of affection that were seen in Jesus here as Man, produced in the believer. How delightful that is to the Father. The Spirit of God’s Son crying, “Abba, Father”, is a matter of urgency, a matter of feeling, so that God gets His portion. What a portion God has from the saints at the present time.
That is all I have to say. My exercise is that we might be developed in our knowledge of the Spirit and
that our activities might be more governed by the Spirit. May it be so in the Lord’s name.
Address at Preston, 17 October 1992
GROWING UP TO CHRIST
J. R. Surtees
Genesis 28: 10–22; 35: 9–15; Ephesians 4: 13–16
I have in mind to say a brief word as to growth, growing up to Him, that is to Christ. These men of Scripture, these patriarchs that we speak of, stand out in Genesis where we see the seed plot of God’s ways with men. One of the features which stands out in a particular way, I think, with Jacob is that of growth, that of growing up; more especially perhaps with him than with Abraham and Isaac do we see the ordinary circumstances of life in which he grew up. It says in Hebrews that Abraham was dwelling in tents with Isaac and Jacob (see Hebrews 11: 9), and if we work out the ages of them it is clear that Jacob would have been about fifteen years old when Abraham died, a very impressionable age. For fifteen years he would have had the experience of Abraham within the area where they dwelt in the tents. Some of the impressions he would have gained there no doubt lasted with him for his life. God has very largely allowed that to happen amongst us. It is becoming less so in the world, but God has prospered that idea amongst us in the grandparents and the parents and the children being together. What has come out of it is maturity of impressions of God, and impressions of Christ.
With Jacob there was a good deal of history lying behind his going out from Beer-sheba towards Haran. It does not appear that he had at this time given much
thought to the presence of God, or indeed God’s ways with him. So that, having been in the circumstances of great privilege, it would appear that so far he did not get the full benefit. We would all, of course, have to take that home to ourselves. But he came to this place, “he lighted on a certain place, and lodged there, because the sun had set”. It was all, apparently, casual. The day came to a close and he settled down to sleep, but God was behind it. God did not allow things to proceed without intervening in Jacob’s history, much as He did in the history of others. Take, for example, the way the Lord Jesus had to do with Peter. He touched him first of all in his household. Peter’s mother-in-law was in a fever and the Lord cured her.
There is no record of Peter having had a touch from the Lord at that time (see Luke 4: 38, 39). On the next occasion, He comes to him in his boat, and in spite of all the experience that he had as a fisherman, and the advantage of the night-time when fishing, the Lord says to him, “Let down your nets”, Luke 5: 4. I suppose it was day-time and he let down the nets.
That touched Peter’s soul. God goes on with us in our histories. Time after time He may speak to us.
Here it was that He caused Jacob to dream this dream, and the detail is very interesting, regarding the ladder which he saw, with the angels ascending and descending. The angels were near him already, they did not have to come to him. These were things that Jacob could very easily understand. God is not complicated in His ways with us; He does not present us with things that require a great deal of study to understand; He approaches us where we are in our own little histories, in our own circumstances. Jacob was interested in getting to the top, he wanted to get there instead of Esau; he wanted to be able to climb above others, and so God says to him, Well, you understand this Jacob I will put a ladder in front of you, something that relates to your own history. There is Jacob with this ladder and the angels ascending and descending, and at the top of it is God. The time had come in Jacob’s history when he had to do
with God. He had managed to arrange things to his advantage with regard to Esau, and he had very readily gone along with the other matter in relation to Isaac and the blessing. He managed to do things by his own skill pretty much, he was that kind of man, a very able man.
Now Jacob is confronted with having to do with God. This is the beginning of growth when we have to do with God. God had stationed Himself, the word means He had taken His place and stood at the top of the ladder. Then he realises it is a dream. Things can be very real in dreams, I suppose we have all experienced that. Sometimes we know it is just a dream but yet it somehow seems very real as if it has impressed itself upon us. It was so with this dream.
There were very wonderful promises made to Jacob—“And thy seed shall be as the dust of the earth, and thou shalt spread abroad to the west, and to the east, and to the north, and to the south”. The order in which these points of the compass are referred to is not as it is in other scriptures. These are all details that we could look into. The point comes when Jacob awoke, and he says, “Surely Jehovah is in this place, and I knew it not”. This was a matter in Jacob’s history. After all his experience in the privileged circumstances of the house of Isaac his father, and Abraham being there some of the time, and Rebecca too, nevertheless, he comes to it, when he is on his own, that God is in this place.
