THE MORNING

John 20:1,16-21; Genesis 32:24-32; Song of Songs 6:10;

Exodus 34:2 (to “morning”).

The scriptures that we have read all speak about the morning or the dawn. We sang in our hymn:

‘But on resurrection’s morning’ (Hymn 117)

What a wonderful morning that was. I seek the help of the Spirit to say a little about the mornings of which we have read. I have felt confirmed by what has been before us in the four readings and in the address last night. We have spoken about God’s purpose, which relates to that resurrection morning. God’s purpose was established then because there was a Man out of death who had accomplished His will to His satisfaction and glory and pleasure eternally. What a morning it was! In John 20, the message which was given to Mary had an effect, and it resulted in the disciples coming together. They were led into the service of God, although John does not give us the terms of it. Then I would like to speak about the morning in relation to Jacob, and the experiences which each one of us goes through as Christians. As we go through these exercises individually, we find the dawn in Christ and in relation to the assembly, as we have read in the Song of Songs: “Who is she that looketh forth as the dawn …?”. As we go through assembly exercises, there is what is precious to Christ maintained, and we find the morning in them. I feel encouraged by what we have been considering in these meetings, and I trust that the Spirit may help now to complement and support it.

But before we begin, there is a morning which is vital, and it needs to be experienced by everyone here in this room. It is the morning in which we come to know Christ as Saviour. What a dawn that is in the hearts and souls of needy sinners! I trust that every person in this room has put their faith and trust in the Lord Jesus. None the things of which we have been speaking will mean anything to you if you do not know Christ as your Saviour. You need to let Christ into your heart, dear friend. You need to come into the day. What a wonderful moment it is for the sinner when you accept Christ as Saviour. It is God’s desire that everyone here should be saved. Do you know the Lord Jesus as your Saviour? Men in their cleverness can allow you to enjoy things virtually, but not be in the reality of them. You do not even need to leave your home, yet you can in effect visit a place, you can be there virtually. Dear friend, when it comes to divine things, when it comes to your need as a sinner for salvation, you cannot be virtually saved. You can only be saved by putting your faith and trust in the Lord Jesus. Lord willing, we will have the gospel preached tomorrow afternoon, but as we have been reminded already this weekend, the Lord may come before these meetings are finished and there may not be a tomorrow. For believers in the Lord Jesus, what a morning, what a dawn it will be when the Lord Jesus comes and all those who love Him will go to be for ever with Him. What a morning! But for the unbeliever, the position will become fixed then. How awful if anyone here in this room should be lost. We read in Romans 9 yesterday as to “vessels of wrath fitted for destruction” (v.22). If the Lord were to come, and you were still an unbeliever, that is the position you would find yourself in. You would be a “vessel of wrath fitted for destruction”. Let everyone here be clear; God destines no one for destruction. God has blessing in mind for everyone, but if you reject Christ as your Saviour and reject God’s overtures in grace in the gospel, you fit yourself for destruction, you cannot enter into blessing in any way whatsoever. Let that not be the portion of anyone here.

How great is the work that was accomplished by Christ. We have been speaking together of God’s operations. Think of what God had in mind before time began, before the world existed, before creation. We have spoken about God’s purpose. God had in mind that He would have men eternally in His presence as sons. What a wonderful thought that is. We sang hymn 92 yesterday:

‘What raised the wondrous thought,

Or who did it suggest,

That we, the church, to glory brought,

Should with the Son be blest?’

How wonderful God’s thoughts are! They stand alone in all their majesty. Do you appreciate God’s thoughts? The working out of those thoughts involved that one divine Person became Man. Think of the greatness of the way which God took in love. We read yesterday in Exodus about Moses looking at the burning bush; it was not consumed. That is a type of the incarnation, a type of God taking up a condition of flesh and blood and dwelling amongst men. God was here in Christ, dwelling among men in all their sinfulness, and they were not consumed. What grace and mercy of God were seen in that. If you and I were to come into blessing, into the greatness of God’s thoughts, it involved that a divine Person became Man, taking up a condition of flesh and blood which could be laid down in death. No penalty attached to the Lord Jesus, but He took upon Himself all of the judgment that was due to you and me. How great was the accomplishment of God’s purpose; only a divine Person could do that:

‘God manifest in flesh, O wonder of His universe!’

