THE POTTER, REFINER, WINNOWER AND MERCHANT
William Lamont
Jeremiah 18: 1-4; Zechariah 13: 7-9; Matthew 3: 11,12; 13: 44-46
I want to speak of four things - the potter, the refiner, the winnower and the merchant. We will speak about ways in which God is working, making vessels, refining, winnowing, and as the merchant He has purchased - four important aspects of the work of God.
God presented as the potter is a question of God's sovereignty. I trust we all realise that we are here because of God's sovereignty; it is not on account of merit in you or me that we are where we are. I am not setting aside the side of our responsibility, but I am stressing the side of God's sovereignty. God has taken us up and made vessels out of us. Paul speaks about that, "we have this treasure in earthen vessels," 2 Cor 4: 7. I trust everyone here has a work of God in their soul. You cannot expect too much from the young ones but we can rightly expect a lot from older ones. That is a question of our responsibility. If God takes us up in His sovereignty He expects an answer from us in responsibility. If God blesses us in His sovereignty He expects that we take up a responsible attitude in answer to the way He has taken us up, that is, we act responsibly. Mr Darby was once asked, 'What is Christian responsibility?' His very wise answer was, 'The responsibility of being a Christian’. So if we are Christians, and I trust we all are, we have a responsibility. But first I want to speak of God's sovereignty as to the potter; the word comes to Jeremiah, Arise; that is, do something, be active, do not sit there idle. He says to Jeremiah, Arise, get down to where things are happening, down to the potter's house. Not the potter's factory, you will observe, the potter's house. God is working in a realm of affection, He is working in His house. He wants to draw us into the affections of His house. It is the realm that God is working in today; He wants to draw us into the greatness of the love of His heart - Oh, the heart of God! The illustration has been used that, when we are brought into the kingdom, we are brought into the rule and influence of God; brought into the city, brought into the sphere of privilege; but if we want to know His heart we have to be brought into His house where we can know Him personally. So the potter here is working in his house. It is very significant that the first vessel was marred. Oh, the tragedy of the fall! We sang of that, 'He saw us ruined in the fall' (hymn 107). The vessel was marred. A terrible thing that was when Adam failed; Adam sinned and the vessel was marred. God had to do a new thing. Not that the Lord Jesus was a creature, far be it, but God began in a new order of man altogether; an order that never failed Him and never would fail Him. And we are privileged to have part in that, taken up in a new way.
So Jeremiah went down to the potter's house and took account of what he saw. It is a wonderful thing in a local meeting to see God working, God in the figure of the potter forming that malleable clay. I trust we are all malleable. Do not be hard. Some of us develop a very hard veneer sometimes, a hard shell. What is underneath it sometimes we wonder. But the clay is malleable, material that God can work with. That is what He is doing at the present time, working with material to form it according to His own thoughts, not according to human thoughts. What a mess men are making of things, I need not expand on. We are not speaking against governments or those in authority, but it is so obvious, things in the world are in a terrible mess. What a mess men have made of things. We have been told and rightly told that everything man touches he ruins. It is the same with the church publicly, the church publicly is in ruin. Why? Because man has interfered with it. The mind of man has entered into it; cathedrals, dress, all these kinds of thing are man's own ideas, religious ordinances and observations, not according to God: Oh, how simple this is when God uses to Jeremiah the figure of a potter in his house. As we said, not a factory, not mass production, one vessel at a time. That is how God is working. He is forming the whole - we will come to that - but He is working with you, and with me. I raise the challenge, dear brethren, to every one, Are we malleable? Are we formable like the clay? Can God take us and form us? Can He work with us or do we have a protective shell around us? There are instances, like Pharaoh in the olden times, of whom it says God hardened his heart. It proved what kind of man he was; he developed that hard shell and he said, No, I am