The immediate effect with Jacob is that he has got to do something. He is very ready to call the name of the place Beth-el. He can put a right name to things. He is viewed as a young man here of course, but he rather relates the whole working out of the matter to what he can do to bring it about. So he makes this covenant, this arrangement with God. God is very gracious to him. He goes along with Jacob. Think of what Abraham had learnt of God, “On the mount of Jehovah will be provided”, Genesis 22: 14. What depth of
history there is in these things! Abraham had learnt that only what God provides is suitable for Himself. What depth of experience he went through, when God said, “Take now thy son, thine only son, whom thou lovest, Isaac” (Genesis 22: 2); when Abraham carried the fire and the knife on that journey to the offering up of Isaac, and Isaac carried the wood, both of them together, and finding that God provides for Himself. What experiences these are! What depths there are in the Scriptures! What depths there are in the knowledge of God!
The knowledge of that would have been available to Jacob as teaching, but of course he has to learn it himself as we all do. This is where God begins with him in this scripture. God sets out to speak to him here. Jacob calls this place Beth-el, and he thinks this is something he has to do himself—“If God will be with me, and keep me on this road that I go, and will give me bread to eat, and a garment to put on, and I come again to my father’s house in peace—then shall Jehovah be my God”. It was very gracious of God to go along with such a thought.
Then when we come to Genesis 35 it is another period, and of course there have been other experiences, such, as for example, the one at Peniel, where Jacob was alone with God, and a man wrestled with him (see Genesis 32: 24). There he first had the word that his name was to be called Israel; he wrestled with God not with Esau. A good deal of experience had entered into his history and in chapter 35 he had power with his household. In the beginning of the chapter, God said to Jacob, “Arise, go up to Bethel”, and Jacob said to his household, and to all that were with him, “Put away the strange gods that are among you, and cleanse yourselves, and change your garments; and we will arise, and go up to Bethel”. And they did, they gave to Jacob all these strange gods. He had power with his household. It was not the law of demand, he had a right influence in relation to his household. Then he came to
the place Bethel, and Deborah, Rebecca’s nurse, died; God is intensifying His ways with him, and he comes to this point that God appeared to Jacob. At the end of where we read, it says that Jacob called the name of the place where God had talked with him Beth-el. That is to say, it was the same outwardly as his experience years before; it appeared to be the same as what he said when God appeared to him at first where we read in Genesis 28. What a difference there is in his whole outlook! Instead of saying that things depended on him, instead of saying that, “If God will be with me, and keep me on this road that I go”, and so on, it is quite different. God says to him, “I am the Almighty God—be fruitful and multiply; a nation and a company of nations shall be of thee; and kings shall come out of thy loins ...”.
Then it says, “God went up from him in the place where he had talked with him”. It must have been that God was very pleased, I think. No longer was it a matter of Jehovah at the top of the ladder with a certain sense of distance; no longer was it some early impressions, blessed though they were, but Jacob having to do with God as well-known to him. It is much closer now. God went up from him in the place where He had talked with him. So that the whole matter with God is one of blessing. God again called his name Israel, and this is what belongs to Israel. This is what is for the pleasure of God. Not that God would just help Jacob through life, that stage is long passed. This is God drawing near to Jacob in relation to His own thoughts, in relation to what is for His own pleasure.
So now what is Jacob going to do? It says, “Jacob set up a pillar in the place where he had talked with him, a pillar of stone, and he poured on it a drink-offering, and poured oil on it”.
We might say, Well, it is all very similar to what he did at first. Yes, it is, but what he leaves out is himself. It is all for God. This is growth, dear brethren, this is something in which God is pleased, when I leave myself out of the picture entirely, and relate my experiences to the pleasure of God. So it
says, “And Jacob called the name of the place where God had talked with him, Beth-el”. Do you know that place? Have you experienced that place? Have I experienced that place, the place where God talked with me? Jacob calls it Beth-el. What a touch this is for us in Jacob’s history, in Israel’s history. He says when he is blessing Joseph, “The God before whom my fathers Abraham and Isaac walked, the God that shepherded me all my life long to this day, the Angel that redeemed me from all evil, bless the lads; and let my name be named upon them, and the name of my fathers Abraham and Isaac; and let them grow into a multitude in the midst of the land!”, Genesis 48: 15, 16. Israel was quite happy to leave all that in God’s hand, all the circumstantial side of things, and here he is concerned for the pleasure of God.