(Hymn 400)

‘His universe!’ – everything belongs to God. The Lord Jesus took up a condition of flesh and blood, and moved through this scene in perfection. How wonderful the pathway of the Lord Jesus was! What a work He did, “the work which thou gavest me that I should do it”, John 17:4. That work involved the whole scope of God’s purpose, it involved that He had to go into death. He had to lay down that life which was so pleasurable to heaven, but then He took it again. He could say anticipatively, “I have completed the work which thou gavest me that I should do it”. Think of the greatness of that work! He asked to be reinstated “with the glory which I had along with thee before the world was”, John 17:5. There is that which will always be beyond us. What greatness and glory and majesty are seen in God’s thoughts, and what greatness and glory and majesty are seen in the One who accomplished them. God had in mind that man should be in relationship to Himself.

So we come to this wonderful morning. “Mary of Magdala comes in early morn to the tomb” and it was empty. The Father had been there before her; Jesus was “raised up from among the dead by the glory of the Father”, Rom.6:4. In the gospels, the resurrection is presented as the Lord’s own act, bringing out the majesty and the greatness of that Person: “I lay down my life that I may take it again”, John 10:17. So Mary “comes in early morn to the tomb, while it was still dark, and sees the stone taken away from the tomb”. The tomb was empty.

‘We love to look within the tomb,

Robbed by Thy death of all its gloom;

The stone for ever rolled away:

Thy death the power of death did slay’. (Hymn 216)

The disciples went in; they looked into the empty tomb, they saw the linen cloths, and the handkerchief folded in a distinct place. It has often been said that there had been no struggle. When the Lord Jesus went into death, there was no struggle; death had to flee before the greatness and glory of the One who was there. The disciples went to their own homes. They had heard everything that the Lord Jesus had told them in relation to His going into death and rising again. Up until this point, I am not sure that they fully understood what He had been talking about, but now they believed, although they then went away. Mary was left and she was bereft, she was distraught. How much the Lord Jesus meant to her! What does the Lord Jesus mean to you? Do you have affection for Him? Is it like Mary’s here? The Lord was everything to her and she had lost Him. But there is this wonderful message which she was given by the Lord, “go to my brethren”. The Lord Jesus had in mind His brethren. All through John’s gospel, the Lord was leading to the Father; that was the objective of His ministry to His disciples. He had spoken about Him as “my Father”, but there came this point when He could speak about Him in relation to His brethren as “my Father and your Father”.

In the synoptic gospels, the brethren of Christ are referred to in a moral way; “my brethren are those who hear the word of God and do it”, Luke 8:21. That is a moral matter; that means that when you hear the word, you accept it and do it, then there is a result from it, and Christ views you as among His brethren. In John’s gospel, the thought is more elevated; the brethren of Christ in John’s gospel relate to the purpose of God. The Lord said, “go to my brethren and say to them, I ascend to my Father and your Father”. What a morning it was! The heart of the Father had been fully made known when Christ was here; the Lord Jesus had declared the Father and made Him known. Now we come to this wonderful revelation. Do we appreciate the greatness of this morning? How much it meant to the Father, and to the Lord Jesus Himself. He had accomplished everything and now He had this wonderful message, “I ascend to my Father and your Father”. The suggestion is that the Lord would not ascend alone, but He would take those that were in God’s purpose with Him. Think of the way that they were given to the Lord Jesus. We often hear that the saved sinner was a son in purpose before he was a sinner in practice. “They were thine” (John 17:6); that means that we belong to the Father in purpose. It has often been said that the gospel brings “he that will” (Rev.22:17) in through the door of salvation, but as you come through it you can look back and on the other side of the door, you see “he has chosen us in him before the world’s foundation”, Eph.1:4. So you were a son in purpose before you were a sinner in practice. How divine Persons have worked; think of the way that the Father has given us to Christ to bring us home to Himself. “They were thine, and thou gavest them me” (John 17:6), then He goes on to say “they are thine” (v.10); not only in purpose but secured and sealed. What a wonderful morning is resurrection’s morning. May we appreciate more the greatness and glory of all that has been accomplished for God’s satisfaction. We come into the blessing of it, but first of all of there is what is for God the Father Himself. May we appreciate these wonderful things and value them more.

