LIFE WORKING OUT IN THE INDIVIDUAL AND IN THE LOCALITY

^[p. 100] LIFE WORKING OUT IN THE INDIVIDUAL AND IN THE LOCALITY

John 8:12; John 20:21,22; 2 Corinthians 4:10 - 12

Life is what I had in mind to speak about tonight — not in an exhaustive way, for the subject is very large, but in order that, by the Lord’s help, we may see how it works out in the individual and how it works out in a locality, that is, collectively.

This thought came into my mind in coming yesterday, believing that, as in all cities in which saints reside, the subject of life, spiritual life, is of prime importance.

The Lord would have us in the light of life which comes to those who follow. He says that those who follow shall not walk in darkness but have the light of life. That is, the light of it as it shone in Him, for it is said, “In him was life; and the life was the light of men”. John 1:4 So that life is a great thought, an extensive thought, an eternal thought, for it was promised before the world, and has taken form so as to be intelligible, so as to be within the range of man; it was to be life for man. Now, as I said, it was a great thought. God introduced it on the third day of creation. He gave life, or the possibility of it and we know that the stars were set in the heavens as guides. They differ, it says, in glory and their glory is obviously not of life (of that we know nothing). One star differs from another in glory, and the most glorious star, I suppose, of all was that seen over the manger by the wise men of the east and no doubt they suggest to us the benefit of the stars. They said, “Where is he that is born King of the Jews? for we have seen his star in the east” Matthew 2:2 — His star. So that would emphasise, beloved brethren, the value of these bodies. God made them and they are lights and ^[p. 101] they are glorious. That surely is a wonderful thought, but the saints on earth are vessels of glory. Vessels of mercy fitted for glory are greater objects of interest to the spiritual mind than the stars of whose substance we know little. But we do know that God brought in life on the earth on the third day. As he bound the waters of death — limiting them, the dry land, we are told, appeared. From the ground God caused to grow herbs and trees “yielding fruit”. Genesis 1:11 - 12 So that the thought of life came in early. And then, on the fifth day, as you remember, He created the creatures, calling them living souls. Those records were written long after man was made, long after God was known to him in measure, so that those who had faith would read them with interest for they were not written for the curiosity of man. “Whatsoever things were written aforetime were written for our learning”. Romans 15:4 We have the record of the third day and the fifth day, and then on the sixth day we have the greatest testimony to life of the creation formed — man. What interest it would afford to those who had faith when the record was first written and read. “Let us”, says God, “make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion…” Genesis 1:26 And then so as to bring the great testimony before us more clearly, the Spirit of God turns to it in the second chapter without referring to the day, and we have man made after the likeness of God, by His own hand. “Formed” — beloved brethren. “Formed” is not only the idea of creation but of making and the making brings in wisdom and skill. So that he was a figure, before God, of Him that was to come. God, “breathed”, as it is said, “into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul”. Genesis 2:7 The breath of God: who can say what a breath that was: who can define it? God breathed into his nostrils. God did it. It is a divine transaction of the most intimate nature and here we have man and ^[p. 102] he is called by the Spirit of God “a living soul” — made to live with an upright countenance, with a countenance that could meet God’s countenance. As the psalmist of old said later answering to the thought, “The salvations of his countenance”. That God should breathe upon a man, in the apprehension of the psalmist, meant salvation. Moreover, he says, “Who is the health of my countenance, and my God”. Psalm 43:5 So that God and man, in the apprehension of the psalmist, met together and man was in health. It is said of the Lord in spirit, He “is white and ruddy” Song of Songs 5:10 the perfect expression in a man of energy and life. The psalmist apprehended the spiritual thought; others may dwell on the material. What we are concerned with, beloved, is of the Spirit, “God is a Spirit”. John 4:24 God has revealed Himself in Jesus as a Spirit and He is to be known and worshipped “in spirit and in truth”. And so the testimony of life was there. The figure of Him that was to come had appeared and the Holy Spirit, from that time, had in view the One who was to come. One was to come, as John says, “by water and blood”. “This is he”, he says, “that came by water and blood ... not by water only, but by water and blood” 1 John 5:6 — as if John’s epistle would place the water first and I have no doubt, beloved friends, that the import of that is that knowing redemption we neglect the water and hence we deprive ourselves of the enjoyment of life. We may take up the blood and neglect the water, but John says, “He that came by water and blood”. And so the first name that Adam gave, after the figure of redemption, is Eve — “the mother of all living”. Genesis 3:20 That the word ‘living’ should be in the mouth of a man who had been pronounced dying “dying thou shalt die” — is a wonderful triumph and, dear brethren, it should be in our minds as well as in our hearts for God has in view a living race — not a dying race. He has no pleasure in a dying race. He ^[p. 103] has got pleasure in a living race for He created the earth to be inhabited by a living race, and hence the Son came “by water and blood”. From the divine side, He came by blood and water. As John says in the gospel, “forthwith came there out blood and water”. John 19:34 If I were preaching the gospel, I should preach the blood first; if preaching to christians, I should preach the water first.

