“HE WHO RESTRAINS”

D. L. Stewart

1 Chronicles 12: 23, 28; 2 Samuel 15: 25; 1 Kings 1: 1–4, 11, 15, 16, 28, 32, 38–40; 2 Timothy 1: 13–18; 4: 10–12; 2 Thessalonians 2: 1–7

Each of these passages, whether in the types or the epistles, relates to the apostasy. The word is used in Thessalonians and it means a departure from acknowledged truth which, of course, leads on to rebellion and, in its progress of evil, to the day of which we have read. It is not in mind to say much about the apostasy. The Lord Jesus is going to settle that matter without any question in view of the kingdom. He will consume the lawless one with the breath of His mouth (see 2 Thessalonians 2: 8). In the meantime God allows the enemy certain scope, and has done so from the outset. God could have altered things in Genesis 3, but He chooses to allow the enemy some scope, although He brings in restraint, and that is what I would like to dwell upon.

It speaks first of all in 2 Thessalonians of “that which restrains”, which relates to ordered government provided by God on the earth and set up in Noah. Then it speaks of “he who restrains”, which relates to the presence of the Spirit of God in this scene. The Spirit is in the assembly and when the assembly goes, the Spirit goes. The scene here will then be left to the awful confusion of the enemy’s power. The Spirit is in the assembly and in persons who form the assembly. He is here indwelling persons and it is that particularly to which I would like to refer. Restraint is effected in persons.

In these passages we have read we get what is at stake in this great matter, first of all the ark and its habitation. One of the great subjects of Scripture is the place that Christ has as the centre of a great order of things which is for the divine pleasure. David says, “Carry back the ark of God … he will … shew me it, and its habitation”. That refers, to the initial work of God in a young man’s soul when he came to it that he would seek a place for the ark,

“habitations for the Mighty One of Jacob”, Psalm 132: S. Habitations would be suitable conditions and the service of God would be involved in it. That is one of the great things which are at stake in what we are speaking of; the other is Christ’s supreme place amongst His own as seen in Solomon. The enemy would do everything possible to divert the saints from Christ having His true place. “All the people came up after him, and the people piped with pipes ... so that the earth rent with the sound of them”. This was the result of restraint, something achieved so that Christ, seen here in Solomon, could enjoy the place amongst the saints that was truly His. Then, lastly, in Timothy what is at stake is Paul’s ministry, the extensive heavenly order of things to which the saints have been brought back in this present time. God has seen to it that what is Pauline has been maintained. It has not been lost. The enemy has not succeeded.

So I want to speak about persons. As I said, the Spirit of God works through persons. In these passages we have read a great many are mentioned and it is a question of selection as to what might be said about them. We have Zadok to begin with. Last night we had a word to the elders but tonight I would address the young people. Quite a few of those we have read about are young persons who have quite a distinctive place in this great restraining service of the Spirit of God. In 1 Chronicles 12

Zadok is spoken of as “a valiant young man”. He appears in quite an extraordinary setting. It speaks in verse 23 of “the number of the men equipped for military service”. You would not expect to find a priest there. They had come to transfer the kingdom of Saul to David. The great operation that is in view in this chapter is that the kingdom should be Christ’s. This valiant young man, Zadok, is a priest, a militant priest, one who has part in hindering the enemy’s activities, leaving the Spirit of God scope to transfer to Christ everything that belongs to Him in the circle of the saints.

Zadok appears in both the Old Testament scriptures which speak of the apostasy in type, and later we find that his sons go through into the world to come. It must indicate the outstanding quality of God’s work in this young man. Young men do not need to wait until they are fifty before they begin to stand for the rights of Christ. We all have to work things out in our own souls, in our histories, and in our own households. Christ is to have the kingdom, the rights are His. This chapter speaks of thousands of persons in this great operation but when we come to Zadok it says that there are twenty-two of his father’s house with him. It might suggest that there is a lack of younger men who would take things up for Christ, and especially in their own localities.

If you look back in the history of the testimony it seems that if a man is going to be used of God, generally speaking he begins young. Mr. James Taylor began young and committed himself to maintaining the rights of Christ in his own locality. The Lord comes in as we commit ourselves. Zadok was a committed young man, a valiant young man, who might have had to stand up to difficulties, but he had the kind of valour that

would stand for Christ, no matter how few might be with him. It is Zadok to whom David, in 2 Samuel 15, says, “Carry back the ark of God into the city ... he will ... shew me it, and its habitation”. This kind of exercise may involve risk, and most of us do not like facing risk. We like to shield ourselves. Paul says of Aquila and Priscilla that for his sake they risked their own neck (see Romans 16: 4 and note). In the history of the testimony things have been maintained by persons who have been prepared to risk what might be for their aggrandisement here in view of Christ’s rights being secured.