We have read about the rising of the dawn in Genesis 32. Here was Jacob as a type of the individual believer, and he had started to make some progress. Earlier, Joseph had been born, and in principle it caused movement and appreciation of Christ in Jacob’s heart, although you might say that the movement did not take him very far. Jacob has been spoken of as being the heavenly man experimentally. Abraham as the heavenly man characteristically, and Isaac as the heavenly man officially². The young people might ask, ‘What does that mean?’ We have spoken about character, what is characteristic about persons. Abraham was marked by faith, he moved in faith, so that characteristically he did not belong here; he was heavenly. The believer does not belong here. You do not belong in this world, but are you characteristically heavenly? That was Abraham. Then Isaac went up the mountain with Abraham. Genesis 22 describes father and son going up together; it speaks to us of the accomplishment of God’s thoughts. Abraham is described as coming back down from the mountain, but Isaac is not spoken of as coming down the mountain. In comparison to Abraham and Jacob, we get very little detail in scripture about Isaac’s life; he speaks to us of Christ. But Jacob is much like ourselves, working out matters in his life experimentally. The children learn science at school, and they do experiments; sometimes they work out, but sometimes they do not. So things are worked out experimentally in us.

Jacob in all his dealings had not been straightforward, but Joseph had been born, speaking to us of Christ, and it had caused movement of heart in Jacob. He had to move away from the area in which he was because he knew that he was not getting on in his soul. As knowing the Lord Jesus as your Saviour, how are you getting on in your soul? You would seek to do what is right. Perhaps we could apply this to Romans 7 and Romans 8. In Romans 7, the believer desires to do what is right, as knowing what is right. That scripture speaks of the law of God; believers recognise that God has rights over them as they go through the world. As lovers of the Lord Jesus, they do that in accordance with God’s rights. The world around us crucified and rejected Christ, and it is still the same and will not change until the Lord comes and reigns. The believer feels that and wants to do what is right. It has been said that Romans 7 is like a psalm. If you read a psalm, the first few verses usually give you the key to the whole psalm. The Psalms were written by persons who went through experiences. We speak about exercise and about discipline; the Psalms were written by persons who had experienced such things. Discipline comes into the ordinary circumstances of life and through it we come to know God in a greater way, we come to depend on God. So the key to a psalm is often in its first few verses, and the key to Romans 7 is in the first few verses because there we get Christ as the new Husband, and we are to be to Another. Christ has died for you, you have accepted Christ as your Saviour, but Christ has to be everything to you. How wonderful the Lord Jesus is! If Christ is everything to you, you want to do what is right, but you find that you are still in the flesh. Your sins are forgiven, you want to do what is right but you find that you cannot do it. That is sin in the flesh; we want to do what is right and we find that we cannot. But we find that Christ has done everything for us. Not only has He suffered for our sins but He has died in relation to the whole question of sin; the matter has been dealt with. Sins are forgiven but sin in the flesh is condemned. Christ has died so that we can be free and receive the gift of the Spirit. It is liberty.