not going to yield, and he ended in disaster. Dear brethren, if you do not yield to the work of God it will end in disaster, I can assure you of that. Many here have proved that if we do not yield to God it will end only in disaster. It is what has happened to Christendom, men have not yielded to the way God was working, they have opposed. Paul speaks about that, “the opposers" (see Phil 1: 28). It is current today, persons who oppose God, persons who have opposed the truth and have made shipwreck of the faith. "He made it again another vessel," - I like this - "as seemed good to the potter to make." God working for His own pleasure and He found it. O, beloved brethren, He certainly found it, found it in the private life of Jesus, up to the Jordan. The Father's delight in the private life of His Son, "my beloved Son, in whom I have found my delight." He found it in His public service; on the mount, again He said, "This is my beloved Son, in whom I have found my delight", Matt 17: 5. He found it perfectly in Jesus, a Man of God's pleasure. As He Himself could say, no idle boast but the truth, "Altogether that which I also say to you", John 8: 25. He said also, I do always the things that are pleasing to the Father, (John 8: 29). I challenge myself as to that, do I always do the things that please the Father? We spoke today of the human will in contrast to proving the good and acceptable and perfect will of God (Rom 2: 12). Our own wills, if exerted, will lead to disaster. It is evident in the world and it has become evident in certain lives. I repeat, beloved brethren, if I allow my will to work it will end in disaster. It has led to endless troubles, it has led to the disruption of relationships, human relationships, relationships among the saints. Let us submit to the good and acceptable and perfect will of God, and I am sure we have proved and will prove that blessing will result. It is good, it is acceptable and it is perfect. Well, that is the potter, "as seemed good to the potter to make."
Now I come to the refiner. I almost read in Malachi but this portion in Zechariah portrays a very sad day. The prophetic word, "Awake, O sword, against my shepherd, even against the man that is my fellow, saith Jehovah of hosts". Who is that? It is obvious that it is a prophetic reference to the Lord Jesus Christ, "the man that is my fellow". I thought of this in the reading: He "did not esteem it an object of rapine to be on an equality with God;" Phil 2: 6. It is a clear statement prophetically by God Himself, "against my shepherd, even against the man that is my fellow", a clear statement of the Person of Christ. He says, "smite the shepherd, and the sheep shall be scattered". Oh, what scattering there has been in this city, in our area. Why? you say. Because human will was active. Persons were acting and speaking and moving out of accord with the mind and will of God. Here we have the refining and the reduction; it comes down to a third. "It shall come to pass in all the land, saith Jehovah, two parts therein shall be cut off and die; but the third shall be left therein." That is a reference to the remnant. I like that positive reference by the Lord to Sardis, "But thou hast a few names in Sardis which have not defiled their garments," Rev 3: 4. I trust we are among those that have not defiled their garments. I suppose everyone knows what your garments mean - your surroundings, what is close to you, what you identify yourself with, what you are known by. You are known by your garments, your associations, what you belong to, what you identify yourself with. The Lord says, But there are a few names left in Sardis; that is Protestantism. I suppose most here would know that, Sardis speaks of Protestantism. Well, there are a third left here. I suppose there has been greater reduction than this. In Gideon's day, thirtytwo thousand reduced and reduced. They were tested and those who lapped like a dog were chosen. A brother left a deep impression on me when I was a young man; he said, These men who lapped like a dog and the others were being tested and did not know it. That is our lives, dear brethren; we are faced with situations, sometimes we shrug them off, sometimes we skip around them instead of facing squarely up to them. We sometimes do not realise that God is testing us. These men were being tested. God says, "The people that are with thee are too many for me" Judges 7: 10, one of the most remarkable statements in Scripture. He did not say to Gideon, There are too many for you, but They are too many for me, He says. He reduced them. The same with the lepers in the