THE DESIRES OF THE SAINTS, AND OF CHRIST
F. N. Stickland
Two things have prompted me to think of these scriptures; one was in the hymn, which spoke about beholding the beauty of the Lord, the other was our brother’s prayer in which he said that God is always speaking to us and that it is on the principle of God speaking that we live.
We live on the principle of every word that is coming out of God’s mouth. I think, beloved brethren, that one thing the blessed God is intent upon is that we might develop our links with Jesus, become more acquainted with Him, and be able to speak more of His perfections and beauties.
There is nobody like Jesus to attract and hold the heart of every lover of His throughout time and eternity. What a beautiful Man He is! Not a flaw in Jesus! And this psalmist, David, in this psalm says, “One thing have I asked of Jehovah”. I think this would be the fruit or outcome of listening to what God has to say, because He is intent, and the Spirit is intent, on magnifying Jesus and making Him greater and more precious to every one of our hearts. He is worthy of it!
I love to look upon the faces of the beloved brethren here, many of whom I have never seen before, but the very fact that we are here shows that we have some interest, some real, deep interest, in the things of the Lord Jesus Christ. “All seek their own things, not the things of Jesus Christ” (Philippians 2: 21). Paul says, but through grace and mercy we are among those who delight to seek His things and be found developing in our acquaintance with Him—and the more we get to know Him the more we shall become like Him.
I believe that is one of the intentions of the blessed God, that we should value the qualities of the manhood of Jesus, so perfect and precious under His eye—for there was nothing about the life of Jesus that had to be adjusted. He never took a step that had to be recalled or re-trodden. He never said a word that had to be withdrawn, and He never did an action that had to be undone. What perfection! Does it not do us good, beloved brethren, to bathe our souls in the contemplation of the preciousness and the beauty of Jesus? It is said of some that when they see Him there is no beauty in Him that they should desire Him (Isaiah 53: 2). But I believe that God is intent on securing us so that we shall not be happy, we shall not rest, until our affections are really bound up, knit as one together, on the basis of our affection for Jesus and our links with Him.
“One thing have I asked”; what is the governing motive of our life, dear brethren? You know, we must get our priorities right. This dear man, David, the sweet psalmist of Israel, said, “One thing have I asked … that will I seek after; that I may dwell in the house of Jehovah all the days of my life, to behold the beauty of Jehovah, and to inquire of him in his temple”. It is the way we develop and grow, inquiring in His temple, the place where light is, where teaching is, where instruction is, not to say the blessedness and the protection of the sphere where the dominant Man is Jesus, and Jesus only.
Let us develop, beloved, let us set ourselves to develop in our appreciation and understanding of the beauty of Jesus, the beauty of Jehovah. It is not His mighty power exactly, not His authority, though He has all that. The Father loves the Son because of the beauty He sees in Him. He has committed everything into His hand. What more competent hands could there be than the hands of Jesus? But it is His beauty that is going to hold us through every test and every vicissitude of the testimony. We have had enough of them in our day, have we not? It may be that there will be further tests—who can say? In one sense the course of the testimony is a continuous test, a test as to whether we are going to be loyal, remain loyal and faithful to the One who amidst unfaithfulness was always faithful to His God and displayed the qualities and perfections and beauties that ever, if we may speak reverently, ravished the heart of God Himself.
In Psalm 45 it is a remarkable thing that it says that He, that is the Lord, will desire our beauty. Now that raises a question as to how we look upon the saints. Do we see beauties and qualities amongst the brethren? I know this is typical of the assembly, the bride, the king’s daughter all glorious within. A lovely psalm this, you know, and many here could unfold much better than I can what is contained in it; but what arrests me at the moment—I think the Spirit has just put it into my heart afresh—is that the Lord Jesus desires the beauty of the assembly. What is the assembly but the product of divine handiwork? There are suggestions of the embroidered garments, of course, which may have something to do with what we contribute. You know it is going to be given to the bride, in the day quickly to come, to be arrayed in the robe which is the righteousnesses of the saints, that embroidered garment. But here the suggestion is “her clothing is of wrought gold” and then again it says, “she shall be brought unto the king in raiment of embroidery”—but, you know, the bride does not eye her garment, she eyes her bridegroom’s face. But here it is the bridegroom looking upon the bride for her beauty.
I believe, beloved brethren, we would be encouraged that there are features amongst us that are beautiful under the eye of Christ, and He desires that beauty, He longs for it, He wants to see it developed, He wants to have such a vessel united to Him. We have experiences of this following the Supper, the bride united to the Bridegroom—a wonderful thing. One of the features would be that the King, the Bridegroom, desires her beauty. It is a wonderful thing that the production of these qualities and beautiful features is going on now. We can contribute to it; we can afford an atmosphere in which what is capable of being developed on this line can go on, the Spirit having His free way because He loves to adorn and beautify the assembly for the heart of His Master, the blessed, glorious Bridegroom. Well, may our hearts be encouraged and seek to be helped further on these lines, for His name’s sake.
Brooklyn
N.Y., 8 May 1973
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