Jacob here is exercised and God is acting in grace. He wants us to be free, to arrive at matters in our experience, and to be moving in the right direction. A man met Jacob and “wrestled with him until the rising of the dawn”. Jacob would not let go; the man “touched the joint of his thigh” and that weakened him, but it was for his blessing. I remember a brother saying that God does not want to crush us. God could do that, but He does not want to, He wants us to hold Him and not let go. Jacob did not let go here. Then he was limping; you might say that it was a result of discipline. How humbling it would be for a man like Jacob to be limping. At the end of his life, he had a staff and he worshipped on the top of his staff. He came to depend on God; in principle he came to depend on the Lord Jesus for everything. Christ is the new Husband who supplies and gives resource, whereas everything before was on the basis of demand, and we could not fulfil these demands. We find that the Lord Jesus is a wonderful supply. Romans 7 has been spoken of as being like a dark tunnel, but you are given a glimpse of the light so that you get through. Perhaps there are persons here who are struggling through these exercises, desirous of doing what is right and finding that they cannot do it. Turn to Christ as you go through these experiences. What a day, what a dawn it is when you do that!

So Jacob passed over Peniel. He was able to name things, and his name was changed. In Romans 7 we arrive at “I myself” (v.25); that is the real you. God brings each one of us to understand that “in me, that is, in my flesh, good does not dwell” (Rom.7:18), but then we can also speak of the “I myself”. That is the real you, the work of God in you and as you put your faith and trust in the Lord Jesus, that is like the gold. There is something there of God, and as you go through Romans 7 that is what you find – the gold is there. The “I myself” is the work of God in the believer. How wonderful it is, because you are delivered and in liberty, you make way for the Spirit. So Jacob was able to move on. He had named things for what they were, his name had been changed and “the sun rose upon him”; a new day dawned. He was in walking in life now.

I read verse 32; “Therefore the children of Israel do not eat of the sinew that is over the joint of the thigh, to this day; because he touched the joint of Jacob’s thigh – the sinew”. We do not feed on discipline. If we feed on discipline, we will become despondent and discouraged, we may become obsessed, and we may become legal. There is plenty of food for the believer. Christ is our food, and we can feed on features of Christ in one another.

Chapter 6 of the Song of Songs shows us a type of the assembly. The Song of Songs speaks literally of what Israel will come into in the future. Israel is a vessel of promise and the Song of Songs speaks of what Israel will be brought into in relation to Christ in that day to come. But I seek help to apply this scripture in relation to the assembly. Christ has the assembly, a heavenly bride, and she has the greatest place because she is a vessel of purpose. There are wonderful descriptions in this Song of the assembly as the bride, the spouse and the counterpart. This one gives us Christ’s view of her in type. “Who is she that looketh forth as the dawn …?”; the assembly has before her the coming of Christ, the glory of Christ, when He will come to take up His rights publicly. First of all He will come and take those who love Him to be with Himself for ever – that is the rapture as we speak of it. Then He will come to reign in the millennium, the world to come. What a place Christ will have! So the assembly is adorned in relation to the dawn, and she would have Christ’s view at the present time in relation to every matter. What a vessel the assembly is; “Fair as the moon, clear as the sun, Terrible as troops with banners”. She knows something in relation to rule. The sun and the moon speak to us of rule, “the great light to rule the day, and the small light to rule the night”, Gen.1:16. She is in the full appreciation of who Christ is. Do you appreciate that? You can come to appreciate the great objective of the Spirit’s service at the present time is – it is in relation to Christ and the assembly. She is described as “Terrible as troops with banners”. That is the view from the outside, she is not terrible as troops with banners for those that are inside, but this is what the Lord’s view of the assembly is. His appreciation is like none other; what a vessel the assembly is.