gospel, ten of them, (Luke 17: 17,18). That may be nearer to our own day. In our area it is almost exactly that, one in ten survived in the testimony properly. One returned to give glory to God, that is the test today. What line are we on? Luke is the evangelist but he is not concentrating only on evangelical activity, he concentrates on glory to God. So one leper returned. I am not saying anything against evangelical activity - would that there would be more of it, would that we were more evangelical - but the great end in Luke's gospel, and what the Lord valued, was that one who returned to give glory to God. It is one individual linked on with the testimony, which culminates in the end of Ephesians 3 so brilliantly, so sublimely, "to him be glory in the assembly in Christ Jesus unto all generations of the age of ages. Amen", Eph 3: 21. Is that your main occupation? God has acted tor Himself in blessing you and me to the end that we should serve Him. He said that in Egypt, "Let my son go," not to do what he likes, but "let my son go, that he may serve me" Exod 4: 23. That is the end that we are on the line of serving God. So this refiner "I will bring the third part into the fire". That involves discipline. As I look round this room I see brethren who have been the subject of much discipline. It is necessary in our lives; let us accept it, let us accept from God's good hand that it is tor our blessing. That scripture in Romans 8 is hard to accept: "all things work together for good to those who love God," v 28. "I will bring the third part into the fire, and will refine them as silver is refined, and will try them as gold is tried." I understand that the refiner refines and removes the excess that is not properly gold or silver. He gradually clears it off until he can see his own reflection in it. What a remarkable thing! That is God's thought for us; also in Romans 8 ''to be conformed to the image of his Son," v 29. God is working in His goodness to bring about persons who are like Christ - that is God's object. So the refiner says, I will refine them as silver is refined, and will try them as gold is tried. One would speak for one's self, but we are often very coarse; sometimes in our language even, in our habits, our actions, our relationships with one another, but what the Lord is after and the Spirit of God in His sensitivity - the Holy Spirit is very sensitive, He can be grieved, He can be quenched - is after features of spiritual refinement. Would that there was more of it. I think that is what He is working tor today, to bring about in the saints features of spiritual refinement. So the Refiner says, "and will try them as gold is tried. They shall call on my name". Think how Paul opens up that wonderful epistle, 1 Corinthians, "with all that in every place call on the name of our Lord Jesus Christ," v 2. Do we call on the name of the Lord or do we go on in our own way, seek to move and work out things in our own devices, in our own thoughts, or do we call on the Lord? Like 2 Timothy 2: 22 ''those that call upon the Lord out of a pure heart", those that follow the path of separation, not only from but separation to. As the Lord says in John's gospel, "ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall set you free ", John 8: 32. The truth sets us free. It has a purifying effect just like the refining. Then He says, "If therefore the Son shall set you free, ye shall be really free", v 36. The Son sets us free, free for another world, because the Son is the Centre of another world. So the refiner is at work here. Then God says, "They shall call on my name, and I will answer them". Think of that time, "Awake, O sword, against my shepherd, even against the man that is my fellow." Think of the time, the three hours on the cross when the Lord Jesus said, "My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?" Matt 27: 46. He had to bear the whole weight of sin. As we were saying, it affects a holy God but it is also for your blessing and mine. He says here "and I will answer them; I will say, It is my people". How God loves to have people in a relationship with Himself. Then "and they shall say, Jehovah is my God" - the intimacy of it, God saying, "It is my people" and His people say, "Jehovah is my God." How wonderful it is! We can say that, we are in the joy of it; we hear God saying "It is my people". He would look upon us today in this small setting, obscure, secret almost, He would say, "It is my people". Our answer from the heart would be, Jehovah is our God. That is the Refiner. God is working to bring about these features of refinement with us.