Well, now, the Lord, having all these things in His mind and having in His ministry, according to John’s presentation of it, brought in the great principle of life, new birth, the lifting up of the Son of man, the fountain of living water, the raising of the dead, the living bread, and the gift of the Spirit, introduces His great subject — “the light of life”. I put it to you this evening, dear brethren: where are we in regard to the light of life? We cannot go on happily and spiritually if we are not in the light of life. If I have got the light of life, I am not going to live in circumstances of poverty or servility or mere outward form and mere doctrine or the most correct form or order of doctrine. I want to have the life. “I am come”, He says, “that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly” John 10:10 — plenty of it — that is the thought. What a divine thought is abundance! Look anywhere you please in the world and there is the witness — even as it is, and what shall it be in the future? — even as it is, there is a witness of the bounty of it — the plentifulness of it. So the Lord says, “I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly”. Where are we, therefore, as regards this? The Lord came and where are we as regards this abundance? Well now, He says, he “shall not walk in darkness”. If there is a christian here who is linked up with any association in which there is no freshness, he is walking in darkness to that extent. If I am in any association that is not marked by the ^[p. 104] evidence of life then I cannot say I am walking or following Christ — walking in the light of life. If I have got the light of life, I shall seek out where it is and I am not left in darkness as to where it is. This life, says John, is in His Son. There is no question about that. God has set life there. But then, I have another thought and that is that there is a circle of life. God is not now cultivating the ground. The time is coming when there shall be the evidence of God’s blessing in material things and men shall sit under their fig trees like Nathaniel, when the heavens shall hear the earth and the earth shall hear the corn, the new wine and the oil, and they, as it says, shall hear Jizreel. Israel shall have blessing in abundance. The heavens and earth reunited shall afford abundance on the earth — heavenly blessing on the earth. But God is not cultivating the earth. Alas for any christian who is cultivating the earth today! Cain cultivated the earth but the first man with faith (according to the record of Hebrews) was occupied with living beings. You may say they were sheep but they were called living souls, and he with faith takes account of the living souls. One of those sheep, in the eyes of Abel, was sufficient as a sacrifice. He offered an acceptable sacrifice. A sacrifice (how little he understood it!) which really meant the Lord Jesus. Faith had a person in view and that is a principle. We are not cultivating the earth. I am only referring to principle and I hope to show that the Lord would have us to cultivate one another. You see it is life in persons that God has given now and so if I have got the light of life it is life in a Person. We shall see the thing extended presently, but, for the moment, it is life in a Person. Think of the One who sat just as He was on the well; He came there; it did not alter His circumstances — just as He was. He came so as to be within the range of a poor soul. “If thou knewest”, He says. What words these are! “If thou knewest the gift of God, and who it is that saith to thee, Give me to drink”. John 4:10 “If thou knewest the gift of God”. What words these are! One’s heart is detained in the presence of such words as these. “If thou knewest the gift of God, and who it is that saith to thee, Give me to drink”, then you would be able to appropriate what has become so available. Think of that: He came within her range and she talked to Him and then she talked of Him. Oh, I am sure that if we talk with Him, we shall talk of Him. Well, in that way, the life has come within our range. Hence I think of Jesus. If I am to apprehend life, I think of Jesus. I see, therefore, life within my range so as to contemplate. “That which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes; that which we contemplated, and our hands handled, concerning the word of life; (and the life has been manifested, and we have seen, and bear witness, and report to you the eternal life, which was with the Father, and has been manifested to us:) ... And these things write we to you that your joy may be full”. 1 John 1:1 - 4 The life has come within our range. Do we contemplate it? “He that followeth me” says the Lord, “shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life”. What are our associations — religious? political? social? What are they? We test them by the light of life. If there is no spiritual life there, abandon them for ever. No one in the light of life could abide where death was, where death could reign. One has come into areas governed by death, a state of things in which there is nothing for God. “Thou hast a name that thou livest, and art dead”. “Thou hast a few ... they shall walk with me in white”. “He that overcometh ... I will not blot out his name out of the book of life”, Revelation 3:1; Revelation 3:4,5. The Lord says to John, “I am ... the living one, and I became dead, and behold, I am living to the ages of ages, and have the keys of death and of hades”. Revelation 1:18 And hence the great truth of life, the importance of it when death is working everywhere, prevailing everywhere. The Lord would have us in the light of life and to walk in it; not to walk in darkness and where people profess to live and are dead.