At the present time, exercises come in, and the question is asked ‘What about love?’ In chapter 4, it says “Thy neck is like the tower of David, Built for an armoury: A thousand bucklers hang thereon” (v.4). David took the city. Have we surrendered our hearts to Christ? Have we fully surrendered to Christ? Is Christ supreme in our hearts? “Thy neck is like the tower of David”. We were reminded about the neck yesterday. Aquila and Prisca “staked their own neck” (Rom.16:4); it is singular. “Built for an armoury: A thousand bucklers hang thereon”, so that objectively the truth is held by the assembly. The assembly as we know does not preach or teach but the assembly holds everything that has been taught; “which is the assembly of the living God, the pillar and base of the truth”, 1 Tim.3:15. The assembly holds everything that has been taught and she cherishes it and holds it objectively. That is the thousand bucklers hanging thereon. You might ask ‘What about love?’ Well, the next verse says “Thy two breasts are like two fawns, twins of a gazelle, Which feed among the lilies”. That would suggest to us that where there is this militant character on the part of the assembly, what underlies it is developed spiritual affection for Christ. May we appreciate, may we grow and develop in these things so that the assembly has Christ in mind, her love for Christ is supreme, and all that she does is in love for Him. The woman of worth is spoken of at the end of Proverbs. Her husband is absent, and all is entrusted to the woman of worth. The Lord appreciates it.

In chapter 6 where we read, she is described as being “Fair as the moon, clear as the sun, Terrible as troops with banners”. The banners speak of the assembly in victory. The truth is held and cherished by the assembly in love for Christ. There are precious truths which have been made known to believers throughout the dispensation; “the Spirit of truth, he shall guide you into all the truth”, John 16:13. The assembly cherishes these things, she would not let them go. Near my parent’s house, there is the museum of an infantry regiment in the British Army. There was a regimental flag and on it were the battle honours of the regiment – names like Waterloo, the Somme, some Second World War battles. Dear young person, do you appreciate the banners that the assembly holds? Do you appreciate the great truth as to the body of Christ? Do you appreciate the great truths as to the sonship of Christ and the deity of Christ? Do you appreciated the truth of salvation in the assembly? Do you know what it is to experience salvation in the assembly? Perhaps you know soul salvation and eternal salvation, and I trust everyone here does. But do you know salvation in the assembly? That is present salvation. Are you in the enjoyment of it as being among the saints? We have spoken in these meetings about shepherding and about motherhood, and there is such a thing too as fatherhood. These are the great elements of care that you find in the local meeting, and in the wider setting too among the saints. What an area of salvation the assembly is. There are cliffs near Aberdeen, and children sometimes fall over these cliffs. If I see someone playing at the edge of a cliff, it is not love to say ‘You are enjoying yourself, carry on’. We need help in relation to care, being able to bring in a shepherding word that may bring in adjustment, bring them back into safety. It is no use saying when someone has fallen over, ‘I could see that coming’. That is not a remark made by a spiritual person. If you see someone in danger, then love would seek to draw them back. Dear young person, if you are on the fringes of things, if you are drifting, you can only drift in one direction and that is away. May each one of us prove that the assembly is a wonderful sphere of salvation. That is one of the banners.

Another banner is marriage in the Lord. Will you lay that banner down and say ‘These are truths that applied before, but they do not really apply today’? Or perhaps you say ‘I accept that truth’ but by your actions you are leaving the banner at home, or you are picking that truth off the banner. You are not moving in victory if you are giving these things up. May we be encouraged and helped in relation to these things, so that when matters come up, the assembly is fair as the dawn. There was a great crisis in Numbers, a great rebellion when God had to act and He did act. He said to Moses “Even to-morrow will Jehovah make known who is his”, Num.16:5. Let us wait on the Lord Jesus and when He acts, let us not be behind Him. “Who is she that looketh forth as the dawn”; the assembly has Christ’s viewpoint on every matter. May we be near enough to Christ to know what His viewpoint is. May we be helped in these things so that the assembly is “she that looketh forth as the dawn”. What clarity! You may think that matters have become very difficult, they have become clouded, and you cannot see. Well, why is that? What a night that must have been; ‘tomorrow I will shew’. Are we able to wait on Christ in prayer, in dependence and in humility; are we able to spend the night prayerfully? The night is not a short time. Exercises might go on, but as soon as the Lord shows, do we move with Him, do we have His viewpoint? “Who is she that looketh forth as the dawn …?”; this is what the Lord commends. The Lord loves to see this, so may we be marked by it, and may we know what that morning is.