Now the winnower in Matthew. John the baptist is speaking; he is speaking about the axe, "already the axe is applied to the root of the trees". We sometimes quote it 'to the tree' but it is ''to the trees" - every detail, not just a generality but every detail. The axe is applied right to the root so that there is no repetition of the thing. That is the idea of the axe to the root, it will never grow again. If you cut a tree some way up it tends to sprout again, but if you cut the roots it will not reappear. That is what God has done in the death of Christ, finished the whole order of things that cannot yield fruit for Himself. That is what John the baptist is saying; he urges them to repentance. Then he draws attention to Christ, "he that comes after me is mightier than I, whose sandals I am not fit to bear; he shall baptise you with the Holy Spirit and fire; whose winnowing fan is in his hand". What a thing that is, hard work, winnowing! We had a reference today to Gideon, he threshed wheat in the winepress - a very unusual thing to do - to preserve the food supply from the Midianites. That is a job we have to do today, in regard to people who are after the food supply, who cut off the food supply. The Lord deals with that in John's gospel, "My food is that I should do the will of him that has sent me," John 4: 34. The enemy would have cut that off, cut it off at the source; he would prevent communion, would prevent anything that is for the benefit of the saints also - food supply, he would cut it off. "Whose winnowing fan is in his hand", and that is to separate the chaff from the wheat. Matthew deals with that line of things, the wheat and the tares, and the parable of the virgins, the foolish and the wise. Matthew helps us to analyse things and put them where they truly belong, whether it is wheat or chaff, whether it is the work of God or may be the work of the devil. It is important that we learn to do that. Things come up in our lives, come up in local meetings, come up generally among the saints - can you identify the thing where its source is? It is important. Crises come up, what is the source of the thing? And also important, where is it leading? We need to identify these things. So the winnower here shall thoroughly purge his threshing-floor, that is to keep it pure, keep a pure area for the Holy Spirit. That is why He is called the Holy Spirit, to preserve a holy area for God. Then it says, "and shall gather his wheat into the garner, but the chaff he will burn with fire unquenchable."
I draw attention now to the merchant. God is operating on a wide scale. The field is the world. Think of the scope in which God is operating - a very wide area - in His blessing. But what the merchant is after is the beauty of the pearl. We have been rightly taught that the pearl speaks to us of the assembly, its entity. You can cut a diamond, as we all know, but if you cut a pearl, you will ruin it; it is one beautiful entity. The Lord here is speaking figuratively of the assembly in all her glory. The value of it, not the price exactly - price would suggest something monetary - but its value. "One pearl of great value;" it is not many pearls. This merchant - the Lord is speaking typically of Himself -saw this one pearl of great value. It is like what we had in Genesis, the beauty of the woman, the beauty of the assembly, in all her dignity and glory. Again the pearl, as we know, is formed through suffering and will come to light at the wonderful time of the marriage of the Lamb, "his wife has made herself ready", Rev 19: 7. Then in the eternal setting it is the bride. Oh, the beauty of the assembly; it is wonderful to have part in the greatest of all families. There will be many families, we know, all named of the Father, in heaven and on earth, in the eternal setting. There will be no nations in eternity; there will be nations in the millennium; there will be families in eternity and every one will be named of the Father. Every one will stand in relation to the Father and will be named of Him. What the names will be I do not know - there is so much we do not know. Paul says, "If any one think he knows anything, he knows nothing yet as he ought to know it", 1 Cor 8: 2. I think that applies to all of us, there is so much we do not know. But we will know, we shall know according as we have been known (2 Cor 3: 2); that is another thing. The greatness of this one pearl will come out in all her beauty in the day of display. It is not yet the day of display. The pearl is formed in secret. You cannot see a pearl being formed, it is inside that oyster in secret, it is that grain of sand, and all the time that oyster is suffering. An entity formed through suffering, that is the assembly. Oh, what suffering there has been right down through the dispensation since Pentecost. Oh the feelings of Paul when he says, Thy martyr Stephen (Acts 22: 20). How Paul's feelings go out. Oh the suffering there has been! In our area hills are dotted with monuments to martyrs who gave their lives because of their love for the Lord Jesus. It will all come out in the beauty of the one pearl, the assembly in all her glory for the heart of Christ. That is what it is for, for the satisfaction of the heart of Christ. What does He do? His heart satisfied with the assembly He uses that great vessel as a vessel of praise, "in the midst of the assembly will I sing thy praises", Heb 2: 12. I trust we have all been encouraged by these few, simple thoughts, beloved brethren, to the glory of the Potter, the Refiner, the Winnower and the Merchant. For His Name's sake.