In 1 Kings 1 we have Abishag. She was perhaps not so famous as others we read of, but she was an absolute necessity to this great operation. This is something that should interest the young sisters. She did not have part in the council of war but what she does is to minister to the king. Who would not want to minister to the King? Things were proceeding, although perhaps rather coldly, yet there was a heart prepared to minister to the king. How do we do that? He Himself says, “Inasmuch as ye have done it to one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it to me”, Matthew 25: 40. That is the voice of the King. Things in the world to come are going to be regulated on that basis. Nations are going to be judged by it, but today there is the opportunity for us to have part in this. The council of war is proceeding and it says that Abishag was there, “Abishag ministered to the king”. Her very presence meant something. Things may be small and weak and difficult but by your very presence at the meetings you can do something. Abishag brings in warmth. The presence of young people at a meeting, and their interest in things, is a tremendous encouragement to the saints. Others have to take on responsibility but the very presence of this young person meant something as she

ministered to the king.

Bathsheba was there and she is a very important personality in this connection. She represents the great feature of motherhood amongst the saints. Solomon, at one time anyway, greatly appreciated his mother. He speaks of being “tender and an only one in the sight of my mother”, Proverbs 4: 3. It seems to me that Proverbs 31 is attributed to his mother, “the prophecy that his mother taught him” (Proverbs 31: 1). If Solomon had listened to the wisdom of his mother he might have been preserved from the means the enemy used to deflect him. I might have hesitated to attribute the prophecy to Bathsheba, but Mr. Taylor said that king Lemuel is a symbolic name of Solomon, so from that point of view it is evident that Solomon’s mother is in mind.

I would speak just for a moment to the young mothers here. If the enemy is to be frustrated, if there is to be another generation, the mother is very important. We do not know that there will be another generation. The Lord may come, we are expecting that, but I want to bring out this feature of the mother and how important she is in this matter of restraint, especially as to the very young. We know what Roman Catholicism is reputed to have said, ‘Give us a child until he is seven’. The mothers amongst us have a unique opportunity of training the child’s mind so that it will be unspoiled by what may come in after it reaches school age, or by the enemy’s devices to get into the hearts of young people. I think it has been said that in many cases the work of God in new birth may commence in very young children. The mother has a unique opportunity to counter the enemy’s tactics, on the one hand, and to bring in teaching on the other. The teaching of the mother is adaptable to the very youngest intelligence.

Benaiah is another who has part in this great operation. He represents the overcomer. Paul speaks of the good soldier, “Take thy share in suffering as a good soldier of Jesus Christ”, 2 Timothy 2: 3. According to Numbers military service begins at twenty (see Numbers l: 3), not that that is to be taken literally. But young men are called into service as good soldiers “of Jesus Christ”. Benaiah was an overcomer. A person is not of much value unless he has experience of the Spirit of God empowering him to meet the thrust of the enemy. Benaiah smote two lions of Moab (see 2 Samuel 23: 20); that would be the flesh; he “smote a lion in the midst of a pit on a snowy day” (verse 20); that would be the devil. “Resist the devil”.

James says (James 4: 7). It says further of Benaiah, “He also smote the Egyptian, an imposing man” (2 Samuel 20: 21). That speaks of the world. We need to be overcomers as to the world, not to let the imposing features of this world mar our Christianity, our committal to Christ.

How easily some bit of worldly show can come into our lives. Naturally we love it, but Benaiah went down with a staff and smote the Egyptian who was armed with a spear. We all need a staff. David had one and Moses also. A staff speaks of the way in which we have learned God for ourselves in our own circumstances in secret. Benaiah comes out from his secret experiences with God and fills out his part in the restraint of the enemy’s activities.

We come now to 2 Timothy where we find what has the character of turning away, in principle apostasy. It has percolated into the innermost circle of assembly life. It says that all in Asia had turned away from Paul, and it would seem that Ephesus was very much in the apostle’s mind. He speaks of it twice and in that connection he speaks of both Onesiphorus and Tychicus. Ephesus represented to Paul the very highest thought in his service. What results were achieved at Ephesus! The whole world was overcome there. The word of God went out from it. They brought their books of charms and burned them (see Acts 19: 19). Napkins were brought from Paul’s body and put upon the sick (Acts 19: 12). What achievement spiritually, assembly-wise, was represented in Ephesus, as we see in the epistle.

Then we learn later of Ephesus having left its first love (see Revelation 2: 4). Think of the feelings of Christ in relation to Ephesus, and also Paul’s feelings. The Lord Himself could say likewise, “How shall I give thee over, Ephraim?” (Hosea 11: 8), His heart being torn in relation to what meant so much to His affections. That is Ephesus; but were there not overcomers there, as Revelation 2: 7 would anticipate? In spite of departure and breakdown, God’s best thoughts are never lost. They go through on the basis of overcoming in some.