The message that Mary was given in John 20 has a result in the service of God. The viewpoint from which John writes is very wonderful; he really gives us the gold. We spoke about moral matters this afternoon, “But let a man prove himself, and thus eat”, 1.Cor.11:28. We need to do that. The objective is that he should eat. Let no one be staying away. You hear of persons staying away from the supper. The Lord Jesus said “this do in remembrance of me”, Luke 22:19. Why would anyone stay away? Perhaps there is a young person here who is not yet committed. Do you love the Lord Jesus? Do you know Him as your Saviour? Well, your place is to remember Him, to answer to the Lord’s request in simple desire. You love the Lord Jesus, you love the brethren, and you want to remember Him. We are looking for Him to come, but if He does not come before tomorrow morning, we will gather to remember Him in the time of His absence. When we are for ever with Him we will no longer have to remember Him. I trust that there is no one here who is genuinely exercised to remember the Lord Jesus and is putting it off. Think about the Lord Jesus; He wants you to do it.

In this scripture, we do not get moral exercises of self-judgment and the things of which we spoke this afternoon, but they need to be taken care of. We cannot please ourselves during the week and expect to come on Lord’s day morning and know the Lord’s presence. John’s gospel gives us the divine side. We are the brethren of Christ in God’s purpose and in relation to Christ as associated with Him. When we come together to remember Him, we can look upon the brethren in the way that the Father views us. We are entitled to do so as in Christ. That raises the level. If I think about myself, it is “For I know that in me, that is, in my flesh, good does not dwell” (Rom.7:18); that is all we need to know about ourselves as after nature. Let us think of ourselves as in Christ, the way that the Father views us as in Christ. What wonderful elevation that is. So we assemble, and Christ comes in. What will He show us? He will make Himself known, make His love known.

It says that “The disciples rejoiced therefore, having seen the Lord”. The Lord brings in peace, because sin has all been dealt with, “the winter is past, The rain is over”, Song of Songs 2:11. We come to remember the Lord Jesus, the One who is living. We come to remember Him as having accomplished the great work which God gave Him to accomplish. We do not think about Him as the sin-bearer, as removing sin through His death. How necessary it was for Him to do that, but we remember the One who has accomplished everything for God and has set us up and brought us in. We are clothed in all His worth, clothed in the best robe. So what a morning it was! It says here: “it was evening on that day”. The Lord’s day, the first day of the week, is a spiritual day; it marks a new beginning. Here, it was evening on that day. Evening would suggest that the work of the day is over, the responsible side of the day is over. In our ordinary circumstances, we have our supper at night when we have finished our work, relating to the responsibility of the day being over. All that relates to responsibility is over and we gather to remember the Lord Jesus. We are free and at liberty to enjoy the Lord’s supper and to enjoy the Lord’s presence. Of course, we break bread in the morning, we do not wait until the evening, but there is a spiritual suggestion in the fact that it was evening here. He came in, made Himself known, and showed them His hands and His side. Think of all that has come out of His death. It does not relate to sin, it relates more to the rib that came out of the side of the man; woman came out of the man (Gen.2:21-23). That was before sin came in, and it speaks of the purpose of God. What wonderful things the Lord Jesus would show us. He showed the disciples His hands and His side. The Lord Jesus has carried everything, He has accomplished everything for God and He would lead us. He leads us into the presence and into the realm of the Father. He is active and as we recognise His incoming movements, we follow and move with Him and we can be at liberty in the realms of the Father. That is what the Father has in mind.

Soon, beloved brethren, we will come in and “go no more at all out”, Rev.3:12. We will enjoy these things eternally, and in the Spirit’s power we can touch them now. We are to be ready for the morning. If the Lord tarries, we will come together in the morning and remember Him in this time of His absence and experience His coming in among us. May we be ready for it, for His name’s sake.

Address at Indianapolis

29 November 2014

B.W. Lovie