NEW YORK
22 March 1997
PREACHING OF THE WORD OF GOD
J.D.Gray
Luke 4: 16-22, 24-31; 5: 3-8, 10 ("And Jesus...), 12-14 Acts 3: 6; 4: 8-12; 22: 6-8
The Lord Jesus was brought up in Nazareth. He became known as the Nazaraean. It was not a title or recognition of what was attractive in character to men: it was a term of reproach. When He came to Nazareth on this occasion, Luke records that "he entered, according to his custom, into the synagogue." I suppose He was known there. The Lord would be known in the synagogue at Nazareth. In chapter 2 He was in Jerusalem for the passover and He says, "Did ye not know that I ought to be occupied in my Father's business?" We would take it that the Lord was customarily engaged in His Father's business. It says here, "and he entered, according to his custom, into the synagogue on the sabbath day, and stood up to read". It would seem that He had done this before, but I would say to you, friend, He had never done it in the same way before. It is remarkable that He did not ask for the book of Esaias: they gave Him the book of Esaias. I suppose the divine hand was in that.
Why did I say that He had not entered into the synagogue in this way before? Because in chapter 3 verses 21 to 22 it says, "and Jesus having been baptised and praying, that the heaven was opened, and the Holy Spirit descended in a bodily form as a dove upon him; and a voice came out of heaven, Thou art my beloved Son, in thee I have found my delight." Then again, in verse 14 of the chapter we have read, "And Jesus returned in the power of the Spirit..." He is a Man anointed by the Spirit. It seems that He went in the power of the Spirit, through Galilee, preaching before He came to Nazareth. I think the Lord is gracious in giving them an opportunity in Nazareth to hear of His works of power which He had done in Capernaum and other places in Galilee.
But He comes into Nazareth where He was brought up. He would be known there. As it says, "and he entered, according to his custom..." He entered in a distinct manner, a Man anointed by the Spirit of God. It would seem as He stood up to read that He was acquainted with that procedure. They gave Him the book. They must have listened to Him before, but not in the same way. There was something distinctive about Him. You marvel. "And all bore witness to him, and wondered at the words of grace which were coming out of his mouth." I think God was distinguishing Christ. The Spirit of God was distinguishing Christ. If I could speak with reverence of the Lord. I think there was something added. It says He was anointed by the Spirit. There was added power because it says He "returned in the power of the Spirit to Galilee", v 14. There was a Man in the power of the Holy Spirit, although a divine Person in His own right. There is evidence of the distinctiveness of the Lord Jesus in His humanity. He says, "he has anointed me to preach glad tidings to the poor; he has sent me to preach to captives deliverance, and to the blind sight, to send forth the crushed delivered, to preach the acceptable year of the Lord." He is speaking to a people that were under oppression, under the heel of imperial rule. The whole of the world at that time was under imperial rule, the world in which Christ walked and moved. Here was a Person coming in with deliverance. What was going through their mind?
But then they missed the blessing. It is a serious thing to miss the blessing, dear friend. I trust that we will all get blessing from the word. "And they said, Is not this the son of Joseph?", the carpenter's son. What reasoning! The Lord was known as the carpenter's son. How puny are men in their thoughts! The demonstration of another Man, another kind of humanity, a preaching that would bring about their release, that would bring about healing for men, deliverance, ''the acceptable year of the Lord", God coming in on their behalf, yet almost immediately the devil has scope in their hearts. The word of God discerns between ''the thoughts and intents of the heart." I do not know what is in your heart; you do not know what is in my heart. The word of God discerns, according to Hebrews 4: 12 ''the thoughts and intents of the heart", soul and spirit and thoughts and intents of the heart. The word of God here made apparent what was working in this company of persons.
