THINGS WHICH ABIDE

Alex A.Brown

1 Corinthians 13: 13; Hebrews 11: 1; 12: 1-3; 1 John 3: 2-3; 14-16; 2 Peter 1: 3-4

I would like to say something, with the Lord's help, about things which abide. We read that certain things abide, "And now abide faith, hope, love". These things will abide right up to the rapture, and I would like to ask myself and everyone here the question, how far am I abiding in these things? It says, ''these three things; and the greater of these is love". Faith and hope will cease and love will abide. In this time period, faith and hope would be the distinct portion of the believer in view of the testimony and of endurance. But, ''the greater of these is love" might mean that love does not cease. Love is something which is known now, and yet which will never cease, which will go into eternity which is greater in that sense, being formed through the exercise of faith and hope. These exercises are formative as they are worked out in affection, but I believe that all three go together. They cannot be separated. If they are separated there may be a deficiency, but they are all to abide.

I read in Hebrews because there are certain Old Testament persons who are marked out by the strength of their faith. We can read in detail of the different experiences of these different persons, and what they did through faith in God. It would be one of the links we would have with the patriarchs. Abraham was the father of those who believe, one to whom righteousness was counted as believing. What a place faith has in Christianity, and not only in Christianity but in these other families too. Faith will go through this time scene. Well, what about your faith? What about mine? God has given us faith, it is His sovereign gift. The question would be whether it is active with each one of us. The disciples asked the Lord to increase their faith. He says, "If ye have faith as a grain of mustard seed", one of the smallest seeds. It is not a matter exactly of the amount of faith, but the exercise of it. That, of course, would be by the Spirit, not by man's will or determination of mind, but by the Spirit, and, as we know, the Spirit operates within that very realm of faith in the believer.

Now, another question would arise about the glory of this present dispensation which is in faith. It is spoken of as "God's dispensation, which is in faith" (1 Tim 1: 4). What line are we on? If we are pursuing faith, we are furthering God's dispensation which is in faith. This period of time is marked by faith; it is a time when things are not seen. The things that are seen are for a time; the things that are not seen are eternal. This is the distinctiveness of the dispensation in which we are. So we would be encouraged by considering these persons referred to in the great faith chapter. It is a chapter I like reading periodically, and the children should take a great interest in the history of these personalities. They were great personalities, but not of the world, for they eclipsed the world. Abraham was superior to the world and its system. He would not take anything from a thread to a shoe-latchet from the king of Sodom. The superiority of the believer in faith to the world and its system is to be known by us. So the cloud of witnesses are for our encouragement. The truth is exemplified in such persons. The Lord could say of the woman, "Seest thou this woman? " (Luke 7: 44). Something was manifested in her; the truth was demonstrated in her. The Lord did not outline the doctrine exactly, but He said, 'Simon, seest thou this woman?' So we can say, 'Seest thou these elders through whom witness was obtained. Take account of them, this cloud of witnesses'. "Let us also therefore, having so great a cloud of witnesses surrounding us". They are not only in Hebrews 11. I am sure you can think, no matter how young you are, of persons who represent to you something of this, of the truth which has been brought out in this city where we are. How thankful we are for those who have gone before. So this cloud of witnesses comes right down to our own day. There are still witnesses to this great matter of faith. We can look back on older brethren in this city with affection, how they watched over those who were younger. We can regard their example, and the path of faith and piety that marked them; there was no surrender to the world or its system. These are real things, beloved brethren. This is not a matter of any sentimental consideration, but the truth has been exemplified in persons, and will continue to be so as faith is maintained. I would like to be numbered among them, and I am sure every one here would be too, among the "great cloud of witnesses".

So I would exhort everyone, including myself, to lay aside every weight which so easily entangles us. It may be that the weight that holds you down is different to the weight that holds me down. It may not in itself be anything sinful, it may be legitimate. I believe that, in the world through which we have to pass nowadays, it is very easy, almost unconsciously, to become weighed down. It may even be responsibilities which we take on that weigh us down. It may be business, it may be in the home, it may be one thing or another, but it can become a weight. Faith enables the believer to lay aside the weight. He might not be able to remove it, but he is enabled to lay it aside. Oh, the weight that is on this poor world! the excitement of mind mingled with despair in the world's system! They try to pass it off with humour and the like, but what depression there is in the hearts and minds of men. Now, the believer is not to be weighed down; he has got to lay the weight aside and he is enabled to do this by faith, and the result is endurance.

I believe, beloved, that faith enables us to endure. Moses saw "him who is invisible". Think of the history of Moses, a man who became great. He did not give up the world because the world had no place to offer him. Rather, the world of Egypt had a great place to offer Moses in the administration of Egypt, but there came a time when he gave it all up. Why? He chose "rather to suffer affliction along with the people of God than to have the temporary pleasure of sin". So he deliberately made a choice, and he did it in faith; he laid aside the weight, he refused the world, and he chose to suffer affliction along with the people of God. Faith enables you to do that. I would appeal to the young people because it may be when you are at school, that certain things appeal. They may not be sinful in themselves, but particular men and their systems of thought may have a certain appeal. Moses, I suppose, was brought up in the court of Pharaoh and would have the finest education that Egypt could give him, but a time can when he said that he would suffer affliction along with the people of God. It has been said that we get enough education to make our way through, and that is so, beloved brethren. I believe that Moses represents one who came to a judgment of the world, to suffer along with the people of God. What a decision! Faith enabled him to take it.