In Ephesians we get the same encouragement. As we know, in the first three chapters of Ephesians we reach the heights. The two prayers in chapters 1 and 3, and the glad tidings in chapter 2, have in view to bring us to the fulness of God, that we may be filled even to all the fulness of God. The second set of three chapters is the working out of that in many ways, and it speaks here of growing up to Him—“until we all arrive at the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, at the full-grown man, at the measure of the stature of the fulness of the Christ”. We have to stand back almost, and just allow these expressions to sink into us. As it says, “but, holding the truth in love, we may grow up to him in all things, who is the head, the Christ—from whom the whole body, fitted together ... works for itself the increase of the body to its self-building up in love”. So that to grow up to Christ involves the working out of the body here. There is nothing quite like experience in the assembly; experience in the service of God for reaching the fulness, the fulness of the Christ. Growing up to Him involves the company. I cannot expect to go along alone, or retain my own thoughts or my own impressions only, far less to try and impose them
upon others, and expect to reach the fulness of the Christ. To grow up to Him in all things who is the Head involves the whole body, the assembly. It involves feeling His touch in the service of God; it involves hearing His voice; it involves the working in its measure of each one part. Some weeks ago we were speaking at home about Paul gathering together a certain quantity of sticks in a bundle. This would involve the working together; fitted together and connected by every joint of supply—“according to the working in its measure of each one part”. It involves the local brethren. Growing up to the Christ in all things involves this, I think, seeing that every believer, and certainly every one who is available, every one is needed for growing up to Him who is the Head. I can only work according to my measure, one little part, but together that we may grow up to Him in all things.
So this was written to a local assembly where things were to be worked out, “to its self-building up in love”. Holding the truth in love often tests us. It is possible to hold the truth and be as distant from love as is imaginable, but holding the truth in love, I think, involves valuing the working of it out in each one part. I trust these brief impressions may encourage us in view of growth for the Lord’s pleasure, in His name.
Address at Dundee, 21 November 1992
STANDING
D. Robertson
Romans 7: 24, 25; Exodus 26: 15–17; Daniel 12: 12, 13
I have in mind to speak of standing. I believe God would help each one of us that we might stand. I think to do that we have to learn what it is that God has done
in us, His work. A great part of the believer’s exercise is to discover what God Himself has established in us, the kind of work and its absoluteness; whatever God does is like Himself and bears His character. It is a wonderful matter when we begin to discover that there is something in us of God. Of course God deals very graciously with us. Sometimes in our history and experience we place ourselves under law, and at times, we appreciate grace; we are in mixed conditions. We may go on for a long time, we try and rehabilitate ourselves and adapt ourselves to Christianity in a human kind of way. But eventually, I believe, in every true believer’s history there comes a point of realisation when he becomes aware that God has done something in him. That work stands, it stands for time, and it stands for eternity.
One often feels subdued by the thought that God has chosen to work in me, but thankful for it, it is a sovereign matter. Think of it, that God in all His greatness should condescend to work in persons such as you and me, and that there comes a point when it begins to dawn on you that this has happened, and there is something different about yourself. God has operated in you; He has sealed you too, marked you off as His own property.
I just wanted to call attention to the point reached in Romans 7 when a man is able to speak of “I myself”. I do not want to say much about it, but I would love to urge every one here not to be content until you are through to that point, that you come to yourself, your true self.
Many believers, alas, labour for most of their lives in a false kind of position because they have never discovered their true selves. I believe it underlies our activities. Many an activity we would be preserved from if we discovered our true selves, and we find in many a case we act beneath our dignity, we act beneath what we are as constituted divinely. It is a wonderful matter that the believer is constituted divinely. This world is full of men who are proud of what they have made themselves, men who have built empires round about
themselves, but it is all coming down. God has shown that clearly. Certain great manufacturing institutions, and financial institutions which were thought to be reliable have all come down. God is pointing to what is reliable, that is what He Himself is doing. The wonderful thing is that He operates in the hearts of men and women; He establishes His own work there. I trust that each one of us here is conscious of being a subject of God’s work.