They could not see past that He was the son of Joseph, the carpenter's son and they missed the blessing. Prejudice came in. The section I read about Elisha in regard to Naaman brings in their prejudice. The Lord brings Naaman in to show that if I miss the blessing, someone else is coming into blessing. If they were going to miss the blessing of the Physician who was in their presence in Nazareth, someone else was getting the blessing. If Israel missed the blessing in Elias's day, the widow woman of Sarepta got the blessing. If the lepers in Israel in Naaman's day missed the blessing, Naaman got the blessing. Oh what a thing it is to be in the presence of the word of God and miss the blessing! We do not want to miss the blessing. We can put up a resistance. We know what that is in ourselves naturally: we put up a resistance to the word. Do not put up a resistance! The "words of grace which were coming out of his mouth" had blessing in mind for man, healing in mind.
Now I come to Peter, and Peter got the blessing. The people of Nazareth missed the blessing. No doubt they spoke of Christ as the Nazaraean, no distinction, nothing in Him that we should desire, no lordliness in Him. The prophetic scriptures bring out the state of our soul: they are a very important section of the Bible. Isaiah 53: 2 says "He hath no form nor lordliness, and when we see him, there is no beauty that we should desire him." There was nothing in Christ that they should desire: to them He was the carpenter's son. They did not enquire any further and they missed the blessing. It was an opportunity for man to be in the presence of the Lord Jesus, to take account of His demeanour, take account of His words, take account of what went out of His mouth, and yet they missed the blessing. They were really saying "He hath no form nor lordliness ... that we should desire him."
But Peter is brought into the presence of Christ. He gets the blessing. The Lord Jesus takes an unusual way to reach Peter. He goes into his boat. "He asked him to draw out a little from the land; and he sat down and taught the crowds out of the ship." But He had someone specific in mind for blessing. The Lord's word is always specific, dear friend. It is never a bow at a venture. It is drawn specifically. When the Lord spoke to the crowds, He had Simon in mind for blessing. He has you in mind for blessing. You may say, I know Christ as my Saviour. Thank God if you know Him as your Saviour! He still has you in mind for blessing. He has in mind to bless you, bless you further. So He says, "Draw out into the deep water and let down your nets for a haul." He says this after He had taught the crowds out of the ship. It does not say what He said. Luke is fastening on the specifics, fastening on the fact that the Lord is interested here in one person, Simon. He is of course interested in others too. The scripture brings forward Simon to help us, to show that the Lord is interested in me and interested in you, each one of us. You count for something, friend. You are of value to Christ. He said to Simon, "Draw out into the deep water and let down your nets for a haul. And Simon answering said to him, Master,..." - he is very respectful: "Master'' involves one who has authority over others - "having laboured through the whole night we have taken nothing, but at thy word I will let down the net. And having done this, they enclosed a great multitude of fishes. And their net broke ... But Simon Peter, seeing it..." What did he see? He saw a great net of fishes. That is what he saw. He had laboured the whole night. He had been out there on the lake of Gennesaret, the sea of Galilee, the whole night, toiling, actually, physically, toiling, and took nothing, never caught a fish. The sea was full of fishes, but he never caught one. Here is a Person who could fill his net full of fishes. Who is this Person? He did not say, the carpenter's son. Maybe he knew he was the carpenter's son. He was known in Galilee, and this was in Galilee. I am sure he must have known Jesus as the carpenter's son, but he did not say, this is the carpenter's son. He said, "Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, Lord." He gets the blessing. The people of Nazareth missed the blessing. You know, friend, Nazareth at the present time, today, has shrines to where the Lord was brought up. The tourist industry is thriving, but there is no blessing in that. This man, Simon Peter, got the blessing when he fell at Jesus’ knees and said, "Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, Lord." Peter was really confessing that he was a leper morally.