It says of Onesiphorus, “how much service he rendered in Ephesus”, and also that he was not ashamed of Paul’s chain. Things were changing. Even in Paul’s day things changed. We have been noticing in reading the Acts that the Spirit of God devotes the same number of chapters to Paul in chains as He devotes to Paul in the great activities of his service, indicating surely that it must represent something of the history of the testimony. How things have changed in our day! Think of the great achievements of the last century through Mr. Darby and others, the large numbers even in the days of Mr. J. Taylor. Where are they? “The Lord knows those that are his” (2 Timothy 2: 19), but things publicly are in chains. The enemy has succeeded in putting the things of the Lord under severe limitations. Here is a man who is not ashamed of Paul’s chain. Onesiphorus must have been gone at this time because Paul speaks twice of the “house of Onesiphorus” (see also 2 Timothy 4: 19), but he was one who had served locally in Ephesus. There have been men in our day who have served their localities well, served in introducing and maintaining, sometimes in the face of considerable opposition, the great heavenly line of things which Paul represents and which has come to us in an outstanding way through the great servants of the recovery. We can all probably think of men like Onesiphorus who have done such service in our localities.

Onesiphorus was gone apparently, yet there is “the house of Onesiphorus”. It might apply to persons like ourselves who have come under local teaching and example from fathers whom we have known and appreciated and who have been the means of securing something which remains in our localities. These men, like Onesiphorus, have had part in this matter of restraint. Why should we not want all our localities to have something of the character of Ephesus? So there is the house of Onesiphorus and there is to be a continuation. That is what the Lord would say to us today. We come to these meetings and sit under ministry that is most affecting. Are we going to carry back to our localities something of the feature of Onesiphorus in service that would unite the saints in relation to the best that is available in the mind of God for us?

In the next section we have “Demas has forsaken me”. It is affecting to see that the inner circle of Pauline service was intruded upon by the enemy’s efforts. Demas no doubt did not give up Christianity, but he gave up Paul. Mark comes in to the same section, blessedly, as a recovered person, recovered also to Paul. But it is Tychicus I want to speak about. He is not prominent but he is interesting. He is first mentioned at Troas as one of the seven named as being with Paul (see Acts 20: 4), and he goes right on to 2 Timothy days. He would go through the whole of Paul’s discourse (see Acts 20: 7) up to midnight. That would be a setting out by Paul surely embracing what is vital for the assembly. We are not told what he said in that discourse but Tychicus must have profited by it. We do not know what age Tychicus was, but I would appeal to the younger brethren to go the whole course with Paul, right through to daybreak (Acts 20: 11), the conversational side proceeding, as it does among the saints even to our day, and to be found at the end of the day among those who have gone the whole way with Paul.

Paul had a very great appreciation of Tychicus. He speaks of him in Ephesians as “the beloved brother”, and also as “faithful minister” (see Ephesians 6: 21). The meaning of the word ‘minister’ there is one who stands waiting to serve. That is to say, he would take on whatever had to be done. It is not restricted in its meaning to what is diaconal but embraces the feature of a faithful word. Through Christ and by the Spirit the standard has been set in Paul’s ministry and is not to be lowered. Here is one who is prepared in his own measure to maintain the standard, a “faithful minister”. Paul also speaks of him both in Ephesians and Colossians as encouraging the hearts of the saints (see Ephesians 6: 22 and Colossians 4: 7, 8). What a privilege to have part in encouraging the hearts of the saints! There are plenty of sorrows, plenty of departures, plenty of broken families, but let us have part in something that will encourage the saints! The matter of apostasy is spoken of as both going out and finding a way in. The saints need encouragement.

We should go home from these meetings encouraged. In Colossians Paul speaks of Tychicus as “Fellow-bondman” (Colossians 4: 7). The word there is the word for slave, the same idea as the Hebrew bondman. Fellow-bondman with Paul would be quite an exacting place to fill, under the same yoke, having the same Master, pulling the same way. That is a challenge to us. The bondman has no will of his own and no element of self enters into his service. The Lord says, “Take my yoke upon you”, Matthew 11: 29. The Lord is the Master and the bondmen are all under Him, working in unity. Paul says in Philippians 2: 2, according to Mr. Darby’s note, ‘If you want me to be fully happy, be at one among yourselves’.

At the end of 2 Thessalonians 2 Paul says, “So then, brethren, stand firm, and hold fast the instructions” (2 Thessalonians 2: 15). That could include what we have received through the ministry of beloved Mr. Taylor. Then he speaks of “our God and Father, who has loved us, and given us eternal consolation and good hope by grace, encourage your hearts, and establish you in every good work and word”. May every one of us, young and old, be encouraged to go on in “the good conflict”. (see 1 Timothy 6: 12). As the poet W. Lawrence said,

Go on! Go on! there’s all eternity to rest in,

And far too few are on the ‘active service’ list!

Address at Grangemouth
30 May 1987