So these weights have to be laid aside, and we have to "run with endurance the race that lies before us". Moses was forty years in the desert, all by himself, tending the flock. He learned endurance. He went through in faith. And so we have to run this race and look to the One who is the Leader and Completer of faith. "Looking stedfastly on Jesus" - the idea is that you must take your eye off everything here and have it fixed on the Man in the glory. It is deliberate. Christ then becomes the absorbing Object of the soul. And what an advantage the believer has in this dispensation, because we have the One who "endured the cross, having despised the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God". Oh, what power is there, what resource is there in Jesus. We feel weak, and it is right that we should feel weak, but all our strength is in Him, the One who is at the right hand of the throne of God. And we have to consider Him well, attentively, "who endured so great contradiction from sinners against himself, that ye be not weary, fainting in your minds". It is a thing we may be prone to. It is all right for the body to be weary, but beware lest we be weary in our minds. It would call for fresh committal according to Romans 12, "transformed by the renewing of your mind". I would make an appeal now, especially to those carrying responsibility to some degree, young persons leaving school and starting work. Fresh responsibilities are taken up, but you have to be careful that you do not become weary in your mind as to the Lord's things. So you need to read the Scriptures and the ministry, and pray about them; pray more and then read more. The infallibility and authority of the Scriptures and the authority of the ministry are not to be let go, because they are distinctive and altogether different from man's world. So we should be careful not to be fainting in our minds. What is the answer? Active faith, faith which abides. Am I abiding in faith? Am I abiding in the Lord, having the Lord before me? I have to see that faith is active in me, and you have to see that it is active in you.

Now faith is one living, basic and fundamental truth in the Christian's experience, but what of hope? I read in 1 John because this too is a living thing. It says, ''what we shall be has not yet been manifested; we know that if it is manifested we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is". What is the hope of the Christian? Oh, the hope of the Christian is to be with the Saviour, to be with the Lord Jesus. Mr Darby has a pamphlet on the hope of the Church. What a hope the Church has! That blessed One, its Head, is the One who is going to appear in glory, to take the assembly to Himself all glorious, having no spot or wrinkle or any such thing. What a hope! Oh, think of this, in a world which is marked by hopelessness. Man have no hope. The more you come in contact with men the more you realise how hopeless they are; you see the despair that marks them if they are honest. But the Christian, one of the things that abides is hope. What about your hope? Is it burning as brightly as the night you were converted? We used to be asked these questions by the older brethren in the early days. Do you recall when the first shining of that light was in your soul, when the Lord meant everything to you? What a hope it was! Now, this hope deepens in those who are older, to be like Him, "we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is". Bereavement comes in. How much transpires in the history of localities, but there are those who are maintained in this way through hope, to see Him as He is! And the hope of the Church is not exactly the event but the Person Himself. How sweet that is, how precious it is.

So hope is intended to have a present effect on us. It is not hope as men speak of it, something that all lies in the future, a hope that everything will work out all right in the end. That is not hope, that is fatalism. The hope of the believer has a present moral influence on his life. "And every one that has this hope in him purifies himself, even as he is pure". This hope has a present moral effect. What does the world mean, its blandishments, when compared with this? "Your charms are spread in vain', There are those who have gone before who have known something of this burning in their hearts, and it brings about a present effect in purification. Oh, we want to be kept from the corruption that is in the world. It is all around us as we go out, but this living hope has a purifying effect. It is not a dead thing, it is not exactly a tenet of doctrine or anything of that kind, it is a living hope, which lives and turns in the heart of the believer.

Now, we come to love. John speaks of hope, and also of love. "The greater of these is love". We think of all that has come about in the world in these latter days through sin; even the matter of natural affection has been cast off. "We know that we have passed from death to life, because we love the brethren". So the practical demonstration of love becomes a proof to the believer. Do you want to know that you have passed from death to life? You may say, 'How would I know? Passed from death to life - it sounds a bit complex. But I can ask a young believer, a child, do you love the brethren? It is as simple as that. If you love the brethren, you have passed from death to life. We love because we have been first loved. Who gives you that love for the brethren? It is God who gives you that love for the brethren, God operating in your soul God operating in my soul. That is what enables us to love one another in this way and to go on. It has been said that the brother in Australia is no test to us, but we can love the brethren in our own place, and go on together. What is the bond? What is it that produces that? Faith? Yes, it would be because you all walk in faith. Hope? Yes, although hope might be burning more brightly, perhaps, in some than in others. But love is operating horizontally. Because we have been first loved, love finds expression in love for the brethren. And there is something even greater, because Peter says "to brotherly love add love". That is greater still. That love is something which will go on into eternity. "Hereby we have known love, because he", that is the Lord Jesus "has laid down his life for us; and we ought for the brethren to lay down our lives". That is the test, to lay down our lives for the brethren.

So love is greater, it is greater than faith and hope, this kind of love, which Peter speaks of as involving our being "partakers of the divine nature". I believe localities go through where the truth is cherished and where nothing is allowed in of the world; we are enabled to lay down our lives for the brethren. This is not a sentimental, emotional idea, laying down our lives for the brethren. It may mean being faithful with one another. Love would enable us to be faithful with one another. As partakers of the divine nature we are enabled to do that. We have known persons who, thinking that they were making way for one another in love, were diluting the truth; it was not love, it was sentiment. I believe that this kind of love is the basis for the truth going through in persons. So Peter is writing to the dispersion, at a time when those he was writing to were under pressure. He says that, "his divine power has given to us all things which relate to life and godliness, through the knowledge of him that has called us by glory and virtue, through which he has given to us the greatest and precious promises, that through these ye may become partakers of the divine nature," - which is love - "having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust". May it find a place in every one of our hearts so there may be a greater answer to Him, for His Name's sake.

Edinburgh

1 January 1987 (Our beloved brother is now laid aside)