God would help us in our exercises to arrive at this thought of “I myself”. So often our actions are characterised by something else, by natural tendencies in us and fleshly lusts. It was a great encouragement to me as a young man, to read in the writings of Mr. Darby, where he said that a true man eventually arrives at the true source. It is a wonderful thing that the true man arrives at the true source. So it is if you are real. What a test that is to face the matter as to whether we are real or unreal.
It is a great thing to arrive in your soul history at the fact that you are real because God has operated in your soul. So you come through the whole morass of a mixed-up view of things, and you come to this point and say, “O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me”, notice it is who not what. It is not a question of what will deliver you; there is nothing great enough to deliver you; no system great enough to deliver you; no teaching of man great enough to deliver you; there is no ecclesiastical power great enough to deliver you, or any other kind of power in this world. There is only a Person great enough to deliver you, “who shall deliver me out of this body of death? I thank God, through Jesus Christ our Lord”. Deliverance is connected with another Man, and as the next chapter shows, it is another world, another order of things; a world of which He is the Sun and Centre. I trust that these things are real to us, not merely as things that we have heard, and have imbibed by habit, but as knowing another Man and another world, and deliverance reached. I do not think there is anything more affecting in one way than to be in the
presence of a delivered man; he is not making much of himself, he is making much of Christ.
He is not telling you how much money he made or how soon he made it, he is telling you of another Man. It is a feature of deliverance, “I thank God, through Jesus Christ our Lord”.
Then he says, “So then I myself”. It is a point reached, a point that every true believer must reach. I would speak tenderly to the younger brethren, and urge you to be with God in your exercises—that you might consciously come to your true self, “So then I myself with the mind serve God’s law; but with the flesh sin’s law”. The believer learns to make a clear distinction. There is what is capable of proceeding from the flesh in him, that sinful state that exists in him; he comes to understand that there is a seat there for Satan, and he can operate through the flesh, and that is displeasing to God. But then he arrives at the other thing, the true self, and he knows now that there is a moral being, established as the result of God operating in the soul, and that moral being can act in view of the pleasure of God.
What a fine thing it is to come to this, that is why I read about these boards, they are made standing up. I believe it relates to the true self in the believer. ‘ I myself’ is like a board standing up. It is a remarkable statement, it says that the boards were to be made standing up, not lying down but standing up. That is how God has made every true believer. He has made him to stand up, and He has made him to stand in such a way that he is secured for His will.
His own will is broken, and he is secured for the will of God. He is divinely constituted, the first thing is, “the boards for the tabernacle thou shalt make of acacia-wood, standing up”.
What God establishes of His own work bears the moral features of Christ. That is a wonderful thing, even, we may say, in this early stage of his history. God establishes the believer in what morally relates to the Lord Jesus. This acacia-wood is a wood of great strength, a wood that would stand the test of the
wilderness journey, and every true believer is like that; there is that wrought in him and divinely constituted that enables him to bear the adversity of the whole journey. He may be fearful, young persons may be fearful, and raise the question, ‘Can I go the whole way?’ I have asked myself that question, and said, ‘I am not equal to it’. Neither are you, but what is of God in you is divinely constituted to go the whole way; it has that power, it is like the acacia-wood, it bears the moral features of Christ. It is made standing up, not leaning over.
Perhaps you are leaning over, you may think you are strong but you are leaning over, you are not really on sure ground.
Now, each board was made to stand on two sockets of silver. That is, the believer is standing solidly on the ground of the redemptive work of Christ, set up in divine righteousness as established in the death of Christ. So he is not leaning over, he is standing up; not leaning on his own thoughts, or relying on how he is formed in this world, but he is standing securely on firm ground. What it is to stand on sure ground! The old hymn says, ‘On Christ the solid rock I stand; All other ground is sinking sand’, and that is true. However sure something else may appear to you, however fine and grand it may appear, if it is not Christ it is not the sure foundation. It is unsure, and if you rely on it, you will lean over, and soon you will fall over.
But God would help you to stand in the presence of this world on the ground of the redemptive work of Christ. That is the only ground for the true believer, that is the only ground you can be certain of, the only safe ground. The Psalmist says, “And he brought me up ... out of the miry clay, and set my feet upon a rock”, Psalm 40: 2. What a fine thing it is to find a person whose feet are on the rock, and the rock is Christ. The apostle says, “For other foundation can no man lay besides that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ”, 1 Corinthians 3: 11. You find, in Corinthians and then in the Ephesians, that the whole edifice that God is building up is based on and characterised by that blessed Man.