That is why I read in the next section as to the leper. Peter was the leper and Jesus met him. The Lord says, "I will; be thou cleansed: and immediately the leprosy departed from him." He was cleansed. The Lord has had to handle us, dear friend, and cleanse us from our leprosy. I suppose we know that in Scripture leprosy is the evidence, typically, of sin in the flesh, the working of the poison in our system. Sin in the flesh brings about rebellion in us to the will of God. The people of Nazareth really were in that state, in rebellion to the will of God. It was really a leprous state. They did not avail themselves of the Physician who was available to heal their leprosy, but Peter recognised that there was someone there who could control the fishes, someone there who was greater than what He appeared. God was there. Peter recognised that God was there. He had control over the creation.
The curing of leprosy is a divine prerogative so the Lord says to the leper, "Go, shew thyself to the priest, and offer for thy cleansing as Moses ordained, for a testimony to them." How gracious He was! "Go, shew thyself to the priest": I suppose that would be in the temple. Here was a man cleansed from his leprosy. Who cleansed his leprosy? God. It was the evidence that God was there, God was among them. He was more than the carpenter's son. Jesus the Nazaraean was more than the carpenter's son. He could heal him of his leprosy. What would the priest think? When the leper is to be cleansed in Leviticus 14, the blood is put on the tip of the right ear and on the thumb of his right hand, and on the great toe of his right foot. What would he think in relation to the cleansing of the leper? What was being enacted was a demonstration of how Jesus the Nazaraean had the power to heal the leper and establish man in all the dignity that belonged to God. Friend, if you have to do with the Lord Jesus regarding your sins and your sin, He would have you to know what cleansing is, what it is to be clear of it. And there is a power He gives you to help you to be established here in the scene where you were once a leper. He does not bring you out of the scene where you were once a leper immediately. He leaves you in that scene, the scene in which you were a sinner, where you walked in sin and obeyed its lusts. He leaves you in that scene but He gives you the power to walk now, no longer as under the bondage of sin, but dignified, in the power of the Holy Spirit, which, in type, the cleansing of the leper involved.
He was anointed with oil. I like that touch in Leviticus 14, "And the remainder of the oil that is in the priest's hand he shall put upon the head of him that is to be cleansed", v 18 (pour it over the head of the leper) as if God delighted to anoint the man after the blood had been put upon him. Why, after the blood? Only Christ was anointed with the Spirit in manhood before His death. Every other person is anointed with the Spirit on account of the shed blood of Christ having brought in moral cleansing, cleansing us from our sins. After that we can be anointed with the Spirit and with power. That is a wonderful thing. So He brings this in as to the cleansing of the leper and that is Peter, so one man got the blessing. Have we, each, received the blessing? Wonderful thing to have the blessing!
Peter says in chapter 3 of the Acts, "Silver and gold I have not; but what I have, this give I to thee: In the name of Jesus Christ the Nazaraean rise up and walk." Remarkable that he brings in the Nazaraean! He might have said, 'In the name of Jesus Christ rise and walk.' The Lord must have been known as the Nazaraean and Peter was showing that whatever the scorn and reproach was concerning Christ and His crucifixion, there was power in the name of Jesus Christ the Nazaraean to heal. So Peter says in chapter 4 before the whole Sanhedrim, the Jewish court, the religious court "If we this day are called upon to answer as to the good deed done to the infirm man, how he has been healed, be it known to you all, and to all the people of Israel, that "in the name of Jesus Christ the Nazaraean, whom ye have crucified" - that must have reached their consciences, "ye" emphatic - "whom God has raised from among the dead, by him this man stands here before you sound in body." Friend, the name of a dead man effects nothing. They thought Christ was dead. They did not believe in the resurrection. What this brings out is the power of Jesus the Nazaraean as a living Man out of death, "whom God has raised from among the dead, by him this man stands here before you sound in body." It was the confirmation and affirmation that Christ was out of death, a living Man! Power is associated with life - ''whom God has raised from among the dead." That is when the change took place. They crucified Him. They thought that was the end. What power was there in the name of a crucified man? - none! But there is power in the name of a Man who is out of death, a living Man, who is available. It is Christ's power - (it is not the power of Peter and John) - transmitted from heaven to heal the lame man at the gate of the temple.