Well now, I want to show how the thing works in an individual. It is said in John 20, that having said these things, the Lord breathed into them. There is to be life there, life like Jesus’ life. The life is to be like His. It is not simply that I am a living soul but my life is to be like His, for God has His standard. “If these things are done in the green tree” — Luke 23:31 — there never was green like that before. The “green” in christianity is to be of the same kind, that is the life of Jesus. Hence the Lord breathed into them and says, “Receive the Holy Spirit”. How wonderful that is. Think of the intimacy of the transaction. Think of the life and then the thought in it, not only that I should enjoy the thing but I should be that ‘green’ that God saw here in Christ, that I might go out in the spirit of Jesus for here it is Jesus Himself, it says, “stood in the midst”. It is Man you see — the last Adam, true enough, but nevertheless Man. He is a life — giving spirit. But then it is a race of men on the earth like Him, connected with a company of people who have received the breath of Christ. Well now, the apostle had that before him. He said, “Always bearing about in the body the dying of Jesus” — the dying of that Man. Why should that Man die? He died in love. It is a wonderful thing to see a man die for love, to see one surrendering himself to love, but think of the Son of God dying. Could anything in the whole universe be of more interest than that? How He died. I do not know how far back we might trace the manner of death. We may look back to the mount of transfiguration. “He stedfastly set his face to go to Jerusalem”. Luke 9:51 He had just been talking about it on the heights. He ^[p. 107] spoke of His decease and He goes deliberately down to die. If you trace that path you see how He died. What tender compassion for those who were with Him, and especially as we draw near and find ourselves in the upper room. He was dying in order that others might live; that is what He was doing and He was teaching us how to die, perhaps one of the most difficult lessons to learn. We have to learn everything from Jesus. It is only in the power of life that we can die. But the Prince of life died. Here it is His dying, and the dying of Jesus is what is so remarkable, and that is what the apostle says, “That the life also of Jesus may be manifested in our body”. That is what Paul had in view. I take the apostle Paul to be the full representation of one into whose nostrils the breath of life had been breathed by Jesus. He received that breath. It developed in him until he says, I want to see a complete representation in man, as complete as it can be, bringing the thing down within the reach of us all. I want to see the life of Jesus in my mortal body. And then he goes on to say, “For we which live are alway delivered unto death for Jesus’ sake, that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our mortal flesh”, and then the apostle adds, “So then death worketh in us, but life in you”. Now what I make of that is, if you will bear with me, that life in any locality in which a man lives will be seen as the life of Jesus is manifested in him and he will help the saints generally. “We know that we have passed from death unto life, because we love the brethren”. That is what should mark a local company. I take Bethany to represent love in a locality. The Lord delights to come to a locality where love is. So He came to Bethany. Thus it is before the passover he came where Lazarus was, who had died. A risen man was there, and not only a risen man but persons who were affected by the testimony of life. They thought of ^[p. 108] Jesus; they made Him a supper and Lazarus was one of those who sat at the table with Him, and Martha served and Mary anointed Him. There is not a word there as to their being told to do these things. It is the product of the light of life. Chapter 12 is, so to say, the product of the previous chapter — the thing is allowed to be seen — the light of life working out in a group, in a locality. The point is not the house, as you will observe. In Matthew and Mark we find a reference to Simon the leper’s house but in John it is the locality. So it says He came to Bethany. He came to Bethany where Lazarus was. Lazarus was there and others who loved Him. The result of His ministry was that they gave of their own accord and He accepted it. It is true the house is referred to as filled. It is filled with the odour of the ointment. That is the thing. That is what the Holy Spirit would lead to. Readings and prayer meetings are all right but the point is, what is the benefit of these without the green evidence of life? That is what God likes and He will have it. If there is one who is in life, that one has to learn locally to lay down his life for the people — “death worketh in us, but life in you”. It is a poor thing if I am enjoying life at the expense of another brother. God would have me to enjoy it through my own exercises.