The foundation in Corinthians is Jesus Christ, the cornerstone in Ephesians is Jesus Christ Himself, the whole building bearing the character of this glorious Man. That is what we discover in ourselves, that God has established something of the order of that Man in us. So he says at the end of Corinthians, “do ye not recognise yourselves, that Jesus Christ is in you”, 2 Corinthians 13: 5. Examine yourselves and see if ye be in the faith! Are you going on with some line of things that will lead to your falling over? Are you standing on the ground that God has provided in the death of Christ and bearing His features morally? Your testimony to this world has no other ground.
So we come to Daniel and find a man who goes through. I do not want to go into the historical or prophetic side of it, although it is most interesting. It says, “Blessed is he that waiteth, and cometh to the thousand three hundred and thirty-five days!” no doubt pointing to a time when the believer would be tested. As in the world, we are in the presence of great opposition; we are in the presence of powers that would overwhelm us, but it says, “greater is he that is in you than he that is in the world”, 1 John 4: 4. That is the Holy Spirit and His power available to enable us to stand.
Here is Daniel, he goes through a whole period of testing. As we have said, you may wonder if you are able for it, and in your own strength you are not. The Lord Jesus could say to His own, “for without me ye can do nothing”, John 15: 5. That is an absolute thing to come to; you may say, I can do a little, but He says, “without me ye can do nothing”. But then too there is the power of the Holy Spirit. There is the light of the glorious Man up there, and the power of the Holy Spirit down here, indwelling the believer with a view to seeing him through, giving him strength to go through. And so it says, “But do thou go thy way until the end; and thou shalt rest, and stand in thy lot at the end of the days”. How sure it is! O, I would say to each one of us, submit
to the will of God; allow God to break your own will; to break that independency; and allow God to remove in your life what is hindering you from full communion and full joy with Himself, and perhaps full fellowship with the saints. Allow God to do it, be on this sure line, and stand in your lot at the end of the days. I trust we shall all be standing in our lot at the end of the days. Do not go away and come under the power of the world, and be damaged by it.
How fine to see a believer at the end of the days standing in his lot. Such are related in their affections to the inheritance that God would bring them into, as Paul says, an inheritance among the sanctified by faith in Christ (see Acts 26: 18). Is it not better than any place you are able to carve out for yourself, or think you can? Is it not better just to submit to what God has for you, to what God has established immutably on the ground of the death of His own Son? There is a living operative system because of Christ where He is, as He says, “As the living Father has sent me and I live on account of the Father, he also who eats me shall live also on account of me”, John 6: 57. Think of living on account of Him! Then the power of the Spirit is to keep you steady, and standing, resolute and firm, in relation to the inheritance that God has established. May it be the portion of all of us, that we may be steady and firm, and always abounding in the work of the Lord. May it be so for His name’s sake.
Address at Vancouver, 23 July 1988
EXTRACTS
Now, passing on to the last scripture, let us dwell on the marvellous grace that shone in Christ in the midst of the most terrible suffering! It should have its counterpart in us. You see it is a prayer, but, unlike the former ones, it is a prayer for others. It is rarely we find recorded what He actually prayed as here and in
chapter 22 also. He said, “Father, if thou wilt, remove this cup from me”, etc. Perfect, holy submission marked Him. What an example for us in suffering! The will of God is before Him. Submission to that will should also mark us in suffering—absolute submission. Every kind of insult and imprecation was heaped upon Him, but there was no resentment toward His persecutors. “Railed at, we bless”, 1 Corinthians 4: 12, that is the counterpart of it. As you bless, as the spirit of grace shines in the midst of the sufferings, God will not fail to give you recompense. You will see something in the way of fruit as recompense.
J. Taylor (Vol. 12, p.117)
It is a very real thing to apprehend continually the presence of God, and to trust in the living God in contrast to all that is of death around. We have not to do with a God who is subject to such conditions as we have to do with; He is the living God.
When He comes out publicly as the living God, then men will not die; things will be changed.
It is a great lever to piety when you apprehend the presence of the living God. He is the Saviour of all, but especially of believers. The great question is piety; it is the doctrine according to piety. We want to see the young more pious; for piety is not merely consenting to truth, but the introduction of the living God into the detail of life.
F. E. Raven (Vol. 15, p.380)
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