God would have us to be those who can walk. Walking with God is a wonderful matter. God came into the garden in the cool of the day and walked in the garden. He wanted man to walk with Him. He did not find man suitable to walk with. Now, through the work of Christ, there are men who can walk with God, women who can walk with God, children who can walk with God, young people who can walk with God. How? Because they have been healed through the power of the name of the Nazaraean. "This man stands here before you sound in body." What a thing that is to be "sound in body"! Cured from leprosy, cured from the power of sin in the flesh working in your members, and become in subjection to Christ. What a relief! In Nazareth the people missed it. What a thing to think of that! They missed it, missed salvation, so near to them and yet they missed it. They were in the presence of the One who had the authority to heal them and missed it. But we do not want to miss it. Peter says, "He is the stone which has been set at nought by you the builders which is become the corner stone. "And salvation is in none other, for neither is there another name under heaven which is given among men by which we must be saved." Only one name! Whatever may be said in comparative religions of this world, is of no avail. There is only one name, only one glad tidings and that concerns the name of the Lord Jesus the Nazaraean. There may be reproach attached to it, but there is power attached to it.
In Acts 22, Saul of Tarsus (Paul) says, with respect to his conversion, "There suddenly shone out of heaven a great light round about me. And I fell to the ground, and heard a voice saying to me, Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me? And I answered, Who art thou, Lord? And he said to me, I am Jesus the Nazaraean, whom thou persecutest." Remarkable that the Lord should take that name! Of course it is associated with those on the earth who were His - "I am Jesus the Nazaraean, whom thou persecutest." He was persecuting the saints, and the Lord identifies Himself with them. Paul says in chapter 26, "I indeed myself thought that I ought to do much against the name of Jesus the Nazaraean", v 9. That was the line he was on, "against the name of Jesus the Nazaraean." That would be the name expressed in persons. How the Lord identifies Himself with His saints! The Lord says in this chapter, "I am Jesus the Nazaraean." Paul sought to do much against the name of Jesus the Nazaraean. Do you know something about Jesus the Nazaraean? Have you ever met Him? What an experience in life when you meet Jesus the Nazaraean, not in His flesh and blood condition. You meet Him as the One who is in power. This is Christ in power, no longer in humiliation. "I am Jesus the Nazaraean, whom thou persecutest." Paul was met by Christ in glory. What a distinction! He did not see Him in His humiliation. The Lord does not say, I am Jesus who am all-powerful or in glory. He says, "I am Jesus the Nazaraean." It is the same Person. Oh, friend, if you come into submission, you will find that He is the great Physician. He is the Healer. He can heal every state of soul. He can deal with every problem we have, every thought we have, every concern we have. He has not changed. It He met a Saul of Tarsus on the Damascus road tonight, He would still say, "I am Jesus the Nazaraean, whom thou persecutest." He is taking account of persons opposed to His saints, but He is available to His saints. We are in the day of reproach, of shame and suffering and scorn. There will be persons here who feel that. We all feel that in our various circumstances. Some may feel it more than others, the reproach of the Christ. He feels it with you, dear friend. The Lord Jesus feels it with you. "I am Jesus the Nazaraean whom thou persecutest." If you are persecuted for Christ's name's sake, He feels it with you. Thank God if you have known what it is to be healed and then the blessing that He would pour into you. The words of grace that came out of His mouth did not fall to the ground. What He gives in the glad tidings is not spilled on the ground like water that cannot be collected. It finds its entrance into vessels, to our vessel. How blessed He is! He would give us a word that would encourage us in the scene of the testimony. May it be so for His Name's sake.
EDINBURGH
2 June 1996